Questions to the Candidates

[Lily Esther Allen]

From the Johnson household: The following questions are concerns we personally have and in many cases concerns we have heard from other players. If these questions are repeats of others you may already heard, sorry.





1: Occasionally some NPC’s have what could be referred to as an attack of the stupids. This has been done in order for a character plot to proceed? Will this continue?
A: Billy Brujah unloads an entire clip during celerity in downtown Seattle. Uhm where are the police? The poor homeless schmuck cowering in the corner? And what about the poor custodian who has to clean up the mess? (This does not always happen, but I have seen this occasionally and have not heard is some cases where there was any consequences on the PC.)
B: A visiting NPC or a reoccurring NPC sees or learns something that any self respecting Camarilla member would do something about and sometimes does nothing and usually the OOC rumor is that it is because the PC plot would get screwed and ‘it will be more fun” this way. (Now I understand not all rumors are true but in some cases I am quite sure of the source.)


2: Creation of new rules and systems. I as a player, who is expected to play under these rules and systems, would like to have an opportunity to express my ideas. One way this could be achieved is the ‘rough draft’. This is where literally a rough draft is presented and where constructive comments are solicited. When the time period is over all constructive comments are reviewed and analyzed. Then the final rule is presented. My question is do you feel this would be a good thing to implement? If not please express why.


3: Will you keep the influences and feeding modifiers systems tied together?


4: If an error is made that results in a character death, how will you make right without retconning the death? Before answering please consider if this was done by player manipulation on an overwhelmed AST/ST, or an honest mistake made by a player or AST/ST.


5: Consistency of System: It has been my personal observation that A: White Wolf needs a new editor. B: That what White Wolf has managed to get down on paper maybe, in some cases, interpreted in more than one way. My question is how do you propose to have all of the AST/ST’s on the same sheet of music night after night. It is all well and good to be posted on the board but it is not feasible to be carrying around a laptop connected to the Internet every night. I have personally observed one AST/ST make a call one way and then later in the same night seen another AST/ST make a different call, for the same thing, using a different interpretation and then a few weeks later they switch positions, but still not on the same sheet of music.


6: Status. A heated question to bring up. How do you propose to help the players understand the convoluted ‘status tumbleweed’? I have seen where in some cases position has more power than status and vice versa.
A: Sammy Sheriff, status 3, requires Victoria Ventrue, status 6, to help him NOW in service of his office. Mostly correct, perhaps Sammy Sheriff should not have been so vulgar in his request.
B: Edward Elder, status 6, finds that Katherine Keeper, status 4, broke one of her own rules in Elysium. What is his recourse? He has Camarilla lore 4. True he could ask an AST/ST but would he always get the same answer?
C: Hypernia Harpy, status 8, has been informed by Paul Primogen, status 5, that a boon is owed to him by Nancy Neonate for breaching the Tradition of Hospitality. Nancy Neonate, normally status 2, comes up to Hypernia Harpy with a grand total of 13 status, 11 of which had been loaned and informs the Harpy that Paul Primogen is lying. Now what?
D: Penny Prince, status 10, is having a discussion with some of her “friends”. This gets interrupted by Ronny Rabble-rouser, normally status 4. But several of Ronny’s friends agrees that Penny Prince needs to be to told ‘whats what’ and believe that Ronny is the one to do it. So Ronny Rabble-rouser walks into Penny Prince’s little tête-à-tête with 14 status behind him, some coming from very respected members of the domain. Now what?
E: (Extra credit) Hypernia Harpy learns from several very respected sources that Penny Prince beat down Ronny Rabble-Rouser for interrupting her tête-à-tête with the valid concerns that Katherine Keeper killed Edward Elder for spreading lies about her and her cohort Paul Primogen. Hypernia Harpy decides that Penny Prince is *pinky down * Biased, Katherine Keeper and Penny Prince are the same clan you know. So Penny Prince decides that Hypernia Harpy has to go. Now several Valued Vampires have a problem with this. What is their recourse.


7: When a NPC gets in trouble behind the scenes how do you plan on disseminating this information? IC through appropriate mentors, contacts, allies etc? Through colorful posts OOC but fun to read anyway? Or keep us in the dark because you feel that might be metagaming? IE Penny Prince splotched Hypernia Harpy. Do we ever get to find out how mad the Camarilla got? Do we as players get to see that NPC’s have to face the consequences too? I can accept that my character does not get the information but I as a player get frustrated when an NPC does something wrong and I don’t even hear that anything happened through the PLAYER rumor mill.


