AGM Minutes: 2011

Cambridge University Treasure Trap Annual General Meeting 2011

1) Treasurer's Report

The society is doing well this year - better than last year, partly because we don't have as much expense for hiring a 3YGB site.

2) State of the Society

The president thanked people.

3) Election of new Exec

There were no nominations before the AGM. The following were nominated at the AGM and elected for 2011/12:

• President: David Birch
• Secretary: Rowena Paren
• Treasurer: Megan Williams

Keeper of the Vaults: Geoffrey Willoughby

4) Election of other committee members

The following were nominated at the AGM and elected for 2011/12:

• Banquet Minions: David Proctor and Rosemary Warner
• Safety Officer: David Proctor

5) Election of ref team

Some nominations were received by the current ref team before the AGM, and these were presented at the AGM and elected for 2011/12:

Head Ref: Corin Jeffcock

Other Refs:

• Tea Kew
• Andrew Mason (Michaelmas 2011, potentially later terms)
• Megan Williams (Michaelmas 2011, potentially later terms)
• Ellie Schlappa (Lent and Easter 2012 if in Cambridge)

There was a request for more volunteers to referee. Steph Leddington volunteered; the new ref team will need to be ratified at an EGM, which will be called later this term.

6) Motions

0. Investigate change from NatWest

The Keeper of the Vaults (Geoffrey Willoughby) proposed that, due to the repeated difficulty of changing signatories on the Society bank account, he be allowed to investigate the possibility of moving the Society's account from Natwest, and be able to change the constitution appropriately (it currently specifies Natwest) if the results show there is a better alternative.

This motion PASSED by overwhelming majority.

1. Clarify: Whether [MODIFIER] NOTHING breaks halt

Proposer: Drac

Seconder: Tea

Clarify this by changing the wording of the HALT call in the system calls page to:

You must stop moving immediately, for N seconds. If an effect, or any damage call apart from NOTHING strikes you while you are under the effect, this effect is broken. This is very strict, so a RED NOTHING will break HALT on anyone, even a pyrokin, as it is not a "NOTHING". This includes calls such as STRIKEDOWN or REPEL that may do no damage, but are not NOTHING. {Rest of halt wording from You retain the ability.... onwards}

Or

You must stop moving immediately, for N seconds. If an effect, or any damage call apart from [MODIFIER] NOTHING strikes you while you are under the effect, this effect is broken. This is very strict, so a [COLOUR/MAGIC/SPIRIT/SUBDUE etc...] NOTHING will not break halt unless you are vulnerable to that modifier (and thus the damage is upgaded to HALF, which is not nothing). This includes calls such as STRIKEDOWN or REPEL that may do no damage, but are not NOTHING. {Rest of halt wording from You retain the ability.... onwards}

Original text: You must stop moving immediately, for N seconds. If struck by any damage call apart from NOTHING, this effect is broken. You retain the ability to keep...

This motion was discussed at length. A proposal was made to postpone further discussion or voting on this to the EGM that will be called.

The proposal to postpone PASSED by overwhelming majority.

2. Proposal: Unify breaking HALT and interrupting casting rules.

Proposer: Drac

Seconder: Tea

The mechanics of what breaks HALT and what interrupts spell/miracle casting imply that they are the same: e.g. any call that is not NOTHING. However they have had separate clarifications noted on the website, leading to them possibly being interpreted differently. I propose explicitly unifying what breaks halt and what interupts spell/miracle casting to whichever outcome is voted on in the "Clarify: Whether [MODIFIER] NOTHING breaks halt" motion above.

This motion PASSED with 16 for, 3 against and 8 abstaining.

3. Proposal: Unify armour physrep rules

Proposer: Dave P

Seconder: Rowena

Change the armour physrep rules to unify so that specifically:

1-2 point armour can have the same physrep - predominantly leather/fur/padding (anything that shows you're making an effort). 3-4 point armour can have the same physrep - predominantly metal: either plate, chain or ringmail.

This does not change the fact that 2 point armour is considered to have enough metal to be a suit of studded leather and have the usual effects on casting, etc.

Rationale: people don't want to have to buy different physreps when they go up a point of armour. There have been various refcalls over the years about whether chain over padding can count as 4 rather than 3 etc. and what makes a suit of studded leather studded...

