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Fossilized Rappy posted:With the resurgence of White Wolf reviewing, I'm sort of hoping someone gets to the recently released Werewolf 20th Edition: Rage Across the World. It apparently tries to cover such topics as critically endangered wolf populations, South American political tensions, and the Arab Spring, and I'm genuinely curious as to whether White Wolf has gotten better about dealing with such subjects. If someone does W20, I will do Rage Across the World and throw in Skinner for free. Rage Across the World from glancing through it doesn't seem that bad. I read the section on Shanghai and it wasn't bad or great. There seems to be more of a mixing of East and West though, not just the "inscrutable Orient" which is a step up from previous stuff. The bit of fiction is incredibly ironic because it deals with a plot to corrupt the Yangtze River, which is incredibly polluted like most rivers in China.
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Jan 12, 2014 16:57
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Kurieg posted:If there's interest, I can review W20 since it seems that the W:TA Corebook hasn't been F&Fed before. The problem with the book is that of the 550 pages probably about 300 are material that has been reprinted/reworded from earlier books. And reviewing 90 pages of gifts would probably make for a very boring read. I would probably gloss over the things like that and the Rules and Storytelling chapter. How about an overview of the changes in the fluff as opposed to the crunch?
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Jan 12, 2014 23:24
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The DarkStryder campaign was pretty awesome, or at least I remember it being awesome. Timothy Zahn even contributed to it so it had that going for it. The problem with WEG Star Wars was that it played more like Traveller than something akin to the later RPG adaptations. Not that there's anything wrong with Traveller but it's not what most people think of when thinking about SW action wise.
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Jul 17, 2014 04:02
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mllaneza posted:I GMd a lot of 1e WEG Star Wars. I found it to be at its best when I was pushing some straight up Cold War espionage poo poo with real-world fieldcraft like dead drops, one time pads, and other cool spy poo poo. I set the game before the first movie so everyone knew there was a really juicy espionage target out there, and that everyone would likely die if they really got deep into things. Some of them had lightsabers, we had fun. For the occasionally single PC session I played it like James Bond, more action, lots of chases, plenty of chances to spend your force points. That's all true and a good strategy but it doesn't address the main issue. The problem is that in 1998, when there is only one Star Wars system, 12 year old me would rather play a system that allowed for something similar to the EU novels and comics I was reading. You shouldn't have to reinterpret a game setting to make up for the mechanics of the game not really meshing with the setting. The mechanics are supposed to exist for the setting, not the other way around. It's very much a product of the 1980's.
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Jul 17, 2014 13:31
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
I like that the best they could come up with for a Chaos Earth era tank/apc stat or art wise is the Bradley. Maybe Siembieda or some of the writers were in the Army in the 80's or had a really outdated copy of Jane's. They could have at least made it the "M20" or something and made it sleaker.
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Aug 3, 2014 22:22
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Cardiovorax posted:So ten of these can kill a minor god. Only if that minor God is not protected by Islamist rebels armed with Stinger missiles.
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Aug 11, 2014 15:13
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MonsieurChoc posted:Wraith: the Great War Chapter One: War and Artermath Ito Hirobumi was the first and three more times Prime Minister of Japan. He was also the first Resident-General of Korea which brought about his assassination in Harbin, China by a Korean freedom fighter, or terrorist if you're a Japanese right-winger. Harbin was a very Russian city and part of the Russian sphere within China until the Japanese forced them out. I didn't remember him being in that book but that's cool.
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Aug 18, 2014 23:21
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Poison Mushroom posted:Of all the stupid, half-baked ideas in this book, why is this the only one that makes me actually angry? Homosexuality wasn't that big of a sin in Judaism. Even if two men were caught in the act of having anal intercourse, they had to be seen in the act by two witnesses, given a warning to stop, and if they stopped they wouldn't be put to death. There are no recorded cases of the rule ever being enforced as well. There's also debate on why exactly it was given as a rule in Leviticus and if it factored into Sodom and Gomorrah. Homosexuality was also not mentioned in Deuteronomy and if it was as important as some people today claim, it would have been dealt with since it's something that's as old as the human race. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 05:27
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Night10194 posted:There's actually a theory among biblical scholars, based on the fact that the ancient Israelites had no conception of homosexual orientation, that the prohibition against homosexuality is actually primarily a prohibition against homosexual rape, which was something that sometimes happened to prisoners of war as a means of humiliating them or showing dominance. Basically, without an actual idea of 'Some dudes like bonin' other dudes' (and none of the stuff on homosexuality addresses the idea of ladies bonin' ladies, they probably didn't even think that was a thing that was done considering how long it took people to realize there was even a female orgasm) the only real context the authors of Leviticus had would've been man on man rape, which they thought was not a-okay. Same sex attraction for both men and women was considered inherently sinful but it could be forgiven by repenting. They were well aware of homosexuality as a concept and they were familiar with it as it was in neighboring cultures. It's believed that the ban might have been in place as well because of the Egyptians and Canaanites allowing it and God's chosen are supposed to be better than those people. Classical societies were well aware of the female orgasm. The ancient Greeks wrote about it and they were aware of the importance of the clitoris. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 06:47
