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

>using old style pharmaceuticals
You're just going to kill them doing that.
However as a symbol, old-fashioned tribal shit probably resonates with Thyrsus.

Nah. Don't like it.

Thyrsus with Matter.

Can friendship bloom between a Thearch and Libertine?

>best way to do mages.
As npcs? Aloof and awkward. Recently awoken and only knowing starting spells but won't use them because their mentors have put the fear of paradox in them

Easily.
The Libertines owe EVERYTHING to the Thearchs.
It was they who convinced the rest of the Diamond orders of the worth of the newly formed Free Council, and ended the Nameless War.

They were thick as thieves as well! Until the Libertines fucked it all up in Operation Oracle.

Still, I can certainly see Thearchs making friends with Libertines. The Awakened are one nation, after all, and really the Libertines need all the help they can get ensuring their democratic system works for the benefit of all.

Is relation between Silver Ladder and FC similar to that of Invictus and Carthians(when not at war at each other and just fighting each other through legal means for leadership) or is it more snobs vs slobs dynamic?

Vague idea for a plot hook: an Iris suddenly opens within Consilium grounds, and from it comes something that looks like a sophisticated Golem of unknown origins. Attempts at using Knowing spells on it result in the Mages' senses going haywire. After some questioning, it is revealed that this Golem escaped the Fall Of Atlantis, but doesn't remember how. It has no idea how to adapt to the modern world, but may contain invaluable secrets about Atlantis and other Mysteries. Too bad it seems more preoccupied with doing menial services, telling jokes and pointing out the flaws in your ideas.

Where would you take this plot hook?

to the garbage can

Neither, their relationship is more complex than that.

Both Orders care deeply for Sleepers, both Orders want people to Awaken and to topple the Exarchs. Both care about and see the use in organised Mages cooperating and working together.

However the Thearchs think in terms of leaders, Sages whose wisdom and knowledge shall lead the Awakened people. They ignore culture, gender, sex, and dismiss religion (ultimately) as hogwash.

Meanwhile the Council clings to Democracy with every fiber of their being. They entrust everything to it, and are staunchly proud of how sometimes nothing gets done because they can't all agree.

When there's a cause and a will, they're best of friends.
When there's dissent, the Thearchs are annoyed at how the Libertines squabble.
Where there's unrecognised authority, the Libertines get annoyed that the Thearch is ordering them around.

tl;dr
Thearchs love Libertines, so long as they can get over themselves.
Libertines love Thearchs, so long as they don't give them orders.

Out back and shoot it in the head.
That is utter fucking garbage.

Use birth control. Duh. Assuming you're straight.

Do they have knot-condoms? Or pills that work on werewolves?

Thanks for explaining mate. And how do relationship between FC and SL and other orders look if you don't mind me asking?

I dunno, I like the idea of a sapient magical construct with powerful secrets being transported from Atlantis into the modern day. But maybe make the Golem more mysterious and manipulative? Whoever sent him had a goal in mind, but the transportation damaged its programming and now it thinks it knows better than its deceased masters.

Within the Diamond, everything ostensibly is pretty simple. They've cooperated for centuries. Arrow protect, Mystagogues research, Thearchs organise, and Guardians... Guard.
In truth, it's much more complicated than that. Orders have conflict within themselves, and between each other. And that's before you even get into the realm of Consiliums and the Caucuses that involve several Consiliums.

When you take that system, and add the Free Council, you see it as an alliance. The Council has no place within the Diamond, and they wouldn't want it any other way. The Consilium to them is useful only when it makes an order it can enforce, or they like what it says.

Both rally against the Seers, Banishers, and the Scelestus.
They share knowledge and aid, because they know both of them benefit from it, and conflict is meaningless.
But they're essentially like two sovereign states, one comprised of certain larger organs, and the other a roiling mass of groups constantly shouting at each other.

Really, the indiviual Order books, and even the simple "what do we think of everyone else" sections in each Order's write-up in 2e are really helpful for specific order-to-order relations.

Garbage can man here
I didn't actually mean it, was only joke

Dude, they've gone to extreme lengths to make Atlantis no longer a "place".
It exists at no point on the timeline. It was excised from reality with the Fall.
All ruins of its existence in reality are scattered, taking refuge in various civilizations.

Introducing a Golem, what's more a thinking, remembering Golem who you for some reason need to play his silly game.
I can honestly not see it getting more than a couple of sentences out before the Hierarch orders its memory banks raided by the first available Mage with enough Mind proficiency.

But really dude. The game is about hunting down ancient obscured mysteries referencing the half-lost, fragmented nature of the reality-that-was.
And then you dump Mr Robot on the front lawn, who will tell you things, but first you've got to show him those goat videos on Youtube and teach him to play Overwatch.

