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For the OP for the Antitribu Mod LP, please follow this link. Case had always taken it for granted that the real bosses, the kingpins in a given industry, would be both more and less than people. . . . He'd always imagined it as a gradual and willing accommodation of the machine, the system, the parent organism. It was the root of street cool, too, the knowing posture that implied connection, invisible lines up to hidden levels of influence. — William Gibson, Neuromancer Please zip up your pants. My first let's play was of Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. I don't think it's very good, and I would certainly change how I did it if I LP'd the game again. You can tell it's an attempt by a novice, and things got better from a technical standpoint as the LP went along. The best thing about the LP was the community of goons that would comment on the LP with knowledge of the old world of darkness and how Redemption related to it. Contradicted it might be a better way of putting it. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is much better in that regard. Bloodlines, as it will be referred to from here on, is the second and only other video game set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe. Thankfully, it has no relation to Redemption outside of the Vampire: The Masquerade license. Bloodlines was released in 2004 to a warm reception, though it was absolutely wrought with bugs. A big reason for this was that it used an early version of Valve's source engine, and not all the resources Troika Games needed were available. You can read more about elsewhere from someone who knows more about it than me. The point is that Bloodlines, although buggy, is regarded to be a great game in terms atmosphere, story, character, and use of the Vampire: The Masquerade backdrop. Unfortunately, Troika disbanded soon after the release of Bloodlines because they couldn't find any work. This meant that there was a void to fill if any additional bugs were to be patched. It's almost 10 years later, and there have been numerous patches from someone known as WESP5 that not only fix bugs, but also restore cut content from the game. The most notable of this is an entire questline which includes its own unique areas. This is only included in the plus version of the patch, which we will be using (8.8 in parts 1-14, 8.9 in 15-29, 9.0 in 30-36, 9.1 in 37+). I should mention that this will be a screen shot lp. Bloodlines is a good game, even without these patches. Let me put it like this: we, as the protagonist, find ourselves unwillingly intertwined within the realm of vampire politics. All of the warring factions of Los Angeles are competing against the others, some for the power to assert their own autonomy, some for the resources that dominance over the others brings, some for reasons unknown. We are the wild card, essentially an agent who is free to sway the game in favor of whomever we chose. Though our path is relatively fixed, who we help or hurt along the way depends on our own choices. The story of Bloodlines can be summarized by this small phrase: we are caught in the machine. Like a gear in a gear train, we must turn with it, but unlike a gear in a gear train, we can change the effects of our turning. Lastly, a few things. First, do not expect me to follow a set schedule for updating the thread. I do not have as much free time as I did when I LP'd redemption, so know what you are getting into beforehand. Updates will come whenever they do, and if the LP has to momentarily take a back seat to more important engagements, it will. Keep spoilers in tags. I also plan on emphasizing the let's part of let's play, meaning that there will be a lot of thread participation. Following from this, let me begin the thread with a few choices for you to make... As of update 38, TheMcD has graciously taken over the LP. Contents Prologue I - Beginnings II - The Embrace III - Blood: Your New Heroin Santa Monica IV - Surf's Up V - Thinned Blood VI - Bloody Mess VII - A Bounty For the Hunter VIII - Sibling Rivalry IX - The Ghost Haunts at Midnight X - The Hunted Hunter XI - Bad Blood XII - By The Way XIII - An Explosive Beginning Downtown XIV - Deus Ex Machina XV - Traffik XVI - Realpolitik XVII - The Anarchs XVIII - Confessions XIX - Fun With Pestilence XX - A Plague For the Angels XXI - Elizabethan Rendezvous XXII - Necromantic XXIII - Occultish Personality XXIV - Calling Dr. Grout XXV - Caught in the Machine XXVI - Patron of the Ancient Arts XXVII - The Epic of the Ankaran Sarcophagus Hollywood XXVIII - A Dish Best Served Cold XXIX - Dead Ex XXX - Hunters Hunting XXXI - Snuff is Enough XXXII - Carnival of Death XXXIII - Judge, Jury, and Executioner XXXIV - Hot Stripper Assassin Action! XXXV - B-Rated Writer XXXVI - Gargoyle Removal Service XXXVII - A Night at the Library XXXVIII - Monarchy Now XXXIX - Krise XL - Verdammt Wir Leben Noch XLI - Out of the Dark XLII - S.C.A.N.D.A.L. Chinatown XLIII - Cyberlove XLIV - Hoch Wie Nie XLV - Die Königin von Eschnapur XLVI - Crime Time XLVII - Ecce Machina, Part I XLVIII - Ecce Machina, Part II Endgame XLIX - Les Nouveaux Riches L - We Live for the Night LI - Propaganda LII - Auf Der Flucht LIII - Egoist LIV - Untouchable LV - The Spirit Never Dies gatz fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Aug 8, 2015 |
# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:06 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 23:13 |
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MJ12 writes about events in the oWoD leading up to Bloodlines:MJ12 posted:Okay, approximately in this time (1999) in the World of Darkness, the Week of Nightmares was happening. The Week of Nightmares was this huge megacrossover event (like comic ones, and just like comic ones it wasn't terribly well thought out) involving vampires, mages, werewolves, and wraiths. Now, why do I say it wasn't well though out? citybeatnik writes about The Stoneman citybeatnik posted:Strap in kids - this is going to be a brief but wild ride. gatz fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Dec 5, 2013 |
# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:06 |
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Who are we? Bloodlines begins with a choice that almost no vampire actually gets to make (there are very few exceptions). Which clan to we belong to? To put this into perspective, it's a question equivalent to another question we get to answer in character creation: are we male or female? I'm speaking in the biological sense, not the social construct sense that Troika confuses with sex. What clan a vampire belongs to is determined by the clan of the vampire's sire. A human is turned vampire (made into a childe) by a process known as the embrace. We'll learn more about this in just a little bit. Know that a human does not get a choice as to who their sire is, since it's likely they didn't even know vampires existed before their own embrace. This is because of the Masquerade, how vampires blend into human society without their presence being known. The masquerade is not something that all vampires follow, nor it is something that vampires always did follow, but that's a discussion for another time. I ask three questions of you: to which clan do we belong to, what is our sex, and what are we called? To answer the first question, knowledge of which clans we can choose from is necessary. To answer the second question, know that it is more of a cosmetic choice than anything else. Certain encounters with certain characters can be a little different, and the seduction skill is infinitely more useful for someone playing as female than male, but it's more of a superficial choice than anything substantial. As for the third question, the name I select will be my favorite of the names suggested by the thread. It will not be decided by popular vote. Let's get to describing the clans. Note that is is not meant to be a comprehensive list of each clan's history, lore, backstory, etc. It's only meant to introduce them, to give the reader an idea of what they are about. The manual doesn't explain Clan Brujah very well, so let me quote the white wolf wiki: quote:Clan Brujah is largely composed of rebels, both with and without causes. Individualistic, outspoken and turbulent, Brujah hold social change near to their undead hearts, and the clan's ranks contain some of the most violent of the Camarilla Kindred. ... bloodlines' Manual posted:The Brujah are passionate idealists. At times, this passion can lead them to trouble since they tend to make their arguments with their fists and not words. Their rage means the Brujah start with a -2 to Frenzy checks, but they get a +1 to their Unarmed Feat. Each clan has different Disciplines, which are essentially special powers every vampire is granted by virtue of their condition. Note that each clan has separate bloodlines, which each have their own disciplines, but Bloodlines (the game) glosses over this. Every discipline has five levels, and each increasing level of Celerity just makes the increase in speed more dramatic. Another point of criticism for Bloodlines is that it oversimplifies disciplines. Celerity in the actual table top game has a multitude of different powers. There's no way that Bloodlines could take all of these into account, but, still, Troika didn't have to simplify it as much as they did. Each increasing level of potence increases the bonus to melee and unarmed attacks. Bloodlines' Manual posted:If any clan were close to the Beast, it would be the wildly nomadic Gangrel. Usually preferring to be loners, the Gangrel clan has recently severed its ties with the Camarilla. With their feral nature, the Gangrel are much more attuned to animals and have the ability to take on animal forms. Like the Brujah, members of Clan Gangrel receive a –1 to Frenzy checks. When Frenzied, the Gangrel receive a +5 to strength on top of the regular +5 that all vampires receive as well as +5 bonuses to Wits and Stamina. Animalism has different effects at each level: Each level of fortitude increases the amount of damage that can be soaked. bloodlines' Manual posted:Insane by nature, the Malkavians see the world in a different light than anyone else. This “insight” allows Malkavians to see the true intentions of others. However, it also means they have a much more difficult time communicating with others on occasion. The nature of the Malkavians gives them a +2 bonus to the Inspection Feat. I won't be spending much time on the Malkavians since I will not be accepting votes for playing as a malkavian. This is due to conversations not making any sense if you play as a malkavian. All normal dialogue