General WoD Discussion #2: Its time to Celebrate!

[SiuiS]

Mummies resurrect on their own anyway. Mortals just help them do it faster. Assuming, of course, that they need the help at all; the shortest listed time interval from "death" to resurrection is "as soon as your killer's guard is down."* There's also an Affinity which makes it so that you always have a mortal willing to chant over your corpse (or any of your backup soul jars, or possibly even your emergency Resurrection Scarab). And an Utterance that lets you broadcast dreams, Cthulhu-style, between Descents.

Despite all that, though, I'd still put my money on the Archmage.

Yeah. It was specifically if somehow put down for good, you're still revivable.
And in a knockdown drag out the rules are different. I don't know how the reflexive course spell worked but as an Archmage rewriting history so the mummy never happened is a legitimate strategy. I Har to assume that's off the table for this example.

[Turalisj]

Mummy Batman.

He is possible.

[Mephisto]

We now know a bit more about the upcoming Demon game.

I'd ask how they plan to square that with the lore from Inferno, but since every other line in that book is "Then again, maybe not" it's probably not that troublesome.

[JMobius]

I'd ask how they plan to square that with the lore from Inferno, but since every other line in that book is "Then again, maybe not" it's probably not that troublesome.

I kind of expect Inferno to be treated as discontinuity.

[WitchSlayer]

By the way, Mummy has some really silly fluff for powers that make minor things way more impressive. For example the power that allows them to make a spring of water from any solid surface that is as solid as stone or less has the fluff of

"The tier does not create water from nothing, reaching back through time to sculpt the formation of the Earth so that a spring forces its way out at the appointed time and location."

[SiuiS]

By the way, Mummy has some really silly fluff for powers that make minor things way more impressive. For example the power that allows them to make a spring of water from any solid surface that is as solid as stone or less has the fluff of

"The tier does not create water from nothing, reaching back through time to sculpt the formation of the Earth so that a spring forces its way out at the appointed time and location."

That is pretty boss, admittedly.

[Lady Serpentine]

By the way, Mummy has some really silly fluff for powers that make minor things way more impressive. For example the power that allows them to make a spring of water from any solid surface that is as solid as stone or less has the fluff of

"The tier does not create water from nothing, reaching back through time to sculpt the formation of the Earth so that a spring forces its way out at the appointed time and location."

...I must ask, how does that work with, for instance, the ceiling of a building? That is, after all, a solid surface that is both weaker and more porous than stone, and thus presumably should be affected by the power, but really can't be explained by that fluff.

[Cirrylius]

...I must ask, how does that work with, for instance, the ceiling of a building? That is, after all, a solid surface that is both weaker and more porous than stone, and thus presumably should be affected by the power, but really can't be explained by that fluff.

A high-pressure spring forms under the building's water main, gradually rusting/grinding it open. The building's water pipes hold, with the exception of one just under roof level that happens to have a co-morbid design flaw with a heavy strut. The pipe bursts, the strut falls onto the pipe, and levers it up through the freshly weakened ceiling.

Duh

[Lady Serpentine]

A high-pressure spring forms under the building's water main, gradually rusting/grinding it open. The building's water pipes hold, with the exception of one just under roof level that happens to have a co-morbid design flaw with a heavy strut. The pipe bursts, the strut falls onto the pipe, and levers it up through the freshly weakened ceiling.

Duh

"I am the corpse of Rube Goldberg! Fear my magic!"

Though, more seriously, I suppose that could work, though it seems like it would make it rather a pain to figure out how to describe different things each time on the fly when you're STing.

That said, if the way WitchSlayer worded it, namely that it allows one to 'make a spring of water from any solid surface that is as solid as stone or less', is the actual text, that implies that a spring actually forms where you want it to, not just water coming from there...

[CN the Logos]

I'd ask how they plan to square that with the lore from Inferno, but since every other line in that book is "Then again, maybe not" it's probably not that troublesome.

I was speculating on the previous page that demons as depicted in Hunter and Inferno will be the ones to have fallen off the low end of the Karma Meter. It's just speculation on my part, but it wouldn't be hard to implement; they can just say that the ones who have gone full bore monstrous are more likely to draw attention to themselves, and how does someone tell the difference between a demon who still has/has gained a conscience and one who's just trying to gain your sympathy/lower your guard anyway?

I kind of expect Inferno to be treated as discontinuity.

