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

There's the Psychometry supernatural merit and I think at least one Contract has a similar effect. There's also an Embed somewhere that lets you rewind time by a scene.

I meant any way, other splat options are fine. Just don't have access to mages

I've drifted from WoD (or CoD or whatever they call it this week) because of the sheer quantity of pretentious, cliquey assholes I've met who play it.

Is there any way to address this? I have a hard time filtering them out. I don't get this problem with other RPG's.

I can't even remember the changeling focused hunter groups...

But I feel like they could cause typical trouble. Once they crack into the local area, taking out one changeling or finding a door into the hedge, it all goes downhill.

But changelings are good at scattering like roaches, and I feel like they would get back into hiding before long.

Good news is, hunters will alsontake care of some fetches and other problems for changelings. (Similar to how hunters may at times help woofs by killing pure')

Uh... What are some examples of the behavior you hate? Just to see how best to avoid those kind of people.

Of course, that deprives the Changelings of getting the bonus of killing their own fetch, at least in 1st ed cofd. I haven't played 2nd ed at all, did they keep that?

No, we're all shitcunts

Deal with it

The only Changeling organizations are fan-made, but some if them are great.

mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/HtV/DreamCatchers.pdf

Well, there are a lot of little things. Not all of them appear at once, but at least one of them does. I can list a few things I see a lot more of in WoD than other stuff.

Most male characters seem like they're intended to be some combination of Morpheus, Silent Bob, and Duke Nukem. Most female characters seem like they're intended to be some kind of SL+2 femme fatale, although the specifics vary. (Sometimes they're an evil manipulator bitch vampire -- sometimes they're a 2smart4u chess playing model, etc)

There's usually one player in every new group I start who makes a point to bring up how problematic everything is. There's typically another player who makes a point to argue with the first one, although sometimes I get one of these two but not their counterpart.

There's a lot more fucking going on within these games, but I've noticed that there's a toxicity to it. I've had a couple female players flirt with me while I'm ST but then treat me like trash when I'm not, so presumably they were trying to cozy up for XP.

There are people I've met playing this game who actually insist that they're vampires, and every time someone rolls up a Werewolf I seriously begin to wonder if they're a furry because I've met like three so far.

I can think of more, but a lot of the bad stereotypes about our type of gamer seem to come right to life with WoD/CoD

Play CofD instead of WoD.

I was playing CofD before they called it that and the exact problems emerged. In fact, I got into WoD when nWoD was already partly released!

I think you're lying because CofD is great and WoD is shit

Have you considered playing with friends.

You're retarded both games have good parts and bad part. They both attract the weirdest people.

You need to find people beforehand and learn about them before just getting into games. You'll meet a lot of creeps who play the game because it's weird.

No, that's just what happens when you let people play an Urban Fantasy game. It's like Murderhoboes in Fantasy or the guy who wants to be Han Solo in an SF game.

Only solution is to get people you were already friends with to play with you. If your friends are somehow already cliquey assholes, well.

Yeah that's probably true. Actually the best luck I've had IN GENERAL for RPG's, WoD/CofD included, is Veeky Forums. I think something about the nature of Veeky Forums requires you to get the fuck over yourself and have a sense of humor.

>WoD apologists

Not even once.

/v/ is the other way, you can talk about Bloodlines there.

I'm playing a tomboyish genki mage in my game. You just got unlucky with your players.

>I can't even remember the changeling focused hunter groups...
There are none. I made this, though.
I think a lot of the other fanmade Changeling focused Hunter groups also tend to not go after Changelings themselves as a rule of thumb. Then again, even in Mortal Remains they didn't usually have hooks for going after Changelings, aside from crazy ones that hurt mortals.

You know, I've honestly never had any of these problems.

I just wish the Lord Stewards were made canon.

>You know, I've honestly never had any of these problems.
That's because you're that guy.

I've done none of those things, you just don't like that I do things like make magical girl or catgirl homebrew, and update the BDSM wizards.

Every game had bad players. If playing certain games was a reliable detection system for being a bad player we would have dumped GenCon into the sea by now.

>insert obligatory joke about how you never actually play here

Don't think I've heard of those. What's their deal?

