General WoD Discussion #4: Rage Against the God-Machine

[One Tin Soldier]

"Average" stats for all would give something like 2 attribute + 2 skill + 3 weapon - 2 defence = 5 dice. Average health is 7.

"Peak" stats for all would give something like 5 attribute + 5 skill + 1 specialty + 5 weapon - 3 defence - 3 armour = 10 dice. Peak health is 10.

With a gun you could get 5 attribute + 5 skill + 1 specialty + 4 weapon + 3 autofire - 4 armour = 14 dice, but that's bashing damage unless you pull out an AMR or HMG.

Iteratives are broken, yes, but that's a quite specific issue rather than a general failing - you can't get iteratives without a Fighting Style or Gunslinger. Otherwise, combat takes a few turns.

(I'll admit that it does tend to have constant hitting for small amounts, but in quite a few scenarios that's what actually happens.)

Wait, why is the gun doing bashing damage? Are you assuming that the target is a Vampire, or assuming that the target has a bulletproof vest on? Because in my 5 years of playing WoD, I've only seen players don bulletproof vests, like, a couple times. Though that might be because our group doesn't fight enemies with guns very often.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I think they were comparing optimized combat vs optimized defense. In a hand-to-hand battle with perfect offense vs perfect defense, optimized offense is less likely to hit (less dice) but their hits are more lethal (lethal weapon). In a gun battle with perfect offense vs perfect defense, perfect defense assumes the best possible armour for the situation, which is a bullet-proof vest.

[magic9mushroom]

Wait, why is the gun doing bashing damage? Are you assuming that the target is a Vampire, or assuming that the target has a bulletproof vest on? Because in my 5 years of playing WoD, I've only seen players don bulletproof vests, like, a couple times. Though that might be because our group doesn't fight enemies with guns very often.

Well, some sort of bulletproof armour. Bulletproof vest or full riot gear.

If you deliberately glass-cannon everything by having both sides bring assault rifles but no armour, then sure, you get rocket tag. But I'd think that any job nasty enough to need an assault rifle is nasty enough to need some armour, too.

If you're eating dinner when someone barges in with an assault rifle, then sure, you'll get mown down. But if both sides are equally unprepared, you won't be facing assault rifles (and you might be in Defence range against whatever they do pull out).

There's also cover and going prone, which I didn't factor in. (I will note that the cover rules are bad, though; the rules on firing from cover mean that two people shooting at each other from any cover will always have the same penalty, even if one has much more cover.)

[SiuiS]

So I read this at 4am as 'guys' instead of 'guns', and thought 'wow, that's some pretty hard-core research for a tabletop game'.

Hehe.

No, we extrapolate that if a shotgun slug hits, it is likely to cause more damage than a rifle bullet.

9 again is not "more likely to hit", it's "very damaging on a hit". Precision and accuracy are dice pool.

Now, is it therefore the case that shotguns are more effective than rifles at the shotguns' optimum range? Yes. But I'm not seeing the problem with that.

Precision is grouping within a target. Damage is a factor within the fiction of precise targeting. Ergo more damage at longer range would be precision

Also, 9-again alters dice pool. Whether precision and accuracy are a factor of dice pool is not in contention.

What you said, and I have been responding to, is this.

Quoting what you responded to doesn't mean you understood the point within the context of the prior conversation.

You are making a technical point divorced from what what said and defending it as a valid concern despite correction of the original point. Your statements are accurate but not relevant to the idea that increased dice instead of damage was a problem. If me being technically incorrect or speaking nonsense makes you feel better, sure. I'm speaking technically incorrect nonsense. But my point stands despite that appellation.

[magic9mushroom]

But my point stands despite that appellation.

And... what is that point?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I think a better example of where it brakes down is something like a heavy machine gun or minigun, which iirc deal with their weapons by having massive bonuses to dice pool. This makes a heavy machine gun a better weapon then a hunting rifle for shooting someone from long range, simply because the extra dice bonuses the machine gun gets over the hunting rifle outweighs the range maluses.

