Posts made by Ganymede

@Rook

I play there as Erin. The ARES system allows you to register a handle for all your alts, and mine is, naturally, @Ganymede. So, I'm pretty easy to find.

Double-posting because of lunacy.

Until today, I did not realize that a woman could be denied health coverage because she had been sexually assaulted in the past.

I saw this headline after the GOP passed the American Health Care Act, which repeals key parts of the PPACA. I didn't believe it, so I did research.

And it's true, folks.

Excuse me a second.

@Rook

wut?

@Derp said in CofD and Professional Training:

@Coin said in CofD and Professional Training:

since neither Cardiology nor Surgery are progressions of each other.

Except that's just your interpretation of it.

Except that it isn't an interpretation. Surgery and cardiology are two completely different topics. And they are two different skills from two different bases of knowledge.

Surgery is a skill. It rests on basic medical knowledge, but it is a skill. Not all cardiologists have that skill, and not every surgeon has a working knowledge of cardiology. There are cardiac surgeons, just as there are orthopedic surgeons. And, in fact, cardiac surgeons are rare, because you need to spend an awful lot of time -- and probably a fellowship -- just to be recognized as such a specialist.

If anything, accuracy demands that surgery and cardiology not stack. If you want to be a cardiac surgeon, you'd probably need both specialties -- and probably have some sort of penalty given the difficulty of cardiac surgery.

This is an aside. If I had a point, it is that stacking specialties is a subjective call. Parties to the roll can agree to it; staff can rule on it; or you can simply forbid stacking, which is what I'd do to short-cut the sort of opinionated argument above.

@surreality said in CofD and Professional Training:

For social characters or crafters? Pretty much screwed. I played a lot of artists and performers.

Social characters have Conditions to inflict. Or, at least, in theory they do. And crafters? Fuck, White Wolf/Onyx Path was never good with fleshing those rules out.

Hence, as you said: homebrew.

@Lithium

You're right; you definitely can; and Moon-Kissed only applies to Auspice skills, yes. It's been a long while since I've exercised my W:tF-fu.

@Lithium said in CofD and Professional Training:

Let's say you were going with an all out rahu build: 5 into physical, 4 into mental, 3 into social.

STR 4 DEX 1 STA 2
Brawl 5 to start, specialization in martial arts or street fighting or Claws or grappling or whatever
Purity 2 to start with gift that adds purity to str for 1 essence for the scene.
Dalu form is +2 STR
All Out is +2 dice
Willpower is +3 dice

Okay, so just the above: anyone, including a Mortal, can get +5 dice to an attack if they go All-Out and burn a WP. So, that's not unique to the race, that's just something you can do.

The gift you're referring to, I think, is Bloody-Handed Hunter. That requires Purity 3, which you can't start with. It also requires that you have the Siskah-Dur condition. But let's suppose you do the below, and sink 8 XP into getting Purity 3 and Strength 5. Then, sure, I will grant that you have made a PC with 21 dice for a Brawl roll.

On review, you can't get Body as Weapon because that requires Stamina 3. You also can't get Martial Arts, which requires Dexterity 3 and other stats. And you can't get Berserker 3 because that requires Iron Stamina 3, which you can't get without Stamina 3. Can't get any of the Fighting Merits, actually, not even Relentless Assault.

But, yes. You've got the build. Which is made all the more lethal with Full Moon 1 (8-again on Brawl rolls). And that's Lethal damage in Dalu, presuming you're using claws.

So I have to assume that Vampires have a way to get more strength than a mortal, and that mages can do something similar with magic if they wanted to.

Well, sure. Strength 5 + Brawl 5 for a vampire to begin with. You can buy Disciplines up to get Vigor 5 with 6 XP if you're a Nossie or Daeva. And then, you can go All-Out and spend a WP, and get 20 dice too, 21 with a specialty in brawling. And you could make that really painful by spending a BP, which'd give a +5L bump, if you hit. Still only a 10-again roll, though.

And, yeah, I guess you could get a Mage up there; I think that my PC, who didn't max out her stats all the way, could pull 16 pool with +2L in a strike (with no magic or magic-related merits). And I guess the Shrike could have had Brawl as an Asset Skill (she doesn't), which means that a mortal could have an 16-die, +2L attack at 9-again without supernatural means.

But the cost. For the supers, it takes the spending of XP to get where you want. For mortals, it doesn't: just 7 merit points to get 16 dice and +2L.

