Wolf as candidate for HST.

[Wolf]

Please let this serve as notice that i intend to run for HST of the vampire sphere. Please see below for platform details.

Vampire platform:

First I want to announce my dedicated staff, who have given oath to serve along side me for the full term of service.

Arthur Guilford: Storyteller, and downtime wizard.

Justin Gallian: Character sheet Guru, and storyteller.

Magic Motherfuckin Rob Bennett: Dedicated writer and NPC Rob will also fill in on mass combat, and overflow scenes.

Shayne Aclassi: Storyteller, assassin.

Seth Bird: Paper Pirate.

Wolf Conn: Head storyteller. It will be my job to maintain and monitor the list. I will be answering question about the game and its mechanics. I will assist and guide new players into the game. I will also run and oversee all PVP actions.


Platform:

Downtimes: I will be simplifying them, so we can make sure to answer them in a 30 day window. Aside from learning, blood spends, influence, and so on, we may/will tell you that resolution will come at game. I would like to see downtimes spends for cool scenes at game, in some sort of LARP setting. .

Recruitment: I will reward you with a card pull, in fact, I'll let you pick the uncommon card you want. This will go for players who have not played in 6 months or more as well. I want to build the game back up, i want to email all the cool cats who played in the past, and i want them to come play again.
.
New Players If you know what you’re doing, great. If you don’t , i want you to feel free to use a mentor (a staff member) to aid you in assimilation. I want to make sure that you feel like you’re getting all you can out of the game.

NPC Power levels: The scale of NPC power is crucial to game balance. Local city-level NPCs won't ever exceed standard PC recreation guidelines. We understand that the world is full of terrors and ancient monstrosities that exceed these base lines won't always be appropriate for canon setting. However, they won't have a presence within Seattle or be written into plots that take place here.

Caps: Caps will be enforced. We intend to run a game that is balanced and representative of the setting and source materials. This includes status, generation, powers, rare clans, etc.

Additionally, if you plan on playing a non-Camarilla or ghoul or other non-standard concept, you will warned in advance that your game will be on hard mode, and your path will be a more difficult one.

The Gathering Game: Vampires are social creatures. It's part of how the game is written that they loathe each other and are yet forever tied to themselves. The Camarilla game of vampire revolves around the interaction between these kindred and their Machiavellian movements. We will be making a concerted effort to craft and add more 'gathering' plots to the game rather than treating the space as a holding tank waiting for Staff to reply to your list request.

Internet presence: I want to move to Facebook and away from the forums.

Last: My intent is to return to the dream we had on reset, i want and will say no. If i feel like I can't tell you no, i will send you to Rob. He is the NO Dark Lord.


TLDR: answering down times, rad staff, vote for me.

Below you will find the Bio of my staff members.

Wolf- I have been with ECC since ~2011 in that time I came to every game (Vampire and Mage) for the first 4 years...every one. I ran the Mage sphere for 2 years, and served Rob loyalty for the course of its term. I have been on plot for alliance Seattle for almost 3 years now as well. Only missing 2 games. I serve as the president of NOTR, the nonprofit we all play under and have for some several years. In that time I have supplemented our monies to make sure we have a site, I have rebuilt part of the Boy’s and Girl's Club to mitigate costs for the site. My blood sweat and tears have gone into ECC and I will continue to serve it however I can.

Magic Rob- I have been at EC since 2005. I’ve been HST of Sabbat Vampire (like… three times?), Camarilla Vampire (a democratically voted reset), I’ve been a National ST for two different organizations at two different times and currently serve on the Board of Directors for one such place. In EC’s past, I’ve written plot, told stories, written or clarified rules…. Y’all know me. Ask if there’s questions here, I can’t image a gathering of gamers that know me better.

Arthur - I’ve been at ECC for about a year and a half now (Winter 2015? Maybe? What is time?) and was a part of Nicole’s staff for about 5 months before resuming making poor unlife choices. I’ve run a pretty broad range of tabletop games for the last 5 years. First game I ever played was an nwod mortals-turn-vamp game so there’s a tender space in my heart for WoD. I got a heavy preference for personal horror and plot, long barefoot walks on broken glass beaches, and The Feels (™).