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Kellsterik posted:
It's super 90's edgy and in a lazier way than White Wolf usually was. The leader of the "Final Reich" was a 13 year old Nazi and the real Heinrich Himmler, Tremere Antitribu, helps out the 13 year old's neo-Nazi agenda. Most likely fake Hermann Goring, Malkavian, was also a member of the "Final Reich" organization. White Wolf never really touched it after Berlin by Night for obvious reasons except stating that Himmler is missing around the time the Tremere Antitribu get wiped out. It's a pretty good example of how old White Wolf could get a great concept at its base and ruin it. Two cities separated by an impenetrable wall for almost 30 years under two completely different ideologies are reunited and are faced with multiple threats like the Sabbat and Setites. Sounds like a great concept but this is the 90's and concept doesn't sell books unless it looks like something scribbled on the back of a Smashing Pumpkins album insert. James A. Moore and Andrew Greenberg just jerk themselves off to being XTREME and go full force into Nazis and poo poo that isn't even relevant in Germany at that time, let alone today. Also, look at this cover 
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Nov 11, 2014 07:04
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Kavak posted:Germany's main concern back then was integrating and supporting the half of the nation that had spent 45 years under economic neglect and political repression, right? What the hell else could they have talked about once they ran out of VAMPIRE NAZIS!!1! to detail? Well, this is a summary of part of what is in the book. White Wolf Wiki posted:Although many Cainites blamed Breidenstein for being the cause of the Great War, Wilhelm stayed by his sire's side, following his orders to the letter. In the following years of the Weimar Republic, Breidensteins credibility as a prince was nearly destroyed and Wilhelm Waldburg was regarded by many as the true power behind Berlin. Breidenstein was still Prince, but inhibited by his childe and the newly formed Primogen Council. This led to Breidensteins involvement in the rise of the NS-Regime, as the old Ventrue hoped to use them to crush his enemies within french Toreador, as well as the adherents of his wayward childe. The plan horribly backfired and resulted with much of the city destroyed. Wilhelm survived the war in the warrens of allied Nosferatu, who believed him to be a better candidate for princedom than his sire. That's plenty without going into neo-Nazis and actual Nazis. Talking about Nazis in the 30's and someone getting burned for using them, good. 13 year old vampire neo-Nazi leader, not cool. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 08:05
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Kavak posted:How the gently caress did vampires build up half a century of imperial tension in Europe and abroad, destabilize the Ottoman and Austrian Empires, start the Balkan Wars, set up the Black Hand's assassination plot, then after WWI collapse the global economy and pave the way for the rise of Nazism? Second Edition was all about how vampires did it in but then goes on to say that some secret people really do everything in the Ventrue clanbook. Second is where also get all of the "famous person was a vampire" stuff. Most the stuff in Revised about it is using material from Second. EDIT: It's even more nonsensical when you have all the game lines doing it and there's the Technocracy. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 15:14
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 The truth was in front of us the whole time. 
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Nov 11, 2014 18:06
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CtD is a horse made by committee. There were so many different visions colliding in that game and no one really telling anyone what the standard was. There was also no real antagonist in the game until the end of the line. The antagonists were people who are soul crushingly boring and some lukewarm evil unseelie Sidhe until a couple years into the game. The metaplot was pretty much, High King David is missing and he might be the prisoner of the leader of the American Southeast but we'll never touch on that until the literal end of the game world. Sidhe also might be inherently evil due to how they inhabit mortal bodies*, which we won't really touch on until the end book, and there is some resistance to the Sidhe coming back but let's just talk about how awesome Sidhe are. Dark Ages Fae is pretty good though so it at least has that going for it. *Sidhe aren't changelings. Changelings are the product of a ritual used to bind fae to mortals who share their outlooks. This creates a gestalt soul that reincarnates over time like in WtA. I could be wrong but that's how I remember it. This in effect merges two beings into one and that's why you have the whole dream self and real world self. The Sidhe fled the world around the time the Anarch Revolts happen in Vampire and the Order of Reason comes into its own in Mage. The Sidhe were the aristocrats and they pretty much hightail it to Arcadia while everyone else is left for death in a world that's becoming more rational. One group of Sidhe remain but they're the mysterious watcher faction, Scathach, and actually changelings. The Sidhe return in 1969 and take over like nothing happened. Since they never did the changeling ritual, the question of how they can inhabit a body like they do comes up and it pretty much points to them consuming the consciousness of their mortal body or merging with it in a body snatcher-esque way. The Sidhe claim the original owners are partying in Arcadia, Great Race of Yith style, but they don't even know the answer to that as well. CtD had a lot of potential in terms of horror but most of it is never capitalized on.