options are replaced with nonsensical, arbitrary responses that make the game hard to follow unless you already know what's going on. bloodlines' manual posted:Hideous and disgusting, the Nosferatu are cursed with a grotesque form. Forced into the shadows of the night, the Nosferatu have learned to adapt and hide from society. Due to their hideous nature, the Nosferatu start with an Appearance of zero and their Seduction Feat can never be any higher than zero. Relying on rats for blood, the Nosferatu get 3 blood points when feeding on them. The Nosferatu are the same as the Malkavians in the respect that they are more suited for a gimmick run of the game. You have to avoid being in the near vicinity of a human or else you get a)attention drawn to you or b)a masquerade violation if multiple people see you at the same time. Conversations, when playing as a Nosferatu, usually open with the NPC noting how disgusting you look and then the conversation continues as it would with any other clan. I will not be accepting votes for playing as a nosferatu. bloodlines' manual posted:The Toreador envision themselves as artists and visionaries. They seek the best of refinements, believe in being on the cutting edge and wearing haute couture. With their close ties to human society, the Toreador can buy humanity at half the cost. Additionally, the Toreador gain or lose double the amount of humanity when committing acts that benefit or harm human society. See the above clans for descriptions of Celerity and Presence. Each increase in Auspex increases a)the bonus to Wits b)the ponus to Perception (beginning at 1 point at level 2) c)the distance in which auras are revealed d)the duration of the effects. bloodlines' manual posted:The least trusted of the Camarilla clans, the Tremere are blood sorcerers. Using blood magic, or Thaumaturgy, the Tremere guard their secrets quite religiously and do not take outsiders into their confidence. Relying on their blood magic, the Tremere can only have a maximum of 4 for their physical attributes. Would you believe me if I told you that Clan Tremere is an artificial clan? What I mean is that the Tremere were made vampires by a magic ritual. Allow me to quote the white wolf wiki again. quote:The Tremere began as House Tremere, Mages of the Order of Hermes named for their leader and founder, Tremere. At the end of the first millennia, the members of House Tremere realized the Hermitic arts were failing and found its immortality potions no longer working. Facing the possibility of losing everything, Tremere ordered research into alternate methods of sustaining their lives. House Tremere undertook numerous experiments, but it was Goratrix who devised a solution in his investigation of vampires. See Clan Toreador for an explanation of Auspex. Unfortunately, the Tremere don't get very many options to use Dominate in conversation. Thaumaturgy is ridiculously powerful, and the only thing that offsets it is its high blood cost. The bloodlines' manual does a poor job at explaining the Ventrue. To again quote the white wolf wiki: quote:Clan Ventrue has long been one of the proudest lines of vampires, and its members work hard to maintain a reputation for honor, genteel behavior, and leadership. A sense of noblesse oblige has ever pervaded the clan, accompanied by the genuine belief that the Ventrue know what's best for everyone. Considering themselves the oldest Clan, it's no surprise they see themselves as the enforcers of tradition and the rightful leaders of vampire society. Unsurprisingly, they've long been chosen from the ranks of nobility and privilege, traditionally those roles have included kings, knights, and merchant princes; in more modern years, businessmen and lawyers and government leaders have filled the void. Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, and Presence See Clan Tremere for Dominate, Clan Gangrel for Fortitude, and clan Brujah for Presence. The Ventrue get the most opportunity to use Dominate during conversations. So, let me recap. Three votes are to be cast. 1. Which clan do we belong to? 2. What is our sex? 3. What is our name? The first two questions will be decided by popular vote. The last question will be selected by me from the thread's options. gatz fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Feb 17, 2014 |
# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:07 |
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Gangrel looks interesting, and female. Don't care about the name.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:13 |
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A female Ventrue. I'll come up with a name later.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:18 |
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As usual, I'll be riding Gatz's coattails for this LP. In the Redemption thread, you might have seen a lot of posts from me in the form of walls of text. That's because I am a HUGE WoD fanboy and read a crapton about it. Cainite lore is specialty, so I'll be filling in some of the blanks where the game tends to fall short. If you got questions, odds are good that I got answers.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:19 |
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A female Ventrue named Melissa. Will there be any bonus updates showing Malkavian conversations?
