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Ephemeron posted:Yep. And since a non-Giovanni vampire's bite triggers feelings of immense pleasure, mutual Kiss is pretty much the closest equivalent Kindred have to sex.
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Jan 29, 2015 05:44
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Yeah, but vampires are  as gently caress. Well, the setting is, individual vampires vary a lot. Basically, if it's counting on someone not dicking you over, it won't fly. So it goes.I can't remember if anyone brought this up, but isn't there a line at the Voerman club where Therese contemptuously accuses Jeanette of "fornicating with kine"? I know she's supposed to be a vampire-slut and all, but that's unusual e- -HARD LEFT, THREAD!- Do the other franchises have diablerie equivalents? Like, can a Mage consume another mage and gain his power? What about the Kuei-Jin?
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Jan 29, 2015 07:02
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EggsAisle posted:Yeah, but vampires are No, mages cannot consume other mages and gain their power, werewolves can't (although as a human if you find five werewolf pelts and the right ritual, you can become a werewolf yourself), and Kuei-Jin cannot commit diablerie because their powerstat is actually their enlightenment, and stealing someone's enlightenment is kind of hard. Kuei-Jin's powerstats also vary a lot depending on their state of mind, which is kind of amusing. Diablerie is unique to vampires because it's basically soul rape solely for your desire for power, and vampire has consistently been a game with a lot of sexual predator undertones to everything. The working title of the new World of Darkness 2nd Edition Vampire book was "Sexmurder" for a very good reason.
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Jan 29, 2015 07:26
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Vampires consistently have weird sexually predatory undertones to everything. http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=285 EggsAisle posted:Do the other franchises have diablerie equivalents? Like, can a Mage consume another mage and gain his power? What about the Kuei-Jin? I'm uncomfortable saying that you cannot do something in Mage, but actually yanking out somebody else's Avatar or Sphere knowledge would almost certainly be a job for Spheres above level 5, at which point you wouldn't need to do it. Destroying another mage's Avatar is a Spirit 5 Effect, one that takes a lot of effort and which is only really done as a punitive measure against known Nephandi and other such betrayers. One neat trick you can do in some versions of Mage is use Prime to transmute the other supernaturals' stats to raw Quintessence, though. You point at a vampire and he's a few blood points lower now.
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Jan 29, 2015 09:12
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EggsAisle posted:I can't remember if anyone brought this up, but isn't there a line at the Voerman club where Therese contemptuously accuses Jeanette of "fornicating with kine"? I know she's supposed to be a vampire-slut and all, but that's unusual e- Okay, I'm gonna be the one to try to tip-toe my way through this minefield of grognards.txt that is discussing vampire sex, wish me luck. Polite vampire society frowns upon vampires having sex. The logical reason is because it costs blood just to get the relevant parts of the anatomy functioning. The blood cost to restore any part of a vampire's body to working order (usually used to help a vampire pass for human by making their skin warm, their breath fog in the cold, their heart beat, their stomach able to hold food, and so on) varies based on a vampire's humanity rating, with it costing more the lower in humanity a vampire is. So for the movers and shakers of vampire society, who almost universally have very low humanity, the cost is pretty drat high indeed. Add that to the fact that a vampire biting someone is supposedly better than sex for both parties, and it results in more blood for the vampire in question instead of less, and the result is that the general view is that sex is wasteful and pointless at best, self-destructive at worst. The secondary reason is that vampires are, y'know, animated corpses. No hormones, no pheromones, no erogenous zones. Cuts way down on the impetus to get bizzay. So add all that to polite vampire society considering regular ol' humans to be somewhere between lesser beings and cattle, and you've got a double-whammy of pearl-clutching with 'fornicating with kine'. All that said, just like in real life, it's probably safe to assume that polite society are doing behind closed doors what they're publicly denouncing.
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Jan 29, 2015 09:13
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Wanderer posted:Vampires consistently have weird sexually predatory undertones to everything. There's just something about a strange man coming into a young girl's bedroom and penetrating her.
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Jan 29, 2015 09:48
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Well, on the upside, at least he has to ask for permission first.
