World of Darkness Megathread: Curse of the Were-Poster

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > World of Darkness Megathread: Curse of the Were-Poster

«‹›850 »

Tailfnz: Oct 13, 2011; I'm delightfully forgettable.

I'm going to be running Masquerade 20th soon, and holding the first session of character creation tonight (a few players had scheduling mishaps at the last second, so I'll be doing a second session of it next week as well). I'm damned excited to finally be STing tabletop, particularly since I've been trying to get a game going since my last attempt fell through in November due to my sudden move. I think I've got a damned cool setting and a solid setup for the players, however, I'm a bit nervous since I'm nowhere near as familiar with the crunch of Masquerade as I am with Apocalypse, having never played the tabletop version.

Any weird rules discrepancies I should be looking out for in V20 (apart from the inherent wonkiness of CWoD)? I'm pretty much only using rules from the core book and revised Clanbooks, since they're all I really have.

e: Apparently I can't spell today.

Tailfnz fucked around with this message at 18:55 on May 23, 2015

# ? May 23, 2015 15:54

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 17, 2024 17:24

MonsieurChoc: Oct 12, 2013; Every species can smell its own extinction.

Dave Brookshaw posted:

Asylum actually covers all medical professionals.

We could do with an Organised Crime one, IMO.

I would buy that in a heartbeat.

I remember someone, somewhere, posting a cool Mafia-based Hunter Compact. Like, when poo poo gets weird, they call Uncle Vinnie to deal with it.

# ? May 23, 2015 16:50

NiciasTSOF: May 15, 2014

Organized Crime would be neat. I'm drawn to the university idea because I've wanted to run something set at Oxford/Cambridge/expy thereof forever. Or maybe a book on rural areas.

# ? May 23, 2015 20:32

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

Midnight Roads does rural okay, especiallly that town stuck outside time.

I would definitely thrown down money for Grand Theft Auto: Damnation City.

# ? May 23, 2015 21:59

MalcolmSheppard: Jun 24, 2012; MATTHEW 7:20

Dave Brookshaw posted:

I keep gamely pitching Blue-books as well. There's only so many resources to go around.

You know, that reminds me: If you guys would like a full length Woundgate book you should make a lot of noise about that.

# ? May 23, 2015 22:27

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007; FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Woundgate was the fantasy setting from Mirrors? Or was it the 'everyone knows about the supernatural' one?

# ? May 24, 2015 01:32

MalcolmSheppard: Jun 24, 2012; MATTHEW 7:20

Mors Rattus posted:

Woundgate was the fantasy setting from Mirrors? Or was it the 'everyone knows about the supernatural' one?

It's the fantasy setting.

# ? May 24, 2015 03:30

MonsieurChoc: Oct 12, 2013; Every species can smell its own extinction.

MalcolmSheppard posted:

It's the fantasy setting.

That would be great, but I'd actually prefer a near-future science fiction setting. Like, with early colonies on the other planets of the solar system. There's a lot of untapped potential for horror there. Nothing in the solar system is as awe-inspiring, as terrifyingly huge as Jupiter. Anyone rewatch 2001 or 2010 recently? They have some moments of pretty genuine dread in them, when faced with the complete unknowable. While eventually the mysterious monoliths and their makers are revealed to be sort-of well meaning, they could have easily proved to be something horrifying. And then of course you have Alien and Event Horizon and all those other Horror in Space movies.

Look at this scene, this is something that could easily happen in a WoD game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Guc2TU3fWo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqSml40nwCE

# ? May 24, 2015 04:22

Soonmot: Dec 19, 2002; Entrapta fucking loves robots; Grimey Drawer

An organized crime one is so obvious that it's amazing there isn't one yet.

# ? May 24, 2015 06:43

Pope Guilty: Nov 6, 2006; The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.

Soonmot posted:

An organized crime one is so obvious that it's amazing there isn't one yet.

After WoD: Mafia, they might be understandably cautious.

# ? May 24, 2015 14:19

LatwPIAT: Jun 6, 2011

Pope Guilty posted:

After WoD: Mafia, they might be understandably cautious.

I want to know more about WoD: Mafia now. :allears:

# ? May 24, 2015 14:40

ManMythLegend: Aug 18, 2003; I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.

Pope Guilty posted:

After WoD: Mafia, they might be understandably cautious.

I was thinking the same thing.

# ? May 24, 2015 14:53

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007; FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

LatwPIAT posted:

I want to know more about WoD: Mafia now.

