World of Darkness Megathread: Curse of the Were-Poster

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neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Crion posted:

Nick...Blood? Nick Blood. There was a dude working on the WoD MMO named Nick Blood?

Lucious Soulban is still the greatest WoD author name of all time.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2015 23:59

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 18:54

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Proximi are more the equivalent, they are from a bloodline and inherit a curse and ability to use certain rotes which they buy as merits. Mostly a silver ladder and Seer thing IIRC.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 22:57

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Mors Rattus posted:

My take on it has always been 'Task Force VALKYRIE is run by the Sun-Walking Knights.'

So...yeah, the vampires are in on it, but they're not the ones in charge. The Sun-Walking Knights are "covenant" run by blood dolls and ghouls, not the vampires involved in it. The President owns the vampires, not vice versa.

That's always been my WoD canon. Every major government is run by the Sun Walking Knights, including both political parties in the US. All the political fights are still real though, the Republicans really want to lower taxes at all costs, the democrats really want to lower carbon admissions. It's just that both sides agree that an immortal, supernaturally enhanced cabal should be in charge of things.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 00:35

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

http://www.theonion.com/article/bloodblood-everywhere-2420 is another good Onion/Horror piece.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 00:19

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

There is a big V20 Bundle of Drive Thru RPG. You can buy the base game for just six bucks. Seems like as cheap as it'll ever be if you are interested in checking it out/completing your master list of supernaturals.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2016 02:56

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

FrozenGoldfishGod posted:

So Deviant sounds like it might be good, and a necessary palate cleanser after a much worse 'new' line.

But when I was reading the description, I kept thinking about one phrase that sums up what I know my players are going to do with it:

"Snikt, bub."

I think it would work great for that really. Up the sci-fi stuff but let's you keep the weirdness that the X-Men deal with like demon attacks or Dracula trying to seduce someone. Low powered bizzare superheroes is what a lot of WoD and CoD games end up as anyways, this seems like it would do it the best.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2016 22:55

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Senior Scarybagels posted:

So you pretty much just want Doom Patrol the Game?

Maybe? I thought Morrison's run on New X-Men was so awful that I've never touched anything else he's done. Guyver X-Men with some Scanners, X-Files, Fringe, and Infamous sounds good though.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2016 00:42

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Obligatum VII posted:

I've actually warmed up to the Silver Ladder's philosophy a lot over the years. Though I sympathize with the Free council's notions that the Supernal is not the only thing that has meaning to it.

Course, my thoughts on the matter are a bit more radical than any of the orders. The reasoning goes that, to go abuse the Plato's Cave metaphor some more, folks looked up from the shadows towards the flame and then completely forgot they're still in a drat cave and hey, maybe try taking a step outside of it and seeing what's out there too.

In my take, with 2E's approach to the abyss, is that what the sundering of reality did was create a vacuum, and what cropped up there isn't really unnatural as such, it's just nascent versions of the supernal that don't currently mesh very well with the existing patterns because the Exarchs locked down everything in place and tied them to the supernal version of everything. The notion of Supernal Truth itself is part of The Lie, and is just one possible truth and configuration of reality. Consequently abyssal manifestations are fundamentally the same as supernal magic, it is imposing a foreign pattern on the local area that overwrites the existing pattern's rules. The reason manifestations are much more dangerous and less predictable is because they're hard to understand and reality has currently been configured to accept supernal overwriting much more easily than any other pattern imposition.

I always thought it would be neat to have a legacy that takes this notion to its logical extreme and actually has the mage completely detaching themselves from the existing pattern structure to exist as essentially an abyssal manifestation themselves. In a way, the mage would become their own, very small, supernal realm.

Welcome to the Scelesti friend.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2016 01:10

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Shifting this thread to Deviant is an excellent idea. While I'm on the record of wanting to use it to play Snikt: The weird heroing I think it also has good potential to deal with a more introspective game, but possibly not as much as C:tD. I wonder about doing a Stranger Things style game as well, with just one Deviant (Eleven) and their new friends.