As an aside, let's say you have Professional Training, and you permit it across the boards (which I think Reno does? and which the CoD rules imply). As a Werewolf, you could take a profession that gives you Brawl as an Asset Skill. Then, you could take Moon-Kissed to bump that up to 8-again. You could easily build a very, very deadly Dex-based Irraka that can dish out 15L with 8-again that doesn't need to strike from shadows, but, if it did, then that could make the attack a Rote action. Which is way over-and-above what Rahu do, and are pre-destined to be really good at.

That's why I said before, the merit kind of unbalances things for vampires and werewolves (especially vampires). And then, if it is applied in a discerning fashion, you get the complaints. And then, you get the complaints that you aren't following the rules (which you aren't), and there's all this yelling and screaming and blah.

Then, you get me and @surreality, who have our opinions and reasons and simply decided: fuck it.

I know why others have their opinion, and I'm trying to express mine. But you're right, the builds are possible: I just hadn't sat down to do so until now.

@Rook said in State of Things:

I want to find the happy middle ground. Except for over science. Businessmen and religious organization who are trying to push an anti-science agenda for their own profit or beliefs can fuck right off. Humanity will be worse off for the attempts of these people.

I find it more or less laughable, in a horrid way, that people believe Marx somehow invented socialism. Or that Marx and communists were the first anti-capitalists. Or that religious people cannot embrace science.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

A religious man said this.

Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.

A capitalist said this.

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities.

This too.

A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.

And this.

And that would be the fellow who wrote The Wealth of Nations.

You know, that bedrock that all those puerile Randian and foolish Austrian economists hail back to, as if they had any understanding of the social and political mores that existed in Smith's time.

So, it's sort of frustrating when "the bastions of free market capitalism" fail to understand that the "free market" only works where everyone gets rewarded for their labor.

And this makes me laugh.

@Monogram said in Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Thread:

You sure about that? I mean, when I made my Ryder, I noticed a particular /lack/ of choices when it came to making a face. Not when you compare it to the previous titles. Or at least, it just seemed that way.

I meant "more customizable" relative to The Witcher III and The Last of Us Remastered.

@Auspice said in CofD and Professional Training:

Yeah, I was told people are stacking for up to +3.
Not +1.

Right, but if you already had the specialty, then you can get up to +2 dice. And that's still not really close to 9-again or Rote actions in reasonable pools.

Me? I don't allow the stacking of specialties when I GM. I don't care if it's not consistent with the rules: stacking is one of those "judgment call" things that ought to be removed if possible.

@surreality said in CofD and Professional Training:

There are also, from what I half-recall, anyway, a shit-ton of things that give supers 9-again and sometimes even 8-again. Not so much the case for mortals.

I don't recall those shit-ton of things. I can think of a couple, but they are limited to circumstances, not the use of a common dice pool. And they would also be supernatural powers.

@Lithium said in CofD and Professional Training:

A werewolf can /easily/ get upwards of 20+ dice on brawl just to start. Even subtracting defense that's still going to get an exceptional success most of the time, and rote doesn't matter.

I assume the same things can be done for Vampires and other splats. I think I recall hearing some nonsense about Sin-Eaters being uber dice happy. Don't know, never played one or read their stuff.

I wouldn't mind if someone constructed a werewolf that starts with 20+ dice on brawl. Let's give that PC 10 XP to do it, and have them use CoD rules.

And then do the same for a vampire and/or mage.

If you don't believe that PTraining can unbalance concepts, that's fine, I'm okay with that. We're trading opinions. I'm just hearing a lot of outlandish conjecture regarding builds which I have honestly never seen, and I believe that what I do see will require some tortured reading of an obscure provision in Book X that we've all sort of went along with without thinking: is my interpretation absurd?

Either opinion is fine with me, and will probably not deter me from playing on a game.

@Monogram said in Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Thread:

Also, I could be completely wrong on that, I just /heard/ that using Frostbite was a huge pain in the ass.

You choose fruit, you live with fruit.

Frostbite was built for FPSs, I get that. Their facial textures aren't great, and I suppose my complaint is -- why not? Everything else was fucking upgraded, and the faces for NHL '17 looked a lot better on PS4.

The Witcher III and The Last of Us Remastered looked better, and they are older. I'll give the game a pass because the faces are more customizable in Frostbite, and there is far more dialogue, but it still kind of bugged me.

@Auspice said in CofD and Professional Training:

But we fight over PT so much more.

An extra-stacked specialty gives you +1 dice.

Professional Training can allow you to make a roll with an Asset Skill a Rote action by spending 1 WP. That skill remains 9-again.

One tilts a result far greater than the other.

Fortress Maximus, aka Forktongue Maxipuss.

@Ataru said in RL Anger:

I just looked at him (I'm about twice his age) and said, "Violent is when you're being beaten in an alley by a group of people calling you 'fucking queer' ... it is not in any way a 'look'". He actually had the balls to respond, "But my violence is just as valid as yours."

