User Profile

[Bluecho]

No, they are Chaoscopic Cameras, an explicitly distinct (read: ficitonal) technology in the World of Darkness, first developed for detecting ghosts. The US government, who developed them, didn't know they were ghosts, just as they don't know the vampires and ghouls they detect are vampires and ghouls. They think wraiths are aliens from another dimension, and vampires are their body-jacking agents on this plane of reality. But the government can identify them nonetheless. The rationale being that the Chaoscopes detect, essentially, entropic signatures.

V20 actually makes the comment...

[Bluecho]

145) The PC Amalgam has been assigned to the escort detail for a corporate big wig, who is a major bankroller for the Technocratic Union. The unEnlightened business man expects assault from Reality Deviants, though he's tight-lipped about the details. Nonetheless, the Union needs his continued contributions, so high-ranking Syndicate men have insisted on the extra security. Moreover, for whatever reason, the big wig required Enlightened agents to be part of the escort, not just Extraordinary Citizens.

What the PCs won't discover until they're staring the Reality Deviants in the face...

[Bluecho]

497) Phantom Tick Tock [Flaw]: A not uncommon backlash afflicting users of Time magick, this Flaw first appeared alongside the mass proliferation of clockwork technology. Many technomancers in the Order of Reason documented experiencing this phenomenon, but superiors were quick to chalk it up to faulty mechanisms, or the character "having clocks on the brain", and such incidences were papered over in official records. These days, Etherites committed to clockwork technology are the most commonly afflicted. The Flaw causes a persistent ticking sound to follow the mage wherever she goes....

[Bluecho]

I'm honestly getting sick of hearing "just house-rule it!" as a bludgeon to shut down criticism of V5. It's not helpful for the discussion of the system AS WRITTEN.

[Bluecho]

158) A Ventrue who fancies himself a "Grudge Eater", after his feeding restriction; he must feed on those who hold hatred in their heart, longing for revenge.

The Ventrue keeps tabs on various parts of society. Every evening begins with a check through the news, looking for disasters and crimes. Those left behind after a car crash, or those who lost loved ones, may harbor animosity in their hearts for the ones responsible. Especially when those responsible - or who are thought to be responsible - appear to have escaped justice. The Ventrue keeps an ear to the ground in other...

[Bluecho]

Regardless of ownership or brand matters, this is still kind of a problem for the overall edition. As Herbert_West said, there's no dedicated social space directly connected to either Paradox or White Wolf, where fans, customers, and prospective customers can talk about the game. This forum here, that belongs to Onyx Path, is the only "official" forum space V5 has.

That's a problem from a word-of-mouth standpoint. The places where folks can go online and talk about the new edition are limited - meaning you don't get positive feedback loops of drumming up interest - and the...

[Bluecho]

Indeed, all instances where non-vampire, non-ghoul supernaturals are given powers in terms of vampire Disciplines, it's the books attempting to approximate those abilities in a way that is immediately recognizable to players and storytellers who are ONLY working from Vampire books. The actual powers possessed by said supernaturals are often - in their own splat books - more complicated, or refer to different uses of said powers. Moliate being simulated with Vicissitude is only one example.

As such, take such descriptions with a grain of salt, and use your best judgement on what it's...

[Bluecho]

Fetishes are tricky, as Forged by Dragon's Fire is deliberately vague about how much they cost. The book leaves it up to the Storyteller to determine cost "according to how valuable he deems the Fetish's power to be" (FbDF p. 34), and also says "unlike other Wonders, it's rare for a Fetish to be ranked higher than 5 points". I would assume the latter refers to the fact that Fetishes only have as much power as the spirit it contains possesses (and is willing/able to lend), which often leads Fetishes to only having one or two powers.

Suffice to say, it's for this...

[Bluecho]

First, making additional subforums would still break the fandom apart, since they users would have no reason to ever engage with one another in discussion. The V20 people would stick to their subforum, the V5 people to theirs, and never the two shall meet. And while this might cut down on a great deal of inter-group arguments, it also means there's no dialogue, and therefore no attempts to come to consensus, make compromises, or develop a shared fandom identity. And that's bad for the publisher (New White Wolf, that is, since it doesn't really affect Onyx Path that much, and the latter controls...

[Bluecho]

I don't agree that Humanity's hierarchy of sins is specifically Christian in origin.

Every culture and religion has prohibitions against theft and murder (though they may quibble over certain kinds of killing, they still think that slaying neighbors is unsavory and contrary to the safe and ordered operation of a society). And things like "violations" and "atrocities" are loosely defined in V20, which could mean just about anything, and every culture identifies acts that are reprehensible.

At least in V20, Humanity is more a measure of empathy - how...