This motion PASSED with 12 for, 5 against and 10 abstaining.

4. Proposal: Brawling to become a General Skill

Proposer: Rowena Paren

Seconder: Chevron Begley

Brawling becomes a general skill with no prerequisites. It is by corollary removed as a skill from the Warrior and Subterfuge skill trees.

[If this does not pass: see next motion about adding it to Wilderness requiring Weapon Comp. I]

This motion PASSED with 18 for, 5 against and 7 abstaining.

5. Proposal: Introduce Brawling into the Wilderness tree, with the prereq of Weapon Competency I

Proposer: Locksmith

Seconder: Porange

It makes no sense that Wilderness characters can't buy Brawling. Like Subterfuge and Warrior, it's a tree that grants combat skills, and both Subterfuge and Warrior get Brawling. If anything it makes more sense for Wilderness to have brawling - surely someone who's good at sneaking through trees should be good at using improvised weaponry? It doesn't break anything, and would make Wilderness more fun. Having to multiclass just in order to be able to punch someone when you can already hit people with a big stick seems silly.

Because motion 4 passed and thus made Brawling a general skill, this motion was not discussed.

6. Proposal: put buckler-use into the Subterfuge and Wilderness trees

Proposer: Canashir

Seconder: Tea

Details: define a buckler as any round shield up to 20” or shield of equivalent area.

Buckler use could be added into the Subterfuge Streetfighter skill and Wilderness Weapon Competency skill, or could be a separate skill with Streetfighter-I or Weapon-Competency-I as prereqs (in which case it should cost 6pts for Wilderness, less for Subterfuge since Streetfighter allows an offhand cosh already).

This motion FAILED with 8 for, 11 against and 9 abstaining.

7. Proposal: broaden Staff Use for Wilderness characters

Proposer: Andy

Seconder: Tea

a) Broaden "Staff" to "2H Weapon" in Weapon Competency 2

If a) fails then

b) Broaden "Staff" to "thematically appropriate 2H weapons" (ref call)

Motion (a) PASSED with 13 for, 3 against and 12 abstaining. Because motion (a) passed, motion (b) was not discussed.

8. Proposal: Replace DETECT DISEASE at FA 3 with RECOGNISE DISEASE

Proposer: Locksmith

Seconder: Chevron

This is silly as it stands on the website. For one thing, every time I have ever seen this skill used in practice, it's been with the result that the person using the skill gets info about the disease in question - for all practical purposes the call is already REC DISEASE. For another thing, it implies that nobody else is ever able to tell that another character or NPC is ill, even if they're green, vomiting copiously and oozing gunk from the entirety of their face.

This motion PASSED by overwhelming majority.

9. Proposal: New Wilderness skill: Take Cover

Proposer: Locksmith

Seconder: Canashir

Why:

I think this skill would give scouts something fun and cinematic that's a combat advantage, while preserving the flavour of the class and not muscling in on Warrior or Subterfuge. Given the issues with bows, I think casters can stand to lose some of their advantage over scouts, and as it imposes a disadvantage in the strikedown, I don't think it would tread on the toes of alchemists. Have altered to once per encounter rather than once per day on comparison with blindfighting and DAC. I suggest it should work on MASS and WIDE calls, as taking a strikedown is a significant combat disadvantage where simply negating the ranged call isn't.

Description:

This skill would permit a Wilderness character to choose to take a durationless STRIKEDOWN instead of a single ranged damage call, including arrows and thrown weapons, once per encounter for every four levels bought, a la skills like Agility. This works on MASS and WIDE calls as well as targetted ones.

This motion FAILED with 9 for, 10 against and 10 abstaining.

10. Proposal: New Wilderness Skill: Surefootedness

Proposer: Locksmith

Seconder: Canashir

Why:

Scouts are used to rough terrain and have good balance, so it stands to reason that they should be more difficult to knock over than most people. This would be very useful in some situations, and not useful the rest of the time, which I think makes for fun tactical decisions deciding whether to use it or not. It doesn't muscle in on Warrior or Subterfuge while making Wilderness more combat-capable in a way unique to the class, which I think is an advantage. Given the prereqs, I don't think it would muscle in on alchemical buffs, and casters could stand to lose some of their advantage over scouts.

