How To Install Skirmish Society on Discord
Skirmish Society is a once-per-day territory control game that you play over Discord. The game is embedded in your server and can be played by everybody on that server. Commands are submitted through an easy to install bot.
Adding the bot to your server
To get started, you should install the Skirmish Commissioner bot on your server. Once installed the bot will help walk you through the process of starting a game.
Selecting your bot version
There are two flavors depending on how much permission you feel comfortable giving the bot. Both will allow you to play the game with all features.
You must have "Manage Server" rights on your Discord server to install the bot. If you don't, please ask an admin on your server to do this.
Discord makes it super easy to add bots to a server. Just click one of the links below and confirm which server you want to add it to.
Easy (requires channel access)
This install link will give the bot permission to manage channels on the server. This makes the setup process a little easier because the bot will make the game channel itself.
Creating the game channel is the only time this bot will ever use this permission.
Limited Access
If you don't feel comfortable giving bots any extra permissions, that's fine! This version of the bot will ask you to make the game channel yourself, but after that it will have everything you need to play the game.
With limited permission, the bot will also be unable to change the channel topic, so it is recommended that you put the link to the gameboard as the channel topic once that game starts.
Saying Hi
Once you've added the bot, it should post in #general or #welcome (if you have those channels) and will create #skirmish-society (or ask you to create it, if you went with limited access). Take a look and make sure it has been added and that it has posted.
Once the channel has been made, head over to #skirmish-society in your Discord. This is the channel where you and all other players will communicate with the bot. You can move this channel wherever you'd like, but do not change the name.
You can communicate with the bot using Discord slash commands (which all begin with "/"). Try posting /help to start communicating with the bot. It will tell you how to start a new game. You can keep reading this guide or just follow the bot's instructions.
Admin Role
The only people who can send admin commands to the bot are server mods (any user with "Manage Server" permissions) and people with the skirmish society admin role.
If you were the one who installed the bot, that means you have Manage Server permissions, so if you're planning to run the game, you can skip to the next step!
But if you want somebody else who is not a mod to be able to run the game, you will need to add a skirmish society admin role to your Discord server. The name of the role must be "skirmish society admin" but it does not require any special permission on the server and can be any color.
Any number of users can have this role, and they do not need to otherwise be admins on the server.
Users with this role will be able to do things like setup and start a game as well as other administrative commands like pausing the game or blocking disruptive players.
Discord has a guide for adding a new role here.
Note: It may take an hour or two for the bot to recognize that somebody has gained or lost the skirmish society admin role.
Starting a game
Once you setup a game, it will be in the join phase. Up to 20 players can join the game. It won't actually start until you give the skirmish-commissioner bot the /start command.
To setup a game, use /setup in the #skirmish-society channel on your server. The bot will ask you a few questions to tailor the game.
If you put a "/" in the text field and start typing, Discord should autocomplete for you. You want "setup" and not "advanced_setup" for now.
Game Length
The bot will ask how long a game you want. This is determined by the amount of victory points (VP) needed to win the game.
Select "Short" "Normal" or "Long"
Local Time
Time zones can be tricky! Rather than having you enter in your time zone or having you calculate how far off you are from UTC (the universal standard time), the bot just asks you to select what time it is where you are. This will allow the bot to figure out your time zone and print times in your local time.
Next the bot will ask you to select a time zone label from a list based on the time you entered. This is just used when writing out the time and will not affect anything.
Often not all players will be in the same time zone, so anything that prints the time will also print the time in UTC.
Resolve Time
Turns in Skirmish Society are resolved once per day. Typically you will want the game to resolve some time in the evening in your time zone. The next prompt will ask you to select a time to resolve the turns (using your local time). Resolution will always happen on the hour.
Confirmation
Before making the room, the bot will have you make sure that everything looks good.
Starting the game
After the those setup questions, the bot will make a room for you and players can start joining!
Let folks in your server know that you started a game if you haven't already.
Players can join by using the /join command in the #skirmish-society channel. The bot will DM them an additional join confirmation. Don't forget to join the game yourself!
The join period lasts as long as you need it to. Make sure everybody is in and when you are ready, use /start in the #skirmish-society channel to start the game! Good luck taking over the map!
No new players will be able to join after you start, so make sure everybody is in. You can click the link for your room posted by the bot to see a list of players currently in the game.
Admin Commands
There are a number of useful commands that for admins to help run and moderate the game. You can find them at the bottom of the rules doc.
Code of Conduct
If you will be the admin for this game, make sure to take a look at the Code of Conduct.
It is very short and it includes some tips for running a game that makes sure players have fun and feel safe.
Advanced Setup with High Society Account Upgrade
If you want to support this game and get some aesthetic upgrades and handy tools, you can buy a High Society upgrade! This does not give you any in-game advantage.
In addition to letting you customize your character, it will give you access to the High Society admin commands, including advanced setup which lets you do things like set an exact VP target and control how often voting events happen! You can even set the game to Fast Mode where turns resolve every 15 minutes.
Just use /advanced_setup when starting a new game once you've upgraded.
You can buy a key to upgrade your account here. It's just $3!
Once you have a key, you can redeem it by using the /redeem [YOUR_KEY] command.
This upgrade is tied to your Discord account. If you play Skirmish Society on a new server, you will still get the perks of an upgraded account.
That's it!
You did it! Get some friends together and have fun playing Skirmish Society!