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[quote=@SIGINT]My question is: Does a thread GM need to be staff, or can we, as players, create and run missions for other players?[/quote]

Yes you can. No you don't need approval from staff unless you intend for their to be rewards that are beyond the scope of what is already allowed.

[quote=@SIGINT]I had a conversation with Circ regarding this in the Discord chat, and I wasn't super clear on what the response was, but the way I ended up reading it was, "If an NPC has any capability/intention of affecting a PC, in any context, they must be submitted and approved as a PC themselves".[/quote]

I think your reading on that was a little too strict. Note that I'm playing an NPC that is setting up the relationship between the Ragnarov Fleet and the UFP without creating a character profile. The NPC is influencing the relationship of the characters, but I don't need a profile because it doesn't have any special abilities or even a name or enough stuff around it to merit being approved.

Hopefully that answers your questions.