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Messages - Thnxbrvknight

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Monster of the Week / Re: Two New Playbooks: the Beat and the Protege
« on: July 02, 2012, 03:50:21 PM »
Thank you, Mr. Sands! I certainly would like to make them look all official-like, please.


I'd be interested in hearing what sort of Protege appeals to you, sophmelc.

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Monster of the Week / Two New Playbooks: the Beat and the Protege
« on: July 01, 2012, 05:29:51 PM »
Hello, all! I have been playing the heck out of Monster of the Week lately, and, in the spirit of these things, started working on two playbooks of my own that I'm particularly proud of, so I thought I'd share and see if anyone had any critiques to make.

The Beat is cop trying to balance a life of mundane police work with the real threat of supernatural horrors. Based on Karin Murphy of the Dresden Files, the playbook is geared towards either Sharp or Tough characters (depending on whether you're more a Detective or Guardian type) and tends to become a bit Weirder over time. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WDTJgVzvhmq475ebtZhyyJdrk9fuY8XxXz6aryc0ohc/edit 

The Protege is the favored pupil of a legendary monster hunter who has now gone missing. Based on Dean Winchester as he appeared at the start of Season 1 of Supernatural, part of creating your Protege is describing your character's former mentor and mentor choice determines which stat your character focuses on.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kiH1NyJipHBM-xAWx4ifZuoNwxCymYQM58lJPaSBdsU/edit

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Monsterhearts / Re: AP: Two One on One Monsterhearts
« on: March 10, 2012, 08:38:17 PM »
The second game was, in my opinion, an even greater success. Together we thought up a game about a group of high school misfits ("The Misfits" ended up become something of a group title) who banded together to try to use dark magics to take over the school. I played as Jaime Scott, an attractive and talented artist, who nonetheless remained a nobody due to his lack of confidence. Looking through the skins, Witch seemed like the obvious choice, but in the end I went with a Mortal with "Downward Spiral." We decided together that "Gazing into the Abyss" was a rare talent itself, and that the Misfits needed Jaime to do it for them for their plans to work, even though it resulted in Jaime getting hurt and drained.

We decided to take things a step further with the "basing NPCs on unused playbooks." We started off with just a few, detailing their back-stories and the like, but found this so much fun that we ended up using all of them. We didn't really bother keeping track of NPC's strings on other NPCs (that seemed a bit silly), but we did use them as inspiration for how the students interacted with one another. This created a unique web of relationships. For example, Jaime had a huge crush on one of the most popular cheerleaders, Kiyomi, the Fae. However, Renee, the cheerleading captain and Queen, found Kiyomi threatening and had a lot of pull over her and conspired to use Kiyomi's connection to Jaime to bring down her popularity.

Some of my favorite characters from this game included:
-Kara, Jaime's ghostly best friend, who is always there for him and really wants him to notice her, but he's always too concerned with Kiyomi to care. I had a lot of fun "accidentally" turning her on at various points.
-The Twins, Scarlet and Clarity, who were once one person until they were brutally murdered by Kara's killer, and their parents--a sorcerer and scientist--resurrected them as two separate entities. They were both uniquely self-destructive, with Scarlet constantly picking fights and Clarity being a cutter. They both ended up with a crush on Jaime, who was one of the only people who accepted them and treated them as individuals. I suspect when we play again that this will lead to some major sibling rivalry. Scarlet was based on the Ghoul, and Clarity on the Hollow.

Overall, a great and somewhat disturbing time was had by all.

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Monsterhearts / AP: Two One on One Monsterhearts
« on: March 10, 2012, 08:23:22 PM »
I had the uniquely twisted pleasure of playing not one, but two games of Monsterhearts recently with a friend of mine. We traded off on running and playing, and it was extremely fun, packed full of drama, angst, and dysfunctional relationships.

The first game, which I MC'd, featured the doing-what's-necessary Chosen, Carleen Lin. She was shipped off to the City of London Freemen's Boarding School, a high profile prep school with a habit of letting the students run wild. It was quickly discovered that Carleen was living in the shadow of her older brother Ian, an accomplished demon hunter and straight A student who had pretty much ruled the school before Carleen got there. This provided some interesting background, which ended up coming to the forefront when Carleen was out on patrol and stumbled upon her brother, broken by a superior foe and begging for her help. Yikes.

