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

As I wrote in the post I made in the last thread, it won't be easy to make an Exalt as a Mage. Especially since Exalts have access to Charms which often in mage terms would require high arcana ratings, while Mages can also do things that Exalts can't do till later in charm trees. Its weird, and the power balance is all over the place when it comes to these two games

Still, I wish you luck if you ever manage to get a GM to allow you to play this insanity. I recommend getting the Potent Nimbus charm to make your "Anima Banner" awesome, referring to your Cabal as your Circle to the point where they get max dots in Cabal Theme and join you in your Exalted Insanity, and of course have your Threshold Name be your Shadow Name

>potent nimbus charm

Merit. I meant merit.

Equipment bonuses normally cap out at +5.

So for a measly 2 potence and 2 reach you can have a sword that deals +5 lethal and applies knocked down (not to mention stun from the 5 damage).

If that's not enough, you could always get a sword made of Dumanium that can deal aggravated damage.

If you were one of my players I'd let you exceed the normal +5 limit with reach and mana if you asked nicely.

Fate is allowed to exceed the +5 cap with 1 reach and mana so no reason another reach and 1 mana couldnt do it with matter or forces

Hey, /wodg/, I'm trying to think up some interesting/unusual items for a Mortals game.

So far, I've thought up a single one: a cat-of-nine-tails, worn and stained from use and abuse. If used to whip one's own back for at least ten minutes, it lets one convert Lethal damage into twice as much Bashing damage, at the risk of becoming addicted to self-flagellation.

Too broken? Too weak? Gimme some feedback here.

Mortals could use all the help they can get senpai.

how much damage does whipping yourself for 10 mins do to you and then doubling it to bashing will mean you fall over when you fail the stamina test.

Its shit.

I was planning on the "doubled-damage" part just being from the fact that for every point of lethal you convert, the whip does one point to you.

Still, you're probably right. What should be retuned?

healing seems odd for a cat-o-nine tails.

Perhaps for each lethal it does it give back willpower or gives you a bonus like the destiny merit.

Its a punishment so perhaps it makes your next integrity test auto pass as your punishing yourself up front.

On second thought, yeah, that sounds a lot more interesting -- "deranged conviction" makes more sense than transubstantiating wounds.

Jyhad diary when?

when kaymakli freezes over

What the fuck is that

What are peoples feeling about a starting mage using a praxis of the dispel magic spell (at prime 1) having a 75+% chance of dispelling any spell he has Arcana in with lasting effects taking 1-3 turns of casting. If he ritual casts it goes way over 75%..

Gnosis 3, Prime 1, Highspeech, Concentration, (another yantra?) Willpower = 11 dice to get 3 successes to ignore Withstand?

He does use 3 reach so 2 over max for 4 paradox dice but he can eat it.

More shitty fluff from The Gentleman Gamer.

Its the new V5e plot bible. Book about wtf Beckett has been up to and probably in character explanations of the new metaplot.

So it's going to be utter shit then

>metaplot
No doubt it will glorify vampires like all their previous pretentious metaplot supplements

pretty sure vampires at the main guys in their own game so let them wank over themselves.

If they tread over into crossovers then it will be time to bitchslap them down and remind them of their place.

The horrible truth being that Masquerade, despite being the first of the lines, is solely responsible for the entirety of the asswiped metaplot.

Demon the Fallen being right behind it.

"Supernal being possesses dots in two Arcana equal to its Rank, one of which must be one of the Ruling Arcana of its Realm, and may have additional Arcana at lower ratings."

So, if you possess more than two Summoning Attainments and you're willing to spend additional points of Mana, could you theoretically specify your summoning ritual enough to get a Rank 5 entity with two Arcana at 5 and eight Arcana at 4 dots?

#ultimatepower
#whatcouldgowrong

I don't think that's how it works

Fuck crossovers. Segregation forever.

ST here (V20)

got a session on friday i'm planning for; players are gonna be shovelheads who get away from their sires. They're made specifically to serve as a false flag and given a picture the Berlin Harpy to attack while their sires are going after the prince. (the Prince and the Harpy are close enough that the prince'd send some of his men to the harpy's aid if he was asked).

So I did this because 1) the players are new, so it seemed to me to be a good way to explain their lack of knowledge about the setting and 2) because I like clusterfuck scenarios, where a number of political players are scrambling to deal with some big change - in this case, the change'll be the death of the prince (but not at the hands of the PCs sires). My question is this - as their sires fuck off to deal with other issues, how do I keep the PCs interested and together? I plan to have them get picked up by Anarchs, but dunno what to do til then.

