(OOC) San Francisco by Night II: A Requiem in Fog

[Bennosuke]

Ok, Anna's pool is up to 4/10.

[Thundercracker]

I'm ok to move to the guy's apartment. Anna's would try to convince Aisling to not attack the driver.

[Erulasto]

I'm ok to move to the guy's apartment. Anna's would try to convince Aisling to not attack the driver.

She probably wont. If memory serves, Aisling isn't that low on blood. So it's not like she needs to gorge herself again.

[Bennosuke]

You can always check the character boxes on the first page of this thread! :smalltongue:

[Bennosuke]

Apologies for the delays in posting everyone. Post rate will be improved the next 5 days or so. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating!

[Bennosuke]

Tommy’s Joynt.

Anna brought Aisling back to her car, then parked on the street outside Tommy’s.

“Figured we could stop in and say hi to whoever is there,” Anna said as an explanation.

If there’s no objection, Anna will enter and take a look around.


Sooo, the point of this scene was just to be a group feeding scene; a chance to show some Coterie unity and replenish some blood, something that was at least partly accomplished :smallfrown:

I know things have dragged a little. I'm totally happy to let things play out at Tommy's, though everyone has fed... if we want. But... what are we trying to accomplish? Is there anything in particular I can help the players get out of this?

[Thundercracker]

Sooo, the point of this scene was just to be a group feeding scene; a chance to show some Coterie unity and replenish some blood, something that was at least partly accomplished :smallfrown:

I know things have dragged a little. I'm totally happy to let things play out at Tommy's, though everyone has fed... if we want. But... what are we trying to accomplish? Is there anything in particular I can help the players get out of this?
I’m ok with ending the scene and starting the next day, handwaving that we spent some time together and we’re all cool as a coterie now.

[Erulasto]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the patience and understanding. My father is doing well, all things considered (heart attacks and cardiac catheterizations aren't fun) and life has returned to some normalcy. Took a bit longer than I'd hoped, but I feel confident that his health is stabilizing to the point where he isn't going to have any major issues going forward. So long as he starts looking after himself a bit better.

Sorry once again!

[Bennosuke]

Hey all, sorry for the delays.

With the feedback I have, I will then move things on to the next scene. This will be the most laborious post for me today, so expect it to be later than my posts in other threads. Again, thank you for the patience. I should be pretty much posting all day today though.

[Thundercracker]

Regarding willpower, what are all the ways we can recover now? Dirge / mask only? Is there a way with touchstones?

[Daishain]

I have been trying to confirm that rule one way or the other. I did find someone specifically stating that 2e vampires gain a point of willpower when they rise the first time in the evening, but the cheeky bugger failed to cite his source, so I can't be sure he wasn't just making it up.

It doesn't make much sense in my opinion. With this ruling, we have a resource that cannot be recovered except for during the sorts of situations that you likely want to be spending that same resource.

[Bennosuke]

Sorry, but this is gonna be relatively short. As per my recent IC post, the only ways I see per the VtR 2E rulebook to regain WP are via Mask/Dirge, and protection of the Touchstone. Neither resting a night, nor the start of a new game session is listed as a way to regain WP (at least as far as I could see).

As per that IC post, I am happy to house rules this if everyone feels strongly.

Cheers!

[Erulasto]

From my own checking, I'll confirm that Benno - you're correct. The book doesn't state anywhere you can regain WP via any means save Mask/Dirge/Touchstone. However, the Onyx Path forum had a previous lead developer for CoD that weighed in when asked directly. I'll provide the link below, but the jist of it is as follows:


Rose Baily
01-19-2014, 04:07 PM
Vampires don't get Willpower back from resting by default. One of the things Willpower represents is strength of self, parallel to Humanity. You get it for affirming who you are, who you pretend to be, and what you're connected to. Being a vampire is spiritually exhausting, and you have to emphasize those things in order to regain what normal people gain from rest.

I say that with the following caveats:
When significant downtime has passed (say, you skip a week of in-character time, or conclude a significant piece of your story and pick up later), it's reasonable to just refill everyone's Willpower, making the assumption they've been out interacting with their Anchors while off-screen.
I don't think it does any harm to allow Kindred to regain Willpower from rest, it's just not the default for the reasons I expressed.

Cavaliers of Mars Creator
Retired CofD Lead


Link: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/vampire-the-requiem/52522-regaining-willpower?p=53362#post53362

I'm fine with the houserule. Just wanted to weigh in as well. :smallwink:

[Bennosuke]

Thank you for the research. Rose was essentially the head of Vampire Development when she was in charge, and while I'm not in love with everything she did with the line, she is essentially responsible for the shift from 1st to 2nd edition. I'm actually reading her "Bite Me" book on VtR, and have purchased Bloody Dots. I think they are pretty damn good reads for the cheap price if you have a bit of time to kill.

I'm totally fine with the house rule if that's how everyone is leaning. As I already admitted, I don't feel I make much use of the Mask and Dirge Mechanics, as there are just so many different mechanics to take advantage of or keep in mind for each character (my apologies if this irks you guys)

[Erulasto]

Thank you for the research. Rose was essentially the head of Vampire Development when she was in charge, and while I'm not in love with everything she did with the line, she is essentially responsible for the shift from 1st to 2nd edition. I'm actually reading her "Bite Me" book on VtR, and have purchased Bloody Dots. I think they are pretty damn good reads for the cheap price if you have a bit of time to kill.

I'm totally fine with the house rule if that's how everyone is leaning. As I already admitted, I don't feel I make much use of the Mask and Dirge Mechanics, as there are just so many different mechanics to take advantage of or keep in mind for each character (my apologies if this irks you guys)

No apologies necessary. There's a lot to handle in VtR in a lot of ways, and really...if we think regaining a WP dot would be appropriate for an action if it fits into the Dirge and Mask of the characters, there's nothing stopping us from taking the initiative and mentioning it.

:smallwink:

I'm fine with the house rule.

[Thundercracker]

I’m ok too as long as enemies are sufficiently reduced to account for the difference, and we get refills from time to time with time skips. I did put more into resolve and composure to have more wp to spend, so it would be good to be able to spend it from time to time.

Those two beats put Anna up to 4 xp? Or not yet? Next spend will be obfuscate.

[Bennosuke]

Not yet. Take a look at her character box.

As always though, please advocate for wp if you think you’ve hit a mask or dirge moment or as part of touchstone interactions. Anyone else wanna weigh in???

[Bennosuke]

Hey all, I've been doing some soul searching and some reviewing on the Will Power recovery mechanics for 2E games, and I want to bring up some thoughts/points and a house rule for everyone to give their feedback on.

While mundane mortals can simply rest to regain WP, Vampires, Werewolves, Changelings ect are not human and do not easily recover WP. Instead, in 2E the game has the concept of Anchors, which are comprised of Touchstones and Virtue/Vice equivalents. These are called anchors, because they are what help keep the monster tied to their prior mortality. Their mechanics are meant to encourage character driven tension by encouraging the player to put their character in uncomfortable situations as they struggle to maintain their humanity/harmony/clarity (of course this all started with vampire so it may make more sense in that context). So characters are encouraged to explore the duality of their character's monstrous nature and go out of their way to interact with their touchstones to further character/story development and are rewarded with Willpower recovery.

To clarify the rules of 2E as they exist now:
-Only mortals can recover WP with time (including a night's rest and between game sessions).
-Supernaturals can gain 1 WP by doing something that fits with their virtue/vice equivalent.
-Supernaturals can regain all WP by doing something very very dramatic that fits with their virtue/vice equivalent.
-Supernaturals gain 1 WP by "defending" their touchstone, and all WP if the act is very "damaging"
-The recovery of all WP can only occur once per game session per Anchor.

Honestly, I like the concept behind these mechanics, and I want to propose a few simple house rules to encourage their use, and make it easier to recover WP.
1. A single WP is simply gained by choosing to interact with your Touchstone. This could be anything from stalking them, to spending money on them. This stacks with the defending the Touchstone mechanic. It will be up to me as the ST to make the interaction meaningful and help drive the story forward.
- AND if we skip ahead by a few days of in game time, it is assumed
2. Characters regain all spent willpower between "game sessions"

Can I have responses as to which house rule players would prefer between option 1 and option 2?

[Thundercracker]

I like option 1 better as it is more dynamic.

[Ladorak]

Option one, same reason as TC

[Erulasto]

While mechanically, option two is a lot better, I think....my own preference runs along the same lines as the others so far. I like option one. Dynamic, story-driven, and personal. Makes it feel more impactful.

So, yeah. Option 1.

[Bennosuke]

Hey all, sorry for being MIA, the rest of this week kicked my butt. For what it's worth, I will barely be working next week and can promise a much improved post rate for the next couple of weeks.

In regards to the discussion, all players who have responded have made it clear they are for option 1. Daishain did raise a good point in the WtF thread:


Option one does seem to be the better choice in terms of moving the story. I do have one point of concern. This will encourage players to spend more time role playing apart from each other, and Beyond a certain point, it could call into question whether we are a bunch of individuals playing different games or...

which can be discussed in multiple locations if we feel like it. However, it seems the decision is pretty unanimous here, so I am going to "temporarily" make the House Rule official, with the understanding we can nix it if after further discussion people want to change it.

EDIT: I am therefore giving Karl one extra WP for his encounter.


@TC: Sorry if I was still not clear enough. The Ordo is not (at least as far as D'Agostino was implying) involved in studying the mental institution. All D'Agostino was saying was that he heard word that there were occult happenings at the Psychiatric Hospital. He simply mentioned the Ordo, because they usually like to investigate and claim haunted territories:


Turning back to Anna, Nicholas says, "However, I recommend you first go survey the hospital. My understanding is that not all is as it seems. I am surprised your Covenant has not actually sought it for one of their... Dragon's Dens; if that is what you call them."

[Daishain]

I just realized, it would make no sense at all to hire Bert anyways. Fred was sent off to London, meaning he will be dealing with the UK courts. Carl would need to be looking for lawyers familiar with the intricacies of their system

[Bennosuke]

Seems problematic. How do you want to handle it? Retcon the conversation, or would it be worth it to instead assume that for whatever reason Bert Schumaker is familiar enough with the legal systems in the U.K. to go to? I will hold off on replying IC till I know what you want to do Daishain.