Seth Bird - While I am relatively new to ECC, having started playing with this community in June 2015 and being Paper Table since December 2016, I am a veteran LARPer. I began LARPing in 2000 starting with Alliance (then known as NERO), a weekend long LARP, in the Yakima chapter. I have served as part of a Plot/ST teams for the Alliance Seattle chapter twice, was Logistics (equivalent to Paper Table) for several years, and was part of the National Logistics Committee for Alliance for a year. When my son was born in March 2015 I re-prioritized my life and determined that weekend long LARPing was not feasible. But, then Wolf and Brad introduced me to the fabulous activity of Vampire LARPing at ECC which can be done while my wife and son are asleep. Since becoming part of the ECC community I have been very active in my weekly attendance, missing only a handful of games since June 2015. Since becoming Paper Table I have been diligent in correcting errors as they are brought to my attention, timely processing of paperwork requests, and assist in validating character creation in a fair manner. I look forward to continuing to be a reliable Paper Table for the ECC community in the future.


(Remaining Bios to follow.)

[Oberon Gault]

Hello!

First, thank you for starting off the election cycle -- being 'the first' is always the awkward jumping off point.

That said -- I have some concerns, that I imagine other folks have, as well.

While I love the staff you've got, only two of you have completed a full term. What is the plan to retain the folks you have, and possibly grow as the intention of game is to do the same? Likewise, both you and Justin are involved in running other games -- with burnout having effected multiple staffs post-reset in the past, how will you combat the same?

Are there other incentives or recruitment methods outside of (what others have described as) a reliance on the card-game-of ECC? An incredibly singular one time 'bump' of a free card doesn't seem something likely to draw people back, if their reason has been the insurgence of cards during the tenures that followed the reset, or if there were disagreements with persons at game, or other myriad problems that aren't necessarily addressed with your taking over as HST.

With the reset, our intention was that downtimes were to capture things that happen away from game, returning downtimes that had a required scene at game to be available for use. Is there a reason why we're going towards scenes derived from or necessitated by a downtime? It's always seemed to me that, so long as Downtimes have clear boundaries on how they're needed, they can conform to their original intention.

Is there currently a perception that caps of various sorts aren't being upheld? I know that things like Caste and Concept have been a 'creation' (concept/generation) or upward-ceiling (status portion of caste) of what one can aspire towards, however just based off observations of things like clans and status, I don't necessarily see us having a huge problem in this respect?

Regarding a departure from the forums, while I can agree with some aspects on where you're coming from, having a "Fan Page" on Facebook strips away much of the player discussion that a Group Page or a Forum would allow. Likewise, two of the other games you regularly attend -- Alliance and Gothic -- are still very reliant on Forums, utilizing Facebook group pages for out of character discussion. How do you view ECC, a more regularly occurring game, as different for their use of them?

We discussed this point on Saturday, however I still see canceling game during Gothic weekends as damaging for game as a whole. Even if there is a dip of attendance that weekend, we see a sustained loss of attendance the following week, as players are generally less inclined to attend a game that has had a mainstay of 'being there'. With the stated intention to run a game for Gothic every six weeks, that's canceling 17% of a year's games, a figure that increases if other holidays or conventions see cancellations for ECC, as well.

With the stated intention towards increasing in-gathering plots (Which I'm assuming is more politically-aimed/oriented stories), are there any other types of stories that the goal is to engage with? Often times, those focused on an 'in gathering' playstyle are hoping to avoid combat, and we've seen others look towards using the gathering as something counter to that, putting combat on those people that want anything but.

Are there any other goals in respect to NOTR or site? I know there have been "I'm old, get off my lawn" shaped murmurs about how late game goes previously, as well as the cost of the B&GC, even with the efforts made to reduce them. Likewise, we have a charter for game that hasn't been truly revisited since its inception, with a fairly restrictive stance on attendance and voting (5 games within 6 months from night-of election), and what appears to be a still-standing proposal on how to add additional spheres, with nothing citing how one actually closes.

