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EQFiddleCastrol posted:The BPG is at an inherit disadvantage to similar supplements from other lines because it has so much to walk back and redefine, but I have to say I'm really impressed with the job they've done. The designers and writers should be proud, there are a lot of cool things included (like the Lair library and the Kinship Merits) and, as Kureig said, the Matt's "Voice from the Mount" feel has largely been excised. I would actually consider playing or running a Beast PC now. Beast has always been a really great idea hampered by being Beast, but the BPG very much plays up more of the good ideas rather than the Beast of it all. Like "Here's how the Primordial Dream interacts with the rest of the Astral, here's more about the Dark Mother and the practical impact she has on Beast society, also here's a bit on how their actual society works". Things like that. At the very least it jumped it up to "Not Mummy".
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Mar 20, 2018 01:16
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Mulva posted:Beast has always been a really great idea hampered by being Beast, but the BPG very much plays up more of the good ideas rather than the Beast of it all. Like "Here's how the Primordial Dream interacts with the rest of the Astral, here's more about the Dark Mother and the practical impact she has on Beast society, also here's a bit on how their actual society works". Things like that. At the very least it jumped it up to "Not Mummy". I might pick it up just for the Dark Mother stuff if there's a lot of details in there. Is there? If so, maybe some of it can be used for games that involve the Circle that are heavy into that part of their worship. It's about the only way I can see Beast's potentially interacting with vampires without them either using them as disposable pawns, wondering what an actual real otherkin's blood tastes like, or in the case of high humanity vampires going "What the gently caress is wrong with you?" and trying to lodge a machete in their skull when one of them starts of their whole "Well, actually, i'm helping people by hurting them!" bullshit. Plus, that particular name has been coming up in multiple game lines stretching straight out from CoFD to 3e Exalted. Only the Dark Mother in 3e Exalted is responsible for the Promethean exalt equivalent in that game. Maybe I can dredge up some of the ideas in the CofD version for Exalted since it's unlikely we're ever getting a version of 3e that includes finer details like that with the way it's currently going and generally has gone. Archonex fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Mar 20, 2018 |
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Mar 20, 2018 02:38
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Circle could work well, the BPG introduced a form of ritual magic based on worship of the Dark Mother. You can only actually perform the rites if you've been in 'contact' with the Dark Mother, which is either something the Storyteller can drop on you whenever it seems appropriate or something you can try to actively reach out for when you've lost all Willpower. Anyone, including human cultists, can help you enact them....but you have to have actually received guidance from the Dark Mother to lead one. Having done so completely refills your Willpower pool and gives you some level of inspiration [Vague occult-y nonsense all such Storyteller bait actions give you, or something fairly direct and understandable on an Exceptional Success], and a feeling of being loved and connected. There's still no, like, stat sheet and a "This is what the Dark Mother is", but there's a lot based on what it means to Beasts and the very real power there.
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Mar 20, 2018 03:16
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There's also a faction of Beasts who acknowledge that the dark mother is real, but also that she is not their friend. (They aren't good beasts, mind you, they're still monsters. They just don't like drawing the dark mother's attention)
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Mar 20, 2018 03:21
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Basic Chunnel and cptn_dr thanks for pointing me to the Magnus Archives. I was not expecting it to be so good, I think the point of view really helps and thank god they have some continuity and overarching plot.
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Mar 20, 2018 07:01
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np, I'm not the biggest fan of the emerging metaplot but the episodes themselves are tightly written, and can be very effective. I pay em monthly.
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Mar 20, 2018 07:16
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The first Mage: the Awakening game that I’ve ever run is starting soon and I am at a complete and utter loss as to how to get the ball rolling. I’ve got loose ideas for what the overarching plot of the chronicle is going to be, but I feel like I want even the barest framework of a prewritten adventure to go off of to help get my players (who are all new to non-D&D RPGs) into the swing of things without me having to worry about coming up with a coherent plot in the prologue. Are there any short modules for nMage 2e that I can run to get things started?
