Cross-Venue and game schedule.

For those of you on the Facebook group, you'll see there have been a few changes. First week is now Cross-Venue, second week is Mage, third week is Vampire, and fourth week is Changling. Hope to see you all here at the Foundry next week for Mage!

Who is our Mage VST?

I'll be taking over until do elections again in Oct. If anyone is interested just let me know!

Brandy, I want you to read some stuff cause I am interested in being some sort of st for vampire

Do we need an aVST for cross-venue? I'd be willing to do that if we need one.

You guys and your enthusiasm! That's awesome. =D


In case there's not room in the kitchen for all the people who want to be cooks, I want to mention three things that took me a while to learn...
1. Being an ST should require a lot of work and personal time.
2. If you are an ST of any kind, your characters can no longer participate in any plot that you are helping run.
3. As a player, it's always easier to role-play and a lot more fun when you do NOT know anything OOC about the story you are playing in.

So, if there are not enough positions to go around, that's definitely not a bad thing.

With that said, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys post some public applications, just like if this were time for a real election. (I submitted one, even though my position is appointed, not elected. I'd be happy to post it, too, if anyone cares.)

Is there a GWB ST handbook that has any guidance on what an application would look like?

Also, that is why I was looking into CV, I want to play the other 3

So you can't play in any plot line you've created, but are we aloud to play plot we didn't contribute to? Honestly I'm very bored with vampire and I think I have ideas that would make it a better game. I've talked with a few people that are also bored with it. I'd have more fun creating a great plot and seeing everyone have fun going through it than playing another game.

I can't stress this enough....

If anyone is bored in a Vampire game.... You're doing it wrong.


As far as the other stuff, Emily, we will definitely talk more IRL.

From my understanding Emily, you can submit plot ideas to the story teller, and if they are approved, you can be awarded prestige for it. You will get to contribute your ideas without having the responsibilities that go with being a ST.
Also, as Carl said, if you are bored then something is going wrong. Go talk to other players as well as any of the VSTs/DST and tell them why you are bored. If you can explain to someone what you are wanting to get out of the game as well as your play style, then I'm sure someone can help you to enjoy the game more. Also, maybe vampire just isn't your game. Try Changeling or Mage. You could also create a Vampire, Changeling, Mage, Werewolf, Hunter, Geist, or Promethean in the combined venue game and see if any of those are to your liking.

I think Carl was getting at vampire being a more player driven game than anything else...if we get bored it's because we are not actively trying to engage ourselves with other players in the political struggle that is inherent in vampire...I could be wrong though

Alex nailed it.

Vampire, specifically, is a game of subtle intrigue and social drama. If you're bored, you're not role-playing a vampire very well. Or, if you're playing a vampire that's bored IN-character, it's your fault for making a character that can't interact with others. Even a character that's simply bad at social interaction can still be a lot of fun to roleplay, socially. But it's up to you to play your character.

[/soapbox]

I agree with Justin that Vampire may not be for everyone, and that's the strongest reason that more of you people NEED to come play cross-venue!

I don't care if you don't understand any of the rules. That's the STs' job. Just come with a concept and stay in character. It's an awesome roller-coaster of good times when everyone's just reacting and making it up on the fly.

And seeing how the other supernaturals work is an excellent learning experience for each of us as players.

(Just be careful not to let player knowledge influence your character's knowledge. That's pretty much the hardest part of cross-venue.)

I am most likely going to be aVST for the cross-venue game.  If any of you want to make a character for it but don't know what options are out there, you can PM me here, email me at my email listed at below, or find me at the Vampire game on Monday and maybe we can find a genre you would like.

You will have to bear with me though, I've only read through the Vampire, Mage, Changeling and Hunter books so far.  I'm about half way through the Forsaken book, and I plan on trying to get the Geist one a good once over before the Cross-venue game.  Man, I have a lot of reading to do haha.

Holy crap! Are you reading the whole books? Or just the mechanics?

What's your favorite so far? Can you rate them 1-5 in some various categories?