Is there an intended 'use' of Player Advocates during your tenure? The last 18 months since my initial voting-in as a PA, I've seen a number of topics come and go, and discussions come through for various directions (Shocking, can't go into any of the details, what with the PA's confidentiality piece). But how do you intend to use, elect, etc. individuals to represent Players?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[Wolf]

First, thank you for starting off the election cycle -- being 'the first' is always the awkward jumping off point.

That said -- I have some concerns, that I imagine other folks have, as well.

While I love the staff you've got, only two of you have completed a full term. What is the plan to retain the folks you have, and possibly grow as the intention of game is to do the same? Likewise, both you and Justin are involved in running other games -- with burnout having effected multiple staffs post-reset in the past, how will you combat the same?

I have asked every member of my proposed staff to give me a full term. Some of them have had some terms (I want to play Werewolf once in awhile, I don’t want to handle OOG Drama, ect.) I intend to find what they love about storytelling and reinforce that. For example, you were logistics, you didn’t want to run scenes; I was not in a position to answer several emails a day, etc.

I have yet to become burnt out running a game. I ran mage for some few years, and loved it.

Are there other incentives or recruitment methods outside of (what others have described as) a reliance on the card-game-of ECC? An incredibly singular one time 'bump' of a free card doesn't seem something likely to draw people back, if their reason has been the insurgence of cards during the tenures that followed the reset, or if there were disagreements with persons at game, or other myriad problems that aren't necessarily addressed with your taking over as HST.

I plan on keeping the card incentive, and I plan on supplementing that with an amazing involved story. I hope that people bring their friends because they want them to be a part of the story we as staff and you as players can create.

In addition, I plan on contacting former players and coaxing the willing back. I have plans for 3 PR people to help with flyers, web site/presences ratings, as well as free ads to bolster the numbers.

With the reset, our intention was that downtimes were to capture things that happen away from game, returning downtimes that had a required scene at game to be available for use. Is there a reason why we're going towards scenes derived from or necessitated by a downtime? It's always seemed to me that, so long as Downtimes have clear boundaries on how they're needed, they can conform to their original intention.

So, I want to go back to the way we had downtimes being used during Rob’s. I want to make sure you get answers in a timely manner, with relevant data. I would like to cut some of the downtimes down to facilitate that. By cut, I mean I want them responded to either short and sweet (no/few solo manifesto(s)) or perhaps be performed at game as scenes. Even while I served under the reset staff there were times we got bogged down with responses, and things went out late. The staff and I are starting meetings soon and this will be one of our first topics to hash out.

Is there currently a perception that caps of various sorts aren't being upheld? I know that things like Caste and Concept have been a 'creation' (concept/generation) or upward-ceiling (status portion of caste) of what one can aspire towards, however just based off observations of things like clans and status, I don't necessarily see us having a huge problem in this respect?

The ratio seems a little off, but I don’t have anything exact as I don’t have access to the staff database. I also do not see a "huge problem", but we do want to preserve a setting-appropriate ratio of concepts. Hopefully, we will have an increase in our player numbers, and I want to be clear that character concepts are not "anything goes", and we will say no to aspects which we feel are already over-represented, or don't have sufficient cause to be represented.

Regarding a departure from the forums, while I can agree with some aspects on where you're coming from, having a "Fan Page" on Facebook strips away much of the player discussion that a Group Page or a Forum would allow. Likewise, two of the other games you regularly attend -- Alliance and Gothic -- are still very reliant on Forums, utilizing Facebook group pages for out of character discussion. How do you view ECC, a more regularly occurring game, as different for their use of them?

I don’t think Gothic and Alliance use them regularly. I think they use them, but all of the intel that the posts exist comes from Facebook posts that point them there (making all the forum more of an archive.). I’m hoping that at most the forums become a similar archive.

Last, from the looks of it, we (Vampire) are the only ones using the forum on a regular basis.

We discussed this point on Saturday, however I still see canceling game during Gothic weekends as damaging for game as a whole. Even if there is a dip of attendance that weekend, we see a sustained loss of attendance the following week, as players are generally less inclined to attend a game that has had a mainstay of 'being there'. With the stated intention to run a game for Gothic every six weeks, that's canceling 17% of a year's games, a figure that increases if other holidays or conventions see cancellations for ECC, as well.

