Proposals & Admin Meetings in the Realms

By: Tucker Noyes, Pat Bobell & Keith Cronyn

Everyone's favorite time of year is right around the corner, proposal season and the Players' Meeting (PM) and the Event Holders' Council (EHC)!  In this short series of articles we will talk about all things proposals; what the PM and EHC are, how the process works, what makes a good proposal, and everything in between.  This first article will focus on giving an overview of how we make changes to our rules and what makes a good proposal.

The Proposal Process

Each year the community goes through a process to decide on changes to the rules of the game.  This process starts with any member of the community writing a proposal and submitting it to the RealmsNet.net website. There is a specific section of the site for all of this, located by clicking your name/profile in the top banner and selecting "EHC Proposal Dashboard".  There you will see links to Edit Proposals (write or edit your own), or Approve Proposals (add your digital signature to others' proposals you support getting discussed at the PM and/or EHC). You will also see links to the lists of all the Draft, PM, and EHC Proposals. Draft proposals can be commented on and edited, but not approved until their status is changed. PM and EHC Proposals can not be edited by the author and have already received the necessary signatures to be discussed and voted on at the appropriate meeting.

As of this year we are trying a new system to help streamline the PM and reduce the time discussing proposals that have little community support, requiring any proposal to have 30 signatures from any players in the community to be discussed at the PM.  All players are encouraged to take a look at and read through proposals being submitted over the next couple months.

If a proposal is submitted to the EHC it will have the opportunity to bypass needing to be voted on at the PM.  This is done by having 10 event holders sign off on that proposal.  If a proposal submitted to the EHC fails to get 10 signatures, then it will need to go through the PM in the process outlined above.  Proposals that end up going to the PM will need to not only pass at the PM, but also the EHC, while proposals that bypass the PM will only need to pass at the EHC to become rules changes.

When writing or editing a new or draft proposal, you may set its Proposal Type to "Request for Comment", leaving it as a draft that other members of the community can comment on so you can make changes before submitting for approval signatures. Once you are confident the proposal is ready for one of the meetings, you can instead save the Proposal Type as "Players' Meeting" or "Event Holders' Council". If you submit to the PM, EH signatures will not be able to advance that proposal to the EHC automatically. If you submit to the EHC and do not receive enough EH signatures, the proposal can still be discussed at the PM if it receives sufficient community support and advance to the EHC through a favorable vote at that preliminary meeting.

The Administrative Meeting Organizers this year are Pat Bobell and Keith Cronyn, and can be reached using the following email for any questions:  ehc@admin.realmsnet.net

The Players' Meeting

The Players Meeting is a gathering that is open to any member of the community that has attended an event in the past calendar year.  At this meeting proposals that have garnered at least 30 player signatures will be discussed and voted on.  A ⅔ supporting majority is needed for proposals to pass the PM.  Online proposals to the PM must be submitted by the day before the meeting, and the day of proposals at the meeting require the person submitting it to be in attendance at the meeting.  These proposals also need to have 30 players in support of them to be discussed.  Because of this, it is highly recommended that proposals are written and posted online as early as possible to give the community the most time to understand them. The final aspect of the PM is that the players get to choose a Players' Representative.  The ‘Players' Rep’ is an individual who is able to speak to the players' opinions and cast a vote at the EHC.  We will discuss the process of choosing the Players' Rep in a later article.

The Event Holders' Council

The EHC is where the final decision is made on proposals.  The only people who are allowed to attend the EHC are people who were official event holders of a legal event in the past calendar year, as well as the Players Rep and the EHC Administration staff. To be able to vote at the EHC, an EH must have attended at least 6 events in the past calendar year, including their own.  Proposals must have gone through the PM process or have been signed off on by 10 event holders at least a week prior to the PM in order to get here.  Proposals cannot be added to the agenda at the EHC, though they may be changed if the owner of the proposal is present and accepts an amendment, or if the Players' Rep is willing to accept an amendment on an absent author's behalf  Here proposals will also need a two thirds majority vote to pass, and if passed become official rules in the next season's Omnibus.

After voting on proposals, the EHC votes on the various elected positions needing to be filled for the community's governance over the next year. Nominees for positions are required to accept their nomination to be included as options during voting, so it is recommended that anyone interested who isn't able to attend the EHC communicate their desire to the Administrative Meeting Organizers before the meeting takes place.

So that is a brief overview of the process that takes a proposal to a rule.  Now let’s briefly cover why we write proposals and what makes a proposal a good one.

Why make a proposal?

There are many reasons and viewpoints when it comes to making a proposal.  As a diverse community of people who are very passionate about the game we often clash when it comes to proposals and changing the rules to the game we all play.  In addition those who attend the PM and the EHC are giving up their own time to help improve the game, so it is also important to make sure your proposals are well thought out and vetted before you submit them to the PM or the EHC.  So what are some good reasons to make a proposal?  New ideas for game mechanics or changes to existing ones are the most common, trying to address an imbalance in the game, and removing rules that are no longer pertinent are all great examples of proposals.  Making a proposal because you thought something sounded like it would be cool, but haven’t given any real thought to however is not really an outstanding premise.  Rules changes affect everyone in the game and should be well thought out in regards to actual game mechanics, design, and balance.

What Makes a Good Proposal?

For any proposal clean, concise writing with plenty of deliberation put into it makes it much stronger.  Community feedback is also important, which is why making use of the Draft section of proposal submission on realmsnet.net is very important.  In addition there are some things to think about depending on the type of proposal you are actually writing.

          Balance Issues - Sometimes mechanics in our game become unbalanced. This could be  due to a change to that mechanic in a previous year, a change to something that affected that mechanic, or just a change in the game outside the rules.  Balance issues should try to be as concise as possible, fixing the perceived issue with as little impact as possible to other aspects of the game.

          New Idea - Oftentimes we see players submitting changes to add something new to the game, which is great. However, these are often the proposals that require the most work and vetting.  A common proposal to see is one that adds a new spell to the game.  When making such a proposal you should ask yourself some questions before submitting; Is this truly new design space?  How does this affect game balance?  Is this a game mechanic that works within our system?

        Rules Removal - Sometimes rules become defunct or don’t make sense with the current state of the game due to other changes.  Rules removal is often fairly obvious, but it is good to make sure that in doing so that what is left is still clear to the reader.

        Clarifications - These changes tend to be some of the more difficult ones.  For these proposals it is very important that you focus on some of the minutia, especially when it comes to wording, as poor wording is what leads to Clarification proposals to begin with.

This is a short guide to writing proposals that will hopefully help people trying to make changes during this proposal season.  Included is the basic proposal structure that will help you communicate efficiently and concisely.  In doing so you will allow your readers to better understand what you're trying to accomplish and enable them to give you more effective feedback.

Formatting Your Proposal

Proposal Summary

This should be the meat and potatoes of exactly what you are doing, much like the abstract in a professional paper.  Having a clear concise message will give readers a good idea of what the proposal is all about.  

Rationale

At the end of your Proposal Summary, you should include a concise rationale for the proposal - a set of logical reasons for the change that you are making.  This is where you should identify the problem or area of improvement that you are addressing with your change.  These reasons should be logical and not just “Because it’s cool.”  If more people can identify with the problem at hand, the more people will likely vote for or give helpful criticism of the proposal.  Here you also want to include your reasoning on how these changes will address the problem you have identified.  When you can, try to reference specifics from the Omnibus and stay away from anecdotal evidence.  

Changes

Here you should include the specific changes you are making to the Omnibus text.  Use the html guide next to the text box while you write the proposal to properly highlight the removals, additions, and changes you are making to the text.  This section shouldn’t include anything but the text changes to the omnibus.  It is often helpful to include or "current" and "proposed" versions of the text so others can easily see exactly what changes are being made.

