Just because there isn't a rule permitting it doesn't mean it is forbidden. The ARB and the ARC should not have to detail every specific situation that is allowed.
Alavatar said:
After a character comes into game for the first time players and Plot can do whatever they want.
I would argue that there's no rule explicitly supporting this, and that new and old characters should be treated the same in this regard.
To me, the circumstance that Evan is describing is morally equivalent to any exchanges made during downtime. The rulebook doesn't explicitly allow interactions during downtime to affect game events. We usually allow these kinds of things, because it's easier to do so than to try to police it, and a strict adherence doesn't add to the game. I'll give a couple of examples.
Prashka is very well traveled and has met a character named Bob the Blacksmith on the east coast, a well-known production machine. Some time later, she decides that she needs a massive quantity of Enslavement Antidotes to help keep her family safe. She PMs Bob the Blacksmith on the national boards, and requests a shipment. They're not going to be attending the same event for a while, but Bob has an event coming up where he can make all those enslavement antidotes. They agree on a price, and (since they trust each other OOG), mail each other the requisite coin/tags. In-game, they can say they met up through the mists at some point to make the exchange. One interpretation of the rules is that that exchange could not have been made, since at no point did they actually meet IG.
Kiarra and Garrick are both in line for pre-game logistics. Garrick's spell book is still in his luggage, so to avoid having to run back and dig it out, he asks Kiarra to borrow hers. Since he's a member of the Earth Guild, and Kiarra's a nice person, she agrees. They are both allowed to memorize off that spell book, despite not having made this exchange in an IG way.
Mixer is the quartermaster for the Company of the Broken Chain, so he takes all group item tags home with him. He's not going to be able to attend the next game day, though, so the player of the leader of the group stops by Mixer's player's house and picks up some tags before going to the game day. The Black then brings in items for Company members to use, despite having never received them from Mixer IG. The IG explanation is that he picked them up from his house on the way out. One rules interpretation is that the Company is just hosed out of their group stores for that event.
Anyway, on to your actual concerns:
Alavatar said:
a) Getting in trouble because "that's the way we have always done it" vs. "that's not how it is done on the East Coast and the East Coast is always right". I don't want those arguments rearing their ugly heads again.
That's certainly an undesirable outcome, but if you look at the IG national boards, half of the posts are people making exchanges between games, some of whom explicitly indicate that they are willing to mail coin. If this kind of exchange is happening on the national board, I don't think we'll run into EC/WC issues. New characters coming into game with more possessions than their normal starting amount seems like they were given things before game starts, something that seems to be allowed for existing characters, and even before your first event, the character does exist in the database.
Alavatar said:
b) If it is allowed and we don't get into trouble for it, what about handing off Magic Items? What about a character that has Spirit Linked items that is retired but his "friend" is around when he dies? What about someone purchasing a workshop for a character that technically doesn't exist, yet? What about a player getting gold from players and waits 4 years to come into play and how is that different from a player starting a secondary character and finds a pile of gold in his "new characters" chest when he plays the character the first time? Since there is no rule prohibiting it, allowing the above can lead to a slippery slope.
Long story short, I don't find any of your slippery slope examples compelling. There are rules prohibiting some of them, and others I don't have a problem with, but I'll address them individually. I don't have a problem handing off MIs before game, particularly since they could, under certain circumstances, gobbie ones that they could come into game yet. Willing MIs when you retire your character is explicitly forbidden (though I have seen it happen), and a chapter's retirement policy dictates what happens to those, so I don't see a Spirit Link transfer happening. I don't have a problem with having an initial workshop. I don't see a problem with sitting on gold for 4 years, but trade between alts is explicitly forbidden, even using other players as proxies.
Alavatar said:
c) If it is allowed and we don't get into trouble, then why not have Plot have an NPC that "happens to equip new adventurers before they come into game" and pull the PP from TP for those saps that come into game as an L20 character with just a longsword and a spell book? I mean, why would an L20 character really only have 12 copper to their name other than them being a recent fugitive, deserter, or slave of some sort? Or even an L10 character for that matter? I mean, allowing the above request is essentially Plot approving the background of the character saying he received money from PC Zeth. So, why not receive money from NPC Gary?
If a chapter's Plot team decides to do this, I don't have a problem with it from a national rules perspective, though I wouldn't want to do it for our chapter. We are doing something similar, though, by giving people gobbies for an approved background, which amounts to extra build.
Alavatar said:
Editted to add d) What about a new player with Merchant? His friends gave him all their stuff and want to have it all Merchant'd on Friday evening? (Note that if anyone asks I will tell them to wait until Saturday)
Allowing this doesn't seem game-breaking to me.
Anyway, if you don't want to allow that kind of thing for new characters in Alliance Seattle, I'm not going to hue and cry. It's just a matter of delaying a day before you can get the full effectiveness of your production-based character. However, I don't find your arguments as to why it shouldn't be allowed compelling.