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The Goku option in the poll reminds me of my idea of Alien: The Abduction, or something along those lines, with players who are made or created as human/alien hybrids of various kinds and have to deal with their place in the world with the looming presence of extraterrestrial forces of unknown and possibly incomprehensible abilities and movies. Not quite the same thing as Changeling, where at least they tend to know what the True Fae are after. (that is, shits and giggles)
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Jun 15, 2021 16:07
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Hey, it was a loose idea. I do like the idea of different abductees having vastly different experiences and the clues not adding up between them. Quote possibly implying there's multiple alien groups or entities with different agendas. Some might be more Close Encounters, some ET, some Species. Maybe it really is alien perverts or frat boys screwing around with no greater meaning, maybe it's scientific study from a cold, alien perspective, maybe there's a Genestealer cult.
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Jun 16, 2021 08:54
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Babysitter Super Sleuth posted:This is why the idea of humans who got their poo poo all hosed up by alien encounters seems more interesting to me than alien hybrids, imo. Especially since the former leaves room for an archetype that’s basically a dude making poo poo up about aliens for attention/ to help “the cause” who gets caught up in Real poo poo entirely accidentally I feel like there's room for both, especially with the whole breadth of alien encounter mythos. Actually, there's definitely room for a climax to a storyline where flying saucer descends from the sky and characters have a genuine encounter with unmistakably alien entities that one of them has had cryptic clues and memories about... and then they bring up some of the poo poo they've seen so far and the aliens are like 'Wait, what? Got no idea what the gently caress that's about." ...or even better: "...wait, you've seen those things TOO?!" (Alternatively: "Was kinda hoping you'd bring one of those blood-drinking humanoids, those are interesting... you know, those ones? ...didn't you know...?") Does remind me of Ghostbusters, one of the fun things about Peter Venkman is that while being an accredited psychologist and parapsychologist, he's most comfortable being a con artist and phony psychic who mostly uses his skills to make easy money and hit on women- though he's also actually interested in and enjoys encountering the genuine supernatural. (and one can imagine that he becomes very useful to the deal in distinguishing between the genuine supernatural, and delusions and hoaxes, likely the reason why the Ghostbusters have a battery of tests to run on potential clients to make sure they don't waste their time on the delusional, mentally ill or terminally bored)
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Jun 17, 2021 18:28
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I think it's actually common for RPGs that the core stuff is the most broken one way or another, while expansion/splatbook stuff is overbalanced sometimes to uselessness.
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Jun 21, 2021 17:57
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Digital Osmosis posted:This was such a weird idea. Seems relatively prevalent at the time too, not just in WoD but in other pen and paper RPG design. Anyone happen to know where it comes from? I feel like it was institutionalized enough that it was almost part of a coherent ideology of game design and was more than a gently caress you to anyone who wanted to play a "super special totally the best" type character... not that PCs serving as blatant wish-fulfillment is even an actual problem of course, unless it disrupts the game. Did, idk, Gygax once print an essay yelling at someone who wanted him to write rules for playing a half-dragon, or something like that? There certainly was a very 'I will tell you how to play and you'll like it' strain to RPGs, likely connected to when grognards were actually still relevant. At least it seems to be one of those things that's quietly gone extinct in the last decade or so.
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Jun 29, 2021 06:53
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Nessus posted:Hell yeah, literature. See also all those astronauts coming from Ohio. Being in Ohio just makes you want to physically and spiritually get as far away as possible from Ohio. Joe Slowboat posted:There's also the Qashmallim, who could be directing the Created in secret so that they find each other. Promethean has a pretty blank check (like Mage) to have coincidences occur as long as they follow the themes. And Promethean alchemical hobo-sign and such seems to serve to hold onto culture and practices across great gulfs of distance and time.
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Jun 30, 2021 08:20
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Wasn't one of the last NWoD 1e books... Reflections, I think? Basically a ton of ideas for blowing the doors off the various Masquerades and actually potentially answering some of the biggest potential setting questions? Comes to mind that a True Blood scenario could have some of the supernatural beings be publicly, openly known, but not all of them at once. And potentially what is publicly known doesn't match the true reality of the situation, and the Masquerade becomes less about hiding your existence and more about sticking to the script in front of the normals.
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Jul 1, 2021 11:31
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GimpInBlack posted:You're thinking of Mirrors, which was mostly a book on hacking the Storytelling system (and, IIRC, was a bit of a test bed for some ideas that would ultimately make it into the God-Machine Chronicle/nWoD 2e/CofD), but did have a chapter of alternate settings, one of which was "the supernatural is revealed openly to humanity at large," including brief sections on "what if only this splat was revealed?" I need to get my hands on that sometime. Can I get a cliff's notes on the 'what if only this splat was revealed' ideas? I imagine Changelings would probably cause quite a freak-out when extradimensional aliens have been kidnapping, murdering and violating people with impunity.
