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

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>Question:
Have you ever managed to have a successful romance in one of your games, without derailing whatever was the main plot?

Other urls found in this thread:

strawpoll.me/12615932
youtube.com/watch?v=-weG5Fq3tNQ
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Sure between NPCs. But seriously my players have always refused to participate in any romanti relationships because they think I will use them to fuck them over ;_;

Between NPC's a bunch of times. Between players, or a player and an NPC, only once. One of the players really insisted on it, so we ended up with a middle-ground where the romance served as motivation for the character. but it was mostly not shown during the sessions.

Like a sort of "he's my husband and I love him, I have to protect him" sort of deal.

Once, the DM introduced a NPC emo goth woman into our mage campaign and my character and she started a relationship.

It didnt really derail the plot as there wasnt much plot to derail at the time. We had to "save" her from a marauder realm. Then we found out she was a ghost all along (my character had medium merit) so we put her in a HIT mark because MAGE!

It's a fair concern that a DM could use a love interest or romantic involvement to spur on something he wants, and no one really wants to go through that as more often than not said love interest dies in the process.

So I'm trying to make a Mage 2e Legacy that's based on that storytime of a Life Archmage punting an Arch Demon into space, where you push past your body's limit and use all of its strength, which is enough to tear yourself in half.
This is my first Legacy and I understand that it might not seem good or appropriate for balance reasons, but I've decided to share with you guys for thoughts, criticisms, opinions and changes.
Also I can't think of what to add as the secondary arcanum for the fifth attainment. Anyways here it is so far:

(WIP)
Parentage: Thyrsus, Adamantine Arrow
Perquisite: Resolve 3, Medicine 2, Life 2
Primary Arcanum: Life
Initiation: To give the Mage an idea of what's waiting for them, the Mentor will have to deal intense amount of pain upon them for one solitary hour with no pauses, breaks or even a chance to draw breath. All damage inflicted will be immediately healed. If the Mage manages to go through this without asking to stop, they will be accepted.
Yantra: Going through an aerobic exercise (+2), relaxing and letting their bodies rest (+1), centering their own minds and alleviating stress in some way, (+2), preparing oneself mentally by dealing excruciating pain to their bodies (+1 or +2 if they also take 2 bashing damage).
Oblation: Healing other living creatures (not necessarily humans), protecting weaker creatures from harm or danger, enjoying a good meal and/or drink, working out in intense and dangerous circumstance (example: sparring with real, lethal weapons).

(1/?)

So, as PC Echo Walkers are wont to do, ours is devoted to finding a better way to view the ones before. His idea involves "polishing" the soul of a sleepwalker or mage to transluscence so he can scry upon the ones before. It's temporary, of course, and doesn't do any harm.

I've decided I'll let it work, but there is a problem - it doesn't satisfy the addiction of "soul tipping" that Walkers have.

He's new to the legacy and can handle the withdrawal, but many older ones can't or won't. His mentor personally isn't that far gone, but as they go up the chain they discover that he's not the first one to find a "successful" alternative that doesn't satisfy the addiction. Worse, those who push the issue wind up dead of "mysterious causes."

I've always wanted to tell the story of the redemption of a left-handed legacy, and the Echo Walkers seem custom built for that.

Sure, the walker can handle withdrawal, but can he do it while his fellows are trying to kill him and manage to convince the Consillium and Assembly that his legacy is redeemable?

>1st Attainment
As an instant action, the Mage tunes in to sense the life of ALL living beings around him, covering roughly the size of a shopping mall. However, he can only do this for a split second and afterwards suffers the blinded tilt (both his eyes) until his next turn, but he retains his defense if the attacker is a living being he sensed earlier.
Add Forces 1 - The Mage can also at same time (or separately) focus his hearing to pick up high and low frequency sounds that his ears shouldn't be able to sense. As an instant action he gains a bonus to all hearing-based perception checks equal to his dots in Forces. This effect lasts a scene.

>2nd Attainment
The Mage is forced to use less energy while bringing greater effect of their bodies. They are under constant effects of Body Control spell, with potency 2 (rising to 3 once the Mage gets Life 4).
Add Forces 2 - the Mage is also under the effect of Environmental Shield with potency equal to her dots in Forces.

