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[MyWifeIsScary]

IIRC, A good deal of donated blood is wasted. It's a perishable thing that's difficult to transport, you get too much sometimes and not enough other times.
On an individual level and In the best possible circumstances, direct feeding can be better than taking bags, but in 98% of cases it's clearly more ethical to take bags unless we start working under the assumption that blood bags drastically increase the volume of blood necessary or we know for sure that there's a shortage of bags, and I'm firmly in the camp that says Blood bond is just as good as true love, so I say this despite of...

[MyWifeIsScary]

As I imagine it, the common 7 disciplines are very human, they're human+ abilities. Now, as I run with the idea of "how you hunt determines your discipline spread" (and what you hunt adds to your attributes) it can be said that those who develop Potence are generally less pleasant than those who develop Obfuscate. Rarer disciplines need more than that

Protean needs intuition and a kind of inward looking or Beast communion.
Serpentis is just Protean but through a lense of faith.
Chimestry requires you to be able to lie to yourself.
Thaumaturgy needs...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Vicissitude Space ghost aliens is silly bs (though I do put a lot of in-character prejudice against vicissitude users and it is a belief some could conceivably hold) but disregarding that there's a lot to keep it apart

Protean is temporary, vis is permanent Protean is tied to the Beast and a rejection of human tools. Vis is all about the physical form and the application of human knowledge....

[MyWifeIsScary]

IDK that Get chapter seems pretty bellicose. "Sometimes we went to far but they totally deserved the bulk of it" Note that this is supposed to represent the middle ground or even a more scholarly side of the get: a good chunk of Get are bound to have more radical takes of the war.

I am travelling and don't have the books on me now, but there is at least two editions of the tribe books. Are you sure you're not picking the more optimistic takes?...

[MyWifeIsScary]

It's unplayable. Hunger dice/feeding restrictions will destroy you. Also there are no fun roads. I can't fathom wanting to play v5 when you have knowledge of other editions, but dark ages is even more extreme....

[MyWifeIsScary]

The wars of rage and stuff aren't universally considered a bad idea. I recall in the tribe books of Fianna and/or Get, though there may be others, expressing something along the sound of "well our ancestors couldn't have been anymore violent or stupid than us so they must have had good justification for what they did. Hell, modern bastet are bastards and I can't imagine them being better in a time where they were more powerful. Also we are low-key best pals with the Ravens and if we were really unreasonable I doubt that would happen"

[MyWifeIsScary]

Serpentis has always been teased as a Protean knock off both by in-character and out of character writings. Only v5 has gone ahead and merged them. The gangrel say it's an offshoot and the setites are in deep denial for religious reasons.

Vicissitude has never been seriously considered as a protean variation until V5. It has some superficial similarities but literally everyone with some measure of learning and knowledge, in character and out, has always posited Vicis as something alien and distinctly different from Protean. The Gangrel don't think it's related and the Tzmisce don't...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Hunters Hunted II made me really want to play in hunter organizations, and I've got a whole bunch of ideas on Vampire characters who were former hunters.
Hunters Hunted II was really just a great book. A really high bar actually. Easily one of the best 20th anniversary books, It gave me genuinely new and interesting arguments for things (Big criminal organizations having hunter organizations to deal with vampires trying to usurp local operations? Makes a lot of sense, but I didn't think of that on my own)

Playing Jack and Jill trying to get their child back from the enthralment...

[MyWifeIsScary]

I would say that the Disciplines and Weaknesses of the core 7 are great for playing well with others. They're generalists, and having three common disciplines (or two common disciplines and a very versatile power) helps them with more feeding strategies and helps them compromise and therefore work together. The other six clans are far more specialized with disciplines and can't be as flexible. But also Quietus/Obtenebration are purely murder disciplines while Chimistry and Vicissitude are great aids to anyone looking to break the law. Then when you get behind the sects these clans have built...

[MyWifeIsScary]

IMO, the core-7 clans should mostly get along despite their differences. They're really the clans that can fit in anywhere. I've had excellent conversation with people who have completely different interests to me and meh conversations who seem to have the same opinions , so I don't think it's a stretch at all that plenty of Nosferatu-Toreador bromances would blossom despite the historic rivalry of the clans.