8: Do you feel it is better for role-play and game mechanics that the NPC Prince has an all NPC posse at his/her beck and call or do you feel it would be better that the Prince garner a PC/NPC mixed posse? Before answering this question please keep in mind that the Seneschal does not always back the Prince and the Seneschal is usually the first line of contact for the Sheriff, Scourge, Keeper etc.

[Webmonkey]

I just wanted to voice a few concerns I had with your questions posted for the STs. Please take this as constructive criticism. I feel that a ton of your questions are valid and really great, but it is my opinion that some of them could have been stated better and some leave out a few important considerations. Take this as your player advocate giving you some hints on how to better communicate with your STs in the future.

First the obvious: it's the final week of deliberation and you have posted a very long an involved list of questions mid-week. I would be surprised if many of the candidates have time to answer them. If they don't, I wouldn't take it personally.

My biggest concern is that a great many questions are hypothetical, but clearly based on 'real' situations that have come up in the past. Real situations are always unique however. Put real people in the scenarios and they can change dramatically. Let me see if I can show you what I mean by example:

I'm going to pick on a few people here who I hope won't mind just to make a point. Please don't beat me up.

Elder Played by Rick, status 6, finds that Keeper, Played by Michelle status 4, broke one of her own rules in Elysium.

Elder Played by Darrin, status 6, finds that Keeper, Played by Toni status 4, broke one of her own rules in Elysium.

Now I'm not going to make any assumptions as to how these scenarious would be different specifically, the point I am attempting to make is that in both of these scenarios, a storyteller that didn't take into account the personal nature of these players past/present relationships would be dumb.

These questions do not account for or speak to this, even though your examples may be biased by real people in the scenarios that you witnessed that lead you to comment on them in the first place.

I hope that makes sense. It's a tricky thing to explain.

Another thing I see is that from some of the wording of a few of these, some of these questions actually make assumptions that seem unfair or spell out essentially no-win scenarios.

The most obvious of these begins:

If an error is made that results in a character death, how will you make right without retconning the death?

The way this question is worded, it assumes that a player's character has died, an ST has realized that they made an error, (we assume directly relating to the death event itself) and has told the player essentially; "Tough luck buddy, you're dead anyway." I would say that this is not a scenario that any ST would willingly put themselves in. It's like asking a hypothetical question that begins; "So you've just shot a toddler in the park, how will you fix it?" It's not a fair question.

On a side note, if this were a 'trick question', it is my opinion that trick questions have no place in a public forum like this.

Other examples of what I see as perhaps a little unfair, assumptive or lose-lose questions based on how they are worded:

Occasionally some NPC’s have what could be referred to as an attack of the stupids. This has been done in order for a character plot to proceed?

This seems to assume a reason behind NPC actions that you as a player may not be able to justify. Unless an ST says to you: "Yeah I brain farted on that, my bad." then you really can't know all the reasons for an NPC action. Why did Lucita the Lasombra help the Schizmatic Assamites and then apparently join the Sabbat? Was there a reason? Sure. Was this 'a stupid'? I suppose that's a matter of opinion. Why did Merovec betray the Camarilla and attack a high ranking member of clan Ventrue? There were motives, but not every PC knows the reasons behind every shrug of an Antideluvian, nor should they in my opinion.

A visiting NPC or a reoccurring NPC sees or learns something that any self respecting Camarilla member would do something about and sometimes does nothing and usually the OOC rumor is that it is because the PC plot would get screwed and ‘it will be more fun” this way. (Now I understand not all rumors are true but in some cases I am quite sure of the source.)

Same scenario. Why didn't Calebros order the death of Jack Griffin as soon as he knew he was a Camarilla impostor? Shouldn't any 'self respecting' Camarilla prince immediately purge such insurgency from the ranks of his domain? Did STs decide OOC to let him hang around and be all evil cuz it was more fun that way? Nope. There were PC driven, in character reasons for the actions that not all were privy to.

There are other examples, but I feel I've made the point I set out to.

