General Questions for ST Candidates

Attendance. After that, adjudicating the game-world's logical consequences to PC actions.



Many personal reasons. Sorry to be cryptic, but it would take pages to explain. The short version: I'd like to try something different for a while.



Aside from those things listed by Evan in the platform post:

Pet project: Flashback scenes

General change: Greater emphasis on street-level/mortal-world-as-adversary stories



Most certainly.



Definitely. Though sometimes one person's mistake is another person's judgment call. Which leads neatly into



Very. By electing a staff, the message sent is that they (the staff) have been extended the trust to help with/create plot and make rules and administrative calls as required. It is then incumbent on the staff to do their best to run things as efficiently and fairly as is humanly possible.

As an AST, I (and I can safely speak for my fellow potential staff-mates) would have no agenda other than working with players to craft and tell good stories, and hopefully having fun while doing so. Sure, there are going to be disagreements, and I can't please all the people all the time, but I hope my motives for being there don't come into question. That's trust.



Noir: morally ambiguous, gritty, and fearful.

-Ross

Chris: If the email in question was titled "Please Place Mad Tom on hold," your only message to me was "Ross, adding you to this email so as a PA you are aware."

You afterward did not solicit me for any action or advocacy, though I can assure you that your email and listed issues were discussed at length in several meetings between myself, other PAs and then-current staff members.

But, as you had made it clear you were not coming back to Vampire for the stated reasons, I and others were at something of a loss as to what resolution there could be.

-Ross

I stated I wouldn't return until I had some time to cool down and the issues were resolved, but thank you, your response told me exactly what I needed to know.

Chris' questions (some quotes edited for brevity - please see original post for entire questions):



Put simply, I like playing Vampire. I like playing in a Vampire LARP. As a player (and nothing reflected on the sphere here at ECC or the awesome folks running it), I don't like Werewolf as a game. The themes aren't really my bag. ECC is my best option to play a Vampire character in a LARP using a system I enjoy, rules a understand and a player base (small as it has become) that I know and like telling stories with.

The great thing about a LARP environment is that if the staff is struggling (or otherwise unwilling) to tell the stories you want to focus on, it's easy to wrangle together a group of players who will pursue those stories as well. I am not suggesting that players simply play in a LARP and ignore the staff but that as a player, I found stories that were exciting and worked to get other players involved. I stayed because I was interacting with folks and enjoying the game.

You had a series of bad experiences with the current staff (as you mention in your direct question to me as a PA below) that resulted in you deciding to vote with your feet and leave. I was faced with different circumstances during this last year. When plots I was interested in dried up due to storyteller decisions to focus elsewhere or when I was flat out told "we aren't telling that story"; I found other stories to tell and other folks to tell them with in the Sphere.



I think starting a public forum of perceived wrongs and best pursuits of justice for them in regards to any outgoing staff is a dangerous and slippery slope to go down. This opens the door for any election to focus on how badly they feel the incumbent has done and air a laundry list of real and perceived sins.

Creating an environment of battle lines drawn in the sand, an "us versus them" attitude and accusations of transgressions puts the focus of the election on the past year and not what a candidate wants to do with their own term moving forward. I hope that players vote on who will tell them the best stories over the coming year, not who is going to offer the best reparations for what a given player felt was wrong with the last.

Please understand that I don't think you were trying to turn this question into any sort of 'hate fest' or anything so childish. Your specific example leads to a very important question for any candidate:



The best answer I can give to that is that I would discuss with the outgoing staff their rationales and mindsets for any decisions as well as look at what IC repercussions had happened that might limit my ability to respond without retconning. I would then go back over communication in the staff account as best I could to trace the discussion over e-mails. Finally, I would discuss the matter with the players involved as well, getting their side of the story and discussion possible resolutions.

Once I had as much of the whole situation in front of me as I could, I would resolve it to my satisfaction and (hopefully) to the satisfaction of the players involved, taking into account a need for fair treatment all around. If an issue like this looked like it would impact the social dynamic of the game, I would consider taking a poll of the player base and/or asking my PAs to discuss the matter with their constituents to make sure I was not assisting one group of players but stepping on the toes of others.

