Post by Luke on Oct 4, 2006 1:38:41 GMT -5
Vision for future rules
From: AMST Rules
To: All members
CC: Cam-Announce
Re: Vision for future rules
Behind this cut is a four-page introduction to the
changes that will soon be made in the Camarilla's
rules documents. This represents a major change in the
focus and vision of the addendum that will be coming
into effect around the end of October. If you have any
interest at all, I encourage you to read the
following.
“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and
seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no
real security in what is no longer meaningful. There
is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for
in movement there is life, and in change there is
power.”
-Alan Cohen
Dear fellow members,
The Master Storyteller, in response to widespread
feedback from the membership, has created the position
of AMST Rules to address certain weaknesses of the
Camarilla’s current rules systems. One of the
problems, noted by general feedback, is that the rules
addendum is too large and complicated for our current
members. The complexity of our added rules system, and
the degree to which it has moved us away from White
Wolf’s setting, are also perceived as serious
barriers-to-entry for new members.
To address these issues, the future rules documents
will embody a great deal of change. I anticipate that
a regular amount of initial anxiety will result from
the magnitude of that change. I am therefore writing
this letter to explain some of the goals and reasoning
behind the new rules documents and the changes
contained therein. It is important for the membership
to understand the vision behind the direction of the
Camarilla’s new rules.
CLEAN UP
Rules documents are produced by the Master
Storyteller’s office, and their quality is a
reflection upon that office. The current state of the
rules documents, including their formatting,
organization, and grammatical structure, has the
potential for significant improvement. Future
documents will attempt to conform to White Wolf’s
editing style conventions for World of Darkness
products. They will also make use of consistent
capitalization conventions and make use of the terms
employed by the Membership Handbook.
While I am here, I will note that the rules documents
are consistently US-centric in form. This is nothing
new, but I want to acknowledge the fact up front. The
rules documents make use of American English for
spelling and grammar to serve the majority of members,
and assume a foundation of knowledge from the US
Camarilla’s Membership Handbook for explanation of
approval levels and the like. Affiliate national
addenda will serve to cover any gaps this creates. I
apologize to those members who will have to put extra
effort into reading the documents because of this, but
I hope the reasoning for the default of US-centric
composition is understandable.
The structure of the rules documents is also going to
change. General rules will comprise the first part of
the addendum, a document that is broadly applicable to
games. Storytellers will be able to print this
document and carry it around, secure in the knowledge
that it will not require frequent updates. Chapter Two
will be a compilation of other source books; a list of
books sanctioned for the chronicle along with any
changes to be employed with each. This document will
be updated more frequently as White Wolf continues its
regular production of World of Darkness books. Our
goal is to find as much consistency as possible, while
sanctioning new material in as timely a manner as
possible.
One of our particular goals is to pare down the size
of our rules documents. We intend to reduce them to
one-third of their present size. The current documents
use small font and appear to have removed the
separation between paragraphs; everything runs
together into hard-to-read clumps of tiny writing,
perhaps to keep the page count from appearing too
large. This is not what I mean when I talk about
reducing size! Instead we’re going to remove the
instances of repetition in our rules; repetition
within themselves, and more importantly, repetition of
the source material. We’re also going to take out
lengthy, multi-page examples that would be better
employed somewhere other than in the rules documents.
Normal size bits of example text will remain, and in
fact we’re probably going to see more of them.
These are good, positive steps, but most of the
upcoming size reduction will be based upon an overhaul
of the approvals system.
CURRENT APPROVAL LEVELS
One way to reduce size and complexity is to redefine
approvals in the new system. This is the largest set
of forthcoming modifications to the addendum. Overall,
the function of approval levels will maintain the same
purpose regarding the enforcement of rarity, but each
level’s focus will include some specific areas that
might not have been previously stated.
Currently the Mid Approval Storytellers are called
upon to enforce the mild rarity of “uncommon” items
within local venues, but consistently we run into the
problem of those Storytellers not being well-versed in
all genres (typically anything non-vampire). In most
cases we see Mid Approval Storytellers simply taking
the recommendations of Low Approval Storytellers
rather than engaging in an examination of the relevant
characters and settings. Mid Approval has practically
become synonymous with unnecessary bureaucracy. It is
a reasonable and feasible course of action to call
upon the Low Approval Storytellers to now enforce
“uncommon” rarity within their own venues. This gives
the local Storytellers more power over their own games
and greatly reduces the size, complexity, and number
of hard-coded restrictions of the rules documents.
In order for such a change to work though, Low
Approval Storytellers must be aware of their new role
and understand that certain things within their
approval bracket are naturally harder to get than
others. Not everything set to a specific approval
level should be as easy to get as everything else at
the same approval level.
