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LatwPIAT posted:The two games that stand out (to me) as the thematically strongest of 1E nWoD (I will forever be tempted to call this the "old new World of Darkness") were Changeling and Promethean, and they're also the two games with the strongest metaphor-concepts. Changeling is a game that is well described by "you play an abuse victim who's escaped their captors, and now you try to integrate back into society - also, there's magic", and Promethean is a game of playing someone who sees the world differently, and people hate you because you're different. Not everyone plays the games like this, or have to play the games like this, but that's a form of play that is heavily supported by the text; Changeling puts pretty firmly in the centre that what you are are someone who's been kidnapped, abused, and then escaped and struggles with integration back into society. (I've actually been vaguely interested in making an nWoD fangame about playing a parent and the dangers of ending up an abusive one, but I could never pin the mechanics down.) At first blush I would use Ghost/Guardian Angel/Sacred Ancestor/Team Spirit themes where you stay alive via keeping your "charges" on the right path but fall your morality the more you yourself are a terrible 'parent'. It'd be the kind of game that wouldn't play AT ALL at a table filled with said characters- but it could be a good fallback for a splat-crossover game where one player can be Zordon/ Niles Caulder, Ph.D to everyone else's Power Rangers/Doom Patrol
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Dec 18, 2014 22:39
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Gerund posted:At first blush I would use Ghost/Guardian Angel/Sacred Ancestor/Team Spirit themes where you stay alive via keeping your "charges" on the right path but fall your morality the more you yourself are a terrible 'parent'. It'd be the kind of game that wouldn't play AT ALL at a table filled with said characters- but it could be a good fallback for a splat-crossover game where one player can be Zordon/ Niles Caulder, Ph.D to everyone else's Power Rangers/Doom Patrol My idea was actually more inspired by Fate/Stay Night, where From the mage side of it, it struck me that a thematic approach could be the fact that you've brought something into this world and given it life, and that thing is now your responsibility. You have to care for it and nurture it, but you also have to keep it from committing evil tasks. At the same time, I wanted there to be incentives to neglect or abuse the "servant", because while they're your metaphorical "child", you made them to have a tool towards some purpose (like getting the Holy Grail). And because they're a tool in a fight, you're probably going to expose them to danger and ask them to do some rather horrible things. So the mage players might be tempted to force their Servants to do horrible things for the mage's benefit. Alternatively, the mage could end up with a violent and cruel Servant, leaving them to try to manage their "child"'s impulses with or without resorting to abusive punishment to keep them in line. I also wanted the Servants to be playable; the child-angle wasn't as interesting, so I wanted to focus more on the morality of obeying orders. You are a tool in a war, or at best a soldier in that war, and you may end up being ordered to do things that are morally repugnant. At the same time, you are dependent on your summoner to stay alive, so you have to balance your own moral sense against trying to stay alive and/or avoid punishment for refusing to follow orders. For example, the Servant's "food" came from the mage, so the mage could punish their Servant with starvation, and if the mage severed the magical bond between the themselves and the Servant, the Servant would slowly starve to death[1]. I put the project on a long-term backburner because I got distracted by more interesting projects and the effort required was quite immense; both mages and Servants had to be playable (so double the work) yet at the same time be both balanced (so mages don't sit on their asses while Servants hog the screentime while fighting happens, but without raising the question of why a mage would bother to summon a Servant in the first place), and also having a synergy of abilities that would make working together in a two-part team interesting. I originally envisioned the Servants as being something I could staple onto Awakening Mages, but that presented its own problems when it came to power-levels, and then I had to fit it all into the nWoD cosmology and  [1] Unless they killed innocent mortals to steal their life-energy, which would allow them to survive - but present to you all the problems a vampire has. You could also kill innocent mortals while still bonded to your mage to gain extra power; this would incentivize the mage to order their Servant to kill people for their own personal benefit - or incentivize Servants to kill people for their own personal benefit against their mage's orders.
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Dec 18, 2014 23:42
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You could go with the Wraith/Better Angels solution of having other players play your other half. That would even serve to enforce the themes as the choices you make have a human face all of a sudden.