Imagine the dumbest book of Italian stereotypes you can, but with vampires.

# ? May 24, 2015 16:00

Loomer: Dec 19, 2007; A Very Special Hell

And the conceit that the Mafia's 'romantic' heyday never ended. So basically it's about a mafia that never actually existed, treating it like it did, and then filling it with bad stereotypes and poorly written Mario Puzo riffs.

# ? May 24, 2015 16:34

GimpInBlack: Sep 27, 2012; That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Loomer posted:

And the conceit that the Mafia's 'romantic' heyday never ended. So basically it's about a mafia that never actually existed, treating it like it did, and then filling it with bad stereotypes and poorly written Mario Puzo riffs.

IMHO the way to do an nWoD organized crime book would be more of a build-your-own toolbox than a gazetteer of crime syndicates. Like, "this is the kind of organization and structure you can expect an international smuggling cartel to have, that's what a local protection racket looks like, and here are some ways they might interact with the supernatural" rather than "Don Luigi Lucabrazzi is a 9th-generation Toreador with a fluffy white cat ghoul."

On an unrelated note I just finished watching Person of Interest Season 4 and holy hell do I want to play Demon: The Descent now.

# ? May 24, 2015 16:48

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007; FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Might be worth discussing the various major crime groups around the world, though - MS-13 is going to react to magic a lot differently than the Camorra or the Bratva.

# ? May 24, 2015 16:51

Loomer: Dec 19, 2007; A Very Special Hell

On that note of different reactions, the best crime group in the oWoD is Sapa Inca, a Colombian drug cartel operating in Detroit that's wiped the city clean of vampires and is setting up limbs in most major cities. Picture MS-13, the Medellins or the Sinaloa Cartel, only they use machetes and flamethrowers to kill vampires as well as journalists and rivals. Of course they revealed they were secretly masterminded by the anarchs originally but they've gone completely rogue and do their own thing. The hilarious part is that in a couple of years, a violent drug cartel did more to make the streets of Detroit safer than the Imbued managed in over a decade, all without the benefit of supernatural sight or healing gifts or magic powers to better kill monsters. All they had was a few tips and some narco cult rituals.

What's real scary is they also do a lot of outreach IIRC to other, even rival, gangs and cartels about the undead scourge behind the scenes. I can't think of anything more terrifying for vampires than a large, world-spanning, streets-up movement that wants them dead and has spent decades learning how to wage an asymmetrical war and which is largely out of reach of the Camarilla stand-bys of police and government manipulation. They're well armed, able to operate in the daylight, and loving fearless because they're all snorting cocaine and preying to Santa Muerte before a fight. It's oWoD as gently caress and I love.

# ? May 24, 2015 17:09

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007; FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Wasn't there a Hunter group in nWoD that was basically 'inner city gangs take down vampires'?

# ? May 24, 2015 17:40

Cabbit: Jul 19, 2001; _{Is that everything you have?}

Mors Rattus posted:

Wasn't there a Hunter group in nWoD that was basically 'inner city gangs take down vampires'?

The Ascending Ones, yeah. Ostensibly there's two other parts to that conspiracy besides drug dealing gangbangers, but nobody ever remembers them.

# ? May 24, 2015 17:58

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

Cabbit posted:

The Ascending Ones, yeah. Ostensibly there's two other parts to that conspiracy besides drug dealing gangbangers, but nobody ever remembers them.

There's also a Compact in the Vampire antagonist book for Hunter, but I can't remember the name at the moment.

# ? May 24, 2015 17:58

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

Loomer posted:

On that note of different reactions, the best crime group in the oWoD is Sapa Inca, a Colombian drug cartel operating in Detroit that's wiped the city clean of vampires and is setting up limbs in most major cities. Picture MS-13, the Medellins or the Sinaloa Cartel, only they use machetes and flamethrowers to kill vampires as well as journalists and rivals. Of course they revealed they were secretly masterminded by the anarchs originally but they've gone completely rogue and do their own thing. The hilarious part is that in a couple of years, a violent drug cartel did more to make the streets of Detroit safer than the Imbued managed in over a decade, all without the benefit of supernatural sight or healing gifts or magic powers to better kill monsters. All they had was a few tips and some narco cult rituals.

What's real scary is they also do a lot of outreach IIRC to other, even rival, gangs and cartels about the undead scourge behind the scenes. I can't think of anything more terrifying for vampires than a large, world-spanning, streets-up movement that wants them dead and has spent decades learning how to wage an asymmetrical war and which is largely out of reach of the Camarilla stand-bys of police and government manipulation. They're well armed, able to operate in the daylight, and loving fearless because they're all snorting cocaine and preying to Santa Muerte before a fight. It's oWoD as gently caress and I love.

