NWoD Combined: The Accord (https://sites.google.com/site/mesaccord/) Release Date: 7/26/2013 Revision: 1.

7 Designer: Jeremiah Spaulding (US2002023190) Lead Writer: Jeremiah Spaulding (US2002023190) Contributors: Nycci Daniels US2002021051 Editors: Genevieve Iseult Eldredge (US2012030036) Some materials are copyright 2013 and trademarked by CCP hf. All rights reserved.

Accord VST Guide

1. Introduction
The Accord is a brand new paradigm in the MES club. The Accord is single chronicle that supports multiple gamelines with an over-arching metaplot to bind them all together. In addition, there is a new focus on empowering the local VST to make the decisions necessary to keep their game on-theme and fun for everyone. Empowering the VST means a larger sandbox with fewer approvals and the ability to include a limited set of house rules, known as Aberrations. In this venue, we have a slightly different focus than past MES chronicles. This is represented by our use of a new set of toggles for VSSs. See the VSS template on the Accord website for more information. The overall scope of this venue is one of Epic storylines - big plots with big risks, big rewards, and big consequences. There will be huge, world-shaking settings events happening--many of which the PCs can take part in. There will be paradigm shifts in the game world with yearly plot themes and our own signature NPCs. Each VSS will need to be well documented due to the great variety available so that both your players and visitors know exactly what to expect. A lot of power is in the hands of the VST--your hands--to make this venue awesome.

2. City Building
Starting up your venue can be a daunting task: you need to fill out the VSS, have meetings with prospective players, pitch plot ideas to your DST, and get set up with the MES chain. That can seem overwhelming, but this guide is here to step you through the process.

Step 1. Prepare Yourself for the Epic Role of Storyteller

Getting started with any new venue is difficult. It takes time, energy, and devotion. You will have many players to manage, from those who want to create stock characters to those who want to break setting or create epic storylines of drama. As the storyteller, you have a lot to manage! The storytelling staff hopes that by providing you with a basic framework of this is how you do it we can empower you to take an idea and run with it, create epic plots, and help to spread the excitement that is out there for the Accord Venue.

Step 2: The Initial Planning Meeting

They say the first step is always the most difficult. In this case, that first step is gauging the interest level of your domain as well as engaging prospective players in a discussion about what you as the Venue Storyteller would like to see. Traditionally, this is done by arranging a planning meeting where you as the VST sit down with your players and outline your epic plan as well as find out what people are interested in. The best way to do this is by inviting everyone in the domain and making the event a domain social. The added incentive of prestige will increase attendance and give your meeting an official feel. Your ultimate goal during the meeting is to make sure everyone who is interested gets to see what The Accord is all about. Here are a few things you should have on hand as the VST to get the discussion started:

Reality Quotient Guide Addenda

Target RQ Template List Bring extra copies of the settings material and other PC-safe information to pass around.

After giving a brief overview, invite the players to ask questions or make comments. Stress the idea that you are building your game together. Consider having someone take notes so that good ideas are not lost. Once you have an idea of the base information of what your game will consist of, you can start discussing how your game will be structured in terms of the spirits, mortals, ghosts, antagonists, investigations, etc. Remember, you are in the planning stages right now, so nothing is set in stone. Anything can change between the planning meeting and the actual game day.

Step 3: The VSS

Creating your VSS is a labor of frustration and love. Its a bit like creating a house you will build the foundation, the roof, and everything in between. Any storyteller who has ever written a VSS can tell you it takes several drafts to create a polished, finished product. The result, however, is the backbone of your game--the message that you send to everyone else that this is the game we are playing. A good piece of advice is to let your domain help you write the VSS by providing feedback and critique. By including your DST and your players in the building of the VSS, you are investing them in the finished product. In your VSS, you will create your theme the atmosphere of the game. Using the analogy of building a house, creating your theme is like choosing the landscaping, paint colors, and lighting. Will your game be dark? Will it be highly political? Is your setting a staging ground for National play, or is it an abandoned dystopia? How dark is the World of Darkness you are portraying to your players? To help you figure this out, ask yourself the following questions:

1. 2. 3.

If I tell my players to close their eyes, what is the world I want them to imagine? What is the landscape of the world I am creating? Why are characters in this particular setting?

