Lately, in addition to my very analog writing for the Storytellers Vault (I’ll post more about that later), I’ve experimented quite a lot with procedural digital image generation. The various ethical arguments on the topic are fascinating and important, and our society definitely needs to have them. However, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about exploring a few of the ins and outs of a couple different procgen (AI) tools in achieving specific, pre-planned results. I’m not looking for “prompt and go” in this exercise, but exploring them as an artistic tool used with intent and planning rather than a toy. For that, I will use as my subject the person of one Linda Lee, better known as Eel. She’s an RPG character I created many years ago, which makes her a convenient subject.
Several years ago, when I first saw the then-rudimentary Artbreeder, I tossed some of my own drawings into its system and remixed them with the stuff on site and then photoshopped the result some more manually (a few tweaks, plus the tattoos) at the end to produce this portrait, which has served ever since as her “definitive” portrait by which I measure the accuracy of others I produce either manually or procedurally.
I’ve experimented quite a lot with Midjourney over the course of the past while, but despite major strides in controllability that system is still more “toy” than “tool,” so this post won’t include any MidJourney content. Rather, I’m looking at Stable Diffusion and the intriguing new entry Vizcom. To demonstrate what Vizcom does, I’ll step aside from Eel for a moment to another RPG character, and one of my pencil-and-ink sketches, a Tremere vampiress from Vampire: the Masquerade with unfortunate taste in headgear. I’ve tried without much luck to get MidJourney to replicate that pickelhaube, but let’s see what Vizcom can do with it.
Vizcom’s model is optimized for design, particulary interior and vehicular design, as well as for concept art. It is quite good at pulling linework from preexisting pieces and extrapolating it, and also allows you to draw further lines right into the canvas in a much easier way than Stable Diffusion does. It has some frustrating limitations, but it’s quite powerful too. Anyway, I threw the above sketch into Vizcom and drew a very few few more lines into it to create an impromptu street scene and fired it up with a simple prompt (in the alt text below), producing this on the second try, a matter of a few minutes’ work:
That’s quite impressive given how much work and how many steps it would take to get that piece to work in MidJourney, Stable Diffusion, and many other tools. I’m excited to see what comes of Vizcom as time goes on.
Vizcom has a clear preference for large images in landscape format, and likes to build out from line art, so when I wanted to bring Eel in to that tool for an experiment, rather than going for a face portrait, I skipped the AI piece at the top of this article and pulled a very old Matrix-inspired parody doodle of the four-armed monster version of the same character:
I wanted to see if Vizcom could handle the four arms and awkward body angles, and what it would do with the guns. I quickly drew in a few more lines in the canvas itself for parts that were out of frame in the original piece, and let her rip. While I could have fought the tool a lot more to get a result closer to my idea, I got this result quickly enough for a decent proof-of-concept. It turns out that it can in fact do a pretty good job of interpreting quirky visual elements like a mutant woman diving backwards while firing micro-uzis with all four hands. Again, the prompt is in the alt text. Interestingly, it insisted on turning her black leather outfit mostly into white PVC and chrome, which I think is a bit of the design bias of their core model talking. I’d like to experiment with that a bit more.
I quite liked the portrait at the top of this page, but I wanted to shift the hairstyle a bit, and change the angle, and after a little bit of digging, I found a piece online that would serve well as a ControlNet to reframe it. This piece of League of Legends concept art had a hairstyle and pose that were just what I was looking for. I give full credit to Paul Kwon, AKA Zeronis, a former concept artist for Riot Games, whose visual work I respect. His piece is being used for demonstrative and experimental purposes to show how the tools in question work. I turned the piece black and white, and replaced her tattoos with Eel’s. The result follows:
I knew the tattoos would be hard to replicate in AI, and that’s exactly why I wanted to do this experiment. I tossed it into Vizcom first so I could see what happened, and got this as my first result:
She came out as a Final Fantasy-esque version of the character, but I was startled at how close Vixcom came to actually replicating that tricky facial tattoo. It turned the nose stud into a tat, and had a bit of a tough time with the hand and earrings. Also, it put strange artifacts behind her shoulder, and the big grey space that came of my not having filled that space in with more lines. All in all, though it needs some inpainting or manual editing, not bad at all for a first-shot attempt at a tattooed face. This will serve as a useful contrast to what happened with Stable Diffusion, whose algorithms work quite differently, and struggle with replicating specific preexisting tattoos without significant LoRA assistance.
