New GM Tutorial as posted on TWG (GM section) (Image Heavy)

New GM Tutorial

Note: This tutorial will not tell you how to make your federation the best in the world, nor will it explain how to get people to work for you, or even how to recruit. This tutorial is designed to break down the mechanical aspect of being a GM so that you can better understand the tools you will have to use to make your federation function. It is up to you to discover the intangibles and make them work for you, such as Role Playing skills, charisma, leadership, and organizational skills.

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Part 1: The GM Panel

Becoming a GM is quite an achievement. And once you've been selected, you'll find you have a General Manager button just above your Log Out button. If you click that button, it will take you to a window that can seem daunting at first, but you'll quickly discover that the GM panel is essential to running your federation. Let's examine this screen, shall we?



You'll notice several features that jump out at you, including options to find new wrestlers in need of contracts, manage your budget, and view your calendar. Given enough time to go through everything, you'd probably eventually figure out how most of it works. But this tutorial was made with the intention of saving you a little time and trouble.

Section 1.1: Shows

You'll notice three links in the Shows section: Show calendar and show scheduling; Show Arena; and Calendar. At first, the first and third options may seem similar, but really they're not. We'll look skip to Show Arena first.



You'll notice that there is a field at the top to name your arena, seven areas you can improve on your arena, and a field where you can add more seats, as well as a display that shows how many levels you have upgraded.

Naming your arena has no actual effect. Upgrading your arena is supposed to increase your attendance at the shows. There is still some debate at to the actual effect of this feature. If you are going to upgrade any items, you should upgrade all seven before upgrading one a second time, because each level of upgrade costs €10,000 more than the last upgrade (i.e. Level 1 costs €10,000, level 2 costs €20,000 more, then level 3 costs €30,000 more etc.) Increasing the seat amount is pretty self explanatory. It costs €40 for each new seat. You should only do this if your shows are close to meeting your current capacity.

Next we'll look at the calendar link in the shows section on the main GM panel page.
When you click on this link you will be taken to the same page that the calendar button on the FEDERATIONS take you to, with a list of confirmed shows for the day. Here you can browse dates, check past shows, and even see the cards of shows confirmed for the near future.

Last we'll look at the Show Calendar and Show Scheduling link This will take you to one of the most important screens you can have as a GM: your show's schedule.



Notice it has a list of all your shows for the season (it may take a few days to a week to get fully updated after the season starts). If we click one we are taken to the show creation screen.



There are a few options on this screen. Match, Tag team Match, and Segment. If we select one of these options, we are in the show creation mode. Choose match first.



On this screen there are some drop down menus. The first empty field is where you can enter a brief match description, usually the participants. This will be the title that appears on your card. The next two fields have a list of all available wrestlers in your fed, and how many appearances they have left. Click on these to choose the participants of the match. Next is a match type menu. If you have purchased any matches, they will appear in this menu as an option. When you're first starting out, it is best to not purchase match types, and instead edit in the different match type stipulations using the match editor. If you want to use a special match, however, the costs are as follows:

One Fall 1,000
Last Man Standing + 5,000
Submission + 5,000
Hardcore + 5,000
First Blood + 5,000
I Quit + 10,000
Buried Alive + 10,000
Casket + 10,000
Ambulance + 10,000
Steel Cage + 10,000
Last Ride + 10,000
Last Blood + 10,000
Ladder + 10,000

The last menu is belt. This is a feature that is usually not used, as it is expensive, especially early on, and you can change the title holder's manually in another part of the GM panel.

Tag Team Match is identical to the Match creator, except you pick 4 participants, and can not choose an additional match type.

After creating a match, you will see it in the show page. From here, you can confirm it by clicking the or delete it by clicking the .
NOTE: If you confirm a match by clicking the it will be irreversible, and the match will be in the show if the show is confirmed. There is no way to delete a match once this is done.
If you confirm the match, There will be a few options, and the match will appear much like a segment on the show creation screen, except it won't have a button. We can view () or edit () the match the same as we would a segment. With that said, let's move on.

Now, let's click on the segments link. This will take us into the screen with which you will have the most familiarity by the time you are done as a GM: the editor.



If you're in this screen after confirming a match, the only real difference is the big field in the middle won't be empty. But this powerful editing tool isn't exactly easy to use. The biggest feature is any text you copy from anywhere that is already formatted with color, font, and/or images will retain its format when pasted into the editor. This is exceptionally useful for pasting role plays or other segments where people have used a format into shows with less editing work for you or the VGM who is entering the segment.

