MJ12 posted:

Okay, approximately in this time (1999) in the World of Darkness, the Week of Nightmares was happening. The Week of Nightmares was this huge megacrossover event (like comic ones, and just like comic ones it wasn't terribly well thought out) involving vampires, mages, werewolves, and wraiths. Now, why do I say it wasn't well though out?

Normally, the games exist in similar but different settings. If you're playing mage, for example, the vampires are just these pipsqueaks who think they control the mortal world but are covertly doing the Technocracy's bidding, more or less, by hiding evidence of the supernatural (just the way the Union wants it). If you're playing vampire, mages are generally just hedge sorcerers, not these godlike beings of nigh-omnipotent power that they are in their own line. In werewolf, the important thing to remember is that everything is controlled by Captain Planet Villains who are also demons.

Of course, you then mashed all the settings together for the Week of Nightmares, which is hilarious. There was a lot of angry fan backlash at this, especially vampire fans. There may still be flamewars to this day. There definitely were when this metaplot thing hugely altered the Mage line.

Anyways, in the Week of Nightmares, three really important things happened:

1. There was a Sabbat-Camarilla war that involved mass embraces and mass deaths of new vampires. This woke up an ancient Antediluvian, a ridiculously powerful vampire god. This is mostly a Vampire thing, but it spilled over into Mage. The Sabbat and Camarilla will be explained in more detail through this LP, so don't worry if you're not familiar with the terms yet.

2. Some guys in Wraith nuked a city in the underworld with the ghost of the first nuclear bomb. That city happened to have the "True Black Hand" in it, IIRC (who were a spooky double probationary secret society of vampires who knew the ~truth~ about everything and nobody liked because their book was awful so they got nuked).

3. In Mage, one of the Houses of the Order of Hermes, House Janissary, was exterminated by another mage faction, the Euthanatos. To explain this in more detail, the Order of Hermes were some of the most powerful non-Technocratic mages (the Technocracy being an organization of mages which seeks to impose order and predictability on a fundamentally chaotic world). They have various houses, which specialize in various things. Tremere was once one of their houses, until their, well, vampirism accident. Even to this day, Hermetic mages nurse a huge grudge against the Tremere and seek to burn them down when they can find them. The Janissaries were one of the Hermetic heavy hitters, basically a giant group of magic-wielding commandos. Think, basically, guys like Patrick Galloway from Undying. Gun in one hand, spells with the other.

The Euthanatos are a magical faction based on the idea of 'the good death'. Basically, death and life are cyclical, and sometimes for the good of the world as a whole, and the good of one's soul in the next reincarnation, they have to be killed. If you don't get how they work, watch the Wanted movie. That is literally how the Euthanatos see the world (and how they roll). One of their factions, the Golden Chalice, are explicitly magic wielding super commandos. Imagine if Jason Bourne had the powers of a D&D wizard as well. That's what an average member of the Chalice looks like.

Both of them are members of the Traditions, the mystics who were opposed to the Technocracy's enforcement of order and predictability on the world. They wanted a world safe for mysticism and wonder, where things could be unknown and accepted as unknown. Unfortunately, the Technocracy took significant issues with some of the things they wanted unknown, like "will I get eaten by a dragon when I get my lunch?" or "will this medicine cure my sick child"?

To go on with what actually happened, the Janissaries had been secretly manipulating the Ascension War because their leader thought that the end result of one side or the other winning would have been the total destruction of reality. They used ancient ciphers to encode those messages, with a slight issue. The Jason Bourne references (since the New World Order, one of the Technocratic branches, definitely is Bourne-inspired) might give you a hint.

You see, centuries ago, before the Technocracy existed, there was a group of assassin magi called the Ixoi. They thought the Traditions were corrupt and had to be changed. There were people of two minds in that. One of them thought the Traditions were irreparably corrupt and needed to be changed externally, by shooting them a lot. Another thought they could be redeemed from within. The latter group eventually became the Golden Chalice. The former joined the Order of Reason, which would later become the Technocracy, as the Ksirafai. Eventually, some of the Ksirafai started getting cold feet, and they get into a fight with the others who didn't and become House Janissary.

The remaining Ksirafai loyal to the Order of Reason eventually became part of the New World Order.

