|
Soonmot posted:That is specifically what motivated us after we were told about them. I love you and your group.
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 15:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 23:03 |
|
|
Also, I miss Hubig's Pies.  They were often at the checkout line of local grocery stores, next to the single servings of candy, breath mints, and tabloid newspapers. That lemon pie was my favorite.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 15:24
|
|
|
Spector29 posted:My question for you all, then, is Why do I feel like I'm a lovely Storyteller?
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 16:00
|
|
|
Spector29 posted:Is there a structure that veteran STs have that allows them to run games off-the-cuff smoothly? Honestly when I'm running with a concrete plan in my head I just pay special attention to the players and what they're doing because they'll usually do something they feel will have an effect. Then all you have to do is play off of that. I was running a hunter game and one of them decided to stake out the suspects house. I hadn't planned for that but it's easy enough to add something of interest to move the plot along (in this case an arsonist). Maybe the front door is ajar, maybe there's someone standing around looking out of place. If they enter a club and look for someone suspicious, sure, there's a suspicious person in there. There's an anecdote about this called The Streetlight Effect. The big difference is that you have control over what is or isn't in the light. If they're looking for something, they'll find something. It may not be what they're looking for but it will give them a clue as to what to do next. The only other big piece of advice is using 'No, But' to help with pacing. As long as you're remembering that it helps the game moving at an enjoyable and engaging pace. Did they manage to catch the robber? No, but they did get the vehicle model and the plates. Did they reach the hidden crypt in time? No, but they do find tracks leading to their rivals base camp. Is this the house with the cultists? No, but they find evidence which points to one of the remaining options being their new hideout.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 18:29
|
|
|
It is also worth remembering that in Mage, at least, the best adversaries are either Mages themselves or magical anomalies. Spells that do things like reveal answers become opposed by the villain; using Postcognition to see into the past becomes at the very least more difficult when your hypothetical Voldermort uses his own Time or Fate powers to occlude the past or even trap it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 18:58
|
|
|
Kibner posted:Please tell me you are bringing back the Hubig pie company. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubig%27s_Pies I can't believe I learned about this tragedy in this thread of all places. Those pies were a staple of my childhood.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 20:17
|
|
|
Spector29 posted:But I'm constantly nervous that if I don't have have two or three backup Mysteries for the Mages to find if they get bored, the game will just stall out. Is there a structure that veteran STs have that allows them to run games off-the-cuff smoothly? lovely GMs don't ever ask the question or think about it, so you're doing fine. I like to peruse the local newspaper for the city we're playing in and pick out a story or two that can be turned into a mystery, usually something in the field that the character comes from in the mundane world. Sometimes I'll let them start to snowball off screen if the players decide to spend time worrying about something else. No, most of the time I'll do that. It's the consequence of making choices. Really easy to shape the world this way in little tiny believable ways that have a tendency to make it feel like the decisions the players make are actually affecting the world through action and inaction. I feel like I'm doing my job well if they never feel like they can stop all the bad things from happening and still fulfill personal obsessions and aspirations at the same time. Mendrian posted:It is also worth remembering that in Mage, at least, the best adversaries are either Mages themselves or magical anomalies. Spells that do things like reveal answers become opposed by the villain; using Postcognition to see into the past becomes at the very least more difficult when your hypothetical Voldermort uses his own Time or Fate powers to occlude the past or even trap it. Seconding this entirely. The best villains are the ones that come from a place you can relate with too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 20:47
|
|
|
Spector29 posted:First post ever, oh boy. I'll just quote some of my older posts about two questions I find really important for Mage and Demon, respectively: Daeren posted:
Daeren posted:
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 21:26
|
|
|
very late to this but holy crap Dr. Strange is basically Mage: The Movie. glad I have a major thing to point my friends to watch when they ask me what exactly is Mage if I ever run it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 22:43
|
|
|
As far as the limitation on Time went, I always kind of thought that was meant to be the Fate arcanum. Fate is a natural thing in the world. People have destinies, and to a degree those destinies might be written by the Exarchs as control mechanisms, who knows. So if you go back in time and mind control a ranking Seer into being your lifelong ally... well, his Fate is still to oppose, betray and ultimately destroy you. He's gonna still do that, although for different reasons, or thinking because he's helping you or something. If you go back in time and kill your rival's granddad, A) premediated murder is a sin against Understanding wisdom, and B) there is still a role in Fate for someone who hates you and tries to murder you, but now since it's no longer your rival in the Consilium, who is it? I like this solution because it takes advantage of the Subtle/Gross arcana divide in the Acanthus path and provides power and consequences to both halves of the equation. Time is a brute force blunt instrument that can change facts straight up. Fate may have to think really hard on how to execute its now radically altered plan but it can usually come up with something. What made me start thinking this way is Life Is Strange. Max uses Time to save Chloe's life. Fate says she's destined to die, so it's going to try again.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 23:02
|
|
|
Thanqol posted:As far as the limitation on Time went, I always kind of thought that was meant to be the Fate arcanum. See also: that episode of Futurama where Fry became his own grandfather.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2016 23:51
|
|
|
He did do the nasty in the past-y!
