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In fairness, while Conditions rub folks the wrong way for different reasons, I'd say this particular example is not a reason the Condition system is bad but a way in which it is being grossly misused. Those powers should not be Conditions, and even if they were, their rules shouldn't be solely shunted to the appendix. It is, however, a misuse of the Condition system that basically every drat 2e gameline commits except (mostly) Mage and Demon.
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May 13, 2019 18:59
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I'm only lukewarm on the mechanics of Conditions; I'd rather they were implemented differently, but the bulk of it is pretty much the same systems there would be if Conditions didn't exist. I think a better implementation of them would proliferate their use through powers. But the layout/reference problems with how they're currently implemented are just real bad. That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 19:10 on May 13, 2019 |
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May 13, 2019 19:03
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I like and will defend Conditions as little tags that go on a character and tell you "You have these bonuses, these penalties, these levers to pull to make things happen, and doing this will clear the Condition and give you a big reward for resolving it." It groups concepts that don't have to go together, but make sense together narratively, in a form which is really easy to track at the table. You can basically just clip a Condition card to your character sheet, refer to it to see all the mechanical implications of a certain story beat, and discard it when you're done with it. I completely agree that the layout in Geist 2E is terrible though. I'm willing to overlook it, partly because of how impressed I am by the game's overall theme and partly because I think they will work better in play than they will in reference, but the Conditions' rules text really ought to be moved to or duplicated in the powers section. Power sections are basically a catalogue for character creation, splitting the list from the effects is completely counter-productive.
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May 13, 2019 19:13
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also as an addendum i really don't like Conditions that are just "these are permanent powers/upgrades but you can lose them if you screw up somehow" because those should just go on your character sheet, and, crucially, should be subject to Sanctity of Merits
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May 13, 2019 19:21
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I Am Just a Box posted:In fairness, while Conditions rub folks the wrong way for different reasons, I'd say this particular example is not a reason the Condition system is bad but a way in which it is being grossly misused. Those powers should not be Conditions, and even if they were, their rules shouldn't be solely shunted to the appendix. Hell, if you want to get fancy just split the difference: Rule sidebar block on the specific page that says "Curse is X" and then if you need to save page count, in the Conditions section have a single line for Curse that says "as presented on p._". InDesign even supports variable cross-references as text objects, so you can make that item a floating invisible character in the sidebar so the page reference updates forever automatically!
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May 13, 2019 19:30
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Soonmot posted:What I've taken to doing is opening the PDF on my tablet or laptop and going to the condition section while reading the hard cover I just bought the playing cards and put the ones that apply out in front of me. 
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May 13, 2019 20:05
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The cards were nice for Mage for a while, until we started using custom conditions for pretty much everything. I think that’s more because it’s a Mage game and less about being useful. I could see the cards being useful for the other splats with more predictable power sets. The blue book cards with the environmental tilts get plenty of use.
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May 13, 2019 20:50
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Doesn't Geist not have any villains, at all?
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May 14, 2019 03:54
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TheNamedSavior posted:Doesn't Geist not have any villains, at all? No? What made you think that?
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May 14, 2019 03:58
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TheNamedSavior posted:Doesn't Geist not have any villains, at all? 1e was a little sparse on "what to do and why" but 2e has: Reapers, who eat ghosts for power / to sustain their masks so they don't go back to being regular lovely repeater ghosts; they will probably want to eat your friend-ghosts that you hang out with, or indeed, you Eaters of the dead, who are (were) mortals with various rituals to eat ghosts, and you, for more temporal power Necromancers, who use the dead for their own ends Other groups of Bound who are having very real and very tangible religious doctrinal conflicts with your group, or are just being assholes about territory Strong enough ghosts in the mortal world who are being assholes about whatever Unbound geists going full psycho mode for the sake of it Kerberoi and other underworld-dwelling moderate-to-big bads The 2nd edition book has a helpful section on this: 
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May 14, 2019 04:02
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TheNamedSavior posted:Doesn't Geist not have any villains, at all? The most militant Geist faction literally stages really spooky interventions. They are the Furies, they know what you’ve done and they are disappointed in how you’ve been behaving lately, but they’re here for you and they’re ready to have some really tough conversations on the journey toward reparation.
