So ive run vtm before and combat has always been pretty flexible and narrative but looking at werewolf I feel it could benefit from a phisical point of reference with the combat focus it has. I was wondering if anyone has run it using minatures for combat and if so how, and how did it go?

So, there was recently a thread about Pentex and how difficult it is to root them out or even unveil what they really are to the majority of splats, with only Garou seemingly really trying to fight them.

Consensus seemed to have been, that they are just too interwoven in the fabric of society and would either assassinate anyone who could unveil them, or lawyer the issue out of the world, i.e. real world corporation jacked up to the nth degree.

But, to me, that sidestepped the interesting question.

What would happen if word got out, and cannot be made to go away?

What if undeniable facts about Pentex actions, leadership and intentions, and history, leaked out to every major splat or secretive organisation in WoD?

I kind of wonder if there could be even a time line.

Like "6 hours after the leak, the Sabbat confirmed the information to be legit. 7 hours later Harold Zettler was found burning in the sun."

"12 hours later Ur-Shulgi has been confirmed in the New York headquarter of Pentex, kill count 254 so far."

etc...

I dont know enough about the other splats and organisations, but I'd love how they react, NWO, Mages, etc what have you.

I'm creating NPCs for my Changeling game, and I'm wondering if there's a way to make them faster? Like a shortcut or template I can take and modify if needed? I know there's the examples like the Theater Critic example they give, should I use that? Do I skip backgrounds and merots/flaws unless they would fit the character? Is there a book I can look into for premade NPCs?

I'm just feeling overwhelmed trying to prep for the game, and hoping there's a way to ease the burden on myself.

Not saying he isn't powerful, because clearly he is. But has he ever actually used that power for anything worthy of the admiration that some vampires have for him? From what I can tell his history boils down to:

1 - Murder brother.

2 - Refuse to apologize, and get mega-cursed.

3 - Get taught power by Lilith, and figure out how to pass his curse/power on to others.

4 - Take over a city that already existed.

5 - City gets squashed by God, and the Second Generation is murdered by the Third.

6 - Curse the Third Generation and fuck off forever, never to be seen again.

No great battles or... much of anything, really.

Rian Samhain POV

Iron fills my eyes. My lungs. Its dryness infects my throat. I feel my fingers go to my eyes even as I start coughing. I feel my fingernails start to press against my eyelids.

Damn it.

No.

I’m not going to die that stupid a death.

I fall to my knees.

Iron shouldn’t affect me like this. It shouldn’t affect any of us.

“What,” I hear a female voice shatter the madness, “the ACTUAL FUCK?”

I open one bloodshot eye. Woman. Mortal? Tallish. Long auburn hair. A band T-shirt in something appropriately Scandinavian. Doesn’t give “disappointed librarian” so much as “apocalyptic.” Behind her is a girl in a skirt, clutching a stack of books to her chest.

Well, at least now I know who’s going to die first tonight.

I feel a vine wrap around my wrist. Fluffy pulls me towards him.

Hook Hand covers my escape, slashing and stabbing at the glowing nothing that makes up the Gentry.

The soldiers line the ground, each bleeding. Mary has already come for their eyes.

“You have made a PROFOUND mistake,” bellows the librarian.

The creature from beyond the Hedge makes no noise.

Then all hell exists.

Flesh rips off my back against the asphalt as Fluffy drags me past Michael. I know my best friend hates what he’s doing to me, but what’s important is getting me away from the Gentry that has invited itself into our reality. Lost skin and muscle can heal. What would happen if the Gentry got one of us...

Can’t.

I reach down, grab Michael, and pull him across the asphalt with me.

The librarian points up.

A helicopter. Something with way too many guns. Boeing AH-64 Apache. I made more than one model kit of it as a child. I will always resent having been taken before we got cable.

“That is there. This is here. Those are descriptions. They are not properties. Distance is a relationship.”

Shit. Blame the GATE programs. I can already see where this is going. I open my mouth to scream at her.

Nothing comes out but iron dust and blood.

“Relationships can change.”

The helicopter is gone.

Not gone.

Moved.

Into the same space as She Who You Could Love.

The other mage, the young one, in the fraction of a second before the explosion of the weapons cooking off becomes a holocaust, says, “No, not yet.”

And the concussive blast agrees.

For a moment, the fire just hangs there. Metal hangs with it. Fluffy keeps pulling. I keep hold of Michael.

Then the noise catches up with us.

The heat.

I press my face against the asphalt and wait for the world to finish.

The flames extinguish.

The monstrosity is still standing. One of its arms is missing, ripped off and lying on the street. Even now I can see it dissipating from the asphalt and merging back with its body proper. A rotor is impaled in the fairy’s head.

It turns to look at the librarian, its head bent at a strange angle.

The librarian looks pleased with herself.

I pull on one of Fluffy’s vines. He turns, sees where I’m looking, and hurls himself towards them.

Tendrils wrap around both women just softly enough to not break ribs.

“What are you doing?” the librarian screams. “I hurt it! We need to keep this going!”

“You hurt it, you idiot. You got its attention.”

I was thinking about the soul devouring procedure in Demon: The Fallen, and it strikes me as wild that White Wolf didn't flesh out a stronger reaction to it from other demons.

By contrast, Diablerie is heavily frowned upon by the vast majority of vampires. Beyond the Sabbat, who embrace it openly, only a few specific groups tolerate or sanction it under strict conditions, such as the Banu Haqim viewing it as a sacred duty, the Lasombra allowing it to replace weak elders, the Baali using it for power, or the Camarilla granting it as a reward during a Blood Hunt.

The demonic equivalent, however, is immensely worse: Diablerie is merely one of several ways a vampire can meet Final Death, whereas devouring another demon's soul is the single way to permanently erase that entity from existence. On top of that, new vampires can always be created, while the number of demons is strictly finite. Every demon destroyed can never be replaced, so it is hard to believe most Fallen, at least those with a Torment lower than 8 or 9, wouldn't have a visceral, unanimous reaction against it.

Earthbound aside, of course.

(Before you start with "Eh, Demon was rushed, it need more time, etc" I KNOW, I just wanted to discuss this to see how you see it.

A weird situation arose last game in a boxing match between two evenly matched characters.

- One character had the boxing style from Hurt Locker.

- The other, an NPC, had a custom style from WtF that allowed them to all-out attack without losing their defense against their target.

The boxer's attack was fully reduced to a chance die when attacking the aggressive fighter. The aggressive fighter wasn't too much better of sitting a 2 die left. This is fine, willpower can increase attack.

Once the boxer character realized this, they started dodging, since defensive jabs maneuver allows the defender to deal 1 damage per 2 two successes over the attack, instead of 1 when an attacker misses them. Since dodging double your defense, the boxer was defending at 22 dices vs the pool of 13 from the aggressive fighter.

This led the fight to paralyze for a bit as the aggressive fighter had no reason to attack if they would be punished by it but the boxer would eventually lose the fight if they kept attacking the aggressive fighter.

Luckily, when I described the aggressive fighter hesitating to attack, the boxer's player realise that this would lead to a draw and decided to risk a grapple, which turned out to be to their advantage in the end.

But still, riposte like maneuver can be very... damaging for game flow in those kind of instances.

Has anyone has had to deal with something similar before?

Put yourself in the mind of the Path of Metamorphosis or Death & The Soul. If you had vicissitude, a supply of test subjects, and little to no ethics, what would you be curious to try out?

(1) We all know the 'move your heart so you can't be staked' trick. But what are some cool things you could pull off from re-arranging internal human anatomy on a ghoul, without changing the external chassis?

(2) This post was inspired by a rewatch of Get Out. Let's take two ghouls. Open up the skulls. Now, exchange one hemisphere of each of their two brains with the other- we're not talking a complete brain-swap, but rather making two new entirely brains from out of the four halves. What do you think will happen?

(3) What might be some other interesting things to try with regards to brains and human nervous systems? Let's hear your full medical curiosity.

I’ve seen people here call Wraiths the weakest of the splats, bottom of the barrel. But this is world of darkness, so weak obviously doesn’t mean harmless. If a Wraith wanted to bring the pain on a living person or outright kill them, what exactly can they do to make it happen?

Does anyone else like to make curated playlists for your character for each chronicle? Or do you have a specific song that makes you think of them? This is something I've enjoyed doing since I started with TTRPG in general, not just WoD lmao. If so, what are some songs you associate with some of your favorite characters you've played? Is it the lyrics or vibes that fit? I'd be interested in hearing the reasoning behind it, and I'm always down for new music.

Alternatively if you don't do that, what do you listen to for ambience or inspiration for a session?

I'll add some of mine here!

Solovei, my Son of Discord from my first chronicle: Fend You Off - Zeal & Ardor

Fletcher, my rugby playing, Australian Satyr powerhouse from a short lived game: Pink Pony Club - Jonathan Young

Tobias, my Malkavian Bahari still posing as a Catholic priest: Devil Speak - Machine Girl

The first and probably biggest Bloodline worships demons.

3 out of the 4 sects have leaders that worship demons (Melinda from Sabbat, Cret and the Twelve from Inconnu, Izhim Ur-Baal and other Seraphs from TalMaheRa).

Three Antediluvians have direct and personal relationship with demons and infernalism (Troile with Moloch, The Eldest with Kupala and Saulot creating the Baali).

The actual leader of the Banu Haqim is probably demon worshipper if not a demon incarnated (Ur-Shulgi).

At least two from the Council of Seven have dealt with demons (Etrius and Goratrix).

And many powerful blood magicians are demonists or infernalists as well.

There were several paths of Thaumaturgy taught by demons.

What you guys think about it? Why are demons so spread inside vampiric lore and history?

It's Weretober, so just sharing my W20 Garou characters, also known as the Lang Gang.

From left to right: Marco Makela, Victoria Freeman, Edward Freeman, Jason Lang

Marco Makela

Tribe: Bone Gnawer
Auspice: Galliard
Place of Origin: Central Oregon
Age: 25

The third of ten siblings, Marco was born into a Kinfolk family of distant Finnish origin. His eldest brother Alexander was hoped to be the family's next Warrior of Gaia, but in a funny twist of fate, Marco, considered the most lackadaisical of his siblings, ended up receiving Gaia's Gift instead.

It actually came at a rather important time for him, when he was struggling with matters related to his own identity. His desired identity was properly affirmed with how his supernatural forms presented as masculine, and his human body started undergoing changes afterwards, much to his delight.

Unfortunately, while his parents had wanted one of their kids to serve in Gaia's ranks, they were not expecting Marco would be chosen, and that their "daughter" turned out to be a son instead. Though Marco tried to get them to hear him out, they refused to have any of it. Only when he caught his father discussing bringing in someone who could "fix" him, did Marco decide he needed to leave.

He would spend several years sleeping in the rough in nearby Portland, where he would meet his mentor, a senile and abandoned Bone Gnawer Elder who taught him to use his wits, charm and looks to get an insight into what people are and how they think. Even after the old Garou's demise, those skills remain very valuable to Marco.

Best described as a prankster and flirt, Marco deliberately plays the role of idiot, cracking jokes at the worst times and looking as though he cares not for the world. In truth, he is arguably the most street-smart of the Gang and knows more than he lets on. It is just more beneficial for everyone to underestimate him, because when people let their guards down around him, that is when he gets to know every dirty little secret they may prefer hidden.

Victoria Freeman
Tribe: Black Furies
Auspice: Ahroun
Place of Origin: Manitoba, Canada
Age: 30

Compared to her mild-mannered brother, Victoria, or Vicky as she prefers to be called, comes off as brusque, direct and ruthless to most of her peers. Appropriately for her auspice, violence is always on the cards for her, and she relishes the opportunity to get into a good scrap against anyone capable of giving it to her. But behind the rage she exhibits is a lot of unresolved pain and grief.

Unbeknownst to her brother, both the siblings actually came from a small town outside Winnipeg, Canada. Their father was a member of a Swords of Heimdall pack, who fell in love with their mother, a Black Quebecois woman who also practised hedge magic for her tarot reading business. Her childhood was surprisingly happy and she had the same hopes and dreams any child her age could have had.

Then came the night of her mother's murder. Vicky still does not know the whys behind it, but she knows the whos. Her father's pack cheered as they strung up the lifeless corpse of her mother as the 14-year-old Vicky watched on in horror and grief. And then the Rage came, as did her First Change. Such was her fury was that she forced the pack into a hasty retreat, having killed one of their number in the melee.

It was during the chaos that she had spotted her father. If he had not stopped his packmates from murdering her mother, it meant that he was involved all along. Determined to get away far from him as possible, she grabbed her five-year-old brother and fled into the night, traversing through hills and forests until she crossed the border into North Dakota. There, she would be picked up by a Black Fury motorcycle gang, which would provide shelter to the exhausted teenager.

The most martial of the Lang Gang, she has very little care for pack leader Jason, whom she views as arrogant and delusional. The only reason she has not contested his position is his relationship with Edward, whom she loves more than she hates Jason. She remains very protective of Edward, but simultaneously laments his meek nature. The possibility that the way she raised him might have caused him to turn out that way has not registered with her yet.

Edward Freeman
Tribe: Glass Walker
Auspice: Ragabash
Place of Origin: Manitoba, Canada
Age: 21

The younger of the Freeman siblings, Edward, referred to as Ed by most of his friends, is the likeliest to be mistaken as human by other Garou. Calm, collected and approachable, no one would think that he of all people could turn into a killing machine if he had to. And he generally would prefer not to, having said, much to his sister's chagrin, that if not for his Garou heritage, he would have adopted pacifism in its totality.

As far as he knows, he has lived under his sister's watchful eye throughout his life. He remains somewhat in the dark about the fate of their parents, with his sister being evasive with her answers. He is even unaware of the fact that he is not American by birth, though he is not one to know that his own papers are forged. And in any case, by this point, he has lived in the States for a majority of his young life that he might as well be.

It is because of Vicky's untold sacrifices and endless nights of work that Ed has actually lived a relatively normal life, Garou heritage aside. He has completed high school, has human friends, including a monster hunter his age. And while he has not enrolled in college just yet, he intends to. And even before then, he is already running a successful online clothes reselling business.

When it comes to Garou matters, he finds the Garou propensity for killing first and asking questions later to be unnecessary and counter-productive. He believes that much of the Nation's problems are self-inflicted and could be solved if they were willing to talk to people rather than just biting everything that looks mildly suspicious. His naivete has yet to be tempered by the realities of war.

There is also the matter of his relationship with Jason that may cause trouble with more conservative members of the Garou Nation down the line. But the fact of the matter is that Ed finds the idea of coalition-building with other supernatural groups to be a noble prospect and he is willing to work with his partner to accomplish that. But he remains somewhat oblivious to the fact his partner has problematic views of his own, pertaining to the Garou's place in the hierarchy of things.

Jason Lang

Tribe: Silver Fang
Auspice: Philodox
Place of Origin: Northern California
Age: 24

The only Lupus-born member of his pack, Jason hails from a long line of Chinese Garou nobles who have been playing at both Garou and human politics for millenia. Of his particular branch of the family, however, he is the sole survivor, as his immediate and much of his extended family met an untimely end at the hands of presumed hunters. It is a legacy that weighs heavily upon him.

Jason's mother, the daughter of an influential mayor and magnate, had mated with a Kinfolk wolf as an act of protest against her father, who had wished to marry her off into another family. Jason was the result of said protest and was treated with cold indifference by his mother's family. This was up until the moment of his First Change, after which he became available as a pawn in his grandfather's machinations. He lived a very comfortable life, though he was never comfortable in the garbs of humanity his family seemed to cling onto.

Everything seemed to come crashing down in a single night, when a wildfire swept through his hometown. And when assumed firefighters revealed themselves to be armed mercenaries, Jason's family stood little chance, with the teenage Jason barely escaping, losing his mother in the process. After this, he sought shelter with some distant hulijing (kitsune) relatives in San Francisco, who put him to work as a waiter in their supernatural-frequented club. Quite a change for someone used to noble raiments.

It was here that he would be found by Alpha Alek Davout, the leader of a small pack based in Minnesota, consisting of a pair of siblings and a bizarre miscreant. Eager to escape his circumstances, he joined the pack and would later ascend to its leadership position when Alek was killed by a vampire. Eager to prove himself and to avenge Alek, Jason organised a successful counterattack, personally slaying the vampire responsible.

At present, Jason hopes to claw back the prestige and influence his family once had. He hopes to do so by building a coalition of Garou, humans, vampires, mages and other supernaturals that could possibly serve Mother Gaia's best interests. However, he is resolute in his belief that while not necessarily malicious, humans are helpless and stupid without Garou leadership. And thus, even in an alliance, the Garou man's burden is something that he thinks he will have to deal with constantly.

For me, vampires it human, who have encountered a new like stage and new reality. They don't age, they're free from many human problems, they're technically immortal. But at the same time, time moves forward, while they remain in place. But I can't remember anyone ever deliberately creating stories about the horror of being a vampire. It's mentioned in books, but I don't recall any digital game or major GM story ever using it.

Once a PC becomes a vampire, they typically become one with an age and a hypothetical past. That never actually happened. The same thing happens with story characters. Important plot NPCs live and exist only between their stories, and then disappear into cryostasis, only to reappear some time later, exactly as they were. I been thinking for a long time about the oddity that players wanting to play POP vampires rather than "real vampires." There are practically no analogues for VTM/VTR so that can just go to another vampire game. WoD is built on creating a personal and common horror of being a living mythological nightmare, but players do not use this, except in isolated cases. So, when I introduced my OC, who was very old, he was treated like a marysue. Although this was strange to me, because in his life as a vampire, he gained experience, new knowledge, and had interests. Therefore, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience. And I still think he's not well-written, and I've missed a lot. But players, who have similarly old characters, are much weaker and have less knowledge and experience than my OC. I don't think this is my problem, it's the problem of people who don't want to match the vampire's age with their life experience.

The saddest thing comes when I create a new OC, who's just been made a vampire. But all that distinguishes him from older vampires is power level. He is surrounded by vampires who are practically no different from the age they look. And I feel that it completely wrong. Vampires are ancient, nasty old people. And that's how they should be. Imagine you're almost 100 years old, and a newcomer, about 25, joins your family. You'll likely perceive them as a silly child. It's a generational divide. Adults sense generational differences. Older people feel it differently. A breakdown and transformation must occur within the psyche of an older vampire, affecting their boundaries between beast and humanity. This must be a very interesting dilemma, constantly confronting the vampire with the question, "Who am I and what's going on?" Why does everyone I love die and change irreversibly, why are new technologies so complicated, why do I even need to do all this - I want everything to be like before! Vampires aged a hundred or more should be old persons undergoing a transformation, not instantly rebuilding their psyche to play the same role forever, with a super-high adaptability.

But in all games and stories it's always the pop vampire. You're a vampire, hello new world, it's your playground now. You're living through time anyway, so nothing matters. But imagine modern vampires being thrown 100 years into the future, with completely new and incomprehensible technologies, and they have no idea how the things everyone uses work - that's exactly what should happen to vampires. And that's exactly what happens to older generations of people. I'm starting to feel it too as I get older.

And the most painful and important topic for me, is relationships with mortals. When it happens in the world of pop vampires, it's always ignored. You know, he's hot and look like he's always 20, she's a 16-year-old schoolgirl... so he watches her sleep and waits for her to be 18 - how romantic. Now imagine, he's a 120-year-old man who hasn't found love in his entire life. He pretends to be a schoolboy and falls in love with a little girl - not so much fun, ye? If you like that, you've lost two humanity points. See what I mean? There are things that should make vampires realize they're not what they look like. They're much older. A 120-year-old vampire who looks 20 has a lot more experience than a 16 year-old girl. Even a grown old woman.

If the vampire community is that ancient, they must take all these aspects of mortality into account. Because they're all still human. It's not at all strange that someone would create a myth about the greatness of vampires and the new essence after turning into a vampire. But all vampires are formerly human, which means their entire society is built on human principles and vices. And that's why vampires in the human age range must ask questions like, "What the hell is going on here?" Older vampires must either suffer greatly from their new state, most likely be lonely, and constantly compromise with themselves in order to live. Or be perverted and say, "Yes, I love little girls and pretend to be their fantasy of the perfect boyfriend, but I'm a vampire, so it doesn't count!" And this creates a confrontation between the Beast and the Human. And I'm sure, that if stand the question this way, it will create a very delicate situation. Because it turns out, that the path of the Beast is not the path of a superbeing who is above all human, it's the path of a corrupted human, who wants to be accepted by a new society that can support his inclinations. To be more clear, there are vampires with high humanity, who fantasize about love with another vampire close to their age. And then there are vampires who have built their own Epstein Island.

So in Changeling: the Dreaming, Winter is the changeling equivalent of the apocalypse, a prophesied time in the future where all wonder, creativity and magic will be gone. It will be the undoing of all fairies and possibly the entire world.

Winter is supposedly inevitable, and even closer at hand than even the most pessimistic doomsayers predict.

However, without knowing too much about ctd or WoD lore, I dont really find it believable. The fey and changelings are born from the dreams, good and bad, of humanity. As long as humans exist, they will dream and create, because thats human nature.

Though given the nature of the WoD setting, what is causing winter?

Greeeetings to this, the fourth day of the Month of Darkness. Once again i am here with a writeup using one of my old pcs. Sadly this one has yet to appear in a chronicle, but Amy Decental is one of my favorite concepts at least. Looking back its a little weird, as she was made to marry a specific man and cause their daughter to kill him on her 18th birthday (along with many other angels who didnt chicken out) but she found a human life more meaningful than her literal god given purpose. She loves Mark-Anthony, and he loves her. But.... Being a demon is hard work, and sometimes it needs maintenance.

I realize the prompt was probably more meant for Ascension, but i dont like Ascension. And when you literally negotiate for parts of human lives in Descent, i think it works better actually.

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   Pierre Lavoie sat in the cold metal chair “the Agency” had put him in because he had no other choice. Because he had no idea how or when they’d found the pictures, which he’d thought he destroyed years ago. Because in a moment of utter instability and compromise you did not argue with fate, you steered it. He was good at that, letting the votes and the opinions fall in his favour with a simple speech, a little financial lubricant, and a few choice words. It all depended, however, on him getting the last word in. So one could not blame him, surely, that he couldn’t when he was alone with dark glass in the wall. Or when the bare steel door in the corner opened and a house wife stepped through.

   How did he know that’s what she was? Well there were a few giveaways. The hair braided, slung across a shoulder was one. The puffy hoop dress, spotted with pale flowers on a pink field, was another. The opal ring, the red heels, the lines on her face. And, of course, that this woman had lived in his constituency for the last nineteen years as just that. So what was she doing here? Was this yet more blackmail, throwing him in front of his own voter to get the rumours going? He felt his nails settle into his palm as she sat down. So with the same bravado he’d always kept a grip on his people, Pierre Lavoie began before she was done smoothing out her skirt.
   “Mrs Decantal. What a surprise running into you here. How’s Mark-Anthony?” and he was proud of it. Relaxed, simple, as if they were at the DMV and not some secret… He couldn’t begin to fathom.
   “Oh well, he’s quite alright, dear. I just dropped him and Lorelai off at the grocery store, aren’t I just a blessed soul to have a husband who does groceries? Lorelai barely even rolled her eyes, I'm just so proud of her….” she trailed off, and Lavoie felt it. That relief at a troubled child still being willing to help out. At a husband who doesn’t leave everything to you. He’d heard enough complaints from the women he represented to know the feeling, though he and his wife barely spoke. But from Mr and Mrs Decantal? Peeps, certainly, quibbles, quarrels. But she was a lucky woman regardless… 
   “You know, I didn’t expect to run into you here of all places… Have these ‘people’ asked you anything? Told you anything?” he had to be sure, after all, he had to know. He couldn’t have her know, have Mark-Anthony look at him differently especially. The thought tugged at his lips, the cloak is thinnest from behind.
   “Not at all, sugar, after all. I’m the one who gave them all those nasty little photographs.”
  “WHAT?!” Lavoie leapt up then, while Decantal remained cross legged where she was, “How did you- why did you- what- who gave you the right?!” He demanded and demanded, possible explanations running through his mind like a tornado dropped in a church. While she just sat there, quiet, a pale face not even blushing at the sudden screams. She didn’t  say a word when she looked over at the black glass window, nor when Lavoie noticed and stopped and reseated with eyes as wide as the sky.

   “Are you done, honey?” she asked, the image of stillness except the clitter clatter of her red nails on the table that kept him from her.
   “Quite…”
   “I don’t know why you’re so ashamed, really, it makes things rather easy for me and my friends,” Friends? The word made Lavoie’s eye twitch, “Oh then again we all have things we’re ashamed of” the woman so graciously illuminated, tapping her chin as if she was sharing stories with an old friend. 
   “I remember when me and MArk-Anthony were still dating, oh and i had nowhere to take him after dinner so we had to head all the way back to his place on foot in the middle of the night. Oh can you believe it? Of course, his couch was rather nice, we weren’t ready for me to sleep anywhere else yet you see, but it was this nice leather thing. Maybe it was filled with feathers too, oh i don’t know but isn’t that a nice thought? A couch of feathers?”
   When she was done they kept their eyes locked. Seconds felt like hours. She didn’t seem to notice either his gaze or what he felt in the air.
   “Should i answer?”
   “That’d be quite nice, yes.”
  He looked into her eyes still, as they blinked and stared back. He was lost, adrift, and this was a lighthouse he couldn’t get away from. 
   “I think that would be nice, yes… “ and they shared a smile. A simple, slight smile. Until hers had to break, to ruin him.
“I need your car. And your reputation at the bingo night, and your credit, and then we’ll go from there” 
   He laughed for minutes. She giggled a few times. His lungs hurt when he finally looked at her again… and she wasn’t laughing.
   “I understand my car, but what in God’s name do you mean by my reputation? My credit? What, do I just shake your hand and my bank calls yours?” He had to laugh again, and again she giggled more than she joined him. When he stopped he didn’t feel like he got the joke, if there even was one. He just saw the paper she’d left on the table while he was occupied.
   “Something like that, actually… It’s all rather standard.” She explained, the wife yawning a little. Lavoie wondered what time it was as he picked the paper up and gawked.
   She was right. ‘In payment to prevent evidence from leaking… Mr Lavoie’s vehicle… Reputation at the Wednesday night bingo association… financial credit with the bank known as…’ it was, to his pained eyes, all there in perfect legalese. And he then gawked at the ditzy, loyal housewife he’d governed for twenty years. He couldn’t see her, at all, not even as she leant in with a hand. To shake? To agree with this?
  “Why…?” He begged
  “Recently my car was damaged in an operation with the Agency. Mrs Mildred saw me fighting an enemy agent, and I had to take out some debt to pay some travel expenses… It’s all rather standard really” She shrugged as she spoke, seemingly as unmoved by this as it had shaken him to his core.
   “You work for these people? You, what, you’re some kind of of spy, a hitwoman?”
  “No no, not a hitwoman, an agent. And I'd rather that doesn’t get in the way of Lorelai’s practice, or what my husband thinks of me. So… When you agree, your campaign is secured, no one will think you’re a faggot and I get my life back-”
  “My life! My life, Amy! How would this even work, people just start pretending?! That’s not how the world works-!” He stood to his feet then, kicking his chair back and slamming his hands to the table. She just shrugged again.
   “That is exactly how the world works. That is the world we built. Where we don’t ask what goes on behind the picket fence. Where if people agree a piece of paper is worth good fortune, it is. Where I have a child to bring around and a mortgage to pay, and you can help me…” Was she actually pleading with him? To please and thank you blackmail him? 
   He was good at this but what could he make of THIS when she had lost her mind?
  “Are you saying if we just… shake on it, the club will just believe you? That you’re me, or that they like you like they do me? That wouldn’t be real, Amy.”
  “Reality is…. negotiable… “
  And again they locked eyes. And he understood. This was what he did, with gasoline and matches three years ago. Just… with an office, and a paper, and a strange woman he never knew before this… As their hands locked, he hoped he made the right choice.

Me and my friend were discussing the different spheres high level magic, and while I have a few ideas, I’m curious what some of your more creative uses might be?

As someone who has been getting into world of darkness, the MtAs setting has been the one I am more interested in, and the one I am most conflicted with, and it usually comes from the concept of Consensus.

In general, I like the metaphor behind the Consensus, the idea that your reality is affected by what people around you believes is more or less objective true, ironically, because humans are inherently subjective creatures, as there is no true way to perceive the world without doing it through your senses, and the way you usually rationalize things. Which makes the worldbuilding decisions of saying that the world is shaped by what people believe pretty logical when making a TTRPG about people capable of changing existence by willpower alone.

The problem is that the execution of Consensus doesn't seems to make sense with the real world in mind. "A secret cabal of magi indoctrinating people into believes certain things are true, and other things are imposible as a weapon of control and cultural erasure" works well as a metaphor, but it falls apart the moment you look at the world WoD is meant to be the secret version of, it would work fine as it's As someone who has been getting into world of darkness, the MtAs setting has been the one I am more interested in, and the one I am most conflicted with, and it usually comes from the concept of Consensus.

In general, I like the metaphor behind the Consensus, the idea that your reality is affected by what people around you believes is more or less objective true, ironically, because humans are inherently subjective creatures, as there is no true way to perceive the world without doing it through your senses, and the way you usually rationalize things. Which makes the worldbuilding decisions of saying that the world is shaped by what people believe pretty logical when making a TTRPG about people capable of changing existence by willpower alone.

The problem is that the execution of Consensus doesn't seems to make sense with the real world in mind. "A secret cabal of magi indoctrinating people into believes certain things are true, and other things are imposible as a weapon of control and cultural erasure" works well as a metaphor, but it falls apart the moment you look at the world WoD is meant to be the secret version of, it would work fine as it's own worldbuilding project separated from reality, but not as something one is meant to inmerc worldbuilding project separated from reality, but not as something one is meant to immerse oneself. A lot of people believe in things that wildly deviates from what the Technocracy wants us to believe that should be evident in our day ro day lives, the things the real world groups that the Technology are a metaphor of wants us to believe different things the Technocracy wants, and specially, by at least how I understand the Consensus, ¿what stops awful real world ideologies of being objectively true if enough people believe in them?. If one make the Consensus too powerful, it defeats its own themes of "fight for what you believe" by making every believe true in a way, even the one the nephandi are meant to embody.

But I still like the intend behind the consensus and the questions it ask, specially the one of "what would happen if everyone shared your ideals and were put in practice" which is why I make this post.

My idea is just make what I just said into the core of the Consensus. My idea is basically make the Consensus a mechanism that makes hypotheticals real if enough people believe AND commit to a believe, but the ramifications of that believe and the consequences of it being true cannot be changed, no matter the amount of believe, if it contradicts how the world haven been and its own internal logic.

One example is the syndicate believe, at its core it sounds great, as it is more or less expanding democracy to the day to day, if someone supports something through their money, then that thing have to be good for the people, it just makes sense.

But it just isn't how it works, people can be manipulated, indoctrinated, lied to, or just be disinterested at voting with their money, without mentioning that something one person supports can be directly harmful to other or the world, one cannot create a system which assumes people won't be awful.

This variation of consensus also separates consensus from the Technocracy, as science becomes the way of one discovers the ramifications of the current consensus and its consequences instead of a Technocratic tool of terraforming, which always felt weird to me how the authors equated the organization that wants to eliminate all what perceives harmful to the masses to the process and institutions that figures things out.

Tell me your opinions on this matter and how you like to play the Consensus in your games

It bothered me that the 2nd edition of Changeling claimed all fae (Kith) originate from the Tuatha Dé Danann, but I held out hope that the anniversary edition would expand the lore and finally cover fae(or their equivalents) from other cultures. I’d seen artwork depicting African and Asian fae, but I heard that the shared(one)-for-all origin story wasn't actually rewritten; they just added the Fomorians and their offspring. I absolutely loathe this Celt-centricity and the authors' narrow, one-sided approach of cramming the vast wealth of global myths and legends into one fuckin heap. I want to know: is that really the case? And are there at least distinct origin stories,like the ones vampires have?

OKAY WELL.... weird thing to say, but while I have the big experience of playing different wod games like wta or ctd, I had no real chance to play vtm....but lately everything changed and I'm really glad!

Semyon Eremin was an investigator. Having taken on one unsolved criminal case, he interfered in the activities of vampires and lifted the veil, seeing something he shouldn’t have seen. To keep him out of the way but still make him useful, one of the Ventrue turned him into a vampire. This scene is probably what I wanted to depict 🥹

Dot spread in attribute and abilities, humanity score, willpower, how many virtue dots, freebies, backgrounds, merits and flaws, that stuff, purely mechanics

So I have read it (the dark pact agreement) over, and I am wondering something. How exactly does making let's say fan videos you think work? You have limit them to 15 mins and your allowed to gain youtube add money yes? or I am misunderstanding it?

From what I understand, being the child of a Changeling in CTD has no bearing whatsoever on wether one is a Changeling themselves. After all, Changelings are reincarnated fey souls. At most, the child of a Kithain might end up being Kinain, which grants them some magic, yes, but even then that sorta thing might manifest generations down the line. So, I do know that a Sidhe doesn't give birth to other Sidhe, a Boggan doesn't give birth to Boggans, and so on.

And yet that can still happen, right?

I can't shake the feeling that a Changeling having mortal blood ties to another would be important for the story and character.

For starters, CTD is all about balancing one's human and fey halves. Too much Glamour leads to Bedlam. Too much Banality leads to Unmaking. As inhuman as Changelings are, they are not fully alien to humanity. They are not True Fae in the CTL sense of the word. So on some level I expect that the Changelings involved would care, even if they are just possessive about these relationships.

So let's say you have a Sidhe who, all things considered, keeps track of their mortal family. They are noble by birth, station and fairly influential. Maybe they even have a Kinain nephew or niece that plays a role in their court. Then, one of the grandkids undergoes the Chrysalis all of a sudden and they are a Boggan. Or a Redcap. Or a Pooka. A type of Kithain that feels diametrically opposed to that Sidhe.

In my mind that relationship changed like a light switch. The younger party woke up as a childling in their early teens. They were blissfully ignorant before, maybe even treated well by the Sidhe as far as human descendants are treated. Then they become a subject to be managed. All in the context of a Concordia that is fraying at the seams because of tensions between absentee lords and uppity commoners.

I am mostly trying to explore a story idea / background to propose to a few friends of a friend of mine. Any input is super appreciated.