I played Mage and I liked it

[Koumei]

Yeah holy shit, a thread that isn't complaining about something. The world might be fucked. Hell, it's fucking Mage, World of Dorkness, by White "We can't write a ruleset to save our lives" Wolf! In the past, CSIRO were considering hooking me to a generator so my hatred of WW could be used to power the whole country for the next hundred years.

So apparently although my complaints about the system are indeed warranted (see: every thread on it here), but the games themselves are not unsalvageable, I just had an incredibly bad run of MCs. Like, seriously all of them, and most of the players, were people who were just flat out bad.

We have a good MC. So I'll yammer on about the game as sessions occur (2 sessions so far, though one was a quick "We have our character sheets complete, let's get the ball rolling" session, another in a fortnight, after that it's "we'll see what we can arrange, no promises") just to remind outsiders that the Den isn't all about bitching.

The game is set "now". We're seriously trying to start each session at the current date, so several days may indeed happen over the course of the session, but then there's likely to be downtime so that when the next session happens the game is still set "now". It's set in Europe, and we had this wonderful conversation.

Me: Good Europe or Bad Europe?
MC: It's WoD, every Europe is Bad Europe in WoD.
Me: I should have rephrased that. Nice Socialist Europe like Sweden, or smelly criminal Europe like the Ukraine or Belarus? Or "Evil" Europe like the Russian Federation?
MC: The UK, but it's still Evil Europe in this.

We're in a circus. Not a travelling Gypsie thing, but a well-funded all-star circus with the tents bigger than some countries (I know, Europe, it has some countries you can spit across) that is also part ballet with the performances stringing together to weave a story. So kind of cool.

My character:

I decided to be a high-flying acrobat. I should point out I know little of the actual Mage groups, so I seriously made an acrobat and then picked some Mage stuff, fully intending on never casting a spell (easiest way to avoid Paradox?) I went Mastigos, likely to go Mysterium. Life 2 Space 3 Mind 1, and not fucking mental (apparently that's the "annoying stereotype" for Mastigos? They have the potential to be the new Malkavs? Citation Needed here, so if Frank or someone wants to set me straight, I would be okay with this. Not that I'm going to go nuts, because that's annoying.)

Very very good at acrobatics, with Dex 4 Ath 5 Spec: Acrobatics. A few bits and pieces here and there, flat-out given a bunch of dots (Computer, Academics etc.) for "finishing high school", so that was nice. And this might be the first time an MC has said the game is unlikely to have much combat unless we decide to make combat, and I actually believe them.

I could put the whole sheet up if people want. Also, I drew a picture of my character in acrobatic gear, which I'll eventually scan. But I took the 4-dot Striking Looks, not realising it means "You look as good as most celebrities *think* they look". So I'm a 19yo blonde lesbo acrobatic potential-mind-mage who looks more delicious than a Magnum Gold.

Rotes: Spatial Awareness, Scrying, Spatial Map, Sense Life ("Listening to the Soul's Echo") and Organic Resilience of Life. Note the whole "I don't intend on combat-casting and other stuff that makes you asplode".

Background is, in accordance with WoD, fucked up. Kicked out of home by alcoholic parents who didn't want to actually look after their kid, just about finished high school almost, before needing to focus on living. Stole to eat (apparently needed to live), and used parkour to evade police. No, I didn't know a random Werewolf book had a Parkour merit. Eventually this got her on a local paper, "Rooftop Daredevil Evades Police". Parents saw it, and contacted her, welcoming her back... so they could sell her to a stranger as a slave. ##### occurred (I just put a chunk of scribble as though something had been censored out. So "imagine something bad. Okay, it was that.") Despite being helpless, she still somehow came to the realisation that she controlled her life, and that fate was in her hands... and went through her awakening. Emerged from there, not remembering what happened.

That's when the NPC mentor we have, Finch, found me, gave me an offer to join the circus, and drove me over there a week before the game started, explaining the magic thing to me as well as setting up a contract - food! Money! Clothes! Friends! Not being locked in a cupboard and #####! A new life, starting... IN PLYMOUTH.

So, the rest of the group:

An Irish girl, Life Mage, working as a vet (failed to get into Med school, so went into vet stuff with the hopes of later getting to attempt Med school again. I hear it's hard to get into Med without going to Prague *cheapshot*) and also doing some animal stunts. 21, does her gardening in both the rose garden and the cucumber patch, ifyouknowwhatimean. We ended up getting to share a caravan. Industrial-strength lesbianism has not yet ensued. Wait til we're on the road for a bit. 2-dot Striking Looks.

