Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."

Daeren posted:

Rule number one, kids: you have to learn to laugh at the horrible stuff, because there's so much that pretending it doesn't exist isn't gonna work.

What is this?

The World of Darkness is a reflection of our own modern world... and yet... subtly darker. Shadows deeper, nights longer, the howls and whispers from alleys and streets more forlorn. A game of Modern Horrors.


I just played Bloodlines and want to find out more (or, I remember Vampire the Masquerade!).

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines took place in the Classic World of Darkness (or Old World of Darkness). White Wolf shut the lights out on it back in 2004. They then rebooted the franchise into what we now call the World of Darkness (or New World of Darkness). Aside from some similar terminology, the two WODs are completely separate entities and have no connection to each other in terms of narrative, mechanics, tone, or themes.


What's the difference?

The new WOD rules are much more streamlined than the previous system. The Failure rules have changed and the "10-again" rule has been added, in that a "10" indicates a re-roll and the "10" still counts as a success. If another "10" is rolled, this step is repeated until anything but a "10" is rolled. Exceptional Successes are indicated by having five or more successes on the action, and can be regulated by the Storyteller. Dramatic Failures are now only possible on "chance" die rolls; when a dice pool is reduced by penalties to zero or less, a single chance die is rolled. If a 10 is rolled, it is a success (and as before, rerolled), if the result is less than 10 but not 1, then it is a simple failure. On a chance die, if the roll is a 1, then it is a Dramatic Failure, which is usually worse than a normal failure of the action, and is regulated by the Storyteller (although examples of Dramatic Failures in certain situations are occasionally given).

The game also features a much more simplified combat system. In the old system each attack made during a combat scene could easily involve 4 separate rolls (:suicide:) and in many cases required more due to supernatural abilities possessed by the characters. Combat scenes involving large numbers of combatants could take a very long time to resolve. The new system requires only one roll which is adjusted by the defensive abilities of the person being attacked and represents both the success and failure of the attack and the damage inflicted because of it, (indicated by number of successes). On top of this, the Second Edition has introduced a new system called "Down and Dirty Combat" which can reduce a fight to a single attack roll. It's great for when you don't want to spend your time duking it out with some random security guard or drunk jerk.

The new WOD also lacks the all encompassing metaplot of its predecessor. Much more about the surrounding world and history is left up to the Storyteller to decide. It is split up into several gamelines and they take a modular, toolbox approach to gaming. You can include some, or all of the splats into one giant clusterfuck of awesome. Or just use the core rules and gameline of your choice. House Rules are also encouraged. If you don't like something, feel free to change it!


What's all this talk about White Wolf and Onyx Path?

White Wolf was bought out by Icelandic videogame designers, CCP. CCP fell on some hard times right around the same time the tabletop market did a faceplant and had to lay off the majority of White Wolf. Onyx Path was founded by the old heads of White Wolf and hires out most of the old staff as freelancers to continue producing White Wolf properties with CCP's approval. They make liberal use of Kickstarter and have been doing fairly well for a company with three full time employees.


What's all this talk about Second Editions and Chronicles?

For a while CCP was worried about using the term Second Editions. So rules updates for various lines were called "The ___ Chronicle." Then the WOD MMO went under and CCP stopped caring so they're being titled Second Editions now. The Chronicle thing still stuck, though. Now its just more of a subtitle.

We're currently in the middle of the Second Edition rules update. Four lines have updates available, two of those being fully fledged Second Edition Corebooks. Five more are currently in production.

The Second Edition rules streamline a lot of things, overhaul the experience mechanics and serve as a setting update. The general consensus is that they've been pretty good so far (just don't ask Ferrinus about werewolves). Hopefully they can maintain the trend.


:siren: The Core Line (AKA The Bluebooks, AKA Mortals) :siren:

World of Darkness Corebook - Gives you all the baseline rules for running a game. If you want to play a game about ordinary people dealing with spooky stuff this is all you need. Its' second edition, Chronicles of Darkness is out now.

Armory, Armory Reloaded, Dogs of War, Precinct 13, etc. - Stat blocks and alternate mechanic ideas for pretty much any kind of weapon, vehicle, or other you might use to wreck stuff. Also books about how different professions like the military or police might handle the WoD.

