Travii for HST

[Brewer]

Hey guys! The time is coming once again to vote for who you want to run the Werewolf game. I figured we'd better get posted what we plan to do should we win, but first our confirmed staff.

HST Travii
AST Shane Renner, Brewer, Gavin
Paper monkey Chelsea

We have a crazy plan that I'm sure many of you will "Oh Nooooo!!!!" at. While it's not as radical as some of the other games, we feel it is needed. We also are planning to run a more urban/city based game, so some of the changes are geared towards that.

1st: Reset. No not a complete, full wipe reset. But reset back to cannon or as close as we can get to it. Yes this means a new world with new characters. Yes this would mean you lose your current character. But you would get to keep 25% of the XP spent into the character and those with special slots would get to keep those. That's the big one.

2nd: We found a way to fix the dreaded renown system! Haha! It's mostly time based with a sprinkle of awesome deeds. What does this mean you would have to do? Get your renown card from a box and put it back at the end of the night. But what's this? You forgot it or lost it? Don't worry! We will have copies! Now this doesn't mean we won't be tracking how often you forget/lose said card. What is the possible punishment for continuous losing of said card? Simple: start your rank over.

3rd: Fetish control. There are way too many fetish vending machines and Swiss army knives out there. Starting characters won't know about crazy tribal fetishes. For example, Joe the Ahroun Get wants to be a tank. He won't know about the Wendigo shield and flint arrowhead shirt. He could ask around though. We want to limit the vast, in-depth knowledge EVERYONE seems to have about out of tribe stuff. This also goes for tribe specific gifts.

4th: talents, skills, knowledge! You need teachers! Talents still need teachers for 4-5. Skills will require a teacher for the first dot and 4-5. Knowledge of any level will require a teacher. Why? Because self teaching takes much longer than you'll actually be playing your character. Also in addition, each dot will take 1 week.

5th: Cyber fetishes. Your Weaver Lore rating will determine the level of device you know of and can build. You will also need the appropriate lab/tools to make said fetish. Also an additional step will be required for creating either a science or computer roll.

And lastly, restricted tribes and breeds. Silent Striders, Wendigo, Uktena, Red Talons, Child of Gaia (plot fun reason), Stargazers, and Lupus. Now, we aren't saying we wouldn't allow them period; just a restricted amount at the start.

Remember, this is only a rough description of our platform. More details are comming but this gives you all a base idea of what we plan to do. you have any questions you want to throw at us, please feel free to ask!

Thanks!
Brewer

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

Have you considered moving to W20? It's really a great system, and fixes a lot of balance issues.

[Chelsea A.K.A. Piper]

Hi!

We've actually discussed it and we just don't feel that preforming the change over to W20 at this time is something we want to do. There's already a good system in play that'd we'd like to keep using. While we may choose it bring in some elements of the W20 system, that's something that we would discuss and bring to the players before there was ever a change.

We also feel that doing a reset is enough confusion for everyone and wouldn't want to add to that by making everyone learn new rules and such by switching systems at the same time.

Thanks for the question, we hope we've answered it for you!

[Chelsea A.K.A. Piper]

After reading through Andrew's amazing platform submission, we realized we forgot to cover a very important part of any staff. The staff rolls in general! We don't want anyone to feel bored or left out. This is not to say it won't happen but if it's possible to minimize that then we are sure as hell going to try. The HST and 1 AST will still be available for major plot goodness with all ASTs informed. 2 ASTs will be available for non mainstream plots, background story (from merits, flaws and backstory), and 1 floater AST, thier specific job is to run spirit scenes, the "I'm bored" statements, and other little things to keep you guys fully entertained. But ANY of the staff can help with those if they are free. We want to make sure the world keeps spinning even when half the game is in a single scene with most of the ASTs.

Lists: They suck. But it is the best way for getting to people. Downside is how long it takes. I know I've sat on a list for a month before getting to do what I needed to do. How do we fix this? It simple if you stick to it. Don't bog down the HST or AST running big stuff with the little "I need a worthy foe" scenes. So we will have 2 lists, and your scene will be assigned to an ST based on what it is. We do plan on limiting scene times based on what you need to do. Best example: I need to do a fetish step, kill a worthy foe. Awesome! Foe killed! Oh but I need to get a blessing too. And attune it, and cleanse it......I've seen this happen. And a 15 minute scene turns into a 90 minute scene. NO MORE! We plan to cut you off should it take too long because, well, nobody likes sitting around. But this is also why we have 5 staff members available for players!

[Moira ap Eiluned]

Cookie has a great technique that she's been using in Changeling -- she sets an alarm for a set length of time (based on the number of people in the scene and what the "ask" is), and then when the alarm goes off, that's the end. By using time as a limiting factor rather than tasks, it encourages people to be thoughtful and not drag things out. So organized people who have everything prepared can potentially get several things done (like the example above, with multiple Fetish steps being "added on"); those who meander get their one scheduled thing done and then the ST is on to the next player group. It also makes things clear for both sides -- Cookie says "you have 10 minutes" and you know how long you have; she'll give you warning markers when you're getting close to time, too. It's been really nice; she cranks through the list, things get done, and expectations on both sides are clear. Just a thought!