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Nov 14, 2014 16:52
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Flavivirus posted:I remember when I took over managing the local university rpg society's book archive there was a copy of The Autumn People there, in perfect condition. The weirdest thing was how high quality the production values on the book are - glossy pages, full colour throughout, quite a bit of art. Was that common for oWoD books? It was eye catching enough that I gave it a read, but oh man is it stupid. Just wait until you see the self-aware banal antagonists! OWoD books always had a lot of art and were super artsy. 2nd edition vampire books used to begin with art spreads with pretentious goth quotes and werewolf books used to begin with comics. Eventually they switched over to about NWoD level art placement. The binding on White Wolf softcovers were especially lovely though, don't get me started on the larp books. I think every 1st edition Changeling book was in color. It was part of the gimmick of the line but they stopped doing it in 2nd edition. White Wolf was never a big company and printing costs were what usually kept companies at breaking even or losing profits. Since CtD was never a big seller, I think they just went with b&w like all other White Wolf books because full color wasn't making a difference. Here's a list of all the CtD related books White Wolf put out and if they were color or not. http://www.giveneyestosee.com/changeling/changeling-withpics.html After 1997, they mostly switch over to b&w.
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Nov 14, 2014 17:53
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Kurieg posted:Huh? The hardcover bindings on my WTA books are falling apart while the softcovers are just fine, even the ones I got used, did the Changeling books use a different process? The thin ones hold up well but the bigger books, like the combination books from 2nd edition, are not very well made. The finish on all of them can start to peel as well but that's a common problem on that type of cheap, glossy coating.
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Nov 14, 2014 18:11
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Bieeardo posted:That's what really, really bothers me about the Sidhe. Well, beyond each of their Houses basically being a better, shinier version of an entire kith's schtick. The Sidhe hosed off aside from one House (with its own special, shiny magic). They never undertook the Changeling Way. The Sidhe are horrifying in their implications: they were either kicked out or escaped from Arcadia, in the process hollowing innocent people of their minds and souls, and reappeared on Earth as an invasion force. They murdered negotiators and emissaries under a flag of truce, using cold iron weapons (which are guaranteed to kill fey souls dead, permanently), and finally installed themselves as feudal lords through the use of magic that makes you play by their SCA rules. The Sidhe were absolute bastards and even High King David borders on, "He was a tyrant but he was the best of them!" Anyone who loved the Sidhe was almost always that type of problem player who likes to go on power trips and be the center of attention. It would have been cool if there were areas of the US where the Sidhe weren't in control, like the Free State or Sabbat cities in Vampire. Having the equivalent of commoner Parliamentarians would have been cool but it just goes into Sir Walter Scott territory, all the time. It makes sense that the dreams of a modern nation like the United States, full of many diverse people with modern sensibilities, would line up with Le Morte d'Arthur.
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Nov 14, 2014 19:28
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Robindaybird posted:That's the problem with CtD, is all their whimsy and wonder examples sounds like horrific gaslighting and murder to people who aren't complete psychopaths That was pretty much how the Hunter the Reckoning writers went about it and it worked. I don't even remember there being a story that presented them as something other than monsters.
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Nov 15, 2014 06:57
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Payndz posted:Hunter: The Reckoning sounds like the only WoD game I would actually want to play. No metaplot? No complex networks of paranormal society to negotiate? Shooting vampires and werewolves in the goddamn face? Seems good to me! There's metaplot and not only that but it's runoff from other lines, mainly Wraith and Demon. The complex network is also an old style BBS full of crazies. Night10194 posted:The entire game is designed around you failing and dying, mechanically, if played normally. Creatures will regularly get 4-5 turns to your one, soak damage way better than you do, arbitrarily ignore their own weaknesses, etc. This too. Even with rank 5 edges, which your character will probably never get and require a special contract with an entity, you're not doing more than any other supernatural can already do by the point. Most supernaturals, except mages and changelings, shrug off everything except for aggravated damage. Vampires only take bashing damage from firearms and even if you're using the alternate rules for firearms where they do lethal on head shots, you're taking so many penalties it's not worth it. STs have to also run werewolves differently than how they should be because even fighting a pack of rank 1 werewolves is a game wiping encounter. The normal antagonist groups like the Sabbat and the Black Spiral Dancers are out of the question as well and they would conceivably be the most likely groups Imbued would go after.
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Nov 15, 2014 19:16
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Ratpick posted:e: Nephilim being giants is also pretty interesting: I remember back when I was actively involved with my local church's youth activities I was constantly confused about there suddenly being giants in the Old Testament. During Bible studies our youth minister told us that it stemmed from early Bible translators not bothering to find out what Nephilim meant and going "gently caress, they're giants now." I do recall that in the Hebrew stories the Nephilim were described as being large in stature, but classing them as literal giants is weird as gently caress because they were, to my knowledge, more like half man half fallen angel. The Bible is weird is what I'm saying. I believe one of the interpretations is that they were giants among men in terms of power. I've been researching them for a game project and there aren't many references to them. One problem with the Old Testament is that there was the Oral Torah so you're missing part of the information and most of the listeners would be familiar with things. The job of the Torah was not to be a book for everyone but as a written record for those who were allowed to read the Torah.
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Nov 17, 2014 16:07
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The answer is Jefferson Carter. He's a wealthy and charitable millionaire that goes to great lengths to defend superheroes legally and ensure they're free to go about their derring-do. In short, he's set up as a patron for the PCs. Oh, and he's a telepathic sadist that plays "human chess" with people. This is pretty much Maxwell Lord from DC Comics. Even as someone touting themselves as one of the best game runners there is he can't even make his own original villains.