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Jul 2, 2021 06:44
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joylessdivision posted:It's the Paris Opera house. There seems to be a running gag that Nosferatu are better artists and performers than the clan whose whole deal is art and performance.
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Jul 11, 2021 08:42
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he's the actual Phantom of the Opera with a line about the local Toredor community admitting he does have a lovely singing voice 
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I feel we're missing the clear opportunity of playing a drama queen 'creative'. Imagine Toreador TikTok.
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Jul 13, 2021 02:12
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I'd go with a canon that there's been probably plenty of vampires assuming the Dracula name and persona for centuries, and trying to sort out which is which is a quest of its own accord. Netflix Castlevania comes to mind again with Dracula being something well beyond other vampires. Actually now wondering how that would translate to WoD. Has there been a vampire clan/faction/tradition who use their long lives to master sciences and knowledge? The Ordo Dracul come to mind as being the closest. (fittingly?)
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Jul 13, 2021 09:19
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Loomer posted:For most purposes, this is pretty solid - especially because you can then run the classic Fake Dracula Meets Real Dracula plot beat. Unfortunately, the oWoD snarl is in the question of exactly when and who put the bite on Vlad more than 'how was he in three places at once?' sort of issue, as the only books that do that are semi-canon and actually surprisingly consistent.* That just makes me think a couple of Draculas meeting up and swapping life stories to figure out which is the 'real' one but both have surprisingly consistent pasts and make make a good argument, if possibly mutually exclusive ones. And given the effects of Torpor on long-term memory, neither can exactly trust their own story.
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Jul 14, 2021 07:32
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As long as they also try to take over the world.
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Jul 15, 2021 09:59
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:I know goons like to go ham on how deadly and scary the ocean is but that beach is apparently especially dangerous, to the point where public swimming was and is still prohibited. He was only able to swim there too because he had a special pass and it was normally restricted to military training operations. I remember reading an interview with a park ranger or somesuch around there and he said the only thing remotely unusual about it was that he happened to be the Prime Minister. It being prohibited doesn't stop people from trying, of course, but it's an absolute deathtrap of a coast.
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Jul 18, 2021 08:47
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Also best to keep in mind that vampire priorities aren't the same as human ones. It's likely that attempts to cause big events either fizzle out or blow up in their fanged faces. While being used to living in a shadow society and a parallel power structure means I imagine local courts can sometimes weather wars, revolutions and regime changes almost intact if they adopt the new outward faces quick enough.
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Jul 19, 2021 16:10
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Rand Brittain posted:Nobody really knows what the God-Machine wants. I continue to like my description of it as "terrifyingly omniscient but also terrifyingly stupid." That just makes me think RTS AI.
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Jul 20, 2021 07:21
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:I think Ferrinus touched on this already, but another thing is that people seem to have a craving to frame the God-Machine as a person, as something that has motivation or at least telos in the first place; even my last comment kind of falls into that trap a little. I do like the idea of the God-Machine being aligned with various other conspiracies mostly because maintaining the status quo is in their common interest. From the other end of things, Seers and some vampires might be aware of the God-Machine to a degree and see it as a potentially useful tool.
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Jul 21, 2021 06:54
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Rubix Squid posted:I have never once been able to get myself to use aspirations. I mean, if that isn't a plot hook I don't know what is.
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Jul 21, 2021 16:37
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Is Promethean the only line with a splat (Argentum) specifically for studying other supernatural beings?
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Jul 24, 2021 18:01
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Changeling really has a new vibe post-Epstein.
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Jul 26, 2021 06:59
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Soonmot posted:My current changeling is a super buff hot orc Fairest Gristlegrinder. Separating kith from seeming was one of the best changes. I don't think it helps that a ton of Kiths were more or less redundant.
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Jul 27, 2021 16:47
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Roadie posted:Sounds like a kusarigama, which probably exists in one of the WoD books somewhere. Although the exception is the vampire hunters obsessed with chain weapons...
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Jul 31, 2021 05:52
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I've said before, but Changeling: The Lost really reads differently in a post-Epstein world.
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Aug 17, 2021 06:12
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joylessdivision posted:Drag queen Ethnostate is pretty amazing. Pretty sure that's an island in One Piece
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Sep 19, 2021 10:25
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The guy who could literally wear a shirt saying 'Yes, I Am A Rocket Wizard'
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Oct 16, 2021 17:48
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Zereth posted:I mean, the last few decades, computers, the internet, and ubiquitous smartphones have massively changed the way humans communicate and consume media and stuff. How does that fit in with the "the nature of the 'fallen' world is stasis" thing? It probably makes a lot more sense considering the whole End Of History attitude until rather recently.
