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They also have a spell that can hide bolts of lightning in sleepers, ready to smite the next Mage they see.
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May 6, 2016 01:23
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Mors Rattus posted:We joke but via the Techne merit, D&D can be a yantra.
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May 6, 2016 01:23
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Daeren posted:
Given the sort of things that can happen to you after death in CofD, having a spell that says that you die instantly, and that you absolutely don't leave any kind of ghost behind, seems pretty useful. I can even imagine it being used by mages that are still religious and that don't see suicide as a sin. "I am old as balls and had a good enough life. Better off myself securely and make sure some young assholes don't keep trying to pull me back to ask me questions. I wrote a drat diary, they can read that instead."
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May 6, 2016 01:41
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delenda est
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bewilderment posted:Given the sort of things that can happen to you after death in CofD, having a spell that says that you die instantly, and that you absolutely don't leave any kind of ghost behind, seems pretty useful. I can even imagine it being used by mages that are still religious and that don't see suicide as a sin. Oh, it's certainly a reasonable spell to have come up in grimoires or something, or as an offhanded mention from a mentor or just insight...but rotes are developed through repetition and practice and refinement, and a spell that kills you is like that Daffy Duck bit. "Watch carefully, I can only do this trick once!"
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May 6, 2016 01:44
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They've also got a spell that puts Sleepwalkers back to Sleep. Which is, y'know, a major act of hubris. Banishers don't tend to be very Wise.
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May 6, 2016 01:48
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Daeren posted:Oh, it's certainly a reasonable spell to have come up in grimoires or something, or as an offhanded mention from a mentor or just insight...but rotes are developed through repetition and practice and refinement, and a spell that kills you is like that Daffy Duck bit. "Watch carefully, I can only do this trick once!" I think this is actually plausible now, as I think I read in the 2E book that there's a layer of astral travel where 'death' just throws you back to your body. You could conceivably practice it there, I think?
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May 6, 2016 02:56
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Everyone who looked at the chapter fic and said, "why yes, this deserves to exist and should be how we introduce people to the new edition" needs some form of correction I can't conceive of because I'm too tired. Between this, Exalted, and Beast, I feel safe not buying more OPP poo poo.
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May 6, 2016 08:59
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ErichZahn posted:Everyone who looked at the chapter fic and said, "why yes, this deserves to exist and should be how we introduce people to the new edition" needs some form of correction I can't conceive of because I'm too tired. What, the Mage fic? The writing style of the confession parts was kinda wooden and it could have introduced more of the setting, but I ended up enjoying it and the plot was interesting. What did you dislike about it?
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May 6, 2016 10:14
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Daeren posted:The short version is that they're Mages that loving hate magic. Not true any more! Banisher is now a political label for any mage that hunts other mages. Some are still the result of twisted Awakenings, but they've had defined what drives them mad: their perception of Mage Sight takes the form of pain.
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May 6, 2016 12:27
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For some bizarre reason there's interest at my law school about a VtM game, and someone approached me and asked if I knew anything about the game because they knew I did a bit of tabletop stuff with friends. I can think of very little more terrifying than a table full of lawyers all pretending to be vampires.
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May 6, 2016 12:31
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Well, at least they're already ready for cutthroat competition.
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May 6, 2016 12:31
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Did you respond something along the lines of "anything? I know everything!" Or is the database something you whip out on second sessions
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May 6, 2016 13:40
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One of the best things about the Banishers book is that it presents them as designated antagonists- they're wrong because the premise of the game is that the supernal really is higher and better and more real and more true than the material, and the Pentacle mages really are the good guys, so people who see magic as horrible and revolting and hunt mages in order to protect reality from them are wrong and must be stopped. They're not bad guys because they're wrong, they're bad guys because their perspective on magic- the only perspective they are constitutionally capable of having- is the complete opposite of the perspective enshrined as true and correct.
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May 6, 2016 13:42
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Loomer posted:For some bizarre reason there's interest at my law school about a VtM game, and someone approached me and asked if I knew anything about the game because they knew I did a bit of tabletop stuff with friends. I can think of very little more terrifying than a table full of lawyers all pretending to be vampires. "Let me tell you about the True Black Hand."
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May 6, 2016 13:49
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Loomer posted:For some bizarre reason there's interest at my law school about a VtM game, and someone approached me and asked if I knew anything about the game because they knew I did a bit of tabletop stuff with friends. I can think of very little more terrifying than a table full of lawyers all pretending to be vampires.  I'm having to read through the annual report of an oil company to prepare a class project for an accounting course I'm taking, and let me say that White Wolf's ruined it for me thanks to Pentex and its subsidiaries. I keep expecting offhanded comments about refineries in south america being attacked by local wild life or how their baby-rendering plants are a month behind schedule "The BoD is happy to report to its shareholders that incidents of wolf-related ecoterrorist activity have sharply dropped following our decision last year to invest heavily in silver mines. It is expected that the amortization of these improvements will pay for themselves within five years. If you turn to page 243 of the financials you'll see an actuarial table showing that leaks in the main pipelines have increased..."