Notes/Updates

Finally after the changes I like to include any relevant notes that might not be obvious changes or any updates I make to the proposal for the sake of record keeping and helping people keep up with the comments.  This section is the most optional, but will help people entering into the conversation later keep up with the context of the discussion as time passes on the drafts.

Make sure you always review your proposal before you submit it. I recommend vetting it through a group of people who may have experience in the area that you're proposing something in (ie. if you change a healing spell, you may want to have some people with experience using that spell review it first).  This will give you a more polished product to present to the greater public and let you deal with any glaring issues outside the limelight.

Why We Want To Go - The Player's Meeting

by Jason "Aeston" Rosa

We asked a wide assortment of Realms players from many different starting eras what they believe is the most significant change made to the rules in the time they have been playing. Let's see their answers:

John “Gordon” Rescigno: I can’t remember the year because time has become meaningless since Covid and becoming a parent. But the most meaningful change I have seen has been the removal of spell paths in our current system. Customization to match roleplay is a huge part of what our game has become, and I like that we no longer have “tax spells”. This allows players to have builds that feel more engaging and more importantly, make them feel more like their characters.

Alex "Adoros" Taylor: Honestly, I like the change of the spell system from Paths to the current Pool system. I do wish we had 7th spells back because 4 and 5 circles are quite heavy.

Travis "Elwin" Wilcox: When the entire system changed back in '98 I believe it was.

Kim "Mayumi Sorbus" Coffey: Code of Conduct - most important.

Sean "Wil" Veale: Arch / rouge spell system to circle system (94?)

Eric "Rosetta" Willisson: Adding the Code of Conduct in 2018. It was an essential part of helping to make our community safer, and it was a project carried out largely by some of our newer members at the time.

Alyssa "Umbra" Lee: Allowing more armor materials

Steven "Kaelkatar" Yazinka: Bamboo weapons in 2012 (and fiberglass weapons in 2009) made combat what it is today.

Ed "Tuilli" Drummond: The elimination of the paths of magic. I think it did a great job at allowing folk to build characters the way they wanted to, with a lot more narrative freedom.

Crystal “Cressida” Welch: The most important rule change since I started in 2016 has to be the addition of the Code of Conduct in 2018. This made the game feel safer and made it clear to those in the game, and those looking to join it, that we care about our community and that certain behaviors will never be tolerated.

Sara 'Zarine' Jessop: I can't decide between changing how we learn spells or getting rid of spell paths. Both have made spell casting much more flexible. Spell learning being quicker is much more newbie friendly as well as making it easier for everyone to switch things up if needed but I still think the system needs some tweaking. Getting rid of paths was something I didn't like at first, but it's proven to be a change for the better with people being able to customize their characters better making far more interesting builds. Overall I think both changes work well together and have been good changes.

Kyle “Killian” Yazinka: It’s changed several times but how long it takes to learn spells. When I started, learning a spell depended on what weapon restriction you had. It took longer to become a useful member of a questing party or tournament and in doing so, slowed the game down

Zach "Loken" Senchuk: The code of conduct: 2019ish I believe. Setting a standard, written, list of values we should all hold ourselves to was not the only reason I believe the community has gotten more inclusive, helpful and welcoming, but I think it marks the start of that shift as a whole rather than individual efforts by people or individuals.

Mikey "Janus" Donnelly:  When we added the ability to use alternative weapons materials, such as bamboo.

Matthew "Alexander Cecil" Brenner: In 1998, after much lobbying and discussion on the email lists, we transitioned from the Arc/Sphere system to the Path system. That was an entire spell system rewrite that fundamentally changed almost every aspect of the game except for the mechanics of combat and the abilities of a fighter. Almost every rule change we have made since has been iterative of that dramatic paradigm shift.

Pi "Wait I don't know whether Kwido or Alpacasaurus is my main" Fisher: The change from 7 circles of spells down to 6 circles of spells, paired with the removal of segregated paths of spells. This change was made for the 2018 Omnibus, and it's given us so much more freedom in how we tweak spells, both when we add or remove spells and when we try to tweak power levels.

Nick "Raynor" Quadrini: Adding the CRB and its evolution

Tucker “Temorse” Noyes: Bamboo weapons becoming an omnibus standard

Stephen "Laika" Sanford: Since I've been playing I would say the change from 2 cost to 1 cost buy downs was the most significant change. It happened around the year 2008 I think. The balance of casters and the idea of paths were changed. 1 cost buy downs was so good that there were people who would just buy down every spell in their path and just go embrace death instead of taking any necromancy. Additionally there was no reason to go 3 different paths like a few casters did before because even fully buying down a path including the 7th circle was effectively the same thing.

Keith “Saegan” Cronyn: Probably the shift of 7 circles of spells, and having paths, to having 6 circles of spells, but no paths. I think it was a bold move that broke people free from specific archetypes, but also maintained some measure of comparable balance.

I want to say the change to alchemy happened in the same year, and it was also a cool and well thought out change.

Anna "Hedda" Hewitt: Changing "hold" to be "hold hold hold"

Jason "Aeston" Rosa: The initial shift to 75% coverage for armoring a hit location to me signaled a shift in the attitude around combat. We've always treaded the line between a combat sport and a LARP and I think that change really showed our commitment that garb and story and RP were the more important parts of our game.

Angela "Phoenix" Gray: Somewhere around 2000 they changed repair armor so that it worked when you were wearing your armor.

At the time I was playing a fighter and there were multiple of us that had more than one shirt of armor so that you could fight on the front line until your second point of armor got taken and then you would step back shake out of your shirt. Pass it back to a blacksmith while you were putting on a second shirt. Oh and the shirts were steel then and weighed about 15 pounds.

James "Tao" Murphy: Change to how often you can learn spells. Some early players would look at the amount of time it would take to get all three paths and just stay a fighter. Not saying its a bad thing, but some people have been able to max it in just few weekends. I think we started changing that part of the system in 2010?

David "Tirvanel" Rubenstein: In my opinion, the most important rules change we have made since I started playing was the addition of the Code of Conduct in 2018

If you just look at gameplay mechanics, and not the surrounding rules, I think the most important change was the shift from 1 cost to 0 cost buydowns also in 2018.

Jason "Malaki" Gray: There are a few that stand out that are more memorable and or important.

The first big one was the change in the spell system in 1997 from Guilds and Arch Casters to a Path system.

The next, probably in the late 90s early 00s was when we stopped making people remove their armor for it to be able to be fixed.

The most recent and possibly most important change was when we voted in the Code of Conduct. It was long overdue and I'm glad we had people championing it when we did, as most other larps either had them or were instituting them.

Dan "N" Hudon: Last year I made a 16" dagger and a 4'6" in case I ever wanted to go one path, only for the restriction to be bumped up to 5'/5'2" combined a few months later! The timing was quite unfortunate, but I'm glad 1-paths got that buff and can now use more standard weapon sizes.

Janna "Iawen" O-P: I sadly cannot remember like I used to. Things I was either happy about or surprised were things such as: Love Potion removal, Alchemist/Alchemy overhaul, getting rid of Seventh circles, getting rid of paths :-( , mostly things I can recall were spell changes. Well, there was that one year we did 16-18" for daggers only. Lolz. 😅

Matt "Vesper" Hewitt: Removing paths for casters really added to flavor and build diversity.

Jerry "Pawldo" Pearce: The most important rule change was the introduction of the Path system, replacing Arc/Rogue. This change was introduced to the PCs at Gathering of Heroes 15 Feb 03. It is the basis for the explosion of spells and the nearly yearly refurbishing of the magic system.

Amber "Lady Tarnisha" Fox: The switch from Guilds to Paths was monumental and opened the system up so much and made the magic system more open, no longer requiring you to "know a guy" or sign up for a religion to learn advanced spells. (Timing ~'99?)

