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

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>Question:
Any signature locales from your games? Not as in your whole setting, but important places in the setting with character and import.

mages r great

Ashbeck Manor, a manor house haunted by a ghost who has her Slasher son kill all women who enter. After the PCs killed the Slasher and trapped the ghost in a mirror, they bought the house and now use it as a base of operations.

Repost from Other Thread:
Tale idea I'm thinking of using to introduce several friends to WoD:

Bodies are going missing from the local cemetery, and local politicians are being attacked all over the town. The characters consist of a homeless wino (who saw somebody rob the cemetery of a body), and a Private Eye taking a look into the situation (there might be a third, but the player's availability is unsure).

After some investigating (eyewitness reports, following footprints and tire tracks, hanging around the scenes of the attacks, plain old fashioned bribing/intimidating people for information), the characters should hopefully discover at least one of the following things (and ideally both):

1) The politicians are being attacked by faceless men with suits and top hats who show limited supernatural abilities
2) The men taking the corpses from the graveyard work for the candidate for local mayor: Al Wilkins.

With at least one of these pieces of information, the characters should hopefully be able to discover a warehouse where fresh cadavers are being transformed, with a mixture of magic and sci-fi, into these faceless, bespoke men, who then obey Wilkins' command.

From there, through a variety of means (eavesdropping, confronting him, snooping around the place while avoiding detection), the characters should hopefully find enough clues to piece together a massive attack planned for a date soon - the next date the town council is in session. Obviously this won't be revealed in whole to the players, but Wilkins' plan is to have his faceless soldiers attack the town council so that he can be seen to lead the defence against them (obviously they wouldn't be targeting him to kill), and if possible kill off some of his rivals, thus greatly improving his chances of being made mayor.

[1/2]

Of course, if the characters had another way to get this information, and I'm sure there are plenty, I'd come up with stuff on the spot to accommodate it - players often come up with pretty surprising ways to do things a lot of the time, and I try and avoid railroading as much as possible. This is just the path I've got the most developed.

Then, the players ideally would try and stop the attack, or subvert it somehow, given that they seem to be playing mostly decent sorts. Much of the police are on Wilkins' payroll, however, and besides, they wouldn't believe such a cock-and-bull story anyway, so they need to think of some other ways.

This is where I could do with some help, actually, trying to leave it as open-ended as I can how they defeat them (if they choose to fight them).


Thoughts I've had so far:
1) Holly is lethal to the Bespoke Men, and there's a variety of ways it could be weaponised - sprayed, burned and the smoke filtered through a ventilation system, just plain thrown at them. The players could find this out through a book on mythology in the local library, or by talking to the local occult shop owner Ogilvy - both of which would suggest it as a rumour, but probably not the only one they've heard

2) The Bespoke Men respond to commands given by Wilkins' voice and Wilkins' voice alone. If the players could obtain a recording of him speaking and alter it to give orders they want, they could use that against them - and he just so happens to be giving a speech soon.

Okay, those are the main two, so if anyone has other suggestions for ways they could defeat them (although again, I'm sure the players could come up with something else that would work) do let me know.

And even if they foil the attack, it might not be the end unless they can expose Wilkins, as he'll still be around, and may have other ideas to further his schemes.

[2/2]

St. George Street, a permanent Goblin Market operating alongside the tourist trap in St. Augustine, Florida. Many of the real world shops have goblin equivalents.

How the fuck do you design fomoris and banes, I'm having a really hard time thinking of them without any visual representation or references

A possible way to play up the terrifying nature of Malkavians, Network: Malks despite their extreme eccentricity and individualism seem to be almost completely in sync. All Malks seem to know what one Malk knows. You constantly hear them referencing stuff they have no place of knowing and they are unable to convincingly articulate why (or are having too much fun mocking the person asking to give straight answer).
A possible example to perform it in play with two Malk players is that these two vampires should never communicate with one another in character yet seem to be perfectly aware of stuff other is thinking.

Do you pronounce Mystagogue as in rogue, or as in cog?

