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Revised generally said you only botched if you got no success and a 1. One success and 3 1s? Just a failure. I think.
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Jun 27, 2023 19:38
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Nessus posted:Revised generally said you only botched if you got no success and a 1. One success and 3 1s? Just a failure. I think. Correct. Ferrinus posted:I don't really see the issue as long as your absolute chance of a botch decreases. Like, suppose I go from 75% succeed, 15% fail, 10% botch to 90% succeed, 5% fail, 5% botch. Oh, no, my odds of botching (massive, flashing asterisk) have increased (even bigger asterisk which is visibly on fire)!!! The probability is a little wonky if the difficulty is greater than 6 and the dice pools are small. For example, at every difficulty, the chance to botch with 1 dice is, of course, 10%. At Diff 7 with 2 dice however, the chance rises slightly to 11%. With a pool of 3 you dip below the initial 10%. Diff 8 also needs 3 dice to start trending down, but needs 5 dice before you get below the initial 10%. Diff 9 needs a pool of 5 dice before it starts trending down, and 9 dice before it gets below the initial 10%. EDIT: There's still a climbing success rate in each case. It's just the ratio of fail/botch probabilities that's weird. Free Gratis fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jun 27, 2023 |
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Jun 27, 2023 21:42
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Any of you have any experience with GMing Mage the Awakening 2e? If so, how'd it go and what are some good tips and things to look out for while GMing myself? Thankfully I have a lot of time to prepare since I've got to wrap up a Delta Green campaign before I get onto this.
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Jun 28, 2023 04:58
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Whirling posted:Any of you have any experience with GMing Mage the Awakening 2e? If so, how'd it go and what are some good tips and things to look out for while GMing myself? Thankfully I have a lot of time to prepare since I've got to wrap up a Delta Green campaign before I get onto this. #1 tip bring the free council rote “save point” back from 1e it’s the best
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Jun 28, 2023 09:36
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Whirling posted:Any of you have any experience with GMing Mage the Awakening 2e? If so, how'd it go and what are some good tips and things to look out for while GMing myself? Thankfully I have a lot of time to prepare since I've got to wrap up a Delta Green campaign before I get onto this. Some. #1: don't worry about using all the wrenches in the toybox. If you can't think of a Condition to grant for an exceptional success in spellcasting, just give a beat and move along. In fact, it is fine to cut to the goddamn chase and skip condition tracking whenever you can't be arsed to deal with it #2: You do not need to properly stat npcs. For mages, think of their Path, Order, long-term Obsession, Gnosis, and any Arcana they have at 4 or 5. That's all you need. If they have a Legacy you simply do not need the fine-tuning of mechanics involved in statting their attainments unless a pc is joining it. In extremis, you can let the arcana slide too - the two vital parts of a mage are their path and what it is they're an expert in / obsessed by. #3 It is virtually impossible to imprison a mage, and they are all walking SAM sites. All of mage society is based on this. It's one part academic conference, two parts framing anything as disagreements among gentlemen because anything else results in devestating bloodshed. #4 related to the abive, the Seers are not the Technocracy. The Diamond and Pyramid are bitter rivals, but they don't go around killing one another all the time as a base position. #5 and while I'm on the subject - the Pentacle are portrayed as being a lot murkier, morally speaking, than Ascension's traditions. They are not the good guys, rather the best-available guys. This is more down to Ascension being too cowardly to properly portray Trad mages as the fringe weirdos and outcasts they should be.
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Jun 28, 2023 11:31
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Be extremely collaborative with your players, because their characters have an outsized command of what happens in the game. Try to challenge them with stuff that they can't overcome easily, but don't be too surprised when they do anyway and remember the characters are all self-absorbed weirdos in a battle over ideologies, including amongst allies, so it's okay for sessions to be a lot of talking.
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Jun 28, 2023 13:50
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Your players WILL surprise you, go with it. Let poo poo get W E I R D and remember that any mystery you create they will be able to solve with magic. It's cool to have something here and there that spells won't work on, but don't keep doing constantly. Let them take shortcuts, encourage them to take shortcuts, and then when they rely on those shortcuts for everything THAT'S when you pull the rug out and reveal the price.