There is nothing I don't love about this. Oh oWoD. :allears:

# ? May 24, 2015 18:03

MonsieurChoc: Oct 12, 2013; Every species can smell its own extinction.

Effectronica posted:

There's also a Compact in the Vampire antagonist book for Hunter, but I can't remember the name at the moment.

The Night Watch, although they're more inspired by the Black Panthers than street gangs.

Seven years ago (holy poo poo), I made up a Compact of Russian Weapon Smugglers. A quick google search, and let's see how it looked.

me from the past posted:

(Compact) The Succession Army (aka The White Cossacks)

1906-07: The Tsar growing mysticism causes him to set up a secret team of agent whose duty is to fight monsters. [Haven't decided on a name yet] Originally skeptic, these soldiers soon realize in how much trouble they are, and ask for greater support. They become an early equivalent to Task Force: VALKYRIE. Girogir Rasputin serves as something of an "occult consultant", but has no real power of the group.
1914: As the Great War starts, an occult war waged by the varying Enmpires and the various secret Hunter groups, as well as many monsters, starts. The Tsarist team step up their operations.
October 7, 1916: A failed operation on the Black Sea causes the explosion of the dreadnoguht Empress Maria. While the team's involvment is hidden from the masses, the current head of the black sea fleet, Aleksandr Kolchak, learns of it's existence. Unfortunately, various monster groups are also alerted to their existence.
December 29, 1916: Rasputin is assassinated in mysterious circumstances. This is the beginning of an all-out attack on the hunters by multiple monster groups.
1917: With the Russian government thrown into chaos and monsters hunting them all down, the team breaks up. The survivors split, joining one faction or another or trying to disappear. The biggest group joins with Admiral Kolchak's White Army.
1918-1920: The survivors who joined with Kolchak help the Whtie Army deal with monster attacks and use their knowledge to give tactical advantage. Mad Baron von Utgern-Sternberg stages attacks on many Red and White convoys,s tealing much ressources, apparently with monster help. The survivors oppose him most of all.
1920: The White Army falls and Kolchak is executed. The survivors disappear, along with most of the White Army's treasury.
1921: The Bloody Baron von Utgern-Sternberg is given to the Bolcheviks by his own troops, after crowning himself dictator of Mongolia and pillaging most of it. A huge chunk of the riches he amassed are also mysteriously missing.

During the 20s and early 30s, many White Army and World War I survivors, having seen the true horros of the world during the war, band together to hunt monsters throughout Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. They are surprisingly well-funded and well-equipped. While they are ultimately crushed, many elder monsters still wake up with nightmares about them.

During the Cold War, many anti-communist groups in and enar the USSR learns about monsters. Those who start fighting them are suddenly backed with funds and equipments by a mysterious group of "friends", other than the United States.

With the USSR broken, the descendants of the Sucession Army's founders keep funding and equipping splinter groups of hunters throughout the former USSR countries and northern Asia. With the USSR fallen, they mostly deal in black market, weapon smuggling and monster killing.

Very few have connected the dots.

me from the past posted:

The Sucession Army (Continued)

The Sucession Army has went through many changes over the years, from it's more ideological past to their Cold War incarnation. Nowadays, the group is deeply involved in weapon smuggling and black markets, although it still funds and equips member cells. While the White Army is long gone, the descendants of the Sucession Army's founders still have a... "nostalgia" for pre-communist Russia, which tends to influence their choices of cells to fund.

The White Cossacks are among the more varied hunter groups, as they draw from all the various ethicities (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and cultures of the ex-USSR and the ex-Russian Empire. This can lead to inter-compact conflict, and is bnot helped by the light hand the "leadership" take with it's cells. The inncer circle does not really care what the cells do, as long as they are fighting monsters (and, before the fall of the USSR, communism). The most will they od is sometimes ask a few cells to do something for them, and they won't even cut funding if they refuse for a good reason. WHile many cells like the freedom this kind of group gives them, it does create a lack of direction and organization. The compact pretty much never manages to acomplish anything on the greater scale.

