Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines: 2 - I want to believe, but...

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That would completely destroy the point of the character. The fact that Therese believes that her father loved her and feels betrayed by Jeanette sleeping with him (despite Jeanette being HERSELF) is the blindside reveal of just exactly why Therese is a perfect Malkavian. She's not babbling about prophecies or breaking the fourth wall, she has a very relatable and tragic mental illness that causes her to view something horrifying as ultimately a good thing. Jeanette being a coping mechanism gone rogue explains why she's so upfront about their father being a piece of shit who raped them. It's a part of Therese that's trying to give her a (very nasty) wake up call about what her father was really like, or even what she was really like. Yes, it's absurd, but that's the point of being a Malkavian. If you changed it to be more "respectful", it wouldn't feel like VtM. Nothing about this setting is respectful or grounded. If the Therese subplot was completely grounded, it wouldn't exist, because it's completely inaccurate to DID.
Good point malkavians are intended to be batshit insane and itd kind of kill the tone if they didnt go to extremes like that. Its fucked up but it has a good reason to be in the game
The actual good solution to this is to have multiple outfit choices available regardless of sex, ethnicity, clan allegiance etc. What they might do instead, like good little woketards, is remove or dramatically tone down any and all possible sexy outfit choices in the game entirely.
Ill probably just play the first one instead then if they do tone it down to the point that it wrecks the atmosphere of it. Im hoping for a miracle to happen and for them to be smart enough to listen to what the fans of the first game want
 
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Good point malkavians are intended to be batshit insane and itd kind of kill the tone if they didnt go to extremes like that. Its fucked up but it has a good reason to be in the game
Parts of the game are definitely dated. For instance, some of the accents in Chinatown are pretty eyebrow-raising (if still absolutely hilarious years later) but other parts have held up even better on a replay. The Voerman subplot is one of those. I get that they have to change some things because the cultural climate isn't the same as fifteen years ago, but they shouldn't be nixing what makes VtMB unique.
 
That would completely destroy the point of the character. The fact that Therese believes that her father loved her and feels betrayed by Jeanette sleeping with him (despite Jeanette being HERSELF) is the blindside reveal of just exactly why Therese is a perfect Malkavian. She's not babbling about prophecies or breaking the fourth wall, she has a very relatable and tragic mental illness that causes her to view something horrifying as ultimately a good thing. Jeanette being a coping mechanism gone rogue explains why she's so upfront about their father being a piece of shit who raped them. It's a part of Therese that's trying to give her a (very nasty) wake up call about what her father was really like, or even what she was really like. Yes, it's absurd, but that's the point of being a Malkavian. If you changed it to be more "respectful", it wouldn't feel like VtM. Nothing about this setting is respectful or grounded. If the Therese subplot was completely grounded, it wouldn't exist, because it's completely inaccurate to DID.
Kudos on explaining why her character being like this is actually a strong element of writing and a major focus.

I will state that Malkies are often too often made to be the fish slapping type; hell, my first take in the ST system (as an NPC) was a bit like that.

But honestly the most fun I had with the clan was as a lawyer by night who had crippling OCD. He was obsessed with the number 5, refused to ever take pennies because it would skew the results, made sure to live on the 5th floor for his haven, had to regularly wear dress casual at least, and would either sink into a fugue state or rotschrek on botches if covered in filth. He was a sleazebag of a lawyer, but the guy you needed if you wanted to get out of jail, needed advice, or if you needed contacts.
 
Kudos on explaining why her character being like this is actually a strong element of writing and a major focus.

I will state that Malkies are often too often made to be the fish slapping type; hell, my first take in the ST system (as an NPC) was a bit like that.

But honestly the most fun I had with the clan was as a lawyer by night who had crippling OCD. He was obsessed with the number 5, refused to ever take pennies because it would skew the results, made sure to live on the 5th floor for his haven, had to regularly wear dress casual at least, and would either sink into a fugue state or rotschrek on botches if covered in filth. He was a sleazebag of a lawyer, but the guy you needed if you wanted to get out of jail, needed advice, or if you needed contacts.
Sooo, your average genius lawyer then?
 
Well, he was embraced for successfully winning the Dredd Scott decision, so you tell me.
Winning in what sense? He changed history by making it so the supreme court declared Dred Scott to be a free man rather than a slave, or he was the one who ensured it would have the OTL outcome?
 
Winning in what sense? He changed history by making it so the supreme court declared Dred Scott to be a free man rather than a slave, or he was the one who ensured it would have the OTL outcome?

