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

Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.

History book for nWoD, mage 2e.

History book? Do you mean dark ages or whatever? I thought that was before The Pack.

It depends. If you liked the world, with the huge over-arching story, get Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.
If you liked the personal feel of the game, the story of a city falling apart, get Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition.

...

thank you guys I will look into both

The game is Masquerade, but it cuts away a lot of the clan structure of the game, leaving it much more personal.
In normal Masquerade games, your clan matters a LOT. In Bloodlines, it doesn't.

Dark Eras was out to backers before, but came up for general sale after The Pack. We got the Ghouls book for V20 and should get the Mummy fiction book next week.

>CofD cares more about personal horror and a believable world

But in exchange, it doesn't have the same kind of energy and passion that attracted people to the setting in the first place. There's no instant hook of having to fight the system or rage against the dying light, instead going for a tense and nervous energy with no element of catharsis.

We can make fun of furry Luddites and inter-dimensional zeppelins all we like, but it made people feel powerful and that they were tackling something bigger than themselves, even as the world collapsed around them. That's always going to be more attractive than a world where you can never truly figure out what's going on, and nothing will ever change except for the worst. oWoD is more escapist than nWoD ever was, and that will be its advantage as we enter a period of time where people will want as much escapism as they can get, even in their horror games.

Two different feels for two different audiences.

Personally, all that oWoD stuff you mentioned turns me off. If I wanted to be a superhero changing the world, I would play MnM or DnD.

CofD is more on the CoC side of roleplaying.

There is a world for both.

>a feel for those seeking fun
>and a feel for the masochistic, pussified emos
>There's a place for each.
I agree, the former belongs at the gaming table and the latter belongs in the trash.

To me, "I want to be an empowered person and fight the system!" isn't a terribly compelling fantasy, and certainly isn't a notion that gels with my vision of both universes as horror games. The narrative of being a vampire is about loss of self and horrific urges, of a normal person becoming something unnatural; that interpretation goes back to Dracula and even earlier. Taking that and using it to tell stories about combating the establishment or having a kung fu battle in the skies over India as the Biblical apocalypse begons... it has an audience, and that audience is pretty firmly not me.

Urban fantasy is largely fun because of relatable characters and scenery. oWoD was so much about abandoning all of that and being a powerful badass utterly wrapped up in another world (whether a political one of elders or quite literally going somewhere else in Werewolf and Mage) loses me and a lot of other people.

If you're here to attempt to typical name-calling sort of trolling, you are in the wrong general. This is /wodg/. Where 90% of the players are probably some sort of SJW, and we expect some kind of gender fluid character once per book.

You are out of your depth.

>loses me and a lot of other people
Good, we don't want "people" like you in the hobby.

Your argument falls apart in the face of Call of Cthulhu still being one of the most popular RPGs in existence and Delta Green doubling down on "your sanity spirals and you lose all of your interpersonal relationships before dying horribly or killing yourself" leading to a $400k Kickstarter.

Not every story needs to be about being powerful. Some of the most compelling ones are about the opposite of that.

Cool, I can share stories about the game I'm running, since I remember /wod/ complaining that nobody ever shares stories

I'm running V20 that has been going on for a while now. Here are the pcs:

1. Toreador. Used to be a singer, blood bound to her sire who lives in another country. Lost her reflection after embrace. Is the party face, somewhat insecure about her Appearance (used to be 2, increased to 3 via ghoul make up artist). She's the party spotter, being the only who has Auspex 5. Is not a fighter, however she did learn Protean 2 to not be completely defenseless.

2. Tremere. Her nature should've been Eye of the Storm, considering that she created the most chaos. Is blood bound to the council, and while feeling rebellious about the whole ordeal, still tries to prove to the clan that she is important and should be trusted with more tasks. To the point that she abandoned the party to complete her clan-related task. Is afraid of her own clan but is tsundere towards it. Has Lure of Flames as a primary path, but barely uses it. If she were a minmaxer, she could do some serious harm but she barely remembers the rituals she has, so it's fine. Has a Lasombra lover from Sabbat and managed to successfully hide that from everyone even OOC

3.Malkavian. A few years ago was a first time rper and so this character has went through a couple of makeovers until we figured out how to stop it from being a fishmalk. Is now fairly level-headed, aside from occasional outbursts of pure rage (Berserk derangement). Has a Diabolical Sire flaw, his sire runs a factory that sells thinblood blood to mortals. PC believes that thinbloods are a sign of the end times and as such helps his sire occasionally.