I may be wrong though, I don't have my books in front of me, but I think this is a better example of how nWoD 1.0 had weird things happening by throwing damage and to-hit into a single dice pool roll.

[SiuiS]

The games lack of grain between damage and accuracy is a problem.


*


What's the consensus on alternate morality stats? And what would you expect changelings to have? I like virtue and vice but I like the freedom of new expression even more.

They wouldn't just port over the vampire one if only because changeling masks aren't static; they're supposed to be full and engaging lives, which the mask is not (in vampire). I guess I could see, like, Court and Society? How well one plays up their role as a Lost one, versus how well they integrate into society?

But cover works, too. And the court/society divide sounds more like the theoretical balanced Harmony stat than a set of related tags.

[Ravian]

What's the consensus on alternate morality stats? And what would you expect changelings to have? I like virtue and vice but I like the freedom of new expression even more.

They wouldn't just port over the vampire one if only because changeling masks aren't static; they're supposed to be full and engaging lives, which the mask is not (in vampire). I guess I could see, like, Court and Society? How well one plays up their role as a Lost one, versus how well they integrate into society?

But cover works, too. And the court/society divide sounds more like the theoretical balanced Harmony stat than a set of related tags.

Clarity still sounds like a good one for Changelings to have, seeing as how it distinguishes itself as being one of the few true sanity stats. Given the whole Beautiful Madness theme of the game, that still seems especially pertinent. What I do hope is that this mechanic will be more fully utilized. 1e nWoD had the unfortunate characteristic of using their morality systems too similarly, as more of a tool to police rampant player abuse by threatening to turn an unruly character into an NPC once they hit 0. While there are lines that should still exercise this sort of thing, they still have found more and more creative ways to use their splats rather than as a simple stick for the Storyteller to hit the players with. Vampire deals with the loss of humanity, so their morality is supposed to illustrate how well they can lie to themselves like that. (and thus it makes sense to limit killing) Demon of course takes a very odd version of it by using Cover instead, where it can fluctuate wildly and the only limit is not getting noticed. Really there's no damage to a Demon's Psyche to just start killing indiscriminately aside from the fact that it would set off about a million alarms in the God Machine. And then Werewolf is all about balancing one's mortal and spirit sides, so it actually encourages killing people and other werewolves, so long as it's done in moderation (the wolf must hunt after all)

I remember some have suggested on Onyx Path's forum to reverse the morality track in Promethean, having it represent learning how to be an effective human by starting them low. Thus Milestones would be a form of breaking point further up the track, while certain actions could still move them backward. (Consider this however. Since 2e Promethean is introducing a new refinement which represents emulating the worst traits of humanity (sort of an anti-aurum) these backward steps might not necessarily all be conventional sins, and more like sheer inhuman actions like coldness, apathy, or dabbling in flux)

Wisdom still seems somewhat conventional, though the fact that it's represented fully as "responsible use of reality warping abilities" will likely influence it. As for Clarity however, I've always liked thinking of it a little like Mortals' integrity. Changelings would likely have a few common breaking points (imprisonment, kidnapping, plenty of things that remind them too much of the Gentry and their experiences.) but then to be able to illustrate breaking points specifically tied to their durance I think would really help us understand the whole, "Changelings are constantly teetering on the edge of insanity" theme. It's one of my real complaints about the game, since although the book points out that changelings are generally very damaged individuals, with the exception of the antagonists I don't generally see it, particularly with the Clarity system. In general only really significant things tend to mess with the average PC changeling's clarity (which are generally already fairly traumatic for regular people, like murdering or being imprisoned.) An individual system not only allows for more variety, but also would really help express that sense of both paranoia and madness Changelings could feel over even innocuous things that remind them of their durance.

