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?

ArchWizard posted:

A female Ventrue named Melissa.

Will there be any bonus updates showing Malkavian conversations?

ArchWizard posted:

A female Ventrue named Melissa.

ArchWizard posted:

A female Ventrue named Melissa.

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.

gatz posted:

That reminds me: I will try to do something similar to what Lt. Danger did in his LP of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its fantastic expansion when he wanted to show off the voice acting: either link to an mp3 or movie containing the voice acting of a major character, but then rely on transcription for the most part.

ArchWizard posted:

A female Ventrue named Melissa.

Will there be any bonus updates showing Malkavian conversations?

GrimRevenant posted:

gatz posted:

Keep spoilers in tags.

gatz posted:

Could you spoiler tag that last paragraph, please?

A Tartan Tory posted:

Look at all these goons not voting for Malkavian

gatz posted:

I will not be accepting votes for playing as a malkavian.

GrimRevenant posted:

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to miss something obvious.

TehGherkin posted:

What? No votes for Tremere? It's almost like you don't want to boil people's blood inside their bodies.

Voting for a Male Tremere named Sebastian.

Lotish posted:

I'm gonna go for Female Gangrel. The Ventrue lady looks attractive, but I think I'd like to see how the beasty clan negotiates politics.

Muraena posted:

Female Ventrue named Natasha just because.

I wonder how long it will take me to cave in and reinstall this game..