Posts made by Coin

@Ganymede

I think you could do what you want by getting rid of Gnosis (which you are) and simply making Arcana into separate Merits. There's no real need, IMO, to make them linked to any one stat. Instead, if you want to limit their increase systematically, make sure that to have the next level, you need to already have a predetermined amount of Rotes in the previous ones.

For example:

Forces 1 requires no rotes (as there are no Forces 0 rotes; but it does open the character's knowledge of the Arcanum).
Forces 2 requires two Forces 1 rotes.
Forces 3 requires three Forces 1 rotes and two Forces 2 rotes.
Forces 4 requires four Forces 1 rotes, three Forces 2 rotes, and two Forces 3 rotes.
Forces 5 requires five Forces 1 rotes, four Forces 2 rotes, three Forces 3 rotes, and two Forces 4 rotes.

This is actually a system I have had in the backburner for a while and will probably use some day, but you're welcome to it if you like it, obviously. It makes characters have to broaden their horizons in lower levels before advancing--which is more "realistic", but more importantly, it makes sure someone who uses magic actually has an internal grimoire (so to speak) instead of cherry picking rotes they like and relying on creative thaumaturgy for everything else (which would be bad in your system anyway, since a lack of Gnosis would make their dice pools lame).

@Vorpal

Man, some Stage Directors are the worst. I stage managed for a while and I had basically a 50/50 experience with stage directors. Like, either they were great and fun and we worked awesome together--or they were fucking pricks with soe much pretension they made hipsters look like feasible lunch buddies.

Double post:

Attributes and Skills for Rotes, much like Attributes and Skills for Rites in Werewolf are not flexible so that the player can apply their largest dicepool. They're flexible so that the spell and/or rite can be thematically appropriate to the way the character would do it.

This is largely a Storyteller call. If someone is trying to change a "detect life" spell so that it uses Socialize, a Storyteller can (hyperbolically) do one of three things: 1. say No; 2. say Yes; 3. tell them they can do that but now their spell is dependent on actually interacting with the target, so it's only really useful for detecting shit like vampires, who are animated and seem alive, but aren't, and other such creatures.

I prefer 1. Because 2. is against the spirit of the flexibility of the rules, and 3. is being a dick.

@Ganymede said:

An idea I had to encourage Rote innovation is to allow PCs to swap around their Rote points freely, and maintain a list of approved Rotes learned on their Wiki page. So if I have 2-pt. Rotes and a 3-pt. Rote, I could swap in a 5-pt. Rote and a 2-pt. Rote from the list at the beginning of a scene. I haven't worked out the details on how to keep track of Rote-swapping.

Sounds pretty similar to D&D wizard-style memorization, for all practical purposes. "Oh, for this session I have a-b-c memorized".

Aside from that, I'm with @Misadventure in that I fail to see a way to concretely delineate each Arcanum to a specific Attribute. What is it about "Forces" that is intrinsically represented by "Strength"? Etc. It seems like it will end in a mostly arbitrary classification.

@thebird Gotta buy that Tolerance for Biology Merit, stat.

(My condolences. Hope your hubby gets better soon. For both your sakes.)

I didn't realize how unenthused I was about GoT coming back until I saw the new trailer had come out and still haven't bothered to watch it.

@Insomnia What kind of games are they?

@EmmahSue said:

Yes, I still plan to open one, once I have rules.

ES

No rules for ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

@Warma-Sheen said:

I don't care what anyone thinks. I liked everything about Fuller House! Well, only the first episode, but still. It was great nostalgia reunion fun!

I watched the entire season.

#noregrets

P.S. The Night Manager is pretty good.

@lordbelh said:

@Coin said:

I watched the first episode, but I didn't continue. I'm basically saving it up for when there's a drought.

It kept growing on me until I couldn't stop watching.

I don't wanna say there's too much great TV these days.. but there almost is. I can't keep up with everything I wanna watch, either. I often just file things away for binge watching when I've got a slow weekend or something.

I hate having to track down which episode I stopped watching on. So I just don't watch until I'm ready to binge. Netflix helps a little because it keeps the spot for you, but not everything I wanna watch is on Netflix.

@lordbelh said:

@Arkandel Almost back with its final season, that's where it is! God I love Banshee. It became my ultimate guilty pleasure once Spartacus left the airwaves.

ETA: Seriously, though, am I the only one who watched The Expanse? I haven't loved a single syfy show since Battlestar Galactica, but finally some in-space sci-fi I can love.

I watched the first episode, but I didn't continue. I'm basically saving it up for when there's a drought.

@Arkandel said:

How and why had I not watched Penny Dreadful past the first two episodes before? It's so, so good.

Probably because you routinely ignore my advice.

@Gingerlily said:

Also speaking of HBO has anyone noticed that every HBO series ever is on On Demand right now? Big Love (loved it, not sorry) Carnivale! (don't expect any of you to have watched it, I think I was one of like four people in America who watched it hence its cruel cancellation) Deadwood! (I know you guys watched that! Some things everyone just loves, even me)

I haven't watched any of these. But I know tons and tons of people who watched and loved Carnivale. I think you're just surrounding yourself with the wrong people, obviously.

@Arkandel said:

@Vorpal I bet my country of origin can give your country of origin a run for the money it doesn't have.

This comment couldn't have been more hipster had it been ironic.

Anyone else noticing the @name function isn't working? Like I can't link to someone's name by using @<name>. @Glitch doesn't create a link (or, I suspect, create a notification for him).

@Roz said:

@tragedyjones said:

@Roz said:

Okay guys be real. I have never played WoD in any form, but I am smart and can read things and am good at asking questions politely. And a bunch of folks are clearly excited about this. Should this be the time I try it?

Just a heads up, BITN is not going to seem like your average CofD/WoD/etc experience, because you are not playing a Monster Protagonist.

Well, I don't have any experience with what the average is!

I think his comment was more geared to "whatever you experience on BITN, it is probably not what you shopuld consider average for this sort of game".

I love Demon. I've heard the "from human to monster" argument before, but it doesn't really strike the same chord with me. I don't know--I don't think the gameline--as in, the entire thing, all games inclusive--should be limited by that particular aspect of theme (and it clearly isn't), so I am okay with it.

What BITN has going for it is that it really doesn't care about the other books, so the reading is minimal. It doesn't even give most of Mortal Remains (the Hunter update for GMC) much lip service since it ignores all its fluff.

BITN has the potential to become its own thing, which is really great.

Google's back. FOR NOW. DUNDUNDUN.