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The masons are a fraternal society and the OD is sort of a blend off Masonic-style fraternal society and Edwardian occult lodge.
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Feb 18, 2017 03:35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwSZDXr5LU
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Feb 18, 2017 03:37
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Sage Genesis posted:What the gently caress? Confused. I click on the youtube link. An ad begins to play but it's for nothing that I'm remotely interested in. I wait five seconds then click skip. The video loads. Overwrought music begins to play. It sounds like someone's loving a handsaw. Blood streams down his thigh. The let's player clicks a button and begins to read the text that is displayed on the screen. Text that comes up far too fast for anyone to type on a cell phone. Overwrought text with a prose the color of overripe plums, grapes, velvet, snail dye. The text continues for 30 seconds, thirty seconds that you will never get back, the length of a far more reasonable ad unlike the one that was shown before the video. Before the video is a time I can barely remember, before I knew how bad this game was, before when all I thought about was pooping butts, now I know that this game is stupid. It's stupid in only the way that it could be designed by someone who thinks that vampires randomly cough up blood and having blood splatter on a cell phone screen is somehow meaningful or poignant. I long for memories of pooping butts.
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Feb 18, 2017 03:51
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Kurieg posted:I long for memories of pooping butts.
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Feb 18, 2017 03:56
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As someone who cares about this sort of IF framing poo poo and the interesting ways you can use the conceit of 'text message' conversations or whatever, this is actively offensive to me. It's also offensive on just a basic level of writing, of course. I don't understand how anyone could write or read 'like an angel in a porn about heaven' and not just laugh all the tension out of the room. It'd be different if the game was clearly taking the piss, but all signs point to a level of seriousness that I'm pretty sure 'texting while becoming a vampire on a bus trip' cannot support as a premise without an incredibly deft hand.
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Feb 18, 2017 04:02
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See, even if I wasn't boycotting on moral grounds, that sample wouldn't have me racing out to buy it. I'm actually more enthusiastic about the mage cookbook because at least it's going to be good for a laugh.
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Feb 18, 2017 04:07
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New thread title is perfect
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Feb 18, 2017 04:10
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Rand Brittain posted:No, that's basically correct. The old line was super-inconsistent about a lot of stuff, played fans of both against the other, and on top of it all wrote the Guide to the Technocracy as intentional satire that a lot of people failed to catch. I've read through Guide to the Technocracy with an eye to trying to see if there's satire in it, and there's certainly elements you're meant to laugh at. The part explaining that the Technocracy doesn't believe in Paradox, they just find that their high-tech devices break a lot more often outside Technocracy labs is completely tongue in cheek, as are how the Technocracy doesn't believe in Avatars - they believe in Genius, which is spelled out as being the exact same thing. On the whole there's a lot of elements in GttT that are supposed to set the Technocracy up as misguided. It's a very earnest type of misguidedness, where the Technocracy comes off as having very good reasons for believing what they do, but are nonetheless wrong about it. The book outright states that it's a retcon of the line's earlier portrayal of the Technocracy, and then goes on to state (p. 17) that the actual Mood of the game is trying to fix the Technocracy from the inside, because if the Technocracy falls apart, "everything on Earth will suffer". That's not an in-character piece, that's the book stating that this is what it's about. The Theme section reinforces this by stating that GttT is about trying to fix the Technocracy from within before it's too late. If those parts are supposed to be satirical, it means that someone decided "You know that part where we tell our readers what we intend with this book? Let's not tell them that we're going for a satirical tone and instead tell them it's a serious book!" The satire in GttT is not the satire of "the Technocracy is wrong, and this book is counterfactual", but instead "the Technocracy is wrong about magic". There's a clash between the Technocracy's portrayal in GttT as heroes and its totalitarian practices, but that's because thematically you're supposed to work against that kind of rot. In a Traditions game, your enemy is the Technocracy. In a Technocracy game, your enemy is also the Technocracy. The central premise is that the ideals of the Technocratic Union are workable and worth striving for, but the Technocratic Union itself is an institution that while necessary, cannot continue in its current form.