[Daishain]

Yeah, on review, from the looks of it, unless Bert's gone out of his way to get himself approved in the UK, he wouldn't be allowed to practice law over there even if he was familiar enough with the differences to get by. It shouldn't be incredibly difficult for someone in good standing with the ABA to get approved by the bar over in UK, but its not automatic.

I think it would be easiest for Bert to flatly refuse the request, and then Karl metaphorically beats himself up for forgetting that Bert probably wouldn't be able to help regardless. From there, Karl would need to hunt through law firm reviews for highly accredited defense lawyers in the UK.

[Bennosuke]

Sure. Though as a thought, it feels like Karl will have to tie up his resources getting a proper lawyer and waiting for the courts to adjudicate everything without Fred becoming a target again.

Karl is a member of the freaking Invictus, with Status to boot and a Major Boon owed him by The Prince no less. I'm not saying Karl has to go so far as to give up his Major Boon. But I feel like he can throw some weight around to get Fred out of trouble and flown back ASAP...

[Daishain]

I had considered that, but my impression was that this influence was rather compartmentalized, with Karl's and even the prince's immediately practical influence not extending much further than the US west coast.

Karl could throw his weight around, even more so if he gets the new Prince to help. But my understanding is getting the UK invictus to intercede would be a matter of negotiating with something close to a foreign government, is likely to incur a cost, and it would of course alert anyone not already aware of Fred's relationship to Karl.

In the meantime, a good lawyer has a decent chance of making sure Fred doesn't stay on the UK police's suspect list for any real length of time, especially if Fred's alibi is good and there isn't some "smoking gun" evidence left to frame him. The UK also typically doesn't have much trouble extraditing people from the US if it comes to that. So there's at least a chance of getting Fred home within a day or two without getting other kindred to intercede.

I actually had considered making a request for protection for Fred a part of his boon from D'Agostino, I just didn't think that request would help in this immediate moment. Was I wrong on my expectations in that regard?

[Erulasto]

Merry Christmas folks!

[Thundercracker]

Merry Christmas folks!

Merry Christmas

[Bennosuke]

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!


I had considered that, but my impression was that this influence was rather compartmentalized, with Karl's and even the prince's immediately practical influence not extending much further than the US west coast.

Karl could throw his weight around, even more so if he gets the new Prince to help. But my understanding is getting the UK invictus to intercede would be a matter of negotiating with something close to a foreign government, is likely to incur a cost, and it would of course alert anyone not already aware of Fred's relationship to Karl.

In the meantime, a good lawyer has a decent chance of making sure Fred doesn't stay on the UK police's suspect list for any real length of time, especially if Fred's alibi is good and there isn't some "smoking gun" evidence left to frame him. The UK also typically doesn't have much trouble extraditing people from the US if it comes to that. So there's at least a chance of getting Fred home within a day or two without getting other kindred to intercede.

I actually had considered making a request for protection for Fred a part of his boon from D'Agostino, I just didn't think that request would help in this immediate moment. Was I wrong on my expectations in that regard?

While in my mind the various cities are rather cloistered from each other, The Invictus are known as The Conspiracy of Silence for a reason. Travel and communication may be limited between cities but when it comes to protecting the Masquerade and upholding favors and rivalries, very little can stop the most powerful members of the First Estate.

I leave it up to you, but I wouldn't let that be a barrier for Karl.

[Daishain]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from me as well.

In that case, that sounds like the option to take. That would open up new plot options as well for Karl in the slightly longer run to push for information concerning the killer and attempt to arrange some sort of justice if their identity can be verified.

How would this most likely work then? Get D'agostino's blessing to request a favor of appropriate Invictus in London?

[Bennosuke]

Yes. As it is, The Prince wants to speak with Karl anyways :smallcool:

I will respond IC to your last post now and we can wrap this up, then if you want we can move on to Karl's scene with the Prince. BTW, I tried to get the other players to respond to Karl's text, but it doesn't look like any converstaion has been had. I'll leave it up to you and the others to work that out.

This story arc is going to be much less structured and sandboxy, basically with me mostly asking, "what do you want your character to try to accomplish next", unless there is something reactive in game. So I will let the players coordinate group meet ups.

[Thundercracker]

Is in clan discipline 3 xp or 4? I forget.

[Bennosuke]

In clan is 3xp

[Thundercracker]

In clan is 3xp

Well poop. Anna has enough for obfuscate 2. Let me know when I can spend.

[Bennosuke]

Hey TC, I'm so sorry I didn't respond to this earlier. One of those senior moments when I saw it but couldn't reply, but somehow assumed I had.

Because we are basically running a series of short personal scenes, and just started, and because this would be a in-clan skill boosted at a low level, I'm fine with you spending the XP now if you want.

[Thundercracker]

Excellent let’s do that.

[Bennosuke]

Ok. I am updating your character box. Please update your character sheet.

[Erulasto]

Happy New Year, folks!

[Bennosuke]

Happy New Years everyone! I am distributing every PC a Beat to ring in the New Year. May everyone's upcoming be better than the last.

[Thundercracker]

Awesome, thanks. Anna is now going to be obfuscating her sword most of the time, and carrying it with her.

[Bennosuke]

My apologies everyone for the delay in posting. I hope everyone is so far having a good New Year.

[Bennosuke]

I am going through and updating the list of NPCs in all my games. Please take a look and tell me if there is anyone important that I am missing.

[Thundercracker]

Anna has things she wants to do but right now we’re waiting on Karl’s response to her text. If you want we can take care of it concurrently. In addition to meeting with Karl, Anna wants to check in on Celestine and arrange a meeting with her sire and mentor to find out what’s going on at the mental institution d’agnostino mentioned. A hunt might be in order too, depending on how much blood celestine takes.

[Daishain]

Busy, but if that's what you're waiting on, assume that Carl agrees to whatever works for everybody else

[Bennosuke]

We'll run things concurrently, and I will start the scene now to keep things moving.

Cheers!

EDIT: However, I am waiting for each player to respond to their own individual scene to keep that scene moving. If I missed something or you want things fast forwarded for your individual scenes please let me know.

[Bennosuke]

On Keeping Things Moving

Hey all, I just wanted to reach out and see what I/we can do to keep things moving in this game, and the others I am running. I notice that players are able to post in other games/threads but have not been posting as regularly here. I assume a small part is based on my recent post rate. I will admit that I have been very busy of late with family in town and my wife's Greencard hearing occurring recently. Happy to say that she got her Greencard and I expect to have a solid schedule the next few weeks that will allow me to post more regularly.

I also believe a component of this is that a few players have been MIA of late. I think I will ask for people's insight on Ladorak here, rather than in the other games he was playing in. Ladorak has not posted in about 1 month now, and has not logged on in almost 3 weeks. I have reached out to them via every means of communication available but have not been able to get a hold of them. As always, I can only hope that they are okay first and foremost. While I don't think it matters for this game, I do believe Ladorak's absence is contributing to slowing down some of the other games. While I'm in no rush to recruit a new player ect. I want to hear from everyone as to how they feel I/we should proceed, assuming Ladorak does not come back in the next week or two.

Is there anything else I/we can do to keep things moving forward? Please tell me I'm not losing everyone here.

[Thundercracker]

I’m still good to go and it seems there’s more for my character to do than I have time for, which isn’t a bad thing. The game is great and I’m back after holiday so posting should be ok

For Ladorak give the char something to do in the meantime and we’ll let them come back in if necessary down the line, or we can recruit later. Basically I’m saying let’s punt the decision until mid feb or March.

[Bennosuke]

Thank you for the feedback, and the compliment. I'm glad you are enjoying the game, and that you feel there is "too much to do", as that is one of my goals right now.

I'm happy to give Ladorak more time for sure. I just don't want the absence of their characters being RPed by the PC to slow things down.

[Erulasto]

I’m in agreement. I’m loathe to jump to looking for another player right away, just because my own unforeseen circumstances gave me a fair bit of empathy. I’m certainly hoping that Ladorak is okay.

I’d agree with TC to push any looking back to February/March.

In the meantime, you can handwave some plans for Lilith in the background?

[Thundercracker]

I’m in agreement. I’m loathe to jump to looking for another player right away, just because my own unforeseen circumstances gave me a fair bit of empathy. I’m certainly hoping that Ladorak is okay.

I’d agree with TC to push any looking back to February/March.

In the meantime, you can handwave some plans for Lilith in the background?

She’s laying low because of the whole Prince beheading thing.

[Bennosuke]

Honestly, putting Lillith on ice is the easiest situation for me, as she hasn't really "become" a member of the Coterie ect, and because moving forward most everything is very individual character focuses with some but a smaller emphasis on political intrigue.

EDIT: I'm also not going to post IC yet to move things on as it kinda looks like the group is still discussing. But if that's not the case, please make it clear what your character is up to next.

[Erulasto]

Welcome back, one and all!

[Bennosuke]

Welcome back everyone. I am gluing myself to my computer today to get everything rolling. I will be sending out email/PMs to everyone to try to get players back as soon as possible. We will have to see if we lost anyone, so please bear with me and I hope you guys are as anxious to get back into it as I am!

[Thundercracker]

I am still here. —TC

[Erulasto]

10 Again!

[roll0]

[Daishain]

In regards to the conundrum with Aisling, I think it is reasonable for her to be unaware. She likely did not know what was happening to herself, and since her awakening none have spoken of the matter.

[Bennosuke]

@Erulasto: If she had been ghouled before, one would assume Aisling knew. However, as you mentioned, she hasn't been played as if she knew or cared about the gravity of what she was doing by offering her blood up so freely. I think one of two things would be reasonable: 1. Aisling had been Ghouled but never thought hard about what she was doing, not really relating her past experiences to what Bernardo or Gabrielle might be experiencing, or 2. She knew but didn't care. Ultimately, I leave it up to you, which is why I am replying here rather than moving your IC situation along.

If you think it's relevant, this could count as a breaking point.

[Bennosuke]

And of course because I am the worst, and didn't plan ahead...

