Pick Your Poison: A Chronicle of Darkness Interest Check

[Arkandel]

To me a "hunter" isn't someone trained from birth, with a membership to secret organizations and access to high-tech vampire-slaying nanobot swarms.

He/she works at the supermarket register or is trying to make ends meet as a second year college student when they see something they shouldn't have or survive an encounter with something insane... and they just can't go back to hiding. They just can't ignore it, they have to Do Something About It even if they fully realize they're way out of their league. They aren't respected by their peers - they're the person you end up seeing on the news raving about their neighbors, leaping over fences and being chased by the cops for doing something really illegal, stupid and suicidal... only they happen to be right.

Obviously there are many ways to do it! Whatever is fun to you, @Cobaltasaurus .

[Misadventure]

Ooooh no. That's Hunters Hunted. This is The Vigil. With Powers. And Factions.

[Songtress]

Blood will have Blood is my vote.

[Saulot]

@Arkandel said:

To me a "hunter" isn't someone trained from birth, with a membership to secret organizations and access to high-tech vampire-slaying nanobot swarms.

He/she works at the supermarket register or is trying to make ends meet as a second year college student when they see something they shouldn't have or survive an encounter with something insane... and they just can't go back to hiding.

Then you need to say you want to play a Tier 1 Hunter, not that you want to play Hunter outright. Which is fine and all if you want to do that (eg, Supernatural and all the other things like it), but much of Hunter's written fluff works with the myriad Compacts and world-wide Conspiracies (a fair few of which do know certain intricate details about supers, but not all of it). If you're removing that I'd concede more to a simple m/+ game where weird shit happens/monster-slaying begins. I've yet to see either really succeed except on Java (where single splat is more the norm). The only exception appears to have been a Hunter game set in 1940s Paris and a post-apocalyptic mortal game.

[mietze]

Vampire is my first love in the WoD world and I prefer single sphere supernatural places (so one sphere plus associated +S and mortals). However there's a wide spectrum of philosophy in regards to vamp theme and setup, so I'd need to know more before getting excited about it, if that makes sense. I'd also want to see staff prepped to deal with some of the inevitable stuff that comes with vampire people.

It seems to me that hunter could really be awesome because you can have staff involvement but easily hook people into running, well, runs or missions for each other. I don't know how cohesive/antagonistic in theme HtV is. I think a hunter game could probably limp along more with staff inattention than a vamp place.

I guess on reflection maybe it's sad that I tend to gauge my own investment somewhere now in how likely it is that I can still have a reasonable amount of fun even when staff is not very active beyond the basics.

I think you should run what you're excited and passionate about. I agree hunter is intriguing because it hasn't to my knowledge been a single sphere focus before (and I love m/m+). It's not that I don't love vamp too because I do, but I'd need more info.

[Ganymede]

Give me a Mortal game where you have to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Please. No powers or what not outside of the core GMC game.

Shouldn't be tough, right? Let's give it a shot. I'll figure out some sort of "local community development social power mini-game" to satisfy the RfK crowd's need for manipulating the Grid.

[Arkandel]

Given how prevalent zombie tropes have been over the last couple of years I'd be shocked if there are no MU* around already set in The Walking Dead universe or some such.

[tragedyjones]

There is literally a new Environmental Tilt in Chronicles of Darkness called Zombies!

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said:

Given how prevalent zombie tropes have been over the last couple of years I'd be shocked if there are no MU* around already set in The Walking Dead universe or some such.

Find one for me. I'll pay you.

[Misadventure]

Only if characters are randomly given Asshole Cards that dictate when they will screw over other survivors for something truly trivial or selfish.

[Ganymede]

@Misadventure said:

Only if characters are randomly given Asshole Cards that dictate when they will screw over other survivors for something truly trivial or selfish.

That's silly. This is what staff is for.