Another acrobat, an incredibly nondescript, hard-to-remember (a merit, IIRC) young man (20-ish) from France who works with me for the acrobatics, but is as gay as me. Turns out he's a real prankster, often getting into trouble with the pyro NPC. Pyrotechnician, that is. Well, and pyromaniac.

Another gay young man, who seems to like living life easy in the "avoid getting caught up in actual Mage politics (see: pissing matches) and wars" sense. Friendly, more experienced in magic so able to tutor the rest of us a little - by way of totally poisoning the well in regards to the magic gatherings (I forget the word, starts with a C). Has the 2-dot Striking Looks, IIRC.

So yeah. We're a good-looking team, and we're also TEAM GAY. I should point out that this is a very... well there is one straight player, the guy playing the Irish girl. It's not really relevant to this, but it goes with the whole "White Wolf attracts the gay" and probably explains why I'm so friggin comfortable there.

There are many NPCs (it's a circus) but the story isn't about them. A lot of them are just around, doing background things, and for us to use as hooks for stories or shenanigans. However there is Finch, an elderly man in the Sean Connery style where he'll always be good looking, who is a mage and apparently has had training in Krav Maga. Apparently his role is similar to the "NPCs exist to do the shit PCs don't want to do", in that we can often use him as a library, and also on the chance that fighty stuff might become relevant without us wanting to actually do fighty stuff, we could have an actual reason to go "You do it!"

I know, it's a fine line between that and DM penis who does everything. But from the way the game has been played, this NPC is on the right side of the line.

Also of note, he has taken a vow of chastity, and is pretty old-fashioned, suggesting he's older than he looks. Any kind of trouble seems to end in "Now son, is that really appropriate?" (note: not to his actual familial son) or "Am I going to have to take my belt off?" You might be surprised how many players gave the :3 face at that.

The first session largely involved us all chatting and learning about each other and what being a Mage is actually about. As well as figuring out our orders.

"So, I assume there are great responsibilities, right? Like with Spider Man? There's more to it that just 'Don't use it for Evil', right?"
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? You're going to be disappointed when you see a lot of mages out there."

And Finch sort of found out about my background, so he and the more experienced PC mage (the two have been a team for a while, in the backstory) went for a little drive, and I never found out what happened. I didn't know (in or out of character) about the Krav Maga thing, so... yeah.

To be continued, because that was just the background for this, my random yammering, and the first session.

[Koumei]

Right, so on Saturday we had the second session. Note that the player of Philippe (the French acrobat) was unwell, so we put him on speakerphone, allowing him to play from the comfort of home. Tricky, but kind of cool.

In fact, I should make things easier for people:

Irish vet girl: Jackie
French acrobat: Philippe Candide... I'll admit I probably spelled both names wrong
Experienced guy who does a bit of everything: Oz
Me: Diedre, "Dee" (taught from the very first session to use a fake name so it's harder to Deathnote cast spells on me)
Helpful NPC: Finch
The horse who likes to sleep on Finches' bed: ...I forgot
The lion who likes to sleep on Finches' bed: Pookie
The werewolf who is part of the circus and we're told to go to if we need help: Kay
Manager: Victor (a sleeper, but kind of knows "there's something weird, if I don't ask then they won't need to lie to me/I won't have to find out, I'll trust Finch here")

So it turns out that everyone is tense, there's this general shroud of moodiness and everyone snapping at everyone else. Oz has the dreams merit? flaw? and reports ominous dreams of being followed. But the first show ends up being a huge success, and after that, the stress is gone so it is shrugged off as pre-show tension.

And then, that night, one of the Plymouth cabals, who could more accurately be described as "skinheads" (real skinheads, the kind that make all their major decisions with their necks, and who would punch you just for being alive) decides to rock up. Because apparently we didn't announce our presence to the local Magic Gathering (we decided to use "card game tournament" as a code word for Magic Gatherings, so we could mention them even around Sleepers, and it clearly backfired as now I can't remember the real term).

Words were said, and we convinced them we'll do it first-thing tomorrow. Oz immediately told us how stupid the Magic Gatherings are, and how it's all about who has the biggest "wand" and excuses to fight and bicker.

Next morning, we first meet up with some other local mages who have elected not to have anything to do with the Magic Gatherings for aforementioned reasons. One is an older, more serious man called Lions. The other is a hyperactive pink-haired boy called Aurora. This happens roughly the same time the lavatory in the common-room caravan detonates, as a result of the pyro and Candide.

Lulz ensue, before we get serious. Turns out other cabals have been having cases where members feel that they are being followed, that something grim is happening (one being sure they saw the Grim "just like in Harry Potter", one having ominous dreams) before being killed.

"Now, we didn't listen to him at first - he was a Mastigos, he was always being followed by something, or so he said. This time... it looks like he was."