Anyways, back to the story, you see, the Janissaries had been using old Ixoi ciphers to communicate their secret conspiracy plans, and one of them was eventually intercepted. That, and the Janissaries setting up some political warfare that ended with a Hermetic archmage being killed, led the Golden Chalice to act. They burned House Janissary and left no survivors.

How's that relevant to Bloodlines? Well, it's mostly the fact that the Traditions are now in chaos and the Technocracy do not know what's going on. This may end up having effects on what happens when the more vampire-relevant stuff goes on, but I'll talk about that in another post, this one's getting long.

citybeatnik posted:

Strap in kids - this is going to be a brief but wild ride.

Follow along with me to the wild days of Vampire, where people were still trying to decide between SERIOUS BUSINESS and superheroes with fangs. This is pre-Revised, mind. Now the thing with Caitiffs is that, well, Caine technically was one - each of the clans exhibit their abilities and weaknesses due to the Curse that Caine laid down on them, with the abilities of the Antediluvians passed on through their blood due to how powerful they were. But it takes a while for the individual Curse to pass along to the new vampire - this is the Becoming, and it's during this time that a Ventrue-to-be develops its taste for specific blood, or a Malkavian is driven to madness by the Truth, or a Nosferatu is warped and twisted and deformed in a process that can take days or weeks.

It's also the period of time where your internal organs atrophy, you vomit up everything in your stomach, and you have actual changes in your skull that let you retract and extend your fangs - there's a spongy tissue there and yadda yadda craziness yadda. There's a rather neat blurb discussing Ramona the Gangrel Sig character that goes in to some detail with this. But I digress.

Anyway. So that happens. But it's still a -mystical- thing. You get it both from the blood and from hanging around with your Sire during this time. But what happens when you're not around your Sire and your blood is not thick enough to carry all the Curse with you?

BAM, Caitiff. Vampires that have actually ducked most of the Curse. This particular viewpoint actually survived in to Revised - it's basically the philosophy of both the Panders (gently caress YEAH JOSEPH PANDER!) and the Unbound, a loose collective of Caitiff Anarchs that are only having their numbers grow in the modern nights. But, anyway. That's in the modern age.

In the -ancient- age, you -still- had these fuckers. And some of them claimed to be direct offspring of the 2nd Generation - like both them and Caine, they did not have the various Curses laid upon them. Most of these were killed off pretty drat quickly. -Most-.

The Stoneman survived.

Here's the most complete write up about him I was able to find, yanked from someone's pet project concerning the genealogy of all of the vampires and their lineage (kind of what fellow goon Loomer has been working on).

quote:

He is shrouded in mystery and all attempts to get answers about his age or history from him are met with an enigmatic smile. The Stoneman has allegedly created several new Disciplines on his own, and is willing to teach the powers he has developed to other Caitiff - if they meet his standards. Some few have even made the claim that he had diablerized one of the Antediluvians or that he is actually a childe of Caine returned from the East. No one can say for certain just what the Stoneman looks like, for he apparently can change his shape at will, and he is almost never described the same way twice.

That's from the unrevised book Outcasts: A Players Guide to Pariahs, which specifically dealt with Caitiff, Ronin, and other weirdos in the gamelines.

This same book also has my absolute favorite Discipline ever just for how -goofy- it is, one that I hold up as an example of the pre-Revised mindset. I present to you... Kineticism.

It gives you control over kinetic energy. Somehow. Because vampires. The first dot in it lets you reduce the damage from attacks - you soften the blows that would land on you and THEN soak. The second level lets you change the course of projectiles - you get enough successes and you can shoot someone with their own bullets. The next step? Getting punched means that you can punch HARDER - damage dealt to you increases the damage of your next attack. The next two ranks basically improve what's come before - the 4th just lets you improve the damage of your attacks without needing to be kicked in the nuts, while the 5th level improves your damage reduction.

This is a thing. This is a sample Discipline with actual rules laid one, and is just one of the many that were apparently created by the Stoneman.

And he's still kicking - he's got a mention in the Time of Thin Blood.