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May 14, 2019 07:26
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Every splat has that one piece of media that encapsulates the aesthetic for new players. In Vampire you’ve got, idk, Blade 2. With Changeling you’ve got Hellraiser, Hunter gets Aliens or… Blade. With Demon, the batshit second half of the Tommyknockers, etc Geist 1E was clearly the Crow but Geist 2E is probably Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The ghosts of Christmas exemplify a Fury krewe at the top of their game
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May 14, 2019 07:38
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Basic Chunnel posted:Every splat has that one piece of media that encapsulates the aesthetic for new players. In Vampire you’ve got, idk, Blade 2. With Changeling you’ve got Hellraiser, Hunter gets Aliens or… Blade. With Demon, the batshit second half of the Tommyknockers, etc Frighteners?
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May 14, 2019 09:48
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So, for everybody who was asking whether Swedracula still works for White Wolf, the answer is "he did until this week." And god drat but he is pleased with himself for someone who single-handedly destroyed his own company.
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May 14, 2019 15:24
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He's also back to using "Blood and Souls" as a signoff now that he doesn't need to kowtow to PR.quote:P.S. If you want to do something small to help my transition to freelancer, please consider writing some supportive words about me and what you like about WoD5 and the return of the World of Darkness. Writing here is nice for me and all that, but please do it where you discuss Vampire or gamer culture. D.S. But it's not going to help you, you lunatic.
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May 14, 2019 15:28
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his new imprint is Black Dog Blues oh my god what a turdman
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May 14, 2019 15:36
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May 14, 2019 15:44
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Sion posted:his new imprint is Black Dog Blues you'd think he'd come up with something original, what with being such a visionary and all that
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May 14, 2019 15:50
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Soonmot posted:you'd think he'd come up with something original, what with being such a visionary and all that He's still operating under the idea that he's the true heir to White Wolf. And since he's too edgy for White Wolf now clearly he's Black Dog Games.
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May 14, 2019 15:52
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Hey, are there any canonical descriptions of what it feels like for a mortal to suddenly gain a point of Rage? Or really just any descriptions of what Rage feels like, what differentiates it from just being really pissed off all the time. What makes Werewolf Rage unique from a Frenzy?
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May 14, 2019 16:13
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"My departure is a complex affair, but I think it’s fair to say it’s a consequence of the decision to dissolve and restructure White Wolf as a part of Paradox internal Brand Management and Licensing unit in November of 2018. Organizations evolve, intentions are misunderstood, goals change, drama happens and that’s life I guess." Drama happens, international incidents are caused... "I’m slowly returning to my existence as an active freelance writer and designer. I suspect Paradox may need some help on the further development of the bibles at some point, licencees may need someone who can write for WoD5 in his sleep, and since the creative center of WW is now with the developers of individual projects, that’s where I think I’ll be the most useful. I think I’ll try to be a Consulting Storyteller for a while. Hit me up if you think I could add something to your WoD5 product, or invite me over and I’ll hold an updated development workshop like the ones I ran before the books ate all my energy and focus." CALL ME BACK, PLEASE
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May 14, 2019 16:14
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Martin, your firing isn't a consequence of the decision to restructure. The decision to restructure is a consequence of needing to fire you. I'm pretty impressed at his gall. The first statement he releases after being fired for running the World of Darkness relaunch into the ground is "if you're looking for writers for the World of Darkness relaunch, please hire me because I'm good at it!" I Am Just a Box fucked around with this message at 16:29 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 16:26
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I wonder how long is required in Sweden by labor laws. Is this as soon as he could have been let go, or did they keep him on longer?
