Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:The thing is, for a lot of the games if you destroy the imaginary aspects of the setting, it either causes irrevocable damage, or prevents existing damage from in any way being corrected.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 06:29 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 01:02 |
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Zereth posted:Don't forget "Destroy the God-Machine", which has the consequence of: This just describes the God-Machine in general. I love Demon, but it's the truth. God-Machine is like weather. Terrifying weather.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 06:31 |
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There's also "Destroy Beasts", which either has the consequence of: or depending on what book you're reading
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 06:36 |
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The GM is literally the Worldwide Gangster Computer God https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwCGi2F24io (, racism)
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 06:39 |
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Zereth posted:Don't forget "Destroy the God-Machine", which has the consequence of: This made me laugh out loud. Also, my Mage 2E book finally came - no shipping notice or anything, weirdly enough. I'm glad I sprung for the premium printing - the color illustrations are really nice (although I still miss the nice foil covers frpm 1E ).
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 06:54 |
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:I think the lesson of a lot of "the imaginary aspect of the setting[s]" is that the damage is done and now you've just got to live with the geohell you've got while trying to make the best of what little bits you can, because it's better than Literally Nothing. By counterpoint, in Geist, destroying (or at least radically reshaping into a wholly different form) the Underworld is an in-setting, aspirational goal, and Avernian Gates have exactly 1 less Structure than the damage inflicted by a couple pounds of Semtex, because gently caress "it's better than nothing."
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 10:00 |
GimpInBlack posted:By counterpoint, in Geist, destroying (or at least radically reshaping into a wholly different form) the Underworld is an in-setting, aspirational goal, and Avernian Gates have exactly 1 less Structure than the damage inflicted by a couple pounds of Semtex, because gently caress "it's better than nothing." Like, I would be more charitable here but I have not read some of these books, and this is the company that chose, freely and of its own will, to publish Beast.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 11:24 |
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GimpInBlack posted:By counterpoint, in Geist, destroying (or at least radically reshaping into a wholly different form) the Underworld is an in-setting, aspirational goal In the default setting for Blades in the Dark, something broke the afterlife ages ago, so now ghosts form upon any death and have nowhere to go. I don't exactly remember the details of Geist, but getting this sort of a system messed up (or aggravating the existing mess) does not sound aspirational or even desirable.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 11:42 |
Foglet posted:In the default setting for Blades in the Dark, something broke the afterlife ages ago, so now ghosts form upon any death and have nowhere to go. It's funny how those things may seem a little less appealing nowadays.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 11:53 |
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I think the idea is that even if you can't reform the underworld to be functional, 'ghosts exist and just kind of hang around until they're done and disappear' is better than 'ghosts exist and are trapped in a nightmarish hell-dimension with ancient inhuman rules binding them'. It's not so much a system as a cosmic cyst that ghosts accidentally fall into.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 12:10 |
Brexit the underworld! DaveB has a playthough of Mage called "The Soul Cage" where the antagonists are trying to fix the Underworld by connecting the Underworld to the Supernal symbol of Death. The Exarchs want to stop this, but by tying the connection to the idea of death in the Astral they hold all humanity hostage. If the Exarchs destroy the new connection between the Underworld and the Supernal they also kill every living human. RBA-Wintrow fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 12:26 |
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Obligatum VII posted:The rules and the setting text are reliable narrators, but some parts of the setting text are pretty clearly in the realm of "mages think this is how it works" rather than a firm statement and my point was that the rules didn't preclude a different take. As someone who hasn't run or played mage (yet) and has no horse in this race (yet), I think this can be explained in that pretty much all nWoD books are written in such a way that assume you might be disregard parts of the lore for the sake of the story you want to run with your players. So it has the potential to be unreliable if that suits your story, but otherwise you can take it to be true.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 14:18 |
