MUST READ: Character Background Surveys!

[Brendan]

Hey folks! The staff is doing a series of game wide surveys to make sure we have all the details that have slipped through the cracks over the years along different staffs. There are four surveys in total, none of which are very long. In the following posts, there will be a link to the survey, as well as a brief description of it.

Please be aware that full completion of all of these surveys is a requirement. On the website, filling out the background sheet is mandatory for spending experience on your character. emeraldcitychronicles.com/68201/178948.html

The website will be updated to require these four surveys to spend experience on your sheet, so it's best to get them done. There's also some benefits for you getting them all done soon! It's worth ten experience if you do the following:

Submit an electronic version of all four surveys via email to [e-mail] by your first month as a new character.

Note: This electronic version should be copy/paste friendly.

Relationships Survey: Here
Background Survey: Here
Feeding Survey: Here
Locations Survey: Here

How do I do this?!
There are many different ways to do this, but the suggested path is this one:

1. Create a google account or sign into your already existing google account.
2. Go to File > Make a copy
3. Name the Copy After your Character, like "Caellech O'Connelly: Relationships"
4. Edit directly in Google docs.
5. Copy/paste your results directly into an email and send it to us.
6. Keep your Surveys so that you can update them when something changes on your character; send us an update when it is appropriate (when you change havens, when you change feeding styles, etc.)

[Brendan]

NPC Questionnaire:

Link: docs.google.com/document/d/1Xg6UghIA-8h8dU0LgyBZ9z8h9tLxo4yCurAnhgJhrPc/edit?usp=sharing

This survey has to do with any contacts, allies, and mentors you have on your sheet, as well as enemies due to flaws. Please fill out one for each NPC that is a background, flaw, or major plot element to your character. If you have any questions, please see a storyteller.

For ratings of your contacts and allies, please see below. If you have a contact or ally currently rated higher or lower than it should be, please see a staff member.

Vampiric Contacts & Allies


Example Ratings:

1 Point: Neonate, Well-placed ghoul

2 Points: Ancilla, Rising star,

3 Points: Average Primogen, Well placed ancillas, Average Court Positions

4 Points: Harpies, Exceptional Primogen, Seneschals, Sherrifs, Regents

5 Points: Leader of a city such as a Bishop or a Prince, Lords, or well-placed elders such as Archons

[Brendan]

Locations Questionnaire:

Link: docs.google.com/document/d/1pAoLe5NtU4qYAoQEz1RxwTQ1s1jmT_QQYDsPaXEqJnM/edit?usp=sharing

This questionnaire includes everything about havens, locations important to your kindred, and getting between them. This includes updating your kindred's haven security, which must be done with a storyteller, and so will not be accounted for in whether or not you get the ten experience bonus.

[Brendan]

Feeding Questionnaire:

Link: docs.google.com/document/d/1P7Kkhdw5PmALNxVSKJ6wmuXFDttvwaynl9oy53CkimY/edit?usp=sharing

This survey documents your feeding habits for the upcoming feeding system. It is pretty self explanatory, but should you have any questions, please feel free to approach a member of staff. If you do not know what domain you feed in, please find out at game tomorrow.

[Brendan]

Background Questionnaire

Link: docs.google.com/document/d/1vb1-m7kVu8rgmvXXcUoCM1TaFDa_kjIdb1r1W8hw7bs/edit?usp=sharing

This survey contains a lot of interesting tidbits about your character and where he comes from. It's the longest survey, but it is also the coolest. If you haven't come up with some of the answers for these questions, it's important to think them up. Not only is it a great way to produce some depth about your character, but the questions here will also help you (and us, for that matter) see how your character fits in to the world at large.

As a note, it is important that you fill this survey out in its entirety.

[Skir]

Because of a printer disaster we did not have everything we needed at game last Saturday to do this the way we wanted to. We are going to try it again this week.

To review, if you get EVERYTHING done (including securing your Haven and retrofitting all your NPC backgrounds) before the game on 9/22/12, you will earn 10 exp.

