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So long as character commentary is one thing and LP commentary is another, I'm cool with whatever.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 04:15 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:39 |
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Sword Hunter Gil posted:On topic though, since this isn't a WoD Megathread: Talk to Strauss before you go to the Last Round for the first time. Don't say anything that might remotely annoy him. The first time I played, I made the mistake of finishing the plague-bearer quest before I talked to Strauss for the first time. It was enough to screw me out of the Tremere apartment.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 04:19 |
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Personally I prefer the character dialog in italics. I have this game on Steam, but when I tried to play it, all the textures were very low-res, to the point that when I left Santa Monica, I couldn't actually read the map well enough to select Los Angeles. Is this sort of thing fixed in any patch that doesn't otherwise mess with the game?
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 05:48 |
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As long as commentary and dialog are different, I'm fine with whatever, but yes, italics are fine.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 06:14 |
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What's this "Avatar Storm" folks were talking about in relation to Mage on the last page? Seems important.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 06:17 |
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Vander posted:What's this "Avatar Storm" folks were talking about in relation to Mage on the last page? Seems important. Mages have a...companion spirit-soul buddy thing that follows their soul from life to life. Well, actually, everyone has one, but Mages are Awakened to theirs and that is what enables them to do Magick. It's called their Avatar. When mages are killed, the avatar is released to the spirit world (aka the Umbra) and floats around until your soul is reborn. Remember the vampire god thing that was killed by giant space mirrors and spirit nukes? Turns out the spirit realm reacts very poorly to multiple simultaneous detonation of massive spirit-based nukes. This caused a massive "storm" that takes loose souls caught in the open and basically shreds them into flying spirit shrapnel. So now its the spirit world equivalent of the Kessler Syndrome. Mages used to be able to flit back and forth between the spirit world and the real one with ease, enabling easy travel and access to paradox-free dimensions to do powerful stuff. With the Avatar Storm in place, however, mages who try to cross over have to endure a sandblasting of soul fragments that does aggravated damage. And the more powerful you are (the higher your Arete, or "level of ascension") the more damage you take because your Avatar is spiritually bigger or more sensitive or some such. This had the direct effect of taking all the Archmages and master Technocrats (their central "Control") who had become so powerful they basically lived in their own pocket dimensions and stranding them...they wouldn't be able to pass back into the real world and survive the trip through the storm. It essentially gutted the talent core of the magic world, and left the ones still on earth much more disorganized and aimless. OAquinas fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Feb 20, 2014 |
# ? Feb 20, 2014 06:38 |
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Important question, lives depend on it: the player character in Twitch Plays Pokemon, would it be considered to be a malkavian or a fishmalk?
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 14:59 |
double nine posted:Important question, lives depend on it: the player character in Twitch Plays Pokemon, would it be considered to be a malkavian or a fishmalk? While my knowledge is fairly limited because my capacity for retaining the flood of info coming from this thread is fairly limited as well, a fishmalk is basically somebody who plays a Malk who is random for the sake of being random because insanity is wacky! While there are some people giving commands that would fit that, most have a goal that makes sense from a certain angle, it's just that those goals are often contradictory. So describing him as a fishmalk would probably not fit.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 15:09 |
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Ephemeron posted:
While I would definitely recommend taking blood boil. I agree that it isn't as optimal but personally, the satisfaction of making someone's blood boil in their veins until they blow up and kill everyone nearby far outweighs the satisfaction from doing more efficient DPS.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 20:23 |
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double nine posted:Important question, lives depend on it: the player character in Twitch Plays Pokemon, would it be considered to be a malkavian or a fishmalk? TheMcD posted:While my knowledge is fairly limited because my capacity for retaining the flood of info coming from this thread is fairly limited as well, a fishmalk is basically somebody who plays a Malk who is random for the sake of being random because insanity is wacky! Yeah man, it's so much more than just a game. It's the beginnings of a revolution.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 20:42 |
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I have no idea what this is, but it's enough to make me want to start angrily yelling at clouds.