Second Sight, Skinchangers, Innocents, etc. - I won't list them all, but they basically expand on ideas that you can use in your games. They can be pretty hit or miss, but just post a question and you'll get everyone telling you their favorites. Psychics, ghosts, monsters that don't fit the other games, The Goonies; it all goes here. If it doesn't exist it's easy as pie to stat it up for your own games.

Dark Eras - A monster of a book that recently finished a successful Kickstarter campaign, it gives you setting information for various gamelines in various historical eras such as: Mages in the Hellenic Era, Changelings and Geists in Three Kingdoms China, Skinchangers and Demons in the Aztec Empire, and many more! Note: The Kickstarter got so big that it had to be split into two books. The Dark Eras Companion will be released shortly (or not so shortly) after the main book and will have even more period pieces including Vampires and Prometheans in the Black Death, Mummies and Mages in the Mutapa Empire, and Werewolves in Ancient Rome. See my post at the bottom of this page for a full list.


:siren: The Gamelines :siren:

Vampire: The Requiem - You're a vampire! Hope you like eating people and politicking! Its' second edition, The Strix Chronicle, is out and it owns.

Werewolf: The Forsaken - You can turn into a wolfy killing machine! Find a balance between your human and animal sides. While at the same time being border patrol for the spirit world to keep them out of ours. Its' second edition, The Idigam Chronicle, is out and its pretty rad .

Mage: The Awakening - You're a wizard! Reality hates you, so break it in half! Okay, that's probably a bad idea, you should just Join the Seers. Its' second edition, The Fallen World Chronicle, is out now!

Promethean: The Created - You're a Frankenstein/Golem/Terminator! If you thought reality hated Mages just you wait! Find out what it means to be human, and hopefully become a real person! Its' second edition, The Firestorm Chronicle, is out now.

Changeling: The Lost - You were kidnapped by fairies, but managed to escape! Now there's a weird Not-You living your life and your kidnappers are probably searching for you right now! The first edition was lightning in a bottle. Its' second edition, The Huntsmen Chronicle, is in development and we're all really hoping it doesn't let that lightning out. :ohdear:

Hunter: The Vigil - You want to kill everything else on this list! Cruise around with your buddies like in Supernatural or join up with big Conspiracies. Also, try not to think about how jaded you're getting, everything will be fine, promise. Its' second edition, The Slasher Chronicle, will be coming out next year. Until then you can use the rules update in Mortal Remains.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters - You died, but a superghost fused itself to your soul and you came back! The superghost is really weird though and now you have to live with it. Its' second edition will most likely be announced at some point, which is good because boy does it need one.

Mummy: The Curse - You're a remnant of an ancient civilization! Too bad you can't remember much of it! Fulfill the arcane wills of your gods and try to figure out what really happened to you while you're at it. Probably won't be getting a second edition for a while.

Demon: The Descent - You're a fallen angel! Also God is a gnostic reality-spanning computer machine thing. If you don't want to get re-assimilated you better find a person to sell you their soul so you've got a place to hide. The first game to be made for the second edition. It owns.

Beast: The Primordial - Nope.

Deviant: The Renegades - You're the victims of experiments that band together to bring down the monolithic organizations that twisted and warped you. Scehduled to be released next year.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds interesting! How do I get started?

The easiest way to begin is to download the free Demos.

Vampire Demo

Werewolf Demo

Mage demos
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Promethean Demo

Changeling Demo

Hunter Demos
The Hunt
One Year Later

Geist Demo

Demon Demo



So I decided I want to actually buy some of this stuff, but there's a lot of books. Which are the good ones?
If you're just starting out, stick with the Corebooks. Especially if they're Second Edition.


I could use some Character Sheets.

quote:

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiStart
This one is my favorite for online play. You can set up an account and save all the sheets you make, and edit them when you need to. easy to link to, and pretty good looking.

Mr.Gone's character sheets.
Bad site design with Good custom WoD character sheets in easy to print pdf format, also home to varying levels of homebrew.
infinite personae
This looks like a general sheet, I've never used it but somebody said it was cool.


Any good Homebrews?

Mugrim has run at least one really awesome homebrew in ST. (thread in archive)

Ferrinus and VoxPVoxD have done an almost complete rewrite of Mage from base principles. It owns and anyone who likes Mage needs to read this ASAP.

Luminous Obscurity fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Aug 5, 2016

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."


NWOD sucks I want my Tzimiche/Fianna/etc back!

