Psst! 

If you haven't gone through the step by step process to become a Grey Tavern volunteer, we recommend doing so before reading this page. The details below will make more sense if you do.

You'll find the steps under the Tavern Volunteer Opportunities above.

If you have become a volunteer and are learning about the Volunteer Role Paths, please continue!

What You Get from this Role

Being a Former is a very important role. As a Former, you will have many opportunities to work with others and beautify Grey Tavern games, stories, locations, and more.

You will work with game makers, Sophers, Lorekeepers, other Schemas, and many others with 1 overarching and imperative goal that all Schemas share:

As a Former, you get to:

• Depict the imaginations of the local community in stories and lore depictions for that local area
• Design Grey Tavern Locations according to the style guides for that specific location and utilizing physical donations
• Create game assets such as sprites, settings, powerful manifestations
• Create webcomics with a Scrivener
• And much more

Want to get Started as an Former?

Responsibilities and Reporting

As a Former, you are the face of the Schemas to many other volunteers and will have the opportunity to participate in many projects and to render your artistic talents in many ways to bring beauty to The Grey Tavern, but you do not have:

• Power to change the lore you are depicting
• Power to change Schema style guides, parameters, etc.
• Power to edit, critic, or change other Former’s work

• Start a project of your own without Grey Tavern permission

These responsibilities belong with the Sopher Role Path, the tier 2 Schemas, and the tier 3 Schemas, respectively.

You can, however, bring up ideas and suggestions on artistic content and artistic processes with your Appraiser.

Who Formers Report to and What They Report

Formers report to an Appraiser, a tier 2 Schema. 

What your report should include is described below in section “1. Report to Appraiser”

What to Expect

As Veracity and Dragon Merit points are given on a weekly basis, we’ll be talking about Formers tasks on a weekly, and sometimes monthly, basis.

Working on Assignments

Calendar

Example:

This example calendar shows the 3 primary types of tasks you should expect on a weekly basis. Each is described in more detail below.

1.  Report to Appraiser (Assemblage Meetings)

You will be expected to report to an Appraiser that you are assigned to twice a week. There will be 2- 8 Formers reporting at the same time as you. This group is called an Appraiser's Assemblage.

Appraiser’s Assemblage

Wednesday and Saturday are the default days to report to your Appraiser. These days can change on an Assemblage by Assemblage basis, but the Appraiser needs to let the Chief Appraiser know.

Purpose of Assemblage meetings:

• Report on artistic projects’ and tasks’ progress
• Brainstorm and discuss ways to depict lore within lore parameters
• Ask Appraisers questions on how artistic tasks should be formatted
• Communicating on how working with your assigned Lorekeeper, Sopher, fellow Schemas, or other volunteers is going

If you need to report someone breaking a Grey Tavern rule, treating others poorly as described in Grey Tavern rules, or someone being physically hurt by another volunteer or Grey Tavern patron, report these to your assigned Sopher, not your Appraiser.

2.  Artistic Creation

There are several forms of art you will be asked to form. Generally, you will be tasked most often with the forms you show the greatest skill in. The examples in the week example are more to show a spread of different artistic tasks that are available than it being an exact example of what you may be doing week by week. Artistic Creation examples are game sprites, bestiary, interior design, sculpture, and concept ideation. 

We will break up the types of art tasks into these categories:

• Sketch and Illustration
• Game Art
• Interior Design and Sculpture
• Conceptual Planning
• Original Content

Most art you will do will be tasks assigned to you by your Appraiser, coming down from Septimus Jack.

Lorekeeper

All forms of art you create will be done in conjunction with a Lorekeeper. This Lorekeeper is an expert on the lore you will be using for your art. Here’s some things to keep in mind as you work with Lorekeepers:

• You should follow the lore parameters and principles that they share with you 
• Discuss with them your creative ideas so they can help you fit your ideas into the lore parameters
• Not all ideas will fit and the Lorekeeper will not bend to accommodate an idea of yours if it simply cannot fit into that bit of particular lore 
• However, you should keep your ideas because they may work in another part of lore and for another art assignment

 

YOUR NAME SHOULD NEVER APPEAR ON ANY ART YOU PRODUCE

How to Get Art Published

All art you create needs to be reviewed by:

1. Your Appraiser
2. Your Lorekeeper

If both approve your creation, it will be published.

