Requirements for a place being Accorded Neutral Ground, any ideas?

[danthehut]

Part of Mac's ability to be a good ANG was (i thought) in how it was constructed to disrupt magical energies (13 pillars, tables in odd locations, etc.).

Obviously thats not going to disrupt a creature with supernatural toughness from coming in and busting shit up, but maybe ANG's get a type of threshold which force beings to leave part of their strength at the door, and the layout of the place disrupts it somewhat as well.

[Grokken]

   IMHO I'm thinking that ANG would require not merely a sponsor .. but also the other local signatories to say Aye!  ANG should be outside the conflicts of the Accords, ie "we don't fight here"  A place where no one member has undue influence or pull, a place where agendas are not active (talked about, but not implemented).  Starting something there would likely bring reprisal from ALL the other members of the Accords, as it would/could be considered as a strike against the detente that the Accords create.  I don't think either of the Queens would be willing to use Marcone's favorite Italian Bistro as NG simply because its "his bistro", with all the people employed there answering to him.  The way I see it, any ANG should be a place that all agree is outside their petty (or not so petty) disagreements, and can not be targeted.

[Sh33p]

I'm working on a campaign set in/around my hometown where there is no set ANG on hand. The area's a White Court stronghold and they're making it hell for anyone to establish an ANG without their explicit backing. End result: One girl is trying for it actively, and another guy's property has been nominated for it without his knowledge or consent since everyone uses him as a doctor. The Court's been able to block her by backing the other guy and also by accusing her of a bias towards the 'kine.' Which is arguably true, considering circumstances

EDIT: And just to include their backgrounds...

Myra Dougall
   There aren't too many open occult hubs in Myrtle Beach. Most talented people make do by gathering in the new age sections of Books-a-Million or Barnes & Noble. Myra Dougall aims to change that. She's recently opened her own coffee shop at the Market Commons, a very artsy outdoor shopping center about twenty minutes south of Broadway and Coastal Grand. She was originally going for a tavern but White Court efforts have done a good job blocking her from getting a liquor license. They really don't want the local supernatural community having a place of its own to gather around.
   Myra is also lobbying for Accorded neutrality, but the Whites are blocking her there as well. Due to the pledges Myra had to take early in the application process, she can do little to oppose them and can't even support efforts made on her behalf. Admittedly, she doesn't have to do anything to discourage or inhibit those efforts either.
   Myra is a minor talent, little more than a sensitive who knows how to throw down low-end wards and protections around her business and home. Her true power lies in her ability to Listen – she can follow twelve conversations at once and clearly remember every single one of them. Her coffee shop's name is Black Cat Strut.

Muhammad Cohen
   Only in the South will you find a devoutly Jewish man named Muhammad who owns a pork farm and a butcher shop specializing in sausages.
   Really.
   Take a step back and think about that. The page will still be here when you're done.
   Once the shock wears off, Muhammad strikes most people as a fairly nice guy. He's a hyperpragmatist and an ex-Army Medic who attended college on the GI bill. He's also a personal friend of Jack Rogers dating back to their Vietnam days, and about as clued-in as any mortal's going to get without being directly involved. Muhammad is, above all things, a staunch believer in second chances and long shots. He's the closest thing Myrtle Beach has to a truly neutral power and just about every group has, at some point or other, called him up in the middle of the night to patch up one of their boys.
   He's probably the only doctor of any kind who can claim to have performed major surgery on an ogre, and he's got a better understanding of supernatural physiology than any other mortal on the East Coast. He isn't an officially Accorded Neutral, but he's getting there whether he likes it or not – House Raith applied on his behalf just last year, citing him as a better candidate than Myra Dougall.
   Among other things, Muhammad is also married to a Russian woman named Olga who started out as White Court property. Nobody's quite sure what the story is there, but whatever they've got going on is the real deal.

[horvagab]

   IMHO I'm thinking that ANG would require not merely a sponsor .. but also the other local signatories to say Aye!  ANG should be outside the conflicts of the Accords, ie "we don't fight here"  A place where no one member has undue influence or pull, a place where agendas are not active (talked about, but not implemented).  Starting something there would likely bring reprisal from ALL the other members of the Accords, as it would/could be considered as a strike against the detente that the Accords create.  I don't think either of the Queens would be willing to use Marcone's favorite Italian Bistro as NG simply because its "his bistro", with all the people employed there answering to him.  The way I see it, any ANG should be a place that all agree is outside their petty (or not so petty) disagreements, and can not be targeted.

That's what I think as well. while Mab's agreement is necessary to make it official, the local forces should need to sponsor it as well, other wise it's meaningless. I mean, it's not hard to hire a few thugs and get an ANG burned down inf you're not interested, and there are ways to make it difficult to track them back to you.

[Bruce Coulson]

I would imagine if the other factions in an area don't support a particular site as being acceptable, Mab doesn't sign off on neutrality.

And by the same token, if a site is already effectively neutral grounds by general agreement, getting it Accorded is not very difficult.

In an area where no such site exists...well, it might seem nice for the ruling faction not to have any known refuge points.  Until they come under attack, and find that no one is very interested in meeting with them.  Not even potential 'allies'; too easy to grab hostages or take other actions (and then blame the 'enemy').  And you can't meet with the enemy, so there's no way to negotiate an end to the hostilities.  (I'd bet the Accords require such meetings to be on 'accepted neutral grounds'.)  So, you can't call in help, and you can't talk to the enemy.  Suddenly that decision to ban neutral grounds doesn't look so reasonably.

In the story mentioned, what if the nominated party decides to reject the 'honor' of becoming Neutral Grounds?  Can you force someone to be neutral under the Accords?

[LokiTM]

We have an interesting situation in my game. The ANG was set up by the current owner's father, who passed away a while back. The current owner is unaware of this and is not at all clued in to the supernatural community.

Should be interesting.

[tallgrrl]

Ooooh, very interesting Loki, and suitable for your name too! It really seems to me that someone would slip in and remove the sign, and possibly post some 'message' near the entrance... while the fae might like taking advantage of the 'trap' potential of it all, but that would be a big risk of involving human authorities which would be a big no no too.  Hmmmm

[Captain Indigo]

well, what year do the books actually take place in?  I think the date I saw was in the early 1970's...

Um, what? Do you mean that's how long Mac's has been there?

[tallgrrl]

either the date mac's opened or the date it was accorded neutral ground, not sure which