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[Michael]

Not exactly, however there's a lot that is recontextualised and modified. For example, Convocations are detailed in the Silver Ladder book. 2e alters some aspects of them and makes them far more important, but you still really need the original Silver Ladder book to really get an idea how they work....

[Michael]

Well, it's more that it's described as being rigid and calcified whilst at the same time the Augurs are described as gradually starting to practice magic that falls outside it. It's not a mechanical thing, it's a more general setting element....

[Michael]

It already says that, and they certainly don't think the Pure are the 'good guys'.

les Mysteres only look foolish because we know how the setting is actually supposed to work....

[Michael]

You could limit spontaneous spells to just those written examples. That leaves you a lot of options, but still constrains it somewhat.

It might also be worth laying out precisely what you want from this as a setting element. I mean, within Requiem for Rome, the Veneficia fulfill a quite specific role; like, it's not as good as Cruac, that's kinda the point. However, that sounds like it's not what you're looking for....

[Michael]

You could limit the number of potential rituals. That's more or less what the problem with it is. The Veneficia are a list of prescribed rituals, there no real place for experimentation or growth.

[Michael]

I don't think it's ever been mentioned explicitly....

[Michael]

I'm sure I remember one of the writers saying that it's a deliberate choice. If Irem represents a sort of origin point for cycles of violent conquest and enslavement, as a part of that the Shan'iatu are a sort of primordial patriarchy.

[Michael]

There seems to be a claim floating round that the silver bullet element of the Beast of Gevaudan story is from a 1935 novelisation....

[Michael]

I feel you're overthinking this. I mean, your division of info is really arbitrary. Like, why is knowing the word 'Uratha', an easy piece of info? Whilst knowing that bites don't cause Lycanthropy is much harder? The latter you can easily learn from simply fighting them, the former really would require a fair amount of surveillance or interaction.

Honestly, you were fine with:



The only thing that will matter is if your players will question it....

[Michael]

Maybe you could replace 'soul' with 'gnosis' in that explanation. Sophia and Gnosis could be two aspects of the same thing: the Gnosis is the strength of connection to the Supernal, whilst Sophia is the stability of it....

[Michael]

I more or less agree, though I'm not sure about it not making sense. It's explained coherently enough, it's just maybe a bit contrived, and I mean the same could be said for a bunch of the C&Cs....

[Michael]

The problem is that as you formulated it, you aren't asking if they committed a crime, you're asking if they're 'guilty'. That's probably fine for most cases like theft or what have you, but for more emotive cases like if a mage has died it may well not be enough.

The fiction in the core book is a good example of the problem. The mage being questioned believes she's guilty even after the conspiracy is revealed and she's cleared....

[Michael]

You're describing public health policy, not medicine. Those prevent further infection, they don't cure or even treat anyone. You could certainly put the former under the medicine stat but it's not specialist knowledge.

I do like the idea of vampires having preternatural medical knowledge though, that's neat....

[Michael]

I think it's just the price you pay for a metaplot. Stuff of real consequence needs to happen and that stuff may well cut across what players are using the setting for. You trade constrained game-style for a more vibrant and dynamic setting.

[Michael]

Sure, but it's not exactly a new discovery and it hasn't stopped prison being a wildly popular method of punishment.

I take it that that's more or less Lostlight's original point. Lots of people think in terms of a moral order where proper punishment and vengeance are what matters. The fact that it's socially toxic is irrelevant....

[Michael]

They aren't really meant to, but bearing in mind that a lot of prison systems are de facto controlled by gang networks, that's actually a pretty good metaphor.

Gangs will drain your resources until all you have to trade for protection is your sentence length....

[Michael]

What I'm getting at is that the idea of rich people acting gentlemanly tends to be associated with them not having any money. Like, historically, ideas of taste have been ways to compensate for not being as wealthy as other people.

So in this instance the Old Money hunter who thinks the hedonism of the Abbey is rather tasteless... would probably be the person who can't actually afford it....

[Michael]

The cultured old-money aristo tends to only appear when the aristo doesn't actually have any money.

[Michael]

Are you sure about that Arabic? I mean, there's an entire wikipedia article explaining it as something like 'sons of'. There's also a big list of Arab tribes, of which a lot seem to have the 'Banu' prefix....

[Michael]

I ran a game like that a few weeks ago. I wouldn't worry too much about making them scary. The tension of constant danger will do that very easily....