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

Start with werewolf or vampire. Werewolf is the most simple in concept, vampire in execution.

Diablerie is worth execution in the Camarilla, especially if you appear to be a stupid newbie that no one will miss.

But I though the jump made quite clear that you are the fledgling, anyway. It's one of the few where you explicitly start as the canon protagonist.

There are some cases where diablerie is allowed in the Camarilla, but it has to be

1) Against the Sabbat or a relatively weak independent clan member
2) Not too low a generation

Hey guys, is the idea of the tzimisce big bad of the chronicle I'm currently running turning into a xenomorph for his zulo form too much or nah?

>Diablerie is worth execution
>especially if you appear to be a stupid newbie
As I was saying, does it matter if I only attempt it instead of succeeding? Demonstrating my weird powers as proof that I'm from somewhere else? Them botching the execution because I can survive decapitation? Sucking off LaCroix?

I mean there's gotta be some way I could reasonably write this as to squirm out of getting destroyed on the spot. I wonder if I'd be considered a newfag vampire if I had to be physically restrained by the Sheriff and was immune to being staked.
>You're explicitly the fledgling
Artistic license. This makes at least a mildly interesting story, plus I got the idea of a double vampire in my head and now I can't get rid of it.

This is part of what I'm getting at. I know the fledgling in Bloodlines, going by their blood pool, would be 8th generation, but in the opening cutscene they're about to execute them anyway.

I really want to write this but I feel like if anyone's familiar with the setting it'd ruin it if I were able to get away with (attempted) diablerie.

>GM is running a game about kicking the Sabbat out of the city and holding the line against Sabbat incursions
>Says that combat will be very rare
>There's a Brujah in the party

Uhh, what?

The vampires in VTMB are kind of chumps going by the larger WoD. If you can throw your weight around they may cave, but good luck if you being a special snowflake attracts the attention of bigger players.

>Artistic license. This makes at least a mildly interesting story, plus I got the idea of a double vampire in my head and now I can't get rid of it.
If you say so. It's your game of pretend, after all.

Stuff akin to the stone mask doesn't really exist in oWoD IIRC. The most likely response to such a unique and baffling incident would probably be something akin to the hatred and fear the Tremere received back during the Dark Ages after they first completed the ritual. And adding diablerie to the mix? If that ever comes out it's nothing less than a blood hunt, but LaCroix was an arrogant and self-interested prince, so I could see him covering it up if he believed the skills of this strange pseudo-Kindred would serve him well (especially since he's already trying to fuck with what he doesn't understand what with the Ankaran Sarcophagus and what-not).

That being said, LaCroix would most likely try to blood bond them as a contingency. He thought he could rely on Dominate for the Neonate since they were of a higher generation and a definite origin, but I doubt he'd think the same for the strand new breed of vampire that just showed up in the city without warning or explainable cause.

The only reason I'm even considering writing Diablerie into it at all is that it's a good way to insert myself into the fledgling's position while making an excuse of why I might have a clan and disciplines despite not truly being a Cainite. I figure if I'm enough of a Cammy bitch and do what the prince tells me to do he might be inclined to overlook my ignorance. Or something like that, without pissing off some Inner Circle Cammy big guy or something else.

Yea, I imagine LaCroix could maybe be convinced if he would blood bond me into being a fanatically loyal crony (I was even planning on taking the flaw in the cyoa for that.) I think that works out story-wise, but you're right, it would seem like a stretch in the greater scheme of WoD.

This seems like one of those things that's only a problem once I start considering all of the implications. I could see him questioning me/my character privately before the trial to get the specifics down and secure the cover story.

>(especially since he's already trying to fuck with what he doesn't understand what with the Ankaran Sarcophagus and what-not)
That and he has a goddamn Tzimisce/Nagloper with level 6 Vicissitude following him around like a puppy. Dude's main strength is in an unconventional servant, between that, him trying to take over L.A. of all places and the whole sarcophagus debacle, he's clearly someone who's ready to bet big to win big when he can get away with it.

>He thought he could rely on Dominate for the Neonate since they were of a higher generation and a definite origin
And ignorant and without any official ally. That didn't help either.