Are the God-Machine Chronicle/Blood and Smoke-The Strix Chronicle like a deprecated 1.5 version of Vampire the Requiem that 2.0 enhances in enough places to justify being called a new/different iteration?

Jesus H Christ, don't even use the word Metaplot. The expulsion of that atrocious idea was the best fucking thing about Requiem by and far. Metaplots don't belong in a RPG rule system. Save those for campaign books. Christ I hated what the metaplot did to the old World of Darkness, and the cunts who jacked off over it on the White Wolf circlejerk forums were just tragic in their obsessiveness levels over it and vehement addiction to it.

Fuck no, no metaplot in v5.0.

>implying

You see the pre-alpha? It's all about Camarilla vs. Anarchs vs. Masquerade, mate. Metaplot's probably here to stay, although since the Camarilla's off the streets (for the most part) there will probably be less international/ intercity communication.

So far it's just laying the ground for the setting. Metaplot, that's something different, that's a whole level of bullshit beyond - think papa Ravnos waking up, getting superspiritnuked, breaking the gauntlet, the avatar storm, fucking up every other splat and beyond in a shitstorm of awful mechanics and awful writing combined.

That starting Mage is burning away all of his fun, interesting Merits for Gnosis.

I pity him.

What do you think about the second Inquisition, then, and the apparent mage involvement in it?

All those fat fucking larpers are going to decide wtf the metaplot is now so get used to it..

Like?

He can buy em or get em via magic later, i pity the Gnosis 1 mage who needs 18+ hours to get shit done and can only hold 1 spell. What a fucking dime bar.

Allies, Resources, all that shit can come later..

>No doubt it will glorify vampires like all their previous pretentious metaplot supplements

I only play cofd. What do you mean?

Shadow Name, Order Status, Egregore, Masque, Artifact, the list goes on.

Your maths is also wrong.
Your dice pool is 6 currently, Concentraion can't be used for Lasting effects, which requires you to get 5 more dice out of 2 Yantras, or perhaps 2 more dice with Willpower use.

Plus, you need one dot in each of the other Arcana, which can make that option entirely irrelevant if Mages add potentially unnecessary Arcana to their spells. Lord knows I do.

Also yes, that is a primary purpose of Dispel Magic, which is a good Yantra to use.
However the fact that you're still eating 4 Paradox dice, increasing your Paradox ticker for the scene, and still relying on an Exceptional Success (which is not guaranteed) makes that a less than perfect option.

>Are the God-Machine Chronicle/Blood and Smoke-The Strix Chronicle like a deprecated 1.5 version of Vampire the Requiem that 2.0 enhances in enough places to justify being called a new/different iteration?

Nah, they are same. Only difference between Blood and Smoke and VtR 2e are some typo fixes. That said only reason why wasn't Blood and Smoke already called 2e which considering differences would be deserved were communication issues with White Wolf.

with even more gender neutral terms and "progressiveness"

> glorify vampires like all their previous pretentious metaplot supplements
>their
it's their own game. What do you expect? Every splat is glorified in their metaplot supplements

sorry mate, but Elricson already said that the metaplot is going forwards (likely with LARP shit added)

>mfw they're going to have Beckett, a sardonic 17th century sailor with a caustic wit, suck up to trannies and other such degenerates

They could at least make it believable, y'know?

Well obvi you know that they're in the right because Beckett thinks they are cool.
Goddammit I really wish that he hadn't just been given the job because he's a Swede, everything out of that sewer hatch so far has been absolutely awful, like, do games run totally different in Europe or something? Because fuck every LARPer I have ever met in the WoD Scene.

>do games run totally different in Europe or something?

I believe Euro-LARPers are "edgier."

Technocracy and Pentex already had a hell of a breakup in Syndicate Revised, and at this point the union has more shit to worry about than a bunch of licks who hide themselves anyway.

Similarly, the Masasa War of Blood Treachery suggests the Hermetics have had enough of fighting vampires at this point.

How easy to play essentially American Gods as Mortals getting caught up in survive shenanigans?

So they are even worse? Fuck.
C'mon now. Let's not bring up Blood Treachery, it's just an awful book.

and now, they come back together because of Gehenna and mortals learning about the supernatural. Thank Elricsons Metaplot

Why are almost all ogres that get fluff stories either Stonebones or Gristlegrinders? Are the other kinds just not interesting?

And follow up, why does less than half the lore from the Changeling setting ever make any appearance in the pre written stuff, like the directional and day/night courts, or literally any endowments?

because most of the writers are uncreative hacks. At very least, Hill is gone, so we will not be plagued with more weeaboo shit

if you can get to 10+ dice its virtually
guaranteed.