Most importantly, I would be straightforward and honest with any concerns or reservations I had along the entire process and welcome input from the affected parties.



Chris, in addition to finding this question insulting, out of line and purposefully inflammatory, I am limited in my responses due to the PA confidentiality you enjoy on this issue. I have no desire to post swaths of text from our numerous e-mail correspondences on these issues, outlying the courses of action I took or your responses to possible solutions. I feel it would take the focus of this thread off questions for the current candidates and thread-jack it to become your list of issues with the current staff.

While my efforts were ultimately fruitless in attempting to resolve these issues, I outright refuse to stand here and let you, in a public forum, lay all the blame at my feet for a failure to resolve this conflict.

This is not the time, nor the place for this discussion and regardless of the outcome of the election, I welcome a calm and respectful discourse in private at your convenience.

As for a general question regarding what to do about PAs who aren't fulfilling their duties - my plan as HST would be to take any feedback about PAs not getting their jobs done as wells as any observations as HST that a given PA is not working to assist players with concerns *VERY* seriously. Since this community includes numerous friend groups that are socially incompatible for many reasons, active and competent PAs are necessary to it's upkeep. I would replace PAs who are not doing their job with ones who would, always attempting to make sure that different cliques who enjoy the game have people they are comfortable approaching with concerns.

As for trusting me to handle player concerns; I've outlined my planned process above and my planned method of communication in my candidacy post here. I hope that players look at how I want to handle issues that will arise and make their call in voting for the person they feel best suited to dothe job.

Thank you for your questions. As always, I am available via e-mail for specific concerns or inquiries.

elouscher(at)gmail(dot)com

-Evan

Edited to fix a bad link.

For yourself, as an individual, what do you feel is the first priority of any storyteller?

I feel the first priority of any ST is to give their attention to the players. Players embody their own personal character, but the ST's embody the ENTIRE world existing outside of themselves, and players rely on ST's to be their total perceptions. If ST's aren't there to competently convey everything the character is experiencing, they've dropped the ball.

Why did you agree to step up to the role as an ST. Also, for those STs who are staying on staff, what has been your motivation to remain in the position of AST?

This will sound egomaniacal, probably, but I stepped up because I have been having issues with how some aspects of game have been run for the last few staffs, and I don't believe the things that I think are problems will be corrected if I harbor the "let someone else fix it" mentality. So, I've gotta put my money where my mouth is. Unfortunately, I can't change everything I want to, but we've got to start somewhere, right?

What would you like to do, as an ST, during your term? What general changes would you like to see?

Those are pretty defined under Evan's posts, but I personally want to see more mortal threats, less world-saving; more city-wide intrigue and stories involving a character's personal interests, and more fallout for a character's actions, both their failures and their successes.

As an ST, are you willing to look up a rule you're unsure of?

ALWAYS. if I'm not completely sure of a rule I'll put the scene on hold so I can look it up, and if it's something I'm aware of ahead of time I'll be prepared in advance.

As an ST are you willing to admit/own up to mistakes or apologize for mistakes that YOU make that significantly affect a PC or group of PCs?

LOL, I think anyone who knows me knows how apologetic I can be when I screw up. As Evan said, there's a difference between a mistake and differing point of view, but if I make a mistake, I'll do everything I can to make it right.

How important do you feel player trust in a staff is?

Again, Evan already talked about it, but I'm gonna say that trust is a two-way street. It's just as important for players to trust Staff as it is for Staff to trust players. I'd point out that there's been a lot of talk about players not having trust in staff in the last year or so, but I think there's been a LOT of staff not having trust in players. That needs to change. 'You give what you get', as they say.

As an ST, in general, how would you portray the World of Darkness?

My personal view on the WoD: bad things happen to good people, and I prefer a very dark sort of game, but that doesn't mean that it can't be offset by macabre humor, or even the occasional wacky situation. This is not saying that I'd just invent something funny to happen, but in my personal experience, humors situations can arise when things don't go as expected.

