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[Mister_Dunpeal]

Some 'fact's for Gorilla strength including Silverback.

I'd take it with a grain of salt though since 'strength' can represent a number of different qualities (not just how much you can lift at any given time, but lift and carry over a prolonged period, etc.) but it can also be variable depending on musculature and arm arrangement (human and gorilla differ here significantly IIRC) but also the kinds of muscle fibers and the numbers 'recruited' to be used (its not always muscle mass.)

Remember too that there is upper and lower body strength. Someone with strong legs can...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

I'm not sure I'd call it propoganda. I mean yeah he's passionate about selling his ideas, but I don't think thats any different from anyone else on this board? There are plenty of passionate people about the game (and other systems) and it manifests in alot of ways. Just because he favors one style doesn't mean he's not open to other ideas (Heck I've argued with him on it a fair bit in this thread and elsewhere - I have different ideas yet he's never rejected them out of hand.)

He's also never made it secret that he's got very specific ideas about how VtM and the WoD in general...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

Vampires and Gehenna are cyclic, but they're part of a process of entropy and renewal as the 'cycle' starts anew. Things stagnate, reach a limit and eventually have to break down to become fertile soil for something newer (and perhaps better) to grow. Ironically vampires are seen as part of this process (Maybe the First Murder altered God's plans, or gave him a different/interesting idea in how Creation should run) - rather than being a parasite or blight (as Garou see them, or others might see themselves) they're in theory a natural part of the process just as humans might be tied to the...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

One idea for the creator I've been toying with since reading more of DtF lately is that when God 'struck' the world in retribution for the Fall and humanity picking Lucifer, God might have been 'contaminatd' with the perfection of creation (and the nothingness it was supposed to protect God from) and that he became 'corrupted' in turn - perhaps even shattered. That might explain why (in Hunter and Demon terms) why God (and th angels) seem absent. The angels could either simply have ceased to exist/die (without god to empower them) or perhaps becam psychopomps/anakim (although IIRC the Ascension...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

One idea might be related to learning how Thin Bloods (And dhampir) can learn linear magic/sorcery (and still have in theory the potential for thaumaturgy if they had a teacher, as per time of thin blood) That's something that the Tremere would be very interested in exploring (as linear magic has more in common with vampiric thaumaturgy than sphere magic) and they might learn new and interesting ways to play around with blood sorcery. Or at the very least, develop new magical weapons/cannon fodder to throw against their enemies.

i've always wanted to see some sort of revenant/ghoul...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

Anarchs would probably be more in line with asymmetric warfare (guerillas, or terrorists) but they'd be limited in scale without a higher, more complex level of command and control (you'd just have a bunch of isolated mobs and gangs operating independently, but it would be challenging to coordinate and direct those mobs in a coherent manner in terms of a battle or war) The Camarilla by virtue of its greater organization and scale would be better suited towards warfare at the operational/strategic level. It doesn't mean that Anarchs CAN'T learn to be that (obviously they did to take over...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

Vampires by nature as I recall were SUPPOSED to be wyrm tainted, and that should include Koldunic sorcery. I think one could argue that it's not a a Bad/corrupted form of Wyrm 'taint' though, reflecting more the original purpose (as noted above its more 'elemental' and 'natural' in many ways, even if it has the potential to be abused or corrupted.) Garou probably wouldn't ever make such a distinction given their biases towards Vampires, but it needn't be either/or....

[Mister_Dunpeal]

If there was one thing I would change for the V20 Foundation/pillar adaptation is to have fount so it was more in line with Avatar ratings (or the Mana rating for some sorcerers from WoD: Sorcerer) It just felt odd that an archaic mage would somehow accumulate or use more quintessence than a modern mage.. in the same timeframe. Even if the methods are more archiac and less flexible than spheres I don't think it would explain that discrepancy. (or you could go the other way and allow Avatars to behave more like Founts from Dark Age: Mage)

Edit: Also Dataweaver I think I kinda see...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

There's lots of ways you can expand power without necessarily adding more dots. being able to have multiple verisons of power per dot. You could also go back to having dots in certain powers add to attributes, but more in a way like archspheres did for mages (you could have 'bonus' dots in social and mental attributes too depending on the attribute. Auspex doing perception or intellect, Protean appearances, Presence charisma, dominate manipulation, etc.) having multiple powers for a given discipline and dot level also means you can do more amalgam powers (and possibly more complex combinations.)...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

I'm pretty sure either the storyteller handbook or companion had 'alternate' rules for how edges could be allocated or selected, and one of them allowed for more open ended acquisiton than what the HtR Core rules implied, so if the Storyteller agreed I think that would be allowed....

[Mister_Dunpeal]

It's worth noting that 'Imbued in other Revised game systems' was a bit odd. For example in Werewolf they were depicted as having flaming weapons that could do aggravated damage plus one die. But in Mage Revised they just charged their weapons with mystical energy (two extra die of damage - their cleave analogue but no 'using up' the weapon). Demon the Fallen had a more detailed writeup (because DtF and HtR seem like they'd make a better system paired together..) but cleave inflicted aggravated damage with no damage bonus. Mummy had the imbued imitating powers from Hekau (only more subtle,...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

I love Pillar and Foundation too, but I think they are harder to implement in more modern mage because the route to Ascension logically progressed to a more standardized approach to magic. It's value seems to be in a intermediate step between Linear and Dynamic magic (because Foundations and Pillar contain elements of both which is one thing I like about it) or it can reflect a different way to get around some of the (over-rated IMHO) complaints about mage-hybrids (which is what V20's Black Hand book went with and works really well.)

I know there's at least one floating around that...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

Having spent my diminished free time when I could re-reading some of DtF stuff, I've been kinda interested in how they tried to implement Evocations and rituals (sort of a poor man's Mage.. or probably closer to Changeling's system) I suppose if you wanted more flexibility you could do what Demons did since there are some similarities between Lore Evocation and Thautmaturgy....

[Mister_Dunpeal]

I always thought of the pre-amalgam Combo disciplines (and thus Amalgams) as something akin to either blood magic (and the methods of creating that) or the inceptor power to make new disciplines that really old, really young and Caitiff vampires had. Basically you're creating a new/different/interesting implementation of an existing skill set, and there's going to be a need to practice to refine it (hence an experience cost.) It doesn't have to follow a strict hierarchy (each person could devise their own approach to achieving that particular combination) which apart from the XP costs would depend...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

As I mentiond previously I wanted to see Caitiff and Thin Blood/Duskborn sort of merged as concepts, but with more flexibility in how they could be created. The general idea is that the curse of Caine could mutate or fail/weaken in myriad ways, and each Thin Blood/Caitiff/Duskborn could mainfest their own particular sets of advantages or disadvantages (although you could still have bloodline-like familes or groups evolve similar sets of traits) It wouldn't necessariyl be just teh weakened disciplines, or the inability to make ghouls or blood bonds or increased BP cost, but it could be things...

[Mister_Dunpeal]

Yeah. The higher level discipline stuff seems to be a remnant from the earlier days (2nd editon systems) whereas with Revised and such they wanted to move away from that (and most of the subsequent ones moved away from stuff like Elder/Methuselah disciplines, Archspheres, etc.) Attributes might still get to high levels (see MtR and their powers tied to hekau and/or their Balance score) but as far as special power go they capped at 5 in most cases like abilities (Demon and Hunter primarily, though Mage Revised moved away from Archspheres. Although again Mummy seemed to be the exception here...