This is an email I sent to the Toulouse ST and a few of the players who were interested in the rules:
===
Gentlemen,
Here's a summary of the rules changes I'm thinking of making from Toulouse to Alexandria. It was going to be quick, but turned out to be comprehensive. I still tried to keep this quick though:
1) Personal Actions. You get three of them, rather than one. Most people will use the Manage Influence and Correspondence actions, so it should be fairly similar. This might require a few redefinitions of other actions (ritual research, etc.) but I like the idea that you can personally do a couple small things, even if you'll largely be doing Manage Influence and Correspondence. Possible additional action to let you really focus on one particular influence action by throwing multiple abilities/disciplines into the effort.
2) Messages. You can use the Correspondence action and/or attend a gathering to get enough messages. Attend a gathering gets you unlimited messages to the people at the gathering, Correspondence gets you a few bonus messages based on your wits and/or expression skills. Positions/Titles may also grant bonus messages to those who acknowledge your position (a prince can send messages to all, a primogen to their clan, etc.).
3) Clans. These are working lists.
Preferred Clans: Assamite Vizier (Persian, Syrian, Arab, Jewish, Coptic), Brujah (Greek or Punic), True Brujah (Greek or Punic), Cappadocian (Greek), Followers of Set (Coptic), Ravnos (Coptic), Salubri (Greek), Toreador (Greek or Roman), Ventrue (Roman).
Other Clans: Lasombra (Roman), Nosferatu (Roman/Greek), Laibon (Nubian), Assamite Warriors and Sorcerers, Baali (Punic), Tzimisce (Macedonian), Gangrel (Greek), Malkavian (Roman, Persian, Greek)
The Ravnos bit seems weird, but there's some stuff about a group of Alexandrian Ravnos in the books. They're not the wandering thieves most Ravnos are because their sin is usually Pride.
4) Roads: Heaven, Humanity, Typhon-Set. Keeping it small will help ensure there might be 3 factions. If lots of people pick the same road, then we could have paths or otherwise divide the faction into sub-factions (think Pagan and Christian Road of Heaven factions).
5) Feeding: A semi-abstract set of rules granting bonus personal actions to those with Herd and Domain or who collect blood via Health. Also people may be required to hunt if feeding is hampered for any reason. This was sketched out in the latest (unreleased?) packet.
6) Goals: I think ongoing faction goals (perhaps set by a faction leader) will help people know what they might want to pursue, and possibly a game-end goal as well. XP might be more meaningful if people are augmenting with abilities and disciplines more, so it is a reward that grants you better command of your influences.
7) Influence Categories: Bureaucracy, Christians, Elite, Health, Learning, Jews, Military, Pagans, Street, Trade. Maybe add Law into the mix, or combine a couple depending on the number of players.
8) Influence Endeavours: I'm thinking of leaving these largely the same, but reorganizing them to make it clear that Stealth and Conceal do different things. By renaming them to 2-4 word actions and categorizing them, I think that'll be clearer:
Offensive - Acquire unattended influence, Block and action, Conceal your resources
Defensive - Defend your resources, Refresh your resources, Stealth an action,
Information - Follow an Opponent, Gauge the City or An Opponent, Trace an event, Watch for an action
Gain - Boost an Action, Grow your resources, Combine with an ally
I'm also thinking of adding a couple more generic ones, such as Gather Information and Gather supplies because each influence could be used for these, though what you gather differs. Also Rig the Games, which contributes to a sports team (Reds, Whites, Blues, Greens?) winning the games (random, but each level of influence probably could be an extra die or something).
Basically I'm thinking we present the rules clearer, rather than try to simplify or drastically change them. Though depending on feedback... I'm not wedded to this plan. Testing the rules for a week or two of just influence actions might give us an idea of what is broken before we start, also looking through Zack's logs when Toulouse is finished.
9) Augments will be largely the same as in the last (unreleased?) revision, but hopefully we can make that clearer too. Might need to rethink a few disciplines like Bardo, Serpentis, and Temporis for what they could augment. Allies and Domain might need a bit more thought, but it should be largely the same as well.
10) Emphasise level 0 actions. If you need information about the Christians, you could do a level 0 Auspex + Investigation type of action. Also I'm thinking of having Gain a new influence work via level 0 actions, so to grow new influence with the Christians, you might need to know about Theology or have the Presence discipline. Actions in level 0 and 1 pools might also get a bonus Stealth/Defend/Conceal to represent the fact that they're hard to spot because the influence is still nimble, if not potent.