This idea is a proposal, pending the collection of more data. I am working With Justin, and some volunteers to keep game running those nights as still combat light nights. I did not want to win the elections and drop this on players retroactively. I will say that I would like to see some more inter-game relations with other LARPS to try and boost our numbers.

With the stated intention towards increasing in-gathering plots (Which I'm assuming is more politically-aimed/oriented stories), are there any other types of stories that the goal is to engage with? Often times, those focused on an 'in gathering' playstyle are hoping to avoid combat, and we've seen others look towards using the gathering as something counter to that, putting combat on those people that want anything but.

I have a season planned with a large story arcs, as well as quarterly arcs, leading to a finale. I also have the bundle of fishbowl plots, and caste flaw stories to do. I plan on trying to run a deeper immersion plot every 2 months or so to help clans feel more connected.

Are there any other goals in respect to NOTR or site? I know there have been "I'm old, get off my lawn" shaped murmurs about how late game goes previously, as well as the cost of the B&GC, even with the efforts made to reduce them. Likewise, we have a charter for game that hasn't been truly revisited since its inception, with a fairly restrictive stance on attendance and voting (5 games within 6 months from night-of election), and what appears to be a still-standing proposal on how to add additional spheres, with nothing citing how one actually closes.

I do have a potential site on the hook for about $200 less than we pay now with no need for a haunted house. I do want to roll the game times back to 2000-0000 (8pm-midnight). I will be in close communication with the site, as well as the other games to see viability.

I want to fix some of the holes in the charter, I couldn’t agree more that they need action. I plan on being proactive on this.

Is there an intended 'use' of Player Advocates during your tenure? The last 18 months since my initial voting-in as a PA, I've seen a number of topics come and go, and discussions come through for various directions (Shocking, can't go into any of the details, what with the PA's confidentiality piece). But how do you intend to use, elect, etc. individuals to represent Players?

We will employ PA’s as we always have. I intend to take their advice, as well as use them from time to time when the situations arise.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[Sir Eric Locke]

Most of your platform I can get on board with. It all seems pretty fair and reasonable. The one major concern I have mirrors Brads comments on canceling game for Gothic.

I do not like the idea of our game being cancelled for Gothic weekends. It's true our game has a large dip in attendance because many of our players play in Gothic. But there are still many players who do not play in Gothic (or any of the weekend larps for that matter) who still want to play ECC. It's unfair to them to cancel game because other players are at another game.

I will also point out that Gothic isn't the only weekend larp that our players also play in. If we are cancelling game for Gothic how long before the players of other larps want us to cancel for their games too.

[Harmony]

I am totally on-board with not taking a break from ECC because of Gothic...
...please don't take my role play away =/

[Wolf]

Good news all! I have spoken with some volunteer staffers, and we will be running game gothic weekends. We will have a plot ten and a full have available on said weekends. Thank you Jaron, and Nate! You guys are awesome.

[Wolf]

A few more weeks left before we vote.
I have 4 seasons and a tied them into an overall story arc down. I think you'll love what's coming.

Also thanks to Marissa for volunteering to be a new player hostess and PR person (I'm hoping all my players will be)

Jaron and Nathan for volunteering to be Jr staff members for Gothic days to keep the game fully staffed.

Chantelle for being a more involved Jr staff member.

Seth for volunteering to be paper table.

Zoey who will help with some digital art projects.

Justin Who will be helping out with some web development.

[Wolf]

I have a Deco team leader, and im looking for 2 more people to help her out. Im hoping to use some of the donations to build our ambiance up a little.

[Barnaby Cuthbert]

Questions for Candidate Wolf:

To begin I'd like to thank you for running for what is often a thankless job. I'd also like to request that the following questions be treated as a neutral tone, without any accusational intentions. Tone does not always transfer over text well. My primary interest is in the longevity and wellbeing of the games I love and have volunteered to support for a decade and change. Some of these questions have been similarly posed, but I have my own take on a few that I would appreciate a response to.