... holy gently caress now I kind of want to play an all thinblood game.

quote:

Clan Brujah is largely composed of rebels, both with and without causes. Individualistic, outspoken and turbulent, Brujah hold social change near to their undead hearts, and the clan's ranks contain some of the most violent of the Camarilla Kindred. ...

...The clan claims a history rich with warrior-poets, and it has adapted this concept into the modern night...

...The Rabble's espousal of change unites them, albeit tenuously, in their nightly crusades. Given a common enemy, Brujah with vastly differing ideals will join side by side to oppose their foe. After that foe is defeated, however, all bets are off and it's back to business as usual. A common Brujah theme involves the foundation of a Kindred "Utopia," or the re-creation of a mythical one from nights past, though each Brujah vampire has a different idea of what said Utopia is. ...

bloodlines' Manual posted:

The Brujah are passionate idealists. At times, this passion can lead them to trouble since they tend to make their arguments with their fists and not words. Their rage means the Brujah start with a -2 to Frenzy checks, but they get a +1 to their Unarmed Feat.

Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, and Presence.

Bloodlines' Manual posted:

If any clan were close to the Beast, it would be the wildly nomadic Gangrel. Usually preferring to be loners, the Gangrel clan has recently severed its ties with the Camarilla. With their feral nature, the Gangrel are much more attuned to animals and have the ability to take on animal forms. Like the Brujah, members of Clan Gangrel receive a –1 to Frenzy checks. When Frenzied, the Gangrel receive a +5 to strength on top of the regular +5 that all vampires receive as well as +5 bonuses to Wits and Stamina.

Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, and Protean

bloodlines' Manual posted:

Insane by nature, the Malkavians see the world in a different light than anyone else. This “insight” allows Malkavians to see the true intentions of others. However, it also means they have a much more difficult time communicating with others on occasion. The nature of the Malkavians gives them a +2 bonus to the Inspection Feat.

bloodlines' manual posted:

Hideous and disgusting, the Nosferatu are cursed with a grotesque form. Forced into the shadows of the night, the Nosferatu have learned to adapt and hide from society. Due to their hideous nature, the Nosferatu start with an Appearance of zero and their Seduction Feat can never be any higher than zero. Relying on rats for blood, the Nosferatu get 3 blood points when feeding on them.

bloodlines' manual posted:

The Toreador envision themselves as artists and visionaries. They seek the best of refinements, believe in being on the cutting edge and wearing haute couture. With their close ties to human society, the Toreador can buy humanity at half the cost. Additionally, the Toreador gain or lose double the amount of humanity when committing acts that benefit or harm human society.

Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, and Presence.

bloodlines' manual posted:

The least trusted of the Camarilla clans, the Tremere are blood sorcerers. Using blood magic, or Thaumaturgy, the Tremere guard their secrets quite religiously and do not take outsiders into their confidence. Relying on their blood magic, the Tremere can only have a maximum of 4 for their physical attributes.

Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, and Thaumaturgy

quote:

The Tremere began as House Tremere, Mages of the Order of Hermes named for their leader and founder, Tremere. At the end of the first millennia, the members of House Tremere realized the Hermitic arts were failing and found its immortality potions no longer working. Facing the possibility of losing everything, Tremere ordered research into alternate methods of sustaining their lives. House Tremere undertook numerous experiments, but it was Goratrix who devised a solution in his investigation of vampires.

In 1022, Goratrix invited Tremere and six of the founder's closest advisers to participate in the completed ritual, which promised true immortality. Whether Goratrix knew what would happen is known only by him and, perhaps, Tremere, but at the completion of the ritual the participants fell unconscious and were reborn as vampires, their avatars destroyed and magical abilities lost. The mages had gained their immortality but lost the power they lived for. Though the others would likely have slain Goratrix for his folly (or trickery), Tremere ordered them to halt and declared that they would remain at his side, leaving their chantries in the hands of subordinates while they discovered the powers of their new forms in secret.