The next most important one was creating the 1st circle pool. That lead to how every circle has a pool now. (Timing ??2007 +/- a few years.) The flashiest was adding the Alchemy path to the system-- "magic" for casters who had "non-magical" schtick.

For Non-magic changes: The most important rule change was adding the code of conduct and the CRB/Arbitration committees. I don't think it's quite perfect yet, but we are a much better game for choosing to travel this worthy path. (Timing ~2016?)

Briar "Felnar Dulintel (Phee)" Sieracki: For interesting: the removal of paths! I remember it being a buy-down cost to have spells from other paths, but now it's a lot more free, which can add to a lot of fun roleplaying choices.

For important, this might be a personal preference with my experience in other games, but moving Hold from a single word call to a three-times one. It helps so much in preventing a simple mishearing that stops the entire quest, or worse, a hold not happening when it needs to.

Kelly “Fern” Perfetto: 2023, increasing the size restriction one path casters can have.

It seems like 5 ft weapons and larger combos have allowed one path casters to play on the front lines more. This in turn has lead to a few more people around who can heal caster’s limbs, and more of questing parties can stick together. I really like it, and it’s fun to fight alongside a caster buddy with a five foot!

Kenneth "Celtrex" Crowley: Probably when we decided to move away from spell paths and make all spells into level pools with no cost by down. It was a significant power bump for casters. I believe it was 2016 or 2017 when that change was made.

Dan “Diamond” Diamond: The change to the path based magic system from the guilds.

Ryan "Orion" Welch: Removing spell paths (2018) really upended the way we think about spell and created so many new and interesting spellcaster builds.

Looking through the above there are certainly some common themes. The spell system, weapon materials, conduct reporting. All significant changes that have taken place across the last three decades. There are also a fair number of very unique answers as well, what people decide is an important change is ultimately a function of how they have interacted with the game and the community over their years of playing.

The rules of this game have changed over time in response to an evolving player base and and an overall evolving society as a whole. There aren't many LARP communities out there that have the kind of history that we do and have required a constant, deep, and introspective look at the guidelines we play by and govern ourselves by. I think it is a unique and special thing that the Realms does that isn't very common in our hobby.

Regardless of how anyone answered the above question, my point about the Players Meeting holds true. With so many decades of changes in a set of rules that evolves in accordance with the need of the players, participation in this process is both a right and a privilege extended to everyone who calls themselves a Realmsie. Why we want to go to the Players Meeting is to have our say. It's to make our own impact on how this game changes over time and it's how we ensure its longevity. 

We go to the Players Meeting because the Realms belongs to us. Not just the people who have been playing since the 90's. Not just the people who throw events. Not just the people who lead nations and groups. The Realms belongs to all of us and we all get to create it together. 

Let's do some more of that tomorrow.

Player's Meeting and Community Forum Announcement

Hear ye, hear ye Realmsonians,

It’s that time of year again where the Players Meeting and Event Holders Council are right around the corner.  In particular, the Players Meeting is set to take place on February 3rd, just over two weeks away, via Zoom.  As a reminder, any person who attended a legal event in the last calendar year is eligible to attend and vote at the Players Meeting.  The meeting will open at 10:30am, we will go over an outline and handle any process questions at 10:45am, and then hopefully dive into the work of the day no later than 11am.  During this meeting we will review and vote on proposals to send forward to the Event Holders Council occurring two weeks later.  There will also be a vote to select two representatives (they cannot already be eligible to vote at the EHC) to attend the Event Holders Council, a primary and backup.  The primary representative will be able vote and both are able to voice opinions and accept amendments on behalf of those unable to attend the meeting.  A two thirds majority of voting attendees is required for proposals to pass on to the EHC.

As for those proposals, they may be submitted on Realmsnet anytime between now and the Players Meeting, and even during the Players Meeting.  We will be cutting off new proposals once we start nearing the end of the meeting if we are running up against a time constraint.  There are already a plethora of proposals on Realmsnet (https://www.realmsnet.net/proposals) to review.  We highly recommend that if you plan on attending the meeting you familiarize yourself with the proposals and ask any questions or make any comments you may have on draft proposals to help move this process along when we get to the meeting.  During the meeting we will require amendments to have complete and finalize wording before they can be accepted, so if you have something in mind you would like to suggest, we again recommend doing so before the meeting, or at least having succinct and clear wording ready ahead of time.  Proposals that need work can be tabled to the end of the meeting, but if they are not ready by the time we get to them they will be dropped.

Our rules require that ALL proposals are legal proposals to be voted on, and we will be very strict about this during the meeting due to the number of proposals it looks like we may see.  You can find the rules for submitting proposals in section 8.1 of the Omnibus, but the requirement on what the proposal must contain we want to stress is this; “the exact wording to be added, removed, or modified within the Omnibus or Standing Policies, along with the section to be modified.”  “The OEC can figure it out,” is not an acceptable reason to push forward a proposal that does not meet these requirements.

Finally, in an attempt to help keep the meeting moving smoothly and briskly we will be hosting a Community Forum one week before the Players Meeting on Friday, January 26th at 7:30 via Zoom.  This will be a place to help workshop your proposals and to work out any minutia as well as reviewing any of the larger proposals if we have time.  We will make a Google form available before the meeting if you are interested in workshopping your proposal as well as if you’re interested in having your proposal discussed ahead of time.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to either Pat or Tucker via discord or email us at  ehc@admin.realmsnet.net.

Summary of Proposals Going to the EHC

 by Pi Fisher

Hello, Realms,

The EHC is coming up in just over a week. We haven't had any in-person events with the 2020 Omnibus, so we don't have any proposals aimed at gameplay changes. However, we do have a whole lot of proposals aimed at changing how the Arbitration Committee does things, including one that completely replaces it with a new group. Even though you won't have to make any changes to how you play, you still might be curious about how the rules might change after the EHC this year.

Some of the AC-related proposals are very small in what they do. Every year, the AC is supposed to present a report of cases to the EHC and then put it on RealmsNet. Some of the proposals seek to require that the report be written, how soon it needs to be published, and how long it needs to remain available for. There's also a couple proposals to clarify who gets to set AC policies and what those are, such as how long after an incident a victim has to report it, what to do when several AC members recuse themselves, and how much to communicate with EHs when cases take a long time. There's a few more AC proposals, but most of them are short enough that I can't really make my summary shorter than the proposals.

The big proposal this year is the one to replace the Arbitration Committee with a Complaint Review Board (CRB). The idea here is that the AC puts some difficult decisions into the hands of just a few people. Not only does the AC need to figure out what happened, but they also need to decide what, if anything, should be done about it. The CRB would be in charge of the first part of the process, but the rest would be put into the hands of all EHs. If someone has a complaint, they tell the CRB, who then investigate what happened, including by talking with people involved and witnesses. After they've finished their investigation, they contact the EH list with a description of what happened, and it's up to the EHs to decide how to proceed. If the EHs want to deal with it quickly, they can call for an Emergency EH Meeting. If they think it can wait, they can put it off until the EHC. At that meeting, the EHs will discuss whether and how to punish anyone based on this. The proposal is very long, mostly because it's very specific about how this process should be handled.

The next proposals I want to talk about deal with Emergency EH Meetings. This past year, we had our very first Emergency EH Meeting, and it was to discuss Covid restrictions. We noticed from this that the Omnibus really doesn't say a whole lot about how they should be run, so one of the proposals adds more structure to them, both in the topics they can cover and in the way to call for one. Another proposal seeks to make explicit that it's acceptable for Emergency EH Meetings to be handled remotely. There wasn't anything saying this couldn't be the case, but sometimes it's worth being extra clear with things that are allowed.

