The Gaming Den

So what's the deal? why iron for transhumans?

I'll be honest, it's at leas partially a joke. The Transhuman is basically a person near as anyone can tell, so their weakness is "knives and bullets." Also, symmetry demands it. But the deeper deal is that what they represent is alternate epistemologies. The Reborn have ancient revealed knowledge, the Fallen are corrupted into a fey lifepath, and the Children of Aether have abandoned reproducible science in the name of experimentation and genius insight.

They are, in short, magical human achievement. Ad their weakness is actual human achievement. Iron. The symbol of industry and civilization. Of normal human accomplishment, that is what kills people who have lost their humanity.

-Username17

ah, ok, so I was kinda approaching it with my line of thinking. Thanks, I'll pass that on.

Edit: Another couple of questions, since I'm working on a character sheet.

What is the theoretical Limit for Potency? Right now I'm figuring on 10.
How high can skills get after adding disciplines? right now I'm looking at 12, but could well be wrong.
Where can I host a pdf so I can put a link here?

Prak_Anima wrote:Where can I host a pdf so I can put a link here?

Google docs allows you to upload a PDF. Once you have use the "sharing" preferences to make it world viewable and put the link here.

weird, it wouldn't upload it last night this morning. eh, maybe the internet was telling me to go to sleep.

anyway, first page

anything people think I should change? I had to guess on how many dots to put for some stuff, and forgot damage penalties

I would either divide disciplines along the lines of physical/sorcerous or physical/sorcerous/cult.

EDIT: I mean for the character sheet.

yeah, that's probably better.

and looking for damage penalties...

I'm really not sure I understand how damage works. Is this right:
Roll attack, threshold is half opponent's agility+combat, successes past that determine damage as per table (so 1 net hit is one damage but 4 or 5 is 10) and opponent can then soak?

Net Hits on the attack add to damage, you soak the damage. hen the unsoaked damage is compared to the table to determine how many wound boxes you fill in.

-Username17

ok, so you add the net hits to the weapon damage, then the opponent soaks, then you look at the chart. ok, cool.

means I need to change something on the sheet, but...

here's the current 2 page sheet.

Sheet got fixed, I took out the wound names, and just copied over the damage chart

Flaws need some text synching them up to the disadvantages of monster types.

For instance, Bagheera already have Offensive to Animals built in; Nosferatu have Eerie Presence. You could also argue that Baali should all get Disloyal, and so on.

So, you need to rule on whether you *can't* take a flaw that duplicates a monster drawback, or whether you do in fact get credit and monster type just makes for a *mandatory* flaw. Either way, I think we should unify the systems by codifying monster tells as flaws. Each monster type should have an "innate flaw" entry whether they get credit or not, and we can mine the monster entires for new flaws to write.

I'll post some examples later.

Good point. I will be en route to the United States for the next couple of days, but I'm also off of class entirely. I should probably rewrite things a tad so that there is exactly one pre-defined Flaw for each supernatural type that they get "for free."

Probably need to write up a number of extra flaws and merits and shit, but I've been meaning to do that anyway. If people got suggestions, I'll be trying to read though them on Sunday.

-Username17

Heh, Rising Mists creates a massive area of pea soup+ thick mist, but seeing it dispelled must look weird as hell; seeing a multi-kilometer diameter area suddenly look normal because salt was thrown into the air

virgileso wrote:Heh, Rising Mists creates a massive area of pea soup+ thick mist, but seeing it dispelled must look weird as hell; seeing a multi-kilometer diameter area suddenly look normal because salt was thrown into the air

I imagine it being a big shhhhhoooooooommp! as the fog gets sucked into the grains of salt.

Matching pre-written flaws to monster types...


Ventrue:
Nosferatu: Eerie Presence
Daeva:

Bagheera: Offensive to Animals
Werewolf: Temperamental
Nezumi:

Troglodyte:
Deep One:
Mi Go: Flake

Khaibit: Haunted
Verbena:
Baali: Disloyal

Reborn: Distinctive Appearance
Aetherchilde:
Fallen: Feared by Children OR Minor

Frankenstein: Unattractive
Golem: Anachronism
Android:

I houseruled that flight is dispellable like a 3-hit sorcery. Should maybe go in the main text. Also, the dispel write-up should be clarified a little. When you throw salt on a person, I assume you have to specify one discipline to suppress rather than getting to roll against all of their buffs, but it should say so either way.

Orion wrote:Ventrue:
Nosferatu: Eerie Presence
Daeva:

Bagheera: Offensive to Animals
Werewolf: Temperamental
Nezumi:

Troglodyte:
Deep One:
Mi Go: Flake

Khaibit: Haunted
Verbena:
Baali: Disloyal

Reborn: Distinctive Appearance
Aetherchilde:
Fallen: Feared by Children OR Minor

Frankenstein: Unattractive
Golem: Anachronism
Android:

Those look like a pretty good set of assignments. I might do Conspicuous Consumption for Frankensteins instead. Jaudiced Eye and all that.

