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 Introduction Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines is a cult classic action role playing game created by Troika and released in 2004. Based on the Vampire the Masquerade table top game, we must find our way through the world as a fledgling vampire in modern society. There's a storm brewing among the clans of LA, and we're smack dab in the middle of it!  VTMB is one of my favorite games of all time. I didn't play it until a friend gifted me his copy a few years after it came out. I think I've even still got the disc somewhere! If you're interested in trying the game out for yourself, you can pick it up on GOG or Steam nowadays. About the Playthrough I've played through a couple of times in the past, once as a Toreador, and once as a Malkavian. That of course means that this won't be a blind LP, but I can't say I 100% remember where everything is either. We're going to be rolling up a Tremere vampire. I've never played the table top game, or even held one of the source books in my hands, but as I understand it, the Tremere are sort of seen as usurpers by other Kindred. The Tremere were once mages in the Dark Ages, but took vampirism for themselves through a ritual to maintain their immortality. They are also one of the youngest and most secretive clans in existence. That's the gist that I got from some brief research, but I'm sure somebody will know way more about the lore of the clans / universe than I do. The game is fully voice acted, including some work from  When the game was released it was riddled with bugs, but thanks to some die-hard fans there's the Unofficial Patch that has been in development for years. There are two versions of the patch - the vanilla one and the Plus version which moves some items around and restores some content. We're going to be using the latest Plus version (9.5 as of the time of this writing) for our playthrough. Meet our intrepid hero, Bartholomue  Update Schedule This LP is complete! Thread Rules You don't need to worry about spoiling things for me, but as a courtesy to people who are unfamiliar with the game make sure to tag spoilers for stuff that we haven't gotten to in a video yet. Episodes Series Playlist
It's video games. Every day...ish. rojovision fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Mar 26, 2017 |
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May 18, 2016 04:46
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Graphically speaking VTMB still looks decent, and has some pretty solid facial animations to boot.     
rojovision fucked around with this message at 05:08 on May 18, 2016 |
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May 18, 2016 04:47
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Also reserved.
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May 18, 2016 04:47
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Normally episodes will come out one at a time, but let's kick things off with 3 episodes so we can get past character creation / tutorial stuff and into the game for real! Episode 1 - Suck On This We create our character, talk about game mechanics briefly, and watch the intro cutscene.  Episode 2 - Jacked Bender gives us some tips on surviving the coming nights as a vampire!  Episode 3 - Everything Is Fine We finally arrive in Santa Monica and seek out our contact in the area, but there's a bit of a snag!
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May 18, 2016 04:55
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I'll probably actually follow this one more closely, since I've always been curious about this game.
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May 18, 2016 05:29
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This game has soo many LPs. Ther'es at least 2 Archived [one of which had 2 runs], noth SSLP, and a number of incomplete runs, most of htem in video form. I like the World of Darkness LP threads because the WoD goons tend to discuss the tabletops in them adn you find out so much cool poo poo.
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May 18, 2016 07:19
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I love this game, and these threads.  I always roll Malk, because they are the best-est. But man it was a nightmare getting it to run in the first place.
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May 18, 2016 08:50
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Something weird's going on with th egame audio. Left and right channel seem to be slightly out of sync or something, because when a sound is coming from right in front of you and therefore playing through both it has this weird echo-y effect. It's really noticeable with some of the dialogue. I assume it's probably the game rather than something you've done, but if there's anything you can do to fix it that would be great. Also, yes, that cop in the tutorial with all the dialogue options is definitely added by the mod. I'm pretty sure all those special dialogue options for the other NPCs were added as well even though the NPCs themselves were not.