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Changeling: 110k. New stretch goal: 114k, they'll add an addon option to get Kith and Kin without having pledged 50+ dollars.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 15:04 |
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Huntsmen got previewed! I was wrong: they are the Wild Hunt, which has now been massively changed. Technically, a Wild Hunt is when the fae gather en masse to attack a freehold, but more generally gets used to refer to the threat of recapture. The Huntsmen are the face to that threat. They are designed to be fairy tale monsters, a more immediate menace than the Keepers but still whispered of in rumor. They aren't spies and agents of espionage - they inspire paranoia because they are relentless, inevitable and cannot be easily appeased. They are intermediaries for the Keepers, not the big bad but bigger than minor fae. A Huntsman on the hunt has a Keeper's Title, desires and tell. They can wear the face of a Keeper to rattle their prey. However, they too are prisoners and pawns of the Keepers. If you're willing to risk it, you can try to free them. Their origin lies in Arcadia, as the denizens of the land before the True Fae came. Now, they are of the Wyrd, but they were not always. quote:When the True Fae retreat from the corners of Arcadia to hold court and play their games, the land returns to what it once was. Sometimes escaping changelings stumble across these empty realms before they cross into the Hedge, these undeveloped lands devoid of living civilization, a theatre stage with scattered props and sets but no lights or actors. Most often, changelings view them as cold woods, chilled enough to see their breath illumined in moon- and starlight, a midnight land rife with barrow mounds and watchful eyes. These eyes are both hunter and hunted, air and darkness assuming thought and form by will or whim. They are the Huntsmen: They were in Arcadia before the Gentry, and they will be there after the Gentry leave. quote:The Gentry make their own rules, however. They come into the woods, magic billowing before them, fog parting in the forest. When they come upon you, they make a swift motion with the surety of sovereignty, removing your heart and sundering grace. Into that cavity pours the desire of the True Fae, a Title representing their desire for the Lost who has forsaken them, and you become their Huntsman. Whatever desires you had before are muted — you now share the same desire for a changeling as the Keeper, and you wear the livery of your queen. Your quarry doesn't believe in rules. Your quarry isn't reliable, except in one key respect: Huntsmen always have a Herald - often a pet or companion, something the Huntsman cares for as it does not care for any other, and which serves to be the first warning of their coming. A hawk, a hound, a servant. The Huntsmen can be killed, though they are tough, but as long as their Heart is hidden in a mortal's dream, they will always reform within a month to begin again. This is suffering, for them - they live with a cold hole in their chests, animated not by life but by their master's Title. quote:Their sword, their powder horn, their boots: that's what matters. A Huntsman's identity is partly sublimated into their tools — any other feeling was largely lost with their heart. "The One-Eyed Highwayman," the freehold calls them, and their eyepatch and tricorn are more central to their self than whatever other name they might once have used. Most Huntsmen have at least two tools to their name: some item of attire, and a weapon. quote:The Huntsman drags their quarry through the Hedge toward Arcadia. Clad in iron or a Huntsman’s snare, a changeling cannot escape as she normally does, and the Huntsman can track her more easily within the Hedge anyway. The verderers do not hesitate to resort to violence and cold iron, but they sometimes seem more sympathetic than they do outside the Hedge, because they are near their hearts.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 15:26 |
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Zereth posted:Don't forget "Destroy the God-Machine", which has the consequence of: I dunno, I rather like that the fluff seems to imply simultaneously that destroying the God Machine could end reality as we know it or do absolutely nothing or give humanity more freedom which could result in either who knows. It fits the themes of Demon well, you're not even sure if some big dramatic 'blow up the god machine' is a net good or not but you still need to endure its bullshit. The 'risk' of having to just spend eternity trying to survive without ever being able to strike back in a meaningful way is extremely on brand for Demon.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 16:38 |
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I appreciate that the aesthetic of the Huntsmen is "an It Follows but bearing a badge of office", good creepyideafeel
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 17:23 |
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:Close the Hedge? Cool, everybody who was ever abducted is stuck in captivity and along the way you probably messed up a lot of stuff keeping some reeeeal bad faerie poo poo from happening I'm not as familiar with Changeling as I am some other settings. What real bad faerie poo poo is the Hedge stopping? I was under the impression that without the Hedge, the Fae couldn't reach the mortal world. Because "everyone currently in captivity is stuck there" seems a good trade for "nobody else will ever be captured" given that captives have a pretty low escape rate
