New Feeding System?

[Just Evan]

Sept 4, 2012 15:30:46 GMT -8 Skir said:

Something to think about is that Blood is about to become a bigger deal with a different take on feeding.

You guys have mentioned this one a few times. Can you give us more information on this system and the elevator pitch as to why we need to change it after less than two years on the current system?

Thanks!

[Ben Vaughan]

Addendum: Why is this change being implemented without A) Prior Discussion and B) a rough pass by PA's, RA's, or C) Plebiscite?

[Skir]

I'd love to give more information but we are still finalizing some details so I don't want to post the system in total until it has passed all its internal testing.

Real quick though, I'll explain why the need.

So the last few games I've just given everyone full blood. Have you noticed what effect that has had on game?

Neither have I. There hasn't been one. People behave exactly the same as they always had, because the current feeding system doesn't add very many decisions or objectives to the game. It also is poorly understood and even more poorly accountable which encourages people to just kind of ignore it. A lot of people don't spend blood at all at games and barely pay attention to whether they win or lose that first test because it hardly matters what the result was.

The new system has some objectives. The first is to make you feel like a vampire. To make you care about blood and think about blood. The second is to make blood an actual finite resource that you have to think about spending. This balances a lot of things people feel are very powerful, like Thaum. Thaum actually doesn't have to be as overpowered as it becomes in a LARP setting like this one. It's only so powerful when Tremere can use it with impunity because blood is plentiful. When you are able to use every single Thaum power you have, all the time, just because you have it, Thaum is amazingly powerful. If you have to make intelligent decisions about what you do and how often, it becomes a power of versatility, not super-at-everything. It brings a lot more interesting choices to every combat, cause thats the place where Blood really matters. This is good for people who like combat, powers and action.

Another objective is to make people care about Domain and taking care of the place they feed. Feeding in a good area can be critical now, and people have more than just a token pride reason to care. This promotes more awareness of the setting and the ability to tell more stories about Seattle, rather than just one building in Seattle, the Elysium. That's good for those people who like to chase plot.

What this means is that blood won't be plentiful for everyone. There will be haves and have nots. There will be clever or careful vampires who have all they need and more, and they can sell the rights to their rich harvest to those who are in need to exploit them. One could gain a lot of political favors that way, or make important people rely on them in a way that is currently impossible. That's good for the politics part of the game too.

It also makes the Herd background pretty worthwhile, for the record.

It's not that something is really, really WRONG with the current Feeding system. It just isn't adding much either, compared to what we could be doing. In canon, the need for blood is basically the thing that spawns the entire Jyhad and the entire metaplot. We've got a system that can put all those aspects into play, and manages to do that without it being a giant math headache.

Hope that teaser helps a little. It should be ready to rock in less than two weeks. Also, this is a big deal system, so it'll get a full period of review and a vote. I wouldn't do that to you guys without letting you see it.

Sean

[Skir]

Ben,

I have no idea why you assume all the things you assume in your post. They aren't accurate.

[Ben Vaughan]

Sorry, to break that down a bit more:

You are proposing a system change. The last several staff's have made an effort to run those changes by the player base to see if they want to have them implemented. I hadn't heard that process pop up as part of the dialogue; no assumption it just hadn't happened.

The assumption I am making that any system you come up with is going to be tested internally and externally tested by your shiny new RA's.

I am not against this process Sean, but there are a lot of things coming out of your staff. I'd like to see discourse before implementation so that an appreciation of the ideas you are proposing can develop.

To be blunt, this is the base expectation: Discussion + Vote. Most things will pass anyway but this process does seem to limit some of the exploitation issues that occur in house rule systems.

[Shade]

I think we can wait on the torches and pitchforks until the proposed change is actually rolled out. My read is this: they are almost done with the proposal and really excited about it. Once it's done, in twoish weeks, the proposal will be shared with the playerbase, who will discuss and vote as per usual.

Is there anything wrong with that?

[Mercury "Merc" Miller]

Sept 15, 2012 12:40:48 GMT -8 Ben Vaughan said:

You are proposing a system change. The last several staff's have made an effort to run those changes by the player base to see if they want to have them implemented. I hadn't heard that process pop up as part of the dialogue; no assumption it just hadn't happened.
[...]
To be blunt, this is the base expectation: Discussion + Vote. Most things will pass anyway but this process does seem to limit some of the exploitation issues that occur in house rule systems.

I disagree. There is such a thing as "Death by Committee" and there are always several people who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.

Sometimes, you need to simply lead, to make a decision and lead everyone by the nose into a new glorious future where that's the way things are.

I think the break-point when a game-wide discussion is happening is when XP is being taken off a sheet. A modification to an ancillary system that has the potential to add to the personal horror of a gothic-punk world is not that.

[Ben Vaughan]

It's not a committee process folks. Most of the time that discussion period actually helps the proposal along. When it hasn't then the proposal had some serious flaws that were later addressed.

I'm not doing this to be difficult; I have an investment in this group and the structure that guides it. An open discussion with some playtesting can end disputes before they happen. At the very least they place all parties on a similar footing of expectations; I have been pretty satisfied in how Sean's crew is handling their communications game-wide.