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May 19, 2016 03:28
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Siegkrow posted:This game has soo many LPs. Ther'es at least 2 Archived [one of which had 2 runs], noth SSLP, and a number of incomplete runs, most of htem in video form. Hopefully some of those people find this thread. I'm definitely interested in learning more about the universe, especially as it relates to the game! MarquiseMindfang posted:I love this game, and these threads. Yeah, Malkavian is a super fun playthrough. I would have rolled one up again myself, but there are sooo many LP's with them on the ol' YouTube. Tiggum posted:Something weird's going on with th egame audio. Left and right channel seem to be slightly out of sync or something, because when a sound is coming from right in front of you and therefore playing through both it has this weird echo-y effect. It's really noticeable with some of the dialogue. I assume it's probably the game rather than something you've done, but if there's anything you can do to fix it that would be great. I think it's the in game 3D audio effects. I'll see if I can find a way to tweak that because it's definitely kind of annoying.
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May 19, 2016 05:31
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rojogames posted:I think it's the in game 3D audio effects. I'll see if I can find a way to tweak that because it's definitely kind of annoying. Just go into audio and tick off Environmental Effects. That's the cause of it.
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May 19, 2016 06:30
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This seems like a nice game. I never got to see very much of it, sadly.
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May 20, 2016 06:45
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Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer!  EDIT: Going a bit deeper into the Camarilla clans since I've only just started. Brujah - For a long time, the Brujah epitomized the ideal of the warrior-poet. They are strong, fast, and have magnetic personalities. They've always been the clan to try and buck the system to try and shake the rest of the Kindred out of their eternal ruts to actually go on and create something greater than they are. Their grand experiment was Carthage in north Africa. Unfortunately, I think we all know how that ended. Still, it doesn't stop the more idealistic among the clan from trying. Gangrel - Very much loners, as the game states. Most Gangrel tend to walk on the outskirts of society in one way or another. Perhaps they toe the line between the sects, or are nominally a part of one or the other but skirt the laws when they see fit. They're seen as the most 'feral' of the vampire clans due to their Discipline affinities but that's not necessarily true. Sometimes you get surprised by a real 'political animal' among them. They tend to be nomadic and wander the world. Some say they have a connection with the Lupines, but nothing has ever been confirmed. Malkavian - Broken, each and every one. The Embrace leaves each of them with a derangement, some manner of madness. You only ever meet the functional ones. Stories go back and forth about great caves or warehouses full of Malk childer who are so insane they can't function at all in society. But they're all connected in some strange way. The madness draws them all together in a way nobody else can possibly understand. It's not uncommon to see a Malkavian talking to someone who isn't there, but really is. Nosferatu - Just as all Malkavians are mad, so too are all Nosferatu twisted into monstrous forms by the Embrace. Unable to show themselves in the mortal world the Nosferatu have retreated to the dark corners of the earth. Sewers, rural outposts, abandoned warehouses, all are nests for these information gatherers. There's no differentiation between sect for them. You're either a part of the clan or you're not. They hide, they listen and they learn. Secrets you don't want out there are traded. Their information network can bring down entire countries if the price is right. Toreador - Perhaps the clan closest to humanity the Toreador mingle in high society. They're the ones who guide fashion trends and play among the artist clique. Enraptured by beauty in any form they have to be careful in that circle. The rival the Ventrue in their command over the mortals they walk among. Nothing so gauche as outright control, but the influence they can bring to bear would cause significant embarrassment to anyone who earns their ire. Tremere - Very secretive, this bunch. Blood sorcery is in their, well, blood and they keep a monopoly on their secrets. They like to pretend that they know as much as the Nosferatu but it's all smoke and mirrors. Sometimes literally. But nobody else knows that. However, they have significant power. The power of the Kindred lies in the blood, after all. And they can root it out to do extraordinary things. Summon flame, move objects with their mind, know for a fact if someone is lying. All of them powerful tools in the Jyhad. Ventrue - The real movers and shakers of the mortal world. To hear them tell it, anyway. Unparalleled masters of manipulating a mortal or even Kindred mind, the Ventrue monopolize power in its various forms. Politics, finance, even the local municipal garbage men. Everything is fair game to them in their games of one-upsmanship. After all, the blue collar guys can bring a city to a standstill if the rest of the clan votes against you. These power games are a kind of test for them. The better you play, the better your chance to advance to REAL power. Vicissitude fucked around with this message at 16:51 on May 20, 2016 |
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May 20, 2016 16:09
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Vicissitude posted:Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer! What's Kain's favorite pizza-topping?
