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

What's snowflake about that?

Well, to be fair, she's also trying to be a Fate character

I dunno which one, but the player kept asking questions about being able to do specific things with Prime and/or Forces, and I can only assume it's because he's trying to copy a character from Fate for the 10th time

I know who you are, and you're making shit up again. Did Exalted not teach you anything? If you have any actual complaints about the character, bring them up to the player and not here.

I'm not complaining about anything
The character has been generally a useful addition to the game
I just don't really have any massively snowflake-y stories related to CofD/WoD beyond this guy making something he thought was unique but was actually the most common urban fantasy character concept there is

I haven't been keeping up with 2e since I got Blood and Smoke. Could someone fill me in on how the other games ended up being?
I have a birthday soon and I'm leaning toward more WoD.

>Requiem 2e
Hammers out the kinks and makes the setting much better in terms of theme and tone; in some ways its better than the later games
>Demon
A game where every player can derail everything, and your basic character type is hard to play
>Werewolf 2e
An amazing improvement that makes being radically fixes problems and focuses the themes much better
>Beast
Divisive, but even worse, directionless. Don't play it unless your group is, like, Vigil or Awakening gurus and know how to make that kind of "you have a template, the rest is up to you" sort of thing work.
>Changeling 2e
Not actually out yet, but we've had plenty of playtesting material. Pretty neat, and it focuses on troupe personalized cities and wants to get rid of "you're always in moping mode" as the default.
>Mage 2e
The characters are powerful, but they're fucking wizards. As with everything else, it's all been recontextualized and the themes are focused.
>Chronicles of Darkness (the corebook)
Overall an improvement on 1e, even if the default suggestion is a God-Machine Chronicle (and as such reprints a bunch of an existing book). Gives new subsystems for Investigation, monster creation, crafting, and chases.
>Mortal Remains
A Hunter stopgap, it's basically a Spirit Slayers/Night-stalkers/Witchfinders book for Changelings/Prometheans/Sin-eaters/Mummies/Demons; it has two new Compacts and two new Conspiracies, as well as a 2e update for the corebook material, and a simple monster creation template. Beast is getting a Mortal Remains... eventually.
>Dark Eras
Great idea, great for making new things. It's a massive book (with another on the way) for playing games set in historical periods. It has a ton of them and can even be used for making fantasy games. It's got some good shit, and the Werewolf/Mage Neolithic Era is amazing and has a lot of plot hooks. Definitely worth it if you're into that kind of thing.

Oh, there was also a Geist RMC, but eh.

Vampires don't heal naturally. You can beat one to death if it doesn't have a lot of blood points to heal with.

Also fire does agg damage. And magic.

So magical fire is basically a death sentence.

It does agg damage like regular fire. You might be able to control it better

Why would a Malkavian posses Obtenebration?

Because he is crazy :^)

Jokes aside, Sabbath have it eay due to all the blood sharing.

Cammies...not so much.

Except maybe helping out a Lasombra Antitribu on the run from his sabbath counterparts in exchange for teaching stuff or being a Sabbath mole.

Thanks, sounds like I have some gift ideas. Are there any good expansion for the discerning Blood and Smoke owner?

because he's in the sabbat?

Yeah I was thinking about the Antitribu thing but I wasn't sure, I don't actually know whether the game is a Cammy or Sabbat game yet so the other thing I hadn't thought of at all, so thank you again.

Obtenebration is hard to get man.

Why not be a lasombra spawned caitiff?

Caitiff are the coolest guys anyway.

It's just an idea I'm playing with senpai, I always have a hard time with characters and go all over the place with concepts.

Well, think about maybe going for a lasombra spawned caitiff..who therefore has a good reason to have obtenebration.

Maybe he got kicked out by his sire when it came out and some half loony malk took him in and showed him the ropes...thats how he learned obsfuscate maybe or other disciplines.

Works best when Sabbath though.

>your basic character type is hard to play

Genuinely curious what you mean by this.

