Feeding Grounds

A forum for the Storytelling Staff to give opinions on how the game works.
Anthony
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Re: Feeding Grounds

Post by Anthony »

I personally have no issue with the feeding ground implementation.
1) It offers the potential for RP and Plot opportunities to those without Status and Office with available downtimes.
2) Feeding Ground protection offers more leverage regarding politics for better feeding grounds.

I have read the cons and don't feel the need to establish more text regarding them as they are already represented in abundance.

ToniMirabelli
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Re: Feeding Grounds

Post by ToniMirabelli »

If a clan group decides to have 1 person (or 2 or whatever) be in charge of patrolling the feeding grounds, that would mean nobody else would get penalized IC for not doing it. It's 1 downtime per month. That shouldn't be too much for many characters, and if it's split among different characters, it's even more doable. It just depends on what the various clans decide to do as to how much blow back happens and who gets 'homework.' If a player doesn't want to do it or doesn't do downtimes, there are likely ways to explain it away without much ado.

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'amah al Hadia
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Re: Feeding Grounds

Post by 'amah al Hadia »

I don't have strong feelings about feeding grounds, conceptually (all I really remember about the old feeding grounds situation is that people never seemed to remember where they were), but I'm not crazy about this implementation.

First, if we're going with assigned feeding grounds as a source of RP, they should *absolutely* be a political football. The idea of getting them, setting them, and then never using them for bargaining and dealing seems really bizarre to me--if feeding grounds remind us we're vampires and have value that calls for patrols and may yield rewards, that should be something we're predatory and competitive about, especially as clan populations ebb and flow. I don't think I understand the benefit of declaring that folks shouldn't be politicking over feeding ground allocation--if I'm missing something, please explain?

But also, while one downtime a month isn't a lot, it's also the minimum, and it seems like a significant disincentive to play underpopulated clans. I mean, if I join a well populated and perennially popular clan (the Toreador, say), I can be confident that there will always be plenty of people to throw downtime at patrolling and I can look forward to reaping the benefits of having a safe place to feed and no serious political blowback for shoddy security, but none of that is true if I join an underpopulated clan.

Ginger's "one action out of hundreds" rapidly becomes "one action out of a couple dozen and by the way you're pretty screwed if the one other person in your clan can't do downtime regularly". For the Assamites, when I'm back in a week or two, it'll be a minimum of one action out of 12--assuming we have feeding grounds assigned at all (and if we don't, I won't be able to politick for any because some people found that tedious? this is what I'm not getting). And it seems like it should matter, since there's a mechanic attached to this--why would anyone cause trouble in a well-patrolled and looked after territory when they could hop over to make their trouble in the scarcely-patrolled territory of a less well-populated clan?

A few players have mentioned having NPCs patrol, which would help that issue some, but if we can just assume NPCs can help out, then why would any PCs need to submit downtime for it? How much can NPCs add to the mechanical effect? How are we balancing this?

I'm ok with Alison's suggestions, but I don't want to see PC authorities cut slack to avoid giving OOG homework and then get crucified by plot and higher ups for not keeping up their clan's feeding grounds, nor do I want to see a thing where this is required homework for some people and not for others--I mean, at that point, it should be voluntary, right?

I have a pretty high tolerance for "chores" in RP if they add to realism for me, but this seems a bit like an obligatory mini-game, rather than a serious social and political plot vector. I can't think how it might, as described by Staff here, heighten my awareness of playing a vampire or the general themes of humanity loss and personal horror.

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