Post by Magic Rob on Aug 4, 2014 0:06:20 GMT -8
Alright, for those of you that missed it, Seattle exploded. It was glorious, and much shenanigans happened. Curtain close; open curtains on a fresh stage.
The next two weeks will work a little differently from how EC has historically run. Game will still be called at game-on at 10pm as per usual. We will have announcements (where we will go over most of this stuff). At the close of announcements, those who wish to have their previous characters resolved in some manner will find the staff that I designate for that task and have their stories resolved from previous chronicle. The rest of the players will be issued a raffle ticket.
Raffle ticket? Yes! A raffle ticket!
One staffer will be sitting at a table with three bags filled with little prettybeads gems. This staffer will call out the raffle numbers, you come down and draw your starting character stuff, they record it, and you go find another staffer to help you build your character and back-story.
Another group of staff will be helping build characters and promoting background ties.
I'm not expecting this to take all night. But, I am expecting to have to explain how the system works and the differences of previous EC and current EC quite a bit. Staff and I are committing to be there all night, but everyone who comes and builds stuff, will get attendance XP for coming regardless of how late they stay.
Maybe you haven't read my previous posts and you're wondering 'Hey now, what's all this 'bead' stuff?!'
I'm glad you asked. While it is printed in a different post and on the new website that is being developed, I will reprint here for the sake of all involved:
On the table will be three bags. Each bag has three types of stones in it. These stones represent Common, Uncommon and Rare. Common is defined as standard concepts for a cannon Camarilla game as we are defining it (base seven clans, neonates, low XP, etc). Uncommon represents a minor deviation from that thing (maybe a rarer clan, or an unusual clan with higher numbers, a capped merit, or a standard character that has something weird about them). Rare is defined as gross deviation from cannon standards (these are rare things like a Brujah with thaumaturgy, or a gargoyle, or the fifth person with Oracular Ability).
The first bag represents your starting XP. Common is 25xp, Uncommon is 75xp, and Rare is 125xp. Pretty simple.
The second bag is your Rarity. Common is a base concept. Uncommon is where things are unusual. Rare is rare. We will be posting Clan limits, Merit/Flaw limits and other things that are easily defined as Uncommon or Rare. Other more esoteric things can also be covered in this. Your Rarity is a 'lets make a deal' sort of trait and a Rare bead can go pretty far if you're clever about it.
The third bag is your Caste. Common Castes will be limited to 11th gen or higher, their Status may NEVER be raised above 2 (even with IC action) and they should probably be of about Neonate age. Uncommon Castes will be limited to 9th gen or higher, their Status may NEVER be raised above 4 (even with IC action) and they should probably be of about Anciella age. Rare Castes may purchase generation 8 or higher, their Status may never be raised above 5 (even with IC action), and should probably be of Elder age. Naturally, these ages are guidelines rather than hard rules: your Caste determines what your greater value to the Camarilla is or will ever be. The Cam is an 'old boys' club based largely on inherited wealth; your status is more closely tied to your sire and your sire's sire rather than your own accomplishments. In that logic, it is reasonable for a Rare caste to be quite young or a Common Caste to be quite old, it is simply something that you need to cover in your backstory.
Also at game will be some helpful questionnaires designed to get you to think about your character and how they operate. These will be similar to those seen in previous staffs. Filling these out will have benefits, but they won't come up for a little bit. Do them anyway; they will help you flesh out your characters!
Aside from building characters, talking concepts, and hopefully building back ties, Staff will be offering characters a chance to start with some boons as 'seed money'. Boons are the economy of the unliving after all, and it's really hard to get the boon economy going from scratch. Staff will be offering characters a chance to start with boons over NPCs in other places; you'll even have some input as to where. Want the Prince of London to owe you a Major Boon? That's a possibility. The Don of the Giovanni among New York? Sure, why not. For every boon that you are issued, however, your character will owe an equal boon to someone of OUR choosing. Maybe a new character comes into town and the player has never played game before, so staff gives them one of your boons. A powerful NPC just called in his marker, and now you have to protect and escort this character around for awhile to pay that debt. Or maybe they'll just sit there in our big book of boons until you make a political spectacle of yourself and someone goes abroad trying to buy them up so they can pwn you. Boons are fun and this will be fun
We'll be talking about a few minor changes to how some stuff has been handled in the past as well. Things like boons, status, city positions and the like. I'll be writing a 'conversion guide' later in the week expressly targeting some of these smaller cannon changes and bigger OOC changes so that none of this comes as a shock to anyone.
The last thing we'll be doing is discussing the Historical Games. The first official game will be in 1889 after the Great Seattle Fire ( www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/the-great-seattle-fire-of-1889 ). A bunch of Seattle burned and a great many elders were killed. The city was jostled around a bit and in some chaos. However, very shortly after that, Seattle was larger than ever and more powerful than ever. This will be the first game. The following 5 games will have time jumps moving forward a set amount of time to other times significant in Seattle's history (both in vampire land and IRL). We will talk about the next time at the close of game, and we'll be posting a schedule here in a bit so everyone can see when their characters might be eligible to join game for reals. Just because your character wasn't in Seattle in 1889, don't give up hope! Come and NPC for us and be showered with rewards!