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Jan 29, 2015 11:40
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EggsAisle posted:Yeah, but vampires are
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Jan 29, 2015 12:24
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Going by the VV striptease, animating two vampires humping and possibly biting each other is very hard and would end up janky as hell at best.
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Jan 29, 2015 13:39
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GuyUpNorth posted:Going by the VV striptease, animating two vampires humping and possibly biting each other is very hard and would end up janky as hell at best.
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Jan 29, 2015 14:18
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I mean by VtM mechanics all Jeanette has to do to "FORNICATE WITH KINE" is spend some blood points to fake life signs so she isn't room temperature. She can then drink from whoever it is and get the points right back so eh.
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Jan 29, 2015 14:22
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Shugojin posted:I mean by VtM mechanics all Jeanette has to do to "FORNICATE WITH KINE" is spend some blood points to fake life signs so she isn't room temperature. She can then drink from whoever it is and get the points right back so eh. IIRC, that was a suggested 'established feeding tactic' in old-Vampire.
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Jan 29, 2015 14:54
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Vicissitude posted:During Gehenna she holds off the Withering by sheer faith
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Jan 29, 2015 15:04
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Zephro posted:Really? The rulebook goes on and on and on (and on and on and on) about how there are literally zero ways that vampires can avoid the withering. None at all. Don't even try, cos it won't work. This is God loving around with you directly and there is no way out. She was just as strong at the end of the Gehenna novel as she was before it, though living in more or less isolation. Besides, I think the strength of her faith was hinting at some sort of Golconda revelation.
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Jan 29, 2015 15:47
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EggsAisle posted:
In Mage: The Awakening there are mages called reapers who harness souls (including Awakened souls) for power and other benefits. Tremere in nWoD appears as a reaper group seeking immortality by consuming souls. There is even a group of reapers who uses people as you would use a botnet. They gather their victims mental abilities in servers and use it to make themselves super geniuses while their victims become dumber. They call themselves Cloud Infinite and they are exactly the techie stereotype you are thinking. fspades fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 17:53
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EggsAisle posted:Yeah, but vampires are Gotta say, Jeanette is one of my favorite characters in the game because of everything she does. IT'S NOT BECAUSE SHE'S ON THE GAME'S COVER AND I WAS 15 I SWEAR. I always try to unify them to give both actual peace (partly because my reading is that there never was another sister and it really was a split all along to deal with trauma) but Jeanette's nihilism and willingness to say "gently caress youuuuuu" to everything proper in the Cammy bullshit is magical. It's nihilistic in the literal sense: the Elders are never going to give you a fair shake or the rewards they've promised, so why waste her time? The point of life is life. Or unlife. So gently caress what's proper and with apologies to John Lennon, blood you enjoy wasting wasn't wasted. Therese evolved to make sure she maintains the necessary power base to get away with it. Survival. Therese is the professional on the job, Jeanette is off the clock. And she seems to get more poo poo done her way than the Anarchs ever do with their incessant bickering and very Cammy-like politics (much as they'd hate to hear it). Jeanette might sound like a gently caress YOU DAD type, but I don't think I can judge her if I had to deal with centuries of Cammies. 
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Jan 29, 2015 18:56
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This poster loves police brutality, but only when its against minorities!
