World of Darkness (New & Old) - General Discussion Thread

So, i'm wondering, Mage: The Awakening wise...

Has anyone tried terraforming the Moon or Mars? I've never seen any mention of that, yet, besides trying to reach immortality, that would probably be what i'd do if I had the kind of powers mages have.

I believe it would make either a pretty damn cool objective for a cabal of pc, or, on the other hand, a pretty damn scary group of Seers.

A planet-wide sanctum, with no sleepers to ruin it. The perfect factory to build an army to invade earth,or more prosaically a back-up base to plot against the Pentacle.

This would of course imply some deep infiltration of NASA and other spatial agencies by Seer operatives, making sure that nothing about what's going on at the surface of the planet filters out to sleepers.

I've never seen it done in Awakening, though in Ascension it was pretty common, especially in the Umbra.

Though, funny enough, you don't need NASA, just a Mage with, I'd guess Space 3, Matter 2? You'd make a Portal that's Warded to prevent air from going through it.

It's not about using the NASA.

It's about making sure the NASA and sleepers don't realise what's going on.

Ah, that is a bit more difficult. I'd recommend either trying Venus or a Kuiper Belt object instead of the Moon or Mars. Venus can be tamed by Awakened Magic and its cloud layer prevents NASA from seeing too deep into it. If you're hell-bent on using Mars or the Moon, though, there are Forces spells that can help with the hiding.

So, I'm thinking about running a Genius game.

Two questions:

1. Past or future?

2. What are some of the things that I should watch out for?

I've considered running a crossover game of Vampire The Masquerade and Call Of Cthulhu set in 1931 in Boston. It will be held on the forums here at TV Tropes, anybody interested?

Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Kickstarter is running. And they've already reached the stretch goal to add an extensive Orpheus appendix to the book, plus some other goodies.

But they failed to answer the most important question of why.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 20th anniversary editions, but I'd rather they bring back Mage than Wraith.

If only because I can't for the life of me remember anyone actually enjoying playing something that terribly wangsty.

Yeah, why Wraith?

Because they already did the Mage kickstarter?

Or because there are enough people interested in Wraith for it to get 315% funded after three days? That seems like a pretty solid reason, from a business point of view.

Did they?

Also, what? 315%? There weren't even 315 Wraith players when the book came out, where did they get that interest?

I linked the Ascension kickstarter, what more proof do you want?

*shrug* Maybe WoD just has more fans in general than last time Wraith came out.

I want the book in my hand, signed by the creators and presented to me by December Carnivale himself. I thought I'd been paying attention, so the revelation that I'd missed it came as more of a surprise than anything.

It's just weird. Wraith was always the redheaded stepchild of the Big Five. Have I missed the Dreaming Kickstarter, too?

Doesn't look like it. Nah, it seems Changeling came out in '95, so the anniversary thing should hit next year.

Well that would make sense. That one and Mage were the ones I was looking forward to most when I heard that Masquerade V20 was coming out.

We have a major substantial spoiler on the Changeling 2E front.

To wit, David A. Hill has posted the writer guide/outline to the book known formerly as the Hunstmen Chronicles, along with pretty clear explanation of what Huntsmen are.

In short, they're hobgoblin mercenaries who look for icons, bits of a changeling's soul left in a Hedge which seem to deeply resent being left in their former owner's hands for an extended period of time...and if they find one, they can track its owner. Period.

Oh yeah, and they're master shapeshifters with Arcadian weaponry. Very smart shapeshifters; their ability to imitate your toaster and wait patiently also comes with trap-setting and the ability to manipulate people into selling you out. Be glad they're ambushers and hunters first, warriors second.

I am glad this book is coming out, if just for them as an idea. I already want to see Huntsman vs. Uratha (whoever wins, anyone nearby loses), and how they interact with still-present Loyalists.

Other notes:

• The main theme is on a story of learning to be free after you've slipped your captors. The document explicitly calls it being lost amidst the paradox of choice, where the easy way out is a seductive lie. You're free now, but what do you do with freedom? Particularly when some monsters want to take that freedom away?

• True Fae are not in the antagonists chapter. They're plot hooks. Their presence and schemes in general are represented by Huntsmen and other servants. Which isn't to say they're faceless masterminds; Hill has said on Onyx Path that they're just in the Storytelling chapter. Actually directly facing a True Fae is a rare and climactic event. This is kind of a large shift for me, but given how True Fae actually came off as pretty common relative to the power they're supposed to be packing? I can deal. Does make me wonder what happened to that bane of oneriomancers, dream-poison, though. Maybe Huntsmen have vials of the stuff as part of their arsenal.

• The mortal allies and lesser template chapter is called "Potential Targets." Allow me to laugh evilly.

• Court Homebrew System. With Homebrew Court Contracts Included. THANK YOU.

edited 17th Dec '14 3:11:45 PM by Leliel

I've been re-reading Vampire The Requiem 1st Edition, and I am falling in love with the setting all over again.

I want to run a Requiem game with just the 1e NWOD and VTR corebooks from 2004. No fancy bloodlines, no Strix, and definitely no God-Machine. Just simple old-school Vampire: The Requiem.

edited 14th Feb '15 9:23:56 AM by PaulieRomanov

I like the change on the True Fae. I always felt that they were one of those things that should only be faced as endgame final bosses given how powerful they were supposed to be. The change definitely does make them feel a lot more menacing and enigmatic.

Welp, Werewolf Mark II is out. Anyone gonna pick it up?

Got my copy open right now.

One thing I do like is the new Wolf Blooded rules. They've really brought them up in power, to the point where they're easily on par with ghouls. Possibly even stronger, given that one "tell" lets them turn into Urshul form.

Also, they deliberately stated that a Wolf-Blood who becomes a supernatural being keeps the Tell unless that being be a werewolf.

There is some unfortunate Thrysus out there with the Waystone tell, completely unable to sleep because the spirits won't stop pestering him.

I like the Father's Form facet too. Now all those werewolves in the 1e book just chillin' in gauru can actually exist.

So are these second editions available by print-on-demand or are they just downloadables?

Werewolf is just pdf. I'm too lazy to search up the others, so I'm going to assume they work the same.