Description:

This skill would allow a Wilderness character to choose to call NEGATE or TAKEN, as appropriate, to a single STRIKEDOWN call of any duration, once per encounter. The skill would have three ranks, requiring Wilderness II for Surefootedness I, Wilderness IV for Surefootedness II, and Wilderness VI for Surefootedness III. Each level would be 5xp, given the prereqs will prevent double-buying. These effects explicitly do NOT stack with each other: with Surefootedness III, should a WIDE, a MASS and a targetted STRIKEDOWN all occur in the same encounter, I may only choose to call TAKEN (or NEGATE, as appropriate) to one of them.

Surefootedness I: Once per encounter, you may call TAKEN to one call of WIDE STRIKEDOWN, of any duration. Surefootedness II: Once per encounter, you may call TAKEN to one call of MASS STRIKEDOWN, of any duration. Surefootedness III: Once per encounter, you may call either NEGATE or TAKEN, as appropriate, to one targetted call of STRIKEDOWN, of any duration. This includes STRIKEDOWNs delivered by arrow, thrown weapon, weapon blow or casting.

Should the call of STRIKEDOWN be combined with any other system call to which you are not immune, you may call TAKEN to the strikedown, but should take the other effects of the call as appropriate. eg. with Surefootedness II, should the call "MASS SPIRIT HEX THROUGH STRIKEDOWN" be called when I am in range, I may choose to call TAKEN to the STRIKEDOWN, but my character must still take the SPIRIT HEX THROUGH.

a) SUBSIDIARY MOTION

Should the above fail, vote on the same motion but with the ranks reversed, ie with targetted negation at rank 1, MASS at rank 2 and WIDE at rank 3.

b) SUBSIDIARY MOTION

Should either of the above pass, vote on the following:

Surefootedness IV, prereq Wilderness VIII, 5xp: You are immune to strikedown. Call TAKEN or NEGATE as appropriate. Should the call of STRIKEDOWN be combined with any other system call to which you are not immune, you may call TAKEN to the strikedown, but should take the other effects of the call as appropriate.

The first part of this motion PASSED with 13 for, 2 against and 11 abstaining. Because the first part of the motion passed, motion (a) was not discussed. Motion (b) PASSED with 11 for, 1 against and 12 abstaining.

11. Proposal: Wilderness Doubles

Proposer: Tim Baker

Seconder: Rowena Paren

Weapon Expertise

I would propose a new skill be added to the Wilderness Tree at Level 6. This skill would also have a pre-requisite of Weapon Competence 4. Cost: 10 XP.

This skill allows the user to call 'double' with any single handed weapon between 24 and 36 inches long. This does not stack with any benefits gained from Melee or Street Fighter.

If any AGM motion passes to allow Wilderness characters to use two-handed weapons as well as staves, this skill would also allow them to call Double with two-handed weapons of up to 60 inches.

This motion PASSED with 18 for, 1 against and 5 abstaining.

12. Proposal: Brawling by Touch

Proposer: Andy

Seconder: Tea

Change the OC mechanism for brawling from its current form (punches ending 6 inches from target) to "touch upper arm" subject to testing at a weapon practice, note that improvised weapons would not be affected by this.

This motion FAILED with 5 for, 14 against and 6 abstaining. It was suggested that the testing at weapons practice be done and then a proposal could be brought to the EGM or a later AGM.

13. Remove hit doubling

Proposer: David Proctor

Seconder: Rowena Paren

Remove hit doubling on the torso and head. People start on 2/2, progress to 3/3 with the hit skills as usual. Frail people, elves, kender etc. start on 2/1 and progress to 3/2, etc.

Allow, as part of this motion, the balancing of Direct Damage, against the new numbers of body hits. There are notes at the end of this list of motions with some suggestions on rebalancing - these are *not* intended as part of the motion but a suggested starting point should the motion pass.

There was considerable discussion over this point. A suggestion was made to vote on the motion as written, then if it failed to vote on the motion with the starting hit numbers changed from 2/2 and 2/1 to 3/3 and 2/2.

The original motion FAILED with 7 for, 15 against and 6 abstaining. The modified motion (with 3/3 and 2/2 as starting hit totals) PASSED with 16 for, 8 against and 4 abstaining. There were queries about who would come up with a proposed rebalancing of direct damage skills; Rowena Paren volunteered to do this.