It's not exactly the same per se but it made me feel just the way you did per se.

@WTFE said in RL Anger:

Does that mean you're going to shut up about "microaggressions" then?

I seriously don't know what that word means anymore.

@Jennkryst said in Brainstorming: Hybrid/Homebrew Werewolf Game:

I THINK (or would guess/suggest) that the lodges are the social structure, with the base tribe you're a part of being just a mechanical bit, for the purpose of gifts and renown.

Very well. If that's the case, then maybe changing the names of the Tribes would help. For consideration:

Archetypes

The Talon (Glory): The war is here; the Garou are ready. You rush forward into the fray with the intent not to capture or mollify, but to annihilate your foe. They will surrender or they will die. (Lodges: Fianna; Fenrir; Wendigo.)

The Shadow (Wisdom): There will always be darkness, and you are its master. From it, you learn the quiet things that no one knows, and use those secrets to undermine your enemies' efforts. You conduct the war wisely and safely, in secret and away from the light. (Lodges: Bone Gnawers; Silent Striders; Uktena.)

The Warden (Purity): Beset on all sides, only the purest of hearts and cleanest of souls will withstand the predations of the Weaver and the Wyrm. You keep the old ways, and protect the sacred sites from defilement. Gaia's most eldritch blessings are yours to command. (Lodges: Black Furies; Red Talons; Croatan.)

The Master (Cunning): Knowledge is useless without application. Application is wasteful, if not perfected. And if it is not perfect, it is not worth doing. You put into motion that which will not fail because you are the best, and the best don't fail. (Lodges: Glass Walkers; Shadow Lords; Stargazers.)

The Lord (Honor): Not everyone is destined to be an Alpha. Of all of the approaches, the Alpha must practice all. It is your way because it is the right way, and it is the right way because it is your way. You lead your pack to victory because it would never find it without you. (Lodges: Children of Gaia; Silver Fangs; White Howlers.)

Just some ideas.

@Rook

I play US daytimes. Try BSG: Unification. Battlestar Galactica is a sci-fi war scenario. Players there are good, the code is great, and CGen is so quick and easy you can do it through the web.

@surreality said in CofD and Professional Training:

TR's explanation for this I think was actually quite good: once you start having to deal with sustaining your reality as part of a non-mortal sphere, with all of its high maintenance requirements and secrets and new things to contend with you never had to handle before, you simply do not have the time to maintain those former professional connections in the mundane world you did when you were, yourself, mundane.

I didn't buy the explanation on TR, and I still don't buy it. At least, not realistically. That's sort of like saying that I've become less proficient as a lawyer because I have a family now. Or, said another way, an architect that gets turned into a ghoul because his domitor needs an architect will lose that which makes him proficient at being an architect because magic.

Fallen World's explanation is sensible because it's a single-sphere game involving humans that toss magic missiles, and how Mysteries do, in fact, swallow up your life. But the explanation falls apart when you consider how odd it would be for a banger to suddenly become less proficient in brawling when he goes from Snoop Dogg to Snoop Wolf.

So, yeah, I prefer PT off of multi-race games as staff to avoid the inevitable oh why oh why.

@Wizz said in Brainstorming: Hybrid/Homebrew Werewolf Game:

This is what I've been discovering the more I think about it. Rather than try to reinvent the entire damn wheel and shake up the entire structure of Renown, Moon Gifts, Wolf Gifts, Shadow Gifts that is all already built and there and basically balanced and functional, all I'm really doing is maybe changing the fluff and terminology and tacking some stuff on.

I'm basically eliminating the 1.0 Lodges entirely, calling the canon W:tF tribes Lodges and changing a lot of thematic stuff about them, and adding the W:tA Tribes as an additional social structure that maybe messes with some default CGen settings, adds some custom Shadow gifts, and lets people add flair and cool factor to their characters.

I'm still not clear on what you're doing.

Turning the W:tF Tribes into Lodges is going to be problematic, I think, because the Five Tribes are sort of built into the game itself. I can kind of see how you could wedge the W:tA Tribes into the existing Tribes and calling them Lodges, I'm not as clearly seeing what you want to do with the W:tF Tribes.

@surreality said in CofD and Professional Training:

You lose other things with almost any template change by default, even if it doesn't make logical sense, per the above example.

But your examples are supernatural-related. Professional training isn't supernatural.

I think I'm splitting hairs, but there's a difference. And it doesn't answer the question of how a vampire can't have professional training.

SEE I'M CREATING MY OWN HEADACHE.