Re: Vampire the Masquerade 3.0 - Dark Ages -> Future

[^^Truth]

No, you dumbwick.

You can play roles of high-importance, that isn't a problem, the correct "background" traits need to be purchased is all. But anyone "named" as it were, is naturally off-limits.

And while you were joking, just wanna say that, the power the Pope possesses is off-limits with the system anyway.

[The Dark Power]

I said the King of England is French and that they speak French in England, a selection of the board seems to have decided that this means something completely different.

Exactly. Are you mad? I'm all for abit of historical accuracy, but this is too much! It's like saying halflings exist in a D&D campaign, it's unconscionable Mr Canty, or is that now spelt Canté, Jean-Iain?

Perhaps in our close, but not too close, historical allegory we could propose that Normandy was conquered by Germania (or whatever) and the Normans are now similar to proto-germans, and thus everyone speaks German.

I really don't want to play in a game where everyone speaks like a wanker.

In terms of character ideas, my initial take would be a Crusader involved in political machinations against the French, or a blacksmith (I like the idea of starting as a peasant and working my up through the ages) who is involved in a resistance movement against the French.

You see a theme developing here? ;0)

[Tromador]

*throws hands up in the air in abject frustration*

Normans are Normans and not French, so don't need Germans (btw, most of Germany is part of the Holy Roman Empire, do NOT get me started) to not be French. Vast chunks of what is France these days is not France in those days. French come from France, not from Provence, Brittany, Normandy etc etc etc.

[#1!]

No, you dumbwick.

You can play roles of high-importance, that isn't a problem, the correct "background" traits need to be purchased is all. But anyone "named" as it were, is naturally off-limits.

And while you were joking, just wanna say that, the power the Pope possesses is off-limits with the system anyway.

You fail at humour

[The Dark Power]

*throws hands up in the air in abject frustration*

Normans are Normans and not French, so don't need Germans (btw, most of Germany is part of the Holy Roman Empire, do NOT get me started) to not be French. Vast chunks of what is France these days is not France in those days. French come from France, not from Provence, Brittany, Normandy etc etc etc.

I agree! But the DM don't....

Actually Romans would be awesome.

[illumination]

romans wikid! got my char pic!



his name is muukus mincinmus and hes a general in da army of rome but is emperor is a badman who as thrown im into jail to fight asnd kill other but a woman loves him and he escapes and kills the emperor but..... awww noes!

nheed to fink of anofer one.

[illumination]

on a serious note. im cool with knocking up that pc as requested iain, but it may take me a while. im away in luton for the next two days and busy weekend on the menu. however, is anyone concerned that this may clash with ravenloft? im a bit confused what we're doing now.

i guess both at the same time isnt out of the question. but seeing as we seem to struggle to keep momentum up on one campaign i think we prob should jump one way or the other, leaving the other idea in the queue for now.

[Tromador]

Actually Romans would be awesome.

Not many "Romans" in 1146.

The Western Roman Empire is long gone, but the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) I guess is alive and well 1145 map but they aren't much like the Romans that Muukus would recognise.

The Holy Roman Empire, has nothing to do with the original Romans, except they stole the name. It is in fact a medieval creation borne out of Charlemagnes Carolingian empire.

On reflection however, it might be fun to play in Byzantium, there is perhaps more potential there for flexibility on character backgrounds which is a possible concern. Thinking about its central location it might make a nice melting pot for all kinds of different types of Kindred, Transylvania and so forth just to the north, Egypt just across the water, Arab states next door. It is likely a highly cosmopolitan area, for both Kindred and Kine.

As for what to play, I'm keen to play Vampire. Obviously I'm very familiar with the setting and the lore and it's been a very long time since I got to play it. My timing still stinks though. If you play this now, I have to bow out. Hence, for me, I still suggest doing your Ravenloft or whatever, so I can hopefully play in a Vampire campaign later. Of course what suits me might not suit the majority, but that's where I'm at.

[The Dark Power]

Yeah I know. Romans would be cool though, though perhaps that's for another campaign.

