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

Hunter is a fun game. What's your favorite way to play Hunter?

Dark ages/sabbat ventrue are great. Modern night's camarilla ventrue are mostly lowly merchants and usurers.

This.
Ventrue Antitribu are the greatest "clan" ever.

Seems Toreador or Tremere are better, tho nwod Ventrue should have gotten owod's discipline spread

By being a Banisher

The four schmucks with little knowledge and combat skills that manage to defeat strong creatures despite this, like in Dracula. I do also really like some of the conspiracies and compacts.

Either this, or a group of old-fashioned professionals like Hellboy or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I'm speaking of the tone of those films, not the plot.

You gentlemen have great taste. I'm partial to the "conspiracy theorist meets blue collar all american" modern take on the monster hunter myself.

I'm not familiar, what is that?

Is vicissitude a disease?

They weren't random shmucks Helsing et. al were really competent.

Used to be, then the idea was dropped and now the suggestion was retconned/resurfaced again in the form of the Asakku presented on V20 Guide to the Black Hand A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra.

Malkavians played well > Nos played well > Other clans

Individually each and all have their strengths and weaknesses but when it comes to the Clan as opposed to the individual the Tremere > All. They went from dirt to the top dogs in such a short span of time meanwhile the other Clans have existed since forever and accomplished little next to nothing.

Anti mage mages.

There are like 3-4 different interpretations of souleaters in v20 Black Hand.
1. nothing
2. vampiric earthbound thralls
3. extensions of the Eldest
4. asakku

There's also that they have no Clan flaw so they had to manually give themselves one.

Technically Unknown Armies but there is no ua general and it's basically alt-MtAs so w/e
>Plan for the session was for the group to find out that an npc one of them made as part of our corkboard/session 0 thing was, in fact, doing some low-tier(ritual) magickal shit, and it somehow involved gay sex
>Starts off fine, have the pc who knows the guy notice him acting weird, his phone makes a noise she's not familiar with, then he runs off home and she follows as far as his front door before she goes to tell the rest of the group
>They wait until night then head over and knock on his door. After some audible walking around inside, he opens the door and asks what they want, invites them in after they insist
>They start asking vague questions to try and figure out if he's in on the Occult Underground or not, he keeps dodging them
>2/3 of them notice that his shag rug is covering something up, they bring it up and he says its just some weird scratches that have been there since he moved in
>One of them yanks on the rug, revealing pic related on the floor, dude panics and tries to run, group entropomancer/thug grapples him and knocks him out, but not before he screams "HELP, CALL THE POLICE!"
>They tie him up in his bedroom and then start searching the apartment, open his closet and a naked man runs out, the woman who already knew the guy ends up being the only one to succeed at the roll to trip the naked guy as he tries to run out
>Check their phones and realize that naked guy was there for a hook-up, because other dude had grindr and a push notification from him saying he was outside; naked guy's phone just finished a call with 911 a few minutes ago
>Sirens outside, whole group panics, they yank some pants onto the naked guy and get ready to run, but then an officer starts walking up to the door, so they decide to try and play it cool
>Cop looks around for a bit, says they got a few calls from neighbors too, asks out loud if everyone is all right
>cont...

>Tied up dude wakes up for a moment, tries to call for help, gets punched in the throat by the entropomancer(only person in the same room as him at this point)
>Cop hears the pitiful whimper as he passes out anyways, cuffs the woman who knew him and has the other guy stand up and put his hands on his head while she goes in to check the other room, calls her partner and radios for backup
>Big guy, third member of the group, almost pulls out his gun and shoots the officer, but her partner shows up so he decided to stash the gun in the couch, then uses Cliomancy to attach a rumor of 'being in with some bad people' to the ritualist
>Rest of the session is just group getting arrested, packed into a cruiser and driven to the police station

I feel bad, I think because this is the first time in a game I've run that the players actually faced serious consequences for their murderhobo behaviors

So my Nosferatu "antitribu" (I'm a double agent working for a justicar) got recently an offer to exchange disciplines from a camarilla Tremere (another player) who now has apearance 0 and wants to learn obfuscation 3. I dared to ask for Thaumaturgy in exchange and surprizingly she agreed.

I am making a huge mistake? In a different city I shouldn't have even made the deal in fear of being targeted by the rest of the clan, but the cainite presence (camarilla included) in our city is very small. Also the Tremere doesn't know my true allegiance and probably won't tell her clanmates that she's teaching blood magic to a fucking sabbat ductus. I'm still a bit afraid, are Tremere able to know that I stole their secrets in any other way? Are they able to fuck me for learning it or would they listen to my arguments that my mission is more important and that if someone's to blame is the warlock who taught me in the first time?