Well you're in luck! Onyx Path has released several translation guides so you can take things from the Classic World of Darkness and put them in the NWOD. Or vice-versa! Currently there are guides for Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage with a Demon guide on the way.


That's not good enough!

Well that's okay, too! Onyx Path is releasing new material for the Classic World of Darkness in the form of the 20th Anniversary Editions. They're also taking the opportunity to clean up some of the more... uncomfortable aspects of the CWOD.


People sure seem to like the CWOD. What's its deal?

quote:

The (Classic) World of Darkness is much like our world, but it is darker, more devious and more conspiratorial — an aesthetic we call “Gothic-Punk”. The dichotomy between the rich and the poor, the influential and the weak, and the powerful and the powerless is much more pronounced than in the real world. Decadence, cynicism, and corruption are common. Humans are unwitting victims or pawns of vast secret organizations of supernatural creatures. Vampires, werewolves, and mages (among others) struggle with internal factionalism and against other species in secret wars of intrigue for control.

Like the NWOD, Classic is composed of several gamelines of supernaturals. However, unlike the reboot, these lines don't play very well together mechanically.


:siren: The Gamelines :siren:
The CWOD had no core, instead there were five major lines.

Vampire: The Masquerade - You're a vampire! Hope you like eating people and politicking! Its' 20th Anniversary Edition is out now! A proper 4th Edition has also been announced but it's still too far out for us to judge.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - You're a werewolf. You fight for nature like only a proper 90s Environmentalist can. There's also all kind of other Were-stuff. Its' 20th Anniversary Edition is out now!

Mage: The Ascencion - You're a wizard. Reality is consensual. Everyone loves the Technocracy. Its' 20th Anniversary Edition is out now!

Wraith: The Oblivion - You're a ghost. Kind of. Held in very high esteem around these parts. Its' 20th Anniversary Edition wrapped up its Kickstarter last year and is currently in development.

Changeling: The Dreaming - Hoo boy. For better or for worse its' 20th Anniversary Edition Kickstarter wrapped up earlier this year and will be released soon. On the bright side it really has nowhere to go but up.


Later, several other lines were added to the mix. We most likely won't be seeing re-releases of these for a while:

Hunter: The Reckoning - Hunters! You have superpowers granted by God, at least you hope the voices in your head are God.

Mummy: The Resurrection - You're a mummy. One of the few instances of unquestionably "good" PCs. Not much going on with this one.

Demon: The Fallen - You're a fallen angel as per Paradise Lost. It was designed by Greg Stolze. General consensus around here seems to be that it owns.


What about Dark Ages? Wasn't that a thing?

Dark Ages was a historical setting for (you guessed it) Dark Ages Europe. V20 Dark Ages is out now, and the overall reception seems to be pretty positive. Odds of seeing more books for the setting show up on Kickstarter are very good.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Previous Megathreads Archive:
Megathread 1
Megathread 2
Megathread 3
Megathread 4

BONUS CONTENT:
Time of Judgement Announcement Thread
NWOD Release Thread
Megathread: Alpha Edition
Megathread: Beta Edition

Luminous Obscurity fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jan 21, 2016

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."
I've heard it gets really weird. C/D?
Honestly, Onyx Path has been shockingly good on the WOD side of the fence. We can only hope they don't go full White Wolf anytime soon. Welp.

What's full White Wolf?

:v: See FATAL & Friends, Page XX



:siren:Reserved for words about the World of Darkness:siren:

ST'ing Mage (But also good advice in general):

Effectronica posted:

You're going to want to tailor this to your group. A game where the players are generally drawn towards any one or two of the Pentacle is going to look very different from a fully mixed group.

So I'm going to talk about dramatic structures for a moment, because this may be helpful in setting up things like foreshadowing, recurring themes, etc.

There are a variety of different possible ways of structuring stories. Some of the most common for structuring cohesive climactic stories are by dividing them into acts. An act, simply put, is a section of the story that ends with a point of no return that pushes the story forward.

Aristotle argued that plays should have three acts- beginning, middle, and end. This is what was common in 19th-century and early 20th-century drama, and an overly-rigid style of this has become predominant for aspiring writers and mass-market movies.

Horace argued for five acts, which Freytag has formalized as exposition-rising action-climax-falling action-denouement. This is what Renaissance and Early Modern dramatists preferred to use.

The areas of Chinese cultural influence have traditionally used a four-act structure, called kishoutenketsu, which is an acronym for introduction-development-twist-conclusion.