The whole books, and I'll maybe do a more thorough answer to your question once I'm done with Werewolf and Geist. I'm almost to the end of the Forsaken core book. I'm probably not going to read any supplements unless either A) I am running a Forsaken NPC that needs it or B) someone wants to make a Forsaken character.

I finished the Forsaken book and I am now starting on the Geist book.  One of the things that all of the genres have in common is the Morality substitute.  1-5.

5) Vampire (Humanity) - It is the same thing as the Morality chart.  It is pretty boring really.  The vampire moral code is no different than humans, they are just willing to ignore more of it.  There are some repercussions, like staying awake during the daytime and relating to mortals, but these seem rather bland in my opinion.

4) Changeling (Clarity) - Clarity is pretty cool.  It mostly lines up with the normal morality code, but it has further things on it.  Since Changelings are trying to hold on to their humanity as much as possible, they also degenerate if they go without human contact.  Additionally, if any big life changes happen it messes with their stability and can make them lose touch with their humanity.  Changeling lives are also more sacred, so killing a changeling or fetch is worse than killing a human. Lastly, breaking Fae oaths is a big deal, even worse than killing another changeling.  

3) Geist (Synergy) - Synergy isn't about morality, it is about the bond between the Bound and their geist; and it is completely devoid of human morality. For a while, pretty much anything other than murder goes.  Theft, arson, it's pretty much fine.  What matters is the Old Law and how you treat other geists and their society.  And in going with that, killing another Geist is a worse sin than killing a human.  The best thing about it though, there are real mechanical benefits.  Above 7 and you start getting benefits on social die rolls with Kerberoi and Geists, conducting ceremonies, and opening Avernian Gates.  Below 5 you start getting penalties to the same actions.  So 7-5 is normal, but being better or worse than average gives you tangible game mechanics.

2) Mage (Wisdom) - I love the wisdom mechanic.  While Mages retain their human moral code, there is another code that basically sits on top of morality.  Mages have things called Acts of Hubris.  When a mage abuses his power for selfish gains he can degenerate as well.  So someone who would never kill a human, but summons a demon will degenerate.  The act of doing so corrupts the soul, so now maybe killing humans isn't a big deal... even if you've never killed one. Harming a human with a knife is bad, using magic to do it is worse.  Harming someone with magic is just as bad as killing someone with a gun.  Even things like binding spirits against their will is bad. And one of the worst sins (Wisdom 2) is preventing an awakening. Wisdom also has game benefits.  High Wisdom reduces severity of paradox, bonus to conversing with spirits, fighting abyssal creatures. All very big deals. Of course low Wisdom does the opposite.  This gives you a reasons other than just RP for being responsible with your magic.

1) Werewolf (Harmony) - This is my favorite.  Like the Geist code, it also completely replaces morality.  This is about accepting the duality of being both human and wolf, of balancing independence with the pack mentality.  Being a predator changes your code significantly (which I wish vampire would have embraced this concept as well, but maybe with a different chart and mechanical benefits).  High sins are things such as not shapeshifting for 3 days, disrespecting spirits, spending too much time alone or violating tribal vows.  Harmony 6 says killing a human or wolf needlessly is wrong; doing so for other reasons is completely fine though. However, slaying a werewolf in the heat of battle is worse than either of those.  Breaking the Oath of the Moon (revealing the werewolve's existence to human, using silver on werewolves) is all the way at 4; it is a severe sin.  My favorite though, is that betraying your pack is a harmony 1 sin, the ultimate taboo.  Anything is better than betraying your packmates. Never betray your pack, under any circumstances. This goes hand in hand with the cooperation that the system tries to foster between characters.  The Forsaken Harmony system also has mechanical benefits.  High harmony gives you bonuses with dealing with spirits, low harmony gives your penalties.  While not as varied and creative as the Mage and Geist benefits, it is still a nice bonus and an incentive to keep with your Oaths and to respect other Forsaken.

Anyways, that is my take on one of the common mechanics between those games.  Obviously Morality is what applies to Hunters, so it is pretty boring as well.