Primarily though, when I run a story, Hope is fleeting, the world is bleak, the bad guys outnumber the good guys 100 to 1, and there is no happily ever after.
I once heard a quote from someone, " Things always turn out ok in the end. If things aren't ok, it isn't the end."
My personal motto for game is going to be "If you think things have ended well, they haven't ended yet."

Oh, and it may not even need to be said, but just in case:
My Wod: World of Darkness, NOT World of Fail. I will HAPPILY help players attempt to accomplish their goals, and then rub hands maniacally at the outcome.

For yourself, as an individual, what do you feel is the first priority of any storyteller?

An ST is there to facilitate fun. Part of that is representing the rest of the world that isn't characters, and making that world really motivate the characters. Part of that is making calls on rules. In a big community like this, part of that is adjudicating OOC problems.

Fun.


Why did you agree to step up to the role as an ST. Also, for those STs who are staying on staff, what has been your motivation to remain in the position of AST?

I like ST'ing, and after a few years playing here I have a sense of what the expectations for this game are, and I think I can offer some good story fodder that will be fun to tell.


What would you like to do, as an ST, during your term? What general changes would you like to see?
I'd like to bring the nightly reality of the world to the forefront. I want more emphasis on the consequences of the choices characters make when interacting with their backgrounds. I'd like to see a WoD more hardscrabble and desperate, in which characters have to make tough choices about feeding and havens.

Specifically, I want to bring our characters together in interactions more, and I think we can do this by paying more attention to the methods they use to get what they want. Rely on your pals in the police force for everything? You're not the only one talking to them, and that will intersect with the interests of other characters, for better or worse.

One of the pillars of the setting is a sense of intrigue, shifting alliances and ambiguous loyalties, and I'd like to bring that out in a gritty, rather than epic, way.


As an ST, are you willing to look up a rule you're unsure of?
Of course.

As an ST are you willing to admit/own up to mistakes or apologize for mistakes that YOU make that significantly affect a PC or group of PCs?
Definitely, but I will not participate in childish squabbling and finger-pointing. We're all in this together, to collaboratively have fun.

How important do you feel player trust in a staff is?
It's inevitable that people will expect different things from the game and be mutually dissatisfied with how something goes down, and possibly lose trust. That is the moment that reveals your character. Can you recognize that we're all here for fun, and figure it out somehow, or do you demand perfection? If the staff lives in fear of player responses to their actions, or if the players don't trust the staff to be the world, make rules calls, and resolve disputes, how can any of us have fun? Trust isn't just important, it's the only thing that makes us a community.

As an ST, in general, how would you portray the World of Darkness?


The WoD accommodates multiple genres. Sometimes its focus is morality and humanity in a desperate world filled with banal evil - it's the stories surrounding those tough choices. Other times, it's a web of intrigue, deceit, and manipulation, and the loneliness of being a pawn in the Jyhad. Every once in a while it's headbanging meatheads with blood dripping down their faces crushing skulls.

I think it's important to figure out where in the WoD each character lives at the moment, and bring them together appropriately. As an ST, I would portray a WoD that forces people to collaborate or oppose each other, in a genre they are comfortable in, and not alone doing quests by themselves.

Question 1: Story is important to you? How do you figure?
One thing I've enjoyed about the game recently is that the stories I've been seeing have been player-driven interactions among characters. People are collaboratively telling stories as a group, and when that story requires the outside world that isn't us, we have STs to fill that role - to drive the story, to facilitate it, but it is we who are telling the story, and I like that.

Question #2:
Trust in people's intentions is all we have as a game. There will absolutely be conflict in a group this size, no matter who is staff or player. Because of this inevitability, we have to rely on the elected staff to make the difficult ooc calls, otherwise we will spin endlessly in a destructive spiral. What makes the game strong or undermines it is how we react when we disagree. I can say that I will never approach a disagreement in bad faith, and I won't question anyone's motives just because we don't see eye to eye.

Question # 3: What is the point of Player Advocates who don't actually advocate?
I don't think it's productive to call people out in public, but I agree that one point of PAs is to represent player concerns to the staff, and that's a useful part of making this whole game work. I think there should be enough PAs that everyone playing can feel comfortable approaching at least 2 of them.