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May 6, 2016 13:56
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So, at Because, I mean, that movie's thesis is identical to their own thesis. Every man is a god, every man is free.
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May 6, 2016 14:04
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Little_wh0re posted:Did you respond something along the lines of "anything? I know everything!" Or is the database something you whip out on second sessions The project is something I discuss as little as possible with real people. I did say I knew a bit but I don't necessarily want to run the game, so we'll see if they can find a storyteller. citybeatnik posted:
Hey, don't forget the Brujah! I had a similar thing happen recently, reading about the real-life megacorporations that run the world, though mine was for a corporate law assignment. There happened to be a post on the OP forums about who would win, Pentex or the Syndicate, at the same time so I answered that.
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May 6, 2016 14:22
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Loomer posted:The project is something I discuss as little as possible with real people. I did say I knew a bit but I don't necessarily want to run the game, so we'll see if they can find a storyteller. Well heck, what was the answer? I've wondered about clan Ventrue opening its coffers against both. Before the Giovanni show up and try to ruin everything that is.
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May 6, 2016 14:30
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Loomer posted:For some bizarre reason there's interest at my law school about a VtM game, and someone approached me and asked if I knew anything about the game because they knew I did a bit of tabletop stuff with friends. I can think of very little more terrifying than a table full of lawyers all pretending to be vampires. *looks over at the looming stack of papers for The Project* "I know a few things"
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May 6, 2016 14:31
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Pope Guilty posted:One of the best things about the Banishers book is that it presents them as designated antagonists- they're wrong because the premise of the game is that the supernal really is higher and better and more real and more true than the material, and the Pentacle mages really are the good guys, so people who see magic as horrible and revolting and hunt mages in order to protect reality from them are wrong and must be stopped. They're not bad guys because they're wrong, they're bad guys because their perspective on magic- the only perspective they are constitutionally capable of having- is the complete opposite of the perspective enshrined as true and correct. ...but Isn't that also the worst thing about Beast?
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May 6, 2016 15:14
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Banishers are sympathetic.
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May 6, 2016 15:16
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Kurieg posted:...but Isn't that also the worst thing about Beast? Banishers are people who have entirely reasonable reasons for doing what they're doing but from an OOC perspective we can see are wrong. Heroes are right on an OOC level but the game acts like they're just irrational crazy people. It's the opposite scenario.
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May 6, 2016 15:21
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It's like how in Vampire, the Hunters are the antagonists. Hunters are absolutely correct, Vampires are a literally parasitic drain on society that should be destroyed, but the premise of the game is that you are playing Vampires, and so you fight them. Because the game acknowledges that - at worst - hunters have a point, you can engage them in interesting ways, both through physical violence and philosophy. By contrast, Heroes in Beast are antagonists because the game has decided they are all bad and you are all good, no matter what actions or behavior may say. There's no room for engagement with Heroes, no shades of grey or sympathy. They're just unreasonable MRA monsters out to kill innocent Beasts after all. That makes Beast badly written and shallow (in addition to a bunch of other stuff, of course).