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Wanderer posted:One neat trick you can do in some versions of Mage is use Prime to transmute the other supernaturals' stats to raw Quintessence, though. You point at a vampire and he's a few blood points lower now. Of course, in oMage if you have enough Prime you can in theory break anything down into raw quintessence. It'll be vulgar as all hell, though. Pussy Cartel fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 21:10
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Ghostwoods posted:IIRC, that was a suggested 'established feeding tactic' in old-Vampire. That feeding tactic didn't actually follow through on sex, they just lure the poor sap into their bed (or their car, or an alleyway, or a bathroom stall, or wherever it is hip young people are having drunken semi-anonymous sex these days), bites them, then calls it a night. The sap wakes up the next day and blames the memory loss and symptoms of anemia on the alcohol, and just assumes that the hazy memories of great pleasure were the best drunken hook-up of their life instead of them being fed upon by an animated corpse.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:47
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Pussy Cartel posted:Of course, in oMage if you have enough Prime you can in theory break anything down into raw quintessence. It'll be vulgar as all hell, though. Yeah, I realized I got my terms wrong. I'm not talking about Prime 4 disintegration; I'm talking about using Prime 3 to turn Blood Points, Gnosis, Pathos, or Glamour into free Quintessence and making off with it.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:55
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The beauty of WoD Mage games is that it essentially gives you limitless ways to be a dick.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:10
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So here are the theories I don't think I've seen before: The friend sending emails: I think this is pretty obvious. Who is obnoxiously intellectual enough to send cryptic emails with chess metaphors? Clearly Strauss. He may do little to overtly help you, but what truly smart paranoid would stick his neck out for an untested newbie? But on the other hand, having you around LaCroix seems to off-balance him, because: Your sire: A seventh-generation Camarilla represents a huge threat to LaCroix's Dominate-heavy method of control. LaCroix seems terrified of almost everyone and has so little leverage that no one has much reason to respect him. He understands enough to know that the Camarilla have completely set him up by putting him in charge of vampire Somalia. When he finds out a potential rival of his (your sire) has begun secretly building a power base by siring a childer without permission, he knows he has to act quickly using what little authority he has. He kills your sire without giving them a chance to explain anything. He hopes to to eliminate a rival and demonstrate his authority with a single flourish. Because he is LaCroix, it backfires. When Nines speaks out against killing you, LaCroix backs off partly out of cowardice and partly because he knows how tenuous his position is. He convened the moot for killing you and your sire to show how powerful he was. But he was unable to kill you. He thinks he can salvage the situation by using you as a puppet. This is a dangerous game for him - he might feel he is clever for using his rival's tool for his own gain but your existence is proof of his powerlessness in LA. He needs to control you or kill you to save face, but you are a huge wild card. A low-generation neonate is a time bomb, and LaCroix killed your sire. He sends you on suicide mission after suicide mission praying you won't come back, but you do. Your existence makes him frantic because you may at any time turn around and bite him, and who would defend him? Everyone's out to get him. He's a fall guy and you represent the knife closest to his heart. So who benefits from unsettling LaCroix? Not the Anarchs, they don't care enough for such an involved prank and they don't get anything material out of it. The Kuei-Jin may or may not know enough about Kindred society to pull this kind of poo poo. The Sabbat don't care. But another Camarilla, a primogen in line to become Prince, would enjoy priming the grenades LaCroix would have to fall on. Strauss emails you because he has the most to gain by your continued existence. LaCroix sends you on terrifying missions to advance the cause of the Camarilla, which is good for Strauss, and your power threatens LaCroix, which is good for Strauss. Think about this: why does the Tremere primogen, the most powerful occultist in the area, not give a gently caress about the most ancient occult archaeological item ever procured by vampire? Because he's already winning everything.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:45
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Incidentally, LaCroix using Dominate on the player is the best "But thou must!" in any game.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:57
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Junior G-man posted:Well, on the upside, at least he has to ask for permission first. Is that actually true in Vampire?
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Jan 30, 2015 01:13
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Heir03 posted:Is that actually true in Vampire? Only for vampires who have it as a flaw. I believe there are variants of it in Clanbook: Tzimisce as well as Time of Thin Blood (the latter varies in cost and can also include being repulsed by garlic, can't cross running water, must bite victims only on the soles of the feet, and other superstition bits).
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Jan 30, 2015 03:00
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Does the "must stop to count beans/grains of rice scattered in front of them" superstition show up anywhere?
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Jan 30, 2015 03:14
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:Does the "must stop to count beans/grains of rice scattered in front of them" superstition show up anywhere? Yes, it's in Time of Thin Blood under that same overarching Flaws of Superstition, as a 2-pt Mental variant. quote:* Compulsive Counter (2-pt Mental Flaw): If you see collections of small, identical objects (such as a scattered handful of rice or marbles), you feel compelled to pick them up and count them. You can resist the obsession if you make a successful Willpower roll. The difficulty depends on how much you must count: A scattered handful of rice (hundred of grains) gives a difficulty of only 6, but a handful of marbles (only a dozen or so) would force a difficulty of 9.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:18
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:Does the "must stop to count beans/grains of rice scattered in front of them" superstition show up anywhere? I'm sure it does, but I can't remember where it shows up or what the crunch is.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:19
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Uh, someone mentioned an Aassimate blood curse before, what is it?