Answering these questions will help you move from the Theme into the Setting. The setting of your Venue Style Sheet is your house foundation. For your setting, choose a few key points in history that you feel are relevant for your overall game. Was there a time in your city when an entire supernatural species was wiped out? Did a major natural event cause significant damage to portions of your city? What might your city look like if a certain historical event had been much, much worse than it was in the real world? The key to successfully integrating these historical events is to tie them into the development of the supernatural communities in your city. For instance, the Great Fires of Chicago in 1871 might have resulted in the deaths of many Kindred, leaving modern-day Chicago with few Elders. Now that you have your basic history in place, add in a few odd current events that you will use as springboards for plot. Tie these events to the current war against the Truth. Was that citywide blackout actually caused when an Accord cell closed a Tear? Have there been any major hauntings or an Incursion in your city? What events in the city do you want your players to be able to be involved in? Answering these questions will help you create the base of your venue style sheet. The next step in building your house is to create the walls the backbone of your VSS. During this step, you will define things like travel hazards, feeding, starting fuel, etc. These elements are staples in venue because they define how the setting is implemented and what the expectations are for how much downtime action there will be. The final aspect of building your VSS is telling your players what the venue expectations are. Generally this is done in a scale rating of 1-5, with 1 being not much to 5 being ever-present. The VSS Template has more information on each of the categories. It is important to run these values by your players for feedback. Some may change during play to suit changes in player desires, but having the right initial mix is crucial.

Once these steps are complete, you can submit your VSS for High Approval.

Step 4: Become IVST

As soon as the VSS is approved, your DST will name an Interim Venue Storyteller. This position is appointed, not elected. At this point, you should send your VSS to National via the form on the Accord Website so you can be included in the VSS Map. After running a VSS for three months, the domain should hold an election. But as IVST you have all the power you need to start approving characters and running games!

Step 5: Reporting
Every month you will need to send a report to your DST. This should include all prestige recommendations, a summary of the game, and any questions you have to send up the chain. Also, you will need to send your current VSS RQ to the national staff. Go to this form and fill it out: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rmND97WqKEEowK_o6Dk16PJjgOWyQMAh8f0dUi_PgLs/viewform You will be sent a link to a google doc that you can fill out to help you track your VSS RQ. Just enter in all the PCs on your VSS and it will tell you what your Base RQ is. Then select the Send to National menu item to file your report! In return, you will get Quartermaster Points. See the Accord Quartermaster Guide for more info!

3. Pre-game
There is much work to be done before you are ready to run your first game. As characters start to get submitted, you will need to have frequent discussions with your players on suitability for the VSS and RQ levels. Remember, this is a collaborative venue, which means we all have to join together to make it work. Players should handle your input in a mature fashion and be flexible with their concepts and sheets so that the game conforms to the vision you have collectively put forth in the VSS. Read the histories and backgrounds your players submit. Feel free to put a page limit or word count on backgrounds so you are not overwhelmed by the reading. Request that players put in bulleted lists of important highlights and goals of their characters. Read the Character Creation Documents too, as those can give you great insight into some personal plot hooks. Often, you will find that players have handed you some awesome story seeds that you can immediately start running with. Some PCs will want to be important in their supernatural templates native societies. Feel free to create the local structures for those templates. You can make each as abstract or concrete as you need to based on player interest level. Write up a short document for each template that tells players what their PCs would know about the current situation in the city for their kind. As most interactions with these societies will happen in downtime, it is often best to hire an AVST to run them for you. When a player submits a PC for a template you are not familiar with, ask them to tell you what the best books and chapters are to read so you can get a feel for that character type. Hire a few AVSTs and run a few mock combats so you are comfortable with the system. Make a bunch of monsters that fit your first games plotlines, or grab some from the national Monster Guide. Lastly, have a bunch of NPCs ready for people who show up to play but dont have an interest yet in PCing. At this point, you can plan one last meeting to help set the stage for the first game. This can be a Social or Historical Game that would be worth XP. A format for this can be found in the XX Plotkit. If your players want to jump right into things, then work with your DC to schedule the first game.

4. The First Game

The first game can make or break a venue. There will, of course, be issues and mistakes, but the key is telling a compelling and exciting story to keep the players interest. By now, you have defined your setting and your theme. You

have told players what to expect when they show up to game. Now its time to implement that setting and actually bring it to life. All your pre-game work was the hook, now reel the players in by building your vision of the world for them. Here are a few ways you can kick off your first game with dramatic flair:

One storyteller, a former AMST Requiem, uses the Movie Approach. To implement this approach, bring all your players into a room, shut off the lights, and either describe the setting with the lights off OR play a movie clip that best shows the setting you are trying to describe. Before the lights come up, have each player tell their characters name and give a brief description of their character. When the lights came on again, the game is considered on and active. Write up a descriptive narrative. Focus on creating the mood and atmosphere of the World of Darkness. How much worse and more dangerous is your city? How widespread is the Church of Ultimate Truth? Relate some past history or common knowledge that all members of the Accord would have. Was the previous Cell destroyed? Did they vanish mysteriously? Similar to the Movie Approach--put together a slideshow that shows the difference between your city as it is in real-life, and how it is in the World of Darkness. This would be a great prestige-worthy project for a local photoshop artist. Incorporate art, music, and cultural references to flesh out your vision.