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Mar 20, 2018 07:35
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blastron posted:The first Mage: the Awakening game that I’ve ever run is starting soon and I am at a complete and utter loss as to how to get the ball rolling. I’ve got loose ideas for what the overarching plot of the chronicle is going to be, but I feel like I want even the barest framework of a prewritten adventure to go off of to help get my players (who are all new to non-D&D RPGs) into the swing of things without me having to worry about coming up with a coherent plot in the prologue. I don't think 2e has any but 1e had the Abejdu Cipher which is sort of good for kicking off things. And Reign of the Exarchs, which is more of an adventure path. My advice, find something the characters would likely do, based on their order and personality, and have a boss tell them to do it (and bring back-up, you might need it) and sure enough they do, because something's going wrong and they have to deal with it right now. In our last game the Silver Ladder was checking in on another member who wasn't going to meetings, answering phone calls or magic contacts. Bring some back up, so the Adamantine Arrow was there, all the grass is dead, suburb cul de sac looks like a ghost town. And 'in case anything gets out of hand' we had a Guardian of the Veil who has no car and had to be driven by the Mysterium. Those two got there late and the Arrow (a brawler) had already gone a little door-kickey and ended up wrestling on the ground with this mage who was like a crazed decrepit old man but had Force Mage Armor so she couldn't do anything to him, it was hilarious. Anyways turns out he was controlled by the Abyssal Assistant, like a tool that helped him make things with magic he couldn't normally make. Then a metal grandfather clock appeared in the basement and started ticking down. That last one led to the overarching plots, but you can do it any way from there, even just have it as a 'you guys did a good job with that, lets assume you'll do a good job with this.' Ideally some of your loose ideas involve the characters or their backgrounds. nofather fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Mar 20, 2018 |
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Mar 20, 2018 07:55
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nofather posted:Basic Chunnel and cptn_dr thanks for pointing me to the Magnus Archives. I was not expecting it to be so good, I think the point of view really helps and thank god they have some continuity and overarching plot. Is there a good inspiration fodder horror fiction podcast out there right now that doesn't go down the oWoD-style metaplot route? Something that leaves a little ambiguity more appropriate to the "overflowing with uncategorizable weirdness" themes of nWoD/CoD?
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Mar 20, 2018 08:00
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blastron posted:The first Mage: the Awakening game that I’ve ever run is starting soon and I am at a complete and utter loss as to how to get the ball rolling. I’ve got loose ideas for what the overarching plot of the chronicle is going to be, but I feel like I want even the barest framework of a prewritten adventure to go off of to help get my players (who are all new to non-D&D RPGs) into the swing of things without me having to worry about coming up with a coherent plot in the prologue. There's a whole chapter of possible settings and story hooks in the 2e core. I just gave my group missions from their orders (competing missions as well), and then let them decide how to deal with it. I rarely plan in anything but broad strokes though, so if you need more concrete things, definitely read Abejdu Cipher, but know that you may have to just hand wave a few details to make it 2e. Then again, if your group is like mine, you'll never end up using those details anyway. Lambo Trillrissian posted:Am I the only one who usually finds myself disappointed once the overarching plot gets going in serial fiction? You are not alone in that. It's not that I don't like episodes and the like being connected, but if I'm sitting down to watch the X-Files TV series, I would be upset if someone switched it with the movie. The single episodes of weirdness supports the metaplot, and without them it's just not the same. Especially if you move from doing monster-of-the-week to full metaplot. I'd rather just see it sprinkled in here and there than being hit in the face with it.
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Mar 20, 2018 15:13
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Lambo Trillrissian posted:Am I the only one who usually finds myself disappointed once the overarching plot gets going in serial fiction? I enjoyed Magnus Archives far more when it was just urban horror stories with tentative but unclarified connections and a familiar cast, now that it has become everything is explicitly connected and also the protagonist is a lovecraftian-nobilis superhero fighting against other lovecraftian-nobilis superheroes to save the world I just doooo nooooot caaaaaaare. I feel like the writing quality is still great when limited to "spooky transcription" but takes a quality nosedive when doing the "spooky Interview with a Not-Vampire" plot stuff. No, that's a very common sentiment here. I've never understood it, I love that stuff. It's possible to make a monster-of-the-week or procedural format that stays fresh for an extended period of time but usually it just gets samey after a while. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Mar 20, 2018 |
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Mar 20, 2018 15:40
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What book has the hedge mage equivalent for CoD, one of my players wants her human pack member to become a mage, but that'd end up overshadowing the PCs, I figure. Also: I can just house rule it, but is there a mortal merit that allows normal, non-powered humans to see through lunacy and the innate supernatural masking powers?
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Mar 20, 2018 17:32
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I'm only on episode like 20 something. So far I've enjoyed that most of the issues they've faced are never solved, and their method of dealing with things seems to be avoiding them and big themes so far are 'everything is disorganized here' and 'I'm scared can I sleep anywhere that's not my home' which are pretty human. If it turns out they're some sort of witch-beating Cthulhu Puncher I'll be disappointed. nofather fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Mar 20, 2018 |
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Mar 20, 2018 17:34
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Soonmot posted:What book has the hedge mage equivalent for CoD, one of my players wants her human pack member to become a mage, but that'd end up overshadowing the PCs, I figure. Wolf-blooded or other minor template. Sleepwalker merit, I guess, could work, for just 'human but can see this poo poo'.
