General Questions for ST Candidates

[Evan]

Jane Schetzle's Questions:

1) Will you create a list of scene types/themes that your various staff like to run and make it available to everyone so players can chose ST which are suited to the direction they want to go? Do you see any pro/cons with this idea?

The list we are planning on making right now will be a write up of each recurring NPC, mortal or otherwise that we are using for regular PC interaction. We will be making note of current relationships with PCs (and discussing these interactions in ST meetings) so that players do not need to wait in line for a specific ST to have a short phone call or long conversation about X, Y or Z.

While this system was not designed with players avoiding staff members they dislike in mind, it will be a helpful method to resolve that issue as well.

The largest difficulty we are going to need to overcome with this system is that if a specific NPC meets with a number of PCs over the course of a night, it will be simplest to have the same staff member running those interactions to keep up internal consistency. This is a limitation of the game delivery method we play under and not something easily fixed.

That being said, any recommendations or suggestions to alleviate bottle necking are more than welcome!

2) At what point in a conflict resolution would ever walk away from the 'table' and why?

When polite discourse and rational conflict resolution have failed, I will excuse myself from the table. If elected to the position of HST, what this will mean is that if direct discussion, PA intervention and other methods to resolve a dispute or conflict are not successful AND the other party involved is showing an intractable and/or irrational point of view that is damaging to the resolution process, I will make it clear that I cannot resolve the issue further and will ask the aggrieved party to either move on with the hopes of discussing the issue with the next staff or if that proves impossible, to take a break from game.

If the other party in these discussions becomes volatile, hostile or disrespectful to the point of disrupting our job as STs to run the game, I will utilize the three strike system previous staffs have turned to in these situations. This will be a LAST RESORT if rational discourse fails.

3) How exactly would you like to leave the game after your run as HST, more specifically what would like your legacy to be when looking back 5 years later?

I'd like my legacy to be a number of active, player driven plots that are still rolling years later along with a clean pair of character creation and house rules pages on the website. This second part is a responsibility that falls directly onto the HST and one that I aim to resolve within the first few months of being elected (quicker, baring any large rules issues).

4) How will you help to create a tomorrow for the game? (working on haunted house, other traditions you want to start/keep/make more prominent)

I think having a community as generous and organized as EC can be is a huge boon to the larger community we all live in. While my primary focus will necessarily be on the players and PCs of the Campire {sic} sphere, maintaining the donation and assistance drives the game keeps moving as well as supporting our existing support mechanisms (Mad Dog, B&GC, etc) through regular events will be high on my priority list. In cases where these organizations have a 'go-to' person in the community already, I'll focus on assisting that person meet needs and facilitate them getting the word out. At the times a new point of contact is needed to keep up traditions and assist outside folks, I'll work to make sure players at Vampire are asking themselves "how can I find a way to fit this into my schedule?"

That's a lot of talk about encouraging and supporting others in assisting outside groups - the other side of my answer is that the best way I can focus on any sort of Vampire 'tomorrow' is to make sure I am working as hard and as honestly as I can to help the game thrive and grow by telling fun stories and maintaining a balanced field of play.

5) Is player trust important to you? Why?/

Rick asked almost this exact question in his post. My short answer is 'yes, incredibly'. My long answer is best written earlier in the thread. Please take a look.

6)What aspects of the Big Picture, the world of darkness in it's entirety do you want to focus on/showcase/bring to the fore ground?

Fantastic question! I want to explore how the Camarilla functions as an organization while maintaining the isolation that each specific City should feel as outlined in the Guide to the Camarilla and The Guilded Cage. I aim to do this by taking much of the perceived general focus of the Camarilla off Seattle and instead use NPC vampires connected to characters (allies, mentors, contacts, enemies, etc) to filter information and promote specific directions for characters - allowing PCs to take control in coordinating their groups of PC allies to make and meet goals.

I want the City to be a microcosm for the larger Camarilla and the PCs to explore the need to set up hierarchies and utilize boons and status to get work done.

7) Want concepts from the others spheres would you like to include? Ghost stories/spirituality/dreams/creativity/reality?

When possible, I'd like to avoid the other lines of White-Wolf games. Werewolves make great antagonists and reason for Vampires to stick to the sickly yellow lights of the city, but mapping out a Cairne, Chantry or Freehold will be putting a lot of ST focus on NPCs instead of the actions PCs take.