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Dec 3, 2014 05:03
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 Introduction: “You’re not making fun of me, you’re making fun of my LARP character.” Though it comes up from time to time, no one has really gone into depth about the old Mind’s Eye Theater system of LARP books for White Wolf’s game lines. This system was used for the over decade until the new By Night Studios book came out and is being replaced by a much better system. There was a book or books put out for each of their game lines, except Demon, and they were all still played up until recently. Those games though were hilariously bad in many regards but have their diehard fans. For this review of the Mind’s Eye Theatre, Laws of the Night book, I’m going to start with a breakdown of “larping” and the organizations involved in it. What is LARP? LARP is Live Action Roleplaying and it’s generally any game where you stand around and act out what your character is doing within reason. In the MET games, there are strict no touching rules and everything is resolved through challenges, which we’ll get to in the general rules breakdown. Since most White Wolf games take place in the modern world, you don’t have to dress up like you do for medieval larps. Personally I also think that a 500 year old vampire would just dress up like a normal person because if you walk around looking like Dracula or a foppish Anne Rice character, even people in the grim World of Darkness are going to raise some eyebrows and you wouldn’t have lasted 500 years. Why LARP? I think the big question is, why you would do something this nerdy and embarrassing when you could just play tabletop in anonymity? The answer for MET is that the dynamic of the games is completely different from those in tabletop. Instead of the structure of the city or local supernatural organization being made up of NPC’s, it’s usually made up of player characters. So in Vampire the Prince or the Sheriff would be a player character and that creates a whole new political dynamic to the game that isn’t present in tabletop. There’s also less of a group dynamic and it’s easier play a backstabbing rear end in a top hat since you don’t have to worry about alienating a friend at the table. How are these organized? There are two types of organizations, troupe and national clubs. Troupe is usually that your game is a standalone game. Though there might be plotlines that reach outside the city, most stuff outside the city are done with NPC’s. This can be good for a number of reasons which will touch on with the clubs but limits things to a degree. When I started, I played in a local troupe game that was most of the younger regulars at my FLGS and it was a good game. Not many problems with people, no creepy people, and just an all-around good time. This is dependent on the group though and it can very easily be the opposite of this. National club games are run within a usually national or international organization. The biggest and longest running one is the Mind’s Eye Society, which used to be called the Camarilla. The Camarilla was founded in 1992 and eventually got taken over by White Wolf after a legal fiasco. The organization tried to sue White Wolf over the copyright of their own properties and got taken over for their delusional behavior. This should give you a good idea at the level the people running this organization are at. In 2010, White Wolf dropped the organization and now they are independently run. There are similar organizations out there like One World By Night, which is pretty similar to the Camarilla in terms of what you get good and bad. So why play with these guys? You would mostly play in one of these games because it offers at least a nationally connected game. If you want to travel to a nearby city and play in their game for one weekend, you can. If you have problems with a character from out of town, you can talk with the leadership of their city and get things done. There is international interaction between people and there are big con games. In theory this is pretty cool but in practice it’s a headache.  The character Alex Montoyez from Cincinnati, Camarilla's conclave at Milwaukee, 2006 The Camarilla itself is an organization that has a paid membership system, when I played it was $20 a year and membership is restricted to 18 and up. The organization though never checked ID and I joined the organization when I was 16, no questions asked. Once you’re a member, you start out at membership level 1, this could go all the way up to 15 though it was rare. Your membership level gave you more starting experience points. You could raise this level by running games and doing community service but people often cheated at the latter. This will become important when we get into specifically why Laws of the Night is a garbage system for Vampire. There was also an approval system that offered checks on characters and went up to the international or top level. Within the Camarilla chronicle, some character types are restricted. In theory this is done so that you don’t have a million rare character types running around. So if you want to play your purple eyed, white haired Salubri who is one step away from Golconda, you have to get multiple top approvals to play it. This means you have to get approval from your storyteller, your chapter’s storyteller, your region’s storyteller, your national storyteller, and the head of the organization because there are only a very limited of Salubri in stock Vampire the Masquerade and Golconda is pretty much close to impossible. The Camarilla is all about who you know though so if you’re friends with the national level storyteller and everyone in between, you’re good on your Baali vampire with Thaumaturgy or your Lasombra Antitribu. There were people as well who would constantly flaunt this and should have been allowed to play some of the things that were running around. One of the problems with organizations like the Camarilla is that anyone can play and you kind of have to let them. Like the RPGA or Pathfinder Society, this attracts the people who can’t get a regular gaming group because they’re social pariahs and usually for good reasons. People in the Camarilla also took things way too seriously. The amount of real life vendettas that evolved from in game slights or actions done by characters was insane. Chapters usually ended up destroying themselves sooner or later. There are rules that are made to prevent griefing but people get around them very easily. Someone killed your character, tell your friend who lives in Minneapolis with a member class of 12 and an elder vampire he’s been playing for 5 years. The person who wronged you will soon get dealt with and it’s perfectly ok because that elder has a perfectly good reason for what he did. Technically ST’s are allowed to disallow people from bringing their game breaking characters to games or sending them in proxy but in practice it never happens for those reasons. Those people, who might be connected will complain, you might get audited, your characters might get killed off, and you might have future approvals denied for reasons. This didn’t happen as much for proxies but when someone drives two hours to your game, you can’t really turn them away without feeling like an rear end in a top hat. It’s all very petty and childish but then again this is an organization that sued the maker of the game they play for the intellectual property rights to it.  The character Papa Sallow Rose, Camarilla's conclave, Milwaukee 2006 Up next, the basic rules of the original MET system. *Images courtesy of wikipedia, I don't actually know those guys.
