Post by Chloe on Sept 13, 2013 13:13:13 GMT -8
To all our Furry Friends,
Howdy. Tim and Chloe here!
The two of us are just crazy enough to want to run as Co-HSTs. At first Chloe was going to run on her own, with Tim on her staff as AST. It was at the last camping trip that Chloe realized Tim was far more capable, balanced her ideas both in and out of game very nicely and that she valued his input and perspective quite a lot. She then invited him to be her Co-HST and after much soul searching, assessment of his current schedule/responsibilities, and no small amount of ‘against his better judgment’ style rationalizations- he agreed! And so it began and has grown to include as our confirmed ASTs: Erik B. and David B., with room to grow.
We are sure you have questions and concerns about the Co-HST relationship. Chloe and Tim will be happy to address any of these, and welcome your thoughts and suggestions. As our current division stands, Chloe will bring her years of role-playing, creative and organizational skills to the table, and Tim will bring his understanding and savvy with the World of Darkness genre and Werewolf milieu. Her creative ideal will be made manifest in system and as much cannon material as possible, and created in a like fashion- with an eye to maintaining balance and fairness- where it must.
And now for the CV.
CHLOE: I may be young but I’ve been gaming and role-playing since I was prepubescent. I have years of experience at multiple LARPS and game systems, on both the PC and Staff/GM sides. Other than my day job, gaming and wonderful people I play with are my life. Even to the extent that I am one of the hosts of a locally based and quite popular Role-playing podcast called the NW NerdCast which is on its 50th episode! NW NerdCast. My all time favorite system is WoD and although I have never run a campaign of it I have played in several home-games as well as the Vampire and Changeling spheres and I would be absolutely beside myself if given the opportunity to run the story Tim and I have been building for all our good friends at Werewolf! I want to run a game that holds up to the true depth of WoD and explores the places where the supernatural and the mundane interact and collide. It started as a spark of inspiration and with the input and insight from Tim and the rest of our awesome ASTs we have come up with some pretty epic and often dark concepts for our plots. I ask that you allow us to share them with you!
TIM: I have been playing World of Darkness for over 20 years. I started back in 1991 with Vampire, and didn’t really like it. Then Werewolf came along, and I was hooked. My spheres of choice are Werewolf, Mage and Wraith, in that order. Changeling LOOKS amazing and fun, but I have not had enough experience to be truly sold on it. Demon, Hunter and Vampire are not my cup of tea, and I know I am the poorer for it.
With two HSTs and we have a lot of ideas, to say the least. Plots, character activities and engagements, as well as system review - with change where it may be necessary. Key points we would like to address:
1) The tediousness of combat – Players and STs alike approach combat with the same ‘do I have to’ look on their face! While a complete overhaul SEEMS monumental and challenging, I would like to start by cultivating good habits! Combat uses many of the same numbers over and over with slight variations. The problems occur most often when people do not have their sheet at hand, or flub the math from memory or just loose track.
a. I propose a page from the Paizo book- A once-per-night -1 Difficulty to a single combat test, only IF the player has a Combat Readiness Card in hand. This would be a 3x5 card used to track critical stats in combat, math already done! I have crammed a LOT of information on these cards, myself, and found them to be incredibly useful in preventing MOST of the ‘Hold on, let me do the math!” pauses. The boon is usable in combat only, and never to drop difficulties already under 5 or over 10, void where prohibited by law, Continental US only, and any other restrictions that may apply.
2) Fetish Glutt – As described in the cannon, a low-level fetish is still a pretty big deal. A high level fetish can be earth-shattering, in the right conditions. In game, however, we have people toting entire card-files with fetish items, to the point that they can really imbalance the mechanics in many ways. I would like to address this by amending one rule, and enforcing it a little more, and revising one aspect of the already INCREDIBLE fetish creation rules set down by Jason Gains.
a. I would make fetishes count towards Dedicated Items, which are limited by the characters permanent Gnosis score. It says that fetishes do not count towards this limit, as they have a Spirit of their own. I would amend that rule to eliminate this exclusion, in the name of limiting the number of fetishes that can be carried. Note, this is obviously not appropriate to ALL fetishes and does not prevent the ownership of more- just the amount that will be carried into battle or on a day-to-day basis.
b. I would add one additional step necessary to the creation of level 4 and 5 Fetishes, that will be Quest oriented, and should never take less than a lunar cycle to complete for 4’s and two cycles for 5’s.
3) Cross-Sphere PVP – At some point, I would LOVE to have a sit-down with other Sphere heads and discuss the notion of a ‘player vs. player zone’ arrangement that makes a cross-sphere interaction possible, but does not risk contaminating plot lines, collusion of players, etc. Maybe hold it in the hour between time slots. Just a place people can go, with an attendant ST/AST and fight! We can put heads together, hash out rules, rewards, etc., and just give the players something more to do.
As I am sure many have heard, the option of a Sphere Reset has been brought up. It’s just that, an ‘option’, and one that our team views as a last resort. We have determination to continue the plot of the current staff, and some pretty fun and exciting ideas on where to take it. We just hope we get the opportunity to submit these ideas to the players.
Please feel free to approach us or the ASTs with any concerns/suggestions/questions you may have OR if you would like to be on staff.