In general, I think faith, spirituality, humanity, the nature of Vampiric existence and the undercurrents of paranoia at the thought that what you think of as 'free will' may simply be the best laid plans of sleeping giants are a lot of ground to cover and we can get a lot of mileage out of those stories.

I'm excited to see what themes and concepts players bring to the table/are working on now. That is going to define the larger directions I want to go in and what facets of the above I will focus on.

Thank you for reading,

-Evan

[Styx]

1) Will you create a list of scene types/themes that your various staff like to run and make it available to everyone so players can chose ST which are suited to the direction they want to go? Do you see any pro/cons with this idea?

I'll say right here and now that I have no intention of turning any player away for ANY scene, with one exception: I don't want to run boring combat. By this , I mean, I want to make it cinematic, fun, and have people actually ROLEPLAY the combat. If you enjoy standing around and throwing three hours of chops, You'll want to go to someone else. I intend to simplify the combat scenes I run, because instead of people remembering the fight they were in as "I tested up twice-then got three successes-then they tested down once-then got two successes-then I tested for damage and got 7 successes-then blah-blah-blah" I want people to walk away from a combat scene going " Holy shit that was awesome when the roof came down in a hail of flame and we were fighting in the midst of the building burning! And then the kung-fu gunkata fight kicked SO MUCH ASS!"
As a reference, I watch a lot of action films and Asian kung-fu flicks, and that's how I'm gonna roll.

2) At what point in a conflict resolution would ever walk away from the 'table' and why?

I would walk away from the table, if it became clear that we had an unresolvable impasse. Fortunately, as an AST, I'd be able to hand it up the chain of command if it's something I couldn't resolve. But I tend to try to see all sides of the argument, for better or worse.

3) How exactly would you like to leave the game after your run as AST, more specifically what would like your legacy to be when looking back 5 years later?

I'd like to know that I did the best job I could, and I'd be flattered if people would still talk about scenes I had run for them. As far as the game goes, I'd like to be able to reestablish some of the trust between players and staff, and I'd like the game to be more open to new ways of thinking.

4) How will you help to create a tomorrow for the game? (working on haunted house, other traditions you want to start/keep/make more prominent)

I think it would start with rebuilding trust for the Staff, AND for the players.

5) Is player trust important to you? Why?

Trust is important to me for two reasons:
First, it's EXTREMELY difficult and EXTREMELY unrewarding to try storytelling a scene for the players when those players have their arms folded over their chests and scowls on their faces because they think you're screwing them over.

Secondly, if the player can trust me to accurately arbitrate a scene and infuse chaos, fun, and emotion into it, THEY'RE going to have a heck of a lot more fun.

6)What aspects of the Big Picture, the world of darkness in it's entirety do you want to focus on/showcase/bring to the fore ground?

Well, I'm more interested in the character's own personal WoD than in the "Big Picture" as it were. I've never been a fan of the "this is important because it's a MAJOR Cammarilla scandal happening over in Europe" , because unless that particular character has personal ties and/or vested interests in the parties involved, WHo CARES? However, if your character has Political Influence here in Seattle and one of the political contacts in your back pocket just gets Planted right in the middle of a major pedophile scandal, THAT'S important to your ongoing political dealings. That is fun. So I want to focus much more on a character's nightly struggles, and on how they interact with the outside world, and the ripples that they cause even by the most mundane of action.

7) Want concepts from the others spheres would you like to include? Ghost stories/spirituality/dreams/creativity/reality?

The back of the main books has rules on using werewolves, wraiths, and other things, that don't necessarily match up with the other Sphere games, and yet can give adequate fodder for use in a vampire game. I'd be fine with running stories using those basics, and keeping the most powerful tool an ST has in their employ in the foreground: The ST makes the rules. We can switch things up to keep the players on their toes, at any time.

[Rex Fisher]

Jane Schetzle's Questions:

1) Will you create a list of scene types/themes that your various staff like to run and make it available to everyone so players can chose ST which are suited to the direction they want to go? Do you see any pro/cons with this idea?

“I have a little list, and none of them be missed, and none of them be missed”
Ko-ko “The Mikado”

I like lists, in-fact, those of you who used to remember my ventrue Wesson Carmichael, one of his mottos was “Always work from a list.”

I will be making lots of list, some of them available to players, many not.

