[caps]

Alright, I couldn't help myself. Here is my counter-proposal. Let me know what you think @infectedsloth @White Knight @Splash @OrcElfArmyOne @TREX @boromir96 @Good Pig @KingZombie



The following is a blend of the Arena of the Valkyrie, C3V, old HoME, and the democratic free-for-all proposed by WK. This is a working draft, not a stone tablet, so I view most of it as up for debate. The key principles to me are that

1. There must be a core group of people (which I'll call the Council) dedicated to keeping the group as a whole "on the rails" and in line with the goals of the project. The Council must be large enough that one person can't stall it out. Five seems like a good number (and is what I used below), but three could also work.
2. It must be easy to start participating in a variety of ways.
3. Designs should be owned by a group of people (which I'll call a Fellowship), not just a single person, and that group should have a lot of authority and autonomy over the design vs. the rest of HoME (including the Council). I suggest five people, but whatever number it should always be odd (so that tiebreakers are rarely needed).

To that end, anyone can brainstorm, playtest, and vote on public votes (which are forming Fellowships and determining which cards that Fellowship will work on). Anyone who runs a pair or more of playtests can vote in the playtesting phases. The "public" is still discouraged from free-for-all posting in unit threads to keep them from getting too noisy. In general, posting in a thread for a particular unit is reserved for the Fellowship that owns that unit and for anyone on the Council.

The Council's powers are actually pretty light; each Fellowship must have some council members in it, but within that Fellowship they have no special rights and hopefully will be outnumbered by 3 non-Council members. This puts a practical cap on how many Fellowships we can have at a time, but if we only have a few volunteers, we'll probably only have one Fellowship at a time anyway. The only "power" the Council has is the permission to post in any of the threads and a simple majority vote (in addition to the larger common vote) in the final review. With 5 Council members that means that staunch opposition from 3 members will stop a unit from passing that final phase. In practice this should be pretty rare.

The Fellowship formation is pretty easy to get into and allows people to bow out when they're done if they want. Being in a Fellowship is also nice because you don't have to process *all* the designs at once; just the ones in your Fellowship.

I did not detail the brainstorm -> design process very well, but I think it is similar to what WK was envisioning. People throw ideas out and then there is voting.





Goals
1. Our purpose is to create HeroScape custom units based upon the works of J.R.R. Tolkien that are 100% compatible with each other and all of the official Heroscape License as well as its extensions in Valhalla Customs.

2. For each custom design to accurately reflect the official Heroscape game aesthetic: balanced units that are relatively simple and easy to understand. HoME units should feel equally at home in a self-contained set together or blended with Hasbro/VC units.

3. To have each Custom Design be collaboratively created by our HoME members by allowing each design to be worked on by each group within the HoME, while encouraging support, good ideas, and productive effort from the entire Heroscapers.com community.

4. Maintain the position of several core members who are enthusiastic, well respected, and active Heroscapers.com members.


How to Contribute
1. BRAINSTORM! Anyone is welcome to contribute ideas in the brainstorming thread. Brainstorming is a "primordial soup" phase and most ideas are ultimately discarded, but all ideas are welcome.

2. VOTE! Anyone can vote on Fellowship formation as well as on any design they have submitted at least two playtests for.

3. DESIGN! Nominate yourself (or someone else in the community) to participate on a lead team.

4. PLAYTEST! This is the critical piece for all custom projects, and where volunteers are *most needed*. You can find the playtesting thread here <insert link>.

5. ART! We will need some people with photoshop or other photo editing skills to create cards when they are finished.


Membership
You become an HoME member by getting nominated to join a Fellowship and then getting voted on to the Fellowship. You may nominate yourself.

Fellowships are composed of 5 people and are formed around several cards (typically 2-4) collectively referred to as their "pod." At least two of the people must be HoME Council members. Fellowship and pod composition are both determined by a public vote.

When a Fellowship member is absent for more than one month or steps down, a replacement for them is voted onto the Fellowship following the same process that was used to form the Fellowship.

You remain an HoME member as long as you are operating on a Fellowship. After the final unit in your pod is voted through to completion you remain an honorary HoME member with all voting rights for the next six months.

The Council is composed of
<member list>
The role of the Council is to keep the project on track towards the stated goals above. Unlike other HoME members, who may come and go as their Fellowships complete their pods, Council members should be in the project "for the long haul," since they have a duty to preserve the project and steer it towards its long-term goals. Council members do not have any special voting privileges except as outlined in the Final Review phase of the Design process, but they are welcome to comment on any card in any pod at any time.

When a member steps down from the Council, their replacement is selected by nominations of respected Heroscapers members and current HoME members and decided by vote of all HoME members.


General Voting Protocols
Votes last for 72 hours. On any votes open to the general public or the general HoME membership,
a) At least 60% of all HoME members must vote.
b) At least 50% of all votes cast must be affirmative for the vote to pass.


Brainstorming
Rough unit concepts are brainstormed by any and all. From these brainstorms, unit designs are nominated to join a pod, and frequently the authors of the brainstorm are nominated as Fellowship members for that pod.


Design Process
A thread is created for each card in a pod. The cards then move through various phases as follows. At each phase, unless specified otherwise, a majority vote by the Fellowship is required to move forward. Votes are initiated by Council members on the Fellowship. 100% of Fellowship members must vote on the cards in their pod, and regardless of who else is voting, a card should not move forward without a simple majority of the Fellowship voting affirmative (so the playtesting phases, for instance, require simple majorities from both the Fellowship and the larger voting populace).

Each phase should generally be handled by the Fellowship. The public should refrain from excessive comments, debate, etc. but are welcome to make passing remarks.

1. DESIGN PHASE: Fellowship members harden the design, using ideas from brainstorming or coming up with new ones as necessary.

2. EDITING PHASE: The editing checklist is run for the unit, and any potential issues are identified and brought up. The Fellowship must either resolve substantial issues and pass the Editing check, or return to the Design Phase.

3. BALANCE TESTING PHASE: All Fellowship members will run playtests for the unit (other HoME members and community members are also encouraged to run playtests), prioritizing its individual balance against classic Heroscape figures. In addition to the Fellowship members, anyone who has run at least two playtests for the unit in this phase may vote in this phase.

4. COMPATIBILITY TESTING PHASE: Similar to the Balance Testing Phase, this stage focuses on collecting playtests, but prioritizes testing with HoME units to ensure they feel right together. This would also be a good time to run HoME scenarios once they are available. Testing here is less intensive than the Balance Testing Phase. Once the Fellowship is satisfied with the unit they can vote to move forward to the final review. In addition to the Fellowship members, anyone who has run at least two playtests for the unit in this phase may vote in this phase.

5. FINAL REVIEW: This is where all HoME members will vote on whether the design should is complete, looking at the unit on its own as well as its place within the set as a whole. In addition to a vote from all HoME members as described in General Voting Protocols, this vote requires a simple majority from Council members.

6. ART PHASE: Once a unit enters the Art Phase, the design should be completely finalized and ready for release. Once the card is made, it will be reviewed by all HoME members for any errors or typos. After all of these are fixed, one last simple majority vote will be made to officially release the unit.