Hi there!
My name is Raztec, I like the colour Red, cookies and making TSW video guides, that’s me in a nutshell.
The purpose of this post is to set you on your way to making your very own Cabal, go you! The task ahead is by no means an easy one, the road is perilous and full of danger! But there is hope! With a little determination and commitment, you could be running one of the best Cabals in the game!
But where to start? As you can imagine there are many things to consider as a Cabal leader, hopefully this guide will show you some basic ideas on how to make one suited for your needs and that of your members, below is a list of the contents we will cover.
Cabal Basics – Where to start?
Recruitment methods
Structure and organisation
Co-Managers and responsibility
Management styles – what type of leader are you?
Facilitating events and group events
Arguments between members and ways to resolve them
Miltifaction Cabals/Co Partnerships
Joining a Cabal – what to look for
Some useful applications and other resources
CABAL BASICS – WHERE TO START?
In order to make a Cabal there are a few basic concepts we need to establish before going out there and approaching others.
The Cabal Name
This is actually quite important, the name of your Cabal will attract different types of players, or turn them away depending on their preferences and styles of gameplay.
If you want to attract a good membership interest suited to your own gameplay style then you need to have a name that people can relate to or find appealing within the game itself.
A player going for a serious cabal called ‘Knights of the Order’ is likely going take a different approach on gaming compared to someone going for a more relaxed Cabal like ‘The Factory of cookie monsters’!
The type of Cabal you run:
There are many variations of Cabals and players types out there, they all do different things in their own way, and again it comes down to the game style you decide to play. Below are just few variations:
Casual Gamers (CG):
This is your average everyday gamer who doesn’t really have a set criteria other than just enjoying the game at their own pace. You will find a lot of these players tend to be freelance or do their own thing, the pace is quite relaxed and there is no real pressure to ensure a particular target is met, they will often try different things to see what peaks their interest.
Player vs Environment (PvE):
These are the type of players who like to play the additional story and questing content on the game, they’ll often do dungeons, raids, lairs and various missions throughout the game content itself. PvE gamers tend to come in a variety bucket of those who are very laid back and just play casually to those who want to run all the content within the game, as such it has a very broad audience.
Player vs Player (PvP):
These players like to test their skills with or against other players in game, this will often involve the PvP maps on the game itself or the fight clubs within the various locations scattered across the faction areas. Most PvP gamers who are serious about this aspect of the game will often run in committed groups which also use other gaming tools to help them coordinate their strategies such as Teamspeak or Mumble and will often try to hold to regular gaming times or group events to optimise their team performance.
Role Players (RP):
A role-playing gamer is normally someone who assumes their own roles of characters within the game itself they have created. That often involves acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development, the ideas can be quite interesting and involve many people or just a few friends.
In truth most people will find a part of themselves in each type of gaming style, what matters is which aspect of gaming style suits you and other members the most. Whatever game style you like to work with you have to express it in a way that would attract others to take an interest in it with you also, this will help to generate the right audience to your cabal and have them look at more than just the title.
The type of players you want to recruit:
Normally you can get a feel for a player and their interest by spending some time talking with them directly or getting them to fill in a quick application form if you host a website. The feedback you receive from players looking for a Cabal is very important as their own styles and expectations may also impact on the wider organisation of your developing Cabal when it continues to expand.
The name is usually a dead giveaway also, if the name looks like someone took time to think about it and make interesting then they are likely going to be more interested in the game and willing to commit more to the group they join, compared to another gamer who may have just picked a randomised name or a very comedic one.
Activity is also important to clarify with any player wanting to join a Cabal as your amount of gaming time may differ from theirs, some Cabals are quite relaxed and let people of varying gaming hours join, whereas others may be more strict and require a minimum set number of hours for a player to be active within a week/month.
Time Zones & Area Locations:
Again another obvious but important factor to take note of, MMO’s are MASSIVE GAMES! They cover many areas of the world and people from all walks of life will join, if you focus all your efforts recruiting people from the US when you live in Germany you may find the activity time between yourself and other members vary greatly, make sure you think about your own time zones and availability to be around for other members!
Cabal Goal/Aim:
Probably the most important aspect to making any Cabal, what is your endgame objective?
Making any Cabal requires you to know what you want to achieve with it at the end of the day, setting aims for yourself and your members grants the Cabal a wide sense of purpose, for the people within it to be part of the journey rather than just hitching a ride.