Available to Players1	Not available to players
Merits and Flaws used in ECC, and their caps	NPC book
Index of house rules and pages found on	Influence Tracking System
Feeding Mods (if we go back to old system-or if it will streamline the new system)	My queue list for running scenes (your place on the list is ok but not who’s ahead of you)
Things that make it easier to be a player without revealing the part that makes game fun…	My queue list for talking to players(your place on the list is ok but not who’s ahead of you)
Nos info network (must make a test first!)	My staffs queue list for the above(your place on the list is ok but not who’s ahead of you)

Lists I will not be making:
Who will run what type of scene
Who hates which ST or AST
How many times I tell a creative player “No, the system isn’t designed for that, but did you think of…..”
How many blond hairs I pick of my shirt the belong to my wife
And a list of thing I won’t make a list of

2) At what point in a conflict resolution would ever walk away from the 'table' and why?

I hope to never have to be that guy, I have great communication skills, and am pretty good at getting the other party to stay reasonable in their conduct. But I would walk away and instruct my staff to do the same if the player became: (look another list) violent, abusive, threatening, they were concerned for their safety, the moon turns red during the discussion. Though once the player or moon is back to normal hopefully we could conclude the process. (Though also remember any of the above list (except the moon) may place the player in a three strike situation.)

3) How exactly would you like to leave the game after your run as HST, more specifically what would like your legacy to be when looking back 5 years later?

That’s easy: better than I found it! My legacy….wow I don’t know…maybe they will refer to my staff then as “the cool staff”, or “back in the day”, maybe have found memories about our story or their PC…I really haven’t thought about that, so I guess I want them to remember us as “the staff that had it all together.”

4) How will you help to create a tomorrow for the game? (Working on haunted house, other traditions you want to start/keep/make more prominent)

Planning on keeping the haunted house
Planning on keeping the “Christmas drive for a charity”
Planning on keeping Christmas/New Year’s Party
Planning on keeping Masque Ball
Planning on keeping Halloween party
Planning on keeping mini-events
Planning on keeping lists

5) Is player trust important to you? Why?

Yes (please see previous post and….)

It is not fun to play with people you don’t trust
When there is good mutual trust staff becomes more of an acting coach and less of an administrator (if you want to know more about this come talk to me about AST Adam as my own private diaper, good times!)
Staff hates doing those trust drills when the player lets go
Players hate doing those trust drills when the staff lets go
Without mutual trust, partnershipping in telling story will fail
No one would read my lists

6)What aspects of the Big Picture, the world of darkness in it's entirety do you want to focus on/showcase/bring to the fore ground?

MORTALS!
Status
Choices
Consequences
Clan Flaws
The role of blood
The boon economy
The NPC’s will be true to the atmosphere of the world
Elders who work from lists

7) Want concepts from the others spheres would you like to include? Ghost stories/spirituality/dreams/creativity/reality?

Were wolfs make great adversaries and they are all around town, if story goes that way and PC’s poke the furies….it could be fun.
Fairies like to mess with vampires, if players poke at that well it could be fun
Hunters always have time for vampires…and if players poke at that (or have a background) it could be fun.
Mummies (Sylvester and Sylvia at the old curiosity shop) and if the players poke at it, it could be fun (King Tut is coming to Seattle in 2012 so the next staff may get that one)
Mages have some “different and interesting views of vampires” and if the players poke at it, it could be fun.
Demons are bad…very bad, and if the players poke at it, well it could be fun
Kindred of the East, very tuff, like iron nails, if players poke at that, could be fun
The List Keeper_TM may show up!

Thanks for the questions Jane.
Be safe,
Jeffrey

[Webmonkey]

I've deleted each post that was a personal one. Toni's and Ben's response to that, and Jane's. Please feel free to rant at a single person on the rant board, or start a new thread, like Broney has.

I apologise for calling out individuals in my first post. I could have handled that better. Rather than incising single chunks from that, I'll simply take my lumps in the court of public opinion.

For the record, I only skimmed Toni's and Ben's and Jane's posts. I don't really know the details of what was contained within, so if anyone has something they'd like to say to me personally, please send me a PM/Email or heck, try that whole phone thing. It's Oldfangled, but it might work better than text on the internets.

[Skarr]

Nov 26, 2010 13:47:41 GMT -8 Rick said:

Rick's Questions:
For yourself, as an individual, what do you feel is the first priority of any storyteller?

