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**Nicolas Milioni** · 02-26-2021, 09:32 PM

What did you think of the Cover?

**CTPhipps** · 02-26-2021, 10:30 PM

Originally posted by Nicolas Milioni View Post

What did you think of the Cover?

I think its a very striking piece of art and certainly attention getting. I prefer THE CHICAGO FOLIOS art, though, because that struck me as a bit more related to the subject matter. It probably was also a better choice than just another cityscape like CBN or The Fall of London.

**CTPhipps** · 02-27-2021, 01:31 AM

Debts Repaid

Type: Fiction

Analysis: I think this should have been called "The Last Ride of Ramrod" even if this would have been a spoiler as to what happens in the book. Basically, despite the Wolf Pack didn't have a write-up within the book, it has the character of Ramrod trying to make amends with his wayward Anarch progeny before he's killed. Interestingly, Ramrod chooses to sacrifice his own life to make sure his coterie survives.

It's a rare happening when a vampire chooses to do the noble thing versus the selfish or cowardly. It's especially notable because it's in 5th Edition where I feel like vampires are portrayed as especially venal as compared to the somewhat more grandiose or tragic characters of previous Editions. I feel like moments of High Humanity or redemption are all the stronger when they're in otherwise dark and dirty settings like the WOD.

In the end, he is assassinated by Duncan MacTavish, who is treated less like a very skilled SAS operative and more like a xenomorph in vampire form. I found that an interesting writing choice as I expected any kills by this guy to be handled by sniper rifle or other trap use versus more direct hand-to-hand attacks. I think this story doesn't have quite enough of a connection to the rest of the book but it's a perfectly serviceable piece of V:TM fiction by itself.

One of the things I like about the Wolf Pack is the fact that they are being used as a kind of weather vane for the changes of the setting in TCF and LTSRR. Basically, they just wanted to be Gangrel loyal to the Camarilla, kick some Anarch heads (but not war with them), and be loyal to the Prince. However, that's just not possible in the 5th Edition environment. They're anachronisms of Second Edition and you can't go home again, which I find a very interesting use for the characters.

In the Modern Nights, the Gangrel have joined with the Anarchs and they're now viewed with suspicion despite a century or so of loyal service. Kevin Jackson fears them and actively wants them dead due to the fact they represent a check on his power (rather than viewing them as a resource). The Anarchs are also sick of the Camarilla's shit and happy to recruit monsters of training to kill them rather than simply get pushed around. It's open war with the Anarchs and Camarilla so its no "fun" anymore.

Still, I would have preferred if the fiction had provided a bit more insight into the actual stories present.

**The Gentleman Gamer** · 02-27-2021, 07:27 AM

As an aside, I believe (from memory) the correct reading order of our Wolfpack fiction is Chicago by Night, Let the Streets Run Red, then Chicago Folios.

**DifferentJustin** · 02-27-2021, 11:00 AM

I’m really curious to see what’s next for the Wolf Pack, as I started to really enjoy their story with these fiction pieces. I hope this isn’t the last time they’ll appear in the fiction.

**CTPhipps** · 02-27-2021, 12:32 PM

Introduction

Type: OOC information

Analysis: The Introduction to LTTSRR is a short little collection of notes that are designed to ease the Storytellers into how to run these four Chronicles. It gives the usual summaries of the sections of the book and their content but what I really enjoyed was the book stopping to address what is a greatly overlooked element of running pre-generated adventures.

Pre-generated adventures are usually believed to be something for new Storytellers and often get a lot of flack from longstanding gamers. Basically. adventure modules are considered to be something that can't be customized to existing adventuring parties due to the variety of player characters that can exist. As such, they have a reputation of being "on the rails" and shallow, which is something that is doubly egregious when dealing with a game that relies so heavily on roleplaying like Vampire: The Masquerade.

I've never agreed with this because I am a longstanding fan of adventure modules. I don't think I've ever missed what the Introduction spells out, though, which is adjust the adventure to the specifics of your group. A well-written module should already be more of a setting book and a series of encounters rather than a straight line of events but you should always be ready to throw out everything that doesn't work in your game.