As he's a Malk, probably the IRL outcome because the Malks have a tradition of pranking both the mundanes and their fellow vampires, and for "pranking" read "hilarious IRL trolling that ends up with people getting killed."
 
Winning in what sense? He changed history by making it so the supreme court declared Dred Scott to be a free man rather than a slave, or he was the one who ensured it would have the OTL outcome?
He did not change history.
As he's a Malk, probably the IRL outcome because the Malks have a tradition of pranking both the mundanes and their fellow vampires, and for "pranking" read "hilarious IRL trolling that ends up with people getting killed."
Pretty much why he was embraced. His sire thought it was a hoot that my guy successfully proved that people don't count as people. And he did it mainly for the money, not even because he was a pro-slaver to boot.
 
I get that they have to change some things because the cultural climate isn't the same as fifteen years ago, but they shouldn't be nixing what makes VtMB unique

The thing is, the cultural climate has changed so much, that if you try to shift VtMB to match it, you will inevitably lose what made it unique, because it was a product of that time period. The current PC-obsessed era would never have allowed something like VtMB (or probably the original VtM for that matter) exist as it exists today. Therese's story would have been cut or heavily altered, the Chinese would probably not exists at all so as not to piss off the Chinese market, and the Anarchs would be portrayed 100% as the "right" choice rather than another faction out of many (and Damsel's soapbox sadie routine would have been taken completely seriously rather than mocked even in-game by the likes of Skelter). Much of the underground aesthetic, from the music to the clothes, would have been excised from the game. Which is why this new game will invariably fail to live up to the old one.
 
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The thing is, the cultural climate has changed so much, that if you try to shift VtMB to match it, you will inevitably lose what made it unique, because it was a product of that time period. The current PC-obsessed era would never have allowed something like VtMB (or probably the original VtM for that matter) exist as it exists today. the Therese's story would have been cut or heavily altered, the Chinese would probably not exists at all so as not to piss off the Chinese market, and the Anarchs would be portrayed 100% as the "right" choice rather than another faction out of many (and Damsel's soapbox sadie routine would have been taken completely seriously rather than mocked even in-game by the likes of Skelter). Much of the underground aesthetic, from the music to the clothes, would have been excised from the game. Which is why this new game will invariably fail to live up to the old one.

Damsel would undoubtedly be the real hero of the Anarchs and would be deemed completely right about everything and would be sick of being "mansplained" to by Nines and Skelter, even though both of them actually did go through hardships (dodging bullets in Vietnam for Skelter and growing up poor during the Dust Bowl for Nines) that showed them exactly how the world is fucking unfair.

But that's not all.

Imalia's sidequest (which involves surreptitiously creating revenge porn of a former rival out of bitterness at how she's been Nosferatu'd) would have been undoubtedly turned into some godawful screed about body positivity, all the jabs at PC-ness in the in-game news would have been cut, every Malk would be turned into the totes quirky variety, and they'd have made Lacroix into an obvious designated villain rather than an incompetent loudmouth who isn't cut out for this whole evil overlord thing, like, he'd be introduced casually snacking on a small child or something. Or, being a Ventrue and thus having the drawback of "can only nom certain subgroups of people," would have made his designated blood that of trans women of colour or something like that.

Oh, and you'd lose Humanity for doing anything vaguely non-progressive or siding with the wrong people. Which is nuts because Humanity isn't a karma meter, it's a measure of how human you are. You don't need to be undead to discriminate against people, that's a very human thing to do.

I'm gonna very much wait for reviews on this before even considering it, like I said.
 
Damsel would undoubtedly be the real hero of the Anarchs and would be deemed completely right about everything and would be sick of being "mansplained" to by Nines and Skelter, even though both of them actually did go through hardships (dodging bullets in Vietnam for Skelter and growing up poor during the Dust Bowl for Nines) that showed them exactly how the world is fucking unfair.

But that's not all.

Imalia's sidequest (which involves surreptitiously creating revenge porn of a former rival out of bitterness at how she's been Nosferatu'd) would have been undoubtedly turned into some godawful screed about body positivity, all the jabs at PC-ness in the in-game news would have been cut, every Malk would be turned into the totes quirky variety, and they'd have made Lacroix into an obvious designated villain rather than an incompetent loudmouth who isn't cut out for this whole evil overlord thing, like, he'd be introduced casually snacking on a small child or something. Or, being a Ventrue and thus having the drawback of "can only nom certain subgroups of people," would have made his designated blood that of trans women of colour or something like that.

Oh, and you'd lose Humanity for doing anything vaguely non-progressive or siding with the wrong people. Which is nuts because Humanity isn't a karma meter, it's a measure of how human you are. You don't need to be undead to discriminate against people, that's a very human thing to do.