>How often do hunters pop up in your game? (barring actual hunter games)

Well, when I'm the Storyteller (in our VtM 20th Anniversary games, which everyone in my group prefers over VtR) I change it up depending on what the players do.

I usually only run with "Hunters Hunted" types of hunters though, as opposed to the Imbued from HtR.

If a vampire drains a person and don't go to enough reasonable lengths to cover up the crime, or if they get caught on camera/film doing something overly supernatural, then hunters might start showing up. They might also randomly come across a single hunter (or just a pair of them) by chance.

If a larger group *does* arrive, they're usually only snooping around, chasing leads, in which case the group can just avoid 'em by not confronting said group, and simply staying hidden by covering their tracks.

Other times, they arrive in full force, like if the story is currently taking place in a Sabbat area where the local packs haven't been very sicrete...

NOBODY EXPECTS THE LEOPOLD INQUISITION!

Have you read Hunters Hunted II, by any chance? How is it?

Fan group, a British office that acts as supernatural diplomats and upholds old fae pacts to keep them from storming reality.

We really need more diplomat Hunters, and I'm a sucker for official agency types.

Some games definitely do have a sort of... "toxic playerbase", and certain games or types of games attract certain kinds of players. A lot of the OSR crowd, for instance, seems to hate on other games, and it seems to be the further back you go into D&D, the more likely people are to feel like it's the ONLY system. I'd say that WoD (both of them) can definitely attract a certain kind of player, but I don't think that it's as much as people would assume.
Contrasted with D&D, where I've literally never played a game where people weren't pirating 30 sourcebooks just to make one character from a non-standard race, and if you weren't doing the same you were looked down on.

>insert obligatory joke about how you never actually play here
True!
I have been in a game the last few weeks, but it's an OSR caveman game, not WoD.

>Have you read Hunters Hunted II, by any chance? How is it?

I have, and it's pretty damn good, actually. One of the best V20 books in my opinion.

They go into quite a bit of detail on many various mortal groups of Hunters, including ones associated with major mortal religions.

Knights of St. George: Christianity (though it's become more inclusive in later years)
Akritai: Eastern Orthodox Church
Ikhwan al-Safa: Islam
The Judges: Judaism

There's also the U.S. Government, the Society of Leopold, the Arcanum, the Young Bloods (a gang of biker ghouls that figured out a way to keep themselves continually and safely fed with vamp blood without having to worry about the blood bond), major Criminal organisations (the Tong, the Mafia, the Russians, etc.) and more.

The Numina (psychic powers and hedge magic) are pretty balanced as well, with all of them feeling powerful in terms of mortals, but being weaker in nearly every aspect when compared to Vampiric Disciplines, especially in regards to the fact that they cost willpower to use and often have detrimental side effects or bigger requirements.

It also goes into detail on how the Hunters are coping in the new V20 timeline that moves away from the whole "GEHENNA HAPPENS IN 2004!"-crap, touching on stuff like the conflict in the Middle-East and whatnot.

The only thing that bothered me was the way the Numina are ordered; not every Numina is listed under the Numina section, and instead appear get listed under other sections of the book. Like, the "Alchemy" Numina is listed under the faction of the Arcanum, rather than with all the other Numina.

But that's a minor issue, and I highly recommend picking the book up if you got the inclination to play as (more or less) regular mortals against vastly overpowered foes.

Hunters Hunted 2 is probably the best V20 book.

Ooh, that's a good one. Is it on the OPP forums?

That's good to hear! I'll have to pick it up when my paycheck comes in.

mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/HtV/DreamCatchers.pdf

ded game, ded thread

What rises may fall. What has fallen may rise again.

Unless it's your ex girlfriend.

Got bored, made a cult for Mummies to run and mortals to join.

forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/mummy-the-curse/954677-example-cult-joint-terrorism-task-force-42

Yeah... after that time you pushed her down the stairs, I doubt she'll ever rise again.

This

How do you make sure police don't get involved so new players don't rely on NPCs to get the dirty stuff done for them.

