Best posts made by Bobotron

@Arkandel

@Seraphim73
I will subscribe to your newsletter, but in particular...
RE: Active BBoards - I think one thing that bboards could be set up for, is perhaps, 'area' bboards. We do factions, groups, etc. But what about area news/updates? Like, my game is set in NYC, and so I could do a bboard for each Borough... have characters who live/exist in that borough attach themselves to that bboard and get more detailed info than a general New York Times or Word on the Street/Rumor Mill bbpost.

@Arkandel
You actually touched on something I had been dancing around bringing up in my head. Rosters of 'setting NPCs'. Not just mooks and enemies, but (to use a vampire example), the Primogen, Prince, Seneschal, etc. Things you want to be consistent. But at that point, you'd have the same 'NO FCs!!!!!' people screaming about it, despite the good it would do to be like 'here are the guidelines, here's the process to GET this PC, you cna have normal PC and custody of this, just ensure you follow policy X on 'history and updates' or whatever.

EDIT TO ADD: On Transformers 2k5, Transformers: Genesis and Beast Wars: Transmetals (to a lesser extent) facheads (and in this instance, this is what the above rosters/FCs would be, essentially) were sort of 'mini-staff' and involved more deeply in staff processes. I wonder how that would work on a WoD or WoD-esque game, where the players of those things are custodians of them and beholden to use that to support/advance the game, not their own OOC agenda.

@surreality
Correct. Which is why automation won't work with 99% of RPG systems. Big reason why I'm going a different direction with setup and code for HotB.

@Arkandel
I went back and reread and realized I misread. You're meaning 'as long as they're not in use, anyone can grab them for a scene and play them within the guidelines of the character' setup. I was looking at it from the concept of 'this player can get this for long-term off of a roster, and play within the guidelines of the character' angle. But yeah, the big concern is consistency of presentation.

@Thenomain

Storium.

Does this have to be limited to MU*, or is tabletop/LARP okay?

MUSH Deaths

• Beast Wars: Transmetals - Predacon mini-dragon (we had Transmythics with mythical beast altmode, shaddup!) named Imp, who was the 'dragon' to the dragon-form Megatron. He attempted to take over the Predacons, but Megatron was smarter and used his own soldiers (really, ones acting like betrayers in order to draw out true betrayers). Imp got dipped in the lava pits for his trouble.
• Megaman MUSH - Civilian Rainbow Stallion, a music star, had been nearly convinced he was a Maverick due to a Maverick PC who was 'in love' with him. He was dragged along on a mission with other Mavericks, and, when it came down to slaughtering the Civilians... he rebelled and held the line, giving the Hunters time to evac the Civvies. Rainbow died, but all those humans and civilian 'bots lived.

LARP Deaths

• Masquerade LARP circa 2004: Played a Gangrel who ended up becoming an infernalist due to plot. He got Obtenebration out of the deal. He ran around attempting to draw in and convert, or kill, all of the 'newbie' Kindred to give the Camarilla a hard time. Eventually, a Red Alastor (played by my best friend) showed up and it was a faceoff eventually between the ancilla Gangrel and the Elder Ventrue. Epic fight, epic interrogation at the end.
• Requiem LARP circa 2006: Nosferatu Dragon who was essentially Spike as a Nos, versus creepy old man Nos Crone. Nos beatdown ensued in a formal challenge, and he was so terrifying that a number of characters conspired to kill him. He had a new axe built... and it was sabotaged by the forger. He had his connection to a ley line, which granted him extra blood expenditure, severed during the fight by one who he thought was an ally. He got beheaded by the broken axe head of his own sabotaged axe.
• Requiem LARP circa 2007: Played a Ventrue Invictus who was... rather insane. He started out as a Morality 3 human. He was paranoid and the Elysium was built with a number of escape routes like a wall-elevator and shit like Batman. His knight (played again by my Best friend) was even lower humanity Mekhet. The Carthians locally attempted to oust him by murder, and he got away... barely. And then his best friend, in order to 'save' him... staked and diablerized him. That dropped him to 0 Humanity, and they went out together. Was fun as hell.
• Requiem LARP circa 2009: Played a Gangrel Dragon, who was an alchemist as a mortal, was descended from the Unholy and generally overall bookwork badass. I terrified another character, played by a good friend at the time, so much that she went outside the city (this was part of the Camarilla/Mind's Eye Society) to get people to help her kill him, as she was not sure that she and her local allies could kill him. It ended up being really fun, even if I cried when he died.
• Changeling the Lost LARP circa 2008: Wizened Chatelaine of the Winter Court, who was super paranoid and trying to use fae powers against the Fae. He got caught in a crossfire firefight above his pay grade and died in ignominity, smothered by living darkness.
• Changeling the Lost LARP circa 2009: Fairest Treasured, while there were NO combat-PCs involved, trying to stop the Shoggoth pet-eater monster in the city. He got eaten whole by the Shoggoth.