Yeah I could do that, appreciate it. Though the problem is if it's a Camarilla game. Still it's just a theoretic character, nothing guaranteed. Still, I appreciate the help.

in a cam game you could always have worked as a mole for the local prince infiltrating the local sabbat. you'd most likely need to be unbondable or have some way to deal with the blood ties. possibly being bound to someone else that you regularly drink from, but that has its own problems.

None yet. There's some playtest/spoiler material for Secrets of the Covenants, and three Bloodlines on the blog, but that's about it. Rose seems to basically run the CofD parts of Onyx Path, so she's been a bit busy, and Vampire has suffered from it. Likewise Changeling took a massive setback when David Hill got sick and/or pissed off at the internet.
Werewolf got a supplement before Vampire.

That said, there's the Strix Chronicle Anthology. Oh, there's actually Anthologies out for Vampire, Demon, Beast, Werewolf, Mage, and Promethean.

A Demon is completely human, with human emotions and human feelings.
But they're also completely in control of how those emotions are presented and they're more paranoid than most people treated Changelings. Around mortals, you're displaying emotions that might not match up to how you feel, while around Demons you're either playing up some emotions while downplaying others to present a false impression, or, since everyone would know those expressions are a lie (even when they really do match up with your real feelings), you'd be dull and monotone. Try playing that without corpsing at the table.

"Madness Network"

Because he's Nobody?

That'd make a lot of sense, I like that.

Hold the fuck up. Just trying to make sure I'm not going crazy, The Brotherhood of Dada were Doom Patrol villains last I recall. DP is DC, so the Avengers should have never actually faced them, right?

This is fanart. With fanart...don't expect things to conform to rational logic.

I'm half surprised you didn't call me out for suggesting Mr Nobody as Malk with Obtenebration.

I have no fucking clue what Obtenebration is, so I can't say whether or not it's a good idea.

Obtenebration is shadow manipulation, It's powered by the Antediluvian of the Lasombra.

Are there any news about Hunter and Promethean?

>Whats the most snowflake character you have seen?
Not sure if this one would qualify as the most snowflake, but it was certainly the player's fetish and he got kicked out half a year after.

>Player is a goth who loves to complain about how horrible his life is and thrives in being miserable
>His first character got killed (different story) makes a second one
>It's a Brujah with bright blue hair
>A tough biker chick
>Daddy issues
>Makes it a point to mention to me that she was romantically attracted to her dad
>Puts almost all of his dots into Appearance and Subterfuge (Seduction)
>Biography is full of angst; she's angsting over her dead dad, a human hunter that is after her, her sire who is a massive dick to her
>Talks about her sire, how he is super hot but is very abusive towards her, hits her and orders her around; she hates him but wants to be submissive to him at the same time
>Her biography literally had the line "Sees all women as competition and thinks that men are only good when she can get what she wants from them; if she can't seduce them, she will beat them up until they give in"

I could go on at some point, that character was amazingly bad but fun to watch. like a trainwreck

New to the system, is it just me, or is Professional Training super useful?

Not as useful as you think, but yes. I give three dots to my players for free to round out their social/backstory stuff.

Can hobgoblins join a court or like... be tamed?
Like say the Winter King manages to impress a couple of the things and they swear to serve her.

Is that possible or are they too much like the fae for this to be possible?

When is this Beckett shit going to end

you can have hobgoblin pets
anyone can technically join a freehold, it just involves agreeing to an oath

yes, being professionally trained is a big bonus in life and so in the game

Okay, though I suppose I meant super useful as universally useful. Just about every Splat uses skills with their special powers, having bonuses on specific skills seems rather useful, and you kind customize it to fit your build/character.

apparently it doesn't help with supernatural powers

I think the most Mary Sue thing I've ever seen was this odd Tremere faction being used by the ST.
One of the Pyramid leaders had an interest in spiritualism and magic so they were promoting a small group of vampires who had some odd form of druidism they believed in. Part faith part magic it was open to any vampire who wanted to join, and had contact with some of the other splats.