So off hand, some new drawbacks need to be written. Maybe:

• Ventrue: Compulsive
• Daeva: Blatantly Magical
• Android: Doomed Romance

Looks like I should write another paragraph for the Troglodytes and Deep Ones.

-Username17

OK, I got the monsters section up and running with the Tragic Flaws section and a Distinctive Flaw for each playable type except Nezumi and Deep Ones.

Still working on those ones. If anyone has any ideas, that would be cool.

-Username17

Deep Ones from the literature were physical cowards, but that's probably not appropriate for a Monster Squad game. Their hybrids had the 'Innsmouth look' distinctive feature, which might work. My instinct would be some kind of hydration dependency, where they need to drink a lot of water and preferably take a bath at least every day.

Tempermental says "The character is prone to outrageous emotional outbursts. The threshold to resist or end a threshold is increased by 1." Should have some other word in the bolded spot.

Grek wrote:Tempermental says "The character is prone to outrageous emotional outbursts. The threshold to resist or end a threshold is increased by 1." Should have some other word in the bolded spot.

Thanks. Fixed.

-Username17

Golem flaw should actually be Anachronism OR Naive, since some golems might be recently made.

Orion wrote:Golem flaw should actually be Anachronism OR Naive, since some golems might be recently made.

True. Done and done.

Nezumi now get Red Taped, Deep Ones get Infectious Mood.

-Username17

Covenant Law, "The Peace" wrote:Wild West style combat and intimidation doesn't really work to keep society together – it drives people away and it drives supernatural creatures away too. And while there have been Covenants in the past based on the “might is right” principle where the strongest were allowed to eat the smaller at any time, but those Covenants are not around any more.

That second sentence needs adjusting for grammar. "And while" can be taken out, or "but" can be taken out, or some other fix as you please.

also, the paragraph ends with, "without chopping anyone's head of.", which should probably be "off", not "of".

The Limits of Magic wrote:Thematically speaking, sorcery is magical knowledge. Thus, much of it is newly researched an much of it can be discovered from ancient texts.

an should be and.

Detecting and Countering Magic wrote:Mostly, Basic Disciplines are detectable to Way Out Range, Advanced Disciplines the expenditure of 3 or more power points are detectable to Extreme Range, and Elder Disciplines or the expenditure of 5 power points are detectable out to Remote Range. The expenditure of more than 5 power points at once is detectable out to as many kilometers.

"Advanced Disciplines the expenditure of 3" should be "Advanced Disciplines or the expenditure of 3"

Celerity, last sentence first paragraph wrote:In general, character whose Celerity more than doubles their speed in any dimension would constitute a masquerade breach.

grammar.

Dominate wrote:If they again fail to resist the effects, they carry out the order even if it s something hey are ideologically opposed to.

if it is something they are

Let me tell ya, figuring out how tough to make a supernatural with Potency 3 or even 5 is difficult. The way PCs level in a certain timespan, it almost gives the impression that half of their stats should capped if they're Potency 2+.

It's been particularly difficult since I don't know how to handle the political fallout of a party slaughtering a pack of bagheera who tried to forcibly evict them a hotel (they claimed dibs on the person coming), followed by summoning their ghosts into a coffin to interrogate them for who their boss is, followed by driving down to said boss to slaughter. It certainly gives me incentive to realize that any sedentary supernatural is going to have well-trained mooks on hand.

Lokathor wrote:

Covenant Law, "The Peace" wrote:Wild West style combat and intimidation doesn't really work to keep society together – it drives people away and it drives supernatural creatures away too. And while there have been Covenants in the past based on the “might is right” principle where the strongest were allowed to eat the smaller at any time, but those Covenants are not around any more.

That second sentence needs adjusting for grammar. "And while" can be taken out, or "but" can be taken out, or some other fix as you please.

also, the paragraph ends with, "without chopping anyone's head of.", which should probably be "off", not "of".

The Limits of Magic wrote:Thematically speaking, sorcery is magical knowledge. Thus, much of it is newly researched an much of it can be discovered from ancient texts.

an should be and.

Detecting and Countering Magic wrote:Mostly, Basic Disciplines are detectable to Way Out Range, Advanced Disciplines the expenditure of 3 or more power points are detectable to Extreme Range, and Elder Disciplines or the expenditure of 5 power points are detectable out to Remote Range. The expenditure of more than 5 power points at once is detectable out to as many kilometers.

"Advanced Disciplines the expenditure of 3" should be "Advanced Disciplines or the expenditure of 3"

Celerity, last sentence first paragraph wrote:In general, character whose Celerity more than doubles their speed in any dimension would constitute a masquerade breach.

grammar.

Dominate wrote:If they again fail to resist the effects, they carry out the order even if it s something hey are ideologically opposed to.

if it is something they are

Thanks. Fixed.

-Username17

Rules Question: With Technical skill uses, if you don't have an appropriate specialization you take a -1 defaulting penalty, but do your ranks still apply? Example: If you have Logic 3 and Medicine 3 (Veterinary), and then you need to make a First Aid check, do you roll 5 dice or 2 dice?