Vampire the Masquerade (and Bloodlines too!)

[ArchVileTerror]

I've been in a weekly Vampire campaign for the past few months, since I lost steam for GMing my Shadowrun campaign when my job turned to hell back last October.  I'm quite enjoying it!  I had been aware of the World of Darkness for many years, but never actually took the plunge until now.

 

It also helps that Bloodlines 2 has got me pretty excited, and I've been training myself to stop getting on board hype-trains.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6dTGZ11v7U

[WanderingAries]

Give me a good VTM LARP!  But it must take place in the basement of an active goth club with appropriate mood lighting, drinks, and things to climb on (and get yelled at for :p).

[CrudeVileTerror]

So . . . my weekly Group was taking a break from Vampire for a bit to do some Rogue Trader, but now we're about to resume the Masquerade.

We have a spot or two open in the group.  Would anyone happen to be interested?

We play on Monday nights, 6pm Eastern.  We communicate through VOIP on Teamspeak (private server, paid for by one of our players) and play on Maptool virtually networked through Hamachi.

We're a socially-progressive-leaning group overall, but we've got our share of socially-awkward-bordering-on-inappropriate word-vomit on occasion.

 

Drop me a line here, or in City of Heroes at @VileTerror if you'd like to learn more or attempt to join us.

Thanks!

[TemporalVileTerror]

We wrapped up another chapter of Masquerade and are resuming Rogue Trader again.

Thanks to @HunterKid for joining us!  Other interested parties may still get in touch to learn more.

[rookery.]

So tempted. but between half a bajillion RP's in COH and a Curse of Strahd campaign IRL with someone new to DMing, whom I really want to help into the role, I am not sure I have time for enough sleep nowadays. 🙂

 

But maybe in the future?

 

But it's Rogue Trader.....grrrr.......

[Gulbasaur]

On 4/13/2021 at 1:18 PM, rookery. said:

Curse of Strahd campaign IRL with someone new to DMing,

I ran Death House last year to give our DM a break - it's a nice module for someone to start off in, although the end is a bit chaotic if your don't want to be a killer DM.

 

My advice is to lean into the Scooby-Doo aspect of it and just enjoy the ride. It's an incredibly well written module for people who like exploration and roleplay.

 

My party were a four-piece girl band (each had a level in bard) and they all had roleplay prompts to work towards. It was one of the most fun one-shot campaigns I've ever done. (And the characters had a sequel the next time the DM needed a break.)

[rookery.]

They ran a short one shot over a few sessions to get their feet wet and have been playing in something I ran over several months. So they aren't NEW NEW. I had to strongly encourage them to run the one shot to see if they even LIKED DMing before committing to a months long campaign.

 

That said, they are dying to run Curse of Strahd so I want to be there for them and be the helpful player/past DM. Good Dm's are growed and nurtured not cast full formed. 🙂

 

I will look into Death House though, sounds like fun! and I LOVE Scooby Doo mysteries.

 

Thanks Gulbasaur!

[Gulbasaur]

31 minutes ago, rookery. said:

I will look into Death House though, sounds like fun! and I LOVE Scooby Doo mysteries.

It's the optional introduction to Curse of Strahd that can also be run as an independent module. It's a lore-light taster of the main campaign that sets the tone and introduces the ideas without fully going into it. It's definitely well done, although I'd look for how other people adapt it as it can be brutal at the end.

 

It's basically a horror module (as is CoS generally), but, I mean... it's D&D so you either lean into the silliness or you don't.

 

We ended up not really doing the main campaign because of the way we're doing it - we have a main DM and I pick up the ropes with a second mini campaign when he needs a few sessions off, which lends itself to dungeon crawling more than something complex like CoS.

 

We then went onto The Barber of Silverymoon as our next "intermission" and that was a lot of fun too, although there a few things from the module I had to fudge to make it work. I think a staircase is missing from the map, leading to things getting a bit confusing.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Gulbasaur

[rookery.]

Ah gotcha. They may be including it. I don't know but come Sunday I will 😄

[Darmian]

Please tell me you're not running 5th.

 

(Also, Wraith/Orpheus will always be BEST!)

[rookery.]

While I get 5th has its problems, which system doesn't, it is really the low hurdle to getting people into tabletops. Can look to move on to harder drug....uhm....game systems later. 

 

😄

[Grindingsucks]

Well, I've always hated dice pool systems, for the most part (regardless of the particular RPG).  Nothing destroys my immersion like a giant handful of dice clattering all over the table.  Nothing slows down an action scene like trying to pick through that mess to determine the outcome.

 

I love the world of darkness setting and lore.  The mechanics don't drive the feel of the setting for me, though; they destroy it.

 

Having said that, I've drifted more towards fast, player-facing mechanics that drive the narrative, like Powered by the Apocalypse games, over the years.  (Well, if I'm to be COMPLETELY honest, the older I get, the more tiresome I find other human beings.  As a result, I've drifted toward online gaming, because I find it less stressful to interact with my fellow man at a remove. 😛)   

[Darmian]

Oh, it's not the rules of 5th ed, it's the rest of the malarkey that happens when a bunch of Edgelords get control of a game they loved playing a certain way, and then made that way the official stance.

 

Rant over.

[Hyperstrike]

Haven't played VtM since 1E.
Loved the initial lore.
But the entire thing has become a giant mess over the last thirty years.
(CHRIST!  Now I feel old...)

[rookery.]