What's more, even if he does have an agenda?
It's an unknown variable in a Consilium.
It's going to be taken apart piece by piece (and they won't give a shit because it's not human) until they find out what it is, why it's there, and get every single Arcane Beat they can get out of its Chasis.

Yup I looked up stereotypes but wanted some pointers before I read the books. My vtr players are trying to convince me to give mage a run but I'm still kinda resistant

Well, when you put it like that, it really does not make sense.

I guess I can use a modified Somnia Draconis (from Night Horrors - The Unbidden). That should be more in line with 2ED lore.

The Golem didn't come from an Iris, it was discovered in the basement of an unpopular mystagouge who finally passed at the age of 113.

The Golem is in fact a relic of the time before. It is full of faulty, contradictory, incomplete or just outright wrong information, as is typical of pre-fall relics. It can still teach the rotes that were used in it's creation, and it might have an actually accurate insight sometimes.

However, it is, at the end of the day, a malfunctioning, menial servant. Not a death machine or keeper of great knowledge.

Conflict over it's fate could kick of a storyline. Should it be scrapped or fixed? Can it be scrapped or fixed safely? And for the love of god, can someone keep it away from those damn sleeper kids?

Virtue: Implacable
Vice: Sanctimonious
Aspiration: Purify The World

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 6, Resolve 8
Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 8
Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 4, Composure 8

Skills: Academics 1, Medicine 1, Occult 3, Investigation 5, Athletics (Running) 4, Brawl 3, Survival 2, Weaponry (Baseball Bat) 5, Expression (Zealot) 2, Intimidation (Single-Minded) 5, Persuasion 4, Subterfuge (Hide Motivations) 5

Merits: Area Of Expertise 1 (Single-Minded), Direction Sense 1, Interdisciplinary Specialty 1 (Single-Minded), Trained Observer 3, Greyhound 1, Iron Stamina 3, Parkour 4, Iron Will 2, Table Turner 1, Armed Defense 4, Defensive Combat 1 (Weaponry), Light Weapons 4, Killer Instinct 3 (Advanced 2)

Health: 13 (Size 5)
Willpower: 24
Defense: 9
Initiative: 12
Speed: 30 (Species Factor 21)
Potency: 8

[Continued In The Next Post]

Relations between the Silver Ladder and Free Council are just fine. It's relations between the Mysterium and Free Council that cause problems.

It takes an inexhaustible supply of patience and tolerance for Mystagogues to endure the Libertine love of those filthy, pancyrptia-causing Sleeper monkeys.

Dread Powers: Immortal, Know Soul, Natural Weapon 1 (Baseball Bat), Nothing But The Mission*, Numen (Aggressive Meme, Blast, Legion, Seek, Speed), Purification*, Reality Stutter, Regenerate 3, Surprise Entrance

*Nothing But The Mission: The Batter is to be treated as if he was a God-Machine Angel for the purposes of his Aspiration. In other words, any supernatural means of making him abandon it automatically fail. He is also treated as having Eidetic Memory, Natural Aptitude, Total Control, Liar’s Tongue and Spoofing (use Composure + Subterfuge).

*Purification: The Batter has Influence 5 (Purity). The effects of this Influence are up to the ST. However, the following effects are free: he can see and interact with all frequencies of Twilight, his attacks cause supernatural damage, and when he Purifies a place, there can be no Anchor, Infrastructure or Resonant Conditions there (but may cause the Open Condition for certain Abyssals).

Ban: The Batter must have the approval of a higher entity, force or group to progress with purification. Higher in this case does not necessarily mean supernatural or more ethical.

Ban: The Batter cannot use his Influence on a place without first killing the most important creature representative of that place. If he does so, then the purification occurs without him either taking an action or spending any Willpower.

Ban: The Batter cannot compromise or deal with problems indirectly; if the Batter gets into a fight, he must Go For Blood.

That's exactly what I had in mind! You expressed it much better than I could. May I quote you on the Onyx Path forums?

theonyxpath.com/memorial-day-nonnotes-monday-meeting-notes/

sure

Is it me or would Mr.World from American Gods make great Ochemata of Mamon?

So how do you adapt a salubri for play in requiem?

play v20

And why do you want salubri in requiem?

This triggers the werefags

>and then she got raped

>magefag trying to cover up his lust for the knot

Question about veiling magic and getting around it.

My players have been running around with veiling spells on to great effect and I want to pull the rug out from under them in a way they don't expect. Would a knowing spell that detects the movement of air currents or the presence of the dandruff fungus work as an indirect way of determining if someone is there.

>magefags are even more tsundere for vampfags than they are for werefags
Just claiming what's rightfully ours

I prefer vampires too

Would sonar work?

