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On the subject of session background music, Ghosts I-IV is good if you're on a budget (and some tracks with drums are good for combat in any case) but if you want a proper nWoD scene track from Trent Reznor you'll probably want to shell out for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo OST, which is far lighter on piano and heavier on drone and non-drum percussion (they sound, on balance, like a more polished take on Bloodlines' ambient tracks, which is what you want). eg. Reznor's other soundtrack work might also fit but Social Network was a little too Ghosts-y for my taste. Drone-heavy soundtracks are going to be your friend in general. Use "Henry Plainview" in a scene where the characters discover something wrong or upsetting, etc.
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Mar 29, 2017 06:06
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I'm in the planning stages for a Mage game I'm going to be hopefully running in a month or two after I wrap up my current pair and I could really use some help cooking up some NPCs if anyone is up for that. So the game takes place in 2047, 35 years after the Reveal in the New Kerguelen Islands and focuses around exploring and investigating them. The brief gist of it is that sometime in 2032 the Kerguelen Islands we've got now vanished and were replaced by strange new, bigger set of islands with its own other-worldly ecology and some 200,000 odd people who as far as they're concerned have always lived there since the place was settled in the early 1800s and never really found it weird they had little contact with the outside world until now. Mages are of course keen to finding out what the hell happened and investigate all the spooky weirdness on the islands. Turns out though the islands themselves don't appear to be all that keen on mages being there, those that aren't careful about concealing their identities and avoiding paradox tend to end up never being heard from again for reasons that continue to remain frustratingly unknown. After several years of absolutely no progress and hundreds of mages lost to the Islands the Pentacle got together with the Exchange, the Ministry of Mammon's rebranding after their defection from the Seers, and the orders allied to it to form the International Kerguelan Expedition Agency with some support from various governments to go about seeing what the hell is up. Since only a limited number of expedition teams, essentially purpose made cabals, are allow on the Island at any one time and the Agency only accepts the most promising candidates competition to get in is crazy fierce. So with all that said who'd be interested in making some mages for exploring spookyland so I don't stress myself out over making a dozen plus mages? I really only need basic information: what they're like, any sort of gimmick they have to define them, and shadow name.
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Mar 29, 2017 08:37
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haha IKEA
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Mar 29, 2017 09:17
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For soundtrack, Zoar's 'In the Bloodlit Dark' is amazing - but also hard to get. It has songs like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgFZXm6y1CE On a more generally applicable note, Hearts of Space is cheap and basically indispensible. Hour-long thematic sets of certain types of music - e.g. Indian devotional, Gothic Ambient, California Weird New Wave.
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Mar 29, 2017 10:25
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So my Mage players are working on concepts. One is going all in on Matter manipulation to build robots and I don't think I want to stop him.
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Mar 29, 2017 10:47
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Cease to Hope posted:i recall seeing something to this effect in a FATAL & Friends post, i just don't remember the context That's me, and I really need to get back to that review, goddamn. Admin stuff at uni has been kicking my arse lately, and also personal life stuff has been keeping me away from the keyboard (good personal life stuff, don't worry). The Unlife Aquatic posted:I feel the same about using historical people like that. And I love talking about it, but I suspect I've derailed the thread enough, and I'm not too sure how to make it relevant to WoD. Also, I don't have that much to show yet, as I've only just started, so probably the best I can show you is a whole bunch of scattered notes and the proposal I put into the faculty office (which has been approved, but my enrollment is still pending while the wheels of uni bureaucracy turn and New Zealand's extremely efficient student loans service, Studylink, sorts its poo poo out). Officially, I start May 1st. Unofficially, I haven't done any writing yet, but I am taking a gently caress ton of notes already while I wait for the admin stuff to sort itself out. I'm writing on the Vandal Kingdom of fifth- and sixth-century Africa: what it meant to be a Vandal in the kingdom, what it meant to be a Roman, and if the Vandals ever had any kind of coherent ethnic policy or made any sustained attempts to create a unified people out of the two cultures before Justinian's invasion swept them away. Here is a hopefully working link to the proposal in PDF form, if you are interested in reading it. I am aware there are a couple of typoes, so try not to judge them too harshly  In an attempt to actually make this relevant to the rest of the thread, I have some possible WoD hooks for the Vandals and Late Antique Africa:
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Mar 29, 2017 11:57
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Dammit Who? posted:This is the page of Ferrinus' Rulestech Warehouse that deals with basic WOD resolution systems, including Morality and Crises of Conscience. Thanks!