Yours in consideration,
Chloe M. & Tim G.
Howdy. Tim and Chloe here!
The two of us are just crazy enough to want to run as Co-HSTs. At first Chloe was going to run on her own, with Tim on her staff as AST. It was at the last camping trip that Chloe realized Tim was far more capable, balanced her ideas both in and out of game very nicely and that she valued his input and perspective quite a lot. She then invited him to be her Co-HST and after much soul searching, assessment of his current schedule/responsibilities, and no small amount of ‘against his better judgment’ style rationalizations- he agreed! And so it began and has grown to include as our confirmed ASTs: Erik B. and David B., with room to grow.
We are sure you have questions and concerns about the Co-HST relationship. Chloe and Tim will be happy to address any of these, and welcome your thoughts and suggestions. As our current division stands, Chloe will bring her years of role-playing, creative and organizational skills to the table, and Tim will bring his understanding and savvy with the World of Darkness genre and Werewolf milieu. Her creative ideal will be made manifest in system and as much cannon material as possible, and created in a like fashion- with an eye to maintaining balance and fairness- where it must.
And now for the CV.
CHLOE: I may be young but I’ve been gaming and role-playing since I was prepubescent. I have years of experience at multiple LARPS and game systems, on both the PC and Staff/GM sides. Other than my day job, gaming and wonderful people I play with are my life. Even to the extent that I am one of the hosts of a locally based and quite popular Role-playing podcast called the NW NerdCast which is on its 50th episode! NW NerdCast. My all time favorite system is WoD and although I have never run a campaign of it I have played in several home-games as well as the Vampire and Changeling spheres and I would be absolutely beside myself if given the opportunity to run the story Tim and I have been building for all our good friends at Werewolf! I want to run a game that holds up to the true depth of WoD and explores the places where the supernatural and the mundane interact and collide. It started as a spark of inspiration and with the input and insight from Tim and the rest of our awesome ASTs we have come up with some pretty epic and often dark concepts for our plots. I ask that you allow us to share them with you!
TIM: I have been playing World of Darkness for over 20 years. I started back in 1991 with Vampire, and didn’t really like it. Then Werewolf came along, and I was hooked. My spheres of choice are Werewolf, Mage and Wraith, in that order. Changeling LOOKS amazing and fun, but I have not had enough experience to be truly sold on it. Demon, Hunter and Vampire are not my cup of tea, and I know I am the poorer for it.
With two HSTs and we have a lot of ideas, to say the least. Plots, character activities and engagements, as well as system review - with change where it may be necessary. Key points we would like to address:
1) The tediousness of combat – Players and STs alike approach combat with the same ‘do I have to’ look on their face! While a complete overhaul SEEMS monumental and challenging, I would like to start by cultivating good habits! Combat uses many of the same numbers over and over with slight variations. The problems occur most often when people do not have their sheet at hand, or flub the math from memory or just loose track.
a. I propose a page from the Paizo book- A once-per-night -1 Difficulty to a single combat test, only IF the player has a Combat Readiness Card in hand. This would be a 3x5 card used to track critical stats in combat, math already done! I have crammed a LOT of information on these cards, myself, and found them to be incredibly useful in preventing MOST of the ‘Hold on, let me do the math!” pauses. The boon is usable in combat only, and never to drop difficulties already under 5 or over 10, void where prohibited by law, Continental US only, and any other restrictions that may apply.
2) Fetish Glutt – As described in the cannon, a low-level fetish is still a pretty big deal. A high level fetish can be earth-shattering, in the right conditions. In game, however, we have people toting entire card-files with fetish items, to the point that they can really imbalance the mechanics in many ways. I would like to address this by amending one rule, and enforcing it a little more, and revising one aspect of the already INCREDIBLE fetish creation rules set down by Jason Gains.
a. I would make fetishes count towards Dedicated Items, which are limited by the characters permanent Gnosis score. It says that fetishes do not count towards this limit, as they have a Spirit of their own. I would amend that rule to eliminate this exclusion, in the name of limiting the number of fetishes that can be carried. Note, this is obviously not appropriate to ALL fetishes and does not prevent the ownership of more- just the amount that will be carried into battle or on a day-to-day basis.
b. I would add one additional step necessary to the creation of level 4 and 5 Fetishes, that will be Quest oriented, and should never take less than a lunar cycle to complete for 4’s and two cycles for 5’s.
3) Cross-Sphere PVP – At some point, I would LOVE to have a sit-down with other Sphere heads and discuss the notion of a ‘player vs. player zone’ arrangement that makes a cross-sphere interaction possible, but does not risk contaminating plot lines, collusion of players, etc. Maybe hold it in the hour between time slots. Just a place people can go, with an attendant ST/AST and fight! We can put heads together, hash out rules, rewards, etc., and just give the players something more to do.
As I am sure many have heard, the option of a Sphere Reset has been brought up. It’s just that, an ‘option’, and one that our team views as a last resort. We have determination to continue the plot of the current staff, and some pretty fun and exciting ideas on where to take it. We just hope we get the opportunity to submit these ideas to the players.
Please feel free to approach us or the ASTs with any concerns/suggestions/questions you may have OR if you would like to be on staff.
Yours in consideration,
Chloe M. & Tim G.