Sort of on the topic of EEHMs, and sort of on the topic of Covid restrictions, I have a pair of proposals to create a framework for Standing Policies. EEHMs are not able to change the Omnibus, but sometimes it's important to be able to make temporary rules. For example, we wouldn't want anything in the Omnibus saying "no more events", but we probably do want a temporary rule that bans events until it's safe to have them again. We sort of did this at the EEHM where the EHs resolved to not have any in-person events for a while, but my proposals would codify a way to do that in the future, including for any other types of temporary rules people thought were important to have.

The last proposal I want to talk about is about how to handle when an EH decides they need to ban a player from their events. If the proposal passes, EHs who want to ban a player from their events will be responsible for notifying the EH mailing list and also the Realms Announcements mailing list of this. Further, depending on which option passes, there will be a way that they are allowed to include names of banned players in their event announcements. The reason for sharing the information with the entire Realms community, rather than just with the EH list and the banned player(s), is so that players can make informed decisions about which events to attend. If a player has been victimized by someone in the past and doesn't feel safe attending events with that person, that player should be able to find out whether the person will be allowed at events without needing to reach out to every EH and talk about why they're asking for the information.

Finally, something that's not a proposal. At the Emergency EH Meeting in September, we agreed that we would discuss Covid restrictions again at the EHC. If my proposals for Standing Policies pass, I expect the discussion will be a short one: "we like this thing we passed? yes? okay, good." If it fails, I expect we'll discuss other options. But no matter what happens, we'll definitely be discussing it, as our current covid restrictions end at the EHC. If you have strong opinions about how we should handle this, I encourage you to bring it up with this year's Players' Representative, Crystal Welch. (I'd appreciate it if you first read my relevant proposals. 🙂 )

That's all for now. I'll probably write another article after the EHC, but I'll hopefully keep it shorter than this one, so that I don't wind up repeating myself.

-- Pi Fisher

Summary of Proposals Going to the EHC

Compiled by Pi Fisher

Editorial Changes (15)

• Remove Arrows from Weapon Construction Chart
• Remove duplicate wording that’s repeated two paragraphs later
• Clarify How Bow Poundage Is Determined
• Bow poundage is full draw weight, not your draw weight
• Move Regional Magic out of Basic Magic Effects Everyone Should Know
• Move Regional Magic and Alchemy into new section
• Clean up choosing spells.
• Replace outdated wording
• Clarify Regeneration Caveats
• Advanced Regeneration only bring you back from being scalped if specified by the spell. (Specifically, if specified by Regenerate the Scalp.)
• Strange Brew Wording Fix
• Record potions chosen in your spellbook, rather than writing them down wherever you feel like
• Put "Event-Stealable" in MC for Embrace Death, Familiar
• The spell descriptions say the MCs are Event-Stealable, but the MC requirement at the top doesn’t mention this.
• Remove pointless sentence from Light
• The last sentence of Light tells you that it’s a first circle spell?
• Remove duplicate construction rules for Lightning Bolts
• Lightning Bolt construction is covered both under weapon construction and under the spell description.  Keep it under weapon construction and remove it from the spell description.
• Modify Cantrip, Implement, Strange Brew interaction
• Makes bad wording good. (Look, I’m not getting paid by the word or anything.)
• Move Death Watch's spell description out of the AC.
• Death Watch lasts until you stop being dead. That’s how the spell works. It’s not part of the AC. Also update the wording in Implement to match.
• Fix Circle of Healing
• Circle of Healing says you can cast spells, but it doesn’t quite say you need to follow the rules for those spell, I guess? Make that more explicit.
• Reword Alcohol Policy
• Replace bad wording with good wording.
• Magic Item Check In
• Magic Items have to be checked in, but a lot of people don’t show up before the start of an event, and a lot of events let you check in part-way through the event (most often on multi-day events). Also, some EHs allow magic items with modifications, rather than just allowing or rejecting. Update the wording to reflect that.
• New section heading between spell chart and spell descriptions
• It may seem silly, but I have a reason for this. The formatting in the Omnibus is currently very inconsistent. To make it more consistent, this would help.

Editorial-ish, but with Choices (4)

• Clarify how many times familiar may be learned.
• Currently it says you might have up to 15 points, but it never says it can only be learned 3 times. Either make it 20 points, or specify it can only be learned up to 3 times.
• Clarify Resist Magic on your stuff
• If I use Resist Magic, can I bring my Magic Item through a Circle of Protection with me?
• Material Components for Group Healing
• Currently says “in most cases” for something that applies in 1 out of 2 cases.
• “In most cases”, Group Healing only needs one MC for spells that have MCs (this is how Cure Disease currently works)
• The “exception” is that Immunity to Poison requires one MC per recipient.
• Both MCs are disposables.
• Part 1 is a vote “should we make this more consistent”
• Option A makes it work the way it currently works “in most cases”
• Option B makes it work the other way
• Part 2 (to be pulled if Part 1 passes) fixes the wording while making no changes.
• Define Legal Event Holder for Emergency EH Meetings
• During an emergency EHC, who can vote? Everyone from the previous EHC, or everyone from the previous EHC plus any EHs from the current calendar year?

Props/Garb (5)

• Adding Clarification to Leather Armor thickness
• Specify what weight of leather counts as 1 point vs. 2 points
• Define thickness weight to what defines leather armor
• Same as above, with amendment to fix wording
• Allow small throwing axes and throwing daggers
• Allow people to carry 2 10”-24” throwing weapons
• Updated Cloth Armor Rules.
• Allow for 2 point cloth armor
• Larp arrow update
• Allow for newer LARP arrows that don’t need strapping tape

Compiled by Pi Fisher

Language Changes (1)

• Scalping Overhaul
• Instead of “scalping” a body, you destroy it to render it soulless. No mechanical change.

Administrative Changes (4)

• Make the Magic Item List public
• Let players see the list so they can remind themselves what their items do.
• Events Must Be Advertised on RealmsNet
• Remove View from Valehaven and Creathorne Chronicles as options for event announcements. Leave RealmsNet and email to all known EHs as only two options.
• Clarification on AC responsibility to inform EHs of punishment
• If the AC levies punishment against a player, this proposal will make it so the AC has to notify the EH list.
• Yearly Status Report From The Arbitration Committee
• This would require the AC to make a public report including the number of reports received, the number of investigations performed, and a summary of each investigation that resulted in a punishment, including the punishment and the recipient.

Spellbooks and Learning Spells (3)

• Add requirement that all spells granted by learned spells be listed in the players spellbook.
• If you have Cantrip, you must write down all pool spells in your spellbook, because you’re able to cast them, so you should be able to reference how they work. Similarly for other spells that give you the ability to cast spells you might not have in your build.
• Require Power Potion to be Labeled with level
• If you have Alchemy, you must have different sigils for different circles of Power Potions. It’s fine to use the same sigil plus a number for the circle.
• Set rules for filling open spell circles
• If you unlearn spells, you might have holes in your build in weird places. This proposal first asks if we should specify the order in which these holes should be filled. If yes, we pick one of four options.
• Example: Suppose you have 3 full paths, and you choose to unlearn the following spells (PXCY = Path X, Circle Y):

P1C3

P1C5

P2C4

P3C3

• Option 1: If you have holes in your spell build, you must fill all holes in path 1 before filling holes in path 2, and you must fill all holes in path 2 before filling holes in path 3. With the example, you choose from the following two options for how to fill the holes:
• P1C3, P1C5, P2C4, P3C3
• P1C5, P1C3, P2C4, P3C3
• Options 2: Same as above, but if you have multiple holes in a single path, you fill them from weakest to strongest. With the example, the order you get to relearn the spells is:
• P1C3, P1C5, P2C4, P3C3
• Option 3: If you have holes in your build, you fill them starting with the lowest circle of spell. With the example, you choose from the following two options for how to fill the holes:
• P1C3, P3C3, P2C4, P1C5
• P3C3, P1C3, P2C4, P1C5
• Option 4: You can pick any order you want, and we specify this in the Omnibus. There are 24 options with the example, so I’m not going to write them all out.