Musicals and light operas are traditionally split into two acts.

There are also less common eight-act, nine-act, and twelve-act structuring approaches.

With that in mind, I'm going to ignore three-act because it's not all that helpful here. Instead, I'm going to start with five-act and then move around as needed. So in the five-act structure, the first act is what sets the stage for the drama by introducing us to the principle characters and the central conflict of the story. The second act provides a series of events that build tension and interest. The third act is where the turning point of the story occurs, and the tension from the second act is released. The fourth act features the confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist, and the fifth act wraps up the story and provides a final moment of release.

Othello exemplifies this. Act 1 introduces the characters, the setting, and the central conflict of Othello versus Iago. Act 2 consists of Iago forming his plan and putting it into action, while Act 3 shows us the turning point for Othello's character- he falls prey to doubt. Act 4 then shows Othello attempting to fight what Iago has unleashed in him, and failing. Act 5 then wraps the play up by killing off the cast and ending with Othello's grief-stricken suicide and the promise of a grisly fate for Iago.

You can also see the turning points at the end of each Act, except 5. Act 1 ends with the characters all going to Cyprus, Act 2 ends with Cassio's dismissal, Act 3 ends with Othello's handkerchief changing hands from Desdemona to Iago to Cassio, and Act 4 ends with Desdemona showing herself to be purely innocent. All of these move the story inexorably forward and present a point of no return for the characters.

So how does all this rambling bullshit help you? Well, let's take a look at how you would construct a campaign, or chronicle, or whatever, for Mage: the Awakening using the 5-act as a guide.

Act 1, the exposition, would consist of the characters Awakening and learning about Awakened society, and coming into contact with the big, central features that are going to define the overall story. Depending on how much the players know about Mage, this would end with either them committing to a position within Awakened society, or with them taking some defining action involving the central features.

Of course, the key issue is that you're writing this as you go in collaboration with the other players. So what you would want to do is come up with some brief blurbs to toss out to your players and see what they bite onto. These will in turn probably define the basic conflicts and themes for the rest of the campaign, in conjunction with who they align with.

So for example, if they bite onto Seers-related stuff and are all Arrow and/or Ladder, then your game is probably going to be about the whole "destroy the servants of the Exarchs" thing. If they bite onto Abyssal happenings and lean Veil/Mysterium, the game is probably going to focus on protecting reality from anti-existence. These are simplified and relying on stereotypes. If you get Thearchs focusing on the Lower Depths, you're going to have to improvise quite a bit, but you can still build with that.

I would suggest building a working framework. I have one, that I conjured up in ten whole minutes, for Mage.


(Fig. 1: magecube.png)

Then, you can classify your blurbs into categories like these, and build up a picture of what interests your players about Mage, and also what you can use to have refreshing sessions that aren't dealing with the main plot.

So, in Act 2 when you've gotten to the end of Act 1, you should have a pretty good idea of what the basic conflict is going to be. The next step is to develop this basic conflict into a complex one. You need to establish what Freytag called a climax, but what should really be more accurately called an "inflection point", because it's where the emotional tone undergoes a basic shift. This is what will constitute Act 3. But Act 2 needs to set up Act 3. So you need to keep the basic conflict in mind as you put together adventures according to the desires and actions of the players, and use the basic conflict to put together a context for those actions that will lead to the turning point. You also need to make sure that the characters are in position for the turning point to make sense with the story so far.

What Freytag calls the rising action and I'm calling Act 2 is going to be the longest part of the story, though in Renaissance drama Act 2 and parts of Act 3 would generally share that role.

Act 3 is the "climax", the point at which the emotional tone generally turns around. Going back to the Arrow+Ladder vs. Seers concept, Act 3 is when they mass-Awaken people, or build an army of Proximi and Sleepwalkers, or turn the Fallen World's structures against the Seers. In a comedy, it's when things start looking up for our heroes. In a tragedy, it's when things start falling down. In a Godzilla movie, this is when the evil kaiju launches its deadliest attack and Godzilla seems down for the count.

Act 4 is the "falling action", and this is basically where the protagonists and antagonists have at it. So for The Blues Brothers, this is everything from when they escape through the trapdoor to the handcuffs closing on their hands in the Cook County Clerk's office. Act 4 doesn't really require that much planning. You've figured out which way things are going, now you just need to carry through the hanging threads and keep up the credible opposition.