In time [...] [t]hey would slowly begin Embracing the rest of the House, with each initiate being bound to the Inner Council to ensure their loyalty. In time, all members of House Tremere would die or become vampires.

quote:

Clan Ventrue has long been one of the proudest lines of vampires, and its members work hard to maintain a reputation for honor, genteel behavior, and leadership. A sense of noblesse oblige has ever pervaded the clan, accompanied by the genuine belief that the Ventrue know what's best for everyone. Considering themselves the oldest Clan, it's no surprise they see themselves as the enforcers of tradition and the rightful leaders of vampire society. Unsurprisingly, they've long been chosen from the ranks of nobility and privilege, traditionally those roles have included kings, knights, and merchant princes; in more modern years, businessmen and lawyers and government leaders have filled the void.

The general belief is that the Ventrue, a clan considered old-fashioned by most, is floundering in these latter nights; however, the Ventrue have a long history of adapting to keep hold of their power. In the modern nights the Ventrue are more politician than warrior, more CEO than baron. They remain the largest supporters of the Camarilla and the Masquerade, believing both institutions to be the surest means of protecting vampires from the mortal masses... and of guarding their own power.

ArchWizard posted:

Will there be any bonus updates showing Malkavian conversations?

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

The one time I played through this I went Brujah, because . But they're really kind of boring in this.

HopperUK posted:

Yeesssss. Sebastian LaCroix is one of my favourite voice performances, and one of my favourite characters, in all of videogames. He's such a total shithead. This will be awesome.

GrimRevenant posted:

gatz posted:

Keep spoilers in tags.

GrimRevenant posted:

Fixed. My mistake. Sorry!

Lazyfire posted:

Good luck with this, Gatz, I think we all know the history around people here trying to LP this game. It's stopped at least five people now.

TheMcD posted:

This should be a lot of fun.

Voting for a female Gangrel for entirely selfish reasons (already ran through the game as a Ventrue, dreaming about one day doing a narrative LP as a Ventrue).

MJ12 posted:

Oh cool, Bloodlines.

Does anyone want the rough perspective of what's Going Down around this time? There's some huge shakeups which are canonically going down around this time in the underworld, the world of Mages (which the Tremere were until they sacrificed awesome True Magic for cut-rate blood magic), and, well, everything. Some of these shakeups are actually relevant (Week of Nightmares), others are just cool things that people might want to know for context, because again, I'm a Mage player not a Vamp one and my perspective is basically entirely that of an outsider looking in (and setting vampires on fire with plasma cannon).

(Also, amusingly enough, oWoD's Mage is still being supported after all this time).

A Tartan Tory posted:

I am the worst at reading comprehension, I will now retire to my basement and grow a beard, RIP. It is a pity that the two best runs aren't gonna happen though, that kinda takes most of the fun outta this game.

Lazyfire posted:

Don't quote me on that one, but back in the dark days when SSLP ruled the forums there were a few attempts at the game that ended right after either of those two plot points, and then a VLP of one that I believe got a bit further, but not much.

Game's cursed is what I'm saying.

inflatablefish posted:

What really annoyed me about the Nos in this game is that they don't even try to hide their disfigurement. A Nosferatu going unnoticed on the streets thanks to an all-concealing coat and hat is one thing; a Nos casually strolling around in a leather gimp outfit is just plain silly.

ArchWizard posted:

A female Ventrue named Melissa.

Vicissitude posted:

The Camarilla has a number of positions of authority. Ostensibly, supreme power in any given city under Cam control is given to the Prince. This is a formal title for either gender, though some come up with their own fancy monikers for the position. The Prince can, and often does, lay down the law for their territory. Some are lenient, others are tyrannical. But it all comes down to the Prince and the city. New York, for instance, was under Sabbat control for a very, very long time. The Camarilla wrested control from them in 1999, but they've had to be extremely vigilant every since, and very strict when it comes to law enforcement.

Behind (occasionally), beside (usually), or (very rarely) above the Prince is the Council of Primogen. This is a group of advisers, each representative of a clan or group in the city. Usually, individuals on the council are members of the clan or group they represent, but in some cases, a better allied spokesman/woman can be found. As advisers do, they advise the prince on the state of his/her territory. Usually it's for the better good, but there's always a certain amount of political maneuvering going on. Sometimes the Ventrue want to push into Toreador holdings to buy them out, the Malkavians have some bizarre plan that they believe will benefit all, and of course the Nosferatu have information they can trade for a small favor somewhere down the road...