You'll notice a line of buttons at the bottom of the editor pane. The first four are font editing buttons: Bold, italics, underline, and strike through. You can experiment with these fairly freely to gain a handle on how to format text within your show. You can also use the drop down menus at the bottom of the pane to adjust the font face and font size of the text. To edit color, click on the drop down arrow to the right of the button and a box with color selections will pop up. Once a color is selected, the text you type will be that color. To change other text to a color, select the color from the box, then highlight the text by dragging the mouse cursor over it and click the button.

To insert images, we have to go through a few steps. First, you need to make sure you have a copy of any images you want to use for your show stored locally on your computer or removable media. Then, click the button at the bottom of the editor pane. It will bring up a window.



This is the insert image pane. Notice that there are several images listed in this list in the reference image. Yours will be empty. To populate this list, we need to click on the fourth tab, carica immagine. That will bring up the image upload tab.



Click the browse button and choose the location of the images you want to use for your show. After you find the one you want, click on it, and click open. Then on the image upload tab, click on upload selected file. Unfortunately, you can only upload one image at a time right now, so you'll have to repeat this part of the process for every image you want in your show. Then we go back to the insert image pane, and click on the image we want to insert, and a preview of the image appears in the field at the bottom of the window. Click insert and you will get an error message about adding image descriptions. You can ignore this if you want, or add a description at your own discretion. While there are other options and tabs we can play with in the insert image pane, you can toy around with those on your own, as those are advanced options, and really aren't used very often.

Alternately, you can use the next tool to put images in the show as well, but I recommend this only for advanced users, as inserting HTML code is tiresome at best.

The last feature on this page that we'll discuss is the HTML editor. if you click the button, it will bring up another pane. If you've been editing in a segment or match, this will be full of HTML code. You can use this pane to add or change anything about the segment you are on, though if you are not proficient in HTML, it can be very difficult. You should only edit in this editor if you know what you are doing. If you want to add a video from YouTube to your segment or match, you need to follow a few steps first. Go to the video page on YouTube.



In the upper righthand corner of the page, just under the video description is a field called "embed". Click this and copy it. Now find the place in the normal editor you want to add your video. I find that putting a place holder like the word "video" works well for this (or some other word unlikely to appear elsewhere in the html text). Then open the HTML editor as discussed earlier. Now open the search pane (ctrl+f) and type (do NOT copy and paste or you will have to go and get the YouTube embed link again) in your place holder. In Firefox, by default it should jump to the first instance of the word. In Internet Explorer, you'll have to type out the whole word and click the find first (or find next) button. When you have navigated to your place holder, delete it, and press ctrl+v (or right click on the spot you want to paste the video, and click paste from the pop-up menu). Now click the update button at the bottom of the HTML window. To ensure the changes have taken, click confirm. Then open the match or segment and click confirm one more time. HTML has a habit of not parsing properly if you do not confirm twice. If you do not believe me, click the view button after you confirmed it once to see the HTML string where the video should be.

Section 1.2: Roster

Fortunately, that was probably the most complex section of the GM panel. Next we are going to look at the Roster section, located in the top right. This area is pretty straight forward, and won't take nearly as much time or effort to cover. The parts of this section are as follows: Send a message to the whole Roster; Show Roster; Roster Settings and Set Champions.

First, lets look at the Send a message to the whole Roster link. It will bring you to what I call the "Mass message pane".



This is just what it says it is: A way to communicate with the whole roster at one time through messages in the game. Since these messages look like any other, it might be prudent to somehow identify it as a mass message so people don't think it is directed at them individually. This saves confusion, and helps avoid messages asking you to explain yourself from confused members of your federation. Simply type in the subject, then type in the body, and click "Send Message to roster" much like a regular message. Pretty simple, no?

The next item is Show Roster.



Another pretty straight forward section that gives you the entire roster, in order of wrestler score, and allows you to view their contracts, send them individual messages, and see their Wrestler Score and fan count.

The next link is Roster Settings.



This is actually one of the first screens you'll have to see, as you'll have to name your fed and shows, as well as set the time and days for your shows. Setting a forum address is important as well, as it gives your fed a place to communicate outside of TWG in privacy to set up your shows. We'll discuss forums a little later. From this screen though, you can change your forum address, change the time of your shows and even the names of them. This is where you also set the names of your three titles. You can not change the day, except at certain specific times during the off-season.

This is also where you will set your Vice General Managers (VGMs) by clicking on the dropdown menu at the bottom and clicking the person's name you want to set as VGM, or set reporters to make reports of your federation's shows for others to read.

The last part of this section is Set Champions.



This is another fairly straight forward page. The four titles you set on the roster settings page will be listed here with the option to set anyone on your roster as the champions. Simply click the dropdown menu and select the champion.

Section 1.3: Contracts

What would a federation be without wrestlers? Nothing. There'd be no performers to put on a show. Fortunately for you, there's a section that's completely dedicated to getting you new members and helping you maintain them. The parts of this section are Show Active Contracts, Show Pending Contracts, and Find wrestlers without contracts.