This thread has too much reality deviancy, and not enough discussion of the brave men, women, and constructs that protect our reality from being torn apart at the seams.

With that in mind: what's your most memorable kill of a reality deviant, Veeky Forums ?

I want Division Six to leave.

Not really though, they have grown on me. I just wish they were cowboy Delta Green.

Oh... I mean, I guess that makes sense. But it doesn't really say as much, now does it?

Hobgoblin Pets..... Like the more bestial things like the weird mounts and so on? I'm talking about the more human like ones.

you can also have hobgoblin slaves
it makes the difference more clear when it talks about supernatural abilities and the fact that they aren't skill rolls

Maybe you'll get your wish, Atamajakki.

Which is better; the Kindred book on Asia and India, or the one detailing the vampires of Africa?

Take away the Vampire bit, and her being a Biker, and I know that character in real life.
>she even had blue hair for a bit

I guess not. Thanks anyway.

the Kindred of the East book has a completely different race of vampires and a very different array of powers where as the african kindred are just a slight variation of the normal ones. both books are fairly interesting.

Deamon also hands everyone a giant FUCK THE GAME button to push if they ever get bored.

Have you tried Google Translate?
If your players don't speak Cantonese then it should be good enough.

I gave it a whirl, but the my attempts didn't provide anything as punchy as the actual triad names.

Are you referring to Going Loud?

With the new explosive rules in the hurt locker, how exactly does the Eliminator Cannon in Flowers of Hell work? I was under the impression that it worked like a normal attack when being used in the launcher mode, rolling the attack and adding successes to the base damage of 3.

There is a bit of a rules conundrum here, since the Eliminator Cannon's rounds lack new characteristics like Force, so I'm unsure how to proceed with it.

>lack new characteristics

Give it appropriate characteristics.

To be fair, Professional Training isn't actually in the Supernatural books. If its in Mage, I think it's in the mortal appendix (or I just skimmed over it).

Jakki loves Division Six.

That was covered under
>every player can derail everything
And I don't just mean Going Loud. I mean the way they have sketchy Quantum fate and reality manipulation powers.

Any tips for running an action heavy politics game? I've never run an action game before, so if there's anything I should watch out for it'd be good to know. Game is Requiem 2E if it matters.

It's in the Rules Revisions Appendix of Demon.

After looking at the chart I've noticed that Force tends to be one lower than the damage rating so I've been going with that as a rule of thumb.

Daemon is a great game. It's just too bad they couldn't get the license to do it right.

It isn't really that Transformers. I don't really think an actual Transformers game would be that great, since playing a car isn't interesting.

So is the general advice for setting up for a chronicle in any given city just "google 'CITY mythology'"?

Anybody got any other advice?

America > everything else

Fuck the old world

many cities have books about the old wise tales about the area and where all the haunted houses are. its always a good place to start. sometimes they'll have websites or pamphlets about the ley lines in the area. or talk to local occult store owner.

>Anybody got any other advice?
a lot is gonna depend on the specific city
advice for new york won't fit for venice

I'm compiling a playlist for Changeling: The Lost and I need suggestions.

I've already seen the Onyx Path playlists for both CtL & CtD. My current playlist, the Summer & Winter Court are both over-represented.

I feel like the thread needs to have this picture.

...

I always felt "Fair Game" by The Like made for great song to introduce a big Spring Court party, and the court ethos in general.

Switching partners like a square dance,
Just watch where you're going,
There are limbs akimbo, flying wildly,
Just watch out now, don't get hit!
You want in our scene?
Hungry like the wolf.
This wasn't my dream, but every day keeps getting better!
We only look mean, crazy like a fox.
Things aren't how they seem, right?

It's all fair game, anyway.
It's all fair game, anyway.

Just a teeny bit amoral,
Fiercely pessimistic, but we're one big family!
What's that darling,
Who says family doesn't kiss?
Oh every gang's a bit incestuous.
It's just a game and if you know the rules you can't get hurt!
We're all the same, a bit tempestuous,
But we're just restless, right?

It's all fair game, anyway.
It's all fair game, when you play.

