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If I may say so, in the event that the intended tone of hostility between the Covenants means that they actively avoid meeting directly with one another, some of the ideas underlying the Cacophony might prove an interesting method of giving enemy vampires a sense of presence and menace even when they don't show up directly. Things like the gig posters and music schedules in one of the player character's favourite night clubs conveying a veiled threat or insult to the vampire trained to understand it, or the tags on the walls and symbols incorporated into business logos defining the territorial boundaries. And of course the players might devise their own creative methods for putting out coded messages into the night to be picked up on by their opponents.

That could definitely work although I will be up front and say that while the game does start with just the core materials for Requiem 1E, there will be a few small changes.

1. Predator's Taint isn't going to be much of a thing. Just seems too cumbersome

2. Humanity will not be enforced all that much. I'm not running that kind of game. I'm not going to call for Humanity rolls all that much short of the PC's going full chaotic evil and acting like a bunch of Manson wannabes or something like that.

3. The fluff about vampires being emotionally dead and only having memories of emotions is gone. There's not much to mechanically enforce it anyway so Rule Zero is easy to apply to it.
 
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I freely admit to currently running Gotham City by Night where Batman was the Old Clan Tzimisce Prince and opposed by the Malkavian Antitribu Joker.

The PCs' territory is Bludhaven.

Are you willing to give my Requiem game a chance?

I'm looking for players to take part in Requiem for Roanoke.

This ain't your daddy's Vampire game! I think you might actually like my homebrew setting hacks for Requiem.
 
Are you willing to give my Requiem game a chance?

I'm looking for players to take part in Requiem for Roanoke.

This ain't your daddy's Vampire game! I think you might actually like my homebrew setting hacks for Requiem.

Alas, my schedule is full writing and gaming as is. Sorry.

I wish you the best, though!
 
That could definitely work although I will be up front and say that while the game does start with just the core materials for Requiem 1E, there will be a few small changes.

1. Predator's Taint isn't going to be much of a thing. Just seems too cumbersome

2. Humanity will not be enforced all that much. I'm not running that kind of game. I'm not going to call for Humanity rolls all that much short of the PC's going full chaotic evil and acting like a bunch of Manson wannabes or something like that.

3. The fluff about vampires being emotionally dead and only having memories of emotions is gone. There's not much to mechanically enforce it anyway so Rule Zero is easy to apply to it.
Makes sense. After all, Second Edition recognised a couple of those problems. Particularly, how the predatory aura thing was changed from "vampires have to check for frenzy every time they meet one another" to "vampires instinctively recognise one another and can voluntarily elect to assert their aura against other beings (not just vampires) to create deleterious emotional states" (a game that a weaker vampire can win over a stronger one), as well as a touch of "predator and territory gain subtle alterations reflecting one another" (which also gives them an innate sense of crossing one another's thresholds).

I'm supposing that was also a mechanic you disliked, but I'd be interested to know what it was about it.

I'll point out that in the absence of Predator's Taint, you'd need to come up with something custom for the first dot of Protean to do.
 
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Makes sense. After all, Second Edition recognised a couple of those problems. Particularly, how the predatory aura thing was changed from "vampires have to check for frenzy every time they meet one another" to "vampires instinctively recognise one another and can voluntarily elect to assert their aura against other beings (not just vampires) to create deleterious emotional states" (a game that a weaker vampire can win over a stronger one), as well as a touch of "predator and territory gain subtle alterations reflecting one another" (which also gives them an innate sense of crossing one another's thresholds).

I'm supposing that was also a mechanic you disliked, but I'd be interested to know what it was about it.

I'll point out that in the absence of Predator's Taint, you'd need to come up with something custom for the first dot of Protean to do.

Predator's Taint is just too fucky in 1E. I might nerf it to something closer to how it was in 2E where instead of vampires frenzying every time they meet to they just instantly know one another's true nature.

Anyway, I'm thinking the main three covenants active in the Roanoke Valley at the start of the game would be the Circle of the Crone, the Lancea Sanctum, and the Invictus. The Prince is with the Invictus but he has an underboss who is seeking to betray him and take control.

The Circle of the Crone in Roanoke is a lot less Wiccan and more Greco-Roman in its overall character.
 
I always assumed that Predator's Taint was a nice idea they wrote up without thinking it through properly. I really like the concept of it adding to the claustrophobic nature of Vampiric society, but it just didn't work as written.
 
Speaking of auras, I'm only just giving a close examination to the mechanics of the ones in the three Second Edition cores that I own.

I like how they went with the supernatural aura as a more consistent idea across games, even where the effects differ, and how they can interact with one another in respective contests. I particularly like how the Nimbus Tilt of mages is something that actually gives a system representation to descriptions of the sensations provoked by the Nimbus, and how in contrast to the predatory qualities of vampires and werewolves this can actually provide people with bonuses.
 