On the other side of things, I do again think that many of the questions asked were good questions, so please don't take this as any kind of bash on your intentions.

The question about consequences for PC actions was great, the one about 'rough drafts' of rules systems put before the players was great, the Influences and Feeding modifiers question, also a good one.

I really like that you brought up rules consistancy and ST/ASTs being on the same page. Speaking as a former HST, that is always a challenge and is a great question for gauging what STs plan to at least try to do there. It benefits all concerned to have rule consistancy. The players get a fair shake and STs don't have to worry about being 'mommy-daddied'.

I also thought it was a very thoughtful question to ask how the newly elected staff will handle explaining the status system in practice vs. on paper.

Anyway, just my .02 on that as a PA and former ST.

Hope this helps clarify a few things for others with questions and of course facilitates better communicaton between players and STs in the long run.

- Chris S. - Player Advocate

[Thornstar]

1: Occasionally some NPC’s have what could be referred to as an attack of the stupids. This has been done in order for a character plot to proceed? Will this continue?
A: Billy Brujah unloads an entire clip during celerity in downtown Seattle. Uhm where are the police? The poor homeless schmuck cowering in the corner? And what about the poor custodian who has to clean up the mess? (This does not always happen, but I have seen this occasionally and have not heard is some cases where there was any consequences on the PC.)
B: A visiting NPC or a reoccurring NPC sees or learns something that any self respecting Camarilla member would do something about and sometimes does nothing and usually the OOC rumor is that it is because the PC plot would get screwed and ‘it will be more fun” this way. (Now I understand not all rumors are true but in some cases I am quite sure of the source.)

General answer: No. Accountability for actions is something I’ll be focusing on both with characters and players.
A.)Billy Brujah vs. Reality: While the backlash might not be immediate, it will be harsh. On top of any punishment the Masquer levies, presuming the position is held by a PC as it is now, the world itself will respond. In various ways, the BAD IDEA that is using vampiric powers in public will put a serious hurting on the offending Kindred.
B.) In short, No. This shouldn’t be happening. If the rumor starts anyway, it is important that the issue be addressed OOC.

2: Creation of new rules and systems. I as a player, who is expected to play under these rules and systems, would like to have an opportunity to express my ideas. One way this could be achieved is the ‘rough draft’. This is where literally a rough draft is presented and where constructive comments are solicited. When the time period is over all constructive comments are reviewed and analyzed. Then the final rule is presented. My question is do you feel this would be a good thing to implement? If not please express why.

New Rule Creation:
If a rule absolutely NEEDS to be introduced, the rough draft is important. I feel the creation of additional rules should be as rare as a Samedi winning the Miss America Pageant. The creation of rules should be allowed only when necessary, not to make the game Kewl. The introduction of new rules changes more than just its intended scope. If the mass combat system is introduced, for example, there is no longer the restraint of knowing that an all out brawl in the middle of a crowded street will take all night to RP. Our game has a system which is more free flowing than table top, but less than MET. If we continue to add rules just to add rules, as it seems has been happening, we slow the game down to a crawl and incite page upon page of necessary clarification just to make an overall unpopular change viable at all. Case in point :

3: Will you keep the influences and feeding modifiers systems tied together?

No. Story wise, yes. System? No.

4: If an error is made that results in a character death, how will you make right without retconning the death? Before answering please consider if this was done by player manipulation on an overwhelmed AST/ST, or an honest mistake made by a player or AST/ST.

The word “Retcon” makes me want to puke, quite honestly. To answer the question fairly, all I can say is that any answer given here would be irrelevant. The rarity and individuality of each of these situations does not merit a blanket policy. I can assure you that I do feel for the wronged player in any of the listed hypothetical situations, and would have a sit down with said player to discuss not only what happened, but what will be an acceptable compensation for the mistake. That doesn’t mean, however, I’ll be pushed into allowing some disgusting new character to replace the old, just that suitable compensation will be made.

5: Consistency of System: It has been my personal observation that A: White Wolf needs a new editor. B: That what White Wolf has managed to get down on paper maybe, in some cases, interpreted in more than one way. My question is how do you propose to have all of the AST/ST’s on the same sheet of music night after night. It is all well and good to be posted on the board but it is not feasible to be carrying around a laptop connected to the Internet every night. I have personally observed one AST/ST make a call one way and then later in the same night seen another AST/ST make a different call, for the same thing, using a different interpretation and then a few weeks later they switch positions, but still not on the same sheet of music.