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Mar 29, 2017 16:01
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The Sin of Onan posted:I'm writing on the Vandal Kingdom of fifth- and sixth-century Africa: what it meant to be a Vandal in the kingdom, what it meant to be a Roman, and if the Vandals ever had any kind of coherent ethnic policy or made any sustained attempts to create a unified people out of the two cultures before Justinian's invasion swept them away. Here is a hopefully working link to the proposal in PDF form, if you are interested in reading it. I am aware there are a couple of typoes, so try not to judge them too harshly The rest is also fascinating, and I do not have the time/stamina to read history once I've put the child to bed, but I'm definitely going to use this in my mage game. One of the players started a Free Councilor without really being sure if that's where he wanted to be. It doesn't help that the Libertines in the city are fragmented into two groups either. Either way, collecting this grimoire (or whatever it ends up being) would be a great way for him to prove his worth and pay back the Mysterium members who are mentoring him through this process. I was going to use Newton's Principia, but this is much more fun and the theme of the book is going to be useful. I may even have to try to get a copy of it. It looks interesting enough to read by itself.
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Mar 29, 2017 16:37
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Blockhouse posted:So my Mage players are working on concepts. One is going all in on Matter manipulation to build robots and I don't think I want to stop him. You should stop him. But only to remind him that he might want Forces too. Unless that changed anyway, I'm not super up on my Mage. Prism fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 16:56
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Prism posted:You should stop him.
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Mar 29, 2017 17:02
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Prism posted:You should stop him. And mind if he wants to add an Artificial Intelligence.
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Mar 29, 2017 17:27
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One of my players wanted to reanimate a T-Rex skeleton as a sanctum guardian. Dunno why we never got to it.
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Mar 29, 2017 17:29
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Jhet posted:And mind if he wants to add an Artificial Intelligence. Creating a new mind from scratch sounds like a lot of work. Just shove a ghost or a spirit in that bad boy and call it a day.
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Mar 29, 2017 19:11
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Mendrian posted:Creating a new mind from scratch sounds like a lot of work. Is it harder to jam a spirit/ghost in there, or to yank out someone's mind and jam it in there?
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Mar 29, 2017 19:19
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Mendrian posted:Creating a new mind from scratch sounds like a lot of work. To be fair, I have a player doing a similar thing. Only he's building something for his goetic familiar (influence in advanced technology) to use, so he's focusing on the forces. So far she hangs out in his improved Nintendo Power Glove. It's going to be easier because she's already a familiar and mostly wants to be around. It would require finding someone with enough mind (4 dots I'd think) to connect her to the thing in perpetuity. 
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Mar 29, 2017 19:32
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I think you're beating yourself up a bit too much about railroading. Like, actual railroading is the worst and being responsive to your players is one of the most important things, but it's okay to have plot hooks and channel them vaguely towards what you have actually prepped. Especially in the first session, I think that there should be a shared understanding that you're gonna play a game about Thing, and the players are expected to pursue Thing and not run off to do something else. They still get to decide how they tackle Thing, though. To give a probably crap analogy : if you're playing D&D or whatever and it's the first session and you tell the players there's a Spooky Goblin Cave just outside of town, there's a shared understanding that they're gonna check it out and not sit around founding a cheese shop because that's why we decided to play the game jesus christ. Later sessions should be up to them, but you're allowed to set the stage ; don't be so down on yourself, it sounds like a boss-rear end game.
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Mar 29, 2017 19:54
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Goa Tse-tung posted:haha IKEA This was also my first thought. Clearly there's at least one mage there who dresses all in blue with a garish yellow hat- okay now I'm just wondering if Vivi secretly works for IKEA. There's a joke to be made about a mage who only writes in small, impossible to discern pictographs with little arrows that don't line up how you think. He's very tall, blonde, and friendly, and you can't understand a drat thing he says, but he's an excellent cook.