While we have you here Dave I do have a question about how the different conspiracies work in play. The intention is that each Deviant was created by a seperate weird science/occult conspiracy correct? Does that make the game feel overloaded for the lack of a better term? Like if a city has twenty deviants in it including NPCs having there be 20 different occult conspiracies running around seems excessive, even for the World of Darkness.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2017 16:56

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Bedlamdan posted:

But no, seriously, I was banned for a while and the whole site was paywalls, did Fallen Heroes fix Beast?

No. Nothing will ever fix Beast.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2017 05:10

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Loomer posted:

I hype mine up for my crew of regular players with snippets and photoshopped posters. Close enough, right?

I've always assumed you were pretty much the DM from Chick's Dark Dungeons pamphlets only with elaborate family trees covering all the walls.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 02:51

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

So speaking of all the different Onyx Path products are there any release dates for the various projects that are coming down the pike? Cavaliers of Mars, Trinity Continuum, Deviant, and even new Scion all look good but I feel like it's been quite a while since we've heard anything about any of them. Is there any news that I've missed?

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 06:33

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Night10194 posted:

It's the last time in recent memory America was at peace.

We were in like, four different wars though to a greater and lesser extent.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 21:59

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Axelgear posted:

Was there anything like that in Norse mythology?

That isn't me being pithy, I'm curious if it's something I've never heard about. The Norse, if I recall correctly, had some pretty severe (and bizarre) gender roles, like how the receptive partner in man-on-man intercourse was guilty of some terrible and unmanly sin, whereas the penetrating partner was just proving how manly he was. On the other hand, I've heard that a lot of their worshiping of their gods was via emulating said god, which involved dressing and acting like said god.

Anyone know anything about this? If it's a reference to an actual myth, that'd be pretty badass.

My understanding is that pretty much all of our sources for Norse Myths were written down a couple generations after Christianization by people who didn't actually believe in them. That said what we do have indicates the Norse were pretty big on gender roles and were pretty terrible to men who were seen as acting unmanly. That said I don't think it is particularly important for a game to stay true to how some dudes a thousand years though we should act especially if it helps people see themselves in fiction.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2017 02:51

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Mors Rattus posted:

There is also some strong evidence that Norse gender roles weren't nearly as strict as we've been led to believe, given the number of women buried with weaponry and the stories about Norse shieldmaidens.

True, but just because a society permits women to take up men's duties at times like combat doesn't mean it would be OK with the reverse. The Chevalier D'Eon was able to claim and find a degree of acceptance as a woman who had masqueraded as a man but probably would have been killed or imprisoned if it was known that they were biologically male who sometimes presented as a woman.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2017 03:22

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

A lot of the problems with Beast are problems in it's source material, it's just not as obvious when it's not in an RPG. A Girl Walks Home At Night, the Iranian vampire movie, got mentioned in this thread earlier. On one level it's about a woman with Agency in a place that denies it to her, but at the same time she's still a serial killer who leaves a trail of bodies. Nightbreed/Cabal is about accepting yourself as who you are and finding strength in it and forging a new community. But at the same time the Nightbreed eat people and maybe humanity would be better off setting them on fire after all. This doesn't really make Beast any better, but I do think it helps show where they were coming from and why it was a bad idea from the begining.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 03:40

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

[url=http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59880/Hunter-Horror-Recognition-Guide]Hunter Horror Recognition Guide[/url[ is good. All the fluff is in character as artifacts too, so you could give the PCs parts or even the whole book.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 02:52

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Rand Brittain posted:

In general the way the CoD second editions have been structured, starting with splats and giving context later, is really bad for everything but vampires. You can get by on assuming that Requiem vampires are like Ann Rice vampires, but for everything else they're different enough that you can't just go by common movie tropes.

I think it is especially troublesome because they are stand-alone now, meaning you shouldn't even assume that the reader has read the CoD core book to know about how stats and skills work. I think if you gave the Mage corebook to someone who had never played a WW or OP game before and told them to read it they would have a really tough time.

# ¿ May 26, 2017 13:21

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

The Chronicles core book is on sale today. 10$ on drivethrurpg.

neaden fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jun 3, 2017

# ¿ Jun 3, 2017 17:16

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3749911

So Mage chat. The core says you can't lie in High Speech but never really goes into the implications of that. Is the assumption that Mages profess innocence or make non-magically binding promises in High Speech to show they are being honest? Or is that beyond what most people allow High Speech to do?