Tabletop Deaths
Scion: Played a meatshield Scion of Brigid. He was known for tanking and being the meatshied (super pretty, super stout, real dumb). He died twice (once by getting blown up by a missile, one by holding the line for his allies while they were under attack from a Titanspawn above their pay grade), but got brought back each time because of reasons. The first time, it was his then-wife who punked the queen of the Unseelie Fae; the second time, I willingly chose Morrigan as a patron and she granted me one last chance.

@purldator
Moonbridges all day erry day. That's how you'll get around.

@Thenomain
He was there hanging out, participating in a LARP and showing off a new card/board game for Masquerade he developed for WW called Conclave, from what I saw third-hand.

@Arkandel
Kenneth Hite is a good writer; he used to write stuff for WW in the day (Cainite Heresy) and he wrote the excellent Night's Black Agents game.

The OTHER name in the controversy, Zak Smith, is a very controversial figure who has been accused of harassment in various forms, evidence both for and against (and evidence of him being counter-harassed), and is kind of a troll. He is also apparently a good writer, having a few things published and a D&D thing he wrote won multiple ENnies (I haven't read his stuff, so I can't verify this). There's a lot of controversy with the guy and, while I don't like his writing style (I find it to be edgy for the sake of edgy), I don't believe he's working on V5 in any capacity though. A writer in OPP's stable, David Hill, quit because WW hired him to write the vampire mobile game (Hill has a history of beef with Zak S. and has accused his 'followers' of taking pictures of his kids' school and issuing threats that as far as I can tell, never got presented to the police, before Hill expated to Japan).

So make of that what you want. A lot of people are screaming to boycott WW because of Zak S. and stating that they are 'condoning harassment'.

I feel like I'll be bitched off the forum for saying this, but I have no opinion on that aspect of it. Until I know that Zak S. is definitively involved in the development of V5, I'm going to continue with cautious optimism, 'cause I like what Ken has written and like what has been revealed so far.

@surreality
Honestly, rape is already on the 'do not do it, do not use it for story purposes' list. I had already planned on having 'make you fuck me' on the 'cannot accomplish by social combat' list. If they want to typefuck you, they can do it, and if you want to build a social conflict around that to get something else other than your rocks off, by all means do so; or if they're up for the idea of being seduced into typefucking, go for it. If they don't want to typefuck you due to any reason (married, wrong orientation, no junk to use), then don't push the fucking issue, that cannot be done via mundane means. To me, 'complete personality change' is not within the realm of social combat anyway, since it's influencing mundanely, so I personally wouldn't list that. One thing I'm doing is having the 'start' of social conflict be declaration of intent. IE: I want you to back me to be uplifted to Patrician. is James' intent against Gladys. Gladys' isn't sold on it; she has history with James being a badmouther, and so she needs convincing, and they go to Social Combat.

ETA: Talking about damage in stages, that's what the Social HP is for; and there's always the Compromise option, where you give up a partial of what the 'attacker' wants to be able to disengage from the intrigue (IE: James hasn't completely convinced Gladys about him being a fit to be a patrician. Gladys' rolls aren't going super well, and she knows she's not going to get a giant favor out of it, if any favor at all if her dice don't give her some love. In this instance, with very few Social HP left, Gladys chooses to Compromise, backing it in exchange for a Trifling Favor and a Lesser Favor, though she'd been hoping to get a Greater Favor out of the deal. James agrees, with the stipulation that he'll make it two Lesser Favors if Gladys doesn't talk about their discourse here. She'll take that deal, she's a smart lady).

@Arkandel
This is entirely a culture thing too, I think. The Transformers/M3/etc. circuit, we never had social stats. We never had a problem, but these were also not non-consensual death games, and speaking from experience, it wasn't until a few years ago that I ran into 'I CANNOT BE INTIMIDATED!' 'I CANNOT BE DESECRETED!' and such. You can't make social combat work without changing the culture, and for that you need to be willing to kick people in the teeth if they are asshats and not abiding by policy.

EDIT TO ADD: One thing that popped into my head since I'm basing my Social Combat idea of the ASoIaF system. Instead of disposition towards the person, perhaps the 'defense' is based on disposition towards the idea? In SIF social combat, your disposition towards that person factors into your social defense. Instead of basing it on just how well you like the person, you set your social defense based on the idea that they posit in the beginning, and much like I'm planning on Offensive/Balanced/Defensive combat stances, you can change your disposition on the fly, as well as one of the options for the 'social attacker' being Change Disposiiton (and yes, they can fuck that up and damage their OWN social HP).

Hrm. My advice is super-anecdotal and comes from the Transformers/etc. circuit, but...

• Don't be afraid to steal your players' ideas and run with them, especially if you can get the player to collaborate on helping out.
• Don't be afraid to let people, and even arrange for, people to have the spotlight. Just spread the love.
• Don't be afraid to have fun. We make games to have fun. People forget this. Play your characters. DO THE THING. This whole 'ZOMG YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING COOL YOU'RE STAFF IT'S SO UNFAIR' is only unfair if the love is not spread around.
• Be willing to put your foot down. People may whine and scream and bitch, but it's your game and they need to abide by your rules.

