Posted by Man-O-War(VIP) on October 09, 1999 at 09:27:19:
Cabal induction should be something the person works towards for much of their life, not something they decide they'll do at rank 15 while they're watching their roller pick the stats. All cabals should raise their minimum induction rank up to 35th. This separates the men from the boys so to speak. It makes sure that ragers can handle not using magic for longer than 15 ranks or whatever. It gives the imms and leaders a longer amount of time to make sure that roleplay is what it should be. I'm of the opinion that cabals SHOULD be elitist. It doesn't make much sense to have nearly a majority of the CF popluation(not counting newbies under 15th rank) in an institution that is given excessive amounts of power. So how would the new system work? At 15th rank a person declares his allegiance to one of the cabals(or none at all of course) through a note to a designated note-keeper in the cabal of his choose. The note-keeper makes a list of all those declaring allegiance and sends weekly updates to the imms and leaders who will at some point(maybe 25th rank) begin holding interviews based on philosophical matters. It is at this point that the person's backstory, roleplaying angle, and so forth should become known to the imms and leaders of his chosen cabal. At 30th rank(if the cabal so chooses) the person should present a display of his ability. This can include a quest, killing a mob solo, or even a questionairre type setup where the leader and/or imm can ask the applicant what skills or tactics they would use in a number of given situations. Then at 35th rank, the induction process becomes final with one last short interview to make sure of the person's allegiance, and to make sure he/she understands the rules of the cabal. This whole process should NOT be quick. Perhaps the imms can enforce an hours of playtime rule, perhaps nobody is inducted before they reach 75 hours of playtime. The above goes for all cabals except Empire, which is designed differently. A person may take the bloodoath at 15th, and be inducted at 30th(yes, 5 ranks lower than the other cabals). However, EVERY CHANCE should be seized to anathema a person. EVERY slip-up should result in anathema. Forget the words of the bloodoath? Anathema. Break a law? Anathema. Say something ooc over cb or sect channels? Anathema. Accidents count as well. Accidently attack a citizen in the course of a battle. Anathema. No mercy, just anathemizations. To recap: 15th rank: Declare allegiance(bloodoath) 25th rank: Preliminary interviews where terrific roleplay should be the norm, those that fail to impress should be sent on their way. 30th rank: A test of skill. Quests and so forth. Failure to successfully complete results in being sent on your way. No second chances.(Citizens inducted) 35th rank: Induction process is completed. Final interview. Final scrutiny. -75 hour minimal hours of play before induction. -In between ranks the imms watch those that have succeeded in the prelim interview. Cabal numbers should never swell over 20 chars.(Empire excluded)