Hello there, I'm sorry to hear about your FC troubles! It's hard to be able to give any perfect solution without knowing the full details, but here's my advice...
- Screen your officers carefully before promoting them. Only promote anyone who has been there a few weeks, who is mature and reliable, who follows the rules to a T, who is active and social, who knows the workings and environment of your FC, who shares common views and approaches as you, and who has already stepped up to the plate to offer assistance and show initiative. You want your officers to be people who have already been acting like officers, and not people you hope will shape up once you promote them. Though it sometimes seems counter-intuitive, I tend not to promote people who frequently ask and pester me about officer positions, because after a certain point it comes across less as showing initiative and more as a red flag for someone vying for power, status, or control.
- Once your officers have been promoted, give them very clear instructions and guidelines to follow. Let them know their duties and how to do them. Do not overburden them with work. They will be unhappy if they feel they are doing more work than the FC leader. Stay in close communication with them and get to know them well. Be polite and forge friendships with them, but don't forget that you're their "boss" when they need a nudge. I recommend making a private chat for you and your officers to remain in touch, if you have not already. Avoiding confusion and unhappiness among your officers is the best way to prevent officer turnover. If someone is not doing their work, talk with them about it to try to find a solution and let them know that if they don't carry their weight, they will be demoted back to a regular member.
- For the cliques, it is natural that people form their own social circles, but it does become a problem when those groups become exclusive. If you see anyone outright ignoring others, let them know that's not okay. If anyone is completely uninvolved in the FC or does not interact with anyone within it aside from their own friends, pull them aside and ask why they are here, what you can do to make them more interested in the FC, and encourage them to interact with others to make the FC a more welcoming environment. The main thing to do, however, is give people a reason to interact. Make social nights where you run content together or talk in Discord or play other games together. Make RP nights and if everyone only RP's with their usual group of friends, find events to run where you can pair or group people together who don't normally interact, or try to foster some sort of interaction between them IC (I.E. "Person A, have you met Person B yet? Here, I'll introduce you; I think you'd get along!").
- For the IC feel of the FC as a mercenary company, the best thing you can do is to, well, make it feel like a mercenary company IC! When interviewing new members IC, ask them questions you'd expect to be asked of someone joining a mercenary company (and if their character does not seem like a logical fit for a mercenary company, talk to them about it IC and/or OOC). Offer IC training and services you'd expect a mercenary company to give to its members. Create missions for the members to go on and work for them to do. Storylines can be hard. Plan events thoroughly beforehand so that things don't get delayed or need reworked and waste others' time as they wait. You need to find a way to let everyone feel they've played an equal part and an important role, and yet you cannot put too much on the shoulders of any member who will flake or suddenly become inactive. Then, of course, you will always have the risk of people blurring IC and OOC, metagaming, powerplaying/godmodding, being angry their character did not play a more important role, or getting upset that they perceive someone played a larger part in the story than they did (even if that person only got a larger role by being incredibly active, taking the initiative, showing up to every single event, having their character take charge IC, etc.) Sadly, I've found it's hard to run any sort of storyline without at least one person getting upset or being dissatisfied. The thing is, the majority still usually enjoy an event if it's planned well and fair, so it's still worthwhile. Imo you just need someone with thick skin to run the storylines because unfortunately, I've found no matter how good of a job someone does, they'll get more flak than thanks for it... or at the very least, the complaints sure resonate more than the praise does.
- Somewhat related to the last remark... leading an FC is hard and it will always be hard. You can't be perfect, and your FC can't be perfect. Just because there are problems doesn't mean you're doing a bad job. Don't get discouraged, be flexible, and find solutions to issue as they come along. It's never easy. I'd be more inclined that someone is doing a poor job of leading an FC if they think it is easy! So hang in there for as long as you're happy doing it!
- Screen your officers carefully before promoting them. Only promote anyone who has been there a few weeks, who is mature and reliable, who follows the rules to a T, who is active and social, who knows the workings and environment of your FC, who shares common views and approaches as you, and who has already stepped up to the plate to offer assistance and show initiative. You want your officers to be people who have already been acting like officers, and not people you hope will shape up once you promote them. Though it sometimes seems counter-intuitive, I tend not to promote people who frequently ask and pester me about officer positions, because after a certain point it comes across less as showing initiative and more as a red flag for someone vying for power, status, or control.
- Once your officers have been promoted, give them very clear instructions and guidelines to follow. Let them know their duties and how to do them. Do not overburden them with work. They will be unhappy if they feel they are doing more work than the FC leader. Stay in close communication with them and get to know them well. Be polite and forge friendships with them, but don't forget that you're their "boss" when they need a nudge. I recommend making a private chat for you and your officers to remain in touch, if you have not already. Avoiding confusion and unhappiness among your officers is the best way to prevent officer turnover. If someone is not doing their work, talk with them about it to try to find a solution and let them know that if they don't carry their weight, they will be demoted back to a regular member.
- For the cliques, it is natural that people form their own social circles, but it does become a problem when those groups become exclusive. If you see anyone outright ignoring others, let them know that's not okay. If anyone is completely uninvolved in the FC or does not interact with anyone within it aside from their own friends, pull them aside and ask why they are here, what you can do to make them more interested in the FC, and encourage them to interact with others to make the FC a more welcoming environment. The main thing to do, however, is give people a reason to interact. Make social nights where you run content together or talk in Discord or play other games together. Make RP nights and if everyone only RP's with their usual group of friends, find events to run where you can pair or group people together who don't normally interact, or try to foster some sort of interaction between them IC (I.E. "Person A, have you met Person B yet? Here, I'll introduce you; I think you'd get along!").
- For the IC feel of the FC as a mercenary company, the best thing you can do is to, well, make it feel like a mercenary company IC! When interviewing new members IC, ask them questions you'd expect to be asked of someone joining a mercenary company (and if their character does not seem like a logical fit for a mercenary company, talk to them about it IC and/or OOC). Offer IC training and services you'd expect a mercenary company to give to its members. Create missions for the members to go on and work for them to do. Storylines can be hard. Plan events thoroughly beforehand so that things don't get delayed or need reworked and waste others' time as they wait. You need to find a way to let everyone feel they've played an equal part and an important role, and yet you cannot put too much on the shoulders of any member who will flake or suddenly become inactive. Then, of course, you will always have the risk of people blurring IC and OOC, metagaming, powerplaying/godmodding, being angry their character did not play a more important role, or getting upset that they perceive someone played a larger part in the story than they did (even if that person only got a larger role by being incredibly active, taking the initiative, showing up to every single event, having their character take charge IC, etc.) Sadly, I've found it's hard to run any sort of storyline without at least one person getting upset or being dissatisfied. The thing is, the majority still usually enjoy an event if it's planned well and fair, so it's still worthwhile. Imo you just need someone with thick skin to run the storylines because unfortunately, I've found no matter how good of a job someone does, they'll get more flak than thanks for it... or at the very least, the complaints sure resonate more than the praise does.
- Somewhat related to the last remark... leading an FC is hard and it will always be hard. You can't be perfect, and your FC can't be perfect. Just because there are problems doesn't mean you're doing a bad job. Don't get discouraged, be flexible, and find solutions to issue as they come along. It's never easy. I'd be more inclined that someone is doing a poor job of leading an FC if they think it is easy! So hang in there for as long as you're happy doing it!
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