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Dec 19, 2014 00:41
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After ~3.5 years, we're finally drawing to the end of our Mage:TAw campaign. <<OOC>> Malik says, "I am feeling like there should be a penalty for casting magic while fleeing the mongol horde at highway speeds, but I can't actually recall seeing one" I'm gonna miss running this game.
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Dec 22, 2014 07:41
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http://theonyxpath.com/redlines-and-anthologies-mage-the-awakening/ I don't tend to read a lot of the fiction pieces in RPGs but I liked the taster one they showed here. Shows how brutal magical battles can go when Fate and Mind magic is in the mix.
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Dec 23, 2014 20:22
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UrbicaMortis posted:http://theonyxpath.com/redlines-and-anthologies-mage-the-awakening/ Someone on 4chan posted the Ron Burgendy "well, that escalated quickly" meme in response, and that's about right. Eric has mused about writing a second story from Endymion's point of view.
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Dec 23, 2014 21:03
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Dave Brookshaw posted:Ahaahahahahahah.
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Dec 23, 2014 21:48
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I had run a game of base GMC last year for my group and now I wanted them to progress to Hunter. I noticed the core Hunter book users the old rules, but there seems to be a book, Hunter mortal remains, that has updated rules. Is it worth it to get the book for the rules update, or just stick with he core stuff?
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Dec 23, 2014 22:32
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Zkoto posted:I had run a game of base GMC last year for my group and now I wanted them to progress to Hunter. I noticed the core Hunter book users the old rules, but there seems to be a book, Hunter mortal remains, that has updated rules. Definitely. It updates a lot of stuff to work with GMC rules and has chapters on how Hunters deal with Promethean, Changelings, Mummies, etc.
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Dec 23, 2014 22:44
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Kavak posted:Definitely. It updates a lot of stuff to work with GMC rules and has chapters on how Hunters deal with Promethean, Changelings, Mummies, etc. Cool, thanks. Also, I come from a dnd and dungeon world background mostly and found last time I ran a GMC game that it's really hard to design balanced encounters. Like, mobs don't have ratings or anything in this it seems. Is this just a practice makes perfect thing, and I should just wing it ala dungeon world? I was thinking of having the hunters start with a bit of bonus xp and practical xp since they run that GMC story, and I was going to make the bad dude a warlock doing horrible rituals. Seems like they could handle that?
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Dec 23, 2014 23:51
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Zkoto posted:Cool, thanks. Use dicepool sizes as a simple gauge. Every 3 dice in a pool means 1 average success, allow for Willpower expenditure, and take equipment into account.
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Dec 24, 2014 03:09
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The thing is that TN 8 dicepools with 10-again have massive amounts of variance. If your PC has 10 attack dice and fights an enemy with 7 attack dice, your PC will probably win... but don't bet anything really valuable on it. After a point, having the liquid resources (health boxes, Vitae points, etc) to absorb the swing inherent in dicepools is more important than dicepools themselves. That said, WoD characters are quite tough and unlikely to explode in an instant (less unlikely as of the GMC rules, admittedly) and it's generally apparent who's going to win a fight at least a round or two before a fight's actually concluded. This means that you actually have a good amount of leeway to just set up fights based on verisimilitude rather than any kind of difficulty benchmark. Are these guards recently-conscripted laymen or ex-marines? Is the monster rips-through-steel strong or pretty much a funny-looking dog? Make your choice and then roll out the fight because you're as interested to find out who wins as the players are.
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Dec 24, 2014 04:33
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I dunno if this makes me the first regular in here to actually manage this, but holy poo poo I got published (as a co-author) (on a blog post)!
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Dec 25, 2014 04:58
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Daeren posted:I dunno if this makes me the first regular in here to actually manage this, but holy poo poo I got published (as a co-author) (on a blog post)! And I'm the other co-author, but I think Daeren has more footprint here than me? :P
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Dec 25, 2014 05:11
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That was great, you two!
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Dec 25, 2014 06:30
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Congrats! (Also, good read!)
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Dec 25, 2014 06:56
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Aww, that was almost adorable in a really messed up creepy way. Congrats on getting published guys.
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Dec 25, 2014 11:01
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Arashiofordo3 posted:Aww, that was almost adorable in a really messed up creepy way. Congrats on getting published guys. This is about the highest praise I could hope for, since that was the end goal for the story - a mix of  and  Merry Christmas, you pack of weirdos.