Mid Approval Storytellers will continue to ensure that
the different venues within the domain interact
appropriately, keeping the separation that is
necessary to maintain each venue’s unique genre
flavor. This means Mid Approvals in the rules
documents will focus on elements that might easily
lead to cross-genre interaction such as the various
“places of power” within a domain. By controlling the
placement of such locations as Loci and Hallows, the
Mid Approval Storyteller can manage the areas of a
city that each creature type frequents and better
regulate the number and manner of encounters between
them. Non-player characters from different genres will
also consistently require Mid Approval. A horde of
werewolf non-player characters frequenting a Requiem
venue game makes serious ripples in the local werewolf
game too.
The new documents do acknowledge that White Wolf’s
games were intended to be played in a shared world,
but the supernatural societies (upon which function
live-action games are based) are simply not
integrated. It is the Mid Approval Storytellers’ chief
duty to ensure their domains’ maintenance of the
paradigm.
One of the major focuses of the High Approval
Storytellers will be to manage and maintain the rarity
of acquiring off-type items within the same genre.
This means, for example, that a werewolf trying to get
a Merit or supernatural power specific to a different
werewolf faction, lodge, tribe, or whatever will
consistently require High Approval. By homogenizing
the approval level for off-type items, the rule needs
only be stated once in the addendum and members are
supplied with a simple, uniform expectation for
applications. In order for this to work, High Approval
Storytellers must have the same understanding as Low
Approval Storytellers; that not everything set to a
specific approval level should be as easy to get as
everything else at the same level.
Top Approval is being applied consistently to
characters’ acquisition of off-type items from
different genres. This isn’t a new concept, but by
making the rule universal it does not need to be
repeated throughout the rules documents. A vampire
acquiring a mage Artifact requires Top Approval, just
as it does when acquiring a werewolf fetish.
Similarly, it is a “general rule” that Top Approval is
needed for everything having to do with military-grade
personnel and hardware, so that won’t need repeating
in multiple places in the addendum.
FEWER APPROVALS
In general, the new rules documents will not have
nearly as many approval requirements in them as
before. Yes, that means some things will become more
common. Some restrictions will be attached to a lower
approval requirement, though many restrictions will be
lifted altogether. The rarity of some things will
shift, but I anticipate that heightened focus on
paradigm within the Venue Style Sheets and greater
empowerment and education of Low Approval Storytellers
will go a long way toward curbing potential abuse.
In some cases we will try to replace some approval
levels with new mechanics or changed mechanics. This
will be done sparingly because we don’t want to make
the rules even larger, but in some situations an
approval requirement is the worse option. For example,
the magical material “thaumium” is difficult and
expensive to craft, but our current approval
requirements have made it much rarer than its cost and
difficulty to create (according to source material)
would mandate. Only a couple of thaumium items have
been approved this whole chronicle! Instead of
requiring High Approval for thaumium, we can simply
spell out the previously unstated cost and leave it to
Low Approval Storytellers to adjudicate.
PARADIGM CHANGES
We need to have changes in place to handle the fact
that we’re running a large-scale game and to handle
the fact that live-action games play differently than
tabletop games. Because of the scale we can use player
characters to fill a broad range of power levels
rather than having non-player characters populate all
the upper rungs of supernatural societies. Our changes
to Status rules facilitate inter-domain and
international play alike. That the Camarilla alters
the manner in which the World of Darkness plays out is
what allows its chronicle the global atmosphere unique
to such a large-scale game.
Unfortunately some changes are not serving that goal,
or are serving it in such a minute way as to not
justify maintaining them. We’ve gotten so entrenched
in controlling access to the character flavorings of
the game, the spices so to speak, that parts of the
World of Darkness have become unrecognizable as such.
Here’s a quick example. The struggle over
cross-recruiting from other covenants is integral to
the setting (it is the subject of the introduction
stories of two of World of Darkness books), but it is
practically non-existent in our chronicle. It is so
difficult to change covenants in the Camarilla’s
Requiem genre that it is almost never attempted. We
need to revisit the approval levels previously
employed and examine their exact impact on the game,
ready to remove restrictions that do not serve to
enforce the paradigm as written.
CONCLUSION
Changes on this scale are not new to our club; they
are sometimes necessary to keep the organization
on-track and thriving. So don’t freak out if more than
one member of the consilium winds up with the
Geomancer Merit or if a couple of Bruja pop up outside
of California. We must leave behind whichever
restrictions are not sufficiently serving us.
As Cohen said, it takes courage to loosen our grip on
old habits and give change a chance. That’s really the
point of this letter; a heart-felt request from me to
you to examine the coming documents carefully, and
with an open mind for change.
Thank you.