Now, we will use Stable Diffusion to a similar task of creating artwork whose composition, pose, line work, and so on are derived more or less predictably from user input. Unlike Vizcom, which does this right out of the box, these operations take a bit of customization in Stable Diffusion. That customization of models and interface options is an incredible boon for Stable Diffusion users, but also can be overwhelming and lead to paralysis of choice. Another struggle with Stable Diffusion is how resource-intensive it is, in terms of computational power on your machine, and space taken – the models are quite large. As you add Checkpoints, LoRAs, Hypernetworks, ControlNets, etc, it can eat up your drive space at a remarkable rate. There are quite a few hosted web APIs where you can run different variants of Stable Diffusion, though none I’ve seen have as much customizability as doing it on your own box. There are so many potential variables that weighting each appropriately in your prompt and in the tools themselves can be challenging. All of the pieces here were produced using the popular A1111 interface.
First, I used the model Deliberate V2, turning the above greyscale piece into a Canny map in Controlnet to guide the pose and composition, and the top portrait as a Reference Controlnet to influence the color palette and overall visual style.
Though it couldn’t remotely handle the tattoo, and the hand required a bit of inpainting (inpainting is one area where Stable Diffusion stands out), what this model did was very successfully interpret and translate the input from the ControlNets in other areas, and effectively blended the two source hairstyles. All in all, not bad. I think it’s probably worth taking this one into Photoshop and manually fixing the tattoo and a few other details when I have the time.
Next, I used ReV Animated V1.2.2, a model of which I’m quite fond, and got the following results. The first one, which I quite like, did a much better job with the tattoo and the hand than the middle one, though the middle is much closer in overall style to the Deliberate pieces, in testament to the power of Reference ControlNets. The last of these differs quite a bit because I tweaked the prompt to be more overtly “WoDish” – gothic, dystopian, neon-noir, and yet, thanks to the ControlNets it is still recognizably much the same woman, in the same pose, similar albeit more stark coloration, and with a similar hairstyle.
Of all of the Stable Diffusion pieces from this project, the first ReV Animated one above, and the first of the next set below, derived from the Arthemy Comics 5.0 model, are the closest to capturing the tattoos from the original pieces. Both drop the chin dots, unlike Vizcom, which faithfully rendered that aspect. That said, I do quite like this piece and this model.
As an aside, I took the gothy dystopian ideas from one of my earlier pieces, plugged them in for another set of Arthemy pieces, but cut out the Canny ControlNet while keeping the Reference one and adding OpenPose. You can see how the loss of the Canny map makes their facial features diverge more than any of the others, but the Reference still enforces some degree of familiarity. I should probably have left these square, but the landscape format gave them a certain cinematic quality that I appreciate.
Last, I present three that diverged a bit harder than even the horror-themed ReV Animated piece, with which they shared a prompt. The first used Ether Real Mix 3, the other two used explicitly horror-themed models: Terror Yamer Complete V3 Dreadless (what a mouthful!), and the V2 of the same.
These diverge significantly in details, but all still faithfully followed the guidance of the Canny map and the Reference Controlnet, illustrating the power and the current limitations of these tools.
The Black Spiral Dancers possess corrupt versions of most of the same Rites that are used by their Garou enemies, but they possess a variety of Rites that are distinct to themselves. Some years back I posted a couple of rites of my own design for the Spirals, but these Rites in today’s post are converted from those found in the Mind’s Eye Theatre Book of the Wyrm. It is indeed very strange that the best source for information on Spiral Rites is a book for MET – none of these were ever printed in a main system WtA book. So here I present W20 compatible conversions of the Sacraments of the Wyrm
Rites of Accord
These Rites draw their power from the Dancers’ fundamental connection to the Wyrm, and they are characterized by taint and corruption. To channel this power the Dancer must use a Talen, Fetish or object that is tainted or corrupted. Dancers who have reached the sixth circle of the Shattered Labyrinth are immune to this requirement.
Rite of Blood Taint
(Level One) – If the Dancers suspect that someone contains the taint of Dancer blood in their heritage, they perform this rite. This rite “activates” the tainted blood subtly, giving glimpses of violent and terrifying past lives, or causing Garou or Kinfolk to hear voices that urge them to commit atrocities.