[Bluecho]

I find the idea of the entire subforum having to switch to V5 - just because its proponents say it must - to be awfully presumptuous, not to mention rude. As others have said, this is a Vampire: The Masquerade forum. It has never catered exclusively to one edition over any other, so I see no reason it should change now. If it did do that, I'd be more likely to see vast numbers of established users (myself included) quit the forum in protest. Which, naturally, would only further divide the fanbase.

Tell me, how well did that go back during the changeover to Requiem, from a business...

[Bluecho]

157) In the ultimate display of playing against type, a Scout Gargoyle (Lore of the Bloodlines, p. 36) that acts as a social butterfly. All clad in homemade Lolita Fashion.

Her first memory was awaking in a deserted car park, with her sire squatting on a fence nearby. Like all Gargoyles, the Embrace had stripped her of her living memories. Well, mostly. When she learned enough from her sire to survive on her own, she flew and sneaked about the cities. Wrapping herself in a cloud of Obfuscate, and looking for clues about who she was, and where she came from. One night, walking unseen...

[Bluecho]

63) Oskar Deepgrowth [Hill Dwarf, Circle of Spores (UA) Druid]:
Oskar was banished from Clan Dankil for certain indiscretions, and abandoned civilization to live in the wilderness. His travels were long and hard, the seasons harsh and the food scarce. He would have starved to death, had he not been taken in by an isolated clan of Myconids, who called themselves Deepgrowth. These fungus people nursed him back to health, and the eldest Myconid took Oskar under his wing.

The dwarf harbored a deep desire for adoration. Honor - or rather the perception he possessed it - was everything...

[Bluecho]

Maybe something more like Enemy or Hunted. Haunted implies something more regular and less directly harmful. The Tulpas would be occasional threats of a great level, since they are (usually) less interested in tormenting the Ravnos and more interested in just killing them....

[Bluecho]

496) Electricity is in My Soul [Flaw]: Frequently afflicts mages with cybernetic augmentations, or those who habitually channel lightning. Their body courses with an electric charge. Their touch carries static, and when wounded they bleed arcs of electricity rather than blood. Their eyes - the windows to the soul - flicker like lightbulbs. The Flaw could cause electronics to spontaneously activate at the mage's touch, or even to overload and short out. More than one unfortunate Virtual Adept, Etherite, and Iterator has accidentally fried their own hardware this way.

[Bluecho]

No more so than the Nictuku are a weakness for the Nosferatu, or that the emnity of the main clan is a weakness for Lasombra Antitribu. It's a plot device, used to create a threat to the Ravnos, if the Storyteller wants to implement them. Some Ravnos may never encounter the Tulpas (for the sake of simplicity, we'll use your name for them). Nothing changes about the Clan's usual weakness spread, because it may not come up for a given Ravnos, or only come up once in their entire unlife (whether that ends their unlife is another matter).


No actual mechanics, though I have a rough...

[Bluecho]

That's the problem, though. Maybe the Gangrel did nothing at all. Elders are still people, and people are petty, cruel, stupid creatures, who might make an enemy of someone just because they don't like their face. Or because of some imagined slight. Or for no reason pertaining to the object of their antipathy at all. Maybe the Toreador is just a bully, who enjoys humiliating people weaker than them.

All that aside, if the Gangrel stops doing whatever it is the Toreador dislikes, then that signals to the Toreador that the Gangrel is a pushover. Bullies, by their nature, take acquiescence...

[Bluecho]

First, some Abilities are taken because they are logical for your character to have them. If your character went to Seminary, Theology is the sort of stuff they would have been taught. Not all Abilities are meant to be immediately or commonly useful. They are just meant to reflect Real Life and who your character is.

Second, M20 has the Minimum Abilities rule (though it's optional), which maintains that a character might need a minimum score in this or that Ability to even cast certain levels of Effects. Even if the Sphere dots listed on your sheet say you can cast a Life 3 healing...

[Bluecho]

I think part of the problem with V5's direction could be traced to a weird desire to "bring the game back to its roots". You know, THAT old chestnut.

It fits. VtM 1st edition was extremely street level, focused on struggling with one's inner Beast. And it was all about younger vampires; I think I was heard it described as being an edition that, first and foremost, assumed your PCs were playing Anarchs. The Elders, meanwhile, were distant figures, not characters you were expected to play. The Sabbat were occasional bogeymen and trouble-makers, who didn't really have an organization....

[Bluecho]

Of course I can. I can do anything I like. No one can stop me.

That's not the point.

Just because I can change anything I want about the game material, does not mean the published material itself isn't flawed. I lament V5's metaplot changes because - AS WRITTEN - it squanders potential stories. It reduces the possibility space, rather than expanding it. The ideas I outlined previously were built in spite of V5, not because of it.

You know what books could handle them? V20. I could play circles around these events that are background details in V5.
...