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Daeren posted:Read this to see where the writers got a whole shitload of inspiration for the God-Machine. That was a very cool read. And now I want to run a Mortals get hosed with by the God Machine game.
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Feb 1, 2015 23:48
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 07:57 |
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It's one hundred percent madness to imagine anything but neolithic mage getting the spot.
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Feb 1, 2015 23:53
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I'll be happy as long as it's not Geist. I mean, the Wild West is neat and all but Geist is just not very good.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:02
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UrbicaMortis posted:Viking werewolves is pretty tempting but where would the neolithic mage setting be based? Weren't we still pretty much kicking around Africa at that point?
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Feb 2, 2015 00:08
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Pope Guilty posted:Weren't we still pretty much kicking around Africa at that point? The neolithic stars somewhere around 10,000 BC, with notable human inventions such as agriculture. So no, we were pretty much kicking around the whole drat planet by that point.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:14
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GoatLord posted:The neolithic stars somewhere around 10,000 BC, with notable human inventions such as agriculture. So no, we were pretty much kicking around the whole drat planet by that point. Huh, I guess I don't know as much about anthropology and early human history as I thought!
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Feb 2, 2015 00:16
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The one thing I can say in favor of Neolithic Mage is that it doesn't sound like the most boring setting/splat combo possible (that's Neolithic Vampire) Change Wild West Geist to Wild Wild West Geist and we're good
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Feb 2, 2015 00:41
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Crion posted:The one thing I can say in favor of Neolithic Mage is that it doesn't sound like the most boring setting/splat combo possible (that's Neolithic Vampire) Ah, a fellow Son of Ether.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:46
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What would neolithic vampire even be, just hanging out in caves like Charles Dance in that Dracula movie?
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Feb 2, 2015 00:47
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At this point I demand to be able to vote for the Wizard Flintstones setting everyone apparently thinks of when they hear the word 'neolithic'.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:50
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Gilok posted:What would neolithic vampire even be, just hanging out in caves like Charles Dance in that Dracula movie? Based on past canon, it would involve Mekhet in the form of horrible tentacle-based blob monsters.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:55
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Probably the simplest way to make Geist more playable and focused is to just omit Manifestations entirely and emphasize Ceremonies, Fetters, krewe abilities and other more ghost-centric sources of power. Also give the Geist a separate willpower pool based on Psyche that it can use to boost or penalize rolls. Man, being a game designer is easy!  I do like the NZ setting, I was hoping such a niche location would come from a really strong idea and was not disappointed. Werewolf was a bit weak just because it keeps reiterating "this is real, humanize the setting" without really providing useful playable details. The bit about "remember everyone has a reason for joining a gang or committing a crime" had me going "cool, please give me a few examples". It would really benefit from a page on how a typical Warriors gang is organized, who's responsible for what, etc.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:59
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This still wouldn't address some of the other problems with Geist, most notably 'why do I give a poo poo about what my Geist wants' and 'so what do I want to do, exactly?'
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Feb 2, 2015 01:00
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Yeah, that solution manages to avoid solving the line's key thematic problem while also taking away the only thing interesting mechanically about the line and replaces it with...fiat and boring dice tricks? A+
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Feb 2, 2015 01:02
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Denim Avenger posted:As far as I can tell the God Machine is if Francis E. Dec was onto something with his insane rambles about the Gangster Computer God, but was only scratching the surface. Oh thank God, it wasn't just me.
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Feb 2, 2015 03:11
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Neolithic mage sounds neat, but I'd be betraying what I stand for if I didn't vote Viking Werewolf.
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Feb 2, 2015 05:41
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This better be "Travelling all the way around Europe and back up Russian rivers to Holmgard and Beyond" vikings and less "horned helmet rape and pillage" vikings.
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Feb 2, 2015 06:24
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Kavak posted:This better be "Travelling all the way around Europe and back up Russian rivers to Holmgard and Beyond" vikings and less "horned helmet rape and pillage" vikings. Well, vikings DID have a specialty in the pillaging department.
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Feb 2, 2015 06:35
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DJ Dizzy posted:Well, vikings DID have a specialty in the pillaging department. Yeah, but they also had specialities in the trading and conquering/settling departments. What better way for a pack to carve out new territory than to stock a few ships full of supplies and set sail west to York, Ireland, Iceland, etc.?