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:03 |
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Kaza42 posted:I'm not as familiar with Changeling as I am some other settings. What real bad faerie poo poo is the Hedge stopping? I was under the impression that without the Hedge, the Fae couldn't reach the mortal world. The seasons turn. The sun rises. It is pacts with the seasons and other cycles that keep the Courts going and help fight the Fae. Literal pacts, with those literal concepts. Because the Hedge and the world of faerie run on stories, and those stories are true. Because of the pacts, the seasons turn. Because the ways are kept and the rules obeyed, the sun rises tomorrow. To say nothing of the fact that the Hedge is intertwined with the dreaming minds of every human alive. Tear out the living world of story and emotion and dream, and...well, bad things are going to happen.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:11 |
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Kaza42 posted:I'm not as familiar with Changeling as I am some other settings. What real bad faerie poo poo is the Hedge stopping? I was under the impression that without the Hedge, the Fae couldn't reach the mortal world. Its possible that the hedge isn't actually a physical place but rather the crusty edge between the pan and the cake or the air and the sky that cannot be destroyed so long as the Material and Arcadia exists. There is textual evidence of the hedge bordering the inner scape of dreams (one monster write-up), and also of the True Fae appearing within dreams directly. You can suppose that the Hedge is that route, that the True Fae are dipping a toe into the hedge before invading a mortal's mind... or the True Fae are just skipping it entirely.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:17 |
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Gerund posted:Its possible that the hedge isn't actually a physical place but rather the crusty edge between the pan and the cake or the air and the sky that cannot be destroyed so long as the Material and Arcadia exists. 2e makes it explicit - Bastions, the entrance into the dreaming mind, are in the Hedge. All of them.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:19 |
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I really want to give $100 to get my hands on Vampire and Mage 2e at the same time for later, but it's just a bit too pricy for me. I'll probably end up throwing in $25 just for Changeling itself and getting those other books at some point during a drivethrurpg sale.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:57 |
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Geist is really starting to sound like my kind of game. And so is Changeling, but Changeling was my kind of game already.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:03 |
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Mors Rattus posted:2e makes it explicit - Bastions, the entrance into the dreaming mind, are in the Hedge. All of them. Finally got around to reading what I paid for and CtL, but now 80% more explicit is definitely the tagline for this offering. Detatching Kith from Seeming is one of the more informed decisions I've seen. Not that all the powers and bonuses are the perfect epitome of a stated concept, but let the players do their thing. Also I do like the power to heal friends in exchange for clarity- you are mechanically traumatized by seeing them hurt!
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:11 |
sexpig by night posted:I dunno, I rather like that the fluff seems to imply simultaneously that destroying the God Machine could end reality as we know it or do absolutely nothing or give humanity more freedom which could result in either who knows. It fits the themes of Demon well, you're not even sure if some big dramatic 'blow up the god machine' is a net good or not but you still need to endure its bullshit. The 'risk' of having to just spend eternity trying to survive without ever being able to strike back in a meaningful way is extremely on brand for Demon.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:12 |
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xanthan posted:What's the Principle and why did my phone try to correct what's the to what're'ya?? The Principle is the guy that makes prometheans exist. If we get rid of the Principle, then the prometheans are just gonna smoke pot and dance on tables and have to spend the rest of existence in a Saturday High School Detention.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:25 |
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"PROMETHEAN HOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUSE!"
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:53 |
I'm going to run a werewolf game and I have some questions about some things I want my players to interact with. How would memes generate or interact with spirits? I plan on having a general aura of depression and defeat affecting the city that's spread by a fail meme of a fat giraffe. Something that's cute enough to end up on bootleg tshirts or graffiti, but will go kind of unnoticed until the players realize this stupid image is everywhere. How do you defeat a meme? Especially when your main weapon is extreme violence instead of Magic?
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 21:43 |
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I don't know that it needs defeating, is it doing anything besides existing? Or is it a depression spirit somehow manifesting as a cartoon giraffe?