Complaining about emasochistic emos in a general for games where you play eternally lamenting vampires and their blood slaves seems a bit silly, no?

The way you're meant to play vampires is as supernatural, inhuman creatures who kick ass and take names when someone crosses them, because they're immortal superpredators.

How would you stat these eyes, /cofd/?

Special perception is a 1 dot power. But I wouldn't bother taking it, you could do the same with a simple perception roll.

4. Ventrue. Stereotypical controlling Ventrue who thinks she is better than everyone else. The only one who had Dominate 3 and unfortunately she has not been attending lately due to irl stuff, so the party has to find other ways to not break the Masquerade or cover their tracks. Gets very easily offended when anyone makes fun of her, both IC and OOC.

5. Brujah. Joined a few months ago, stereotypical no-nonsense Brujah, though the player maxed out Presence just for the possibility of making other vampires respect and worship her. Prefers to let her fists do the talking and is the one who is the most active in moving the plot. First time rper, so there were conflicts that were threatening the fun of the group (she always wanted things to go her way and the rest of the players to agree with everything she does, wants to be very alpha about everything), so we had to talk about it. PC is allergic to silver and scares mortals away.

6. Gangrel, joined even more recently. First time rper, very interested in the mechanics side of the game which I'm happy to discuss. Was on the verge of minmaxing but is actually a very respectable player and always worries whether or not he is doing something wrong. Invested heavily into combat stats and not much else and as such has become the only party tank, since nobody else has Fortitude. With the right rolls can one hit kill someone with his claws, but the dice have not been on his side. Has a flaw that makes his bite excruciatingly painful, but he enjoys it. Is probably the only one who roleplays as a vampire who truly considers humans as nothing but prey and as such is steadily sliding down in Humanity. Not necessarily cruel, but likes to show humans he is superior. Doesn't care that his feeding is painful, so he'll have to drop to Humanity 4

6 hours ago, still running right now, probably ending soon

Those are actual horror games, As soon as you step out of playing Mortal, you're either playing horror-flavored urban fantasy or horror-flavored drama.

Sounds like someone has never had an ST actually challenge them.

You just have to change the nature of the horror. It doesn't stop being horror just because the characters have a little taste of power. It just means they don't immediately realize they are powerless. Once it sets in, it is all the sweeter.

I have our twice-montly Masquerade LARP next weekend. Nothing until then.

You could easily run a Requiem chronicle with a bunch of freshly-Embraced people running around terrified of what they've become. Ditch the covenants, focus heavily on Touchstones and Humanity, and use the rules from Danse Macabre that makes Frenzy more common.

And Changeling needs zero work whatsoever to be devastating personal horror.

There is no actual horror in becoming an immortal superbeing with magic powers. There will be some discomfort, maybe a bit of crocodile tears and bellyaching about incompatibility with slave morality, but that won't last and it's all very shallow in any case.

If I were Embraced I'd face the sun the next fucking day.

...

Does anyone else run the Invicta like a crime family? Like referring to the Masquerade or vamparism as "This thing of ours" and the way ghouls jocky for position to become "Made"

The main plot right now is heavily tied to the local Tremere primogen summoning a demon to inhabit the body of a Brujah primogen. I read Demon the Fallen corebook and took some liberties with the possession mechanic for the sake of story.

The Brujah primogen asked the party whether they want to take part in his auction for the rich and powerful kindred. All they need to do is make sure that former Gangrel primogen doesn't ruin his party because they hate each other. He also asked them to deliver to him a relic that will be sold on the auction. It will arrive on a ship in a few hours.

The party agreed, went to talk to the Gangrel, discovered that some of the things on sale will be humans and started to doubt whether they want to be a part of that. On the other hand, Gangrel primogen was politically neutered and so could offer very little support despite being a killing machine.

So they decided to not join either of the side and go to the port to pick up the relic. It's a few pages of the Voynich manuscript with a picture of an odd flower.

