/cofd/&/wodg/ Chronicles of Darkness and World of Darkness General

Thanks, what kind of mystery becomes a capital M Mystery? It's interesting I've not gotten into this, I seem to make a detective/investigator/police consultant for just about every line at some point, a game all about investigating sounds great.

Magical Investigators is the primary theme.
People who have awakened to a fundmental truth and desire to learn more, and cast off the shackles of the Lie of reality.

Many shitty players get caught up in using it to act their power fantasies however, acting in such a way that would be horrendously destructive to in-game Wisdom and result in them spiralling into Madness.

Anything that requires enough attention to solve that it can become one's Obsession.
Capitalized purely because its also a game trait, since Mages are obsessive as fuck.

On an unrelated note, can someone give me a rough guide of what ranks of the various Ephemeral Entities I should be giving my players at various levels of Gnosis, if I want something easy/challenging/hard?
Something tells me it isn't just a 1-to-1 translation, and a 1-dot Spirit will be wrecked, while a 3-dot one might be difficult to deal with.

>Thanks, what kind of mystery becomes a capital M Mystery?

Basically anything sufficiently supernatural and weird that it'd pose a challenge for a Mage.

Figuring out which werewolf tore this poor man apart isn't a Mystery, but figuring out WHY the werewolves are tearing people apart more than usual might be.

Generally learning about anything with a Supernatural component.
Including both Supernal, and Terrestrial Supernatural powers.

So investigating a Murder would really only be a Mystery if you went about it with the angle of investigating what happens when you gently sever a Ghost's anchors, or something else other than "I wanna find out who stabbed this guy".

But anything with regards to a Supernatural power source, such as a Vampire's Vitae, or Spiritual Essence, is a Mystery.

Being better than everyone else

youtube.com/watch?v=uJnN3WMwDsk
Is this show about Demons? Or Stigmatics?

I'm positive, at the least, that the Network is the God-Machine

So, a setting hack I want to use in my Mage games is the idea that, while the canonical Watchtowers are the "Greater" Watchtowers, meaning the majority of mages Awaken to one of them, there's also a wide array of "Lesser" Watchtowers that have entirely different arrays of powers to the canonical 10-set. Only problem is... I don't really have any very solid ideas for what these Lesser Watchtowers might be. Anyone care to lend some ideas?

Like, one idea that I have had floating in my head is a Watchtower that grants Life and Forces as its Dominant (Primary? don't recall the terminology) Arcana and Mind as its Inferior Arcana. But I have no idea what I'd call that. Haemotheurges of the Eternal Engine?

>Actually they may live longer.
>The Sin-Eater story entry talks about a to be Sin-Eater being killed back in the 1920's, and is getting revenge on the pack grandchildren. So that may imply that they live longer.

>Or he is in a tier 3 krew. But i doubt that last one.
This is from The Pack, right? This is new information. The geist book actually talks about how only old age will put a Sin-eater down for good (though elsewhere in the book it also suggests using a plotline that would involve a dead Sin-eater with it's Geist wandering about, because Geist is a great idea and a stupid book.

Also, I think Mac-the-Knife isn't a Sin-eater, it's a Geist or Abmortal.

Grab the Chronicler's Guide, there's 2 bits on page 101, Warlocks of Arcadia and the Circle of Degrees

Basically, Warlocks of Arcadia is a setting hack where only the Gross Arcanum(Time, Forces, Space, Matter, Life) determines the Realm, while the Subtle Arcanum(Fate, Prime, Mind, Death, Spirit) determines your title. There are still 5 Supernal Realms, but they are each their own Pentacles, with Mages of those realms Awakening on the far end of the respective Subtle arcanum's path in the realm, and finishing their journey when they sign their name on the Watchtower in the center of the Realm.

The circle of Degrees is very different, and is basically a hack where each unique combination of Gross/Subtle/Inferior Arcana has its own Realm, and the Mages use Circles instead of Pentacles as a result.