So we remember the previous tension and start to get nervous, before putting all our defensive buffs on and wandering out to the Magic Gathering. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Once there, we discover there are a few cabals, most of which seem to really be gangs of thugs. And they're all unfriendly, not just towards us but to each other. We're already considering fucking off as soon as we announce ourselves. But we also notice that, amongst the ~100 people here in the abbey (the... one that Drake the "Fuck off, Spaniards!" called home), there were all of three girls: Dee, Jackie, and one other, dressed as an English schoolgirl and seemingly out of place. Aurora was already telling us who there was totally friendly and not as mean as Oz made it out to be, and mentioned the girl, Poppy, so us girls decided to chat with her.

She explained that no, Aurora is on crack and it's just that bad, she's just there to get a former-member of her cabal to "stop being fucking stupid" and return. Which sounded like, against all good reasoning, an opportunity to interfere in someone else's business. We also discovered that her cabal (including her parents) didn't know she was there, under the impression she was at a slumber party. We had already invited her to come see our show so figured "Well you wouldn't be lying if you came with us and stayed the night." For those at home, you can translate this as "It looks like a fight is going to break out, let's try to get out of here and take the few friendly NPCs with us".

We were in fact just about to leave, when said cabal (see: parents) showed up. We were ready to do some fast-talking, but luckily Candide was already off eavesdropping on the arguments, serving as a good distraction for "the grown ups". So he was dragged back here, and the other cabal thought it would in fact be best if Poppy went with us, with a promise that she can expect the ruler later on. Note to self: totally scry that.

And Finch decided he wanted to stay, to help prevent a fight occurring. So we drive back without him, then I immediately open up scry-o-vision. We also ask Kay to run out to help if needed, while we watch.

"If only there was somewhere, near this circus, where we could buy popcorn".

So we're eating popcorn while watching Finch go deal with something that we possibly should have been there to help with. It's one of those things where the PCs really get to choose, and one choice could involve actual harm, the other involves... feeling guilty about not helping. Although we have scrying up. So we can actually buff and heal him through that, like the laziest WoW raid ever.

A fight does break out, and we witness the Krav Maga, as basically team "Lions, Poppy's Cabal (current and the former guy) and Finch" take on "everyone" and win. This is the first time we see him actually being violent. When the fight finishes, Jackie drives over to pick him up, and provide any healing that might be needed.

It is about then that the session is starting to wrap up - it's decided that two caravans will be needed for the slumber party due to a two-man caravan (that is already filled with books) being unable to contain 6 humans, a lion and a horse.

Dee: Besides, if it's mixed I'd worry about wandering hands... if it's girls-only I'll just look forward to it.
Finch: I took a vow of chastity
Oz: I'm gay
Candide: me too

And then things get wrapped up as we discuss any NPCs we want to meet up with in the down-time or whatever, things we want to do. Jackie suggests a new act to Victor, involving meatballs, juggling, and a lion, Oz decides to read up on the orders some more and ask questions of Finches' background, and Dee decides to do a team-building exercise of taking everyone (including Poppy and Aurora) to see the new Harry Potter.

And then... and apparently this is a horrible thing to do, as well as "totally Mastigos", I decide that, as an alternative to, you know, talking to people and asking awkward questions, just use MIND CRU- I mean, Mind Sight to read Poppy's aura and see what kinds of people excite her. It's easier than what I, as a person, have found to be a really awkward thing ("Hi, are you also of the gay?")

Huge success as she's bi and totally into Dee, so I decide to ask her out.

"Uh, she's 14"
"What? You said she was slight but curvy and I assumed she was older... *thinks* I'm pretty sure 14 is the AoC in most of Europe anyway..."
"Well fair enough then, 19 and 14 isn't so terrible"
"I mean, it falls outside the half+7 rule, but it's not like I can make her pregnant... without more Life magic."
"Who cares about the half+7 rule? You can do that."

So Dee and Poppy start dating - apparently there's a good chance Poppy is going to get very obsessed and stalkerish. "Hi, fancy meeting you here! I just happened to be in the area!" "...just like the last three places. You just happened to be in Wales?" "So when are you crossing the channel? I always wanted to go to France with y- I mean, go to France." Might be a problem, might not.

Sidenote: I checked Wiki today, and it appears I was wrong. In the UK it's 16, so if they go further than kissy-cuddly, Dee could technically look at 2-6 years. Not that this stuff is going to get played out, and I doubt it's really going to become an issue. I mean, ignoring the whole "Space 3 lol"
thing.

And that is where the game currently stands.

[JonSetanta]

How is a woman slight but curvy? I thought they were mutually exclusive.

[Maxus]

How is a woman slight but curvy? I thought they were mutually exclusive.