Have you the heart and have you got the guts?
It's not a sport, but who says life should be so boring?
We find your rules a bit extraneous.
We leave you breathless, right?

It's all fair game, anyway.
It's all fair game, anyway.
It's all fair game, when you play.
The rules are strange, but aren't they great?

Interesting suggestion, it's really bouncy.

Yeah. It's poppy and...pretty hollow. Good for a first glimpse at the Spring Court. What I feel many in the Court try and act like. Whether or not there's depth behind that depends on the Courtier.

It probably provides some contrast to the other Courts' selections, I'm guessing.

Fall..

The Carnival of the Animals VII (Aquarium) youtube.com/watch?v=AsD0FDLOKGA

You are utterly familiar with this music. Now you know what it's called.

Toccata and Fugue, Bach. youtu.be/IVJD3dL4diY

Way too on the nose, but COME ON! You've got to have it.
youtu.be/IVJD3dL4diY

You can go pretty deep into classical here.

The day the world went away youtube.com/watch?v=nmrgN4FuOGQ

Some nine inch nails, for another bit of dark fall mood.

Spring..

The Devil's Backbone. youtube.com/watch?v=yUMiEkMjtOQ

It's easy to find love songs, but I wanted ones that reflect how very bad an idea love is sometimes.

Maybe more later, if these are working for you?

>The Carnival of the Animals VII (Aquarium)

That always sounds cold and wintry to me.

It does have a nice contrast to the post-rock and alt-country gloom & doom that's currently filling the list.

>Spring
youtube.com/watch?v=pTOC_q0NLTk
youtube.com/watch?v=nky4me4NP70
youtube.com/watch?v=cEo3m8eHl3k
youtube.com/watch?v=5GBT37_yyzY
youtube.com/watch?v=f2fCcggNkTs
>Fall/Autumn
youtube.com/watch?v=hts6PzULHSY
youtube.com/watch?v=3J5mE-J1WLk
youtube.com/watch?v=tXHj_EW_JpQ
youtube.com/watch?v=W1hZ1wbPcnU
youtube.com/watch?v=KhaEt2Hdod8

I'd recommend browsing the artists of all that shit for other stuff that might fit, too. Granted, I repeated artists a couple of times.

It could work for that. It's haunting, but it's also quite cold. I guess it depends on how cold you see fall as..

>The Devil's Backbone

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what have I done?
I've fallen in love with a man on the run
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please
Don't take that sinner from me
Oh don't take that sinner from me

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what do I do?
I've fallen for someone who's nothing like you
He's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone
Oh I just wanna take him home
Oh I just wanna take him home
Ooooooooooo
Ooooooooooo

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, he's somewhere between
A hangman's knot, and three mouths to feed
There wasn't a wrong or a right he could choose
He did what he had to do
Oh he did what he had to do
Ooooooooooo
Ooooooooooo

Give me the burden, give me the blame
I'll shoulder the load, and I'll swallow the shame
Give me the burden, give me the blame
How many, how many Hail Marys is it gonna take?

Don't care if he's guilty, don't care if he's not
He's good and he's bad and he's all that I've got
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please
Don't take that sinner from me
Oh don't take that sinner from me

>Sounds more like how a Spring Courter got into this mess to begin with.

Oh, if you want some more variety, allow me to add some links to this
>Spring
youtube.com/watch?v=2sL1f9Q25sM
youtube.com/watch?v=VPsyynjHpbY
>Autumn
youtube.com/watch?v=6VfjAdYbKQ0
youtube.com/watch?v=2ddd70PMxTE

Angel of Small Death and the Codine Scene. youtube.com/watch?v=-bmp4QWzHak

Feels a bit spring, or at least describing a Spring Court that's gotten too damn close to playing like the Gentry.