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Jan 30, 2015 05:09
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xanthan posted:Uh, someone mentioned an Aassimate blood curse before, what is it? There's really two curses the Assamite clan got hit with. Way, way, way back in the day, back when it was still Happy Fun Bible Story era, the Baali started showing up in the second and third cities. The Assamites, along with the Salubri, didn't particularly like that, since the Baali were several different types of horrible abomination, so they made it a point to kick their poo poo in every time the Baali started showing up. This was pretty much a good thing, because the Baali are the sorts of vampires that make even Body-Horror Tzimisce who turn people into constantly screaming and crying furniture look like saints. However, the Baali didn't particularly appreciate getting wrecked every time they show up, so after kidnapping a few Assamites during one of their many ill-fated campaigns back in the prehistory, they performed a dark ritual using the captured Assamites. As the main army of Assamites and other aligned Kindred slaughtered their way through the Baali fortress, the ritual commenced, finishing up just as the Assamites kicked in the door to the ritual chamber. While the Baali were gone, the Assamites found themselves... well, hungry. Cue fratricidal eating frenzy and finding out that the Warrior Bloodline of Assamites were now hopelessly addicted to Vampire blood. This spread throughout the entire Warrior line (even hitting some of the Vizier and Sorceror bloodline vamps), and considering it generally makes Assamites even more likely to just straight up Diablerize a vampire it kind of ruined the Assamites reputation. In more recent times, the Assamites were one of the clans persecuting the newly formed Tremere clan, and by all records they were probably the biggest threat besides the Tzimisce. In addition, the Assamites were working pretty much as mercernaries, perfectly happy to get hired to kill an elder or something, usually by diablerie. This, of course, was not a happy state of affairs for most vampires, considering the average Assamite assassin is a nasty piece of work. With the Assamites pretty much wrecking everything and acting like the Vampire Bogeyman, people really wanted to see them get put into their place. However, nobody knew where the bulk of the clan was, as after the Third city and the curse Haqim (their Antidiluvian) drug them out into the desert and founded a hidden fortress for them: Alamut. Protected by magic and the remote location, the Assamites figured they were safe there to do what they wanted to do. Things changed, though, when one day some random Nosferatu (rumored to be staked and hidden in the city) managed to bumble across Alamut. The Assamites, with the shadow war they were waging with the pre-Camarilla vampires, realized that if one vampire could find it, more potentially could. They really didn't want that, so they surrendered. However, the Pre-Camarilla figured they would just bide their time until they were powerful enough to pretty much unstoppable, so they asked the Tremere to put a stop to them eating vamps as they pleased. The Tremere, more than happy to, laid down a powerful curse on the Assamites: from now on, Vampire Blood was toxic to them. Any of the Assamites foolish enough to drink from a vampire took unsoakable Lethal or Aggravated damage and took no benefit from the blood, and any foolish or stubborn enough to manage to Diablerize a vampire would get no benefit from it. (Coincidentally enough, this actually circumvented the Baali curse to some extent, because it's kind of hard to be addicted to something that will kill you really quick.) Assamite Sorcerors spent centuries trying to get around the Tremere curse, usually failing but occasionally coming tantalizingly close. Some managed to find a way around it: a group of Warriors and Sorcerors headed off to the ancient Baali fortress where the first curse went down hoping that maybe, just maybe, the site could show them a way to circumvent the Tremere Curse. What happened there isn't largely known, but all the sorcerors and a fair portion of the Warriors that went there died, and the remaining Warriors came out with the Tremere Curse missing. Said warriors were unhappy that the clan surrendered to the Camarilla, so they decided to join the Sabbat and basically play Kick the Tremere. However, the main clan had no luck dispelling the curse until 1998 or 99. That's when ur-Shulgi, Childe of Haqim, woke up. He pretty much took a look at the Tremere curse, and being a sorceror from way back in the day (along with probably a few other horrible things), said "Lol No" and broke the Tremere Curse in a week. Now the clan is just stuck with the Baali curse, which ur-Shulgi is still trying to break but is having difficulty with. This is partly because most of the Sorcerors left during the Schism (basically ur-Shulgi going "Nope, having none of this 'Believing in God' poo poo. Worship Haqim or get dunked.") so he's kind of down on manpower, and partly because the Baali are worshipping Satan/the Wyrm/Ancient Lovecraftian Nightmares/whatever the gently caress White Wolf comes up with next, and that's a completely different ballpark even to a several thousand year old blood god. Mountain Lightning fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 07:06
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After reading that, all I can say is REMEMBER THE ALAMUT! Chief Sitting-Baali won in the end it seems
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Jan 31, 2015 02:44
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What's a Pander and how are they different from other caitiffs? Is it just a case of the Sabbat calling them something different or is there something interesting to it?Screaming Idiot posted:After reading that, all I can say is What?