System: The ritemaster spends one Gnosis point. While the target does not need to be present, the ritemaster must have possession of something that the target touched within the past five days. The stronger the taint of blood is, the more pronounced the effects are. A full-blooded Dancer Kinfolk might suffer a psychotic break unless they can score more successes on a contested Willpower roll than the ritemaster, for example. These effects last for one chapter.
Rite of Vice Assumption
(Level One) – Dancers use this rite to uncover a vice or weakness in an opponent that might be used to corrupt her. By taking upon themselves and the Rite’s participants the target’s moral weakness, they can learn of that weakness and discern potential ways to capitalize upon that weakness in their target.
System: The ritemaster spends one Gnosis point. For one full chapter, the vice that is strongest in their prey (be it greed, lust, envy or something more specific like gambling or alcoholism) is evoked in participating Dancers. The compulsion to follow the vice may serve to distract the Dancers from their attentions to their prey, but it can also give the Dancers a way into someone’s heart, if they use it cunningly. For example, a Dancer uses this rite on a Garou whose chief vice is gluttony, appetite for food. For the rest of the session, the Dancer finds that he’s always hungry, sometimes for traditionally inappropriate things or for items that he doesn’t usually like. The target need not be present for the casting, though the Rite must be performed in a place where the target has personally been within the last turn of the moon.
Rite of the Small Push
(Level Three) – This rite increases the target’s worst urges. The idea is to make the target believe that everything she did was of her own will, so the effects of this rite are not intense or dramatic. Using this rite may serve to push weak or guilt-prone people into their own downward spiral or to foul up their relationships.
System: The ritemaster chooses one of the following options: He spends one Rage point to increase the subject’s temper, and so if the subject possesses Rage, the difficulty of Rage rolls goes down by two (minimum 2). Subjects that lack Rage instead raise the difficulty of any rolls to control their temper or resist Frenzy (if applicable) raised by two. If instead the ritemaster spends one Willpower point, they can weaken the subject’s resistance to other temptation, and the subject must spend twice as many Willpower points as normal in order to resist bad actions. As a third option, the ritemaster can spend one Gnosis point in order to increase one vice in the subject, and the subject’s interest in the vice expands accordingly, forcing Willpower rolls to resist temptations that would otherwise not apply. For example, our ritemaster performs this rite on our gluttonous Garou from the Rite of Vice Assumption, spending one Gnosis point. The Garou finds his appetite increased, making it easier for food to distract him from his duties. He’s tempted by foods that are inappropriate, such as human flesh or the flesh of other shapeshifters. This Rite’s effects remain for one chapter.
Rite of Evocation
(Level Five) – This rite is essentially a much more powerful cousin to the Rite of the Small Push, and drastically increases the subject’s worst vice in a similar but greatly amplified manner to what the Rite of Vice Assumption would uncover.
System: The Ritemaster spends one Rage and one Willpower during the ceremony. The target’s vice becomes so pronounced that they have little interest in other activities or relationships, and allows it to override even common sense, and must roll either a standard Rage roll (if possessing that Trait) or roll Willpower (if not) any time they are impeded in any way from fulfilling this vice. For example, if this rite is performed on our gluttonous Garou, he goes on a rampage of hunger, ignoring his duties, leaving his post and possibly attacking a human or fellow Garou in his need to feed. During this haze, he may be a fine target for a Bane, or he may commit an atrocity that drives him to Harano or into the Wyrm’s embrace. The effect lasts for one chapter.
Punishment Rites
Punishment for a crime or transgression of the Dark Litany is handled rather differently among the Black Spiral Dancers, who tend to either ignore or personally repay small crimes, and to repay larger crimes with torture and/or death. Therefore, most Black Spiral Dancer Punishment Rites are intended to be inflicted upon innocent mortals or other victims rather than transgressors of the Dark Litany.
Rite of the Survivor
(Level One) – This dangerous and cruel Rite is only bestowed by a spirit Incarna or Black Spiral elder who has victimized the poor bastard in a particularly brutal manner. If the victim survives, they cannot recall what they experienced, but inherit this rite instead. The Black Spiral never realizes the source of their continuing pain, but still feels an overwhelming need to exact their frustrations on others. The survivor can then perform similar abuse on selectively chosen victims. The most common application of this ritual is during ceremonies of abduction and breeding.