>implying vampfags deserve mage boipucci
Get out

Do you like using your own city as a game setting?

Speaking of boipucci, would anything interesting happen if a woof and a mage mated?

Running a Hunter game, trying to think of a good name for a cozy town or city with a dark undercurrent.
Something like Castle Rock, Twin Peaks, Gravity Falls. The sorta vibe those shows and what not were going for.

Hope Falls is a good one.

Maybe?

Well what kind of veiling spells are they using?

Peace Valley
Cherrywood
Ringwood Bluff
Wingman's Pass

Both cities I've lived in wouldn't be so good.

>Toms River, NJ
Shit-ass suburbs, too rural for vamps and too urban for woofs.

>Tübingen, DE
all students, but urban ENOUGH for there to be something here, I guess. Would be sort of boring, though.

Have it be a town that changed its name in memory of some girl that went missing around there under mysterious circumstances or something, and that would mark the start of whatever dark stuff happened. Before that it was named something innocuous. Reason for the name change is that the thing responsible for the dark stuff is in a position of power and basically wanted to gloat.

Sorry if that's kind of specific, but it's hard to create a subtle atmosphere without context.

No such thing as too urban for werewolves. Ever heard of Glass Walkers?

>Ignoring the glorious Mage or Hunter potential.
>Ignoring the glorious Demon potential

What do they want in a suburb that's only known for retirement homes and consistently voting republican?

>implying anyone I know plays any of those

There are bigger German Unis to use - Heidelberg, for example - and I met enough ex-marine gun nuts who believe in conspiracy theories in Toms River to want to pretend to be one in my free time.

I'm beginning to think that, barring the Weaver and/or Wyrm conveniently placing themselves in claw's reach as per Apocalypse, the only way to save Gaia is to wipe out humanity. In as quick and painless a way as possible, so it doesn't empower the Wyrm too much. I'm thinking that the right kind of magical disease might do the trick.

definitely. As would most others of the new gods

That's exactly what the Ratkin are trying to do.

I live in one of the counties surrounding Philly. I'm fortunate that Hunter gives me some stuff to work with for whatever gameline I favor, but Unfortunately I favor Mage, and the info in there was less than helpful. Hunters know jack and shit about Mage Politics or society aside from a few fringe apostates.

I've decided Philly is very much a Free Council town, in terms of Pentacle Politics. The issue with this is they don't seem to be able to get their shit together or present strong leadership, but most local mages like the "hands off approach." One place they're not afraid to flex their muscles, though, is in the periodic pogroms against local Seers.

So there are a few different mysteries I have set up. First off, a few weeks of in game time after I start the chronicle, every mage in Camden will just be gone. Seer or Pentacle, Independent or Banisher, they just all vanish as if they were never there, except for a few who were out of town at the time.

In fact, it's as if they never were. Which should freak the players out as I intend for them to know a few Camden Mages who will have vanished.

There's already the persistent mystery of the "Wonder Factory," the nickname for whatever phenomena causes minor to medium sized mysteries to spring up unbidden from time to time. This is why the Mage population is already in place.

But that doesn't have the existential ass-clenching terror that the small Consillium across the bridge just disappearing should bring.

I'm not sure where I want to take that idea or what's behind it. I'm currently leaning towards an Abyssal version of Infrastructure commandeered by Hunters who ended up erasing all the major supernaturals in Camden.

Previous games in Philly have mentioned "The Hunter Question," but I really want them in the face of the one splat that might actually favor them on principle.

I asked this is the prior thread, but it was already pretty dead by then so I figure I'll try here. Is there a canon source that gives any detail on how the Qashmallim interact with the God Machines angels / unchained?

There are only a handful of things more wyrm tainted than republicans.

>black_furies.jpg

I think that the only tribe that would approve of anything about the Republicans is the Shadow Lords, and even then, it'd be respect with enmity.

>a few weeks of in game time after I start the chronicle, every mage in Camden will just be gone

Now, if you made Camden itself disappear, that would truly be a blow against the Abyss.

>There are only a handful of things more wyrm tainted than republicans.

The Syndicate and NWO are not amused.

Like Democrats, for one.

You know Camden was once actually a pretty upscale place? There's some nice parts but the way the city is set up there's no way to not pass a crack house.

Egypt used to be a pretty big deal too, and look at them now

Isn't that kind of behavior what drove the weaver mad to begin with? And is really just solving a problem by treating the symptoms instead of actually solving it?

Well, killing the Corrupter Wyrm would be optimal, but it seems like a good idea to weaken it first by getting rid of its greatest catspaws. As for the Weaver... that's trickier, given that its destruction would probably cause the universe to collapse.

I bet those wizards could fix it, to hear the mages tell it at least

The most powerful mage faction is in the Weaver's pocket, so that's no good.