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Jan 31, 2015 03:38
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xanthan posted:What's a Pander and how are they different from other caitiffs? Is it just a case of the Sabbat calling them something different or is there something interesting to it? They're a Sabbat organization for caitiff. Not quite a clan, but almost. They're sort of the caitiff equivalent of antitribu. They're not very respected, and they tend to be either front line fighters or the guys doing the bitch work, but they're full members of the Sabbat. Which means that the rest of the Sabbat has their back when the Camarilla comes looking to clean out the clanless freaks. It's a hell of a better deal than most caitiff get.
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Jan 31, 2015 03:52
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xanthan posted:What's a Pander and how are they different from other caitiffs? Is it just a case of the Sabbat calling them something different or is there something interesting to it? IIRC, they're all members of the same family and it's the closest the Caitiff have ever come to actual organization. They're still treated like cannon fodder by the Sabbat, of course.
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Jan 31, 2015 03:52
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xanthan posted:What's a Pander and how are they different from other caitiffs? Is it just a case of the Sabbat calling them something different or is there something interesting to it? Some of both. Mechanically, they are the same as Caitiff. Societally, however, the Pander stick together more, and so being Pander in the Sabbat comes with a lot more of a structure and buddy system than being Catiff in the Camarilla. e;f,bx2.
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Jan 31, 2015 03:53
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xanthan posted:What? Puns. They were puns.
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Jan 31, 2015 04:25
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 It's time to finish this.  The moment we step into Venture Towers, we're approached by Chunk, who wants us to leave. Yeah, that's going to work.  Here's your big chance to be a hero. Try and stop me. Aw, c'mon now, just leave okay? I don't wanna have to use force, but I am authorized to do so. Please don't make me do this, missy. I'm going up. You can try and stop me or you can leave. Once again, this is totally the point where an Intimidation roll would go way in Melissa's favor and Chunk would just poo poo himself because he put an entire magazine in her and all it did was get her slightly peeved. As it stands, we could have convinced Chunk to not attack us or Dominated him into doing so (or used Dementation (WESP  )), but we're still banged up from the battle with Ming-Xiao, sooo... CHOMP. Do fat guys taste better than slim guys, assuming similar intelligence, social standing and the like?  The lobby is filled with cops. Cops with colts. Yeah, they're not touching Melissa at this point. I can just jerk around, and theoretically I could punch all these cops to death without taking any major damage.  Personally, I went with the colt since I'm just going to get the ammo right back, but it doesn't really matter.  And while there's nothing really threatening going on, might as well put some points into Brawl to improve our odds of feeding during combat.  I can only imagine the absolutely dejected look of disdain on Melissa's face as she gets "beat" on by this cop with his night stick and being absolutely unharmed. "Are you being serious right now, sir?" Once again, I wish this was a pen and paper game where the Storyteller can describe in great detail just how the cop pisses himself as he realizes just what the gently caress is going on.  In the back, there's this door we can open...  ...which leads to what I can only assume is the Nosferatu entrance for Venture Towers! I never played a Nosferatu before, but a door leading to pretty much nothing but a manhole and an elevator only leaves that much to the imagination.  Anyway, we head back and call the elevator, which takes a long time to come down, probably so that you can't just leg it and bypass the combat. Of course, we've already killed everybody, so it's just a day at the office, whistling while you wait for the elevator.  And up to the penthouse we go! I guess this is going to be a fairly short update. They must have realized that the endless combat either is incredibly aggravating or just annoying, and cut it for this segment.  Oh wait, the elevator stops somewhere halfway through and we have to get off.  Oh man, there's a cop looking out the window that somehow didn't notice the elevator rumbling and stopping here...  Can you see something? I think you can, but it's too late...  