@TC: Anna has 9 vitae/10. So she doesn't really need vitae, and this is more of a pleasure hunt. If anything, I'd rather take the rolling out of it and ask you how you think Anna would hunt if she was just doing it for fun... feeding the Beast and enjoying her vampiric nature. She doesn't need blood, she's doing this more to enjoy her nature.

Ya, I understand this is a throw away, so we won't make this take up too much time, but I'd rather let you make the decision.

[Thundercracker]

She only has an hour, so that’s not really enough time to hit a bar and get someone back to his or her place, so she’ll just try to find someone in the park, pretend to be looking for her phone, and ask them to help.

[Erulasto]

@Erulasto: If she had been ghouled before, one would assume Aisling knew. However, as you mentioned, she hasn't been played as if she knew or cared about the gravity of what she was doing by offering her blood up so freely. I think one of two things would be reasonable: 1. Aisling had been Ghouled but never thought hard about what she was doing, not really relating her past experiences to what Bernardo or Gabrielle might be experiencing, or 2. She knew but didn't care. Ultimately, I leave it up to you, which is why I am replying here rather than moving your IC situation along.

If you think it's relevant, this could count as a breaking point.

I'm sort of inclined to go forward with Aisling not really knowing everything about the Blood Bond and/or the Ghouling process. She's never been much of a forward thinker, acting more on impulse even before she was Embraced.

So that's the route I think I'll opt to take.

Regardless, I think the realization might be appropriate as a Breaking Point even if she wasn't fully aware. I'm okay with following that decision if it works on your end, Benno.

[Bennosuke]

@TC: I'm not going to make you roll for one blood point. Let's just assume Anna is able to find prey and get her single point of blood. I will refill your Character Box. IC post is coming now and will start with Anna returning to The Dragon's Nest to meet Lady Miho.

@Erulasto: Sounds good. Lets call this a Breaking point then. Lets call this a three dice breaking point. Having a touchstone gives 2+ dice.

[Bennosuke]

@TC: to be clear, is Anna going to THE psych hospital?

[Thundercracker]

@TC: to be clear, is Anna going to THE psych hospital?

Thought there were several she had her eye on? Is there only one option and no backup? If it’s not suitable for whatever reason she’ll found one of her own.

But yes, if there’s only one, she’s heading there.

[Ladorak]

Hello everyone, as you've probably seen already I am back. Firstly I'd like to apologize for my absence, particularly the unexplained nature of it, total **** move and I'm sorry for it. I don't want to write it all down as I don't think it would be helpful regarding my mental health, but some years ago my job went from risk assessment to crisis assessment and then onto crisis planning and finally crisis preparation. A transfer was promised for years but never materialized, probably because they never found anyone who wanted to replace me on financial meltdown prep duty. Eventually it all got on top of me and my mental health was suffering and I quit in January, which you figure would have been liberating and would have given me more time to post, but having nothing to do all day just really depressed me and I kinda fell into a hole.

I am however feeling a lot better now, this is a great group and I'm eager to rejoin it.

[Erulasto]

Hello everyone, as you've probably seen already I am back. Firstly I'd like to apologize for my absence, particularly the unexplained nature of it, total **** move and I'm sorry for it. I don't want to write it all down as I don't think it would be helpful regarding my mental health, but some years ago my job went from risk assessment to crisis assessment and then onto crisis planning and finally crisis preparation. A transfer was promised for years but never materialized, probably because they never found anyone who wanted to replace me on financial meltdown prep duty. Eventually it all got on top of me and my mental health was suffering and I quit in January, which you figure would have been liberating and would have given me more time to post, but having nothing to do all day just really depressed me and I kinda fell into a hole.

I am however feeling a lot better now, this is a great group and I'm eager to rejoin it.

I'm glad you're feeling better. Maybe not at 100% yet, but better is still a good start. We missed you, but you've got to take care of your wellbeing.

Welcome back!

[Daishain]

I am sorry to hear about your situation, but it is good to hear from you regardless

[Thundercracker]

Hello everyone, as you've probably seen already I am back. Firstly I'd like to apologize for my absence, particularly the unexplained nature of it, total **** move and I'm sorry for it. I don't want to write it all down as I don't think it would be helpful regarding my mental health, but some years ago my job went from risk assessment to crisis assessment and then onto crisis planning and finally crisis preparation. A transfer was promised for years but never materialized, probably because they never found anyone who wanted to replace me on financial meltdown prep duty. Eventually it all got on top of me and my mental health was suffering and I quit in January, which you figure would have been liberating and would have given me more time to post, but having nothing to do all day just really depressed me and I kinda fell into a hole.

I am however feeling a lot better now, this is a great group and I'm eager to rejoin it.

Yeah the whole employment thing is a two way street and not working for jerks makes a big difference.

[Bennosuke]

As mentioned in other threads and via PM, we are simply glad to have you back, and hope things only continue to get better. Feel free to PM me if things come up, or if you need an ear to talk to. Welcome back!

IC post for this game will be next.

[Bennosuke]

@TC: in case you missed it in Discord, I need to know whether Anna is hiding herself or just the sword... Ie using Face in the Crowd or Touch of Shadows

[Thundercracker]

@TC: in case you missed it in Discord, I need to know whether Anna is hiding herself or just the sword... Ie using Face in the Crowd or Touch of Shadows

She is alone so I don’t thing face in the crowd will work, but she’s not trying to stay hidden, she’s hoping whatever is inside will notice her and do something.

[Bennosuke]

I figured. Then Anna is using Touch of Shadows to be seen but keep the sword hidden. She is then spending a Vitae to activate. While it technically requires a roll, I'm just going to skip that. Will update your character box.

[Erulasto]

God, I wish Aisling had Dominate. Or even Presence.

[Thundercracker]

God, I wish Aisling had Dominate. Or even Presence.

Just rip the gate off the hinges and slaughter the stupid mortal.

[Erulasto]

Just rip the gate off the hinges and slaughter the stupid mortal.

Not going to lie. Considered it. :smallwink:

[Bennosuke]

I think Lillith is waiting for a reply to her text.

[Erulasto]

Social test! Uh-oh!

Presence 2 + Nothing....

[roll0]

If not having a skill means it's a chance of 1d10 instead...then just take the first roll I suppose. Hehe I cant remember. Was a long night at work.

EDIT: ...well, ****.

[Thundercracker]

Social test! Uh-oh!

Presence 2 + Nothing....

[roll0]

If not having a skill means it's a chance of 1d10 instead...then just take the first roll I suppose. Hehe I cant remember. Was a long night at work.

EDIT: ...well, ****.

Dramatic failure on a social roll. Well, just remember what Vaarsuvius says: As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

[Erulasto]

Hey folks. We've just been notified of a few COVID-19 patients coming in to our ER tonight. Given the circumstances, I won't be able to make a post tonight. I will have a post up ASAP later today when my shift ends.

Thanks!

[Bennosuke]

Good luck! Don't get sick.

For what it is worth, Erulasto's roll is not a dramatic failure (I had to triple check this). You can only get a dramatic failure with a 1 on a chance dice, which only occurs if your negative modifiers would drop your dice pool to zero. Aisling had Presence 2, with a negative modifier of 1, meaning her 1d10 was not a chance dice.

Kinda unfortunate, because I had a great idea for how to resolve the dramatic failure.

[Thundercracker]

Good luck! Don't get sick.

For what it is worth, Erulasto's roll is not a dramatic failure (I had to triple check this). You can only get a dramatic failure with a 1 on a chance dice, which only occurs if your negative modifiers would drop your dice pool to zero. Aisling had Presence 2, with a negative modifier of 1, meaning her 1d10 was not a chance dice.

Kinda unfortunate, because I had a great idea for how to resolve the dramatic failure.

Take the beat and make it a dramatic failure, I want to see this idea of benno's. :)

[Erulasto]

Take the beat and make it a dramatic failure, I want to see this idea of benno's. :)

Benno....is it too late to take a beat for said dramatic failure? Hehe

[Bennosuke]

I think now that my cards are partly on the table, I just want to keep things moving. But there will plenty more opportunities to take dramatic failures :smallwink:

[Bennosuke]

Before I reply IC, I want to make sure; it sounds like the plan for now is for the players to meet up, except for maybe Anna who is going to Lady Miho first.

@TC: If this is the plan, would you be okay with running both scenes simultaneously in a sort of time warp just to keep things moving?

[Thundercracker]

Before I reply IC, I want to make sure; it sounds like the plan for now is for the players to meet up, except for maybe Anna who is going to Lady Miho first.

@TC: If this is the plan, would you be okay with running both scenes simultaneously in a sort of time warp just to keep things moving?

Yes I'm perfectly fine with that; Anna will be in both scenes right?

[Bennosuke]

Yes, we would run both scenes simultaneously, maybe the one with Miho in a Spoiler.

I actually have to get some work done now :smalltongue:, but will post IC today with both scenes.

The only thing the players could do for me (though I will decide myself otherwise) is where the coterie is going to meet.

[Bennosuke]

Just going to move things along then. Hope everyone is holding up okay with the COVID scare going on.

[Bennosuke]

It looks like a lot of my clinics are being cancelled this week, so my post rate may be skyrocketing over the next few days... for what it's worth.

[Thundercracker]

Think we're done with the Miho scene, unless there's something else to add?

[Bennosuke]

That sounds good to me. Stay safe everyone!

[Erulasto]

Hello from the front lines!

I apologize for the delay in posting the last couple days. I've been working so much OT to help staff our ER during this crazy time. I've actually got the night off - finally - and am trying to get caught up.

[Bennosuke]

Going to let the group keep chatting.

[Bennosuke]

Should I give other players a chance to respond to Anna's statement, or should I just reply?

[Thundercracker]

Should I give other players a chance to respond to Anna's statement, or should I just reply?

Depends on how quickly Gabrielle's response comes and what it is. If there's no reply, or if it's anything but what she asked her to send, no amount of convincing is going to stop Anna from heading over there packing heat, but she'll take whoever else wants to come with her.

[Bennosuke]

Let's just say Anna will hear back before she gets in her car... and as it's only been 4-5 days since her last feeding, she's probably not in florid withdrawal yet.