[Anonymouswizard]

Clarity still sounds like a good one for Changelings to have, seeing as how it distinguishes itself as being one of the few true sanity stats. Given the whole Beautiful Madness theme of the game, that still seems especially pertinent. What I do hope is that this mechanic will be more fully utilized. 1e nWoD had the unfortunate characteristic of using their morality systems too similarly, as more of a tool to police rampant player abuse by threatening to turn an unruly character into an NPC once they hit 0. While there are lines that should still exercise this sort of thing, they still have found more and more creative ways to use their splats rather than as a simple stick for the Storyteller to hit the players with. Vampire deals with the loss of humanity, so their morality is supposed to illustrate how well they can lie to themselves like that. (and thus it makes sense to limit killing) Demon of course takes a very odd version of it by using Cover instead, where it can fluctuate wildly and the only limit is not getting noticed. Really there's no damage to a Demon's Psyche to just start killing indiscriminately aside from the fact that it would set off about a million alarms in the God Machine. And then Werewolf is all about balancing one's mortal and spirit sides, so it actually encourages killing people and other werewolves, so long as it's done in moderation (the wolf must hunt after all)

I remember some have suggested on Onyx Path's forum to reverse the morality track in Promethean, having it represent learning how to be an effective human by starting them low. Thus Milestones would be a form of breaking point further up the track, while certain actions could still move them backward. (Consider this however. Since 2e Promethean is introducing a new refinement which represents emulating the worst traits of humanity (sort of an anti-aurum) these backward steps might not necessarily all be conventional sins, and more like sheer inhuman actions like coldness, apathy, or dabbling in flux)

Wisdom still seems somewhat conventional, though the fact that it's represented fully as "responsible use of reality warping abilities" will likely influence it. As for Clarity however, I've always liked thinking of it a little like Mortals' integrity. Changelings would likely have a few common breaking points (imprisonment, kidnapping, plenty of things that remind them too much of the Gentry and their experiences.) but then to be able to illustrate breaking points specifically tied to their durance I think would really help us understand the whole, "Changelings are constantly teetering on the edge of insanity" theme. It's one of my real complaints about the game, since although the book points out that changelings are generally very damaged individuals, with the exception of the antagonists I don't generally see it, particularly with the Clarity system. In general only really significant things tend to mess with the average PC changeling's clarity (which are generally already fairly traumatic for regular people, like murdering or being imprisoned.) An individual system not only allows for more variety, but also would really help express that sense of both paranoia and madness Changelings could feel over even innocuous things that remind them of their durance.

I'd prefer it if Changelings used Integrity, but with a "what happened during your durance?" question to add the Changeling flavour. I just don't see Clarity as different enough to Integrity to be worth making it's own thing, and it'll likely be the first thing I mod into any Changeling game I run.

I'd love it if Mages had a Hubris meter that counted up instead of a Wisdom meter that counts down. Mages don't have to be wise to avoid hubris, but the name is currently misleading, implying wisdom when it just measures morality/anti-hubris.

[SiuiS]

I meant the virtue and vice replacements actually, although this always occurs and I think virtue and vice tie inextricably into the morality meter for most players, somehow.

[Almarck]

So I've just skimmed through 2e werewolf stuff. I have got to say it's quite different from 1e. Just wow, all of the buffs especially to melee. Especially if you are running purity or a Rahu.


Imagine a player having the option to raise Strength temporarily for 1 essence, permanently get extra health, get bonus weapon damage to brawl attacks for 1 essence, all at the same time by spending 3 exp for each point of increase since purity governs it all.

And this is before factoring form bonuses or factoring other powers that buff melee like doing extra damage to objects on top of ignoring an amount of durability based on wisdom, getting armor piercing based on honor. Yup, werewolves seem to be now quite capable in the up and close fighting to an almost scary degree.


On the note of non combat things, I quite like the alternate virtue and vice system and the alternate morality stat. For one is definitely sets things up to show their unique conflict, being a creature of two worlds. Harmony is so much better now that 10 no longer means living saint. Interestingly enough are the other equivalents raise able with exp? Harmony seems to be moved by breaking points now.

[SiuiS]

Because Harmony needs to balance at 5 (or 6?), raising it doesn't make sense. Integrity, humanity and cover can all be raised by XP.