11) Mysticism. I'm still debating how to add a potential mystic element to the game. I'm half thinking of doing it as an influence, but I don't like the idea of people attacking one another with a heavenly influence. Some disciplines would, however, fit well as entering a trance to view some heavenly realm and glean secrets though (Auspex, Dementation, Serpentis...), so they could certainly be used for mystic actions. I'd like to use this as a plot point though.
12) Combat. I'm not sure about this, but I think the roads can discourage outright murder of your enemies, but I'd love to see things like one faction wagering their reputation on the reds winning the chariot races, or a debate war in an underground elysium.
13) Character Seeds. A list of things like possible names and possible character types might help, plus background info on the city and time. I'm thinking of providing some seeds for characters that can be played (A Nosferatu who runs an underground debate Elysium, The Greek Toreador prince of the city, Leader of the Cult of Typhon-Set, etc.). These "playable seeds" will just be a minimal set of possible NPCs I'd think of using, so that I can hopefully not be running a lot of NPCs. There's a recent film, Agora, and recent documentary called Alexandria on Netflix which might help people get in the mood.
14) Feedback. We've gotten a little feedback from Toulouse, I'm going to compile it so that the players can all see a summary of things so they can respond to everyone's comments thus far to see if they have other ideas about rules/setting/logistics.
The timeframe would probably be 4 weeks off at least, so mid-late June. Some of this depends on if John has the time/energy/interest to work on the beast we might call the website, and how much of that work I can attempt to help with. But I'll probably have some other work in revising rules and possibly some setting documents.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you the update and see if you had any thoughts or concerns.
===
Note: I've since been contemplating one other change, which is swapping Ability and Discipline augments. Abilities will be the constant use guys (adding a little more randomness to some actions) and disciplines will be the feet-on-the-ground sort of augments (powerful but requiring a personal action).
===
Gentlemen,
Here's a summary of the rules changes I'm thinking of making from Toulouse to Alexandria. It was going to be quick, but turned out to be comprehensive. I still tried to keep this quick though:
1) Personal Actions. You get three of them, rather than one. Most people will use the Manage Influence and Correspondence actions, so it should be fairly similar. This might require a few redefinitions of other actions (ritual research, etc.) but I like the idea that you can personally do a couple small things, even if you'll largely be doing Manage Influence and Correspondence. Possible additional action to let you really focus on one particular influence action by throwing multiple abilities/disciplines into the effort.
2) Messages. You can use the Correspondence action and/or attend a gathering to get enough messages. Attend a gathering gets you unlimited messages to the people at the gathering, Correspondence gets you a few bonus messages based on your wits and/or expression skills. Positions/Titles may also grant bonus messages to those who acknowledge your position (a prince can send messages to all, a primogen to their clan, etc.).
3) Clans. These are working lists.
Preferred Clans: Assamite Vizier (Persian, Syrian, Arab, Jewish, Coptic), Brujah (Greek or Punic), True Brujah (Greek or Punic), Cappadocian (Greek), Followers of Set (Coptic), Ravnos (Coptic), Salubri (Greek), Toreador (Greek or Roman), Ventrue (Roman).
Other Clans: Lasombra (Roman), Nosferatu (Roman/Greek), Laibon (Nubian), Assamite Warriors and Sorcerers, Baali (Punic), Tzimisce (Macedonian), Gangrel (Greek), Malkavian (Roman, Persian, Greek)
The Ravnos bit seems weird, but there's some stuff about a group of Alexandrian Ravnos in the books. They're not the wandering thieves most Ravnos are because their sin is usually Pride.
4) Roads: Heaven, Humanity, Typhon-Set. Keeping it small will help ensure there might be 3 factions. If lots of people pick the same road, then we could have paths or otherwise divide the faction into sub-factions (think Pagan and Christian Road of Heaven factions).
5) Feeding: A semi-abstract set of rules granting bonus personal actions to those with Herd and Domain or who collect blood via Health. Also people may be required to hunt if feeding is hampered for any reason. This was sketched out in the latest (unreleased?) packet.
6) Goals: I think ongoing faction goals (perhaps set by a faction leader) will help people know what they might want to pursue, and possibly a game-end goal as well. XP might be more meaningful if people are augmenting with abilities and disciplines more, so it is a reward that grants you better command of your influences.
7) Influence Categories: Bureaucracy, Christians, Elite, Health, Learning, Jews, Military, Pagans, Street, Trade. Maybe add Law into the mix, or combine a couple depending on the number of players.