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 21:58 |
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Mors Rattus posted:The seasons turn. The sun rises. A favourite thing of mine is the subtle little note about Bridge Burners in the definitions section of the first preview: They are trying to destroy the connection of the Hedge to the world... By destroying imagination, beauty, creativity, and anything else that might attract the fae.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:07 |
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moths posted:I don't know that it needs defeating, is it doing anything besides existing? It's a giraffe specifically from a meme about failure so it seems like it.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:10 |
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yea remember a major theme of Werewolf is you're spirit world cops, not spirit world hit men. You really shouldn't be 'defeating' much unless it's actively preying on the mortal world. Which, I'd say, opens up a lot of fun things to do with 'modern spirits' in the forms of memes. Maybe the spirit in that form was birthed by the 'emotion' involved in being a failed meme. Maybe it wants to be loved by humans but it can't help spreading depression as the mortals laugh at it and call it stupid and all. If that's the route then you don't need violence to beat it, maybe you just have to make it see humans who like it, or maybe the group winds up kinda adopting it as its own mascot to give it what it wants and all. If you want a more antagonistic thing, it could be a hybrid spirit. Maybe a spirit of depression was consumed by a spirit created by the meme's emotions like...I dunno...people being angry at a lovely forced meme or something? Then it becomes a more malicious (or, at least, active danger). Those things are walking spirit crimes against nature and need to be wiped out.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:12 |
moths posted:I don't know that it needs defeating, is it doing anything besides existing? Yeah, it's a spirit. Maybe it needs to be am amalgamation if depression and communication, our computers, or something. It's reproducing as the giraffe, which means depression on a city wide scale, the more the meme is shared, the stronger the original spirit becomes and the more intense the depression felt.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:13 |
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I like the idea of it being a benign spirit that's been forcibly merged with an anger spirit coalesced out of all of the teenagers who hate the forced meme.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:15 |
Yeah, this is the stuff I need to consider. Making it a mascot, or even the pack totem if they can purify it in some fashion is not something I considered, but it's a new pack, so they might not start with a totem.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:16 |
The meme is making people sad. The area around these people has a Resonance of Sadness and Depression. Spirits of sadness and depression are using the Resonance to generate Essence to feed on and fuel their numina and Influences. The spirits want to strengthen this resonance and are helping the meme spread, as well as using their Influence ability to make unaffected people sad. As long as the city has a resonance of sadness and depression those spirits will have a reason to stay and defend their feeding grounds. Scaring away or killing the spirits will help a bit, but the meme and resonance will still be there. Get the city to host a Carnival, or Mardi Gras or something. Anything that will get most of the city to party hard and change the city resonance from depression to optimism and happiness. It wont help people who have a real depression, but the ones that are supernaturally depressed or just affected by memes will get distracted. Hire an Advertising company to get people obsessed with happy memes of cute puppies. Who wants to be sad all the time? Any remaining Sadness spirits will starve or fight you. But you might just get help from party spirits who are grateful to see the city nightlife change from binge drinking to endless raves! RBA-Wintrow fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:18 |
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Axelgear posted:destroying imagination, beauty, creativity
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:26 |
I love the idea of the giant rage monsters trying to plan a city wide party as part of their siskur dah. Thanks for the ideas! I'm now ready for my players to ignore all of it and instead focus on done throw away npc I had to improvise! Play will start after the holidays, so I'll post updates.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:31 |
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Hostile V posted:"PROMETHEAN HOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUSE!" I was more going for Promethean Club but ya'know. Speaking of breakfast club, wouldn't that basically be Changelings who were trying to escape the hedge?
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:41 |
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Soonmot posted:I love the idea of the giant rage monsters trying to plan a city wide party as part of their siskur dah. Well, I mean, 'eat the bigass sadness spirit' is also a viable part of the plan. Got to address both parts of the cycle - the sadness feeding the spirit and the spirit exacerbating the sadness.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 23:08 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 01:02 |
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Senior Scarybagels posted:I was more going for Promethean Club but ya'know. Now I really want to run a rules-free one-shot about a group of teenagers breaking out of detention, only to reveal it's the prologue to a Changeling chronicle once they stagger through the school gates into the Hedge. Edit: Or I could use Innocents, maybe. That's getting a 2e soonish, right? cptn_dr fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Nov 27, 2017 |
# ? Nov 27, 2017 23:21 |