You make a good point though. Blood and bone, and the vampire ones, both reflect the struggles of vampire.

What's the struggle of changeling? Human society versus faerie allure? Selfishness versus selflessness?

[Kiero]

Because Harmony needs to balance at 5 (or 6?), raising it doesn't make sense. Integrity, humanity and cover can all be raised by XP.

No they can't. You can no longer affect Integrity or it's equivalents with XP, they are only impacted by events in-game.

[SiuiS]

I'm fairly confident you're wrong, both because I recall costs for both integrity and cover, and because with no way to increase it it's just a ticking clock that's outside your hands as a player before you get GAME OVER.

Yeah, I'm looking at my PDF right now. Integrity: 3 XP / dot.

If you mean werewolf specifically, I get that, or if you mean that's the one actual rules change they're implementing between gmc and 2e, that's... Interesting, but then they need "fixing points" that make you go up in integrity, wouldn't they?

[Almarck]

Just to be sure check blood and smoke for if exp costs exists. The only thing I am sure of is the Mechanic that lets players dump morality stats for bonus exp..

I do however think Keiro was talking werewolf only unless he's got extrapolate test data.

[Anonymouswizard]

I meant the virtue and vice replacements actually, although this always occurs and I think virtue and vice tie inextricably into the morality meter for most players, somehow.

Maybe personality archetypes would be a better way to refer to them? Because I actually held off answering because I your post implied both morality stats and personality archetypes.

No they can't. You can no longer affect Integrity or it's equivalents with XP, they are only impacted by events in-game.

Blood and Smoke page 83, Humanity: 2 Experiences per dot. I believe that currently only Harmony is effect only by in-game stuff.

[Kiero]

Sorry, I'm extrapolating backwards from Werewolf 2nd, in which you cannot buy Harmony with XP, because Harmony isn't a "downward" spiral at all, but a spectrum. Things you do can push it in either direction, and high and low Harmony have different (but equal) implications in terms of how you interact with either Flesh or Spirit. Breaking Points work in both directions, not just down.

So yes, you can buy Integrity with XP. Which I think is dumb (you should only be able to affect it by getting treatment/talking it through/whatever, not just dumping XP to make your worries go away), but there it is.

[Anonymouswizard]

Sorry, I'm extrapolating backwards from Werewolf 2nd, in which you cannot buy Harmony with XP, because Harmony isn't a "downward" spiral at all, but a spectrum. Things you do can push it in either direction, and high and low Harmony have different (but equal) implications in terms of how you interact with either Flesh or Spirit. Breaking Points work in both directions, not just down.

So yes, you can buy Integrity with XP. Which I think is dumb (you should only be able to affect it by getting treatment/talking it through/whatever, not just dumping XP to make your worries go away), but there it is.

I agree with you, but in my experience you probably get one point back per five rolls, which is still a downwards spiral. Although if splats get rules like Vampire's touchstones than I'd run it like that, seeing as they slow the rate of descent.

Speaking of touchstones, what do people think of changing the Ventrue bane to only letting you have touchstones at Humanity 6, 4, and 2? Or some other limit to the number of touchstones they have, like removing any touchstones above their current humanity (so a Ventrue with touchstone 3 and Humanity 4 has two touchstones at Humanity 3 and 4, and if he raises his Humanity to 5 he can begin the work of trying to attach a new touchstone. It makes losing Humanity much more dangerous).

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Reading the proposal for a Promethean Morality Track, that seems a lot like Mummy's Morality Track. Despite being a 1.0 game, Mummy really was the test-ground for a lot of 2.0 ideas, and messing with Morality tracks was one of them. Mummy morality is called "Memory" and measures how much the character can remember about their past (given that they are immortal going back into pre-history, that can be difficult). It starts at 3 (although technically when a Mummy awakes it starts at 1 and quickly moves up to 3), and raising it is often a Mummy's first personal goal, in- and out-of-character.