The next step up is the Justicar. As the Primogen do in a single city, the Justicars represent their entire Clan in Camarilla politics. From night to night, they generally go about Cam territory to address issues that have arisen in the interest of the health of the Sect. But since they represent their clan as well as the sect, they usually bend their ears in that direction as issues come up.

The Justicars are the public face of the Inner Circle, the mysterious elders who actually run the sect and choose the course of its actions. Little is known about them, except that they meet every 13 years.

There are other positions of authority, but I'll go over them as we meet them. One, we've already met, but we'll see how he rolls in just a bit. :shh:

OAquinas posted:

GrimRevenant posted:

The ability is called Mask of a Thousand Faces, and yes, I also remember this happening.

VulpesInculta posted:

Finally got round to install this after buying it ages ago and not playing it.

Seems like there are a lot of experienced players here. I'm playing with 8.8. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to not gimp myself/make a strong character?

brozozo posted:

I dunno, I seem to remember the automatic shotgun being awesome as all hell.

Romeo Charlie posted:

Ranged weapons are only good once the stats are maxed out for them. Otherwise you're at a disadvantage if you're using them at the start/mid game.

Kacie posted:

I believe there's yet another theory on how the PC has such a good blood pool, but it's specific to this game, plus half spoilers and half way out there theorizing based on credits.

I'll hold off on posting in spoiler blocks unless gatz is okay with this, but suffice to say later on we can add yet another theory to the pile on why the PC has a high blood pool.

Vicissitude posted:

There are 3 kinds that we'll deal with in this game. Bashing, Lethal, and Aggravated. You can resist the damage with a 'soak' roll, basically absorbing the damage rather than sustaining it. Base pool for soaking damage is Stamina + Fortitude (if you have it).

Bashing: Basically, blunt force trauma. Impacts and some various and sundry other means cause Bashing damage to vampires. Due to their undead nature and lack of organ function, vampires halve the amount of Bashing damage they take from any given source, rounding down, after soak. For Caineites, even electrical shocks are considered bashing as you can't stop a heart that doesn't beat. But they still can take damage from it, since eventually that voltage starts to cause burns and tissue damage.

Lethal: Lethal damage is just that, lethal. Ordinarily, anyway. We're talking the walking dead who feed on the vital juices of their mortal victims. Again, vampires are pretty resilient. Unlike a human, a gunshot or a sword slash is a minor inconvenience. They can soak Lethal damage which would severely wound or kill a mortal. Vampires can also spend vitae to heal themselves of Lethal damage, as they can Bashing. Mortals have to wait for time and medical attention to take its course.

Aggravated: Ooh, now we're getting into some nasty business. Some things are the antithesis of a vampire's existence. Sunlight, naturally, and fire are both sources that deal out Aggravated damage. Mage Spells, the claws and fangs of other vampires or werewolves, some magical relics, all of these can dole out the harshness, and harsh it is. While lesser damage can be healed with blood on a one-for-one basis, Aggravated damage takes a full night of rest and FIVE blood points (standard 13th-generation characters have a max capacity of 10). If you spend a Willpower point, basically a supreme dedication of effort towards healing, and another 5 blood points, the vampire can heal a second level of Aggravated damage that day.

As a vampire takes more and more damage, it begins to wrap around into a more severe level. Enough Bashing damage and eventually you start to cause severe tissue damage, turning to Lethal. Keep going, and you can start to pulp the flesh, completely taking out large chunks of meat. A source of Lethal damage can eventually just cut away pieces of the body, turning to Aggravated. [This feature is not implemented in Bloodlines.]

citybeatnik posted:

In the book "Midnight Siege", which covers what happens when Kindred try to take over a city from another sect, it discusses some Ventrue neonate that crunched the numbers and was able to run a statistical analysis about the Sabbat - they Embraced heavily from the gang cultures for their foot soldiers, which led to lots of African Americans and Hispanics. If I recall correctly, he presented this finding to some elders and went "see! If we eliminated the causes of poverty in the area, then the Sabbat wouldn't be able to get their hands on battle-hardened recruits as easily!"

The Ventrue's response to that bit of news was to nod a bit and go "Right, Sabbat have lots of not-whites in it, everyone start funding white supremacist groups!"