System: The ritualist must render a living being unable to resist and then, while victimizing them, perform this Rite and spend a point of Gnosis to erase their victim’s memory of the event and channel the energies associated with the Delirium to construct an alternate memory. The torturous experience must continue for at least 10 minutes. The survivor cannot remember how they were victimized, but still has glimpses of the experience. Unfortunately, the victim can burn a point of Willpower to dredge up a vivid glimpse of the horrific event. Ragabash call this dark pact, “Our Little Secret”.
Rite of the False Memory
(Level One) – This rite has most of the same effects as the Rite of the Survivor, but the memories are false. A Dancer uses this rite to instill memories of horrific experiences in the mind of someone whom they haven’t actually victimized. The rite must be cast while the victim sleeps, but it needs not be cast in their presence.
System: The Dancer expends one Gnosis point and one Willpower point, and spends an hour constructing the false experience in their mind. During this time, they anoints an item that belongs to the victim with three drops of their own blood. Once the item has been returned to the victim’s possession or home, the victim will suffer flashbacks and nightmares of the fictional experience. If they spend a Willpower point to get a better picture of what happened, they will develop a temporary and strong feeling of disconnection and unreality, and the details of the event will slip just beyond their grasp. If the anointed possession is destroyed, the false memories slip away, never to return.
Rite of the Haunting Moment
(Level Three) – At its height, this rite causes a target to see briefly what the ritemaster wants them to see. The effects can be subtle (shadows out of the corner of their eye; the silhouette of a friend looks like that of an enemy; a packmate’s face grows dark and cold), or they can be straightforward (the face of the ritemaster superimposed over that of a friend, speaking the ritemaster’s words). Such dark visions are often mistaken for true prophetic visions.
System: The effects last for 15 seconds maximum, and the ritemaster must spend a Gnosis point during the ceremony. The Ritemaster most possess either an object belonging to the victim, or an actual tissue sample such as a tuft of hair or a few drops of blood.
Rite of the False Hunt
(Level Five) – This rite turns an evening into one long waking nightmare. The target( s) of this rite spend the time from dusk to midnight having hallucinations, usually of their enemies. A pack of Garou might find themselves fighting phantom Dancers, some of whom turn out to be their own packmates when the dust clears.
System: The ritemaster and their pack spend the entire evening performing this rite, and if they’re interrupted, the effects end immediately. The ritemaster must spend one Gnosis point plus one Willpower point per target. The ritemaster has no control over the specific form of the hallucinations. The victims need not be present for the performance of the Rite, but the Ritemaster must have previously met all of the victims, even if only briefly. Victims that suspect that what they are seeing is not real can break the effect if they exceed the ritemaster’s successes with an opposed Willpower roll.
Mystic Rites
These Rites involve spirits, Umbral entities and the spirits of individual Dancers. Unless stated otherwise, a lone ritemaster performs these rites without assistance.
Rite of the Sacred Tattoo
(Level Two) – Through this rite, a Black Spiral Theurge may permanently mark a sacred tattoo on another dancer. This serves as more than decoration. The sigil forms a spiritual connect between the initiate and the Wyrmish spirit represented. The first tattoo is usually the Dancer’s chosen head of the Hydra, displaying his personal totem; the second is often his pack’s Bane-totem.
The recipient must make an important choice during the casting: Will the tattoo be visible or hidden? Visible tattoos are worn with pride by Dancers who have no desire to hide their true natures. Granted, the sigil may be concealed under clothing, but the Black Spiral knows that if they are captured, their clothing may be torn from his body to reveal signs of their dark alliances.
Hidden tattoos are inscribed by the tracery of a profane fetish. Though not immediately visible, these marks are revealed if the Rite of Woad is performed in the wearer’s presence. Sacred tattoos may also be used to inscribe patterns used in Gifts, showing the Dancer’s mystical accomplishment. Alternatively, a series of glyphs can show the achievements that granted the dancer Renown – every scarified decoration brings back delightful memories.
Rite of the Bane Totem
(Level Three) – This rite binds a Bane totem to a pack of Black Spiral Dancers. The ritemaster begins the rite, and the pack steps into the Umbra at the first light of day. There the pack finds some trace or trail of the totem it has chosen. For normal Garou totems, the tracking is often a formality. Bane totems take Dancers through dangerous territory, forcing them to prove themselves right away. The test that the pack undergoes will in some way require the pack to show that its goals or attitudes match up with the totem’s. Dancers who fail to research their future totem might never get the chance to speak with it. If they fail the test, the trail disappears, ending the rite. Powerful totems sometimes require a trial, task or quest in addition to this test.