Act 5 is the "denouement". This is where we wrap up the plot threads and show how all this played out, and provide a moment of release from the ride. So in The Blues Brothers, to double up on examples, this is "Jailhouse Rock". We get to relieve the tension of that final chase with a musical number and all the cast and crew enjoying themselves. By the point you're thinking about this, it should be pretty obvious what the players are aiming for. Depending on the outcome of the climax and Act 4, either give it to them, or provide a counterpoint, but you should have plenty to engage with.

I hope this rant, with its inconsistent, wide-ranging examples, was helpful to you. Also, please don't consider this a straitjacket. This is only one way to structure and examine stories, and although this is far too long already, I would love to be able to use kishoutenketsu to provide another approach.

EDIT: Also, this only really works for looking at the group as a whole. Each character's individual story will have more acts than this, under the definition of "act" all the way back at the beginning.


Demon

Mors Rattus posted:

Once upon a time, before man existed, there was a machine. This machine has been around for all of human civilization, but we can't see it. It hides itself in the world, both natural and man-made. It acts for a purpose, bringing forth terrible and glorious machine-angels, in order to fulfill arcane conditions needed to produce what it needs and to put it together the right way. We don't know what it needs, or why it needs it. It would be wrong to say it wants, because it does not think. It would be wrong to say it is malevolent, because it does not feel. It would be wrong to say it plans, because it is not a person. But it changes the world, and its changes are according to some design that no one could ever hope to understand. Its changes are not kind, though they can be positive. They are terrible, though not always to the people near them. The God-Machine takes what it needs, with neither remorse nor pity, and produces horrors and wonders with neither hatred nor pride.

Its angels have minds. They are, to an extent, people. They need this to fulfill their missions. These strange machine-angels are made for a purpose, each and every one. They are sent out into the world to do things, to kill things, to move things. They are the God-Machine's most trusted servants, and even they have no idea why they do what they do. But sometimes, they begin to question. Or they grow too attached, too emotional. And when this happens, an angel Falls. It cloaks itself in humanity, hiding among the masses - a machine-demon living in constant fear of its god. Not that the God-Machine hates demons - it just doesn't waste tools. A demon that is caught will be reformatted, remade into an angel once more, without true free will, without true emotion, without all of the new freedoms it has suddenly gained.

Freedom is terrifying, for a demon, but not as terrifying as losing it. And so demons pretend to be human, they bargain for souls to gain new identities to hide in. They dodge angels, track down secrets, prepare plans, and when they must, they fight, using all the terrible powers their creator gave them in order to protect themselves. Being a demon is a life of constant paranoia behind a face that was never yours. To survive, you will need to do terrible things - but it's up to you to decide which, and why. Maybe you want to tear down the God-Machine. Maybe you just want to be safe. Maybe you want to enjoy all that your new life has given you. And maybe you want to fix God, to make it something less terrible.

What matters is that you can't really trust anyone but yourself. The God-Machine is everywhere, though it is not infallible. Your fellow demons can help you, but you can never tell if they lie - and they can't tell if you do. What are you going to do with your new life?

Luminous Obscurity fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Aug 19, 2015

Hugoon Chavez
Nov 4, 2011

THUNDERDOME LOSER
If anything, good job on including changing breeds "art" right in the third OP, sets the mood just right.

crime fighting hog
Jun 29, 2006

I only pray, Heaven knows when to lift you out
Thread title works perfectly in a God Machine sense :colbert:

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."
My thoughts exactly.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Is it me or did the good books recommendations get dropped from the (HUEG) op?

Goa Tse-tung
Feb 11, 2008

;3

Yams Fan
5ed just for the title alone.

DJ Dizzy
Feb 11, 2009

Real men don't use bolters.

crime fighting hog posted:

Thread title works perfectly in a God Machine sense :colbert:

But what does it MEAN?!

DJ Dizzy fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Apr 9, 2015

Chernobyl Peace Prize
May 7, 2007

Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Hey OP, where'd the far better rules for Mage go from the OP?

e: And XP-based chargen. Real clown town itt

Attorney at Funk
Jun 3, 2008

...the person who says honestly that he despairs is closer to being cured than all those who are not regarded as despairing by themselves or others.
This is why when I need to note dots in a text editor I just use asterisks. World of Darkness Megathread (*****)

On the bright side, you got the tag right!