The book gives a number of suggestions related to moving around the locations, characters, and more of the book. For instance, you don't need to set Innocence in Blood in Milwaukee but could do it with a heavy crackdown by Kevin Jackson (or perhaps a replacement prince like Alan Sovereign or Nathaniel Borduff). You could also set the Gary adventure between any Camarilla or Anarch supporting gang and it would work pretty much the same.

Really, the primary benefit of the pregenerated chronicle is that it provides you aids so you don't have to do all the work yourself. Some of us, after all, have jobs.

So good show with pointing this out as some people needed this pointed out.

**CTPhipps** · 02-28-2021, 12:46 AM

Originally posted by The Gentleman Gamer View Post

As an aside, I believe (from memory) the correct reading order of our Wolfpack fiction is Chicago by Night, Let the Streets Run Red, then Chicago Folios.

I was surprised when I first read this and discovered it took place before. I was glad to see the death of Ramrod, though, as I wanted to see such a key event.

Originally posted by DifferentJustin View Post

I’m really curious to see what’s next for the Wolf Pack, as I started to really enjoy their story with these fiction pieces. I hope this isn’t the last time they’ll appear in the fiction.

I think they do represent great transitional characters. The Wolf Pack are the essence of the Lost Boys meets Blade-esque 2nd Edition World. Having them confused and forced to change by 5th Edition is a pretty good story by itself.

**CTPhipps** · 02-28-2021, 01:02 AM

Chronicle Analysis

How to handle a book that is made up of four adventures, NPC write-ups, and Loresheets is a bit iffy so I'm going to handle this in a different way from my other Where I Reads. Basically, I'm going to analyze each of the adventures through multiple parts that consist of:

* Overviews
* Plot
* NPCs
* Reviews

Hopefully, this will provide the necessary size to justify this thread. There's a lot of content to get here and I'm going to honest that the best parts of this book are probably its building blocks over the plots themselves. This isn't to say the adventures aren't well-written. Along with "The Sacrifice", I think these are the best done mini-campaigns made for Vampire: The Masquerade or any other World of Darkness setting for that matter.

However, I think what's really beneficial from these games is that they're three 1/2 small "By Night" books (and not that small really) and one stand-alone adventure. There's a sourcebook for Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Gary, and the twon fo Willerton. All of which are pretty good places to have your games and offer alternatives to Chicago without being so far that you couldn't use the material for it.

Not every game needs to have one of the world's largest cities as its basis. Indeed, some of my best games have been run in smaller cities where the PCs are capable of being the biggest dogs in town. While I have a great love of Chicago, I think there's quite a few people who'd prefer a book like this with only the outlines of a city and select NPCs.

If they ever are going to update Washington D.C., LA, or New York I suspect it'll be something like this Chronicle book and I'd very much love to buy one.

NEXT UP - POWER PREY PART 1

**CTPhipps** · 02-28-2021, 12:08 PM

Power Prey part 1

Type: Chronicle

Synopsis: Ventrue Ancilla, Walter Nash, enjoys draining women to the point of death then leaving them to live or die based on the will of God. One of his victims has a long and lingering death that drives her father insane.

Unfortunately, for Walter, said father (Paul Sterry a.k.a Redwood) is a man that gathers information via computer. Even worse, Paul Sterry was already equated with the low-level grunts of the Second Inquisition called The Night's Cross. Indeed, it was Walter Nash's desire to bait and play with the vampire hunters that resulted in his daughter being killed. Redwood proves to be a smarter and stupider man than the majority of his kind. Smarter in the fact that he realizes that the hammer and stake method of killing vampires is a dumb way to kill the undead. Dumber in the fact that he decides he wants to play mind-games with immortal predators of the night while he still has a wife and child.

Sending threatening videos to the PCs about their Touchstones and the Masquerade, they must investigate Redwood's blackmail scheme and eliminate him. Along the way, they must decide how to deal with him as well as his co-conspirators as well as family. Eventually, they track Redwood back to his trap-filled murder-mansion and eliminate him.

Analysis: Power Prey is in many ways the most straight-forward of the adventures and linear in its progression but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Giving the player characters a clear goal is never a bad thing and there's very little chance that the players will wander off the beaten track in this game. They're presented with the blackmailing threatening their Touchstones and showing them having violated the Masquerade on video tape. They can't go to the authorities, Kevin Jackson in this case, since his new hardline stance means that he'll stake them as examples of fuck ups before resolving this. It's a nice way of prematurely answering the question of, "Why wouldnr't you get help on this?" No, the Chronicle is one of the ones that works well from Point A to Point Z.