System: This rite uses identical systems to the Rite of the Totem.
Rite of the Corrupted Fetish
(Level Three) – Dancers prefer to use Wyrm-spirits in their fetishes. When they use other spirits, they prefer to compel, torture and torment the spirit, forcing it into a fetish rather than gaining its cooperation. Doing so typically robs the spirit of the will to possess an item, leaving it cursed instead. Cursed fetishes are deemed particularly valuable by Dancers.
System: The mechanics for this rite are the same as the Garou Rite of the Fetish. In a variant of this rite, the ritemaster may channel one Gnosis point and a full 24 hours of ritual into the torture and corruption of an existing Gaian fetish, causing it to become cursed and Wyrm tainted.
The Rite of Woad
(Level Three) – The name of this rite is derived from the blue pigment that legend holds was once used in Pictish tattoos. That particular hue was intended to draw upon a mystic’s deepest energies, showing his most sincere beliefs. Others apply the term to the blue warpaint worn by Scottish tribalists in battle. A Theurge casting this rite reveals the hidden Sacred Tattoos (see above) worn by a Black Spiral. Even if those present are wearing clothing, the sigils and glyphs become visible, glowing with an unnatural blue tinge.
System: When this Rite is performed, any Sacred Tattoos borne by any being in the Ritemaster’s presence are revealed. Any Wyrm servants that wish to keep their Sacred Tattoos hidden may resist with a single success on an opposed Willpower roll. Thus, though some Garou may think that capturing a mystic and forcing them to enact the Rite of Woad will reveal all enemies present, this tactic might well backfire. The rite also has a curious effect on bastards of the Hidden Foe – their glyphs shine on the wall where their shadows are projected. As a side effect, the rite may also reverse the Doppelganger Gift, the Obfuscation of any vampires present that bear , and so on.
When all hope of subtlety has been lost, Theurges cry out the invocations of this rite to reveal the warriors who aid them. Those who are unerringly loyal to the ritualist may even shift the color of their skin to a brilliant blue to show their battle frenzy. This is a sign that the Black Spiral Dancers will show no quarter, fighting until their enemies are utterly destroyed.
Rite of the Opened Eyes
(Level Five) – This rite enables the ritemaster to penetrate the effects of the Rite of the Shrouded Glen. They must still pick where to look, however. As part of this rite, the Ritemaster anoints the eyelids of each participant with the blood of a non-Wyrmish Garou or Kinfolk.
System: The difficulty of this roll is target Caern’s Gauntlet rating plus the number of successes scored on the Rite of the Shrouded Glen. This rite requires the expenditure of one Gnosis and one Willpower. Any ally present when the ritualist performs this Rite can spend a Willpower Trait to see through the hallucinations for one scene, although while they are within the affected area, they will still see flickers of movement and shadow from the comers of their eyes and feel as though they are being watched.
Hive Rites
The counterpart to the Caern Rites of the Garou, these Rites align with corrupted and diseased places of spiritual power. Accordingly, these Rites can only be performed within the bounds of a Caern. Unless specified otherwise, that Caern must have been already corrupted previously before it is a suitable site for the performance of such blasphemous rituals.
Moot Rite
(Level Three) – This is a debased form of the Garou Moot Rite, but always comes with a bloody price.
System: The mechanics are the same as for the original Rite, except that the expenditure of Gnosis must be accompanied by a sacrifice of fresh blood, equal to one health level per point of Gnosis. This blood which must be allowed to sink into the earth of the caern, stain the stone or mark the place in some other way. If the caern in question lies within a Dancer Pit, then the sacrifice must come from the Dancers present; no one else is allowed within a Dancer Pit. If the caern in question does not lie within the Pit, then the Dancers may sacrifice the blood of either shapeshifter or human, the more corrupt the better. Some packs have tried sacrificing innocent blood to their caern during a Moot Rite, but doing so always causes the caern to drop one power level.
Rite of Synchronization
(Level Four) – Again, the Dancers’ version of the Rite of the Badger’s Burrow is a bloody and sacrificial affair.