The other thing is as your Cabal grows the goal post may change; you may have started out as a casual cabal just looking for regular members, but now you want to take it in a different direction and achieve certain content in game with more commitment than before, this will drastically affect the way in which you manage your ongoing activities and the players you reach out for.
Also once you reach your goal or your aim, you will have by then needed to start thinking about what it is you are looking for next, what is the next goal? How will you achieve it? Are your members on board with your developing ideas or do they have their own agendas? All of these questions and more are important to answer so you move yourself and your members in the right direction.
RECRUITMENT METHODS
So with your Cabal name set and your ideas ready to set in motion it’s time to find people to join you! Better click SHIFT+F! What? NO FRIENDS?! Oh man I better go make some, otherwise this Cabal will never take off!
Well fear not because there are a number of ways to improve your recruitment drive and push the Friend list all the way into the 100’s! Below are a few examples of how we might achieve this with both their pros and cons:
The PM Request
Advantages:
What better way to try and find members by talking to them directly? It shows you have taken an interest to speak to them directly about their current situation and involvement in the game, it also gives you a feel for the type of person you are speaking with, how they respond to others and what impact they might also have if offered a place in your Cabal.
Disadvantages:
Time consuming, having to do the background checks to make sure they really are not in a Cabal, that you haven’t messaged them already the previous day, that you have indeed checked that message from them in a timely manner before they lose interest or go offline, expect to be glued to your screen for long periods of time.
The Social GUI
Advantages:
Great! Just a quick mini message on the box provided and the players will approach you themselves! You can carry on doing your usual thing and respond to them when they are ready to speak with you, it also shows they are actively seeking a Cabal for themselves so more often than not these are players who do indeed want to work within a team setup, it also ensures you ‘filter’ the right players for your Cabal providing your opening message is clear enough.
Disadvantages:
It’s been HOURS since anyone responded to me! Are people even reading this? Maybe the message isn’t clear enough! While creating a social advertisement does save you time and energy, the pickup from other players can sometimes be quite slow, more importantly if the message isn’t good or clear enough people may just move on and look for something else, so make sure if you do it you do it right!
Forums Posts
Advantages:
Post your advertisement here! Loads of people using the forums will be looking for active Cabals and so a detailed and active post from you will likely attract the attention of potential members to seek you out either via private messaging or via the game itself, just make sure you leave your contact details!
Disadvantages:
Loads of competition. You are just one of many, many, MANY other Cabals putting their posts out there to grab those newcomers to the game. You also have to make sure your post is consistently updated with developments, attractive and very clear on what you offer all the time otherwise people will just skip to the next offer, often requiring regular reediting on your part.
Website Applications
Advantages:
Very good medium for committed players to contact you by, if they are serious enough they will fill out the application form giving you a clear detail of what they are like and what they are looking for, as well as what they can bring the table for you!
Disadvantages:
You have to let people know the website exists! Let alone run/maintain it! Sometimes you can get around the maintenance by opting to use a hosting gaming site; but after a period of time they might start to cost money which unless your members are very dedicated may not want to contribute funds, meaning you will have to cough up the funds, again requires regular maintenance to update and keep active, oh and your members will need to be encouraged to make regular use of it.
Dimensional Posts
Advantages:
The game has a lot of quest/faction areas, all on different dimensions, so there and many places to make generic posts to attract people within the area to join you, Agartha is Global so it goes across to all people in game, happy days! If you use mods you can also find script applications to make the posts easy to post before moving onto the next area.
Disadvantages:
Visiting every area in the game can be VERY time consuming, and we are not even talking about the various different dimensions, especially if you get caught up with other things along the way. You also need to space out your posts by a reasonable amount of time each otherwise people might ignore them due to the irritation they cause. If you are using a script then you need to make sure it’s eye catching so potential members click that ‘more info’ link!
Minions! (Aka Cabal co-managers/helpers)
Advantages:
If you have a few people in your Cabal already they can act as a new access points for people to reach out to your Cabal, providing they have the right permissions of course. It promotes the Cabal much faster meaning your recruitment drive should improve, plus it saves you time having to do everything yourself.
Disadvantages:
You know the people you are trying to recruit but what about the ones other members bring into the Cabal? It’s important to ensure any helpers you have are aware of exactly the type of player you wish to recruit otherwise you run the risk of attracting the wrong type of people, and then suddenly you wonder why a bulk of your member base disappears collectively after the first couple of weeks!
