The Quest Rules Committee

Charters

Rules Committee

(as defined by the Board of Directors on April 15th, 2003)

The Rules Committee is responsible for maintaining and improving Quest's rules set, in order to help Quest run events well. The RC has five primary duties:

1. Individual members of the RC assist members of the Quest community with rules-related issues.
2. Individual members of the RC act as Rules Marshals during events.
3. The RC issues rules interpretations as needed.
4. The RC reviews and votes on rules-related character proposals.
5. The RC reviews and votes on rules change proposals.

The RC also handles other miscellaneous rules-related tasks, as they arise.

Unless otherwise specified, RC business is not secret, but does not need to be publicly archived. Anyone may keep personal archives if they wish. Vote margins must be announced with the results of votes. The current Rules Chair must archive the individual votes for the current Quest year (defined elsewhere as September 1 to September 1), and must provide them upon request.

Community Assistance

While RC members are not required to make proposals themselves, they are encouraged to work with other members of the Quest community to draft and co-sponsor proposals. In addition, RC members should direct rules-related feedback to the correct people, and should do their best to answer rules-related questions.

Rules Marshalling

The duty of a Rules Marshal is to resolve rules disputes during events, so that play proceeds smoothly and fairly. The important factors are consistency, speed, and on-the-spot fairness.

Rulings should remain consistent within an event. If necessary, the problem should be addressed by an interpretation before the next event. Rules Marshal players may not adjudicate disputes to which they are a party.

Rules Interpretations

Rules interpretations are issued by the RC as a whole, in between events, to address ambiguities in the rules. (Direct contradictions in the rules are considered errata.) Interpretations last until the rules in question are changed. The important factors are consistency, simplicity, and game balance.

Interpretations are normally decided through RC consensus. Any RC member may call for an interpretation to be decided by a formal majority vote. Interpretations are permitted to contradict the actual text of the rules when necessary, and may always contradict a ruling made during a game by a Rules Marshal.

Character Proposals

The RC reviews and votes on any character proposals that involve rules-related questions. (For example, Heroic Honor codes and racial kits.) This is in addition to any other requirements that the proposal must meet (such as Game World Committee approval.) The important factor is game balance.

Character proposals are decided by a formal two-thirds majority vote. They should be addressed as soon as possible. While all proposals must pass through a normal open discussion, character proposals may do so anonymously. Character proposals may also undergo an initial round of closed discussion with only the RC, before the normal open discussion with the full rules list.

Rules Change Proposals

The RC reviews and votes on all rules change proposals. The important factors are fun, accordance with Quest's purpose and character, game balance, ease of use, and ease of transition from old rule to new rule.

Rules change proposals are decided by a formal two-thirds majority vote. Rules changes proposals are reviewed and voted on, either one at a time, or in small groups of proposals. Approved rules changes are implemented in larger groups at the beginning of a future Quest year. The RC should carefully control the number and/or scope of the changes being implemented in any given year, to help ensure an easy transition.

Approved changes will be made available on the web, and announced on Initium. The Quest community will be given at least one month to review and give feedback on an approved change. The Rules Chair will collect all such feedback, and near the end of the year will send it to the RC for discussion. If more than one-third of the RC feels that a change should be reviewed, it will be removed from the list of approved changes and re-proposed.

Rules Chair

The Rules Chair supervises the Rules Staff and maintains consistencies of rulings. The Rules Chair heads the Rules Committee, and is responsible for maintaining the rules interpretation's consistency both during and between games.

[The Rules Chair is also responsible for preliminary approval of Heroic Honor codes at games. If the Rules Chair will not be at a game, a substitute must be appointed.]

Rules / Weapons Interface

(as defined by the Board of Directors on August 30th, 1999)

1. The Weapons Manager shall be an automatic, full voting member of the Rules Committee, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities thereof.

2. It is assumed that the Weapons Manager will willingly accept this as part of his/her responsibilities. However, the Weapons Manager may, with Board approval, appoint another member of the Weapons Staff to hold that seat on the Rules Committee.