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Dec 4, 2014 18:59
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Basic MET Rules: The Economics of Inequality The rules that the Mind’s Eye Theatre system uses aren’t the best truth be told and all the game lines use it. For some, like Werewolf, it’s not that bad but for Vampire it’s really bad. The system works on a system of traits that are capped at a certain number based on your power level. For mortals, the cap on traits is 10, abilities is 5 for most, and magical powers are capped by power level. Traits are the characteristics of your character. They are divided into physical, mental, and social traits. In most games these are represented by a number value but in MET they’re actual traits. You can be dexterous, agile, brawny, or knowledgeable for instance. When challenges are attempted, you have to bid an appropriate trait and make a test. This test is handled with throwing rock/paper/scissors. Once the test is resolved, you either succeed or fail. Ties go down to the number of traits you have, this is important so keep this in mind for later. If you fail, you can get a retest by spending an ability point or from a supernatural power. Abilities are generally the same as in tabletop but give you a retest. Traits are temporarily lost on a failure and once abilities are used they are temporarily gone. Traits in a single category can be refreshed by spending a willpower trait but you can only do that once per session. So unlike in tabletop, you can’t go on forever. If you have double the number of traits than your opponent, you can retest a challenge because you’re that much more powerful than them.  It goes without saying that using rock/paper/scissors is stupid because it’s as much a game of skill as it is chance. It’s also really easy to cheat at rock/paper/scissors. If you know how the person you’re throwing against thinks, you can beat them. I know that this is not very easy but some people really do go into Bart Simpson mode and think nothing beats rock. This can also be modified if you have potence, which can give you the bomb. The bomb is a thumbs up that can only be beaten by scissors. Only vampires to my knowledge cam gain access to this mechanic. In tabletop, there’s an element of random chance and dice can explode. A neonate vampire still has a chance against an older vampire but in MET that’s not the case. Since there’s no real chance mechanic and because dice aren’t being used, it’s just static numbers and the luck of the draw in rock/paper/scissors. Since traits are tied to your level of supernatural power, you’re screwed as a lower power character going up against a higher powered one. In Werewolf for instance this is ok because Werewolves can go up in rank and climb the ladder of spiritual power. The same is true for most other supernaturals. This is not true for Vampires in Masquerade. Vampires have a mechanic called generation which represents their connection to Caine, the original vampire. Caine’s children were the 2nd generation, their children were the clan founders, and this goes all the way up to the 13th generation. There are 14th and 15th generation vampires but they’re barely vampires and are a sign of the nearing apocalypse.  Vampires have blood traits. Normal humans have 10 blood points and as vampires go down in generation, the blood becomes more potent. The number doesn’t represent the total amount of blood the person has but its relative power and how much it satiates a vampire’s hunger. The number on the left is the total number of blood points and the one on the right is the amount that can be spent a round. Disciplines usually use blood points so it limits the number of disciplines you can use a round. The Path of Blood Thaumaturgy path can temporarily lower the caster’s generation but the only way to do this is permanently is at character creation or through diablerie. Diablerie is an act by which a vampire devours the soul of another vampire. If the vampire being diablerized is lower generation, the offender’s generation will be lowered by one step and they might gain a free discipline. They also gain two free experience points because they have to make this crime more worthwhile. Diablerie is a crime universally punished by destruction and can be detected by reading a vampire’s aura with auspex. In an organization like the Camarilla, you would have players constantly rolling in with at least 8th generation characters with 50+ XP at character creation because they had high member class. A person who just started playing’s character by default can’t even think about stepping up to that level. The theory was that this would cause there to be a greater variety in gameplay but in reality it just made an old boy’s club where the same people were always at the top regardless of how they played.
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Dec 4, 2014 21:08
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I think she's supposed to be a Nosferatu, who in Masquerade have to be fugly. I only say that because of the mask and the weird fangs. Other than that she looks better than most larpers. Fun fact, all of the pictures in the MET books are of actual players in their costumes. They will run the gambit from nicely done to dumpy guy with a staff. There's a lot of dumpy looking guys with staffs in Laws of the Wild, the Werewolf book. EDIT: Kurieg posted:I had some friends who used to MET Larp, they used to refer to visiting high-generation vampires as mushrooms. Because they'd mob them, pin them down, and one of them would diablarize them to lower their generation. Because who cares about fair play or encouraging visitors? No offense but that sounds like bullshit if it was in the Camarilla. That's also completely out of character for even a Sabbat game and an rear end in a top hat move. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 21:25
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
You do have to declare that you have it and that's also why it was pretty crappy. The thing we ended up doing was using cards. The cards would randomize things and prevented cheating. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 22:37
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ascendance posted:I will pay $10 if you pour a beer, sugary soda, or latte on Desborough at Dragonmeet. PM me pics for proof. Hey, there's this guy who loves bitching about a conspiracy to silence him and about how he's this great fighter for a cause. Let's physically assault him because that'll shut him up.
