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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:True, and in fairness, when you're used to the Beast giving you a constant droning buzz of "rip and tear, kill and drink," some dipshit whispering in your ear about being sad and sulky for eternity doesn't really land as hard. Also, you're already used to living a hideous half-existence, and not seeing the sun, and wait a second do vampires make the most well-adjusted wraiths?
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Sep 20, 2019 20:38
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Deviant funded. It was probably never in doubt, but I looked and it's already cleared 5K past its goal.
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Sep 20, 2019 21:35
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Am I misremembering? I thought vampires didn't leave a ghost behind after they ash. So there wouldn't even be a specter
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Sep 20, 2019 22:52
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^^^^ If they didn't reach Golconda or have their soul eaten, they can leave a ghost.Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:True, and in fairness, when you're used to the Beast giving you a constant droning buzz of "rip and tear, kill and drink," some dipshit whispering in your ear about being sad and sulky for eternity doesn't really land as hard. Also, you're already used to living a hideous half-existence, and not seeing the sun, and wait a second do vampires make the most well-adjusted wraiths? Beyond the obvious "All vampires have to die a violent death, on account of the immortality issue", and the high odds a violently murdered sub-human monster has of waking up a Mortwight? At the end of the day if you are fine with being a bastard and have no compelling positive drives to you your Passions and Dark Passions are going to have a lot of overlap, and that means the Shadow is going to take over eventually. As an undead being that has been feeding it's darker half on the blood of the innocent you think, what, it's going to be thankful when it has a chance to jettison your control? There's an entire Shadow archetype that is just "rip and tear, kill and drink". Some vampires have spent centuries submitting to that voice. Give it active supernatural power and they are gone.
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Sep 20, 2019 22:57
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Idrin posted:Am I misremembering? I thought vampires didn't leave a ghost behind after they ash. So there wouldn't even be a specter e: Also a lot of that number are going to be random Sabbat shovelheads and other lovely neonates, and presumably if you spent three weeks as a vampire before becoming a wraith, it would be "a major trauma immediately preceding your demise" rather than a definitional thing the way it would be for Prince van der Snoote. It would probably still gently caress you over because you'd likely lose potential Fetters and may have bloated your Shadow by doing vampire crimes prior to death, but you also probably wouldn't have the potential of discovering that that guy you ate ninety-two years ago is now the district commander of the Iron Legion and remembers you very well. Nessus fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Sep 20, 2019 |
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Sep 20, 2019 23:14
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Said figure is totally unworkable, by the way, since it also posits some 40,000 total dead in the rest of history. The five years leading up to it alone would account for something like 15% of all vampire deaths in history, which is inconsistent with the rest of the setting - while overpopulation is a big theme, there's not really the kind of emphasis you'd expect from a single year killing off something like a twentieth of the total vampire population. 40,000 active on its own is unobjectionable (barring the usual 'that leaves too few per capita for my game!!' objections that can be handwaved) but 40 active, 40 dead just doesn't work.
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Sep 21, 2019 03:34
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Loomer posted:Said figure is totally unworkable, by the way, since it also posits some 40,000 total dead in the rest of history. The five years leading up to it alone would account for something like 15% of all vampire deaths in history, which is inconsistent with the rest of the setting - while overpopulation is a big theme, there's not really the kind of emphasis you'd expect from a single year killing off something like a twentieth of the total vampire population. 40,000 active on its own is unobjectionable (barring the usual 'that leaves too few per capita for my game!!' objections that can be handwaved) but 40 active, 40 dead just doesn't work. Also, killing off the majority of Ravnos seems like it could neatly be "about 5% of the vampire population."
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Sep 21, 2019 04:05
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Nessus posted:I dunno, the innovation of shovelhead tactics by the Sabbat seems like it could goose that number up real loving quick, and isn't part of the entire gimmick for antediluvians that they get disturbed by mass vampire death? That 5% isn't the Ravnos but rather true Sabbat (not shovelheads) killed off in a single year, and the shovelhead tactics and mass embraces are precisely why the figure doesn't work - the Sabbat have been doing that for over a century, vampires in the middle ages did the same thing, and huge chunks of the dead are already accounted for (for instance, the Cappadocians were apparently something on the order of 1/8th of all vampires to have ever existed, the vast majority of which are dead. They're something like 1/4th of all dead vampires in history, leaving us an even lower available figure. 40 live, 40 dead just plain doesn't fit the setting as depicted almost everywhere else.