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Feb 18, 2017 04:17
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I got about 15 seconds in because it's like one those simulations of what Alzheimer's is like. How they expect you to read nearly unintelligible text while listening to inaudible chatter and pulsing bass confounds me. edit: ok he's saying words, he's just the worst voice actor. I hope making this poo poo bankrupts them. Babylon Astronaut fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 04:23
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My memory of GttT was very much that the tone depended on the author, and that some chapters were very much "good job sending those hippy terrorists to the torture chambers, citizen! wink" and others were about making a flawed but necessary institution better abide by its ideals, like Latw said. So, like many WW books.
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Feb 18, 2017 04:36
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Babylon Astronaut posted:I got about 15 seconds in because it's like one those simulations of what Alzheimer's is like. How they expect you to read nearly unintelligible text while listening to inaudible chatter and pulsing bass confounds me.
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Feb 18, 2017 04:59
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I think you're right but he was reading the on screen text and acting like he was the character, making it nearly impossible to figure out what the hell was going on. It's not that much better without the commentary. I mean, it's a picture of a phone, and most of the screen is wasted. Come on, it's a game about reading your text messages.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:03
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If any of you were ever doubtful as to the... quality.. of the VtM visual novel game, may this enlighten you. http://imgur.com/Ne3hqi1 http://imgur.com/5yEiIi5
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Feb 18, 2017 05:36
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Kurieg posted:I long for memories of pooping butts. I'm only following this thread in the loosest sense, but this really is the most appropriate thread title given the circumstances.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:37
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Strength of Many posted:If any of you were ever doubtful as to the... quality.. of the VtM visual novel game, may this enlighten you. I don't know whether i'm reading someone's fap material, revenge fanfic, a teenager's attempt to be edgy or some unholy alliance between all three.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:42
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LordAbaddon posted:I don't know whether i'm reading someone's fap material, revenge fanfic, a teenager's attempt to be edgy or some unholy alliance between all three. It's the latter. When it's old VtM and it's like that, it's always the latter.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:43
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Loomer posted:See, even if I wasn't boycotting on moral grounds, that sample wouldn't have me racing out to buy it. What's this about a Mage cookbook?
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Feb 18, 2017 05:47
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LordAbaddon posted:I don't know whether i'm reading someone's fap material, revenge fanfic, a teenager's attempt to be edgy or some unholy alliance between all three. Its an attempt to be edgy with a thin-blood trans vampire character. Also of note, even if they said no or didn't want it, said character could mind control them with Disciplines until they wanted it. So they are basically a murderer AND a rapist. I don't know how the Camarilla hasn't found out and made them disappear when they're going around killing Kine for shits and giggles.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:47
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Actually it's about ethics in the RPG industry. Seriously though, even as someone who couldn't care less about any of the industry drama, that game looks like dogshit. It's particularly disappointing because the idea of making interactive fiction games for White Wolf properties is really cool.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:48
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Strength of Many posted:If any of you were ever doubtful as to the... quality.. of the VtM visual novel game, may this enlighten you. what the gently caress what is it with men like this and transwomen?
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Feb 18, 2017 05:49
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WHAT!?
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Feb 18, 2017 05:50
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Zak S hates trans people. Like, you'd think the doxxing and the harassment and the slurs and whatnot would make that obvious, but since it apparently needs to be said I'll say it again: Zak S hates trans people.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:52
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FewtureMD posted:What's this about a Mage cookbook? They're making a cookbook, just like they did with Werewolf 20. I did a write-up on it a while back and can link it if you want a read, but the basics were pretty sane with a few, uh, weird outlier recipes (like, for instance, the Red Talon recipe requiring the sort of ingredients you will not find in the middle of the woods anywhere, or the Bunyip recipe being whitefella damper bread) and it was a good laugh, even if it was an absurd product.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:55
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Strength of Many posted:Its an attempt to be edgy with a thin-blood trans vampire character. CSI: Archon unit would make a much better game, yes.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:58
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Roland Jones posted:Zak S hates trans people. But he's friends with trans people!!!!!1* * - No one believes this.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:58
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As a huge WtA fan, and believe me I'm well acquainted with its many flaws, I cannot pray hard enough that Dracula's game remains vaporware.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:59
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LordAbaddon posted:In the interest of vampire chat I have a question that I've never really thought about before. How are the covenants so ubiquitous? Nomads gave me the best information on that, and even then, they don't seem to maintain an infrastructure so much as have traditions of that infrastructure that have been around for centuries. So there's some going between, but I imagine the how much will depend on how much the local ties itself into the larger geography. I suppose it comes up most frequently when vampires start reaching outside of their home domain, which in an increasingly information age is probably going to become problematic. Oligopsony posted:Random Vampirechat musings on the off chance anybody "bites" (sorry): I'm a fan of vampire politics being cyclical. Any vampire that's been around for a while is probably getting pretty good at playing the long game, but those neonates keep getting in the way. So if everyone's sort of working on a different clock at different rates, eventually desires will cross and then the politics are very distinct from food-supply issues. I recall something about the Invictus being mostly just likely to defer to the Second Estate when it comes to worrying about that worldview. Although that may have changed with Requiem 2e, I have no idea.