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Dec 5, 2014 00:22
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Part 1: What Faction Should This Game Be Based Around? The Correct Answer is Camarilla. Always Camarilla. For this section, we’re going to talk about the factions you can run a chronicle around. There is a book for the Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarchs but they aren’t really needed to tell the truth. The first two have some bloodlines, disciplines, thaumaturgy paths, and the Anarch book has some combo disciplines but this is all extra. With the Sabbat guide you get into all the rare and somewhat powerful bloodlines of the Sabbat but they’re not really good for PC’s. Yeah, you could play Kiasyd but you’ll probably never come out of your reading room and to be honest if you want to read, just read because it will be more rewarding than most LARPs. Vampire or Cainite History 101 As mentioned before, Caine was the first vampire. There’s a good deal of stuff in the WoD prehistory that is up for debate but Caine is 100% the progenitor of all vampires. Caine, cursed by God for the murder of his brother uses his curse to embrace the 2nd generation so that he could have a family. Those children embrace the founders of the dark ages and modern clans. This period of time is shrouded in a good deal of ambiguous mystery and what became of many of these figures is of heated debate. Well into Dark Ages: Vampire some of the 3rd generation are still around and active. Most of the 3rd generation set up shop in specific geographic areas and began having children of their own. The 4th generation, methuselahs, are incredibly powerful, detached from their humanity, and known for their capricious natures. An example of this is Mithras, who I posted in the art thread. He claims to be the Mithras, a bunch of other supernaturals do though so no big deal, and he was the leader of London until the Blitz knocked him into torpor. Before the time of the Reformation, vampires often did not hide their true natures and lorded over humanity. This is of course dangerous but mortals be damned, time to be an undead king/queen with all the swagger that comes from being a godlike baller or boss bitch. Humanity though, is beginning to regroup. The social order of Europe is changing as well, the Catholic Church is losing influence over everyday life and the Order of Reason is beginning to be formed. They’re the progenitors of the Technocracy but oddly enough they’re not the catalyst of what happens next. With the founding of the inquisition, the Catholic Church is beginning to find evidence of vampires and other supernatural creatures. The Catholic Church deals with them like they deal with most issues relating to the heretical, eliminating them with extreme prejudice. Elders, realizing that the jig is up begin throwing their childer at the inquisition, hoping that the inquisition will think that they’ve killed the evil vampire lord they’re after. The childer though, don’t like this and the Anarch Revolts begin.  I'm tired of your poo poo Pepin! The Anarch Revolts are like the vampire version of the Wars of Religion and the English Civil War. The Brujah initially lead these revolts but it spreads to other clans. Upstarts like the Tremere move to capitalize on the situation, the Giovanni usurp the clan status of their Cappadocian masters, the Assamites get involved, the Lasombra and Tzimisce diablerize their founders, and the chaos of the time leads to great upheaval for everyone. The hostilities are ended by the Convention of Thorns. The Camarilla is founded to act as a vampire Illuminati, to ensure that what had just happened never happens again. The Sabbat is formed by the Lasombra and Tzimisce who don’t want to join the Camarilla, and some less hardcore vampires keep fighting for the Anarch cause though they’re usually considered members of the Camarilla. The Tremere enforce the peace on the Assamites by cursing them and earn themselves a place in the Camarilla. The indepdendent clans remain independent because they’re dirty necrophiliac mobster necromancers, gypsy stereotypes, and Conan villains. Factions  What do you mean I have to make a frenzy check for being this close to an open flame? The Camarilla The Camarilla is the standard for a vampire game. Laws of the Night pretty much assumes that this is the faction that you will be going with. They have all the standard clans, they’re pretty average vampires, and they have the most stable structure. Camarilla domains are ruled by a Prince and they usually answer to the Inner Circle, though this is rare. A Prince is served by his Seneschal, Sheriff, Whip, occasionally Scourge, and maintains a Primogen council composed of clan representatives. All of these positions should normally be maintained by player characters but that might require more players than you have. Each of these positions carries different status traits that show your character’s political power. Someone who has more traits is generally considered to be more powerful than another character. Camarilla society also operates on the exchange of boons, favors redeemable for help or aid when asked for it. All and all, it lends itself to less conflict than the other factions.  She might look normal but her backstory is probably that she's a Nazi race doctor or murders special needs children. The Sabbat The Sabbat originally began in 1st edition as bogeymen, shadowy urban legends told to frighten neonates. In 2nd edition, they evolved into gangs of serial killers and in Revised they evolved into serial killer survivalists. The Sabbat believe that they are the true heirs of Caine and that the antediluvians, the 3rd generation, should be killed because they wronged Caine. The Sabbat operate in packs and practice the vaulderie, a ritual where they bleed into bowl as a group and drink from it. This bonds them together as a pack and prevents them from being blood bound. They do have a lower level blood bond to the pack as a whole but they won’t be committed to a single master. A pack is led by a Ductus and there are positions such as the Priest, manages the rites, and the Abbot, who manages their communal haven. Sabbat domains are administered by a Bishop, who answers to an Archbishop, and who in turn answers to a Cardinal. Under the cardinals are a Priscus Council who work as a board of regents like the Primogen. There are positions in between but I won’t go into them because they’re not as important. The Sabbat have many rituals, some festivals, and "games" that they play that are set up like slasher horror movies. Sabbat games are problematic because they attract people who like playing chaotic stupid characters. The Sabbat is also an antagonist faction so they tend to be more broken than the Camarilla and Anarchs. Among the packs they share disciplines, even in clan disciplines like Obtenebration and Vicissitude, and since they work as a group they’re stronger than individual vampires. The Sabbat also has Assamites and pretty much every bloodline you can think of other than Tremere Antitribu, they were wiped out for balance, and because of that they’re a beacon for power gamers. Due to the organization of the Sabbat, you also need a good number of players for an all Sabbat chronicle. "EDIT Addendum: Sabbat Factions" posted:The Sabbat has several factions.  