The enemy
Many of the cells have their own "favoured" enemy, wether it is vampire, werewolves or witches. The egenral outlook on monsters tend to be: if you find a monster doing "evil stuff", kill it dead. Ignore the ones not doing anything, you got better things to blow up. Admittedly, mosty cells have little information on monsters aside from the basics. Their "shoot first, shoot again to make sure it'S dead" tends to work for a while, especially thansk to their impressive arsenal, until they face a more cunning monster, or one thatw as waiting for them, resulting in many casualties.

Groups
While there are no "formal" divisions, there do tend to be a few divisions among the Sucession Army's members. There are also some jobs the "leaders" need done that are more tangential to the monster hunting business.
Brokers: There are people who acts as the intermediary between the "investors" and the "invested". They are the ones who choose the cells and then give them funds and equipments. As that can easily become dangerous, they are usually accompanied by trained bodayguards.
Smuggler: Someone needs to be abkle to get from Irkutsk to Ploand while carrying a bag full of illegal guns. That's those guys job.
"White Knights": There are those among the Sucession Army who, when learning of the group'S history, or simply by learning that monsters exist, try to become like the shining white knights of legends. Usually very young and idealistic, they tend to either die very fast or become more cynical. Those few who can maintain their honor and survive for long are among the scariest hunters on the Vigil.
Extremists: There are those among the SA who mix their ideologies with the Vigil, to often explosive results. The Army has greater tolerance for these than most other compacts, but even they have limits on civilian casualties.
Black Cells: Some cells get more involves than other in the black market. Many monsters are also heavily involve din various criminal activities. When Monsters start moving against the compact's business interests, these cells hit them hard.

Status:
Status in The Sucession Army is simple: it measures how much the inner circle likes you and feels you are important to the Vigil.
*: The SA has noticed your cell (or recruited you), and is funding your Vigil. You gain two extra ressources dot, usable only to support the vigil.
***: You are now recognized as part of the Army by other cells, and have biogger connections with the organization. You gain an extra two-dot of contacts, applying to the Black Market and Weapon Smuggler.
*****: Your cell is now considered one of the key cells in fighting the monsters. You have an extra dot of ressource, bringing the total to three extra dot, as well as greater leeway in how to spend it. You also gain one dot of Allies, applied to other Sucession Army cells, to represent the added support you gain from others.

# ? May 24, 2015 18:05

Big Hubris: Mar 8, 2011

Goddamnit stop making PAYDAY: the Vigil so attractive!

# ? May 24, 2015 19:48

PantsOptional: Dec 27, 2012; All I wanna do is make you bounce

Payday's already a game about weird urban fantasy/horror. You serve insane overlords who send you out as their pawns, you're opposed by a neverending stream of cops who appear as if summoned from the elemental plane of law, and you shoot them with banishment bullets that send them back to their home dimension.

# ? May 24, 2015 22:25

Androc: Dec 26, 2008

It gets weirder than that- remember those times when you specifically go back to a meth lab in the middle of nowhere that the police already hit to make more? It defies conventional logic, it's more like a lazy storyteller re-using props.

What I'm saying is, Payday is set in Arcadia.

# ? May 25, 2015 01:09

Pope Guilty: Nov 6, 2006; The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.

GimpInBlack posted:

IMHO the way to do an nWoD organized crime book would be more of a build-your-own toolbox than a gazetteer of crime syndicates. Like, "this is the kind of organization and structure you can expect an international smuggling cartel to have, that's what a local protection racket looks like, and here are some ways they might interact with the supernatural" rather than "Don Luigi Lucabrazzi is a 9th-generation Toreador with a fluffy white cat ghoul."

As an ST, this would be really helpful.

Loomer posted:

On that note of different reactions, the best crime group in the oWoD is Sapa Inca, a Colombian drug cartel operating in Detroit that's wiped the city clean of vampires and is setting up limbs in most major cities. Picture MS-13, the Medellins or the Sinaloa Cartel, only they use machetes and flamethrowers to kill vampires as well as journalists and rivals. Of course they revealed they were secretly masterminded by the anarchs originally but they've gone completely rogue and do their own thing. The hilarious part is that in a couple of years, a violent drug cartel did more to make the streets of Detroit safer than the Imbued managed in over a decade, all without the benefit of supernatural sight or healing gifts or magic powers to better kill monsters. All they had was a few tips and some narco cult rituals.

What's real scary is they also do a lot of outreach IIRC to other, even rival, gangs and cartels about the undead scourge behind the scenes. I can't think of anything more terrifying for vampires than a large, world-spanning, streets-up movement that wants them dead and has spent decades learning how to wage an asymmetrical war and which is largely out of reach of the Camarilla stand-bys of police and government manipulation. They're well armed, able to operate in the daylight, and loving fearless because they're all snorting cocaine and preying to Santa Muerte before a fight. It's oWoD as gently caress and I love.

