Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[REGENDarySumanai]

The Trove is a really nice website for finding out of print material.

Speaking of this, my friend was looking for WEG's Ghostbusters game and he said that he couldn't find a digital version. All I did was go to The Trove, go to Ghostbusters, open up the main manual and showed it to him. His look of surprise and shock was great, and then he bought the entire set sans Tobin's Spirit Guide.

 

[Blini Cat]

My group is starting Feng Shui soon and I'm pretty excited. Anyone have any experience? Really looking forward to it after some fairly gritty and long-running Delta Green and Shadowrun games.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

My group is starting Feng Shui soon and I'm pretty excited. Anyone have any experience? Really looking forward to it after some fairly gritty and long-running Delta Green and Shadowrun games.

I am presuming you are doing second edition Feng Shui? I've never used that system, but it's similar to FATE in that it is rules light and has shticks, which are similar to FATE's aspects.

 

[PL 001]

Getting a new player involved in my VtM game. He wants to play a Toreador and basically have a ghoul army running around town and serving as his literal army. I've tried explaining that he's going to need to do a ton of hunting to supply each ghoul with their vitae, that it would end up potentially being a big masquerade violation having that many blood addicts in the city, and at worst having a potential Blood Hunt called on him. He's dead set on wanting his dozens and dozens of ghouls.

Should I put the kibosh on this, or just allow it? He seems to see WoD as similar to D&D. Any WoD Storytellers here ever have players like this?

 

[Hummingbird]

Getting a new player involved in my VtM game. He wants to play a Toreador and basically have a ghoul army running around town and serving as his literal army. I've tried explaining that he's going to need to do a ton of hunting to supply each ghoul with their vitae, that it would end up potentially being a big masquerade violation having that many blood addicts in the city, and at worst having a potential Blood Hunt called on him. He's dead set on wanting his dozens and dozens of ghouls.

Should I put the kibosh on this, or just allow it? He seems to see WoD as similar to D&D. Any WoD Storytellers here ever have players like this?

How would the other players feel about this little stunt of his? If they're fine with him being blood hunted or they want as little trouble as possible should be considered.

 

[PL 001]

How would the other players feel about this little stunt of his? If they're fine with him being blood hunted or they want as little trouble as possible should be considered.

It seems to be about a 50/50 split. I have one player who *really* is against it and thinks the guy needs to understand that WoD isn't typically a "kick in the door, bash in their skulls and loot their bodies" kind of game. One player thinks we should try it for a session or two and see how he goes about it. The other player doesn't give a damn either way.

 

[Techpriest]

It seems to be about a 50/50 split. I have one player who *really* is against it and thinks the guy needs to understand that WoD isn't typically a "kick in the door, bash in their skulls and loot their bodies" kind of game. One player thinks we should try it for a session or two and see how he goes about it. The other player doesn't give a damn either way.

Let him do it, and then have the ghouls start killing one another because they’re getting in the way of the master’s affection. Stress how drained he feels, having to feed a half dozen people from his veins. Have the ghouls realize “there’s more of us than there are of him.” Have a ghoul he neglected turn traitor on him.

 

[Hummingbird]

Let him do it, and then have the ghouls start killing one another because they’re getting in the way of the master’s affection. Stress how drained he feels, having to feed a half dozen people from his veins. Have the ghouls realize “there’s more than us than there are of him.” Have a ghoul he neglected turn traitor on him.

Sounds wonderfully wicked if they were to make a meal out of his character.

 

[Techpriest]

Sounds wonderfully wicked if they were to make a meal out of his character.

Ghouls can be some of the most dangerous things a fledgling vampire can have. Dangerous to everyone, because once a ghoul figures out they can feed from any source of vitae, they’re a threat to any vampire they cross if they’re jonesing enough for a fix. Treating ghouls like shit or as part of a disposable unit isn’t a good idea in general.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Well mathematically he's going to have to drink 4-5 times the standard amount of blood and spend massive amounts of time stopping them going bat shit insane. Mass ghouling only works for the Tzmisce because they're evil as fuck and don't really care about the condition of the ghouls.
Remember that most princes will not approve of that many ghouls so social reprecusions are another angle to come at it from. The prince may even clamp down on ghouling in general which will result in everyone being unhappy with him.

 

[Kyria the Great]

Well mathematically he's going to have to drink 4-5 times the standard amount of blood and spend massive amounts of time stopping them going bat shit insane. Mass ghouling only works for the Tzmisce because they're evil as fuck and don't really care about the condition of the ghouls.
Remember that most princes will not approve of that many ghouls so social reprecusions are another angle to come at it from. The prince may even clamp down on ghouling in general which will result in everyone being unhappy with him.

Though something that should make sense in WoD is that even though you are a Vampire, going to treat those under you like shit eventually does come back to bite you as if the Anarch Rebellions weren't a clue in on that.

the Tzmisce are some of the sickest fuckers with only the Anti-Tribue Toredor going to rival in the vileness and deprativy.