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Dec 25, 2014 18:35
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You know what would be great but will never happen? Getting the Vampire: Bloodlines team together again to do a Requiem video game. Man, that would be amazing.
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Dec 28, 2014 21:37
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Thank Activision for that, considering that they bankrupted Troika Studios to get Bloodlines out on the same day as Half-Life 2. I could see Obsidian doing a game like that, though with their track record, it'd probably be released about 80% finished. Tailfnz fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 28, 2014 21:42
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Tailfnz posted:Thank Activision for that, considering that they bankrupted Troika Studios to get Bloodlines out on the same day as Half-Life 2. 80% is probably better than 0% fwiw
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Dec 29, 2014 05:45
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Tailfnz posted:Thank Activision for that, considering that they bankrupted Troika Studios to get Bloodlines out on the same day as Half-Life 2. Real talk: I ever win the lottery, this is my plan to waste my millions.
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Dec 29, 2014 09:18
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Soonmot posted:Real talk: I ever win the lottery, this is my plan to It's a sound business proposition.
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Dec 29, 2014 09:59
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I posted this in the Unknown Armies thread, but you guys might be interested too: I just noticed that Wraith's Richard Dansky made an uncredited appearance as a pregen character in the UA book One Shots in 1999. I checked out his bio and i'm pretty sure it's supposed to be him. Check it out:
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Dec 29, 2014 11:20
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IIRC, Geoff Grabowski and Rebecca Borgstrom of Exalted infamy were also characters in that one.
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Dec 29, 2014 14:04
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I want to run a vampire the masquerade 20th anniversary game where the lore includes the fact that Gangrel the WWF gimmick wrestler was an actual Gangrel I'm sure I'm not the first person to feel this way
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Dec 29, 2014 16:26
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Soonmot posted:Real talk: I ever win the lottery, this is my plan to waste my millions. Thats a shame because I would be investing my millions in putting out a similar game based on Masquerade... and releasing it the same day as yours. 
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Dec 29, 2014 17:24
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Old Doggy Bastard posted:Thats a shame because I would be investing my millions in putting out a similar game based on Masquerade... and releasing it the same day as yours. I would buy and enjoy both. Checkmate. 
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Dec 29, 2014 18:30
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Holy poo poo I would pay a lot of money for Tell-Tale games set in WoD.
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Dec 29, 2014 18:46
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Beckett will remember that.
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Dec 29, 2014 18:51
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moths posted:Holy poo poo I would pay a lot of money for Tell-Tale games set in WoD. I'd buy and play the poo poo out of that. In either universe, frankly. It's probably one of the few ways they could make a good Werewolf: the Apocalypse game.
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Dec 30, 2014 03:02
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Honestly, I'd rather read a book than play a tell tale game (this does not mean I dislike these games or books). I need my video games to be more active and action oriented. I want to level up and spend XPs. EDIT: I would also fund a sequel to the Hunter game on the original Xbox.
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Dec 30, 2014 09:19
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moths posted:Holy poo poo I would pay a lot of money for Tell-Tale games set in WoD. Inkle of 80 days (iOS) or Failbetter of Fallen London would do a WoD CYOA justice too.
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Dec 30, 2014 09:22
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Helical Nightmares posted:Inkle of 80 days (iOS) or Failbetter of Fallen London would do a WoD CYOA justice too. A Fallen London-style WoD game would be loving amazing.