>Any signature locales from your games? Not as in your whole setting, but important places in the setting with character and import.
Just started a new game of classic VtM for old time's sake. My character is a rich ass Chinese immigrant who belongs to clan Tremere and I established as a joke he had a Chinese buffet restaurant for money laundering purposes called the "Wong Place, Wong Time" with it's motto being "So Wong but so good!". Long story short, the name of the restaurant inspired my GM the first intrigue in the campaign and now the whole coterie won't stop squatting my haven.

As in cog. I would assume it's derived from "pedagogue", so it should keep the same pronunciation.

That makes sense.

Speaking of the old WoD

Of all the different splats who each had a different lore on the genesis of the WoD and it's supernatural inhabitants, who do you think was right and why?

It's derived from any and all the "agoge" (guiding) derivates, not only "pedagogue" (child-guide) but also "demagogue" (people-guide), and "synagogue" (together-guide).

A "Mystagogue" is a "secret-guide".

Hunters hunting the least malicious monsters is well and known, but how about you tell us about the oddest and weirdest allies your Hunter Cells have made?

No one can be verified. No one can be seen as being correct. Every splats internal lore comes down from the age of myths and dreams. You have the book of Nod which contains obvious Abrahamic influences and exists in multiple conflicting forms. You have the Silver Record for the woofs that takes a life time to memorize and contains the combined and conflicting oral histories of all of the tribes, to include the lost ones, and oral traditions mutate over time. And then you have Mages who tend to track their internal histories at the expense of all else.

Demons. Cos they know.

>paid out the nose in the Dark Eras 2 kickstarter to include content in the book
>everyone submitted their final pitches almost a week ago
I can't go into full detail into what's happened so far, but if you all have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

Anything especially interesting for Demon or Changeling?

Yeah, Changeling's getting something that I'm sure will please a lot of people. Demon has a good chance of being included in one of the eras. The devs seem a bit keen on making sure it gets its dues.

Each time I read Deviant pitch my mind jumps back to Narcissist: the Casher, the unfinished antagonist update for Continuum system. Makes me thing if there will be Time Traveler Renegades?

Just finished reading the bulk of the Mysterium book, and it was all good stuff. I'm updating the spells to 2e now as I go through them. And I'll level with you, since Awakening 2e is the only book I've read cover to cover about these games, the spells in the book strike me as being pretty strange with how they work. I'm basically looking at what they do and making them in 2e's creative thaum, with Reach for the stronger effects because the dot levels are just all over the place.

Can you give us a tip on at least century Changeling thing/s are set in?

Yeh 1e had a different progression, usually adding +1 dot to be able to target other people etc.

Glad 2e got rid of all those mini speed bumps.

It's one of the stretch goal eras (Britannia, Hawara, Sci-fi), so specifying the century might be giving it away.

That's just as much as I needed to hear. Thanks.

Yeah. I'm also going to be skipping some that have been made totally redundant. Which is turning out to be a good bit.

From sound of it Dream system for 2e might have changed quite a bit after change of developers, since I see no way how written Dreamscaping rules could be applied to Hedge by True Fae as described in their blog post.

>my Urban Shadoes game is dead because the Vamp and the Tainted's players broke up

Fuck.

That's real shame, I was starting to get invested in your game.

Ach real life drama. Breaking up games since forever

We ended up being buddies with a recently created Frankenstein Promethean. Because his azoth was always at 1 and we moved around decently enough his wasteland wasn't that bad, the only issue was his disquiet, but our ST let us use tactics like moral support to resist the effects.

Anyway that's how we ended up making a Frankenstein part of the cell. He was one fearsome bruiser, and due to us finding him as early as we did, he was oddly pure and nice. Really kind, he was like the cell leader's little brother at times.

So each Seeming has their favored Regalia. You guys wanna help me out try to anticipate who gets what?
>Sword for strength and aggression (Probably Ogre)
>Shield for defense and protection
>Crown for leadership and rulership (Probably Fairest)
>Jewels for manipulation and temptation
>Mirror for perception and self-transformation >Steed for movement both seen and unseen (Confirmed Beast)
The Seemings are: Ogre, Beast, Elemental, Wizened, Fairest, Darkling.
I might be over thinking this...

you were playing onlin?