Edited to add: I was running a W:tA 20 game last year, and there was a point where the pack alpha needed to roll to see if he Rage-frenzied when stopped by a sheriff at a traffic stop in the middle of the day in a downtown area. As GM, I told him I would give him an XP if he chose to fail prior to rolling. The pack spent the rest of the session running from other police and taking care of witnesses.

Players will do anything for extra XP. So, give it to them, and laugh.

[Coin]

@Ganymede said:

@Misadventure said:

Only if characters are randomly given Asshole Cards that dictate when they will screw over other survivors for something truly trivial or selfish.

That's silly. This is what staff is for.

Edited to add: I was running a W:tA 20 game last year, and there was a point where the pack alpha needed to roll to see if he Rage-frenzied when stopped by a sheriff at a traffic stop in the middle of the day in a downtown area. As GM, I told him I would give him an XP if he chose to fail prior to rolling. The pack spent the rest of the session running from other police and taking care of witnesses.

Players will do anything for extra XP. So, give it to them, and laugh.

The new system (sort of) does this by default. I love it. I think people should be able to fail a roll entirely, too, without even rolling, once per scene.

[Derp]

@Coin said:

I think people should be able to fail a roll entirely, too, without even rolling, once per scene.

I let people fail anything but things where failure actually matters for the long term. No auto-failing Harmony rolls or stuff like that, but if you wanna fail an action without rolling for it, I'm game. I do this with Nick all the time. It makes for hilarity.

[Ganymede]

@Coin said:

The new system (sort of) does this by default. I love it. I think people should be able to fail a roll entirely, too, without even rolling, once per scene.

I love it so much that the system I'm cobbling together includes rewards for voluntarily failing, which can be used as a boon later on or to advance your PC.

[Pyrephox]

@Ganymede said:

Give me a Mortal game where you have to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Please. No powers or what not outside of the core GMC game.

Shouldn't be tough, right? Let's give it a shot. I'll figure out some sort of "local community development social power mini-game" to satisfy the RfK crowd's need for manipulating the Grid.

Oh, that kind of system would be easy. You can adapt the territory system, but have different stats like "Defense", "Supply", and "Infrastructure" - a power plant, for example, might have very low supply when found (because not much usable food, water, or ammo is available there, but good Defense and huge Infrastructure, because once you have someone who can get it running again - motherfucking POWER, man. And you can improve territories by finding ways to raise the attributes, and staff can "attack" specific attributes with crises like "Crop Blight!" or "Idiot Loses Local Election, Pulls Down Guard Post to Let The Zombies In". Put a cap on the attributes according to how many/what quality of civilians are willing to live there (here's where the social manipulation and politicking comes in), and you've got all the makings for a zombie-themed territory system. Add a streamlined mechanic for inter-territory trade of skills or supplies, and all the politics you want should come thundering to your door.

[Thenomain]

@Ganymede said:

the system I'm cobbling together

Is it related to Mass Effect?

[Arkandel]

@Thenomain said:

@Ganymede said:

the system I'm cobbling together

Is it related to Mass Effect?

If Gany said it was Half Life 3-related it'd be oddly appropriate.

[Ganymede]

@Thenomain said:

@Ganymede said:

the system I'm cobbling together

Is it related to Mass Effect?

Yes. As I said before, I was overhauling it. This is part of that overhaul.

[Ganymede]

Double-posting. Fuck you.

@Pyrephox said:

Oh, that kind of system would be easy.

I know. Don't think I haven't thought about this system either. Playing Rebuild 3 reminded me of how easily you can create a mini-system that is entertaining but simple.

[Pyrephox]

@Ganymede said:

Double-posting. Fuck you.

@Pyrephox said:

Oh, that kind of system would be easy.

I know. Don't think I haven't thought about this system either. Playing Rebuild 3 reminded me of how easily you can create a mini-system that is entertaining but simple.

The biggest thing, I think, would be trying to set it up so that it's as self-sustaining as possible. One of the things that ultimately seemed to break the RfK people was the sheer number of actions and processing them. I feel like it should be possible to automate a fair amount of that stuff, with the right code and a system that is built with automation in mind.