Artifacts are fucking useless, if you spend merit points on them your an idiot. Feel free to design me a good artifact, i bet it has a chance dice and fuck all potency to counter any withstand, throw out a fuck ton of paradox and not worth the merit points you spend on it.
All the other other merits you can gain later and are pretty poor really.

Eregore is what a free library and magical tool for 3-4 dots, 5 dots a med symPATHETIC connection to the entire order?? LOL

Masque 5 is the only decent thing and frankly meh.

Id rather spend my first 8-10 experiences on gaining staus merits than having to stay at gnosis 1 for fucking ages.

Did OPP really think people would play games set in Japan or was it just weebu self wanking?

Hill lived in Japan for abit and felt he could write a setting about it? Fuck if i cant pronounce half the fucking shit there is no way in hell im setting a game there....

White Wolf responded to the playtest on their blog, and apparently it was a big success.

They do mention in a sidebar that we're not getting the vamp side which is "elders be chillin, everyone else is on fire" and that "Tremere wuz gud boyz who dindu nuffin"

So I got a weird edge case here.

An NPC cabal was attacked by cultists of The Gate after summoning a Supernal entity. The demesne and summoning circle was destroyed the area is tainted with the abyss.

One of my players decided to forge a soul stone create a new demesne and redo the summoning ritual at the cabal sanctum to give the entity a safe way home.

What should I set the dice pool for wisdom degeneration (if at all)? He plans on reabsorbing the soul stone after the ritual is complete and 'sparky' (the nickname they've given the entity) is safely back home.

Sometimes I feel like I'd be better off just writing fanfics for CtL because I can't find anyone who wants to play a 'low power level' game. Fuck, all my friends ever want is Mage, Vampire, and Conspiracy Tier Hunter

creating the SS is an act of hubris all the down to wisdom 4, so 3 or 5 dice depending on what his wisdom is?

>Artifacts are fucking useless

In 1e, Artifacts were great as automatically recharging mana batteries, but now they are a hot mess.

2e Artifacts are badly in need of an errata or detailed faq/expansion to make them remotely useful and worth the cost. Hopefully, we'll get more info in Signs of Sorcery, but I wouldn't hold my breath, and that's assuming the book is released any time soon.

Shouldn't I give him a dice bonus to the roll since he's saving a supernal entity and possibly acting with his virtue?

its very hubris of him to think he's saving anything and if hes acting with his virtue then theres already something in it for him.

exactly, take the profane urim. The book says its a 6 dot artifact, when possession + sympathetic attainment is 5 dots. (where does the extra dot come from??)

It'd have Gnosis 2 (3 at 6 dots) and 4 dice for its possess spell giving it a dicepool of 6/7 dice. It only has 1 free reach so save that for instant cast, it needs sensory for sympathetic casting so its already spewing out paradox,

Withstand wise possession is withstood by resolve + sympathy withstand + maybe not knowing name, it starts with potency 4, if we take -4 to increase it to potency 6 it *should* beat most sleepers withstand assuming resolve 3, sympathy (weak is also 3) and no name for a withstand of 5 we then need +1 reach for advanced duration which is 2 reach over for possession with potency 6 for 1 hour. 2 or so dicepool to roll and it costs you 6 merit points?

6 merit points for 2 dice to possess a resolve 3 sleeper you dont know the name off which can get stolen from you (hope it does so you get those merit points back) LOL utter shit, why not just go and ask an adept at mind to do it for you?

note im not even sure it starts at potency 4 as there is no mention of it in the book. I just assume it does otherwise its even shitter.

One wonders if you can even alter the spell factors each activation, again no explanation of it

Totally. He's saving a piece of living magic at the risk of himself. If he reabsorbs his Soul Stone right afterwards, it proves he didn't do it for power.
Also:
>p. 87 "A character’s Virtue can add a die to the pool, if the act embodied hubris, but in defense of that Virtue. The character may very well understand and see the consequences of her actions, but she stands by them because she truly, fundamentally believes her actions are righteous."

So any hacks/homebrew to make imbued items/artifacts more usable?

Give them additional Reach by increasing their Dot value: An object with Mind Shield rated at 2 has one free Reach. The same object rated at 4 has three free Reach.
An Imbuing Mage can't encode more Reach than he can safely use.
To use a magic object you can roll either your Gnosis+Arcanum or Willpower (like for Proximi Blessings). This way, Sleepwalkers can use them too.
Make a Merit for improved object use.

I do something similar but I also have the magical knick knacks have their own spell control

Seems reasonable.

So i would say that artifacts base is always primary spellfactor of potency, always base advanced duration (1 scene) and instant cast all for "free".