Okay, to be honest here, I haven't been sure whether I should even answer these 'questions' because to me, they've felt more like baited barbs, and I'm not even one of the people they were really directed towards. But with that said:

Question 1: Story is important to you? How do you figure?
Story is everything. It's why I come to Vampire. I've often said that I look at this as not so much a game as an acting exercise, and this is true. Maybe that's why I take my character death's better than some, because to me it's all about the theater. For me, it's not the community or the game that draws me, it's the stage. As an ST, I'd be interested in the meat of the story, and I'd be driven to help YOU the player tell your character's story, rather than telling my own plot that a player may not even be interested in following. We're a public service, that's how I see it. This isn't going to be about the plots I create, but about running with the plots the players create.

Question #2: What would you have done differently (abbreviated)?
I do NOT like the answer " That's not the story we're telling." Or to hear "That's not suitable for this LARP". WHhile I would obviously have Evan over me ulitimately deciding what we will and won't allow to happen in the game, I have fought and WILl fight to make sure that the stories the players want to have told about their characters are the stories that are being run. This is not to say that player A wants to have a story about how he diablerized Caine and won at Life and that's what we do. But if A Malkie wants to research physics, for instance, what's the harm in that? The story outcomes may not always turn out like you want or expect, but I'd be willing to run just about anything the player wants because it's about THEM.

Question # 3: What is the point of Player Advocates who don't actually advocate?

I can't answer this question, as I'm not a PA, have never gone to a PA in an official capacity, and I think it's more rhetorical than anything anyway. What I can say is that there isn't a point to anyone being in any position of authority if they aren't going to do their best to uphold it, ST's included.
But that isn't rare, we have all manner of govermnment officials in positions of power they don't actually serve to the best of their ability. Perhaps its just a human element.

To offer a different answer: Logistics. This is a hard, hard, hard learned lesson.

Think of the following: You got a guy who is telling great story. Story that is involved, varied, and has a clear arc that is going places. It is great!

For the 30 minutes you have with them.

Then you have follow up, influence and contacts, backgrounds to gain and use... There is a whole world out there and you only get 4 hours to explore it once a week - Less if you count the necessary ST time it often takes to make it work.

And if those emails fall through, if your influence falls flat, or if the dangling bits of story fall through because notes weren't made and communicated... Etc. Then the World of Darkness becomes the World of Mediocre Response with the supplemental game of Gamer: The Frustration.

Good logistics IS good story; or rather you can't have a good story without good logistics. A staff is to provide the logistics; the story is collaborative with the players. If you have good players and good logistics, you get phenomenal story.

Story is definitely the second priority, but with a lack of logistics and similar support you lose out on story in a huge huge way.

To answer: I sat around one evening and came up with a wonderful solution to a political problem facing my little coterie. It was in fact a political solution! Gasp! No violence! Well, maneuvered violence from the Throne, but only at the end.

I was informed that I was an idiot, more or less, for coming up with something that weren't a 100% that we would get the staff behind.

This made me sad. I made declarations like 'Someone should run who could make this wonderful treacherous magic happen!'

There was pointed looking.

I said 'Man, if I was in charge...' The looking got a definite needle like content.

I said 'And another thing, I could really fix the...' The looking then went from needle point to wolf pack.

I then said 'Man, I just declared for HST, didn't I?'

Cheering was had. It died down when the lookers were press ganged onto my staff. It will be denied by some, but certain persons were showing a lot of leg and being persuasive. *Cough* Shane Macomber *Cough*

My run came from a dark place of negativity. It has evolved into how I can leave this a better game in one year's time than where it is now. How I can marry system, logistics, technology, and story together to make an alloy called Emerald City Chroniclium.

Pardon the hyperbole, but I do like it.

Give me the shot and I will reform not just the game but how staff does business with the players. There will be the safe familiarity of the current system with some new racing stripes and flame decals to make it look fast.

