>2) Creating a system that encourages positive behavior from
>the playerbase, without creating something that can be
>exploited through means that negate the point of the system.
>So far, the only concrete way we've found in that sense has
>been putting more and more of the system back in the hands of
>Imms, which has its own issues of presence and perceived
>favoritism.

What if you were to create a nomination system, where every week/two weeks/months players could cast a vote for a character they thought was the all around best, and each winner received an amount of EPs. Limit the voting to characters above an arbitrary level or hour mark, with another check for activity (no maintaining five sockpuppets for the voting). Would need some imm oversight for repeat IPs. Same character can't win within some arbitrary number of votes.

Maybe go a step further and force each character to vote for a member of another/opposing cabal. The abusive powergaming move would be to vote for either the strongest member of the enemy a diametrically opposed cabal (mage-light Outlanders voting en masse for a Rager or Imperials voting for an evil Tribunal), or just organizing support for the weakest, most useless member of your enemy with the expectation they won't be worth much more with a bonus edge.

Characters in weaker/smaller cabals have more opportunities to win the vote. There's a likely increased downside to uncaballed characters, but they already have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Taking some of it out of the imms' hands would help with the perception of presence and favoritism. Role contests are already fairly regular with some decent prizes being handed out. Giving players an equivalent, judging by all aspects of a character's play, wouldn't be wildly absurd, and awards of EPs are relatively minor compared to some role contests rewards.

I'm just spitballing. Disregard at your leisure.