Dark Eras 2 Backer Release

[Kvark]

The PDF preorder, yeah? Sorry for the many questions, I've not participated in a Kickstarter in many years.

For those who are interested, I just went through the process. You'll go to this link: https://chronicles-of-darkness-dark-...sted_preorders , then order the PDF pre order, then after you pay you'll get a link to make the $0.00 purchase on Drivethrurph, and after completing the purchase there, you'll get the digital download of the advance PDF.

[Taidragon]

This has a price and the price is it's useless on land, it's a trade off on utility instead of resources. If it was spend glamour to use these abilities it would be awful, this keeps it balance. They made it clear their would be exceptions for just this sort of circumstance. I see it less as inconsistance, and more using the loophole that was intended for just this sort of circumstance.

You have absolutely no idea how low a bar of entry "Kith Trickery is useless outside the niche it's designed for, so thus doesn't need any resources, die rolls, restrictions on how many times it can be used or other circumstances for activation" is, do you?

Originally I was fine with leaving the Nymph kith as written to be just something of an outlier and something I'd recommend changing, but now that I've been told that it's totally balanced and fair with how all others are written four times in a row, I've taken to thinking this over more closely.

Of the official 18 Kiths presented, including the six introduced in Dark Eras 2, 12 of them are absolutely useless for their Trickeries if they're left alone, 10 of those can't even use their Kith Blessings if alone, six of these can't use their Trickeries if among friends because they're detrimental, and one only affects humans. All of them barring the Playmate and Notary Kiths require Glamour and a die roll to activate, and only the Notary is without needing glamour at all - notably, both Playmate and Notary are Kiths that benefits others.

Mirrorskin is a Kith that allows a Changeling to change their Mask and even Mien to become a composite of those the Changeling has encountered and seen in pictures. This requires a point of Glamour (two if the Changeling wants to affect their Mien as well), a reflexive Wits + Subterfuge + Wyrd roll and lasts indefinitely... and has to be used again if the Changeling wants to look like their normal appearance again.

Dryad is a Kith that requires large foliage at the bare minimum to use their Kith Blessing and Trickery, only to remain perfectly hidden when still and adding their Wyrd to Stealth rolls when they are moving. This power requires a Glamour and at the very least a large foliage, something that can range from "easy to find" to "where in the concrete jungle am I supposed to find a single shrub big enough to hide behind with any level of usefulness".

Nymph as currently written allows the Changeling to choose between having a tail or legs, swimming at double their speed, "Magic" that lets them breath air and water equally well, and no penalties for using weapons or performing complicated tasks underwater. All of this is without any form of duration, resources required or number of times it can be used in a turn/scene/session/story; even choosing between a tail or legs doesn't have any conditions on it beyond "[they] last until he wills them away". If this is truly the bar of entry for a free Trickery, then all the Kiths above need some very serious reworking as well as the rules I quoted earlier. As it stands the Nymph Kith is actually pretty grossly overpowered for granting Contract level powers without any requirements for upkeep, especially if combined with actual Contracts that augment the Changeling with weapons or increased speed/damage (Talon And Wing springs to mind).

Now that I have gone over my research, I shall no longer be looking to discussing the Nymph Kith as written simply because I am losing my patience for the topic. When I wrote that the Nymph Kith was "weird" it meant "unusual, a departure from the norm, strange", not "overpowered" as a certain poster has presumed and has continued to emphasize. Is it petty to go this in-depth on the topic? Most likely, but, as noted, my patience is being very sorely tried.

My apologies for everyone else getting this argument over a small part of a much larger book, in a thread meant to be excited about the Dark Eras 2 book and how much closer it is to release. I had hoped to inspire a more constructive conversation, but it seems all I've done is gotten myself frustrated.

Edit: I will be the first to say I went way too aggressive in tone, and my argument is flawed (being alone isn’t equatable to being underwater). As such, I would like to apologize for the tone of the above post and for taking the discussion too seriously without sending an errata ticket (which has been done now). I stand by what I was trying to convey, however - the difficulty in finding an underwater scenario is not so hard and concrete that the Kith’s Trickery deserves to be without resources, an activation die roll, explicit duration, restricted activations during a particular frame of time, and or other conditions in order to activate. It doesn’t need all of the aforementioned traits, naturally, but something to balance it would help prevent setting a bad precedent for future Kiths when the initial Kiths have been noted in being... restrained compared to others due to their own costs/restrictions, and for far fewer benefits.

However, it is in the dev’s hands now, and if they leave the Nymph Kith as is, I won’t argue about it. I won’t like it, but it will be what it is.

[Kvark]

Eh, just wanna take the time to say both your passion on the subject and the introspection are welcome.

There's a bit in CtL chapter 7 that talks about adjusting the blessings to be more or less powerful based on how frequently they'll come up in your chronicle. I think this is just an example of that with Trickeries. If water is going to be more prominent in your setting, then maybe you need to add a cost or remove benefits. If you're setting your chronicle in downtown Dallas, it's probably fine as written because it's not going to come up so often.