--
Randy Ochs / US2002022622 / AMST Rules
From: AMST Rules
To: All members
CC: Cam-Announce
Re: Vision for future rules
Behind this cut is a four-page introduction to the
changes that will soon be made in the Camarilla's
rules documents. This represents a major change in the
focus and vision of the addendum that will be coming
into effect around the end of October. If you have any
interest at all, I encourage you to read the
following.
“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and
seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no
real security in what is no longer meaningful. There
is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for
in movement there is life, and in change there is
power.”
-Alan Cohen
Dear fellow members,
The Master Storyteller, in response to widespread
feedback from the membership, has created the position
of AMST Rules to address certain weaknesses of the
Camarilla’s current rules systems. One of the
problems, noted by general feedback, is that the rules
addendum is too large and complicated for our current
members. The complexity of our added rules system, and
the degree to which it has moved us away from White
Wolf’s setting, are also perceived as serious
barriers-to-entry for new members.
To address these issues, the future rules documents
will embody a great deal of change. I anticipate that
a regular amount of initial anxiety will result from
the magnitude of that change. I am therefore writing
this letter to explain some of the goals and reasoning
behind the new rules documents and the changes
contained therein. It is important for the membership
to understand the vision behind the direction of the
Camarilla’s new rules.
CLEAN UP
Rules documents are produced by the Master
Storyteller’s office, and their quality is a
reflection upon that office. The current state of the
rules documents, including their formatting,
organization, and grammatical structure, has the
potential for significant improvement. Future
documents will attempt to conform to White Wolf’s
editing style conventions for World of Darkness
products. They will also make use of consistent
capitalization conventions and make use of the terms
employed by the Membership Handbook.
While I am here, I will note that the rules documents
are consistently US-centric in form. This is nothing
new, but I want to acknowledge the fact up front. The
rules documents make use of American English for
spelling and grammar to serve the majority of members,
and assume a foundation of knowledge from the US
Camarilla’s Membership Handbook for explanation of
approval levels and the like. Affiliate national
addenda will serve to cover any gaps this creates. I
apologize to those members who will have to put extra
effort into reading the documents because of this, but
I hope the reasoning for the default of US-centric
composition is understandable.
The structure of the rules documents is also going to
change. General rules will comprise the first part of
the addendum, a document that is broadly applicable to
games. Storytellers will be able to print this
document and carry it around, secure in the knowledge
that it will not require frequent updates. Chapter Two
will be a compilation of other source books; a list of
books sanctioned for the chronicle along with any
changes to be employed with each. This document will
be updated more frequently as White Wolf continues its
regular production of World of Darkness books. Our
goal is to find as much consistency as possible, while
sanctioning new material in as timely a manner as
possible.
One of our particular goals is to pare down the size
of our rules documents. We intend to reduce them to
one-third of their present size. The current documents
use small font and appear to have removed the
separation between paragraphs; everything runs
together into hard-to-read clumps of tiny writing,
perhaps to keep the page count from appearing too
large. This is not what I mean when I talk about
reducing size! Instead we’re going to remove the
instances of repetition in our rules; repetition
within themselves, and more importantly, repetition of
the source material. We’re also going to take out
lengthy, multi-page examples that would be better
employed somewhere other than in the rules documents.
Normal size bits of example text will remain, and in
fact we’re probably going to see more of them.
These are good, positive steps, but most of the
upcoming size reduction will be based upon an overhaul
of the approvals system.
CURRENT APPROVAL LEVELS
One way to reduce size and complexity is to redefine
approvals in the new system. This is the largest set
of forthcoming modifications to the addendum. Overall,
the function of approval levels will maintain the same
purpose regarding the enforcement of rarity, but each
level’s focus will include some specific areas that
might not have been previously stated.
Currently the Mid Approval Storytellers are called
upon to enforce the mild rarity of “uncommon” items
within local venues, but consistently we run into the
problem of those Storytellers not being well-versed in
all genres (typically anything non-vampire). In most
cases we see Mid Approval Storytellers simply taking
the recommendations of Low Approval Storytellers
rather than engaging in an examination of the relevant
characters and settings. Mid Approval has practically
become synonymous with unnecessary bureaucracy. It is
a reasonable and feasible course of action to call
upon the Low Approval Storytellers to now enforce
“uncommon” rarity within their own venues. This gives
the local Storytellers more power over their own games
and greatly reduces the size, complexity, and number
of hard-coded restrictions of the rules documents.
In order for such a change to work though, Low
Approval Storytellers must be aware of their new role
and understand that certain things within their
approval bracket are naturally harder to get than
others. Not everything set to a specific approval
level should be as easy to get as everything else at
the same approval level.