>Warlocks of Arcadia
Also, instead of your Realm determining your Inferior Arcanum, you choose one of the 4 Subtle arcanum yourself as your "Shame"

The example it gives is a Warlock of Arcadia with the Shame of Prime; or rather, a Mage with Time/Mind Ruling and Prime Inferior

Guys, what do I run for my next game?

I feel like I have lots of ideas, but none of them are the right idea.

Mortals. No Hunter crap.
Just Mortals.

I want to give my players something supernatural to play with, though. I was leaning toward Geist.

>Also, I think Mac-the-Knife isn't a Sin-eater, it's a Geist or Abmortal.
Mac is probably just a ghost (their a knack for ghostbusting; turns out laying ghosts to rest is fun and profitable). The woman is a Sin-Eater.

Werewolf.

Geister are ghosts now, remember

>Geister

Geister were always ghosts - just a particular kind of weird, half-spirit ghost. We just have a more concrete idea, rule-wise, of what kind of ghost.

Geißtundheiten

They were Spirit-Ghost hybrids. Now they're just Rank 3 Ghosts.

translate.google.com/#en/de/ghosts
Get the fuck over yourself

They're Geists, senpai. :^)

docs.google.com/document/d/1zh8dFoBLbWksCZd6Bhw3hXOpDaUhBidcFKoGX04fR5Q/edit?usp=sharing

Wow, this looks like garbage

>dark pack logo

Holy shit that's a blast from the past.

docs.google.com/document/d/1zh8dFoBLbWksCZd6Bhw3hXOpDaUhBidcFKoGX04fR5Q/edit?usp=sharing

Why did you post it again?

Because I was board?

Freaking claimed.
Go back to the forest you plant monster.

>wanting to be a dragon

No, fuck that shit

Fuck you and your fucking dragons

Don't do it, it's a mechanical and thematic mess.

It doesn't help that the linked book isn't very good. Look at that art in there. Look at it.

I've run it before, which is part of why I lean toward it. I just wish there were a 2e conversion.

None of the other game lines are clicking, unfortunately. Vampire doesn't interest my group, thematically. Mage is a little too complicated. Changeling... I haven't quite worked out how to run it without making courts and changeling politics matter—it didn't go well last time, at least. Mummy seems like it only has one story to tell...

Werewolf sounds cool, but it's the game I'm least familiar with.

I just watched the movie Wanted with Angelina Jolie.

Anyone else think it had good Adamantine Arrow vibe?

I mean, it is based on a comic book about supervillains ruling the world, with the "super" part being much more obvious than the movie had it

It's certainly viable inspiration for a MtAw game.

Does anybody have an idea what the mechanics for the Runewalks in the London setting are supposed to be?

Which book is this from?
I can't find any reference to Runewalks in Shadows of the United Kingdom.

Look, I know you guys hate to hear from me when it's just attention whoring (that is, all the time), but I gotta know.

It was obvious what I was trying to do with Nephilim in Giants in the Earth, right? You can all tell what they're supposed to be? Because I never see anyone talk about it, and I'd hate for someone to think I had an original thought when it was a drawn-out anime reference.

Guests are now just ghosts? Ghosts escaped from the underworld sure but just ghosts?

Powerful Ghosts, but yeah.
Which personally I like a bit more.

yes, we get it.

now go away

No, but I want to fuck Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie circa that time or when she did Tomb Raider, not the titless pussyless version that we have nowadays

It is interesting to say the least. I do wonder how things will change in its update with this. Wouldn't sin-eaters be even more like the claimed than they were before now?

Also just so I can read up on it more can you point me in the direction of this info?

Geists are a type of powerful ghost. I suspect they are still weird, archtypical beings.

Yeah. Also, you got to stop seeking validation from people who keep insulting you, it isn't healthy.

V20 Gangrel neonate. Live in source with Nosferatu pal, have some rat features, coward, low social skills, thinks that town prince is his sire.

In basics all mage old and new is about different perception of reality.

Also DtD have "Technognosis" in list of inspirational literature, as for me its great to get you into the mage, despite being completely useless to get you into the demon itself.