Let's not dwell on sad.
I'm currently looking into that hack, how good would it be as an alternative system for CofD crossovers?

Why would you even want to run crossover in these games? I don't understand the appeal.

CofD has cool setting that almost begs for Crossovers but it's pretty bad for cross overs; Most of the heat in this threads stems from that.
Wondering if game designed to be "cross splat" politics could be used for that.

Ooof. You have my condolences, Atamjakki. May your next game be just as good.

>Wondering if game designed to be "cross splat" politics could be used for that.
Ask Beast. And honestly to me it seems that what the setting really builds up for is including all sorts of weird stuff for your players to explore without it all tying back to one thing, or to have other splats as storyteller characters. Not player crossover.

Honestly it's way better at doing crossover. There used to be a mostly complete conversion between WoD/CofD and Urban Shadows, but I think it's off the net while they try to improve it.

How would the Seers of the Throne ant the Guardians of the Veil react to a world of darkness revealed?

Yup

Probably same way as God-Machine if It wasn't above those meaningless "feelings."

The fan CofD hack is trash, but just using the game out of the box is fantastic.

I too, shall potentially ruin this place by posting something relevant.

>says he doesn't like splat power level arguments
>proceeds to encourage them by putting his pet splat above all others

I thought you guys said you could only shield against shit. not fucking no sell. you lied to us.

I see, thanks.

It serves you right for complaining

It's a rather unique case with Fate and powers derived from oaths or contracts, since oaths and contracts fall under Fate.

Oh goddamnit. We went almost 50 posts without Mage ass baggage.

You're right, they should just rewrite all the splats so that not a single one of them is stronger than the other. Stopping people from having a kind of argument on the internet is imperative and should take priority over everything in the games' designs.

Blessed time of content and productivity. Gone.

Now. Burn the Witches!

...

>Comparing Mages to Witches

You deserve this treatment

kill me, please

This would beat the purpose of "fates worse than death"

>Mage Supremacy

>thread descents into shitposting
Perfect time to take a nap.

It's almost like you assholes thrive on negativity

It's the Wyrm's fault.

I blame global warming

I blame the jews, personally.

Don't blame yourself

>signature locales from your games
In the Innocents game I'm running there's a stretch of woods in town between the reservation lands and the rest of town, with a river passing through the middle, but very shallow. The local children from either side are in a constant state of war with each other for those woods.

Which Aspect?

What are some good ways to get Mage characters from different traditions together?

The global warming jewish part evidently

Actually have a unifying cause for once.

This is actually one of the things I love about Technocracy games.
From the very get-go, your general purpose is very clear.
Fulfil your objectives, accept missions, protect reality, work to the timetable.
THEN they add conflict, strife, and complications.

It does sound like they took the best parts of the game and trashed them. Pledges and Dreams, hell even IC contract making.

Hold the phone. Since Contracts are enforced by the Wyrd, shouldn't it not be possible to cancel Contracts? Like, shouldn't this be a GM angel situation where while you can mess with them within limits, you can't subvert them completly because you're dealing with beungs and forces on a whole different level?

Contracts have always been deals with aspects of reality. Aspects of reality that a mage can rewrite wholesale. I don't really see the problem.

The Wyrd is a force of fate. It can be meddled with. You're not actually altering Contracts, more so twisting them around your pinky finger.

Is the demon stuff going to be in a stretch goal too ?

I used to like Dave a lot because he seems like a decent guy and does good work, but much like Mage which I also used to like, I'm slowly coming to resent him.

A shared universe for all gamelines was a mistake. Sure, you can run the seperately and I do, but that won't stop the nightmare that plagues this general.

So is Fate in Mummy, but only Archmages can mess with it.

What a petty excuse to resent someone, user. Out of the thousands of posts he has made, barely any of them actually flaunt Mage Supremacy, which Magefags cite as gospel.