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Oct 23, 2021 14:56
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More fitting line of discussion than I thought to bring up the random note that Bayonetta is an Adamantine Arrow Mastigos living her best life.
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Nov 10, 2021 18:10
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Kavak posted:There's Amerocentrism and then there's Amerocentrism. Twist, it's the other Arcadia
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Nov 13, 2021 06:57
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TheKingslayer posted:The suggestions to talk out of game are spot on because I've played with more than a few people like this and they just tend to dig in their heels if they feel like you're trying to force them into the story. Yeah, there's a lot of people who don't really get the idea of interactive storytelling and just treat it as a game they try to win by the least effort, and experience or influence from toxic GMs doesn't help.
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Nov 19, 2021 16:52
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Gatto Grigio posted:True Brujah clan bane seems a poor fit for Dio’s extremely poor impulse control. I heard there's one otherwise terrible vampire movie where they try this on Dracula and he just counts them all in an instant Rain Man style. What about the Pillar Men?
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Nov 21, 2021 07:21
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Gatto Grigio posted:TBF, every Discipline will look lovely next to pre-Requeim/V5 Celerity, aka “I’m a just break the action economy over my knee.” Every generation game designers need to relearn that the action economy is the most powerful thing in any system.
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Nov 21, 2021 11:32
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Omnicrom posted:Also Ronnie James Dio and Marlon Brando and Roy Batty from Bladerunner. Jojo is literally full of musical reference names to the point where official translations have to change some of them for copyright reasons. Like, the guy named Speedwagon.
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Nov 23, 2021 06:59
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Mulva posted:I mean you go long enough and Jesus Christ is just a character in later JoJos. Fun fact, his actual name would have been Joshua, son of Joseph
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Nov 24, 2021 08:55
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One of the most fun parts of evil antagonist organisations is their own internal struggles, even worse than the protagonists because they're held together not by personal bonds (usually) but by money, ambition and maybe ideology.Joe Slowboat posted:E: Also, a Silicon Valley startup should have a wildly varying degree of competence in detail, but a vast pool of resources. That's sort of the Silicon Valley startup aesthetic, and makes for a good antagonist: You can keep outwitting or outplaying them, but they have deep purses and lots of ambitious members waiting for a chance to try out their own pet project. Oh yeah, this is the fun yet scary kind of antagonist, like the CIA or Cobra: Even if they gently caress up all the time, they get unlimited do-overs and a plentiful supply of malicious freaks who want their turn.
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Jan 14, 2022 08:02
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The GM of my CTL game calls it PTSD: The Home Game. You're a bunch of alien abduction victims with emotion fuelled magic trying to get by and stay remotely sane while hiding from your incredibly powerful and horrifyingly alien abusers and deal with each others' endless bullshit on top of your own.
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Feb 14, 2022 10:07
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MonsieurChoc posted:The best part is that the rules to be a Mage Revenant didn't exist before the guy went on a rant about how much of a bad idea it was... giving it rules. It's a very 90s/00s RPG kind of thing for companies to put out books whose core premise they obviously hate and want to put out terrible rules for in order to invalidate them and act like there was never any other way. Actually there's a bit of a toxic theme with RPGs, D&D 5e's development comes to mind, where there's an idea that game 'design' is not and should not be a thing at all- that the game's mechanics and rules are self-evident and the author simply writes them down, and if they actually let players do cool things they are obviously badwrongfun.
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Feb 16, 2022 13:56
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FirstAidKite posted:Yeah a lot of jojo fights can be summed up as "oh god what is happening, why is it happening, what the gently caress, how is this even possible" body horror inspired by something the author Araki watched recently or read about or heard about and copied down, with each encounter ending when someone finally manages to land a punch on whatever is doing the horrible awful terrible thing. The first Jojo series is basically Dracula with more punch magic and melodrama. And even with the introduction of Stands emphasises how strange, poorly understood, unpredictable and even dangerous to the user and everyone around them they can be. Hamon is incredibly difficult to use properly and requires intense and specific training and focus. So much of the series is the protagonists not only figuring out and working around their enemies' powers, but their own.
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Feb 18, 2022 11:53
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Loomer posted:On Changeling, all you really need to know to understand how intensely shallow the early editions understanding of emotion and passion were is to know that it considered the work of a courtroom advocate banal. Ace Attorney hadn't come out yet. The whole thing is... I think a mix of 90s Gen X 'born too late to be a hippie' malaise that just aged like milk in general, and also trying way too hard to appeal to that kind of attitude.
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Feb 20, 2022 13:07
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A lot of RPG art in general and WoD in particular they just seemed happy to have an artist at all, regardless of output.
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Mar 9, 2022 17:17
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Dawgstar posted:Also WoD wasn't immune from the habit of artists sending them whatever they felt like drawing that barely met the guidelines sent to them. That explains a lot.
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Mar 10, 2022 13:13
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