Mummy is still one of my theoretically favourite splats, simply because beginning a story sounds so... invigorating. It's one of the few times you have free reign to murderhobo everyone. You wake up with very little sense of self and no idea where you are but at full Power stat, able to call meteors down from the heaven and kill people without even trying, but there's a time limit on your power, so you want to do as much damage as you can before your power plateaus, at which point you have a bit of a next-day murder-hangover as you try to figure out WHY you were killing everyone, and what to do about it.

[Kiero]

I agree with you, but in my experience you probably get one point back per five rolls, which is still a downwards spiral. Although if splats get rules like Vampire's touchstones than I'd run it like that, seeing as they slow the rate of descent.

My position isn't that there should be no means of recovering them, just that you shouldn't be able to simply spend XP to regain Integrity. Instead, just as in-game activities can cause Integrity to fall, so in-game activities dealing with mental/psychological trauma should be able to cause it to rise again.

[Morty]

Proposal for a Promethean morality track? Is it an official one, or just a fan idea?

[SiuiS]

Just to be sure check blood and smoke for if exp costs exists. The only thing I am sure of is the Mechanic that lets players dump morality stats for bonus exp..

I do however think Keiro was talking werewolf only unless he's got extrapolate test data.

You actually cannot dump morality for XP anymore. The discussions for it before release had devs saying "ask the ST for a breaking point due to your questions, and hope you get a good condition out of it."

That may have changed, they have released other updates since, including the "boosting power stat costs 5 dots not 3" one.

Sorry, I'm extrapolating backwards from Werewolf 2nd, in which you cannot buy Harmony with XP, because Harmony isn't a "downward" spiral at all, but a spectrum. Things you do can push it in either direction, and high and low Harmony have different (but equal) implications in terms of how you interact with either Flesh or Spirit. Breaking Points work in both directions, not just down.

So yes, you can buy Integrity with XP. Which I think is dumb (you should only be able to affect it by getting treatment/talking it through/whatever, not just dumping XP to make your worries go away), but there it is.

Mm. I acknowledged the special case of werewolf, was why I was confused.

Question, because I cross my names. Is Azacroazim(?) the gent who played Bastion in Detroit Rock City? I know the name somewhere...

Reading the proposal for a Promethean Morality Track, that seems a lot like Mummy's Morality Track. Despite being a 1.0 game, Mummy really was the test-ground for a lot of 2.0 ideas, and messing with Morality tracks was one of them. Mummy morality is called "Memory" and measures how much the character can remember about their past (given that they are immortal going back into pre-history, that can be difficult). It starts at 3 (although technically when a Mummy awakes it starts at 1 and quickly moves up to 3), and raising it is often a Mummy's first personal goal, in- and out-of-character.

Mummy is still one of my theoretically favourite splats, simply because beginning a story sounds so... invigorating. It's one of the few times you have free reign to murderhobo everyone. You wake up with very little sense of self and no idea where you are but at full Power stat, able to call meteors down from the heaven and kill people without even trying, but there's a time limit on your power, so you want to do as much damage as you can before your power plateaus, at which point you have a bit of a next-day murder-hangover as you try to figure out WHY you were killing everyone, and what to do about it.

You've just sold me on mummy.

My position isn't that there should be no means of recovering them, just that you shouldn't be able to simply spend XP to regain Integrity. Instead, just as in-game activities can cause Integrity to fall, so in-game activities dealing with mental/psychological trauma should be able to cause it to rise again.

I think this is too close a view. You are getting morality from in game events. You overcome situations and personal conditions and reflect on them, regaining personal integrity. It's just that you could also learn to be better at guns or something instead. That strikes me as accurate; some people will self reflect and realize they don't want to go down the rabbit hole. Others will not notice the rabbit hole and focus on how to beat that damn rabbit they're chasing.

The dropping happening is a different thing entirely; it's more akin to damage (or for werewolf, an alignment change).

Maybe personality archetypes would be a better way to refer to them? Because I actually held off answering because I your post implied both morality stats and personality archetypes.

Aye. That was my fault, I did even bring up cover specifically.


