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[World of Darkness] Red Star shining at WW HQ, heads to roll

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  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Ardent wrote: »
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    It has details for running a Sabbat campaign, doesn't it?
    Not that I noticed. At any rate, there will HAVE to be a supplement to actually run a Sabbat campaign for reasons.

    I'd like to do that at some point. Seems like interest is higher for VTM here than Mage.
    You get the feeling, reading the book, that the Anarchs are meant to fill the traditional Sabbat campaign role in the sense that they've got a less established power base in the Americas, their infrastructure in Europe is entirely underground, and they have to defend their handful of principalities tooth and claw.

    I'm sure the Sabbat materials will be interesting, but you're also going to need additional supplements to really consider running a Sabbat campaign in the V5 setting. And I'm not talking about Anarchs and Cam.

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    They've made the character creation much simpler, and there's a lot of neat features like coming up with "chronicle tenets" that are guidelines for how all the players should act. If you put down "no children will be harmed", for example, and someone punches a kid in the face, they'll be penalised by in-game systems. The book also says "if something isn't explicitly there but someone gets wigged out by it, don't be a fucking dick about it".

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    One of the example goals is “kill (insert racist elder here)”

    Lacking in racist dogwhistles so far.

  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    I'm glad to hear it!

  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    One of the example goals is “kill (insert racist elder here)”

    Lacking in racist dogwhistles so far.
    Yeah my take after skimming it is that the alarmism was simply that: alarmism. There was what some people perceived to be smoke but definitely no fire to be seen. Except maybe the fire of Sabbat player dreams.

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Ardent wrote: »
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    It has details for running a Sabbat campaign, doesn't it?
    Not that I noticed. At any rate, there will HAVE to be a supplement to actually run a Sabbat campaign for reasons.

    I'd like to do that at some point. Seems like interest is higher for VTM here than Mage.

    Speaking of. I was thinking of running a bastardized version of VTM run on this site (almost) entirely using PM's. Each turn would be week of in game time and combat et all would be glossed over pretty heavily. (I.E. if you wanted to say, assault a location, you would do a single(or a few) combat type roll to determine how successful you were in your goal, rather than going through a dungeon of the actual place)

    Is there interest for that kind of game?

    Goumindong on
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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    We prefer users not to use the PM system as a private chat room, this is intended as a public community.

  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    Why not just run it via PBP? It encourages participation more, anyway. (I don't like scheduled games because time zones and all that.)

    wVEsyIc.png
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited September 2018
    Some more 5e thoughts (I'm skimming different sections because having read the other 4 editions honestly I don't super need to read another description of the Brujah)

    Some of the setting changes they've made are bold, make a lot of sense and will help to make the game feel less static. For example:

    *The inquisition has obliterated the Tremere chantry in Vienna and the pyramid functionally no longer exists. Tremere are now either trying to recreate it or hiring themselves out as battle mages. It's now much easier to explain why a Tremere PC is part of a player party.

    *Gehenna happened, the Antediluvians awoke but... none of them were in the western world. The main twist is that instead of devouring their children, they're calling the ones closest to them to the Gehenna War in the middle east (which I'm sure has a sourcebook coming). This means that the roles previously filled by untouchable elders are now up for grabs, and the positions of power in the North American setting are much more fluid and ripe for player interaction

    *Character creation now requires the coterie to have shared resources and purpose, so it's less "four individuals who have no reason to interact, but have to because that's the game" and more of an actual player group.

    *Character creation is much shorter, simpler and more character driven. Dumb stats like appearance have disappeared, and figuring out what fit my character took about three minutes. Freebie points as a system seems to have disappeared, as has merit/flaw min maxing.

    *Potence, Celerity and Fortitude appear to have been fixed (playtesting required). They're no longer just flat, incredibly useful bonuses. Instead they have a list of powers like any other discipline. For instance, my character has one point of potence and can choose if they want to be able to deal aggravated damage with brawling attacks or gain the ability to make giant leaps. It's not just "five automatic successes". Celerity is now a bunch of superspeed themed powers rather than the absurd "you immediately double your combat effectiveness with even a single point and everyone hates you for bogging down combat".
    *Blood points no longer exist, and are replaced with "hunger". Every time you roll for anything, you add "hunger dice" that represent you fucking stuff up due to your hunger messing with your chill. This can mess with either successes or failures by turning them into "bloody" versions that represent the actions of a hangry person with zero chill. It could be good or bad in context, but it's a great way to represent the fact that you're a vampire and vampires are thinking about blood All The Time.