[Thundercracker]

Let's just say Anna will hear back before she gets in her car... and as it's only been 4-5 days since her last feeding, she's probably not in florid withdrawal yet.

Ok let me know what her response is IC and we'll play it out. :)

[Bennosuke]

I am letting the conversation IC continue. Let me know if and how you want me to move things along.

[Erulasto]

I am letting the conversation IC continue. Let me know if and how you want me to move things along.

I'm okay to move things along, though I think we should probably decide how quick we want to deal with Gabrielle. I do think kidnapping her might be our best and most expedient resolution.

How many steps Blood Bound is Gabrielle to Aisling and Anna, respectively?

[Bennosuke]

She has a first degree blood bond with Estella and a second degree with Aisling. She has a second degree blood bond with Anna.

For what its worth, this information is listed with each character in the NPC list on the first page.

Ooh, interparty disagreement, this is getting interesting.

[Thundercracker]

Anna will go for a hunt if there is time, otherwise I’m done.

[Bennosuke]

It looks like we are closing out this scene. Not to delay things, but I guess I will ask for some rolls and double check a few things.

In regards to character plans for the upcoming night, I just want to confirm:

-In the upcoming night is the meeting for all Invictus to choose a new Primogen (Karl and Lillith)
-Karl has a 9PM meeting with the Prince
-Aisling and Alejandro have an 8PM meeting with the Prince
-Anna is going to investigate the hospital with Lady Miho

@TC: Do you want to just give me a roll, or do you want to play out a feeding scene?
@Erulasto: Please give me an Int+ Academics/Occult roll +3
@Daishain: Anything that Karl wants to do before the end of the night?
@Ladorak: Anything Lillith wants to do before the end of the night?

[Daishain]

Karl will likely check in with the English law firm for a status on his nephew and whatever can be gleaned concerning where the police are leaning on the matter and if it looks like they have other suspects.

In regards to your earlier comment. No, I wasn't thinking of Karl just abandoning the MS13 thing. But priorities often shift when there's a changing of the guard, Karl would be thinking that his orders concerning the gang could easily change and had intended to ask about them in the upcoming meeting. Especially since he got the impression half the reason for the orders in the first place was Gorman testing his continued usefulness.

[Thundercracker]

I’ll just roll. Once for tonight and once first thing tomorrow, so hopefully at worst she’ll be one below full. Anna will feed in the Rack for the bonuses.

[rollv]6d10[rollv]
[roll0]

10 again: [roll1]

Edit: oops, messed up that first roll but at least there’s a success on the second, can we say she’ll be full from that for the hospital scene?

[Erulasto]

Intelligent 2 + Occult 1 + 3

[roll0]

Possible 10-Agains.

[roll1]

EDIT: Wow.

[Bennosuke]

I’ll just roll. Once for tonight and once first thing tomorrow, so hopefully at worst she’ll be one below full. Anna will feed in the Rack for the bonuses.

[rollv]6d10[rollv]
[roll0]

10 again: [roll1]

Edit: oops, messed up that first roll but at least there’s a success on the second, can we say she’ll be full from that for the hospital scene?

We can just assume that Anna feeds once before meeting with Miho, and recovers the two BP she needs.

EDIT@ALL: Also, I think we will call this upcoming night's worth of activity the end of the scene/play section and will give out some beats and spend some XP. Just FYI for everyone.

[Erulasto]

Hey Benno, I'm ready to move on to the next night.

If you'd like a hunting roll or whatnot to ensure that Aisling does, indeed, show up fed to meet Alejandro then I can totally do that!

Be...what...Dex + Stealth?

[roll0]

[Bennosuke]

Do you want to RP through the hunt? I assume not, but still, I'll need to know how many BP you want to grab.

Sorry everyone, it's been a much busier day off than I expected.

[Erulasto]

Do you want to RP through the hunt? I assume not, but still, I'll need to know how many BP you want to grab.

Sorry everyone, it's been a much busier day off than I expected.

I can, but only if you need filler to keep pace with the others.

I'll double check how many BP Aisling needs in a few.

[Bennosuke]

It's okay. I don't "need" you to. I do think I will include an "intermission feeding scene" soon. I'm not sure I like feeding just becoming a requisite roll to refill the empty tank. I want it to retain some meaning and style as part of a vampire game, but I don't want to slow down the flow of current story lines either.

Let me know how much Aisling is going to take.

[Bennosuke]

Rolling for Karl [roll0] and 10 again [roll1]

[Bennosuke]

And rolling Karl's WP [roll0] will use the 10 again above

[Daishain]

Karl's decision to drain blood from bert nicely or harshly. He's feeling sadistic on a 1. [roll0]

[Thundercracker]

No dots in survival, so it’s wits 3 minus whatever the penalty is.

[roll0]
10 again: [roll1]

[Bennosuke]

Some initiative rolls:

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

EDIT: Wow, such rolls.

Initiative Order
The Dark One 16
Anna 14
Lady Miho 10
Autumn and Victor 5

[Bennosuke]

Hmm... this should be interesting... I hope I get all the rolls I need

TDO Activation Roll: [roll0]
LM Resistance: [roll1]

LM Attack: [roll2]

V roll: [roll3] vs. [roll4]

[Bennosuke]

Ugh, I did not finish all my rolls.

[roll0]

[Thundercracker]

What is the spirit’s defense, and what does the aura it’s using do?

[Bennosuke]

My apologies. Defense is 8 and aura gives -2 to all rolls in area of affect

[Thundercracker]

My apologies. Defense is 8 and aura gives -2 to all rolls in area of affect

Wait, so even with willpower and physical augmentation, I’m down to a chance die?

Does shooting it negate that defense?

Edit: is there any other way to increase attack dice or lower its defense ?

[Bennosuke]

Ya, I wonder if he may be just a little OP... I guess we will see!!!

But other than disciplines, there's Physical Intensity, one BP nets you an extra two dice on a single physical roll.

[Thundercracker]

Ya, I wonder if he may be just a little OP... I guess we will see!!!

But other than disciplines, there's Physical Intensity, one BP nets you an extra two dice on a single physical roll.

All out attack is 2 dice also, right?

[Bennosuke]

I have under homebrew and approved rules at the beginnig of this thread:


All out Attack: 2+ to a brawl or weaponry attack, lose defense.

Also, if Anna wants to push herself to the back of the initiative que, she can take advantage of the spirit having decreased defense from each attack before hers. Those are the thoughts that come immediately to my mind, though perhaps the players can think of something that isn't immediately to my knowledge.

LM: [roll0]

Victor: [roll1]

TO: [roll2]

[Thundercracker]

I have under homebrew and approved rules at the beginnig of this thread:



Also, if Anna wants to push herself to the back of the initiative que, she can take advantage of the spirit having decreased defense from each attack before hers. Those are the thoughts that come immediately to my mind, though perhaps the players can think of something that isn't immediately to my knowledge.

LM: [roll0]

Victor: [roll1]

TO: [roll2]

Can I keep the wp from the previous round since it’s going to get busted down to a chance die anyway?

The plan follows:
1. Delay until after the others attack.
2. all out attack, willpower and physical augmentation, for +7 dice, or 12 total vs 7 defense (after three attacks).
3. Use celerity to interrupt and move away if the thing tries to attack Anna.

Will that work?

[Bennosuke]

It sounds like a decent plan, though Anna may have to try to convince Autumn the Ghoul to get involved too, right now she's staying out of the fight, but the addition of her attack would drop the spirit's defense down to 5.

[Thundercracker]

Oh, that’s an exceptional success on the composure roll if that’s worth anything.

Edit: can also spend a WP to enter frenzy to add +1 to attacks, but figure that’s a last ditch effort, because then either it’s going down or Anna is.

[Bennosuke]

Sorry if I'm a little brain dead, but here's some math as I see it.

I think you only make the contested roll once against Horrific Aura (Emotional Aura pg 137 in Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook). However, I count Anna's base as 5 (Str 2 + Weaponry 3) + Physical Intensity 2 + WP 3 + All out attack 2=12. Her negative modifiers are base defense 5 (8 -3 prior attacks) +2 for the aura. The sum still comes to 5d10.

However, since that was an awesome roll, why don't we use the first roll as Anna's attack roll... which would turn Anna's roll into an exceptional success (not forcing it on you, but it was your first roll so you may as well use it). SO that would be 5 aggrevated damage as opposed to 1.

Otherwise gonna make everyone else's rolls

Dark One: [roll0]

LM: [roll1] Autumn: [roll2] Victor: [roll3]

[Thundercracker]

I’m good with 5 aggravated damage instead of 1. :p

I thought the will check was every round so that’s why. I couldn’t find the aura in the strix chronicles book which is what I have, but will take another look later on.

[Bennosuke]

Okay, so Anna is down to 2WP and 8 BP.

TDO: [roll0]

Lady Miho: [roll1]
Autumn: [roll2]
Victor: [roll3]

[Thundercracker]

Can I interrupt that willpower draining attack with celerity to make it miss? If she can, Anna will do that (and spend the point of vitae to preserve her two remaining WP).

Other wise Stamina3+ blood potency1 + resolve 3: [roll0]
10 again: [roll1]

Whether or not anna can dodge the attack will determine actions for the round.
I’m ok with the 9 again giving extra dice but not counting as a success.

[Bennosuke]

Anna can spend the Vitae to move ahead of the thing in initiative and attack it before it can activate the power, but then she loses the benefit of it's defenses being lowered by others attacks. Alternatively, I suppose she could try to run out of it's field of affect... but I'm away from book and not sure exactly how far the radius of the thing's power extends... and I feel like it may be pretty big.

[Thundercracker]

Anna can spend the Vitae to move ahead of the thing in initiative and attack it before it can activate the power, but then she loses the benefit of it's defenses being lowered by others attacks. Alternatively, I suppose she could try to run out of it's field of affect... but I'm away from book and not sure exactly how far the radius of the thing's power extends... and I feel like it may be pretty big.