WHAM! These stealth kills are always really satisfying. However, for the next bit, we won't really have the luxury of going stealthy. So gently caress it, guns akimbo it is.  I can't see you, but my vampire senses (read: the crosshair) tell me you're somewhere there!  Hm, the door closed on us. Did I get you?  Yes, I did! So yeah, now I'm using the Glock because nobody can touch Melissa anyway, so gently caress it.  The surroundings turn into office cubicles where it's easy to get turned around. I got lost here in the first recording, and it's not that big an area, but it's so samey.  Eventually, we come to this side door, which leads to the next level.  The next level is a really, really tight corridor with a bunch of doors we can't open. So we just run through, gun down everybody in our way, and eventually make it to...  ...the cafeteria!  And we're serving up SWAT units!  SWAT units that also don't really do a lot of damage.  Still, these guys have a lot of health, so I whip out the Steyr to make things quicker. The SWAT guys go down without much of a fight. Now, let's see what they're serving up here in this cafeteria...  S&M - All Deviant Food. Just the thing for the WoD. Don't order the root beer float without a safeword.  Hungry Veggie's No Meatza. Meh. While I do enjoy a four cheese pizza, I do get a hankering for a real pizza filled with meat every now and then, and probably especially while working an office job at Venture Towers. Also, gosh!coffee. Gosh!  And finally, EXTREEEEEEME TOFU! Pretty sure that's how that's supposed to be said.  Also, there's this wonderful special on offer...  ...and these spectacular pizzas. The previous stuff had me thinking takeout, but it seems like that's not great either. Food where you're better off being a vampire when you eat it! As a vampire, you just puke it up again. As a human, you'd probably loving die!  We head up to the roof, and there's quite a few SWAT guys there. You can't see them, but that's not a problem, they won't last anyway.  Hey, you shouldn't be standing that close to the gla-  Welp. Let's go take a look and see how they fel-  poo poo  Oh hey, no falling damage. Still adds some time to our trip, though.  Back on the roof, we can see there's still a lot of levels to Venture Towers proper.  And this pipe indicated by the Inspection sparkle is going to get us to that part. It's there, you probably can't really see it, but it's there.  See, we're in it now!  And now we're in the next area of Venture Towers, a level that seems to be under construction.  It involves more SWAT dudes. Once again, not a big deal.  But after that, we find ourselves in an interesting situation.  LaCroix dominated a guard, and strapped explosives to him in order to blow Melissa up! That's pretty smart thinking. He's also speaking directly through the guard, with LaCroix's own voice. I'm not sure how exactly that works - going by the White Wolf wiki, the most fitting Dominate power for that is Dominate 5, Possession - "Transfer your mind into a mortal body and control their actions", but does that allow you to literally speak through the subject? Reading through a wiki for Vampire: The Dark Ages, level 5 Dominate's Vessel does exactly that, so I guess it checks out.  I'm coming for you, LaCroix! You hear me? I'm coming for you! Tick, tick, tick... a bien tot, Kindred. So now we have a very stringent time limit to take out this guard, but he's not strong at all, so this isn't an issue.  And now we have some Astrolite to use... hmmm...  ...hmmm...  ...yeah, this'll work.  And there it goes!  We hide a fair distance away (the first time I got blown up by being too close) and our little surprise for the guards on the upper floor is a smashing success.  We then ride the elevator up ourselves...  ...and find nothing but a bunch of weapons lying around. Six in total - this little explosive saved us some ammo, which is always nice.  We also find another working elevator, which is very much nice.  It doesn't go all the way up to the penthouse, but at least it goes up a fair bit further to some high-class looking place.  Going into it, we're immediately under fire from all sides, so thankfully we're going full tank here.  Heading out of the stairway and into the interior, we see that we're now being matched up with Ventrue and not regular humans. Note that all these Ventrue use the same model in this game - the one for the PC. Which means...  MY OWN CLONE!  However, these Ventrue are not quite up to snuff either. They're actually capable of dealing some damage, but again, it's not really worthwhile.  We find this computer in one of the offices. Command "lights", password "hitthelights", command "disable"...  ...and now the lights are off. I guess it helps with sneaking, but we're not doing it.  For some reason, I don't turn the lights back on, so at some point, I can only see things thanks to the muzzle flashes, which is not a very good thing.  So instead I decide to make some light another way.  