What are some themes that you like to use in your games? Do you play up the fact that vampires are social creatures that have a simmering demonic hatred inside of them, with the Beast always struggling to overthrow the Man? Do you ignore the moral greyness of Hunter to play pulpy games where "is Vigilantism right" are sidelined in favour of four colour heroics against vampires? Does anyone actually play Mage games that are all about Indiana Jonesing lost Supernal temples?
What about less overt playstyle focused themes? Do you have recurring plot elements that you like to use, or NPC tropes like the damsel in distress or double agent?
Which hacks have you found useful, like the Soft-Loud/Smooth-Rough system from Demon, or the ones from VtR Chronicler's Guide for playing more monstrous vamps?
Basically: What are your games like (when you actually get to run them, that is)?
>What are some themes that you like to use in your games? Do you play up the fact that vampires are social creatures that have a simmering demonic hatred inside of them, with the Beast always struggling to overthrow the Man? Do you ignore the moral greyness of Hunter to play pulpy games where "is Vigilantism right" are sidelined in favour of four colour heroics against vampires? Does anyone actually play Mage games that are all about Indiana Jonesing lost Supernal temples? Isnt this going to create another shit storm like the last thread?
Leo Taylor
Reposting
Hey guys, have a bit of an issue with one player in the group. He is a new player who joined recently and he's the kind of player who is convinced that everything mentioned by the GM is going to have some sort of significance.
Case in point: the group went to meet a Nos primogen and I described an archive of tapes and dvds he has and the player, while the rest of the group are talking, just starts showing everything into the bag. When the stunned Nos asked what the hell he's doing, his reasoning was that this place is not safe (the Noc sewers got attacked recently) and that he will be preserving this in his home.
Naturally, this is completely retarded and there was an argument but the question is how to deal with that sort of behavour.
On one hand, the stuff he grabbed did have some useful things there, I was just not expecting him to just steal everything. But if he discovers some good stuff, then I will be just enabling this sort of behaviour further. And if I say that there's absolutely nothing useful there, then I will dishonest and it's a dick move to say that all the stuff is useless.
Now the reason I'm asking and not discussing this with him, is because we already had a talk recently about him not working as well in the group, so I don't want to immediately tell him that again, he's doing something wrong.
I am also considering showing him what happens when you piss of a Nos primogen, but I'm not sure whether I would be too much of a dick. My idea is to have the Nos stalk them after that and use Obfuscate to turn into a human when the Brujah goes hunting, turn into Nos in the middle of drinking and tell him that he'll be blood-bound. That would make the player very paranoid but is that a bitch thing to do?
Gabriel Wright
wtf is Soft-Loud/Smooth-Rough?
Luke Johnson
How he fucks
Daniel Butler
My games are very explicitly personal horror: Vampire is about the horrific slide into being a monster, Hunter is about burning your normal life in order to uphold your Vigil, Mages are torn apart by their obsessions and increasingly alien perspectives, etc. If we're playing a game about humans that have become monsters, I want to explore how unpleasant that transition is to go through.
I'm a sucker for anything heavy on "professionals," whether that means government agents or tools of a more nebulous authority; playing rebels and rabble has zero appeal for me. Many of my characters are veterans, because I've grown up surrounded by military culture. History is always a big deal in my games; if I can tie my monster into a bit of obscure mythology or the past of a place, I'll do that over coming up with something wholly original every time.
In-game politics bore the snot out of me. I don't care what the Hierarch said or what's dividing the local Blood Talons, I want intimate Tier 1 stuff.
My games usually wind up incredibly queer, because that's the circles I run in. It isn't a special snowflake wankfest, but many characters definitely break the cishet norm.
>tfw haven't gamed in three years and all of the games I've have been in have all been terrible half-hearted affairs with either a high school friend group or godawful Veeky Forums anons
Colton Allen
Personally, I'd say if they're going to do stuff like that give them a vague punishment. Throw a time constraint at them and tell them that going through ALL the tapes will take for fuckin ever.
Thomas Wright
That player character should at the very least find himself blacklisted by the entire Nosferatu clan as a political body in the domain, who will likely try to smear him even further. Why didn't the primogen try and stop him?
Adrian Martinez
>History Buff and a /k/ommando Thats good!
>Hating politics and borderline special snowflake Thats bad.
Brody Sanders
It's not that I hate politics, it's that they're usually beyond the scale of my chronicle; when the story revolves around how one young bunch of Kindred handle themselves as they adjust to their new unlives, it doesn't really matter which factions are duking it out inside the Carthians within the city because our attention is focused squarely on the main characters and their immediate situation.
I don't think "gay and trans people exist" is all that special snowflake, is it?
