Magic Rob for HST. Yup. That's happening.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Alright. I'm tossing my hat into the ring. What do we say from here. Let us start with where we are and move out to where I would like things to be.

What I see when I look at EC is a broken thing. There are riffs that have been festering for years and allowed to grow, nurtured even. There are odd little clashes and genuine distrust and it's not the best of things. And yet, there are still a lot of good things here too. There are old friendships and trust and genuine love.

What I see when I look at EC is a collection of people that have lost what I loved, and it makes me sad. What I loved was something intangible and magical. I couldn't really describe it, but I feel its absence and it hurts.

So, here is my platform:

A vote for Rob is a vote for benevolent dictatorship. I can be something of a tyrant. That isn't to say that I won't hold votes for things, or I won't consult the PAs and Players before or during something. What it means is that I will take these things into consideration when making my decision; and then I will make my decision. EC has allowed a bizarre thing to happen where it considers itself to be the 'players' game. This feeling of entitlement has led to more hurt feelings and attacks on people (specifically staff) than any other factor, and its a feeling that I would like very much to curb. While EC would be a creation that we all took part in, it would be my game and my vision that you would be participating within.

A vote for Rob is a vote for a hard reset. I know there are a lot of things that people love about the history of EC. This storyline or that character or these many years tied up in a story. These things are all well and good, but I see a lot of things that need to change and cherry picking will not solve these issues. While there is a time and a place for cutting the bruise out of the fruit, I believe we are past that point and a fresh start is where we need to be. There are those nay-sayers who might disagree, but I will say that when Werewolf reset, it doubled it's player-base almost instantly, and increased by an equal measure several months in once everyone realized it wasn't toxic. I would hold a vote to see if game wanted a 'cool down' time to resolve current plot or just cut and start fresh. After that, assuming the vote was for such, we would have a very clear timeline (6-12 weeks) to resolve current world. We would have one or two games dedicated to sheet/history building. We would then have a series of historical games fleshing out Seattle's new cannonic history (I'm thinking 4-6). And then we would hit the ground running.

A vote for Rob is a vote for Rob. EC has a history of posting their ASTs and their ASTs all chime in with their thoughts and history at game. ASTs, however, are not elected positions, they are appointed by the HST. I will not be revealing my staff for general approval or disapproval. Either you like me and my platform, and trust me to run the game in a fair and equitable manner, or you don't. My ASTs are crucial to my success, but not our current topic of debate.

A vote for Rob is a vote for system overhaul. Part of what needs to go in EC is the extra book of rules that everyone needs in order to play. There's the core book, and all the clan books, and all the magic books, and all the dark ages books, and the printed house rules on the website (which amount to an equal volume). It is too much. There are too many holes for non-system people to fall through and system people to cleverly manipulate. It's gone too far, it needs to be trimmed. I will very likely do a V20 conversion and a clipping of existing system in favor of less ST intensive systems.

A vote for Rob is a vote for equality. Ask any of the people that played in Werewolf when I ran it, or Sabbat when I ran that. I am an equal opportunity tyrant. I ran dark stories and personal stories and expansive stories and specific stories. I played with cannon, I played with histories, I played with system, I played with the world. I ran light stuff, and I ran dark stuff, and I ran cannon stuff, and I ran improv stuff. Everything was fair, however.

A vote for Rob is a vote for a PA revision. It was always my intention to give the PA's a bit more authority, and I will be addressing that system in the weeks that follow.

A vote for Rob is a vote for controlled character growth and measured incentives. I think we've gone a little batty with rewarding the player-base for doing things they should be doing. It is my intention to bring this in line.

A vote for Rob is a vote for... You know, I think everyone knows me well enough to know what I'm about. That is my platform. Please comment here or privately with questions or concerns.

It is my intention with this post to declare my intentions for game without casting doubt on ghosts of STs past. Everyone did the best with what they were given, and while I don't always agree, I've generally found game to be full of people trying to do the right thing with what information and tools they have. I don't doubt that the other prospective HSTs will bring their own fixes to broken things, and this isn't a vote of no-confidence in them. I'm pretty proud of anyone willing to take on the rather Herculean task of HST for the Cam/Anarch sphere.

I learned a great deal from my time as the various HST hats I've worn. I want to fix what is broken. I think I can accomplish this. Now who is with me?

-Rob.

[Victor Vaughn]

This may not have much clout behind it due to how close Rob and I are, but I don't think anyone will disagree with me;

Rob is strict. Rob is vicious. Rob is fair.

I have faith that Rob will bring the weight of legitimacy that this game seems to be lacking as of late. Actions should have benefits and consequences. Rare things should be rare, and not always in the hands of players. A-la-carte power mixing should be such a heinous sin that it isn't even considered.