For me as I have aged, I find the dice game isn't as important anymore.

 

I mean it used to be fun as hell to roll a 30d6 dicestorm across the table for a Champions Online game. 

 

Nowadays, give me one roll, Give me a bonus or a minus for circumstances. Give me an outcome. I can make up the story from then on.

 

And if the system is easy for newbies who really WANT to play, get into tabletop RPG's I'm for it.

 

I suspect others do too but I remember the dark times when you couldn't FIND people to play and if you mentioned it, you got a reviled snarl. I mean its sooo much better now. 

[Darmian]

I was lucky enough to be in a dedicated RPG/Larp/Game society in college.

[Hyperstrike]

21 minutes ago, rookery. said:

For me as I have aged, I find the dice game isn't as important anymore.

 

I mean it used to be fun as hell to roll a 30d6 dicestorm across the table for a Champions Online game. 

 

Nowadays, give me one roll, Give me a bonus or a minus for circumstances. Give me an outcome. I can make up the story from then on.

 

And if the system is easy for newbies who really WANT to play, get into tabletop RPG's I'm for it.

 

I suspect others do too but I remember the dark times when you couldn't FIND people to play and if you mentioned it, you got a reviled snarl. I mean its sooo much better now. 

You're talking to a guy who played in HS as part of the "tabletop gaming" club.  Not the "D&D" club.  Because THAT was SATANIC!
We were also the Chicago playtest group for the Star Fleet Battles Captain's Edition.

[rookery.]

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2021 at 8:25 AM, Gulbasaur said:

It's the optional introduction to Curse of Strahd that can also be run as an independent module. It's a lore-light taster of the main campaign that sets the tone and introduces the ideas without fully going into it. It's definitely well done, although I'd look for how other people adapt it as it can be brutal at the end.

 

It's basically a horror module (as is CoS generally), but, I mean... it's D&D so you either lean into the silliness or you don't.

 

We ended up not really doing the main campaign because of the way we're doing it - we have a main DM and I pick up the ropes with a second mini campaign when he needs a few sessions off, which lends itself to dungeon crawling more than something complex like CoS.

 

We then went onto The Barber of Silverymoon as our next "intermission" and that was a lot of fun too, although there a few things from the module I had to fudge to make it work. I think a staircase is missing from the map, leading to things getting a bit confusing.

 

And yes we ARE doing Death House! So yay!

[rookery.]

19 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

You're talking to a guy who played in HS as part of the "tabletop gaming" club.  Not the "D&D" club.  Because THAT was SATANIC!
We were also the Chicago playtest group for the Star Fleet Battles Captain's Edition.

 

😄 I remember being required to return the old Fiends Folio book way back when because of those Satanic reasons. >.>

Edited April 16, 2021 by rookery.

[PeregrineFalcon]

I remember the days of yore when Televangelists had all the power and D&D was verboten.

 

We had to hide that we played D&D from everyone. I read an article in the newspaper then about a guy who got fired when the owner found out he played D&D, they interviewed the owner and cast him as a hero. I saw a friend get kicked out of college went they found out he played D&D.

 

The Satanic Panic was very real and cancel culture isn't a new phenomenon.

[Gulbasaur]

22 hours ago, rookery. said:

And if the system is easy for newbies who really WANT to play, get into tabletop RPG's I'm for it.

Absolutely this - some people love min-maxing every aspect of their character and some don't. I vastly prefer the smoothness of 5e, although some of the silly builds you could do in 3.5e were very fun. 5e has problems (I find it doesn't have a lot going for it in terms of non-combat stuff), but you 3/3.5 had game balance you could break with a toothpick. 

 

FATE is amazingly newbie-friendly and I really recommend giving that a try at some point. It has quite a different flow than D&D does and I think I've become better at one by playing the other. It's an excellent game system for running pulp fiction or saturday morning cartoons type games. 

 

Don't Rest Your Head is probably the other system I know well and that is fun but absurdly hard to balance as characters are either invincible or rapidly spiralling into madness with no middle steps. 

[Darmian]

Currently reading my way through Aberrant in order to run it.  Ran the OG version 20 years ago, bloody hell.  Loved it.

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, Gulbasaur said:

Absolutely this - some people love min-maxing every aspect of their character and some don't. I vastly prefer the smoothness of 5e, although some of the silly builds you could do in 3.5e were very fun. 5e has problems (I find it doesn't have a lot going for it in terms of non-combat stuff), but you 3/3.5 had game balance you could break with a toothpick. 

 

FATE is amazingly newbie-friendly and I really recommend giving that a try at some point. It has quite a different flow than D&D does and I think I've become better at one by playing the other. It's an excellent game system for running pulp fiction or saturday morning cartoons type games. 

 

Don't Rest Your Head is probably the other system I know well and that is fun but absurdly hard to balance as characters are either invincible or rapidly spiralling into madness with no middle steps. 

Min-maxing?

*Quickly hides plans for a battlemech with 7 gauss rifles*

I know not of what you speak!
(Lies!  ALL LIES!)

[TemporalVileTerror]

I feel we may have strayed slightly (or significantly) from the original topic of this thread (unless there's a very different version of 5th for Vampire:  The Masquerade that I'm totally unfamiliar with, heh).

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15567-what-pastpresent-pnp-games-have-you-enjoyed/ might be more the speed of the current conversation here, if anyone wants to revive the other thread.

[Darmian]

It happens!