>3rd Attainment
The signature power of this Legacy. As an instant action, the Mage emulates the effect of Hone the Form spell, only increasing their chosen attribute by dots equal to their Gnosis (exceeding the attribute limit) for one turn. The bonus dots can be allocated to one attribute or split evenly between two or all three (if the total number is odd, then add the last dot to strength). The cost of this however, is massive pain as the body is ripped apart and put together in an instant. For every action that requires the usage of your limbs in that turn, you gain either Arm Wrack or Leg Wrack (though you don't fall over if you suffer two Leg Wracks). At the beginning of your next turn your wounds heal and you lose the effects of the tilts, but you do not lose defense while in this state. Anything held by those hands and used as a weapon takes same amount of damage as the target did, potentially being destroyed by the incredible force.

Add Forces 3 - for one split second you dash at dizzying speed. As an instant action the Mage stresses his legs and then moves or runs up to eight times their speed. While in this state the Mage is capable of avoiding obstacles as if he was moving or running at his regular speed.

>4th Attainment
The Mage centers themselves and finds peace within their mind and body. As an instant action the Mage heals aggravated damage equal to his dots in Life, or alternatively he can roll a resist check against any drugs, diseases, chemicals or other foreign bodies in his body, with a bonus equal to his dots in Life as well.
Add Forces 4 - and from peace the Mage finds strength. Lightning bursts from their hands. The Mage forces his body to produce more energy than thought possible, augmenting his strikes with the power of lightning. As an instant action, for a scene the Mage can gather power into his hands to strike at his opponent, dealing extra bashing damage equal to a major electrical source (6B that ignore armor). This attainment can be used while grappling or holding unto an opponent, dealing damage only from this effect, but also stunning the opponent until they succeed in a Strength roll. And yes, this attainment can also turn the Mage into a human battery.

Also I'm sorry for any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. I am not good at proof-reading.

Sorta. Hunter the Vigil game, our characters started as somewhat experienced. My character had a fiance in his backstory who died. Then, much later a vampire came along and kept trying to get into his pants, though I'd hardly call it romance, she wanted him as a childe (this is what I get for having 2 dots in striking looks). However, recently my character did ask this girl he met out. Really hoping nothing kills her.

>5th Attainment
At some point every practitioner of this Legacy is taught of the Adamant Hand techniques for this attainment specifically. As a reflexive action the Mage regenerates anything that has been cut off from him. This spell emulates Regeneration, however it is considered to be Potency 7, and instead of waiting minutes, the Mage has to wait seconds. The effects are lasting. But this power also puts incredible stress on the body of the Mage, they take lethal damage equal to the potency required to regenerate the missing limb, it also looks disfigured and as if it's incomplete despite its full functionality (like eyes without pupils, arms with patches of missing skin, etc.) and they suffer a personal tilt relating to that body part until their next turn, save the skin (blind for eyes, arm wrack for a hand or arm, stunned for brain or heart, etc). The Mage also retains their defense but cannot dodge while under this effect. The damage taken cannot fill the last health box, effectively killing them or throwing them to unconsciousness. Most Mages cast other healing spells when using this power to negate the damage, which is why practitioners of this Legacy all learn Adamant Hand in case of combat, despite whatever order they might be from.

Yeah so I can't think of the last secondary arcanum for this attainment. And I'd also like to hear others thoughts about this Legacy.

>Then, much later a vampire came along and kept trying to get into his pants, though I'd hardly call it romance, she wanted him as a childe

How did that turn out?

>Really hoping nothing kills her.

You jinxed it.

Benedictions are the coolest powers in the game, you can't prove me wrong.

Since the Garou "Nation" is shit, which changing breeds can make interesting characters and stories?

Well, the party managed to jump and stake her when after a month of constantly testing me, trying to sleep with me, and successfully feeding on me, she decided now was a good time for the embrace, and decided to take me out of the bar I was hiding out in. She got 3 steps out of the door when she was ganked, half due to honest surprise, half due to excellent rolls on our party's part.

> You jinxed it
I hope to hell not. Our characters are pretty seasoned at this point, if we've saved random bystanders from monsters, the least I can do is protect one smile.