 

[Adamska]

Jeez, reminds me of the time my players once let their nature get seen by the Sabbat because one of the guys didn't think through that he needs to keep his powers on the DL. Resulted in the portion of the pack hilariously forting up and creating some szlachta out of their customer base as shock troops. They did manage to blood bond one of them though, who then became their basically Mr. X. Shit was great.

Speaking of the nineties, remember when Randall read through Wraeththu?

Yeah... we're covering that now:

 

[Emperor Julian]

Though something that should make sense in WoD is that even though you are a Vampire, going to treat those under you like shit eventually does come back to bite you as if the Anarch Rebellions weren't a clue in on that.

the Tzmisce are some of the sickest fuckers with only the Anti-Tribue Toredor going to rival in the vileness and deprativy.

Yeah, Ideally you want 1-3 ghouls max. If you're humaine a lover or animals are typically what you want to go for since their tendancy to fawn becomes workable. Potential embraces work as well since it gives you a feel for if the candidate will cope with the beast and how fucking awful vampires are.
Aides and bodyguards are ghouls, For servants and warriors you have dominate. presence, necromancy and a vampires natural tendancy to accumulate power. Why would you bother with a ghoul army when you can bank Blackwater for a month?

Their is another line which is far far worse than either. Baali, compared to them the others look almost reasonable.

 

[Techpriest]

Yeah, Ideally you want 1-3 ghouls max. If you're humaine a lover or animals are typically what you want to go for since their tendancy to fawn becomes workable. Potential embraces work as well since it gives you a feel for if the candidate will cope with the beast and how fucking awful vampires are.
Aides and bodyguards are ghouls, For servants and warriors you have dominate. presence, necromancy and a vampires natural tendancy to accumulate power. Why would you bother with a ghoul army when you can bank Blackwater for a month?

Their is another line which is far far worse than either. Baali, compared to them the others look almost reasonable.

The whole point of the Baali though is that the horrible shit they do isn't something they do for fun all the time. Comparatively, the Toreador anti-tribu and Tzmisce do the shit they do because they can do it. There's no overriding motive, most of the time. Sure, Tzmisce are looking for some kind of ascension, but that doesn't relate to turning a kid into a new pair of gloves because you felt like it.

 

[Emperor Julian]

The whole point of the Baali though is that the horrible shit they do isn't something they do for fun all the time. Comparatively, the Toreador anti-tribu and Tzmisce do the shit they do because they can do it. There's no overriding motive, most of the time. Sure, Tzmisce are looking for some kind of ascension, but that doesn't relate to turning a kid into a new pair of gloves because you felt like it.

That's actually a pretty interesting issue in off itself, I know (some) of the Baali have a the relatively altruistic motivation of keeping the Children asleep via dark rituals which raises the question of if the ends justify the means.
That said there are a lot of them who do what they do because they're just that awful and the devil worship is a facet of that awfulness.

 

[Adamska]

That's actually a pretty interesting issue in off itself, I know (some) of the Baali have a the relatively altruistic motivation of keeping the Children asleep via dark rituals which raises the question of if the ends justify the means.
That said there are a lot of them who do what they do because they're just that awful and the devil worship is a facet of that awfulness.

I forget if I am just blurring them with my homebrew but there's like four schools of Baali that vary between this and just wanting to end the world in a fit of nihilism. The weirdest ones of the lot are the Disciples of the Swarm, which were these weirdos obsessed with a hivemind that is made of bugs and other such vermin.

Speaking of which, surprise Dice Scum Episode:

The Legend of Barry begins...

 

[Techpriest]

I really love Barry.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Getting a new player involved in my VtM game. He wants to play a Toreador and basically have a ghoul army running around town and serving as his literal army. I've tried explaining that he's going to need to do a ton of hunting to supply each ghoul with their vitae, that it would end up potentially being a big masquerade violation having that many blood addicts in the city, and at worst having a potential Blood Hunt called on him. He's dead set on wanting his dozens and dozens of ghouls.

Should I put the kibosh on this, or just allow it? He seems to see WoD as similar to D&D. Any WoD Storytellers here ever have players like this?

Ask him how much he'd trust an army of heroin addicts. An army of addicts that he has to personally tend to, mind you.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Well, creating a shitton of ghouls for the long run seems like it's a really bad idea, but just from a theoretical point of view, wouldn't it be possible to boost your numbers for some high-risk combat encounter by making a quick few disposable ghouls? I mean, you'd still need a bit of time to set it up.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Should I put the kibosh on this, or just allow it? He seems to see WoD as similar to D&D. Any WoD Storytellers here ever have players like this?

This is one of my main criticisms about D&D (especially modern D&D) as a whole, that it makes beginners believe that everything is similar to D&D, where everything is just walking loot bags with numbers and not actual creatures. I honestly don't know where this school of thought came from, but I sure as hell want to see it quashed.