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Mar 29, 2017 22:41
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Xiahou Dun posted:I think you're beating yourself up a bit too much about railroading. Thanks, and yeah, you have a good point. I think I've been in too many games though where it was "you sit around and I tell you about cool stuff the NPCs do." Which was the only two sessions of VtR I ever got to play  They have ideas now. My sixth (!) player is interested in making a pro-wrestler who is obsessed with vampires. His secret longterm aspiration is to become one. I didn't want to shut him down of course, but I tried to inform him how vampires in this game work. A vampire who pretends to be a hunter and tags along on night raids? Man, they better be gullible as gently caress about the lack of your tan. Right now I'm just trying to figure out the next few scenes, like if they explore the construction site. They find a bunch of God Machine gears that are too big to exist and what not, but what from there? Pulling the supports and sealing it shut? And what would keep the facetaker/skinchanger scary as it hunts down hunters' families?
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Mar 29, 2017 23:09
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crime fighting hog posted:Thanks, and yeah, you have a good point. I think I've been in too many games though where it was "you sit around and I tell you about cool stuff the NPCs do." Which was the only two sessions of VtR I ever got to play Have a family members behavior change subtly, offer no explanation. A random person knows far too much about them. Make them see their enemy everywhere and nowhere. The fundamental horror of a shapechanger is slow burn paranoia. The Unlife Aquatic fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Mar 30, 2017 00:02
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:Have a family members behavior change subtly, offer no explanation. A random person knows far too much about them. Make them see their enemy everywhere and nowhere. The fundamental horror of a shapechanger is slow burn paranoia. Have someone return home to their significant other introducing them to a long-out-of-touch family member who has just suddenly returned, and is very interested in what the PC gets up to in their spare time with their friends.
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Mar 30, 2017 00:07
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crime fighting hog posted:Right now I'm just trying to figure out the next few scenes, like if they explore the construction site. They find a bunch of God Machine gears that are too big to exist and what not, but what from there? Pulling the supports and sealing it shut? And what would keep the facetaker/skinchanger scary as it hunts down hunters' families? Cheat like a motherfucker. Make lots and lots and lots of people suspicious and decide which one of them is actually a ringer when it's dramatically appropriate.
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Mar 30, 2017 00:10
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The horror of a shapeshifter is the fact you can never truly know someone, the theft of identity in the most basic way, distilled otherness. Also Randall's suggestion is amazing.
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Mar 30, 2017 00:10
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Basically, do everything in your power to get your players to ultimately kidnap someone entirely innocent.
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Mar 30, 2017 00:12
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This reminds me, you should look at Eugene Thackers Horror of Philosophy series. It's a series of pretty accessible books on the headier aspects of horror and has been a real help to me in designing horror aspects in my RPs.
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Mar 30, 2017 00:28
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I've done it before in a D&D game of bringing one of the players out before the game begins and tell them they're actually a doppleganger and will try to kill the other players when the trap is sprung. It's a great "oh poo poo" moment and I always have the actual character held prisoner to be found later. That wouldn't work so hot this time, I think. Great suggestions, all. I appreciate the help and put em in my ideas folder.
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Mar 30, 2017 01:29
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Goa Tse-tung posted:haha IKEA That was completely accidental at first and I considered changing before I settled on the organization very specifically choosing it because of that. Keeps the sympathy diluted.
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Mar 30, 2017 02:31
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I am reading Tooth & Nail and not really liking it but I appreciate being given all the tools to have my future Hunter games grind up evil otherkin into boner pills, whether or not they're Cheiron Group-affiliated or not. It's just the only good thing that can come from a Beast
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Mar 30, 2017 04:58
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Just a thing that caught my eye.Dark Eras Companion (advance PDF), p. 46 posted:Blood Manipulation: The blood bather has an affinity for blood, and can kill with a touch by inducing a stroke or heart attack. After successfully touching an opponent, the player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the opponent’s Stamina.) The resistance roll is reflexive. Every success inflicts a level of lethal damage. If the blood bather grapples the target, this attack is made each turn. This power only affects humans. I thought variable roll difficulty wasn't A Thing anymore (some Mummy shenanigans aside), same as the concept of roll difficulty as such? I immediately thought of the Immortals supplement which originally had the rules for such rituals, and, surely enough: WoD Immortals, p. 35 posted:Blood Manipulation: The blood bather has an affinity for blood, and can kill with a touch by inducing a stroke or heart attack. The character must touch her opponent (see Touching an Opponent, p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook), at which point the player rolls Manipulation + Occult – opponent’s Stamina. This roll is reflexive. Every success inflicts a level of lethal damage. If the blood bather grapples the target, this attack can be made each turn (probably killing the victim quickly if he fails to escape the grapple). This power has no effect on vampires. Modifier: +4
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Mar 30, 2017 06:26
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Basic Chunnel posted:I am reading Tooth & Nail and not really liking it but I appreciate being given all the tools to have my future Hunter games grind up evil otherkin into boner pills, whether or not they're Cheiron Group-affiliated or not. It's just the only good thing that can come from a Beast Any good Tactics or equipment?