Spell Changes (10)

• Undead Revamp V3!
• Get rid of Animate Undead General. Change Animate Lesser Undead and Animate Undead, with most of the wording taken from the old ALU.
• Animate Lesser Undead: 15 uses, makes someone a Kobold.
• Animate Undead: 10 uses, can’t use spells or armor.
• Remove a lot of text from Basic Magic Effects Everyone Should Know and update some of the other text to match the new spells.
• Adjust Alchemy costs for potions for these two spells.
• Combine the Purity spells (pick one effect)
• Single spell, you choose which one you get. Two options:
• Option 1: you pick when you learn
• Option 2: you pick when you cast
• Move some 3rd circle spells to 2nd circle
• Enchant Weapon, Protect the Soul, Disenchant
• Move call the soul to 3rd circle
• Does what it says on the tin
• Clarify Transformation Miscellaneous Abilities:
• There are some spells you can spend Transformation points on. Do you get to cast them once, or do you get the full number of castings the spell gives? Also, is it once per event, or once per transformation? (Remember, Transformation has two castings.)
• Option 1: one use per event
• Option 2: one use per transformation
• Option 3: full uses per event
• Option 4: full uses per transformation
• Enchant Weapon/Assassin's Blade Clarification
• I guess this isn’t editorial, because it technically changes Enchant Weapon.
• Currently, you can cast Enchant Weapon on a weapon or a bow. If you cast it on a weapon, it does stuff when you swing the weapon. Even if you think arrows are weapons, I hope you agree you don’t swing arrows.
• For Assassin’s Blade, the MC is “either a single weapon up to 3' long or an arrow”. So if you think an arrow is a weapon, this spell disagrees. This spell lets you cast Enchant Weapon on your Assassin’s Blade for free. So, uh, what happens if your Assassin’s Blade is an arrow and you cast Enchant Weapon on it?
• This proposal changes Enchant Weapon to say that you can also cast it on an arrow, and it’ll work. Also, f you have an enchanted bow and an enchanted arrow, and you shoot the arrow from the bow, one call from each is expended, but you only call one effect.
• And if you think Raise Dead defines what weapons are, remember the first three words in that sentence: “For this purpose, a weapon is considered to be anything with a legal striking surface - swords and arrows are weapons, although bows are not.” But, uh, Lightning Bolt and Magic Missile talk about when they count as weapons, and I think I have a proposal for next year. I also have two more commas for the OEC. This rambling is definitely the quality content you’re all looking for, right?
• Fix Protect the Soul glitch
• The only reason this might not count as editorial is if you think “possession, Animate Undead, and the like” is different from “possession, compulsion, and similar effects as determined by the MM/EH”. I’d put it under Editorial, but Dave thinks it might be a power boost to the spell, and I suspect a bunch of people will ignore something if I say it’s editorial. Blame Dave for this long blurb.
• Bring Back Animate Limb
• Make it so Heal Limb doesn’t work on you if you’re undead
• Make a new spell that works on undead
• This is different from the spell that was removed last year. Last year’s spell had limited uses. Embrace Death specifies that Heal Limb doesn’t work on you, but other undead spells don’t specify that. My belief is that the intention was to nerf Embrace Death by preventing there from being an unlimited-use spell to quickly bring back limbs. The current two ways to get back limbs under Embrace Death are: remain stationary for 30 seconds or die and come back
• Double Seed of Life
• You get two props. You can’t chant to double the regeneration speed, but you can give the corpse the second prop to double the speed.
• Remove Transmute Self
• The name is a little misleading. The first part failed at the PM, but a second part was added as an amendment, and that part passed. This proposal will let you have your eyes open while you’re transmuted, because “you can’t look and you can’t move” is potentially unsafe.

What I Learned from the Players' Meeting

by Matt "Vesper" Hewitt

What I learned at the Players' Meeting is:

• Before making any proposal be sure to check with older players in the community to get some context and history on previous rulings 
• Be clear and concise with the wording of your proposal; any vagueness or typo could kill the proposal 
• Present your proposal to others before the meeting as a way to prepare common clarifications people may need from you 
• Keep answers or clarifications short and focused. Rambling will make people lose focus on the topic being discussed 
• Do not hold onto your blue card for later, if you have something you believe must be addressed do not be afraid to make sure you are heard 
• Take your breaks fast or you could get back to the meeting in the middle of a proposal you care about 
• When making a vote do not look around the room too much; it may sway your choice to go with or against the larger group 
• Vote for what you want no matter what those around you choose. Your vote could make or break a proposal 
• Be careful with how many proposals you put up especially if proposed in a row or you could end up giving a lecture to the entire meeting 
• Be sure to stand and stretch regularly; restlessness could cause irritation 
• The meeting will be mentally exhausting and tiring, be sure to get a good night's sleep and plenty of caffeine to stay awake and alert 
• The longer a discussion takes the more likely people are to hold up orange cards and cut the discussion short so be sure to say your part but not give a speech 
• Do not get defensive when discussing your proposal, aggression and curtness is not productive to the game or conversation 
• Be polite - people will be more willing to listen to what you are trying to say, which could be enough to get your proposal or amendment through the meeting 
• At the end of the day everyone who attends is trying to improve or better the game; whether we all agree on the execution or not, we all have the same goal

View Retrospective: Proposals

 On Writing Proposals

by Tucker "Temorse" Noyes
[Editor's Note: originally published on January 15, 2015]

This is a short guide to writing proposals that will hopefully help people trying to make changes during this proposal season.  Included is the basic proposal structure that will help you communicate efficiently and concisely.  In doing so you will allow your readers to better understand what you're trying to accomplish and enable them to give you more effective feedback.

Proposal
This should be the meat and potatoes of exactly what you are doing, much like the abstract in a professional paper.  Having a clear concise message will give readers a good idea of what the proposal is all about.

Rationale
Your rationale should include just that, a set of logical reasons for the change that you are making.  This is where you should identify the problem or area of improvement that you are addressing with your change.  These reasons should be logical and not just “Because it’s cool.”  If more people can identify with the problem at hand, the more people will likely vote for or give helpful criticism of the proposal.  Here you also want to include your reasoning on how these changes will address the problem you have identified.  When you can try to reference specifics from the omnibus and stay away from anecdotal evidence.

Changes
Here you should include the specific changes you are making to the omnibus text.  Use the html guide to the left of the text box while you write the proposal to properly highlight the removals, additions, and changes you are making to the text.  This section shouldn’t include anything but the text changes to the omnibus.

Notes/Updates
Finally after the changes I like to include any relevant notes that might not be obvious changes or any updates I make to the proposal for the sake of record keeping and helping people keep up with the comments.

Make sure you always review your proposal before you submit it, I recommend vetting it through a group of people who may have experience in the area that you're proposing something in (ie. if you changing the Healer path, you may want to have some well known Healers review it first).  This will give you a more polished product to present to the greater public and let you deal with any glaring issues outside the limelight.

And on a final note, although this is more personal opinion, you should always have a good reason for a proposal.  This doesn’t mean taking a “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” attitude, because innovation is a very important part to a thriving game, however proposing things just because you think it seems cool, is generally not a great basis and leads to a lot of wasted time and effort.  Good luck on your proposals this year!

Reviewing Proposals 

by Tucker "Temorse" Noyes
[Editor's Note: originally published on January 24, 2015]

This is a short guide on commenting and critiquing proposals, both online and at the meetings.  This set of guidelines will help you assess and give advice to those people putting up proposals.