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Jun 28, 2023 14:38
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Once in a Mage game one of their allies was poisoned and the poisoner told them that it was reactive to magic and would immediately kill the victim if any spell was used, even sensorial ones. Anyways, there was a lot of concern about it until like two sessions later one of the players managed to recover a blood sample from the target and then proceeded to roll 12 successes with eight dice on their Intelligence + Medicine roll to realize it was complete bullshit and hey, this is a poison that the player himself had created in his lab when he was a journeyman. They then proceeded to bully the poisoner NPC for the rest of that arc.
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Jun 28, 2023 14:58
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  EDIT: Yep, reverse Hunger, but instead of Messy Crits, you just have a 20% per die chance at loving up your roll. Fuzz fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Jun 28, 2023 |
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Jun 28, 2023 17:19
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Hey, it's a "we're too lazy to fix an unintended element of our design so we're instructing the Storyteller to punish anyone who notices" sidebar. The 90s are back, baby! It's also a huge disappointment to read "you gain 1 Rage when damaged, up to once per turn" and then immediately "...except in combat". What the hell, man? That'd be perfect!
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Jun 28, 2023 17:30
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Wait, so Rage gain when you’re topped off makes you lose Willpower, but Rage loss when you’re in supernatural depression does absolutely nothing? That’s dumb as hell. That is literally the opposite of how it should work. Glad I never preordered this (because of how bad that looked, morally), because at this point I’d be trying to figure out how to cancel (due to how bad it looks, morally but in a different way and also mechanically).
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Jun 28, 2023 17:41
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Ferrinus posted:It's also a huge disappointment to read "you gain 1 Rage when damaged, up to once per turn" and then immediately "...except in combat". What the hell, man? That'd be perfect!
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Jun 28, 2023 17:45
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Trying to game your Rage meter seems like the absolute worst thing and I hate it.
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Jun 28, 2023 18:08
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“You try to shift but fail, now you’re stuck in human form until you can awoo just right” Perfect, no notes, loving this “SA frontpage article from 10 years ago” approach to Werewoof: The Yiffpocalypse
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Jun 28, 2023 18:11
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It is a nice touch that rage dice are an actual upside in combat, since they're effectively a special way to crit on a 9 or a 10. In V5 a hungry vampire is actually much less dangerous than an even-tempered one, not just because they're low on mana but because a portion of their attack pool is locked off from willpower rerolls.
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Jun 28, 2023 18:20
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I love that werewolf auspices are basically organized by all the non-combat duties they hold that they will all inevitably gently caress up horribly because they were just a tish too angry that day.
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Jun 28, 2023 18:55
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Kurieg posted:Trying to game your Rage meter seems like the absolute worst thing and I hate it.
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Jun 28, 2023 19:18
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Good advice, everyone, thanks so much. I do have experience with games like Exalted that require a GM to go with the flow of the players, so hopefully that transfers over. Also, hey, one of you is one of the developers! Thank you for making the game!
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Jun 28, 2023 20:07
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Kurieg posted:I love that werewolf auspices are basically organized by all the non-combat duties they hold that they will all inevitably gently caress up horribly because they were just a tish too angry that day. I'm dreading that the gift lists are going to be the only things that separate the Auspices, and I dislike that all Auspices are now equally prone to frenzy. I agree that it should have been more possible for, say, a starting Ragabash to frenzy (it was practically impossible), but it was still on brand for them to be more cool headed than the others, per their role. It's also just strange to have decoupled Frenzy from Rage so hard. (Other than the willpower damage from excess) I feel like such a grognard, but each new preview puts me more firmly in the "it's not for me" camp. I'm glad they knocked out so much of the gross poo poo, but so much non-gross stuff I really liked is being changed too.
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Jun 28, 2023 20:18
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Kurieg posted:I love that werewolf auspices are basically organized by all the non-combat duties they hold that they will all inevitably gently caress up horribly because they were just a tish too angry that day. Oooh, Beast redux? "You try to stabilize the patient before he bleeds out. You're really pissed off at all the violence that's been happening tonight, and the traffic jams, and the huge fight you had with your spouse before you went on duty, so you're full of rage. Oh poo poo, you got a double brutal. So, lets see. You're so pissed off that you miswound the bandage that you: a) punch the patient right in the wound you're trying to bandage a few times, b) punch your partner while screaming in fury, or c) punch the sidewalk so hard that you break a few knuckles." Still reminds me of the 1970s Incredible Hulk show meets the werewolves from Twilight. You're an inherently violent person with terrible anger management. Go!