Ok, Anna is going to be expecting a regular attack, so she’ll spend the vitae to celerity to avoid that, and if this thing still hits her so be it. She’ll celerity around it and grab the fallen bouquet to pass to Miho. Will make IC post

[Bennosuke]

Initiative Order
The Dark One 16
Anna 14
Lady Miho 10
Autumn and Victor 5

So that I don't have to scroll as much

Rolling for:
Lady Miho [roll0]
Autumn [roll1] and 9 again just in case [roll2]
Victor [roll3]

And the dark one against Anna which she finally gets her defense modifier for [roll4]

EDIT: That should have had an additional -3 for arm wracked... not that it changes the roll result very much.

[Bennosuke]

Rolling for

Lady Miho: [roll0]

Victor: [roll1]


The Dark One [roll2]

[Bennosuke]

Well first off, I manage to roll a 1 every time for one of these chance dice. Second off... re-rolling for The Dark One since I botched that

[roll0]

[Bennosuke]

Autumn [roll0]
Victor [roll1]

The Dark One [roll2]

[Bennosuke]

Some more rolls, come on big money!

Lady Miho [roll0]
Victor [roll1]
Autumn [roll2]


And the Dark One: [roll3]

[Bennosuke]

And of course I need to keep rolling, sorry for the double post

[roll0]

[Erulasto]

Hello friends!

I apologize for my absence the last little while. I’ve had some health issues that popped up rather abruptly that led to a short stay in the hospital. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details, but I am now home and – while I’m on some medication – I’m more or less recovered. I’d hoped to get on earlier today to send out some messages, but I ended up doing a fair bit more sleeping than I’d anticipated. But it was well-needed, I suppose.

I’ll be sitting down across the next little while and meticulously combing through the threads I’ve missed and try to get a post up and ready to go.

I apologize once again for the absence. Hope you’re all well, safe and healthy in this crazy time.

-Erulasto (Sam)

[Thundercracker]

good to have you back

[Thundercracker]

Anna presence + persuasion -1 [roll0]
10 again: [roll1]

[Bennosuke]

How seductive of Anna!

Okay, going to double post so you know when my response is up in the IC

[Daishain]

Int+politics-3 [roll0]
Ten again [roll1]

Two successes, Nifty

[Bennosuke]

Well damn!

Okay, well I'd say that along with knowing what most Invictus know, that Marat was a strong supporter of Prince Gorman, Karl is aware of the rumor that Marat may actually have been a blood relative of the Prince; an elder childe or perhaps sharing the same sire.

[Daishain]

It seems likely that after this I'm going to have to open up a sub objective of investigating Marat, getting something more concrete on him than a rumor about a vague relationship with the old prince.

[Bennosuke]

Lol. It was only a matter of time before I was going to get to bring this into the game. I'm glad Aisling and Anna did that, now I have a reason to create/introduce more inter-covenant rivalry and politics.

[Thundercracker]

Hmm, did what?

Wits + empathy: [roll0]

10 again: [roll1]

[Bennosuke]

Nice roll. 4d10 just netted you four successes! Will resolve in the IC thread.

And in my above post I was referring to Karl's run in with Zach Thomas, the Invictus neonate who Anna and Aisling attacked in his apartment.

[Thundercracker]

Nice roll. 4d10 just netted you four successes! Will resolve in the IC thread.

And in my above post I was referring to Karl's run in with Zach Thomas, the Invictus neonate who Anna and Aisling attacked in his apartment.

The guy has a partial blood bond with Anna and should be convinced she saved his life so.. yeah I’d like to get that guy fully enthralled.

[Bennosuke]

Sounds healhty :smalltongue:

[Thundercracker]

Sounds healhty :smalltongue:

It’s totally healthy. He gets to experience love, and I get a devoted and trustworthy ally.

Did I miss something? Because I thought the all hands meeting with the entire kindred society was in a few days, and Karl was only meeting invictus right now.

One more thing, Anna is at 0/6 wp right now, how does she gain that much back?

[Bennosuke]

Did I miss something? Because I thought the all hands meeting with the entire kindred society was in a few days, and Karl was only meeting invictus right now.

You are correct, I think Daishain is mixing up the imaginary dates I made :smalltongue:


One more thing, Anna is at 0/6 wp right now, how does she gain that much back?

-The most obvious way is through interaction with your Touchstone.
-Indulging your mask and dirge can also net you WP

[Daishain]

Yes I was, sorry

[Bennosuke]

You should be, VERY VERY SORRY :smalltongue:

[Thundercracker]

I am good to move on. The day to get authorized access to the hospital isn’t the date of the all hands meeting with the new Prince is it?

[Bennosuke]

Okay, took a day off yesterday but back at it. Sorry for the delay.


I am good to move on. The day to get authorized access to the hospital isn’t the date of the all hands meeting with the new Prince is it?

Correct. The Elysium will be "the following night" relative to the scene we just finished up. As previously discussed, I previously to do a personalized feeding scene... even though Anna is full up, which could occur prior to Anna arriving at Elysium (allowing the other players to catch up).

However, as you mentioned, there is also the issue of Anna being bottomed out on WP. On that note, Anna previously made plans to go rock climbing with Daniel and his girlfriend Ariel. This was set to occur on Saturday, but as we never established days of the week, that could occur at any point. I'm okay with having Anna meet them for rock climbing first, before going to Elysium. Since Anna doesn't sweat or anything, it's not like she'd have to spend a lot of time getting ready for Elysium, she'd just have to change her outfit (I'd assume). As per prior discussion, Anna will recover a point of WP simply by interacting with Daniel. If you are not interested in the rock climbing scene, this could also be accomplished simply if Anna decides to stalk him or something similar.

Alternatively alternatively, Anna can regain WP by fulfilling her mask and dirge. Her Mask I believe is scholar, so perhaps Anna is inspired to start learning more about spirits or The Dark One, and spends her time prior to Elysium doing some research???

Just improvising here, and there are probably other ideas. Just let me know what you want to do.

[Thundercracker]

let's go with the rock climbing scene, might as well get that done with, and that will force anna to use some blood so maybe we can do a feeding scene too if the others aren't caught up yet.

[Bennosuke]

Sounds good. Before the group elysium we will call it a scene and I will give out XP ect.

[Bennosuke]

A couple of rolls for Anna's scene

[roll0] and [roll1]

[Daishain]

I really need to put a point in empathy one of these days...

wits+empathy 2-1 [roll0]

[Bennosuke]

Okay, so here's the plan everyone. Erulasto has been MIA because of internet issues, but allegedly will be returning any day now. He still has a scene to finish up before the Town Hall Elysium. Karl finished his last scene (@Daishain: Ya, I had nothing else planned for that scene), but should have time before the Town Hall just as Anna did to meet with Daniel. FYI, it looks like Anna will be going into Elysium "unfed".

So here's how I'd like to proceed. I am going to count Anna's last scene with Daniel as an interlude scene worth its own XP, and give Karl and Aisling the chance to do the same and collect some beats + maybe some XP or WP depending on what they want to use that scene for. So if its okay with Daishain and Erulasto, I will run your private interlude scene in spoiler boxes, to allow everyone to join the Elysium scene at about the same time.

So up until this point beats are going out as such:

Karl: Karl gets a beat for completing Act IV Scene i. Karl gains a beat for tying up his resources to protect Fred as part of Aspiration three. Everyone gets a beat for investigating the heart. Karl and Aisling get a beat for shared Aspiration 2 for investigating Gabrielle. Karl gets a beat for his meeting with The Prince towards his first Aspiration. I count a total of 5 beats or 1xp for Karl. This takes Karl to 4 beats and 5xp.

Anna: Anna gets a beat for completing Act IV Scene i. Anna already received two beats for her meeting with the prince(see IC post 898). Everyone gets a beat for investigating the heart, Anna gets an extra beat for this for taking it personally to The Ordo Dracul. Anna gets a beat for investigating the Asylum on her own. I'm giving Anna two beats for beating the spirit haunting the asylum and practically guaranteeing her ownership of it. Anna lastly gets a beat for the interlude scene with Daniel and Ariel. I count 7 new beats total for Anna. This takes her to 0 beats and 2xp.

Aisling: Aisling gets a beat for completing Act IV Scene i. Aisling already received a beat for her meeting with Alejandro (post 916). Aisling already got her beat for feeding Bernardo around 938. Everyone gets a beat for investigating the heart. Karl and Aisling get a beat for shared Aspiration 2 for investigating Gabrielle. Aisling already got a beat for investigating Gazren's journal. Aisling gets a beat for meeting with The Prince, and in doing so advancing her political position within the Crone. I count a total of 4 additional beats (for whatever reason I did a better job of giving Aisling beats as the game went along. This takes her to 1 beat and 3 XP

As always, please speak up if you feel I missed something.

@Daishain: What does Karl want to do before he goes to Elysium? He will be down to 8 Vitae and 3 WP. Karl's resources merit is freed back up.

@Erulasto: What does Aisling want to do before she goes to Elysium? I will run a separate spoiler to continue the "Night Hunt" with Indra's group, as well.

@All: Please update aspirations and let me know if you are spending XP.

[Daishain]

I'll spend a point on the next rank of obfuscate and my first point of persuasion. That'll cost the five xp I've got.

In terms of the latter, Karl's been forced to engage in diplomacy a bit too often recently not to try and make an effort there. Still won't be good at it, but at least I won't be rolling with a penalty

And yes, handling the private scenes in spoilers is fine by me, I was just about to ask about Fred.

[Thundercracker]

I am holding off on xp spend until I can get another point of obfuscate.

[Bennosuke]

@Daishain: That will take Karl down to 0xp. Please update your character sheet and I will update Karl's character box. When he wakes the next morning for the upcoming scenes, he will be down to 8 vitae.

@TC: What's the difference between a Qipao and a Chaongsam (no idea if I spelled that right)? Just out of curiosity.

[Thundercracker]

@Daishain: That will take Karl down to 0xp. Please update your character sheet and I will update Karl's character box. When he wakes the next morning for the upcoming scenes, he will be down to 8 vitae.

@TC: What's the difference between a Qipao and a Chaongsam (no idea if I spelled that right)? Just out of curiosity.

They are the same thing, Qipao is mandarin and cheongsam is Cantonese in origin but the characters are the same. Since Anna is from Hong Kong I probably should have used cheongsam but eh whatever.

[Bennosuke]

Thank you.

[Thundercracker]

Think Anna trying to save her own skin here is worth a willpower for the survivor dirge?