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May 20, 2016 16:29
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Vicissitude posted:Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer! Why don't they sparkle?
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May 20, 2016 16:42
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Vicissitude posted:Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer! Who opened it?
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May 20, 2016 16:43
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Vicissitude posted:Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer! What can change the nature of a man?
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May 20, 2016 16:47
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Vicissitude posted:Ah, once again I'm home. Ask of me what you will about vampire lore in the World of Darkness and I shall answer! What?
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May 20, 2016 16:51
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double nine posted:What's Kain's favorite pizza-topping? Garlic powder, ironically. steinrokkan posted:Why don't they sparkle? Because they don't crystallize. Disco Infiva posted:Who opened it? Jeff. You probably don't know him, but he's a pretty cool dude. No Gravitas posted:What can change the nature of a man? Love, obviously. Alexeythegreat posted:What? I'm a huge WoD nerd and I know a poo poo-ton about Vampire in particular. I got into it in high school and bottom line I just know things :p I mean, just look at the username 
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May 20, 2016 16:53
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Haha, thanks for this! I'm looking forward to learning some stuff about Vampire / World of Darkness. Also, just a reminder - if any of you guys want to go deep and talk about stuff specific to the game just tag your spoilers until we get to it in a video.
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May 20, 2016 18:08
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Jack is just the best god drat character.
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May 20, 2016 18:20
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So, what's up with capital G God in oWoD? Is he just a jackass? Is it a Demi-urge situation where the local god is just a pissed-off middle manager?
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May 20, 2016 19:57
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Also, what's up with the sheriff's arms in the intro? Dude's withered away like someone used a hex on him.Added Space posted:So, what's up with capital G God in oWoD? Is he just a jackass? Is it a Demi-urge situation where the local god is just a pissed-off middle manager? There's a few theories depending on what core game you follow. In Demon: the Fallen, it's sort of implied that when God smote the earth to introduce entropy into the universe as a mark of his displeasure with Lucifer's rebellion, he sort of spent himself in the process and hasn't been heard from since. But in Gehenna, the Vampire apocalypse book, in one of the scenarios (which are admittedly non-canon), he's still up there and is cruelly spiteful. When Caine awakens after the fallout cursing his continued existence, God merely laughs at his misfortune. In the end they fall back on the old standby of "it's your game, you decide!" excuse. Vicissitude fucked around with this message at 20:07 on May 20, 2016 |
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May 20, 2016 20:03
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Illegal Username posted:Jack is just the best god drat character. He was originally just an rear end in a top hat pirate in the books, obsessed with bringing the Cam down and was basically a walking wreckingball. The game actually changed how he was presented in the gameline. Because this version of Jack is just that much of a badass.
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May 20, 2016 23:58
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Vicissitude posted:. Regret  Good to see another bloodlines LP! I love this game. I followed the Gatz/McD LP last year before I was signed up so this time I'll be able to post and bother all of you.
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May 21, 2016 00:46
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Cathode Raymond posted:Regret Hey, I was asked for MY answer, not yours :p
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May 21, 2016 06:14
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Vicissitude posted:Also, what's up with the sheriff's arms in the intro? Dude's withered away like someone used a hex on him. The sheriff is -weird-. And I can't quite get in to more detail without spoiling things beyond "he's not technically a Kindred". And WW sure did get a lot of mileage from the Demiurge concept when it came to God.
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May 21, 2016 06:17
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citybeatnik posted:The sheriff is -weird-. And I can't quite get in to more detail without spoiling things beyond "he's not technically a Kindred". Is that actually game spoilers? Because I don't remember it ever being relevant who or what he is, other than that he's LaCroix's enforcer.
