Spectral Hunger now up on the Storytellers' Vault

[Acrozatarim]

I'm not sure on the etiquette around Storytellers Vault products on the forums - mods, if this post is a problem, please do remove it!

So, I've just uploaded Spectral Hunger to the Storytellers Vault, a short supplement for Vampire: the Requiem Second Edition. Ghosts, spirits, and the malevolent Strix all plague the Chronicles of Darkness; the contents of Spectral Hunger offer Kindred the tools they need to meddle in such ephemeral matters. It presents one new Discipline and two new Ordo Dracul Mysteries, including Devotions, Scales, and Merits. You can find it at:

https://www.storytellersvault.com/pr...pectral-Hunger

If you do decide to pick Spectral Hunger up, please do leave a review - and let me know what you think of it in this thread too! I'm happy to discuss the contents here.

[Vent0]

Haven't bought/read yet, but what of the other Ephemeral types?

Goetia/Dreamborn seem less likely to be encountered... but not entirely impossible, for any Vampire that seeks to delve deeper into the mind than most. Ferreting out secrets of kine and Torporous Kindred alike.

Angels seem prefect for meddling with the Lancea Et Sanctum. Or Ordo Dracul, what with Wyrms Nests and Infrastructure. And Strix have been know to disrupt Occult Matrices. Also an opportunity to update the Holy Engineers.

[Primordial newcomer]

just finished reading and now have two questions.

1. when a spirit is ghouled, what happens to their nature? it seems a spirit of love wouldn't be changed at all, but say one anger or independence would have a crisis as a ghoul

2. the game states vampires can be Claimed. is this a change from 1st edition, where supernatural templates could not be claimed

[Acrozatarim]

Haven't bought/read yet, but what of the other Ephemeral types?

Goetia/Dreamborn seem less likely to be encountered... but not entirely impossible, for any Vampire that seeks to delve deeper into the mind than most. Ferreting out secrets of kine and Torporous Kindred alike.

Angels seem prefect for meddling with the Lancea Et Sanctum. Or Ordo Dracul, what with Wyrms Nests and Infrastructure. And Strix have been know to disrupt Occult Matrices. Also an opportunity to update the Holy Engineers.

Goetia are a tricky one, yes. On the one hand, they resonate quite well with the notions of self and Beast, etc, and might come out to play in stories focusing on a vampire using Dominate or perhaps Auspex to delve into the mind. Unfortunately the lack of normal means for Goetia to manifest in the world at all means it'd need a lot more work than 'here's a new Discipline/Mystery/blood sorcery rite', I suspect.

Angels are certainly much more accessible by comparison. I can see them having roles in all manner of cult - including the Crone, to be honest - and the enormity of the God-Machine is something such that I think there's a lot of mileage in having vampires do the blind-men-and-elephant thing in their interactions with it.

I suspect there's possibly something interesting that could be done with the Contagion and its effects re Infrastructure etc, but obviously that's something I can't really talk about until the Contagion Chronicle comes out :P

What other ephemeral entities are there? Supernal beings, but my personal preference would be to veer away from them with a Requiem game. Amkhata from Mummy, they were sorta-ephemeral beings, although quite specific and narrow in their nature - could be good for a focused bit of content but not widely applicable, I suspect. Any others I'm forgetting?

just finished reading and now have two questions.

1. when a spirit is ghouled, what happens to their nature? it seems a spirit of love wouldn't be changed at all, but say one anger or independence would have a crisis as a ghoul

2. the game states vampires can be Claimed. is this a change from 1st edition, where supernatural templates could not be claimed

Indeed, it's likely that for a ghouled spirit, the experience could instigate a crisis. Less so for spirits closely resonant with vampiric nature, of course.

As for Claiming vampires, there's nothing I can find in the 2e ephemeral rules indicating supernatural beings can't be Claimed. Honestly, I used Claimed supernatural beings in 1e as well, rules be damned; Claimed Kindred made for some entertaining antagonists with unexpected capabilities in more than one of my chronicles.

[Primordial newcomer]

thanks for the answers! would it make sense for a spirit having the possibility of becoming a magath due 5o trying to get pass being a ghoul

also, the strix coils are definitely good for roleplay. the scale, blood shadow purge, exemplifies this being a nuclear option on achieving anything. what do you think strix would think of vampires creating them

[Tessie]

For Goetia I think you first need to lay the groundwork for working with the Astral. That sounds very much like an Ordo Mystery rather than anything else, with a Coil that first allows Astral journeys into the vampire's Oneiros (or through Wyrm's Nests/Synesi to other places) and later can be used to reconnect the vampire to the Temenos. A Coil that deals with Goetia specifically would be secondary, like how Coil of Quintessence is a secondary Coil in the Mystery of the Voivode. Even if you don't want to put in all that work, my group and I would love to hear any ideas you might have since we're actually working on the first part for our current game.

The only other second edition ephemeral entity that is left (other than permutations like Geists, idigam, larval horrors, void spirits, etc) are Chthonians.
Among the entities that use similar rules you've already covered Strix and mentioned angels. Other than that I can only think of Hedge Ghosts, Pangaeans and Qashmallim.

2e doesn't have a general rule limiting template stacking, and Claimed aren't created as a template as much as just changing whatever it is that is Claimed. I think the text says humans even in non-blue core books, but I agree that Claimed supernaturals are much more interesting than just saying no.

Quick edit: Noticed that the rules for Claimed does include Supernatural Tolerance in the contested dice pool, and they were written long before the Supernatural Resistance Merit in Hurt Locker meaning it could only refer to major splats at the time of writing.

[falco1029]

I like most of the content, but feel like the new Discipline doesn't build on itself like most 2e ones do, the powers all feel a little separate, but that might just be me. But for instance, Dominate's higher levels revolve around the Mesmerized condition imposed by level 1, and Majesty affects people under the effect of Awe or that have had certain conditions inflicted by its lower levels.

Also, the text needs to be Justified in alignment.


On another note, re: the thread's topics, I've written up a Coil that lets a Dragon create an "Oneiros" for themself that's under their control and allows them to summon other goetia to make bargains with, as well as filling up their skull with goetia-alikes of their own (including a Beast) that don't take kindly to intrusions. It's in my Pact homebrew (which I should really clean up, add to, and submit to the Vault once the games in it are all unlocked).

And yeah, in 2e nothing stops supernatural creatures from being Claimed for the most part, past potentially not allowing it for those already hosting something else in their mind/soul (Beasts, Sin-Eaters).

[Primordial newcomer]

thinking over it, yall are right, nothing about immunity to claiming for 2nd edition. as for the discipline powers building up on each other, I think the new one works well. it's all about interacting with the dead, and it builds up on that all the way into actually entering twilight itself

[Acrozatarim]

I like most of the content, but feel like the new Discipline doesn't build on itself like most 2e ones do, the powers all feel a little separate, but that might just be me. But for instance, Dominate's higher levels revolve around the Mesmerized condition imposed by level 1, and Majesty affects people under the effect of Awe or that have had certain conditions inflicted by its lower levels.

It's a fair criticism. I'm not too concerned; not all the 2e Disciplines build up like that, and it's having to grapple with a fairly broad topic where many Disciplines are far more specific in their application.

Also, the text needs to be Justified in alignment.

I hadn't even noticed - well spotted! It's not an urgent issue but I might take a look at whether I can do so without mucking up the rest of the layout if I end up making any other changes. I'm not sure I'd agree that it *needs* to be justified - it's just a stylistic choice - but certainly worth me keeping in mind.