Means they're skinny except for T&A

[Prak]

we have a good number here in CA, I dated two of them.

[Koumei]

Right, we had another session, and then the night after that we all went to a fetish club, and the two weren't entirely unrelated, it's just that conversation from one lead to the other.

Anyway, I wrote a small (1700-ish words) story thing to cover downtime so as to not bore other players who aren't there in character, basically a thing on the two solidifying their relationship, a brief "meeting the parents, having just seen them break some people's faces, and then some porn, because there's more motivation to write at all if you're putting porn in it. I'm not putting it up here because see the bit about it being porn.

However we ended up basically covering this anyway when we got there, due to waiting for Candide to show up.

So we went through the bit where I went home with her after the movie, with the idea of just introducing myself (she already gave hair to scry with for keeping-in-contact in general. "Here, have a sympathetic link you can kill me with!" Not going to abuse this trust, even if this IS WoD.) however they... well, her mother, Audrey, is a mage (Arrow) and, well... was lazing around the house in tiny shorts and a wifebeater, drinking beer. So think Misato from Evangelion. "Oh, thought there were two sets of footsteps. Hi." *back to television*

Poppy then decides Dee needs to see her room, and Dee thinks it's great, but that isn't actually what Poppy has in mind (talking), and thinks making out would be better. So just as they get to that "sitting next to each other, all close, holding each other and leaning in to kiss" stage, the door opens and it's her dad Cassius, also a mage. Cue her shouting at him for not knocking, his "Oh. Uh, hi... Dee, right? I didn't know you were here. Would you like to stay for dinner? I was just going to tell Poppy to make sure she gets her homework done but we'll worry about that later."

He leaves, she fumes, they do some general kissing and petting, more innocent than English people several years younger. So she just ends up invited for dinner, where she meets another person who lives there, Aksisus. Who very quickly picks up on the "the girls are more than friends" thing, but says nothing. So the whole plan to introduce myself as Poppy's lover didn't really seem to be happening, even "Operation: be very polite and proper" doesn't seem to be the trick. Aksisus appreciates the manners, Cassius thinks she's "a nice young lady" but largely isn't aware of what "the kids" are up to, and Audrey... digs into her food while Aksisus is saying grace (in his head). And would probably be won over more if I'd wandered in with a sledgehammer over my shoulder and a beer in my hand, shouting "Yo, 'sup bitches!"

"Would you like to stay the night?"
"Um, if it's okay with everyone" (much nodding from Poppy) "I wouldn't want to be a burden."

Spare room is set up. After Cassius and Audrey go to bed, Aksisus mentions "I tend to keep odd hours and wake up all sorts of times during the night, oh and I'm in the room there between here and Poppy's." Even I can tell that means "No visiting each other during the night."

Naturally I woke up to hear:
Poppy: oh, what is WRONG with you? I was JUST getting a drink!
Aksisus: so I can assume you were getting a drink from the garden hose? Because the kitchen is back that way.
Poppy: GOD, you're so annoying, this is SO unfair!

It did occur to me I could magi-step into her room, but playing with dangerous teleportation magic for that purpose (and breaking the spirit of the rules) would be impolite for a guest to do.

So in the morning we discussed it with him, and he suggested not telling them until we know what our plans are - a fling, a long-distance relationship when the circus moves, etc. "I could just teleport back here!" "That's a little hubristic, you could just catch the train while in England."

But ultimately said they probably wouldn't have a problem as long as we've thought about it. And mentioned that he didn't believe in sex before marriage, even if it's a non-religious, not-officially-recognised marriage, so would rather we didn't do anything indecent. Finally, I am returned to the circus.

By the way, here are some pictures. The blonde one is Dee, the red-head is Poppy:

There's a fourth one, but I don't think I'll post it here, as it is porn.

So the session finally starts, after all of that. Finch has decided we should all go on a picnic. This sort of automatically includes Poppy by this point, so we all drive (note: he likes to play that sunshine-happy-everything-is-good-praise-the-Lord music you get on Christian radio stations) 2-3 hours out to one of those estates that is owned by the trust and charges a pound fifty each to wander around.

It was apparently one of the most haunted houses in Britain, with a Doctor Death and all sorts of things. "He seemed to go insane after that point, going on a killing spree of slicing victims up."

It is at this point that I really bring something much-needed to the table. Would you believe I have the CSI: Miami theme on my phone?

"Well it looks like the doctor..." *sunglasses* "...needed someone to go under the knife."
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

We meet a ghost child, who actually throws things at us until we decide to try the soft tactic of inviting him to the picnic. Soon enough though, we encounter a sudden thunderstorm, caused by Forces magic. As we start to go inside, we encounter a giant black dog-bear-thing, so basically the Grim from Harry Potter. That had followed those other mages around before they died in horrible ways. Before we could even utilise the "run away like a little girl" tactic, it vanished, so we all elected to fuck off back home.