I really hope not. Inferno's one of my favorite NWoD books, fluff-wise. Of course I can always decide which one is canon on a chronicle by chronicle basis, but I liked Inferno's tone and would like to see more in that vein (but appropriate for non-Chaotic Evil player characters; hopefully they can avoid turning this thing into a less amusing variant of kill puppies for satan).

[Mewtarthio]

...I must ask, how does that work with, for instance, the ceiling of a building? That is, after all, a solid surface that is both weaker and more porous than stone, and thus presumably should be affected by the power, but really can't be explained by that fluff.

As fun as that would be, the actual text is:

Traditionally, the tier targets natural surfaces of stone, sand, or dirt. However, the Arisen can tear open artificial floors with the durability of stone or weaker, provided they are no thicker than a foot atop a natural surface.

Granted, that probably still leaves plenty of room for bizarre tricks that make geologists cry, it's just that you might have to be a geologist to know them.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Still lets you flood buildings. It just has to be from the basement up, now.

[Lady Serpentine]

Hm... Technically, ceilings are both atop a natural surface, as they're over the ground, and not more than a foot thick. So one could argue that because of the specific wording, that should still be valid. After all, 'thicker' isn't really an appropriate term if you're referring to how far above something another object is.

But that's pretty clearly not the intent of that, so yeah.

Also, to move to matters I'm going to take slightly more seriously, has anyone got suggestions for what to name a modern city that sprang up on the US-Canada border? I'm thinking of running a Changeling/Mortals game in an alternate universe, with that as the starting point, but I'm blanking on what to call it that doesn't sound silly and makes sense as a place in that region.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Well, there's always the extremely generic Anytown, and if you want something that sounds more realistic, you could use any noun or name with -ville, -burg, -ton, -port, -land, or any of a dozen other suffixes, just like real towns and cities. If this town is in a rocky areas on the shores of Lake Superior, you could Rockport. Or Laketon. Or, if you're feeling really creative, Rock's Landing. If it's in the middle f nowhere in North Dakota, use "Plains" everywhere I used "Rock" above. Or come with a famous person's last name, or a not so famous person's last name, or just make up a last name, and use that.

[The Glyphstone]

Springfield.

[Turalisj]

Also, to move to matters I'm going to take slightly more seriously, has anyone got suggestions for what to name a modern city that sprang up on the US-Canada border? I'm thinking of running a Changeling/Mortals game in an alternate universe, with that as the starting point, but I'm blanking on what to call it that doesn't sound silly and makes sense as a place in that region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rder_crossings

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Springfield.

No, we've got three of those already. You could really confuse people by naming the town after a state, like Florida, Massachusetts.

[Lady Serpentine]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rder_crossings

The idea is that it's a new city, which formed after they merged to form UCAP (Unified Canadian-American Provinces), so that doesn't really help, I'm afraid...

No, we've got three of those already. You could really confuse people by naming the town after a state, like Florida, Massachusetts.

This is also why it's not being named Anchorage...

And I could, I suppose. I was hoping for something that would reflect the region, though, like San Francisco and Los Angeles in California,

[The Glyphstone]

"The US-Canada border" is a gigantic 'region', though, and hardly homogenous. You'd have to tell us what state the city is/was adjacent to, at the very least.

[Lady Serpentine]

"The US-Canada border" is a gigantic 'region', though. You'd have to tell us what state the city is/was adjacent to, at the very least.

Probably somewhere on the border of British Columbia and Washington.

Around the juncture of Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan is a possibility too, albeit not the preferred one.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Hmm... Washington and British Columbia? That area's largely forest. Pinedale? Foreton?

[Mephisto]

Oakton?

Something I was wondering about is if it's possible for a Sin-Eater to change Archetypes. Every other gameline has some rules for changing one's social/political aspect (Tribe, Order, Court, etc). I know that Prometheans get to change Refinements, which are sorta analogous as a personal philosophy thing. Are there any rules for changing Archetypes?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Take a cue from the history of the region, and also nearby town names. When the nearby towns are White Rock, Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey on the Canadian side and Bellingham on the much-less populated American side, you want a name that'll fit.

However, I'd advise against placing hte city on the coastal region between the mountains and the Pacific, there's no room for a city that isn't an amalgamation of existing cities there on the Canadian side, only room for a city on the American side. Also Vancouver is RIGHT there.

If you do though, maybe it would make sense to name the city after an existing tiny village like Blaine, Lynden or Everson.


For a different style, you can have Greater Osooyoos, in the osooyoos valley in the interior BC. There the city would be built surrounding the Osooyoos lake, a long thin lake split roughly evenly over the border. The city is surrounded by mountains, and is in the middle of a desert valley. Great vinyards surrounding it. Not a very green place though.