On my podcast with Nathan Siever (Two D Ten), I likened it to a Batman plot. This is pretty much a standard "The Riddler" sort of story where you have the enemy waiting for you to figure out their clues. SAW and Seven are also potentially influences. It being a bit on the "unrealistic" side of things isn't a bad thing as you're playing frigging vampires and maybe it's nice to be a bit stylized once in a while.

I have a few issues with the game like the over-focus on the Touchstone examples at the start and the fact that Walter Nash is a character that is given precious little to do in the actual chronicle (as well as having a weak introduction) but these are minor flaws. This is a very easy chronicle to run and I think is probably the perfect one for a session when you just don't have anything prepared the night before.

One thing I like about the game is that its premise depends on the reality that if you drain someone of "Just before they die" then you're still going to fuck them up rather than if you take a very small sip of blood. Walter Nash didn't kill his victim outright but he did put her into a coma that never awoke from. I think that's something that could actually be used to write Walter Nash off completely if you wanted to instead make one of the PLAYER CHARACTERS into the person who thought they left Redwood's daughter alive and well(ish) but accidentally killed her. Hell, you could keep her alive and maybe make a moral choice over whether to Embrace her or not.

I also approve of both the Night's Cross and the way the ending is described. The Night's Cross is a group that was introduced in The Chicago Folios as a one-shot adventure enemy. Making them the local Protestant Right Wing militia works very well I think. I think introducing new groups like this and expanding on them helps make 5th Edition come more alive. They're also dumb enough that I believe if the PCs wiped them all out it would be both an accomplishment but also believable.

Finally, I give kudos for the ending where the book flat out says, "Well what if the PCs use Potence to climb up the walls and assault Redwood on the top floor instead of going through the murder house?" Then the book says, "Well, then they win." The book says that Redwood has bitten off more than he could chew and it is not ending well for him. There's no attempt to make him an invincible villain like, say, Strahd and the result is better for it.

NEXT - EVENTS

**CTPhipps** · 02-28-2021, 05:25 PM

Here's my podcast on UTILITY MUFFIN LABS. Ignore my pauses and mumbling.

https://utilitymuffinlabs.com/utilit...pps-episode-25

Also a good pair of reviews:

TWO D TEN

STRANGE ADVENTURES

**CTPhipps** · 03-01-2021, 04:31 PM

Power Prey part 2 (Events)

Type: Chronicle

Analysis: Basically, this is a discussion of the specifics of the adventure itself. It opens with a lengthy description of how various types of Touchstones may be affected by Redwood and his blackmail scheme. Honestly, this is one of my two complaints about the adventure: I think this part is too long and the space could have been used better elsewhere. Rather than list various ways and types of Touchstones, it should be more just a summary, "Customize the types of Touchstones the PCs have and how Redwood would blackmail them accordingly." Maybe with a couple of short examples at most.

The other complaint is the fact that Walter Nash becomes involved in the story on pretty thin. Basically, the player characters are stuck in a terrible situation that involves violating the Masquerade and he somehow hears about it before coming to help. I don't think this makes sense because I'm pretty sure most player characters would do their best to keep this in-house. If they're hiding this from the Prince, they're not going to want a scummy Ventrue finding out.

Recommended Fix: Rather than the suggestion in the book, I think a better way for Walter Nash to become involved is to say that he actually tracked down a lead on the blackmailer and followed them to the PCs. That way Walter Nash is genuinely helpful at the start and can open up by saying that he's in the same boat as the PCs. It's an uncharacteristic display of vulnerability that inclines the PCs to trust him. Obviously, he's mostly just up shit's creek anyway, so he's making a gamble that the PCs can help him resolve this and maybe turn it into an advantage.

The second part of the adventure is a mystery/investigation and I'm always fond of those because they're pretty hard to screw up. PCs will go to Point A or B and poke around until they find whatever might lead them to Point C. Redwood isn't a genius mastermind despite his pretensions and has left enough breadcrumbs that PCs should be able to find him. Part of why I like this game is it doesn't pretend that Redwood would ever last long in such a monumentally stupid scheme as blackmailing vampires but he can certainly last long enough to cause some damage.

