Forming a GM Team is best sought out before creating anything for the game to best collaborate on the intention of the game, the rules and to talk about general milestones and planning. I had the misfortune to start without a GM Team, but the fortune that someone from the Empire! community volunteered to run organizations for me taking a considerable load I didn't know there was off my plate.
From running Empire (for admittedly a short time relative to other Empire! games) I've noted a few critical roles / areas that need to be covered by someone on the GM team.
Main GM / Final Adjudicator Organizations Story / Plot coordination & planning Round Processing & Tables / Sheets Maps (if the game has maps) Inter-player management The Main GM, Head GM or whatever title you come up with will be responsible for making the final rule calls for questions posed by Players or for story / techs / miracles that players want to complete. Some decisions can be left to other GMs if the question is already laid out in the rules but there should always be an agreed person who has the final say. This is mostly to prevent in-fighting in the GM team, if someone's responsibility is clearly laid out and discussed before the game begins or when a new GM is onboarded interpersonal issues can be avoided in the future.
Organizations have more robust rules and methods in which they interact with the Empire! world, not fully a realm like players they break some of the rules and 'cheat' in the way they act. A GM in charge of specific Organizations or a single organization allows them to fully characterize that organization consistently and push the direction of the stories the Organizations pursue in coordination with the Story / Plot being planned.
The Story / Plot coordination and planning is especially important to discuss, talk, discuss and plan consistently between all of the GM team, if a GM is creating story / plot elements in isolation they risk conflicting with other story ideas, organizations or even player to player interactions. There are many ways you can assign / design the story and collaborate on what could happen but typically the Main GM would have had some macro idea of a overarching plot to enact and it would usually fall to them to pass final say on what other Co-GMs story arcs are being introduced.
Round processing and Sheets / Tables updates is especially important due to the large quantity of information being passing in a typical 10+ player Empire! game requiring some form of better data / information keeping so that players can make informed decisions on their actions for a round. Processing the round so that the opener goes out consistently as well as keeping the tables and sheets updated is critical for a longstanding continued game to keep everyone informed on the state of play.
Maps! I Love Maps, maps are a very good way to disseminate information about the world and the current status of who is where and what is going on. At minimum a map would need to provide how regions are connected to each other, what region labels (numbering) are for reference as well as what is currently visible / exposed to players as information. My maps tend to have additional information from this but feel free to show the minimum if the overhead of managing the map is too much. This can be a powerful tool to let players quickly reference realm information or it could be a reference tool for how regions connect. In any case however maps are done it is important to consider that someone on the GM team is updating the reference map.
All GM's would typically be involved in some level of inter-player management as they try to allow the mismatch of players have fun with their own goals and ideals. It is natural that some conflict could be generated from the type of game Empire is, it is a GM's role to try and remind players that this is a game. Be impartial in your dealings, try to see both sides of the conflict before you wade in. Sometimes the best course is some players do not play together, but try to strike a balance when conflicts occur. Some GMs on the GM team might not be involved in dealing with these, so lay out what the expectation would be with your GM team on who should be the 'conflict resolver'.
I hope if you run Empire! you gather a good team around you, even if its just one person to bounce ideas off of.
Cheers!
~ Ducj
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