2017 - Changing Breeds - Jennifer Lewkowicz
Introduction and Background:
Hello One World by Night! I am Jennifer Lewkowicz AKA Jen the Red, a candidate for Changing Breeds Coordinator. I hail from the Chicago area and have been part of One World By Night since 1998. I've played in almost every genre OWBN has to offer, though my passion lies with Garou and Changing Breeds. I'm very excited for this potential opportunity to run this genre and work with others to create a shared vision on where this genre may go.
For Coordinator experience in OWBN, I have served as the Malkavian Subcoord and Web admin from 2001-2004, when it had a separate website, and I served as Assistant Head Coordinator for two years, 2003-2005, where I negotiated a lot of disputes during a rough time in the org and was a key force in adding several org positions that we still have to this day, though some have changed a little over time.
For Storyteller Experience in OWBN, I have been an AST for Kenosha: Memento Mori (Vampire), Chicago Dark Requiem (Vampire), and Orland Park: Enigmas of Rage (Garou.) I have been HST for Chicago Dark Requiem and currently am the HST for Chicago: Strange Crossroads (Mage.) In total, I've been an ST for the org more than 6 years and plan to continue for many more years to come.
I do also have experience in both putting together and running event games, having jointly designed and run the Equinox 2016 plot with the Chicago: New Moon Rising staff. Outside of OWBN, I have ST'd other games, mostly troupe. I was EXO for TGN at its inception to help the transition from OWBN to a new org.
With my background and knowledge of White Wolf, I hope to bring a wise, passionate, and professional perspective to the role of Changing Breeds Coordinator, tempered by many years of experience and an ability to work with others. I am open to any questions anyone may have.
Introduction and Background (Portuguese):
Administrative Experience:
Administration is pretty much what I do in both career and in my gaming life. I am hyper organized, maintain copies of everything sent to me, and try to keep everyone else around me on track and focused.
My real life job is as a Project Coordinator for a Fortune 100 company, which is essentially described as herding cats. In my position, I run two different teams on an administrative level, which for those of you who work in IT related fields, you can understand what a nightmare that can be. I regularly collect metrics on team statistics, design spreadsheets, keep everyone organized, and ensure my teams run smoothly.
One of the biggest challenges is crafting change in our workplace, which is ironic considering we are in IT, an industry that is constantly changing, but pride in former processes can sometimes rule our company. And part of my job is to temper those egos so everyone can get on the same page with the new way of doing things. In terms of organization and change on a massive scale, my company has around 100,000 employees across the globe, and I have twice successfully organized massive, critical upgrades to our infrastructure that literally could have cost us millions if the timing was off.
For games, I have been the admin for local games a few times, including currently running my mage game's database. I keep meticulous records so we can always check back on what has occurred, both between the character sheet database and emails from players. My Gmail is basically a series of tabs with folders and labels, and I am often the go-to who has all the gaming books accessible on my phone and knows where everything is located within them.
I will be covering more administrative-related things in the Goals section.
Administrative Experience (Portuguese):
Personal Statement:
The Fera and Garou books from White Wolf have created an amazing, rich genre, filled with fantastic villains, great story potential, and a diverse culture. There is something so beautifully tragic about the types of stories that can be told in this genre, that can't always be told in others, and that is part of the reason I love it. It's easy to hate the other guy and work to destroy him, give in to that darkness. What's harder is to have to put aside all that hatred and work towards the common goal of destroying the wyrm. There is forbidden love, hard choices, and cultural differences, all of which contribute to this vast woven tapestry that is Changing Breeds.
Part of the reason I love this genre so much is the darkness portion of World of Darkness. CB can get very dark. The characters are fighting a losing war and trying desperately to keep hope alive. That is what I want to instill in the genre if I become CBC. That glimmer of hope in the darkness. But I also want to highlight the darkness and bring that back into the forefront so that the characters feel that sense of dread and foreboding. And then need to fight past those horrible, sinking feelings to find their hope.
A lot of what I want to do is highlighted in the goals below, but most of all, I want people to feel that their CBC is knowledgeable, caring, and fair. I am not an encyclopedia of White Wolf, but I am willing to research any topic a player or staff needs me to in order to help. As my players can attest, I look everything up to make sure I'm being accurate because I find memory to be a funny thing when it comes to rules/concepts. Am I remembering a house rule or how an ST interpreted a Realm? So, instead, I look everything up to make sure everything is run fair and correctly. I promise that anything that needs research will be researched, as opposed to assuming I am right about something.
My passion for this genre will show in my interactions with staff, players, and coordinators. I really do love Changing Breeds. It's why, out of all the genres in White Wolf, I have stuck with this one the longest. I have so many ideas for this genre that I am excited to share with my team to see what is viable. I will fight for CB genre to be fun and inclusive, and hopefully more players will be drawn to wanting to try it. It really is a blast.
And most of all, I want to show fairness. Like any other player who's been in the org for awhile. I have my share of people who don't like me, or who I don't like on a personal, or even gaming, level. But I won't let that interfere in any approvals or guidance I give. I pride myself on being able to play devil's advocate, or to separate myself from a situation enough to see all sides. It's why I've been successful in my career and as an ST. And I promise not to let my own bias dictate my decisions. If anyone ever feels I am being biased or if I feel I will be biased in a situation, I will step aside and allow another member of my team to handle it.
Personal Statement (Portuguese):
Goals:
Run for CBC in 2018 for a full term
To be clear, should I win this special election, I plan to run during the next election for the full term. My goals below reflect this timing as several of them are unlikely to be accomplished by the next election. I will start the process of many of these goals and hopefully will be given the opportunity to finish them.