>listen to my arguments
They don't want Clan secrets out at all. What they do to the traitor would be punishment, with you it would be sanitation.

I understand that they won't ever be happy about it, my objective if they discover it would be to avoid them being able to persecute me publicly and lawfully (first step probably trying to stop playing sabbat).

Anyways my first priority is them not noticing it at all and I would like to know what steps should I take. i'm not super experienced at this games and I played less complex characters with less complex stories the other times.

>Malkavians played well
HOW.

It was all part of Saulot's plan.

It would always be enforced by vigilantism anyway, ain't no rule in the Traditions about protecting trademarks on disciplines.

We didn't make it in time to discuss W:tA last thread
So we will discuss W:tA or W20 now!
Tell me about the last Garou you played / drafted

>Shine Talon, Silver Fang Lupus Ahroun
>Chronicle set in modern times USA
>Descendant of a forgotten bloodline, Lupus ancestor tried to breed with local wolves unsuccessfully
>Low Pure Breed, barely Silver Fang standard
>Tribe handed him off to a multitribal pack because local Fangs are all Homid, he has no family and no one knows what to do with him
>Made friends with local Red Talons, trades favors with them, including scouting on humans that almsot certainly will end up dead

Online chronicle, everyone disappeared before even the first session, as these things are known to do.

Right, here's part of the procedure to learn sanctioned Thaumaturgy:

"Following protocol, a chantry will submit a request to its supervising Lord, who will review the candidate for any history of malice toward the Tremere or troubling behavior. A Regent that submits such a request is judged along with her proposed candidate and may be punished for an under-analyzed candidate.

Once vetted by the Pyramid, prospective students must pay steep costs to the Tremere for instruction aside from personal payment to her instructor. A student must surrender five points of her blood to the local chantry, three of which will be filed with the office of the Lord. In addition, the student must sign a blood contract (see V20, p. 239) that expressly forbids the use of any Thaumaturgy against a Tremere in good standing."

Suppose they found you learned Thaumaturgy and in their records it doesn't appear like it was sanctioned it's only natural they'd put you under total surveillance and dig into your past, if they found evidence of your affiliation with the Sabbat it'd be very easy to toss the Quaseitori at you [whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Quaesitor_(Archon)] If they couldn't link you to the Sabbat they could always frame you to get rid of you but chances are one day you'll find yourself kidnapped, tortured into telling them who taught you and then offed.

The Tremere that taught you would be judged in a Clan tribunal, declared Rogue and then likewise hunted by the Quaesitors.

As for not having them notice, first step is never casting anything (even if the effects cannot be physically perceived) near a Tremere as they have combination disciplines/powers that lets them observe the flow of magic through Auspex.

Second step is not perform flashy spells near other Camarilla because it'd highly suspicious and half of them would either use the knowledge to blackmail you or outright sell you out to the Tremere for a hefty boon.

Iirc using blood magic leaves marks in your aura.
But if your ductus is learned and connected enough he could always pretend to have learned any other blood magic discipline, which probably will get him in deep shit with another clan.
As for public censure, the Prince word is law in their city but there's nothing in hte Traditions about learning whatever Discipline you like, unless the Tremere could prove that you learned them by breaching their Haven. They could frame you for anything else though.
At any rate don't you have a Justicar sugar daddy backing you up? That's kind of a big deal.

Is the True Black Hand really that trustfull?

Forever ST here, specializing in Masquerade, NWoD Mortals 1e, Requiem 1e, Lost 1e, general NWoD 1e.

AMA.

I'm an archon myself so, if they start sending quaesitors, they better have a better excuse than my Nosfi doing his fucking job inside the Sabbat.

I do know that I'm making powerful enemies (even if they're gonna hunt me illegally or try to destroy my career) but with a political oriented Nosferatu I was gonna end up making some anyways. It's also a way to build forceful bounds with the Tremere (if the secret is discovered we're supposedly both fucked, she first) which is fine since she's also old and high aiming.

Yes I do and I pretend to aim high in the Sabbat as well taking profit from the fact that most of them fled from the city when a powerful metusellah was found while I stayed there to fight the pawn of the antediluvians. Politically I should be well positioned, specially if I manage to not make the Tremere who is gonna teach me too butthurt with my Nosferatu shenanigans.

>PC Archons

Holy fuck, that's stupid.

It's an elder's game.

If it works for the Chronicle, user... Not everything needs to be street level where you have to argue with your ST over taking 4 dots in Generation and raising the Toreador PC to Harpy is the crowning of 18 months of real life gameplay.