To find Lions, drunk and miserable. Because Aurora, that nice boy we met last session, who he was guarding? Had been killed, ripped in half by that very same creature. At about the same time we saw it. Apparently it's known to manifest in two places at once when killing someone.

After this, we infiltrated the crime scene - Jackie knows medical stuff, so we arranged for fake ID so that she could be a new transfer medical examiner from Plympton. The following is discovered:
[*]It would have to be a really big animal, like the one we saw or a big black bear
[*]The tracks just disappear, they're at the scene of the crime but then stop
[*]The body was basically ripped in half
[*]His soul seems to be missing
[*]There was some Death magic and some Forces magic involved

His magic items were then craftily confiscated so as to not cause problems, and she left the scene quickly. The police would end up deciding it was a wild bear attack. I show my real value once again, OOC.

"Wild animal attack?" "No... *sunglasses* ...murder."
YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH

Note that this is the kind of joke that never gets old. It's awesome.

After this, we decide we need to do some real investigating, splitting up into groups but never going alone. Finch starts trying to make us think for ourselves because he values our input and wants to make sure we can lead ourselves (see: MC doesn't want the NPC to make all the big decisions), but does it in small steps: gets Oz to decide who needs to be looked at/spoken to and why.
[*]The Third Seal (the "bad guys" of the area, the leaders at the Card Game Tournament who start a lot of shit.)
[*]PHOR (Peace, Honour, Order and Responsibility), the people getting murdered
[*]The Strongest Tower (our allies, who might at least have some information)
[*]The Sutton Boys (the other gang/cabal at the Concillium, probably as crooked as the Third Seal, but less competent)

Phillipe is asked how we should do this, and he suggests the two-step tactic where there's an obvious, official investigation that is designed to ruffle feathers, meanwhile less conspicuous, sneakier people do it covertly. Except for our allies who can be spoken to *as* allies.

Dee is asked who should do what, so I end up with "the most obvious target is the Third Seal, they'll be good to use that two-step on. I'd suggest Finch be the obvious one as he can be intimidating and has authority (he then asks if he is actually intimidating, looking hurt), and Candide as the subtle one - it'd have to be 'one of us kids', and he's good at not getting caught. I mean, what haven't we caught you doing so far?"
"I plead the fifth."
"Perhaps it is best to watch how the Sutton boys react to this, and we can properly investigate them after. I would like to talk to the Strongest Tower as I am already on good terms with them, and think Jackie should come with me because she has the information from the crime scene first-hand. Oz should probably talk with the remaining members of PHOR, I feel he would be better at helping - and getting information from - those in mourning."

Yes, even out of character it felt like an oral report/test with a score out of 20, but it seems I did well.

We all suspected the Third Seal, particularly the youngest guy there, a Thirsus called Dogstar. Who had a tattoo on his chest. Of a big black dog. Except he was a coward (the fight where 4-5 of our guys beat up "the Concillium"? He elected to piss-bolt from it instead. More importantly, he's only with them out of fear).

But Candide did a good job of talking with him, and well, he seems too dumb to be able to summon the thing, and doesn't like his cabal enough to do it for them even if he could - not to mention that his tasks seem to be "hold this door open" and the like. Sadly, we have to cross our chief suspect off the list (though even if it was him, the fact is the order would come from the leader, Cray). The information they get is that there are other members of that group who could be spread elsewhere in England, and that PHOR have indeed been investigating them for corruption, so they had motive.

Oz goes to London to talk with PHOR, and discovers that the killings started there and followed Aurora here, so it has to be something about them specifically - we've been drawn in because we're linked, and are possibly a threat by dint of investigating the murders. So this adds "The London Concillium" to the list of suspects, but if we can place a member of the Third Seal there, that's just about enough to put Cray on the metaphorical death row.

The Strongest Tower can't really give us that much information, though they agree to pool resources and help however they can. They mention that Lions and Aurora came here in the first place to look into the Third Seal, that the Grim sounds too much like a summoned spirit "by a powerful Thirsus" than the mythological creature, and a few other things. Jackie then gets caught up chatting with Aksisus about medicine, and he lets Dee and Poppy wander off to her room to talk... sucker. The two agree that whereas the others need a regular discussion as allies, Poppy needs to be properly interrogated. Detail is not gone into.

So we more or less end the session with everyone sharing the information as we try to piece it together and figure out what tree to shake next.

Oh, and note from the MC: "petite just means she has a slim bone structure, and curvy is caused by fat making nice curves over the bones. They're not mutually exclusive."

