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Kind of interesting on how Old Mage dovetails nicely with how Demon works--where the "fallen" angels would literally gain power and abilities off of the collective belief of the populace who had Faith in them. But we're waaay off the reservation for Bloodlines.
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Dec 9, 2013 01:49
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OAquinas posted:Kind of interesting on how Old Mage dovetails nicely with how Demon works--where the "fallen" angels would literally gain power and abilities off of the collective belief of the populace who had Faith in them. Long story short, you don't need to know a drat thing about mages to appreciate Bloodlines. A little Werewolf lore can help (specifically, about the different breeds), but that's about all the stuff that isn't about vampires that is in any way relevant.
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Dec 9, 2013 01:51
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1) People love this drat game, and they want more of it. This is evident in both the continued discussion this game generates, the fact that people play this game over and over again, and the fact that Bloodlines has a vibrant mod scene. Think about that last part: Bloodlines is based on a lovely alpha build of the source engine that refuses to cooperate with modders yet people have found ingenious workarounds to create new areas/add new clans and disciplines into the game. The results are janky and amateurish yet there is a dedicated community around it. 2) Every time bloodlines crops up, lorechat invevitably follows. See the past few pages of this thread. There is a lot to this franchise, some of it wonderfully evocative, some of it goofy as poo poo, and all of it fun. It can't possibly be fit into any one game. 3) WoD is still the second or third most popular PNPRPG franchise after DnD and its derivatives. 1+2+3 has me thinking. You guys remember Neverwinter Nights? The main campaigns were meh; the games real draw was the powerful and easy to use custom campaign creator that came with it. A huge, vibrant module-making community sprang up around it. It produced some drat amazing content.. WoD needs, nay deserves, a Neverwinter Nights. I really believe it would produce some amazing stuff.* *Yeah yeah yeah and some horrifying stuff too but we can just ignore those "gently caress your vampire harem campaigns" ok? insanityv2 fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Dec 9, 2013 |
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Dec 9, 2013 02:50
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Gantolandon posted:A paradigm is the mage's way of manipulating reality and is based on his belief how does the magic works. To throw a fireball, a Hermetic mage could speak the words of power, using a brass scepter symbolizing his power over the element of fire. A Dreamspeaker would communicate with the spirit of fire, convincing him to lend him a bit of his power, Werewolf style. A Son of Ether could use some pseudoscience to come up with a device that would make a spherical forcefield that makes nitrogen inside flammable. A Virtual Adept would not throw a fireball because this is stupid, but would hack the universe to raise the temperature near the target instead... Etherites tend to use these to rob banks because the IGNORANT BAD-THINKERS WHO CONTROL ALL OF THE RESEARCH GRANTS REFUSE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX AND ENTERTAIN THE NOTION OF A SELF-REPLICATING FUSION REACTION POWERED BY HAMSTERS I'LL SHOW THOSE FOOLS I'LL SHOW THEM ALL!
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Dec 9, 2013 03:25
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citybeatnik posted:Hilariously enough, as long as the Etherite laser-gun is convoluted enough it's actually coincidental. Because modern people are idiots, if you roll up in a car with the entire back-seat converted in to something with lots of flashing lights and dials people are going to believe that it can shoot death beams. This reminds me of a bit from Genius: The Transgression which is a really well written supplement for the NWoD that involves Geniuses. Mad Scientists, that sort of poo poo. Its pretty cool, check it out: quote:The Resources Merit: I think its pretty humorous.
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Dec 9, 2013 05:07
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Whats the deal with the WoD books using female pronouns?
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Dec 9, 2013 05:45
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As far as I know it's the same reason Magic: The Gathering devs often use she to refer to the player in their articles: to try not to alienate 50% of their possible player base.