A lot of you have already written your responses. Thank you! However, almost no one has actually finished doing your Haven security or getting your Allies Contacts and Mentors on the page we need them. Even if you've sent in your surveys, see us for confirmation.

Something I need to make clear is that there is a reason we are getting all this data. This isn't just so that we on staff can have it to use, though that is part of it. The real reason is so that this information can be used by you, the players.

We've all subconsciously felt it - the feeling, born of concern and kindness, to play along with the invisible parameters of the game. You don't ask theST to open every single door for you, because you know they didn't write content behind those doors. You don't ask another character about their wedding as a mortal, because you assume that they never wrote content for that, that they may never have decided whether their character got married, and you'd rather it not be awkward for them if they didn't. Our minds move right past things that might be normal courses of action if this were "Real".

The same thing happens in game with solution oriented play. If I have a problem with someone, my options are slim. I can attack their status, perhaps, or I can kill them with Celerity. The same solutions always win out. Why? Because they are the ones best defined by the game. The results of those actions are a known quantity, and can thus be predicted for a successful plan. You don't think to blackmail the character's mom. You don't think to sabotage their weekly poker game. You don't think to embarass them by stealing their favorite cigar collection or whatever. You can't really go to where they feed and try to drug the vampire through the blood if where and how they feed was never recorded by anyone. These might be things you'd try if you had a reasonable expectation that this data was out there to actually BE used by the players.

While they have their place, all those things are better stories than Celerity actions. At least more novel and interesting. So that's the thing - for this kind of more story oriented gameplay to exist, the data needs to exist. But it also needs to exist for everyone. If it exists for some people and not others, you still can't rely on it. It's still an unknown quantity, and it can't be relied upon, so we're back to Celerity.

To that end, these surveys now count as part of your background. From the ECC Website, under "Connect the Dots:"

Character Histories: All players are required within the first month of playing their characters to fill out a short, one page background sheet. That sheet is located here: Background Sheet, or at the Bookkeeping Table at game. This is a short, easy reference sheet for your storytellers, who often have to keep 100+ player backgrounds in mind at all times. If you don't take a few minutes to fill out this form, you cannot spend XP on your character.

So there's a carrot and a stick now. Everyone who fills it in will get 10 exp. Everyone has a month to do it before we hold their exp hostage. You can still earn it, but we need your full character background and these forms before you can spend it, so that everyone can be a rich character in the world and we can all have an awesome time RPing.

Hugs and Kisses,

Sean

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Can you explain how we secure our havens now? The line in the survey just says "Security- How security is is fundamentally changing, get with staff to see how" or something.

So... if you see my haven... I'd like it secure. I have people. Lets talk. But there isn't a system anywhere I can find, and if there is the survey seems to imply it's obsolete.

[Webmonkey]

Sept 13, 2012 11:08:19 GMT -8 Shah-Khohr of Ventrue said:

Can you explain how we secure our havens now? The line in the survey just says "Security- How security is changing is fundamentally changing, get with staff to see how" or something.

So... if you see my haven... I'd like it secure. I have people. Lets talk. But there isn't a system anywhere I can find, and if there is the survey seems to imply it's obsolete.

Original Haven stuff is Here on the vampire site: (The section called , Weapon, Item and Haven cards) emeraldcitychronicles.com/68201/89101.html

And here on the boards: vampst.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Rules&action=display&thread=7393

[Skir]

I'm all over the boards today. It'll be up on the Rules board in a few minutes.

[Webmonkey]

Also in the matter of these Background Questionnaires, they now replace the background sheet on the website - and for ease I've created a single repository for OOC Documents such as these as an Appendix. It's called Documents OOC. Crazy right? Here's a link: emeraldcitychronicles.com/95401/214055.html

[Skir]

Those of you who are new characters, or have not done your Background information yet...

It's getting to be that time. Please get those in as soon as possible to prevent being able to spend further exp toward your sheet.

We love you though.