The Shift Life (Changing Breeds + GMC)
-
@Coin said:
I'd suggest a place with as many topographical variations as possible; especially if you're allowing wildly different animals who are from different types of geography.
Portland and/or Oregon in general (Eugene would also work). You've got mountains an hour away, ocean an hour and a half away in the opposite direction. If you go further east, you hit desert. Oregon has the widest biome range in the continental United States.
The area is close enough to Washington that you could still reuse parts of your old descs from Darkwater. Of course, you'd probably end up with werebears in skinny jeans drinking PBR and talking about how they liked loci back before they sold out, when they had integrity. And then they'd all go to a Decemberists show. So, good with the bad.
-
@somasatori said:
@Coin said:
I'd suggest a place with as many topographical variations as possible; especially if you're allowing wildly different animals who are from different types of geography.
Portland and/or Oregon in general (Eugene would also work). You've got mountains an hour away, ocean an hour and a half away in the opposite direction. If you go further east, you hit desert. Oregon has the widest biome range in the continental United States.
The area is close enough to Washington that you could still reuse parts of your old descs from Darkwater. Of course, you'd probably end up with werebears in skinny jeans drinking PBR and talking about how they liked loci back before they sold out, when they had integrity. And then they'd all go to a Decemberists show. So, good with the bad.
LULZ, Hipster Werebears may be just what this hobby needs. Also, don't be silly; only the werewhales and werecranes would go to Decemberist shows!
-
Haha, yes! Werebears would probably stick to Noah Gundersen and Iron + Wine.
-
Hozier.
(I'm also officially a hipster, I think, because I'm now upset that Hozier is being splashed over MU* wikipages. I LIKED HIM FIRST. GRR.)
-
@Cobaltasaurus said:
Hozier.
(I'm also officially a hipster, I think, because I'm now upset that Hozier is being splashed over MU* wikipages. I LIKED HIM FIRST. GRR.)
You need to dispassionately have liked him first, Cobalt.
-
@somasatori Definitely not dispassionately,
-
Then you're totes not a hipster. poser.
But, like the title says, constructive: I think Oregon would be a good setting for a bunch of werewhatevers. Pretty much any city in the state will be close to a lot of wilderness areas, but also have urban areas for wererats and the like. If you went with Portland, you've got our beautiful park system and our many microbreweries. And it's built on top of a unicorn burial ground (http://tinyurl.com/lkk34bn). If you go with Pendleton, that's very close to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Eugene has its impressive drug culture. Salem has its wondrous slum system. And so on.
-
@somasatori You want to build me a Portland grid, sir? >_>
-
Truly adapting CBs to GMC is going to be alot of work in of itself isn't it? There are a lot of odd mechanics that will need to be adapted or just outright rewritten...
I find it slightly amusing than that there is balking at dealing with a new grid- one that could probably be even relatively bare bones.
-
@Cobaltasaurus I had one built when Rome and I were going to do our Dresden Files game. It had Nob Hill, the Pearl, and I think a couple other districts. I might still have that around. And ... I suppose I could build.
-
Well, it sounds more like CB is really just a way of making it recognizable. Using WW's version of CBs is, on the whole, more balanced anyway. Then making GMC conversions that line up with the material trickling out of Onyx Path, it probably won't be the mess that CB is, making CB more of a quick reference name than anything that goes below the surface.
Get rid of shadow, gifts and magic and most of your problems go away. Don't know if that's the plan, and I'm not really advocating it, just suggesting it might not be as bad as all that if the mechanics are tweaked from the start from better sources than the CB book itself.
-
Well if your using CB just to use CB... is there anything particularly wrong with the 20th anniversary stuff?
I know there are a lot of problems that might come from using the wrong sort of book.. but than again- if your planning on rewriting the back story and everything anyway, isn't that just a better choice straight up?
The only like REALLY bad problems might come from making it a multisphere game- Your not
The culture of the sphere- your changing it.
Lack of access to the source material? That might be an issue- but if oyur HRing alot.. eh..I am a bit confused though @Glitch, which CB books are there? I have one, the one with half-actions.. are there others that I don't know about?
-
War Against the Pure gives rules for creating were-alternate bonuses. It's not another CB book or anything, just a small blip at the end of the book for "creating your own".
-
OH yes, the Bull-born and the Cockroach shifters- I remember those... very interesting aspects and a book that never got used.
The problem is I know for a fact that WW 2e will not have any info on that- so if you are going to use them- that is going to be a completely player driven conversion for the most part.