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Feb 2, 2015 06:41
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Don't forget their specialty in a rich and surprisingly complex legal culture that had a not insignificant influence over the English common law. Vikings: They'll Sue You. EDIT: See also the Welsh, though they had much less of an influence. One of the irritations I had with Changeling the Dreaming was that, despite its appropriation of a lot of Welsh and Irish poo poo, they never explored the distinctive and extraordinary laws of those people, many of which were literally perfect for the game's style and setting! The Welsh had a series of categories the people would belong to, all of which fit like a glove: The royalty (the hereditary Kings and their entourage) The free-born men The aillt, a mostly free collective of men with somewhat lesser rights, The alltud, the men of foreign blood who are resident and have a set of distinct rights their own, and the Caeth, the bond-servants and slaves. Similar structures existed in the Irish tribes, and to a lesser extent, the Angles, Danes and Saxons. For the single-most physical-and-social mobility focused line of the oWoD, this system would have been great. But instead we got a sort of non-committal grunt and shrug to anything more complex than 'commoners and nobles'. Loomer fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 06:55
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MalcolmSheppard posted:Brookshaw is an archaeologist by trade, I consulted with a friend of mine who's a Classiscist and Africanist scholar, Dave double checked some things with a person who knows Classical Greek, and I have a general interest in the period and due to my religious background, a smattering of trivia about India. Dave Brookshaw posted:I got as far as my Master's degree and a stint as a post-excavation worker before giving up the archaeologist's life for a steady(ish) wage; my wife got her PHD. A mate of mine briefly lectured in Ancient Greek at Oxford after doing her Classics PHD, and she gave us a hand with things like renaming Arcana "Archai". I knew Malcolm was interested in early Indian history, so he was the first person I asked. Well fair enough. I'm a history grad student at a small South Carolina university, and a Mage campaign set in Alexander's court has been an idea lurking in the back of my head for years on end. I was elated to first hear that the period was getting a setting write-up, and will be very interested to see the supplement's treatment of the Diadochoi. Are you allowed to comment at this juncture on whether or not any historical figures of the court get Awakened or Sleepwalker status as-written? Aristander always struck me as a likely culprit for supernatural malfeasance, with all those prescient but politically useful omen readings and dream interpretations under his belt.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:12
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Neolithic Mage isn't just, like, Druids N' poo poo is it?
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Feb 2, 2015 07:15
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Loomer posted:For the single-most physical-and-social mobility focused line of the oWoD, this system would have been great. But instead we got a sort of non-committal grunt and shrug to anything more complex than 'commoners and nobles'. Rules are banal, maaan. Also social mobility means that people might become more special than you some day. Cabbit posted:Neolithic Mage isn't just, like, Druids N' poo poo is it? Nah, no one knows who they were or what they were doing.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:27
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I think the problem with Stone Age Mage is that we don't actually know all that many details about what was going on back then, which seems like sort of a problem for a game about playing a historical setting. I can't see a way to delve into any sort of specifics about the cultures without just making a bunch of poo poo up, which I'm not super-interested in for this sort of product. I would be way more interested in something like Sumerian Mage (Tower of Babel writes itself), which seems like it would have a broader knowledge base to draw on. Aw, who I am kidding, I was going to vote for Werewolf Vikings anyway.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:35
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Yeah, i'd be more inclined to vote Mage if we had a pitch or description beyond the word "Neolithic". You know what would be good? Promethean in the Soviet Union in the 50s. Lots of wide open spaces to go to the wastes in, the popular idea of the New Soviet Man as a model for the Pilgrimage, the whole Frankenstein project of combining all those nationalities into one new society, trying to build something new from the wreckage of the war, internal surveillance and the secret police as a mortal threat, mad science and alchemy abound, passing along the Ramble through samizdat, Ulgan lore waiting in Siberia and the birth of the Zeka as line-specific hooks...and who would make a better Stakhanovite than a Promethean?
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Feb 2, 2015 07:43
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Kavak posted:Rules are banal, maaan. Also social mobility means that people might become more special than you some day. One of these days, after I run the werewolf/gangrel Hillbilly game and try the Clutch Hunter game again, I'm going to run a heavily modified oChangeling game. Then we'll see if rules are banal! (Changeling's sure as gently caress were half the time...)