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Sep 21, 2019 04:52
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I added the loving gradient, even though I'd already mixed down to jpg for export. the pdf is laid out like that so I can two-sided print and then do a foldover like a church program. gently caress what is wrong with me context for the sumo thing: one of the players is a major weeb and offered a major boon to whoever engaged with him about sumo wrestling since the world series of sumo is on right now. So I figured I'd indulge him while getting in another jab at power. Shrecknet fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 15:06
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yes, perfect
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Sep 21, 2019 15:11
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Looks like they added as a stretch goal the option of discounted bundling the Beast core into your pledge. I don’t know if they just didn’t better ideas for that funding milestone or it means something about Deviant
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Sep 21, 2019 16:36
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Funding stops 1 cent below that total.
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Sep 21, 2019 16:47
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Shrecknet posted:I added the loving gradient, even though I'd already mixed down to jpg for export. This rules. The article on Ghouls made snort.
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Sep 21, 2019 16:56
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If I were to be glib about it, what they’ve revealed so far points toward something like a mechanical representation of borderline personality disorder. Which could be problematic, I guess, but from a standpoint of generating high-tension pulp genre plots, it’s a smart idea
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Sep 21, 2019 17:26
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joylessdivision posted:This rules. The article on Ghouls made snort. It's an incredible touch, and I would be jealous of anyone who has a player that puts in this much effort. And not just cuz it's usually me.
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Sep 21, 2019 17:51
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This is the sort of poo poo I love when players choose to develop it in LARPs (and which I dig deploying in them from time to time myself), godspeed Shreknet.
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Sep 21, 2019 18:37
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Nothing like the beautiful evening before vampire
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Sep 21, 2019 21:01
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Trip Report! I have essentially leaned all the way in to being FYAD: The Vampire at this point. I made a special point to make sure my zine only went into the hands of Neonate players, because involving players who don't have Elder power spreads is just good positive metagaming. Everyone had a good laugh at the Ghoul article. Ironically, we had a new Tremere player join the game tonight, bringing the Tremere's population to exactly 7. Had a fun chat where I explained I just write the horoscopes for a laugh, I don't have any oracular ability. Just kidding....Unless? Being a Setite in a city with no Setites, and an Independent in a city with no Gios, means I am basically an island, and that's ok. At one point the Elysium cleared all the way out because 25 players wanted to be involved in fighting a single demon, which is super-dumb and shouldn't be allowed (esp since under BNS rules you can only have 5 people attack you per round, which leads to dumb "stand in line and throw a chop" gameplay but whatever). I made my way to the Harpy and complimented him on his "gentle touch" (implying that he doesn't do his job of effectively being a scandal-hound, and pointed out that, in another city, it would be scandalous as gently caress if the entire domain up and left the Keeper's first true Elysium in a year. ) He gave me a trivial boon to "never approach him again until the next gather." I tried to say I'd leave him to not do his job in peace, but the Etruscan, seated nearby, suggested I take the L (and the boon) Meanwhile, the random coordinates I picked out of a hat (a local Greek Orthodox church with cool architecture) got 15 loving people to show up. Exactly 1 was a Nosferatu, so it was 1 Nos and 14 busybodies. When they arrived, somehow two zombies raised themselves out of the ground and attacked (I have no idea who did this, but there's a few people who know Necromancy, so it's a short list) and a ghostly ethereal figure in Greek goddess garb appeared as well (played by an ST, again no idea why) I did have a simple request of the Nos, a little bit of transactional dealmaking that went nowhere, but so it goes. I don't want to go all "puppetmaster defense" on it, but the Ventrue Primogen elder (the one from my previous post who said 'naw, David Koch wasn't a Ventrue retainer' in contraindication to all Ventrue lore ever) who was there, for no earthly reason, called me an idiot and a fool and all I could do is point out that the horoscope said "come alone" and 15 people showed up to be dumb about things. gently caress I hate how awful these people are at overcommitting. All these players do is roll in huge murderparties/discipline dumps and it's so annoying that elder players squash any attempt at letting the neonates stretch their wings. Shrecknet fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Sep 22, 2019 |
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Sep 22, 2019 05:45
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Shrecknet posted:Ironically, we had a new Tremere player join the game tonight, bringing the Tremere's population to exactly 7. Had a fun chat where I explained I just write the horoscopes for a laugh, I don't have any oracular ability. Just kidding....Unless? You may not, but I make no comment.
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Sep 22, 2019 05:52
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Loomer posted:You may not, but I make no comment.
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Sep 22, 2019 06:01
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Shrecknet posted:I also checked and found out I have the available Merit dots and XP to add Oracular Ability to my character and shot off a quick email to the STs to see if they wanted to go down that path, because I think it would be loving hilarious if my shitposting turned into an honest-to-god plot device players cared about.  This poo poo is downright inspirational.
