Sin City Chronicles

[surreality]

@Arkandel Well, ideally, I would have about two to three of these going at any given time. Start one, let it build steam. About halfway through it or maybe 2/3, start seeding for the next, and so on, with one always overlapping the tail of the former. That's essentially what any given television series tends to do: aftermath or tail end of the previous season is handled in the first quarter or so of the season, you have your current primary season plot ramping up as that one ends, after you hit a few major dramatic points and are closing in on some heavy duty action in the current season, you start to see threads of what's to come next season.

(Again, Black Sails is so beyond brilliant with this it's a mind-blower. Probably also why a lot of folks think of it as a slow starter; there's no overlap in the initial few episodes as there is in later seasons.)

[Ganymede]

@surreality said in Sin City Chronicles:

That's essentially what any given television series tends to do: aftermath or tail end of the previous season is handled in the first quarter or so of the season, you have your current primary season plot ramping up as that one ends, after you hit a few major dramatic points and are closing in on some heavy duty action in the current season, you start to see threads of what's to come next season.

I concur with the episodic approach, which is what I call this. You can have a brilliant meta-plot going, but not everything has to be totally connected to it. Star Trek: TNG is a good example of this: there is definitely a meta-plot going on in the background, but a plurality of the episodes had little or nothing to do with the hostilities between the Romulans and the Federation.

[Arkandel]

@surreality It also probably becomes easier to recruit help from players. You may be busy running events leading up to the finale with the Big Bad #1 but the precursor scenes to Big Bad #2 might be done in more minor incidents you can contract out as PrPs without even having to disclose that much information which might spoil the next arc for them.

[Jennkryst]

To generic setting things, since I can never haz mummy, I offer two pieces of advice

1. Throw parts of the book out the window.
   I only skimmed the 2e Changeling thing that's on, what v6? But what I read, there appear to no longer be any pre-genned courts. It implies that you literally design them all yourself. This allows for you to say 'we do not want X court as part of our starting theme'... but if enough players want it, then there is a road to add it with neither retcon nor staff forcing the matter.
   This is harder for other spheres, admittedly. Perhaps keep their names and whatnot, but rewrite the theme of them, and how they work for your game in Vegas and worldwide for transplants. Go so far as to say 'These pages of the book? Ignore them.' Put this on the wiki. There are a ton of little blurbs that some players will take as sacrosanct because it is in the book. Be up front about what is and isn't.

2. Crossover Considerations
   This ties in above, re: rewrite the social structures. Design this city with sphere cooperation in mind. A UN of the supernatural groups. Multi-sphere means crossover is going to happen. Might as well plan for it, rather than have the age old 'secrets revealed at the bar/over pillow talk' spiral.

[tragedyjones]

Couple updates.

We have people working on everything but Beast. There will be some sort of supernatural intercooperative group but it is being nailed down.

One thing I am excited to say is we are adopting splat-specific XP in the vain of Arcane XP/Vitriol as a means of encouraging in_theme RP.

[tragedyjones]

Request: Ask me questions. About policies or HRs or anything. If I have an answer I will share it, otherwise I can add it to the list of shit that I need to think about!

[Tempest]

@tragedyjones

Did you remove PT from the game?

Can Vampires blood bond other supernaturals and have hawt, filthy, disgustingly demeaning TS with their mage and werewolf subby fucksluts? I mean, uh, 'tell interesting stories with the other splats'? Sorry, I got distracted.

Can Mages cast buff spells on other supernaturals?

Are you going to do anything to mitigate the fact that Mage is absurdly stronger than the other splats? And I don't just mean this in the blatant 'power level' ways. There are some very core things that are dumb and just tilt the powerscale towards mage. Resistance against any vampire power, as I know it, is Attribute + Power Stat. So Dominating a mage, they'll get Gnosis in the resist attempt (and as we all know, gnosis is a power stat with no drawbacks and tons of incentive to just get as high as possible), they also potentially get stuff like Mind-arcana shields, or things like the Fate 4 attainment where they get to roll Clash of Wills to resist supernatural compulsions. A mage using magic against the Vampire, the vamp has no 'defense'. Even if the mage SPECIFICALLY emulated an effect similar to Dominate, the Vampire only gets whatever the withstand is (as far as I am aware, anyways?), like a normal human. Vamp is the example I used here, but this goes for the rest of the splats, I think.