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Feb 2, 2015 07:46
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Kellsterik posted:You know what would be good? Promethean in the Soviet Union in the 50s. Lots of wide open spaces to go to the wastes in, the popular idea of the New Soviet Man as a model for the Pilgrimage, the whole Frankenstein project of combining all those nationalities into one new society, trying to build something new from the wreckage of the war, internal surveillance and the secret police as a mortal threat, mad science and alchemy abound, passing along the Ramble through samizdat, Ulgan lore waiting in Siberia and the birth of the Zeka as line-specific hooks...and who would make a better Stakhanovite than a Promethean? Ooh, pretty, want it.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:55
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Kavak posted:Yeah, but they also had specialities in the trading and conquering/settling departments. What better way for a pack to carve out new territory than to stock a few ships full of supplies and set sail west to York, Ireland, Iceland, etc.? It depends on where they came from. Norwegian vikings were mostly settlers, swedes founded Kievan Rus and raided up and down the rivers in eastern europe, and danes settled france, england and everything in between while pillaging and raping. But I digress. Also Iceland was poo poo, greenland was pretty decent in that timeperiod.
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Feb 2, 2015 08:07
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zeal posted:Well fair enough. I'm a history grad student at a small South Carolina university, and a Mage campaign set in Alexander's court has been an idea lurking in the back of my head for years on end. I was elated to first hear that the period was getting a setting write-up, and will be very interested to see the supplement's treatment of the Diadochoi. Are you allowed to comment at this juncture on whether or not any historical figures of the court get Awakened or Sleepwalker status as-written? Aristander always struck me as a likely culprit for supernatural malfeasance, with all those prescient but politically useful omen readings and dream interpretations under his belt. The full text of Dark Eras is available free on the Kickstarter page.
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Feb 2, 2015 08:16
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Cabbit posted:Neolithic Mage isn't just, like, Druids N' poo poo is it?            Not just druids, no. There was some weird poo poo going on back in the day. DSPaul fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 09:13
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Oh poo poo Mage: Neolithic is winning by 15 votes, come onnn
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Feb 2, 2015 10:12
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Hugoon Chavez posted:Oh poo poo Mage: Neolithic is winning by 15 votes, come onnn Where do I support this amazing venture that surely cant go wrong in any way?
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Feb 2, 2015 10:48
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DJ Dizzy posted:Where do I support this amazing venture that surely cant go wrong in any way? You can cast your vote (even if you haven't backed) here: http://theonyxpath.com/dark-eras-poll/ I have to say, Wild West Geist would actually be kinda cool, I think? I know very little about Geist but Wild West of Darkness (nWWoD) with ghosts sounds like a cool concept.
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Feb 2, 2015 11:02
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Hugoon Chavez posted:You can cast your vote (even if you haven't backed) here: Voted Geist :3 That's the 2nd ed I'm most looking forward to. Give that game some focus and clean up the rules a little bit and it'll be pretty amazing. I mean, you're basically playing Ghost Rider.
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Feb 2, 2015 11:12
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I also voted to finally give Geist a Nice Thing but it's currently tied between DA:WtF2 and Yet More Mage.
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Feb 2, 2015 12:20
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It doesn't help that Geist isn't exactly the most popular nWoD line to begin with.
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Feb 2, 2015 14:23
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Daeren posted:Read this to see where the writers got a whole shitload of inspiration for the God-Machine. To add to this, I feel it's really important to always make it REALLY murky as to whether the GM actually has a coherent plan or it just does things for no real reason (aside from the things that are meant as prep-work to do other things). The fact that you never quite know for certain whether what you're thwarting may actually be doing something good is important, in my opinion. Not everything the GM does is awful, or Integrators would have a much harder time existing.
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Feb 2, 2015 14:27
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I assume that a good portion of what the God Machine does is pointless nonsense that functions as Concealment Infrastructure not against the clueless masses but against the Stigmatics and Demons who are in the know. "A cult of seventh sons who run companies that incorporate arcane sigils into their logos are selling steel with a strange composition to contractors building libraries in cities whose rank in US population corresponds to the Fibonacci sequence? WHAT DOES IT MEEEEEAAAAN?!"
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Feb 2, 2015 14:54
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I feel like it's a mistake to give the Godmachine anything even approaching human motivation. Like, a good Godmachine plot would be to crash a plane in Venezuela, so an immigrant living in NYC wears her black dress (instead of her blue one) on Wednesday for her dead grandmother. Then on Thursday she wears her blue dress to work, boards a bus where everybody except one guy is wearing blue, which makes that guy feel a little like an outsider and just a little creeped out. Why did Godmachine want him to feel edgy? 
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Feb 2, 2015 15:12
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| # ? Jun 10, 2024 07:57 |
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As I continue going through Dark Eras, my only disappointment so far is no appearance by the Chevalier of Thélème. When was the last time he showed up, the Horror Recognition Guide?
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Feb 2, 2015 15:23
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