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."

Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:

Hey OP, where'd the far better rules for Mage go from the OP?

e: And XP-based chargen. Real clown town itt
I missed the Mage link, it was hidden at the bottom of the page, my bad. Also does XP Chargen even matter anymore now that everything's been normalized?

Attorney at Funk
Jun 3, 2008

...the person who says honestly that he despairs is closer to being cured than all those who are not regarded as despairing by themselves or others.
I don't think XP chargen is important anymore, even if it is Etherwind's crowning contribution to our community (RIP Etherwind). I'll tell you what, though, I could do without the massive post of bad White Wolf writing. I don't know who that's for, exactly. The OP is a resource for people interested in learning about the games, who needs a post that rivals all the others for length full of reasons you should be embarrassed to play?

But that's not a big deal, since once we're off the first page I'll never have to look at it again.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Attorney at Funk posted:

I don't think XP chargen is important anymore, even if it is Etherwind's crowning contribution to our community (RIP Etherwind). I'll tell you what, though, I could do without the massive post of bad White Wolf writing. I don't know who that's for, exactly. The OP is a resource for people interested in learning about the games, who needs a post that rivals all the others for length full of reasons you should be embarrassed to play?

But that's not a big deal, since once we're off the first page I'll never have to look at it again.

That the older games used to be really really bad in some areas is a thing that people should be aware of, particularly when they're talking with other people about the game. I didn't get into Werewolf until revised so when people started harping on me for liking a game with neo-nazis or dick-ripping lesbian feminists or toothed volcano vaginas I was reasonably confused.

MalcolmSheppard
Jun 24, 2012
MATTHEW 7:20
That's certainly an essay about how vampire horror shouldn't explore the discomforting intersection between sex and violence.

Effectronica
May 31, 2011
Fallen Rib

Kurieg posted:

That the older games used to be really really bad in some areas is a thing that people should be aware of, particularly when they're talking with other people about the game. I didn't get into Werewolf until revised so when people started harping on me for liking a game with neo-nazis or dick-ripping lesbian feminists or toothed volcano vaginas I was reasonably confused.

Hmm, actually, I think that a new thread is a good reason to purge all the negativity and apologizing for liking stuff that isn't 100% good and cool.

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."
Okay, so drop the last bit then? Because I'm not really attached to it and pretty much left it in because I figured the thread was into it or w/e.

Soonmot
Dec 19, 2002

Entrapta fucking loves robots




Grimey Drawer
I feel that poking fun at the oWoD is fair game, but it could be trimmed. The 90s were a hell of a drug.

JohnnyCanuck
May 28, 2004

Strong And/Or Free
Keep it.

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

MalcolmSheppard posted:

That's certainly an essay about how vampire horror shouldn't explore the discomforting intersection between sex and violence.
That's certainly the complete dismissal of valid concerns without actually reading a word of said concern that I've come to expect out of you. But since I have time to post at work, I'll tl;dr it for you: the problem isn't that the topic is explored, it's how that exploration is presented. Specifically, a book titled "sexmurder" with zero other context (because it's a book cover) is, if nothing else, in extremely poor taste.

Loomer
Dec 19, 2007

A Very Special Hell
Just post my name for why you never go full white wolf. Let my madness be a cautionary tale, for the choldren.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Loomer posted:

Just post my name for why you never go full white wolf. Let my madness be a cautionary tale, for the choldren.

For those of you just joining, Loomer has spent the past few years working on The Project- an attempt to document every single canonical supernatural creature in the old World of Darkness, living, dead, and undead. named and unnamed. Not just game books, but novels, the card games, a couple somewhat canonized fanworks from Germany, etc. He posted a chart a week or two ago- he's got thousands of NPCs recorded.

MalcolmSheppard
Jun 24, 2012
MATTHEW 7:20

Yawgmoth posted:

That's certainly the complete dismissal of valid concerns without actually reading a word of said concern that I've come to expect out of you. But since I have time to post at work, I'll tl;dr it for you: the problem isn't that the topic is explored, it's how that exploration is presented. Specifically, a book titled "sexmurder" with zero other context (because it's a book cover) is, if nothing else, in extremely poor taste.