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 20:39

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Mors Rattus posted:

High Speech is not a functional language the way even First Tongue is. You can't lie in it, but it's entire vocabulary is essentially 'the words required to describe and cast spells'. It'd be like trying to hold a conversation using C++ snippets.

Also the can't lie thing might be the other way around - you can't lie because speaking your will is part of casting a spell to make it true.

The book says "it's very good at communicating facts, but can't be used to deliberately lie" which to me means you could say "I didn't murder him" and another Mage would believe you. Or at least that they'll believe that you believe that.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 20:50

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Hmm, IIRC there is nothing about sleepwalkers or supernaturals learning High Speech. I would probably just say they can't. If a demon did learn somehow I would say they still can't lie, but everyone would still be nervous that they could.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 21:02

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Nessus posted:

In principle, a Ventrue neonate who found out that they could only feed on children would be a good-rear end run of personal horror. In practice, the character would either be a cartoon villain or would be presented as a Noble Pedophile a la Piers Anthony or something.

What does determine a Ventrue's feeding limit anyway? I mean, like, in-universe.

I don't think it would really though, not for the kind of horror I think Vampire does well. To me Personal Horror should be about temptation. It should be possible for a vampire to survive by eating animals and not using theiir powers on anyone. It should be a marginal existence and they'll probably be homeless and everyone will make fun of them and hate them but it should be possible. And everyone should know deep down that that is what they should be doing. If they were a good person that is what they would be doing. But feeding on people doesn't really hurt them too much, and they get a lot out of being ghouled really, it's a fair deal so it's not a big deal that I live in their apartment now and made them my personal servant.

On the other hand if it's just something that God cursed you with that sucks. Like it's objectively terrible, but it's not really horror to me. There is no temptation, you were just unlucky and now you have to live with it.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2017 13:34

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Barbed Tongues posted:

The temptation can come in other ways. Said unlucky Ventrue could spend a lot of money/favors to feed on Werewolf blood, for example. Or set up a robust trading network of Kindred blood - getting one-stage bonds to each of their clients. When their money runs out, what do they do? Is feeding on a sleeping child different? What about Forgetful Mind - is that still harm? What about feeding from sick children, then using their vitae to cure them in payment? Does the Ventrue Council eventually pull them in because preying on kids is one of the quicker ways to make hunters? Even if they go cold turkey - does a rash of missing children cause the Sheriff to turn up on their doorstep? If they relapse, does the Ventrue Council move them from Domain to Domain - a mirror of what the Catholic Church was doing?

It can be done maturely. It wasn't done maturely.

I mean, you do you but that sounds awful to me. It looks like it would either fall into supernatural camp with werewolf and blood bonds or child molester: the metaphor. I would never allow the character as a ST.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2017 15:04

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Kavak posted:

I understand being put off by Beast and Dark Eras' extremely slow delivery, but I don't understand blaming OPP for nuWolf's poo poo. Withholding money from them is just going to kill the one interesting side of the World of Darkness- our best chance is to keep Onyx Path alive and hope Swedracula fails miserably.

They license the setting, so presumably every time you but a CoD book nuWW gets some money. I'm still going to buy OP be products but I can understand not wanting to.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2017 22:24

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Kurieg posted:

Oh I forgot that they republished a fiction anthology from the mid 90s, with a new story written by Swedracula.

A fiction anthology edited by a pedophile.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 04:38

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Is Geist 2e going to supplant the Book of the Dead? I'm considering picking it up on the Halloween sale.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2017 20:11

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

I'll be honest, I frequently forget that Belial's Brood or the VII exist. Like if I was planning a vampire game and not flipping through the book the idea to include them would never even occur to me. I like the Strix, mortal hunters, and random one off weirdness a lot though.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2017 21:59

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Gumball Gumption posted:

Krewe is a really good name? Like, it comes from Carnival krewes and really fits the trash culture of Geist.

It's kind of niche though. I had never heard it before Geist 1e so it just came off as a weird misspelling. It seems odd that Sin Eaters would adapt such a specific term and it would disseminate. I don't mind it in the book but I doubt I would use it in play unless it was a New Orleans game.
The preview looks very nice though and I'm looking forward to it's release. Between Geist, Deviant, and Scion it looks like Onyx Path will have a good 2019.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2017 16:57

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

GimpInBlack posted:

(I mean, maybe I'm wrong and Elvis runs a spooky soup kitchen with all that extra Essence. Who knows?)

