[stmercy2020]

Well, in my case, I'm finishing up a semester (you think students work hard at the end of a semester? Try being a prof…)  As for why things may be a little slow…

Um.  It might help if you offered a bit of direction for character creation and campaign direction- here's what I mean: what IS an appropriate power level for characters given your campaign?  I agree that low-level can be a bit dull (fewer options), but over-powered is also pretty boring.  If there's no sort of challenge (I don't necessarily mean direct, physical challenge to the PCs, although- for a physically themed adventure- it would be both appropriate and necessary; but how about challenges to ethics/honor, threats to family and friends, et. al.)

I'd prefer to keep the sex content limited to private messaging- I frankly get a little weirded out doing R/X-rated stuff with a bunch of other guys…  Call me crazy, but my suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

As regards campaign: how much magic?  How much power (beyond just skill)- are characters actually superhuman, or merely pinnacles of human development?  Any recommendations for a particular genre/author to suggest theme (eg: Belgariad by David Eddings, Dragonlance by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, Tolkienesque, Discworld by Terry Pratchett…)?

In any case, I have some character ideas to write up, but… first things first: I have to finish giving final grades to about three score students…

[the fell bat]

I'm in the midst of launching an entrepreneurial startup too, so I've been waiting on pretty much the same info before submitting my character.

Yeah totally agree about the sex bit, that's why I asked really heh heh.

How much source material do we get from you before we begin? Like, do we get a map with writeups, etc?

[yaracyrrah80]

Bah, my computer ate my post.  Second try.  These are exactly the questions I was trying to poll you (the players) about :-).  I don't get a vote about power level (if I did it would be "high").  StMercy has already expressed a preference for "normal human".  If people are reluctant to post their preferences publicly, maybe everyone could PM me?  ("My preference is X but I'd be happy with any level between W and Z.")  Whatever the outcome, I will tailor the challenges to fit.

Setting-wise, you get no source material whatsoever :-).  Since no one has given me a better idea, the campaign hook will be that your characters, individual traveling adventurers, all happen to have arrived in Major Trade City (I'll come up with names later) and have signed on with an expedition into the Big Desert to locate and explore a buried ancient ruin.  I'll make up details on the fly and you are encouraged to do the same in your characters' backgrounds.

What else do you feel you need to know?

[yaracyrrah80]

Oops, forgot to add this: no hurry here, good luck with real life :-).

[the fell bat]

Might I suggest standardization, just for convenience's sake?

This is just a suggestion, anyone can take it up if they like, but it's aimed at getting our characters on the same scale of reference, using a simplified version of my favourite system, White Wolf.

Here's a brief rundown of it, for those not familiar:

For ATTRIBUTES, there are 3 main categories: Physical, Mental, Social

There is a further subclassification: Power, Finesse, Resistance.

The 9 Attributes are thus:

PHYSICAL: Strength (Power), Dexterity (Finesse), Constitution (Resistance)
MENTAL: Intelligence (P), Wits (F), Resolve(R)
SOCIAL: Charisma (P), Manipulation (F), Composure (R)

The Physical attributes are pretty much self explanatory.

Intelligence is raw analytical power combined with knowledgability.
Wits is quickness of reactions and perceptiveness, and general cleverness of tongue.
Resolve is mental fortitude.

Charisma is what you use for charm offensives, combines looks and personality.
Manipulation is both offensive and defensive in usage, i.e. it represents not just your ability to emotionally manipulate someone else, but also your resistance to having the same done to you.
Composure is how well you do a Lady Gaga (poker face) in the face of surprises, social situations etc. Low Composure means you're badly shaken or affected by events.

Each stat can have a maximum of 5 pts, 0 being a total congenital handicap and 5 being the peak of ultimate human achievement. At the GM's discretion a stat can go above 5, meaning you surpass the limits of human capability for that stat. 2 pts is considered normal and average human level.

You may want to self-impose a limit to your stats when building, e.g. using a 7-5-3 point allocation system, with a beginning of 1pt in each stat.

This works better with an example. Using 7-5-3, I decide to allocate it thus: PHYS-SOC-MEN.

Allocating 7pts to PHYSICAL, I come up with: STRENGTH 4, DEXTERITY 2, CONSTITUTION 4
5 pts to SOCIAL: CHARISMA 4, MANIPULATION 1, COMPOSURE 3
3 pts to MENTAL: INTELLIGENCE 2, WITS 1, RESOLVE 3

This example girl, whom I shall name Haley, is extremely strong and could possibly win several national weightlifting competitions, coming in at just below Olympic champion level. She's average at athletics, not that good at dancing, though she won't step on her partner's feet. She's got the constitution of an ox, and rarely ever gets sick. She runs the equivalent of a cross country marathon (that's 10 klicks) before breakfast every morning and comes back refreshed and ready to start the day.