    *Feeding removes your hunger points (and thus the amount of No Chill dice you have to roll), and as you become more powerful in the blood (blood potency is here, from Requiem) you have higher minimum hunger that can only be sated by drinking a person all the way until they're dead. This means that being a relatively "low-power" vampire actually has advantages over those with more potent blood or generation. I actually looked at the low-generation tables and thought "man, that sounds like a lot of fucking hassle" rather than thinking how cool it would be to be that powerful.

    *Humanity also makes a lot more sense. It's not tied to judeo-christian mythology any more, and is much more dependent on your own personal ethics and more global "this is fucked up" type actions. The difference between your humanity dots and 10 is left open for "stains", minor or major sins against your ethics. Once you fill up all your stain boxes, you make a roll to see if you lost humanity. This means that a humanity 10 character (who has all sorts of perks, btw) is going to roll every time they do anything even a little fucked up. A humanity 3 character, on the other hand, is going to have to do a bunch of bad shit in a relatively small time frame to fill up all seven empty boxes.

    *Humanity is more personal now, because you choose your character's personal code. My character loves dogs, and has a rule of "only kick up". If they had to kill a guard dog during a heist, or intimidate a homeless person for information, they would pay a much greater humanity penalty than the other characters might. The whole system feels much more practical and less like something you'll basically have to ignore because this is a tabletop RPG and you're going to need to kill the occasional baddie. Things like possessing people through dominate are also explicitly called out as "you're going to get stains for this", so you can't just min max your personal ethics.

    Tube on
  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    The whole 'the Pyramid got wiped out thing' struck a sour note with me, but that does sound pretty cool. Does this mean they're no longer blood bound to Tremere?

    What's their new penalty?

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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    The vulnerability to blood bonds from v20.

    So far this has struck a good balance between making the setting more practical and playable ala requiem without sucking all the fun and life out of it ala... requiem

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    Every time you roll for anything, you add "hunger dice" that represent you fucking stuff up due to your hunger messing with your chill. This can mess with either successes or failures by turning them into "bloody" versions that represent the actions of a hangry person with zero chill.

    Hello yes this is actually me though.

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  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Why not just run it via PBP? It encourages participation more, anyway. (I don't like scheduled games because time zones and all that.)

    Because you cannot have secret paper in the open. The idea would be that each player would be acting more or less on their own in the city(they may or may not know who the other player vampires are) and then be able to converse via the IC thread which would act as a vampire IRC equivalent. There would be news updates from the various happenings via that(plus of course whatever they got via whatever they did). When chapters of the game were completed they would be collated into a public narrative.

    I could use email for it but PM's are just easier since it would put everything on the same site.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I don’t even play this game but for vampire wizards I bet you could swing a fake-out on their destruction if you like ‘em.

    And if fact, they moved their base to [your city].

  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Since my city is Sabbat territory, that's probably not happening, lol.

    Unless they changed it, SoFla has always been their stomping grounds.

    cj iwakura on
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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    No famous Tremere are specified as dead, and there’s one mention of the man himself probably not being.

    I got to the section on facism in this game, it’s pretty unequivocal. “If you are a member of the alt right, put this book down and go and talk to someone who can help you figure out how your life went so drastically wrong.”

  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    nazi vamps, nazi vamps, nazi vamps, fuck off?

  • MsAnthropyMsAnthropy The Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm The City of FlowersRegistered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Why not just run it via PBP? It encourages participation more, anyway. (I don't like scheduled games because time zones and all that.)

    Because you cannot have secret paper in the open. The idea would be that each player would be acting more or less on their own in the city(they may or may not know who the other player vampires are) and then be able to converse via the IC thread which would act as a vampire IRC equivalent. There would be news updates from the various happenings via that(plus of course whatever they got via whatever they did). When chapters of the game were completed they would be collated into a public narrative.

