sorry for the spam. This is the last of going through my archives and posting the good bits

Selene: So... if Aetius is your fav Ventrue AT, and Dean is your favorite Lasombra, and Selene is your favorite Tremere AT
Selene: Who do we need to add to flesh out the pack?

CamCoord: Zio! as your pack priest.

Selene: Bah.
Selene: He's not worthy.

CamCoord: Look
CamCoord: It's not all stupid powers
CamCoord: Someone has to explain genre to you guys

CamCoord: and Zio! has sabbat genre DOWN

Selene: Until I monomancy him.

CamCoord: why?
CamCoord: he's your priest and you're vinc to him is huge

Selene: Dammit.

CamCoord: He talks about how fucking awesome you are in service to the sword of Caine

Selene: This Sabbat thing blowz.

CamCoord: He worships your dark aura of death
CamCoord: and appeases your ego as the ultimate thaumaturge killing machine

Selene: okay
Selene: well
Selene: maybe.

CamCoord: He hearlds your entry into each esbat with a confessional of your glories and triumphs.
CamCoord: Think Chaucer from A Knights Tale, if Chaucer was a blood drinking fiend celebrating the gifts that Caine has given all of you and signing while you make the blood flow
CamCoord: What the Cardinal of Baja and Alto California would do with such strong swords

Selene: Ok. Maybe it doesn't suck too bad.

CamCoord: Like I said, it's the roleplay part. Leave that to us. ;)

The Sabbat is really easy to play, harder to play well. The Camarilla is harder to play, but honestly, once you get the basics, it's very easy to play. And no, Camarilla does not mean playing the biggest bastard out there with out care of feelings. The point of the Camarilla is the struggle to hold on to your humanity, if you're playing like you're a sociopathic monster killing by proxy you are doing it wrong.

The Camarilla game, death is cheating, killing your opponent robs you of an opponent. Robs you of your Joker or Sherlocke Holmes. Sure it's satisfying and some concepts in OWbN just need killing, but that should be the players choice or the ST's input. Not necessarily through PVP violence.

The concept of "Face" is part of what Camarilla society is based on. How you are seen, how others treat you, that's the important thing. Losing Face is death, and being an unstoppable killing machine is not Face. Being able to say "my sheet is bigger than yours" is not Face. Saying I don't care is not a luxury, because then you've allowed yourself to lose Face and you'll be tainted and when it is something you care about, you'll be alone with no friends because no one likes hanging out with that guy, and that's the problem with the Camarilla. You need to hang out with people, or you become the crazy hermit that needs to be put down.

Learn to use Face. Learn that being in the Camarilla means caring about how others see you. Learn that monsters on paths that show off how cool they are for being on a path is the Sabbat, not Camarilla and in the Camarilla, you may be forced to smile at them in a court, but you're not going to make them your facebook friend.

"The Selene Zoolander Center For Archons Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too"

Dale loves this post.

Larry the Bruce - something about WoD and traits or something.

Me - WoD is not OWbN Genre.

Some ST named Jordan - "Are you serious? I know OWbN moved away from the books but should we get rid of WoD and make it some disney happy fun land?" His email is 10 times longer than mine. Mine was 5 words. His "OMG THINK OF THE GENRES!" was about 50.

Seriously.

A five word sentence gets me into trouble on the ST list (council I can do it in 3.)

My response -

Are you new?

I'm not trying to be mean, I just need to figure out how much of a 5 word sentence I need to explain.

Players quit rather than roleplay out the consequences of their PCs actions. STs say "omg, no one could have found out that secret" despte the player with the secret running around and telling it to everyone.

WoD - You're a shitty vampire, low on the totem pole, scared of the dark and the knowledge that for as cool as you are being a filthy bloodsucker leeching on humanity, there is always something bigger, faster, nastier than you.
OWbN - "Let's have PC Justicars."

Council says that Coords should have to get everything they want to do approved by them. STs allow Trevor Wallace, the Prince/Archbishop/Setite Pontiff of Oakland who had his true name changed through a Setite ritual to avoid being discovered as a Path of Mars cracked out Brujah.

The Camarilla in OWbN is a violent, militant, xenphobic organization that promotes Paths of Enlightenment, getting Thaum to win, and that you don't need an accounting or to care about the Sect and it's rules as long as you can kill anything that has a splat book.

I am definitely not saying that OWbN is a disney theme park with desperate college students in costumes trying to keep the kids happy, wait.. .maybe I am if by kids you mean players with entitlement issues and juvenile power fantasies and costumes you mean STs.

Alan
Cam Coord

I recognize that not all get my humor, and that over email, it's harder, but really, it's starting to look like they're not even trying. They take themselves, the org, their PCs so seriously to psychotic levels that they can't deal with anything that might cause them to think or laugh at themselves.

The point I'm making is that OWbN genre gets used a lot on Council and ST lists. And that would be fine, but those same people like to turn around and defend their actions with WW genre, sometimes in the same breath. It gets annoying. We're playing a homebrew setting created by the power gamers that haven't quite yet and want to re-write the game to suit them, unless that's suddenly being used to get them, in which case it's "oh, well, the books say this is okay..."

It's become clear that a lot of the genre fail in the org is at the ST level and they're willingness to hand out cookies but never bother to explain to their players the game they are playing.

And again, this isn't a burnout rant, I'm not there yet, but sometimes I wish these people would rather explore why they play and what they want out of a LARP rather than spend so much energy on an email over 5 words.