[Taidragon]

So, to get this thread back on course, I really like the new Agendas for Demons in The Reign of Terror; they fit for the setting but can very easily be transposed into the modern era (though Augustinians may be a bit of a mouthful and oblique in a modern era). Nice array of effects and attitudes that blend well with the other Agendas, and can create some real nuance with the Multiple Agendas merit (though as it stands the base agendas can also give a lot of nuance). If I were to run a game of Demon I would have these be in the modern setting, with perhaps renaming Augustinians into something more modern like “Archivists”. Not sure.

I am also coming around to the new Pact options in The Empire Of Gold And Dust. Pacts that follow the generations, ones that affect memory specifically and even a way for someone to buy another’s freedom from a Soul Pact by taking their place are really cool ideas, as well as the Stigmatic merit that goes with them. Really cool ideas at play here.

[Grimmi05]

I think the french Revolution is my favorite from the new agendas to the new covenant that I would like to bring to the modern era( I think them and carths will get along very nicely.) I think its the all around best chapter in the whole book and that I would like it to expanded into its own book is very telling to the quality of writing. Kudos to whoever wrote that chapter.

[White Oak Dragon]

I am also coming around to the new Pact options in The Empire Of Gold And Dust. Pacts that follow the generations, ones that affect memory specifically and even a way for someone to buy another’s freedom from a Soul Pact by taking their place are really cool ideas, as well as the Stigmatic merit that goes with them. Really cool ideas at play here.

I’m glad that you like them.

[ArcaneArts]

I'm in the first transition point of Arthur's Britannia, and I can't shake the feeling Arthur somehow has a Title and that Camelot is something of a bent point between Ironside, Hedge, and Arcadia.

I doubt the book'll warrant that, but it's something I might play with, and while I like the idea of Arthur as a pure mortal, I'm also minorly curious what his being Beast* would mean for the story and the context beyond.

*No, the era doesn't suggest the possibility at all, but the unshaking feeling of warped ideological spaces makes me wonder if I would play it that way in a game of my own, and how I'd ultimately lay that sort of stuff down.

[Raz_Fox]

Still working through this hefty tome, which is delightful for bouncing through non-chronologically. I’ll echo the praise for the French Revolution, which thus far has been the standout Era.

That said, does anyone else feel that the Hunter section in Arthur’s Britannia feels atonal? Both Changeling and Vampire dovetail neatly with the Dark Monmouth treatment of the Era, but the opening for Hunter feels almost Pythonesque. The emphasis on the superstitious and ineffectual peasantry, combined with the cursory mention of how the Roman withdrawal actually affected British life, is jarring.

And that’s before we get into the Order of the Black Knight and the plate armor forged out of the Pair Dadeni, which seems taken from a different draft entirely from the rest of the Era.

(That said, I do feel a distinct fondness for the Hands of Tyr. The invocation of Gleipnir is perfect.)

[Meghan Fitzgerald]

I think the french Revolution is my favorite from the new agendas to the new covenant that I would like to bring to the modern era( I think them and carths will get along very nicely.) I think its the all around best chapter in the whole book and that I would like it to expanded into its own book is very telling to the quality of writing. Kudos to whoever wrote that chapter.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it--I will let the writers know!

[glamourweaver]

Loving everything here. I think my only slight disappointment is the lack of new Conspiracies in the Last Imperials - but I’m guessing that’s because it was being written while HtV 2E was in the works and they wanted to avoid things falling as out of sync as the Changeling chapters in the first Dark Eras books.

Worth maybe a Storyteller Vault expansion after HtV 2E’s release.

Of course I still need to do my home brew expansion for To the Strongest and Sundered World Legacies...

And my Qin Dynasty Vampire setting

And Vigil for Rome

And Underground Railroad Changeling

And Haudenosaunee Hunter

And Meiji Restoration Werewolf/Changeling

And Book if Judges Mummy/Hunter

And Dante’s Italy Geist

And expand Three Kingdoms with Dead Domains

And Bronze Age Collapse Beast

And update Dogs of Sumer to be set pre-Oath of the Moon with that as a looming event.

And Maya Empire Mage


.... ....... ............

[wyrdhamster]

glamourweaver, you will get there. We all love your fan stuff here! And I gladly help with any of that if you return to the projects.

[wyrdhamster]

Late to this topic - but here is Errata Form for those that find some omissions or problems with now version of text - form is saddly closed.

[wyrdhamster]

Slight off-topic, but related - Are we getting the Dark Eras 2 Companion? Or those are all the DE settings we will get?

[nofather]

Slk
ght off-topic, but related - Are we getting the Dark Eras 2 Companion? Or those are all the DE settings we will get?

No Companion. During the first Kickstarter too many eras were reached to feasibly put them in one book (unless you wanted it to fall apart when you opened it) so the Companion was made to fit them (at least as I understand it). This time there was enough for one book worth.

[Eldagusto]

Was the Physical copy released already or just the PDF?