A.) Yes. White Wolf’s editors must die.
B.) The system is, while contradictory in places, fairly well stable. In cases of discrepancy, taking a moment out to confer with other staff to define what is being done in the rules and in the scene is both important and very possible. Also, as the staff is responsible for running the game, in certain situations, they may have to make decisions on how a game mechanic might be altered slightly for a given situation. Making sure everyone in a scene understands what is happening (and I mean from a rules and system perspective, no freebies on plotlines, guys) is very important to continuity of the scene and to the overall experience of the game. It is no fun leaving game confused and feeling effed over. Id like to avoid that.

6: Status. A heated question to bring up. How do you propose to help the players understand the convoluted ‘status tumbleweed’? I have seen where in some cases position has more power than status and vice versa.
A: Sammy Sheriff, status 3, requires Victoria Ventrue, status 6, to help him NOW in service of his office. Mostly correct, perhaps Sammy Sheriff should not have been so vulgar in his request.
B: Edward Elder, status 6, finds that Katherine Keeper, status 4, broke one of her own rules in Elysium. What is his recourse? He has Camarilla lore 4. True he could ask an AST/ST but would he always get the same answer?
C: Hypernia Harpy, status 8, has been informed by Paul Primogen, status 5, that a boon is owed to him by Nancy Neonate for breaching the Tradition of Hospitality. Nancy Neonate, normally status 2, comes up to Hypernia Harpy with a grand total of 13 status, 11 of which had been loaned and informs the Harpy that Paul Primogen is lying. Now what?
D: Penny Prince, status 10, is having a discussion with some of her “friends”. This gets interrupted by Ronny Rabble-rouser, normally status 4. But several of Ronny’s friends agrees that Penny Prince needs to be to told ‘whats what’ and believe that Ronny is the one to do it. So Ronny Rabble-rouser walks into Penny Prince’s little tête-à-tête with 14 status behind him, some coming from very respected members of the domain. Now what?
E: (Extra credit) Hypernia Harpy learns from several very respected sources that Penny Prince beat down Ronny Rabble-Rouser for interrupting her tête-à-tête with the valid concerns that Katherine Keeper killed Edward Elder for spreading lies about her and her cohort Paul Primogen. Hypernia Harpy decides that Penny Prince is *pinky down * Biased, Katherine Keeper and Penny Prince are the same clan you know. So Penny Prince decides that Hypernia Harpy has to go. Now several Valued Vampires have a problem with this. What is their recourse.

Status is convoluted. Charcters should be confused by it, though. Not players. Status is a measure of your standing in the Camarilla, primarily based on who is willing to speak well of you, or who is more than happy to speak against you. It is a way to make concrete the nebulous cloud of kindred interaction. To explain via examples:

A.) Sammy Sherrif and Victoria Ventrue are both in a bad position here. Sammy needs help. Unenviable for a Sheriff. Victoria is being propositioned by someone with temporal power, somewhat trumping her societal standing. On the other hand Victoria is in a position to socially punish Sammy if he oversteps his bounds as Sheriff. It is not a situation which should be resolved by quoting status numbers. Through roleplay, Victoria should have no problem displaying her displeasure at the situation, and may well petition the harpy to log a boon on the part of the Sheriff for her involvement in doing his job. No clear answer. The outcome is based on IC reactions, here.
B.)Edward Elder and Katherine Keeper either need to do some talking to rectify the situation, or Katherine will likely find herself the subject of many an unpleasant jab. A keeper breaking their own rule would be well advised to address the issue immediately. The issue here is not status, but instead, position. Edward should have an easier time swaying opinion against her with his more massive status, but unless he actually does something, there will be no recourse.
C.)Due to the increased clout of Nancy Neonate, Hypernia Harpy would be wise to listen, but then he needs to find out whose voices are added to her own. Having a high status is not enough to bulldoze through the situation, but should give the harpy pause. With that much backing, it is clear that the situation will get ugly if it’s not dealt with. Nancy’s status indicates that a number of Kindred are willing to stand against the decision and Paul Primogen himself. The harpy should either attempt to rectify the situiation, or get the hell out of the way. Paul Primogen, ultimately will be the one who must face up to the onslaught of the new force against him, and whether or not he is lying, should evaluate the boon as to if it is actually worth the effort to defend it. If it is known that all of Nancy’s friends will stand with her, Paul will likely find himself beset on all sides until the situation is remedied.
The opinion behind the façade of the Camarilla: is that Unfair? Yes. Don’t like it? Either learn to deal, or become more fearsome.