Why would you make this instead of just playing Beast as All-Dragons?

Because you can actually be a dragon, for one, instead of an otherkin who gets to maybe shoot fire out of his mouth every other week.

I don't like the Nephilim because I don't like taking Lethal damage to use my power and not being able to cheese that by choosing Wound Healing. Other than that it was pretty neato. Also, no, I wouldn't have gotten that. I don't really see how they're similar. If I was going to assume any anime reference, I'd have assumed Saikano. Also, what said. I'm not even saying don't post, just don't post like this. It's bad for you.

The only place they get mentioned in 2e is during the ephemeral being rules (where it's mentioned that Sin-eaters will have an effective Rank) and in Mage 2e's section on Ghosts.

Fire breathing happens more than once a week in the Beast game I'm in, I can tell you that. I think every kill on our side so far has been by that Atavism.

Mage is about having your eyes opened to the nature of reality and being unable to go back to quiet sleep. You know what is behind the curtain, you know what's in the hotdog. You can't rest knowing these things. You need to seek it out, learn more, no matter how much it hurts. More than that, it's about Hubris. You know more. You can DO more. But how much are you willing to tell the people around you--or even reality itself--to sit down, shut up, and let you handle this? How much are you willing to let someone else suffer the consequences and clean up your mess because you "know what's best"?

>Instead of being an Otherkin you can be a furry
I'm sorry, Beast may be focusless, but it's also not a dumb fan game with less theme and a dumb concept.

It's easy to make Beast always monster; you just need to make some modifications and let Beasts turn full Horror in the real world.

Yeah, while Beast has shitty otherkin aspects, you can actually use Atavisms basically all the time, 24/7. You're definitely not human.

Have any of you used Slasher? If so, how'd it go?

So otherkin bad, but "I'm secretly a dragon keep your hands off my hoard silly humans" is fine?

that also sounds dumb. just be actual monsters all the time by default.

I just read your dragon thing. It was awful, realy truly awful; not helped by the cartoon manimal dragon cartoons that look like the sort of thing a dargon furry would have on their deviantart.

Very first power listed is fire breath that deals aggravated dmg by default for 1 fuel trait?

ain't my dragon thing.

Mage 2e

No Mechanics, GM fiat.

My bad, the terribleness blinded me

Yeah, what this guy said. Maybe walking a given Runewalk gradually casts a certain spell. Perhaps wandering through Westminster you might gradually find cuts and bruises fading and healing as congealed Life magic pooled along the route accumulates on your skin. Or maybe walking a certain distance along the banks of the Thames gives you sudden insights into a problem relating to a specific arcana, similar to the Dreams merit.

What do you guys think about the possibility of running a CofD game in a historical American setting?

I was leaning toward Wild West Geist, personally.

My players were interested in the American Revolution, though, and I'm trying to think of viable ways to incorporate one of the gamelines—probably Geist, Werewolf, or Hunter—into that context.

What do they want with regards to the Revolution?
Steriotypical American "let's kill all those English bastards for muh freedom" bravado with Werewolves or Vampires tearing through platoons of horribly outmatched Redcoats?

Or the actual horror of the time including the slow and painful deaths resulting from infected musketball wounds and brutal, vicious field amputations which caused death in 35% of cases?

Plentiful material for a Geist game centered around trying to lay the dead to rest properly.

>the American Revolution
Watch some episodes of Sleepy Hollow. I haven't seen the second season, but the first was basically "General Washington had me overseeing some spooky occult shit".

Oh yeah? Sounds interesting. I'll definitely give it a look.

They don't just want to play as supernatural monsters tearing through Redcoats, no. They're just interested in the setting—the horror that accompanies any war, especially on one's own soil; but also the fact that it was, surprisingly, a successful revolution somehow.

I feel like it would maybe end up being centered on city like Boston or something, with the players having to deal with whatever supernatural trouble the war stirs up.

How often do you give your players freebies to start with? Merits, experiences, any sort of bennies.