    I could use email for it but PM's are just easier since it would put everything on the same site.

    I would set something like this up on Discord. Separate private channels for each character, and a single common channel. Plus you could setup a dice bot for in-channel rolls.

    Luscious Sounds Spotify Playlist

    "The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
  • E.CoyoteE.Coyote Registered User regular
    I wonder what's going on with the rights to the CCGs like Rage, tossing that into a Hearthstone or MTG Arena shell would be something I'd be interested in. All that super sweet art could be put to good use again.

  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    I play VtES right now actually, discovered it last year. The community had been keeping the game alive despite it being canceled and since the new acquisition Paradox/White Wolf/whatever has been printing new cards. In the US right now they're print on demand through DriveThruCards but I heard in Europe they're putting cards back in stores soon?

    I went to the North American Championship this year and apparently they had many more players than anticipated, the European Championship recently had a big showing. Now like 99% of these case are diehard veteran players but the support for the game appears to be there and I imagine it'll grow if they spread the word.

    I mean, it's a Richard Garfield game, the second game he made after Magic, the gameplay mechanics are simply excellent.

  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Since my city is Sabbat territory, that's probably not happening, lol.

    Unless they changed it, SoFla has always been their stomping grounds.
    It's been a bit but if anyone still considers this a spoiler:
    The Sabbat have no footholds in the western hemisphere. They are completely engaged in Gehenna and fighting the Kuei-Jin. The Sabbat are functionally not in V5, at least until they get their own splat.

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Ardent wrote: »
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Since my city is Sabbat territory, that's probably not happening, lol.

    Unless they changed it, SoFla has always been their stomping grounds.
    It's been a bit but if anyone still considers this a spoiler:
    The Sabbat have no footholds in the western hemisphere. They are completely engaged in Gehenna and fighting the Kuei-Jin. The Sabbat are functionally not in V5, at least until they get their own splat.

    yay but also meh
    A well designed Sabbat game could have some interesting threads drawn from it. But! With the changes made to clan allegiances (Gangrel and another clan have apparently left the Camarilla?), there was an opportunity to abandon the Cam/Sabbat war entirely and just go with all independent clans. Although maybe that would make group play even harder so meh I guess

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    MsAnthropy wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    Why not just run it via PBP? It encourages participation more, anyway. (I don't like scheduled games because time zones and all that.)

    Because you cannot have secret paper in the open. The idea would be that each player would be acting more or less on their own in the city(they may or may not know who the other player vampires are) and then be able to converse via the IC thread which would act as a vampire IRC equivalent. There would be news updates from the various happenings via that(plus of course whatever they got via whatever they did). When chapters of the game were completed they would be collated into a public narrative.

    I could use email for it but PM's are just easier since it would put everything on the same site.

    I would set something like this up on Discord. Separate private channels for each character, and a single common channel. Plus you could setup a dice bot for in-channel rolls.

    That could work. Is there interest for that type of game?

    wbBv3fj.png
  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    I'm very cautious about the new vampire, but I am glad to hear that it is not as much of a fascist trashfire as it was made out to be. Still being wary, but nice to know not everything is terrible.

    I playtested it a bit at gencon last year and didn't see any of the weirdness some people described. I was mainly fascinated by the "hunger" die and how awesome of a concept it was. No more blood point nonsense like you are a undead wizard, just push your luck with your awesome vampire powers until you inevitably fuck up.

  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    C'mon, "not as much of a fascist trashfire" ? It's not at all fascist.

    The entire thing was fabricated, with "evidence" thinner than most other conspiracy theories, believed only by people eagerly looking for fascists to oppose.

  • BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    MoosehatIV wrote: »
    I'm very cautious about the new vampire, but I am glad to hear that it is not as much of a fascist trashfire as it was made out to be. Still being wary, but nice to know not everything is terrible.

    I playtested it a bit at gencon last year and didn't see any of the weirdness some people described. I was mainly fascinated by the "hunger" die and how awesome of a concept it was. No more blood point nonsense like you are a undead wizard, just push your luck with your awesome vampire powers until you inevitably fuck up.