Are you going to have any sort of systems or ongoing plot/theme in place to punish mages who walk around lit up like a christmas tree 24/7 with permanent +10 dexterity spells and shit hanging on them and don't have a Supernal Veil to go with it?

Are you going to do anything different with Paradox? Somehow, Mage 2.0 the book managed to make Paradox even more toothless than it used to be, which is baffling. This, combined with the last question tends to just make Mage feel really silly, to me, because let's be honest, players will ignore these 'dangers' entirely. This splat is the strongest, and has virtually no weaknesses or drawbacks unless an ST proactively enforces them.

Are you going to have an actual Praxis/Consilium/etc that the players are INVOLVED in or just some cookie-cutter placefiller 'Council'?

Are you going to remove Claws of the Unholy, because it's got the same problem as PT, IE pretty much no reason not to buy it, especially not when it's 1 fucking xp? (The correct answer to this question is HOLY SHIT YES I WILL, FUCK THAT MERIT.)

Are you going to have Bloodlines and Legacies and Lodges and wtfever the similar things are for the other splats?

What level of XP are you going to start at? Is XP going to be automated? Will there be a cap on XP?

Are you going to do "territory'? If so, will there be any meat to it, IE having to work to claim space, or just 'okay pack/coterie XYZ claims Neighborhood B'?

Is @surreality a whiny ho?

Would you ever consider adjusting XP costs of various things? Personally, the more I play 2e nWoD, the more I find the costs of Attributes specifically to be mind-bogglingly steep, especially when compared to the cost of POWERS and POWER STAT.

Most importantly, and I'm asking this one for all the children out there listening, afraid to try and follow their dreams, can I play a Lost Boy who is also a Mage/Vampire/Werewolf?

[tragedyjones]

@Tempest

@tragedyjones
Did you remove PT from the game?

-Probably yes
Can Vampires blood bond other supernaturals and have hawt, filthy, disgustingly demeaning TS with their mage and werewolf subby fucksluts? I mean, uh, 'tell interesting stories with the other splats'? Sorry, I got distracted.

-I am leaning towards no, at least without the same ability to resist as Kindred
Can Mages cast buff spells on other supernaturals?

-Presumedly, but mage mechanics are not my specialty
Are you going to do anything to mitigate the fact that Mage is absurdly stronger than the other splats? And I don't just mean this in the blatant 'power level' ways. There are some very core things that are dumb and just tilt the powerscale towards mage. Resistance against any vampire power, as I know it, is Attribute + Power Stat. So Dominating a mage, they'll get Gnosis in the resist attempt (and as we all know, gnosis is a power stat with no drawbacks and tons of incentive to just get as high as possible), they also potentially get stuff like Mind-arcana shields, or things like the Fate 4 attainment where they get to roll Clash of Wills to resist supernatural compulsions. A mage using magic against the Vampire, the vamp has no 'defense'. Even if the mage SPECIFICALLY emulated an effect similar to Dominate, the Vampire only gets whatever the withstand is (as far as I am aware, anyways?), like a normal human. Vamp is the example I used here, but this goes for the rest of the splats, I think.
Are you going to have any sort of systems or ongoing plot/theme in place to punish mages who walk around lit up like a christmas tree 24/7 with permanent +10 dexterity spells and shit hanging on them and don't have a Supernal Veil to go with it?
Are you going to do anything different with Paradox? Somehow, Mage 2.0 the book managed to make Paradox even more toothless than it used to be, which is baffling. This, combined with the last question tends to just make Mage feel really silly, to me, because let's be honest, players will ignore these 'dangers' entirely. This splat is the strongest, and has virtually no weaknesses or drawbacks unless an ST proactively enforces them.

• For all of the above, I cannot answer directly other than to state that we will have a much smaller cap on the mage population. Mage Mechanics is not my area of expertise
  Are you going to have an actual Praxis/Consilium/etc that the players are INVOLVED in or just some cookie-cutter placefiller 'Council'?

-Yes
Are you going to remove Claws of the Unholy, because it's got the same problem as PT, IE pretty much no reason not to buy it, especially not when it's 1 fucking xp? (The correct answer to this question is HOLY SHIT YES I WILL, FUCK THAT MERIT.)