My thoughts on R&U

It's a touchy subject. It was trying to make the best possible decision for an organization that was growing as fast as the internet would allow it.

It is likely one of the most divisive elements in the org because it tells players that they can't play their special snowflake, and the only reason is because the coords are a pox on fun.

It is the R&U List.

This is my idea, based on a suggestion by Mike Lehman on the council list. It is only a suggestion, but I would happily support it as a proposal.

Instead of a long and rambling list that's added too piece by piece, we encourage players to focus more on their concept and their PC and less of the cool powerz/cool clanz.

We create a list depending on genre/splat book and say "This is what is acceptable to play."

Cam genre chronicle uses this list, sabbat genre chronicle uses this list, Changing Breeds game uses this list, Anarch, this list, KJ, this list so on.

If you want to be 'special' it's a vote on council. Included on the list are reasons why certain clans/bloodlines/disciplines/merits/

If you want to use an NPC, it's notify to the coords. The Coords work with the Storytellers on it, and if one game in South Carolina has a traveling Brujah pretending to be a Ventrue, and a game in North Dakota wants to run a similar plot, then the Coord can coordinate that, and create a little consistency between games.

NPCs would be notify to Coords. STs would be asked to include why they feel they need to use the NPC, how long they plan to use the NPC, and what the NPC will teach their players.

Coords approve the NPC use, most of it would just be bookkeeping and ideally it would be idea sharing. What one game wants to do with a Nagaraga antagonist might work in another game that's asking for some plot ideas.

If the coord says no, it's a vote, and to accomodate games, we can have two levels, one which is the standard policy and the one which is a provisional one-week vote, which would limit the amount the game could do with the NPC, but would allow it to be played if the vote passes.

This would encourage STs to work with the coords on making sure it fits in the shared World of OWbN, and if STs feel that the coords are being too picky, they can take it to council.

This would include demons and demon plots, genre breakers like sect innappropriate paths, and assist in creating a census so that when someone says it's not fair that they can't play an Abomination Hedgemage embraced by a Gargoyle, we can list the reason that there are only supposed to be -1 of those in existence and OWbN has 3, and they need to wait their turn.

The Red List

Do not view this as a shopping list.'

Saying "I want my PC to hunt someone on this list, how do I find out who is on it" will likely lead to an unsatisfying and disappointing conclusion of death, or your PC spends x years chasing his own shadow and finds nothing.

Getting on the Red List IC requires one Justicar to say "this person is bad, and I can't deal with it alone," followed by a second Justicar verifying it, and then a unanimous decision from the rest of the Justicars. The Red List can either be the worst of the worst or some poor bastard that said he hated Petronius' book and woke up one evening to find his friends dead and everyone hunting him.

Getting on the Red List OOC is detailed in Section 13 of the Character regulation bylaws.

There are no PC Red Listers.

There are no PC Alastors.

There is no being released from being an Alastor service except for sweet sweet death.

The WW Canon Red Listers are taken from the Kindred Most Wanted, published by White Wolf. Some details and stats may change.

(Names listed in no particular order)

1. Rabbat
2. Enkidu
3. Ossian
4. Dylan
5. Ferox
6. Danya/Alexis
7. Germaine
8. Petaniqua
9. Kemintiri
10. Jack the Barber*
11. ** Open Slot, not yet publically announced
12. ** Open Slot, not yet publically announced
13. ** Open Slot, not yet publically announced

Those who have been successfully hunted:

• Tariq - killed by Mme. Guil (she was executed for diablerizing Tariq)
• Valarius Maior - killed by Victor Schultz
• Gabriel Camaratta* - killed by Karsh
• Genina - killed by Lucinde
• Angelo - killed by Johnny Moto

* (OWbN PC)

From the Player of Daniel Book.

So I figured I would drop you my current pet rant about the Camarilla, maybe for the blog.

The Camarilla, by its own reckoning, is the scale that all vampires are weighed on.

On the one side are the humane, the civil, the composed and the graceful. On the other are the monsters, inhumane, Masquerade breakers, tradition breakers and heretics.

The Camarilla represents neither side of the scale, but the scale itself.

The battle the elders have tasked their creation with is not one of Camarilla vs Sabbat or Coterie Vs. Pack, but one of Man against the Beast, humane vs inhumane.

Every kindred that shouts out that they have discarded humanity to defend the Camarilla is in fact yelling, "I have lost the battle and am tearing down that which I am sworn to defend." Noble warriors who refuse to fall to their beast are to be revered for their sacrifice and their struggle, those who give in to their beast and foreswear Humanity should be maligned and ostracized. While these monstrous assassins are arguably needed in every war even Kindred society should never be comfortable in making or using them. Standing next to a man who killed women and children in their sleep to "protect his country" should make anyone uncomfortable. Kindred on paths represent these unfortunate few who sold their souls, sometimes under orders, to do what was "needed".


~Seth

Allow me this moment of Snark

"OMG, Coords have totally killed six or four or a handful of PCs! Including mine! But that's not what I'm complaining about!"

Consequences suck. Too often it feels like an episode of COPS where the guy is in the back of the car after having been found after driving his car into a telephone pole, with the crack pipe, suspended drivers license, warrant out for his arrest, possession of a firearm, and screaming how unfair it is.

See my post about the accounting and Truth. It's not don't get caught, you know you're not supposed to be doing what your doing. Trying to pretend to be ignorant later just makes you look worse. Complaining OOC just makes you look like you don't know how to play the game.