Yeah, but the Malkavian player refers him as the jester king dancing to Strauss' melody

Seems business as usual for a Tzimisce

>despite not truly being a Cainite
I'm confused. If your excuse is Diablerie, you're clearly pretending to be a Kindred anyway.

And it's not like the VTMB fledgling is a conventional vampire either, their powerlevel growth are not at all representative of the PnP game. Andrei and a few others even imply there's something fishy about their blood, but it's a fairly weak explanation.

I have an headcanon theory that by the time the fledgling start winning against people like Andrei or Bach, the rumor mill of the L.A. Kindred is full of paranoid speculations that they're not a fledgling at all but an ancillae infiltrator pretending to be freshly embraced.

Well, that's business as usual in the Camarilla, or among vampires in general. There's always someone else pulling the strings.

I guess it's kind of murky and I don't even have the concept particularly well thought out. I was thinking about it in terms of
>Show up in LA
>That persons blood smells really good
>Squeeze them (mostly or entirely) dry
>Get caught
>The fuck, there are vampires here? That poor sap was a vampire too?

I guess part of the problem is I'm inconsistent with how I get from one world to another, whether it's by choice, random, Jump-chans will or something else dumb and how consistent I am about memory and knowing what world I'm in once I'm there. Like the first jump I did I had a whole backstory and memories fabricated to match the origin and have my original life just be a fleeting dream mentioned at the beginning and the end of the first jump.

Anyone know of an official or homebrew Victorian London splat compatible with HtV?

>mage supremacy

Just what was in Victorian age vampire. Maybe there's some Dark Era stuff.

Dark Era skipped the Victorian era. Is there a wild west sourcebook that could be refluffed?

>On behalf of that one lonely user who asks for it every single thread: does anyone have Cursed Necropolis: Rio ?

Here you go: anonfiles.cc/file/bb2ad5e18fef58008f8e116f8c5d08ae

Get it while its hot, I don't think anonfiles links work forever

Hi! New to the thread, less new to WoD/CoD (started with VtM, played a bit of WtA,CtD,WtF,MtAw and even DM some VtR)
I Picked up a few month ago Beast the Primordial cause the basic lore and concept of crossover really intrigued me.
but i'm having a had time figuring in what kind of setting, or rather plot/storyline i could use a Beast player and keeping a good balance in term of power and mood ( they are real monster due to the lack of morality, and mixed with other creature, i.e vampire or werewolf, things can get out of hand quickly )
i still love the idea that are in it.
Any advice on how to DM it? or use material in it?

thanks

>Cursed Necropolis: Rio

Thank you!

When it comes to crossover the only thing worse than Beast is Mage.

Just stick to similarly powered Templates.
Ditch Beast entirely.

Did it already expire?

>When it comes to crossover the only thing worse than Beast is Mage.
I'm running a mage in a mixed game and really it hasn't been that bad. It probably helps the group is all friends and none of us are enormous dicks

All things must pass
Sothis sinks in the west
To henet we return

Also it was working fine for me. Either way, savor it, this is the last Mummy we'll get till fucking 2025 probably.

>Any advice on how to DM it? or use material in it?

>Ditch Beast entirely.

Try Again.

Crossover is bad. Don't do it.

I don't say that to be flippant. Every game line has its own themes, mood, and styles. Mixing and matching is terrible, and Beast is just... The worst friggin' game. The worst.

Is it alright to make/play my Nosferatu as Eddie the Head, or would I be missing the point a bit?

Worked for me and I just clicked it at 11:18p Eastern US Time.

What is the general opinion on Anarchs Unbound? I'm going to run an anarch game.

Weird, it works for me now, but when i got of the shower, the PDF link didn't properly load. Thanks again uploader-san

Is MtAs cyberpunk?

It's pretty friggin' good. Guide to the Anarchs was better but Anarchs Unbound is chock full of ideas and brings back Los Angeles without KotE shit so that's kind of awesome.

Kind of in some respects but not really. Christopher Shy is just a fucking hack.

No user, thank you for actually giving a shit about Mummy which is one of my favorite game lines.

youtube.com/watch?v=AG_0fna99p0

That always confused me. Every Mage artwork is full of cybertech shit even if the tradition portrayed has nothing to do with technology.

Such was the power of the 90's, user.