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Dec 9, 2013 05:52
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The gulf between possible and actual player base could not be farther apart. Its just a weird move instead of using gender neutral stuff.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:00
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A Curvy Goonette posted:The gulf between possible and actual player base could not be farther apart. While this is true, it's hard to say that tabletop games could do with less attempts to not be utterly toxic to females.  It's better than nothing I guess.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:07
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A Curvy Goonette posted:The gulf between possible and actual player base could not be farther apart. The English gender-neutral noun is not permissible when speaking about human beings, "they" is grammatically incorrect when referring to singular individuals, "he or she," "he/she," and "s/he" are unwieldy and use up valuable page space, and using "he" alone for hypothetical individuals is sexist. The best compromise I've seen is to trade off between "he" and "she" between book sections.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:09
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I'm pretty sure that the grammatically correct way is to use the writer's gender, so maybe there's a woman writing these things.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:33
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Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 also used feminine pronouns. I'm not sure about 3.0 or 4th edition.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:49
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If memory serves Unknown Armies (which is basically Mage if all the mages were insane hobos) alternates gender every chapter.insanityv2 posted:WoD needs, nay deserves, a Neverwinter Nights. I really believe it would produce some amazing stuff. CCP, the guys that make Eve Online, bought out White Wolf and are making a oWoD MMO, with the initial focus to be on VtM. I'm cautiously optimistic about it. citybeatnik posted:Because modern people are idiots, if you roll up in a car with the entire back-seat converted in to something with lots of flashing lights and dials people are going to believe that it can shoot death beams. What I'm hearing here is that Ghostbusters is a plausible MtA campaign.
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Dec 9, 2013 08:42
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Tehan posted:What I'm hearing here is that Ghostbusters is a plausible MtA campaign. It's a great Technocracy campaign. The sinister mage cabal has been riling up New York and convincing the populace that ghosts are a real thing with small scale manifestations and natural hysteria, so the local amalgam turns their own tactics against them with "cutting edge ghost busting technology". It was the NWO guy who decided to make few bucks off the headache and stay in the black.
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Dec 9, 2013 09:33
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A Curvy Goonette posted:The gulf between possible and actual player base could not be farther apart.
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Dec 9, 2013 11:25
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CrazySalamander posted:As far as I know it's the same reason Magic: The Gathering devs often use she to refer to the player in their articles: to try not to alienate 50% of their possible player base. Articles by the MtG devs about how they'd love it if more women played the game and what can be done to get girls to play and all that are hilarious given that so much of the marketing and promotional material basically makes it look like Tits: the Boobening and the most visible elements of the player base are just the worst of the shut-in nerd Nice Guy stereotype. Bobbin Threadbare posted:The English gender-neutral noun is not permissible when speaking about human beings, "they" is grammatically incorrect when referring to singular individuals, "he or she," "he/she," and "s/he" are unwieldy and use up valuable page space, and using "he" alone for hypothetical individuals is sexist. The best compromise I've seen is to trade off between "he" and "she" between book sections. Using "they" is totally fine in most situations, as long as you write in such a way as to make it clear that you're talking about an individual. I prefer "s/he", though you still use "them" and "their" rather than "him/her" and "his/hers".
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Dec 9, 2013 13:00
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Tiggum posted:Using "they" is totally fine in most situations, as long as you write in such a way as to make it clear that you're talking about an individual. I prefer "s/he", though you still use "them" and "their" rather than "him/her" and "his/hers". It's still not a completely accepted construction, particularly in formal writing (such as a rulebook). And if you're going to use the combined gender subject pronoun, why would you switch to the singular plural for the object and possessive pronouns? You should at least be consistent with your choices.
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Dec 9, 2013 16:39
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Pierzak posted:Didn't they use "she" for the player and "he" for the Storyteller to differentiate them as well as "be unsexist"? Now, allow me to pose a question: why on earth does it matter that they picked the feminine pronoun?
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Dec 9, 2013 17:22
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citybeatnik posted:Now, allow me to pose a question: why on earth does it matter that they picked the feminine pronoun? Well, that and it's assumed that most Tabletop RP players are, y'know, nerdy guys who can't get a girl to play if they made a blood sacrifice to Khorne.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:48
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I have to say, as a female, I am happy that they at least made the effort. I was happily surprised by their choice o pronouns.
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Dec 9, 2013 20:39
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insanityv2 posted:WoD needs, nay deserves, a Neverwinter Nights. I really believe it would produce some amazing stuff.* Do something like Shadowrun Returns, where the rules are put into an engine designed to be as moddable as possible with a thorough set of GM tools. I'd play it, even if the pack-in campaign is flimsy.