D.)Bad business. Ronny Screws up by barging in, The Prince must consider the status, but also must deal with Ronny’s insolence. In this case, having lent status to Ronny may become a liability to those who loaned it. The Prince would be wise to consider Ronny’s words even while he punches some face in, but should remember that he also should be punching in the faces of Ronny’s conspirators, lest they get away with this.
The Prince could also conceed the point to Ronny, but would doubtless face later interruptions with similar results. Retaliation is in order, especially if Ronny is there simply to tell the Prince ‘what’s what.’ Princes happen to be fond of already knowing what, and will generally defend what with whatever they can. Most likely outcome: Ronny gets pwnd. Ronny gets declared Insolent. Ronny’s friends get mad. Prince also gets mad. Roleplay ensues.
E.) Again, in this situation I can’t begin to stress enough that one side being right doesn’t actually matter. The Facts: Everybody sucks. The harpy declaring the Prince “biased,” causes the prince to retaliate by proposing a new harpy. Now it comes down to the opinion of the elders of the city whether this will happen or not. The harpy had best fortify her position, as if she doesn’t, the prince will likely not kill her, but instead strike back by calling her everything from “ass-pirate” to “zebra-fucker” It would be unseemly for the prince to take direct action, but then… Valued Vampires should be taken into consideration, after weighing their “Value.” The Prince is probably just going to have to take a bite on this one and chew. Penny Prince should have learned by now: Don’t get caught. Also: Princes are not invincible. They just look that way at first.

7: When a NPC gets in trouble behind the scenes how do you plan on disseminating this information? IC through appropriate mentors, contacts, allies etc? Through colorful posts OOC but fun to read anyway? Or keep us in the dark because you feel that might be metagaming? IE Penny Prince splotched Hypernia Harpy. Do we ever get to find out how mad the Camarilla got? Do we as players get to see that NPC’s have to face the consequences too? I can accept that my character does not get the information but I as a player get frustrated when an NPC does something wrong and I don’t even hear that anything happened through the PLAYER rumor mill.

This game is about story. There is a matter of timing to deal with because of that. Some things can’t be revealed immediately, but that’s no reason to never say anything about them. If the punishment is one that should be given publicly, it will be. If it is private, it may or may not be revealed via IC post, based on how much it affects unrevealed plot information. IF PEOPLE INVESTIGATE because they care enough, those people will likely be able to find out what happened. It might cost them, but they’ve got a good chance that for the right price…

8: Do you feel it is better for role-play and game mechanics that the NPC Prince has an all NPC posse at his/her beck and call or do you feel it would be better that the Prince garner a PC/NPC mixed posse? Before answering this question please keep in mind that the Seneschal does not always back the Prince and the Seneschal is usually the first line of contact for the Sheriff, Scourge, Keeper etc.

It is my opinion that the Prince’s “Posse” is best comprised of a mix of PC’s and NPC’s. It keeps a healthy balance on how much the Prince can be affected by his domain, and how much he can affect it back. The seneschal not always backing the prince should very much have the option to do just that. The seneschal had better hope they get away with it, is all. Having trusted (or tolerated) advisors is what the Primogen are all about. Having PC Primogen will allow for a working system of checks and balances. Court positions filled by PCs will allow for responsibility to fall on the players’ shoulders in situations. The Prince’s brood, how ever, will likely be mostly NPCs. The prince may have childer, old allies, or even subdued rivals he keeps around as punishment. None of these are optimal PCs. They don’t have a whole lot of autonomy as far as what they’ll generally do outside of a plot driven series of events. BUT… I do want a lot of interaction between the court, the inner court and the Prince. Also, depending on how happy the prince is with a PC, they may be allowed to contact him directly without having courtly matters get in the way. This might be stripped if the fall out of favor, perhaps even down to the “I have to talk to my whip to talk to my Primogen to talk to the keeper to talk to the seneschal to talk to the Prince’s brood mate to decide if I can be permitted near the Prince” level if the Prince is pissed enough. Having different access levels is a great way to balance things socially. If a character needs to speak with the prince without going through the process, they essentially have to beg, borrow, and steal access to the Prince. If they know who has access, they can approach them. If they don’t… Good thing you’re immortal. It’ll be a while.