Finish "You Can Go Home Again"- Strider/Setite plot
Due to many reasons, this plot has been rather lackluster on the Garou side. When it started, there was a huge scene, and then there was virtually no direction afterwards. While Equinox revived it a bit, it's been a hard sell to regain interest. As there has been no guiding force for the Silent Strider players, the plot simply stopped for them, and yet continued for the Setite players. This has created an increased difficulty on the plot.
Instead of letting this fizzle out, I'd like to revive this plot and see it ramp up to a real conclusion, whether the Striders win or lose. I plan to get this plot organized, work with Changing Breeds chronicles to set goals so every single game who wants to participate will have contributed something vital to assist in the end game. This will give bonuses to the plot.
In the interest of being proactive, I have already been talking with the Setite Coordinator, Stacey Diaz, about potential options on how to end this plot in a way that will be interesting to all players in Garou, not just the Striders. She seems amiable towards the ideas I've brought to the table thus far, and I think we have a plan of action on how to proceed in the coming months, and how to wrap it up before the next election cycle. And should another candidate win, I am more than happy to pass along these concepts so that the plot can be handled fully in a satisfying way.
Finish/Create Packets
This has been a dream for many years with multiple coordinators. With so many packets being over a decade old, I want to see this project finished. I will recruit people to assist with these, making writing sessions together so we can all work together on them and get them done in a timely manner. Having done NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and picked up some writing tricks on how to finish writing projects, I hope these things can help inspire my fellow packet writers to finish. We can do it!
Ensure all interactions with players are documented/archived for future CBC Teams
This doesn't seem like something big, but having a centralized documentation resource for all emails, packets, player interactions, messages, and so on, would be so helpful to future teams who can do a quick search to find what they need. I would likely used Google Drive as its free and most everyone already knows how to use it. There, I would archive everything listed above for reference purposes and pass it on to the next CBC team. If successful, I might suggest this resource for other teams.
Assist with Blood and Ice Changing Breeds game
Blood and Ice will require some Changing Breeds Coordinator assistance, as I am told by the STs running the event. Between giving approvals for needed elements and potentially running things at the event, this would be something to plan for during this term of CBC.
Do a Mini-Census with CB Games (including levels of activity of various fera and tribes)
Between the Archivist Reports and the Census, there is a good feel for what we have, but I'd like to delve deeper with our CB games. For instance, we may have 30 Ratkin listed being in the org, but I think it would be useful to know how many of those 30 are only played at events or are secondary PCs to people with primary PCs. These sorts of statistics could help both the CBC office and STs decide on what R&U's will be allowed, and also assist the CBC team in crafting plots by knowing their player base.
OWBN Changing Breeds 101 Primer
Something that I have found is sorely lacking is a big book of what's happened in OWBN for CB. I'd like to create a Primer to go over the history of OWBN Garou from a high level perspective, citing major events that have happened, Decrees by the King, and anything that has changed from canon. Then this could be continually updated. It would be a great resource for players and STs. It could also be shortened to a one-sheet to be handed to players as a "here's what your PC would know of the Nation."
Decide on Necessity of Fera Coordinator position
With the changes in the R&U rules as of recent, more and more games have Fera. While this position exists as a potential subcoord and has been for several years, I think, at this point, it may be viable to have this as an elected position. I know several players have asked for this and it would greatly lighten the load of the CBC. The logistics of such an addition would need to be looked at in detail, so I'd like to get input from various games, council, and such to decide if a prop should be considered.
W20/CB20 Plot Changes
I've had several players mention that not a lot of things from the 20th anniversary books haven't come into play or are only at other chronicles. This would require some serious time and research, but I would like to start incorporating more elements from the new books.
Centralized Custom Rite/Talen Database
As an ST, the biggest frustration was looking at someone's sheet and asking what a custom rite did and having a player not know anymore because the write up has been lost. I'd like to have a rite database, including talens, that will have the same kinds of info as in our Custom Content Database. This isn't intended to be a shopping list, but rather a resource for the CBC team and STs to be able to quickly find a rite or talen write up, and also know who created it/who has it.
Fetish Packet
Create a non-binding packet for Fetish creation. This has been a need for quite some time. You cannot visit another CB game in the org without hearing someone say "wow, this fetish is over/under powered." I'd like my team to work on something universal that makes sense for all games, and I would take game input into consideration in these rules.
Staff Interactions
I would like to be more proactive as CBC, reaching out to staffs to see what they need, rather than waiting on their requests. I want to make this a more inclusive experience.
Cross-genre Reasoning and Understanding
In recent years, cross-genre has become increased. Events that were CB only, have opened up to include Fae and Mages, both of which have been problematic in canon. But as we all know, PCs generally aren't representative of canon and tend to be friendly and accepting and open. That's our real-lives peeking in, and that's ok. I don't want to discourage this because to many players, it's simply unnatural to be so exclusive and xenophobic.
Instead, I'd want to work on crafting plot reasons why cross-genre should/could work and then let STs decide game-by-game if they want to use the solutions. I'd want to work with the Mage coord to come up with ways to allow mages on caerns without the concern that they can drain them. Perhaps a behind-the-scenes explanation to remove that aspect of 1st edition that keeps haunting us to today and is woefully out of touch with modern material.
And I'd want to work with staffs to help them understand these genres more. Perhaps work with other genre coordinators to help come up with a "basics of..." guide for each genre so STs can understand them more. I cannot count the amount of times an ST has said "I don't understand <insert Genre here>." Let's fix this with a handy guide or a one-sheet that helps STs create easy to understand NPCs.
Goals (Portuguese):