Regarding changing downtimes, Pg. 513 of the V20 corebook defines downtimes as:
• Downtime: The time spent between scenes, where no roleplaying is done and turns are not used. Actions might be made, and the Storyteller might give some descriptions, but generally time passes quickly. It also refers to a technique of “off-scene” roleplaying that Storytellers can use.
Previously these actions on the downtime forms were created to:
- Allow staff to confer on how actions would effect one-another midweek
- Fulfill the definition above
- Take the papertable 'online' when it comes to lengthy research actions that would fill up the LARP with dice-rolling rather than roleplaying.
If we can generally agree on those definitions, my questions are:
1. If you're planning to make downtimes something other than this, how will you keep all of your staff in the loop when people take multiple criscrossing actions that would effect one-another, but in real-time at game there's no groupmind to allow you/staff to know that? This is a logistics problem as I see it.
2. A lot of downtimes are boring by their nature. It's not meant to be Research: The Library. How will you keep those kinds of things that many don't actively want to roll play out in the first place from becoming 'papers and paychecks?'.
3. If you've got a lot of staff doing downtime scenes at game, do you anticipate them becoming too busy to handle other on the fly stuff like PvP? In general how do you see that balance working?

Related to it being 'hard mode' for non-Camarilla core clan caps, how do you intend to enforce that as a staff, or do you expect the other PCs to do so naturally? Does that include those with Rare Concepts in general or just the non-Cam ones?

Related to Internet presence - Is there a particular problem with the forums that you see facebook solving? For short bursts of info it's great, but for longer form things like stories, candidate debates (such as these) it falls behind a bit. That said, use of the forums has dropped off as social media platforms have risen, but often longer posts written here and linked on Facebook have proven worthwhile. Just trying to get a grasp on the reasoning behind this strategy in general.

Gaming location/site changes: I don't have enough data to decide if the ideas you're bringing to the table have merit or not. I can say that moving game times would need to be worked out with the other spheres. Less money is generally good, but the location is a question, and I like that members of this game inherently give back to their community by nature of their existence. I acknowledge that it can be stressful however. For a weekly game, the U-district location has proven invaluable for retention over the two decades of gaming under the auspices of Emerald Chronicles. So I have lots of potential concerns that I'd be happy to have allayed. Is there more information about this you can provide?

Holes in the charter: What changes do you intend to put before the other sphere HSTs to change, specifically, and what issues are they meant to address, specifically?

Related to leadership: Again, please view this tone as neutral. I do think this is a question that needs to be addressed however: As the President of NOTR you did not uphold your commitment to assist with the Haunted House this last year. Many members of this community were left quite suddenly scrambling to pick up a clear lack of leadership at the 11th hour. In addition, not only were you the President of NOTR, but you had prior taken ownership of multiple aspects of the Haunted House process as well as personal commitments to run numerous scenes in the haunted house (which were not necessarily commitments you were required to make as NOTR President). Your sudden and unexplained disappearance could have jeopardized the entire community's gaming space, our reputation with the B&GC and not to mention the commitments that the B&GC had made to the community at large. Please explain why you chose to remove yourself from those responsibilities that you had publicly accepted without explanation to the community you served without notice. More importantly, can you guarantee that such an act will not occur in the future?

Thank you for your kind attention. Again, people in the past have enjoyed taking my words out of context and assuming their meaning. If anyone chooses to advise you about my meaning other than what is written here, I urge you to request clarification rather than assume such. That goes for candidates, potential and existing staff, NOTR people and other players.

Thanks again,

- Chris Schetzle

[Barnaby Cuthbert]

Not a question, but a statement. I also have no interest in Gothic. I don't think that Gothic adds anything to this game. I don't think that the suggestion to cancel game on Gothic weekends has merit either, and I'll be glad to hear when that's no longer on the table. I support the right of players to make choices about how they spend their time, but we don't owe Gothic any support as a community in my opinion. If any partnerships are suggested, I'd hope that they are actual partnerships and not just an intent to take from one community and give to another without parity, as has been the feeling I've had in the past from that community.

[Wolf]

Hi, thanks for the questions. I have done my best to answer them in line.

1.If you're planning to make downtimes something other than this, how will you keep all of your staff in the loop when people take multiple criscrossing actions that would effect one-another, but in real-time at game there's no groupmind to allow you/staff to know that? This is a logistics problem as I see it.

First let me quote my platform, as well as some detail in this thread.