[Thundercracker]

Going to go with both rolls because Anna isn’t going to stop at the interaction with Marak.
Presence + expression: [roll0]
Manipulation + Persuasion: [roll1]

10 again: [roll2]

Any bonus dice for the partial bond with Zach? Can take that out of the 10 again? ;)

[Bennosuke]

I'm giving you an extra dice (that 10 you rolled) as part of the blood bond and the charmed condition, see the IC thread.

[Thundercracker]

I need my memory jogged. Nova was the one whose compound möbius was hiding in, that was stormed by Julian right? Estrella knew her but I don’t think Anna and nova ever met in the game (though they may have beforehand). So.. what does Anna know about Nova?

[Bennosuke]

Correct. Nova is a high ranking Carthian who has a compound in The Dog Patch. She was housing Mobius for a short while. Anna has met her, when she confronted the Gangrel about Estella's disappearance. This can be found on page 37 of the first IC thread, and a short blurb about her is included in the first page of this OOC thread.

[Bennosuke]

I don't see Daishain's 10 again roll, so I'll roll some dice here [roll0]

EDIT: So that bumps Karl up to 2 successes.

[Thundercracker]

I don’t have anything else for the scene, unless someone wants to talk to Anna.

[Bennosuke]

Well too bad, because I'm not done with you :smallamused::smalltongue:

[Bennosuke]

Honestly I have no idea how to go about an illegal cell phone trace, how difficult it would be, or how easy it would be to get caught. Quick google search didn't help.

It looks like there are services you can pay for, just from a quick google search, but I have no idea how reliable or legal they are.

However, just as an idea, Anna has been sitting on this shared Ally Police for a long time, and we've never put it into use. I know I'm likely stretching reality, but what if they use their shared resources to try to get the tap through the police? Again, I know that that's probably not something the police normally have access to, but perhaps with enough money the right officer would find a way?

Otherwise, I suppose we can do a bit of hand waving.

[Thundercracker]

It looks like there are services you can pay for, just from a quick google search, but I have no idea how reliable or legal they are.

However, just as an idea, Anna has been sitting on this shared Ally Police for a long time, and we've never put it into use. I know I'm likely stretching reality, but what if they use their shared resources to try to get the tap through the police? Again, I know that that's probably not something the police normally have access to, but perhaps with enough money the right officer would find a way?

Otherwise, I suppose we can do a bit of hand waving.

Imo we don't need to overcomplicate it; we should just have gabe roll int + computers and come up with a location. Anna would not involve the police at this point anyway.

Also, I think we should probably start looking at what kind of xp expenditure it will take to get the hospital up and running mechanically. THere'll need to be dots for domain and an ally dot for Victor, and Anna is going to want a law firm to set up the corporation to run the whole thing. Anything else required?

[Bennosuke]

Imo we don't need to overcomplicate it; we should just have gabe roll int + computers and come up with a location. Anna would not involve the police at this point anyway.

I'm fine with that... Thanks for the level headed perspective


Also, I think we should probably start looking at what kind of xp expenditure it will take to get the hospital up and running mechanically. THere'll need to be dots for domain and an ally dot for Victor, and Anna is going to want a law firm to set up the corporation to run the whole thing. Anything else required?

Honestly, I think that may be over complicating things :smalltongue:. I would say the primary merit would be Feeding Grounds (pg. 112). Anna would give up her major boons to the Prince... and I think Anna agreed to use her Major Boon from the Ordo as well, though I will have to go back and double check this. In exchange, Anna would get the location at say 2 dots Feeding Grounds and Safe Place two dots. Following this, she could invest XP on further dots for Feeding Grounds, Safe Place, Staff, ect.

I think the harder thing to represent will be deciding on mechanically how many people Anna can allow feed there before the resource gets depleted somehow, and how to represent this mechanically, furthermore, figuring out what sort of boon/benefits Anna gets for turning this into an enterprise...

[Daishain]

I'm all for keeping it simple, but for context...

Tracing a stranger's cell phone location is flat out illegal. The services you saw through the google search almost certainly involve putting software on a phone you own so that it reports its location to another device at a later time, not finding a phone that is currently elsewhere.

The police trace cell phones on a frequent basis, but doing so without a warrant, especially in California which has some of the strictest privacy laws in that regard, is just as illegal for them as for citizens. Contacting one of them could potentially yield such a service, but we'd be asking them to risk their careers at the least, so that's not exactly a simple favor.

Another potential avenue would be to contact the cell service the phone in question uses and trick them into thinking that you are the owner (or, again, convince them to commit an illegal act)

The safest route would probably be to avoid using anyone else and make the trace without relying on others, but that's where my knowledge of the subject ends. I have insufficient information on how difficult that is or what kind of tools are needed. I imagine physical access to a cell tower would be involved.

[Thundercracker]

I'm all for keeping it simple, but for context...

Tracing a stranger's cell phone location is flat out illegal. The services you saw through the google search almost certainly involve putting software on a phone you own so that it reports its location to another device at a later time, not finding a phone that is currently elsewhere.

The police trace cell phones on a frequent basis, but doing so without a warrant, especially in California which has some of the strictest privacy laws in that regard, is just as illegal for them as for citizens. Contacting one of them could potentially yield such a service, but we'd be asking them to risk their careers at the least, so that's not exactly a simple favor.

Another potential avenue would be to contact the cell service the phone in question uses and trick them into thinking that you are the owner (or, again, convince them to commit an illegal act)

The safest route would probably be to avoid using anyone else and make the trace without relying on others, but that's where my knowledge of the subject ends. I have insufficient information on how difficult that is or what kind of tools are needed. I imagine physical access to a cell tower would be involved.
FYI if Anna finds out her cousins bf is damaging her in some way she’s going to murder him and sprinkle some crack on his corpse, which is also somewhat illegal.

Honestly the best way is to load one of those hidden tracker apps on the phone, and then we can find it via gps, but that would require us to have accessed it previously.

Edit: thinking about it some more, the real question is do we want to be able to track anyone’s location by their phone?

I think the answer to that is no. But maybe the more paranoid of us have something on their phones that prevents tracking. Also didn’t we track Estella’s phone this way to find it on the bridge?

[Thundercracker]

I'm fine with that... Thanks for the level headed perspective



Honestly, I think that may be over complicating things :smalltongue:. I would say the primary merit would be Feeding Grounds (pg. 112). Anna would give up her major boons to the Prince... and I think Anna agreed to use her Major Boon from the Ordo as well, though I will have to go back and double check this. In exchange, Anna would get the location at say 2 dots Feeding Grounds and Safe Place two dots. Following this, she could invest XP on further dots for Feeding Grounds, Safe Place, Staff, ect.

I think the harder thing to represent will be deciding on mechanically how many people Anna can allow feed there before the resource gets depleted somehow, and how to represent this mechanically, furthermore, figuring out what sort of boon/benefits Anna gets for turning this into an enterprise...

Yes, Anna used her major boon with the Ordo as well, for their support in the endeavor and for her to have ownership.

We can take it slow and steady. Anna will first make sure everything is in place to allow herself and Victor to take vitae, and then she'll bring in perhaps two more, Ordo neonates, as a trial run. After that it'll expand slowly from there, first to Ordo neonates, and then neonates of other covenants, and eventually all Kindred. Anyone who wants a drink of course can pay for it either in cash or boons, but the free service will ramp up as the number of comatose patients increases. Eventually it would be free for everyone but that's how Anna would initially limit usage. She'll have to get more comatose patients to do this, and ensure the kindred have an entrance and exit they can use so nobody notices the parade of visitors coming at all hours of the night, and ghouls on staff (starting with Celestine) who will keep their mouths shut, and also influence with inspectors etc to ensure nothing goes wrong on the mortal side of things.

Eventually she'll also have rooms where Ordo members can conduct live human experiments, as well, and she'll want to conduct her own, too, for eventual research into her own coil/scale, not sure what it will be yet.

[Bennosuke]

I think the answer to that is no. But maybe the more paranoid of us have something on their phones that prevents tracking.

So do we want to just say IC Karl says it's not a tenable or good idea, and continue on with the two planning how they will find Katie? I think TC has the right of it in suspecting something is going on with the BF, and probably starting with more investigation of him would be a good idea.


Yes, Anna used her major boon with the Ordo as well, for their support in the endeavor and for her to have ownership.

Okay, if it works for you then, I will remove the Boons from Anna's character box (as you will from her character sheet), and Anna can take the Feeding Grounds (Hospital) OO, and Safe Space (Hospital) OO... and progress from there.

[Thundercracker]

So do we want to just say IC Karl says it's not a tenable or good idea, and continue on with the two planning how they will find Katie? I think TC has the right of it in suspecting something is going on with the BF, and probably starting with more investigation of him would be a good idea.



Okay, if it works for you then, I will remove the Boons from Anna's character box (as you will from her character sheet), and Anna can take the Feeding Grounds (Hospital) OO, and Safe Space (Hospital) OO... and progress from there.

What I was getting at was do we want to be able to find essentially anyone in the game whenever we want? Like let's say we want to know where a particular Kindred is, should we be able to track their phone? I think the answer to that is no. The question is then do we want to be able to track some individuals' phones and not others, or just nix tracking cell phones in general?

Yes, works for me.

[Bennosuke]

I agree, I disagree with the idea that the players can easily track another kindred in this setting. I'm not sure what we did with Estella's but maybe we can hand wave it by saying that as a pseudo coterie, the group had some sort of advanced access to find her phone?

I'd say nix tracking phones altogether, if everyone agrees.

[Thundercracker]

I agree, I disagree with the idea that the players can easily track another kindred in this setting. I'm not sure what we did with Estella's but maybe we can hand wave it by saying that as a pseudo coterie, the group had some sort of advanced access to find her phone?

I'd say nix tracking phones altogether, if everyone agrees.

Why don't we just say tracking cell phones is impossible, for anyone.

[Bennosuke]

Sounds good to me.

[Daishain]

Agreed, with one suggested caveat, the ability to track our own devices remains.

[Thundercracker]

Agreed, with one suggested caveat, the ability to track our own devices remains.

good idea, that would explain us tracking estella. We'll need to retcon a bit, I'm going to make a new IC post assuming Karl has told Anna it's impossible and we can go from there.