My favorite moments from this game included Carleen threatening a super-popular, bad boy vampire named Gabriel to stop drinking from a poor, mousy young girl named Steph. She ended up granting him Mercy, which he almost immediately seized as a chance to spread the rumor throughout school that she was a creepy stalker who had been peeping on him and Steph getting hot and heavy. Thus was born the trite yet impossible to be rid of nickname, Freak Girl.

A few things that came up:
-At one point, Carleen showed up at a a party wearing a very stylish outfit, and we weren't sure how to handle her attempt to turn almost everyone there on. In the end, she picked out a good five people and rolled individually, which worked out great, and also meant an instant advance for her.
-At the start, the player of Carleen asked if he could use the other playbooks as inspiration for NPCs; I thought this was a great idea and ended up inspiring a great deal for the second game we played together.

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Monster of the Week / The Summoned LE Playbook
« on: February 10, 2012, 12:17:18 PM »
Does anyone know where I can pick this one up? Would anyone be willing to trade?

6
Wow! Cool playbooks, guys. Here's one of mine...

Seeker (Intellect)

They say it’s a useless quest, and they say I’m a fool, and they say that some things are best left in the dark. Well, I’ve never been one to submit myself to here-say.

What are we seeking? The Truth in a world of darkness.

Stats: Intellect +2, and divide +1, 0, 0, -1 among Instinct, Passion, Rage, and Will. Detail Intimacies (specific people or things that your character deeply cares about and which tie him to his humanity) equal to 1+Passion. Choose Lores equal to 1+Intellect.

Choose a Profession and gain two appropriate Influence. In addition, when you dedicate a week of your Downtime to actively working at your profession, gain +1 of the appropriate Influence.
   -Detective (2 Police Influence)
   -PI (2 Street Influence)
   -Scholar (2 University Influence)
   -Occultist (2 Occult Influence)

Gain all the basic moves+Notes+Contacts:

Choose Type:
   -Arcanum Scholar: Gain Arcanum Status +1. Choose the college of the Arcanum that you are a member of and gain College Status +2.
   -Malkavian: Gain Malkavian Status +0. Choose Camarilla (Status +0) or Independent. Calculate Beast and gain 3 Clan Disciplines. Detail your derangement. Gain the move Listen to the Whispers:
      -Listen to the Whispers: When you allow yourself to listen to the strange cobweb whispers of your fellows (or perhaps it's just in your head?), Roll+Intellect. On a Hit, gain a piece of useful information about something going on elsewhere or else-when. On a 10+, the information is concrete. On a 7-9, it's vague, shrouded in symbolism.
   -Nosferatu: Gain Nosferatu Status +0. Choose Camarilla or Sabbot (Status +0). Calculate Beast. Detail your hideousness. Gain 3 Clan Disciplines. At the start of each session, state any one rumor you’ve heard; the MC will tell you whether it’s true or false and a little bit about why.

Notes: Choose the Look of your Notes: Pocket Notepad, Marble Notebook, Ancient Journel, carvings, abstract art, or perfect memory.
Your notebook starts with five questions. Two of these will be written by the MC at character Creation:
The other three can be any questions you choose that you do not know the answers to. At the start of each session, choose 1. If you discover the answer by the end of the session, Mark XP. If you don’t discover the answer, then the MC will present you with a new clue or insight into that question. Once per session, you may add a new question to your Notes. If you ever discover the answer to every question in your Notes and choose not to add a new one, immediately Change Playbooks.

Contacts: Detail 2-5 characters (Kindred, Mortal, or otherwise; PC or NPC) that owe your character a favor for digging up information for them. At bare minimum this includes a Type (what are they?) and a Capability (what can they do?)

Basic Advancements: When you Mark XP five times, or commit a Fall from Grace, gain a new level of Discipline or mark off one of the following advancements. When you have marked off five advancements, gain access to the second list.
-Take +1 to any stat (Max +3)
-Take +1 to any stat (Max +3)
-Gain the move “Working Relationship”
-Gain the move “The Office”
-Gain the move “Deduction”
-Gain the move “Library of the Bizarre”
-Gain the move “Serious Professional”
-Gain +1 Clan Status.
-Gain a new Intimacy.
-Gain a new Intimacy with one of your contacts/clients.