They see Gangrel primogen in his owl form in the city and follow him. They discovered the location of the humans and decided to check on the, They saw the Gangrel primogen already there, freeing the humans.

As they look on, Brujah called her primogen and told him about this. The primogen arrives, goes into the house. They hear fighting and then something like an explosion.

Why would a several hundred year old feudal court pattern itself off a century old model?

Because it works better.

Hit the ground running on VtR2e with our review/overview networkzero.podbean.com/e/network-zero-2/

Its a smaller court that was headed by a relatively new prince. Its not a world wide change. Just a quirk I find fun and like to use when its appropriate

Some Elysiums include Local Restaurants or strip clubs

1) No you wouldn't, because you're a cowardly SJW.

2)You only say that because you're a cowardly SJW.

Running Geist, which will be set in Paris, and have crossover with Mage and Mummy.

So elements of alchemy, the catacombs, and other bits, to act as a bit of a tour of the CofD games.

Gangrel comes out but his eyes are different. Whatever is looking through them is not him anymore. They have a brief chat, the "Gangrel" seems to be fairly happy with what just occurred. Brujah plays on his good mood and asks him to show them what he really is, to which he obliges.

A shining knight appears in front of them, forcing them all to roll for rotschreck. The man smiles and then leaves.

They decide to not get in his way right now and go to the Gangrel's forest as this is where they his the manuscript.

They get the manuscript (had to fight a ghouled bear who was guarding the forest) and in the process the Toreador notices that after few drops of blood fell on the manuscript, the flower started to move a bit, to get all the drops; a phantom item also started to appear above it. So she decides to feed it with blood, hoping that it will unlock whatever it is.

The manuscript begins to repair itself with blood, and by the end looks like it was just written. A small silver key appears above it they hear a voice, both male and female speaking to them
"To open the first gates of heaven, bring the soul of the believer and blood of the sinner".

The key disappeared but after the manuscript spoke, the party felt somehow inspired and invigorated (mechanically it gave them -2 diff to their next degeneration roll).

Remember the mortals who were to be sold at the auction? They took one of them. At first they just wanted to release him after erasing his memory, but then the fights and the bloodletting have left them hungry, so they decided to just drain him

As soon as he died, they felt a gust of wind and a slight sucking sound came from the manuscript. It also became a bit heavier.

I generally agree with you, but you have to admit, that description of Ascension is fucking awesome.

Have you read Chris' material on Werewolf in Paris? He came up with two new Idigam that were incredible and may be of use to you.

Is that in Dark Era's? Or in Forsaken 2e? My mind is running a blank on which book to look in right now.

The party wisely decides not to go further with what the manuscript wants and just stored it away.

In the forest they also found a cave where Gangrel primogen lived and found an unfinished letter to the Nosferatu primogen, so they decided to go and check on him.

When they descend into the sewers, they find his rats being slaughtered by countless homeless cats and dogs. They manage to find one rat that lead them to the Nos who was Obfuscating in his haven full of monitors that show different parts of the city.

He wasn't happy to see them and he and Brujah got into intense argument, during which they all got attacked by the Sabbat party. One of whom was Tremere's lover, one was a Nos and the other was Ventrue's sire. There was no combat at first, as the Sabbat has suggested the party gives them the Nos primogen and they all go their ways.

They initially agreed until Brujah got pissed and started combat. As this is happening, Toreador notices a new message that came up on Nos pc. She gets closer and sees that there has been a Blood Hunt declared on them all as they are thought to have killed the Brujah primogen.

Party wins the combat and manages to stake both the Lasombra and the Ventrue. Lasombra goes to Gangrel who wants to blood bond him; Ventrue goes to the Ventrue pc who at that point in the game had to leave.

They talk to the Nos and persuade him to help them out a bit for saving his life. He gives them the keys to one of his havens outside the city while the blood hunt is going on. They sleep in the sewers.

Tremere manages to persuade the Gangrel that she should have access to Lasombra at certain moments, as she wants to test her blood magic on him.

They then try to hunt, but this being winter in game and outside the city, they are having little luck. Then Tremere botches the hunting roll.