What are some good guidelines for a 2-dot Retainer animal? A wolf? Something bigger?

in a city? A poodle.

Gluck having anything else not get taken off you.

So I'm an idiot and don't get how Spirits work in CoD 2E.

Is this correct? And if not, where did I go wrong?

Let's say we have a Wood spirit with Influence over wood. It's currently at a tree. Because the tree is a wood, it's Resonant.

It has to spend 1 essence today in order to stay active, so it does that. Next regains 1 essence because it's hanging around this tree.

Next some asshole comes and decides to burn down its tree. Not willing to take that lying down, it attempts to defend its tree by spending 1 essence and applying the Reaching condition to itself, then follows up by, I dunno, using Telekinesis to grab a rock and bash him over the head by spending another essence.

It then decides that it's not happy with how much essence it has left and gorges on the tree, and regains, I dunno, 4 essence.

Later another group of humans show up to burn down its tree. This time it counters them by using Gauntlet Breach to enter the material world in Twilight Form, Strengthen to increase the Resonant area to Open, Materialize to create "body", then follows up by spamming Blast at the mortals. It then continues to hang around because it's still in a resonant area. It dematerializes though because the duration of the Strengthen ends, the Open condition shifts back to Resonant, and the Materialize is no longer viable.

Was all that correct? Apologies if this is actually blatantly obvious and I'm being an idiot.

It's not in a city. It's a setting far outside of the Modern norm, supernatural is way more overt and crazy shit won't really be looked at twice.

that might have been useful info in the original question no?

2 dots could be anything, a really shit dragon for example.

It definitely had a cyberpunk element buuuut. And look closer. The Hermetic is just wearing a trenchcoat and the Verbena is just wearing some dirty ass old robes.

That was from the Revised Era which debuted in 2000.

2000's still functionally the 90s. Shit doesn't really start changing until 9/11.

>What is the general opinion on Anarchs Unbound? I'm going to run an anarch game.

It's pretty awesome in my opinion. Lots of neat little story hooks that you can implement, and it was (if I recall correctly) one of the first vampire books that decided to push past the timelocked 2004-period of Revised, with the book detailing (among other things) how the financial crisis of 2007 was actually in reality a ploy by Anarchs where they basically blackmailed all the Camarilla Elders (by holding all their "old money" hostage) into being more lenient on Anarchs and Anarch philosophies.

I also advise you pick up "Rites of the Blood", simply because it goes into great detail on the number of thaumaturges that can be found in the ranks of the Anarchs. These thaumaturges aren't nearly as skilled in general as the Tremere, but then again the Anarch thaumaturges probably *won't* screw you over quite as badly for just wanting a ritual.

>but then again the Anarch thaumaturges probably *won't* screw you over quite as badly for just wanting a ritual.

Emphasis on "probably", though.

There are quite a few select blood magics capable of rivalling the Tremere.

I believe mortal sorcery can combat it as well.

>be normie sorcerer
>either willingly be embraced into blood magic without the nagging of paradox
>or unlikely awaken and acquire true magick whilst being constantly assaulted by the consensus

There are two paths to take when you're a mortal magician;
One far stronger with greater drawbacks, the other reliable and unrestrained.

Maybe I'm slowpoking really hard here, but they're still supporting the 1e game lines? Why would they bother to release content for an old game without updating it like they did with the rest of their lines?

Pretty much.
The dominant Resonance of an area determines its Shadow characteristics though.
So for that tree to actually influence the Shadow sufficiently to make that one Spirit want to hang around rather than moving on to greener pastures, it would have to be powerfully spiritually significant.

Wood spirits stick to forests.
Water spirits stick to oceans.
Luck spirits (good and bad) stick to the casinos.
Sex spirits stick to whorehouses.
A place for everything, and everything in its place.

So reading Ordo Dracul (the Rites of the Dragon storybook not the covenant rulebook), what are the odds that Dracula was embraced by a gangrel post death and merely hallucinated God cursing him? We know vampires in Requiem can embrace a corpse somehow.
I can't figure out much of his powers, Resilience and Protean were definitely there but not sure what else.

Corpse embrace is something entirely different that has a System, makes you a revenant.
A shitty half-vampire who doesn't have Blood Potency.

Only way to escape that fate and go full Vamp is to make a deal with a powerful Strix.