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Feb 18, 2017 05:59
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Slimnoid posted:But he's friends with trans people!!!!!1* It's actually 1000% more disgusting because there's basically no chance in hell that isn't meant to be Actual Real Life Person Avery Alder.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:02
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ProfessorCirno posted:It's actually 1000% more disgusting because there's basically no chance in hell that isn't meant to be Actual Real Life Person Avery Mcdaldno. Oh huh that's a good point. Last I followed up on her was during the MH2 thing when she was defending the guy who defended Zak and getting a lot of flak for it; did something happen after that that'd raise Zak's ire, or is he just targeting her for being successful in the industry/because he's a huge awful bigot? Roland Jones fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 06:05
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Strength of Many posted:If any of you were ever doubtful as to the... quality.. of the VtM visual novel game, may this enlighten you. Jesus Christ. Awful, awful, awful awful awful.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:08
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LordAbaddon posted:In the interest of vampire chat I have a question that I've never really thought about before. How are the covenants so ubiquitous? This was something that always bugged me, too; there just aren't many good propagation vectors for ideas for vamps save sire to childe or through family. The idea of a vast inter-vampire network maintaining that sort of cohesion over long distances feels off. The one time I did run a VtR game, I dialed down the focus on Covenant and dialed up the focus on family, and made most Covenants a single family deal. The game's entire focus was within one Daeva family and its relentless quest for evolution in the Ordo Dracul way, and their tenuous alliance with the "Country Gangrel" that worshiped the Crone and the superstitious, sea-worshiping Ventrue that still kept alive an old Trade Guild system as the Invictus. It was great. There was blood. Blood and regrets. Archonex posted:Hell, the Exarch's are implied not to even be human any more, acting more as oppressive and negative human aspirations made manifest. Which makes the Seers basically just the equivalent of magical nerds that saw Warhammer 40K's hopeless and dystopian themes and said "Yeah, this is how I want reality to work one day." in the hopes that they'd be on the top of the lovely pile. The Exarchs may never have been human to begin with. It's pretty much just an article of faith that they were ever human, just as it's an article of faith that there was ever an Awakened City. Even if they were, they, like all Ascended, are idealized symbols now. The Exarchs are the very idea of tyranny; the General, control through violence; the Eye, control through surveillance, etc. The Seers have some very mild nuance at times, in that "Protect Humanity" is one of their ideological tenets, but they really are a bunch of bastards. They sold out humanity for a (very large) paycheck.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:10
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Strength of Many posted:If any of you were ever doubtful as to the... quality.. of the VtM visual novel game, may this enlighten you. Well, I wanted vampire chat but in all honesty there's no way that it's going to top talking about whatever the gently caress that is. This guy has some sort of weird sexual love/hate fixation with people who are transgender, doesn't he? quote:The Exarchs may never have been human to begin with. It's pretty much just an article of faith that they were ever human, just as it's an article of faith that there was ever an Awakened City. Even if they were, they, like all Ascended, are idealized symbols now. The Exarchs are the very idea of tyranny; the General, control through violence; the Eye, control through surveillance, etc. Ethically speaking i've always kind of put them in the same boat as anyone that works for Cheiron. At best they're an amoral monster or fanatic about exploiting the beings of Earth for profit in a way that'd make some Pentex executives envious. At worst they know what's lurking at the top of the company and have sold humanity out for something that's very definitely not from anywhere in the neighborhood of conventional reality. Also I figured that the Exarch's were human at one point. It's just that ascension can really destroy your sense of perspective and humanity. There's a reason why there's a snarled time paradox around the issue of Atlantis that keeps anyone from going back or scrying that time period (and possibly anything before that, assuming mages just get shunted to an entirely different timeline from the Atlantis timeline). If that time period existed the way the game sometimes hints it does, then it stands to reason that they either demolished what was in it or were responsible for it. Which means they or something close enough to be considered the Exarch's had to exist in some capacity back then. Archonex fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Feb 18, 2017 |