The first priority of an ST should be even-handedness across the board. Even if they have a personal problem or dislike with a player, that player should still be treated as fairly as someone they do like. Favoritism is the enemy of a balanced game.

Why did you agree to step up to the role as an ST. Also, for those STs who are staying on staff, what has been your motivation to remain in the position of AST?

In the nearly ten years I've been playing at this game, there have been many times that I've thought to myself, "how would I have handled that scene/plot twist/rules call differently? How might I have done it better?" A desire to answer these questions by example was what drove me to run for Sabbat HST, and led me to accept Evan's offer when he approached me about being on his staff. I've also seen a lot of things done well in my time here, and want to reinforce those aspects of the game.

What would you like to do, as an ST, during your term? What general changes would you like to see?

As I said in my introduction post on the Team Evan thread, I want to tell dynamic, interactive stories that tap into PC's connections to the world. I threw out the phrase "Dynamic Sandbox" before, so let me address what I mean by that.

The Dynamic Sandbox model refers to an open-ended world in which a character can have an impact on the world through their actions and decisions, and the world can have an impact on them as well. Want to rape someone's business interests through a combination of multiple low-level influence actions and some tricksy resource management? I think you should be able to do it, but don't be surprised if someone comes back after you for it later. there are consequences for every action, good or bad, major or minor.

As an ST, are you willing to look up a rule you're unsure of?

Absolutely. I did so frequently as Sabbat HST.

As an ST are you willing to admit/own up to mistakes or apologize for mistakes that YOU make that significantly affect a PC or group of PCs?

Yes. However, it should be noted that not everything perceived as a mistake actually IS. often times there is a lot going on that players and their characters do not and should not know about to protect the integrity of the game. A perfect example of this was the death of Jean-Lionel. There was a lot of plotting, planning, and obscure power usage behind what happened there, and a lot of people were unhappy because they didn't know the whole story. But in order for them to know everything that happened, the STs would have had to reveal secrets of other PCs, and that wouldn't have been fair.

How important do you feel player trust in a staff is?

Trust is a two-way street. The players need to be able to trust the staff to run a fair game and apply the rules properly. But at the same time, the STs need to be able to trust that the players are going to be true to their characters and not cheat or metagame. It absolutely SUCKS as an ST when you come up with something cool and intriguing to throw at PCs, and their immediate response is along the lines of "ST MACHINATIONS! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!" In order to run a Dynamic Sandbox properly, it is absolutely essential that players and STs trust each other, at least to the point that they can go to each other and say, "hey, Thing X you did doesn't seem right. What gives?"

As an ST, in general, how would you portray the World of Darkness?

The WoD is a darker version of the real world, but that does not mean it's all terrible. While stories in it are generally dark and noir-ish, a key element for good storytelling is the existence of Hope. Whether it's the glimmer of possibility that maybe the Garou CAN beat back the Wyrm, or that inhumane bloodsucking creatures of darkness CAN fight their Beasts, or that maybe, just maybe, the Dreaming CAN be preserved against the onslaught of Banality, Hope is a vital component to any WoD story. If only so that it's that much more tragic and dramatic when a character fails to maintain it and plunges into darkness. Without Hope, the supernaturals of the WoD are just a bunch of emo motherfuckers lamenting the deep dark blackness of their souls and writing bad poetry about how they can never win.

Chris Schetzle's Questions (Abbreviated):

Question 1: Story is important to you? How do you figure?

Story is the root of why we play. Without story, all we are doing on Saturday nights is self-congratulatory character masturbation. It's fun and makes us feel good, but ultimately it's shallow and pointless in the larger scheme of things.

What would you have done differently than the current staff?

This is difficult to answer, because having not been on the staff and privy to what they knew as STs, I don't have access to everything that went into their decision making process. Every ST staff is, for the most part, a different entity. All staffs are going to do things differently than the one preceding and the one following it.

Question # 3: What is the point of Player Advocates who don't actually advocate?

PAs that don't do their job as PAs should be relieved of their position. However, just because you don't like the answer they can give you due to confidentiality agreements doesn't mean they're not advocating. PAs are there to mediate disputes between players, STs, and other players. That is the extent of their job.

Jane Schetzle's Questions:

1) Will you create a list of scene types/themes that your various staff like to run and make it available to everyone so players can chose ST which are suited to the direction they want to go? Do you see any pro/cons with this idea?