They're pretty great.

What distinguishes this legacy from perfected adepts?

Was the vampire a Daeva? I presume so, given that you mentioned your character's good looks beforehand.

It gives you more power in return of damage or tilts.

Out of character, I'm 100% sure she was, though in character we never got a definitive answer. She was also real good looking, and out of game I knew for a fact what she was hitting my character with was majesty.

The real nail in the coffin was when she started getting creepily lovey-dovey a bit after the second time she fed on my character.

Yeah, that sounds like a Daeva. They got that curse that makes feeding from the same mortal more than once make for an emotional bond, similar to a blood bond.

Oh and by the way, how the fuck did she get to feed from your Hunter two times?

Did the DM plan something more for you, if she happened to embrace you?

Honestly, I'm not sure if he did. For some reason, she was taking her time with my character. Testing him, toying with him.

The first time she fed on him was during a hunt against something else, she surprised my character and fed on him. The second time happened because she broke into my character's home and needed some blood. She told me either she could take a little from me to sate her, or she'd find some random innocent and drink them bone dry, she even had some random guy she dragged into the room with her. I had no clue she knew where I lived, so I was unarmed. Let her feed on me to save that guy.

After another week of messing with my character she decided he was worthy of the embrace, and tried to abduct him from that bar. I have no clue if the ST would still let me play if he'd successfully been embraced.

>successfully been embraced.
But cancer cells are the best

That's really fucking neat how the DM played it off.

By the way, what's Vigil like? I'm only vaguely familiar with Reckoning.

How does Vigil work? Is it just regular humans grouping up to combat the supernatural,rather than getting Imbued by Messengers or their equivalent in nWoD?

I'm proud of my PC's first time playing awakening and they're already getting creative 3 sessions in.

The obrimos got knocked the fuck out after the train they were on got derailed and the acanthus and mastigos were dragging him out of the ruined station while they were trying to regroup with the rest of the party.

The trip through the sewers there was a severed electrical main swinging around randomly electrifying the way out.

The acanthus figured out the timing of the cable so the mastigos could use 'ground-eater' to barely make it to the junction box and shut it down.

Mostly normal humans that due to various circumstances get together. There are groups that do get supernatural powers like for example Lucifuge who are said to be descendants of Demons and Cheiron Group that cut up monsters for parts and then insert those parts into their Hunters

Vigil is more like Hunters Hunted than Hunter the Reckoning. There's no default powers, no messengers, Vigil is pretty much agnostic to everything, and that's great because of the different ways you can run it. At its most basic, the cell level, it is just regular humans combating the darkness with conviction and cunning. But there's a compact or conspiracy for about everything. Task Force Valkyrie gets hyper-advanced super weapons, the Malleus Malfecarium get Benedictions, which are like True Faith from oWoD. Vigil also has tactics, which are team actions your cell can do that greatly simplify otherwise very complex actions into simpler rolls with solid effects. You can definitely do more than one thing in Vigil. Generally my group sticks to cell-level, because it forces us to fight smart, and it makes the characters feel more human.

You say that until the now vamped Cell leader frenzies and drinks the team knowledge-bank dry. Although I think there's a tactic in the beast-hunter book designed to help monsters overcome their monstrous impulses...

One of my PCs was married to a mortal, and their marriage was slowly falling apart, but the PC made pretty good efforts to keep it together until he left.

To expand on OPs question what were some background NPC romances that players enjoyed watching play out?

Guess I'll be reading Vigil after I'm done with Requiem stuff. Man, there's so much shit to read in nWoD.

My Garou had a romance going on with one of her packmates that lasted for years. (I've been playing her for 13 years now). She'd argue it wasn't against the Litany because her lover was sterile, but that didn't keep the regular beatings from the Sept Elders away. Eventually they ended the sexual component of their relationship - In game, because his character was tortured to insanity, out of game, because he got a girlfriend and felt uncomfortable having an in-game romance.

>frenzies and drinks the team knowledge-bank dry.
I know Right, It's like the best

Oh wow, you actually did the romance thing with someone who played with you? That's just asking for disaster most of the time.

>obrimos got knocked the fuck out after the train they were on got derailed

Did your Obrimos underestimage?