System: The mechanics are the same as the base Rite. However, in order to enact this rite, the ritemaster must first spill his own blood at his caem’s moot for two months in a row. If he ever fails to enact this monthly sacrifice, he loses his connection to the land around the caem and must start this rite over again.
Rite of Caern Corruption
(Level Five) – Once the Dancers take a caern from the Garou, their work is not done. Then, the work of that holy site’s corruption must begin.
System: This rite must be performed once a week (no more, no less), in a Caern that has not yet been fully corrupted to the Wyrm. It takes a full 24 hours to perform, and it requires at least five Dancers from the same pack to perform it. The rite must be performed twice for each level of the caern. During this time, the Dancers may not perform other caern rites there, with the exception of the Moot Rite, which is performed as a part of the day-long Rite of Caern Corruption. This rite is typically enacted as a perversion of the Garou Rite of Caern Building.
Rites of Death
The Dancers have no quarrel with death, and may even show gratitude, glee or a perverse reverence when faced with it. Their Rites reflect this truth.
Rite of the Goodbye Party
(Level One) – This rite is performed to send off Dancers who have died. Some Dancers only perform it for those who died in battle against the Garou, but most Dancers have widened the use of this rite in the interest of having a good time more often. The rite is meant to push the Dancer along on his journey around the wheel and make sure he comes back soon. It’s a wild, raucous party, including drinking, mock battles (that sometimes turn real), sex and possibly the torture and death of prisoners. Some Dancers throw this party to honor particularly difficult-to-kill enemies. The hope is that the rite will push the Garou’s spirit toward the “right” side the next time around.
Rite of the Unburdening Soul
(Level One) – This rite is performed by any Dancer too sick, wounded or old to serve the tribe, and it is performed alone or only with the Dancer’s pack. If a Dancer is sick or old enough that her peers see her as a burden and she refuses to perform this rite herself, her packmates can perform it for her, forcibly holding her down and killing her. Some young pups refer to this rite as the Rite of the Sick Puppy.
Rites of Renown
Rite of Transmogrification
(Level Two) – This rite is performed whenever a Black Spiral Dancer is ready to go up in Rank. Functionally it is identical to the Dance of the Black Spiral (see W20 Book of the Wyrm, page 123).
Rite of the Sixth Circle
(Level Four) – This rite is performed for any Dancer who attains the Sixth Circle of the Shattered Labyrinth. It is solemn and reverential, and it involves many gifts, valuable or symbolic, from the Dancers of a Hive to the Dancer being honored. This rite rarely has occasion to be performed. When it does, Dancers come from several Hives away to participate.
Seasonal Rites
The Dancers, too, honor the passing of the seasons, for every month and year brings the world closer to Apocalypse and the Wyrm’s ultimate victory.
Autumn Harvest of Souls
(Level One) – The Dancers may perform this rite only during the autumn. The rite enables them to see and speak with ghosts for the next three days. Whether they can convince those ghosts to aid them in any way is another matter entirely. This rite also gives its participants a brief chill down their backs when they’re dealing with a Spectre as opposed to a normal wraith.
System: The ritemaster spends a Gnosis point to activate this rite.
Springtime Procreation Rite
(Level One) – The Dancers use this rite to encourage high pregnancy rates and large litters among their Hives. It primarily consists of sex, but it’s a surprisingly solemn rite.
System: The ritemaster spends one Rage point to invoke this Rite.
Summer Rite of No Holiday
(Level Three) – With summertime comes the emotional need for rest, and the Dancers are happy to take advantage of this need. A Hive performs this rite on the first day of summer. Its purpose is to give the Hive a good sense of timing, so that their raids on local Garou will always come when the Garou are most in need of a rest.
System: The ritemaster spends one Gnosis point during this ceremony. For the rest of the summer, they feel restless and angry any time the Garou within a five-mile radius collectively start to relax.
Winter Rite of the Wandering Soul
(Level Four) – Any given Hive of Dancers may perform this rite only once each year, on the winter solstice, within six hours of having killed a Garou. The purpose of the rite is to keep the soul of that Garou from moving onward properly to be reborn, to cause it to haunt its former friends.
