User Profile

[Saur Ops Specialist]

You might not need to use the Possessed rules even if your character is possessed by something. If the character is intended to not inevitably burn out and succumb to a terrible fate, in fact, you probably shouldn't, because that's the intended end result of a Possessed character with Autonomy.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

It depended on the writer. For example, the 1e player's guide had an essay by Andrew Greenberg (a forrmer Vampire developer) about how the Garou were werewolves and being a werewolf meant being an evil bastard who treated others as if they were meat, but his "me and my pack ate this guy" take on the setting seemed like it was on the way out before the essay was ever published. This might have been that most instances of corruption tended to be very, very slippery slopes, so if you had any kind of dealings at all with the enemy or ate even one human, that was it, you might as well just...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

For the sake of the Pulp Fiction reference, yes....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

I have nothing to add, but feel the need to say "Set's dead, baby. Set's dead."...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Worth noting that Hetman Lenurel in Caste Book: Night took a "Why not both?" approach. He explicitly doesn't look athletic, though; padding and a paunch, but he can kung fu fight with the best of them....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Somehow, in spite of the fact that there are hidden wolves in places where they were driven extinct in real life (Hokkaido, for example)....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Wetware fetishes are even older than the Glass Walker book, dating back to the first edition player's guide.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Some intense Read or Die energy, there.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

The cover is indeed an anomaly; she's supposed to be late 20s to early 30s, according to the Making of Exalted 1e Artbook, with Swan the youngest of the circle at mid-20s.

Scroll of Exalts distorts this to make her even younger. I would suggest ignoring it, as it also claims that she was born in the Scavenger Lands and traversed hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to get to Rylea while ignoring all other cities with even larger libraries - her alleged purpose in running away from home - when all other sources have her born in Rylea and never leaving prior to her Second Breath....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

The Thrall of the Wyrm, since it was introduced in 2e, has been a rather overwrought, well-defined section appended to Rage that goes into what could be described as "loving" detail as to how the Rage of the Garou is tainted by the Triatic Wyrms, and that's why Garou born of two Garou rape their enemies from time to time. This is presented out of character, as an objective thing in the setting that definitely exists, and that's a problem, as noted in my prior posts....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Two important points, courtesy of the Revised Storyteller's Handbook:

1 - Cloning a Garou or other changer results in a Kinfolk clone.

2 - Cloning metis or otherwise producing them outside of a living union of two Garou (or two of the same changers that normally have them) is impossible and results in a stillborn fetus.

So whatever chromosomes that Garou born of two have, they can theoretically be cloned and grown in a lab. You won't be getting a viable birth out, though, because of that last sticking point of "requires living, half-spirit mother possessed...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

I adapted a few things here and there, mostly. Some are on the forum, like the Bakeneko Bastet writeup and some Gifts and rites that were less new and more just relatable mechanics that could be bent toward a new end, like a Glass Walker version of the Bastet object-claiming Gift that kicked in for custom-made and prescription possessions....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

I think it's very relevant, because Thrall of the Wyrm frenzies give a very skewed presentation of some themes of the game, and it would probably be better off without them. Let any personal horror come from the uncertainty of what happened in a blackout frenzy, and keep the camera on the PTSD engendered by splatter horror and the general threat of violence being far-reaching, where even elders are not safe in spite of their great relative power. Personal horror is supposed to be a side show anyway; it can be done, but isn't the focus the way that Vampire makes it. And in the end, the games are...

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Though, it's also worth noting that according to the Book of the Weaver, Attribute-enhancing prosthetics and enhancements are far less effective for Garou and other half-spirit types (boosting your Strength by 3 would be a Level 5 fetish, possibly even Level 6) than for beings that just get it as a Device.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Except that pure Triatic spirits of the Wyld and Weaver also have Rage, and some passages in the Book of the Wyld would suggest that unrestrained action is a notable part of it that doesn't depend on the Wyrm. That's also the interpretation of Kunmind for Rokea, though there it's more on the order of "becoming in turn with the mind of potential and possibility itself is not conducive to calm action"....

[Saur Ops Specialist]

In that particular pair of examples, it could be a matter of relatable action or circumstance (intentionally causing technology to stop working) vs. outright magical conjuration....