While I have to postpone my preparatory work on plans and sketches for a sim project, because I’m still sick (and a bit tired of being sick), I’m thinking about what a role-playing sim should be in Gor’s world. What should it offer, how should it be organized, what should its purpose be? It’s an essential question, and one that anyone who’s had the crazy idea of investing a considerable amount of time, money and willpower to create a sim has inevitably asked themselves.

My experience in this field is by no means exhaustive. I’ve played an active part in the development of three or four sims, generally with modest ambitions, and only one of them became a major player in its community, allowing me to study the reasons for its success… and its downfall. And then, this past year, I unwillingly lived through the all-too-repeated experience of the witness who joins a sim, participates as a player, offers to help, and finally sees the sim falter for lack of retaining its community, and become impossible to maintain. Almost every time, for me, it’s a heartbreaking experience. A sim isn’t a setting, it’s a community, which is then destroyed and dispersed when the sim closes.

And that’s my first lesson: a sim isn’t a setting for a game. It’s a community made up of social ties, camaraderie and friendships, emotions shared and cherished. It’s the community of players who will make it their home.

So, how do we go about it? I don’t know, it depends a lot on luck and a combination of parameters that fall in the right place at the right time. But I do have some ideas, and since I have to think about them for the work I’m about to do, I might as well share my thoughts on the subject.

1- The decor

Packaging matters! I’m putting on my old visual communications art director hat here: the best product in the world doesn’t sell well if its packaging is ugly. Because that’s what people look at first. If the product is very famous, it doesn’t need beautiful packaging, but it’s really rare to be able to do without it.

The overall look

The world of Gor is not medieval fantasy. It’s a context with post-antique architecture, like the Gallo-Roman and Greco-Roman Eastern world of the^4th century AD. It’s a context that’s tinged with science fiction: the constructions of the Goreans demonstrate a mechanical and technical genius far superior to that of the Romans, who in this field were experts that are hard to match. Why is this so? Because in many fields of science, the Goreans are technologically very advanced, like in the ^18th or even ^19th century. This is reflected in their architecture. (I recommend this article: https://www.psychee.org/gorpedia/gor-sciences-and-the-builders-caste/ )

A word of caution: as is the case today, refined, quality construction requires wealth and means. Small villages still get by with mud bricks, wood and lime. A stone house would be a luxury. That said, it would be a more widespread luxury than in the European Middle Ages, for example. Monumental, advanced architecture, with modern comforts, is therefore for the big cities, and for the rich. The poor have to make do with more modest hovels, and in remote villages, yes, we’re clearly into thatched roofs and wooden cob houses.

Before moving on to a list of what you can expect to see in the urban décor of a Gor city, two final points: Goreans cherish nature, and appreciate the beauty of human bodies. A Gor city is green, with tree-lined avenues, parks and gardens. And elegant, even erotic, nude frescoes and statues everywhere. Gor’s artists work for patrons, the most important of whom are the city’s authorities, who vie with each other in spending on such luxury. And without the Judeo-Christian morality of nudity, the artists have a field day! Do you like beautiful slave statues? Treat yourself!

What you can expect to find in Gor’s decor:

– Gallo-Roman-inspired buildings, and also Oriental ones, with colonnades.

– A variety of architectural styles, but lots of stone, masonry walls and smooth, often painted plaster.

– A forum, surrounded by a marketplace, at the center of the city.

– High residential towers (cylinders), with landing areas for tarns.

– Palaces and squares adorned with nude statues, more or less erotic.

– Alleys with trees, fountains and public gardens.

– Craftsmen’s workshops with top-quality equipment, machine tools powered by man, wind or water.

– Alcoves here and there, sometimes carefully equipped to satisfy the pleasure of a man with a slave (I refer you to this article on the slave equipment used by Goreans: https: //www.psychee.org/gorpedia/slavery-gear-and-attire/ ).

Buildings

In all Gor sims cities, we always find the same buildings considered essential: the tavern, the inn, the public baths, the hospital, the barracks, the scribes’ hall, the public kennel, the arena and, finally, the rulers’ palace. Are all these structures compulsory? Well, not necessarily! It’s all a matter of how you organize yourself!

Here are a few examples: the barracks, where the city’s rarii gather, is the most commonly neglected place in Gorean sims, and it’s best to think of it as part of the hold, open to the people as a place of refuge in the event of attack. The combat arena is strictly useless without entertainment, and it’s better to think of it as an amphitheater for shows and public gatherings. The scribes’ hall, often deserted, will make more sense if it’s linked to a court and a public library accessible to all.