I was gonna try and start Ravenloft soon, maybe next weekend if everyone is cool with that? I'll start a seperate thread on that one anyway.

Yeah if Mike sticks his character on here I'll try and come up with something compatible.

[^^Truth]

Small update. Nothing major mind you.

Had a fling or two with the oWoD system, it has merits, but a lot of flaws to be honest. There are some bits that are very nice and I'm quite happy to have (re)discovered them.

Currently I'm working on a complicated (from my end) merge and conversion of my modified Shadowrun 4th ruleset, oWoD and nWoD.

It's complicated, but only for me, once it's all done, it should be simple as shit.

Mike, my apologies, looks like you're going to have to remake your PC with the new system, but please believe me when I say it won't take you fifteen minutes to do so once I have everything ready and spit polished.

I reckon I'll have a base sorted out within 1-2 weeks, although everything will of course be longer than that since I have to test stuff and so on.

I can confirm (I think) that there will be nine attributes, a set skill system, a simple dice system and a single dice macro for all tasks.

P.S. No romans, maxmimus deathius or popes.

[^^Truth]

Oh and after Monday, I will be once again returning to the land of the living, so Ravenloft next week suits me to a T! Infact, I think I basically have all of next week off work (and so I should!).

Keep me informed either way. Anymore PC ideas coming up?

[^^Truth]

No, you dumbwick.

You can play roles of high-importance, that isn't a problem, the correct "background" traits need to be purchased is all. But anyone "named" as it were, is naturally off-limits.

And while you were joking, just wanna say that, the power the Pope possesses is off-limits with the system anyway.

You fail at humour

I know. I've had a sense of humour failure all week. Speak to you later about that if ya about for some zombay pwnage.

[illumination]

Small update. Nothing major mind you.

Mike, my apologies, looks like you're going to have to remake your PC with the new system, but please believe me when I say it won't take you fifteen minutes to do so once I have everything ready and spit polished.

sure.

[^^Truth]

Okay, worked out the basic system I want to use, which is a mix as I expected of SR4, nWod and oWod, it's pretty simple to be honest, but requires a lot more playtesting to get it all right.

I've got a sheet that you can all use, it's very easy and I've edited the .pdf to make it work, it's not 100% functional, but it's not far away at all and should make for a very easy system for online play.

Still got a reasonable amount to adapt mind you.

[^^Truth]

The 2nd post has been updated.

plx do teh reed ov it.

[^^Truth]

Oh yes.

Once everyone has read/digested the 2nd post (literal digestion not required). The next step is to get the overal character ideas together.

Without the character ideas, I cannot begin to work out how I'm going to begin the game (the most important and difficult part).

As usual, I'm a firm believer in letting the players play exactly what they wish for the good of the game, so I will be doing just that. However the more diverse the ideas the better but longer it will take to work out a suiting introduction to the game itself.

With the relative speedy progress I have been making (mostly expected since I work relatively hard upon my own shit) it's actually possible that this could be run alongside the Ravenloft campaign at some pace. Which would give Joe the occasional break.

I have one PC idea from Trom which has been accepted. If Mike is using what I think he is I have two. Joe has volunteered another although I'm not sure that is set. So I require confirmation from Joe/Mike and some form of input from Zertistan.

At current, what I think I may have works well enough together in a relative sense.

Best things are discussed regardless, always a pain to end up with a frothing racist, two black guys and leper. It's likely that somewhere along the line someone will have to make peace and switch idea a little, but we'll get to that when and if it occurs.

[^^Truth]

Oh, to add. Would be nice to have at least one female PC.

Edit : To add, there will be a special available merit available to female PCs. Although only one person can have it. There are additional hidden merits available for purchase, but only for characters that suit them.

Although correct character build is required to qualify for the special merit.

Edit 2 : I may grant free hidden merits to PCs that have the necessary 'requirements'.

Edit 3 : Adding here to condense information a little.

