Mr. Teodorescu-Badia,
First of all I'd like to apologize for taking so long. My usual limit is seven days, and if I haven't responded in that time it means something's wrong. In this case I have very little excuse except that I simply had no idea how to respond to your mail except in an antagonistic manner. I'm hoping that we can discuss this in a professional manner. With all due respect, I suggest that you step back and clear your head. I understand that you've been getting quite a lot of criticism concerning the actions of your office. I also understand that this would be trying on anyone. However, as you are an officer I would have expected better and must say that I'm disappointed by this response. Again, it happens, and I suggest that you simply take a bit of time to think about the situation before responding.
With this said, I'll first respond to your demands, then address your issues concerning Mr. Stauss' comments. I'll then reiterate my own concerns that I placed in the database as well as explain them in further detail.
Concerning the Demands of Mr. Teodorescu-Badia:
As far as I am aware Mr. Teodorescu-Badia, you are a member of the United
States East Central Region of the Camarilla, just like myself. You have
taken personal offense to a statement made by Mr. Strauss and backed by
myself. I suggest that rather than a Disciplinary Action, your best
course of action would be Conflict Resolution. You have an issue with
other members. You believe they personally attacked you. Later, I will
explain that neither Mr. Strauss nor I have, but if you still feel the
need to pursue Conflict Resolution then I'm more than happy to discuss
this matter further. As you have given a threat along with several
demands, I can only assume that you mean to make this a Disciplinary
Action. While this is within your power as the Master Storyteller of the
Camarilla, I must say that I find it highly inappropriate. If you feel
that you have been insulted by a member of the organization then you
should contact that member's supervising officer. As you have "direct
involvement in the situation" it would be unethical to make a decision
yourself (Membership Handbook page 77, see Conflict of Interest).
You contacted Mr. Strauss and I six days after our comments in the database. You then demanded that we respond within another three days. I must say that I find this demand highly irrational and unprofessional. While I like to keep a quick response time, I cannot believe that six days (or even nine) is an unacceptable delay. Finally, your demand for "satisfactory" responses is uncalled for. I sincerely hope that you never threaten a member of my staff with permanent removal from office for giving criticism to his superiors again. While I have little alternative other than allowing you to do so and voice my disapproval of such an action, I will be sure to do at least that. As for threatening me, I can accept that, though I will note that it is again both highly unethical and contrary to the advice of the Membership Handbook concerning such matters.
Concerning Mr. Strauss' Comments:
Mr. Strauss stated that he believed that the MasterStorytelling Office was
usurping the power of the ST chain. Specifically Mr. Strauss meant that
he felt that you were failing to follow the chain of command and that you
were simply approving something and requiring that the rest of the ST
chain go along with this decision. On this count I agree with Mr.
Strauss. As Mr. Sheldon, Colin's VST, has noted, "notifications" are
generally reserved for things that occurred in the game through
role-playing but which we feel the need to keep higher level Storytellers
informed of (such as diablerie). As the Venue Storyteller he should be
allowed to accept or deny anything within his game (in fact the Membership
Handbook gives him this power). You have the power to overrule any
decision made by a Storyteller in this organization, and you have nigh
unlimited power within the storytelling chain. But even when things are
within an officer's authority it is still possible that they have abused
such authority. I, as the DST of my Domain, have the power to desanction
all of the characters within the Domain for no reason (as an example). I,
however, would consider this an extreme abuse of my power. Just because
they are within the scope of our authority does not make it right to
exercise that authority. Considering how broad the scope of your
authority is, I urge you to be aware of the ease of which it can be
abused.