Well I am definitely including the Jane Adams Hull house in any Geist game I run in Chicago now.

Edit: I mean just reading famous graves in and around the city is giving me so many ideas for cool NPCs.

Edit 2: oh God, what is going to happen when Oprah dies?

neaden fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Nov 7, 2017

# ¿ Nov 7, 2017 20:01

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

occamsnailfile posted:

Any Chicago Geist game should also include H. H. Holmes, his murder hotel, and ever-changing trail of victims.

Richard J. Daley in an endless gang war with Al Capone. Possibly Richard M. Daley's retirement and replacement with Rahm Emmanual was some sort of supernatural plot.
The ghosts of the Haymarket square and other Chicago communists/anarchists like Elizabeth Flynn.
Ernie Banks becoming the Geist of the Chicago Cubs to literally be Mr. Cub.
Various supernatural conspiracies swirling around Oprah.
This is making me excited for Geist to come out so I can run a semi-gonzo Unknown Armies/Tim Powers style game.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2017 00:35

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

For the Sabbat my take was that all their ideology was just some bullshit for the neonates that none of the elders took seriously. It goes well with the 90s cynicism of Bush/Gore are the same the sides aren't really different vibe.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2017 18:08

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

I like the anthologies, but be aware that a lot of the fiction appeared in other books first. If you don't have a big 1e collection I think Fallen World anthology and God Machine anthology are the best two.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 15:54

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Sad to see Rose go, she's been great. Hope everything works out well for her.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 20:22

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

The Geist previews continue to look good, I think it might fight Awakening for my favorite book. First Edition was a disappointment, but mechanically and thematically this looks like an improvement. Is it going to be the next Kickstarter after Trinity?

# ¿ Feb 16, 2018 18:13

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

GimpInBlack posted:

My development notes on Mementos were basically a DVD rip of The Lost Room with some skulls drawn on.

Which is to say, I agree with you, and I can't wait to see what crazy shenanigans PCs manage to get up to with a mountaineer's oxygen tank that gives anyone who huffs from it addictive, hypoxia-induced hallucinations.

One of the cool things about mementos is it gives another good reason for mortals to get involved in your game, and to be actual players with agency in a campaign, which I really appreciate. In most of the various WoD game lines mortals only really matter if they are tools, friends, or hunters. I'm really looking forward to Geist being able to incorporate more of an unknown armies Tim Powers vibe. It also helps that way more people believe in ghosts than werewolves or vampires.

Also while I'm not participating I appreciate the mage chat. Shine on you crazy bastards.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 00:25

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

spectralent posted:

Sea person game?

They Came From Beneath the Sea, a humor/horor game inspired by B-movies. Not the dudes who wrecked all the Mediteranian civilizations back in the day.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2018 15:36

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

Mythologies had already origin myths for vampires. The one I liked is that the first vampire of a clan comes from someone who is afraid of dying so much that they manage to stick around. Each clan is based off a different fear.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 22:11

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

GimpInBlack posted:

Shameless plug for the new Geist preview: http://theonyxpath.com/the-dead-belong-below-geist-the-sin-eaters/

1. Never have shame these are great and you've made this my most anticipated game right now.
2. I really like how you are continuing to stress the people centric nature of ghosts and everyone else. The idea of the River cities and camps is very evocative.
3. I'm really excited for mortal antagonists as well. I'm planning on stealing stuff from Expiration Date and the Giovanni as antagonists. I think a group of living extorting service for ghosts in return for remembering them and providing essence would fit right in too.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 21:22

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 18:54

neaden: Nov 4, 2012; A changer of ways

nofather posted:

I'm guessing this isn't referring to werewolf's Eaters of the Dead lodge?

Are Reapers going to have their own section in the book, like the strix?

From context it's probably people who huff ghosts to extend their own lives. If you haven't read Expiration Date by Tim Powers I'd really recommend it. Theoretically, it's the second book in a series but they don't really tie in together that much and you're fine reading them out of order. The first book, Last Call, is also great though and a big inspiration for Unknown Armies.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2018 02:57

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