Written and Finalized By: Dread Phantom
Edited by: TheOtherTaylor
Document Scope: This SOP is to function as a concise guide. It's partner document: JTF2 GM Tips, should be referenced to provide more detail and clarity behind the steps outlined here.
Document Disclosure: The purpose of this standard operating procedure (SOP) is to serve as a guide and reference document to ensure a smooth process of both building and executing a JTF2 mission. This isn't an enforced strict order of operations; rather, it outlines an idealistic workflow that is known to function and promotes the best possible chances of a fun mission for everyone involved.
"GM's exist to make the player experience better. Full stop."
JTF2's is an inclusive community focused on having fun in ArmA through focused teamwork and coordination. Our role as a GM is to provide that space. Every level of your mission design needs to have an absolute focus on providing a fun team oriented environment that any player can participate in. Regardless of experience or skill.
Being a GM comes with an obligation to put many hours of work in advance of a mission to respect the time of the players and those who help organize these missions.
This is not an easy job, and it is one of selfless service to the community. We at JTF2, both the operations team and the community at large, cannot thank you enough for taking on these responsibilities. Our community revolves around putting on GM missions in Arma, and those missions revolve around the GM. Truly from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
We need to respect the time of our players as well as those responsible for organizing the finer details of the mission. We all have our own obligations and life comes before Arma. With that in mind the mission should be finalized and announced as far ahead of the planned mission date as possible to allow people time to adjust weekend plans around the mission.
The announcement/sign-up should be posted one week in advance minimum.
Come up with mission idea:
Vet idea for feasibility
Be realistic about your ability to run that mission as a GM. Contact other volunteer GMs if you need assistance.
Be realistic about the players’ ability to accomplish the tasks set before them.
Think about the limitations of the game itself and what it has been designed to do. You must operate within the confines of available mechanics.
Ensure your total mission length is between 1 and 3 hours. Do not exceed the time you announce to players that the mission will take.
Plan for scalability
Player turnout cannot be guaranteed. Your mission needs to work no matter how many people show up to play it.
Assess stability
The best idea for any mission will be ruined by crashes or terrible server performance. Stability is a constant struggle in Arma. Your mission needs to be able to run on anyone’s machine or console, without a loss of performance.
Select map:
Find POIs and theorize basic mission structure and flow.
Vet the map for stability and quality assurance.
Some maps may only have concerning issues in some areas, while other areas function fine. You should still avoid these maps as they may still harbor harder to find problems that we only run into during the actual mission.
Know your mission space like the back of your hand. There should be no surprises.
Get mission approval from the JTF2 Operations Team
Get mission time and date approval from Operations team.
Get mission idea approval from Operations team.
Get mission mod list approved from the Operations team.
This is subject to change, but at the time of writing Dread Phantom has the final say on the mods and is the one to contact.
The smaller the mod list, the more stable the game. Any mod that won’t be actively used in the mission will not be on the list.
Announce basic idea in the command – coordination channel.
Make a post with a very brief mission outline and proposed date and time for the mission to check interest and availability of volunteer team leads.
Verify server availability on proposed date and time.
This is subject to change, but at the time of writing Arvin generously allows us to use his servers for our missions and is the one to contact for server availability.
Find out when or if the server will be available for players to download mods and set up load-outs ahead of time.
Make a macro mission plan with the volunteer team leads.
Make a general mission plan with as many of the signed up leads as you can muster, as well as all GM assistants. This planning session can be very short and evolve as the leads have time to consider the mission.
As a GM, you will have an idea of how you think the mission will go. The players will have a different idea. Knowing how they plan to approach your mission will help you prepare assets and challenges for them to accommodate their mission plan without needing to consider every possible option.
Do not take the freedom of choice away from the players. Let them strategize and play the mission with as little influence from the GM as possible.
You are not their adversary. Do not use this macro planning session to make the player plans fail. Use it to reduce your prep time.
Build a mission description for sign ups.
The opscom tool that Arvin developed is what we use to announce our missions. Once your mission has been approved, a member of the Operations team will create an operation for you to edit and build your briefing with.
The “Basic Information” section is what will be included with the announcement. Ensure it includes the following basic requirements:
Time and date for login as well as mission start.
Gear expectations (Required camouflage, NVGs allowed, etc.)
A brief (2-3 sentences) mission description.
The description should be as brief as possible while still ensuring everyone understands what they are signing up for. They need to make an informed decision on whether or not this mission is one they will enjoy.
The “Mission Briefing” section is for you to provide additional information and build the theme of the mission. These items are usually too lengthy to include in the announcements, but may be included by request.
Be as detailed as you want to be here. Players may not read it all, but a surprising number of people enjoy getting into the theme of the mission and will love your crafted lore for it. Use this to help put both you and the players in the proper mindset for the mission.
Once you think it is ready, contact a member of the operations team to review it and post it to Discord for sign-ups.
