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[Michael]

Maybe ease off on how often you're adding penalties? I admit I tend to not use them outside of extreme circumstances; failure is more difficult to make interesting.

What kind of situations are we talking here? I mean, in most circumstances you just fail to do something, there's not really a risk.

Also, how intuitively do they know the system? It can be helpful to point out the tricks of the system. Like, spending willpower is not intuitive, it can take a while to persuade players to not stockpile it.

[Michael]

It's worth mentioning that though we know what the Exarchs are, we don't actually know what's driving them so to speak. IM makes a point of stating that even archmasters don't actually ever meet an Exarch face to face (aside from Ministers and even then). There's the Exarch symbol which everyone can see, but who or what entities lies behind the mask isn't clear. I think in that regard there's a definite comparison to be made to the Antediluvians. They're entities that everyone knows about and are really scary but you don't actually know what they're up to.



One might...

[Michael]

Anyone got any ideas what inscribing runes actually involves? Like, what does a mage actually do for a ritual interval? Does a mage spend most of their time thinking about what rune to use before inscribing it?

Or is it that a novice mage actually needs to use more runes maybe? It's takes a gnosis 1 mage 3 hours because they need to write so many runes, and a gnosis 9 mage a minute because they only need one?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if those are mutually exclusive.

[Michael]

You've missed that that's an in-universe perspective. They're partly an expression of the paranoia inherent to the structure of the setting. Even blatant stuff like Ravana rising is actually pretty vague in what it implies. It drives much of Clan Ravnos into frenzy which would perhaps imply it's the Ravnos Antediluvian, but... is it? Why did it turn into godzilla? Why did killing previous Antes not result in the same? We don't actually know. And further, very few in-universe characters are in a position to find out.

Also, you're missing that a big part of Masquerade is the ultimate...

[Michael]

This is kinda what I was referring to by asking what tone or theme we're actually talking about. There's arguably a certain level of 'Dark Christianity' to Lovecraft.

The underlying issue is that Lovecraft wrote stories with quite different styles of horror to them but which refer back on each other and reinterpret themselves. So for example, The Call of Cthulhu does the whole insignificance of Humanity thing straight, then later we get At the Mountains of Madness where we see the same theme again perhaps even more explicitly, but the narrator doubles back on it and ultimately empathises...

[Michael]

The Antediluvians often have a very Cthulhu vibe to them.

That said, it depends a lot on which Lovecraft theme/tone you're going for.

[Michael]

I think it's the way the One-Roll Engine works, which is itself based more or less on the World of Darkness engine.

[Michael]

As far as I know, that's not really accurate. It's the Venetians and the Empire's own internal feuding that brought the crusade to Constantinople. The Pope wanted Jerusalem and was somewhat irritated at what actually happened. Bringing down the Empire opens up Christendom to the Muslims and I gather Christians at the time were well aware of the ramifications....

[Michael]

Depending on the style of game you run, morality?...

[Michael]

I mean, it is a fairly major plot point for the Idigam. Wyrd didn't just make up this connection between moon landings and the Idigam....

[Michael]

Yep, Pg. 503....

[Michael]

I doubt it. It'd be a pretty poor boon if you can only use it when the vampire wakes from torpor.

Plus, taking hostages isn't exactly a great way to earn trust, bearing in mind that it's to be expected that you'd turn over ghouls and dhampirs to someone you already trust to some degree....

[Michael]

Maybe. He's kinda a quasi-mythical figure. Remus is claimed to be the sire of Senex, the actual founder of the Camarilla who himself disappeared into Torpor in like 300BCE, and Remus disappeared at least a century before that. All the stories are written as more or less in-character myths and histories., so whether there was actually a vampire called Remus, and whether he was actually the legendary brother of the founder Romulus are open questions.

There's also some terminological issues which might also have confused any later writer. Remus is claimed to be the first 'Kindred' (or...

[Michael]

Your guess is as good as anyone's....

[Michael]

Well, the story seems to be specific to the Julii. It's oddly written in that it starts by saying all vampires were without a beast, but immediately shifts to just talking about the Founders.

You could maybe infer that the Strix specifically fixed some kind of flaw in the Julii?

(Also, reading the section a bit more, it specifically mentions Rome.)...

[Michael]

Pretty much. Do you believe a Strix or a legend?



That's kinda cheap, it's clearly referencing the Julii. It mentions them living in an underground city and inventing the Masquerade before being wiped out by the Strix....

[Michael]

Sorry. By mentioning SoM in the middle of the sentence after the 'and', it looks like the first half of the sentence is referring to something else.

So, I thought you were saying that there's a general rule of STs not messing with merits, and then SoM is a different rule for relations with other players....

[Michael]

I don't think they are. The actual example in the core book is a retainer being killed by an 'eldritch horror', so presumably the ST not another player....

[Michael]

Who'll do what exactly? Someone saw some guys in SWAT gear, so? I'm sure members of congress get those kinds of reports all the time.



I think that's pretty weak justification. I just don't see any circumstance in which that would work. If you have enough evidence to be asking those kinds of questions, you're not going to be thrown off by that. Equally you could pull the same trick by just putting funding under items, 'Adamski', 'Fort' and 'Twilight' on the budget and no one is any the wiser.



That's an interesting question.

...

[Michael]

The Thrice-Great legacy mentions there being planetary choirs of spirits.