There will be story sourced from staff AND characters. Great or small, everyone will be approached. In all my years at vampire I have been involved in a boat load of player generated story; not once has staff approached me with an idea or a hook. I am not alone in this - And I think I can offer something to everyone over the course of a year.

Why? Because I will have an improved logistics process, an improved story tracking process, and I will be open to just about any story my players and their characters want to tell. Granted, in the case of physics from a Malkavian perspective (To pull an example from this thread) I would have to bone up on physics. Or crazy physicists. The latter is much easier to find I think.



I would be working with Webmonkey Chris to make the house rules 'more approachable' - Generally just improving the UI to ensure that we are all on they same page.

Codifying the Backgrounds system into a set of common guidelines for players and staff to use. I think it is time to build a background system that will be rigid enough to provide continuity and flexible enough to roll with interpretations from staffs on into the future.

Reworking the influence system; what we have is cludgy. And confusing. And not streamlined. And not set up to interact with feeding and Herd in a way I like. I want influence to have a point, both in meaning and in sharp ouch-like effect for characters. I want it to be the tool that defines who and what an Elder is and that lack being what a Neonate hates.

I want Influence to be corruptible and corrupting. The perspective required to use people like that? For generations? It will be shiny.

See... Story, logistics, backgrounds... A few points on character creation, largely limiting status/prestige and status/prestige like effects at character creation.

That would be it, for the moment.


Ah, yes. Or as I call it: What you should do when running Thaum/Necro/Sorcery. Every time.

Absolutely. I have indicated my wishes to my staff. As HST I see my role as being the equivalent of a Court of Last Appeals (For systems issues), and I need to have confidence in my staff that they read the rule before interpreting and calling a ruling. I have that confidence because we all know that getting it right starts with reading it.

I do ask our players to provide materials; I do not have a perfect memory, a perfect library of Vampire books, or a perfect time bubble with which to absorb what I do have. Pretty sure my staff is in near similar straights. Bring a photo copy, a pdf on your phone or laptop, or the book itself, and show us what weird madness you are trying to pull off. Then we can make an informed decision. Work with us and we will work with you.



Yes. Apologies are not a retcon, however. And I will not apologize for what a previous staff has done. But if elected I will be the final adjudicator for our game and I to be held accountable for what my staff is doing with the system.

In the case of system changes those will be well telegraphed before they are finalized.

But I have screwed up in the past, am likely to in the future - I be a mere mortal after all. I own up to my mistakes.

The caveat on all this is as follows: Just because there is a dispute on a call, and someone doesn't like the call I made, doesn't make it a 'mistake'. It makes it a dispute. And we have a system to resolve those disputes.

To that end I make myself pretty clear when I make an interpretation, and I do reach out for consensus and compromise.



If you don't trust the staff who describes the world in which your character is strolling through then you don't don't trust the world your character is strolling through.

Confidence in the staff is what allows a game to function well; trusting that your character of whom you have invested time, effort, and (hopefully not, but costumes ain' cheap) money will be in good hands is pretty important to story. That kind of trust means that you will be willing to take risks with the sheet of paper that you have a certain degree of emotional investment in.

Lacking that trust means that you stop going to the staff for things, you avoid NPCs, and in general you make your own fun. But it does lead to a siege mentality of just waiting the staff out, and that tends to go in unpleasant and personal areas.

So yeah. I want there to be trust between my staff and the players. If that trust is broken I want to know it; so I can repair it if possible. Failing that so I can get a different crew in to make the magic happen - It is supposed to be fun after all.



A place or moral questions in the face of terrible and terrifying expediency.

I would place it on several levels; you have a rather normal life for the most part on the surface. A higher incidence of crime, more casual narcotics usage, the rich have their own justice system, and the poor are more numerous. But the burbs are still the burbs, and the malls are still the malls. But anyone with any power is more cynical, small minded, and out for their own short term gain than you might otherwise expect. The bright lights will shine all the brighter, but so much more muck around to dim them with.

Are we going to go full Ayn Randian in our dystopia? No. But part of the story I would like to introduce to the equation is how necessary the local vampires are to the functioning of the city. That their long term view in the struggles of city government and police policy actually do have some benefits to society.