[Kaine Chandler]

Wow, that's alot of questions....
1) the reason NPCs are sometimes stupid because there are millions of them and only five of us, and while we may be smart, we cannot equal the perceptive and responsive powers of the entire Greater Seattle Area and the Camarilla. This isn't me being a smart-ass, its true. We do our best, but we are only five poor mortals, trying to make a world in the garage of the UW. If an error is caught early enough, we do our best to fix it, but if not, in the interests of not ret-conning, we try to make a reason for it in game, not all of which make the best sense.

2. Rough drafts are somewhat problematic, for one, we often spend weeks or months working out a new rule before implementing it, we go through the books, we list pros and cons, we test it in moderate and extreeme examples, in short, we put it through the ringer. This is not to say player feedback is not valuable, nor that we can think of all contingencies (see answer to 1) but, with a public rough draft, we would need to go through similar weeks and months of debate while everyone asked the same questions we did. Whereas, if we implement it and then ask for feedback a month or two later, when the players have had a chance to see it in action, the feedback is more likely to include things we had not already talked about.

3. Until we hear a better idea, yes.

4. This is really a case by case situation. It depends not only on the variables you mentioned, but also on the plot surrounding the death, and the player's own feelings. I don't see a need for a pre-made plan, as long as there is an understanding that reparations will be made with comprehesive communication about the situation.

5. Please do not take this the wrong way, but welcome to real life. We do not employ a team of highly trained, well-paid proffessionals, we are voulunteers. We have extensive meetings which often last more than 5 hours, and communicate all week in email, all in the name of keeping the whole team on the same page. But if you want a world where all the rules are consistent, ummm... well, actually, you'll have to find a new universe, cause even the laws of physics don't match up all the time.

6. So, Status is becoming somewhat of a soapbox for me, and I'll say it again here, the reason that there is no all encompasing status rules system is that it is an IC system, it is a system invented by the Camarilla for use by its kindred members, yes it is in the WW books as rules, but the reason there is no straightforward ruling to these examples is that the answer is, "whatever you can get away with" its the way vampires work. However, I hope to be able to bring in the occasional NPC to SHOW the use of the status system so that people may get a better hands on perspective of this idea.

7. While it is fun to see the NPCs get in trouble, we do try to minimize this because we never want the game to become "watch the NPCs" we always want the focus to be on you, the player. So, while our NPCs do screw up, and sometimes, a PC gets some of the dirt, I don't like the idea of making it too much of a focus, as i feel it detracts from PC action. However, your ideas for dissemination are all nice ones and if we get a sense that this kind of thing would be more widely appreciated or desired, we can strive to incorporate more of it. Just remember, that if we were to incorporate NPC screw-ups, we have to balance it with thier triumphs and that takes even more away from the PC story. You won't hear through a player roumour mill, because when NPCs are punished it is generally by other NPCs and so there are unlikely to be any PCs present, so the scene does not get RPed but rather summed-up at an ST meeting, so the emotional involvement that leads people to talk about an exciting scene isn't there. On a side note, your harpy hears about alot of this information, but often only tells it to those with lots of status or those who ask nicely.... So bug him if you want more dirt.

8. Well, the staff under Chris decided that a Prince should be reasonably powerful, but not unreasonably so. (and before anyone brings up any examples, remember "Kindred Lie!") So, I think it is appropriate for a Prince to have strong allies, and even a coterie. This can reasonably be seen to include one MAYBE two other NPCs IN the city and several spread around the rest of the world, But i also feel it is important for a Prince (NPC or otherwise) to have "lesser" allies in his own city. Thus an NPC prince should need to rely on the continued support of his domain members for his power and not JUST the weight of the Camarilla. Remember also, though, that the way an NPC prince acts, and what he says are not neccesarily reflections of what we think a GOOD prince should be...maybe we're screwing with you.... after all that's our job, right? (JK)