How much flair is on that coat? No patches? I don't think you're cut out for this movement. Anarchs The Anarchs are the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters of everyone else. They once controlled California but got their collective poo poo kicked in by the inscrutable celestials known as the Kuei-Jin, whoever came up with that name deserves to be publicly shamed. Anarchs don’t really follow a set make up though there are usually Barons, who are like warlords, and the domains tend to be made up of gangs. Anarch gangs are usually not as well organized or devoted as their Sabbat counterparts. This is mostly because the vaulderie makes Sabbat vampires into cult fanatics. There are positions under Barons and among gangs but to be honest they don’t really matter. Anarch vampires tend to be neonates as well and most leave by the time they reach higher status. It’s essentially like being that 30+ year old guy at the punk show, getting mad at people for being rowdy, and then leaving after some kid gives you poo poo for a stupid reason. The Anarchs have combination disciplines, called devotions, and though they are cool, they are prohibitively expensive and you’re going to get decapitated by a shadow tentacle wielding a parking meter before you can reach optimum efficiency. Also, you have to find someone who knows the devotion to teach you so good luck with that. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 02:10
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theironjef posted:That's probably just because most people start in those systems. Lowest common denominator and all. Plus I bet that the more fiddly math they deal with the better they are at hiding the fact that sexual titillation among like-minded fetishists is pretty hard to do without being creeps at each other. If you were trying to play "Drink your own breastmilk out of your squirtgun sized nipple" in FATE, you'd be more regularly forced to confront the reality that you're just saying sex stuff, out of your own mind, to Don, who you have to play Magic with later this weekend. With D20, at least you can say "Sorry Don, the chart says you have extra dank sweat and automatically slide past the door of the donut shop into a pile of turkey offal." Isn't that just FATAL? Have we truly come full circle?
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Dec 8, 2014 20:05
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Part 2: Rich (Vampire) Dad, Poor (Vampire) Dad Let’s talk about experience costs. Some would probably think we should talk about the clans since we talked about the different sects last update. We’ll cover the XP costs because it will go into the costs of disciplines and why some clans are just better than others. The MET games have a very similar setup compared to their tabletop counterparts but a bit simpler. Generally a player is going to be getting about 5 XP a month and that’s usually after playing one to two times a month. If you play in the Camarilla or Mind’s Eye Society, you can see how Member Class (MC) is a big deal. Someone who is established within the organization can usually start up a character with almost a year’s worth of XP and is accruing XP at the same rate as all other players. XP costs are as follows,  This is actually better than some of the other books' XP charts which omit costs for things like willpower. Most things in game outside of out of disciplines are usually affordable with a month’s worth of XP. As you can see, abilities and traits are one point each. Usually people max these out at character creation with flaws, you’re normally allowed 7pts of flaws in most games. You usually have enough willpower at character creation and don’t need to buy more after the fact but can. Humanity is usually fine as well unless you’re a screw up or you’re converting to a path other than humanity, which you have to buy up. Disciplines are the big point sink, especially ones like thaumaturgy or necromancy but thaumaturgy is so broken at times that it doesn’t even matter. Out of clan disciplines are disciplines not part of your clan’s discipline list and are more expensive. You usually have to get someone to teach you these disciplines and if it’s a special in clan discipline, they probably won’t teach you it unless you cash in a big boon. For instance to learn quietus outside of the Assamite clan they have to mess up on a hit that you put out, which is rare. Displaying use of a clan specific discipline can also get you into trouble with that clan if you don’t have a good reason for knowing it. For example, displaying thaumaturgy when you’re from a clan other than Tremere is a good way to get yourself reduced to ash. The Tremere don’t teach thaumaturgy outside of the clan and they’re so organized that they know all the people who would be allowed to learn it. You’d also be screwed if you got it from diablerie because it requires teachers and an occult library specializing in thaumaturgy to learn it. We’ll get into the particulars of thaumaturgy and necromancy once we talk about disciplines but if you’re familiar with tabletop it works about the same way. The most important factor at character creation as you can see is your clan. For this reason you get some questionable character concepts because the player is working from the power set as a concept instead of the clan as a concept. The biggest offenders in this regard are usually Tremere players who play characters who would not have been embraced by the clan. You could argue that with a great backstory anything is possible, you’re wrong by the way, but the Tremere are the Google of vampire clans and they’re very particular with who they choose. They have a strict clan code they have to follow, a pyramid like structure with ranks, and even telepathic conferences. They’re probably not going to embrace a pyromaniac whose only ambition and knowledge is setting things on fire.  Man can hope, dream even, and sometimes his dreams can come true. Next up: MET disciplines, like your tabletop disciplines but different. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 00:04
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FMguru posted:TSR I would imagine TSR was all about launching brands and intellectual properties because Lorraine Williams inherited the Buck Rogers IP and it was the source of her personal "fortune". Kurieg posted:Week of Nightmares by committee They'd have stuff like that in the books but it would never have the impact you thought it should have had because other writers would shut it down or ignore it in their books. Notice how it only affected the Ravnos, who no one liked, and the Stargazers, who were broken and didn't fit very well into WtA. India was also a veritable blind spot in Asia because most of the Kindred of the East writers couldn't stop getting all hot and bothered about Yamato-Damashii. Old World of Darkness was always teetering between horror and supernatural X-Men. There's a reason the worst World of Darkness players all jumped ship when the new World of Darkness line launched and it was mostly because it started being more about horror and less about facilitating someone's game of Justice League Dark: Branson.