*


Let's focus on the idea that a changeling has values based on their human life and their faerie nature. How could you see that working? Like, concretely. I could say "virtue is society, vice is court" but then I am stuck wondering what specific courts and humanities would look like...

[Ravian]

Proposal for a Promethean morality track? Is it an official one, or just a fan idea?

I think it's primarily a fan idea, at least that's where it originated from. However the writers for onyx path are fairly integrated into the forums on their site, and they have been known for using certain ideas from fans.

[Kiero]

Mm. I acknowledged the special case of werewolf, was why I was confused.

Question, because I cross my names. Is Azacroazim(?) the gent who played Bastion in Detroit Rock City? I know the name somewhere...

No, Acrozatarim is nothing to do with Detroit Rock City (they're an American group, I believe, we're British). He's one of Dave B(rookshaw)'s Mage players - The Soul Cage at al. Also the GM and writer of the long-running WFRP2e thread, The Shadow of the Sun.

I think this is too close a view. You are getting morality from in game events. You overcome situations and personal conditions and reflect on them, regaining personal integrity. It's just that you could also learn to be better at guns or something instead. That strikes me as accurate; some people will self reflect and realize they don't want to go down the rabbit hole. Others will not notice the rabbit hole and focus on how to beat that damn rabbit they're chasing.

The dropping happening is a different thing entirely; it's more akin to damage (or for werewolf, an alignment change).

I don't think it flies. For one it's far too fast (3XP is three sessions, at our current rate of Beats) and for two it's not linked at all the the things you should be doing to address a decline in Integrity. It shouldn't just be as easy as "spend XP and your worries go away".

Integrity is supposed to be a big deal, it should have to actually be addressed in the game, and I think associating it with the advancement mechanics sends entirely the wrong message. That just turns it into a cost of doing bad things.

[Blackhawk748]

I don't think it flies. For one it's far too fast (3XP is three sessions, at our current rate of Beats) and for two it's not linked at all the the things you should be doing to address a decline in Integrity. It shouldn't just be as easy as "spend XP and your worries go away".

Integrity is supposed to be a big deal, it should have to actually be addressed in the game, and I think associating it with the advancement mechanics sends entirely the wrong message. That just turns it into a cost of doing bad things.

Ill be honest, its not perfect, but its better than it used to be. I mean it was freakin hard to get your Morality back in 1E, hell it was so hard ive never actually seen it. Also you gotta remember that they recommend not spending your XP until after the chapter, so you cant have someone regaining Integrity in the middle of a Warehouse full of murderous psychopaths.

Also, can someone tell me the point of Mummy? The Wiki isnt all that helpful and on top of that Mortal Remains didnt give me a lot to work with.

[Chambers]

Alternate Floridas

From someone who used to live in Orlando, that was great.

I'm way behind on my White Wolf game terminology; what game was that made for?

Edit: Right, Demon in the first sentence.

[SiuiS]

No, Acrozatarim is nothing to do with Detroit Rock City (they're an American group, I believe, we're British). He's one of Dave B(rookshaw)'s Mage players - The Soul Cage at al. Also the GM and writer of the long-running WFRP2e thread, The Shadow of the Sun.

Aha, that's it. Thank you, sir.

I don't think it flies. For one it's far too fast (3XP is three sessions, at our current rate of Beats) and for two it's not linked at all the the things you should be doing to address a decline in Integrity. It shouldn't just be as easy as "spend XP and your worries go away".

Integrity is supposed to be a big deal, it should have to actually be addressed in the game, and I think associating it with the advancement mechanics sends entirely the wrong message. That just turns it into a cost of doing bad things.

From experience, I disagree. Personal integrity is just as easy to reinforce as it is to lose. It takes time to refocus, but it's there. I've personally developed PTSD from trying to give my cat an IV. But I've also been able to reintegrate my philosophy to be willing to kill someone in a fight using only about a day of deep thought. And it only took a long conversation with some friends to remind me I'm trying to move away from that sort of life.

