While most Storytellers prefer to concentrate on running good games and on keeping their players entertained, storytellers must also enforce the rules used in the game. This entails handling players who break the rules. What follows is a set of guidelines for handling players who break the rules. These guidelines are not hard-and-fast rules as every situation will be different and as a Storyteller, you are in the best position to judge how critical the offense is.
Soft evidence is hearsay, which is often something difficult to prove. For example, a player complains to you that Paul Player is using a discipline his character does not have. Soft evidence like this example should simply give you a heads up to a potential situation. Something might really be wrong, or it might be gossip or hearsay. Players do not know everything on another player's character sheet. Listen to the player reporting the incident. If you think it is warranted, do a little follow-up investigation by checking the player's character sheet and/or talking to other players who were at the game.
Hard evidence is demonstrable. It generally involves a copy of the player's character sheet and/or witnesses. For example, several people saw Paul use advanced fortitude. You look at his character sheet. He does not have advanced fortitude on it and you know it was not approved by a ST. Paul has been caught. If there had been only one witness, it could have turned into a case of Paul's word vs. the witness's word, which constitutes Soft evidence. Multiple witnesses, meanwhile, may be considered hard evidence. A Storyteller witnessing the infraction also makes the circumstance hard evidence.
Here are some common examples where a player may make an honest mistake:
Suggested resolution: A warning. Talk to the player. Make sure he understands what he did wrong. If it involved a specific character, or if this is the second minor breach, you might want to sit down with the player and audit the character to explain how the character sheet stats work just to make sure the player understands the rules. If the incident occurred at a game, consider awarding the player 0 XP for the evening. If it is a second occurrence, assign 0 XP for the month.
Medium breach Player is being deliberately unethical or is making huge mistakes.
Some Common Examples:
Suggested resolution: The player should get no experience points for the month. The character should be desanctioned from the game for a period of time, preferably two to four weeks. During that time, all characters in play should be audited. You might want to consider desanctioning all of the player's characters until an audit is finished on each one. You should also consider awarding negative xp.
Suggested resolution: Permanent desanctioning of the character involved. Consider applying zero or negative xp awards for other characters. For lying or excessive breaches, you should also consider talking to the player's coordinator about demoting the player to a lower Membership Class, as the Storyteller has no authority over prestige.
Use these answers to slide the offense up and down the scale if you feel it is appropriate.
For example, Paul Player commits a major offense: there is 35 extra xp added to his character sheet. This is discovered when Paul's character is balanced during a random audit (hard evidence). But it is his first offense, and he immediately owns up to it and swears to work harder to keep track of his experience. He promises not to just "guess" anymore. His ST decides to treat this as a "medium" breach. He audits all Paul's characters. The first one gets no XP for the month and is desanctioned for 4 weeks.
Example two, Pattie Player claims to have Puissance during a game. A storyteller witnesses this (hard evidence). Not only does she not have this specific discipline, she does not possess any Potence! She compounds her mistake by lying and claiming someone else approved it. In addition, she killed two other PCs with Puissance at a prior game. While this is only a medium offense, the Storyteller decides Pattie did it deliberately and impacted the game in a very negative manner. He bumps it up to a Major breach and removes the character permanently from play. Because Pattie lied extensively about it, he also decides to talk to the coordinator about having her docked a membership class.
While temporary and permanent desanctioning are recommended punishments for medium to major offenses, it is important to note that any ST can do this to any PC under his authority at any time.
As a corollary to the previous note, a player who's character has been desanctioned can appeal it to the next higher Storyteller. The NST has the final say in these matters and his decision cannot be appealed.
Since permanently desanctioning a character can be a major blow to the player, you should expect the player to appeal. Prepare for this by alerting your DST and RST when it happens. You can mention it in your report, or drop them a short letter describing the situation and why you felt the punishment was appropriate. If you are a higher-up ST (DST/RST) dealing with an unethical player, you should keep lower STs in the loop as well. It is important that the player be shown a united front when it comes to punishments.
If in doubt about the severity of the behavior or the appropriate punishment, ask the STs up and down the chain.