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Feb 18, 2017 06:11
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Edit: Oh hey, the forum decided to double post for some reason. Well that's odd.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:11
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A trans woman who jerks men off for being performatively left sounds like the most Zak thing possible tbh
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Feb 18, 2017 06:15
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Archonex posted:This guy has some sort of weird sexual love/hate fixation with people who are transgender, doesn't he? One bit of cis/het male privilege I will never cease to be thankful for (just wish it were more universal): nobody who hates me writes weird sex fantasies about me. I have no idea what inspires this kind of complex but it's definitely a, uh, thing.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:18
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That's...wow. Someone presumably read that before it went out to the public and was like 'ah, a jab at Trump voters, that'll show we're so hip! *writes predatory trans woman stereotype* perfect'. Apropos of nothing, but Rick Sanchez is clearly and obviously a Demon and if you disagree you show obvious Mage bias. He fights an enormous bureaucratic mechanism that thinks nothing of existing in multiple timelines and dimensions, he travels with his Fractal grandson to reinforce his Cover, and he thinks magic and curses are for hacks.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:20
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There's an interesting book on it. Whipping Girl, by Julia Serano. I don't know that I agree with some of her conclusions but she makes some compelling arguments about transmisogyny being a reflection of sexism and of the conception of masculinity vs feminity in Western thinking and deals really extensively with the weird fetishization of transwomen's sexuality.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:21
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Oligopsony posted:One bit of cis/het male privilege I will never cease to be thankful for (just wish it were more universal): nobody who hates me writes weird sex fantasies about me. We'll see about that.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:22
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I want to say that at one point a couple RPGnet moderators had weird revenge porn genital mutilation fiction written about them, so there's that.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:26
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Archonex posted:Ethically speaking i've always kind of put them in the same boat as anyone that works for Cheiron. At best they're an amoral monster or fanatic about exploiting the beings of Earth for profit in a way that'd make some Pentex executives envious. At worst they know what's lurking at the top of the company and have sold humanity out for something that's very definitely not from anywhere in the neighborhood of conventional reality. The Exarchs may have been human, but we get things like Dark Eras, where the General makes its very first appearance, despite there having been tens of thousands of years of human history prior to that point. The nature of the Supernal is forever a Mystery. Ultimately, though, it's largely irrelevant to the Exarchs whether they were human before or not anyway; what they are now is the idea of tyranny. As for ethics... To be honest, I see Cheiron as opportunistic, rather than monstrous. If you can make a profit off of killing monsters that prey on innocent human beings, why not? Drive an arterial shunt into that vampire's heart and you deserve your bonus pay. One less vampire in the world, right? It's entirely possible to have someone work for Cheiron and be morally neutral, or even outright benevolent. Whether that's the norm is another story, but it's possible. The Seers, meanwhile... You can't really be a Seer without doing awful things. Unlike with Cheiron, there's no "out" for being a Seer. You have to inflict suffering, largely for its own sake, to people who do not deserve it. A vampire at least theoretically deserves a heart shunt, but a struggling single mother doesn't deserve to have her social assistance checks cut off. With Cheiron, you can at least negate their malice by there simply not being a huge profit in it. For the Seers, your misery is their profit.
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Feb 18, 2017 06:27
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