Once again, the Dragon's Breath isn't really great. It's like only the fire does any damage, not the shotgun part.  We fight our way through some board-room looking thing, and finally find another elevator.  Once again, it's not the penthouse, but we're making progress. Now, what's next?  Oh.  Crap. Watch Boss Fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5emLD8EKYw The Sheriff is one bad motherfucker. Basically, the big problem is that 1) his sword does big damage, and 2) whenever you do some damage to him...  ...he disappears...  ...and immediately reappears behind you, ready to shove his sword up your slow rear end. Celerity helps a ton in this battle, but we don't have that. So it's basically a constant hit and run where you have to loving immediately turn around and start backpedaling the moment you see him disappear and repeat that until he goes down.  But of course he doesn't just go down, no. Instead, he transforms into this bat-thing...  ...grabs Melissa...  ...and throws her out to some helicopter landing place or something like that, and the second phase of the fight starts.  This part is pretty annoying, too. Basically, not only are you being set upon by the Sheriff in his bat form, but also several mini-werewolf type enemies and cops and poo poo.  The basic principle of winning is that you turn on the spotlights, which hit the Sheriff...  ...who then drops down and is paralyzed for a bit, letting you fire upon him with impunity. Repeat that until he's dead. Also, there was some discussion I've heard regarding what exactly the Sheriff is, but as far as I'm concerned, this isn't one of the mysteries. This boss is called the "Chiropteran Marauder". That's the name of a level 6 Vicissitude power, which lets you transform into a huge flying bat. So that already narrows it down massively, and then you add the spectral wolves that he called upon during the intro, which is level 3 Animalism (Spectral Wolves only exists in Bloodlines, but it counts), making him clearly a Nagloper, an African Tzimisce offshoot. Now what a low-gen Nagloper is doing being a lapdog for a Camarilla Prince is a different question, but I guess that's some sort of thing where being a Prince's sheriff gives you a lot of opportunity to get a whole bunch of murdering on, which is right up a Nagloper's alley. Anyway, now that we've taken care of the Sheriff...  ...it's time to deal with LaCroix. We're actually just teleported right here - I guess they couldn't figure out how to get us back into the building or thought it would just be too tedious. Now, you can pick where this will go. Since I wanted to show all the endings in some capacity, I have both the ending where Melissa opens it and the one where she doesn't open it in video form. Going further, I'm going to post the ending where she doesn't open it as Melissa's "canon" ending. But if you want to see what happens if she opens it without knowing what's in it, here's your chance. Don't Open It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hASjslGfL3o Do Open It: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAj_QlgPWFk Now, let's get to LaCroix.  I would very much recommend watching the video. LaCroix's voice actor does a really great job during this scene. And I have the key, motherfucker. You've done all the work for me, once again. So much to learn. I thought I had lost it all, but no, here you've sailed on a Gehenna wind, bearing my salvation - the key to my future. Shut your goddamn mouth, you long-winded, euro-trash prick. It's go time. At this point, LaCroix tries to dominate Melissa, much like he'd successfully do early in the game when we were defiant towards him. However... gently caress you. I said, give - me - the - key! Get this! And with that, Melissa grabs the dagger that has been laying there the entire game...  ...and gives LaCroix a quick one...  ...two...  ...three.  And as the thread voted... Take the key. I hope you get what's coming to you. Goodbye, LaCroix. ...she drops the key...  ...and leaves.  LaCroix proceeds to drag himself over to the key. Fool! You should've finished me! I've got the key! In a few seconds, I'll be strong enough to crush you like paper! This whole city! He then gets that wide-eyed stare. He's way past sense at this point, only driven by his lust for power.  He drags himself over to the sarcophagus alongside the key...  ...and lifts it up. In a few seconds... it will all be mine... power! He inserts the key, and it opens to reveal...  ...explosives!  And LaCroix can only do one more thing...  ...laugh.  And then the top of Venture Towers explodes.  As Melissa steps out into the streets of downtown LA through the rubble...  ...the Anarchs show up with Nines.  drat. Kid, I knew your reputation, but... hell, I don't think any of us could have done LaCroix like that. Melissa basically just walks straight through them. Hey kid, where you goin'? One final "gently caress you" to the Kindred of LA. Hey, hear me out! We could use someone like you! ... Kid? And Melissa walks out into the night, having made her legend.  