   Ungiven Future:
      -Gain a Title within your Sect or Clan.
      -Advance 3 Basic Moves.
      -Create a second character to play.
      -Retire your character, either to Darkness or Safety.
      -Change Playbooks

Moves:
   -Deduction: When making a Read that relates directly to the question you’re currently trying to answer in your Notes, Ask +1 Question, even on a miss. You may attempt Read situations/people that you have interacted with in the past even after the fact.
   -Working Relationship: When you do a favor or job for someone, put them on your list of Contacts. You always count as having leverage over anyone on your list of Contacts for the purposes of Manipulate
-The Office: You have a space set out where people can come to you for your expertise. Whenever there’s a stretch of downtime, Roll+Intellect. On a hit, someone shows up there with the offer of a job. On a 10+, they’re offering something you really, really want or need in return.
-Library of the Bizarre: When you go into your personal collection (is it a computer database? A physical library? Detail) in search of rare Lore or Knowledge, Roll+Intellect. On a 10+ Ask 3. On a 7-9, Ask 2:
   -What is it?
   -What does it do?
   -What is it worth?
   -What is its weakness?
   -What do the stories of my people tell about it?
   -Where could I find out more?
   -Serious Professional: When you dedicate a week of your Downtime to actively working at your Profession, gain +2 Influence of the appropriate instead of +1. Gain the benefits of having at least one point in that Influence category even when you have 0 Influence.

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Thanks, guys. Let me try to elaborate... To me, Vampire: the Masquerade is more a game about tragedy than anything else. You start out with people who are fairly ordinary, and who have been awakened to the strange and romantic world of Vampires, only to find that nothing about the world is as romantic as it seemed. Characters are forced to wrestle with the central issue of Power VS Humanity; that is to say, do they seek power in hopes of using that power to the benefit of all and, by doing so, risk the very things that make them human?

There's also this element of duality and contradiction to it... Vampires seem to have it all (wealth and abilities far greater than what they possessed in life), yet are never satisfied. Central to it all is the conflict between man and monster that they personify.

That's the central bit... The other things I like about V:tM (politics, conspiracies, action) are secondary.

Does that make any more sense?

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brainstorming & development / Apocalypse World for Vampire: the Masquerade
« on: September 23, 2011, 06:57:07 PM »
Hey, guys! So, I've been increasingly entranced by the old (or "classic) World of Darkness after playing in a Mind's Eye Theatre game... and increasingly frustrated at the tabletop's "storytelling system." Specifically, there were all these dark, tragic, romantic, horrific themes... But where was the support in the rules themselves? But say... Wouldn't it be great if someone tried to take that setting (or a similar one) and work it into a system that could support awesome, badass characters mostly-destined for tragedy... like, say... Apocalypse World?

So, with a great deal of help from my dear friend, Antisinecurist, I started working on it. In addition to Apocalypse World, I've taken a great deal of inspiration from Dungeon World Hack... In a way, I'm hoping to for Vampire what DWH is doing for D&D. I'm keeping track of the rules and setting info on Obsidian Portal, where I hope to eventually chronicle the games I run with this hack.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/new-york-nightlife/wikis/main-page

Specific areas where I'd like feedback:
-Are players rewarded for driving their characters towards tragedy?
-Did I capture the feel and hidden meaning of each of the clans?
-Do you think it was a good choice to have character development largely determined by clan? I ask, because while writing it, I felt torn between two ideas. On the one hand, I don't think every character is necessarily defined by what clan they are, but on the other hand, I felt strongly that as characters develop, they go from being mostly defined by their Humanity, to becoming increasingly vampiric (where "vampiric" is defined as "more like their clan").
-Are there any glaring holes, things I'm missing, or general advice you'd like to share?

Thanks a lot!

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the nerve core / Re: what's cool
« on: September 23, 2011, 06:38:23 PM »
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=1447.0

Bonds, man. Bonds. Also, simplifying is often cool.

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