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May 14, 2019 16:30
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PHIZ KALIFA posted:Hey, are there any canonical descriptions of what it feels like for a mortal to suddenly gain a point of Rage? Or really just any descriptions of what Rage feels like, what differentiates it from just being really pissed off all the time. What makes Werewolf Rage unique from a Frenzy? Rage is being angrier than you have ever been in your entire life, constantly. You will always have this simmering anger lurking at the back of your mind, for the rest of your life. You know it's not the fault of the people around you, you know it's dangerous, so you have to keep a lid on it, keep it controlled and contained. If you don't, people around you notice. The guy twitching and growling and muttering to himself in the back of the bus tends to leave empty seats next to him. Finding and using acceptable outlets to your rage to keep it manageable are vital to the Garou. Consequently Frenzy is perhaps the exact opposite. A werewolf in frenzy feels nothing, the rage(or fear) has taken over completely and they tend to come out of it feeling refreshed and fairly anger free. It would be cathartic if not for the inevitable consequences of what happened while they were in frenzy, and the panging dread that they had no control or knowledge over it.
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May 14, 2019 16:31
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Mors Rattus posted:I wonder how long is required in Sweden by labor laws. Is this as soon as he could have been let go, or did they keep him on longer? Depends on the Swedish union, but there’s negotiations involved along the way. They could have tried to cut him when restructuring, but if there was a lower position available that he was qualified for they would have had to put him there. Doing an actual firing for incompetence is out of any experience I’ve encountered, but I imagine you’re doing it on a schedule/plan and have to try to work it out or something. Honestly, I don’t know how you come back from managing the start of an international incident.
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May 14, 2019 16:57
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So I wandered into this late, what's up with the guy everyone is calling Swedracula?
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May 14, 2019 17:12
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Basic Chunnel posted:It has antagonists, but no villains. If you approach an antagonist as a villain, as an enemy, you’re violating the spirit of the game. i dunno, morality is complicated and all, but i feel pretty good calling the people who eat ghosts to get high and live forever villains
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May 14, 2019 17:13
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Omnicrom posted:So I wandered into this late, what's up with the guy everyone is calling Swedracula? Dude is obsessed with oWoD, to the point that he is the model in one of the LARP books for Dracula. Thus the name. He was Paradox's pick for "Lead Storyteller" when they bought White Wolf, and was in charge of its creative direction. He pushed for a major return to The Edgy 90s, and over the past few years stuck his foot in his mouth repeatedly about how to do that, even discussing things like bringing back Gypsies as a book called Opre Roma because that's not going to at all be a terrible idea. This culminated in his literally causing an international incident due to content in the Camarilla book about current events relating to the genocide of gay people in Chechnya, which led to Paradox dissolving White Wolf as a subsidiary and restructuring everything a few months back.
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May 14, 2019 17:21
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Omnicrom posted:So I wandered into this late, what's up with the guy everyone is calling Swedracula? He's a drinking buddy and vampire photo model that worked his way into CCP back when they were looking to make the WoD MMO, used those connections to leverage a idea guy position in a White Wolf spinoff from Paradox, leased the IP out immediately to make slot machines for a quick buck, started running creepy sex-dungeon LARP for women to be 'cast' and then attacked from behind before the swedish & general LARP scene cleaned it up, helped push forward a new Vampire and Bloodlines CRPG game while also inserting his personal takes on 'regressive darkness' into White Wolf properties, was called out for his cryptofash signaling, then published a book that claimed that ongoing LGBTA repression in a sovereign state was Actually a cover-up of a Vampire secret government that pissed off everybody. Then he got booted.