    Now i am interested but alas i liked the VtR clans more

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    MoosehatIV wrote: »
    I'm very cautious about the new vampire, but I am glad to hear that it is not as much of a fascist trashfire as it was made out to be.

    This is such a weird way to frame it. It's literally the only tabletop sourcebook I've ever seen to have multiple denunciations of fascism in it and it constantly reminds the Storyteller to be checking in with their players and making sure they're comfortable. "It's not as much of a fascist trashfire?" is acting as though it got a D- when it gets a B+.

    Like, it's ok that you believed the blog that turned out to be full of horseshit, no one thinks any less of you, but man, let it go at a certain point.

  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    https://www.storytellersvault.com/?affiliate_id=%20866509

    Big V:TM/WoD stuff sale.

    Yeesh, I could go broke just on the Beckett stuff alone.

    wVEsyIc.png
  • Casually HardcoreCasually Hardcore Once an Asshole. Trying to be better. Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Do is V5E worth a purchase?

    My biggest problem with mage right is that we're spending so much time creating spells that breaks the game that we're barely playing the freaking game. That and it feels like the game is more about negotiating with the ST.

    Casually Hardcore on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Check it out if you want to run a game of Vampire, I wouldn’t buy it just for the read because there’s not much fluff.

  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    In my experience Mage is about spells that break the game, that is playing the game. It's a problem solving game of utilizing your knowledge of the arcana to advance the plot. IMO if the problem is "someone stole the macguffin!" and it feels like it "breaks the game" to have the guy with Time just look backwards to see who did it and the guy with Space to teleport you into his bathroom then you just need to embrace this, roll with the punches and tell a story that works with the characters rather than trying to constrain them.

    This especially extends to combat, it's another problem to solve and if a certain spell seems crazy there is certainly some way to counter it or protect against it, and it's actually fun to see that kind of arms race evolution as the PCs and NPCs learn each others tricks from encounter to encounter.

    A game of Vampire is certainly more grounded, but that's just the nature of capturing being a Vampire vs. being a Mage. Personally I'd recommend Vampire the Requiem Second Edition, IMHO VtR 2E is the best version of Vampire by far and if you like the old lore then do a little work with the free conversion guide PDF.

    But VtM 5E isn't bad, the hunger system in particular is a nice, thematic little system.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    The answer to most game-breaking spells seems to be either "Paradox" or "your enemies can do that too"

  • MsAnthropyMsAnthropy The Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm The City of FlowersRegistered User regular
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    In my experience Mage is about spells that break the game, that is playing the game. It's a problem solving game of utilizing your knowledge of the arcana to advance the plot. IMO if the problem is "someone stole the macguffin!" and it feels like it "breaks the game" to have the guy with Time just look backwards to see who did it and the guy with Space to teleport you into his bathroom then you just need to embrace this, roll with the punches and tell a story that works with the characters rather than trying to constrain them.

    This especially extends to combat, it's another problem to solve and if a certain spell seems crazy there is certainly some way to counter it or protect against it, and it's actually fun to see that kind of arms race evolution as the PCs and NPCs learn each others tricks from encounter to encounter.

    A game of Vampire is certainly more grounded, but that's just the nature of capturing being a Vampire vs. being a Mage. Personally I'd recommend Vampire the Requiem Second Edition, IMHO VtR 2E is the best version of Vampire by far and if you like the old lore then do a little work with the free conversion guide PDF.

    But VtM 5E isn't bad, the hunger system in particular is a nice, thematic little system.

    Yeah, imo, Mage isn’t really a game about whether the players can do something, but whether they should, and what the consequences will be.

