Posts made by Arkandel

@Miss-Demeanor said:

Edit: It never fails to amaze me how freely some people will give up info about where their particular splat hangs out/what they fear/what their weaknesses are/etc.

Instead of maximizing her Oaths, she could have just dug a few unmarked graves in the middle of nowhere for those wagging tongues. Once the word got out and the correlation between action and consequence was made clear, the practice would soon stop. If what they get for it is attention and extra RP, of course they do more of it.

But we all know where that kind of thing would lead OOC even if a PC was willing to take such rather reasonably justified actions.

@Miss-Demeanor said:

So at least half of the Vampire/Changeling bs was on idiot Changeling players being idiots.

Although I snicker inside and can't disagree, the truth is that's not a bad thing on its own. It's a little bit cliche to 'look for trouble' by becoming a glorified blood doll, but there soon comes a point where we'd be entering wrongfun territory by condemning the practice.

What's wrong is doing it for the purpose of causing drama and/or being at the center of attention. Baiting a vampire PC to feed from your character's veins (or throw in a few levels of the vinculum for good reason) then playing the victim card and appealing to friends/protectors/kindly strangers to rescue you from that fate is one of the worse clichés about MU*, ever. Bonus point for throwing 'rape' somewhere in that.

It should be a very simple situation: IC actions, IC consequences. If it becomes a shitfest it's very often because someone likes the smell enough to manufacture it.

I've two concepts I'm toying with.

1. The first one is a Demon. His pre-Pact cover was hired by Vampire A to get close to and spy on Vampire B; he freaked out, made a pact and got out. Now my PC is trying to stay undiscovered tangled in conflicting loyalties - and I'm looking for a player for Vampire A.

2. The second one is a Werewolf. If I play him he'd be Rahu, very much a thug, modeled on Marv from Sin City with a touch of Bud White (the Russell Crowe character) in L.A. Confidential. I'd be looking for a pack for him as well as overall connections.

If you're interested, drop me a PM.

@HelloRaptor said:

So the 'unapologetically evil' shit you're doing is probably to another PC, and that PC inevitably has friends, family, and loved ones who are yet other PCs, and suddenly it's got less to do with someone's personal morality play and more that you're a monster preying on the people in their circle of people to be protected.

Although I quite agree on most of your post, I want to make an exception here: The things Vampires do, unless on top of being unapologetically evil they are also being inexcusably stupid, is very subtle. The effects of something like Presence or the eroding long-term effects of Blood Bonds can be difficult to detect unless on top of being able you also have reason to do so.

However - and this is the exception - OOC knowledge springs like vomit from a freshman's mouth after a night out drinking when it comes to those things, and gets people to throw their dice with extreme prejudice until they detect precisely these things if PCs are involved. Things they wouldn't blink twice without that OOC information get scrutinized within an inch of their existence when it exists, and woe to the Vamp-player who succumbs to a wannabe-victim player's wishes to get into that kind of situation (and there are players who absolutely love the attention their character having been victimized brings), since shitstorms often come their way.

The lines between IC and OOC in these cases are ridiculously blurry.

TL;DR: If you're going to RP screwing with someone's mind, pick your target wisely or be ready for drama.

Is there any chance RL Detroit and WoD Detroit might be different cities with similar but also different circumstances, legal frameworks and reasons behind events?

I love Geist and this sounds fun. I wouldn't touch TR with a ten foot pole these days though unfortunately, so good luck with your search.

@Coin said:

I would hate to be anyone facing a pack of Uratha whom each have high Pack Dynamics Merits. That shit is fucking terrifying. It may not look like much, until you remember Grappling can be a Teamwork Action, and then you imagine 2-4 Uratha in Dalu grappling you while the last one shifts to Gauru right in front of you.

Now, I haven't actually crunched the numbers so if anyone wants to refute me by rubbing actual figures in my face feel free. But this seems to be a very bad way to spend your turn.

The most valuable resource in nWoD combat is the turn since you only get one. You can have 7 great powers but unless they're reflexive you can only use the one action, so you better make it count, so the idea of devoting an entire turn to delivering even a crippling penalty to any but the most serious enemies seems extremely wasteful.

So to use the example above, let's take 2-4 Uratha. All but one of them could spend their precious one action into a grapple which will going to turn the enemy into claw-bait, sure. That however occupies the entire group, and if the last one's roll happens to be shit due to RNG, there goes that. It's a wiser bet to diversify the risk by having them simply attack that one target instead; unless their defence/armor is truly scary you'll still destroy him and it allows the pack the flexibility to pick a different target if at that point he's no longer in play.

Conversely that's why I never liked powers which convey a penalty 'for the next turn'. There are of course exceptions (such as an enemy in Gauru getting hit with just lethal/bashing) but usually doing some damage now and some next turn is superior to doing a bit none now and a more damage next turn, since those penalties never translate to 'double'.