Phew! Well that covers recruitment options! Or at least a few of the well-known methods. At the end of the day it will be up to yourself to decide which is the best method of recruitment or if you wish to implement a few of the ones specified, what is important to note is that whichever method/s you use they are implemented regularly and clearly reflect your current Cabal goals and situation so as to ensure interest is maintained by your audience.
STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION
Okay, so you have made a Cabal name, you know the style of gameplay you want to manage and you know the audience you want to attract, so far so good!
By this point you should have started to grab a few players with similar ideas or interest as yours, before you know it the cabal is taking a life of its own and now people start asking you ‘what’s the set up chuck?’ YIKES! Well we better bring our plan to the drawing table before they pack off elsewhere!
Making a gaming Rota:
Having a clear set out of what is available in a cabal is probably the most useful thing you can do for new members. From the word go they can see the layout of what your Cabal has to offer by pressing that shift+g combo, allowing them to see when these things happen and who runs them.
The important thing about being a Cabal leader is making sure you or other co-managers are around to facilitate these activities and put them on offer for people to participate in. So if you can’t run an activity, either make sure someone else can, ask others if they can facilitate, or don’t put it up there at all. Having activities on display that never get facilitated will give members the impression of unreliability and they will likely not engage or run off elsewhere.
Below is an example a Rota I use for our Cabal:
Monday - Green Gear runs & Questing
Tuesday - Blue Gear runs
Wednesday - Purple Gear runs (beginner 18's)
Thursday & Sunday - Raids at 19:00
Friday - Lair Runs at 19:00
Saturday - Experienced Runs
Once people see a regular flow and interest in your rota they will participate more and make their own contributions to the Cabal also, bringing new ideas and suggestions to better improve or motivate others to be a part of what you do!
Setting out clear Cabal Rules:
Another important aspect to the structure of your Cabal is having ground rules everyone agrees with and is willing to adhere to. It reaffirms the ideals of others in your Cabal to remind them they are part of something much larger than themselves and they contribute to the reputation and quality of the Cabal they engage with, as well as the wider gaming community.
Normally Cabals will have ‘unwritten rules’ i.e. rules that are not laid out in writing but everyone is acutely aware of. Below are just some examples of rules you may wish to consider, remember rules put in place should reaffirm healthy relations and expectations within a Cabal which work towards attitudes others will agree with:
1. Be nice, no swearing or abuse towards others
2. If you have concerns or worries about the Cabal, please speak to one of the managers to raise the concern
3. If you are unable to make a raid/group date please let us know so we can give other people a chance to take up the spot
4. If you are going away on holiday lets us know in advance so we don’t kick you for inactivity by accident!
5. We expect members to be active for a least x amount of days out of the week/month
Other Cabals will set up entire web pages about gamer agreements and codes of conduct they expect from their members, it doesn’t matter how you portray it, just so long as the message is clear to your members.
Setting the example:
The Cabal leader (or Leaders) should act as role models to the rest of Cabal members, therefore, your approach and response to others in game will greatly affect how others perceive and work with you during your events. If you go off ranting and swearing left, right and centre then don’t expect your other members to be showing a better attitude, in some cases members will mimic or adopt your own game attitude as you begin to influence their Cabal play; so the way other players act out may be an indicator in what they see from you which may be an indication that you need to revaluate your own actions also.
Likewise you will need to be at the head of your events and activities to set the standard for other members joining in. If you want your Raid members to attend for their groups then make sure you are there from the word go, if you want better communication and team work, then ensure you are making use of voice applications and set out your plans for co-working with others, or ensure you are bringing new and inventive ideas for ongoing RP situations so that others will start contributing their own ideas also.
Time is also an important concept for most Cabals Leaders because a lot of your activities will either be a set periods or the day meaning there is a general expectation for people to be on time and motivated to do the activity, yup, that means you also! So if you set a time for dungeons runs to be done at 17:00 every Monday then you better make dam well sure you back home each day to ensure it happens, otherwise the interests will be lost and that may also impact on attendance of other activities. Normally one way to get around this is to set ‘general’ activities for the day which can be done at any time, that way it can sometimes remove the pressure off you but the activity itself still needs to be happening/offered.
Maintaining the ideals of the Cabal
This refers to those situations where you need to put your foot down and reaffirm with the members what the Cabal is about. There will undoubtedly be times where members try to compromise or go against the general flow of the Cabal, once instance may include a member who is consistently rude to others or someone who keeps delaying other people’s gameplay time because they are always late.
