Fwd: [OWBN-Council] [Proposal] MET System Revision for OWBN

[Amy Begnoche]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	[OWBN-Council] [Proposal] MET System Revision for OWBN
Date:	Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:51:03 -0400
From:	Jason Place <fiord...@gmail.com>
Reply-To:	OWBN Council <owbn-c...@mail.owbn.net>
To:	OWBN Council <owbn-c...@mail.owbn.net>

In the past several years, we have seen a number of issues arise from OWBN's continued use of the essentially unmodified MET system.  With the release of the By Night Studios revised Masquerade rules, many chronicles have expressed a desire for an improved rule set.  Indeed, the vote was very close on whether or not to pursue that avenue, failing by a very small margin.

Beyond the lack of current availability for all genres, there are two criticisms most common to the idea of adopting the BNS rules.  The first is that they are only a nominal improvement - some mechanical issues are resolved, but others are introduced, and it did not resolve some of the fundamental mechanics of the system that many perceive as problematic.  The second is that to adopt the BNS rules would ultimately leave us with less to distinguish ourselves from other LARP organizations which are utilizing BNS rules, including our largest competitor, MES.

To that end, I propose the following items.  We have some work to do to iron out a few details, so I am not codifying it in bylaw-fu yet, but this proposal is a statement of intent for the org to pursue these options.  The goal of this proposal is to address some of the common problems in the org, give STs and games multiple options for rulesets, giving us the ability to utilize the new material being released by Onyx Path publishing, and preserving the ability to have a single character sheet which can travel through the org without need of conversion every step of the way.

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1) We adopt tabletop rules for attributes.  

   - Traits must be divided between individual trait types.  Strength/Dex/Stamina for physical, and so on.  Miscellaneous traits will have to be defined, or we could elect not to use them.

   

   - The trait cap for all standard characters will be 5 in each trait, meaning 15 per category.  Things that can exceed this in tabletop may still do so under the same conditions (Low-generation vampires, legendary garou, archmages, dharma 6+ kuei-jin, etc).  For example, a 7th generation vampire could have 1 trait more per attribute, for a category maximum of 18, and all vampires can exceed the cap temporarily through blood expenditure.

   - Tempers such as Willpower, Rage, Gnosis, Glamour, etc cap at 10.  Things that can exceed this in tabletop may still do so under the same conditions.

   - Abilities specifically cap at 5.

   

2) We adopt tabletop experience costs & character creation rules

- This will require a refund of experience and a rebuild of all characters, similar in some ways to if we had adopted BNS rules.  Total experience earned should be 

- Experience has less buying power under tabletop costs, which means that a straight refund will result in characters significantly reduced in power.  We should decide on whether or not to modify the amount of experience refunded to be spent under the new rules.  For example, a 200 point character may receive 300 points to spend under the new rules, because things are more expensive under the new rules.  I have some fairly extensive math to demonstrate this.

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At that point, we will have sheets that, for most intents and purposes, look like a tabletop sheet.  This gives us several advantages.

1) Character sheets will remain universal throughout the org.  You can take your sheet and travel to any game, anywhere.

2) Individual games may elect to use different systems.  If the players prefer classic MET, things still work essentially the same.  If a game wants to try using tabletop-style rules, they can either use dice/dice apps, card-draw, ten-finger throws, or various other methods of simulating dice resolution.  Games will have the ability to experiment with such systems, and with luck the best two or three methods of simulating dice rolls will rise to the top.

3) The array of new resources being released by Onyx Path will be available to us.  This will put us in a unique position - no other LARP organization will be leveraging Onyx Path rules and resources.  Onyx path is also substantially ahead of BNS in terms of released material, with Vampire/Garou already published, Mage currently in editing, and Changeling and Wraith have been confirmed.

4) Unlike a wholly custom rule system, this allows us to avoid copyright issues.  We may eventually decide to adopt one or two resolution systems as the "officially endorsed" methods, which would require a few pages at most.

5) The power gap between old and new characters will shrink.  Will it go away?  Never.  But because higher level items are more expensive across the board, the gap becomes less out of control.

6) Because of attribute XP costs, not everyone is going to be max traits across the board, and then scrambling to stack merits or fetishes or other stuff in order to somehow differentiate themselves from the pack.  

7) Cross-genre mechanical concerns become much, much less severe in tabletop-based systems.  There will always be cross-genre issues to deal with, but the disparity between them is exaggerated greatly in MET.

Given all that, I think that while this would be a serious effort on our part, it would benefit us as a whole.  It would preserve our existing link to classic MET, it would allow us to use new material, and it would keep us differentiated from every other organization out there.

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The vote for this proposal shall have two options, plus abstention.

Option A - Proceed with the reforms outlined in this proposal, with the understanding that subsequent votes will be required to deal with individual mechanics issues, time frame, etc.

Option B - Retain the current system with no modification.