I watch the work of my kin bold and boyful
Toying somewhere between love and abuse
Calling to join them the wretched and joyful
Shaking the wings of their terrible youths
Freshly dissolved in some frozen devotion
No more alone or myself could I be
Looks like a strain to the arms it were open
No shortage of sordid, no protest from me

With her sweetened breath, and her tongue so mean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene
With her straw-blonde hair, her arms hard and lean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene

Feeling more human and hooked on her flesh I
Lay my heart down with the rest at her feet
Fresh from the fields, all fetor and fertile
Bloody and raw, but I swear it is sweet

With her sweetened breath, and her tongue so mean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene
With her straw-blonde hair, her arms hard and lean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene

And lease this confusion, I'll wander the concrete
Wonder if better now having survived
Jarring of judgement and reasons defeat
The sweet heat of her breath in my mouth I'm alive

With her sweetened breath, and her tongue so mean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene
With her straw-blonde hair, her arms hard and lean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene

With her sweetened breath, and her tongue so mean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene
With her straw-blonde hair, her arms hard and lean
She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene

This playlist is for my own personal use, I enjoy the classical even if we are all overexposed to it.

Here's just a small scattering of what I have:

Spring: youtu.be/SEYjQWotbM8
youtu.be/4e1jgqX0Y8g

Summer: youtu.be/4sL-wu5oa1w
youtu.be/OHTLioJGXb4

Autumn: youtu.be/CcVuHaAnA4o
youtu.be/qbaKEt5BtHo

Winter: youtu.be/4OK1kDLj8MM
youtu.be/4-PkAQcuZOw

I still can't believe how bad the V20 ready made characters are

And I'm not saying that just because of the art

Wild guess, but Angel of Small Death is fae, and fucking trouble. It even has the escape from the hedge in the last verse before the choirs repeats.

Yeah, I feel like people could have done better by asking people to post their NPCs.

A few of these found their way to my playlist. Keaton Henson among others.

I felt like the V20 Ready Made Characters were interesting, and while a few are bland, most of them are characters I'd put in my game (well. I'd put in Requiem, where they don't have to be forced into the stereotype clans).
Except then I actually looked over their sheets. Forget "oh no, the fat drag queen has Appearance (Unforgettable) 5". I mean half of them aren't even created properly and also seriously look at this fucking bullshit. Who the fuck printed this?

I honestly don't trust these people to stat their own characters. Every time I've seen an "official" character sheet, they've made so many mistakes. One of the characters in the Demon quickstart has Inspiring, but Presence 2. I can't even remember if he had Expression at all.

Yeah, NPC's having absurd, nonsensical stats is sort of a World of Darkness tradition. I remember, I think, a non-supernatural small woman with strength 4 in one of the By Night books.

Clearly they study aspects of science in a scientific manner, it's a thing in interdisciplinary studies. Completely useless for a game, though.

I used to think the Men in Black were weak, comedic even.
Holy fuck those bastards are fast as hell, and stronger than even the Thyrsus.
And even if you kill them, they just come back. In fact, killing them increasing the time they have to hunt you down with.

I don't even (mostly) care about that. I mean, especially with oWoD's set up, you kind of had to put stuff at 4 or 5. Oh no, the social character has the stat that all social interaction relies on. But for this shit? Someone actually had to sit there and think about which specialty would be best and holy fuck they thought "Science" would be an acceptable "Science" specialty?

Not to mention that several of the characters have Specialties when they've only got 1 or 2 dots in a skill. It's ridiculous.

I'll study your science.
What's even weirder is that "Drugs" is basically what the character is all about, and for some reason they didn't even think of that.

that could just mean specialising in the philosophy of science generally. Experimental design, operationalizing data, thesis design etc

That'd be more of an Academics thing.

so is Science really. Some specialities can probably be flexibly applied

It's kind of unsurprising as Summer and Winter are the actual mythological fae courts, Spring and Autumn are *welcome* but WoD-only additions.

As I am a horrid weeblord, I'd recommend most of the tracks in the Yuri Kuma Arashi OST for Changeling.

So, I want to run a late Greek/early Roman Vampire campaign using Dark Ages: Vampire. What could I expect aside from sightly stronger Cainites and more fae?