In general, there are a few things to consider when reviewing proposals.  First is having decorum throughout the entire process.  Most proposals have had a lot of time and effort put into their inception and creation, so taking a hostile stance against a proposal will likely not help you get your point of view across.  To truly analyze a proposal there are three questions to ask;

Are there any errors within the proposal?  This first question is just assessing the proposal itself.  Are there any glaring errors such as removing a spell from the system that would leave a gap in the path or by changing a weapon material requirement a certain weapon type may no longer function.  These generally are more objective errors than subjective.
Does this proposal fix the addressed problem?  Some proposals aim to fix a problem in the game, others aim to make an improvement to some aspect.  Here we want to question if the proposal actually does this.  For example, if I were to propose we fix Heal Limb, the changes made probably shouldn’t only affect how long Magic Items can be backed for.  This is where we will start to move into some murky areas where both subjective and objective opinions can both be valid.
Is this a good chance.  So finally we ask if the proposal is intrinsically and ultimately a good change for the system.  This tends to be very subjective and where people opinions and outlooks on the game clash.  It is important to keep in mind game balance, not just what is beneficial to ourselves or friends.

Now when we are discussing proposals and asking ourselves these questions there are a few things to keep in mind.  First of all we should try at all time to use objective information as the basis of our arguments.  Now this gets tough because we don’t have any studies or spreadsheets to reference (well, most of us), and a lot of our evidence comes from our experience in game.  That being said it is important to be as specific as possible when it comes to giving evidence and that it is more empirical than anecdotal.  Also for those making proposals is it helpful to remember the importance of compromise and critique.  If there are ten people saying that there is a specific issue with a proposal, it is probably worth looking into.  Likewise sometimes other people are the ones who can come up with major improvements to your proposal, and recognizing when that is can help make your proposal even stronger.

As someone who has a proposal going to the EHC/PM you may also have the opportunity to accept amendments to your proposal.  Anyone may offer an amendment to a proposal, but it is up to the proposing EH (or the Players Rep in case of a Player Proposal), to decide whether or not to accept one.  An amendment is a suggested change to the proposal, generally with the hopes of making an improvement without changing the roots of the proposal itself.

For those of us attending the EHC/PM it is extremely important to come prepared.  This means looking over and reviewing the proposals before showing up at the meeting.  Every year there are a lot of complaints over how long these meetings take, but oftentimes this is due to the fact that many people who attend haven’t looked over the material they are going to be discussing.  If you have any questions or major concerns about a proposal we have a great forum to discuss theses things over on realmsnet.net, and if you are uncomfortable posting there most people making proposals wouldn’t mind a private email or message asking for clarification.

Summary of Player's Meeting Proposals by Mikey "Janus" Donnelly

Players Meeting Proposals

The players meeting is coming up this Saturday, so it might be in your best interest to know what proposals have already been submitted.  I'll try to impartially cover these as well as I can. (note, I am only covering what is in the players meeting section as of the time of writing, which is Tuesday)

Fighter's Stance by James Murphy
The goal of this proposal seems to be to give fighters a small perk, similar to ID creature, but distinct from it.  It allows a fighter to call "fighter's stance" and if an EH/MM is nearby, they are able to find out information about the creature.

Change Dragging by Josh Fitzgerald
The goal of this proposal also seems to be to give fighters a small perk, but this time by adding an additional requirement for casters when dragging.  The simple summary of this proposal is that dragging a body for a caster takes two hands, but for a fighter, it only takes one hand.

Change How Potions Work by Josh Fitzgerald
This is a small series of changes to Alchemist to slightly narrow the props and slightly restrict how they are used.  While I suggest reading this one, it has two category of potions, being potions and scrolls.  Potions have to be applied, consumed, or dumped on the ground with one hand while touching the target to be effected with the other hand.  Scrolls have to be ripped with two hands, and the user must touch the target immediately afterwards.

Clean-Up Undead Caveat by Danny Lykansion
This is a change to move most undead related things into the caveat.  Due to this, there are a few changes though, including heal limb not working on any undead.  I highly recomend reading this one on your own, as a quick summary won't help and there are some subtle changes I may have missed.

Remove Item Mechanic by Pi Fisher
I'll just use his rationale for this: "Some fighters already take a few chain links and connect their armor into one piece. I've seen support casters carry around chains to do this because it's a mundane way to gain the benefit of a spell that almost nobody learns.  Also, chainmail onesies.  While it looks like this is making a few spells better which seems like an upgrade for casters, it's actually a way to up-power fighters, because now your  bracers and grieves will be fixed more often than never."

Verbal Component: Clarify written or not by Christopher Donnelly (author of article)
This is a proposal to clarify if Verbal Components need to be written out or not.  It has both options.  If they do need to be written out, this will allow multiple verbals to be written down (to allow for flavor)

4 Paths of Magic by Andrew Disbrow
This allows a caster to learn 4 paths of magic in exchange for being unable to wield weapons.

Add New Path: Witch by Danny Lykansion
This adds an entire new path of spells to the game.
Witch 2-Resonance allows for regaining 2nd circle spells and lower at the cost of scalping blows.
Witch 3- Empathic Heal Limb is a 3 word heal limb that takes the casters limb in it's place.  It only works on others (effectively)
Witch 4- Sacrificial Warding - 3 uses, 10 word chant that while chanting and touching another player, that player has one call of "protection".
Witch 5- Curse allows cursing an object with a wide variety of curses upon a dead body.  Curses also bestow a small benefits on the player effected by the spell.  It can end by the caster ending it, scalping the target, scalping the caster, or disenchanting the target.
Witch 6- Circle of Life and death - This allows a circle to be cast that works similar to group healing, but also works on create lesser undead.  In addition, all dead bodies in the circle can be scalped at the same time.
Witch 7- Coven - This links three players, one of whom is the caster, so they are all under protect the soul, if one is scalped, the others are scalped, and if they get too far away from each other, they also end up scalped.  The spells call the soul, raise dead, combat raise dead and potion of raise dead  effect all of them, and any one of them can declare themselves dead to raise another as per a ranged combat raise dead.
Also, commune with spirit is available at 3rd circle, and create poison is available at 6th.

Add New Pool Spell: Flashback by Danny Lykansion
This spell allows the caster to rean the use of a spell that just failed, and must be immediately cast.  For example, if the caster enfeebled a creature which called no effect, or a raise dead failed due to weapons, they would gain the use of the spell back if they cast this immediately.

Blacksmith 6 new spell: Enchant Bracers by Pi Fisher
This is a spell that gives a token to one player, such that when any of their armor is repaired, all of their armor on their arms and legs are fully repaired as well.

Blacksmith 6 new spell: Master Fixer by Pi Fisher
For each learning of this, the caster chooses one benefit from a list of benefits that modify their other spells.  These are increasing uses of repair armor by 5, increasing used of repair item by 2, and mystic forge can be moved once if you spend 60 seconds to do so each time you cast it.

Blacksmith 6 remove spell: Reforge by Pi Fisher
This would move the spell reforge into Masterwork Hammer.

Clarify whether Aura of Protection can be cast on others or not by Christopher Hamblett
This has the goal of clarifying if Aura of Protection can be cast on others or not, and changes the wording appropriately for each.

Clarify whether holding a MM prop always counts as wielding it by Christopher Hamblett
This clarifies whether or not magic missiles that aren't planned on being thrown can be held in the other hand, as there is confusion on this issue.

Elemental Bolt/Elemental Missile both by Josh Fitzgerald
I'm listing these as one, because they are very similar, but are two different proposals.  The gist is that rather than "Lightning bolt" or "Magic Missile" you can choose an element you use when you first learn the spell, changing the call to "fire missile" or whatever element you had chosen..  Otherwise the spells act the same.  The list of elements you can choose is "Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning and Magic".

Embrace Death Requirements by Josh Fitzgerald
This requires Embrace death to look different than the character normally does and have that description in their spellbook.  Part B places a limit on the number of regens embrace death can use by losing 5 scalping blows each time that reset with a spell reset or at morning.  These parts aren't an either/or proposal, and both can go through.