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Jun 28, 2023 20:32
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The new Rage stuff is a bit weird, but I still plan to give it an honest chance when I try Werewolf out for Halloween this year. V5 seemed weird but I turned out to quite like the mechanics in play. Still more realistic then trying to get someone in my group to read a whole rear end Exalted book.
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Jun 28, 2023 20:44
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You know, burning your willpower if you get too much Rage is a really weird choice. You'd think that going above 5 just makes you risk immediate frenzy, while dropping below 0 is what saps your will to go on.
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Jun 28, 2023 21:24
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Ferrinus posted:You know, burning your willpower if you get too much Rage is a really weird choice. You'd think that going above 5 just makes you risk immediate frenzy, while dropping below 0 is what saps your will to go on. This was my thought too. Like, it shoull be "Get more Rage over 5 = Frenzy test, every time" and then going to 0 = "laff you're gonna start losing Willpower instead of gaining Rage, unless you howl at the moon like a weirdo or dance naked around the fire with your pack or whatever." That would be way more interesting a dynamic.
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Jun 28, 2023 21:43
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I think the idea is you're spending willpower to *keep* from frenzying? but they're not making it an option and instead just forcing you to do it.
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Jun 28, 2023 21:49
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Kurieg posted:I think the idea is you're spending willpower to *keep* from frenzying? but they're not making it an option and instead just forcing you to do it.
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Jun 28, 2023 21:59
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it also means that it's actually kind of ideal to have One Guy be your skill monkey and party face who stays at zero rage all the time and just doesn't contribute to combat. Like it was kind of the entire point of the hunger system that you couldn't remove the penalties completely without literally killing someone.
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Jun 28, 2023 22:03
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Kurieg posted:it also means that it's actually kind of ideal to have One Guy be your skill monkey and party face who stays at zero rage all the time and just doesn't contribute to combat. Like it was kind of the entire point of the hunger system that you couldn't remove the penalties completely without literally killing someone.
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Jun 28, 2023 22:14
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:It also means the gamiest way to game your Rage is to never stay fully healthy, because then you can try to burn it down healing yourself when your tank gets too close to the top, if you don't have any gifts to try to biff Rage checks on to cost a point. It's such a weird way to get there, but I guess that's what happens when you start from "ok it's Hunger mechanics, figure out the details" Not so fast, buddy. If the spirits come to suspect that you're taking damage (presumably in helpings of more than one health level at a time, or in combat (the setting in which a werewolf is least likely to get mad)) merely to burn off excess Rage then they'll surely vent their displeasure upon you.
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Jun 28, 2023 22:37
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Imagine when we get Mage and Paradox dice.
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Jun 29, 2023 01:46
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Dawgstar posted:Imagine when we get Mage and Paradox dice. Then you've got a Paradise in your hand!  
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Jun 29, 2023 01:54
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Nessus posted:The secret to Ascension's math will be to keep your Paradox dice pool to two. lmao
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Jun 29, 2023 02:16
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Nessus posted:The secret to Ascension's math will be to keep your Paradox dice pool to two. 
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Jun 29, 2023 02:25
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Dave Brookshaw posted:#3 It is virtually impossible to imprison a mage, and they are all walking SAM sites. All of mage society is based on this. It's one part academic conference, two parts framing anything as disagreements among gentlemen because anything else results in devestating bloodshed. Described that way I immediately thought Discworld wizards, and that's probably more because of thinking along the same lines. Also likely that large parts of Mage society are built around giving them something to keep them occupied and do something that doesn't involve hurling fireballs unless you really need to. The idea that Malkavians sometimes are just seeing right through to the real truth of the world can be hilarious and terrifying.
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Jun 29, 2023 05:54
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I made good use of that aspect of Malkavians in my game the other day. During a magic lantern show, someone was abducted in the blink of an eye. The Malkavian present saw it all clear as day despite the magical impact, but assumed it was just a clever part of the show.