I do not believe integrity is supposed to be that big a deal. If it was, then power to reduce it would not be completely and utterly out of a player's hands, reduction would not be so easy and common, and reduction would somehow matter. The fact that a player can skate integrity 2 or 3 in a session because of a weird and terrifying set up by the ST and through no fault of their own, that integrity can plummet several times a session, and that integrity does nothing but generate conditions tells me that the intention may be as you say but the execution is not.

[magic9mushroom]

I think a better example of where it brakes down is something like a heavy machine gun or minigun, which iirc deal with their weapons by having massive bonuses to dice pool. This makes a heavy machine gun a better weapon then a hunting rifle for shooting someone from long range, simply because the extra dice bonuses the machine gun gets over the hunting rifle outweighs the range maluses.

I may be wrong though, I don't have my books in front of me, but I think this is a better example of how nWoD 1.0 had weird things happening by throwing damage and to-hit into a single dice pool roll.

Machine guns are very good at hitting things, because each roll represents many shots. And the record for sniping was held for decades by someone who'd rigged a machine gun to fire single-shot, so they're actually pretty inherently accurate too. The reason you don't use an HMG for hunting is because they're illegal, expensive, and unnecessary, not because they aren't good at it. Similar to the reason you don't use VX gas against rats.

There are some heavy weapons where they did go to "X extra successes on hit"; APFSDS rounds from a tank gun, for instance, are 3 (L) 8-again AP 40 with -1 for each Size under 15 and +25 successes on a hit.

I'm not saying extra successes can't apply in some cases, just that they aren't necessary to simulate swords/axes/bows. And that that isn't the biggest issue to begin with.

The games lack of grain between damage and accuracy is a problem.

Somewhat, yes. But 8-again and 9-again do give a (admittedly limited) second dimension, because they increase damage on a hit without increasing the likelihood of a hit. And it happens to be the case that the two go together a lot, because speed is the main factor in kinetic energy of weaponry and longer barrels of firearms allow both better stability in-flight and more power.

I don't think it flies. For one it's far too fast (3XP is three sessions, at our current rate of Beats) and for two it's not linked at all the the things you should be doing to address a decline in Integrity. It shouldn't just be as easy as "spend XP and your worries go away".

Integrity is supposed to be a big deal, it should have to actually be addressed in the game, and I think associating it with the advancement mechanics sends entirely the wrong message. That just turns it into a cost of doing bad things.

Did they scrap the roleplaying requirement for XP expenditure in 2e?

Because last I checked you specifically need to act like Morality N+1 for a significant time to purchase Morality N+1. Just like you need to actually learn to shoot better to purchase Firearms N+1, or work out to purchase Strength N+1.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Also, can someone tell me the point of Mummy? The Wiki isnt all that helpful and on top of that Mortal Remains didnt give me a lot to work with.

Yeah, I think I can do this. Thematically, you play as Imhotep from those 1990s The Mummy movies, and a lot of your powers are either based on his, or on Old Testament miracles.

Basically, you're the ancient servants of a long-gone pre-historic empire, preserved with forgotten magics. You were created so that your masters would always have willing servants to keep their empire running, but shortly after you were turned into the undead monstrosity you are, the empire fell, and your will is controlled by your gods, the Judges. They will wake you from your eternal slumber with a mission (such as to collect a certain artifact from the old empire), or the cult that keeps watch over you will wake you for a mission (such as to protect them against an enemy they don't understand). That mission is your driving force; the longer you work towards it, the longer you can stay active before returning to the underworld. If you start to ignore your mission, you will lose power quicker. Over the millenia, for one reason or another, the Mummies have spread across the world.

But there was a... glitch, if you will, in the ritual which created you. Every Sothic Turn, that is, every time the star Sothis, known to us as Sirius, performs a full circuit of it's movements across the sky and return to a specific spot in relation to the sun, EVERY Mummy awakes around the same time, around the world, without a purpose. There have been 4 of these events, as far as most Mummy's can remember (as I said above, their memory is verrrrry weird). The first was 2371 BC, as Mummies find a familiar yet alien culture, the Egyptian Old Kingdom, splintering around each other, and take advantage of the chaos to bring htemselves to positions of power. Next was 910 BC, then 551 BC, and then finally, 2012 AD, which is the assumed point that your Chronicle will take place, as it's the point where you don't have to come up with a reason that all your players woke up at the same time.