A principle that I apply in both my literary and creative work, and which comes from my professional training in visual communications, is: anything that appears useless and offers no added value for the product’s use doesn’t deserve to exist. To clarify my point in the context of decorating a sim: if you have a magnificent building for the scribe caste, but you only have two scribes on your sim, rarely present, and a usage rate of barely once a week, then your building is useless. It’s as if you’d created a beautiful setting, but in a place where nobody can go and enjoy it: it’s a waste of prims, space and creative energy.

So, how do you do it? By creating synergy! Buildings should be varied and interconnected. Place the tavern next to the slave house and the public kennel, to make a single interconnected complex. Build a public library (and put notecards in it to introduce people to the world of Gor – you can even loot the Gorean Archives for that!) and a courthouse, housing the scribes’ offices! Turn the rarii barracks into a fully-equipped hold, complete with infirmary and dormitories, to serve as a citizens’ defense square. Place an amphitheater next to the palace of the city authorities, to serve as a public senate! Don’t create streets with stores, but gather them around the city’s main square, with a small market. And of course, taverns, inns and tearooms should all open onto the central square.

Isn’t that realistic? No, it isn’t. That’s not how Roman cities were organized, any more than our modern ones. But an urban sim in Gor’s world is not a realistic city. It’s a condensation, in a limited space, with a limited number of players, of settings, buildings and services that need to be tightly interconnected to multiply social exchanges efficiently and easily.

Let me finish by reminding you of three realities. An urban sim in Gor’s world is made up of three groups: slaves, free women and free men. All three groups need their own reserved areas, but they all need to be interconnected. If the public kennel is at the opposite end of the sim from the inn and tearoom, and far from the central square, it won’t encourage slaves to wander and serve. A teahouse or inn brings together free women, and attracts free men, both of whom will want slaves to serve and keep them company. A tavern, a very masculine place, will be neglected if it’s far from the public kennel and isolated from the rest of the city’s social heart. And it all has to be around, or very close to, the central square, which in turn has to be close to public buildings such as the public library, the government palace or the hospital.

The buildings (probably) needed:

– A judicial and administrative complex (for scribes and also builders), glued to a public library, or an integral part of the city palace.

– A hospital – it doesn’t have to be big, but it’s still an important building, designed to allow three or four doctors to work together.

– A senate, a forum and other public political assemblies.

– Public baths, which can be an integral part of a slavers’ compound (public kennel and slaves’ house), or a gymnasium (I’ve never seen one on a sim, but in the novels, they do exist in large cities, as a space for sports and male wrestling).

– A public kennel and a slave house, with its own private space (park, garden), close to or even next to the tavern. Personally, I like the slavers’ compound, designed as a complete building with all the necessary services, where the slavers have their own apartments.

– Inn, tea room and other all-public services, around a welcoming central square.

– And the rest? As I said above, the rest is only useful if it’s used, which depends on the community, the context and the purpose of the sim.

2- Services

A sim is all about people, and there’s nothing more chaotic than a bunch of people together. But, as I said at the beginning of this article, a sim isn’t just a setting, it’s a community that interacts together. This community needs services and animations, to get organized, and to have opportunities to create or participate in storylines that make them feel part of an adventure.

And it’s this last point that I’m going to insist on a lot: a gor sim needs to be animated. It’s all well and good to have a group of administrators in charge of managing the sim, and moderators in charge of policing and socializing it, but there needs to be a third group: the animators, who are responsible for working with the administrators and players to create animations, plots and events that give players that shared feeling of being part of an adventure.

I’ll give you a simple example: a slaver’s job is to welcome, train, educate and then “sell” (although here, we’re only talking about the roleplay aspect, since in OOC, everything must be consensual) the slaves of the sim. This means he has to organize himself to create animations, give lessons, training sessions, and be available for all the intrigues that revolve around captives and slaves. But this slaver is a player, just like any other. If he isn’t assisted and encouraged by a facilitator who will help him, and organize these events with him, he’ll soon be overloaded, and even accused of not doing his job well enough. He’ll quickly get bored or even disgusted with his role. Of course, if there are several slavers working together, it’s less difficult. But it’s even less so if a animator is there to receive their suggestions, proposals and requests, and help them put them into practice, isn’t it?

A sim is first and foremost a community to be pampered, supervised and positively motivated. To do this, you need to provide it with services, and we’re going to look at which ones are essential and why.

IC services

The leader: an urban sim needs a government. It doesn’t have to be run by the sim’s administrators, but it does have to work in close cooperation and mutual trust with them. And I insist: you don’t entrust a leadership position to a player you don’t know well enough to ensure reliability and cooperation. A ruler can be a civil leader (who may be called consul, administrator, regent, first councillor, etc.) or a military leader (the ubar, who is a dictator, assisted by a civil city council). The civil chief has the role of ultimate magistrate, the one who rules when a debate cannot be concluded, when a difficult decision must be made, but all his decisions must be taken with the agreement of the city council. The Ubar has the role of dictator, i.e. a military leader whose orders are not debated. But while he has extensive powers, and can abuse them, he does not have all the power, as the city council can vote to dismiss and replace him. In all cases, the ruler is assisted by a city council, discussed below.