First let's view the Show active contracts.



This page allows you to view every wrestler in your roster, and see the details of their contract. This is also the place to go if a wrestler has requested a free breech and you wish to grant it to him. From this page you can view every contract you have that has not been deleted yet, and is therefore active. You may also elect to delete expired contracts at any time by clicking view, and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the contract. Normal, unexpired contracts where no free breech has been requested can not have anything done to them except view.

Next is show pending contracts.



If you have sent someone a contract, but they have not accepted, you can see the contract offer on this page, and view it or delete it. There's nothing else about this page.

Last is the Find Wrestlers without Contracts.



This is one of the more important pages on the GM panel. It is the only place you can actually go to offer anyone a contract. If you have contacted a member about a contract, and verified that he is indeed without a contract by searching him from the challenges button on the main page, you will go here and type their full TWG name into the Name field. You need to type the full name because every search is run as if the "Find exact name" box is ticked (it does for me, needs confirmation). From there you click on the contract button and the contract offer page will load.



Here is where you set the terms of the contract. You set the length of the contract from 2-12 weeks in increments of 2 weeks. You also set the level of pay for the contract from Jobber up to Legend, and appearances from 2 to 4. The last item is merchandise %. This dictates how much money a person will make off of all the merchandise that he sells at a show. The roster keeps the remainder. After you have selected the appropriate values, click send contract, and it will appear in the pending contracts page until it is accepted or declined by the target.

Section 1.4: Boards

This section is fairly simple. You can make your own entry to advertise your federation and what you are looking for in wrestlers, and you can view other federations are looking for as well. You can also search wrestlers, but it has been noted that this board is not updated, and many of the wrestlers listed have contracts and/or are far higher levels than advertised due to old entries. There is another better way to recruit we'll discuss later.

Section 1.5: Balance

This section is another easy one. It has one clickable link: Roster Budget.



As you can see it shows recent financial actions, much like a bank statement. While the money doesn't always add up, it does give an accurate amount for show expenditures versus incomes. And yes, those pitiful numbers next to GM salary are really what I make per show. Moving on.

Section 1.6: Extra

This final section of the GM Panel is really pretty easy too. It has two parts, Buy Special Matchs and Delete uploaded images. The buy special matches link takes us to the special matches page, where you can buy most match types in the game.



These are rather expensive, however, and early on in your GM career, you shouldn't even fathom looking at these. They are also expensive to add into your shows after purchase, though they do boost show attendance slightly. In the long run, it only makes editing matches easier later when you're making so much money you don't know what to spend it on.

And that brings us to Delete uploaded images.



Maybe you accidentally uploaded the wrong pic into your editor earlier, or you have a pic for a wrestler that has left, and you want to clean the clutter. This is the place to get rid of old pictures. Do note that any image you delete will remove the image from past shows that included it. If you upload a new picture by the same name, that picture will replace the old one in old shows. Unfortunately, you have to delete pics one at a time, which can be very time consuming if you are reworking your entire images folder.

That concludes Part 1 of the tutorial. Future parts will include creating forums, and some basic recruiting notes, as well as other non-GM panel related items. If there are any questions, feel free to PM me on here or in the game as Malice . I ask that people not respond to this topic directly so I can add the additional parts in the responses. Thank you.

Part 2: Forums

Your federation is now created and you know how to make matches. But now you need a place for your federation to call home, a place where you can interact with your roster and set up your shows that's not in the public eye. Obviously, if every federation used TWG's forums or chat, the system would quickly become bogged and confusing sorting your information from that of another federation. So you need to create a federation forum. There are many many ways to do this, and some involve money. I'm assuming you don't want to/have funds to spend on making webspace, or buying licensed software. Luckily for you, there are several free options available.

Section 2.1: Hosting Solutions

I can't teach you how to use all of the options, and I won't. There is plenty of information on these different forums and their features in the support sections of their individual websites. Some forum types are easier to use than others. I'm also not going into detail about the mechanics and features of each different forum software, as I'm not an expert on each different type. Some free solutions that include web hosting are:

http://makeforum.org/home.php
https://www.forumotion.com/
http://www.forums-free.com/en/
http://www.proboards.com/
http://netforums.us/
http://www.runboard.com/
http://www.atfreeforum.com/
http://www.getphpbb.com/joinnow.html
http://www.freesmf.org

You can look through these to find their different options available.

Section 2.2: Organization

Organizing your forum is necessary to provide a clean and efficient flow of information up and down your Roster's chain of command. If all your messages just went into one central board, you would have trouble finding the messages you were after. So it is a good idea to have separate sections set up for Role Playing, Administration, and off topic, as well as any other sections you can think of. You can use the TWG forums as an example of how to separate out the categories. Make sure your roster members know where to post certain information to ensure it isn't lost.