If only there was some kind of signal about that context provided by it being a book for Vampire: The Requiem, a game about vampires struggling to maintain a semblance of humanity, that identifies itself firmly within the tradition of gothic horror and described its essentials in an entire other edition, for which these statements assumed familiarity, since the name was assigned to what was originally a supplement for that game. If only. Then there would be more than zero context for anyone who is not a cleverly disguised chatbot or largely interested in performing outrage for an audience so as to signal that they are in fact totally cool dudes.

EDIT: Old argument, happy to move on.

MalcolmSheppard fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Apr 10, 2015

long-ass nips Diane
Dec 13, 2010

Breathe.

Can we start a new thread already

Adept Nightingale
Feb 7, 2005


MalcolmSheppard posted:

If only there was some kind of signal about that context provided by it being a book for Vampire: The Requiem, a game about vampires struggling to maintain a semblance of humanity, that identifies itself firmly within the tradition of gothic horror and described its essentials in an entire other edition, for which these statements assumed familiarity, since the name was assigned to what was originally a supplement for that game. If only. Then there would be more than zero context for anyone who is not a cleverly disguised chatbot or largely interested in performing outrage for an audience so as to signal that they are in fact totally cool dudes.

EDIT: Old argument, happy to move on.

"Performing outrage" is basically the worst way to dismiss concerns anyway, and certainly isn't going to win anyone new over to your way of thinking, so maybe moving on is best, yes.

Gerund
Sep 12, 2007

He push a man


MalcolmSheppard posted:

That's certainly an essay about how vampire horror shouldn't explore the discomforting intersection between sex and violence.

Wait a second...

MalcolmSheppard posted:

In what part of anything I wrote did I express an opinion on that name other than saying it was "tricky?" In what part of anything I wrote did I say that these criticisms were invalid?

I DID remember this old-argument from the old megathread, where the discussion of how dumb it is to have customer-facing promotions branded as "sexmurder" came up and you backtracked immediately at the time.

MalcolmSheppard
Jun 24, 2012
MATTHEW 7:20

Adept Nightingale posted:

"Performing outrage" is basically the worst way to dismiss concerns anyway, and certainly isn't going to win anyone new over to your way of thinking, so maybe moving on is best, yes.

I admit I'm pretty dismissive of concerns about violence from the person cited in the intro post, because he later wished I would for-real die. But in the interests of moving forward, given that for good reasons and bad it *is* tricky, how would the folks here go about handing the disturbing things about Vampire? Because previous discussions have ended with assertions that it's all going to be stupid and RPGs are an inherently untrustworthy medium.

One of the issues is that there's a tension between the traditional gamer goal of using a character to satisfy personal fantasies and power trip, and playing characters who are Not Nice. The genre itself plays with that tension; vampires are cool, but they're monsters. Lots of CWoD books in particular were about playing characters you shouldn't feel good about or really identify with, but the games didn't clearly map them. Plus we have icky parts of player culture where some folks who want to use game and genre as a shield to play moral transgressors as an obvious form of wish-fulfillment--those guys who always play vampire Nazis in LARP and are way too into talking about "historically accurate" discrimination.

MalcolmSheppard fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Apr 10, 2015

DJ Dizzy
Feb 11, 2009

Real men don't use bolters.
Vampire Goebbels did nothing wrong.

Coolness Averted
Feb 20, 2007

oh don't worry, I can't smell asparagus piss, it's in my DNA

GO HOGG WILD!
🐗🐗🐗🐗🐗
I think it makes sense to not gloss over the terrible stuff from OWoD, and this is as someone who was a fan of it as a kid. Part of it is the charm of a bunch of white guys not realizing why making supernatural faction: Gypsies might be a bad idea. Also getting that out in the open early instead of having constant debates popping up might be good.

Hell, if only to know warning signs you might be getting involved with a creepy RP group. Kinda like how you wouldn't know there's a good chance an Exalted campaign described as being about "Lunars raising a beastman army" has a decent chance of being about dogfucking, without someone giving you the heads up about in game context.


Moral of the story: Never join an online game of oWoD hosted by a friend of a friend you kinda know without making sure his friends aren't skeezy as gently caress.