I trust this tyrant.

[Katie Hester]

With you intending to do a reset both on the game and on the xp bank, what will be your policy, if elected, regarding xp transfers from other spheres? To other spheres? If allowing transfer to other spheres, will the person be allowed to transfer that xp back to the vampire sphere?

Do you plan to retain the 30% character death/retirement refund policy?

You state that you plan to reduce the reward xp for people doing things they should: haunted house, the various donation drives and the such. Being that, at least for the past year, all the sphere HSTs agree on the reward, how do you plan to ensure the lower xp rewards for these events?

The options I see for the last question include either trying to persuade the other HSTs to go lower and accepting a median reward (possibly higher than you would like) or applying a reduction modifier to the reward calculation to ensure the reward is more in line with what you have in mind.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Good questions.

1) No xp transfers, at least for the first year. Resetting xp but allowing other banks in quite defeats the point.

2) No transfers either way. At least for the first year. Closed circuit xp.

3) The other spheres giving uniform xp was originally my initiative. If I end up wearing the vampire hat, we won't be engaging in xp as a reward system at all. I will have various other incentives. Rare items or lores, access to more draws on char gen or other unique traits. Xp as a reward has gotten well out of hand.

[Ascanio Giovanni]

2) No transfers either way. At least for the first year. Closed circuit xp.

3) The other spheres giving uniform xp was originally my initiative. If I end up wearing the vampire hat, we won't be engaging in xp as a reward system at all. I will have various other incentives. Rare items or lores, access to more draws on char gen or other unique traits. Xp as a reward has gotten well out of hand.

This seems a bit far reaching. You certainly have the right to not allow xp transfers into vampire as HST, but how do you plan on enforcing no transfers out? I suppose you can refuse to wipe "transferred" xp from the vampire bank, but transfers have always been at the discretion of the receiving sphere in the past.

As for things like the Haunted House and alternative rewards, is this a statement of purpose that vampire simply won't be agreeing to the universal reward system like we have done in the past and will just go its own way regardless? Or do you plan to try to convince all of the spheres to follow your model?

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

jaron-

All HSTs should think in a manner that extends beyond the few months they might be in charge. Lack of foresight can be detrimental. Yes, this is far reaching. My hope is that people in vampire won't want to transfer out. At this time, no I won't allow vampire XP to leave. However, I don't run other spheres: so if a vampire player wants to take his 20 xp to werewolf and werewolf nods at them, that's fine for werewolf. I don't dictate other games policy.

As to haunted house, I will be writing a system of incentives that aren't XP based for Vampire. If other spheres wish to adopt this system, they are certainly welcomed to. This system will be what is used to incentivize the players to do what must be done for Vampire during my term and hopefully beyond. Blanket XP gifts will not be one of these incentives, in that sense, no I won't be participating on what the other HSTs might agree to for their own spheres. It's nothing personal, but what is an appropriate gift for a several year game isn't what's appropriate for a several month game.

-Rob.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Jun 21, 2014 14:19:17 GMT -8 Katie Hester said:

Do you plan to retain the 30% character death/retirement refund policy?

I somehow missed this one:

I will be retaining a 25% return on EARNED XP on retirement or death. If you pull an elder XP bead and promptly die, you don't get that starting xp on your next pull.

However, if this proves to be a problem a few months in, I will shift 'Good Death' to a non-xp incentive system as well. I'm not so proud as to not assimilate data into my policy.

-Rob.

[Ascanio Giovanni]

With the decision to eliminate 90% of the house rules and clarifications, how do you plan on addressing the problem of consistency? We all know that White Wolf did not write its books in a very clear manner and many things can be interpreted at least 4 different ways, particularly on how one power or system interacts with another. We had a long history of issues with each ST making new calls each scene which could drastically change how your power worked from one scene to the next, dependent on which ST you happened to go to. If you don't like the current clarifications as a solution, how do you plan to address the problem?

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Current clarification has the exact problem you describe. We will reference the main book text. Players having issues with how a staff member rules something, talk to us like humans after game about soecific grievance.

[Ascanio Giovanni]

So your solution is exactly to go back to no clarification of anything then? Or do you plan on another method of ensuring that the same calls are getting made each time?

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

I feel as if I've already addressed this issue.

We will be referencing the core book. All of staff will have access to the core book. If players think things are inconsistent once they see my crew in action, I will address it then. My previous staff experience tells me that this is a non-issue that is being grossly overblown.

