aWoD: Continued

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:12 am

Hrm. Lycanthropes are the one that I didn't look up because I was so certain of it. Now that I have looked it up, I don't see any text supporting either of our assertions. I like mine better tho. =-o

Actually, there is one bit that supports my assertion more.

Game mechanically, these people [extras] have no Edge score. If they turn into a supernatural creature of some kind they will become a Spawn.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:49 am

"Sure you become a Nosferatu when another Nosferatu kills you with blood draining and passes you a power point. And you become a Bagheera when another Bagheera mauls you with a Terminal Wound and you spend an Edge to survive."

from "Transformative Advancement."

PLus, I think it's thematic for lycanthropes that they are all unique individuals-- they CAN'T build a supernatural society full of extras to serve them like vampires and leviathans can.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:46 am

I think that's talking about player characters (you = Luminaries) transforming. Not anything to do with spawn mechanics.

Someone (like an extra) can survive a terminal wound without spending Edge after all. They require urgent care, but it can be done.

[edit] to address the lycanthrope spawn/culture thing. Surely sometimes there are packs of wild lycanthropes. Not organized in a human manner but in a feral pack. I imagine usually lycanthrope spawn are just lone wolves, poor abandoned souls in less control of themselves than a luminary equivalent.

I imagine it is possible that the rare small pack here or there could be formed. The members wouldn't like each other or have much reason to band together on their own, but they may be cowed by an alpha (luminary) perhaps. It isn't a society per se, just a primitive pack.

If any lycanthrope packs existed near civilization and got out of hand, I'm sure someone maintaining the masquerade would put the smack down as spawn of most any sort in great enough numbers or in disruptive locations will get put down. The same goes for someone gathering a horde of vampire spawn or killer robots I'm sure. It goes against the tacit agreement not to gain asymmetric power.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:57 am

Frank,

at some point, I think we would benefit greatly from a more fleshed-out section on "secrets" and "destiny."

It's not at all clear what kinds of usable magic items are meant to exist.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:34 am

Put up some Spawn Monster rules. It's largely the intent that spawn werewolves don't exist. Largely because the amount of disciplines you need to actually hulk out werewolf style puts them well above the level of the other Spawn Monsters. These things are supposed to go down in single combat to mortal luminaries and even a big-standard mortal extra with War Form at all is just not going to provide that. I just don't see how to have Spawn versions of creatures whose real signature power is an Advanced Discipline that lets you hold your own against a whole team of cops.

-Username17

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:16 am

Lycanthropes could get Beast Form, Vigor and Revive the Flesh. They automatically use Beast Form when the moon rises without being able to stop themselves. They have a potency of 0, so they can only get up to +3 stregnth per scene, which is exactly what a soulless gets.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:00 pm

Grek wrote:Lycanthropes could get Beast Form, Vigor and Revive the Flesh. They automatically use Beast Form when the moon rises without being able to stop themselves. They have a potency of 0, so they can only get up to +3 stregnth per scene, which is exactly what a soulless gets.

Yes!

I was imagining more like poor people who turned into an animal without being able to control it (nor being able to think as a human once in that form), and definitely not the full fledged war form. The only one that it seems iffy is Bagheera, since they don't get a basic beast form.

[edit:]
It would be the norm that most extras would die from the change into lycanthropy. I just figured there is some appeal to having them spawn on occasion.

It would be incredibly rare (and likely contrived by a luminary by saving the life of their victim extras) occurrence to actually have more than one spawn around in an area. Putting down a rogue luminary lycanthrope who is intentionally saving extras in order to create spawn could be a fine adventure.

Or a tragic lone spawn who survived a lycanthrope attack would make an alright encounter/investigation-adventure for some starting human luminaries as well.

Take it, or not. There's certainly nothing preventing me from house-ruling them on my own easily enough, so it doesn't have to be 'official'. =-)

As an aside, I'm currently running a Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) campaign that is going to be borrowing heavily into the aWoD material. My hollow earth has areas that are essentially overlapping planes with the Dream Lands (which is most of the land, what with the megafauna and man eating plants), the Gloom, and the Burning Reflection.