Edit: huh, I actually really like the idea of Greater Osooyoos. I may find an excuse to use that at some point.

[Lady Serpentine]

For some reason, Vancouver's presence didn't really register. Probably because the map I was using earlier didn't show cities... In that case, I'll probably go with the second option.

Greater Oosyoos does sound interesting, though. Is there anything that would have made that region become heavily populated after the merger?

Also, as a note to everyone, this is meant to be a new city that has sprung up in the past ten years or so, not one that's been around as long as the others in the area, or an existing one that's grown, though it may have subsumed some smaller ones.

[comicshorse]

Greater Oosyoos does sound interesting, though. Is there anything that would have made that region become heavily populated after the merger?

People holidaying in the Vineyards ?

[Mewtarthio]

Something I was wondering about is if it's possible for a Sin-Eater to change Archetypes. Every other gameline has some rules for changing one's social/political aspect (Tribe, Order, Court, etc). I know that Prometheans get to change Refinements, which are sorta analogous as a personal philosophy thing. Are there any rules for changing Archetypes?

The opening fiction features a girl trying to "persuade" her brother to become a Reaper, so it should be possible. I don't think Archetypes have much in the way of mechanical influence, do they? Couldn't you just say it happens?

Also, as a note to everyone, this is meant to be a new city that has sprung up in the past ten years or so, not one that's been around as long as the others in the area, or an existing one that's grown, though it may have subsumed some smaller ones.

When was the merger, and why did it happen?

[The Glyphstone]

As far as I know, Sin-Eaters are the only supernatural whose Y-Splat (Archetype) has no mechanical effects at all.

[Lady Serpentine]

When was the merger, and why did it happen?

Approximately ten years prior to the start of the game.

The reason for it is that at that point, China's population was skyrocketing despite the best efforts of its government, and it looked like they were going to enter an expansionist phase in order to offset that.

While around five years after the merger, the Chinese government ended up toppling due to massive civil unrest, starting with food riots, and the population has since been devastated by at least three civil wars as various people rose to lead factions in an attempt to take over what was left, rendering any such expansion highly unlikely, splitting the two would be more expensive than just leaving them blended at this point, as well as unpopular.

Unrest in and around Mexico - the fighting with and between the cartels has rendered the area a de-facto warzone, though the Mexican government insists that it is simply an 'ongoing, large-scale, long-term police action' - is also part of it, as it would be rather stupid on the part of the US to split the two when there's the possibility that they'll have to send troops in to keep things from spilling across the border.

[ToySoldierCPlus]

Greater Oosyoos does sound interesting, though. Is there anything that would have made that region become heavily populated after the merger?

It's not heavily populated now, despite the region being settled for more than two hundred years. Barring the sudden discovery of precious minerals or some other useful thing, no, there probably isn't. But yeah, delve into the reasons behind the merger and you might discover something.

As for Sin-Eaters changing their Archetype, I don't see why not, though I'd want a good RP reason for doing so. The Archetype is actually useful for regaining plasm: if you fulfill your virtue or vice in a way that satisfies your Archetype, you regain plasm in the same amount you regain Willpower. It's limited to once every... chapter? Story? I forget; I'll check in a minute. Anyway, so yes, a sin-eater's Archetype does have some mechanical benefit/use, but it's not a very big one, so I'd say it should be possible, as long as the sin-eater has a good reason for it.

For instance, Alice initially thought of her character Debbie as a Gatekeeper, self-tasked with keeping the living and the dead separate. However, for the past several sessions, Alice has found herself playing Debbie as more of an Advocate. Every time she encounters a ghost interfering in the living world, she helps it resolve its anchors, even when it would be more expedient to simply banish or destroy it. Alice asks her Story Teller if she can change Debbie's Archetype from Gatekeeper to Advocate, because that's what Debbie is playing as anyway.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

For some reason, Vancouver's presence didn't really register. Probably because the map I was using earlier didn't show cities... In that case, I'll probably go with the second option.

Greater Oosyoos does sound interesting, though. Is there anything that would have made that region become heavily populated after the merger?

Also, as a note to everyone, this is meant to be a new city that has sprung up in the past ten years or so, not one that's been around as long as the others in the area, or an existing one that's grown, though it may have subsumed some smaller ones.

Well, it being kinda desert makes it unlikely to really become HEAVILY populated. To be honest, the most likely thing is a growth of Vancouver across the border in a metropolis, but then you'd have to deal with it being baaaasically Vancouver-PLUS