During the first game, there are usually a lot of logistical challenges, so its best to waive feeding challenges and other fuel checks. Have everyone start at a standard amount (such as 3/4ths of their max) to get everyone playing as quickly as possible. Since most PCs will be part of the local Cell, you could begin game with a Cell meeting to get players roleplaying. If there seem to be disparate groups, you can set up a simple plot trail leading to a group combat against some easy targets, just to get everyone in the same place. This can also be a great way to build bonds between PCs. Since this is your first game, players arent going to expect a lot of plot resolution. Therefore, drop as many plot hooks as you can. Make some up on the fly, or have a list pre-made so you can insert them as opportunity arises. Simple things like having one player see a shadowy figure watching from a rooftop, or finding a half-burnt piece of paper with strange writing, or a PC seeing someone who looks familiar but is unable to recall who they are. Keep track of the hooks you drop so you can pick them up later and flesh them out. The key is to make your players feel that there is a lot going on so they always have things to talk about and do. If players want to chase all the plotlines, dont be afraid to tell them OOCly that they have gone as far as they can for now. Dont spend hours running scenes that are going nowhere. It will only frustrate the players, and there are much better uses for your valuable time. It is also very helpful to have one large-scale, months-long plotline that many of the hooks tie into. This helps players feel like they are making progress on the larger plot even while theyre having a great time resolving the shorter ones. An overarching plotline can also help set the theme and tone of the game. Be sure to call game a bit early to do a wrap-up. Find out what people liked and what needs work. It is often fun to go around and ask each person to describe something awesome they saw somebody else do. This helps to build camaraderie and show everyone their contributions are appreciated. Lastly, find out if there were any powers or situations that caused mechanical issues. Document them for further research and to add to the Busted Bounty to earn rewards.

5. Subsequent Games
After game, start gathering writeups and downtimes. These will help you learn from the last game and plan for the next. Note: it is often good to set a word count limit on downtimes and writeups, as it is easy to get overwhelmed by our creative members. As time goes on, you will have PCs come and go. Remember to keep your RQ updated, and submit your VSS RQ Tracking sheet each month since reporting will earn you rewards. Also keep close watch when players spend XP as it may increase their PCs RQ. Ensure that any spending stays within the venue RQ guidelines as put forth in your VSS, and dont be afraid to ask your players to buy other things. During the time after the first game, work with the players to find a fuel system that reflects the kind of game you want to play. For high-action games where there are a lot of combats and challenges, it may be best to go with an easy system, like max + herd merits. If you have a more social game where the players enjoy competing for