There are big changes in the works here, but the end result should be pretty fabulous. Stick with us, guys; good stuff is coming.
Cheers!
-Rob.
The next two weeks will work a little differently from how EC has historically run. Game will still be called at game-on at 10pm as per usual. We will have announcements (where we will go over most of this stuff). At the close of announcements, those who wish to have their previous characters resolved in some manner will find the staff that I designate for that task and have their stories resolved from previous chronicle. The rest of the players will be issued a raffle ticket.
Raffle ticket? Yes! A raffle ticket!
One staffer will be sitting at a table with three bags filled with little pretty
Another group of staff will be helping build characters and promoting background ties.
I'm not expecting this to take all night. But, I am expecting to have to explain how the system works and the differences of previous EC and current EC quite a bit. Staff and I are committing to be there all night, but everyone who comes and builds stuff, will get attendance XP for coming regardless of how late they stay.
Maybe you haven't read my previous posts and you're wondering 'Hey now, what's all this 'bead' stuff?!'
I'm glad you asked. While it is printed in a different post and on the new website that is being developed, I will reprint here for the sake of all involved:
On the table will be three bags. Each bag has three types of stones in it. These stones represent Common, Uncommon and Rare. Common is defined as standard concepts for a cannon Camarilla game as we are defining it (base seven clans, neonates, low XP, etc). Uncommon represents a minor deviation from that thing (maybe a rarer clan, or an unusual clan with higher numbers, a capped merit, or a standard character that has something weird about them). Rare is defined as gross deviation from cannon standards (these are rare things like a Brujah with thaumaturgy, or a gargoyle, or the fifth person with Oracular Ability).
The first bag represents your starting XP. Common is 25xp, Uncommon is 75xp, and Rare is 125xp. Pretty simple.
The second bag is your Rarity. Common is a base concept. Uncommon is where things are unusual. Rare is rare. We will be posting Clan limits, Merit/Flaw limits and other things that are easily defined as Uncommon or Rare. Other more esoteric things can also be covered in this. Your Rarity is a 'lets make a deal' sort of trait and a Rare bead can go pretty far if you're clever about it.
The third bag is your Caste. Common Castes will be limited to 11th gen or higher, their Status may NEVER be raised above 2 (even with IC action) and they should probably be of about Neonate age. Uncommon Castes will be limited to 9th gen or higher, their Status may NEVER be raised above 4 (even with IC action) and they should probably be of about Anciella age. Rare Castes may purchase generation 8 or higher, their Status may never be raised above 5 (even with IC action), and should probably be of Elder age. Naturally, these ages are guidelines rather than hard rules: your Caste determines what your greater value to the Camarilla is or will ever be. The Cam is an 'old boys' club based largely on inherited wealth; your status is more closely tied to your sire and your sire's sire rather than your own accomplishments. In that logic, it is reasonable for a Rare caste to be quite young or a Common Caste to be quite old, it is simply something that you need to cover in your backstory.
Also at game will be some helpful questionnaires designed to get you to think about your character and how they operate. These will be similar to those seen in previous staffs. Filling these out will have benefits, but they won't come up for a little bit. Do them anyway; they will help you flesh out your characters!
Aside from building characters, talking concepts, and hopefully building back ties, Staff will be offering characters a chance to start with some boons as 'seed money'. Boons are the economy of the unliving after all, and it's really hard to get the boon economy going from scratch. Staff will be offering characters a chance to start with boons over NPCs in other places; you'll even have some input as to where. Want the Prince of London to owe you a Major Boon? That's a possibility. The Don of the Giovanni among New York? Sure, why not. For every boon that you are issued, however, your character will owe an equal boon to someone of OUR choosing. Maybe a new character comes into town and the player has never played game before, so staff gives them one of your boons. A powerful NPC just called in his marker, and now you have to protect and escort this character around for awhile to pay that debt. Or maybe they'll just sit there in our big book of boons until you make a political spectacle of yourself and someone goes abroad trying to buy them up so they can pwn you. Boons are fun and this will be fun
We'll be talking about a few minor changes to how some stuff has been handled in the past as well. Things like boons, status, city positions and the like. I'll be writing a 'conversion guide' later in the week expressly targeting some of these smaller cannon changes and bigger OOC changes so that none of this comes as a shock to anyone.
The last thing we'll be doing is discussing the Historical Games. The first official game will be in 1889 after the Great Seattle Fire ( www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/the-great-seattle-fire-of-1889 ). A bunch of Seattle burned and a great many elders were killed. The city was jostled around a bit and in some chaos. However, very shortly after that, Seattle was larger than ever and more powerful than ever. This will be the first game. The following 5 games will have time jumps moving forward a set amount of time to other times significant in Seattle's history (both in vampire land and IRL). We will talk about the next time at the close of game, and we'll be posting a schedule here in a bit so everyone can see when their characters might be eligible to join game for reals. Just because your character wasn't in Seattle in 1889, don't give up hope! Come and NPC for us and be showered with rewards!
There are big changes in the works here, but the end result should be pretty fabulous. Stick with us, guys; good stuff is coming.
Cheers!
-Rob.