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Dec 9, 2013 20:49
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Thesaya posted:I have to say, as a female, I am happy that they at least made the effort. I was happily surprised by their choice o pronouns. I once read a bit of a Werewolf sourcebook. There was a reference to how a police NPC could keep calm when confronting the supernatural because "she might have served in Vietnam".
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Dec 9, 2013 20:58
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Kopijeger posted:I once read a bit of a Werewolf sourcebook. There was a reference to how a police NPC could keep calm when confronting the supernatural because "she might have served in Vietnam". This is WoD. Of course there is an absurd side to it.
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Dec 9, 2013 21:13
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Kopijeger posted:I once read a bit of a Werewolf sourcebook. There was a reference to how a police NPC could keep calm when confronting the supernatural because "she might have served in Vietnam". Someone's never seen Full Metal Jacket. Of course, this being White Wolf, a middle-aged Vietnamese lady has one chance in three to be a Nagah kinfolk or some poo poo.
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Dec 9, 2013 21:26
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Tiggum posted:Articles by the MtG devs about how they'd love it if more women played the game and what can be done to get girls to play and all that are hilarious given that so much of the marketing and promotional material basically makes it look like Tits: the Boobening and the most visible elements of the player base are just the worst of the shut-in nerd Nice Guy stereotype. Okay, point to you. I still remember when my wife came to visit (and drop off cookies  )during FNM one time before we moved. This one poor kid was literally terrified of her! I hope he got help at some point, because being scared of 50% of people in the world has got to suck. To be fair to the devs though, they do at least make it a point not to do the damsel thing- they have a large amount of text in their art direction devoted to hammering that point home. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear that the Champion in Theros lore was female, a nice modern twist reminding us that it is Greek inspired, not just straight Greco-Roman. As far as the promotional stuff, well, their marketing department does have to deal with the fact that the target market demographic is 12 yo boys though, and some "Assets" help more than others. (Chain mail bikinis still annoy me though(Pink hair anime Chandra  !!!). But perhaps I'm a hypocrite for enjoying sending my Nord running through the wilderness casting fireballs at innocent bears while wearing only boxers)On Topic: I had always thought (perhaps erroneously) that vampire stuff, especially the stuff suited for LARPing tended to have a more balanced player base. Is this incorrect?
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Dec 9, 2013 22:16
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CrazySalamander posted:On Topic: I had always thought (perhaps erroneously) that vampire stuff, especially the stuff suited for LARPing tended to have a more balanced player base. Is this incorrect?
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Dec 9, 2013 22:29
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So uh, finals are this week and the next. I'm busy writing papers and studying for tests and such. I might be able to sneak an update in here and there. We'll see. Don't be alarmed if nothing comes, as updates will return to normal afterwords.
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Dec 10, 2013 00:59
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CrazySalamander posted:
Well, it was true for my LARP group, it was pretty much 50-50.
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Dec 10, 2013 01:21
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From purely anecdotal evidence, VtM and especially VtM LARPing had a much more balanced gender ratio than regular tabletop roleplaying. I entered the VtM scene from the tabletop side of things, so this is just spitballing on my part, but maybe it was due to VtM recruiting from the goth scene?
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Dec 10, 2013 07:46
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I was actually about to make the same (anecdotal) observation. VtM tends to have more lady players in general and VLARP in particular has always had a 50/50 distribution. Unlike some other systems, VtM levels the playing field. Who cares about whether or not someone is a big muscled dude or a little 110lb girl, the power of the blood is the only thing that matters. Girls that wouldn't have touched D&D (or its players!) with a 10 foot pole were all over the idea of getting to dress up in cool costumes and pretending to be a sexy vampire that could hold her own against all comers.
Casca fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 16:33
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Most of the Ann Rice fans I know are female and VTM probably recruited heavily from that fan base. Most of the Tolkien, T. Brooks, R. Jordan fans I know are male so. All anecdotal but there you go.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:25
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insanityv2 posted:Most of the Ann Rice fans I know are female and VTM probably recruited heavily from that fan base. I enjoy all of those authors personally. And while I like VtM more, I would never turn down a DnD session. Maybe me and my friends are just a weird offshoot of female super nerds... 