-
@somasatori
I would like that. I might just go with the old Port Angeles grid, tho. Given how much work other stuff will be.@Kireek ...no.
We're going to use the rules from War Against the Pure for form bonuses, but go with the other aspects/gifts/whatever from Changing Breeds.
-
@Cobaltasaurus said:
@somasatori
I would like that. I might just go with the old Port Angeles grid, tho. Given how much work other stuff will be.I think going with a more modular grid like you did with Darkwater, where there was a hub that led to spaces in the city would be best. Huge, expansive grid systems like on The Reach are outdated and outmoded these days. Also, they have a tendency to restrict players from interacting, not encourage them to interact. If I had the Reach to do all over again, that would be one of the things I would change about the set-up. Among a lot of other shit.
-
Anyone interested in doing some data entry for us? Need to put in the favors and aspects from Changing Breeds book. Potentially also some mage spells for Beast Magic.
-
@Cobaltasaurus I can give a hand.
-
I may regret asking y'all for opinions, but here goes. The following is a bit of theme/fluff text. I want to make sure that it gives some idea of what your characters can do/what motivations there are, without making it seem like there is a strict YOU HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS. Does the follow give you any thoughts on what your character might do in game? Does it make you feel like there is only one or two specific kind of concepts that are workable?
(Also I know there are some typos and odd wording, I'm going to clean it up a little more once I know if I need to retool completely or not.)
To say that shifters have a culture is not completely correct, nor completely wrong. There are many different cultures within the Changing Breeds. The animals and the peoples are diverse. Different breeds have different ways of life. Within the same breeds there are even different ways of life. There are a few key elements that unify all breeds, however. Even if the approaches to them are different.
These key elements are their animal selves, their hidden natures, the touch of magic that all shifters have, the touch of spirit that all shifters have, and the saddening or maddening truth that human beings are slowly killing all magic in the world.
The approach to dealing with one's animal self may be different from breed to breed but it is true for everyone. Each and every shifter is part human and part animal. One may try and walk a path of balance that holds each half in perfect balance, or a shifter may favor one half over the other. One may strive to be more and more human, denying their animal self. Or one may strive to become the perfect animal, denying their human part. Every shifter is some combination of human and animal.
For better or worse breeds keep themselves hidden from humans. There are three subspecies of tiger that are already extinct and no one has seen a breed of those tigers since their extinction. What of the dodo? Or the western black rhinos? All hunted for sport, or out of fear. If humans found out about people who could turn into animals? Would they go hunting out of fear? Or hunting out of sport? Not many a breed wants to find out which would be the case. Some breeds may hunt humans in secret for revenge. Some breeds may cautiously clean up other people's mistakes. Other breeds may want to rebel against the secrecy of their hidden natures but it is rare for a breed not to know there would be consequences of humanity finding out.
All breeds have a touch of both magic and spirit within them. Is it not magic to change from a human to be a giant bear? Is it not an animal spirit that lives within the breed? All things have a spirit, the breeds know this. Whether they believe their animal part of them is spirit or natural, having that animal self allows them a higher connection to the world. They are more in tune with the magic, with the spirit of it. Some breeds may approach the world in a shamanistic view because of it. Some breeds may throw themselves completely into magic. While some might try and find a balance in it. Balancing spirit and science. Magic and technology. Their more intune-selves with the human blindness of the world. The approach to magic and spirit vs the modern world is different for each individual breed.
The last unifying part of shifter culture or society is the knowledge that magic and the spirit is slowly being killed by humanity. It would be easy to say it's all about the planet being killed. Or it's all about the overabundance of technology. But those mindsets are just small points of view. Only one part in the problem. Or one idea on what the problem is. It might be the direction of the planet. It might be the overabundance of technology. It might be both. It might be human belief that magic doesn't exist. It might be that it is time for magic to change, to be bent to science's will. A shifter might believe the destruction of nature is the cause for the lessening of magic and the spirit world, and thus try to preserve or fight for the planet. It might be that a shifter fights back against technology itself, believing that smartphones and computers take all of the mystery and magic out of the world. Or perhaps a shifter might believe that magic can be found in technology now and embrace it. Might try and warp their technological gadgets into even more magical- or if they prefer scientifically advanced -objects of use. There are different approaches, different views, but there is one commonality. Magic, and the spirit, seems to be dwindling.
The rest of shifter life may vary and change from breed to breed but those key elements remain.
-
@Cobaltasaurus The info requested has been sent via chat to you. Let me know if I can help with anything else.
