4. Core Encounters

A cohort is built from a series of encounters — repeatable rituals and interactive moments that shape the group’s experience. These encounters are the DM’s primary tools for guiding participants through the month. Some are synchronous and social; others are async and meant to spark momentum.

This section outlines the major encounters, their purpose, how to run them, and resources you can use to make each session smooth and effective.

4.1 Encounter: The Info Session + Welcome Ritual (Week 1 — Day 1)

Purpose: Establish the cohort’s tone, introduce the Guild, level-set expectations, and create initial social bonding.

Goals:

Everyone understands the Guild’s ethos, structure, and expectations
Participants know each other at a basic level
Introduce the month’s theme
Clarify how the cohort works (Week 1 live, Weeks 2–4 async, Demo Day next month)

Resources (DM Toolkit):

Info Session Deck (template)
RaidGuild Agency Deck
RaidGuild Handbook (culture, roles, ops)
Cohort README (overview, expectations, timeline)

The DM should update templates to match the cohort number and theme

Instructions:

Open with a warm, human welcome.
Do short introductions (keep it snappy).
Present the guild overview deck.
Theme reveal.
Q&A.
Close with a micro-challenge or light prompt (“What’s one wild idea you have related to the theme?”).

for larger groups you may want to split introductions into 2 or 3 sections breaking them up with presentations.

4.2 Encounter: The Raider Showcase (Week 1 — Day 2)

Purpose: Expose participants to the real rhythm of RaidGuild — active projects, RIPs, OG experiments, and weird in-progress things.

This is one of the most important cultural encounters. Many participants have an “aha” moment here.

What to emphasize:

RG is a living network, not a corporate org
Self-direction is expected
Opportunities are everywhere
Raiders create their own work, pathways, and outcomes
Being part of RG means participating in a community of builders, not waiting for assignments

DM Instructions:

Prep the cohort: “Today you observe the real guild.”
Have them sit quietly and watch.
After the meeting, run a short debrief:
- What did they notice?
- What surprised them?
- What feels exciting?
- What feels intimidating?

there should be 10-30 min cohort session before and/or after the raound up(1hr) for expectation setting and feedback

Resources:

Standup Reference Guide (outline/summary of what they saw)
How RAIDs & RIPs work (mini doc)

4.3 Encounter: Demo Day (Previous Cohort) + Debrief (Week 1 — Day 3)

Purpose: Demonstrate real output from the Guild. Establish standards. Spark inspiration.

DM Instructions:

Have participants take notes during each demo.
After the demos, run a guided reflection:
- What worked well?
- What ideas seemed promising?
- What surprised you?
- What minimum viable output did you see?

Resources:

Demo Day Recording (if async members missed it)
Demo Feedback Template
Project Archetypes document (what kinds of projects are common and what is in a good demo)

Outcome: Participants internalize what “shipping” looks like inside RG.

4.4 Encounter: Divergent Ideation Workshop (Week 1 — Day 4)

Purpose: Open the creative aperture. Generate 30–50 ideas across the cohort. Break social stiffness.

Tools Included in This Encounter

Meme Driven Development (MDD) Guide

A fun icebreaker workshop where participants (30-60 min):

(5 min) Start with memes, domain/ens names, acronyms. theme based, fun, crazy, downsent matter
(5 min) What might this meme be about, loose product ideas
(5 min) Review
(1 min) Dot voting
(3 min) create break out rooms around winning ideas (3-7 pear room) in other public voice channels and instruct members about the concept break out, teams should flesh out ideas, create content (logos, mock ups), problem statement and elevator pitch. The should pick one member to demo.
(10-15 mins) teams break out and work together to make a mini pitch/demo day
(2-5 min/team) mini demo day, presentor shares there idea (might be funny, crazy or maybe more serious)
(5 min) - final dot vote and reflection

DM Instructions:

Show examples of MDD outputs
Facilitate breakout discussions
Encourage collaboration + chaos
Capture everything in a shared doc or board

Tech Deep Dive / Brown Bag Talk

Bring in an expert for a short, high-signal, high-energy talk covering:

Theme overview
Examples
Patterns
Limitations
Inspirations

Resources:

MDD Playbook (template) Template
Sticky-note tool / Miro board / google sheets
Theme Deep Dive Slide Deck (walkthrough docs, optional created deck)
Use Case Inspiration List (real world examples, other use case)
define divergent homework - Participants should flesh out a wild card idea that can be discussed the next session.

4.5 Encounter: Convergence Workshop + Team Formation (Week 1 — Day 5)

Purpose: Shift from divergent → convergent thinking and assemble well-balanced teams.

Team Formation Guidance

A healthy team ideally has:

A product thinker
A frontend dev
A backend dev
A designer or UX thinker
A PM or coordinator

DM Steps:

Review yesterday’s ideas
Vote / cluster / narrow
Identify 1–3 viable project directions
Encourage participants to “draft” a team (like choosing a party in an RPG)
Provide gentle nudges toward balance
Finalize teams
Kick off the async phase with clear instructions for Week 2

Resources:

Team Formation Checklist
Roles & Skills Matrix
Idea-to-Project Scoping Template

4.6 Encounter: The Async Sprint Rituals (Weeks 2–4)

Once Week 1 ends, the cohort moves to async mode — but encounters still matter. As DM, you activate the following rituals to maintain alignment and momentum.

Encounter: Weekly Progress Signal

Participants post:

What did we achieve last week?
What’s planned this week?
Where do we need help?

Format: message, form, thread, or Loom.

Encounter: Mentor Office Hours

Optional sessions where teams can get targeted support.

Encounter: Mid-Sprint Syncs

Optional but encouraged — short check-ins to prevent drift.

Encounter: Artifact Checkpoint

By Week 3:

A prototype exists
A draft spec is written
Demo plan is drafted
Repos and tooling are stable

Encounter: Demo Prep Checkpoint

Early Week 4:

Slides started
Demo script defined
Bugs triaged

4.7 Encounter: Boss Rush Mode (Final Week)

This is the final push before Demo Day. Teams enter “Boss Rush Mode” where every blocker becomes a miniboss to defeat.

Boss Types:

The Bug Beast (unexpected failures)
The Scope Hydra (too many features)
The Time Goblin (async drift)
The Merge Conflict Golem (infra issues)
The Demo Kraken (things break only during demos)

DM Tools:

“Cut scope ruthlessly” spell
“Demo freeze” rule (no major changes 24 hours before)
“One feature that works > five that don’t” mantra
Encouragement potions (ship at all cost)

Outcome: Teams emerge battered but victorious, with a working demo in hand.

4.8 Encounter: Demo Day (During Next Cohort’s Week 1, Day 3)

The finale of the previous cohort becomes an encounter within the next one — an intergenerational ritual linking the Guild’s past, present, and future.

DM Instructions:

Establish judging criteria clearly
Keep timing tight
Celebrate hard
Announce Raider/s of the Month
Make membership sponsorship recommendations

Resources:

Demo Day Run of Show
Demo Scorecard
Membership Rubric

4.9 Encounter: The Post-Cohort Roundtable

(Optional but recommended)

A retrospective meeting for:

Wins
Misses
Improvements
Emotional reflection
Next steps for continued building

Outcome: Knowledge transfer + continuous improvement.