resources, you can make it a much harsher system, such as setting starting fuel equal to double the successes on a single Attribute+Ability fuel-gathering draw. Remember that unless a specific mechanic allows it, one fuel type cant be given to a template type that uses another. Whichever system you use should be noted in the VSS in the Aberrations section. You can update the VSS and send it up for Approval as often as you want, but you should update it at least every 6 months. So as you run games, you may start to wonder: why doesn't the CUT and The Truth, if they have all these nasty Abominations, go around assassinating Accord members. Surely that would make their task easier? Well, you have to look at their real goal, which is always increasing the RQ. Firstly, Servants don't count towards the RQ, so Servants are actually not as valuable to The Truth as Believers are. As long as it has enough Servants to make things happen and follow its orders, The Truth doesn't care what happens to Servants. Second, almost everything the CUT and The Truth do is meant to create more Believers or raise the ARQ. And the best Believers are supernaturals as they have the most ways to generate ARQ. Also, the Truth will open Tears to give support to their Believer cults, inspire more Believers, and thus raise the ARQ. This is the main purpose of Tears. If an Accord agent is caught by The Truth and at their mercy, there are a few common scenarios: 1. If the agent has a high RQ (which Servants can detect) they will probably kill the agent for the large ARQ bump. An RQ of 70 or below is usually safe from the instant kill choice. High RQ agents are powerful and thus able to do more to stop Truth activity, so they are more trouble than they are worth. 2. A mid-RQ agent will often be mind-controlled in some way. Blood bonding, a Pledge, Dominate, or other insidious means are used to twist their mind. Here are some sample orders/tasks given to such: a. If you are alone and discover a Servant, ignore them and forget you saw them. b. Be supportive of others when they are considering courses of action that may raise the ARQ. c. Gain personal power above all else to increase your weight on reality. d. Kill Believers whenever you have the opportunity to do so without being caught. e. Acquire as many magic items as you can, and hoard them. 3. They may also be pumped for information. This is to inform the local Servants on how to better handle the cell. It is also common for them to interrogate a subject, then let it be known to the cell that they were ratted out. Often this leads to the Cell killing the rat as being a weak link. 4. For a lower RQ agent, they may set up a strong holding area with many non-Believer guards, then leak the location to the Cell and watch in glee as they use powers to sythe their way through the guards to rescue their Cell-mate, all the while raising the ARQ. 5. They may force mutations on the Agent if they have low RQ, to provide a longer-lasting RQ bump. A Major mutation can drastically increase someone's RQ. 6. They may traumatize the agent to lower their grip on sanity or their morality. A more callous agent is more likely to care less about raising the RQ than getting what they want. And a crazy agent's unpredictability is a liability to the cell. In short, there are many ways The Truth deals with agents of the Accord besides killing them. And most make for better story than simply killing an agent.

6. PvP Combat Scenes

At some point, you are going to run into a situation where you have conflict between PCs. Remember, conflict builds story. As a storyteller, you should use this conflict to create a wider story to involve more individuals. PvP is going to happen at some point its a natural response of PCs to want to engage the enemy, and sometimes there are enemies closer to home than the antagonists we have provided as part of the Accord setting. When this happens, always remember the basic steps for conflict:
1.

Mediation. Work out a story let players have epic options or tragic betrayals. Let them work out a way to walk (or crawl) away in-character to fight another day. It doesnt always work out, but a great deal of conflict can be solved by offering mediation as the first step to conflict resolution.

Take the players involved aside. Make sure you have someone who can still run the other scenes, or assign a combat-savvy assistant to handle the combat mechanics. With emotions running high combats sometimes getting the mechanics right can be difficult. Players that want to engage in the conflict need to know their powers always make that clear ahead of time, but be lenient for newer players. 3. Establish your combat guidelines from the moment that mediation ends until the finale of the combat scene. These guidelines should usually include the following: a. Know your mechanics and have them on hand. If you need to spend more than a minute to look at your mechanics, you dont need to be in a tense combat scene. Again, be lenient for newer players. b. Keep it professional. Snarky comments, angry remarks, and otherwise uncivil behavior have no place in combat resolution. Keep that in-character and be classy. If there may be out of character motives for the scene, consider involving a coordinator before proceeding to ensure proper conflict resolution has been followed. c. Keep the combat moving. Dont stop and narrate between each set of chops. After each round, give a quick narration of what happened so everyone is on the same page. Then ask players if the resolution of that round has provided an opportunity for mediation. If not, continue into the next combat round. d. Make sure players are marking off their sheets whenever traits are being used. In larger combats, having an AVST keep track of initiative, health, and fuel spends can speed things up tremendously. e. Dont announce traits, powers, or template types to everyone else in the scene. Storytellers should work to maintain a confidence with their players, not throw out information that might result in potential meta-gaming later. If a player chooses to provide that information, then that is her prerogative. f. Soliloquies are not appropriate during combat rounds. Cut down on the scene length by limiting the time players have to speak. At the most, they might get out five words, so they should make them count. g. Limit OOC discussion. At the start of your scene, you as the storyteller should decide if you are going to allow OOC discussions. In an actual scenario, Joe Werewolf isnt going to stop to discuss with his packmate Jill if his super-awesome sword is going to do five aggravated damage or not. This also keeps everyone focused on the task at hand, and keeps the combat running. h. Most importantly, if someone declares Fair Escape or otherwise is removed from the scene, they should leave the room and wait for the resolution of the scene before returning back into play. Doing this maintains continuity and allows the storyteller to clear up loose ends. i. Do not permit external contact outside of the scene until the scene is resolved. This should be stated in the rules at the start. This allows for continuity to be maintained, and the storyteller to tie up loose ends. j. Many players arent experienced with combat, or may have trouble focusing during such an intense event. Any player may request a Combat Coach. This can be any player or AVST, as long as they have no conflict of interest against the player they are helping. The Combat Coach should not run the players sheet; they should advise, answer questions, and generally mentor the player so that they have a positive experience and are better prepared for the next combat.
2.