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Jun 29, 2023 07:02
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:It also means the gamiest way to game your Rage is to never stay fully healthy, because then you can try to burn it down healing yourself when your tank gets too close to the top, if you don't have any gifts to try to biff Rage checks on to cost a point. It's such a weird way to get there, but I guess that's what happens when you start from "ok it's Hunger mechanics, figure out the details" A werewolf teetering on the brink, stabbing himself in the leg with a huge knife in order to keep it together.
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Jun 30, 2023 00:39
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ZiegeDame posted:A werewolf teetering on the brink, stabbing himself in the leg with a huge knife in order to keep it together. Right, so now self-harm is a fully-ruled game mechanic.
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Jun 30, 2023 02:28
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TheCenturion posted:Right, so now self-harm is a fully-ruled game mechanic. Done before with the Epideromancer from Unknown Armies.
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Jun 30, 2023 04:25
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Gotta admit that's kind of punk.
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Jun 30, 2023 08:43
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Gatto Grigio posted:Done before with the Epideromancer from Unknown Armies. Been done all sorts of ways and places, really. Anything with blood magic or sacrificial magic, really, or “cast from hp” technically.
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Jun 30, 2023 17:44
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 06:35 |
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So I started the first session of my new game. I mentioned my two pal's characters previously but I'll run em down again. Gilbert Gore: Toreador Goth/Glam/Country artist. His desire is to be a rock star and create brutal performance art. Jedidiah "Jed" Hascal: A Malkavian country musician with a passion for horse ranching that wants to grow a cult that will eventually turn into a coven of Malkavians. His Malkavian insights come to him in a Farmer's Almanac. The in-story for the initial session is that the two have found themselves blacklisted from most of the music venues in town by a Brujah entertainment producer in town named Myles Knight after they drugged up and fed from a mortal Myles was grooming to be a retainer. I let them come up with the story of how they got on Myles' bad side and played some of it out as a flashback. The first night opens with Jed getting a call from the coterie's manager/retainer Billy saying that it took him a few weeks but he's got Myles willing to sit at the table and hash out how they can make things square. The two musicians load up and head down to a club run by Myles in the next scene but not before they "coincidentally" run into Pasquale Giovanni (a rival to to Myles in the entertainment scene) who chats them up and after hearing they're meeting Myles, Pasquale tries to draw out a little more info but since Glen and Jed are in the dark he leaves them to their night. Eventually the band meets with Myles in one of the club's VIP rooms. After some apologies and banter Myles gets down to business, he'll overlook their disrespect if they can replace the lost retainer with someone else he'd like to recruit. Myles wants to recruit a thin-blood mixologist who's gained a little renown making stunning cocktails for Kindred through use of his thin-blood alchemy named Jay Mythic. Myles has booked the band a gig through a favor he was owed so that they can deliver an envelope containing the terms of a job offer to Jay, the envelope is a large manila folder with a wax city seal pinning the flap (this naturally made the boys very curious). Jed and Glen figure even though it's a bit weird it seems simple enough and they agree to the terms. They go back to the haven and load up their gear so they can set out tomorrow night to head one city over. On the interstate about an hour into the trip Jed notices a car pull along side their van and a man in a rhinestone in the passenger seat is lining up a pistol on Glen who's driving the van (Glen made a terrible roll and didn't notice himself). This is the time to mention that Jed has a dot in enemies, a group of rhinestone wearing country boys known in the area as The Shrimphis Mafia and they want Glen dead for crossing them. Jed managed to yank the wheel and cause the shot to miss while Glen makes a roll to keep the van in control on the road. In the ensuing combat Glen managed to have Jed hold the wheel so Glen can shoot out a tire, which he does with a fantastic roll, the two evade the Shrimphis Mafia for another night. Now the two find themselves at a truck stop between Hattiesberg and New Orleans with Glen running low on vitae and plotting how to feed but also having to work around his flaws that he can only feed on people who are audience to his music and that he's an organovore. So that's where we stopped for the night. We had a kind of abbreviated game due to one of us being on call.
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Jul 2, 2023 08:28
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