-Probably not
Are you going to have Bloodlines and Legacies and Lodges and wtfever the similar things are for the other splats?

-No
What level of XP are you going to start at? Is XP going to be automated? Will there be a cap on XP?

-Moderate XP. Lower starting. A slowly rising cap and, at this point, a mix of player-assigned XP and Gameline specific XP
Are you going to do "territory'? If so, will there be any meat to it, IE having to work to claim space, or just 'okay pack/coterie XYZ claims Neighborhood B'?

-Territory and Domain will be tied in to our SMART system
Is @surreality a whiny ho?

-No
Would you ever consider adjusting XP costs of various things? Personally, the more I play 2e nWoD, the more I find the costs of Attributes specifically to be mind-bogglingly steep, especially when compared to the cost of POWERS and POWER STAT.

-No
Most importantly, and I'm asking this one for all the children out there listening, afraid to try and follow their dreams, can I play a Lost Boy who is also a Mage/Vampire/Werewolf?

-No. You cannot because you are not welcome on Sin City Chronicles. And no one else can because they are not compatible with Supernatural templates

[Tempest]

@tragedyjones

-No. You cannot because you are not welcome on Sin City Chronicles.

I thought we were secretly soul mates. How could you do this to me?

Remember that time we met on the docks and I had to fight your Childer of Judas and his girlfriend!?

It was @Coin wasn't it! He sabotaged our love!

[Coin]

@Tempest said in Sin City Chronicles:

@tragedyjones
It was @Coin wasn't it! He sabotaged our love!

Man, I wish I could take the credit. But no, it was just you being an asshole. Go figure.

[mietze]

A side thought. Why the fuck do some people demand that game makers must create/build/eternally run things in order to not be "a flake". While you do have some extremely very few people who are truly capable of doing all three well (newsflash: most people who think they do don't), most games would be better served by allowing different people to have their strengths instead of demanding everything from the person "in charge."

I think the weird expectation that whoever opens a game must be an excellent thememonger, meta plot ideas and management person, ooc damage control, grid and systems and adaptation manager, etc has done more to damage the hobby (and encourage control freaks who have no business running a game that people other than sycophants wander in to play on) than someone who is particularly strong in one area opening a game, when it could be encouraged/not taken as flaking or failure if they then stepped back and handed off other operations to people equally as talented in those areas.

[mietze]

Also: thank fucking God for a setting where it makes total sense to have 5 strip clubs, high end restaurants, churches, multiple entertainment venues within spitting distance almost all the time, where there are famous people and street people running around. And people from all over the world in and out instead of wondering why every other person you run into is an accented exotic busty catlike grace ninja person in this little teeny town.

[ThatGuyThere]

My guess is that past history has shown that a game getting handed off is much the same as a table changing dealers at a casino, a clear sign to walk away as things are about to get a whole lot worse.
While it is not always true, I can definitely see the mind set of "I signed on to play under X but now Y is in charge this sucks."
Now I don't think attacking someone on here is the right way to go about it, (at least outside of the Hog Pit) but there are a couple of folks that while I think they are a definite benefit to the hobby I would not bother playing on a came they started at least not until after I saw who it was handed off to.

[Arkandel]

@tragedyjones said in Sin City Chronicles:

-Territory and Domain will be tied in to our SMART system

What's the SMART system? Did I miss something again?

@mietze said in Sin City Chronicles:

A side thought. Why the fuck do some people demand that game makers must create/build/eternally run things in order to not be "a flake". While you do have some extremely very few people who are truly capable of doing all three well (newsflash: most people who think they do don't), most games would be better served by allowing different people to have their strengths instead of demanding everything from the person "in charge."

I think the way we (in general) create games falls into certain categories; some game-makers have ideas gestating in them until they feel they'll burst if they don't put them out there in a game, and others just want to run a game, pay $15/month for hosting, grab the latest tarball of the code and go to town.

Either way it's impossible to make a game that scratches all itches, improbably to find an equally good supporting cast to make you realize the game you want to run (you may find a coder but not have enough STs, or the job monkey who also handles your sphere isn't great at dealing with stress or people, etc) and of course the reality of the situation - after it launches a MU* entails more about maintenance work than creativity - means most creative people lose interest after a few weeks of running the game.