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:21 |
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ArchWizard posted:Will there be any bonus updates showing Malkavian conversations? Possibly, yes. Showing off certain things like the TV news would be nice.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:27 |
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ArchWizard posted:A female Ventrue named Melissa. I'm okay with this as long as you're Ventrue. I remember playing as Christof Trustfundsman the Vampire College Republican and it was goddamn hilarious to do when I went through this game. Ventrue for life, yo.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:42 |
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Female Gangrel named Molly. I was going to go with Brujah, but they're actually kinda bland in this game: their skills aren't that interesting outside of damage capability and I don't remember them having any cool side bits, like the Tremere. It's a shame, really.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 01:55 |
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This game kicks so much rear end. I love that Zach de la Rocha Gangrel bastard, but I never actually played as him because boys are icky. As such, I vote for a Male Gangrel, and the name doesn't particularly matter so long as it sounds as if it could belong to that friend of yours who smokes so much pot, and doesn't do anything else with his time, at all. Martian Dave. There we go. I'd also love to see a Malkavian and Nosferatu playthrough at some point. I did try both, and did... things... that screwed up the game, forever. Also, Malks have the BEST fashion sense, and I dare you to call them on it.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 02:00 |
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ArchWizard posted:A female Ventrue named Melissa. Let's go with that. Pretty sure I've played through the game as every bloodline except for Ventrue, so I think it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 03:13 |
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ArchWizard posted:A female Ventrue named Melissa. The one time I played through this I went Brujah, because . But they're really kind of boring in this.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 03:27 |
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WhiskeyWhiskers posted:The one time I played through this I went Brujah, because . But they're really kind of boring in this. I'll talk about the anarchs when the time comes. The LP is being written by someone who identifies as an anarchist, so I'll try to make the necessary comparisons/criticisms of the anarchs to actual anarchist theory.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 03:31 |
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Female Venture. No kidding on the Malks being a horrid choice for a first play-through. Gave up half-way through because nothing made much sense, though I'll admit it was amusing as all hell.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 03:46 |
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Male Gangrel because hulking out owns and Animalism is surprisingly powerful.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 04:03 |
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Name him (if it's a him) Bugsy.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 04:07 |
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Yeesssss. Sebastian LaCroix is one of my favourite voice performances, and one of my favourite characters, in all of videogames. He's such a total shithead. This will be awesome. Voting for Male Tremere. That good blood magic.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 04:10 |
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HopperUK posted:Yeesssss. Sebastian LaCroix is one of my favourite voice performances, and one of my favourite characters, in all of videogames. He's such a total shithead. This will be awesome. That reminds me: I will try to do something similar to what Lt. Danger did in his LP of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its fantastic expansion when he wanted to show off the voice acting: either link to an mp3 or movie containing the voice acting of a major character, but then rely on transcription for the most part.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 04:15 |
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gatz posted:That reminds me: I will try to do something similar to what Lt. Danger did in his LP of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its fantastic expansion when he wanted to show off the voice acting: either link to an mp3 or movie containing the voice acting of a major character, but then rely on transcription for the most part. Please do, there's some nice voicework in this game, along with some amusingly cheesey deliveries by some characters. Female Gangrel, by the way.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 04:36 |
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ArchWizard posted:A female Ventrue named Melissa. This because this was the next run I had planned before my computer imploded. I still blame my Malkavian run for that. Malkav be damned, though, it was hilarious some of the poo poo that happened… I swear my Malk was self aware and loving with me. [Also, I think we should try to be LaCroix's best friend, partly because there's already one Anarch-lover playthrough in the archives and I'd be more interested in seeing something different, and partly because it seems fitting for a Ventrue to side with the biggest game in town, especially one similarly inclined. GrimRevenant fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Nov 11, 2013 |
