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The Random Thread of Random Randomness

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by NIGHTBRINGER, Feb 10, 2019.

  1. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    If they had some Star Wars things there, they might have more visitors :D
     
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  2. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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    Talk about a billion dollar brain fart. Who thought it was a good idea to not include the OT or PT?
     
  3. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  4. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  5. Paradoxical Pacifism
    Skink Chief

    Paradoxical Pacifism Well-Known Member

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  6. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  7. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    I heard this was a good game. I don't play a lot of computer RPGs, so I never looked into this. It's interesting. Note, I really like tabletop RPGs, especially White Wolf games. I own nearly every old World of Darkness book ever printed which includes the game Vampire: the Masquerade which this computer game is based on. Vampire is actually among my least favorite of the gameline. I've mostly played it, rarely running it. My favorite game is Werewolf: the Apocalypse, but my friends are not huge fans of it. Mage: the Ascension is my second favorite and the game I've generally had the most success running.

    I hear the sequel to the computer game got ruined by SJW politics but that's neither here nor there. Another problem is that since Bloodlines is remembered so fondly and was created so long ago that nostalgia goggles mean that any sequel is going to scrutinized heavily.

    I like them all (except Mummy), my friends just don't have time to meet up for RPGs reguarly enough to sustain many games.

    Bloodlines does a fairly good job explaining the Vampire metaplot.

    Werewolf (which I believe got a really crappy unsung video game) is about eco-warriors. The werewolves were created as warriors and protectors of Gaia the spirit of the Earth. They are sort of like very violent planeteers. They aren't just fighting pollution, they are fighting spiritual pollution. War, corruption, rape, and all the bad stuff humans (and werewolves) do feeds the source of spiritual corruption as much as pollution does. There are vast spirit realms that werewolves can visit for fantastic adventures.

    There are also politics and internal divisions. Each werewolf is a hotbed of rage and the various werewolf tribes and individuals are driven to fight with each other over petty silly things. There are werecats, werebears and a bunch of other were creatures but most of them hate and fear werewolves for bringing them to the brink of extinction in a civil war thousands of years ago. Along those lines, werewolves are still dealing with the spiritual fallout back from an old policy of culling the human herd in ancient times to prevent overpopulation.


    The mythos of Mage: the Ascension is that reality is defined by the collective belief of mankind. Originally cannons misfired a lot because people believed they probably wouldn't work. Now that most people trust science they do work. A mage is a person who has a will so strong that he or she can temporarily override the collective belief of the world with his or her own will. Magic is easier to perform when not directly witnessed by unbelievers. These are called mages. The main theme is fighting against the stagnation and willful ignorance of the masses.

    Mage is appealling because they are so diverse. You can have a religious mage literally perform miracles, or a kung-fu mage break the laws of physics with his athletic prowess, or a Harry-potter esque wizard using a wand and magic tome. There are lots of possibilities. Eventually, the hard science faction of mages called the Technocracy (whose foot soldiers look a lot like the agents from the Matrix) became so strong that nearly other mage faction had to ally against them which creates awkwardness as pagan witches, Christian mystics, drug addled seers, Eastern monks, Hermetic wizards and the like all have to work together. This alliance is called the Traditions. The Traditions have to also deal with the Nephandi who are basically Satan worshippers (though there are hundreds of Dark Masters, not just Satan) who want to drag down Creation and the Marauders who are crazy mages who just spread madness.


    Wraith: the Oblivion is a fanatastic game but it might be a little too dark. It's also tougher to cope if one player is missing, you kind of need everyone there every session because of the unique mechanics of the Shadow.

    Wraiths are ghosts, the souls of mortals who have unfinished business keeping them from passing on. Each wraith has a Shadow. The Shadow is a literal voice inside their head which tries to tempt the wraith into corruption and self destruction. Shadows even have powers they can activate to hinder their wraith. In a multiplayer game, everyone plays their character and another player's shadow, so a three player game: Player A is playing the Shadow of player C. Player B is playing the Shadow of player A. Player C is playing the Shadow of Player B.

    You can easily fill many game sessions just with wraiths trying to accomplish their left over goals from life and avoiding their Shadows but the Underworld is full of conflict that will come for you even if you try to avoid it. Spectres are wraiths who are taken over by their shadows. Spectres want to tear down the underworld (and the living world too). Various governments of wraiths have taken control of various areas and they are all corrupt and fight each other and the spectres a lot. Very few solid objects, books, weapons, tools, etc make it to the underworld from the lands of the living, so the main way to get things is to literally melt down and forge the souls of wraiths! Thus the governments and corrupt and draconians and it's easy to get tried on a scurrilous charge and sentence to the forges because the governments are greedy.

    Also the land of the living has psychics and exorcists you have to deal with. Or you could just try to stop someone from accidentally throwing away the ragged old teddy bear that is your sole anchor to the living world. Being dead sucks.