8) Influence Endeavours: I'm thinking of leaving these largely the same, but reorganizing them to make it clear that Stealth and Conceal do different things. By renaming them to 2-4 word actions and categorizing them, I think that'll be clearer:
Offensive - Acquire unattended influence, Block and action, Conceal your resources
Defensive - Defend your resources, Refresh your resources, Stealth an action,
Information - Follow an Opponent, Gauge the City or An Opponent, Trace an event, Watch for an action
Gain - Boost an Action, Grow your resources, Combine with an ally
I'm also thinking of adding a couple more generic ones, such as Gather Information and Gather supplies because each influence could be used for these, though what you gather differs. Also Rig the Games, which contributes to a sports team (Reds, Whites, Blues, Greens?) winning the games (random, but each level of influence probably could be an extra die or something).
Basically I'm thinking we present the rules clearer, rather than try to simplify or drastically change them. Though depending on feedback... I'm not wedded to this plan. Testing the rules for a week or two of just influence actions might give us an idea of what is broken before we start, also looking through Zack's logs when Toulouse is finished.
9) Augments will be largely the same as in the last (unreleased?) revision, but hopefully we can make that clearer too. Might need to rethink a few disciplines like Bardo, Serpentis, and Temporis for what they could augment. Allies and Domain might need a bit more thought, but it should be largely the same as well.
10) Emphasise level 0 actions. If you need information about the Christians, you could do a level 0 Auspex + Investigation type of action. Also I'm thinking of having Gain a new influence work via level 0 actions, so to grow new influence with the Christians, you might need to know about Theology or have the Presence discipline. Actions in level 0 and 1 pools might also get a bonus Stealth/Defend/Conceal to represent the fact that they're hard to spot because the influence is still nimble, if not potent.
11) Mysticism. I'm still debating how to add a potential mystic element to the game. I'm half thinking of doing it as an influence, but I don't like the idea of people attacking one another with a heavenly influence. Some disciplines would, however, fit well as entering a trance to view some heavenly realm and glean secrets though (Auspex, Dementation, Serpentis...), so they could certainly be used for mystic actions. I'd like to use this as a plot point though.
12) Combat. I'm not sure about this, but I think the roads can discourage outright murder of your enemies, but I'd love to see things like one faction wagering their reputation on the reds winning the chariot races, or a debate war in an underground elysium.
13) Character Seeds. A list of things like possible names and possible character types might help, plus background info on the city and time. I'm thinking of providing some seeds for characters that can be played (A Nosferatu who runs an underground debate Elysium, The Greek Toreador prince of the city, Leader of the Cult of Typhon-Set, etc.). These "playable seeds" will just be a minimal set of possible NPCs I'd think of using, so that I can hopefully not be running a lot of NPCs. There's a recent film, Agora, and recent documentary called Alexandria on Netflix which might help people get in the mood.
14) Feedback. We've gotten a little feedback from Toulouse, I'm going to compile it so that the players can all see a summary of things so they can respond to everyone's comments thus far to see if they have other ideas about rules/setting/logistics.
The timeframe would probably be 4 weeks off at least, so mid-late June. Some of this depends on if John has the time/energy/interest to work on the beast we might call the website, and how much of that work I can attempt to help with. But I'll probably have some other work in revising rules and possibly some setting documents.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you the update and see if you had any thoughts or concerns.
===
Note: I've since been contemplating one other change, which is swapping Ability and Discipline augments. Abilities will be the constant use guys (adding a little more randomness to some actions) and disciplines will be the feet-on-the-ground sort of augments (powerful but requiring a personal action).
I do like the idea of more personal actions, and I think you should seriously consider some "mandatory" uses of personal actions to maintain some things. The sheriff and scourge should be expected to use their personal actions occasional to deal with issue, the seneschal and chamberlain could easily be required to use actions to maintain their positions and the keeper could be require to spend actions preaching to the childer and neonates (who could be required to learn from the keeper). These requirements would obviously be easier with an active NPC Prince or Clan Heads. This could also be applied to backgrounds. If someone has 4 in resources and its coming from their merchant fleet, they should need to spend time and effort maintaining that business (risking that their resources score drops), unless they have a retainer who can do that.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of getting folks connected at the start of the game, you could also consider setting up some pooled backgrounds.
Yes! With some feeding rules I've been thinking of, you may lose personal actions due to needing to hunt (or gain them if you have a really easy time feeding). I hadn't considered titles getting special bonuses except for perhaps the bonus to communication, but perhaps they could have a special action or two that they're better at.
DeleteAnd the pooled backgrounds like Domain or Herd for some groups could definitely help. Perhaps if a group ends up being smaller than another, a shared resource could help balance the odds a bit.
I've definitely got an idea that your backgrounds represent mortal interests, and they may need upkeep or maintenance if you're using them a lot.