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Mar 20, 2018 17:39
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Mors Rattus posted:Wolf-blooded or other minor template. Sleepwalker merit, I guess, could work, for just 'human but can see this poo poo'. There's a generic Supernatural Tolerance merit in Hurt Locker.
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Mar 20, 2018 17:53
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Soonmot posted:What book has the hedge mage equivalent for CoD, one of my players wants her human pack member to become a mage, but that'd end up overshadowing the PCs, I figure. It might be easiest to just draw up a monster with a few dread powers. Or look into an analogue like stigmatics in Demon who have an embed or two at the ready. If the character’s a player asset you don’t want them too powerful (or if they are that powerful, they should be a potential problem).
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Mar 20, 2018 17:53
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Basic Chunnel posted:Even though the nWoD Hunter books seem to intimate in the usual ways that witches are actually mages, I seem to recall that you can build them out without actually making a Mage character. Maybe it’s just that I’ve played games where witches are just witches. nHunter allows you to build witches, werewolves and vampires without any of the other line books using their standard make-a-monster system via Dread Powers and so on.
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Mar 20, 2018 17:58
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Mage 2E has a section on Proximi, who are basically Sleepwalkers with limited access to Supernal Magic (usually just a few spells from one or two Arcana.)
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Mar 20, 2018 18:01
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Soonmot posted:What book has the hedge mage equivalent for CoD, one of my players wants her human pack member to become a mage, but that'd end up overshadowing the PCs, I figure. I think you're looking for Second Sight? e: One of the Thaumaturgy Traditions is literally Hedge Witch
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Mar 20, 2018 18:28
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Lambo Trillrissian posted:Am I the only one who usually finds myself disappointed once the overarching plot gets going in serial fiction? I enjoyed Magnus Archives far more when it was just urban horror stories with tentative but unclarified connections and a familiar cast, now that it has become everything is explicitly connected and also the protagonist is a lovecraftian-nobilis superhero fighting against other lovecraftian-nobilis superheroes to save the world I just doooo nooooot caaaaaaare. I feel like the writing quality is still great when limited to "spooky transcription" but takes a quality nosedive when doing the "spooky Interview with a Not-Vampire" plot stuff. Really depends. Sometimes the arcs intrude on an interesting plot structure (BBC's Sherlock has issues overall but the mytharc-heavy ones are extra dire), sometimes the arc and the individual episodes are equally good (c.f. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), and sometimes the overarching plot is the only loving good thing about a series (c.f. Person of Interest).
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Mar 20, 2018 19:37
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Xinder posted:I think you're looking for Second Sight? Could be that! I just remember there being an entire book in oWoD about people who could do lower case m magic and was curious if there were splats already out there instead of just homebrewing it. One of my werewolf players is going to run for city council in an attempt to break the strangle hold of the Ivory Claw/ Invictus alliance has on city politics.
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Mar 20, 2018 20:36
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Soonmot posted:Could be that! I just remember there being an entire book in oWoD about people who could do lower case m magic and was curious if there were splats already out there instead of just homebrewing it. yeah it's a nWoD 1e book and it's basically exactly what you're describing. Real easy to translate it to 2e tho because it's mostly just merits you can shove onto any old mortal sheet.
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Mar 21, 2018 00:29
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Does anyone have a link handy to that big compiled list of random poo poo each splat can do? It's not in the OP and I never actually bookmarked it.
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Mar 21, 2018 00:59
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PST2RffkiDCJQ-w2Fptcyhkza9PQ__vATOpfgiDC9F0/editKurieg posted:All Beasts Can:
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Mar 21, 2018 01:23
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:No, that's a very common sentiment here. I've never understood it, I love that stuff. It's possible to make a monster-of-the-week or procedural format that stays fresh for an extended period of time but usually it just gets samey after a while. I'm with you. My main gripe with early Magnus Archives episodes is that there wasn't any connective tissue, just a bunch of Inexplicable Spooky Stuff that didn't really amount to anything because there was no way to understand what any of it meant. I can sympathize with those who feel that problem was solved rather too enthusiastically, but I'll definitely take this over someone reading palatable creepypasta stories until it gets old and I stop listening.