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Sep 22, 2019 06:54
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Shrecknet posted:I also checked and found out I have the available Merit dots and XP to add Oracular Ability to my character and shot off a quick email to the STs to see if they wanted to go down that path, because I think it would be loving hilarious if my shitposting turned into an honest-to-god plot device players cared about. I wish more players in LARP did this type of stuff, rather than just hoarding dots and +1s and go off to throw chops.
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Sep 22, 2019 13:41
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Roaving hoards of megacombats are pretty common in LARPS and are actually a major design challenge for STs. Having run a few, near as I can figure, there are two major contributing factors to the "roving squad" problem. One is the number of tuned out combat characters who love to minmax their characters and basically spend the entire game waiting for an excuse to show off. The second problem is that Vampire plot "wants" players to manipulate and scheme and lie to each other while dealing with microscale obstacles to each other's resources. Vampire players on the other hand, seem to despise genuine conflict and only engage in it with each other when they are morally in the right and guartenteed to succeed - so you wind up with 20 people sitting around in Elysium waiting for a werewolf invasion because nobody can argue that a werewolf invasion is bad and there's no moral ambiguity. There is nothing wrong with playing Vampire that way but it suckkkks for the standard LARP format which thrives on self motivated play.
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Sep 22, 2019 14:46
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I think a lot of LARP issues would be solved by adequate staffing and liberal use of Narrator-level NPCs. Our 40 person game has just 2 STs so they are essentially always tied up in a mass combat and non-combat plots about investigating spooky world of darkness stuff or interacting with NPCs is nonexistent. Anything over 7:1 is understaffed imo
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Sep 22, 2019 17:00
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Shrecknet posted:I think a lot of LARP issues would be solved by adequate staffing and liberal use of Narrator-level NPCs. Our 40 person game has just 2 STs so they are essentially always tied up in a mass combat and non-combat plots about investigating spooky world of darkness stuff or interacting with NPCs is nonexistent. Anything over 7:1 is understaffed imo Mendrian posted:The second problem is that Vampire plot "wants" players to manipulate and scheme and lie to each other while dealing with microscale obstacles to each other's resources. Vampire players on the other hand, seem to despise genuine conflict and only engage in it with each other when they are morally in the right and guartenteed to succeed - so you wind up with 20 people sitting around in Elysium waiting for a werewolf invasion because nobody can argue that a werewolf invasion is bad and there's no moral ambiguity. Unfortunately there were few direct remedies I have encountered. The main attitude-changing approach involved the player locked in a self-defeating and/or static mental state, but who had interest in changing that, going to another game and having successful proactive adventures, usually while being coached. This tended to build confidence, assuming - and this is a big assumption - there were no major underlying mental health issues in the way.
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Sep 22, 2019 21:25
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Nessus posted:You are kind of on a trajectory to end up one of those people, and I also think that you run into a general issue that the thing that attracts someone to play their character and the thing that attracts someone to GM and facilitate for others-- these are not the same impulse, and the latter one is a lot rarer, and I think also more fragile. Would you mind saying what other games you encountered this in? I was thinking about some of the stories I've heard coming out of Eve Online. It's an interesting point - a combat monster has power according to the rules, but someone whose character wants to accumulate temporal power has to, more or less, actually accumulate temporal power.. It may only be temporal power over people in your LARP / at your table / in your guild / in your, but that's still real political power that often requires the player to engage in real politics.
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Sep 23, 2019 01:30
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Digital Osmosis posted:Would you mind saying what other games you encountered this in? I was thinking about some of the stories I've heard coming out of Eve Online. It's an interesting point - a combat monster has power according to the rules, but someone whose character wants to accumulate temporal power has to, more or less, actually accumulate temporal power.. It may only be temporal power over people in your LARP / at your table / in your guild / in your, but that's still real political power that often requires the player to engage in real politics. Pretty much any of the large scale online games will have this to some extent. The ST:PC ratio is often very imbalanced, and this breads having to make your own fun for the social/political types. If you're going to be a combat monkey, you'll rely on the STs to run combats for you. I've run into problems with this myself, because there will be more pressure on the ST to run those combat scenes when they don't often move any story anywhere. The real politics is in the actual politics you're doing with your character. You run into similar situations in other group activities (like raiding in an MMO), but there it's more of an organization/leadership thing that you need to bring and there's a lot less of the globbing in groups. Except for the literal globbing in groups. I expect there's a reason that these WoD games work best when the ratio is similar to what you'd have comfortably at a table. But mostly that's a result of having time to keep people engaged and move things forward without people just standing there and looking broody.
