Members,
Greetings once again. As you might have been able to tell, the Global
and National Masquerade teams have been working feverishly to provide
you with the very best Masquerade setting that is offered anywhere.
There are a great number of considerations to be made, such as how the
club has changed since our last experience with Masquerade, how we can
make sure new members can be started with a minimum of hassle, and,
most importantly, what our members are looking for in a Masquerade
chronicle.
In order to address all of these, the team has decided that the
setting will be the one presented as the 3.0/Revised books were
released. Many of the epic events, such as the destruction of the
Tremere Antitribu, the Maelstrom, the Gangrel walk-out, and the
Assamite civil war have already happened or are in progress. We
wanted to mirror as much of this world as possible instead of writing
our own because we heard clearly that the members wanted to pick up
the book and play what was presented there, not what was written by a
Camarilla officer. This also allows the chronicle to be as accessible
to new members as possible.
There will be three types of Venue Style Sheets, Independent, Sabbat,
and Camarilla/Anarch. When you create a character, you will assign
the character to one of these Venue Style Sheet Types. We have also
done away with the concept of Primary or Secondary characters and
decided that players may have a maximum of three Masquerade characters
at one time, regardless of Venue Style Sheet type.
I know everyone is ready to make characters and is dying for the rules
to be created, but I ask for just a little more patience on that
front. I wanted to released a semi-completed rules set at the end of
January to allow that process to start, but no matter how I sliced out
portions of the semi-completed addenda it was the same: a tenth of the
needed rules that were likely to change.
The great news is that the Global and National teams have not only
committed to a single rules set (meaning a single place to look and
find all the rules you will need!) but I believe we will have a gold
release within the next two weeks. This means that the rules, as a
whole, will be available on the 21st of February. This may change
before we get started based on your feedback, but these will be the
rules you can use to get an idea of the process needed to ensure your
concept is ready for play at chronicle start.
With that in mind, I want to initiate the largest and most aggressive
true bottom-up ST project in the club: Project Manifold.
What this means is that I want everyone who is planning, thinking, or
dreaming of playing the Masquerade chronicle to take a moment and ask
themselves: What kind of story am I trying to tell with this
character?” Write down your ideas, making sure to detail what will be
needed to express your character’s story. Be clear – your ST staff
cannot know what you want unless you tell us! Write no more than a
page (double spaced, 12 pt font, you lawyers!) per character and
submit the manifold report to your VST (if you have one, or DST if you
do not).
Let me be clear here – this is not a method of direct feedback or a
project intended to shape the global chronicle as a whole – it is
intended to give your ST staff a clear picture of the sort of themes
and elements that their players would like for their own character in
their local game. There should be little to no detail about approvals
in these reports, they should simply be the sort of story you hope to
express with your character.
The local ST staff will review these submissions and find the
similarities. Where there are similar elements, they will note,
aggregate and submit their own 1-2 page report on their findings and
the list of players/characters that have been submitted.
On the Regional level, the same thing will be done. The Regional ST
staff will look for similarities, aggregate, and submit their 3-4 page
report. The same will occur on the National level and their report
will be submitted to the Global Staff.
When this is finished, the Global Staff will review and incorporate as
many of these elements as possible, then give that completed setting
to the National teams who will do the same, handing the project back
to the Regional teams. This will continue back to the local level
where, with the setting and the original submission, the local ST has
a fantastic head start on what to write and the world the set it in
for the three year chronicle.
Here’s the kicker – for every character you submit to this project
(maximum of three), you will get an additional 10 XP to spend on that
character. Your report must make it all the way to the Global staff,
however. If you submit a report and your RST submits nothing – then
no one in that region can receive the XP. If your NST submits
nothing, then no one in that nation. Make sure your officers report
when/if they complete their tasks!
The initial phase of Project Manifold will last until March 15th. Each
phase thereafter will last 30 days, meaning the V/DST will have
until April 15th to get their reports to the RST, who will have until
the May 15th to submit to the NST.
Thank you all for sharing in my and my team’s excitement for this
returning genre.
–
David Bounds
WW2002021593
2010 is the Year of the ST. Join us
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/camwiki/index.php?title=ST_Manifesto