FYI -

I recommend the visual novel SHADOWS OF NEW YORK (and to a lesser extent COTERIES OF NEW YORK).

Also, NIGHT ROAD even though that's a text-based adventure alone with no visuals except a few character portraits.

I'm looking forward to SWAN SONG the Tell Tale-esque adventure game too.
 
Is it just me, or was old Obtenebration a really unfair power? I've had two players use it over the past couple of years (in V20) and it just seems like such a slam-dunk "I win" button of a power in many, many situations. I've read it several times and it always comes off as an incredible pile of penalties that are easy to apply and difficult to evade. Not a fan.
 
:quiet: The glitter and whimsy seems to be gone from this Changeling topic now that it has gone Generic W/C/NoD. :brokenheart::hurry: Quick, to the freeholds and glades! Bring the Tangerine Dream LPs!
 
Is it just me, or was old Obtenebration a really unfair power? I've had two players use it over the past couple of years (in V20) and it just seems like such a slam-dunk "I win" button of a power in many, many situations. I've read it several times and it always comes off as an incredible pile of penalties that are easy to apply and difficult to evade. Not a fan.


I don't know about V20, but in the original line it wasn't very powerful, overall. First point you could move shadows around - basically do "shadow puppets", at best under the right circumstances freak people out. Second point you can make an area dark. Good for stealth and avoiding combat, kinda. Third point you can summon tentacles of darkness, first almost-viable for combat ability, hardly a game-changer. And three points was mostly the limit for a new character in any one discipline - so you've got shadow puppets, turn out the lights, and the shadow equivalent of the magic fingers cantrip.

At your fourth point you could create temporary objects made of shadow - kinda fun, but hardly a game-changer. At best you have a kinda sucky melee or throwing weapon at your disposal.

And finally, at 5 points, you could turn into a shadow temporarily - shadowman, shadowman, does whatever a shadow can...which isn't much. Harmed by fire, light, or magic. Good for stealth and avoiding most attacks, but not an overtly offensive power in any way. Again very fun, but as far as 5 point Discipline abilities go, I wouldn't put it on the higher end of power in the game.
 
Is it just me, or was old Obtenebration a really unfair power? I've had two players use it over the past couple of years (in V20) and it just seems like such a slam-dunk "I win" button of a power in many, many situations. I've read it several times and it always comes off as an incredible pile of penalties that are easy to apply and difficult to evade. Not a fan.

Yes. It was one of the most popular "broken" powers alongside Vicissitude and Chimestry.
 
I don't know about V20, but in the original line it wasn't very powerful, overall. First point you could move shadows around - basically do "shadow puppets", at best under the right circumstances freak people out. Second point you can make an area dark. Good for stealth and avoiding combat, kinda. Third point you can summon tentacles of darkness, first almost-viable for combat ability, hardly a game-changer. And three points was mostly the limit for a new character in any one discipline - so you've got shadow puppets, turn out the lights, and the shadow equivalent of the magic fingers cantrip.

At your fourth point you could create temporary objects made of shadow - kinda fun, but hardly a game-changer. At best you have a kinda sucky melee or throwing weapon at your disposal.

And finally, at 5 points, you could turn into a shadow temporarily - shadowman, shadowman, does whatever a shadow can...which isn't much. Harmed by fire, light, or magic. Good for stealth and avoiding most attacks, but not an overtly offensive power in any way. Again very fun, but as far as 5 point Discipline abilities go, I wouldn't put it on the higher end of power in the game.

This is a Discipline in the Vampire game? Sounds like a power I would expect more in Changeling. I find the older versions of Vampire too kitchen sink in approach for my taste, I prefer a tighter focus on classic vampire tropes.
 
This is a Discipline in the Vampire game? Sounds like a power I would expect more in Changeling. I find the older versions of Vampire too kitchen sink in approach for my taste, I prefer a tighter focus on classic vampire tropes.

The inspiration for it was pretty obvious

33cf09fab1ac3551a8416d0391f7dd82.jpg
 
I love it as pure hammy schlock, but even then I'm tested by Keanu's "British accent"

Gary Oldman looks like he's having a blast

The comicbook adaption by Mike Mignola, OTOH, is a thing of beauty..

unnamed.jpg
 
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Mind you, since we're sharing:

7e4700lvuab51.png
 
Yes. It was one of the most popular "broken" powers alongside Vicissitude and Chimestry.

i‘ll always remember one of the worst Vampire games I was in. The resident min-maxer at our table had never paid attention to Vicissitude, and when I showed what could be done with five dots of it he had a freak out, because he was mad he missed an easy way to munchkin a character. He went so far as to claim rule limitations that didn’t exist, in one of the biggest examples of sour grapes I’ve ever seen in a game session.
 