Well it still goes better than what I could imagine my players would do in that situation...

>Now childe now that you are a vampire you can see we are not mons...
>MUACHACHA I WILL BETRAY MY CELL MATES AND DRINK THEIR BLOOD OR TURN THEM INTO GHOULS
>I might have made a horrible mistake

>Did your Obrimos underestimage

Maybe he "misunderestimaged" the situation.

>horrible mistake
>THE BEST MISTAKE

Two PCs tried romancing people they ghouled. One got killed before it could really spiral out of control. The other started to go nuts and co-dependent until her domitor died. Then she got pissed and turned hunter.

>13 year tabletop game

Holy shit, what?

People with morals that loose don't deserve to take up the vigil.

Unless they're in the Ashwood Abbey. Fuck those guys.

Thou this could lead into a funny game when player tries to betray rest of the cell, cell thinks he is controlled by vampire, vampire tries to stop player from betraying the cell and use him to convince hunters to leave him alone

I've had essentially the same gaming group since September of 2000. The only change was when one player's little sister joined for awhile in 2010ish, but left when she went to college.

Is your sheet like completely maxed out?

They probably haven't been playing the same game that entire time. You switch games as campaigns end and people get bored.

Just unlucky. I was expecting them to just hangout until the Obrimos recovered but they were more proactive. Gave them extra beats.

I get the same gaming GROUP, that's how our group is, a lot of us who rotate duties and small playgroups since 2004. I was just commenting on playing a character that long unless it's like a LARP. Unless you switch out and take breaks and go back and forth, so you haven't been playing that werewolf every week or two weeks for 13 years.

Hence my quesiton, she stated in her post that she's been playing that character for 13 years, so I wanted clarification for myself.

Never mind, I'm retarded.

No. Not even close. The Storyteller is sparing with XP. Hell, my character is only rank 3 - mostly because of that aforementioned banging other Garou. We only play that campaign every other week, anyway, and usually not during summer or around xmas because folk are away. We have two campaigns going on at any given time, with different DMs, and we switch off which campaign we play each week. The Werewolf game is the only one that's run that long. Games with faster character progression, like D&D/Pathfinder usually run a year or two at best.

It won't take that long. Hell, in my group people start running out of things to buy after 4-6 months of normal play.

strawpoll.me/12615932

My mage game is reaching the last act, and will probably be done by summer. What game do you think I should run next? Keep in mind that this poll is not binding, and I'll ultimately run whatever I feel like.

Nah, you're cool.

Why do you even have Beast there mate?

I feel like I could do something interesting with it. It wouldn't be very close to canon, but I figured I might as well give it a chance.

Guess that is fair. You have any idea for campaign in mind? I couldn't come up with anything for it.

This time around I kind of want to do a more slice-of-lifey chronicle, though with an overarching plot. Think shows like Breaking Bad or Dexter, where there's a strong focus on the character's personal lives, but also things that happen.

For Beast I'm thinking that I'd focus on Beasts as monsters. Some revel in it, some deny it and try to live their lives as best they can, despite having to hurt people to live. How moral a Beast is generally impacts what kinds of heroes come after them; Beasts that try to be moral only get wackos, while those that revel in it get Heroes that are good guys.

The main conflicts would come from three places; The Beast community, which would be elaborated on, the other supernaturals who have mixed feelings on Beasts (getting rid of the 'everyone loves Beasts thing), and mortals and Heroes, who generally dislike Beasts but are willing to put up with the less bad ones.

I'm also thinking about setting it during a Dark Era, either the Reconstruction setting or a 'custom' one.

>Beast
>no Promethean
>no Geist

>nWoD
Confirmed shit GM.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Myself I didn't try Dark Eras yet but I would love to one day run the prehistory/pangea one

I just wasn't feeling Promethean 2e, and Giest 2e isn't out yet.

Can you smoke weed in this game?

I think I need to make Lanca Sanctum Bishop with Carthian revolutionary leanings as an antagonists for second "season" of my campaign. Anyone has experience building similar characters?

youtube.com/watch?v=-weG5Fq3tNQ

>Playing games sober
What are you? 12?

Absolutely not, the fun police will utterly annihilate you.