Your response to Mr. Strauss' comment was that the MST officer was part of the ST chain. While this statement is correct, it in no way invalidates nor refutes Mr. Strauss' statement. His criticism is that you have exercised authority outside the chain of command to give a character a custom merit without consulting any of the intermediary STs in the chain. Concerning Mr. Bailey's comments concerning your authority to do so, I suggest that both you and Mr. Bailey consult my previous example of how to abuse power while being still being well within the bounds of authority. Further, even though WW approved such an item to be placed upon the character they do not have full autonomy to do whatever they like with this organization. I consider it my duty to make my local games fun for my members. I don't believe WW has very much experience in running games locally (or even globally), nor have we elected them to do so. I noted previously that you have nigh unlimited authority to make Storytelling decisions within the organization. The following is a quote from the Camarilla Addendum: "Custom mechanics (such as Skills, Merits, Sorcery, Coils, rituals, etc.) are not possible unless their creation details are specifically outlined in sanctioned material, e.g. for Custom Disciplines and Devotions in Requiem or Fetishes in Forsaken. Exceptions to this rule are permissible for minor magic items and effects that are a part of reported local storylines. These are not intended to benefit player characters or allow them to bypass the standard restrictions and approvals and should not leave the local venue. The World of Darkness rulebook contains examples of such storyline-specific effects. " As you can see, one of the few things that you cannot do without altering the Camarilla Addendum is to create custom mechanics for a merit unless the creation details are in a sanctioned materials. Then again, the boundaries of your office aren't very well defined and there is no one that can make you accountable should you disregard this (besides WW of course.)
Mr. Strauss and I did notice your limitation to "feel free to disallow the use of this Merit as you see fit in your games." However, this statement is simply a reiteration of the powers of a VST. The lead Storyteller of any game has the power to do this at any time. Again, they should not do so without reason, but they can. Their decision may be reviewed by a higher level ST, but it isn't necessary, and it should only be overturned if that officer abused their discretion (which is only noted in the appeal section of the membership handbook). Acknowledgement of this does not diminish the fact that you have taken any power away from the ST chain to say that this power is inappropriate for their game. In the belief of Mr. Strauss and I, you have abused your discretion when making this item a notification rather than an approval. I will state for the record that I expect better from the MST office. I will also state that I feel this choice was an insult to Dale Sheldon, Colin's VST, myself, as Colin's DST, Jon Hermann, the EC RST, and David Bounds, the US NST. I feel that you've shown all of us a deplorable lack of trust, and am highly disappointed. I further agree with Mr. Strauss' statement that this is a bad example to set for other STs. This action, in my opinion, was irresponsible. Despite your claims to the contrary and Mr. Bailey's comments concerning the authority of the MST office, I have seen nothing that would lead me to believe otherwise. Again, simply because we have the power to do something does not mean that we should.
Concerning the Custom Merit Itself:
As I stated in the database, my concern is less with the mechanics of the
item and the member whose character is receiving it, than in the
precedents that are being set. The stated intent of this item is "to
enable the players with it to be better at discovering storylines,
solving enigmas and dealing with intricate situations." I believe this is
an incredibly poor idea. I could be flippant and note that the intent
given above cuts out the best part of role-playing but there is a much
larger issue with this item. The real problem is that the members who
portray these characters might as well walk around games with a sticker
that says "Favored by the MST." Storyteller favoritism has been a large
problem in this organization for as long as I can remember. We don't need
to create powers to funnel story to a small subsection of the game.
Whether this is a perceived favoritism, which I would argue is far more
harmful to a game, or actual favoritism does not matter. Both are
extremely detrimental to keeping players interested in the global game.
When the story is no longer about their characters it's hard for members
to have fun.
I've heard a massive amount of complaints concerning the way that this organization handled the Year of Fire. While I understand that a lot of higher level oversight was needed to deal with the Story, I think we've moved past that. We moved a lot of authority to the higher levels of the organization so we could run a far reaching and expansive plot (or series of plots). This is no longer necessary, and yet we're all still acting as if it is. The purpose of our structure is to maintain continuity in the global game, not to run specific small plots for a handful of "lucky" members. People don't enjoy playing extras for the main characters. It's incredibly hard to make a large plot that involves many people, which is why the higher level STs generally should run "background" plots. Things that occur that define our story on a large scale. We leave the personal stories to the local STs. Then again, we've also always had a problem with trusting our lower level STs (trust me, I've been there plenty of times.) By "we" I mean the Storytelling chain of the Camarilla in general. I urge you to not make the same mistakes as we have seen in the past. I also urge you to listen to the criticism. We aren't just saying these things to give you a hard time. Mr. Strauss and I care about this organization. We're also not too afraid of telling higher level officers that they are making mistakes. On occasion these officers don't take our advice, but that's why we call it advice, and not a demand.
Thank you,
Jason Patton
us2002021281
DST PA-008 D