NOVEMBER 20, 1999

SYMPATHETIC INK SUBMISSIONS WANTED

For those new players in the game, Sympathetic Ink is a compilation of creative works from the players and staff of SbN, and edited by Jill. Jill will be putting together another issue of Sympathetic Ink for December, and so is looking for submissions.  If you have any stories, poems, rants, or artwork that you would like to submit for the December issue start getting them in now.  Jill needs time to edit and re-format submissions, so have your submissions in at least a week before the next game.  Electronic format for submissions is preferred.  Don't pass up this opportunity to have your words immortalized in Sympathetic Ink!

INFLUENCE UPDATE

We're going through a transitional phase in influence right now, so I haven't been able to do a whole lot with regards with influence submissions at this point.  I have received the Influence info from David, but haven't had much of an opportunity to go through every detail of it yet.  I will definitely have everything under control by the New Year, hopefully even by December.

As I mentioned at the last SbN Info session, all influence has been reduced to the basic rules presented in Laws of the Night Revised, and expanded in Laws of Elysium.  You want to achieve a particular effect, you spend the appropriate amount of Influence Traits to achieve that effect.  The level of detail you put into it will be the level of detail you get out of it.  Using Influence will, in general, be easier to do.

Gaining Influence, on the other hand, will be a bit more difficult.  The way one builds influence is by starting at a base level and describing how the base is expanded to encompass the powers of the next level of Influence.  In other words in order to gain the ability to re-zone an area of town in bureaucracy means that you have to build enough bureaucratic clout to be able to perform such an action. The main point in building Influence is building an entity or collection of entities that are able to achieve a higher level Influence effect.  There is not necessarily a single individual per level of contact; it is now more entity-based.  For those of you who have Influence already, you might want to talk to me about how your structure of influence works in the revised system, or I'll be contacting you soon to discuss it.

In addition, I am in the process of creating an online Influence server for people to submit Influence requests to.  The beta version is online at http:// 24.67.46.75/sbn/index.htm .  If you have any questions or comments as to how it works and what functionality you'd like to see incorporated into it, let me know.

SBN RULES REVISION

Not surprisingly, there are a few adjustments that are required for Laws of the Night Revised.  These revised rules are going to be compiled into SbN Rules Addendum v3.0, and will be available in the next couple of months.  If there are any areas you would like to see clarified, please let me know and I will try to address them in the rules addendum.

CHANGES TO EXPERIENCE

Some of you may have noticed that the experience point system in Laws of the Night Revised has changed a bit, making everything on a smaller scale (1-3 instead of 1-5).  To those of you who are not familiar, it is as follows:

• Automatic - Each character receives one Experience Trait per game, just for showing up.
• Roleplaying - If you put in a decent job of roleplaying and staying in character, you get an additional one.
• Leadership - Characters who got involved, and by his or her efforts propelled the plot, deserve a third Trait.  This doesn't automatically mean you get experience for holding a position within the city; you must take initiative in whatever role you play.

TYPES OF LARPERS (CONTINUED)
BY RICHARD DANSKY, WW STAFFER

The Chainsaw

Quote: "I kill you. And you. And you. And hey, you, over there – in the green shirt. Yeah, I kill you, too. You’re here to read the meter? Screw it, I kill you anyway."
Concept: To make like Ozymandias, only without all that boring looking on works and despairing stuff, you know?
Appearance: The Chainsaw exists to kill, and the sheer number of weapons draped off his costume (usually lifted from Clint Eastwood by way of post-Highlander Christopher Lambert) makes this abundantly clear. Broad-brimmed hats are de rigeur. A rare subspecies prefers to use no weapons at all, relying instead on innate powers. Such creatures are thought to be the result of Chainsaw-Twink crossbreeding, though reliable reports indicate that each partner tries to kill the other immediately after the consummation of such a union.
Natural Habitat: Chainsaws can be found at the entrance to most games, mentally tallying new players for later identification and extermination. Chainsaws can also be found at the front of most Blood Hunts and leading the list of converts during the inevitable “Sabbat infiltration” plotline, believing that getting whacked on the head with a shovel grants them a license to kill.
Notes: The Chainsaw is not evil, merely misguided; he thinks that racking up a body count is a form of roleplaying. He sees himself as the Darwinian scourge of the LARP, weeding out the weak so that stronger character concepts may survive and prosper. He fills the role of... oh, who am I trying to kid with this crap? He’s a weenie. Get 30 Terrified Newbies to gang-tackle him, then steal his stuff.

The Terrified Newbie

Quote: "I, umm, I’m not really sure what’s going on, err, umm, so could you, umm, tell me what, errr, oh, never mind."
Concept: The Terrified Newbie has no idea what’s going on around him. This is perfectly understandable for someone at his first game, but this guy’s been doing it for three-and-a-half years.
Appearance: A cape. The Terrified Newbie always wears a cape. Hopefully he’s wearing something else underneath it.
Natural Habitat: The Terrified Newbie rotates on a seasonal cycle (read: every 15 minutes) between the check-in table and the deepest, darkest comer of the game site, there to quiver in helpless confusion. Occasionally, this lemming-like journey takes the Terrified Newbie through actual gameplay, which inevitably screeches to a halt as a result of questions like “Which one is rock, again?”
Notes: The Terrified Newbie has no actual interest in playing, merely in attaching himself, lamprey-like, to some kind soul foolish enough to offer a few minutes to help out. What the Terrified Newbie craves is attention, and he will go so far as to self-trepanate to avoid actually learning what’s going on (and thus being forced to do something silly like, oh, I dunno, play).