# ? Nov 11, 2013 05:11 |
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gatz posted:Keep spoilers in tags. Could you spoiler tag that last paragraph, please? gatz fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Nov 11, 2013 |
# ? Nov 11, 2013 05:14 |
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Let's be a female Gangrel named Lady GanGan
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 05:23 |
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I'm gonna go for Female Gangrel. The Ventrue lady looks attractive, but I think I'd like to see how the beasty clan negotiates politics.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 05:26 |
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gatz posted:Could you spoiler tag that last paragraph, please? Fixed. My mistake. Sorry!
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 06:30 |
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Look at all these goons not voting for Malkavian Then again, thats such a whole different game than the first play through that it deserves it's own when you already know the plot.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 07:44 |
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A Tartan Tory posted:Look at all these goons not voting for Malkavian gatz posted:I will not be accepting votes for playing as a malkavian.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 07:51 |
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GrimRevenant posted:I'm glad I wasn't the only one to miss something obvious. Yeah I really was wondering why people weren't picking what was easily the most fun playthrough! Teach me to read LP threads at 6am.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 08:08 |
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What? No votes for Tremere? It's almost like you don't want to boil people's blood inside their bodies. Voting for a Male Tremere named Sebastian.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 08:12 |
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Let's go with a male Gangrel. Call him whatever you feel like but make sure to hulk out as often as possible.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 08:32 |
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Another vote for female Ventrue, name can be whatever others come up with.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 08:41 |
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Stacy the Female Tremere, a neutral-good bloody barf witch
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 09:06 |
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TehGherkin posted:What? No votes for Tremere? It's almost like you don't want to boil people's blood inside their bodies. The previous full LP of this game had a male tremere, so I'm voting for a Female Ventrue. Highest voted name is fine with me.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 09:17 |
A male Ventrue named Fulcher.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 10:42 |
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Good luck with this, Gatz, I think we all know the history around people here trying to LP this game. It's stopped at least five people now. Also:Lotish posted:I'm gonna go for Female Gangrel. The Ventrue lady looks attractive, but I think I'd like to see how the beasty clan negotiates politics.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 11:44 |
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Bloodlines is very much a product of the Revised-era oWoD, so outside of the Malkavians and Nosferatu the clan choice doesn't change as much story-wise as you might think. A Ventrue can be a raging anarchist, a Gangrel can play with politics, a Toreador can be a violent brute, and so on. Early VtM had a bad case of stereotypes, where if you knew a character's clan you pretty much knew what to expect from them, and later editions went out of their way to burn that to the ground, to the extent that the vast majority of example characters in 2nd Edition clanbooks were pretty much antithetical to the clan stereotypes. As for my vote, Female Gangrel. even though they technically left the Camarilla in '99
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 13:54 |
This should be a lot of fun. Voting for a female Gangrel for entirely selfish reasons (already ran through the game as a Ventrue, dreaming about one day doing a narrative LP as a Ventrue).
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 14:47 |
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Female Ventrue named Natasha just because. I wonder how long it will take me to cave in and reinstall this game..
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 16:21 |
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Muraena posted:Female Ventrue named Natasha just because. You uninstalled it? I keep it on my PC at all times. Same with Deus Ex.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 16:27 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 23:13 |
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Female Ventrue.
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# ? Nov 11, 2013 17:16 |