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Sep 23, 2019 01:53
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This sounds like it's part of the classic "diplomacy check" problem. Y'know, how most people don't think of fighting or hacking or research as anything other than a challenge that's to be overcome by the raw ability of their character, but social interactions are where the actual roleplaying happens so trying to cram mechanics into them becomes awkward as all the obvious solutions compromise one or the other. Which can of course only get worse in an environment where it's not even an option to go "oh yeah I totally seduce this guy. Presence + Manipulation?" I'm sure there's a million reasons it wouldn't fly, but I wonder if the best solution isn't just colluding. Y'know, throw an e-mail to your snooty rival and be like "hey about halfway through Sunday's session I'm going to have your favorite ghoul murdered, so be prepared to throw a shitfit at me. if the ghoul's off limits, do you have some other important thing I could break?" Still requires effort, but I would think less of it than clearing the ghoul murder with STs, doing whatever little dice rolling exercise they demand of you and then expecting the snooty rival to organically do the detective work necessary to figure out who to be angry at.
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Sep 23, 2019 13:18
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Original World of Darkness question - can a living Mage step into the Shadowlands without dying in the next several seconds? Or are they able to send their spirit/astrally project into the Shadowlands?
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Sep 24, 2019 17:28
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CobiWann posted:Original World of Darkness question - can a living Mage step into the Shadowlands without dying in the next several seconds? Or are they able to send their spirit/astrally project into the Shadowlands? If the Black Hand can do it through bullshit magic I don't see why a Mage couldn't.
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Sep 24, 2019 17:52
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Yeah, you can just wander in with Spirit + Entropy. It's not really advised because you'll attract the intense interest of everything for miles and there are things out there you probably can't handle, but being in the Dark Umbra isn't inherently lethal.
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Sep 24, 2019 18:37
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CobiWann posted:Original World of Darkness question - can a living Mage step into the Shadowlands without dying in the next several seconds? Or are they able to send their spirit/astrally project into the Shadowlands? Nothing will kill you outright. But every single wraith will recognize you as a living being, with predictable consequences. Spectres, who normally can't see mortals through the Shroud, will have a rare opportunity to gently caress you over. Tge Hierarchy will consider your presence in the Shadowlands as a breach of Dictum Mortuum, so you will probably have to stay away from the Citadels. Also, I assume Maelstroms and the Tempest are more dangerous to you than your ordinary wraith, because they have knowledge how to deal with it and some Arcanoi such as Argos.
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Sep 24, 2019 19:17
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Gantolandon posted:Nothing will kill you outright. But every single wraith will recognize you as a living being, with predictable consequences. Spectres, who normally can't see mortals through the Shroud, will have a rare opportunity to gently caress you over. Tge Hierarchy will consider your presence in the Shadowlands as a breach of Dictum Mortuum, so you will probably have to stay away from the Citadels. Also, I assume Maelstroms and the Tempest are more dangerous to you than your ordinary wraith, because they have knowledge how to deal with it and some Arcanoi such as Argos. Isn't the 6th great maelstrom partially caused by a Mage loving around in the labyrinth with a magic nuke (along with the spirit nuke lol)
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Sep 24, 2019 20:28
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joylessdivision posted:Isn't the 6th great maelstrom partially caused by a Mage loving around in the labyrinth with a magic nuke (along with the spirit nuke lol) Yeah, I think it's like three things exploding at once, one of them being a spirit nuke, along side a ghost nuke destroying the vampire ghost city of Enoch, and the death of the Ravnos antediluvian happening simultaneously.
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Sep 24, 2019 21:40
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Rand Brittain posted:Yeah, I think it's like three things exploding at once, one of them being a spirit nuke, along side a ghost nuke destroying the vampire ghost city of Enoch, and the death of the Ravnos antediluvian happening simultaneously. Ah yes, I forgot about the Technocracy and their literal "Nuke it from orbit" shenanigans.
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Sep 24, 2019 22:23
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joylessdivision posted:Ah yes, I forgot about the Technocracy and their literal "Nuke it from orbit" shenanigans.
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Sep 25, 2019 00:23
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Just got this email. Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Launching in Seven Languages quote:Modiphius Entertainment is proud to announce a host of partnerships that will bring Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition into the hands of fans around the world who’ve been waiting on this new edition to release in their language.
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Sep 25, 2019 02:43
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We're coming up on 2 years since 5th dropped and the only meaningful release they've had is....the Core.
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Sep 25, 2019 03:26
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Mulva posted:We're coming up on 2 years since 5th dropped and the only meaningful release they've had is....the Core. The Camarilla and Anarch books?
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Sep 25, 2019 03:28
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Mulva posted:We're coming up on 2 years since 5th dropped and the only meaningful release they've had is....the Core. I bet they are waiting for Bloodlines 2 to take off and then shower the line with additional material. Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Sep 25, 2019 |
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Sep 25, 2019 03:40
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