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Mar 30, 2017 06:32
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Foglet posted:Just a thing that caught my eye. Probably either means the opponent's stamina is subtracted from the dice you roll, or you need to get that many successes on the roll - probably the latter, given the power's severity. Still, probably worth pointing it out to them for clarification.
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Mar 30, 2017 06:59
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Axelgear posted:Any good Tactics or equipment? The new Endowments are heavily weighted toward abilities that affect *~the Beastial Dream~* and nothing else. There are like three new pieces of equipment, one is a dream-related Ascendant One potion and the other two are Aegis relics. There's one tactic that can probably be generalized ("Damsel In Distress", basically a baited trap) and a few that only make sense against Beasts (including one to, what else, enter *~the Beastial Dream~*) However, the introduction of a "Bring The Monster To Group Therapy" tactic seems like it could pay dividends for a comedy-oriented VASCU game.
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Mar 30, 2017 06:59
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So I've heard the Free Council book is bad? Should I not recommend it to my player playing a Free Council character?
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Mar 30, 2017 07:34
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Blockhouse posted:So I've heard the Free Council book is bad? Should I not recommend it to my player playing a Free Council character? The 1E book is very half-baked and written before a really solid pitch was developed for the Free Council beyond being Wizard Anarchs. It's got a few decent ideas in it but most everything worthwhile for the Council is scattered in other books or just in the 2e core.
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Mar 30, 2017 07:52
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Re: music chat, F# A# ∞ by Godspeed You Black Emperor is a great hour of music for WoD, and also in general. For game background music, the monologue at the beginning and the dialogue a little over halfway through might be distracting, but that's a really small portion of its overall run time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9QcK4X_qy4
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Mar 30, 2017 08:19
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Daeren posted:The 1E book is very half-baked and written before a really solid pitch was developed for the Free Council beyond being Wizard Anarchs. It's got a few decent ideas in it but most everything worthwhile for the Council is scattered in other books or just in the 2e core. fair enough I already have a character who was mentored via a magical Discord channel though so looking at that book probably couldn't hurt
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Mar 30, 2017 08:21
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Fire Never Consuming: Music From Alice Isn't Dead by Disparition is also really great music for WoD.
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Mar 30, 2017 08:39
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Foglet posted:I thought variable roll difficulty wasn't A Thing anymore (some Mummy shenanigans aside), same as the concept of roll difficulty as such? Dangit. That's two Dark Eras books in a row: Dark Eras, p. 452 posted:While in Duat, you may attempt to rise prematurely, pitting a roll of your Willpower pool against a difficulty of your Memory rating. (Both of these are from Mummy era writeups, but that's no excuse, because as you say, even when Mummy magic shifts target numbers, the Mummy book still doesn't call that concept a "difficulty." CofD doesn't have a concept called "difficulty.")
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Mar 30, 2017 12:44
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Once I started to read more oWoD books, including some Mummy the Resurrection stuff, their influence on Curse became really obvious. The little details and the overall design sensibility all feel very pre-2004. It really stood out to me with Guildhalls of the Deathless and its use of signature characters. I'm down with recurring example characters when there's a fixed and finite number of Arisen, but all the guildmasters had this quality of "special guest star that your PCs might briefly meet" rather than "character that you have full ownership of as an ST." I liked almost all of the signature characters presented in Promethean, but Mummy seemed dead set on convincing me that Merew-Tjaw is a badass amoral mastermind and not to be hosed with. Or maybe I just have a really low tolerance for the WoD archetype of the super-rich immortal who's always in control and knows exactly what's going on.
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Mar 30, 2017 14:03
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nMummy has always been aggressively oWoD.
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Mar 30, 2017 14:06
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Emy posted:Re: music chat, F# A# ∞ by Godspeed You Black Emperor is a great hour of music for WoD, and also in general. For game background music, the monologue at the beginning and the dialogue a little over halfway through might be distracting, but that's a really small portion of its overall run time. Yup, I quoted "The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel," at the start of our Hunter session. It just fits.
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Mar 30, 2017 14:14
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