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May 6, 2016 15:22
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citybeatnik posted:Well heck, what was the answer? I've wondered about clan Ventrue opening its coffers against both. Before the Giovanni show up and try to ruin everything that is. Well, it really depends on which gameline. If you're talking Mage, the Syndicate will win, and if Werewolf, Pentex will. If you look at the world of darkness as a whole - insofar as that's possible - then I think the Syndicate will probably take it, but it definitely wouldn't be an easy struggle because Pentex is so enmeshed in the global financial system and trade networks. Worse, Pentex indirectly controls very, very dangerous things. I'm not talking about the Fomori and all that (those are definitely Bad, but they're not the kind of bad that the Syndicate can't handle) but rather real, physical assets like the 11 nuclear power plants throughout the CONUS, the world's largest oil pipelines, huge reserves of biological and chemical weapons, etc. It becomes a question of two factors. One, how much collateral damage is acceptable? If the Syndicate is willing to risk a scorched earth response, that makes it much harder to prevail. Two, will the rest of the Technocracy support the Syndicate if they find out about their dealings with the Syndicate? If not, they actually can't take major and open action. They'll need to be extremely subtle, which is also a game Pentex plays extremely well, so in that case it may come down to 'neither', which is a defacto Pentex victory. The worst case scenario is the Technocracy using it as an excuse to purge the Syndicate out, missing the importance of taking action against Pentex, and letting it expand further to fill the void. The only real model for a Syndicate victory that doesn't come at a truly horrific cost to them and everyone else is a slow, gradual series of market adjustments (while avoiding the Paradox that causes) with NWO collaboration to fundamentally alter the habits of consumers and industries while proactively blocking Pentex and its various affiliate groups from adapting to the changing market. To complicate things, Pentex has its own mages to run interference against any Syndicate-originated Market Adjustment effects. It might actually make a fun chronicle, though maybe not a long-term viable one. I'll throw in one of my posts from that topic because it illustrates just how hard a fight it'd be. ""The basic reason they don't is that Pentex is a major global actor that they can't destroy without calling significant attention to their own dealings - made willingly and knowingly - with a force that is, at its core, inherently opposed to the end goals of the Technocracy. They have over 134 offices worldwide, possess major market shares in pharmaceuticals, weapons manufacturing, private military companies, waste disposal, mining, energy generation, oil extraction and refining, food processing, logistics and distribution, mass market media shares, fishery operations, cosmetics, raw plastics and paper production, tobacco products, global stocks and real-estate investment, and healthcare. Through Tellus and Sunburst, they have major shares of the computing world. Nastrum brings a major market share in the aerospace and military sector. Their sticky fingers even go into education and childcare. Endron alone has seven nuclear plants in America with 5 more slated to be built as of 2000 - and if on schedule, now built and operational. They control the most important oil pipeline in the entire Middle East, the Aswan-61 pipeline. Magadon has over 60 production plants and a dozen research plants worldwide, and a 22.5% market share in 1998. In 1999 they made 24.8 billion dollars gross, and in 2000, posted a net profit of 8.115 billion. O'Tolley's has a 25+% market share in the CONUS - for reference, McDonalds, that veritable juggernaut of Greasy Meat-Based Capitalism, only has a 19% market share IRL. In 2010, an Endron rig spilled 250 million gallons of oil - and that barely put a dent in the company's pockets. Deepwater Horizon was 210 million. That's why the Syndicate and the Technocracy doesn't 'crush' Pentex. You don't crush Pentex without also crushing the entire Western economy with it. It isn't some pesky little tick the Technocracy can pull out - it's a tapeworm wound so deep through the entire Western economic model that if you try and brute force it out, you're going to quickly find yourself elbow-deep in blood wondering why everything is screaming. Not only would the Syndicate taking the action expose them to massive problems with the rest of the Technocracy, the Technocracy simply can't crush Pentex without prolonged, difficult struggle. And before anyone goes 'well they're magic!', the global financial recession happened when the Syndicate got too 'experimental' - and Pentex have their own nephandi to call on.""
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May 6, 2016 15:46
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an interesting thing that may or may not be significant!
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May 6, 2016 15:50
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I expect that's just part of the World of Darkness branded slot machines they've licensed. Not exactly words I ever thought I'd type, but it's nice to see Paradox getting into the same spirit as WWP had when it licensed Gangrel, the Pro-Wrestler. EDIT: I can't not share this. Their law firm stateside for this matter has its main offices at "64 Gothic Street". The company headed by Real Life Dracula/Rob Zombie Dude uses lawyers based at Gothic Street. I'm dying. Loomer fucked around with this message at 15:54 on May 6, 2016 |
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May 6, 2016 15:51
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Loomer posted:*Neat stuff* I always forget just how substantive the various corporations in the WoD are - doesn't The Syndicate have holdings in some alt-health and new age stuff specifically so they can flood the market with things that don't work just to spite the Traditions? Come to think of it, that's one of the problems i'm starting to run in to with the online chat system i play with. People don't pay attention to the background stuff and use real world companies and policies as opposed to the more twisted game versions. Which really ends up masking just how lovely things are. I've had people wonder what that O'Tolley's place my bone gnawer keeps getting his food at, and why they'd sell something like the Megafat Bacon Fat Flavored Fat Shake, only $0.99 if bought as part of the Gutbuster Combo Pack.
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May 6, 2016 16:12
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They do, yeah, along with a few other ventures, though my notes are less detailed there since they never got a full treatment for subsidiaries like Pentex did.
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May 6, 2016 16:17
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It's very weird to realize that White Wolf uses the same law firm as my last landlord.