Section 2.3: Chat

You'll probably want to set up a chat function on your forum for quick communication in real time with members of your roster. Some of the forums include an option for this in their Administrative menus. However, if you chose a forum that doesn't have this option preformatted for you, you can simply get a web-based chat box for your forum. Here are some free options. Do note that some offer more features in the free version than others, such as moderation and filters, while others do not. The information regarding features is readily available on the chat device webpage.

www.spinchat.com/freechat
www.cbox.ws
www.shoutmix.com/main
www.xat.com
www.shoutbox.us
www.yellbox.com
www.freeshoutbox.net

Most of these are easily configurable, and xat, in particular I know has moderation options for no fee if you register with their site. The methods to get these devices to display on your forum varies from forum to forum. Information should be available on the individual forum support forums.

Forums are an effective way to keep your roster informed on the changes, stories and happenings of your federation, and it is imperative that you get a decent one running to further augment communication.
This concludes section 2 of the tutorial.

Part 3: Recruiting

We know how to make shows and manage our federation, and now we have established our forums. But we're still missing one very important thing in the scheme of making your federation; recruiting the members that will fill your roster and in the end make the content of your shows. The game is full of people, and the key is reaching them to ensure that they know about you, and what you're trying to do with your fed. Let's look at some different methods of recruiting.

Section 3.1: Cold Calling

This is probably the most time consuming and unreliable method, yet it does sometimes bring you some decent people who you happen to catch at the right time, or simply didn't know about the feds before. Cold calling is a process where you search people without contracts (using the Find wrestlers without contract option on your Contracts section of the General Manager Panel) and send them a well organized, thought out and informative letter about your federation, and your specific goals. The Letter should include your federation and roster name, information about the expectations and goals of your federation, the requirements you'll ask of them in measures of Role Playing and time per week, as well as any special features you may want to try to sell them on.

Usually it is good to tell them about the contract you're offering them, and maybe even information about how to find the contract on the federations page if it seems they've never been in a federation before. You can either send them a contract now, or wait for them to respond. This method is the least reliable because you don't know who you're getting, or what kind of person is on the other side of that wrestler.

Section 3.2: Forum Post

On TWG's Forum, there is a section called 5 - Roster Recruitment. Here a General Manager (and only a General Manager) can post a thread to advertise his or her federation to others in an attempt to attract them to the federation and cause them to want to join. This message doesn't have to be extravagant or lavish, but it does need to contain some basic information.

It is a good idea to post your federation and roster name here, as it will enable people to find your roster. You may also want to post your show times so prospects can scout you and decide if your fed is best for them. The goals and expectations of the federation should be posted here as well, and you also want to make clear what information you want from applicants when they apply, or else you'll get page after page of Wrestler data pages and palmares that you really don't care about, and neither you nor the wrestlers looking to get hired are any closer to closing the deal. As a GM, you're busy enough without having to take extra steps to get someone hired.

Section 3.3: Networking

This method is good, but doesn't have a set way to do it. Networking is basically making friends, maybe in chat, maybe when you were in another federation, and these friends either want to join your federation (when they are without contract) or they know people who do. People are more likely to take a chance on something if they feel comfortable with the person in charge. So it's only natural that if someone who knows you in game fairly well finds themselves without a federation, you may be one of the first people they turn to.

This method is effective, and only requires that you be active and patient with others, and that you don't establish relationships with the sole purpose of getting people to your roster; or worse, get upset if your friend chooses another roster over yours. Deceiving people by being friendly just to get them in your federation is a quick way to earn a bad reputation.

Section 3.4: Ear to the Ground

This method involves keeping up with other federation news, and goes hand in hand with networking. You want to keep up on any information about other GMs including those who are leaving for one reason or another, and you may want to make a list of their current roster. Once the members are released from the roster, or the roster is disbanded, you can feel free to contact them about contract opportunities with your federation. Be sure to sell the strong points of your promotion. They may already have another federation in mind, but if you contact them, you'll put yourself in the prospect's mind. If his first choice falls through, he may just turn to you. He may also change his mind on the spot if your federation seems a better fit than the one he was aiming for. Don't be afraid to contact people. The worst they can do is say "No."

Perseverance, patience and determination will determine your success at recruiting. The methods listed above are not all inclusive, and there are other ways to get people into your roster. Remember though, to follow the General Manager Rules, and never contact someone under contract to another fed, and don't discuss it in TWG chat. ANY TWG chat. These basic methods though will get your federation population up and ready to publish shows, leaving you with more flexibility to be more selective about future members. The real work is up to you, as I can't tell you exactly how to set up your forum, run your shows, or appeal to members you're trying to recruit. Hopefully these guidelines I've given you can start you on your way, though.