I'm gonna very much wait for reviews on this before even considering it, like I said.
God knows what changes they'd make to VV and her character and appearance; assuming she would even be in the game and not just flat out removed for being "sexist" or some bullshit. Outrageous sex appeal like hers works and makes sense in the narrative. Vampires are predators, and predators would be remiss to use not use everything, especially looks and the base instincts they appeal to, to lure in their unsuspecting kine prey. Plus Toreadors are all drop dead gorgeous/handsome manipulators, so VV's looks and personality are par the course.

If done today they'd probably cover her up and lecture the hornier players about wanting to fuck her, with plenty of 3rd wave feminist shit hamfisted in there.
 
VV was actually one of the more tragic characters I felt as well, especially if you're playing a Malk and start poking around in her mind. Depending on how you perceive it (Toreador are known for using their looks to manipulate after all...) she was using her sex appeal as a defense mechanism to cope with the loss of her former human identity. It's essentially the one tether she has left to feeling human. I believe she was depressed at her new life, and her kindness (by kindred standards) and longing for better times were genuine. She's a complicated character beyond "look at the big boobed chick!" but good luck showing that to the third wave GooberGrape feminists that would point to her as an example of why VTMB is problematic in Current Year
 
God knows what changes they'd make to VV and her character and appearance; assuming she would even be in the game and not just flat out removed for being "sexist" or some bullshit. Outrageous sex appeal like hers works and makes sense in the narrative. Vampires are predators, and predators would be remiss to use not use everything, especially looks and the base instincts they appeal to, to lure in their unsuspecting kine prey. Plus Toreadors are all drop dead gorgeous/handsome manipulators, so VV's looks and personality are par the course.

If done today they'd probably cover her up and lecture the hornier players about wanting to fuck her, with plenty of 3rd wave feminist shit hamfisted in there.
VV was actually one of the more tragic characters I felt as well, especially if you're playing a Malk and start poking around in her mind. Depending on how you perceive it (Toreador are known for using their looks to manipulate after all...) she was using her sex appeal as a defense mechanism to cope with the loss of her former human identity. It's essentially the one tether she has left to feeling human. I believe she was depressed at her new life, and her kindness (by kindred standards) and longing for better times were genuine. She's a complicated character beyond "look at the big boobed chick!" but good luck showing that to the third wave GooberGrape feminists that would point to her as an example of why VTMB is problematic in Current Year

They'd probably make VV a troon. No, seriously. She gets a bit annoyed when the Malk PC finds her real name is Susan because it belongs to someone who died. Therefore, in Wokelines her real name would be Bob and she'd shriek for hours about how she was DEADNAMED.
 
Therefore, in Wokelines her real name would be Bob and she'd shriek for hours about how she was DEADNAMED.
Can a vampire troon get LITERALLY killes because of wrong pronoun or deadnaming?
I want to run a silly V5 campaign with my players, whos characters will be troons and furries who fight patriarchy so i want to give troon characters psychosis/frenzy each time they get misgendered.
 
There is no way the sequel can even slightly live up to the original but I really hope at the very least it's a 6/10, just something that isn't outright painful to get through.
Obviously their biggest challenge will be managing the politics, hell even the tabletop had the issue years prior. Damsal is hands down one of the best communists in the medium simply because despite the fact she's a die hard commie, there's a grey area where she outright says communism is unrealistic in human society, which is a genius way of having your cake and eating it too with that kind of character.
Will the sequel be able to tread water like that? Really fucking doubt it. But hey, at least there's some attractive women plus they didn't censor Jeanette's outfit, so those are good signs it's at least not going to be comically tumblr.
 
I really hope at the very least it's a 6/10, just something that isn't outright painful to get through.
I'm hoping for it to be at least as good as Vampyr - kinda bland, kinda forgettable, but overall enjoyable enough to maybe pick up on sale or something. So yeah, basically 6/10 would be a fine result for this endeavor. Still, this whole game's success or lack thereof will depend entirely on the writing, so my hopes are not too bright.
Speaking of which, has anyone here "played" that WoD VN that was released not so long ago? Coteries of NY or whatever? Is it as shitty as it looks? I know it's a different dev, but still. Maybe I've missed people mentioning it in the thread.
 
Speaking of which, has anyone here "played" that WoD VN that was released not so long ago? Coteries of NY or whatever? Is it as shitty as it looks? I know it's a different dev, but still. Maybe I've missed people mentioning it in the thread.
I posted about this VN couple of pages ago.
doesnt worth it’s price and your time at all.
 
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