Recommended Addition: I admit, when I ran Power Prey in January, I actually did modify the adventure a bit by making Redwood have some anti-vampire demands. Inspired by, of all things, Dawn of Justice: Batman vs. Superman, I decided to have the PCs tasked with killing a wight. This was a previous vampire that Redwood assaulted the Touchstones of and drove to madness with his games. Redwood didn't intend to create a rampaging monster and now wants the PCs to clean it up for him. The idea of getting vampires to kill other vampires is Redwood's current plan and while he's not talented enough to pull it off, it makes him seem like a more threatening vampire hunter.

The best part of the "mystery" section of the game is the Night's Cross bar. I love the fact that it's very likely the PCs will wander into a Hunter's bar and potentially expose themselves. Its a perfectly awkward situation that could go down any number of ways. I like the Night's Cross but they're portrayed as hot-headed amateurs in a lot of ways, not the least bit going along with Redwood's schemes of trying to FIGHT vampires instead of killing them.

The third and final part of the Chronicle is the "Murder House" where Redwood has re-done his home as a trap filled vampire pit that, nevertheless, still has his wife and son locked into it. The PCs are capable of handling the location any way they want. However, there's some very interesting twists my players came up with that are worth exploring as alternatives to a urban fantasy dungeon crawl.

* Call the Cops: This wasn't done by the PCs because they were worried about their hostage but there's no reason the PCs can't do it. After all, there's a kidnapping at work and it certainly could provide an interesting distraction.
* Bypass the Dungeon: Redwood assumes the PCs will go past his dogs and then through the front door or back then up to his house. However, a PC with the slightest bit of athletics can just go to the second floor and ambush him in his room.
* Cut the Power: A very good move is that Redwood wants to watch everything and taunt like he's a supervillain. Removing that option and leaving him alone in the dark is a very good thing, IMHO, and something my PCs came up with.
* Set the place on fire: It endangers their captive Touchstone but will force Redwood to come out of his home (possibly abandoning his family) and the Hunters within.

Best of all, the game encourages the reversal of the hunted becoming the hunter. There's still a bunch of Night's Cross Hunters in the house in all likelihood but the PCs can probably dispatch them easily enough. These idiots are choosing to FIGHT vampires when the best hunters would have lured them into the house and blown up the house.

Or to quote Alfred when asked if they ever caught the bandit:

"Yes, we burned the forest down."

Oddly the best part of the adventure is probably the moral issue of what to do with Redwood's family who are aware of his insanity and probably that he believes he's fighting vampires. My PCs wiped their memory and substituted the much more believable, "descended into paranoia [not about vampires] and killed himself." PCs who try to recruit Redwood are making a big mistake as in addition to being rebellious, he's just an asshole. No matter what his justifications.

Recommended Addition: One more addition I made to this adventure was that I felt Walter Nash wasn't in it enough. So, after the PCs kill Redwood, I had Walter Nash show up. Obviously, he's been following them and wanted to let them do the difficult stuff. Nash then proceeds to want to take all of Redwood's vampire blackmail information from his computer servers. He'd like to keep it all to himself but if the PCs are the slightest bit attentive, they will be an obstacle. Walter is willing to share but definitively wants to exploit the Touchstones and other secrets of his fellow Kindred. He'd also be the one to want to keep Redwood alive as a ghoul so he can milk him for all his worth.

By now, the PCs should either have figured out Walter killed Redwood's daughter or he'll simply admit it himself. After all, he's a sadistic asshole who thinks the fact he tortured Redwood mentaly is a good thing. In the end, my PCs killed him which caused them no end of problems later but was a good ending for the story.

**CTPhipps** · 03-02-2021, 11:42 AM

Power Prey NPC: Walter Nash

Type: NPC

Synopsis: An Irish gangster Embraced by Edgar Drummond who has always been a "fringe" member of Lodin's brood, seeking power but never able to actually hold it. He currently controls Chicago's Fire Department and lives in a tacky trinket-filled mansion.