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 03:49
|
|
|
And that past nastification did save the future.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 04:01
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:He did do the nasty in the past-y!  Well you know whatever turns your crank.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 04:07
|
|
|
I had one of those for the first time a few weeks ago in the UP. It needed a little ketchup.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 04:57
|
|
|
If that's a potato crust then we used to have those all the time at college, except they used seasoned ground beef in the middle. And yes it was amazing with ketchup.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 08:29
|
|
|
Anyone have any good advice on how to spice up the World of Darkness, specifically Vampire the Masquerade, after its become old and predictable for your players? I've changed the location, but maybe there is more that can be done before we just break it up with a different tabletop.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 23:47
|
|
|
Mages doing mysterious and inexplicable things (see Blood Treachery and do the exact opposite of that), Noddists doing bizarre experiments with city officials, Infernalists doing the same, bring through aspects of Wraith (especially if one of the players was the cause of the Wraith's death), dead clans (especially Cappadocians, Kiasyd, and Lamia), Werewolf siege. Results of blood magic gone wrong (especially Koldunic sorcery or Lasombra Abyss mysticism gone wrong). And so on. Bring out the weirder corners, particularly where your party's Disciplines can't just wave the problem away in confrontation.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2016 23:57
|
|
|
Old Doggy Bastard posted:Anyone have any good advice on how to spice up the World of Darkness, specifically Vampire the Masquerade, after its become old and predictable for your players? I've changed the location, but maybe there is more that can be done before we just break it up with a different tabletop.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 00:17
|
|
|
But not the one they expect.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 02:27
|
|
|
Gradually bring in elements from Requiem over time until you're just playing Requiem, and thus no longer chained to Masquerade. The Chronicles of Darkness versions of Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Hunter, and Demon are all drastically different games from their oWoD counterparts, but the basic ideas behind Requiem aren't really that different from Masquerade. I can't really see it as anything other than "Requiem only dated and sad."
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 02:34
|
|
|
But you can't make long, long genealogical lines in Requiem!
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 02:43
|
|
|
Loomer posted:But you can't make long, long genealogical lines in Requiem! Well, you can, but you have to make them up yourself.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 02:45
|
|
|
And not spend literal years chained to terrible books? Unacceptable!
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 02:49
|
|
|
Seriously loomer, you need to have the books taken and given some fresh (stale) air.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 05:13
|
|
|
Speaking of Requiem, I've been trying to get that game to not feel horribly weird to me, with modest success. Anyone got any guidance on how to do Ordo Dracul advancement into the Mysteries?
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 05:29
|
|
|
Look into various fraternal magical orders and rob them blind for pomp and ceremony.Nomadic Scholar posted:Seriously loomer, you need to have the books taken and given some fresh (stale) air. They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no because the rehab centres are secretly controlled by Malkavian Technocrat Autumn People. Loomer fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Dec 19, 2016 |
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 05:37
|
|
|
Axelgear posted:Speaking of Requiem, I've been trying to get that game to not feel horribly weird to me, with modest success. Have a plot where two elders are fighting each other over their research and they just keep escalating until it all goes wrong and at the very end it turns out they were both wrong.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 07:18
|
|
|
Latest DDR interview where we talk to the WoD: Berlin organisers http://podcast.darker-days.org/e/darker-days-radio-episode-74/
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 14:45
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:
Loomer posted:They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no because the rehab centres are secretly controlled by Malkavian Technocrat Autumn People. I want to correct you so badly right now, you don't even know!
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 15:21
|
|
|
Loomer posted:But not the one they expect. I have this image of the PCs doing a high-stakes political confrontation with the prince in his office suite, only for a Mokole in Godzilla form to suddenly walk by the window.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 18:34
|
|
|
The vampires are in their church trying to get Wormwood done but the Fera are outside running operation full disclosure?