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Dec 10, 2013 21:01
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Well I did say most. On a semi-related note I was sort of specifically talking about the 90s there. I thnk fantasy has, since 2000, started to appeal to more women -- Game of Thrones for example has a lot of female fans. I have theories about this (e.g. there was some really sexist poo poo in the 90s but there's been a movement to tone that down and have strong female characters too and I think its working) but nothing confirmed.
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Dec 10, 2013 21:07
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Also note that in the '90s, the popular image of DnD was still very much neckbeards doing hack-and-slash dungeon crawls. Vampire was marketed as a "deep", gothy/cyberpunk alternative to that where politicking and social machinations were explicitly a big part of the game--along with the tortured superbadass angle. Both types of games appeal to women, of course (I have known plenty of women who love hack-and-slash and plenty of men who reveled in political maneuvering in games), but Vampire kind of paved the way for opening up the industry to focusing significantly on social aspects of the game. That appeals to many women (and many men!) more than straight beat-'em-ups do. That's not to say that that's the way all games go, obviously--I've played in some drat fun Vampire games that had a pretty significant combat/undead superhero focus (the Sabbat one was the best; I still love my batshit Nosferatu antitribu). Admittedly, they also had a fair bit of politicking, but that was mostly a function of my gaming group's interests. It's in no way inherent, but it's presented as a major option. My playthrough in VtM:B was with a female Ventrue, but I'm still enjoying seeing your take on it, gatz. I have to say, the most terrifying part of that game for me was the sewers, because I was an idiot and somehow failed to notice that there is an exit you can take before going to the Nosferatu base. I was stuck with next to no blood for the majority of the time, since I couldn't eat the rats, so it made every single fight a lot tougher. It became a lot more survival-horror like that.
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Dec 11, 2013 00:04
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Stroop There It Is posted:My playthrough in VtM:B was with a female Ventrue, but I'm still enjoying seeing your take on it, gatz. I have to say, the most terrifying part of that game for me was the sewers, because I was an idiot and somehow failed to notice that there is an exit you can take before going to the Nosferatu base. I was stuck with next to no blood for the majority of the time, since I couldn't eat the rats, so it made every single fight a lot tougher. It became a lot more survival-horror like that. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I never had trouble with the sewers. I've always had points invested in melee, and that just makes the sewers more of a slog than anything challenging.
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Dec 11, 2013 01:12
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gatz posted:Maybe I'm an outlier, but I never had trouble with the sewers. I've always had points invested in melee, and that just makes the sewers more of a slog than anything challenging. I think it is the first situation that comes up that you cannot use social skills to get through, so if you were playing a social game it can feel like a wall
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Dec 11, 2013 03:19
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e: nvm
insanityv2 fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Dec 11, 2013 |
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Dec 11, 2013 03:50
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Amnistar posted:I think it is the first situation that comes up that you cannot use social skills to get through, so if you were playing a social game it can feel like a wall e: typos Stroop There It Is fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Dec 11, 2013 |
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Dec 11, 2013 04:33
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Okay, Illuminate me, please. What is the power difference between Vampires and Werewolves? I know that at the very least, a single Werewolf is vastly stronger than your average 13 gen vamp. At what gen can a vamp match a werewolf? And at what gen can the vamp take on the werewolf easily?
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Dec 13, 2013 03:24
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Siegkrow posted:Okay, Illuminate me, please. What is the power difference between Vampires and Werewolves? I know that at the very least, a single Werewolf is vastly stronger than your average 13 gen vamp. It's not really that simple. It really depends on their kit, what Disciplines they have. Dominate and Presence are probably the best way to stop a werewolf but I'm pretty sure if they death rage none of that will work and you're stone cold hosed. Some of the Werewolf Gifts are really out of a Vampires league so my inclination is to say that a vampire is always at a disadvantage to an equal exp value wolf. Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Dec 13, 2013 |
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Dec 13, 2013 03:45
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