Analysis: Walter Nash is probably my favorite character in the book but I don't actually think that Let the Streets Run Red or "Power Prey" does a great job with the character as he's primarily a background figure to the events of the game. However, he's so well written that I think that he's one of the best ones to lift for other chronicles or write-ups.

Part of what I like about Walter Nash is he's a "scummy Ventrue" and we don't really see that very often. After 1st Edition, Ventrue slowly morphed into the kind of noble knights and genius financiers that we lost some of our alternatives like Jacob Schumpeters or even Lodin themselves. Basically, the books removed some of the sleaze from the Clan of Kings and it got shuffled off to either the Lasombra or Giovanni.

Walter Nash is a throwback to the days when Ventrue are inclined to be more American Psycho and Goodfellas versus Wallstreet and The Godfather. There's a certain level of crude to him that makes him a more effective villain than someone who is a Magnificent Bastard or grandiose in their villainy. Walter is the kind of guy who drinks from a teenage girl, leaves her in a coma, and laughs about it as "revenge" on her father that he barely knows.

Without getting too deeply into politics, Walter Nash is a very relevant villain for the past four years. The kind of under-qualified hanger on with all manner of prejudices that is the perfect foil for PCs and someone that can represent the establishment. I'm a big fan of the PUNK in Gothic Punk and for that you need corpos and big wigs to loathe. While this may seem like an exaggeration, I actually think that Walter Nash would make a decent replacement Prince for Kevin Jackson. He's certainly not in the place to overthrow the current super-competent Prince now but I could easily see KJ losing his crown due to overreach or trying to do his job too effectively.

A reminder that Chicago's Prince has historically been a figurehead position. All it would take would be Critias regaining his spine, a move by "Khalid", or offending Annabelle or Helena to get him replaced as we saw with Joseph Peterson. You could also include the racism of Kindred as a potential mark against the infinitely more competent Prince Jackson.

Suggestions

* I'd add the detail that Walter Nash WAS Prince of Chicago at various times in the game. Specifically, he was the guy that Lodin left in charge during his extended periods of absence to Lodin and other Ventrue strongholds. He bypassed Edward Neally for this and Ballard because NO ONE wanted Walter as Prince. However, Walter eagerly let it go to his head.
* I actually would have Walter speak with a faux English Accent and add "Sir" to his name like the card has because he's just that pretentious.
* Walter and Gordon Keaton should be either good friends or former good friends.

**DifferentJustin** · 03-03-2021, 10:18 AM

I have a hard time seeing Nash even as a figurehead Prince to be completely honest. A lot of his write-up describes him as a complete mess to the point where I don’t think the powers behind the Prince would want to put up with him.

**CTPhipps** · 03-03-2021, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by DifferentJustin View Post

I have a hard time seeing Nash even as a figurehead Prince to be completely honest. A lot of his write-up describes him as a complete mess to the point where I don’t think the powers behind the Prince would want to put up with him.

Possibly, but I also think that Walter Nash has the qualities of a lightning rod that would work well for him. After all, he's managed to survive for almost a hundred years and is the perfect guy to position against the Anarchs and other elements of the city while not being dangerous enough to actually threaten the status quo.

I suppose I see him as a character who works well if you want an antagonistic Prince to the PC's coterie that is theoretically someone they can oppose. However, if you look behind him then note that he's just a figurehead for more powerful Camarilla interests. Easily replaced but the perfect guy to call the Blood Hunts and appoint the Scourges the Harpies would want. Mind you, it might lead to the PCs helping someone like Kevin Jackson or Maxwell retake the throne once he makes his move--and maybe that was what the Elders intended all along.

Genghis Khan would appoint a brutal overlord to do all the unpleasant things needed to conquer a region then take him down to show how magnanimous he was. I always had the theory that this was actually the Camarilla's plan by appointing La Croix in LA. La Croix was never intended to be Prince for long but just long enough for the Camarilla to set up Strauss or whoever they really wanted in charge like Vannevar Thomas.

And La Croix knew it, which was why he wanted to diablerize an Antediluvian and did reckless things like ally with the Kuei Jin.

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[WIR] Let the Streets Run Red (COMPLETE!)

[WIR] Let the Streets Run Red (COMPLETE!)

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