General World of Darkness Discussion Thread QQ Edition

[Maragas]

Unless you have reached Golconda, you still have your Beast to deal with, can you really be comfortable with an ever nagging hunger in the back of your mind? Or knowing that you could lose control and go into a Frenzy? We tend to not think about it because the roll is so low but even "Lighting a cigarette" is a Rötschreck Test (according to V20 corebook), it is only difficult 3 so the chance of success are high, but even if you succeed that just means you can "ignore" the beast telling you to flee and not that you don't feel it.

I guess you can if you have time to settle and get used to it, but the "you" that could get "used" to that. Now you could argue that the person that becomes "used" to it, isn't really the same as they were when they were turned... But then we get into phillosphy "is anyone ever the same person, they were 10 years ago?" Probably not, but the personality changes after adapting to being a Kindred are much more severe than how a humans personality would change in a decade (imo).

So nah, being a Kindred sucks. There is a reason it is called a curse. That being said I still stand by the fact that being a Mage is also not great, nor is being a Werewolf, Wraith, Changeling or Demon.

On my personal scale of best to worse fate: Werewolf > Mage > Vampire > Demon & Wraith

Haven't played Changeling enough to place it.

Click to shrink...

For the first decades, yes. But even then, your life as a human and a living mortal will be equivalent to your childhood.
After a few centuries, it will be equivalent to being a baby. By that point, I would be honestly surprised if you even remember actual full details about your human life unless you deliberately kept track of it.
We see what happens at that point. Either you get put into the track to be a humanist and make peace with it, like Menele. Or inhuman and don't care.

And honestly, Werewolves have it worse.

Most of the time you are going on your business, get through the First Change, gain new senses, urges and most likely commit a mass slaughter, get dragged to the supernatural by other Werewolves and if you are fortunate they are the good ones and not of the Wyrm, told you will be fighting in a war you are losing and losing fast, there aren't enough soldiers, you only get a dozen or so replacements each year and you will most certainly die young.

Spoiler: Werewolf Population

 

[Skitzyfrenic]

The Beast is really manageable.

Because the Beast is you. It's your hunger, it's your fears, it's your rages. It's your lizard brain cranked up to eleven. But it's still you. You can learn to be an adult and greatly increase your control over yourself and manage your environment.

Golcanda might be extremely difficult to obtain, being vampire enlightenment, finding a happy controlled equilibrium isn't. Even RAW.

That's part of the reason V5 has hunger dice to encourage vampire like behaviors, and 'true' vampire role playing. Hunger and the Beast were easy to manage just by being a modicum of heads up. So RAW and RAI line up and you do more vampire things and less superhuman who is a hemovore things.

Especially in modern nights. Remember that PCs are examples of exceptionally busy kindred. And they could fairly easily manage the Beast in pre-V5 editions.

Once you figure out how to manage your hunger, and what sets off roetschreck and other frenzy things, you can pretty much just... via humanitas and coast, just like any human. For eternity.

It's having to spend blood constantly, and dealing with people who know how to poke the deeper parts of you, aka The Beast, to their advantage that makes things difficult.

The 'problem' is that if you're that kind of person, you probably weren't embraced. Clans overwhelming look for someone who is exceptional in some way. Sometimes they're exceptionally fucked up, but that's still exceptional.

But Autarkis do exist. And so do 'generic member of the Anarchs/Cam.' They don't really go crazy all the time. They're just kinda doing stuff. Doing their thing, you know?

The Sabbat is pretty focused and active in such a way that while you might not proc the Beast a lot, you will probably end up in frenzy somewhat regularly and is philosophical opposed to 'just living my best unlife.'

You don't have to be part of an organization, though it makes things easier.