On the forums, in the "new Idigam" thread. He does some great stuff with the catacombs.

Link to it. I can't navigate those darn forums. They are a mess.

>Not wanting to become a gluttonous leech, only existing to be staked by superior Hunters and Mortals
>SJW cowardice

Go back to /torpr/, Gustav.

She runs into a werewolf and combat culminated with Brujah driving a taxi into the thing. She didn't kill it and werewolf saw that he was outnumbered, so he used Obfuscate and disappeared.

The party wisely decides to get out of there before the police arrives and go towards the Nos haven. On their way Tremere gets paranoid and decides to go to her relatives' farm while the Brujah goes to the Nos haven.

The farm has nothing, however Tremere receives a phone call from someone unknown. As she told her sire that their primogen is conducting some suspicious activity, sire contacted the capital chantry and shared that information. As such a high-ranking representative has now arrived and wants to meet with her and the party. They agree and inform the Brujah

Brujah meanwhile has entered the Nos haven and it's a hoarder's dream. There's so much garbage that the small home has trods you need to walk on, otherwise it's completely impossible. He does find a secret passage that leads into the sewers.

They then all go to the place the Tremere rep told them about; it's outside the city limits, a small cafe near the highway.

They meet with him, a short man with glasses, who says that he received worrying news about the local primogen. The party tell him that they think she is a Baali (something they discovered when talking to the Nos primogen) because in the past few days various insects have been attracted to her and now inhabit the chantry.

The representative is concerned about this, but he cannot just openly accuse her without any proof other than the word of mouth. So he asks them to either obtain some of her blood or some other proof that she is involved with infernalism.

This is when Brujah tell him that there's a blood hunt on them and tells what they witnessed when some sort of spirit took over first the Brujah primogen and then the Gangrel

forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/werewolf-the-forsaken/436971-new-idigam

Try cheating on google. Google site:forums.theonyxpath.com "search term"

First page on the Werewolf forum, user.

forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/werewolf-the-forsaken/436971-new-idigam

>all these nameposting faggots

Meh. It is easier to get a direct path from people who actually go there.

I'm not deep enough in the wod hole to really go to the forum.

Your fault for not registering your Veeky Forums account, you can turn off all the names and trips in the settings.

Uncomfortable silence ensues as the representative did not know about the blood hunt. It is however too late to back down, so he is still willing to work with him.

Of course it is now difficult for them to operate in the city, so a nice Persuasion roll from Brujah gets all of them a small enchanted ring that boosts stealth. Tremere rep also produces a small vial that will take the blood of whoever touches it, so that they can try and use it on a primogen. Or they can try and break into the chantry; it will have blood samples from every member.

They have agreed to help, as they were promised a sizeable boon from the clan as a whole, and the Tremere pc was promised advancement she so craves.

They left the cafe and agreed to stay in touch. They then call the Nos and persuade him to meet up to try and fish more information out of him. They succeed by mentioning that they have a lot of his stuff from his haven that was destroyed by the Sabbat. As the Nos was a hoarder, he decided to risk it.

They meet up and beg Nos to tell them if he knows anything about the blood hunt. He does, and gloats that the prince has assembled a team to find them.

They also ask him if he would testify that the Brujah primogen wasn't killed by them, but by the Sabbat. Nos does'nt want to be the only one, so he agrees only if they can get any 2 other primogen to testify as well. If they make some politics rolls, they will be able to tell who can be approached, as there are some who are definitely not fond of the Tremere primogen ans the amount of power she wields in the city.

As they part ways with the Nos, they hear a car approaching. The doors open and party sees a group of vampires: 2 Ventrue, a ghoul, a Toreador and the Toreador pc's sire, who seems to be held hostage. While the party is freaking out as to how they were found out, the ghoul tries to tell them that combat isn't necessary and that if they just come with them, then they will be judged fairly

The party rightly thinks this is bullshit and half decide to hide, while the more aggressive half decide to fight. Toreador pc couldn't resist the compulsion to save her sire (she ran out of willpower) and so started to sneakily go towards him, while the rest of the party scattered around the area.