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Dec 30, 2014 11:18
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So bearing in mind that Dominate requires eye contact, does anyone know any rules for avoiding the eyes of someone you know possesses Dominate? It seems relatively bullshit for someone to just be able to say "That guy's Ventrue? Cool, I don't look at him, he can't use Dominate on me." I was thinking something like no penalty if people don't know you have it, or have no reason to be avoiding eye contact. If you're actively avoiding eye contact, something like either Dexterity or half your Defense round up is subtracted from their dominate pool in addition to Resolve+Power stat, if you're relying on being physically more agile than them to not look - in combat, say. In a social situation where you're not literally dancing around them, subtract your Composure from their dominate pool as well, to represent your ability to remain composed and avoid reflexively making eye contact. If they cotton on that you're doing this, a Manipulation+Subterfuge vs Wits+Composure roll can be made to trick you into looking at them so you lose this addition layer of defense. The reason I'm thinking that there should probably be an additional rule for this rather than eye contact being assumed as part of the power is, frankly, because Dominate is really stronk. Game mechanics wise, Majesty gives people an out in the form of a Breaking Point if they really don't want to do what you tell them, whereas Dominate does not give you that choice. If you look into the eyes of a Ventrue and he succeeds in a roll, you're hosed, basically. Dominate's not necessarily even obvious, so if you're even slightly isolated from your friends at a party, they're not gonna notice. If you're in combat, you've at minimum lost a turn, which is life threatening. I don't want to nerf Dominate into the ground, because it being any use at all hinges on how easy it is to put someone in a trance. It just needs to be slightly harder than passing a single check to make someone your bitch. Maybe it needs a "you can spend a Willpower to break through the trance and act freely for the turn before slipping back under" clause. Being able to fight through the hypnotism in critical situations is a big part of the original fiction, after all.
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Dec 30, 2014 17:39
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Are there any bonuses or penalties to getting eye contact if the user or victim is autistic? 
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Dec 30, 2014 17:46
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Doodmons posted:So bearing in mind that Dominate requires eye contact, does anyone know any rules for avoiding the eyes of someone you know possesses Dominate? It seems relatively bullshit for someone to just be able to say "That guy's Ventrue? Cool, I don't look at him, he can't use Dominate on me." I was thinking something like no penalty if people don't know you have it, or have no reason to be avoiding eye contact. If you're actively avoiding eye contact, something like either Dexterity or half your Defense round up is subtracted from their dominate pool in addition to Resolve+Power stat, if you're relying on being physically more agile than them to not look - in combat, say. In a social situation where you're not literally dancing around them, subtract your Composure from their dominate pool as well, to represent your ability to remain composed and avoid reflexively making eye contact. If they cotton on that you're doing this, a Manipulation+Subterfuge vs Wits+Composure roll can be made to trick you into looking at them so you lose this addition layer of defense. V20 included rules for avoiding eye contact with someone with Dominate - you had to make a Willpower roll with a difficulty of their Manipulation+Intimidation. Even tearing your eyes out only made it a more difficult roll for the Vampire to use the Discipline. I dubbed it the VENTRUE TURBO BONER rule.
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Dec 30, 2014 18:21
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I could see arguments from rulings ranging from "A Dominate user exerts an automatic psychic pressure that forces you to look at them; avoiding eye contact is what happens when match or beat their Dominate roll with your Resolve roll, otherwise you can't help but look" to "If you know to avoid eye contact they can't Dominate you, and are going to have to just beat you up or something first".
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Dec 30, 2014 18:25
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I like to keep things simple and I usually rule it as a circumstantial penalty to the Dominate roll (which can make a big difference for resistance). Usually around -3, with a corresponding penalty for the person avoiding eye contact for their own social rolls or visual rolls while doing so as they are putting themselves in a rather disadvantageous position. Closing your eyes completely auto-fails Dominate unless they like, pry your eyes open, but you're also blind and probably still take a circumstantial penalty to certain social rolls too. If the Dominate succeeds despite the avoidance, I use the whole "psychic pressure" vampires are awful sort of flavor to it.
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Dec 30, 2014 18:49
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Yeah, I'd say it's a -2 penalty to do pretty much anything requiring vision or concentration or not looking like a weirdo spaz if you're trying to actively avoid meeting someone's eyes in conversation. The vampire might be able to trick you or force you to look at his eyes, and if he has presence too you're hosed. Also, and this is situational, but if you're avoiding looking in the vampire's eyes it is probably obvious to the vampire and anyone paying attention that you know the person you're talking to is a vampire, you know or suspect correctly that they can Dominate you, and you think it's a likely outcome of a conversation with them. This can have repercussions all on it's own, depending on who you are and why you're talking to this guy in the first place. If you're a vampire too he might be insulted, or he might think you're a little beta bitch. If you are or appear to be a mortal he might decide you're a hunter and just fuckin' try to kill you. Also yes, closing your eyes will work flawlessly against Dominate and is a great idea and the vampire really hopes you do that and it will not make you easy to kill or humiliate in any way. Cool Dad fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Dec 31, 2014 |
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Dec 31, 2014 01:39
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