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Mar 21, 2018 16:36
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LatwPIAT posted:Really depends. Sometimes the arcs intrude on an interesting plot structure (BBC's Sherlock has issues overall but the mytharc-heavy ones are extra dire), sometimes the arc and the individual episodes are equally good (c.f. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), and sometimes the overarching plot is the only loving good thing about a series (c.f. Person of Interest). In television, you use mytharc poo poo to keep people tuning in week after week. Back when the X-Files was in its hayday people loved that poo poo because it was the prevailing mystery; MotW episodes are solved but hinting at more juicy meat from the metaplot week to week makes you want to watch another one. Many of these shows suffer from one of three major mytharc problems: *Complexity. This was the X-Files biggest problem. Your brain can only take so many turns of, 'no, it was the moon people operating from a Buick parked in the future' before it shuts off. *Escalation. Too often the mytharcs try to ramp up the stakes too quickly and before you know it you have a god trying to punch a devil in the dick and your brain shuts off. *Banality. If the mytharc itself just isn't engaging because it's not actually carrying your show, your brain shuts off. Interestingly all three of those things are what you should watch out for when running a MotW WoD game.
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Mar 21, 2018 19:03
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Mendrian posted:*Escalation. Too often the mytharcs try to ramp up the stakes too quickly and before you know it you have a god trying to punch a devil in the dick and your brain shuts off. Or they just go on for so long that they either keep escalating but never resolve anything or have a big blowout devil-dick-punching finale - and then expect you to tune in again after they go back to punching regular demon dicks. Or gods forbid, they try to do both at the same time. What I'm trying to say is that Supernatural hasn't been good since season 2 and hasn't even been watchable since the end of season 5.
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Mar 21, 2018 21:05
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This list is missing diablerie. And demons can switch between Covers at the cost of one Aether, as well as create flimsy but useful fake identities called Facades from time-limited Pacts (see flowers of hell). Also all mages can technically invite the abyss into their spells in as far as its not an ability you have to purchase with xp, but it's apparently a secret technique you have to find out about so I don't think it counts.
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Mar 21, 2018 21:28
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Terrorforge posted:This list is missing diablerie. And demons can switch between Covers at the cost of one Aether, as well as create flimsy but useful fake identities called Facades from time-limited Pacts (see flowers of hell). I'm not the one who made it 
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Mar 21, 2018 21:37
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Pretty sure all you need for antinomian magic is to have the bright idea of intentionally invoking the Abyss rather than letting paradox run wild, but it's also kept hushed up so mages aren't tempted to shove the slimy green fire into their spellcraft for a nitro boost.
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Mar 21, 2018 21:58
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Joe Slowboat posted:Pretty sure all you need for antinomian magic is to have the bright idea of intentionally invoking the Abyss rather than letting paradox run wild, but it's also kept hushed up so mages aren't tempted to shove the slimy green fire into their spellcraft for a nitro boost.
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Mar 21, 2018 22:20
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Joe Slowboat posted:Pretty sure all you need for antinomian magic is to have the bright idea of intentionally invoking the Abyss rather than letting paradox run wild, but it's also kept hushed up so mages aren't tempted to shove the slimy green fire into their spellcraft for a nitro boost. There are two descriptions on how to do it in 1E. The first is as you described. The second is needing an antinomian rote. Forum remarks by Brookshaw have made it clear that presently the line is operating on the assumption of the latter. Being able to cast improvised antinomian spells is looking to be the benefit of undergoing the Joining, where Mages sign their name to an abyssal ziggurat, a Dur-Abzu. This makes sense in 2E, since in 1E it was a highly-costly minor benefit to a spell that often wasn't worth invoking on its own. In 2E it lets you turn Paradox into Reach which is pretty drat powerful.
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Mar 21, 2018 22:28
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Kurieg posted:I'm not the one who made it I am, and it is entirely possible I missed stuff.
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Mar 21, 2018 22:32
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Nessus posted:As I recall this was the plot of the Dr. Strange movie, basically. Basically, with the side plot of "Make sure your students understand that there's a difference between using a thing and worshiping it."
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Mar 21, 2018 22:44
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Kurieg posted:I'm not the one who made it I know, but Mors did so I figured I might as well put it in the thread.
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Mar 22, 2018 06:49
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Cú Sith typically cannot build Legend. All they can do is try to be a good dog. [edit]Did they remove the Prophet Supernatural Origin from the books? Just did a quick search for Cassandra in both books and didn't find anything. ZearothK fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 13:29
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The wrong version got uploaded, they will be in the corebook
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Mar 22, 2018 13:32
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They've been posted on the OP forums.Neall posted:
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Mar 22, 2018 13:40
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^^ Thanks! JesterOfAmerica posted:The wrong version got uploaded, they will be in the corebook Is it missing something other than those supernatural origins? My group is spoiling to give it a real run this season. ZearothK fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 13:40
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Just some clarifications that'd have been compiled in the Ask Neall thread. The supernatural paths are going to be redone, though I doubt they'll change all that much.
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Mar 22, 2018 13:53
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