1) Self-incrimination. Make the strongest (or even only) evidence point right at the PCs.
2) He-said-she-said. A softer version of the above, have it be events that they couldn't really even report to the police; "ghosts possessed a man and made him kill someone else" is not a problem you can solve by bringing cops in.
3) Reprisal. The cops don't swoop in with AK-47s and grenades on first suspicion; even if it's something that you CAN report, the process is going to be slow enough that there's plenty of time for the bad guys to go to ground or just lash out against the PCs outright.
4) What cops? Set it in some shitty part of town or way out in the boonies where the cops don't even get out of bed unless at least 9 people have died.

Alright, so my regent just barely escaped death, but he's vulnerable. Should I diablerize him and skip town, or support his recovery for mad boons down the road?

Add to this, if the bad guys are organized enough, the cops have been bought out.

You think the local Prince or Alpha doesn't have a mole on the force that can make sure a call never reaches the right ears? Come on man, the world would fall apart if cops were constantly walking into fights with strix and junk.

>I've done none of those things, you just don't like that I do things like make magical girl or catgirl homebrew, and update the BDSM wizards.
People don't mind that you like those, it's that you blow off all criticism as trolls and haters and ignore the books and end up with unfinished products that don't fit into the game.

The latter. Social boons ultimately do more than raw Vampire power.

In addition to what other people have said, the inhabitants of the world of Chronicles of Darkness have been explicitly stated as not wanting to believe in the existence of spooky supernatural stuff. So they just repress their memories of it, or explain it away as something else.

Also most Supernatural organisations have some form of cover-up group whose entire job is sorting out the cockups of groups like PCs. They won't be too happy about it, and you can bring that in as a plot point later, but they're not going to abandon their job just because the PCs make it hard for them.

Also Supernaturals in the Police Force and so forth.

Did your character still not realize that vampire politics is just a game meant to entertain bored elders?

Good point. Fuck that guy, he's going in my vampire belly.

>ignore the books
You mean like that time I just had one of the writers point out that I know what I'm talking about? I don't ignore the books.

Regnant.

I feel like I'm missing it, but do they say how many skill dots to give a normal Pandoran in 2e?

I feel like it is just passed over in favor of saying what kind of skills not to give them. Which is fine.

What's a good Skill to use for a Rote that involves branding someone with a Rune to enchant them?

Craft or Expression?

Crafts,Expression,Larceny

Kind of depends on the enchantment, really, but
Occult if they have to be willing
Brawl if you have to hold them down when you brand them
Melee if the only requirement is that the brand makes skin contact for a moment.

Does your dedicated Magical Tool count as a normal Yantra as well? Does it count towards the limit on number of Yantras by Gnosis?

Yes and Yes.

The use of a dedicated Magical Tool is merely an enhanced version of the Magical Tool yantra, ditching 2 paradox dice. So yeah, I don't see why you'd think otherwise.

I wish Yantras were more interesting, and hope we see more in Signs of Sorcery. Everything is just bonus dice except for Dedicated Magical Tools giving -2 Paradox.

I want 9-again and 8-again and Rote and free Spell Factors. Instead of giving +1 or +2, Runes as a Yantra could have just made something's duration permanent so long as the rune is still there. There's so many things they could have done. I hope something similar to Rote Factors is in SoS. Use a Rote in a certain way that works with the "theme" and you get free Spell Factors.

You read the preview?

I saw that some of the metals seemed to give 9- and 8-again, but that's about all. What, did they have more Yantra stuff?

Or did you misunderstand me and think I meant I knew something other people didn't? Rote Factors were from Tome of Mysteries.

>Runes as a Yantra could have just made something's duration permanent so long as the rune is still ther
That would be beyond bullshit

Evil kung fu school as a Deceived cult; hot or not?

Is there any way to go back and observe the past?

No Mages available

Infrastructure designed to do that

Changelings could probably make a Contract for that.

Ooh, tell me more. There are Changelings in my gameworld.

Likewise. Haven't come across a Demon yet, but they haven't been ruled out

Like I said last thread, the Psychometry merit for mortals kinda does this, I think there's a Contract for it, and there's an Embed that lets you at least briefly rewind time. How far back are you trying to look?

>Like I said last thread,

Sorry, missed that completely. Yesterday was weird.

>Merit
Actually that's pretty sweet. Might ask or a 5 dot version that lets me just observe instead of asking questions.

>Contract
>Embed
Seriously interested in the Contract option. Will it be obvious how that would work from just reading that section?