System: The Dancers must have the body of the Garou victim in their possession in order to perform this rite on it, and the ritemaster spends two Gnosis points. The ceremony itself takes from sundown to sunup. If successful, the spirit of the dead Garou will functionally become a Wraith. Such spirits may be set to rest, but only by the completion of a great quest performed in the dead Garou’s name. Garou who take on this quest give up any individual renown they might acquire during the quest, giving it instead to their dead comrade. They receive three points of Honor Renown for freeing the lost spirit instead of whatever other Renown would have come of the quest.
Minor Rites
Wyrmish Minor Rites function much like their Gaian equivalents, taking a few minutes to perform. Any modifiers that they grant are not cumulative, but the character may benefit from a number of them at a time equal to their current Rank. If the Dancer misses performing the prescribed action in any given session, they must start the whole process over again before gaining any benefits.
Curse the Soul
The Dancer steps into the Umbra after killing an enemy and curses the spirit of their prey in the name of the Wyrm.
System: If they perform this Rite for every kill for one full turning of the moon, the next Rite or Gift that directly harms their enemy has its difficulty reduced by 1. After each enemy so treated, this bonus returns, up to once each night.
Greet the Wyrm
The Dancer howls an elaborate greeting to the Wyrm when night falls.
System: If they perform this Rite over nine consecutive nights, they gain one additional die to one social roll of their choosing, which will reset the next night if the Rite is performed again. If a sunset is missed, the character must start all over again.
Hunting Prayer
The Dancer chooses an item associated with death and destruction (preferably a weapon) and prays over it in praise of the Wyrm for every hunt for three consecutive lunar months. If they lose the item, they must choose a new one and begin their devotions anew.
System: If the Dancer performs this rite before every hunt for three lunar months, they receive an additional die to all rolls to hunt or track their enemies rolls as long as they continue their pre-hunt prayers. If they neglect the prayer before even one hunt, they must begin the cycle again before they regain the bonus
Respect the Totem
The Dancer meditates for at least 15 minutes, praying silently to their personal or pack totem during every night for a lunar month.
System: Doing so lowers by two the difficulty of any one roll per day that is directly related to a task that the Dancer’s Totem has mandated.
Obligatory Legal notice:
Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved. For more information please visit worldofdarkness.com.
The below is a draft writeup for a new Mockery Breed that I have designed for my own Chronicle. When I came up with the idea for this Breed, I began looking around the web to see if anybody else had done anything similar that I might use as a starting point and found the fan-created supplement The Debased, which is a fascinating piece of work, but was not at all what I had in mind regarding themes, game mechanics nor their place in my Chronicle, so I decided to just create my own weredogs from the ground up. This is a work in progress. Perhaps one day I’ll give them a full treatment suitable for the Storyteller’s Vault. Time will tell.
Procyon
While the Anurana and the Samsa were abject failures as far as Pentex and Project: Lycaon are concerned, the War Wolves are useful albeit limited, the Kerasi project proved the concept worth further pursuit and development. The company has since been very pleased with the Yeren as a challenger for the Glass Walkers in the urban business world, but the Yeren have several important failings, one of those the fact that they are primarily solitary beasts. The Yeren are not powerful or spiritually adept enough to contest an entire Garou pack directly in combat on their own, and prefer to operate from the shadows anyways. Further, by their very nature they are self centered and ambitious in the extreme, inclined to primarily look out for number one (and the Yeren old boys’ club) rather than Pentex. Their initiative is great, but it makes them manipulators and managers, not footsoldiers.
A more obedient, more easily controlled Mockery Breed was needed for grunt work and shock troops, if the company was to consider phasing out the often unreliable and short-lived Iliad Fomori and independent (not to mention unstable) Black Spiral Dancers. They needed a breed that was fierce but tractable, tameable, and readily indoctrinated.
Where to find a pack animal that’s already with the human-dominated program? Why, man’s best friend, of course! The dog was the first domesticated animal, with millennia devoted to breeding out any traces of the old wolf instincts in favor of docility, utility and submission to their masters and creators. Before the horse, cow, pig, or chicken, there was the dog. Accordingly, that most Weaver-influenced of all mammals, man’s oldest companion, was the natural and even obvious choice for obedient foot soldiers and cannon fodder against the Changing Breeds.
To make matters better still, Pentex already had a significant investment in a number of large puppy mills, churning out maladjusted dogs for the public and for law enforcement. It was a comparatively simple matter to employ one or two of these to start the breeding program for this new Pentex creation, and these puppy mills remain the exclusive source of all new pups for the project. Pentex scientists have dubbed their new creations the Procyons, but the unofficial term Hellhounds finds more common usage among the rank and file.