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May 6, 2016 16:19
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Kellsterik posted:What, the Mage fic? The writing style of the confession parts was kinda wooden and it could have introduced more of the setting, but I ended up enjoying it and the plot was interesting. What did you dislike about it? They wrote a happy/successful lesbian relationship for the purpose of destroying it in order to set the stakes and establish tone. The fact that the Consilium/caucus/Interfector are subhuman filth who failed in their duties as individual Wise and as Thearchs/Mentor/Interfector is second to the fact that someone at OPP sat down, and deliberately bad ended the lesbians. That this was given the green light indicates a failure at every level of OPP, which mirrors the plot perfectly. Some loving servant of The Ruin sat down and said, "What Chronicles of Darkness needs is more dead lesbians.". Don't loving start in on the mystical fallout of 9.11 excuse, that is the lamest possible loving Mystery and you know it. They deliberately chose to write a lesbian relationship that ends in tragedy. I could explain how the Thearchs sure as gently caress aren't acting like members of the Silver Ladder should, I could fully articulate my disdain for the cutesy Interfector and his trite bullshit, I could express my breakshitkillchokeaguckingdog at their Mentor for what he did, but all that is secondary to the fact that they everyone decided, both in and out of fiction, that those women were an acceptable loss. The Door is a story of people who should have known better failing on every goddamn level. As above, so below, that story is a loving pile of tired hateful garbage. Who's that lady who leaked Beast and Exalted? Paradox needs to get her in to blow the whistle on this shitpile of a company. I would also be soothed by the removal of the offending piece of art, an official apology, and it's replacement with a story about how a Sleepwalker who realized that she was a lesbian in a horror story cold-cocked her girlfriend and got the gently caress out, writing her name on the Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn as she left the evil straights to die in the shitshow that was their idea. I'm going to summarize. Being a lesbian in genre fic and getting a happy ending is so rare as to merit Awakening as an Acanthus. I expected better from you malign gaggle of loving hacks.
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May 6, 2016 16:44
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If I remember right from the Syndicate revised convention book, didn't Pentex have an office or department within the Syndicate that mysteriously closed up shop when the avatar storm hit/2001? And all attempts to investigate it become (quite literal) dead ends. Before that they were quite happy with a profitable Special Projects department I think it was? It was only after the fact that it turned out everything was powered or contaminated by banes and had horrific side effects or just stopped working. They are currently trying to do a massive but subtle product recall, hoping that no other Convention will find out and use it as an excuse to purge them. Also one of the most rad things about nuclear power stations in oWoD is that a significant number of them, if not all, contain chained nuclear elementals - giant dragons of roaring nuclear fire. So 
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May 6, 2016 17:23
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Ambi posted:If I remember right from the Syndicate revised convention book, didn't Pentex have an office or department within the Syndicate that mysteriously closed up shop when the avatar storm hit/2001? And all attempts to investigate it become (quite literal) dead ends. They're still fairly happy with it, because even though SPD has gone missing and nobody knows where the money is coming from, the money is still coming, from somewhere, and that's what's important. I mean, it would be crazy to turn down free money.
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May 6, 2016 17:31
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citybeatnik posted:Well heck, what was the answer? I've wondered about clan Ventrue opening its coffers against both. Before the Giovanni show up and try to ruin everything that is. The Giovanni players smiles as he slowly reveals his card. 
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May 6, 2016 17:59
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ErichZahn posted:They wrote a happy/successful lesbian relationship for the purpose of destroying it in order to set the stakes and establish tone. Whoa whoa jesus christ did OPP shoot your family or something? I'm not seeing the connection between "some homosexual people died in some chapter fiction in a horror book" and "kill all employees of Onyx Path Productions"
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May 6, 2016 19:49
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I believe the main complaint is that it's part of a much larger cultural trend that lesbians exist within stories to be murdered for pathos. It's part of a larger media problem that gay couples always to die so tears can be shed about the cruelty of the world because they didn't deserve this awful fate. Which of course ignores the problem that these stories tend to exist entirely for the gaze and gratification of an assumed heterosexual writer and audience. Without the jargon? The only story and fate lesbians are promised by media is death. It makes a lot of people understandably very angry.
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May 6, 2016 20:47
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Guardians of the Veil: Their dreams aren't as empty as their conscience seems to be.
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May 6, 2016 20:55
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The God-Machine Chronicle did the same thing in one or two stories, I think. I was disappointed with the book, I thought it's stories were overall not as good as they could have been, as the best nWoD fiction and instead closer to the lower end. So I skipped the othe anthologies. If there'S one or two tragic gay couple in every OPP book, it could get infuriating really fast. Edit: Clarification: It wasn't as good as the Horror Recognition Guide, which was great. Hence disappointment.
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May 6, 2016 20:58
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I hope it isn't off-topic to ask this here, but I'm curious what WoD and CoD fans think of Urban Shadows, if they have had the chance to read or play it. The title was very clearly inspired by WoD and CoD, but tries to cover how the different groups interact with one another more than an individual supernatural faction's internal politics.
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May 6, 2016 22:10
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Mors Rattus posted:So, someone wanted to know if there were idealist Seers. I too miss Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
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May 6, 2016 22:45
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Ferrinus posted:Guardians of the Veil: Their dreams aren't as empty as their conscience seems to be. gently caress you.
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