The characters are all luminaries (naturally) and I'm trying to work out how I am gonna adapt them gaining options to become more than human. The spellcasting, psionics, mad science and pretty much all supernatural rules for the HEX system are a bit junky, so I'm plotting to be replacing them wholesale with aWoD, as best I can (the base systems are similar enough that it ought be pretty easy to do).

I already gave the party run-ins with a Verbena witch- I just fudged how the casting since mostly all he did in combat other than get shot a couple times, was give chase and try and get some roots to grab them via Puppetry, and Puppeteering vines to re-establish a cut rope bridge, as the PCs ran away after stealing a macguffin; a T-Rex; some Nazi aircraft; and cannibal natives/verbena cultists (some mind-rooted, not that it came up). Good times.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:07 pm

That sort of works for werewolves, but it doesn't work at all for bagheera (who don't get a beast form) or for Nezumi (whose beast form is completely nonthreatening). Really seems easier to just have them die and stay dead.

-Username17

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:41 pm

Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't be good for nezumi either. I will just house rule werewolves and awod proper can remain consistent. Best for everyone.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:07 pm

Added Carthian Politics section.

-Username17

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:12 pm

Conceptually, there seems to be a fairly obvious possibility for Fallen spawn, who are maddened and degraded by the hellscape. They're probably not necessary, because Mirror Goblins already exist to be hell people you can kick around, but there you have it.

If you were doing transhuman spawn, Child of Aether spawn also make some sense. You COULD just have extras brains get fried by a repetable but unsafe process.

I guess Reborn spawn don't really make a lot of sense...

endersdouble · Post by **endersdouble** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:15 pm

So I'll admit I don't know that much about military hardware, but a standard frag grenade does damage out to 18m. Seriously, that's almost sixty feet. I know shrapnel flies, but it seems weird that everyone that far out still gets clipped for 2L.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:24 pm

endersdouble wrote:So I'll admit I don't know that much about military hardware, but a standard frag grenade does damage out to 18m. Seriously, that's almost sixty feet. I know shrapnel flies, but it seems weird that everyone that far out still gets clipped for 2L.

According to wikipedia even, a hand grenade has a kill range of 5 meters and a casualty radius of 15 meters. Having people clipped for minor damage 3 meters beyond that is not unreasonable. Grenades are actually a really big deal. You are supposed to throw them into or out of a hole and take cover, to protect yourself from the back blast of something you just threw.

-Username17

endersdouble · Post by **endersdouble** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:28 pm

Well, shit. I'll have to revise my self-defense plans, I don't want to cause friendly casualties all across the courtyard. Objection withdrawn.

(Also, fix your quotes so the thread gets unbroken, godsdamnit.)

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:56 pm

It should be noted, that if you are outside, and a grenade lands near you; your best response is to hit the deck. Running will result in more damage taken, as will standing. Lying down is your best bet, and any cover is good cover.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:57 pm

First pass of Healing up.

Any thrown weaponry people gotta have other than the hunga munga and the folding chair?

-Username17

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:21 pm

If my group is any indicator, throwing knives will be the most popular form of combat you could imagine. We get more knife-throwing characters than gun characters.

Gelare · Post by **Gelare** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:40 pm

The healing test is especially important for characters who suffer Incapacitating Lethal or Aggravated injuries, because the first time normal wounds heal and generate a Lethal slash when the track is already full will push them into a terminal wound.

If the victim has a Terminal Wound, it is instead Threshold 3 to stabilize them and reduce them to a normal Incapacitated state.

So...let's say someone gets shot in the heart for a terminal lethal wound, and someone gives them first aid, stabilizing them. It is then 20 minutes until their normal wounds "heal" and bump them back to a terminal wound? Will they need first aid again? Will they be able to receive first aid again, since they alread got it once?

Other healing questions: can first aid be applied more than once? can first aid be applied more than once by different characters? What if one character doesn't know what the hell he's doing and tries first aid, but then a doctor shows up on the scene?

Also:

If a character's entire track is filled, the character's healing timeframe is increased by one category until they have at least one box that has wounds in it.

Emphasis mine. If their entire track is filled, isn't it safe to assume they have a lot of boxes with wounds in them?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:27 pm

Gelare wrote:So...let's say someone gets shot in the heart for a terminal lethal wound, and someone gives them first aid, stabilizing them. It is then 20 minutes until their normal wounds "heal" and bump them back to a terminal wound? Will they need first aid again? Will they be able to receive first aid again, since they alread got it once?