Brujah got heavily wounded by the Toreador-hunter, Toreador pc almost reunited with her sire who in the end Obfuscated to avoid the combat (he was basically taken hostage and forced to take part in the blood hunt), Gangrel was in the process of tearing the Toreador-hunter to shreds and the rest were hiding/helping out from the sides.

This is where we ended, Brujah called the Nos primogen and demanded help, but with that attitude he is not going to do anything. Brujah is the one in real danger of actually dying, though she did get saved by an old man living nearby, who dragged her into his home.

But that would make you unable to quickly identify the faggots.

And filtering them makes you unable to understand what's going on in a thread sometimes.

If I did make Twilight as a WoD visual novel, what should the characters be?

I've been needing an excuse to use RenPy or something. Obviously the main character could be male or female, and there would be gay werewolves.

>Actually giving a shit
I hate newfags. Always wanting to be part of LEEJUN to join the cool kids.

Let's start with an Orwell quote
>"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."

Why
>do I feel that
Chronicles so much shittier than WoD?

What was it that made the original line so popular?

Why did they choose it as a setting for the two WoD games that I personally remember?

Is the reason that Executives at Paradox renamed the new line Chronicles because the old world of darkness is still more popular?

What are the specific details that make me think of oWoD as an interesting setting?

Have I missed any similarly cool ideas in the new line?

Please, let's discuss this together.

I am going to need at least a whole post to unpack
>cucked out
>whiny bitch
>SJWism

>2) The setting isn't any less interesting. It's more modular, yes, but it is also free of Malkavian Pranksters and things like Samuel Haight.

That was already the case with nWoD.
Chronicles is nWoD 2.0, and I have to agree that it's worse off quality wise.

The fiction is worse (Some of it is just straight up bad), they've filled off a lot of the individuality of splats, and it's not entirely clear if some of the writers get the setting itself.

>4) Higher degree of SJWism? The only reason the term SJW wasn't applied to old WW games is that it wasn't invented back then.

That's dumb and wrong in so many ways I can't even count it.
Ignoring the repeated and, quite frankly true, accusations of racism, tokenism, and focus on rape that were floating about there was literally no way it would be accepted by that camp if it had come out today.

What WoD has always had was a very interesting take on the notion of identity, whether that identity be sexual, racial, cultural, national or whatever else have you.

boring

Are there any geist powers that let me....
Like Green Lantern my way through things? Like create something like giant spectral fists to pummel the heck out of some fool ghost, or create a plasm cage to trap some mortals?

That post is incredibly meta.

>This is /wodg/. Where 90% of the players are probably some sort of SJW, and we expect some kind of gender fluid character once per book.
>You are out of your depth.

Oh shit, am I in the wrong neighborhood?
>tfw one of the 10%

>Ignoring the repeated and, quite frankly true, accusations of racism, tokenism, and focus on rape that were floating about there was literally no way it would be accepted by that camp if it had come out today.
That's because that camp has evolved. Read Children of Gaia and tell me old White Wolf wasn't "SJW".

I dunno. Ask yourself this:

A player at your table has a character that no longer identifies as any gender, because when they were attacked in their youth, their attachment to the status quo romance around them was shattered and they have no wish to go back. They ignore, sometimes actively, any attempts at romance aimed at them.

Does this bother or annoy you? Or is this just something bound to happen because you are playing world of darkness/chronicles of darkness?

Finish the Geist thing. Write a second draft of any of your projects. Finish. Your. Work.

If this happened at my table, I'd probably eventually get into an argument that this was a sexuality (since I'm too polite to point out that it's a disorder), rather than a gender.

>Able to argue gender vs sexuality
You my friend, are part of the 90%.

Also, no one else can see what your geist does right?
Like if my character's geist manifests itself to him as a crown of grapes (that have human facial features) that whisper stuff in his ear, no one will see that or hear it?

user, that individual is ace. They may also be agender, but that description is sex-repuksed asexual which has zero to do with gender identity.

No, what they were were fucking hippies.

The anti-corporate pseudo-enviromentalist paternalistic racism that suffuses the entirety of oWoD and a good chunk of nWoD bears witness to that, and the two are not the same.
That is ignoring the parts of nWoD which aren't just straight up racist. Like, not paternalistic "Magical injun" shit, but just straight up lazy propagation of racist stereotypes because creativity is fucking hard.