“Downtimes: I will be simplifying them, so we can make sure to answer them in a 30 day window. Aside from learning, blood spends, influence, and so on, we may/will tell you that resolution will come at game. I would like to see downtimes spends for cool scenes at game, in some sort of LARP setting. . “

“So, I want to go back to the way we had downtimes being used during Rob’s. I want to make sure you get answers in a timely manner, with relevant data. I would like to cut some of the downtimes down to facilitate that. By cut, I mean I want them responded to either short and sweet (no/few solo manifesto(s) or perhaps be performed at game as scenes. Even while I served under the reset staff there were times we got bogged down with responses, and things went out late. The staff and I are starting meetings soon and this will be one of our first topics to hash out.”

That being re-stated. The scenes I would like to see as a DT (Downtime) are influence(s), mentor(s), research etc. So, the definition of it all is not changing.

I plan on using the list, as well as monitoring the ongoing scenes in as real time as I can, via a shared google doc with my crew.

I also have a dedicated person assigned to DTs (catching them as they trickle in during the mid week, and sorting what work needs be done with them.) and he will be providing lists of scenes that need to be run as well as making sure they get answered.


You were gifted with your DT responses, masterworked even. However, us mere mortals must make do with what we can and give summary answers that lead to cool scenes at game.

2. A lot of downtimes are boring by their nature. It's not meant to be Research: The Library. How will you keep those kinds of things that many don't actively want to roll play out in the first place from becoming 'papers and paychecks?'.

I feel like I address this above, but these scenes will be done in DT, but without the lengthy responses which may not add much to the game as a whole. We will (in the interest of keeping up with DTs instead of dropping them into the void) worship brevity in those scenes. When sending a letter to your mentor (depending on the subject matter) I would like to answer some of those with physical letters at game or via an agent dropping by.


3. If you've got a lot of staff doing downtime scenes at game, do you anticipate them becoming too busy to handle other on the fly stuff like PvP? In general how do you see that balance working?

“Wolf Conn: Head storyteller. It will be my job to maintain and monitor the list. I will be answering question about the game and its mechanics. I will assist and guide new players into the game. I will also run and oversee all PVP actions.”

I will also have junior staff members to jump in, if we find ourselves in a pinch.
I have 1 dedicated staff member for managing and compiling the downtimes during the midweek, and they will then be addressed by most staff during the midweek period. We’ll determine which ones will be handled at game, and they will be added to the list and addressed as any other scene would be.
This part of the handling of mid weeks will reflect a lot of what we did while we were on staff.

Relating to it being ‘hard mode’ for non-Camarilla core clan caps, how do you intend to enforce that as a staff, or do you expect the other PCs to do so naturally?
Does that include those with Rare Concepts in general or just the non-Cam ones?

Both/all. I want to tell stories as seen from the Camarilla canon. Some rare concepts may be harder than others. For example, a Setite with status will have to work harder to keep themselves well thought of, than a Ventrue of the same rank.

The stories told for those players will be understood from the beginning to be more difficult, and it will be more challenging for them to get some things done. My hope is, like some people enjoy playing Dark Souls on ‘Why am i doing this’ mode, it will be something that they find interesting.

I expect that staff will set the example with our plots and NPCs as to how these rare and non-Camarilla concepts should be treated ICly by the PCs. We can also offer advice and guidance to new players who may be unfamiliar with setting.

- Is there a particular problem with the forums that you see facebook solving? For short bursts of info it's great, but for longer form things like stories, candidate debates (such as these) it falls behind a bit. That said, use of the forums has dropped off as social media platforms have risen, but often longer posts written here and linked on Facebook have proven worthwhile. Just trying to get a grasp on the reasoning behind this strategy in general.

Brad- “Regarding a departure from the forums, while I can agree with some aspects on where you're coming from, having a "Fan Page" on Facebook strips away much of the player discussion that a Group Page or a Forum would allow. Likewise, two of the other games you regularly attend -- Alliance and Gothic -- are still very reliant on Forums, utilizing Facebook group pages for out of character discussion. How do you view ECC, a more regularly occurring game, as different for their use of them?”