But the most powerful of mages aren't in any of the two main factions.

Is there a good way to make a werewolf campaign that doesn't just devolve into "go there, kill the dudes?"
I'm trying to think of interesting ways to run it, but I dunno

The strongest mages in the Traditions / Conventions have never gone above 6 - 7 dots in their respective Spheres.

The ones having gone beyond that are citizens of the cosmos. Exemplars, Oracles and actual gods.

'Wipe out humanity'/'Magical Disease' are two very simple ways of putting massive problems. Probably on the level with 'cure world hunger' or 'establish world peace'.

The Impergium is over for good reason. Killing mankind is both A) Impossible and B) will bring every splat down on the Werewolves, and there's far too few of them to win that war.

I think it's disingenuous to say the Technocracy are in the hands of the Weaver in the same way saying the Vampires serve the Wyrm.

The Wyrm and Weaver have explicit servants in Banes/Fomori/Ananasi etc. - Mages don't serve spirits, they serve the established forces of the universe (Creation/Establishment/Destruction) which the Weaver/Wyrm/Wyld in turn embody.

That's an important distinction, and the Werewolf mythology/philosophy is an imperfect way of seeing the actual world of darkness.

>and B) will bring every splat down on the Werewolves
Only if your Storyteller is a douchebag, because oWoD splats cross over extremely poorly, both in terms of cosmology and power level. Or, rather, Mage crosses over poorly with everything else; Werewolf and Vampire are tolerable together. That, too, is why I speak of mages as being owned by the Weaver; in the Mage cosmology, mages are the only people who matter and it's pointless to talk about the goals of anyone else.

I just handwave the quashmallim as an extension of the god machine.

You can discuss about what dudes they're going to kill and why they should kill them. The relationship between werewolves is one of the better parts of the setting, it's full of intrigue.

Nah. I live in a city of almost 90,000. There would be MAYBE two vamps total.

I'm about 45 minutes from Boston, so I doubt any wolves would be hanging around. There would probably be a few mages, but if they were here, they'd be on their way north, where all the history is.

Honestly if there was gonna be anything spooky going on around here, it would have to be Changeling or Demon. Monsters wouldn't like a city where everyone is packed together like a tuna can.

maybe in addition to me-smashing your way through the world, you could be doing political campaigning to unify the garou or something. That way it wouldn't be all combat all the time

Page 135 of Demon ST guide

>I think it's disingenuous to say the Technocracy are in the hands of the Weaver in the same way saying the Vampires serve the Wyrm.

Well, most vampires *do* serve the Wyrm in some fashion. It's just that they don't know they're doing it.

Even a single vampire's presence expands the influence of the Wyrm. Every drop of blood forcibly taken, every mortal left exsanguinated, every murder, every "shortcut" taken is a gateway for the Wyrm's influence.

Now of course, from an outsider perspective we know that vampires don't *have* to be corrupt or tainted, and that there are ways to overcome their inherent Wyrm-taint.

That said, the werewolves don't care and will kill the vampires on sight regardless, and the vampires themselves who are in the know either don't care or they are actively trying to help the Wyrm (or it's other agents) for profit, power or shits and giggles.

There are two "buts" I'd add to this. Firstly, vampires with Humanity 7 or higher don't spread the Wyrm's influence any more than regular humans would. Secondly, while the Sabbat is lousy with taint, the Sabbat despises infernalism, and Sabbat members who can be shown the link between infernalists and the Wyrm would probably be willing to help fight servants thereof, at least vampiric ones.

You have five seconds to justify the existence of the Curse in Apocalypse from an OOC standpoint.

God is dumb

How exactly playing as a sindicate technocrat works?

Depends which Methodology you are, and what stage of the Metaplot it is.

However ultimately, you're all about the bottom line.
Acquire resources where you can, invest them where necessary.

The free market is your greatest tool, and mankind's greatest hope for the future.
It is your solemn duty to protect it, shape it, guide it, and live like a king off of it.

You're a really rich power-broker, probably high ranked in Sleeper business concerns acting as an agent of the Technocracy.

You run a discrete "Research and Development" company that actually supplies equipment to MiBs.

You use statistics and economics to predict the future probabilistically [Sphere of Time] or just use standard Techie equipment.

Etc.

...

>You use statistics and economics to predict the future probabilistically [Sphere of Time]
Or Entropy, to collapse potential futures into the one you want, and pretend that was likely to happen all along.

Thanks man.

You familiar with the butterfly effect? Basically like that. You mathematically model what kind of subtle changes could cause whatever you want to happen to happen when you want it to happen and you set events in motion to ensure the desired result occurs.

Does anyone else think it's utterly retarded that the Syndicate (in the revised Convention books) calls Paradox "Market Correction"?