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# ? Feb 20, 2014 23:20 |
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citybeatnik posted:I have no idea what this is, but it's enough to make me want to start angrily yelling at clouds. Twitch Plays Pokemon. Idiots call it a social experiment. I call it a complete waste of time. All it is is just 5,000 people fighting over the controls of a single-player game via the twitch comment section. Surprise surprise when you find out that hardly anything productive can be done that way. There is no great insight into the human condition to be gained, no emotional impact, simply no point in watching or participating in it. Why this is popular is beyond me, but some people like it so much that they say: precision posted:This is proof that games are art. Which is one of the saddest things I've ever read. In other news, an update will be up later today. gatz fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Feb 21, 2014 |
# ? Feb 21, 2014 18:39 |
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OAquinas posted:It essentially gutted the talent core of the magic world, and left the ones still on earth much more disorganized and aimless. Inherently, Mage: the Ascension was supposed to be a system about plucky magical revolutionaries fighting the soul-crushing Technocracy on decaying streets of World of Darkness. With each expansion, this pretty much spiraled out of control. The mages were loving powerful (the fifth dot of Matter, for example, could let you create miniature black holes) and the world a bit small and limiting, so sooner or later pretty much everyone hosed off through the Gauntlet and tried to build their pocket kingdom in Umbra or Digital Web. Avatar Storm was made to remedy this problem. Aside of making travel through the Gauntlet dangerous, it also shook up the metaplot. Most powerful Tradition and Technocratic strongholds were either destroyed or cut off from their underlings, so both factions were effectively decapitated and forced to make a truce. The Digital Web crashed and restarted in a pretty bad state, which put the Virtual Adepts' quest for Reality 2.0 on hold. The changes gave the designers an opportunity to rework Traditions and Conventions a bit - for example Iteration-X has been changed from Winston Smith's nightmare into something a decent character could actually support. All these changes helped to make the setting more grounded. Personally, I think it was a bit too much - after Avatar Storm, there was pretty much no reason to go beyond the Gauntlet (unless you wanted to establish a Horizon Domain). Many interesting places were destroyed and the only things left to do there were glancing at their ruins. Besides, after getting too powerful, the player could lose or incapacitate his character with one roll of the dice. Even if you made a successful passage, it could get you so wounded you would be completely useless on the other side.
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# ? Feb 21, 2014 19:15 |
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We're doing what we came here to do. No deal. You will get nothing from me. Go tell that bitch she can pack up little club. Her name is coming off it. Get the hell out of here. (Let's go!) Go! Maybe you misheard me: call of the debt. NOW! Here we go. That gunshot probably alerted everyone on this floor. There's no boss fight, Boris is just another Russian mobster, and he falls like any other one too. Demi comes in, guns blazing, but we take care of him. And just as expected, everyone else is alerted. We take care of them with the fire axe and Fortitude. Back in Boris' office, we take his Glock 9 from the ground, and a $200 money-clip from the counter. Boris had the most advanced computer set up that we've seen. Now there's nothing left to do here, so we'll head back to Venus. But not before I point out that there's this unique looking cop in the lobby. Now we'll head back. Let's talk in your office. What? Ya, I can't hear you, let's talk in my office. Yeah yeah yeah. Is 'at Boris' blood? Guess we're partners then. If you only knew what I had to do over the years to keep this place open. Tell you what, partner, come in every few days and I'll give you your cut. Here's tonight's. Alright, now that we're in the club business, let's make some changes. You know, I actually had some suggestions for the club.... Really, I'd love to hear them, but I've got to go find a new DJ. Our old one's still spinning that pixie-wavematic eighties-redux electronica - it's so last Friday. Heaps of thanks, again. "Partners" huh. All it means is that we can come back and