@Thenomain said:

1. Do I get to laugh at the Mage players when they continue to complain when people want them to stay far away? I don't think it happens that much anymore, but oh the white man's burden humanity,

It still happens.

@Olsson said:

@Arkandel said:

2. Specialization (if it comes with mechanical effects). Things like Bloodlines/Lodges etc which let splats do what they normally can't.

Now I might have missed that part of the book, but just to adress lodges. In Werewolf 2E they seem to be purely social constructs, there are no mechanics bound to them, infact it doesn't seem to mention being bound to a second spirit totem either from what I've seen. It seems to more be a gang of people with similar goals, no bonuses or such.

Yeah, that's why I qualified that first. If a Bloodline/whatever is just part of theme then it won't affect balance, but on MU* people tend to introduce power creep over time through custom Legacies and whatnot.

Even if in 2.0 Mages receive no buffs whatsoever, they're still so far on top of the food chain it's not funny. Any kind of smart money is still on those wacky spellcasters.

@ThatOneDude said:

@Arkandel said:

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor

You still sort of get exactly what you're talking about here, it's just not innate.

Mmm, unless you're a very combaty Vampire (I'd even specify a Gangrel with ze claws) I wouldn't bet on you beating a comparable Werewolf one on one in 2.0. A pack? No, a pack will just tear a big hole through anywhere near the same numbers of Vampires.

But I don't think that is an issue so to speak and more the way things are designed with a purpose, agreed?

I'm pretty sure that's by design, yes. This time, unlike in 1.0, where I've no idea what to tell you.

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor

You still sort of get exactly what you're talking about here, it's just not innate.

Mmm, unless you're a very combaty Vampire (I'd even specify a Gangrel with ze claws) I wouldn't bet on you beating a comparable Werewolf one on one in 2.0. A pack? No, a pack will just tear a big hole through anywhere near the same numbers of Vampires.

@Coin said:

@Arkandel That's Harmony.

I stand corrected.

A leaked video of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is out!

@Coin said:

@The-Tree-of-Woe Lunacy's more intense and you have to participate in the Sacred Hunt more often.

Wasn't there something about being less able to resist the urge to shift? Maybe it was about something else.

I think the actual rules also allow PCs to roll (basically what it comes down to) WB sidekicks to support them. That could be fun, since unlike usual nameless retainers those are more or less family, people they grew up with or even pack members.

I think on SHH for instance I've used 3 rooms total for RP. Two of them are bars, the other is RP Room #1.

What I find interesting is that, over time, MU* have a way of introducing power creep in ways not found in the original material.

Now, in 1.0 that didn't matter too much because the developers had some a spectacularly bad job of keeping things measurable, probably because it wasn't even on their radar as a goal; between multiattack fighting styles, Werewolf being absolute shit (but described as badasses) or Geist being unstoppable juggernauts (but described as amateurs and psychics) it was a mess.

So far, and although not all of it is out yet, 2.0 is not a mess. Which means power creep is a real thing. Ways I can foresee significantly impacting the balance of things:

1. Items. Items can affect things big time in crossover games since they can patch holes in a splat's repertoire. Notice this isn't necessarily bad, but it should be noted, especially if they're distributed willy-nilly. In this case this only means Demon Gadgets, since Fetishes are useless outside of Vampire (and possibly Mages with Spirit but the splat's not out and they'll have their own items anyway).

2. Specialization (if it comes with mechanical effects). Things like Bloodlines/Lodges etc which let splats do what they normally can't. This can be a very impact thing, especially if it's done in the old TR way of "yeah, we created a home-grown Legacy which no one else can pick up from now on".

3. MU-only considerations. The games were made for table-top where (for example) torpor for a year isn't that huge. There the ST can go "poof! a year has passed. You are all awake again!" but on a MUSH it's not that different from character death. Changing limitations like that for gameplay purposes is reasonable, but does affect balance.

4. Numbers. Another MU-only issue which in the past, even more than Renown red tape is what has kept me from Werewolf. Although at a glance that's not a systemic issue it does have a mechanical effect on the game, since packs are so important to that sphere's mechanics; more than other splats Werewolf simply doesn't function the same way in a pack as it does outside it.

I'm sure there are other external factors but those are the ones I can see.

@Coin said:

Gimme some time.

You got (days until your game opens) days.

But it's not a matter of promises, it's just a matter of making a gameplay choice and whether it's compatible with what some players want. If you guys decide to go with a traditional way to earn Renown it's not like I won't play the game. Some people like me might not play a Werewolf, which isn't the end of the world.

Mechanically, is it fair to say Going Loud is an 1-XP way to win a fight?