The writing crop gradually got replaced, SJWs replacing hippies.

Ultimately both are left of center, both like to tell stories that explore the notion of identity (Which, as I've said, is something WoD has always done super well.), and I find myself sympathetic to both over their detractors.
However that does not mean they are the same.

This user is also SJW.

Why does avoiding romance have to be some kind of gender thing? The last thing I want to do in a game is a romance plot, and I'm far from whatever kind of thing you're talking about.

>Deliberately using the word wrong to dilute it's meaning.

Why tho?

Who said it has to be? With this person it just is.

>Oh shit, am I in the wrong neighborhood?
Nigger, you're on Veeky Forums. That faggot is just shitposting his feelings at you. While Veeky Forums is a bit more SJW than average, and this general more so than even Veeky Forums, sensible people are still the majority.

Would you allow a transgender player character at your table?

Keep telling yourself that. While the whole thread around you is about the feels of gender-fluid vampires and rape recovering 'survivor' changelings.

If it makes you feel better, that's what is important.

Why wouldn't I?

Would probably be played better than guys playing as girls.

>While Veeky Forums is a bit more SJW than average

There it was. I just now realized the term SJW has completely and utterly lost all meaning.

I don't see why not.

Well, I wouldn't do it in changeling.
It's simply too easy to turn a serious question of identity into some truly inadvertently transphobic shit.

There's nothing wrong with an abrupt shift in identity after trauma. It'd only be transphobic if the implication were all trans people were so due to trauma.

Good. I mean, the rest of us realized it lost all meaning as soon as Veeky Forums started throwing it around to mean anyone they didn't like.

Glad you caught up though.

Oh, I've understood it intellectually for a while. It was just there that it truly got through to me.

I've got a feeling the term was used about you by Veeky Forums at some point, I also have a feeling it was pretty justified.

I don't think that's the only way that could turn transphobic.
I mean ignoring the iffy question of trauma turning anyone transgender (Raising some pretty dodgy questions about nature v nurture on that front, that are just a liiiittle too easy to get to steer on the wrong side), there's also the matter of portraying being trans gender as being a literal fairy.

> (You)
>I dunno. Ask yourself this:

You know, not too make this too much about me, but honestly I have never had this conversation, and wouldn't mind thinking out loud if it doesn't derail the thread too much.

The modern gender identity discussions confuse the hell out of me though...

Now my favorite author (if I was forced to choose) is Iain M. Banks, because of his Culture series.
The people in the Culture can tell their bodies to shift from male to female and back in a couple of months. Or choose to stay in the androgynously neutral inbetween state.
Most of them live long enough that they end up fathering one child, and giving birth to another.

One character in 'The Player of Games' is sad because his best friend wont sleep with him, because he has never been a girl and doesn't really ever want to go through that, also she thinks he is somehow 'too obsessed' with having sex with her.

There is no difference between a Hippie and an SJW in the greater narrative context. It's the same shit, just repackaged and headquartered over the internet as opposed to being headquartered in the Haight-Ashbury. You keep trying to claim that SJWs are somehow new and different, but you can't actually explain how. Identity Politics separatists have been a thing since the 70s, hardline Marxists have existed before the Cold War, and a lot of the hyper-specific community aspects have been around since 90s Usenet. The only reason anyone calls them Social Justice Warriors is because it was a liberal/left-liberal term of criticism that got co-opted by the alt-right/mainstream right once they started gaining power.

The Hippies weren't replaced by the SJWs, the main White Wolf influencers have been more or less the same over the 1999-2016 period. It's just that their always left-leaning topics shifted as the culture of the left shifted.

>tfw you've gamed with all of one cishet person in your life, two if you count your past self

Feels weird? I assumed tabletop was always full of queer folk.

This place is gonna go apeshit when Promethean 2e comes out and is full of nonstandard pronouns.

That's weird, because I feel like I recognize that author name, but looking through his books, I haven't read anything of his.

That is a funny dilemma to have, only born through the speculative world he has created. That sounds like a good read just from that situation alone.

Possibly.
Depends if I trust the player to not be a gigantic faggot about it.