get some money, occasionally. It's a better deal than her former relationship with Boris, I suppose. With that finished, we're going to try to stop this plague. Our first stop is back at the Skyline apartments. We're here to see Paul Anderson, who Damsel told us is a ghoul. We also learned from the computer in the basement, that he spends some time upstairs with Hannah Glazer. His apartment is on the fifth floor, so that's where we're heading. The door was unlocked, but it looks like he's not home. Why would he leave the door unlocked? Oh. Predictably, there's a phone message to listen to: Hi, Paul? It's Hannah. Just callin' to see how you are. I hope I didn't give you what I've got. Ugh, I feel like crap. Actually, I need to ask you a favor. Could you pick me up some cold medicine at the store? I hate to bother you, but... I can't seem to get out of bed. The code on my door is 1203. Hey, listen, I, uh... had a really good time the other night. Maybe we could do it again sometime? Sorry... I'm rambling. Okay, bye. This must be related to the plague. Hannah must be sick with it. But does this mean that Paul caught it and died from it? Paul's a ghoul, which is supposed to mean he can't get sick. But Vic tells me that it's essentially a storyteller's fiat. And then there's the fact that we know that vampires are causing the plague, meaning that the difference a ghoul that carries the plague might die because it has life-processes that a vampire doesn't. I don't know, what do you think? Anyway, we know that our next stop is the 6th floor. If you're wondering, we have to take the elevator and use the entry code. The vents are locked. We get inside. Hannah must still be upstairs, as she said she couldn't get out of bed. Yes, there she is. I'm a friend of Paul's. He just wanted me to come and check up on you. I should say that here, we're limited to lying because our humanity score is too high to tell the truth. *cough cough* I don't really know. I - I've taken all kinds of medicine, but I can't seem to get rid of it. I - I feel like I've got a fever and a sore throat. *cough cough* I'm real weak... can't seem to get out of bed. What day is it? I - I can't remember. Hannah is a potential lead. She might be able to tell us where she contracted the plague, if that is what she's sick with. Sound pretty bad. Where did you get it? Well I think... I got sick from one of my... clients. *cough cough* I was feeling fine until I... I uh... I saw her a few days ago. Sure, sure, "Client". Who was this "client"? She was just a woman who called. She, uh... she found my ad in the newspaper. *cough cough* Usually only do business with referrals, you know, but she was offerin' a lot of money. But that doesn't tell us who she is or where to find her. What can you tell me about this woman? Speak of the devil. We found out that she's staying in the empire arms hotel last update: Part 18 posted:
Was there anything else strange about her? Anything at all? Yeah! I - I mean, I think so.... To tell you the truth, I don't really remember a whole lot about that night, you know. *cough cough cough* Everything's a little blurry, you know. I mean... I'm not usually, you know, into women, but I remember feeling so attracted to her. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. It sounds like she might be causing the plague. We've got our lead. Where did you meet her, Hannah? Where is Jezebel Locke? She had a room at the Empire Hotel. I can't remember the number. *cough* Hey, are you sure that Paul's okay? He's not sick, is he? Hannah is already in enough pain, there's no need to tell her that Paul died. Paul's just fine, Hannah. Don't worry about him. Good. He - He's a nice guy. I hope he calls me again sometime. I'm sure he will, Hannah. Well that's a little weird to say as she's still breathing... ...but as soon as the conversation ends she gives up the ghost. Poor Hannah. Forced by circumstance to sell her body for a living, she then caught the plague, accidentally spreading it to her lover which killed him, and then she died. If we would have pressed her about what kind of "client" she had, she would have revealed that she was ashamed of being a prostitute. A sad ending to a sad life. Oh well, let's steal the money from her safe. That'll make us feel better. In fact, let's just leave and never come back - we'll soon forget that Hannah ever existed. But before we go, let's read her diary that's in her closet. Appointment Book posted:This looks like a standard appointment book: Well, now we know that:
To the Empire Arms Hotel. We know that Jezebel Locke is staying in the Brooklyn Suite. What floor that's on is anyone's guess. What's more, we probably need the hotel key-card to get in. It might be feasable to just knock on the door, whichever door that is, and ask for her, since she's probably delighted to spread the plague, but let's play this safe. Which means talking to the receptionist. Is there a guest here named Jezebel Locke? Yes. Miss Locke is one of our more, umm, popular guests. Why do you ask? I need a key to her room. Hmm, well let's go with the option that we've chosen the least. [Intimidate] If you don't give me a key, I'm going to rip out your tongue. We still don't know where she is... ...but I have a feeling that it's on the only other floor we can go to and haven't. This must be it. Nice place. Maybe-- I take it you're Jezebel Locke? Look at her teeth - she's a vampire. We don't know for sure if she's spreading the plague, so we'll play along, using what Hannah told us, and try to get Jezebel to show her hand. If video games have taught me anything, it's that bad guys never keep their mouths shut about their evil plans. You are strangely attractive.... I had a high school english teacher who had that same hairstyle. It would look great on a lego person. Oh, come on, now... don't deny yourself the pleasure of Jezebel's talents. Just a few more steps and we can be enveloped by the sweet darkness, become slaves to the desires of our wasted flesh. I would, but I forgot my penicillin. That's the line we're forced to say. Oh, well not only are we correct in thinking she carries the plague, she's now revealing to us something called the Ninth Circle. Maybe she's coordinating with other vampires to spread this plague, all part of this 'Ninth Circle'. So I can end up dead like Hannah and her friends? Who better than prostitutes to carry the dark gift I bring? Ah, will they not share it with the rest of those who revel in the pleasures of the flesh? You're sick, pure and simple. Time to put you out of your misery. We're forced into fighting Jezebel, which means it's time for a boss fight. Watch Boss Fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abG5A-9FbFM Jezebel starts out by activating presence. Whatever, it doesn't do anything to us. Her hits cut like a knife, which I guess is appropriate. Still, just hit her until she goes down. I remember this fight being a lot harder, but here it was pretty easy. With Jezebel dead, we get a masquerade redemption... ...along with a point of experience. There's this book on the table, but we need a higher brawl skill to read it. Now, it turns out that there's nothing else to see in Jezebel's apartment. No more hints about this 'Ninth Circle', which leaves us with only one other avenue: go talk to the homeless people, like Damsel said. But first, we're going to go back to the Last Round. We can tell Skelter we solved the problem of Patty, and we can also give Damsel an update on the plague situation, including informing her about Paul's death. Off we go. I took care of the Patty problem. Good work. Man, ghouls ain't nothin' but trouble if you ask me. It's a weakness pure and simple. And that's that. We're not finished with Skelter, though. I've got a couple of questions. What's up with this Damsel chick? You mean college girl over there? Hmph. To be honest she reminds me of those miserable stateside protester fucks from when I was in 'Nam. But she's on the right side in this war. Don't let the hippy vibe fool ya. As if being against the Vietnam war is anything but the right position to take. I'm not going to pursue this tangent any further, but you can if you wish. I have another question. Tell me about Gehenna, again. I think I might have accidentally left this out of our last conversation with Skelter. Do you think it's something the Camarilla made up? Nah, the Camarilla denies any of that poo poo exists - vampire forefathers, doomsday prophecies - all just superstition in Cammyland. Then who believes it? Lots of people. The Sabbat believe in it. They go around tryin' to hunt down these sleeping ancients so's they can kill them before they rise up. That's the word anyway. Of course, most Sabbat packs I've seen couldn't find their car keys. What do you believe? And I thought I was paranoid. Later. Now to talk to Damsel. About Paul... he's dead... for a few days. It wasn't pretty. We told him to burn the blood and go to the hospital. Said he thought he'd get over it. Men are stubborn that way. Just proves the plaguebearer's gotta be found. The plaguebearer's dead. Right on, 'cept we dusted a second one over near the convention center. They're part of some doomsday cult, apparently. No telling how many there are, but it's open season on all these sick sons of bitches! This just confirms what we already knew. I'll start looking for the rest. Bye, Damsel. Yes we will, next time. gatz fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Feb 22, 2014 |
