Posts made by Tempest

@Breezy said:

Anyway, I'm looking for a similar game. I remember years ago, Chiaroscuro and Firan where both games that had mechanics similar to what I'd like. So, are there any other current games like this? I'm looking for something fantasy based. But, I'd try out a WoD game (I love Changeling).

With Firan dead, I'm afraid I'm unaware of anything other than a MUD that has actual crafting or trading. The closest you'll probably get is that zombie mush (No Return?) or something like that. It has some kind of salvage system.

@tragedyjones when are Changeling and Mage supposed to come out?

I cringe, thinking about actual instances of this.

Even though it makes sense to allow it, I do not at all think anybody besides the owner/user of a relic should be able to pay the xp cost for it. And no, they can not lend it to a friend for a little bit (coughforevercough). That's one glaring flaw that is easily fixed, even though I imagine it'd spawn whining. Throw in some BS houserule about the XP spend representing the artifact 'attuning' to the user or something.

As somebody who's never really dived into all of the WoD, magic items kind of aggravate me. In part because I don't understand them really, and in part because my only experience with them was on The Reach, and they all seemed to revolve around just giving more dots/bonuses to rolls. And there are already enough ways to stack rolls without 'magic relics' that give +5 to brawl or whatever.

@HelloRaptor said:

As you mentioned things like Devotions can be pretty malleable for those that want to delve into them, but games seem to act like you're some kind of thought criminal if you try.

I imagine it's generally because people make devotions specifically designed to help their character and their character alone in some niche fashion, and sometimes it's ridiculous bullshit that doesn't add much beyond making their character more 'badass'. The Reach and that stupid 'custom' thing that was restricted to one of the families and buffed the vampire agg-claw thing to 'also steal the target's vitae' or w/e is always what pops up in my mind as the go-to for ridiculous custom BS.

I really like the idea of custom stuff, but it's hard to find a balance with it of allowing people to make fun/cool things that don't confer giant mechanical benefits.

Yeah, 'temporarily get dots in X skill' is a handy trick. Part of why the Zelani are one of my favorite vampire bloodlines. None of the vampire games except RfK allows them though.

Haha, I did. I can't remember my characters from there, and the wiki is dead.

I still really like the cavalry ladies and the archery/bounty hunter people.

Wasn't somebody actually supposed to be making that? I remember seeing the ad posts on WORA. What ever happened to it?

I hate to admit it, but I find I'm not a fan of 'no passive xp, go do shit to earn it'. Mostly, I just don't like having to check in with staff and tell them what I've been doing every 7 days. "Fuck you, I did one bar scene and TS'd 3 times, stop looking at me like that and give me my xp."

@Arkandel said:

What the problem is is when people only play up, not down. So for instance they can't fake physical dots (sooner or later they'd need to roll brawl+strength) but they'll avoid portraying low social dots.

From a meta-point of view, it's challenging to roleplay someone being bad at some things without making a caricature out of them.

I am pretty guilty of this with one of my current PCs. She has Presence 1, Manipulation 2, and a spread of 4 dots in social skills. (Socialize 2, Empathy 1, Subterfuge 1). I didn't really -mean- to do it, going in. I just made the mistake of going 'hey, I want to play a not very social, easy to overlook character, whose limited social interactions are going to be heavily influenced by cues from her high Auspex-----oh wait, I'm a fucking idiot and 99% of the RP I'm going to be doing is social. Hm. Yeah, I need to get around to raising that stuff.....eventually.'

@Coin said:

It's not, but people will grumble because, "my character is a career criminal, it's not fair that I have to BUY LARCENY". No, really.

Wow, yeah, that's a whole level I haven't had to encounter. I guess that's the benefit of not being staff. I've encountered (and understand) the stuff like 'my character is a career criminal AND has XYZ skills/whatever and shouldn't need Resources 3 to acquire XYZ item'. Actually complaining because you don't have skills to back up your character's purported job is pretty laughable.

Oh, I can imagine. People'll bitch about anything.

Gameplay-wise though it's not like it's much different than having a pool of 7 dice and failing a couple of times because dice hate you, which we all know happens.

Failing can be just as fun as winning!

I flip-flop on liking GMC's style of dots/costs and not.

Mostly, I only dislike it when I get around to going 'hmm, my character should really have XYZ skill at 1-2 even if it's never going to come up' and the immediately following thought of 'fuck that, I could get my fifth dot of XYZ for the same cost and actually use it'.

@Wizz said:

EDIT: Like, if you don't find the idea of your genitalia falling off and all your business down there fusing into a cloaca and a gigantic bloodsucking worm taking up residence in your throat horrifying, I don't know wtf is wrong with you man.

If I start watching the Strain it's going to be because of this sentence.

@Arkandel I'm not sure I agree. You'd have to purposefully scale all your supernatural enemies to be abnormally strong, if you rained xp on plain mortals. I mean, it's a hunter game. I doubt one mortal would be looking for a werewolf/vamp alone. What're they going to do against 3-4 mortals who are all throwing 12-15 dice on attacks? (Mind you, 12 dice on an attack is 3 in a stat, 4 in a skill w/specialty+area of expertise, and a willpower spend. Not at all hard to reach, and in fact, wouldn't be too absurd to come out of CG with.) God forbid if the mortals actually have hardcore weapons above like 'fist and knives' levels. Even 1 success can easily be 3-5 damage.

I play a vampire on Reno who has 60 XP. 40 of that XP has been spent on discipline dots. She has Celerity 3 and a whopping 9 defense. Three CG-level 0 xp mortals who were made for combat could probably ruin her day, which is kind of sad to think about. On the plus side, they'd have a hard time stopping her from getting away.

Personally, I like Ark's idea about allowing minor templates, but -capping- them in some way. Don't let a ghoul have vigor 5/etc. In part, I'm just besotted with the idea of how amazingly useful stuff like Dot 1 of Obfuscate/Dominate/etc would be for a ghoul. There'd also be /serious/ worries about getting vitae. If you have 3 stamina, you have 3 vitae, and every time you spend one, you have to /seriously/ work to get it back.

I mean really, even in a mortal-only game, unless you significantly set some kind of limits on just flat-out what stats/etc somebody can take, a combat PC can easily throw out 13-15 attack dice for 4+ attacks. And that's before you factor in ridiculous things like the 'thrust' style technique. Despite all the complaints about GMC's defense, you have to be a combat-focused character with a twinky-defense power like Celerity at 4-5 to not cringe at 13+ attack dice.

How would you keep the game at that level though? Cap XP at like 20, forever, or something? Just let people cg with X amount of xp, and that's all they get forever?

I'd be a-okay with that as a player (assuming of course it's that way for everybody, without exception), but it seems like nobody ever wants to make a game where XP is actually limited.

There's always a lot of talk about "lower power level games/blahblah", but it is not reflected at all, by there being any game around that is designed that way.

So, the opening post says 'multi-sphere support'. Does that mean all splats? I mean, Reno and Eldritch technically have 'multi-sphere support' even though they're only 2 & 3 splats, respectively.

Apparently you're doing GMC? Mage & Changeling are supposedly coming out sometime soon-ish. Hurt locker, too. Are you going to wait for those? Are you going to psuedo-update splats that aren't GMC-ified, or just try to shove them in in their original form?

@Sunny said:

It is a little teaser thing. I'm glad you guys like it!

No, that's my next character's background.