DMFI contributors and structure

A revival of the DM-Friendly Initiative (DMFI) for NWN
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Carlo
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DMFI contributors and structure

Post by Carlo » Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:45 pm

The DM-Friendly Initiative (DMFI) has traditionally been structured around its three missions, namely:

* Supporting the development and training of DMs of all skill levels.
* Developing and making available to the entire NWN community tools such as the DMFI Wands & Widgets 1.09 for NWN and the DMFI Tools for NWN2.
* Encouraging DM-friendly module design by reviewing and certifying both NWN modules and NWN2 modules on Neverwinter Vault.

During the peak of DMFI activity in the 2000s, essentially there were three teams operating in parallel, although with some overlap:

1) The formalized Design Team (for developing and publishing community scripting/mod tools)

2) DM Training - team membership as such was not formalized, but in practice contributions were
organized by the DMFI Coordinator.

3) Review Team - DMFI members could volunteer to review mods at different stages of development, that had been submitted to the DMFI by their authors for feedback. This included providing commentary on module documentation, the in-game functionality of a mod's DM/multiplayer aspects, and general observations related to the DMing experience. Mods that achieved the necessary minimums for documentation and functionality (i.e. they worked as advertised) would be added to the official DMFI-Certified list at Neverwinter Vault. The one requirement to join the Review Team was to have completed DMing at least one module on Neverwinter Connections. The DMFI Coordinator also served as final quality control for the process and made sure feedback was provided constructively.

In my several years spent as a member and then DMFI Coordinator, I thought the structure worked well in practice and balanced the interests and skills of DMFI members. The DMFI is a volunteer NWN community organization and everyone who was a member was appreciated for their contributions, whenever they could make them, and on whatever topic.

In the revived DMFI, volunteers will be similarly welcomed to any/all of the three teams to which they believe they can meaningfully contribute. I'm taking on the coordinator role, which means I'll focus on the DMFI's organizational tasks and requirements, gladly leaving everything else (hopefully the more fun parts!) to the team members.

At the moment, I'm serving as the overall point of contact for all three teams, so can be PM'd here with any questions, comments or expressions of interest. Just click on the "Contact" bubble under my forum avatar.

Will also welcome forum discussion on the DMFI's organization, structure and mission.

Separately, there will be periodically updated posts on project focus that reflect what is going on across the DMFI teams.

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