# ? Feb 22, 2014 06:48 |
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Ghouls are resistant to disease, but they're still alive, and their body needs to keep working to stay that way. If he was just trying to passively get better (and not "burning the blood" to force himself to heal) the apparently exceedingly high morbidity disease could have offed him before he realized how in over his head he was. Hannah was either less susceptible, or the panoply of medication she was taking helped her outlast the poor guy (though was ultimately insufficient). If the disease caused pulmonary issues like fluid in the lungs, once he realized he was in trouble it would have been too late--you can burn all the blood you like, but if your lungs are full of crap and you can't breathe you're going to die. Ghouls can be very resilient to injury, but oxygen is still very much a basic need. The disease being that bad also tracks with the CDC spacesuit presence in the city. If some unknown ailment that kills a high percentage of infected were to appear on US soil, that absolutely would ring all sorts of alarm bells. Of course, they'd probably be doing more than just hanging out on street corners like some sort of rubber fetish prostitutes, but eh.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 07:12 |
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I vaguely recall one of the preview/teaser videos released when Bloodlines was first being developed and previewed had Venus randomly flash her jubblies at you. Plague dogs are a real issue with Vampire, although one that's not really played up enough with the chats I've been on. Germ theory is a novelty to most ancillae and a complete mystery to Elders since they predate it. One good track to status for a neonate is to be able to set themself up as an adviser to a Prince about local kine health issues while keeping an eye out for unexpected spikes in bloodborn illnesses (a sign of poaching). The AIDS epidemic was handled about as well as you'd expect in the books - I believe the Prince of New Orleans is a carrier, which is complicated by the fact that he likes to feed from handsome young men. Then you have stuff like the unrevised Son of Ether book where one of the sample characters is working on a sexually transmitted cure for HIV/AIDS.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 08:17 |
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One of the funniest lines in the game, you can Dementate one of the Russian mobsters (can't remember if it's the bodyguard or the first one you have to tell off) to think he's a bear and his companion is a fish.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 08:27 |
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Gatz you are doing a great job and Im really enjoying this LP. On Skelter's Vietnam comment, I assume its from the view point of a returning soldier thats been spit on and called a baby killer and not necessarily a wider political view.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 09:06 |
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Didn't Hannah have a diary in her safe? I might be misremembering, but I'm sure there's something to read about how she and Paul got together.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 11:10 |
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gatz posted:
In the game, Presence should create an area-affect stat debuff around the caster. Maybe you didn't notice some of your attributes or rolls taking a hit?
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 15:49 |
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inflatablefish posted:Didn't Hannah have a diary in her safe? I might be misremembering, but I'm sure there's something to read about how she and Paul got together. It was in her closet. I edited it into the last update. LeJackal posted:In the game, Presence should create an area-affect stat debuff around the caster. Maybe you didn't notice some of your attributes or rolls taking a hit? I know what it's supposed to do, but I was never notified that my stats were taking a hit. Watch the video, you'll see.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 21:34 |
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gatz posted:I know what it's supposed to do, but I was never notified that my stats were taking a hit. Watch the video, you'll see. Huh, well that is what it is supposed to do when the player has it.