This, meanwhile, loving rules.

# ? May 25, 2015 03:35

Big Hubris: Mar 8, 2011

Androc posted:

It gets weirder than that- remember those times when you specifically go back to a meth lab in the middle of nowhere that the police already hit to make more? It defies conventional logic, it's more like a lazy storyteller re-using props.

What I'm saying is, Payday is set in Arcadia.

This is why you need a parallel world near our world but not our own.

# ? May 25, 2015 06:49

Androc: Dec 26, 2008

Seriously, though, I would play the poo poo out of a Payday heist to steal the true name or whatever of one of the gentry.

# ? May 25, 2015 07:56

Wrestlepig: Feb 25, 2011; my mum says im cool; Toilet Rascal

Get your machine guns ready, we're going to hit the blood bank.

# ? May 25, 2015 13:32

Doodmons: Jan 17, 2009

Masks on, we've got archetypes to embody.

# ? May 25, 2015 15:08

moths: Aug 25, 2004; I would also still appreciate some danger.

chaos rhames posted:

Get your machine guns ready, we're going to hit the blood bank.

Vampire: the Masked Raid

# ? May 26, 2015 12:27

Pope Guilty: Nov 6, 2006; The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.

moths posted:

Vampire: the Masked Raid

Hampire: the Masked Ace Raid

# ? May 26, 2015 13:51

Luminous Obscurity: Jan 10, 2007; "The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."

Changeling 2E just updated with information on the new demisplat, The Fae-Touched.

# ? May 26, 2015 20:36

paradoxGentleman: Dec 10, 2013; wheres the jester, I could do with some pointless nonsense right about now

This sort of writing strongly reminds me of Changeling 1E: very evocative, not at all gung-ho and "badass" like 2E.

paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 21:13 on May 26, 2015

# ? May 26, 2015 21:10

unseenlibrarian: Jun 4, 2012; There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Yeah, that's way more interesting than 1E's "Lost who didn't get baked long enough" version.

# ? May 26, 2015 21:36

Androc: Dec 26, 2008

I'm definitely liking it so far, Fae-touched can be used as a very obvious way to expand on any given character's connection to the mortal world.

Though, it seems a bit odd that they just tack on "oh, by the way, you're gonna die a few decades sooner" in the disadvantages section with no mention anywhere else.

# ? May 26, 2015 22:40

Mulva: Sep 13, 2011; It's about time for my once per decade ban for being a consistently terrible poster.

To be fair, as a minor template in the WoD it's less "I'm going to die in 20 years?" and more "Holy poo poo, how did I live through 20 years of that?".

# ? May 26, 2015 23:01

Loomer: Dec 19, 2007; A Very Special Hell

Blood and Betrayal dropped today. I am one page in and it's already some peak oWoD. Weird bald dude? check. Bondage gear? Check. hosed up teeth, not discounting two front teeth as fangs? Check. That is their frontispiece.

EDIT:
The continuing official incorporation of years of unofficial LARP stuff is baffling me sometimes. It's making it a very different setting from both V20 and Revised, which is a pain in the rear end for the Project. Some of it's great, some of it is... Substantially less so.

Loomer fucked around with this message at 09:58 on May 27, 2015

# ? May 27, 2015 07:20

Luminous Obscurity: Jan 10, 2007; "The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."

In other news, Beast: The Primordial's Kickstarter should be going up at the end of the week. So we should have a look at the final text of it soon enough.

Androc posted:

I'm definitely liking it so far, Fae-touched can be used as a very obvious way to expand on any given character's connection to the mortal world.

Though, it seems a bit odd that they just tack on "oh, by the way, you're gonna die a few decades sooner" in the disadvantages section with no mention anywhere else.

Yeah, David Hill mentioned in the OP thread that the shorter lifespan bit is probably going to be put on the chopping block.

# ? May 27, 2015 17:46

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 17, 2024 17:24

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007; FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

I feel like they kind of need a thing that isn't just 'A Changeling, but worse'. They're like ghouls are to vampires except for the part where ghouls can go out in the sun and vampires can't. Like, they talk about how Fae-touched still have human identities in society, but their obsessive need to enter the Hedge and get glamour seems like it'd get in the way of that.

# ? May 27, 2015 17:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > World of Darkness Megathread: Curse of the Were-Poster

«‹›850 »