How's that system work? Could a vampire possessed by a strix have done it perhaps?

>Uplifting a revenant requires that the surrogate sire feed the revenant his Vitae, and invest a point of Humanity. At that point, the revenant becomes Kindred, and of the surrogate sire’s clan.

As of second edition

Huh, didn't notice that part.

It's in the Cycle of Death section.

I rememberedd that because my current campaign started with some fuckwit revenanting ghoul belonging to one of PCs sire

So a gangrel, for whatever reason, could have embraced and uplifted the corpse of Dracula?

I think so

Disregard I suck cocks. This is what 2ed has to say baout posthumus embrace

>If a mortal has fed from a vampire in at any point in her lifetime, she is a candidate for the posthumous Embrace regardless of her cause of death. Within a week of her death, before significant decomposition sets in, contact with
Kindred Vitae could mean she awakens as Kindred. The donor rolls his Blood Potency. If the roll is successful, the
corpse rises in seven nights, minus one for every success on the Blood Potency roll. This costs the donor a Humanity dot only if he makes a deliberate choice to attempt an Embrace.

Since Dracula was sold to Turks and found out the Ottoman's had a lot of vampires in their courts, a Gangrel deciding he wanted to taste a slave-princes blood leads to Dracula rising the very night he dies?
Makes sense, plus one of the things I like about requiem is there isn't a clear cut explanation and not everything has an exact answer. Dracula being the food of a gangrel earlier in life and hallucinating being cursed by God is a good alternate explanation.

Makes sense imho but mind sharing what are you going to do in game with it?

Haven't actually decided yet, I'm gearing up a Chronicle, my first time storytelling, coterie only has two members so I am making a third member for them, mostly to give them a little extra muscle. But the chronicle is going to be Ordo Dracul based, as in all coterie members are in the Ordo Dracul covenant and I'd like to have the option to uncover the legend behind Dracula's embrace.
Still working on everything though.

Good luck then.
I kinda wish my assholes were all in one covenant but alas what can a ST do?

They don't like the other covenants, Sanctum is too religious, Crone is too matriarchal, Carthians has too many idiots insisting their idealistic views have merit, Invictus is too restrictive. Ordo Dracul appealed to them the most, probably helps that I only have two players.

>her
>she
>her
>her
>she

How come they just don't use they/their instead for a more neutral standpoint?

Actually since I've brought up my game anyway, how well would a city with 4 elders at each others throats for control of a city work? None of them want to set off a war and put themselves at risk, stuck in a stalemate with each controlling a quarter of the city, all very well cemented their power both politically and physically, each the leader of their own covenant.
Leaving out Ordo Dracul since they have less interest in those things, plus I want to give my players the opportunity to use that powder keg to their advantage without being too obvious about it.

Does it matter? Plenty of developers use masculine pronouns by default, so I don't see the problem with using feminine ones in a similar way.

4 covenants fighting for power can make for a solid clusterfuck. However if they are unwilling to balls deep it would probably be a constant gnawing at each others influence and probably looking for something that can tip balance in their favour.

I would probably do it like: one of the Quartet(badum-tss) gets killed of by unrelated matter(strix,VII) and another one uses the players(who are dracul so unrelated party)to investigate while other two will engage in makeshift alliance to pin the blame on him. But that is just one of the options you have

I wouldn't put too much mind to that. In next section they use mostly
>he
>his
from what I remeber

That's one way I was thinking of going, but for starters 4 elders in control of 4 covenants gnawing at each others influence with no one willing to risk too much influence for a leg up would work?

Sure thou existence of such equilibrium for years would be weird. Or you can make it that they only pretend to hate each other and in reality the system they set up is there to ensure stability and safety while giving more radical members of their covenants something to do. Bonus points if the Quartet were at some point members of coterie that used to adventure together long before everyone in the city remembers

I wouldn't give all 4 equal power.
Probably one big bad bastard, one lesser but still powerful group, and the remaining two being powerful, but not on the same level as the others.
They can still make it not worth the other party's effort to fuck with them though.
Especially as if either of the big two took on the other, the rest would opportunistically take advantage of that.