The city council: this is simply a senate, an assembly made up of representatives of the city’s high castes (and sometimes also of the low castes considered most important in the city, as is often the case with merchants), which meets around the ruler and decides with him on the laws to be passed, the actions to be taken and the general management of the city. Each member of the city council is there to receive the grievances of the members of the caste he represents, and to ensure their interests are represented within the council. Caste members of the city council are not necessarily the heads of each caste, as each caste elects its own representative to this position. This avoids a concentration of power. Yes, Goreans are much more inclined towards republican systems than totalitarian regimes.

Civil assemblies: a bit like in Roman cities, Goreans have a forum, which can be a square, an amphitheater, etc., where the ruler and the city council hold a debate on a public subject, and to which everyone is invited to attend and participate. This is of great IC interest, but also OOC, because by allowing everyone to give their opinion on the subject of the current debate, it provides suggestions for managing the community, and plot ideas! Personally, I think such assemblies should be held twice a month, for two hours at a time. It’s an interesting way for the community to get together, discuss, exchange ideas, feel listened to… and, of course, engage in political plotting!

Caste leaders: can we do without them? Yes. But they are useful, as they serve as a reference point and contact person for players seeking to integrate into the community, and into the roleplay of the city. Caste leaders are in charge of recruiting and welcoming new members to their caste, and enforcing caste laws. In short, these are useful and important roles, but they’re also demanding, as you need to be diplomatic and often available for the job.

On the subject of slaves: no first city girl! There’s no such thing! Only first girls and educator slaves exist in a slave house or slaveholder compound. (I talk about it in this article: https: //www.psychee.org/gorpedia/a-gorean-slave-house/ )

On the subject of rarii: not all are members of the city guard. They can work as personal guards for high castes, merchants, wealthy artisans, or be specialists in escorting, caravanning, tracking down criminals. The rarii in charge of investigations and legal proceedings are under the orders of the magistrates (i.e., the scribal caste). This means that rarii are not under the sole orders of their highest-ranking officer or boss: the ubar and the city council are the highest authorities who give them orders. In general, they will be loyal to the ubar, but if the city council dismisses the ubar, the rarii, who are above all at the service of the city, and not just of one man, will comply.

OOC services

The administrators of a sim are generally its owners and the central group that decides to take charge of the sim’s technical management. Layout, decorations, intervention in the event of flagrant non-compliance with the rules, etc.

Moderators are like police officers: they are there to receive reports of non-compliance with the rules, fair play and Gorean etiquette, and to settle OOC problems between players, including by applying sanctions. This role requires both diplomacy and intransigence, as well as respect for the players, the rules of the sim and fair play.

Animators are the sim’s hospitality and events officers. Experienced in the world of Gor and motivated to share their knowledge, they are there to help newcomers integrate into the community, providing help and advice, but above all, they are the interface between players and administrators. Want to organize a slave dance party at your inn? Contact a host, who will take care of announcements, and help you get the decor and tools you need. Do you have a plot idea to share that requires the cooperation of the sim administration? They’ll study your idea, pass it on to the administrators, and help you launch the plot!

Think of this role of animator as people whose job it is to create events and adventures, and help you to participate in them, and even bring your own ideas to life. And they have one last major role: they know the general plot threads of the sim, which they have often created. These can be urban adventures (like a serial killer on the loose, or a dangerous runaway slave, or thieves raiding the homes of the wealthy), or political plots (like family shenanigans to take over a high caste, or why not the city council), or even adventures directly linked to the secrets of priest-kings, kurri and their agents, with sci-fi elements!

It’s a really important role, because for a community to live and have fun, things need to happen, and who would say no to a good adventure?

Other OOC services:

– A small library or panels, with a few notecards allowing novices to discover and read what they need to understand Gor’s basics. It has to be accessible, so we might as well put it in the arrival area.

– A school, or an OOC classroom and/or conference room, to hold classes and debates on learning and discovering Gor. Alternatively, you could collaborate with a Gor training and education venue, such as Gorean University !

– An information board announcing the sim’s OOC and IC events and activities.

– A REAL text presenting the city, its history, its region, its mentality and its laws!

– Solid OOC rules. And who cares about the raid rules, but that’s just my opinion. The rules must ensure that all sensibilities are protected, and that no form of discrimination, active or passive, or any form of direct or indirect harassment, will be tolerated. If a sexist or racist reading your rules yells “woke!”, you’ve probably written them correctly!

– And a little corner with free stuff to equip yourself when you’re a total novice. It’s always a pleasure!