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May 21, 2016 06:28
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They don't go into it at all so there's only speculation as to just what the sheriff is. The most likely scenario is that he's a Gangrel who's gotten too close to the Beast and that's warped his appearance (when Gangrel frenzy they gain an animal feature like vertically slit eyes or tufted ears). A less likely possibility is that he's one of the African Kindred. There is a theory I do like, but that might be cutting too close to spoiler territory and besides, it could be explained by being a Gangrel as well.
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May 21, 2016 08:48
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citybeatnik posted:The sheriff is -weird-. And I can't quite get in to more detail without spoiling things beyond "he's not technically a Kindred". I'm pretty sure it's never spelled out but I thought they kind of hint that he's an African Tzimisce basically.
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May 21, 2016 17:30
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Cathode Raymond posted:I'm pretty sure it's never spelled out but I thought they kind of hint that he's an African Tzimisce basically. LaCroix picked him up while bumbling about in Africa, yeah. Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom's loving -weird-. They tried to make that line of vampires distinct from the European ones without going full on Kindred of the East but it didn't quite work out. I like the idea of it but the execution just didn't gel. Kind of like what they attempted to do with India, where everyone and their uncle had access to Thaumaturgy but it was an entirely different system than the hermetic style the Tremere had. Just individual fiefdoms of Ventrue, Ravnos, and Setites hanging out not giving a gently caress about the Jyhad because they're too busy becoming gods. And even the Indian Setites don't give a gently caress about their parent clan because Set's an idiot and everyone knows that it's Shiva that knows how to party. I do like how the Ventrue in Africa are all treated as massive British big game hunter assholes. As another aside, American kindred are laughably underpowered compared to their Old World brethren. Smiling Jack's been kicking around for two hundred years or so and is basically a walking engine of destruction and chaos here in the States. Back in Europe he'd still basically be considered a neonate. Midnight Siege had a short blurb where a war pack of American Sabbat ended up in some Italian city and decided to crash an Elysium there because the rear end in a top hat Giovanni narrator told them about it. What they ended up finding were two vampires, one of which was some neonate that huddled in the corner singing an aria based off the Book of Nod. The -other- vampire was the Prince who basically transformed in to some sort of shadow-hellbeast and tore them all to shreds on its own with no other support. The Giovanni shat himself and hopped on the first plane back to Los Vegas, swearing off ever going back home.
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May 21, 2016 17:44
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The Sheriff is a gargoyle, amd when/if you fight him you get the full effect.
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May 21, 2016 22:11
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Deadmeat5150 posted:The Sheriff is a gargoyle, amd when/if you fight him you get the full effect. That's not true. He's using a Vicissitude power known as Chiropteran Marauder to turn into a critter. Also, by that point you've usually already seen how a real Gargoyle is setup in the game.
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May 21, 2016 22:26
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Well color me wrong.
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May 22, 2016 04:49
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 Episode 4 - Awwwww Yeaaaaah Redux Dos We get a job and mack on some ladies...not necessarily in that order. Edit: Note this link now points to a reuploaded version of the episode with a rerecorded club section due to a ContentID issue that came about from copyrighted music. I have replaced all licensed music in the game to avoid this issue in the future, and you can check the description of any video to find links to the tracks I've selected. Edit 2: The link now points to a repuload of the reupload due to the original reupload getting deleted due an error that was definitely on the part of everyone but myself. rojovision fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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May 22, 2016 18:36
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Following the "do everything except progress the main storyline" protocol? Or is there some specific reason you're waiting to get the astrolite for Mercurio?
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May 23, 2016 12:54
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Tiggum posted:Following the "do everything except progress the main storyline" protocol? Or is there some specific reason you're waiting to get the astrolite for Mercurio? Honestly just playing sort of casually. I mean don't get me wrong, we'll advance the plot next episode probably, but I do love me some sidequests. There's just so much cool stuff in the game, and I'd hate to skip it!