[Thundercracker]

Does Anna have Jay’s address from the background check she did on him?

[Bennosuke]

She has an apartment listed.

[Bennosuke]

Is there anything else you two want to do, or should I move things forward to the meeting with the Prince at the end of Elysium?

[Thundercracker]

Is there anything else you two want to do, or should I move things forward to the meeting with the Prince at the end of Elysium?

I’m ok to move on. Anna wants to ask Miho about how autumn is doing but not in such a public forum.

[Bennosuke]

Okay, I mean we can assume that Anna is able to find a quiet nook to "drag" Miho into if she wants to talk privately.

I'll wait for Daishain to respond otherwise.

[Thundercracker]

Okay, I mean we can assume that Anna is able to find a quiet nook to "drag" Miho into if she wants to talk privately.

I'll wait for Daishain to respond otherwise.

Yeah we’ll do the scene here if Karl has something else to do.

[Daishain]

At the moment Karl was standing near Anna, waiting to hear about whatever the heck is going on that would require that phone tap he couldn't provide.

[Thundercracker]

At the moment Karl was standing near Anna, waiting to hear about whatever the heck is going on that would require that phone tap he couldn't provide.

Anna is paranoid about being overheard with so many Kindred present, so she’ll tell Karl in private later, made an IC post.

[Bennosuke]

Not sure if I am waiting for Daishain to reply. Do we want to move on to a private meeting with The Prince at the end of Elysium?

[Daishain]

Can't respond properly at the moment, so go ahead

[Bennosuke]

Sorry to drag things out, and thank you for the patience. So I'm going to close scene 2 here and tally up some beats before we start scene 3. If you want, you/we can start scene 3 the same night as there are probably two hours or so in the night.

And so the beats:

Anna: 1 beat for completing the scene, Anna gets a beat for completing the condition of becoming hound, I'm gonna be generous and also give an additional beat for starting to ruminate on Miho's mirror :smallamused:. Anna gains a total of 3 beats putting her at 3 beats 2 xp.

Karl: 1 beat for completing the scene, Karl gets a beat for completing the condition of gaining a position on the Prince's Cabinet. Karl gains a total of 2 beats putting him at 2 beats and 5 XP

As always, please speak up if you feel I missed something.

I am going to require that both of you update your aspirations, on two fronts. First, I am asking you to replace or appropriately update the aspiration above that I had you as having fulfilled. Furthermore, I would like you to update/re-arrange aspirations to let me know what it is you want your character to be focusing on in the upcoming story. Below are some things for each character to do, that can be used to fuel aspirations, but are also ideas for what you want to start with in the next scene.

Things to do:
Anna- Follow up with Victor, chase after cousin Katie (and follow up with her Aunt/Ghoul), follow up with Daniel, The Bruja, follow up on Zach Thomas?, Miho's mirror

Karl- Pick up Fred at the airport, follow up on MS-13, investigate the heart, follow up on the Bruja, follow up on Zach Thomas? Follow up with Gabe? Follow up on Gabrielle who may still be a masquerade breech.

So lastly, please tell me what you want your character to do next.

[Thundercracker]

Anna is going to head to see Victor straight away. On the way there, she’s going to call the brujah and find out what the story is.

Daniel and Ariel, she has a shopping appointment the following Tuesday or something so we can do that scene whenever.

Her primary goal remains getting the hospital up and running, but now that she’s sure Victor isn’t going to be able to steal it out from under her by kindred law, the next step is to buy it legally, and eventually set Celestine up to be in charge of it. The next dot after obfuscate will to go to make Victor an ally, so Anna will continue to try to get close to him.

In order to make sure Celestine’s head is in the right place, Anna needs to make sure Katie is okay, so that’s what she’s going to do next. If Jay has been mistreating her, Anna will kill him and make it look like gang violence, then depending on the situation either call the cops to pick up her cousin or physically drag her back home.

After that she’s going to find out from Aisling what Gabrielle has been up to because she was supposed to be staking out her apartment in animal form. She’ll kill Gabrielle quietly as a potential masquerade breach if she won’t blood bond with one of the coterie.

[Bennosuke]

So, the plan with Victor was to go first thing in the night to get her ID card and credentialing at the hospital for easy access at all times of the night. In game, it is very late night/early morning. If you want we can start the next scene first thing in the next night, unless there was something else you wanted to accomplish by meeting Victor.

Also, please let me know your thoughts on the below:


I am going to require that both of you update your aspirations, on two fronts. First, I am asking you to replace or appropriately update the aspiration above that I had you as having fulfilled. Furthermore, I would like you to update/re-arrange aspirations to let me know what it is you want your character to be focusing on in the upcoming story

[Thundercracker]

So, the plan with Victor was to go first thing in the night to get her ID card and credentialing at the hospital for easy access at all times of the night. In game, it is very late night/early morning. If you want we can start the next scene first thing in the next night, unless there was something else you wanted to accomplish by meeting Victor.

Also, please let me know your thoughts on the below:

Keep the top two and replace 3 with ensure the safety of Cousin Katie.

The plan with victor was to meet him after the town hall. As long as it doesn’t really affect anything we can wait until the next night. Anna wants to smooth things over after the meeting earlier in the night.

Acting as hounds I think can be a shared aspiration.

[Bennosuke]

I've updated Anna's Aspirations in her character box.

You also make a good point about the shared Aspirations. I've updated the Coterie aspirations, please make sure you both review.

Are you good with me saying that when Anna messages Victor, he states he is preoccupied and the two agree to meet first thing the next night?

[Thundercracker]

I've updated Anna's Aspirations in her character box.

You also make a good point about the shared Aspirations. I've updated the Coterie aspirations, please make sure you both review.

Are you good with me saying that when Anna messages Victor, he states he is preoccupied and the two agree to meet first thing the next night?

Yes that’s fine.

Edit: I thought Gorman killed estella, and have no reason to think anything different.

[Bennosuke]

Where is the mouth zipped emoji when you need one...


EDIT: Anyways, will wait for Daishain to respond before staring the next scene.

[Daishain]

All right, finally had time to go into this.

Slot Fred in whenever it makes sense for his plane

If that's not soon, Karl's next top priorities:
-information check. Run through everything he has on the Brujah and MS-13 in preparation for tackling those issues
-New boss meeting. Get the coterie in a room with Nova and touch bases whenever its convenient for all involved

As to the XP, I already spent all five points, thought I'd already let you know. 2 on the first point of socialize, 3 on the third point of obfuscate

Possible new aspiration:
1. Make new position stable and secure
1A. Find a way to neutralize Marat as a threat.
1B. Prove usefulness as a hound to both Prince and the SF kindred society

[Bennosuke]

So I'll just include the coterie aspirations here:


1. Successfully perform your duties as Hounds
2. Protect your growing herd of mortals Ghouls and Touchstones
3. Discover Estella's murderer

@Daishain: I'd argue that both "Make new position stable and secure" and "Prove usefulness as a hound to both Prince and the SF kindred society" would basically fall in with coterie aspiration #1. However, I do like the idea of tying things in with Marat.

I think you could use "Find a way to neutralize Marat as a threat." all as its own Aspiration, or if you wanted to tie it in a little more could go so far as to say, "Use Karl's new position to help neutralize Marat and Zach Thomas as a threat".

Thoughts?


As to the XP, I already spent all five points, thought I'd already let you know. 2 on the first point of socialize, 3 on the third point of obfuscate

Darn, I must have missed that. Thanks for being honest and upfront about that. I'll update Karl's character box.

And let's say start with "information check. Run through everything he has on the Brujah and MS-13 in preparation for tackling those issues", as Karl's last conversation with Fred was very recent and he's going to need time to buy a ticket and fly over. So maybe potential timeline is Information check -> team check in -> pick up fred at the airport?

Sorry for dragging things on. I hope you guys got a chance to look at the updated commission! I think the addition of color really makes the thing look cool (but of course I may be biased). I think Karl could still use a little clean up, and Anna's sword could be detailed and emphasized a little more. Thoughts?

[Daishain]

Timeline works for me.

As to aspiration, how about,

1. Identify and deal with remaining threats
1A. Deal with the Marat/Zach problem.

[Bennosuke]

Okay, with your approval for the timeline, I'll start the next scene.

In regards to aspirations, I feel like number two kinda falls within number one... any chance you want to diversify? Otherwise I'm find with them being essentially separate and non-overlapping if you would prefer.

[Daishain]

They do rather overlap. I guess I'm just saying that Marat's a priority issue, but he's also not going to be the only potential problem in the court, so Karl would be keeping an eye out in other directions as well.

[Thundercracker]

Do we get to make a high cost purchase because it’s between scenes? Or is that only between acts?

[Bennosuke]

@Daishain: So how about one Aspiration specific to handling Marat and Zach Thomas, and a second specific for identifying any new rivals/threats to the coterie (or conversely to the Prince)?

@TC: I think I'm fine with expenditures as long as it makes sense chronologically.

[Thundercracker]

@Daishain: So how about one Aspiration specific to handling Marat and Zach Thomas, and a second specific for identifying any new rivals/threats to the coterie (or conversely to the Prince)?

@TC: I think I'm fine with expenditures as long as it makes sense chronologically.

Gonna buy the hospital.

[Bennosuke]

Any chance you could clarify what you mean by that? Like use your Resources? I'm sure this is something we talked about, and I'm just being addle brained at the moment (chalk it up to not enough coffee).

[Thundercracker]

Any chance you could clarify what you mean by that? Like use your Resources? I'm sure this is something we talked about, and I'm just being addle brained at the moment (chalk it up to not enough coffee).

Right, once per chapter, a character can use resources to purchase something at her rating or lower without issue. Anna has resources 5, so she's going to purchase the hospital, or at least put up the capital to purchase the hospital and get all the legal paperwork done and corporations set up, we can drag it out if you like. The idea is to have control of the hospital from both the kindred and kine sides, so there isn't a situation where an owner or a large investor comes in demanding to know what's going on at their hospital.