3- Organization

I couldn’t possibly give you the perfect recipe for organizing a sim. I’m not even sure there is one. But in my experience, to create a sim, you need, once again, to think in terms of a community. And a community needs leaders. We’re not talking about chiefs here, but people with charisma and the ability to motivate and win the trust of the people around them. A chief is obeyed. A leader, you follow. It’s around him, his charisma, his enthusiasm, his organizational skills, that the hard core of the community is created, the one that will create and begin to give life to the sim.

So… we have to start by finding these leaders! This isn’t easy, because such profiles are rare, and often, the people most attracted to playing this role do so because they confuse leader with chief, power with responsibility. In short, a good leader is not easy to find. But he doesn’t have to be a member of the sim administration! They can simply be moderators or animators, using their leadership skills to attract players and cement a community. And it’s not so bad that he’s not an administrator! He’ll already have enough work, IC and OOC, with the players and the community that gathers around him. Does the leader then have to be the sim’s IC ruler? In my experience, it’s best, at least to start with. He or she can also be the second-in-command, like a steward, or you can have several leaders working as a team.

As a result, admins don’t need to have a role of IC authority over the sim. They can if they feel up to it, but their job is above all to manage the sim technically. They don’t need to be the head of the town or a caste! An admin can just as easily be the shy, discreet little slave girl you see in the corner over there!

The same goes for moderators, but here I think an IC role with responsibility helps them a little. It reinforces their authority as police officers to deal with OOC problems between players. That said, again, it’s not a necessity at all.

As for animators, they can play roles that are not responsible, but remain key roles, allowing them a certain IC latitude to help launch animations, events and plots. But again, it’s not necessarily necessary.

So… to create a sim, you need to think about what?

– The small group that creates the sim, around the backers. They will generally be administrators.

– The leader(s), charismatic and reliable, capable of attracting and gathering players to create a motivated and loyal community. They can be admins, or moderators, but it’s not necessary.

– A small group of moderators, diplomatic and patient, who must themselves be beyond reproach when it comes to respecting people and rules.

– A small group of animators, preferably people with a good knowledge of gor, roleplay, narrative principles and tabletop roleplaying games, who will take on the job of animating the sim and its adventures.

Yes, this means that you can’t really start with just two or three people. You need a group of at least 6 or 7 people who get along well, are reliable, united and share the same goal, to be able to launch a sim effectively. You can start with fewer people, and recruit as you go along, but recruitment should always be cautious and well thought-out. Take your time, and decide by consensus.

Half the players who would like to take on, say, the role of chief slaver or chief rarius of the city are dreaming of the power it gives them, not of the difficult responsibility they’ll have to shoulder. Recruitment is a job interview, with members of the sim administration, and everyone has to agree to it. Because any role with a high level of IC responsibility has consequences for the sim’s atmosphere, and for its community. OOC consequences! The recruit must be fully aware of what is expected of him/her, and must be reliable.

In my experience, an elected caste leader (a position of responsibility, with the risk of OOC consequences in the event of a problem) is better accepted, and is more capable of assuming his role, than a player eagerly recruited because you lacks this role and needs to fill it. Taking your time, deciding as a group to run the sim, and not as an individual, and acting with the advice of the community, is always preferable. It won’t make you immune to problems and disappointments, but it will reduce them considerably.

4- The ultimate goal

Why do you want to create your sim in the first place? What’s its purpose, what do you expect from it, what are your hopes, what do you want and what don’t you want?

Ask yourself this question, but above all, write it down in black and white, as a first working tool with your group who want to create the sim with you, and help you, so that this text becomes, in a way, a roadmap of why you’re going to create your sim, and for what purpose. This will help you to ask yourself how to get there, and builders will thank you for having precise indications and knowing the objectives to be achieved!

But the same question applies to the community you’re going to attract, what you’re going to offer them, but also what you’re going to demand of them. Be too welcoming and accepting of everyone, and the dramas will come thick and fast. Be too closed-minded and demanding in your welcome, and your sim will end up in the desert. Advertise your sim too much, and you’ll annoy everyone… don’t advertise at all, and no one will even know your sim exists. Do you need a website? A forum? A discord? For what purpose? Who will manage it?

You need to know what you want to create your sim for, and what you want to grow it and your community towards. And on these points, I can’t tell you what’s best. I can only advise you to ask yourself these questions, and have the answers, written down in black and white, discussed with your friends, before you start. I’ve seen sims who lived in autarky, others who had clearly decided to have adventures around raids and IC wars with other sims, dormitory sims, others who loved animations and shows, educational sims and even political sims where plotting and assassinations were the order of the day.

Find out what you want to do, how you want to do it, what your goals are, what you want, and what you don’t want. And I wish you the best of luck!