When a combat scene has ended, the storyteller should review the scene. If an AVST is the one who ran the box, prior to the final death of any character, the principle storyteller should review the combat and take the players aside and ensure that there are no issues. Not everyone is going to be happy with how things go down no one likes to lose a character (generally). However, reviewing the scene with the players involved helps keep complaints to a minimum later. The last task is to provide a finale. If this involves PC death, let that death be where the character falls if twelve people jump a guy in the main room, pause the scene at the moment of the killing blow and bring that scene back into the main room. While those who were not in the scene cannot be directly involved, they can react in the aftermath of the scene. Always remember, conflict should build story. It should never break games. Encourage players to work together, and talk through the resolution post-game. Encourage cooperative character creation. Start a tradition of buying a drink or ice cream for the target of the combat, or providing ties for their next character. A game is built on the players who play it and the stories they are part of.

7. Managing Visitors
One of the great things about our club is that we are part of a large, interconnected network of gamers. This means your players can take their characters to games outside your domain. Likewise, members of other domains can come to your game. A little extra effort up front can make having visitors a seamless, fun, and constructive experience for all involved. Firstly, keep your VSS updated and available for anyone to read. Visitors should always be familiar with the VSS of the game they are traveling to, but keep a copy or two around for anyone who hasnt read it yet. Secondly, dont be afraid to put RQ or Template restrictions in your VSS if you feel certain character types would be disruptive to your style of game. Remember, however, restrictions should be applied equally to visitors and locals. It is your duty as VST to ensure potential visitors know of any restrictions before coming to your game. In those cases where a player shows up with a character that is restricted by your VSS, it is good to have NPCs on hand for that player to portray.

8. Template-Specific Concerns
Some domains may want to have a game that focuses on one or more of the native template societies, such as a citys Vampire Court or a Changeling Freehold. Your VSS gives you the flexibility to give as much depth and attention to these societies as your players want. In fact, it is possible to have an entire VSS made up of only one supernatural type. Keep in mind that an elevated concentration of one supernatural type could lead to a very high Base RQ, and thus a tricky balancing act to keep out of Quarantine. Regardless of how much focus your VSS puts on the template societies, some of your players will likely want to be important in those societies. You should only allow this in cases where that supernatural society plays a large part in your VSS storylines. Having a vampire be the Prince of the city doesnt mean much if they are the only vampire that any of your PCs ever interact with. Typically, PCs should not have more than three dots of status in any non-Accord society. To represent this, there is a small RQ increase for those who wish to be very important in their home society. Note that all Status, in the Accord or otherwise, is considered local-only, and only Accord Status is free. Lastly, Changeling Mantle is not considered Status and is not governed by the same restrictions. Other VSSs may focus their game on one of the traditional other-worlds associated with a template, such as the Underworld for Geist or the Shadow for Forsaken. Care should be taken to ensure that all PCs can be involved in such plots in some way. It is no fun to be the only one stuck in the real world while everyone else gallivants around with spirits. Note that The Truth is not constrained to one level of our reality, and its corrupting influence has reached all levels of the universe, from Shadow to Supernal, from Underworld to Abyss. Travel to named realms such as the Deep Hedge, Arcadia, and so forth is governed by Approvals in the Addendum. PCs that frequently or casually bring across supernaturals that are not usually seen in other-worlds should attract the attention of the natives of that realm, and the consequences that brings. Certain worlds also have their own rules for specific supernaturals, like Vampires in the Hedge.

9. The Addendum
The Accord Addendum contains guidelines for managing cross-venue power interactions and character-type interactions. Its important to keep in mind the clarifications on valid targeting of powers, and how different templates interact with each other. However, not every interaction can be predicted. There will be instances when powers are vaguely interpreted or applied strangely to a certain situation. In these instances, the Venue Storyteller will make the decision on any rules adjudication in accordance with what works best for the venue. If there is time during the scene, and it is not overly disruptive, the VST may choose to take a few minutes to read the power in question and do a quick browse of the Addendum to see if it is clarified. If not, as VST, your rules call in the scene stands. Reality is odd. Strange things happen, and powers dont work right all the time. Note the power for later research with the books or other STs. Your storyteller chain is an excellent resource for questions or concerns that you might have throughout your entire journey as a storyteller. REMEMBER:

Experience is the teacher of all things Julius Caesar