[Bennosuke]

Ya, that would definitely take time, and probably be a little more complicated then just showing up and dropping a check. Most hospitals are owned by a group/corporation/system (for example Columbia University Medical Center is owned by New York Presbyterian, which also owns Cornell University Medical Center), and Anna would probably have to buy into that system as a share holder. I think despite resources 5 she can't just become the majority share holder, and along with time, it may involve some politicking.

This is not to say that you can't spend the Resources 5 now, in fact I think that's a good first step. While I admittedly know little about the corporate side of the Health Care World (a significant problem that most physicians need to rectify to some degree given how it is affecting the health care system in America), I believe I can fudge this, and it will likely lead to some interesting political scenes with mortals; with Anna sitting in on board meetings and the like. I think this would be interesting to play out.

Of course, if that isn't the kind of thing that interests you, I could easily see this being something Anna could "employ" Victor into doing. He'd be pretty perfect at it being a Ventrue and all, and could be Anna's representative or face within the company.

Thoughts???

[Thundercracker]

Ya, that would definitely take time, and probably be a little more complicated then just showing up and dropping a check. Most hospitals are owned by a group/corporation/system (for example Columbia University Medical Center is owned by New York Presbyterian, which also owns Cornell University Medical Center), and Anna would probably have to buy into that system as a share holder. I think despite resources 5 she can't just become the majority share holder, and along with time, it may involve some politicking.

This is not to say that you can't spend the Resources 5 now, in fact I think that's a good first step. While I admittedly know little about the corporate side of the Health Care World (a significant problem that most physicians need to rectify to some degree given how it is affecting the health care system in America), I believe I can fudge this, and it will likely lead to some interesting political scenes with mortals; with Anna sitting in on board meetings and the like. I think this would be interesting to play out.

Of course, if that isn't the kind of thing that interests you, I could easily see this being something Anna could "employ" Victor into doing. He'd be pretty perfect at it being a Ventrue and all, and could be Anna's representative or face within the company.

Thoughts???

The way I envision it working is setting up a corporation to take over the hospital, buy buying out or forcing out whoever currently owns it. So the first step would be setting up the corp, mostly to hide who the primary shareholder is (Anna). Anna can't be a visible entity, because it would be too obvious she never attends a board meeting during the day. Celestine or another more suitable ghoul would have to do it. The second step would be identifying who owns the hospital, and then we start throwing gobs of money at them to get them to sell. If they don't want to sell, we make them an offer they can't refuse.

The irony of Anna thinking and acting like a gangster when she hates organized crime is especially fitting.

[Bennosuke]

I like/love all of that. Perhaps Daniel? Otherwise, do you want to have Anna in some way scut that over to Victor?

[Thundercracker]

I like/love all of that. Perhaps Daniel? Otherwise, do you want to have Anna in some way scut that over to Victor?

She will want to try Celestine first since she has some knowledge of medical stuff and she doesn’t have any responsibilities anymore. Maybe send her for a few classes or something. This is also why I want to spend dots on a legal retainer and/or someone to help run the Corp, if Celestine can’t do it alone. That way Celestine can be my eyes and ears there and leave the work that requires expertise to the expert(s).

Victor would have the same problem as Anna, he can’t be visible during the day.

[Bennosuke]

Okay, please clarify how much XP you are spending and on what.

In regards to Victor, I was more imagining putting him in charge of finding the right Ghouls ect. It obviously would relieve Anna of some of the responsibility ect, but of course would give Victor more "control" so to speak.

[Thundercracker]

No spending anything because I need to get obfuscate 3 first.

[Bennosuke]

Noted.

IC post finally up. Apologies again about the delay.

[Thundercracker]

I thought ventrue have some kind of restriction on what they can drink?

[Bennosuke]

I think that's Masquerade Ventrue. And I think 1E requiem Ventrue was that they went crazy quicker, because they got lumped together with the Malkavians.

[Thundercracker]

I think that's Masquerade Ventrue. And I think 1E requiem Ventrue was that they went crazy quicker, because they got lumped together with the Malkavians.

Hmm, okay, works for me.

[Thundercracker]

Can we even sit for photographs? Actually that gives me an idea for what anna will work on as her research project, suppressing the Beast’s resistance to photos, so we can have photos taken if we focus on it. What do you think?

[Bennosuke]

So you really made me work for this one :smallamused:.

It seems that the 2E book intentionally left this more "obscure" than any other edition, with only a quick blurb about it on page 60 that simply states that it is hard to ever catch a vampire in a photograph or video or mirror. In the first edition book a vampire could willfully counteract this by spending a WP. I like this idea, as it would be much more difficult to exist in our modern age otherwise. If you are okay with it, I'll say that Anna and Victor can spend a WP to get "proper" photos, while if you don't agree then the security officer is going to end up taking some pretty interesting photos... :smallbiggrin:

[Thundercracker]

So you really made me work for this one :smallamused:.

It seems that the 2E book intentionally left this more "obscure" than any other edition, with only a quick blurb about it on page 60 that simply states that it is hard to ever catch a vampire in a photograph or video or mirror. In the first edition book a vampire could willfully counteract this by spending a WP. I like this idea, as it would be much more difficult to exist in our modern age otherwise. If you are okay with it, I'll say that Anna and Victor can spend a WP to get "proper" photos, while if you don't agree then the security officer is going to end up taking some pretty interesting photos... :smallbiggrin:

You know what. If there isn't a vampire artist out there who creates photorealistic drawings / paintings of vampires, that should be Anna's next service to the city. Because there's no restriction on taking a photo of a painting. I imagine that's how vampires would handle it, anyway, and I like the idea of Anna researching how to counteract this weakness as a new scale / coil.

[Bennosuke]

Sure, I could see it being a scale or even just a devotion; maybe something combining Obfuscate or Majesty with a Coil.

That said, what are your thoughts about the rules; do you want to be able to spend a WP to negate it or no?

[Thundercracker]

Sure, I could see it being a scale or even just a devotion; maybe something combining Obfuscate or Majesty with a Coil.

That said, what are your thoughts about the rules; do you want to be able to spend a WP to negate it or no?

I think it makes sense, but then what would the coil do?

[Bennosuke]

I would imagine make the ability to appear in photos and mirrors free to turn on and off, rather than cost a WP?

Okay, so that we can move forward IC, I assume Anna wants to spend the WP... and maybe a BP for blush of life? Not necessary, but up to you. Feel free to post IC with your reply.

[Thundercracker]

I would imagine make the ability to appear in photos and mirrors free to turn on and off, rather than cost a WP?

Okay, so that we can move forward IC, I assume Anna wants to spend the WP... and maybe a BP for blush of life? Not necessary, but up to you. Feel free to post IC with your reply.

I'm good with that, will post IC.

[Bennosuke]

Soooo... I went to go update Anna's character box, only to note that she is actually already out of WP!

Please let me know if you are okay with me rolling with this before I reply. I see the security officer being very perplexed by not being able to get a good picture, but still printing her something as long as she does a good job of convincing him socially that it's just a fluke. Maybe good reason she becomes more focused on this?

Sorry for this mistake.

EDIT: And I double checked and I did give Anna WP for her recent defense of her relationship with Daniel.

[Thundercracker]

Anna just picked one up the night before at Elysium in the interaction with Marat.

[Bennosuke]

Went back and checked. Good point, and thank you for pointing that out. Okay, so now Anna is back to 0 WP.

[Bennosuke]

FYI, I've updated the homebrew rules a little to streamline them. Just a heads up, though I don't think it will be anything major.

[Thundercracker]

Forgot 10 again:[roll0]

[Thundercracker]

I am confused, Anna rolled well enough to break in via rear window. Or are we just saying that roll is negated because there is no window into the apartment?

[Bennosuke]

Sorry if that wasn't clearer. Anna did not have access to enter the building. She had waited for someone to let her in the first time, then she went and got her crowbar to break into Jay's apartment. When she came back, the door to get into the building was again locked, so Anna got into the building via a window that accessed the car garage (via a successful Dex + larceny roll). That got Anna inside the building but not into Jay's apartment.

[Thundercracker]

I didn’t want to enter the building but whatever we’re here now so let’s roll:

Dex -1 [roll0]

[Bennosuke]

I'm sorry if I misunderstood then. If I may ask, how was Anna going to break into Jay's apartment otherwise?

[Thundercracker]

I'm sorry if I misunderstood then. If I may ask, how was Anna going to break into Jay's apartment otherwise?

Via a rear window, it’s ok bc I made the check to go via the front door so functionally its the same.

[Bennosuke]

Sorry for the miscommunication TC. I read back through everything, and I can see how we missed each other there. In my mind Jay's apartment was a few floors up (which of course I never specifically explained) and so getting in through a window into his apartment never crossed my mind.

Anyways, Anna's roll got her in, so hopefully it's not too big of a deal.

[Thundercracker]

Sorry for the miscommunication TC. I read back through everything, and I can see how we missed each other there. In my mind Jay's apartment was a few floors up (which of course I never specifically explained) and so getting in through a window into his apartment never crossed my mind.

Anyways, Anna's roll got her in, so hopefully it's not too big of a deal.

Nope, it’s all the same since she’s in all steathy-like.

[Bennosuke]

that's an exceptional success, any bonuses for Anna's surprise attack?

Nope, I mentioned this in my IC post, but it's dropped to 3 successes when I factor in Jay's composure as a negative modifier (-3). Sorry.

[Thundercracker]

Nope, I mentioned this in my IC post, but it's dropped to 3 successes when I factor in Jay's composure as a negative modifier (-3). Sorry.

oh it was a negative die modifier? That makes sense. Anyway combat round is up and should be smacking Jay around a little bit.

[Bennosuke]

Responding IC now. It will more than suffice :smallwink:

[Bennosuke]

Rolling Jay's initiative which seems unnecessary [roll0]

[Bennosuke]

Rolling Jay's next attack [roll0]

[Bennosuke]

Couple of small clean ups, his dice pool should have been dropped to 2d10 due to injury but he still gets that one success.

Anna has managed to fill all of Jay's boxes up with at least bashing, so he actually needs to make a stamina roll to stay awake

[roll0]

[Thundercracker]

Does Anna know about the chop shop?

[Bennosuke]

Nope. But she can try to press him for more info or perhaps Karl might know.