>Uh... you don't get to bring Methuselahs
Don't worry, no charge for them
>And why would I want them?
They were sired by the antediluvian... the first vampire...
>...CAIN?

Stargazers
Bast
Anansi if you want to be special snowflakes.

>Ananasi

Remove Weaver

How do people feel about the investigation mechanic in CoF? I'm running a series of one shots for different groups, all focused around the same place and time, and I'm really having a tough time not having a "concrete" villain. What are people experiences with this?

Our Queen will take the Weaver's place in the Triat!

>Stargazers
>Not part of the Nation
DELET THIS

Rats are the answer.

So, how much work do you guys normally put in to building your cities for your games? New ST here, not sure exactly how to go about it.

Where the FUCK Is Awakening, you filthy fucking wretch?!

Thyrsus and other Life mages are well known for their dank ass cannabis, user.

Can vampires even partake?

Can't Vamps imbibe through the blood of users?
Or is that just Masquerade thing?

>Can vampires even partake?
No they cannot. They will forever be normies.

How the fuck would that even work?

Don't you dare say "magic".

You going to be able to run this session then notanautomaton?
Not going to lie, we're keen to throw an odd 40+ moderate Rank Spirits and Goetia at this Scelestus toolbag.
I mean, you did just hand us a "you can cast any spell freely targetting the entire city" McGuffin on a plate.

>Thyrsus and other Life mages are well known for their dank ass cannabis, user.
>Can vampires even partake?

Vamps need to drink the blood of someone high to experience the effects.

I imagine if that Acanthus cabal-mate of the partook of the Thyrsus drugs, and the vampire drank from him, the vamp would have one hell of a trip.

Just don't drink from the Obrimos or Mastigos.

>Vams need to drink the blood of someone high to experience the effects

Again, how the fuck would this even work?

...

How the fuck do you think Vampires work user?
BLOOD MAGIC.
Plus, chemicals are carried in the blood so really it's not that large a step to having something that drinks blood affected by stuff that's carried in it.

The blood is infused with the drugs.

Vampires getting drunk by drinking from drunk victims has been a thing in both WOD and CofD since the beginning.

Don't get bogged down in the science when discussing undead blood-drinking monsters.

Pretty easily?
Drink blood of intoxicated person, become intoxicated on whatever they were + the already addictive high of vitae

I'm currently running Awakening, and don't want to run the same thing twice. Same reason that Demon isn't on there, that's what I ran last time.

I should, so long as I don't get sick again.

gay vampires can't smoke the mary jane

deal with it

So, what's everyone thinking about the Goblin Contract preview?

It seems a bit extreme for what use to just be contracts with interesting drawbacks, but still seems like it could be interesting over all, just not with the contracts presented in the preview, which all seemed boring.

I like how it opens up a lot of possible things dealing with the Hedge, but I agree that they hopyfully couldn't have previewed more boring Contracts.

I do rather like the idea of being a permanent hedge denizen for abusing what equates to Hedge Gutter magic. I've played more than a few characters who would have ended up in that state.

The example contracts are shit, the concept of becoming a Goblin is... Interesting. Especially how becoming a Goblin Queen puts the Huntsmen off their scent.

I can't put my finger on it, but something rubs me the wrong way about the Goblin Debt points. Perhaps I'll feel better about it if/when they put the section about Collectors back in.

No, but a failed romance was the cornerstone of a Mage's awakening.

No, but I had a PC in one of my games ruin his only relationship. In the final fucking session he tried to sell his true love to the Fae.

I tend to base it off of an existing city then build out from there. My last game, I took the city of Stockton, CA, took it's history and made iti nto a more affluent, more successful city, due to the human founder's pact with a demon. I reskinned and expanded Stockton then, adding my own flourishes and such to it.

Otherwise, it depends on what splat(s) youu're running. This was for vampire so I built the major NPCs like Prince, Seneschal, Primogen and 1-3 mook/extra NPCs to expand upon later.

Is this the Chronicles of Fagness?

Why is 'fag' associated with WoD on Veeky Forums ?

Everything's somethingfag on this site, are you new?

because 'cuck' is too offensive

Because vampire is super gay.

I bet you're an undercover vampfag