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    "The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    In my experience Mage is about spells that break the game, that is playing the game. It's a problem solving game of utilizing your knowledge of the arcana to advance the plot. IMO if the problem is "someone stole the macguffin!" and it feels like it "breaks the game" to have the guy with Time just look backwards to see who did it and the guy with Space to teleport you into his bathroom then you just need to embrace this, roll with the punches and tell a story that works with the characters rather than trying to constrain them.
    I've never played Mage, only read a bunch of the rulebooks, so I'm curious how Paradox works out in practice (vs. in theory). Does it feel you're being the Fun Police when the players do some rad nonsense and then you go "Well, actually, there's that homeless guy in the alley and he saw the whole thing and now Paradox twists you into a pretzel"?
    This especially extends to combat, it's another problem to solve and if a certain spell seems crazy there is certainly some way to counter it or protect against it, and it's actually fun to see that kind of arms race evolution as the PCs and NPCs learn each others tricks from encounter to encounter.
    Similarly, I'm curious how combat works out in practice. Obviously it would be disappointing to play this reality-bending mage - especially an Etherite with a Coca-Cola-powered ray gun or an Akashic Brotherhood member who has invented a martial art or something - without being able to occasionally explode a HIT Mark or punch a garbage dragon in the snout. At the same time, the free-form and reality-bending nature of the Mage magic system makes me wonder if it's better suited for scenarios that revolve more around... philosophy, I guess, and ideology. You're not killing ten rats in a basement* or delivering a letter, you're exploring why the Gauntlet seems less penetrable near this library, or helping an elder Hermetic figure out why he can't magic the way he used to anymore (it's because his life experience has started to shift his world view, which makes his old paradigm not work for him anymore). Am I off the mark on this?

    * - Well, maybe you are, but actually it's ten rat spirits, and it's in a pocket realm, and you "kill" them by debating them into believing that they don't exist.

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Oh, weird thing I forgot to mention: in 5e, Jeanette and Therese Voerman are now canon characters. There are a lot of spoilers about them in the book, if you haven't played the game yet. They exist primarily as a background asset that players can get points in.

  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    Delduwath wrote: »
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    In my experience Mage is about spells that break the game, that is playing the game. It's a problem solving game of utilizing your knowledge of the arcana to advance the plot. IMO if the problem is "someone stole the macguffin!" and it feels like it "breaks the game" to have the guy with Time just look backwards to see who did it and the guy with Space to teleport you into his bathroom then you just need to embrace this, roll with the punches and tell a story that works with the characters rather than trying to constrain them.
    I've never played Mage, only read a bunch of the rulebooks, so I'm curious how Paradox works out in practice (vs. in theory). Does it feel you're being the Fun Police when the players do some rad nonsense and then you go "Well, actually, there's that homeless guy in the alley and he saw the whole thing and now Paradox twists you into a pretzel"?

    Paradox doesn't usually stop you, it's just something to work around and a price to pay. I actually find it a little ridiculous in Old Mage because the way you define your paradigm largely determines whether or not you even really interact with this mechanic. In one game I was playing a Virtual Adept whose magical tool was the cybernetic brain implant computer and the vast majority of spells I'd cast were completely unobservable so I almost never had to worry about paradox.

    Similarly Old Mage is the only time wherein you get to argue (or define at the start of your game) about whether Paradox occurs based on hypothetical observers and etc.

    In the newer books, particularly 2E, it's more of a morality / roleplay issue. Rather than arguing about what counts as vulgar magic, everything just causes paradox if you push the spell too far (with a mechanic known as "reaches") and then you can attempt to contain it within your soul - causing damage to yourself, or release it into the environment - which fucks with your spell and is a morality sin. Attempting to contain the paradox and failing causes you to gain conditions related to the Abyss, that usually cause you to be more reckless with magic and the cycle intensifies, etc.
    This especially extends to combat, it's another problem to solve and if a certain spell seems crazy there is certainly some way to counter it or protect against it, and it's actually fun to see that kind of arms race evolution as the PCs and NPCs learn each others tricks from encounter to encounter.
    Similarly, I'm curious how combat works out in practice. Obviously it would be disappointing to play this reality-bending mage - especially an Etherite with a Coca-Cola-powered ray gun or an Akashic Brotherhood member who has invented a martial art or something - without being able to occasionally explode a HIT Mark or punch a garbage dragon in the snout. At the same time, the free-form and reality-bending nature of the Mage magic system makes me wonder if it's better suited for scenarios that revolve more around... philosophy, I guess, and ideology. You're not killing ten rats in a basement* or delivering a letter, you're exploring why the Gauntlet seems less penetrable near this library, or helping an elder Hermetic figure out why he can't magic the way he used to anymore (it's because his life experience has started to shift his world view, which makes his old paradigm not work for him anymore). Am I off the mark on this?