@Jennkryst
Flying sims/space systems are awful. Just let people pose and give them a good combat system with options.

MOAR!

• Record of Lodoss War and its contingent series
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Escaflowne (fantasy + giant robots + crazy culture and origins)
• Pokemon. A good Pokemon MU* could do fun things.

@HelloProject
If you were to go more along the Pokemon Generations angle, rather than straight up the Pokemon anime, it'd work. Generations is a bit more... straightforward, less kiddy, version of Pokemon. Could be coded up very easily as well (hell, any of the M3/TF/etc. games that allow for multiple forms is an easy way to do it, your six 'mon on your person).

@Arkandel
More will percolate in my brain while I'm at work today, but I do have to say I kinda like the idea of nightly allowance, for 'considered hunting' stuff. Maybe that, combined with Herd and territory control could be fun. It would prevent the 'and I connect, and I frenzy in an empty room because I had 1 blood when I awoke, which was my gripe with the LARP I mentioned above using the 'throw a d10' starting blood.

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE. A Thousand Years of Night is out. I have a copy. I am reading it. It's... interesting.

It's very much a mix of fluff and crunch. The fluff is about playing elders and methuselahs with care given to Requiem 2e's specific builds and world setup. It's definitely NOT a redux of what many of us know from Masquerade and playing elders, really.

There are more Elder Devotions. There's Elder Blood Sorcery. There's some old antagonists rewritted (Akhud, Pjavica, Julii), new antagonists (Empusae and Lamiae, Inamorata which is a a thing that mimics an old loved one and makes vampires go crazy with their blood, humans that steal vampire immortality through killing elders), a new Covenant, a new Coil, Scales, Merits, Carthian bullshit Law, Oaths, and a section on elder crossover for every splat except Werewolves.

@Coin
The one who screams the loudest usually has the most to hide.

Truefax yo.

@Arkandel
We don't know. The playtest is literally 'here's all the Hunger mechanics, here is te combat rules, here's some Disciplines up to 3, go to town'. Generation is in there but as a tacked on 'this will probably break shit' mechanic. APparently we'll have a much better and more thorough full Alpha, not pre-Alpha, release after Gencon.

@Ghost
I wouldn't call it 'back to'. OWoD and NWoD/CofD have existed side by side for a LONG time. This is just the 5E Masquerade. A couple of notes, though, separate from the packet, from the Berlin convention and such...

• The core clans will exist. The starting 'core setup' will be Camarilla and Anarch as separate 'setting guides/books'. A Camarilla that is closed off, becoming an old boys club that you have to earn your way into after the Anarchs fucked things up. And Anarchs that are let to do what they want as long as they 1) don't attack the Camarilla and 2) uphold the First Tradition.
• The setting is set during a Gehenna War, which has put a mystical compulsion on many eldeers of 7th Generation or lower to go 'to the East' and fight in it. It implies a huge shadow war (and in some places, open war) in ancient lands associated with the origin of vampires.
• The Sabbat has followed, nearly en masse, followed the Elders to the East to fight in the Gehenna War, using the conflicts there as cover for their monstrosity. The Sabbat will not be initially playable in the core 5E documents.
• Due to the Second Inquisition, the cities of the world are a bit more closed-off, and you can't easily just call up the guy in the next Domain over.

Oh, here's the stuff I transcribed from the Berlin interview.

• 5th Edition plans for a 'streamlined core' with things specific to those games being printed in those games.
• Vampire 5th Edition (or V5) will use Beckett's Jyhad Diary as a jumping off point for the new metaplot.
• V5 draw back the focus more to the street level. There has been a Beckoning of most Elders to the Middle East to fight in the Gehenna War. Some Elders have resisted.
• The Sabbat, some time ago, followed thisbeckoning and flood of elders to the Middle East and have their fingers in many conflicts, using them as cover for their activities. They plan to eliminate the ancients once and for all, and are roughly out of the main stage of the game.
• The vampires are undergoing a Second Inquisition, which is spurred by a govenmental organized purge, even beyond the activities of Project Twilight. It's apparently very brutal and effective.
• The Camarilla cut loose or, in many cases, eliminated many Anarchs, giving them free reign but demanding they follow the First Tradition. Through this, the Camarilla has become the 'secret society' aspect, and you have to earn your way into it. Anarchs have been exiled from the Camarilla, along with Caitiff and thin-bloods. A new emphasis on the masquerade. City hierarchies are even more drastic. In the face of these challenges, Kindred society goes dark — vampire cities become more isolated, and there's a slow reversion to Dark Ages traditions.
• V5's first releases will be the core, Anarch and Camarilla books. The books will focus on the core Cam 7 clans (or maybe Cam8, they DID mention that the Assamite schism happened...), with mention of Independents in later supplements, harkening back to 1e Masquerade.

Other stuff is detailed out here: http://musoapbox.net/topic/1604/vampire-the-masquerade-5th-edition-info/6?page=1