The other six clans... There's a lot of baggage with those guys. If an Assamite makes friends with a Setite, at least one of them is a traitor. These clans can kinda get...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Is making a bane mummy necessarily a 10th level ritual the likes of which only Set or other godlike beings can use? Maybe Set made THE legendary bane mummies but perhaps the method is only 7th or 8th level and elders/methuselah can try their hands at making them too. Alternatively there might be more accessible (still very hard) methods to create bane-mummy-like substitutes. Like looking across many books there's certainly room for some really advanced formori. Maybe we could even move into the territory of mockery breeds....

[MyWifeIsScary]

It would hack too much at the flavours of each clan. Ventrue being animal kings? No thank you. Also like... what disciplines are similar to you? Each common discipline seems pretty well defined to me....

[MyWifeIsScary]

It's very easy to overly identify with mages. Vampires are an elite beyond the elite, werewolves are radicals beyond radicals, but mages are just people with ideas and strong egos. Moreso, people have this particular political weakness: Economic policies (Vampire) and environmental protections (werewolves) are put on the backburner before Identity politics (Mage) despite the former being far more important to governance than the latter.

Also like, it's pretty natural to have strong reactions when Mages are literally making bullshit work. Homeopathy, herbal remedies, chiropractors,...

[MyWifeIsScary]

lots of cool movies play with the concept / desire to play a fishmalk and be comedic relief.

Personally, I much prefer subdued malkavians. Characters that can actually live a hundred years yeah? I hold to the belief that The Beast cares about efficiency and getting what you want/need and the Clan curse is all about forming clan bonds and it would be against all interests to screw over your character hard enough to make them non-functional. But at the same time a lot of the derangements in the book... suck.

Some more fun options.

Compulsive lying...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Yep. One side was a weak willed, peace loving hedonist with a tendency to simp. The other was a ruthless chemist trying to accomplish great things, build security and get shit done, both believed they were doing the best for the other side but at the same time terrified the other will ruin everything and adamant about keeping in control. Unfortunately, I wanted a non-dissociative shift because the personalities were quite extreme and they often worked against one another, but the Storyteller insisted I must play a disassociative, so my two characters became milder in personality just to stay...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Path of Mars is garbage.
Neptune's might is... strong, In v20 I don't see a limit to dehydrate. Goodbye Pacific.


Personally though, abilities/attributes weigh more when it comes to making your character better/strong. Disciplines are flashy and exotic and get people excited, and paths moreso, but mundane ability is the most important thing your character needs....

[MyWifeIsScary]

That's like... the same for skills, knowledges and Disciplines, which I'd argue are MORE bottom heavy most of the time. +2 difficulty, or not being able to roll gives you a lot of encouragement to go wide rather than deep with these abilities, and as for Disciplines, like, as powerful as 4's and 5's can be the ones you actually want most are in the 1-3 range. Never mind diminishing returns, the level 1 power for most disciplines (All Disciplines if we discount the more poorly written disciplines) are broadly applicable tools, while 4's and 5's are extremely specialized powers that are reserved...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Presumably, you should be able to climb many ordinarily impossible things with a few levels of Potence. If you can get your finger tips into, say, masonry, and you possess supernatural strength without any weight gain, it should be quite easy to climb. Pro-climbers IRL can do some crazy shit you wouldn't think they could do without seeing it, imagining them with unreasonable strength and stamina would really be quite an alarming sight. It isn't quite Spider-man's magical sticking ability, but I think you need to understand how absurdly broken it would be to have that an easily acquired pow...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Yes, the Wendigo had a host of problems other than being racists. But Even the Uktena, a tribe that flies under the radar because it has a better totem and isn't leaning anywhere near as hard into the whole noble savage shtick as the wendigo, has a no-whites policy. Natives, blacks, presumably east asians? Fine. But not whites.



The Overwhelming majority of the Garou nation falls into what is often described as fascism. Allow me to shamelessly copy-paste some possible definitions from wikipedia. Yes, I'm going to cherry pick some because things like Marxism or corporate...

[MyWifeIsScary]

Another thing: Nazis were mostly German, but Neo-Nazis are from almost everywhere, even from groups the Nazis persecuted. Racism isn't some white invention, but a US lense of things has ensured that it's only a problem when whites do it. The old Wendigo and Uktena were largely defined by being racist, but they're minorities so that gives them a free pass ⸮ There's elitism and delusions of superiority present in every tribe, and there are supernatural influences actually validating some of these beliefs (Garou>Kinfolk >Other Fera's kinfolk> normal people. You could also dive into...