I don't feel that this would be a good idea, nor would it be very productive. Having certain STs for certain kinds of scenes would create an unfair backlog for some STs, as well as tacitly encouraging mommy-daddying by players who want a specific ST to run something because they believe they are more likely to get their way. I see no problem, however, with an ST recommending another ST to run a scene if they feel that person would do a better job with the scene in question, or if the other ST has been running a specific NPC and allowing them to do so would better maintain continuity. Once again, this comes down to a trust issue. The players need to be able to trust the staff to use their best judgement, and the STs need to be able to trust that the players are acting honorably and staying true to their character.

2) At what point in a conflict resolution would ever walk away from the 'table' and why?

At the point when it becomes clear that the other party is more interested in bitching and whining until they get their way than coming to a constructive compromise that everyone is at least somewhat happy with. Just because someone says "I don't like this, make it change!" doesn't mean they deserve attention. In fact, giving them credulousness is often just adding fuel to the fire.

3) How exactly would you like to leave the game after your run as HST, more specifically what would like your legacy to be when looking back 5 years later?

I would like to create story and plot that outlives me. I would like to create the kind of thoughtful, impacting stories that still get referenced years down the line. If some future ST staff can take something I introduced into te game and expand on it, then I've done my job properly.

4) How will you help to create a tomorrow for the game? (working on haunted house, other traditions you want to start/keep/make more prominent)

I don't think it's just the responsibility of the ST staff to do this. It's a community game, and so long as the people involved in it continue to do so in a proactive manner, I don't see why it should fall solely on the staff to arbitrate that. If anything, community-building/supporting endeavors should probably be routed through the NPO, since they have better ties to all the spheres. In the same vein, I think the NPO should take over upkeep and maintenance of the website so that the cost and effort involved doesn't fall on just one person.

5) Is player trust important to you? Why?

Yes. Please refer to my previous explanation to similar questions.

6)What aspects of the Big Picture, the world of darkness in it's entirety do you want to focus on/showcase/bring to the fore ground?

I don't think you can really compartmentalize the entire world, nor do I think you should. Player-driven story is going to depend on the characters involved, while Metaplot is going to depend on the ideas the Staff come up with, and both should be reactive to each other. I don't want to "showcase" any particular aspect over any other, because that would be implying that one part of a dynamic world deserves more attention than another. If a PC, through their actions and motives, end up showcasing some aspect of the WoD through their own storylines, that's great, but such things should come organically through plot development and collaborative storytelling, not foisted upon the game by the staff.

7) Want [sic] concepts from the others spheres would you like to include? Ghost stories/spirituality/dreams/creativity/reality?

Being a veteran of the cross-sphere era of SBC, I enjoy utilizing ideas and concepts from other spheres, especially when it takes vampire PCs outside their comfort zones. While I prefer using stats and powers directly from other games, I would defer to Evan on this, since he would be the one running the show. In my personal opinion, the stats and explanations from the back of the vampire books do a disservice to what should be well-rounded, three-dimensional adversaries/co-habitators of the WoD. Not all werewolves ARE mindless murder machines bent on destroying all Vampires. Mages are spooky unknowns that should mystify and confuse other Supernaturals with their reality-bending powerz. And any Kindred foolish enough to tangle with the Fae should serve as an example to other Vampires as to why some things are better left unknown. The spheres are NOT balanced, nor do I think they should be. One of my favorite moments in Sabbat was when Dusty's character went toe-to-toe with a Get of Fenris and barely won the fight, a feat made all the more impressive by the Garou's combat Gifts that should have given him the edge; one of my least favorite moments in Vampire was when Lupines (being run out of the back of the Vampire book) teleported into the back of the war coterie recon van, having used an Auspex-like power to detect us in the first place (something that would have worked differently with Gifts out of the Werewolf books), and pretty much slaughtered us all. Cross-sphere is never something that should be pulled out of an ST's bag of tricks lightly or without forethought, but when done properly, can be very rewarding. Dusty and crew learned first-hand exactly why Garou should be feared, but also that they have a culture that includes a deep dedication to Honor. All the recon team learned was that Lupines are cowardly, punk-ass bitches that fight cheap and magically see through Obfuscate. Which of these lessons do you think led to better roleplaying opportunities in the aftermath? Being able to learn to understand and appreciate your adversaries true nature is ALWAYS a better experience, in my opinion.

[Rick]

Bumped for relevance since we're now about a month out.