2018 - Camarilla - Byron Martin
Introduction and Background:
Hello my name is Byron Martin.
I have been a member of the organization almost from the very beginning, and I started LARPing in a few other troupe games before that. I did take a break from the organization in the early 2000's for a few years when I moved to the West Coast and then back to the MidWest again.
Beyond my experience as a LARP'er I have been a gamer in form or other for over 30 years, having started playing D&D when I seven years old. That was it I was hooked on RPG's, Boardgames, CG's, video games and LARP. This hobby has allowed me to do experience some of the best things in my life. all of my closest friends I met through this hobby and the organization in particular. It led me to volunteering first for Wizards of the Coast at Origins and GenCon, ultimately to a position with GenCon. That was unfortunately short lived because that is when I moved to the West Coast and ultimately I did not like being that far away from my friends so I left the company to come back to friends. Now I work as a Senior Operations Manager for a major Service Desk Provider with six direct reports and over 120 indirect reports for seven different accounts.
I was introduced to the World of Darkness when I was 18 shortly after Second Edition Vampire hit the shelves and I fell in love with the game. Since then I have either run or played in several table top games and LARP's across multiple genres and for the most part I have enjoyed them all but my favorite Vampire genre is the Camarilla. That is why I am running for Camarilla Coord, I love the genre and I love the organization and I would like an opportunity to give back on larger scale to the people and organization that has been such an integral part of my life.
Introduction and Background (Portuguese):
Administrative Experience:
On a professional level I have over ten years of managerial experience in multiple areas: retail, convention services, and IT. During that time I have managed teams as large as 50 and as small as 6 and I have always done my best to relate to my team members in a meanigful and prodcutive way so that we could work together towards our common goal.
Within the organization I have been an assistant storyteller (multiple times), head storyteller, council representative (multiple times) and a couple of years ago I became a member of Team Sabbat as a Subcoord for the Ultra Conservative, Moderates and Status Quo Factions as well as a Lasombra Subcoord.
Administrative Experience (Portuguese):
Personal Statement:
As I said earlier in my application I love this organization. For all its faults, foibles and frustrations there are equal moments of kindness, cooperation and success. To that end I feel it is time for me to give back to the organization that has given me so much.
Any of the players that I have been a storyteller for in the past can tell you that I believe in fair and equal treatment for all players regardless. I also believe that it is a storyteller and coordinators responsibility to judge all situations and requests not only the merits as they pertain to the moment but to also consider the long term ramifications of the action or decision before passing a final judgement.
I am also a big believer in player agency. Ultimately this organization is for the players and at times I think that can get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle of the organization or the desire to run a plot that a storyteller finds intriguing without regard to the ones that will be most involved with their plot.
Honest and open communication is a significant part of any good healthy relationship and that is doubly so with the position of Camarilla Coordinator. There are so many other genres involved in the Camarilla that it is an absolute necessity to find a way to work with the other Coordinators, Storytellers and Council Members to ensure that the Sect continues to grow and flourish.
As a player I tend to travel a fair amount in the organization currently. I try to attend as many different games as possible within a six hour drive. The past two years I have traveled almost every weekend to a event game, my home chronicle (which is two hours away from where I live) or another game/s that weekend. I have attended almost every Vampire event game over the past twelve months and even took a weekend trip to attend two games in Georgia about six months ago. As the Camarilla Coordinator I will continue to travel to games and attend as many Event games as possible.
Personal Statement (Portuguese):
Goals:
As my first goal I would like to create a survey for the OWbN players to allow them an outlet on what they believe are the greatest issues with Camarilla genre as it currently stands. For the poll I would like to work with each individual Coordinators that has a hand in the greater Camarilla genre to include any questions they would like to get answered. Once the poll is complete I will share the results with those Coordinators so that we can work together to enhance the overall genre through the player input.
Along that same vein I would like to set up regular meetings between Team Camarilla and the respective Coordinators to ensure that we are working together to meet the needs of the players while still doing our best to uphold both cannon genre and the genre that has developed in OWbN over these past twenty plus years.
I would like to continue to develop the idea of organizations within the Camarilla so that players have the opportunity to pursue other options outside of their local Domains as a way to be involved in the greater politics of the Camarilla.
Along with developing more organizations I would also like to work on a new genre packet to codify or give clear examples of certain things within the genre. An easy example would be Conclaves. We have had several over the years in the organization and I would like feedback on which ones the players felt worked the best so that one or examples could be provided in the genre packet. The intent of these changes is to lower the necessary entry point for newer players to the Camarilla in general and for players that want to be more involved on a more national scale.
I would also like to work with the Brazilian games more closely to ensure that their needs are being met from a genre standpoint and to review any differences they might have to see if any of those differences could be implemented within the larger Camarilla genre.
Assemble a team of like minded individuals that are going to be willing to put in the necessary time and effort to continue to develop the Camarilla genre who have time and ability to ensure a quick and timely response to all emails.
The Inconnu and the Ashirra also fall under the purview of the Camarilla Coordinator and I would like to see more done with both of those minor sects as they have long been outright ignored or overlooked within the organization thus far.
While I am not adverse to the idea of a 'monster of the year' style plot I would prefer to focus on strengthening and enhancing the current Camarilla genre over pursuing another global plot at this time. To me that means smaller more political and intrigue based plots as vehicles to introduce some of the player suggestions or other ideas into the genre.