That is actually better.
I do still want them to have some animosity towards each other, but having them hold back against each other due to an old blood bond is even better.
Well I was thinking a Gangrel Invictus who secretly just wants to fight again and is only appealing to the First Estate because of his strictness and mostly keeps power through physical might and intimidation.
A Nosferatu Firebrand who is genuinely kind to his Carthians and listens to their council.
A Mekhet Sanctum who uses his political position and occult knowledge to try and control the city, probably has the most spies.
Finally a Daeva Witch who has a cult of personality, controls through force of presence and majesty, still physically and magically a monster by neonate terms but probably gonna have her be the weakest if I take your idea.
Which would be the one big bad bastard then? Mekhet or Gangrel? Nosferatu probably has enough followers and wit to keep up with the other two and Daeva keeps up with the 3 through sheer power of personality making her hard to manoeuvre against politically.

>There are quite a few select blood magics capable of rivalling the Tremere.

I never said there wasn't. I was merely pointing out that the ANARCH thaumaturges tend to be more "self-taught" and using Thaumaturgy as a hobby, rather than devoting centuries of research and their entire unlives to it, like the Tremere do.

When it comes to blood magic, the Tremere have the most resources, the greatest number of practioners and the widest array of paths to choose from. That is *literally* the reason why they are such a powerhouse, because they are so unified.

Anarch thaumaturges on the other hand, are pretty common (in areas with Anarch influence, at least), but they just don't have the sheer amount of resources the Tremere pull on. The Anarchs' resources will usually be limited to themselves and POSSIBLY any other Anarch sorcerers in the vicinity that might be willing to trade for some arcane secrets.

So, Anarch sorcerers are easier to get into contact with and *might* not be as cruel or ruthless as the Tremere, but on the other hand they are probably also less skilled overall and can't compare to the Tremere's blood magic.

There's also Setite Sorcerers, Kolduns, Abyss Mystics and Assamite Sorcerers just to name some of them, and a few of those would have power and influence rivalling the Tremere (depending on where the game/story takes place), but they're not likely to show up in Anarch games... well, except maybe a Setite Sorcerer, since those fucks love to infiltrate and corrupt anyone and anything.

I would say Gangrel is the most obvious BBB.

I will pitch you how I do it in my chronicle if you are interested:
In my game I had single powerful prince from Invictus ruling several nearby cities(in theory at least). Thing is while untouchable he was also rather lax towards other covenants so when he went missing(to fight godzilla in Arkhangelsk) pent up tensions started to boil over. So now Carthian radicals from neighbouring domains want to invade, local Carthian moderates try not to get murdered by LS(Inqusitor and Bishop both have hateboner for carthian leader), Invictus placeholder-prince tries to stop everyone for murdering everyone but no one listens to him(he was seneschal of the former prince but gets no respect due to being young and well.lover of the former prince), Ordo are trying to hide from the coming shitstorm and there is belials brood plot brewing

>It's another "/pol/ack finds out about WoD through /v/" episode

>it's another idiot making stupid assumptions

Protip: I've been here since the board came to be.

Got it, thank you. I'm going to be making a spirit mage for a game I'm in, so knowing how spirits worked seemed kind of important.

Other than beast, are there any WoD splats that are completely stupid and not worth bothering with?

Mage.

All CofD splats and any oWoD splat that isn't Mage, Vampire or Werewolf

What Mage powers would you use to summon up, control or make deals with a Strix? Just Death?

Could I have a Strix familiar?

What might a Strix want from a Vampire or a Mage in exchange for teaching stuff?

WoD books have been doing that forever. They'll often alternate. Is it really that big a deal?

/k/ here! If you think that that's how you tell a /pol/estinian from a regular poster, you've never met one in your fucking life on this site.

Being able to live out it's dream of being a flying shadow dick

Death seems appropriate, yeah. Withstood by the Strix's Shadow Potency.

>being triggered by any mention of anything that could possibly be construed as liberal or, god forbid, """""""SJW""""""""

>not from /pol/

>someone brings up that this one set of authors tends towards feminine pronouns
>they must be triggered
Do you have brain damage?

Why are we even having this conversation?

Because there is nothing else to talk about

Remember that Strix is not a demon(Inferno/Unchained/Goetic) and it does not grant wishes/honor pacts outside of its natural capacity