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Jan 3, 2015 08:10
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Kurieg posted:Rein*Hagen I want to imagine his life over there was far from that interesting but he would tell people that was the case in a hushed manner because it made him seem edgy or dangerous in his own mind. It kind of comes with the territory of being a privileged expat in a country like Georgia who likes to imagine they're on some grand adventure. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 00:05
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Young Freud posted:From the stories I heard, he was more likely trying his hand at farming than holding kinky sexy parties. I'm sure you get to be quite the baller when you roll into Tbilisi with a bumper crop of corn and a load of grapes. Foreign farmers being given incentives to set up shop in Georgia is apparently a thing. I can actually respect that.
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Jan 6, 2015 00:13
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Kavak posted:They made Jesus Christ himself into a Children of Gaia kinfolk. Also a Lasombra who wasn't big on the whole Christianity thing.
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Jan 29, 2015 15:44
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Selachian posted:Hey, WWE Know Your Role was surprisingly not awful. I ran a campaign of it for a while. Tag matches did tend to drag and there was endless confusion over what constituted a Savvy move, but otherwise I'd take KYR over at least 75% of the d20 glut. It's probably one of the best wrestling games out there, not that there is a hell of a lot of competition. That era of WWE licensed games was relatively well done. The Raw Deal card game wasn't too bad either the couple of times I played it. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 04:58
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Dulkor posted:The other important thing to remember about Gundam as a setting, is that in the original setting BVR engagement and long range guided munitions are things that no longer exist as a side effect of their fusion reactors releasing sub-atomic particles that eat electro-magnetic signals. They have a huge colony laser that fills that role but it's usually a Death Star level plot point.
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Feb 24, 2015 03:49
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It should be noted as well that it gets worse than Minovsky Particles when newtypes come in, they start riding the rainbow, and everyone's weapons explode. That's a plot point in Gundam Unicorn, newtypes are space wizards, and psychoframes can cause everyone's weapons to blow up.
RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 04:00
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bathroomrage posted:So they're literally just newmen from Phantasy Star at that point? Kind of, they're pretty much a natural evolution of the human race and if I had to give them stats in an RPG it would be akin to force users without the telekinetic abilities. The series have never really been exact on what they are or their abilities but they're the new master race according to Char's father, Zeon Zum Deikun, and that's why Zeon are pretty much Nazis. This is all thrown out the window though because he claimed they had to be born in space and one of the original characters was an Earth born newtype. General Revil I've tried to adapt Gundam to an RPG and it doesn't really work out for a number of reasons. I think one of the main reasons is that Gundam was a series created to sell toys. I'm not saying that to be dismissive either, half the RX-79's arsenal was put in just to sell model kits and accessories. The Gundam movies and Gundam: The Origin try to retell the story from a more serious standpoint but it still suffers from the Gundam being Superman because it's a children's cartoon from the 70's.
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Feb 24, 2015 06:27
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Kurieg posted:Uhh.. so was Amuro For some reason I thought he was born on a colony. Apparently he's  . I know he went back and forth and his mom was on Earth. I think it was mostly because of remembering some goon's rant about how Gen Revil was the combo breaker.
RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 07:31
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MartianAgitator posted:What the gently caress are these sentences. I'm pretty sure they are bad because they are not about elves but they might be. Gundam has a psychic interface for mobile suits that does whatever the plot intends it to. At one point they even remark that if two of the systems come close together it could bend reality and it does, twice. It's as stupid as those statements seemed and it's why everyone hates the end of Gundam Unicorn.
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Feb 25, 2015 01:45
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Baofu posted:I almost drank myself into a coma because my friends put Kancolle into my watch history. They have the souls of warships that committed heinous war crimes. Survivors of sunken merchant vessels being beaten to death for fun level stuff. The setting should be Atlas Shrugged. I want to see the captains of industry go Galt and vanquish the parasites.
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Feb 28, 2015 07:47
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