She's a real head-turner, with her looks and figure, but she's so sweet and innocent that she never realizes she's being hit on, she just thinks there're a lot of very nice people in the world who like to express their friendliness physically, and well, who's she to say no? Surely they're just being normal. She's very calm and hardly ever gets ruffled or agitated by anything she encounters, though a really extraordinary event would stun her for a moment or two like most everyone else.

The Lord giveth and the Lord holdeth back. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and has scraped by in school being a perfectly mediocre student. She's not a fast thinker at all, and sometimes has to be brought up to speed in the hubbub of conversations. But she's got better than average willpower, which comes of having a tough mental attitude from her weight training.

So based on this system, yaracyrahh may want to implement his own ways of making rolls, skill checks, etc. But I suggest it as a way to just have everyone on the same page to begin with, so we know where we stand relative to each other. How about it?

[stmercy2020]

I’m reasonably familiar with White Wolf- I’ll admit it’s been a while (last time I played, the Gangrel were still part of the Camarilla and Lodin was still the prince of Chicago…); the 7/5/3 system works okay as a base, although it works best if you include talents/skills/knowledges as well (13/9/5) and freebie points (21 for mortals, if I remember correctly). In other words, 7/5/3 arranged in the three areas of Physical/Social/Mental attributes and 13/9/5 arranged in the three areas of talents/skills/knowledge abilities. Then, as part of the customization process, you get 21 freebie points. Attributes cost 5 freebie points to raise by one, abilities cost 2 per point. As lefred pointed out, you start out with a base of 1 in each attribute; you start out with a base of zero in each ability.

The abilities (taken from White Wolf’s Dark Ages: Inquisition supplement purely for convenience- we’re dealing with mortals in a fantasy setting, after all, right?) would consist of:

Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Brawl (including martial arts), Dodge, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Legerdemain(think sleight-of-hand), and Subterfuge

Skills: Animal Ken, Archery, Commerce, Crafts, Etiquette, Melee (using weapons as opposed to fists/feet), Performance, Ride, Stealth, Survival

Knowledges: Academics, Hearth Wisdom (common sense, basically), Investigation, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Seneschal (business and property management), Theology

White Wolf also embraces a fairly robust system of merits and flaws, backgrounds and virtues that I would recommend using sparingly if at all (while some of the merits/flaws/backgrounds can be fun, they also add a lot of bookkeeping for the GM). With all that in mind, I would submit Danae (I’ve created 2 versions- one using strict 7/5/3 attribute assignment a la lefred and a second using the expanded rules I mentioned above, named Danae (simple) and Danae (eek!) for clarity 🙂 )

Danae (Simple)
Strength: 3 Dexterity: 4 Constitution: 3
Charisma: 2 Manipulation: 1 Composure: 3 (didn’t this used to be Appearance? When did it get switched?)
Intelligence: 2 Wits: 3 Resolve: 3

Danae (eek!)
Strength: 3 Dexterity: 5 Constitution: 4
Charisma: 3 Manipulation: 1 Composure: 3
Intelligence: 2 Wits: 3 Resolve: 3

Talents: Alertness: 3 Athletics: 3 Brawl: 3 Dodge: 2 Empathy: 1 Expression: 1 Legerdemain: 2
Skills: Animal Ken: 1 Archery: 2 Etiquette: 1 Melee: 4 Stealth: 2
Knowledges: Academics: 1 Hearth Wisdom: 1 Linguistics: 1 Medicine: 2

Description: Danae is tall and powerfully built, just short of six feet and close to one hundred ninety pounds in weight. She has a deep tan with freckles across her nose and dusting her cheeks, red hair, and brilliant blue eyes that vary in depth and intensity from light and serene to royal blue and hard as agate. She is quite strong, although there are stronger men and women, and her grace seems nearly inhuman- as if every step and every pause is part of an internal dance that she is moving to wholly unconsciously. While she is both good-natured and very, very still, she has no gift for misdirection; when she wants yo to do something, she tells you so, and she doesn’t have the time or the inclination to be particularly gentle with people who haven’t earned her respect. Although she isn’t brilliant, she’s also not a dummy, and her combination of decisiveness and stubbornness have served to see her through places where her intellect was insufficient.