I'm thinking of having my players start as an established group, having basically been put together by their old chum mentors and told to go check out some other city and see what kind of spooky shit there is. I'm thinking of giving them Safe Place ●●●, Sanctum ●●, Demesne ●●●, and if they come up with one, Cabal Theme ●. On top of giving them maybe 10 Experiences and/or Arcane Experiences.

Also, how well does "your mentors want you to work together" work as a way for the characters to get together? It feels contrived and a bit lame. I may end up changing that. I also wonder whether Mage society would have that sort of apprentice carrying on the torch culture, since Mages will likely go through several mentors (since I don't get the impression that a Mage's first mentor is necessarily the one who teaches them their Legacy).

Having the characters not be random strangers who don't even know each other in the first session is one of the hardest things in planning for a game. Especially since half the time the players will go with that even if they're meant to be in a group simply because they don't communicate.

youtube.com/watch?v=QeqLNGAVqK4
Would The Fury work well as a Claimed?

One of the common ways for a Mage to go from Awakening to having their own Cabal is to be recruited into their Mentor's Cabal for a while, so they can learn the basics and anything else the Mentor wants to teach them, then basically kept on retainer until another Cabal or two has an extra member, at which point they drop their Apprentices with each other and tell them to get used to each other's company.

I like to start them off with some extra merit dots to encourage them to diversify, take less popular choices and flesh out the character

I'm planning to give my players one free dot with which to get a Mentor (if only because the game starts with them being forced together into a Cabal by their mentors).

Everything else is up to them.
No more than one dot in Consilium or Order rep though, they're supposed to be newly minted Mages with full ownership rights over Tass, Artifacts, Items and so forth.

I know in 1e's book at least you were encouraged to give stuff free, like even Status 0 meant you got High Speech and stuff. Also, I guess you're doing the same thing as me.

Mage is a game where I feel like the setting wants you to always have some really close mentor figure at all times, but players want to be loners who learned it all on their own and don't have parental figures. Vampire, too, always feels like nobody ever has their Sire in their life, and rarely even from some "I hate you vampire dad" situation and more just the player didn't really think about the sire.

Or maybe that's just the kind of character concepts I've seen. My one Mage had a mentor who faked his own death and turned out to be the BBEG.

I always buy a Mentor merit.
Always.
It's another NPC you can usually rely on.

Which works great when your GMs are usually "everyone's out to get you" dickbags like mine usually are.

But holy shit that splat is so boring. It diesn't even have antagonists in it. What are you even supposed to do in the Dragon game?

The problem with mentors is that they're a character that, by definition, has to be superior to you as a supernatural or there's nothing for them to teach you. A lot of people have no interest in a relationship that exists to reinforce their inferiority.

Used one as the antag for my Hunter game. Worked out great, they buried him in cement.

I threw a claimed slasher at my group and he proceeded to cut his way across the city for like...months before they finally killed him.

I tried to do Campire in 1759s Quebec but shitty players ruined it. Colonial settings are super underrated.

Was it Dave ir Chris that shared their colonial Mage setting?

Holy shit, typos everywhere.

Being on an iPad is suffering.

For some reason I find the idea of an Arisen getting used to this whole internet thing rather funny.

The Scroll of Ages takes many forms, and the internet is merely the youngest. I'm sure the Sesha-Hebsu love and hate it in equal measures.

Online banking and trading probably gives the Mesen-Nebu a raging boner.

Don't forget how many vampires are sired for tech support. Any given prince likely spent a decade explaining telegraphy every night.

What upcoming books are you most excited for? What are your hopes for Gen Con?

Some news about Deviant beyond the most basic we've received.

I'm hoping we get a clear look at Deviant this GenCon.

I hope for C20 to not suck.

Deviant the ????????
Signs of Sorcery
Secrets of the Tribes
Secrets of the Covenants
Thousand Years of Night

Except for Signs of Sorcery which is nearly done, don't expect much info on those books by GenCon. I don't believe they've even advanced yet to a first draft.