[Ascanio Giovanni]

Thinking back to how it was before the clarifications went up, that hasn't been my experience. I remember receiving 3 different and contradictory rulings on how Obfuscate worked within the same night. However you have answered quite clearly now.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

The 300 pages of clarification won't be erased, just taken out of play. I will be investing precisely zero of my energy into writing rules; I will write story and cannon clarification. If, at any point, it becomes clear that these multitudes of rules clarifications are at all necessary, I will assemble a crew to review the Sean rrvisions and reinstitute them partially or in their entirety. However, none of this assemby will be Staff. Staff will be busy keeping people involved, writing plot, and finding ways of incorporating pc histories into city cannon. The ability of having a small handful of players know how something is houseruled for clarity, to my mind, is outweighed by 300 pages of house rules; if a neutral party disagrees after seeing how a just one book system works, I will redress then.

I appreciate moving on from this topic. Are there any further concerns pertaining to my platform?

[Victor Vaughn]

Systems stuff:

What source materials are you planning on using; Strictly V20 stuff?

Are you planning on any systems to keep neonates from out-scaling elders in the long run?

Are you planning on instilling a limit in the number of "weird things" that a pc can accrue on their character sheet?

Story stuff:

EC has moved into a realm of "Seattle is the most important city on the planet, so everyone everywhere wants to get their dick in it." and he players have been trained to expect this. This causes a select few number of players with powerful character sheets to be the only real ones that make choices. What's your stance on this, and what will you do to make players feel more at ease about making bold IC moves without fear of incurring the NPC superpower of the week?

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Jul 1, 2014 8:40:14 GMT -8 Victor Vaughn said:

Systems stuff:

What source materials are you planning on using; Strictly V20 stuff?

Are you planning on any systems to keep neonates from out-scaling elders in the long run?

Are you planning on instilling a limit in the number of "weird things" that a pc can accrue on their character sheet?

1- yes. V20 only. After a year we can look at other stuff.

2- Xp spent on characters will likely be capped. Build xp won't factor into this. Status system will also be revised (which I will add to my scary stuff page).

3- There won't be a hard snowflake limit, but with other limits put in place, this will be less of an issue.

Story stuff:

EC has moved into a realm of "Seattle is the most important city on the planet, so everyone everywhere wants to get their dick in it." and he players have been trained to expect this. This causes a select few number of players with powerful character sheets to be the only real ones that make choices. What's your stance on this, and what will you do to make players feel more at ease about making bold IC moves without fear of incurring the NPC superpower of the week?

With less xp, the whole of the world will be devalued. However, my plan for this is simply to reduce the city's ability to affect the world, and thus limit it's ability to be affected in turn. Most of the world won't care about Seattle, and status will be revised (which was half that problem, imho).

Thanks for the questions!
-Rob.

[Victor Vaughn]

Jul 1, 2014 9:08:31 GMT -8 Shah-Khohr of Ventrue said:

3- There won't be a hard snowflake limit, but with other limits put in place, this will be less of an issue.

What about specific magic types? There should exist no reality where someone is running around with both Necromancy and Thaumaturgy, let alone Akhu and Telyvanic Sorcery or what have you.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Jul 1, 2014 9:23:31 GMT -8 Victor Vaughn said:

Jul 1, 2014 9:08:31 GMT -8 Shah-Khohr of Ventrue said:

3- There won't be a hard snowflake limit, but with other limits put in place, this will be less of an issue.

What about specific magic types? There should exist no reality where someone is running around with both Necromancy and Thaumaturgy, let alone Akhu and Telyvanic Sorcery or what have you.

Magic will have its own limitations. However, I don't think a lot of the off brand magic is supported in v20.

[Mike Lohmann]

There is a v20 blood sorcery book, either out or in the works, last I heard.

[Bertie]

Jul 2, 2014 15:00:48 GMT -8 Mike Lohmann said:

There is a v20 blood sorcery book, either out or in the works, last I heard.

From what I remember from reading the preview and Anarch's Unbound... There are now 0th level rituals that anybody can learn without learning the base path, and these are more often traded than actual thaumaturgical paths. The main ones that come to mind are the "self-installing technothaumaturgical rituals" used by vampires to encode communications over computers, and the Ritae of the Sabbat.

The Telyavels are back and have been taken in by the Sabbat Tzimisce to replace the old Tremere Antitribu.
There are thaumaturgical rituals that are Cam based and Sabbat based that are now regularly performed for their sects.

Akhu Sadhana and the Aztec blood magic are getting merged to all be part of Akhu.

I don't remember the rest of it right now, but it can be read on their website: theonyxpath.com/tag/rites-of-the-blood/

[The Mouth]

Mortals: I think they need to be scary. Will they be scary?

Also, I liked a lot of your ideas about mortal backgrounds. Just letting you know.