[Koumei]

Right, Mage happened again this week. For the record, my N1 game happens at the end of the fucking month or something because Cleric (the Knight) has shit he has to do. Had we four players I'd just run anyway without him, because three is doable. Anyway.

We basically start with the next performance... where, well... okay, I thought nWoD was "If you roll a success, then you succeed, full stop. That's what the word means". But I need to make an Acro roll at a moment of dread (the Grim appeared again), got only 1 success on 10-2=8 dice and thus fell, taking 2 bashing as I was caught by someone who's job it was to catch me.

...meanwhile a housemate is fully convinced that there are heaps of things where you need 2 or 3 successes to succeed, more exceptions than the rule and everyone else is totally reading it wrong. But he is always willing to spend hours arguing that everyone else is wrong and the rules actually say (whatever is most to his advantage/fucks players). Just thought I'd mention that because he's arguing such right now.

But the Grim almost immediately disappears. Dee is then checked out by Jackie, and it turns out it's just a bit of a jarred back and some sore muscles, "take anti-inflammatories and you're not allowed to work for a couple of days". So she spends the next day in bed, watching Neighbours.

So later we have a meeting thing, except Oz and Phillippe decide to go fuck for a bit, and so Phillippe is sleeping it off, very worn out after his first time. Oz is very late, and Finch gets shitty at him, they argue, Oz is way more self-assertive than normal.

So we're still trying to figure out wtf is happening, and then we discover that again, someone was killed by the Grim when we saw it - another member of PHOR. She had been crucified to the wall, then eviscerated and her soul sucked out. Jackie did the CSI thing while Finch decided to hang outside with Phillippe and Dee... Phillippe got him playing Tetris on his iphone as it reduces trauma. Mainly we were hoping to find some fragment of the big dog, a claw or some hair or something, for scrying. Which gave me a wonderful moment.

"So we're looking for a hair..." *sunglasses* "...of the dog that bit her."

Oz returned with "Az", an old ex-lover - a Moros to help us out because we thought maybe we could do with Moros help. We did find some paw prints in all the blood, with crushed lavenders in them. So we scryed the field it was from, and portalled there. I am awesome at Spess.

This took us to France. We found an old church, with a huge collection of old books, and the bell tower had thousands of bottled souls. The books made it obvious just by the titles: he wanted to be immortal and become a god. He is currently "Immortal until killed".

So, given he wants to kill us all anyway, we blew up the soul jars, releasing them, and stole as many books as we could carry, scrying and portalling back to base. Now it turns out the circus has to move, the council filing some kind of lawsuit. Az and Finch are then rude with each other, Finch finally telling him, more or less, to piss off. "You're not sleeping in this caravan, so go back home."
Az: That's all right, I'll just have to sleep with the ladies~
Dee: hahaha no
~BURN~

Finch is distracted for half a moment, and when he turns back, Oz has already taken Az elsewhere, to see if the werewolf (Kay) will let him crash with him. Finch grabs his horsewhip and goes to find them. Dee stupidly says where, still feeling that "If Finch doesn't like him, there'd be a good reason, just like with that bitch Umbra". And so blames herself for what happens next, which is basically Finch ejecting Az from the place after a huge argument and literally beating Oz black and blue (he lost a point of Wisdom out of it). As soon as Jackie heals Oz, he grabs the keys to Finches' car and leaves. Gone.

So everyone is miserable. Dee phones up Poppy, trying to sum events up and is just told to go sleep over at her place on the weekend." Oz doesn't answer any text messages, so may have no idea where we're going to move to (from Plymouth to Plympton, half an hour's drive if you don't include packing the circus up, unpacking it and waiting for the ground to harden).

Next day, Az arrives, wondering where Oz is. Phillippe and Jackie go intercept him to see what he wants, Dee runs off to fetch Finch... but first tells him off for the way he acted and taking it out on Oz, letting him know it was partly his fault and he's not going to forgive himself and feel better until he accepts that and tries to do something about it. She's becoming more assertive, and a decent moral authority really.

He does listen, and thanks her for saying what had to be said, before going and apologising to Az - and asking where Oz is. With no-one knowing, we end up sending him an SMS and using Forces+Space to track the signal, tracing him to a cafe where is is drunk. There is a bit of an encounter there as Finch first apologises, then they still argue a bit as they try to work out where they stand, Oz firmly in the "It's none of your business who I have sex with and when" stance. He then points out "Dee is fucking Poppy and you don't berate her!" and... Finch had no idea. So suddenly has to adjust his view of the world.

(He's very old, people being gay isn't new or even wrong to him despite him being a strong man of God. The bit where everyone seems to be fucking everyone, on the other hand, might worry him a bit. He's used to the Gibbs rule where cabal members don't get involved with each other.)

So finally we all go back, and it turns out Poppy is there, with roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Dee. She immediately suggests "You're supposed to be recovering, you should go to bed. I'll join you." Subtle. Art forthcoming.

And then the big baddie is spotted. And there is a huge panic. So people rush, as soon as they know (and in the case of Dee and Poppy, quickly throw clothes on), and head over to find Finch trying to breathe. Dee, Phillippe and Poppy stupidly rush off to help Az, currently fighting the baddie alone, while Oz and Jackie counter the "lol u can't breathe" spell. They then also start heading over, in time for the idiots to see Az shooting the big dog with a shotgun. Phillippe decides to help, distracting it by climbing to the rigging, while the two girls realise "we don't have offensive spells" ("Poppy, you're a Moros, right?" "Yeah?" "Do you have a spell that can make it die?" "NO!") and head back to meet with the others.

Phillippe gets hit by it, and his life is suppressed. So when the rest arrive... the "Check his pulse" ends the effect and returns him to life. The baddie didn't yet have time to tear his soul out, thanks to Az, and is now bleeding all over the place. Finch and Oz actually have weapons and training and attack (more blood), before it steps into the Death world to escape.

Poppy is shaken up and goes home. Her parents are unimpressed and not very happy with Dee (understandable really - Dee DID say "Stay here until it's safe", but seriously, have you ever tried telling a teenager what to do?), but given the situation...

The villain is committing a vile atrocity even to mages, and death is the only penalty for his actions. Even selfish mages would agree on this.
We have heaps of his blood for sympathetic magic.
We know many mages.

The plan is going to be "Gather every mage we know who will help us (PHOR will want in, The Strongest Tower (Poppy and her parents and Aksissus) will help (Poppy possibly ordered to stay home) seeing as "Not too happy with me" doesn't compare to "Despise the baddie", some of the other PCs know other mages, even the two groups of antagonist mages could get their heads out of their arses for this). Then do a huge-scale Scry & Die.

And I now have Portal as a Rote, so go from a dice pool of "4 minus penalty" to "9 minus penalty".

Possible idea: go to the moon with a bowling ball, make a portal loop (low gravity, ~no atmosphere == longer to gather speed, but basically no terminal velocity), let the bowling ball reach "So fast that the kinetic energy on impact will equal the force of a nuclear blast*" speed then redirect the bottom portal of the loop so that it opens up over the guy's head.

So a busy and fun session, really. And it is GOOD to finally do some roleplaying and stop going to fucking parties.

*Physics people here, what kind of speed do we need for this?

[Username17]

OK, on the way action resolution works.

On a simple test, you need one hit. Period. If, after penalties, you are still rolling 5 dice, you'll pretty much succeed. If you get 5 hits, you get extraordinary success, which happens fairly regularly if your dice pool is about 15. If you get no hits at all, you fail. Dramatic failure cannot happen, since for it to occur you need to roll a 1 on a "chance die" and a chance die is the single d10 you roll if penalties lower your dice pool to less than one die.

On an opposed test, you need more hits than your opponent gets. If you get five total hits, and get more hits than your opponent, you get extraordinary success. So if you are rolling about 15 dice or so, you get extraordinary success almost every time you succeed at all. If your opponent gets more hits than you and they got 5 or more total hits, you get a dramatic failure. So at high dice pools, dramatic failures and extraordinary successes are a lot more common than normal failures or successes.

Now where shit gets bizarre is when the game kludges in numbers of hits to do different stuff. Because when that happens, the game authors almost never remember that normal people are supposed to be rolling 4 dice. As in seriously, the results for 1 hit or 2 hits are often pretty meaningless.

But yeah, you only need one success on however many dice you roll to not fall unless you are up against an enemy who is using a power on you, in which case you're probably boned.

-Username17

[Koumei]

Thanks, good to have it confirmed. I *thought* that was the case (you mentioned it in the thread where you said you were toying with making a Magical Girl plug-in), and someone else who does this weird "reads the books" thing (and MCs it a fair bit I gather) said "a success is that: you succeed" as well.

I'd complain that the housemate can't read but honestly, add it to the list of things he can't do, including "contribute rent money" and "housework".

[Username17]

Ugh. I just remembered: Contested Rolls. You know who wins? The person with the most hits. It's not like you're getting 35 of them or something, mostly you get like 2. The game is ambiguous about what happens in the incredibly likely event of a tie.

-Username17

[Koumei]

This was a better session than last time - we (Jackie's player and I) were talking about it on the way there. We were kind of "meh" about it on the way, partly because it was a million degrees out there so we felt lazy, partly grumpiness about the last session.

When the bitching was out of our systems, we felt pretty good upon arrival. And it all turned out well. So yeah, sometimes a game can have a crappy session, but the main game, even if it isn't totally perfect, is still fun. If I had a hat, then I would eat it now in regards to WoD being able to be good. People agree with me that my prior experience seriously is enough to justify "WoD can't be good, it's innately shit".

So we all arranged meetings with various people, trying to get as many helpers as we can for the smackdown.

I talked to Strongest Tower about getting help, apologised for endangering Poppy (from last time - didn't try to word it as "I told her to stay there, she didn't listen!" because let's not shift blame here, that's bad form, and everyone knows teenagers never listen), and decided that would be the best time to explain our relationship. Her father Cassius proves that you totally can be a mage and also a religious bigoted fuckbag, I get booted out of the house, there is a loud argument with her throwing things at him, and... yeah. Aksissus and Audrey join though
-random NPCs rock up to help fight, what with us being useless fighters

I failed to scry with the blood, so an NPC does it (barely - smaller dice pool than me, I just happened to roll crap), we see him in the kitchen, he sees us, we open the portal and then throw a huge smokebomb (turns out it's a flourbomb) in.

All the fighters rush in...

15 seconds of fighting, then flour is removed by Finch, baddie kills quite a few NPCs (instant rotting corpses) before getting overwhelmed then finally beheaded.

MC is really hardcore about morality. It was a morality sin for us Wisdom-6 characters just to have supported our team in killing this insane soul-eating murderer. But we passed the roll and fell bad about it.

After that we have the burials, and people feeling sad and guilty and so on. It is a sad time and we still try our best in the circus.

Finch then vanished for a bit, came back feeling miserable, and now won't get out of bed (apparently he's lost about 3 Wisdom over the past few weeks, going from 8 to 5). Others have tried tactics (friendly therapist "I will say this again, only longer, every day until I get a response" from Candide, Oz trying to use the Finch treatment, and Jackie pointing out we need him). I may need to put on FIRM VOICE like every other time I've told him off. Or just invite everyone in his caravan (get the lion and horse to go share his bed), and be all "Okay, fine, good idea. Yes, you have the right idea there Finch, let's ALL just lie around naked all day, I can see THAT working! Come on everyone, we're just lounging around in the nude today."

We have to move to the next location. Atlantean Runes are on a wall as we laeve: The (I forget the word. Primarch? The head honcho) is dead. Long live the (whatever)." Arc over.

I'm still totally dating Poppy, just using reality-bending magic to meet in secret. Because fuck the laws of the universe, and being responsible with magic, if you can't use it for your <3time, what is it even for? Yeah, her dad may be a fuckbag, but we're getting Candide to stick his dick in reality's eye to defy him IN THE NAME OF LOVE!

And we then were given a chance to change our characters based on how the personalities have developed - because you write something down at first, sure, but characters change a bit. And there's even the matter of "If I had known the game was like this, I'd have ____". More games could do with this.

So Dee is now actually a Thirsus (Spirit 3, Life 2, Mind 1). And Candide is now a Mastigos (and he has Thinking With Portals, so we'll just sort of rewrite any previous stuff). Stats have been bounced around - apparently Attributes of 4+ are SUPER DUPER RARE, OLYMPIC LEVEL so we were asked to change those.

And my Striking Looks was knocked from 4-dot (+2) to 2-dot (+1) on the grounds that "Dee is just so sweet and innocent, I don't think that's actually in her looks as much - people just like her. Besides, you'll find there are more penalties than it's worth in the 4-dot one."

Manipulation is up, not so I can lie (because as a player I'm not very good at lying), but because "Manipulation can be all sorts of things to get your way. Lee, can you get me a glass of water?"
"Okay."
*amused look* "See? He's doing it just because I asked! That will help you a lot."

So largely my spell-casting dice pools actually improved out of the deal. Skills were spread out a bit more, and I was given more skills and merits, so I think that, in hard numeric/XP value, it was a net gain, and for actual use-in-game for the character, almost certainly a gain.

Oh, and Virtue was changed to "Innocence". Because somehow Dee really has been the sweet and innocent one the whole time, despite it being WoD. Like, more sweet and innocent than my Maid character, for instance.

So honestly, I might complain about the way she handles certain things, but I'm pretty happy so far.

But clearly it's all about the non-magic side, and doing the hand-puppet routine with Poppy. Who I hear there is more art of.

[mean_liar]

And we then were given a chance to change our characters based on how the personalities have developed - because you write something down at first, sure, but characters change a bit. And there's even the matter of "If I had known the game was like this, I'd have ____". More games could do with this.

It should be standard in every RPG.

Points for pointing out that "bad" games can be fun, because they're still games.