That's also the book that has a sidebar discussing what the local Camarilla members do when it realizes it's losing a city - they pump all their resources in to reform campaigns, make sweeping anti-corruption changes (and make sure they stick), and shitcan all of their bought-and-paid-for politicians so they get replaced with honest people.

Then they gently caress off for a bit and let the Sabbat slowly realize that they're going to have to sink lots of resources in to re-corrupting the place, during which the Camarilla regroup. The narrator of that section is literally shocked at how underhanded a tactic that is. Of course, the siege of New York by the Camarilla could be viewed as a jaded retelling of the Broken Windows campaign...

Anyway. The writers at White Wolf were never the most subtle when it came to their writing, as some of the books they put out will attest to. An easy shorthand for whether or not a city, canonically in the WoD, is Sabbat-held is to sit there for a moment and wonder "I wonder if there's a large minority population in the city that is not primarily of European stock..." - if the answer is "Yes, it seems to have a large African American/Hispanic community", then it's Sabbat-held.

AnAnonymousIdiot posted:

As awesome Jack's character is, it'd be untrue and a disservice to the other Anarchs to say he solely led the uprising in LA. Others would say that Salvador Garcia, or Jeremy MacNeil were the masterminds of the Revolt, killed off LaCroix' predecessor, Don Sebastian Juan Dominguez, and established the manifestos for future Anarch Revolts.

Curious though that we don't see either Garcia or MacNeil in the intro though.

GrimRevenant posted:

e: Wait, is talking about upcoming weapons spoilers?

DeusExMachinima posted:

Also if you hack your stats at the start of the game Jack has hidden dialogue where he calls you a cheater.

TheMcD posted:

And if you're a Malkavian, you can tell him Malkav himself changed your stats. IIRC, he doesn't buy it, though.

jack_tutorial.dlg posted:

{ 1001 }{ I'd be pissed if this wasn't so cute. Look at you tryin' so hard; it's absolutely precious! }{ I'd be pissed if this wasn't so cute. Look at you tryin' so hard; it's absolutely precious! }{ # }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }
{ 1002 }{ What do you mean? How I gave myself these incredible stats? }{ What do you mean? How I gave myself these incredible stats? }{ 1006 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ Malkav made me cheat on my stats! }
{ 1003 }{ I'm just too weak to play the game in the way it was meant to be played. }{ I'm just too weak to play the game in the way it was meant to be played. }{ 1006 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ A weakling like myself can't complete the game. }
{ 1004 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }
{ 1005 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }
{ 1006 }{ Yeah. Whenever you're done, sweetcheeks, we can move this show along. }{ Yeah. Whenever you're done, sweetcheeks, we can move this show along. }{ # }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }
{ 1007 }{ I'm sorry, I'll create a new character. }{ I'm sorry, I'll create a new character. }{ 1001 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ I am forever lost contemplating infinity. }
{ 1008 }{ I use a mod or something similar, please let me continue. }{ I use a mod or something similar, please let me continue. }{ 11 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ Modified I have the game entrails, please let me stride on. }
{ 1009 }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }{ }

Rockopolis posted:

Which is highly ironic, when you think about it. The clan of snooty one percenter vampires literally cannot feed off the poor, and instead are forced to eat the rich.

EphemeralToast posted:

Jack isn't a Ventrue though, right?

Captain Oblivious posted:

While most Sabbat don't adhere to the path of Humanity, it'd be a mistake to think they're all in thrall to the Beast. There are alternative philosophies that Vampires follow to retain control of the Beast other than Humanity. Humanity is simply the easiest one. We all have experience being human.

StoryTime posted:

Continuing on this train of thought, the actual matter-of-fact reason Jack's a Brujah, is because he was embraced by a Brujah. And that happened because the reckless pirate lifestyle he had as a mortal made him interesting enough for a Brujah to sire. Same goes for LaCroix; he quickly rose to a high military rank during the Napoleonic Wars, which made him an excellent candidate for a Ventrue to embrace. Vampires are strongly defined by their mortal lives, to the point of it deciding their clan more often than not. All of this can escape the type of player that goes "Cool, I get to be a rebel badass with Celerity and Potence and poo poo!"