Implement: Add option to cast regeneration without being 10' from weapons by Chrstopher Hamblett
This adds a three point option to implement for regeneration to not hae to be cast with weapons 10 feet away.

Last Words Abjurer 2 by James Murphy
This is a spell that would be added as a second circle abjurer spell that allows the caster to say 5 words when they die, at any volume they wish.  They may choose to activate this upon their death and must speak within 5 seconds of being killed if they activate it.

Moving Aura of Protection to 4th by Josh Fitzgerald
This will move aura of protection to 4th circle, and lower enfeeble being and disenchant each one circle to fill the space.

Remove Most Sashes, and Possible Disenchant Change By Christopher Donnelly (Author)
This would remove sashes from the spells Protection from Boulder, Purity to Disease, Purity to Poison, and Resist Death.  It also adds the disenchant caveat that states spells on the caster are disenchanted to prevent a bunch of the spells from being unable to be ended.  Part B would cause disenchant to only target one effect.

Seed of Life change by Josh Fitzgerald
This turns seed of life into an amplifier for healing rather than unlimited healing itself.  Raise dead will give the 7 uses at 120 seconds, while combat raise dead will give 4 uses at 60 seconds.  Otherwise, the spell works more or less as it does now (chanting has you count by 2s rather than taking half the time.)

Spell Failure by Christopher Donnelly
This is a change to put the Spell Failure caveat where spells can fail, rather than in spells that can cause other spells to fail.

Direct promotion of proposals should be the day before by Christopher Donnelly
This changes the deadline for signing off on proposals from one week before to the day before.

Disenchant by Christopher Donnelly
This removes vague wording that implies all potions are disenchanted no matter what you disenchant.

Disrupt Suspends the Spell, not ends it by Christopher Donnelly
This clarifies disrupt suspends spells, not just ends them.

Remove redundant Protection from Missile Kneel option from Implement by Christopher Hamblett
This removes an implement choice nobody will use, as it's now part of the main spell.

Why I Don't Call the Omnibus A Rule Book and how that Affects my Votes by Pi "Kwido" Fisher

When I look at Realms, I see people playing a game.  Outside of events, and sometimes when people are breaking character (I’m guilty of this), I see people discussing the rules.  Most of the time at events, I see people playing, which tells me the game has rules.  However, just because rules exist doesn’t mean they are written down.

The Omnibus, as a rulebook, has many flaws.  It has ambiguous wording, and sometimes conflicting wording.  At different events, I sometimes end up playing a different games with different rules.  For example, with last year’s change to Enchant Armor, it now is cast on an item rather than on a hit location.  The caster may, as an unlimited effect, cast Repair Armor as per the spell to fix the item.  This is an issue, as many hit locations are covered by multiple items; a fighter could have both sleeves and bracers on his/her arm.  As an unlimited effect, I may fix the sleeve with a spell that fixes the entire hit location, including the bracer.  At some events, I’m allowed to use Repair Armor for free on any hit location at all covered by the shirt (since I almost always cast it on a shirt).  At some events, I can only fix the sleeve for free, and not the bracer, so I have to tell my fighter how much of their armor I’m fixing.

While I could write a proposal to fix that, it feels like a losing battle†.  I see and hear lots of conflicting interpretations of what’s written in the Omnibus, and I don’t think that fixing the ones we’ve found will solve the problem.  People will find more, and editing the Omnibus by committee will create more.  Instead, I’m content with asking the MM at the beginning of each event what the rules are.

Certainly, when we change the Omnibus, we change the rules.  That’s the purpose of the Players’ Meeting and EHC.  That said, I think the Omnibus has another, more important purpose, and that is the one I think should be given more focus.  The Omnibus is, for many players, one of the first things they read when they want to play Realms.  At WPI, we strongly encourage our Freshmen to read it before attending an event.  Unfortunately, the Omnibus is very misleading, at times.  To quote the Weapon Type and Material Calls section, “Axe-mace trolls are typically only injured by axes and maces; werewolves are only affected by weapons made of silver.”  In my two and one-half years playing this game, I have been to 60 events.  At about five of them, I’ve seen monsters affectable by weapon types.  At last year’s EHC, Tucker’s change to the Blacksmith path made Silver Strike and Enchant Weapon more accessible so that EH’s could more freely use those mechanics at their events.  I have had those spells since I grandfathered my spellbook at Feast of Highbridge II, and have cast only one of those exactly once at all the quests I’ve been to since then‡.

When I see proposals this Saturday at the Players’ Meeting, I will think of them in a few categories.  There will be proposals to change how we play the game.  I will vote on those based on how I think the changes to the rules will impact the game.  There will be proposals to clear up ambiguities.  I will vote on those based on how impactful I think those ambiguities are to the game, and will often decide I don’t think it’s worth spending time at the EHC to discuss them.  There will be proposals to try to make the Omnibus more consistent, and I will vote on those based on how much it will help newer players reading the Omnibus to learn how to play Realms.  While those categories probably don’t cover each proposal, they cover many of them.  If I felt last year as I currently do, I would not have submitted any of the four proposals I did submit, even though I believe three of them ended up passing at the EHC, as I don’t think they were impactful enough to have been worth the time the EHC spent discussing them, especially as there were more impactful proposals last year that I felt deserved more attention than they were given.



†For the record, I dislike the mechanic of separating armor into items, so any proposal of mine to fix this particular problem would be one which removes the mechanic.

‡To be fair, I cast it into a Mystic Forge, so you could say I cast it several times on that one night quest.

Reviewing Proposals by Tucker "Temorse" Noyes

This is a short guide on commenting and critiquing proposals, both online and at the meetings.  This set of guidelines will help you assess and give advice to those people putting up proposals.

In general, there are a few things to consider when reviewing proposals.  First is having decorum throughout the entire process.  Most proposals have had a lot of time and effort put into their inception and creation, so taking a hostile stance against a proposal will likely not help you get your point of view across.  To truly analyze a proposal there are three questions to ask;

Are there any errors within the proposal?  This first question is just assessing the proposal itself.  Are there any glaring errors such as removing a spell from the system that would leave a gap in the path or by changing a weapon material requirement a certain weapon type may no longer function.  These generally are more objective errors than subjective.
Does this proposal fix the addressed problem?  Some proposals aim to fix a problem in the game, others aim to make an improvement to some aspect.  Here we want to question if the proposal actually does this.  For example, if I were to propose we fix Heal Limb, the changes made probably shouldn’t only affect how long Magic Items can be backed for.  This is where we will start to move into some murky areas where both subjective and objective opinions can both be valid.
Is this a good chance.  So finally we ask if the proposal is intrinsically and ultimately a good change for the system.  This tends to be very subjective and where people opinions and outlooks on the game clash.  It is important to keep in mind game balance, not just what is beneficial to ourselves or friends.

Now when we are discussing proposals and asking ourselves these questions there are a few things to keep in mind.  First of all we should try at all time to use objective information as the basis of our arguments.  Now this gets tough because we don’t have any studies or spreadsheets to reference (well, most of us), and a lot of our evidence comes from our experience in game.  That being said it is important to be as specific as possible when it comes to giving evidence and that it is more empirical than anecdotal.  Also for those making proposals is it helpful to remember the importance of compromise and critique.  If there are ten people saying that there is a specific issue with a proposal, it is probably worth looking into.  Likewise sometimes other people are the ones who can come up with major improvements to your proposal, and recognizing when that is can help make your proposal even stronger.

As someone who has a proposal going to the EHC/PM you may also have the opportunity to accept amendments to your proposal.  Anyone may offer an amendment to a proposal, but it is up to the proposing EH (or the Players Rep in case of a Player Proposal), to decide whether or not to accept one.  An amendment is a suggested change to the proposal, generally with the hopes of making an improvement without changing the roots of the proposal itself.