Mid Approval Storytellers will continue to ensure that
the different venues within the domain interact
appropriately, keeping the separation that is
necessary to maintain each venue’s unique genre
flavor. This means Mid Approvals in the rules
documents will focus on elements that might easily
lead to cross-genre interaction such as the various
“places of power” within a domain. By controlling the
placement of such locations as Loci and Hallows, the
Mid Approval Storyteller can manage the areas of a
city that each creature type frequents and better
regulate the number and manner of encounters between
them. Non-player characters from different genres will
also consistently require Mid Approval. A horde of
werewolf non-player characters frequenting a Requiem
venue game makes serious ripples in the local werewolf
game too.
The new documents do acknowledge that White Wolf’s
games were intended to be played in a shared world,
but the supernatural societies (upon which function
live-action games are based) are simply not
integrated. It is the Mid Approval Storytellers’ chief
duty to ensure their domains’ maintenance of the
paradigm.
One of the major focuses of the High Approval
Storytellers will be to manage and maintain the rarity
of acquiring off-type items within the same genre.
This means, for example, that a werewolf trying to get
a Merit or supernatural power specific to a different
werewolf faction, lodge, tribe, or whatever will
consistently require High Approval. By homogenizing
the approval level for off-type items, the rule needs
only be stated once in the addendum and members are
supplied with a simple, uniform expectation for
applications. In order for this to work, High Approval
Storytellers must have the same understanding as Low
Approval Storytellers; that not everything set to a
specific approval level should be as easy to get as
everything else at the same level.
Top Approval is being applied consistently to
characters’ acquisition of off-type items from
different genres. This isn’t a new concept, but by
making the rule universal it does not need to be
repeated throughout the rules documents. A vampire
acquiring a mage Artifact requires Top Approval, just
as it does when acquiring a werewolf fetish.
Similarly, it is a “general rule” that Top Approval is
needed for everything having to do with military-grade
personnel and hardware, so that won’t need repeating
in multiple places in the addendum.
FEWER APPROVALS
In general, the new rules documents will not have
nearly as many approval requirements in them as
before. Yes, that means some things will become more
common. Some restrictions will be attached to a lower
approval requirement, though many restrictions will be
lifted altogether. The rarity of some things will
shift, but I anticipate that heightened focus on
paradigm within the Venue Style Sheets and greater
empowerment and education of Low Approval Storytellers
will go a long way toward curbing potential abuse.
In some cases we will try to replace some approval
levels with new mechanics or changed mechanics. This
will be done sparingly because we don’t want to make
the rules even larger, but in some situations an
approval requirement is the worse option. For example,
the magical material “thaumium” is difficult and
expensive to craft, but our current approval
requirements have made it much rarer than its cost and
difficulty to create (according to source material)
would mandate. Only a couple of thaumium items have
been approved this whole chronicle! Instead of
requiring High Approval for thaumium, we can simply
spell out the previously unstated cost and leave it to
Low Approval Storytellers to adjudicate.
PARADIGM CHANGES
We need to have changes in place to handle the fact
that we’re running a large-scale game and to handle
the fact that live-action games play differently than
tabletop games. Because of the scale we can use player
characters to fill a broad range of power levels
rather than having non-player characters populate all
the upper rungs of supernatural societies. Our changes
to Status rules facilitate inter-domain and
international play alike. That the Camarilla alters
the manner in which the World of Darkness plays out is
what allows its chronicle the global atmosphere unique
to such a large-scale game.
Unfortunately some changes are not serving that goal,
or are serving it in such a minute way as to not
justify maintaining them. We’ve gotten so entrenched
in controlling access to the character flavorings of
the game, the spices so to speak, that parts of the
World of Darkness have become unrecognizable as such.
Here’s a quick example. The struggle over
cross-recruiting from other covenants is integral to
the setting (it is the subject of the introduction
stories of two of World of Darkness books), but it is
practically non-existent in our chronicle. It is so
difficult to change covenants in the Camarilla’s
Requiem genre that it is almost never attempted. We
need to revisit the approval levels previously
employed and examine their exact impact on the game,
ready to remove restrictions that do not serve to
enforce the paradigm as written.
CONCLUSION
Changes on this scale are not new to our club; they
are sometimes necessary to keep the organization
on-track and thriving. So don’t freak out if more than
one member of the consilium winds up with the
Geomancer Merit or if a couple of Bruja pop up outside
of California. We must leave behind whichever
restrictions are not sufficiently serving us.
As Cohen said, it takes courage to loosen our grip on
old habits and give change a chance. That’s really the
point of this letter; a heart-felt request from me to
you to examine the coming documents carefully, and
with an open mind for change.
Thank you.
--
Randy Ochs / US2002022622 / AMST Rules