So one of the main themes is Memory; your Mummy starts out (after his initial amnesiac freak-out) knowing only vaguely who their peers are, and only vaguely what they did last time they awoke. As you play, you'll rediscover plots you laid over your previous awakenings, and sometimes find out that they're either repugnant to you now or work against you now. You'll also have to figure out which of your peer Mummies were your trusted allies, which betrayed you, and which you have always hated, always wondering whether they remember something about you that you don't.

A lot of the game involves sending your Cult out to do stuff for you, so really your cult acts like a second player-character often.

Enemies include, in addition to simply rival Mummies and humans, Scorpion Cults (are Mummy Cults that have lost or destroyed or betrayed their Mummy but retain their spiritual knowledge), Amkhata (terrifyingly powerful monsters, often a match for a Mummy at the peak of her power, which are formed when artifacts from the old empire are damaged or destroyed), Shuankhsen (mummy-like beings with perfect memories of the ancient empire, which is called Irem by the way, but if they reveal those memories they grow weaker, and an ancient grudge against Mummies for reasons the Mummies cannot remember), and the Decieved (the followers of the Lost Guild, a hidden guild of Mummies with a secret agenda and strange and wondrous powers, even for other Mummies).

Mummy powers are based around the 5 different parts of the soul; Heart, Spirit, Essence, Name and Shadow. One of these forms your X-splat. There are two types of powers; Affinities and Utterances. Affinities are spontaneous abilities that are often passive, and are almost always pretty subtle. Utterances, on the other hand, are powerful, obvious, and draining. An example of an Affinity is the 3-dot Spirit Affinity Sight Beyond Eyes, which gives you a vision of the ST's choosing. An example of an Utterance is the 3-dot tier of Redacting the Word, which allows you to completely remove any and all physical evidence of a person's existence from the world. Mummies are POWERFUL.

The Mummy Y-splat is their Guild, which depending on your interpretation may be linked to their mortal guild, or may be something they fell into based on mis-remembered facts and such. These guilds have difficult-to-remember names in Egyptian, but they are the Guild of the Overseers (who act as a kind of secret police among mummies), the Guild of Alchemists (who concern themselves with what they see as a spiritual force of creativity), the Guild of Scribes (they seek to write down all knowledge, to preserve their memories), the Guild of Priests (who continue to organize worship of the Judges), and the Guild of Architects (think the kind of Architects that inscribe masonic symbols in street-patterns, and for similar reasons).

... that was probably too much but I ended up having to stop myself from explaining the different types of artifacts that the Mummies use and that the Judges send them out to look for, but that's kinda the basics of it.

[Sith_Happens]

What's the struggle of changeling? Human society versus faerie allure? Selfishness versus selflessness?

I don't have names for them, but I'm thinking they'd respectively relate to

1. Your desire to live a normal human life (or not).

2. Your need to band with other changelings and/or do faerie-ish things to ensure your survival.

Somewhat, yes. But 8-again and 9-again do give a (admittedly limited) second dimension, because they increase damage on a hit without increasing the likelihood of a hit.

You keep saying this, but 8-again and 9-again give extra successes and the entire problem in the first place is that successes represent(ed) equal parts accuracy and damage. For example, you could possibly roll three dice with 8-again and get four successes where you'd have only gotten two without the 8-again, which means you're hitting a defense roll of 3 when you normally wouldn't have.

every time the star Sothis, known to us as Sirius, performs a full circuit of it's movements across the sky and return to a specific spot in relation to the sun... The first was 2371 BC... Next was 910 BC, then 551 BC, and then finally, 2012 AD

Are these dates remotely accurate to the real world? Because they're definitely not anywhere near evenly-spaced.