I posted that on the V:TM Facebook group (the Key and Peele sketch) and it got me banned.
The 'sexy vampire' thing is part of what put me off the original Vampire, long ago. I mean, some of that... OK... but the art in the books, and the thespians I saw LARPING in the coffehouse, always had me wondering about the narrow assumption that old undead geezers would automatically dress like cheesy club kids.
 
I posted that on the V:TM Facebook group (the Key and Peele sketch) and it got me banned.
Some people have no goddamn chill.

Probably including me. More in the past than the present, I hope, but still something to keep an eye on. :smile:
wondering about the narrow assumption that old undead geezers would automatically dress like cheesy club kids.
I am torn right not between the image of Embraced Malcolm McDowell dressed up in typical Malcolm McDowell fashion among a bunch of vampires who look younger but have been around longer, and vampire Malcolm responding to his new state by just going directly into the scene getup.

I started off with Bill Nighy because I watched Underworld recently, but something about the prospect of "old man looking vampire dressed in that manner" said Malcolm McDowell to me (and I'm sure it has nothing to do with A Clockwork Orange).
 
The 'sexy vampire' thing is part of what put me off the original Vampire, long ago. I mean, some of that... OK... but the art in the books, and the thespians I saw LARPING in the coffehouse, always had me wondering about the narrow assumption that old undead geezers would automatically dress like cheesy club kids.

FOREVER YOUNG
GONNA BE FOREVER YOUNG
 
Actually, since What We Do In the Shadows came up, it occurs to me that we need more vampire media where somebody had a thrall whom they held out on turning for the longest time, and when it gets to the point of "the doctor said I will literally die in a fortnight" the vampire realises that they've gotten so used to having the person around (and being guilt-tripped has gone on just long enough) that they actually will go ahead and make them eternal.

It could fit as a relatively recent thing. A whole bunch of vampires keeping such thralls while unused to an era where it's possible for them to live so long. Time was this person would almost definitely have died abruptly of consumption in their 60s, but here you are in the 21st century and your thrall is living well into their 80s and it turns out the amount of time you've spent with them is just long enough to get very attached, and the appearance of somebody at that age who is still holding on to an empty promise is just pitiful enough, and it's all so drawn out and in a process of anticipating the coming death that it finally manages to wear the vampire down. Lots of them. It's a whole societal trend, and it results in a majority of a new generation of the undead being people with the look of the elderly.
 
Actually, since What We Do In the Shadows came up, it occurs to me that we need more vampire media where somebody had a thrall whom they held out on turning for the longest time, and when it gets to the point of "the doctor said I will literally die in a fortnight" the vampire realises that they've gotten so used to having the person around (and being guilt-tripped has gone on just long enough) that they actually will go ahead and make them eternal.

It could fit as a relatively recent thing. A whole bunch of vampires keeping such thralls while unused to an era where it's possible for them to live so long. Time was this person would almost definitely have died abruptly of consumption in their 60s, but here you are in the 21st century and your thrall is living well into their 80s and it turns out the amount of time you've spent with them is just long enough to get very attached, and the appearance of somebody at that age who is still holding on to an empty promise is just pitiful enough, and it's all so drawn out and in a process of anticipating the coming death that it finally manages to wear the vampire down. Lots of them. It's a whole societal trend, and it results in a majority of a new generation of the undead being people with the look of the elderly.

Well the big difference between What We Do in the Shadows and Blade familiars is that ghouls DO live forever if you feed them blood.
 
Well the big difference between What We Do in the Shadows and Blade familiars is that ghouls DO live forever if you feed them blood.
Indeed, although the idea of being able to live forever and get a measure of heightened power is its own kind of indignity when you're still definitely lower on the totem poll than your maker such that they can expect you to do the kind of menial work that the people in Shadows perform. Instead of the very old person who desperately clings to the promise of being changed, you've got the one who is getting a bit sick of spending eternal youth doing the household chores and putting up with master's funny jokes about how he might just cut off your Vitae because he's gotten tired of you (a resentment that mixes in interestingly twisted ways with the love created by blood bond).

Mind, I think one could get some of the best from both images in the ghoul who looks quite old because of that time they offered some great offence to their superior who stopped their Vitae supply for a year and only accepted them back on the assumption that being thrown to the brink of death would sufficiently learn them their lesson. Player gets introduced to the character asking "oh, did your boss save you from a nursing home or something" and gets told how the ghoul entered service in their late thirties and had served loyally for half a century until they needed to be disciplined for laughing at a rival's sardonic observation during Elysium.
 
This movie was also a pretty obvious inspiration for Vicissitude.

JG

I thought that one came from Necroscope? That's the discipline the Sabbat got from an alien parasite, wasn't it?
 
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