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May 23, 2016 15:06
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It would be nice if someone could do a roundup of Humanity and how it works both in the games and in the setting.
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May 23, 2016 16:39
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Koorisch posted:It would be nice if someone could do a roundup of Humanity and how it works both in the games and in the setting. I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!  Humanity is basically just how close to or separated from your original self you are, as compared to the Beast now within you. In Bloodlines it's more or less a simple metric of how easy it is for you to frenzy and just go berserk (and auto-controlled by the computer). In tabletop it's a bit more of a roleplaying tool than anything else, graded on a scale of 1-10. Each rating has a "sin" which acts as a guideline for just how upset you are by your actions at that level. 7 is the default for a vampire while humans are higher at 8 or, more rarely, 9. Humanity 10 is reserved for people on the level of Mother Theresa and the like. But at level 7, you realize your innate nature. While most humans won't assault another, a vampire has to in order to feed. That requires a bit of redefining just what it means to live with yourself. As you commit sins that compromise your morality, you test against your Conscience value. A success on the roll means that yes, you feel remorse for the action, but also understand that you can't keep doing that. Failure means simply regretting the act. A botch on the roll is dangerous because you start to rationalize the act as necessary to your nightly life. Your Humanity slips down a notch and you're capable of doing the same thing again and again, only testing again if you commit a worse crime. Getting down to level 4 means getting into the truly monstrous souls. The example sins are lethal there, manslaughter or killing someone during a frenzy. It's actually personal there, harm to another being. Not necessarily in combat either. That can at least be justified as self-defense, though picking a fight you know you'll win is probably a sin at Humanity 3 as it's premeditated. In these depths the vampire begins to indulge the instincts of the Beast rather than deny it. The lowest you can go as a playable character is Humanity 1, which is just described as "utter perversion or heinous acts". There is a way out, however. If the vampire has come to live in an environment that is so utterly alien and based on rules so foreign to Humanity, such as life with an ancient and distant sire or just being a night to night member of the Sabbat, there are other Paths of Enlightenment to follow. God provided a safety net to Caine, way back when. There is a state called Golconda that one can reach (theoretically), wherein the curse is abated. Not quite removed but you can reach a higher state of vampiricism. But to do so means staying utterly true to everything that makes you human or utterly abandoning it instead. It's your choice, but many times nurture trumps nature.
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May 23, 2016 17:24
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The song played in the club is Chiasm - Isolated in case anyone is curios. It fits quite well with the club.
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May 23, 2016 19:41
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Koorisch posted:It would be nice if someone could do a roundup of Humanity and how it works both in the games and in the setting. Vicissitude's post is a good one, but it leaves out some of the mechanics. The lower your Humanity the more you look like a fresh corpse. It gets harder and harder to pass among the mortals when you've got bloodless skin and sallow eyes, your touch is room temperature, etc. You can overcome this by spending blood to flush out your skin to make you look alive but this is temporary (and takes more blood the lower your Humanity). If you get your Humanity high enough you can pass for mortal with little to no effort. This royally pisses off the Elders who are basically walking balls of primal hunger, petty jealousy, cruelty, and spite - they'll try to tear down neonates that try that to "teach them a lesson". Mechanically, the higher your Humanity the lower a difficulty you roll for anything involving acting like you're human or passing as one. The various paths of Enlightenment tend to default to you looking like a walking corpse but give you other bonuses - to seduction/temptation, lies, self-control, etc. It's a reflection of the various Roads in the Dark Ages - the Camarilla as a whole went "welp, all neonates have to pass as human now" and tried to ban/hide the practice. Unless you're an elder, in which case you tend to predate the Camarilla and can ignore their take on Humanity on account of "gently caress you got mine".
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May 23, 2016 20:10
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