We change scenes, to a grassy hill outside LA, where we find Jack and somebody else watching the show.  Now ain't that a beautiful thing? Hey, Messerach, Buddy, I'm talkin' to you! You don't really talk much, do ya? Is that who I think it is back there? Hey, it happened just like you said. They never even knew what hit 'em. Threw that sarcophagus out there and they just tore each other up tryin' to get to it. And the kid... worked out alright, huh?We fade to black.  Remember, wherever we go, it is the blood of Caine which makes our fate. Farewell, vampire. And that's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, everybody! Stay tuned for the other endings (including the seeeeecret ending and the WESP-added Sabbat ending, so you just know you're in for some fun!)! TheMcD fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Jan 31, 2015 04:49
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You know, I've noticed that recently the rating for the thread has taken a sharp decline, and I'd like to ask if somebody that gave a low rating could tell me why? Is it because of me? Because I would definitely understand that - I don't know how, but this LP has become really draining for some reason (note that recently the schedule went from a few days between updates at times to more than two weeks between them at least - I suddenly can barely bring myself to work on this, and I have the sneaking suspicion it wouldn't have gotten better over time), and I'm basically running on empty right now, trying to make the finish line because it's so close. Add to that that the really fun parts of the game ran out somewhere back during the loving sewers and the last fun parts ended half-way through Chinatown (being replaced with a bunch of combat sections that are endlessly boring to talk about), and the fact that I'm just not as good as gatz was, and I could see why somebody would think this went to poo poo. I'd just like some confirmation and maybe some feedback. I noticed while writing this update that my commentary became really barren at parts, but that's because I felt like there really was nothing left to say anymore. It's just combat. Lots of it. And combat is without a doubt the worst part of the game.
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Jan 31, 2015 05:27
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I actually just 5-voted this thread. I have no idea what would cause a downvote trend, but IMO it's definitely not your approach to it, McD.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:00
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TheMcD posted:You know, I've noticed that recently the rating for the thread has taken a sharp decline, and I'd like to ask if somebody that gave a low rating could tell me why? Is it because of me? Because I would definitely understand that - I don't know how, but this LP has become really draining for some reason (note that recently the schedule went from a few days between updates at times to more than two weeks between them at least - I suddenly can barely bring myself to work on this, and I have the sneaking suspicion it wouldn't have gotten better over time), and I'm basically running on empty right now, trying to make the finish line because it's so close. Add to that that the really fun parts of the game ran out somewhere back during the loving sewers and the last fun parts ended half-way through Chinatown (being replaced with a bunch of combat sections that are endlessly boring to talk about), and the fact that I'm just not as good as gatz was, and I could see why somebody would think this went to poo poo. I'd just like some confirmation and maybe some feedback.  Speaking of the game turning poo poo, it really annoys me that neither LaCroix nor Melissa do anything to try to save themselves when they see the explosives. Run for the stairs or even jump out the window or something for god's sake. Also, the timer on those explosives makes no sense. How could Jack have any idea where the sarcophagus would be at this point? Or did he just want to blow up literally anyone? Seems like it was intended for Lacroix, but there was no guarantee Lacroix would have the sarcophagus. And someone could easily have opened it before now, seen the explosives and the timer with plenty of warning and ruined everything.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:20
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Tiggum posted:I don't think it's you, like you say, the later parts of the game are just not very good. I'm not one of the people who voted the thread down though. I'm pretty sure they were set to trigger as soon as the lid moved. There are other endings in which the sarcophagus isn't opened and it never explodes.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:24
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