>A shared universe for all gamelines was a mistake
WoD has been a shared setting from the very beginning. Both OWoD & CofD.

The fate of Mummies is backed up by 6+ entities. The Wyrd isn't an entity. It's a semi-living force of narrative.

a good ol' kegger

How could creative thaumaturgy be adapted to be used by Hedge Mages ?
Does anyone have dynamic spell creation rules for people who prefer mages who do only ritual magic and enchanted objects ?
How could the MtAw system be adapted for that ?

>How could creative thaumaturgy be adapted to be used by Hedge Mages ?
Kind of beats the point of True Magic.
>mages who do only ritual magic and enchanted objects ?
Boring. This isn't low-magic urban fantasy.
>How could the MtAw system be adapted for that ?
If you really want to butcher things, just use Creative Thaum without access to instant casting.

also, how would you adapt the Arcana to "hedge magic" (even if that's more high magic, while not being Awakened magic) ?
just straight up port them with different conditions for spellcasting, or rewrite some stuff ?

Try and be more rude, maybe ? I respect your right to an opinion, but you're acting like a douche.

How does hedge magic even work?

Jesus. Just use Second Sight. Supernal magic is supposed to be endless in application, with very few limitations.

Mundane sorcery is more linear.

Acting like a douche? Yes. I am a dick. I approve of your assessment. Yet I gave you your answer. Don't allow instant casting.

Read Second Sight.

The Witchfinders book for Hunter has a decent magic system, and it's pretty much what you're looking for.

I guess the idea is that it's "normal" mortals using knowledge, willpower and rituals to work magic into the world.
So no fireball slinging, but exponentially strong rituals with exponentially hard requirements to fulfill to cast them.
Yes, but I'd like to have human sorcerers with potentially endlessly applicable magic, just more limitations than awakened mages.
I'm sorry you have such a poor opinion of yourself, user.
I'm also not very well versed in Mage, otherwise I wouldn't be asking about this.
How fast is the average spell without instant casting ? Is ritual very important ?
I'll look into it, thanks user.

Nope. It's likely that it'll be added onto an existing era, but that's up to the devs' discretion.

After reading into Hunter, it seems like it isn't even a part of the CofD setting at all.

It has dumbed down versions of most every splat. It's weird.

But in Dancers in the Dusk it was shown that their are entities that exist to punish those who defy fate. It seems to me that while it is a force, it does have some form of will as well.

Magic in Awakening is ritual by default. You add in Reach to change that. Supernal magic is very much about knowledge, lore, willpower and rituals. They just have the leeway to apply different factors.

>I blame the jews, personally.

So, you're a Brucato fan?

I'm a bit bummed that it isn't the focus of an era, but I'll live.
Thanks, user.

What they should really do for Demon is the Vatican under Sixt IV, Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and Julius II

This doesn't really change anything. The Wyrd has always acted against bystanders.

It doesn't stop Fate mages from forcing their way in-and-out of the Hedge, now does it? That's defying fate right there.
Entering the Hedge is a "contract" in itself.

Fagness is a traitor to us all

But you do need to be Awakened to work those, right ?
Can you give me a quick rundown on why a sleeper schmuck with high willpower, all the right tools and all the right info (and presumably a bit of training) can't do the same ?

Mundane folk can't use Supernal magic because their souls aren't attuned to it. It requires an Awakening.

You have Proximi though.

Because unlike Ascension (which sounds far more in line with what you want, including linear sorecery), Awakening magic is based on your connection to the supernal realms. You signed your symbol on to one of the watchtowers and through that connection you draw down power. Mortals don't have that connection so can't access the supernal.

I feel like he promotes the good of his own game line over that of others, which hurts the CofD overall even if it is good for Mage.

because each splat is supposed to be the hero of their own game, so the antagonists are always manageable
even one well-built staring level vampire can easily drop half a dozen starting hunters if you make it by the Vampire book, but if you go by Hunter's rules, it's a dangerous threat, but still not a real danger to the entire party