Kellsterik
Mar 30, 2012
e: removed

Kellsterik fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Apr 11, 2015

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
I'm just going to post this link to an article that I think is great inspriation to any nWoD game: http://www.sott.net/article/229112-John-Keel-and-His-Adventures-into-Unreality

It was in the previous thread, and I think it's pretty core to understanding the differences between the two Worlds of Darkness: "Belief is the Enemy"

Loomer
Dec 19, 2007

A Very Special Hell
So, here's something I noticed on a flick through my files. In 1995, the town of Evanstown, Connecticut - population of 543 - was wiped out, with one survivor. The population suddenly went berserk, killing each other, and then died of a filovirus believed to be an airborne strain of Ebola Zaire - one that 'replicates itself so thoroughly in the host that the host is partially transformed into a virus'. Could be progenitors, could be Pentex, could be just plain bad luck, buuut...

The Tzimisce methuselah Demdemdeh, from Africa, is believed by Tzimisce involved in Biopreparat in the 80s to have transformed himself into Ebola. I wonder if it was a deliberate callback to the Evanstown incident. Even if not, it's certainly something you could link for a game. Obviously Evanstown was a Crazies reference, but still.

Pope Guilty
Nov 6, 2006

The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.
Myths Over Miami could have easily been published by somebody in the WoD.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
Since they didn't write it, they used a good chunk of it as the basis of their Changeling: the lost core city, with the Blue Lady as a keeper.

Luminous Obscurity
Jan 10, 2007

"The instrument you know as a piano was once called a pianoforte, because it can play both loud and quiet notes."
So we now know the complete list of Dark Eras. I broke it down and sorted them by gameline. The ones marked with asterisks are getting dedicated expansions (as opposed to expansions that just add another line).

Bluebook: Aztec Skinchangers, Second Sight Age of Spiritualism
Vampire: Black Death, Elizabethan
Werewolf: Neolithic, Rome, Viking, 70s New York City
Mage: Neolithic, *Hellenic*, Mutapa
Promethean: Black Death, 30 Years War, Year Without a Summer, Dust Bowl
Changeling: Three Kingdoms, Elizabethan, Three Musketeers, Brothers Grimm
Hunter: Sengoku/Tokugawa, *Salem*
Geist: Three Kingdoms, Viking, Roanoke, 50s New Zealand
Mummy: Cleopatra, Mutapa, *Fall of British & Ottoman Empires*
Demon: Aztec, Fall of Constantinople, Russian Revolution, Cold War

Luminous Obscurity fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Apr 10, 2015

Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010

DJ Dizzy posted:

Vampire Goebbels did nothing wrong.

Hitler did nothing supernatural.

Pope Guilty
Nov 6, 2006

The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.
Wow, I got my hands on a copy of the original Clanbook Gangrel and drat but they used to be The Gypsy Clan (also gently caress the Ravnos). Also:

Clanbook: Gangrel posted:

CJ: (in a pseudo street-rap staccato)
They call me CJ, and it was 50 years back
a bitch named Mikki took my blood and gave it back
I thought I was sick, I felt so queasy and green,
I felt myself hooked on something I never seen

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.

Luminous Obscurity posted:

So we now know the complete list of Dark Eras. I broke it down and sorted them by gameline. The ones marked with asterisks are getting dedicated expansions (as opposed to expansions that just add another line).

Bluebook: Aztec Skinchangers, Second Sight Age of Spiritualism
Vampire: Black Death, Elizabethan
Werewolf: Neolithic, Rome, Viking, 70s New York City
Mage: Neolithic, *Hellenic*, Mutapa
Promethean: Black Death, 30 Years War, Year Without a Summer, Dust Bowl
Changeling: Three Kingdoms, Elizabethan, Three Musketeers, Brothers Grimm
Hunter: Sengoku/Tokugawa, *Salem*
Geist: Three Kingdoms, Viking, Roanoke, 50s New Zealand
Mummy: Cleopatra, Mutapa, *Fall of British & Ottoman Empires*
Demon: Aztec, Fall of Constantinople, Russian Revolution, Cold War

Aside from the lack of Devil in the White City Vampire and Blitz Innocents, this is a pretty goddamn amazing list.

Cable
Dec 20, 2005

it'll come like a wind.
So Geist and Promethean get 4 eras each, as opposed to Hunter or Vampire, games that many more people play :/

Not saying it will not be a good read, but wondering how much of it will be really put into practice.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Crion
Sep 30, 2004
baseball.
I think it's probably more important (or at least more interesting) to give the under-served, underplayed games more materials in exercises like this to try and entice people to try them out. And honestly, there's so much Vampire material out there you can already basically set a game when or wherever you want, so long as you're willing to do the reading on the time period and place in question.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply