Let the Streets Run Red discussion thread (Now Available!)

[CTPhipps]

Hey folks,

Onyx Path publishing has stated that LET THE STREETS RUN RED is going on for sale this Wednesday! As such, I felt it was time to close the old thread that was made in anticipation of its release and build a new one for those who want to discuss this new and exciting product.

Note that this thread is open to spoilers since it's now released so if you want to be surprised, read the book first.



Source: http://theonyxpath.com/auto-gratifyi...meeting-notes/

This Wednesday Let the Streets Run Red for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition with PDF and PoD versions available on DTRPG!

Politics. Philosophy. War. Brinkmanship. They make a vampire think, feel, and fight for something, whether it be tangible or ethereal. These things give a Kindred meaning.

Whether letting the Beast rage in the gun-happy South Side of Chicago, chasing prey around the Loop, plotting out in Gary, or fleeing the Inquisition into the murky swamps of rural Illinois, Chicago always gives a Kindred an activity or two to fill up their nights.

The one certainty is that blood will flow. It will flow, and the streets will turn red by the dawn.

Let the Streets Run Red includes:

• Four full stories for play over multiple game sessions, each handling a different core theme from Vampire: The Masquerade. These chronicles can be played independently of each other or in sequence.
• Deep coverage of the vampire domains of Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Gary and some of those cities’ undead inhabitants.
• A cast of Kindred with biographies, ambitions, intrigues, links to other characters, and ways to include them in any chronicle, whether as antagonists, a supporting cast, or inspiration for playable characters.
• New Loresheets for inclusion in your game, allowing player characters to start with a foot, claw, or fang already planted in the roots of the chronicles within this book, and beyond.
• Nine ready-made characters so you can start playing any of the chronicles in this book immediately.

Notable Posts

Milwaukee by Night notes by Different Justin
My review of Let the Streets Run Red
My "Power Prey" experience
Chronicle 4: Rusted Jungle thoughts
Chronicle 1: Power Prey thoughts

[Nicolas Milioni]

This one is great. Maxwell is the real mvp

[Penelope]

I can’t wait to discuss it once I read it (probably this weekend).

[CTPhipps]

This one is great. Maxwell is the real mvp

I really liked Maxwell but I have to say I do have a minor complaint about the final adventure. It doesn't seem to have the best climax moment.

* What if the PCs bring the Anarchs?
* What if the PCs alert the police?
* What if the PCs want to fight Maxwell? (But he's likely to easily overpower them)

I feel like they could have made this a better moment by having Sullivan Dane sniping or the police show up or some other way to make it a suitable climax.

I do think, "unstaking Modius and Juggler" is about the only way to even the odds against Maxwell and that's a pretty good "cheat."

[CTPhipps]

ITS OUT, FOLKS!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...rc=LtSRRBanner

[DifferentJustin]

I’ve done a brief skim of the Milwaukee section as that’s mainly what I’m buying the book for and as someone who lives in the area there were definitely some...choices made.

[CTPhipps]

I’ve done a brief skim of the Milwaukee section as that’s mainly what I’m buying the book for and as someone who lives in the area there were definitely some...choices made.

Knock yourself out discussing them. That's what this thread is for.

[DifferentJustin]

The most...interesting choices to me were a few of the locations that you meet Prince Decker in the Black Rose and the meeting in “The Cage”.

The Black Rose was (closed a few years ago) a dive bar right by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that was usually pretty busy but is such a weird choice for meeting the Prince of a Domain in. It’s not a big thing, just super weird to see it happening at a bar that was mostly known for it’s Harry Potter trivia nights.

The Cage though, that one got me. We have a bar in the city named La Cage and as someone who frequented that particular establishment, I can tell you that with 100% certainty that there has never been a live music performance in the three bars in that building unless it was a prop held by a Queen or King for their weekly performance. That’s why I was so excited when it seemed like House Villalobos was based in Milwaukee as that’s the perfect spot for them to call home. The bar did have a really big drug problem before it was shut down, put under new management, and completely rebranded so it’s a perfect spot for Kindred to hang out as is (or even rewinding a few years ago). Calling it “The Cage” though? That cracked me up.

EDIT (EXPANDED INITIAL IMPRESSION):
Making the edit so I don’t double post, but I’m also a little bummed out that we don’t get more of the history regarding Prince Decker’s regime or any stats/write-ups for the returning characters from the original Milwaukee by Night like Lucina, Anastasia, Barth, the Anubi, etc. I was really curious to see how those characters shaped up in the conversion and update between editions.

[CTPhipps]

The most...interesting choices to me were a few of the locations that you meet Prince Decker in the Black Rose and the meeting in “The Cage”.

The Black Rose was (closed a few years ago) a dive bar right by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that was usually pretty busy but is such a weird choice for meeting the Prince of a Domain in. It’s not a big thing, just super weird to see it happening at a bar that was mostly known for it’s Harry Potter trivia nights.

The Cage though, that one got me. We have a bar in the city named La Cage and as someone who frequented that particular establishment, I can tell you that with 100% certainty that there has never been a live music performance in the three bars in that building unless it was a prop held by a Queen or King for their weekly performance. That’s why I was so excited when it seemed like House Villalobos was based in Milwaukee as that’s the perfect spot for them to call home. The bar did have a really big drug problem before it was shut down, put under new management, and completely rebranded so it’s a perfect spot for Kindred to hang out as is (or even rewinding a few years ago). Calling it “The Cage” though? That cracked me up.

EDIT (EXPANDED INITIAL IMPRESSION):
Making the edit so I don’t double post, but I’m also a little bummed out that we don’t get more of the history regarding Prince Decker’s regime or any stats/write-ups for the returning characters from the original Milwaukee by Night like Lucina, Anastasia, Barth, the Anubi, etc. I was really curious to see how those characters shaped up in the conversion and update between editions.

Solid observations.

Mind you, I had my own questions about the Milwaukee section.

Specifically, regarding Parovich.

Prince Decker runs a police state which is the safest place for muggles in the World of Darkness, really, and yet he hasn't dealt with a frigging ELDER WIGHT running around town and presumably killing someone nightly?

[Dwight]

That's what the PC's are for

[CTPhipps]

That's what the PC's are for

Oh, I know, I actually adapted the Parovich hunt to Power Prey with Lucian being the 0 Humanity Methuselah wandering around Gary.

[CTPhipps]

MY LET THE STREETS RUN RED REVIEW:

4.5/5

LET THE STREETS RUN RED by Onxy Path Publishing is a collection of four Chronicles for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. It is a stretch goal from the 2018 Kickstarter for Chicago by Night 5th Edition, a book detailing the supernatural movers and shakers for the Windy City. Basically, for non-tabletop roleplaying gamers, it's a book of four adventures to play as vampires. I've been waiting for this book for a long time, specifically two years, and I'm extremely excited to finally get to dive into its complicated adventure hooks.

Obviously, you need a copy of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition to run this book and it is set in the modern nights. Fans of previous editions of the game shouldn't have too much difficulty converting the adventures, though. The book makes mention of Touchstones, the Beckoning, and the Second Inquisition but none of these things are strictly essential for running any of the scenarios. Mortals that vampires care about, vampire hunters, and so on are all things that existed in prior editions after all. The cities of Chicago and Milwaukee reflect changes to the setting but are these are not strictly rules base. Even the inclusion of the Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, doesn't mean too much because this is still the Set-worshiping cult of evil version. Which is all a roundabout way of saying that people who don't like V5 might still get some benefit from picking this up. Even if you don't plan to set your game in the
American Midwest, you can definitely use the NPCs and adventures as something to adapt for your home game.

The actual crunch in the book is somewhat limited but not absent either. There's some new Loresheets, some Blood Sorcery rituals, and a collection of interesting NPCs to spice up your chronicle. Fans of the original Forged in Steel characters from way back in 1st Edition will appreciate several of their characters make a return appearance. So do characters from Milwaukee by Night. Let the Streets Run Red is capable of being run as a series of four interlinked adventures but really they strike me as best run as standalone or separate Chronicles. There's no central villain or plotline like the One Ring to link them, just a general setting of the American Midwest. This is probably for the best as it's impressive the writers managed to account for as many roleplaying game possibilities as they did.



Indeed, one of the things that makes the book work is that it's actually like one adventure module and four mini-city books. It gives wide-open sandbox descriptions of haunted village Willerton, vampire police state Milwaukee, cult-ruled Indianapolis, and urban warzone Gary. In a real way, the book just presents the situation and characters before telling the players to do whatever comes naturally. This is probably the best way to make a World of Darkness adventure module.

Thoughts on individual sections:

Blood will Flow (fiction): The Wolf Pack continues to have a surprisingly robust life in fiction with this being a short story about how they were hunted by former Special Forces operative Duncan MacTavish. It has a surprisingly touching ending that reminds you that, sometimes, vampires do care about people other than themselves. I feel like it could have involved the Wolf Pack interacting more with the NPCs of the Chronicle and I would have especially loved seeing them deal with Walter Nash or Evelyn Stephens but you take what you can get.

Power Prey (Chronicle): The player characters Touchstones are being blackmailed by someone who knows they're vampires. The players get recruited by Walter Nash, an eccentrically scummy Ventrue who is in the same boat, to track down the fool. My only regret is Walter is such an engaging character I really wished it was revealed he was behind the whole thing somehow. He really could be the next Lodin or La Croix with how much of an obnoxious yet charming ass he is. I feel like the ending could have used a bit more oomph too. Walter Nash is a lot more interesting an antagonist than "Redwood", who is the actual villain at the end and seems like a discount Jigsaw. Despite this, I loved the fact that it incorporates the Night's Cross from The Chicago Folio. They play only a small role in the chronicle but I hope they'll show up in future supplements as a Midwestern Society of Leopold. Despite my criticisms of the villain, this is probably the best of the Chronicles and the one I will adapt first to my home game.

The Dying Fields (Chronicle): The Children of the Corn, The Wicker Man (original only), and The Shadow over Innsmouth are all stories that depend on a central truism: small town people are evil. I can confirm this is true. We all worship ancient prehuman gods and commit acts of human sacrifice. The player characters find themselves trapped in a small town and, for once, aren't the biggest monsters around. I only wish they'd given some actual stats for the Harvest God, spoiling the mystery or not. I like the premise of this book but I honestly wonder if it will work with the fact the PCs are all horrifying superhuman monsters and the locals are mere mortal humans. Then again, the best part of Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is the Oceanview Hotel that has you terrified by ghosts despite the fact you're a vampire. If I were to adapt this, I'd probably have the Harvest God contact the PCs and make offers to be their patron. It seems like a good part of any evil god story should be the temptation. I will say I love the NPCs in this one as the central villain is a deranged hippie New Ager and one of the local biker Anarchs is a an instagram influencer.

Innocence in Blood (Chronicle): A rich man's daughter goes to join an evil cult and said rich man hires a group of shady characters to bring her back. Yes, this classic plot to noir private eye classic Conan: The Barbarian by John Milinus. Except this time the rich man is the tyrannical ruler of a nation and the cult is the Followers of Set (wait, that was John Milinus' Conan the Barbarian too). Okay, you're supposed to rescue Prince Decker's childe from the Ministry cult she's joined. I really liked this one because both option suck and the players are stuck between bad choices. There's a lot of NPCs in these two cities from classic supplements of the past and I liked reading how they were updated for 2020. The two cities are also a great contrast with the city of Milwaukee safe for mortals but a hell for Kindred and the opposite in Indianapolis. Loved the update to Milwaukee and write-up for Indianapolis. My problem with this part of the book is the fact that it doesn't really present much in the way of third options like rescuing the girl to take to other Anarchs or how to talk her out of the evil cult she's joined. Still, it's essentially two mini-By Night books so I'm not going to complain too much.

Rusted Jungle (Chronicle): I'm going to admit this is the reason I backed the book. The update for Gary, Indiana is something that I've wanted since Dust to Dust. We've got updates to Allicia, Modius, Evelyn, Juggler, and Maxwell. There's a war going on for the city of Gary and there's a good question whether it's worth the effort from a Kindred perspective. My only regret is I think the climax could have been bigger with maybe a chance to lead your allies to slay the former Prince of Chicago. I liked this storyline because Gary is a classic Vampire: The Masquerade location and this Chronicle provides enough material to play it as a fully-detailed campaign setting. There's plenty of hints here as to the fates of other characters like Danov, Lucian, Sullivan Dane, and Michael but nothing that's 100% finished. I kind of wish this section had been longer since I would have liked full write-ups on them as well. I think Evelyn is a much better Baron of Gary and leader of the Anarchs than Juggler, so I would have also liked some more conflict there. Weirdly, I also wish they'd included the Torch (Allicia's strip club from the Storyteller's Screen adventure) as a setting in Gary since that was the kind of obscure 1st Edition lore I would have liked to have seen updated.

NPCs: This is a great selection for some reasonably stated NPCs. One of the things that previous editions had a problem with was that they were often far too overpowered to be useful. While I think some of the NPCs are too weak in V5, especially with the lack of 6+ Disciplines, these are much more useful for low-to-mid powered game. I also appreciated stat and character updates for both Modius and Juggler despite neither being interacted with in Rusted Jungle. All of the NPCs are interesting with my favorite being Gabriella, a Nosferatu Twitch streamer who is adapting to being a Hound for the Camarilla now. I also felt the updates to both Allicia and Evelyn Stephens were very well done. What's funny is this includes a collection of gamers, instagram followers, and even a LARPer who could easily be a coterie of geeky undead if all assembled together.



Loresheets: Loresheets have been one of my favorite editions of V5 since their implementation. Vampire: The Masquerade has one of the most complex and extensive lores in tabletop gaming and they allow you to become intimately connected to one element or another. I'm glad they included Modius and Juggler as well, though I think 4 points for Juggler as a Malwa is a bit much. I would have appreciated a little more in the way of Gary Loresheets with the fact that their police department is actively hunting vampires being something that I wished a Loresheet reflected. Another "missing" Loresheet that would have been interesting was a vampire connected to the Harvest God. That might not really fit with the Chronicle within as described but is something I would have loved to have seen done up.

Overall, this is a very solid supplement with a lot going for it. The book expands the representation of Vampire: The Masquerade with several LGBT characters and also pays homage to past editions of the game with numerous classic characters being brought into the modern age. The art of the book is gorgeous and really brings a lot of the characters to life. I think my favorite art pieces are Allicia, Modius (who no longer looks like a joke), Evelyn Stephens, and Keisha Phelps who are all things I'd just love to hang on my wall. This isn't a must-have, necessarily, but the adventures are some of the best I've read for the line and ones I'm definitely going to use.

Available here

[CTPhipps]

I finished Power Prey this week.

The adventure did extremely well with the idea of the player characters getting the job of being the Prince and Primogen of Gary after their leadership vanishes (set up for Rusted Jungle). They got blackmailed by Redwood and their Touchstones threatened. Really, it was a simple enough premise and worked extremely well.

I was hoping that Sir Walter Nash would end up being a recurring character but the players flat out murdered him for getting the whole thing started. I roleplayed him as basically Maxwell Lord
from DC comics with a little Donald Trump and a little sleazy used car salesman. I should have expected my PCs would want to slay him.

I liked the idea that Redwood felt that hunting vampires the traditional way was stupid but setting vampires against vampires with blackmail as well as information warfare would get more results.

He's not wrong but it's not something he could survive once he revealed himself to his targets, even with his obscured identity.

I made a couple of modifications to the game to ramp up the action and also make the stakes a little higher:

1. I moved the Parovich is a wight from the Milwaukee by Night section of the campaign book to Power Prey and had Lucian be the vampire that has gone insane. Redwood is the one who ended up driving the Methuselah insane by killing his touchstones and having him buried alive (before Lucien escaped with his Protean 5). The players are thus left to play clean up duty and get a sense of just how terrifying even a high generation Methusaleh can be when it loses all its humanity.

The players hunted Lucian down to the sewers and put him down but not before a hideous fight that almost left them dead.

2. I had Redwood's daughter be a fully Embraced vampire rather than dying of a lingering coma and blood loss. I liked the idea he's so disgusted by her that it actually makes things even worse. I had her being someone that Walter Embraced and let run wild across Gary, surviving and half-crazy herself due to the Hunger. The players more or less have adopted her and she's become a pretty useful NPC.

3. I had the Night's Cross be an extremist version of the Second Inquisition that doesn't mind collateral damage and has actually been cut loose from the main part of the organization. They're a Far Right-leaning radical religious and white supremacist branch of the group. I've hinted they're being funded by a Kindred the PCs didn't know about (Maxwell). Redwood thinks he's the mastermind but was basically given the information to carry out his mission.

Overall, it was really well-received and the players felt was a really good investigation-based game.

4. I also introduced them to Gary PD that was investigating the Night's Cross as well as Redwood w/ the SAD -- which made an interesting alliance.

[CTPhipps]

Well, we all know what I think of Gary, Indiana and I felt it's finally time to share my thoughts.

1. I absolutely love the expanded backstory that has been given to Gary, Indiana from Baptism by Fire until Dust to Dust and finishing with 5th Edition. I really enjoyed Rusted Veins and I feel it's a shame that it's not available for download on White Wolf's website. That was an awesome adventure where Modius is trying to get a vessel that allows someone to become invisible due to resonance.

This proceeds to say that after that, he used Sullivan Dane to wage war against his enemies and when that came out, Modius was considered a persona non grata among Kindred. He was overthrown by Allicia, Juggler, and Evelyn to deliver the city firmly into the hands of the Anarchs. Then Maxwell takes them both out.

2. I think Evelyn Stephens being the Baron of Gary, Indiana is a much better choice than Juggler and is a much more interesting character for the city. Her being the brother of the police commissioner who is a vampire hunter puts her in a very interesting position. She also makes an interesting contrast to to Maldavis and Anita Wainwright in that she has many of the best qualities of both. However, it's interesting that she seems to have a very weird take on Maldavis. Maldavis is terrified of military action due to the horrors of the Council Wars while Evelyn thinks she's a violent warmonger. My theory? I think that she is going by JUGGLER'S impression of Maldavis that is decades out of date.

3. I'm not sure about the big role of Modius and Juggler when I kind of wonder if it shouldn't have just been better to give them both the Final Death or leave them out. It's not that I don't love Modius and Juggler but I think Allicia and Evelyn can both take over their roles. It's also a symbol of making a break with the past. I think it might have been a better decision to leave them as just a pair of Loresheets. YMMV. Like if Joker is freed, I'd like to see Evelyn unwilling to give up "her" Barony.

4. I really like the update to Allicia as her regaining her voice in order to sing is a good sign for her while also supplementing her disability with texting. I also like the fact that she is is now connected to the Formor families of Pentex that offers some interesting chances for crossover. I also like the fact she's adopted a little girl is also an interesting angle. Call me crazy, I also like that she has a non-traditional romance with her stocky geek Malkavian boyfriend (but I may be a wee bit biased).

5. Lucian getting Beckoned is something that was pretty much inevitable as he was always a little weird being a 2000 year old 8th generation vampire that wasn't, I dunno, Prince of whatever city he wanted. Still, as you see with my above Power Prey usage, I was rather mean to Lucian in my campaign anyway. Danov leaving is also perfectly appropriate but he makes a good narrator. I wonder who Charlie is, though, since he seems to be identical to Michael but with a different name and a slightly higher generation.

6. Arthur the LARPing vampire is awesome. He and Gabrielle need to do a Twitch-stream Revenant: The Ravishing 5th Edition of Chicago by Night.

7. I do have one small complaint about the final confrontation with Maxwell in that it seems like it's somewhat undramatic if they don't plan to join him as he's likely to attack them and if they attack him, their only real option to win is release Modius and Juggler that are as likely to attack him as well. I think a better bit would be to have the Anarchs or Gary police show up to bail them out for an even bigger fight. The only problem there is that the "big fight" has already happened with the Loyalists vs. the Anarchs.

8. SULLIVAN DANE IS ALIVE! WOOT! Having him contact the PCs and help kill/stop Maxwell would also be a good one. Particularly if he can provide sniper support.

[Penelope]

CTPhipps this is great!! Super busy with rl stuff but can’t wait to read my copy.