>how far back
Any far back, specific issue right now is the 1740s, but prehistory isn't out of the question

Is this more mummy stuff?
Atamajakki, I think you have a problem.

>Ooh, tell me more. There are Changelings in my gameworld.
Changeling wants to learn the secrets of the past.
They make contact with the concept of Time through the Wyrd, and engage in some extended, and infuriatingly difficult quest to barter with it and craft a Contract permitting them to glimpse back through it.

Changelings can do almost anything by making contracts with the world. Of course, the process of making such a Contract is so bullshit difficult they only introduced it in 1e in the final "endgame" book, but it's still doable.
But once the Contract is made, it can be taught quite easily, to anyone who wants to learn.

Personally I've been thinking up powerful Changelings for a future game, and I'm currently brainstorming for one who's seeking to make a contract with the concept of Acceptance. Which would allow them to (through great effort), destroy Huntsmen, who are animated by a Gentry's loss. At the cost of taking upon themselves some of the Huntsman's anguish and pain of existence.

>You think
You should stop being polite.

>stop making new content for your content-starved favorite gameline

yeah nah

You just bet on the wrong horse. Mummy got introduced at the worst time, and will forever suffer for it.

Is Mummy nWoD's Wraith?

People keep mentioning one of the stories in the Beast anthology was good, something about a bunch of different creeps taking on a beast.

Which story was that?

Mummy will likely get a second edition confirmed next year, and with luck I'll write for it!

Wraith was my favorite WoD line alongside Demon. I'm cursed to forever be the gameline hipster.

Dave Brookshaw's story. The name of it eludes me, but it was really good; it has a Beast, a Mage, and a cat shifter from Changing Breeds.

That should be premeditation. Thanks.

If you were going to have a Mage be a Promethean's demiurge, which arcana would be their highest?

Show your work.

Prime

The meta-magic arcana, therefore most appropriate for woking with raw, sentient existence magic that is Pyros

Pandora's Book says a combination of Death, Forces, and Prime are needed to perceive Flux, but I think Prime makes little sense as its specifically the Arcana of Supernal things. I think you need a grasp of Death (for the not-quite-yet-a-soul that is Azoth) and Fate (for the weird Wyrd-like narrative structure of the Divine Fire), possibly with a dash of Mind as well.

Honestly, any Arcana could do it if you're Obsessed enough to get the attention of the Divine Fire.

I also feel like Prime is a little strange since it is meant to study a particular type of magic, supernal magic. While mages can study stuff and figure out wtf is going on, Prime shouldn't help too much more than any other relevant arcana.

Like Life! Which, while Prometheans aren't quite a full life, the Divine Fire and Azoth are all a supernatural force that is trying to create a natural life from death. Life has to have some input on it right?

Pyros creates souls and humanity

To build a soul from Supernal magic you need the five subtle arcana and some unknown catalyst out of the reach of non-archmasters

Doesn't matter. The Supernal cannot normally craft a soul, even an imperfect one. A five-fold Master of the Subtle Arcana cannot craft such a thing even in the face of Mage theory suggesting otherwise.

It is merely the domain of Death, in the Practice of Entities, a power sufficient to remake the nature of Vampirism, or the Bound, which can craft a Soul.
However even then, that can merely remake that which has been taken, granting a Soul to one who had at one point had one, restoring the Supernal order.
Taking such power that would otherwise be sufficient to rewrite the laws of the Underworld.

The power of Willworkers cannot create a new soul.

Let that remain the purview of Azoth and the Divine Fire.

I fucking hate mixing splat powers.

>other splats can do a thing Mages can't
>other splats can do a thing achmasters can't

It's sad, but I genuinely can't tell if you're joking or not.

It isn't mixing splat powers.

The mage would be driven by the principle like any other demiurge, and it would be the principle that grants the divine fire and allows the act to happen.

The question is more, 'what type of mage would be most likely to use their magic to start the process'.

Signs has had an excerpt from chapter one (mage sight, from the supernal world chapter) and an excerpt from chapter three (perfected materials, from the crafting chapter) up.

According to the breakdown of the book on the blog, chaoter two is nothing but yantra stuff.

Sweet. Looking forward to that.

Geist Oracle, probably