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 18:49
|
|
|
Old Doggy Bastard posted:Anyone have any good advice on how to spice up the World of Darkness, specifically Vampire the Masquerade, after its become old and predictable for your players? I've changed the location, but maybe there is more that can be done before we just break it up with a different tabletop. Baali. Only, they're right, their rites are needed to hold back an actual Earthbound Demon from manifesting and loving things up forever. If your players are still using Humanity, the Baali needs to lower it as part of the ritual. The reason the Baali needs them is they're the only vamps in the city close enough to Human to still be useful. If they're on Paths, the Baali needs them to get more dots as part of the ritual. If your PCs are comfortable, make them uncomfortable, just don't confuse the PCs and the players. Ironslave posted:I have this image of the PCs doing a high-stakes political confrontation with the prince in his office suite, only for a Mokole in Godzilla form to suddenly walk by the window. That or the Ratkin decide to wipe out the local vampire population. All the Nosferatu vanish, and vampire owned businesses start getting blown up. Meanwhile the mob in the streets (mobs make for really effective environmental hazards) is distressingly good at ferreting out where local licks are nesting. Relevant Tangent fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Dec 19, 2016 |
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2016 21:57
|
|
|
Loomer posted:And not spend literal years chained to terrible books? Unacceptable! Actually, I bet you could have a fun time taking the baroque genealogies in those Masquerade books and reinterpreting them into a Requiem context, as distorted retellings of events at a remove, the same way Akhenaten's role in the history of the Mekhet isn't what they believe it is. Figure out where the Theban fits in, and what the relationship is between the Second Gods and the Aralu.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 01:03
|
|
|
Loomer posted:And not spend literal years chained to terrible books? Unacceptable! I'm going to feel sorry for you when you get this insane project done with just as Paradox pulls a CCP and kills off the OWoD line again.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 13:45
|
|
|
Archonex posted:I'm going to feel sorry for you when you get this insane project done with just as Paradox pulls a CCP and kills off the OWoD line again.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 14:35
|
|
|
Yeah, that would actually be ideal for me. I'm already planning to end the project when V5 comes out if it isn't already done by then (I'll still finish it, but that'll be my cut off for 'no new books, someone else can take over if they really want' unless OPP/nWW start paying me to do this which is about as likely as me suddenly becoming King of Liberia) so it'd be nice for it to be complete without more books coming in the future. When I started this V20 wasn't even a Thing (that was in its old, really terrible iteration), so I never intended to walk into the hell that is them releasing new books and it was always meant to end. And to be honest, my interest in it has waned. I have more useful things to do with my time these days, so while I still enjoy it, I'm looking forward to it being over. Between coming towards the end of law school, growing responsibilities to my family, Lodges, and other fraternal orders, along with romantic relationships, my free time is dying off. If I'm going to spend chunks of it on terrible roleplaying games from the 90s and 2000s, I want it to be in the form of sitting around a table rolling dice and drinking whiskey with mates. These final stages are taking so long in large part because of that reduced free time and having better things to spend it on. In the worst (best? Both?) case of me losing interest entirely, I'll publicly release the data and let people finish cleaning and adding to it so that it isn't wasted effort, though I still anticipate actually finishing it myself. The upside of it for other fans of course is that the lion's share is done, and it's a hell of a lot easier to update book by book (reading, what, 10 books a year these days?) than it is to read literally hundreds of thousands of pages of old content, so if anyone does take up the torch - and I kind of hope someone does - they'll have a much easier, less superspergy job ahead of them.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 15:13
|
|
|
Loomer posted:which is about as likely as me suddenly becoming King of Liberia Of course not, you'd rename it Loomeria.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 15:43
|
|
|
Loomer posted:Between coming towards the end of law school, growing responsibilities to my family, Lodges, and other fraternal orders, along with romantic relationships, my free time is dying off. If I'm going to spend chunks of it on terrible roleplaying games from the 90s and 2000s, I want it to be in the form of sitting around a table rolling dice and drinking whiskey with mates. At first I was like "I didn't know Lodges existed in oWoof as well" before I remembered that you're an actual IRL occultist.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 15:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 23:03 |
|
|
Honestly the worst case scenario for Loomer is that they open some kind of White Wolf vault and release three hundred new books.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2016 19:34
|
|