Wolf- “I don’t think Gothic and Alliance use them regularly. I think they use them, but all of the intel that the posts exist comes from Facebook posts that point them there (making all the forum more of an archive.). I’m hoping that at most the forums become a similar archive.”

I want more of a Facebook presence with links to the forums. I want them to post there (or try to auto populate) the information. I want content to be seen and read by a larger audience, and the reality is that more new people will see a Facebook page then will go to the forums.


I don't have enough data to decide if the ideas you're bringing to the table have merit or not. I can say that moving game times would need to be worked out with the other spheres. Less money is generally good, but the location is a question, and I like that members of this game inherently give back to their community by nature of their existence. I acknowledge that it can be stressful however. For a weekly game, the U-district location has proven invaluable for retention over the two decades of gaming under the auspices of Emerald Chronicles. So I have lots of potential concerns that I'd be happy to have allayed. Is there more information about this you can provide?

For the record, this is not part of my platform. I will try as both HST and as the president of NOTR to do what is best for all games. As for as more information, no, I can't provide more specifics yet. I have not physically seen the venue yet, and I have only had an introduction to the staff themselves. I will present everything, once I have a solid plan.

What changes do you intend to put before the other sphere HSTs to change, specifically, and what issues are they meant to address, specifically?

Adding a sphere, attendance and voting mainly.

Again, please view this tone as neutral. I do think this is a question that needs to be addressed however:
As the President of NOTR you did not uphold your commitment to assist with the Haunted House this last year. Many members of this community were left quite suddenly scrambling to pick up a clear lack of leadership at the 11th hour. In addition, not only were you the President of NOTR, but you had prior taken ownership of multiple aspects of the Haunted House process as well as personal commitments to run numerous scenes in the haunted house (which were not necessarily commitments you were required to make as NOTR President). Your sudden and unexplained disappearance could have jeopardized the entire community's gaming space, our reputation with the B&GC and not to mention the commitments that the B&GC had made to the community at large. Please explain why you chose to remove yourself from those responsibilities that you had publicly accepted without explanation to the community you served without notice. More importantly, can you guarantee that such an act will not occur in the future?

I believe that if I elaborate on the reasons I stepped back, it would only serve to hurt and upset the community. I won’t give all the reasons for my stepping back for that reason. I will instead tell you this: I informed ALL of my officers well in advance of what was happening and why, and was met with care and support for it (Justin, Denise, Brad, and Elsbeth are amazing people, and we have spent several years in the trenches and still to this day share an amazing bond. )

During that time period, I still answered questions from the BNGC, I still sent all the people to their correct locations when questioned, I still supplied ideas to those who needed and offered as much background support to the players as I could.
After the fact, I asked every member of the board if they wanted me to serve, if they wanted to keep me as their leader. All of them said yes.

As far as this happening in the future. I love this community, I love these people, And I refuse to sit by the wayside and complain. I instead will do everything in my power to make sure that this community survives, so I run for HST.
I am and will continue to be one of the most faithful and loyal contributors to this community.

Not a question, but a statement. I also have no interest in Gothic. I don't think that Gothic adds anything to this game. I don't think that the suggestion to cancel game on Gothic weekends has merit either, and I'll be glad to hear when that's no longer on the table. I support the right of players to make choices about how they spend their time, but we don't owe Gothic any support as a community in my opinion. If any partnerships are suggested, I'd hope that they are actual partnerships and not just an intent to take from one community and give to another without parity, as has been the feeling I've had in the past from that community.

“Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.”

-James Cash Penney

I will foster good will with ALL the larping communities that supply the wonderful feelings to their community members that ECC has given to ours.

Also I am not sure if you saw it or not, but I've found a workaround, and will not be cancelling game for Gothic.

[Barnaby Cuthbert]

Thank you for the well-reasoned responses and for taking the time to answer my occasionally repetitive questions.

[Wolf]

Added Arthur's Bio!

[Wolf]

I will be bringing a clipboard and some paper . I would love to hear some of the ongoing plots from the players perspective. We plan on tying up any loose ends so that we can get rolling into the new season. I hope to see all of you on Saturday, and if not I certainly hope that you have your proxy votes ready to go.

[Wolf]

The vote is tomorrow! Wish your candidate luck, and don't forget to proxy of you're not able to attend.