But more than anything we judge things based on our criteria, not the games' runners, which is fundamentally unfair. If you want to run a tiny niche game and I want a five-sphere behemoth that gets all the players, it's not right to declare it a failure because it didn't fit my goals when it achieved yours.

[tragedyjones]

@Arkandel

From post 1 - "Supernatural and Mundane Area Resource Tracking (SMART) - Utilize a system to track the available resources for each area on grid."

Details coming soon.

[tragedyjones]

Hey folks, it has been 25 days and I want you all to know that the project is not abandoned!

I wanted to share a few things so that people may get a taste of what we are working on:

In Regards to Crossover Considerations
In 1951, there was a major conclave brokered by the Sangiovanni, the Pentacle, the local Freehold, The Mojave Protectorate and an assembly of Free Created. There, they ratified the Vegas Compact, commonly called the Midnight Law

The Terms Include:
Vegas belongs to no Society in the compact, it belongs to all Societies in the compact

• Compact Societies are prohibited from undue intervention in the affairs of other members.
• Every year, The Compact shall appoint 6 citizens from each Society to act as enforcers of the Compact among their own.
• The Black Chips shall be the coin of the Compact, all Societies must tithe 50 chips per year to the Dealer.
• The Dealer represents Las Vegas itself in the compact, and is a neutral party
• Members of any Society may be blacklisted by a majority vote of that societies Enforcers, or a 2/3 majority of all enforcers.
• A Compact Society shall respect the nature of all other Compact Societies
• The Straight Flush Hotel and Casino is property of the Vegas Compact.

An Example Spirit Court
The Strip
The Strip is comprised of spirits allied with the oldest aspect of the Vegas avatar, Big Daddy. The Strip is spirits of Old Vegas, of gambling and vice and classy glamour. While once the dominant Spirit Court in the region, The Strip has waned in power since the late 70s, today riding in a middle of the road position, primarily due to the power of their lead spirit and the long memory of the Shadow.
Lead Spirit: Big Daddy (Vegas Avatar)
Primary Domain: The Strip is the spirit court of Gambling and chance, lead by Big Daddy, a facet of the Las Vegas city-spirit. It is primarily found in and around casino's, but is actually stronger in older, more established gambling dens than in the newer mega resorts.
Represented Umia: City spirits, Artificial Elementals, Luck Spirits, Addiction Spirits, Money Spirits
Allies: The Tourism Board, The Machine-Born, The Enduring Mojave (strained relations)
Enemies: The Lap of Luxury, The House

Mechanical Concerns

• Paradox - Paradox is going to have teeth on Sin City Chronicles. For example, containing a Paradox could result in Bashing Damage, but it can quickly lead to Lethal or even Aggravated wounds,
• Fetishes - Fetishes Will follow the same rules for all gamelines which can access them
• Swarm Forms - These rules will be uniform across all means of becoming a swarm

Example NPC

Malcolm Platt - Seneschal to Prince Styles, Malcolm is a Ventrue in the Ordo Dracul and a master of the Coil of the Ascendant. Though a member of the Ordo Dracul, he has worked closely with the Invictus for twenty years, and is known, sometimes derogatorily, as the Daytime Prince. Officially, Mr. Platt's Title is COO.

Other Update
We will not be utilizing Beast: the Primordial.

[Arkandel]

This looks interesting TJ. Just one comment:

@tragedyjones said in Sin City Chronicles:

• Every year, The Compact shall appoint 6 citizens from each Society to act as enforcers of the Compact among their own.

I'd advise against these being PCs. A finite small number of characters hand-picked by staff to hold special thematic positions might be a bad idea. NPCs would work better, then you can use them as quest givers.

[tragedyjones]

Re: Changeling.

We are working to include it in development as much as we can, following the information that is available and working in broad strokes for implementation. If it is released before we complete the rest of the game, then Changeling will be available at Launch. However, should it not, we will implement Lost 2nd Edition when it is released and the code support is available. Changelings will be a part of our world from day 1, but their availability as Player Characters is dependent on the source material. There will not be a "and then suddenly, faeries" type situation.

[A. Meowley]

@tragedyjones said in Sin City Chronicles:

Re: Changeling.

There will not be a "and then suddenly, faeries" type situation.

Awww, but that worked so well for True Blood.

(/s, obviously.)

[ShelBeast]

I just want to know if I can get away with shooting mailmen in the head and having spurs that go jingle jangle jingle.