What rank would spirits of large scale objects or concepts be?

For example the spirit of nuclear decay or the spirit of a black hole.

Depends on how influential it is in the Shadow.
Compare Gaia to Helios. Earth is a higher rank than the actual sun.

Nuclear Decay probably has better feeding spots that Black Hole.

Why would a spirit of a black hole, leave a black hole to come to earth and starve?

It wouldn't. It's probably a nigh non-existent spirit to begin with.

The main attribute of a black hole is that it always absorbs mass, never lets it go, and it's the only way it can grow.
It's a natural fit for themes of greed and hunger, maybe the spirit decides to be a little more proactive in procuring itself its next big matter buffet.

I was thinking that maybe the player's would occasionally hear the calls and cries of truly alien and terrifying spirits deep in the shadow beyond the gaze of helios.

Sort of like hearing a whale song through the hull of a ship.

How overweight are you?

Or a very lonely spirit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale

One favorite homebrew or houserule for each of the gamelines you mentioned?

I'm 6" and weigh 205lb, so not much at all?

I don't use many house rules, but a couple of things I do in about every game I've run:

For Masquerade: Ditch declare-then-act for initiative. Replace Generation's immunity to Dominate with a bonus to resistance based on the Generation difference, ala Blood Potency.

For NWoD in general: Adopt the NWoD LARP rules for Merit XP costs (flat vs. graduated XP costs). Utilize 'weapons as damage/armor as damage reduction' from Armory.

For Requiem: Utilize the Mage and beyond 'pool expenditures' that are used in 2e Requiem (1/1, 2/2, etc.).

I never used any house rules for the Changeling games I ran.

And for homebrew...

Masquerade: I totally homebrewed the shit out of everything leading up to Gehenna, including concrete rules for Golconda (which turned a PC into an NPC), an entire Thin Blooded set of magicks based on some of the not-Thaumaturgy from Requiem.

Requiem: None of note.

Lost: If you want to call custom Tokens homebrew, my favorite was the Sprite's Mirror, which shrunk the user to about 6 inches tal and gave them a huge stealth bonus. But when you change back, for an hour you leave sparkles/fairy dust in your footprints, which stays in place for about 5 minutes then fades away. Our Windwing Spring butterfly ex-Air Force pilot ended up with that to hilarious result.

this. street level play with neonates is absolutely plebeian. I bet you like Anarchs

Nope, fuck Anarchs. Baseline Camarilla play is my jam. But yes, if it fits the game. I have yet to encounter a game where players being allowed status and position above the local level wasn't troublesome or downright hurtful to the game, but if it works to them, more power to them.

:-(

How greasy is that neckbeard of yours?

Depends on what you as a Storyteller expect of the game, I think. If you play an ancilla / elder game, but use a variation of the old "The Prince, representing the immutable Status Quo, gives you the Fetch Quest" then you can bet your players will do everything in their power to tear it up just because they can.
In those sort of games you have to prepare for players to have more liberties, and to give it to them. Estabilish what realistically should still beyond the reach of your above average PCs, expect that everything else might get blown up on a whim and write a story that could still stand on its own while the setting suffers those losses.

What's some weird cool shit that would drive Mages to explore the Underworld?

On my xbox

Necromancy of any sort? It's a weird place. There's probably some legacy of skeleton-liches down there who have their own little tunnel homes and refuse to leave. Think of what they might know.

Pretty good. Got my copy of Blood Dimmed Tides in the post.

Yeah, they were the new professionals of the era. Doctor, Psychiatrist, Lawyer, Landowner from the Colonies vs. one of those suspiciously Semitic European types out to buy our land and steal our women.

Seriously, parts of Dracula read like they were penned by Nigel Farage. Oh wait, he's illiterate....

Dracula's secretly the earliest airport thriller novel in existence. True facts.

Is there a power that allows a Beast to break into your vampire's house and creepily watch with his hands in his pockets as you feed so he regains Satiety even if you changed the locks? Asking for a friend.

Breaking news: Fun is "stupid", announces anonymous NEET on the internet.

Seriously, Archon games sound awesome. Powerful characters hunting dangerous prey, never certain of their Justicar's intentions - it's like Criminal Minds if the whole team were psychopathic murderers as well.

Classic Orpheus trope - one of them loses a loved one and cannot accept the failure.

>WE'RE GETTING DAVE BACK
>Dave's dead, Paul
>I DON'T FUCKING CARE, I CAN STOP TIME, I CAN STOP BULLETS, I THINK I CAN MANAGE THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
>....alright, Jesus, but I'm coming too. Christ knows you need someone to tell you when to quit.