The artifact gets can be given some yantra like bonus it can use with itself equal to its 1 + arcana spell rating but only to counter penalties from spell factors. (no extra dice just penalty removal) for +1 merit point cost per 2 bonus or some shit..

Our characters have gone to Japan in at least a few Mage games. Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. The Elemental Dragons are a hot mess that really shouldn't be a thing.

Which Mage?

oWoD judging by the mentioning of the Weebocracy

>OWOD
>Vampires have Ghouls
>Garou have Kinfolk
>Mages have Acolytes and Familiars
>Technocracy have Lab Assistants
>Wraiths have Mediums
>Mummies have Cultists

What do Hunters have?

Decent element of surprise, I guess?

The Imbued have Bystanders.

>buzzword

The Elemental Dragons are literally the Technocracy as viewed by a 90s writer who only knows about Yakuza and Triads from his anime and bad kung fu movies.
The Weebocracy is a fitting term.

>The Elemental Dragons are literally the Technocracy as viewed by a 90s writer who only knows about Yakuza and Triads from his anime and bad kung fu movies.

is that insufficiently serious for members of the techno-wizard illuminati?

Really the entirety of the Year of the Lotus is regrettable, I'm sure there's a good game in Kindred of the East, but Robert Hatch sure as shit isn't going to be the one to write it.
It's more that they are extremely one dimensional, you could have more to them than that, but that would require knowing shit about Japan.

It's only a fitting term because you don't like it. Stylistically the Eastern WW games were entirely based on anime and asian cinema, that's self-evident from it's artwork. If you don't like the source material, that's fine. If you hate on a game for no reason other than you're triggered by the visual source material, you're being a thin-skinned, brittle little snowflake.

Honestly, what next?
>"Vampire the Requiem? Moar like "Vampire the Stokerism!" How about something that wasn't inspired by drunken Irish playwrights of the victorian era, fucking snore. Fucking Romantic Era gothic literary tropes... newsflash cunts, they can treat most strains of Tuberculosis now. We could actually use some Romanian aristocracy buying up the old Carfax place, property values are down since Brexit, etc.....

>He made a joke about something,
>REEEEEEEE Stop being triggered!
user, what's it like having 0 sense of humor?

'E equals' (Matter ••••, Forces ••••)
Practice: Patterning
Primary Factor: Potency
Withstand: Structure
Suggested Rote Skills: Intimidation, Firearms, Science

The mage converts an object's mass into the equivalent amount of energy. The result is spectacular. By default the energy created is a mixture of thermal, light, kinetic, acoustic, and radiation spreading from the point of creation.

+1 reach: The mage can choose what energy is created (e.g. make a gravitational pulse)
+2 reach: The mage can control and focus the release of energy (e.g, turn a golf ball into a beam of death)

Thoughts?

>The mage converts an object's mass into the equivalent amount of energy.
The Hiroshima nuke converted 700 milligrams of mass into energy. That is one third the mass of a US dime.

My issue with most of the "X Of the East" settings is that it takes the established lore and concepts and throws them out the window. Take the template and work the local flavor in, don't just discard it and pull shit out of your own ass. KotE is the worst offender in this regard.

EX: The Asian Technocracy should be Technocracy first, Asian second.

here

any ideas, y'all?

As for a way to keep the group together, I figured a quick Vaulderie or, at least, mutual blood bonding should be enough. But if anyone's got any ideas as for what to have them actually do I'd be happy to hear them.

Something something supremacy.

You keep posting about KotE, but refuse to actually validate your concerns. They fit with asian folklore.

What I'm trying to say is that no, you shouldn't be able to do it, as nuclear explosions are the domain of Archmasters.

>The KJ
>Which are not based in any Asian 'Vampire" folklore
>They fit with Asian folklore
user, I love oWoD in all its retarded absurdity but the KJ are lame as fuck. If only for the fact they could have been so much cooler had White Wolf actually bothered to read.

So you don't like them is the whole of it. They're not the hopping dead, they're what happens when angry spirits come back from Hell, or potentially an angry ancestor. They're not perfect representations, but neither is anything else in WoD.

Well if anyone ever needed proof that nuWW lives in their own asses

blog.white-wolf.com/

-"The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and did not raise any red flags about content or core systems."

Thats some level of indoctrination.

>you’ll see that V5 will include many relevant, timely story elements like the global migrant and refugee crises, drug abuse, human trafficking, urban decay, homelessness, government corruption, ecological crises and political instability. V5 characters will have the opportunity to interact with these topics through scenarios designed to prompt insight and critical thinking,

Weird. Post got cut in half. But:
Oh no. God no. I can see it now.
"Vampires vs Donald Trump" and "Tremere Tumblr".