 3. Veracity Report

Veracity Reports are listed under each “calendar” event for a reason.

Here’s a meta tip:

• Filling out an Order Veracity Report after every activity will get you more Veracity overall.

The Report takes 5 minutes or less to complete! We strongly suggest that you wrap up every activity by filling out an Order Veracity Report.

Grey Tavern Property Damage

If any Grey Tavern physical property is damaged as a result of your actions or during an Order activity, you are expected to:

• Report the damage to The Grey Tavern
• Replace or fix it
• If you don’t, it will become something for your Order to replace or fix
  
  
• If the thing is too expensive to replace, you may:
• Submit an item request to a Generative Order
  
  
•  If you don’t have the skills to fix it or the resources, you may:
• Submit a request to an Eternal Order to help you fix it

Making Changes or Ascending the Hierarchy

There are 2 ways of moving things forward:

1. If you see an issue, and opportunity to make an improvement, or something that can be done, you may propose a project to The Grey Tavern
2. You may apply to ascend to a higher position in the Schema hierarchy. You could only apply to be an Appraiser when you are a Former.

Use the links above to see the details of how to do these 2 things and to access the forms.

Intellectual Property

When you first became a Schema, you signed a Volunteer Appointment Agreement. Within it, there was an Intellectual Property release section. Here, we will clarify some of what Intellectual Property you are giving to The Grey Tavern as part of that release.

• All artistic projects and tasks that are assigned to you by the Grey Tavern as well as artistic projects and tasks that are part of an Original Content project you submit and get approved or an Original Content project you participate in
• All artistic ideas
• All art you do that becomes a part of any Grey Tavern project

• Creator and authorship rights

• Game, story, costume, etc. ideas, assets, materials, skills, or time contributed to any The Grey Tavern project

Volunteer Time

As a Grey Tavern volunteer, The Grey Tavern requires volunteers to communicate with them what their minimum and maximum hours they can donate per week is.

This is done when you sign the “The Grey Tavern Volunteer Rules and Policies” agreement. However, if you need to change these hours, you simply need to communicate the changes to your Appraiser who will send the message up the chain.

These hours are required because it helps The Grey Tavern as well as Volunteer and Order leaders know how much to expect from you. This will help:

• You not feel overburdened
• Leaders not feel that they have to do everything by themselves

You will receive a strike if you do not meet your minimum hours per week. This can easily be removed by meeting your minimum hours the next week.

What Type of Volunteering You’re Offering

Volunteering type is important for knowing what donation or quest type you should generally be reporting for your role.

As a Schema, you will be spending most of your volunteer service donating Skills. These skills are put into:

• Writing for any Grey Tavern project
• Ideation sessions with other Schemas and Lorekeepers and others

A donation type that you will be using second to Skills is Tavern Volunteering which focuses on time spent. Some activities in which you should log Tavern Volunteering donations are:

• Attending Appraiser’s Assemblage meetings
• Other potential Schema discussions or meetings

You will usually get the greatest benefit, in total Veracity earned in a week, through submitting a Skills Order Veracity Report. However, you should report a Tavern Volunteering Order Veracity Report when that one is more appropriate. If you are found intentionally submitting a Skills Report when you should be submitting a Tavern Volunteering, you will be reviewed and potentially removed from your position.

If you are in an Eternal Order as well, the Skills you donate will have the greatest effect as far as Veracity earned per week. However, your Former service will always increase your Veracity, as long as you report it, no matter what Order type you are part of.

What to Expect from Working with Us

We truly want you to have fun as a Former!

We seek to give you as much autonomy as possible within your role. As long as you keep what’s listed in the following list, we wish for you to thrive, imagine, and make this role yours.

• Keep your commitments
• Keep the guidelines expressed in this document
• Keep the rules of The Grey Tavern
• Stay within Schema rules, expectations, style guides, and other Schema parameters

• Stay within Grey Tavern lore

• Fill out your Order Veracity Report regularly
• Treat others with respect and kindness
• Do not intentionally damage Grey Tavern property
• Communicate with The Grey Tavern when your commitments need to change or if you have a Legitimate Excuse (Link) for why you weren’t able to keep it
• Approve your projects with The Grey Tavern BEFORE starting on them