What Do the Moderators Do?

A moderator or "mod" is the title of the person who organizes and executes a game of HvZ.

The moderators are the backbone of HvZ. They plan every moment of gameplay, protect their players, and set the tone for the game. There is an enormous amount of work that the moderators will collaborate on, including settling any disputes once the game has begun.

One of the most important decisions you will make is who to choose as your moderating team.

Who Should You Look for?

Despite the insistence from your second grade teacher that you can be anything when you grow up, not everyone is cut out to be an HvZ moderator.

“Before you simply bring your best friends on board, make sure that the people helping you are dedicated to the game.” - HvZ game founder and Goucher moderator Christopher Weed

Your moderators should be superhero who will work with you and cover areas where your knowledge is weak.

“Moderators need to have an in-depth understanding of their campus/administration/student population... I look for a group of people from various areas of campus that a) love HvZ, b) have a needed skill (rule analysis, marketing, mission planning, etc.), and c) can work well with the rest of the team.” - Cody Sumter of Truman State

It's worth it to find people with specific skill sets and bring them on board.

"My job on the mod team is pretty specific. If a crisis arises and we need to deal with the administration, I will sit down and argue with them until they get tired." - Goucher moderator Max Temkin

It's also important to find people who will disagree with you and challenge your ideas.

"The CEO at the end of the table is a bad model. Start a controversy and resolve it. Keep obnoxious people around for this purpose." - Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Remember - ideas are like assholes. Everybody has them.

“We do not need people with ideas, we need problem solvers." - Dustin Herbert, Moderator at University of Maryland

What Should Your Moderators Look Like?

1. Responsibility and trustworthiness. Make sure your team has enough time in their long term schedule to commit to a large project. Remember that when moderators back out, the game is often severely hindered - and even ruined, in some cases. You need to be able to trust them when they say they are in for the long haul.

2. The ability to remain objective. They should be able to resist the temptation to unfairly aid players. If you doubt, for any reason, that a candidate may not be able to do this, stop considering that person.

3. Total dedication to the game. This is hard to judge especially when no one has played before at your school. Find someone enthusiastic about moderating but cool-headed under pressure. A willingness to get to work on the game immediately is a good sign of the required dedication.

4. Excellent time-management and teamwork skills. The time commitment to the game always surprises new moderators. Even after the planning, during game time, the dedication to the game is “all day, every day,” according to Keith Shelton, the moderator at Northern Michigan University. If a person is habitually late to classes or meetings, doesn't finish homework, or is notoriously casual about responsibility you may want to remove him or her from your list.

5. They should love to have fun. Overly-technical types, highly argumentative folks, and those with negative attitudes have an incredible ability to destroy a team. Remember that all of you will face a healthy dose of pressure and expectation. The last thing you need is someone on your team who causes even more stress than the game inherently provides.

How Many Moderators Should You Have?

How many moderators does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer differs for every school. Goucher College, which has a small game of 170 players, has no less than four moderators at any one time.

Your moderators will need to cover a lot of jobs:

• Informing school administration of upcoming Nerf-toting mobs running amok OR seeking recognition as a sanctioned group from your school.
• Modifying the rules to fit the demographics and attitudes at your own school
• Advertising. Word of mouth works only so well. Marketing the game is a full time job in itself!
• Planning “missions” or activities to force Human players out of safe zones (because a “camping” Human Resistance is a boring Human Resistance)
• Familiarizing yourself with your game software (such as HvZSource) to keep track of all the Humans and Zombies during the game
• Learning the rules by heart. Some schools have a “rule guru” to be the final say in interpretations and rule disputes.
• Setting dates, planning ahead, scheduling, attempting to envision every loophole and conflict that will need settling after the game starts due to rule technicalities

Some schools assign fund-raising moderators. They seek money for advertising materials, bandannas, and other supplies.This is not a necessary position - the Goucher College game has never needed funding. There has never been a problem with players buying their socks, Nerf blasters, or bandanas.

Once the game begins, your moderators will need to change roles. In game, the responsibilities of the moderators include:

• Resolving conflicts between Humans and Zombies and technicalities of rules and reminding players not to be bitches
• Planning missions, setting up objects and objectives and considering how even the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry
• Executing missions, resisting the urge to change the rules mid game, and going with the flow

“The humans figure out a way to take the 5 minute 'get from point A to point B' mission and turn it into a 30 minute sightseeing detour around the back part of campus.” - Cody Sumter

There is no magic number of moderators that we can recommend you have. It depends on the size of your school and the complexity of the game you think you will encounter. Just remember to have everyone's work collaborated upon or cross checked by another mod. No one should have to do anything alone - your moderators will work best as a team.

How Should You Organize Your Moderators?

Some schools have one lead moderator who supervises the larger group, some schools keep all moderators equal, and other schools have a strict chain of command.

You can see how some schools have organized their moderators in Adam Longwill's "What's In a Mod?" document.

Step One: Assemble Your Team

Your first official move when starting a game of Humans vs. Zombies is assembling your moderators. Many schools meet one or two months before a game begins to start laying out the plot and missions.

Because this is your first game, you will have to do more work than others schools. We suggest getting some delicious beers and meeting with your moderators two or three months before your game is set to begin.

You'll need to leave time to meet with your administration, meet with your campus security, launch an advertising campaign, set up your web hosting, register players, and organize your players into meetings to explain the game and the rules.

Next: Planning for Your School