For those of us attending the EHC/PM it is extremely important to come prepared.  This means looking over and reviewing the proposals before showing up at the meeting.  Every year there are a lot of complaints over how long these meetings take, but oftentimes this is due to the fact that many people who attend haven’t looked over the material they are going to be discussing.  If you have any questions or major concerns about a proposal we have a great forum to discuss theses things over on realmsnet.net, and if you are uncomfortable posting there most people making proposals wouldn’t mind a private email or message asking for clarification.

On Writing Proposals by Tucker "Temorse" Noyes

This is a short guide to writing proposals that will hopefully help people trying to make changes during this proposal season.  Included is the basic proposal structure that will help you communicate efficiently and concisely.  In doing so you will allow your readers to better understand what you're trying to accomplish and enable them to give you more effective feedback.

Proposal
This should be the meat and potatoes of exactly what you are doing, much like the abstract in a professional paper.  Having a clear concise message will give readers a good idea of what the proposal is all about.

Rationale
Your rationale should include just that, a set of logical reasons for the change that you are making.  This is where you should identify the problem or area of improvement that you are addressing with your change.  These reasons should be logical and not just “Because it’s cool.”  If more people can identify with the problem at hand, the more people will likely vote for or give helpful criticism of the proposal.  Here you also want to include your reasoning on how these changes will address the problem you have identified.  When you can try to reference specifics from the omnibus and stay away from anecdotal evidence.

Changes
Here you should include the specific changes you are making to the omnibus text.  Use the html guide to the left of the text box while you write the proposal to properly highlight the removals, additions, and changes you are making to the text.  This section shouldn’t include anything but the text changes to the omnibus.

Notes/Updates
Finally after the changes I like to include any relevant notes that might not be obvious changes or any updates I make to the proposal for the sake of record keeping and helping people keep up with the comments.


Make sure you always review your proposal before you submit it, I recommend vetting it through a group of people who may have experience in the area that you're proposing something in (ie. if you changing the Healer path, you may want to have some well known Healers review it first).  This will give you a more polished product to present to the greater public and let you deal with any glaring issues outside the limelight.

And on a final note, although this is more personal opinion, you should always have a good reason for a proposal.  This doesn’t mean taking a “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” attitude, because innovation is a very important part to a thriving game, however proposing things just because you think it seems cool, is generally not a great basis and leads to a lot of wasted time and effort.  Good luck on your proposals this year!

2013 Players Meeting

This is a friendly reminder that the 2013 Player's Meeting will be happening this Saturday, the 19th. It will be taking place this year in Nashua, NH. Start time is 11am.

If you have never been before this is where all the potential proposals for the Omnibus/rulebook are discussed among the players. Here additional proposals can be sent to the Event Holders Council Meeting; it is the last chance to get a proposal to the meeting to be voted on for its possible inclusion into our rule system.

In addition, the players will be electing one of the Players to attend the EHC Meeting as a voter and representative of the Players. This is usually one of the first things discussed at the Player's Meeting, so make sure you get there on time if you want to be this person or have a say in who it will be.

If nothing else, by attending this meeting you will have a better understanding of the potential changes we could see this upcoming year...and I heard there will be cookies.

On Being the Player's Representative by Alysha "Kyntela" Metcalf

If you are planning to attend the upcoming 2013 Players’ Meeting, there is a chance your friends will nominate you to be the Players’ Representative; possibly just to annoy you, but perhaps because you are genuinely interested in filling the position. I was the Players’ Rep at the 2011 Event Holders’ Council, but did not go into the Players’ Meeting with that plan in mind. The experience taught me a lot, and I want to share what I learned in hopes that anyone considering the role for this year can take something useful away from this article.

The job of the Players’ Rep is to represent the views of the players on the proposals brought to the Council, and ultimately to cast a vote on the players’ behalf in favor of or against each proposal. The Players’ Rep can also accept amendments to proposals on behalf of the player who authored it.  If you’re going into the meeting hoping to win the position, you should know that the amount of effort you put into your position makes the difference between a Players’ Rep and a good Players’ Rep. The following list of tips is my advice for anyone considering the role:

●     Come prepared.

Nominations for the Players’ rep take place at the beginning of the meeting, but the actual selection process does not take place until the end. This gives you the opportunity to take notes throughout the entire meeting, and get a good read on how the players feel. If you know ahead of time that you plan to run for Players’ Rep, bring a computer or notebook and pen with you. It may also be helpful to bring a copy of the proposals with you so that you can make notes to easily reference at the EHC as each proposal is brought up.

●     Take good notes.

When making your case at the end of the meeting, the other players and EHs in the room are probably going to test you on the events of the day. Your peers don’t want someone who wasn’t listening actively and absorbing the conversations to represent them at the EHC. They may ask what notes you had written down for a particular proposal, or what the specific vote count was on another. You need to pay attention to all the discussions that take place, and feel prepared to discuss the general feedback received on any given proposal. Taking good notes will also help prepare you to articulate the players’ opinions accurately at the EHC.

●     Reach out and gather feedback.

So you’ve been elected Players’ Rep, now what? The work that you do in the two weeks between the Players’ Meeting and the EHC is what will distinguish you as a good Players’ Rep. Send an email to the OOC Realms List to let everyone know who you are, and how to contact you. Realistically not every player will be able to make it to the meeting, but will still have opinions on the proposals they will want represented. When I was the Players’ Rep, I shared a Google survey with all the players so that they could provide their feedback. While this certainly isn’t required, it is a great way to get a wider scope of player opinion that may not have been as accurately represented by the Players’ Meeting votes alone.

At the EHC, you will also have the power to accept amendments for proposals on the player’s behalf. Proactively reaching out to these players to get a sense of their vision for their own proposal will better equip you to present it at the EHC. It will also assist you in making decisions on whether to accept (or reject) any amendments when you know what the author intended.

●     Go to fight practices.

The best way to get feedback from the players is to talk to them in person. Not only can they not ignore you, but most will be happy to discuss their favorite and least favorite proposals face-to-face if you simply approach them and ask. There are practices spread out all over New England throughout the week, which presents an excellent opportunity to get a good regional cross-section of player opinions as well. It is a good idea to advertise what practices you plan on attending so that people can come prepared to speak with you.

●     Be objective.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but it can be difficult not to let your personal opinions override the players’ general consensus when voting at the EHC. The job of the Players’ Rep is to vote on behalf of the players, whether or not your own personal vote might have gone the other way. Try to accurately present the overall opinion when speaking for proposals without letting your own bias creep in. If opinions were fairly split on a particular proposal, be careful to represent both sides.

●     Be confident.

If you’ve done your due diligence--taken good notes, reached out to players, spoken to proposal authors, familiarized yourself with the EHC process--then you should be in great shape to speak at the meeting. It can be intimidating to speak in front of a room of EHs, particularly if you have never attended the meeting before or are a newer player. Keep in mind that you were elected to the position, so the players felt confident that you would represent them well. You get to speak first on every proposal, so know that your voice matters as the voice of the players.

●     Bring cookies.

Seriously, EHs love cookies.

While I may have made the Players’ Rep position sound like a lot of work and little fun, I would highly recommend going for it, particularly if you have never done it before. It was a valuable experience for me as a player, and also better prepared me to be a voting EH the following year. If you follow my advice, you will get the chance to speak to a wide variety of people that you might not normally interact with. You will also engage in interesting discussions and get to experience perspectives on issues you may never have considered prior. The best and most rewarding part of being the Players’ Rep is that you get the opportunity to be actively involved in a process that shapes the game we play.

Players Meeting

This Saturday is the 2012 Players Meeting starting at 11am. This year the meeting is more important than ever. Currently there are only 2 proposals going to the Eventholders Meeting. Any other proposals going to the EH Meeting will come out of the Players Meeting. This means the players have a great say in what may or may not change the Realms in the coming year. So, show up and have your say.