It is a dark and terrible power, known as a Bump Key.

What's the problem?

Even better if they get down there and Dave's like, "Man, I'm dead. Leave it alone."

A ghost isn't a soul though. Dragging someone's ghost back from the underworld wouldn't help.

Your soul in nwod is most definitely not "you." Its a support structure, but it really has fuck all to do with who you are as a person. Your ghost deserves a much higher proportion of the "you"ness since some ghosts keep their magic abilities, while no sleeper will gain magic if they are given an awakened soul.

Aren't ghosts just echoes of the individual and not actually the dead person?

Like being born out of death.

The Mage lore really takes away from Geist and should be treated as Mage theory, not setting fact.

Doesn't seem to be clear.

Why, does Geist say anything differently?

Just because they aren't the original person doesn't mean they deserve to suffer or be denied kindness. That's a basic fucking life lesson any two-bit kiddy show would teach anyone.

Its probably more accurate to say that not all ghosts used to be people, and that not all ghosts still are still people.

>Mages know that ghosts aren’t really dead
souls, but reflections generated by passions that persist after souls pass to unknown kingdoms. Some believe that a ghost
is part of the original soul, separated by traumatic death, and others hold that it contains the person’s actual personality: everything that can be defined as “them.”

Dumb Sin-Eater. Moroi know more, clearly.

The whole point of Geist is relieving the suffering of the dead. If the ghosts the Bound deal with aren't really sentient, but rather hollow simulcrums it loses most of its emotional appeal.

The Mage theory that ghosts aren't the real dead should be treated as an in-game theory, with the Bound reacting with horror to abuses by Moros who mistreat the dead thinking they're just philosophical zombies.

Its possible for ghosts to be sentient without being the original person, since some are just 3D recording blips (owod drones) one could even speculate the opposite is possible true, that nothing says it can't be the original person reduced to a mindless state.

I certainly know of no canon (in Mage or elsewhere) that definitively says at least some ghosts aren't peoples.

Why the fuck would them not being the original mean that they wouldn't be sentient? Them being sentient and them not being the original(or just being some pat of them, or just something 'born' from their death) *can* both be true.

I repeat
>Just because they aren't the original person doesn't mean they deserve to suffer or be denied kindness. That's a basic fucking life lesson any two-bit kiddy show would teach anyone.

Ghosts are dumb anyway

Rank 3+ goasts are probably better than your character fuccboi

So would a mage still be able to cast magic without a soul?

Until the third stage of soul loss, when you are a broken husk of misery.

Legacies are basically the shape of your soul
So could I theoretically have one shaped like a penis?

Whipping Boys must already be this

Legacies are the shape of your GNOSIS
But yes, that's the Whipping boys, or perhaps some very phallic Chrysalides

What do vampires do in their spare time?

Eat, plot, scheme, fantasizing about eating, plotting, scheming

Sounds about right

Is the only sphere that a mage needs to slaugther vampires in mass, named correspondance?

>vampire opens fridge
>its actually a portal to the mid day saharan desert

Is there a huge difference between editions content wise? Like can I use a splat from the Revised edition with the 2E rulebook?

It's almost as if people had different concepts of "fun".

>That's a basic fucking life lesson any two-bit kiddy show would teach anyone.
You shouldn't take your life lessons from children shows

Okay so I am working on Seasonal Monarchs from Changeling. Want to get at least their Seeming/Kith/theme down.
So far:
Defetron Tispoli, Winter King (Ogre Chatelaine), the Man Behind Mayor.
Ol' Charlie, Spring King (Darkling "Skeleton"), Master of 'Slumber Parties.'
Yet to be named, Summer Queen (Wizened Kith undecided), picturing her as tactical deadeye.
Zhanna Devkowa, Autumn Queen, (Elemental (Metal) Gristlegrinder), Fear Mongering Iron Maiden.

You're gonna need at least forces for it to radiate through, otherwise it's just a really magical cocktease

Defetron (or probably Defteron?) uses his high city status to essentially micromanage life of every member of freehold. He desires that everyone's mundane life is as easy and pleasant as possible. Polite if bit cold, gentle if bit pushy.
Few people meet Ol' Charlie in flesh first. Man usually only shows up on parties or high society events. He still incredibly friendly and social, and new comers will often have the jolly skeleton dressed in emerald robes grace their dreams for introductions.
Zhanna is a tyrant to her people. When she sets her sight for goal the Autumn Court bends over backwards to archive it. Many new temporary rules are added to Freehold laws, mainly denying certain actions without proper "permits," mainly so that she knows what exactly is going on in her domain.