A real ladder of best to worst probably looks something more like Mage (becoming God is on the table, but it is called Ascension War soooo) >= Vampire (Sometimes hell is other people not being willing to let you just chill) >>> Werewolf (forced to be angry and retarded) > Changeling (you have to deal with the fae) >>>>>>>>>>>> Wraith (Being dead sucks alot) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Demon (10k years+ in a sensory deprivation tank and possessing the body of some utter loser just to keep your sanity) > Mummy (there's 3 of you and you're just kinda not enough to unfuck the situation, it's pretty much injecting despair right into your heart).

Demons have some pretty sweet powers though.

 

[shadowdice]

A funny thought to me is a guy who used to work in customer service or a gas station cashier who can instantly tell various bits about people like what drugs they are addicted to just from the amount of it he has encountered. Including all the magic drugs

Hunter: Zombie!

Cashier: No that is PCP and meth. Look at the mush mouth. The policeman cuffing him is a ghoul though. He's got that Vitae strength. The guy over by the bathroom is on that ghost vision heroin thing

 

[Wwind]

real ladder of best to worst probably looks something more like Mage (becoming God is on the table, but it is called Ascension War soooo) >= Vampire (Sometimes hell is other people not being willing to let you just chill) >>> Werewolf (forced to be angry and retarded) > Changeling (you have to deal with the fae) >>>>>>>>>>>> Wraith (Being dead sucks alot) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Demon (10k years+ in a sensory deprivation tank and possessing the body of some utter loser just to keep your sanity)

Click to shrink...

Mages definitely. Though, if you were not ready and got forcefully/wrongly awakened I imagine it rapidly moves down. All of reality is a lie and your mind breaks like an eggshell.

Vampire - mostly suck I think. The only thing they got is being immortal. Potentially. Maybe. Still a cursed cannibal corpse at the end of the day tho.
Kuei-Jin - got it a bit worse. Guaranteed to go to hell if they die without ascension.

Werewolves - yeah. They do get it rough. Though being a non-metis werewolf would be nice. You are more alive then ever. No sickness or weakness for you. Only ones more into sheer sensing the world thing would be mage ecstatics. Also the sheer spiritual validation I guess.

Fera - while many other shifters got it worse then garou, some are very neat. Ananasi are doing fine, mokole are just getting started. Ananasi don't even have rage. They can even rejuvenate by changing out large parts of their swarm or hibernate.
0Mokole similarly can live forever with their dragonsleep.

Fae - the worse thing is I think being doomed to be lost to banality. But at least you get to party first.

 

[shadowdice]

The game I'm running now has one player paranoid of the family mega castle being built over a black spiral dancer caern

They went exploring, completely ignored changeling foreshadowing in the form of a spider cocooning a chrysalis to eat and instead focused on the fact that the secret passage they found had an increasing curve leading downwards to the cavern system they know is under the castle through historical record

Detective: there are maybe Garou symbols I had to find to get to the passage, this is clearly black spiral dancer

It is a spiral so that it doesn't take too much space and the place is full of parasitic (vampiric) plants and mushrooms

 

[Skitzyfrenic]

My Salubri player's character is a heart throb.

The hidden Baali, beautiful and dark, who is actively part of the court of Toledo in 1212AD pretending to be a Toreador, is desperately in love (and lust) with Sir Albert de Verdun. He approached her this eve.

Her actions as he approached? Visibly smooth down her hair and dress, stammer saying hello.

When he asked for the favor of her name, she heard that he wanted her name and a favor. So she told him her name Isabella de Foix and then, because she had no ribbons...

She picked up her silk dress (ridiculously expensive in 1212) and literally ripped a chunk from it. Like her lower right leg was exposed. It was a big chunk of her dress.

Then her heart went doki and the blush of life forced itself on her, she turned red, pivoted and fucking booked it.

Girlfailure Baali.

 

[Imperator Sol]

Girlfailure Baali.

Click to shrink...

Baali cutie patootie.

 

[Skitzyfrenic]

She rolled these failures too. I didn't roleplay her like this until after seeing rolls.

The template I was using, I didn't realize how bad it was at social things, and now I'm stuck with it lmao.