History: Danae was a foundling taken in by a tribe of nomadic warriors; their culture was fairly insular, valuing strength and independence from the more ‘civilized’ settlements that they traveled through. Danae was almost certainly a child of one of those settlements, with her blue eyes and red hair- utterly unlike the nomads’ coarse, dark hair and eyes- and, initially they left her alone, having nothing to do with her. Despite their neglect, Danae attached herself to the tribe, doggedly following along with the pack animals and stealing what scraps she could until, finally, one of the herd-mothers, impressed with her determination, took her in.

From that day on, Danae grew quickly, eating much more than other children her age and, consequently, also growing much faster. By the time she was in her early teens, she looked like a young adult and was as strong as many of the older boys. At the same time, she found she had to be very careful around the smaller children; where other children often experienced a period of gawky clumsiness as they adapted to their bodies, Danae disciplined herself to be fully aware of herself and her environment at all times, becoming incredibly graceful even as she approached six feet in height.

Naturally, Danae’s size and elegance provoked some jealousy and competitiveness among the young hunters and huntresses around her; for the most part, Danae’s basically calm, good humor served to defuse situations before they could get ugly, but when she couldn’t, she also proved to be nearly preternaturally gifted in virtually all physical endeavors, but especially in combat. It quickly became apparent that Danae could best anyone her own age- often several people at once- and she was placed under the tutelage of a master, Jared Kaine, who was known as the most fearsome warrior and hunter in the tribe. Jared was gruff and had a low tolerance for foolishness, but still warmed to Danae, being largely responsible for shaping her into the warrior she is now.

A pilgrimage is a rite of passage among the nomads- when a child is ready to assume the rights and responsibilities of adulthood, she is turned out of the tribe for a period of not less than six months. The child must show resourcefulness in surviving in the hostile world outside the tribe while, at the same time, upholding the honor of the tribe. It is not a task undertaken lightly- some members of the tribe never go on their pilgrimage, preferring to live out their lives as unvested members of the society (never permitted to marry, raise children, or hold positions of authority)- but most, eventually, do. Not all return, and some return after a period of years or even decades, only to be told that they have not yet earned the right to full citizenship. Danae has just turned eighteen, having lived with the tribe for fifteen years; she is two years older than most young warriors are when they choose to set out on their pilgrimage, but, finally, she has been deemed ready by Jared and the council of ancestors that rule the tribe.

Edit: Just reread another earlier post and I wanted to clarify something: I don’t really have a preference for normal human, per se- just for starting out at normal human levels. I tend to think that having the characters gain into their powers (if they get them) during the course of the game makes for the most interesting role-play. I’m not married to the idea, though, and I’ve played umpteen billion superhero games, so I’m just fine playing superpowered characters from the word go, too.

[the fell bat]

Nice character.

To answer your question, I think it’s when V:tM died and got reborn as V:tR (Requiem).

They scrapped perhaps 65% of the old stuff and background. If I’m not wrong there isn’t any more Camarilla/Sabbat, and there are just 5 clans or thereabouts.

The new stats are as you see, Charisma now seems to encompass both pure looks and personal presence.

I didn’t want to suggest Talents Skills Knowledges because plenty of folks here don’t know White Wolf and I didn’t want to inundate them with it, but perhaps if we get a majority or if our DM wants to adopt it primarily we could go into that level of detail.

[yaracyrrah80]

Folks who know the White Wolf system are welcome to use the eek! version. Folks who don’t know it or don’t want to use it can do whatever else they’d prefer. What matters is how much you tell me about your character, not what language you say it in :-).

Danae will do splendidly. I’m mildly curious why she was held back from her pilgrimage for two extra years despite being more skilled than her age-peers, but that’s not a problem; I’m just curious.

stmercy, thanks for the clarification. I’m still waiting to hear from other prospective players, if there are any left.

[stmercy2020]

the short answer is that it’s kind of left up to you as a potential plot-hook; it did occur to me that Jared is (a) probably significantly more demanding than the average clan instructor and also (b) because Danae was not born into the tribe, she probably has to work a bit harder to achieve full acceptance even after having lived with them for fifteen years. Insular, barbarian tribes tended to be extremely wary of outsiders, and Danae is probably still considered a provisional member of the tribe. She wouldn’t be treated poorly in any way, but the elders, in particular, may be taking a long view, concerned that her ‘rightful’ parents might show up and expect her to return to them. At any rate, she is probably fully accepted by her age-peers and those younger than her; it’s only among the older members of the tribe that she would face any resistance (and she kind of figures, eventually, that’s a problem that will take care of itself).

[yaracyrrah80]

…

*crickets*

…

*morning music*! I love the smell of consensus in the morning! lefred, how’s your character coming along? Or are you still buried in work?

[Author]

Posts