    * - Well, maybe you are, but actually it's ten rat spirits, and it's in a pocket realm, and you "kill" them by debating them into believing that they don't exist.

    WoD games in general feature far fewer combats than something like D&D, but yes absolutely IME in a Mage game if, say, the local street gangs are at war and it's threatening to spill over your cabal's secret sanctum then you could go beat them up... or you could meditate to travel out of body into the Astral Plane, descend into the Temenos, the collective unconsciousness, find the symbolic representation of the struggle and somehow remove it nonviolently - because violence begets violence here in this place.

    And you're playing as regular people in the real world so consider what you as a person would rather do, become the Punisher and murder some poor bastards or spread a subconscious message of peace? I know I don't want to hurt anyone, and most people's characters don't either.

    But sometimes conflict is inevitable and physical violence is your only recourse. But doing damage with your spells is often the least efficient (or interesting) way to fight, you can usually just 1 hit KO people by trapping them in a pocket dimension or putting them to sleep or sending them forward in time or etc. etc.

    This can seem like rocket tag, and 1 vs 1 it probably wouldn't be fun, but the players as a group tackling a group of enemy mages this turns into a game of plays and counterplays and creative solutions as the players and GM continuously adapt to each other's style. When something seems overpowered just think of how to work around it/stop it, there's going to be a way and players can literally go back in time to try again if need be. Basically if you don't argue with each other, just consider it another problem to solve with your nearly unlimited tools, you'll have a fun time.

    Mages vs. normal people though, they're not even an obstacle just a roleplay element. The Mages win, there is no question, it's just a matter of how you do it, it's the same small amount of effort to redirect all light and sound from those bikers threatening you and leave them bumbling around in the dark as it does to redirect all of their body heat into the ground and leave them for dead.

  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    I like how New Mage illustrates Paradox, and the rules as well. The more you try to break reality, the more it slaps you.

    If you make lightning hit someone, that's coincidental. Go full Palpatine on them, that's vulgar.

    wVEsyIc.png
  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    In New Mage 2E neither causes paradox if you have sufficient mastery or keep the spell minimal enough to not have to 'Reach'. Examples of Reaches are casting a spell instantly (rather than as a ritual), casting it at range (rather than a default of touch), making a spell affect more targets, last longer, etc. Or in other words, you will be causing paradox on every spell in a tough spot but can usually not worry about it on a utility spell during downtime.

    Sleeper witnesses fuck this up, each subsequent spell you cast in a scene adds dice, etc. but you no longer need to debate whether something is coincidental or vulgar or have e.g. the entire Mind and Fate arcana be coincidental while Space is all vulgar.

    Edit: And I really like the thematic element of reaching beyond your grasp in moments of need.

    Lanlaorn on
  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Lanlaorn wrote: »
    In New Mage 2E neither causes paradox if you have sufficient mastery or keep the spell minimal enough to not have to 'Reach'. Examples of Reaches are casting a spell instantly (rather than as a ritual), casting it at range (rather than a default of touch), making a spell affect more targets, last longer, etc. Or in other words, you will be causing paradox on every spell in a tough spot but can usually not worry about it on a utility spell during downtime.

    Sleeper witnesses fuck this up, each subsequent spell you cast in a scene adds dice, etc. but you no longer need to debate whether something is coincidental or vulgar or have e.g. the entire Mind and Fate arcana be coincidental while Space is all vulgar.

    Edit: And I really like the thematic element of reaching beyond your grasp in moments of need.


    Interesting. I probably should read 2E before starting a Mage campaign again.

    Hope it doesn't invalidate the supplements I own... NWoD Mage had a TON and I have a lot of them.

    cj iwakura on
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  • LanlaornLanlaorn Registered User regular
    Don't worry, the fluff is largely the same, the Mysterium is still the Mysterium, etc. One notable change I really like was making the Silver Ladder more focused on humanist concerns, bettering society, trying to help people awaken, etc. It's much more interesting than "the Ventrue of Mages" from 1E.

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