Refine the mission idea and perform level design.
Build a small safe area with a spawn point and arsenals for players to log in ahead of time and prepare their kits.
Use the macro plan made with the volunteer team leads to consider where the players intend to be and prepare how and when the enemy assets will react to the players.
AI in Arma Reforger don’t like to keep their orders through server restarts. It is recommended to prepare static objects/compositions in advance and then populate those prepared areas with the AI immediately prior to the mission.
During this process of level design you will be able to come up with the finalized ideas of how, when, and where the players will be confronting the enemy.
Have a general idea of how long engagements will take and where you can add/remove enemy assets to speed/slow mission progress.
Establish workload division with any GM assistants.
If the macro strategy discussion (part 2 step 1) was unable to happen in advance, don’t let that detract from you doing some level design and refining your plans for the mission. All the team leads and game masters will always meet to discuss the mission strategy right before step off time. You just might have to be a little more involved in that discussion to make sure they align with your plans and go where you expect them to if that is the only strategy meeting.
Finalize squad and team structure.
This will be done by a member of the JTF2 Operations Team, not the GM. It is unlikely, but you may need to remind us that it needs to be done.
Log in far ahead of time to finalize work.
You should not expect to log in at the same time as everyone else. Unplanned setup delays are the rule, not the exception. If you cannot log in early on the day of the mission, you should plan the mission on a different day. Expect to log in hours ahead of time to address all the headaches of a large group event. There’s a lot that goes into organizing these events and some of it might not be able to be done very far in advance. Things you have to worry about includes but is not limited to:
Solving player confusion about the mission
Finalizing the macro plan with all team leads present
Fixing minor bugs
Finalizing level design
Placing AI and giving them orders
Finalizing scenario properties
Ensuring the server is set up with proper capacity and mod list
Adjusting the mission to unexpected player count changes
Coordinate communication lines.
Establish how players can get a hold of you if a problem needs GM intervention
You should always coordinate which in-game radio channels you will be monitoring, but this isn’t 100% reliable. Always have a backup. Be in a visible Discord voice channel that people can pop into for help.
Conduct mission briefing.
Thank everyone for showing up, and thank the server provider for letting us use it.
Conduct any brief how-to’s if necessary.
Review medical system.
Any additional mission specific tasks like disarming explosives or taking prisoners.
Hand it off to the team leads for the mission strategy briefing, or conduct it yourself.
Run a fun yet challenging mission.
While this step could be compared to “draw the rest of the fucking owl” the specifics of how exactly to run any mission in particular is just too situational. I’ll list some brief tips and leave it at that. For more comprehensive information review the partner document: “GM Tips”
Respect the players’ time: Start on time, end on time.
Keep player immersion: Do not let the players see you working.
Be fair to the players: Provide proportional challenges players can handle with the equipment and manpower they have available.
Don’t be adversarial: Reward smart behavior. Don’t harshly punish seemingly stupid behavior.
Debrief
After every mission collect everyone for a debrief. Thank everyone again for coming, thank the server provider for server providing, and all the leads for volunteering.
Collect some immediate feedback. “Did everyone have fun?” That sort of thing. Keep it extremely brief.
Hand it off to each SL (and PL if there’s a separate one) for them to briefly talk about how it went for them. Make sure no squad goes unrepresented in the debrief.
If you feel the need, provide some feedback on how the mission went from your point of view.
Gather everyone up for the group photo and take it.
Provide a safe space for people to hang out and more casually debrief and discuss the mission.
90% of our players like to split up and hang out after every mission and talk about how it went. This is an extremely valuable time for you to eavesdrop or participate in their discussions and collect feedback on the mission while it is still fresh.
The other 10% of the players will want to start mag dumping into the sky. Make sure that this doesn’t disrupt the after mission discussions and hang outs.
Collect feedback
Not everyone is going to feel comfortable giving feedback in front of a group, especially if it is criticism. It is critically important that we as GM’s reach out to some of the players privately after the mission and collect feedback. Ask for the high-lights and the low-lights. We need to know what we are bad at so we can fix it, and we need to know what we are good at so we can truly excel at it.
You don’t need to contact everyone privately. Be targeted in who you talk to. DM some people that will offer valuable insight such as some of the team leads, other experienced GM’s that were been playing, as well as people who may have been “volun-told” to fulfill a needed role and might not have had a great time. And if you know someone had a particularly bad time, talk to them about it and/or let a member of the JTF2 Operations Team know about it so we can talk to them about it.
Thank you again for wanting to GM for us! The entire community is appreciative of your efforts here. This is not an easy job and can be rather stressful at times. Remember that it is only a game and we all do this at our pleasure, including you. Have fun! Run things you think are cool! Don’t burn yourself out. As you do it, you’ll gain experience and running these missions will get smoother and easier over time. And never forget that you aren’t alone. Ask for help if want it.