While the clans are bound by blood, they are also very much gatherings of like-minded Kindred. Looking at it from this perspective, the clans are kind of another coping mechanism for the vampiric state. When you surround yourself with others like you, it's easier to keep on doing things a lot like you did while still alive, which helps you hold on to whatever humanity you have left.

Of course sometimes things just go to poo poo, and someone ends up embraced in whatever clan because it seemed like a great idea to someone at the time. Which tends to quickly end with the kind of scene that Bloodlines opens with.

Samuel Clemens posted:

That said, you're doing a great job so far, gatz. VtM: Bloodlines is a real gem and I'm happy to see you do it justice.

mortons stork posted:

On a side note, wherever did hampooj go? I remember being out of the loop for a couple of months, then forgot he was even doing an LP and only remembered now that I saw this thread that he was doing one.

Email posted:

<Subject> A reminder
<From> LaCroix

Mercurio will contact you when you arrive in Santa Monica. Waste no time in meeting with him. - SL

Email posted:

<Subject> DANG! It's big you know!!!111
<From> Hung Low@trojanbotnet.vtm

PENIS ENLARGEMENT! Watch the girls come running! Call today!
1-800-555-STICK!

Email posted:

<Subject> Kilpatrick's Krime-Puter!
<From> arthur@dirtcheapinternet.vtm

Looking for that lazy rear end ex-husband who's late on his alimony payments? How about that jerk who knocked you up? Look no further! With Arthur Kilpatrick's Amazing Krime-Puter, you can find almost anyone with a record, and these days that's just about everyone! So come on down to Arthur Kilpatrick's Bail Bonds! If you've got the dead beat, we've got the technology to find him!

Email posted:

<Subject> Welcome
<From> Mercurio

Hey. Welcome to town. Come on over to my place once you get situated, and we'll talk about what you'll need to get the job done. I'm going to pick up explosives right now, some Astrolite. . . I should be back by the time you come over. I'm at 24 Main Street, in number 4. Walk to the end of the alley and my building is the next one on the right. - M

Email posted:

<Subject> The opening
<From> a friend

The game beings. A pawn is moved.

quote:

Basically, the Antediluvians are feeling the weight of the ages on them. The more potent the blood is, the more you feel the pull toward torpor. Beyond that, most of them have no Humanity left, so they tend to sleep for a long, long time.
I don't recall offhand if Paths count as far as getting out of Torpor, but I don't think they do.
Of course, what makes you think the Antediluvians ARE in torpor?
I can name at least 4, possibly 5 who are more or less active.

V. Illych L. posted:

Man why you gotta be a jerk with poor Cooper, that's super lovely

Tehan posted:

It's not just a one-off mention, it's described as a fairly common practice for Nosferatu in the Clanbooks. Animalism plus a lack of prying eyes plus paranoia gives a lot of time and motivation to get creative with ghouls. Rats are just the start of it

ArchWizard posted:

The President. Dubya said "bring 'em on" so the on will be brought.

DeusExMachinima posted:

Also the more you ignore nWoD the better (because VtM:B doesn't happen in it, therefore it is not the best). I think Zack Parsons or someone else on the frontpage said the biggest sign of the new WoD's failure is that it didn't become a bestseller ever since Twilight came out.

DeusExMachinima posted:

The music in this game is really, really good at setting the tone. It's up there with Thief and Hitman's soundtracks.

MJ12 posted:

I'm pretty sure it's set in 1999.

The WoD games generally had the books set in the year they were published, and thus Gehenna came in 2001. Furthermore, the news about freak weather in India matches up with the 1999 time, because that's when the Technocracy nuked the poo poo out of Ravnos and pretended it was 'mysterious weather'.

Thesaya posted:

(Darling Violettas 'A Smaller God' is on the radio on the beach, I think it is the first location that has a track playing that isn't background music)

Feinne posted:

Fun vampire crossover trivia fact: Darling Violetta did the theme from Angel.

Psion posted:

Yep. Toreador and guns is my preferred style. Celerity is pretty much the best skill.

You can also do pretty well with celerity and a melee weapon for when you're low on ammo or don't have a good gun available. It works for everything.

wiegieman posted:

With celerity, your guns speed up with you. So you can fire a whole lot of bullets, very quickly