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# ? Feb 22, 2014 21:37 |
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Really enjoying this. Oh someone mentioned Nines not being someone you could trust per the Oracle. Well..... When it's time to make your choice about how to finally side with, remember that Nine's is on a couch asking you for help while trying to get himself back together from a million points of aggravated he took from going toe to toe with a certain monster.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 00:22 |
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anglachel posted:Really enjoying this. Oh someone mentioned Nines not being someone you could trust per the Oracle. Well..... Mercurio fits this too.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 00:39 |
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Even if you assume the worst of Nines in every single way he's still better than Lacroix. Strauss is a much better representative for the Camarilla (especially with that dreamy voice of his) - cultured, urbane, helpful, and loyal to his Clan, the Camarilla, and the Prince in that order. The political situation in vampire LA is a mess and it can't just be boiled down to Anarch freedom vs Camarilla tyranny, especially when you consider the Sabbat and Kuei-Jin making inroads.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 00:43 |
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Tehan posted:Even if you assume the worst of Nines in every single way he's still better than Lacroix. Well, the Tremere kinda tend to be the best of the Camarilla vampires at keeping a good perspective on the world. Something about having an actual existential threat in the form of the Tzimisce wanting little more in the world than to kill them helps them keep everything in perspective, I think.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 00:51 |
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gatz posted:The door was unlocked, but it looks like he's not home. Why would he leave the door unlocked? I made a brightened up version of this image as it's really hard to tell what you're looking at in the original.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 06:22 |
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Shugojin posted:Well, the Tremere kinda tend to be the best of the Camarilla vampires at keeping a good perspective on the world. Something about having an actual existential threat in the form of the Tzimisce wanting little more in the world than to kill them helps them keep everything in perspective, I think. Which is hilarious considering that they're the goddamn Hermetic (Mark Rein-Hagen ripped this poo poo off directly from the Golden Dawn) blood mages who spend their time trying to climb the pyramid of Vampire Amway.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 08:17 |
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Zeroisanumber posted:Which is hilarious considering that they're the goddamn Hermetic (Mark Rein-Hagen ripped this poo poo off directly from the Golden Dawn) blood mages who spend their time trying to climb the pyramid of Vampire Amway. Wasn't it ripped off from Ars Magica?
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 09:59 |
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Ars Magica once was a WoD thing and the Tremere were supposed to be the same group in both. Not sure which line came first though, but I'd bet it was Vampire.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 13:51 |
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Zeroisanumber posted:Which is hilarious considering that they're the goddamn Hermetic (Mark Rein-Hagen ripped this poo poo off directly from the Golden Dawn) blood mages who spend their time trying to climb the pyramid of Vampire Amway. Hey, it just so happens that they're the only ones who really indicate awareness of anything existing beyond trying to climb that pyramid. Even if that consists of "all Tzimisce will stop at nothing to eradicate us".
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 14:09 |
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NewMars posted:Ars Magica once was a WoD thing and the Tremere were supposed to be the same group in both. Not sure which line came first though, but I'd bet it was Vampire. Ars Magica came before Vampire (1st ed 1987, 2nd ed 1989).
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 14:18 |
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Man, after having read the Ars Magica wiki I'd easily pay through the nose for a decent CRPG representation of it.
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# ? Feb 23, 2014 16:34 |
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There was a post on the rpg codex forums about bloodlines effects mods that might interest some of you.ghostdog posted:[. . .] gatz fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Feb 24, 2014 |
# ? Feb 24, 2014 01:27 |
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I tried using SweetFX, but decided the game looked better originally. Same thing with ENB stuff for Skyrim. The most I'll do to a game is just increase AA or add Ambient Occlusion if possible.
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# ? Feb 24, 2014 01:31 |
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NewMars posted:Ars Magica once was a WoD thing and the Tremere were supposed to be the same group in both. Not sure which line came first though, but I'd bet it was Vampire. It was Ars Magica-Vampire-Werewolf-Mage, IIRC.
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# ? Feb 24, 2014 01:35 |
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American Idiot must have come out around the same time as this game, because "She's a Rebel" is permanently linked in my mind to Damsel.
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# ? Feb 25, 2014 19:48 |
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I think it's a little strange that Damsel's questline is one absolutely nobody in the Camarilla is actually going to object to. Plague cultists breaking the Masquerade? Yes, please get rid of them!
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# ? Feb 26, 2014 16:58 |
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The great music in this game made me think of Music from the Succubus Club a soundtrack for VtM in general. It has several great Goth and Industrial artists and provides a theme song for each clan, although some fit better than others. So yeah, if you like the music in this game, check it out.
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# ? Feb 26, 2014 17:04 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:39 |
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Thesaya posted:The great music in this game made me think of Music from the Succubus Club a soundtrack for VtM in general. It has several great Goth and Industrial artists and provides a theme song for each clan, although some fit better than others. So yeah, if you like the music in this game, check it out. Yeah, the lead designer for Vampire Revised was a DJ as a hobby. Blind in Darkness really works for the Tremere though.
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# ? Feb 26, 2014 17:25 |