Dear Camarilla
Dear Camarilla global staff.
Stop trying to fix stuff. You only make it worse. I know you mean well. But let me divulge a simple fact to you.
The game you were designed to control, no longer exists.
Masquerade was designed, as a top-down, epic. WIth a global government. A fully developed antagonist. A well rounded universal setting and very strict rules of rarity that warranted a top-down approach to control, regulate and otherwise curb the ravenous maws of cheese weasels.
Requiem is precisely the opposite. It is a domain-centric, Bottom up approach with high emphasis on local, domain-level politics and authorities that really don't need your help in fixing. Any game built like that, out of necessity, needs to rely on local ST's to curb item rarity and to enforce the setting. Rather than a faceless overarching government who's only concern should be a global story rather than rules calls.
A few points.
Global status rated on a 1-5 scale is FUCKING RETARDED. This is a game with several thousand players. So trying to say taht status levels 1-5 are somehow able to compress a global-level heirarchy system is amazingly stupid. 1-10 might be more acceptable. but you'd be better served to reserve a seperate merit to warrant global status. with prerequisites like (must have 4,5 status in clan or covenant)
which brings me to my next point ont he subject
The entire base build system in the book describes a 1-5 status system saying that a status 5 of any group means he is the most important person *in a city*. Not a country, or on the planet. A *domain*. By taking it away from the local control. You have hamstrung the entire idea of localized clan politics and have heavily hampered items like the boon system as no one will respect boons owed by a guy with status 2 in his covenant. and no one feels obligated to pay.
Stop fixing the rules and setting. Trust in the authors of the books and just stop. The setting itself doesn't need any fixing. in fact. It needs enforcing. By trying to create a global game you have in fact crippled many of the aspects of local politics. The Low ST's are the ones that should be the most familiar with the rules. and with every 90 page addenda you put out, you require them to relearn new rules every damn time.
Rarity is decided by the players. Not you. Loosen up. The game is designed specifically to allow many concepts. Bloodlines, sorcery, creative custom materials. By trying to control it all, you have crippled the idea of creativity. When a much easier fix should of been. "Local ST's reserve the right to deny use of any custom from a sheet they feel is unbalancing to their games". See? custom material problem solved. The game has rules for how custom stuff should work. And by creating stop-gap after stop-gap. You hurt the game more than you help. Similarly are items you are just too tired to approve. Such as rare bloodlines, rare powers, and unusual effects such as sorceries, diseases, cross covenant effects, etc.
I know there is a lot more. But seriously, get that cranial-rectitis looked at.
Stop trying to fix stuff. You only make it worse. I know you mean well. But let me divulge a simple fact to you.
The game you were designed to control, no longer exists.
Masquerade was designed, as a top-down, epic. WIth a global government. A fully developed antagonist. A well rounded universal setting and very strict rules of rarity that warranted a top-down approach to control, regulate and otherwise curb the ravenous maws of cheese weasels.
Requiem is precisely the opposite. It is a domain-centric, Bottom up approach with high emphasis on local, domain-level politics and authorities that really don't need your help in fixing. Any game built like that, out of necessity, needs to rely on local ST's to curb item rarity and to enforce the setting. Rather than a faceless overarching government who's only concern should be a global story rather than rules calls.
A few points.
Global status rated on a 1-5 scale is FUCKING RETARDED. This is a game with several thousand players. So trying to say taht status levels 1-5 are somehow able to compress a global-level heirarchy system is amazingly stupid. 1-10 might be more acceptable. but you'd be better served to reserve a seperate merit to warrant global status. with prerequisites like (must have 4,5 status in clan or covenant)
which brings me to my next point ont he subject
The entire base build system in the book describes a 1-5 status system saying that a status 5 of any group means he is the most important person *in a city*. Not a country, or on the planet. A *domain*. By taking it away from the local control. You have hamstrung the entire idea of localized clan politics and have heavily hampered items like the boon system as no one will respect boons owed by a guy with status 2 in his covenant. and no one feels obligated to pay.
Stop fixing the rules and setting. Trust in the authors of the books and just stop. The setting itself doesn't need any fixing. in fact. It needs enforcing. By trying to create a global game you have in fact crippled many of the aspects of local politics. The Low ST's are the ones that should be the most familiar with the rules. and with every 90 page addenda you put out, you require them to relearn new rules every damn time.
Rarity is decided by the players. Not you. Loosen up. The game is designed specifically to allow many concepts. Bloodlines, sorcery, creative custom materials. By trying to control it all, you have crippled the idea of creativity. When a much easier fix should of been. "Local ST's reserve the right to deny use of any custom from a sheet they feel is unbalancing to their games". See? custom material problem solved. The game has rules for how custom stuff should work. And by creating stop-gap after stop-gap. You hurt the game more than you help. Similarly are items you are just too tired to approve. Such as rare bloodlines, rare powers, and unusual effects such as sorceries, diseases, cross covenant effects, etc.
I know there is a lot more. But seriously, get that cranial-rectitis looked at.