How messed up is that? The predators make the system work because otherwise the prey would all leave/die.

The World of Darkness is like ours, but with more extremes. I want to get as extreme as a Mountain Dew commercial in some aspects, others I need to tone down. But I do distinguish that the mortal viewpoint and the Vampire perspective are separate things - And I would like to explain those separations in story.



I can't promise that the quality will be everything you've ever hoped for - Too many different factors on the nature of 'good' to make that happen universally. But I can promise better access, approachability, and a distinct dis-inclination to say no. And if I do say no, there will be a hell of an explanation to it.

I also am not running against Aaron and his crew, nor am I running against Jeff Meaders, Schetzle, or anyone other previous HST (Except, by proximity, Jennifer Johnson). So, what they did and or said is not anything I can do anything about.

I can just promise a better tomorrow and then do my damnedest to deliver. If you want story, we will give it to you. That is my job as a 'Storyteller'. My staff will not turn you away. They might refer you to someone else, but that is all. If they do turn you away then you come talk to me.

And give us constructive feedback; tell us what we did right and then tell us where to improve. I look at this HST gig as a job, and a job that I will do in a professional manner. Your feedback helps that.

Again: Brighter tomorrow.



Let you keep the room on a rotating schedule if there was a dispute. I like Tikki Toms. Why? Same reason I like Krantzylvania. Conservation of story resources.

These are two points where I don't have to create the environment, where the players are willing make things happen for themselves. Where they tell a story.

Your involvement in the haunted house is superfluous. If I run into a space issue then I will rotate a schedule of use - But anyone who goes to the trouble of making a 'space' is going to get access: Because I don't have the means and resources to make it happen on the level of detail that most of the players can.

I will not give preference to someone for volunteering at events; I best serve the game and the players by giving equal opportunities for access.

I am in the business of the possible. Denial comes when system disagrees with an action, say like flying through the air using only Presence. Someone wants to build a scene for me to do things with? I will let em.



And this is where it gets awkward. To be honest, this sounds like a personal frustration brought to the public arena... Most of your questions are based in that tone.

I haven't had a bad experience with a PA - The only time I used a PA is when I was out of line many, many, many years ago. I got upset because I hadn't read the rules correctly, based a concept off that mistake, and then didn't get screened by staff on a character that had as the basis of it's abilities the very thing that was not allowed by the rules. I had clearly stated what I was trying to do with the character... And then got shut down about 6 weeks into it when I finally had a staff interaction.

I threw a tantrum. Recognized the tantrum. Felt ashamed by it. Had two very nice PA's approach me, who I cannot recall, as I was fleeing to Werewolf shortly thereafter. They call tantrums 'Rage' in werewolf, so I learned. J/k

To actually answer your question, I guess I could fire every PA that gets a complaint. Except that I am not sure I can as HST. And they are volunteers. And... See? Best thing to do is be a PA yourself an ensure a better experience for the next person who comes along.

I believe that covers current questions. Please pardon any syntax or grammatical errors.

- Ben

You answered all of my questions with aplomb sir, and without pretending to hide behind a veil of anonymity which I myself had already shattered in speaking out about my deepest concerns. Of course you have the added benefit of not coming from the system that failed in my personal experience, too. Neither of your opponents can say that. Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong (and a lot right) with trying to work with those whose philosophies you don't agree with. And I've definitely been in the situation before where the storytelling was so absent that you had to make your own fun or there'd be none to be had. I guess having already been through that 'siege mentality' at many lesser LARPs I had no patience for it here among the spheres of EC. I can honestly say that you are the only candidate that has offered a fresh perspective as HST, though David and Eric as ASTs seem willing to give it a go, both Evan and Jeffrey seem more interested in deflecting or outright denying blame and/or complicity with the shitty actions perpetrated by HST Aaron toward me and mine, when all we really wanted was a conversation, instead of a decree from on high. Oh and after a year of not giving a shit, maybe an apology.

But I digress. Thanks to all who approached this in good faith, when I, admittedly didn't do a very good job of that. Good luck candidates. I'll be seeing you.