I will be requiring PCs to make sense, both in concept and creation, because otherwise things can end up getting fucked down the line. If I do ask someone to change some aspect of their PC (which may happen), please do not be offended, there is likely a reason for doing so. I've been playing RPGs rather consistently for a long time now and can generally spot a weak idea from a strong one. Weak ones tend to die out rather quickly and with this potentially being a long game (no definite end) weak ones will end up buggered and the player switching PC.

I will be very critical if required, let that be known.

To add. This isn't D&D or whatever. The characters will be humans. Humans apart from sociopaths and so on tend to have mixed mindsets of right, wrong and so on, I would like this expressed. I find nothing worse than a player character that has not a single redeeming trait. Those PCs tend to be unbelievable shallow and feel "false". Virtues and Vices go to some length to combat this, but they *could* be seen as mechanical choices, rather than real fleshing out.

If you think in depth about real evil guys (yeah... I *am* expecting a big host of bad dudes with sunglasses :*() in films and so on, most have redeeming traits which makes them 'alive'. Darth Vader was loyal, the 'Predator' whilst overcome with pride had a large degree of honour. Anyway. End of lecture.

In D&D terms I can list some of the best characters all of you have played and all of them have good and evil components. Carcer was greedy beyond belief, yet had great loyalty and compassion (towards his friends) despite his often mockery, it was obvious he did indeed care, Diedne whom had the resilence of fortitude was filled with wrath, Larue whilst charitable and caring was often overcome with pride and coudldn't lower her standards and Sorscha, whilst filled with a charitable faith, was both wrathful and and I think perhaps envious (of the simplier folk and their honest lives).

I can also list shit characters you have all played and those tend to be the ones with only a good, or evil, side.

Also, please think of secondary character ideas that you will be happy with, as survival is not a definite at any point. However please do not allow that statement to place less emphasis into character generation and initial ideas.

[Tromador]

Just as a point of note about "evil".

Vampires aren't evil as in evilly aligned. They are bloodsucking monsters by nature, of course, but most vampires are going to take a small drink from a vessel, rather than kill them. It's not that they particularly care about humans, but what's the point of killing them? Which isn't to say vampires are good either, of course and some might be downright evil.

Anyway, the point is, just because you are a vampire, doesn't make you evil by definition. When you are forced to feed on the blood of the living to survive, definitions of evil tend to be a bit more of a grey area. Indeed, morality itself (as you will discover) tends to become redefined. By all means be a nasty evil human if you wish, but expect that may not necessarily turn out to be quite so definitively evil if you survive to be embraced.

[illumination]

females are fucking awkward in the dark ages. they arent supposed to go out much.

a lot of good points there though dude, leave it with me ill get thinking PC wise. im not sure which way ill go, the existing idea may be better as a seperate thing for in person play. dunno. ill get back to you...

[The Dark Power]

Yeah I was thinking about whether male PCs would accept a female PC in the time setting we're talking about. Certainly it'd take a long time for them to accept her as an equal, and not treat her as helpless.

Yeah I agree on having PCs that aren;t too simplistic in terms of moral outlook. I've posted an initial character idea that I think should allow the 'shades of grey' you're after. Lemme know what you think.

Trom's right of course about Vampires and it'll make an interesting conundrum for PCs to wrestle with when their time comes.

[^^Truth]

Well, totally depends on the female PC doesn't it. If someone plays the Queen of ##### you better be accepting her or your head is rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'

I would imagine for certain female PCs yes, there would be a problem, but I'm looking for people to make characters that are important/special, thus the problem should not occur.

I could see an issue with the bakers wife running around with a bunch of knights and bishops.

.. but once vampiric blood has begun flowing, who cares about sexual identity?

[^^Truth]

Unaware I was that Adobe didn't allow the custom sheets to be saved, I have uploaded an alternative PDF reader, which is smaller and better (in my opinion).

This one will allow you to do everything you did before, without a giant loading time and also save the sheets.

It has one flaw however, which is that it cannot view PDFs online (you have to download them first). That is fixed with the updated version however (and you can update this version), but the update makes the custom sheet load really slow.

No idea. It's below anyway for anyone that requires it.

http://baatorian.ripz.org/Random/FoxIt.Reader.Pro.v2.3.2923-iND.rar

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