    Changeling: the Dreaming is the redheaded step child of the White Wolf Games because it's almost optmistic. You basically play a fairy tale creature that is cloaked in human form. Changelings are actually harmed by Banality with a capital B. Ordinary boring people with closed minds weakens them. Changelings are sustained by Glamour which represents hope, wonder, etc.

    The big faction conflict is between the Seelie and the Unseelie. There are a bunch of reasons they don't like each other, but the main reason is that the Seelie prefer to gain Glamour by inspiring mortals so that they well up with so much Glamour that the changelings can skim the excess, they call this musing, and the Unseelie prefer Ravaging. Ravaging occurs when a changeling disillusions a mortal and causes them to give up on their hopes and dreams.

    Besides the Seelie/Unseelie, there a bunch of kiths or fairy races which cooperate or compete with each other. There is a divide between nobles and commoners. There are divides between the noble houses with some Game of Thrones level intrigue and the commoners have a bunch of factions too. Besides the feared slow death of all changelings by Banality, they have the specter of ancient imprisioned evils that may escape and destroy them all.


    Hunter: the Reckoning covers humans who hunt supernatural beings, but that's not the whole story. There have been scattered people who have done this for thousands of years, but now it's different. A few months or years ago from Current Year (which every year you set the game in) a small number of ordinary people have the supernatural revealed seemingly at random and they are then bestowed with powers to fight, reason with, or study the supernatural.

    All the other game lines have ancient societies with ancient rivalries and alliances. The interesting thing about Hunters is that they don't know anything. They don't even know why they got powers or what they are supposed to do. They have to make an educated guess.


    Demon: the Fallen involves playing Judeo-Christian demons that recently escaped Hell and taken human hosts. It's a complicated story but the angels that rebelled against God initially had good intentions. They didn't rebel for the Evil Lulz. The process of a long bloody holy war followed by eons of being locked in the Abyss has certainly turned many fallen angels into demons worthy of the name, but all the Fallen at least have the potential for doing good.

    Also, when the first Fallen escaped Hell, they discovered that seemingly god and the angels were all gone. So they are all that's left. The political factions are the Faustians (who want to harness the collective potential of humanity to either let the demons replace God or let humanity replace God), the Luciferans who want to find Lucifer and resume the original holy war, the Reconcilers (who want redemption in the eyes of God and humanity), the Raveners (who want to destroy the universe) and the Cryptics (who want to figure out what's going on before they commit to an agenda).

    But the factions cannot have a five-way brawl just yet. Beore they escaped Hell in Current Year, 666 demons escaped Hell in ancient times. Rather than taking human hosts these demons bound themselves to cursed objects and they passed themselves off as gods gaining hordes of cultists and mystical power. Aka the Earthbound. They want to destroy or enslave all the newly arriving Fallen and enact their own agendas on the world. The Fallen may or may not be evil, but the Earthbound have lost all potential for redemption and they are insane to boot.

    Demons also have the specter of God and the Heavenly Host possibly coming back and smiting them all.


    All these gamelines are compatible,so you can have mages, demons, werewolves, changelings, imbued hunters, wraiths, and vampires all interact with each other. Trial and error has taught us that whatever flavor of supernatural the player characters are should be the vast majority of who they interact with. My players really like dealing with vampires in non-vampire games. Killing them, making alliances with them, studying them, manipulating, etc.

    They are not especially balanced. Wraiths have a hard time fighting any other groups. Werewolves generally have a relatively easy time fighting the other groups. In addition to their amazing combat abilities, werewolves can enter and exit the spirit realm through mirrors so it's very easy for them to bypass fortifications and checkpoints by popping up in the bathroom.


    Each gameline has a prophesized end of the world coming. To their credit, White Wolf actually ended the world in 2004 with a series of books tailoring the end of the world to the mythos of each of the gamelines.

    They rebooted a new World of Darkness. I barely looked at it because I happen to own nearly every Old World of Darkness book ever printed. I probably invested $1000 in these books, so I'm not going to buy a new set of them.
     
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  8. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  9. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  10. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  11. Paradoxical Pacifism
    Skink Chief

    Paradoxical Pacifism Well-Known Member

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  12. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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  13. pendrake
    Skink Priest

    pendrake Well-Known Member

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  14. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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    Brian Cox is a great narrator.
     
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  15. Paradoxical Pacifism
    Skink Chief

    Paradoxical Pacifism Well-Known Member

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  16. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  17. Lizerd
    Skink Priest

    Lizerd Well-Known Member

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    Cruelest thing you’ve done to a teacher shoot;

    Here is mine. For a teachers birthday I drew a grim reaper ticking off years of her life.
     
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  18. NIGHTBRINGER
    Slann

    NIGHTBRINGER Second Spawning

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  19. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    yep, that was in italy.

    I also saw them with my eyes. :D
     
  20. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Those animals are awesome. :)
     
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