Their healing cycle is an hour at that point because they are incapacitated.

At that point they need to make a Healing test every hour or go Terminal again. This is called being in "unstable condition" and it lasts for 5 hours from an incapacitating Lethal Wound. Instability tests happen in 3 and 6 days if someone has an Incapacitating Aggravated Wound - allowing people to on occasion be in critical condition for most of a week and still pull through.

Gelare wrote:Other healing questions: can first aid be applied more than once? can first aid be applied more than once by different characters? What if one character doesn't know what the hell he's doing and tries first aid, but then a doctor shows up on the scene?

My own gut instinct and personal experience leads me to say that the one time deal is just that: a one time deal. So if some jackass does something lame for first aid and real EMTs show up their statement will be "You did what?" and they'll be left providing Medicine tests to assist or replace healing tests.

But I left some wiggle room, so if you can convince the storyteller that circumstances warrant a retest or counting the first test as an assist of the second test that can happen. It all has to be done in an hour, and for stabilization it has to be done in a lot less time than that.

Gelare wrote:Emphasis mine. If their entire track is filled, isn't it safe to assume they have a lot of boxes with wounds in them?

D'oh! Missing negative. Fixed.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:06 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:First pass of Healing up.

Any thrown weaponry people gotta have other than the hunga munga and the folding chair?

-Username17

People.

and possibly tables.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:54 pm

Kuala Lumpur is up

-Username17

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:07 am

First, saw something in the Sidhe section.

The Sidhe appear as relatively attractive, if distant and cruel humans. As the only type of Demon that is not constitutively required to eat or torture people to death, they are the most likely to have neutral or positive relations with residents of the mortal world. Nevertheless, Sidhe very rarely behave in any manner that could be even generously described as less than unnecessarily dickish. While they gain no literal sustenance from harming people, they are often pressed into the service of powerful Ifrit to do so and just plain seem to like doing it. Despite the subtleties of their abilities, most Sidhe have a master passion of Rage.

Some Sidhe have wings that resemble those of swans or bats growing from their backs. The ones that don't have either wheels of fire or tiny clouds appear under their feet when they fly. While technically a Sidhe was never a human, they are close enough in appearance and capabilities that their attribute ranges before Potency modifiers are human standard.

Sidhe are superficially similar to Daeva, and it is primarily for this reason that Daeva were often subject to persecution by Sabbat forces about 400 years ago. More extensive investigations recognize many key differences. For example, while a Daeva is born as a human luminary and is converted into a Vampire upon death at another's hands, a Sidhe comes into being by coalescing out of ash in Limbo, already fully grown. Blood flows in the veins of a Daeva only when they have recently fed, while blood does not actually exist inside a Sidhe at all – when their skin is broken it cracks like porcelain and a fine ash drifts out.

Sidhe easily insinuate themselves in leadership positions in the mortal world because of their tremendous and magically augmented presence. These qualities are held in no esteem whatsoever in Demonic culture, and mere likability is treated with extreme contempt. Virtually all Sidhe have been made to swear total vassalage to a more powerful Sidhe or Djinn. Domination, whether magical in nature or simple brute force is the currency of Demonic relationships. A Sidhe's power ritual is a bitter ash-eating affair that leaves their throat parched and their eyes red and raw. Sidhe suffer from Master Passion: Loneliness, though demonic society is actually so unsympathetic to relationships that few of them actually understand that fact.

--------

I'm definitely liking the city write-ups so far. It would be nice to see something for Mumbai.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:19 am

FrankTrollman wrote:Kuala Lumpur is up

-Username17

Very, very excellent.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:25 am

The alcohol weakness for lycanthropes seems weird, especially when it shrinks them down from their giant sized war form. I can imagine them wanting to fight near bodies of water to wash it off quickly.

That does bring up one idea, learn Fire Walker if you're a witch or a lycanthrope so you can engulf yourself in flame to dry off quickly; or Fire Starter preemptively to make it more difficult.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:39 am

FrankTrollman wrote:Kuala Lumpur is up

-Username17

Aww, I was hoping you'd include a reference to this crazy little worldwide cult