In situations such as this people need to be reminded of the Cabal commitment you and the others have set out, if you allow others to regularly breach any boundaries you set for yourself and others than how can one expect the majority to follow suit?
There has to be a cut-off point or the foundations of what were laid in the first instance risk being lost; it may be that you have to kick that rude member or not wait up any longer for that guy who is always late. Cabal members tend to respond better to Leaders who follow through on their actions and commitments which strengthens their own resolve and commitment to what was already set out and achieve it with you.
CO-MANAGERS AND RESPONSIBILITY OF PROMOTIONS
Things are going great! The cabal is now taking off in full swing, members are flocking to your cause, activities are taking place and people are starting to contribute and make the Cabal into something more than it was to begin with. But now you have a new situation on your hands, some of your more dedicated members want a promotion, a salary raise and health insurance to cover their time! That’s a lot of things to attend to, but how does a manager show appreciation for their member’s contributions, and more importantly a constructive way in which we acknowledge these contribution and commitments? Well let’s try and answer those questions next.
Co-Managers - Their goals and yours:
Co-managers are essentially people who work alongside you, either below or of equal rank to help run the Cabal. They usually should be people who are reliable and able to work with you towards achieving the Cabal aims.
You have to make it clear from the word go to anyone you work with what you expect from them and your partnership and how they can help achieve this. Equally they may also have their own ideas and suggestions of things they want from you, which often means having to compromise on the Cabal objectives and responsibilities.
Good Cabal leaders are able to work out agreements with their co-managers and give them some breathing room and support with their ideas also. This will show validation that you take them seriously and are willing to support their work as well as your own; this in turn will make people more willing to work with you and some of your ideas ensuring the Cabal goals are slowly but surely moving in your desired direction. Sharing responsibility and trusting co-managers you work with can help you achieve great strides for the overall objectives you set out for everyone.
However, you must be VERY careful to ensure whoever you work with is reliable, either a good friend or someone who has proven to be a valued member of the Cabal through both time and commitment. If you are unable to agree on goals with your managers it may cause rifts with the wider membership causing people to take sides on who is right and who is wrong, and this often can lead to entire splits or mutiny within a Cabal, and that may have devastating effects if they have the same permissions as you.
One way to ensure someone is reliable is via the process of the rank system!
Rank up!
The Cabal applications allow you to add ‘Ranks’ to your member’s listings, this will both validate a members place within the Cabal and show clear differentials between them and other members, however people use Ranks in various ways, for some, it is about acknowledgement of dedication i.e. time spent within a Cabal, but or others it will be about contribution i.e. the amount of personal contribution they bring to the Cabal themselves.
Commitment:
If you opt for the commitment option then expect many people to Rank up after a period of time, it would also be wise to set clear time frames before deciding to rank someone up, it’s a quick and effective way of validating everyone’s dedication to the cabal.
However expect other members to notice this regularly and wonder why their rank isn’t going up also, hence you have to be quite clear on when someone Ranks up it is because the amount of time they have remained dedicated to the Cabal itself.
Another issue you may face with this however is eventually (if your time frames are very short) almost everyone will end up being the same rank making an clear differential between other members difficult to distinguish by, and this also may cause members to question your evaluations of others coming into the Cabal and the very meaning of their own Rank.
You also have to consider the permissions on each Rank, do you really want everyone to be able to alter the Cabal page or kick members? Ensure the ranks you place do not grant people the chance to misuse Cabal applications, even accidents can have a bad impact on the overall Cabal, especially if other members see you are not addressing the issue.
Contribution:
Now the other option is to have your Ranks reflect contributions within the Cabal, so instead of acknowledging peoples time within a Cabal you are taking note of the level of activity and help someone brings to the Cabal.
This system tends to be quite useful in clearly setting out who does what in your Cabal, members can instantly spot those who are doing more than others and be aware of their level of contribution, thing is, you have to keep track of it also.
If someone starts to slack in their role then you may need to think about demoting them, likewise, if someone starts to do more then you will need to think about promoting them. This can sometimes cause arguments between other members often resulting in the ‘why them and not me?’ conversations. The ranks will clearly have to set out the level of contribution that member is bringing to the Cabal, how often they contribute and the benefit it brings to other members.
This also means placing different permissions on each rank, so someone who is often running Lairs for your cabal may need Cabal bank permissions to store and retrieve fragments, likewise someone who is often buying the items your Cabal needs will need to have access to the funding you and your members contribute. Although this method is more contained some members may get upset they never get a rank up even if it’s clear they are not making a notable contribution other than being active, so you would need to be ready to hold onto your views and a potential exit on their part, otherwise you might rank up someone for the wrong reasons and find all your money and fragments one day suddenly disappear.