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May 14, 2019 17:27
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complex affair complex affair
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May 14, 2019 17:36
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Omnicrom posted:So I wandered into this late, what's up with the guy everyone is calling Swedracula? Martin Ericsson was the Lead Storyteller for the relaunch of the World of Darkness when Paradox Interactive purchased the White Wolf intellectual property from CCP Games. He lives in Sweden and, being an avid LARPer, had (been chosen? paid for a premium Kickstarter tier?) to serve as one of several photo models for splash illustrations in one of the Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition books. He portrayed Dracula. Pretty much from the moment the purchase was negotiated, Martin began releasing enthusiastic statements and interviews about his plans for the fifth edition of the World of Darkness, of a type that betrayed sensibilities that never seemed to have moved on from the edgy nineties. He had some condescending words for the nWoD. He described his image of Werewolf: the Apocalypse's player characters as "environmentalist cryptofascists." He thought the WoD needed to actively interweave its plot and events into major world geopolitics: he thought Vampire should have engaged 9/11 directly into its metaplot at the time, and wanted to bring vampire plot events into modern Iraq and Syria. He thought World of Darkness: Gypsies was a poor execution of a great idea, and thought the idea of a new "Opre Roma!" book sounded fantastic. He had an old fiction anthology edited by an exposed child abuser republished without commenting on the editor or removing his credit, and contributed his own story to it, which contained the phrase "full rear end-rape stiffness." Lots of other lovely stuff went on with White Wolf that didn't personally have Martin's name on it, but Martin clearly was the one calling the creative shots, so it's hard to separate him from them. They hired professional abuser Zak Smith on a CYOA writing project and stood by him in defense. Their playtest adventure included a pedophile abuser as one of the player characters. One of the (playtest? book?) drafts had an example of play where a dice pool coincidentally rolled 1, 4, 8, 8 in a row, a.k.a. the Hitler numbers. Things came to a head when the third V5 book under his direction literally caused an international incident. Chechnya was depicted in the World of Darkness as an open-secret vampire dictatorship, its real-world homosexual pogroms as a smokescreen or distraction to keep the rest of the world from noticing the vampiric activity, and called its real-world leader Ramzan Kadyrov a literal vampire. Russians and Chechens were very angry, leftists were also very angry for how frivolous this take on the real pogroms was, some business partners in Russia got detained by the state, and Paradox Interactive stepped in, dissolved White Wolf Entertainment as a separate corporate entity, and installed somebody else as the new creative head. We now finally have confirmation that in the course of this, Martin was fired. I Am Just a Box fucked around with this message at 17:39 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 17:36
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Paradox doesn’t get nearly enough blame for putting him in that position in the first place
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May 14, 2019 18:21
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Anne Rice's vampire Jesus wept. Good lord that sounds like an utter clusterfuck. What is the status of White Wolf now? Last I followed WoD was when Onyx Path shat out Beast which is its own kettle of fish, and I heard that Paradox eventually picked up the IP, but looking back I realize I've never 100% been sure the progression and differences between WW to OP. What does Paradox own of the World of Darkness IP? Is it just the oWoD stuff?
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May 14, 2019 18:30
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Omnicrom posted:Anne Rice's vampire Jesus wept. Good lord that sounds like an utter clusterfuck. Paradox wholly owns World of Darkness IP, sometimes licenses stuff out, is supposedly now licensing everything out to Onyx Path? Paradox owns Chronicles of Darkness IP, licenses all production to Onyx Path, but has the final say. Onyx Path wholly owns Scion and Aeon, having bought them from Paradox whole cloth.
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May 14, 2019 18:32
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Can't express how relieved I am that this shithead is gone. As bad as V5 turned out, I could only imagine how horrible Werewolf 5 and Mage 5 would have been.
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May 14, 2019 18:33
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They don't only licence to Onyx Path. Most upcoming Masquerade books are going to be by Modiphius, there's a board game coming from uh... I don't know who's doing it, but it isn't OPP.
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May 14, 2019 18:35
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So any news on when Paradox going to pull the trigger and make a Grand Strategy Game out of WoD?
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May 14, 2019 19:50
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I mean, Crusader Kings but about neighborhoods in a city would be EZ Money.
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May 14, 2019 19:58
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Previews for Mummy: the Curse 2e have started. http://theonyxpath.com/maa-kep-mummy-the-curse-2nd-edition/ Pretty decent writeup, not too different from 1e's approach. The nicknames are pretty odd though.
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May 14, 2019 20:42
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Disappointed, though not surprised, by keeping the same opaque splat names. Mummy needs to cut down on the Egyptian similarly to how Werewolf needs to cut down on usage of the First Tongue. Not sure how an Arisen gets along as an internal affairs cop, in the example characters. Mostly unremarkable. It's okay.
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May 14, 2019 20:57
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