It will be up to you to decide which way you Rank people up, there are various ways to do it and sometimes people make it a mixture of both, but whatever you decide you have to make sure your Cabal members are clear on what a rank means and how it is obtained, otherwise its meaning will become pointless and less motivating for members to work towards and achieve.
MANAGEMENT STYLES – WHAT TYPE OF LEADER ARE YOU?
So as you go on with your Cabal adventure you really start to get a clear picture of what you and your members are doing, the activities are running, your members know who does what and more people continue to flock to your ranks with the snazzy recruitment methods you have made. You must be starting to see yourself as a pro by now!
But hold on, people are still looking to you for advice, guidance and general clarity on the developing Cabal and the ever changing activities/situations! You must respond to them! But how? We don’t want them to think we are too scared to make choices or too forceful on things we want done! We need a balance, but to understand that you have to understand your current management style. Which one are you? Well below are some examples of how you might be managing things:
THE THINKER
Advantages:
You are full of ideas! You a constantly thinking of new things to do or achieve! You want to share them all with your cabal and it’s great! Consistently thinking ahead allows you to plan ahead and prepare for those random situations you may have not otherwise prepared for, forget plan A, you’re thinking all way to plan Z!
Disadvantages:
While having all the ideas in the world is wonderful you might unwittingly prevent other members from expressing their own ideas or suggestions. It’s important not to overvalue your own ideas for the Cabal no matter how great you might think they are as others might feel they do not have a voice, sometimes it is better to take the co-pilot seat and let others take the main wheel (i.e. Co-managers!).
THE ORGANISER
Advantages:
You’re more organised than a completed rubix cube! Everything has its place and time to do and participate, this is good for structure and gives Cabal members a clear indication of what is going on and when it will happen, this also removes the need to consistently think of new ideas with a regular system in place; no need to worry about unplanned events because you have it all organised for a year in advance!
Disadvantages:
Being organised is great, but don’t be a rock, if you are unwilling to shift activities and plans when the Cabal needs altercations members may find you unapproachable when wanting to improve it further down the line; this can also lead to people leaving because they find you unwilling to compromise on events or activities you had initially put in place when starting up with the basics.
THE AUTHORITARIAN
Advantages:
You’re confident and know what your aim is, and you are clear to others what that is going to be for them also. When you are online, you ARE the plan, and you are more than willing to guide and lead people in the direction you have chosen. This can be good when difficult decisions need to be made or when there is indecision within the Cabal about what action is best suited next. It can also take away the stress of responsibility from other co-managers when difficult decisions need to be made.
Disadvantages:
Being confident and making it clear what will happen next with your members can be a good thing, but you have to be careful not to be too overpowering, sometimes this management style can be seen as bullying or domineering which may put people off from talking to you, it may also shoot other people’s confidence to make their own choices, meaning when you are not around and there is a crisis, things may very well break down.
THE COMPROMISER
Advantages:
Disagreement in the Cabal? Not a problem! You work around it and people are happy with it. Someone wants to change things? Sure thing! You can accommodate their needs and they feel they have been listened to. Being a compromiser can often diffuse potentially difficult conversations and decisions by giving responsibility back to the very people who raise the issues to begin with, this also helps people take up more responsibility for their own choices and actions within the Cabal meaning everyone is taking a part of the Cabal development, great stuff!
Disadvantages:
Don’t stay in the co-pilot seat for too long otherwise you might forget how to fly the plane! While meeting other people’s requests may help with events or situations you also have to think if the changes being made are going to be beneficial for the wider Cabal audience. Don’t just agree to a change in Raid times because one member can’t make the times when everyone else can, you have to know when to say ‘okay, time to drive again’; also if you leave the decision making to other members for too long then you may find you lose your own voice, meaning when you do eventually make decisions or suggestions, no one will really listen to you.
These are common management styles I have seen over the years, and I am sure there are many more, but essentially the point of the above is to show you no management style is full proof and some management styles may suit different situations better than others. To be a Good Cabal Leader you will need to learn when to ‘switch gears’ and change your style of management to suit the situation you are faced with, in doing so you can safely equip yourself for many situations you might otherwise face which will in turn improve the confidence other members have in your management skills when going through the challenging times you may all face.