Only large dog breeds with a history of use as guard, hunting, military or police dogs have been put through the Change. Most are german shepherds, rottweilers, bloodhounds, dobermans, boxers or similar breeds. The smallest yet bred have been pitbulls. The scientist that suggested breeding were-chihuahuas was laughed out of the room.
This Breed is put through intensive obedience training and indoctrination both before and after their Change. Training includes sufficient human speech and reading to be able to take orders, report back to their masters, and understand signs and the training/propaganda material (such as comic books) that Pentex creates for their First Teams, but little more. Importantly, they are taught to be loyal, fierce, vigilant, and dependent on their masters to provide for their needs and do their thinking for them; creativity and independence of thought and action are heavily discouraged.
The Procyons are taught that good dogs protect their masters from their enemies, and that those enemies are trying to destabilize and destroy humanity in the name of insane and inscrutable spirits (to which the Procyons should not talk, oh no), and that Pentex is doing all in its power to foster human progress and growth. The Wyrm is presented as an angry and dangerous but benevolent protector god, maintaining the proper dominance of Man and Civilization over Nature, and poisoning all that tries to stand in their way, and requiring harsh commitments and sacrifice from his followers, such as the fomori that nobly give up their bodies and minds to host its deadly servant spirits, and of course the Procyons who give their all to serve him and his servants, the Masters.
It would take a great deal of effort to convince the Procyons that their masters are not acting in the best interests of humanity, civilization or the world, but if it could be done, their Rage at their masters for this betrayal of their trust and devotion might be great indeed. It might be possible, with careful action, for either the Weaver’s minions or possibly even the Garou to woo some of them away from their masters and even away from the Wyrm entirely.
The Procyons haven’t developed a Homid form, but do have three forms beyond their breed form, making them the closest thing to a “complete” Mockery Breed yet developed under the auspices of Project Lycaon. Combined with their provisional inclusion in the Pact (similar to the earlier Yeren) under the sponsorship of Green Dragon, they are able to learn Gifts and advance in Rank. To date, no Hellhound has yet passed Rank 2; this is a newly developed Breed, and they advance in Renown slowly because their Wyrmish spirit allies remain wary.
Traits: Procyon traits vary, but less than many other shapeshifters’ due to their managed breeding and institutionally similar training. All current samples emphasize Physical Attributes, and they also value the Perception and Wits Attributes, but Pentex does not cultivate high Intelligence in its minions.
Abilities: Because they are all of the Canis breed, Procyons have significant restrictions in their beginning Abilities. They cannot take the following Abilities with their initial dots. They may, however, use freebie points or experience points to purchase them in the course of the chronicle.
Yes, that’s correct! Because they are dogs that have been raised entirely in captivity, bred to be so far removed from their ancestral wolf instincts, Hellhounds cannot buy Survival or Primal-Urge with their initial dot allocation, only with freebie or experience points. Unlike Lupus Garou, Canis Procyons do have access to the Firearms Skill at creation, since gun handling is part of their standard training regimen.
Backgrounds: the Ancestors, Kinfolk, and Pure Breed backgrounds are not available to Pentex Hellhounds. They frequently possess the Mentor, Allies, and Contacts backgrounds to reflect connections within Pentex, but very few could have their own Influence or Resources. The Hellhounds are property and help, not management. Interestingly, while weredogs do not themselves possess Pure Breed, they do respond fully to Garou Pure Breed.
Breeds: In practice, all Hellhounds are of the Canis breed, bred in the horribly unclean and abusive environment of Pentex puppy mills. While this Mockery Breed is technically capable of producing Metis, all extant females have been spayed while still puppies, and any males not intended specifically to be used for studs (using female kinfolk bitches for dams rather than temporarily degrading the combat ability of female Hellhounds) have been neutered as well. Pentex prefers litters of many pups that grow quickly and can in turn potentially Change or breed, over single and risky, slower developing Metis pregnancy. Canis weredogs begin with Rage 2, Gnosis 3 and Willpower 2. Theoretical Metis would begin with Rage 3, Gnosis 2 and Willpower 2, and would possess Metis deformities just as Garou do.
Auspices: Hellhounds do not have Auspices. Pentex is working on that problem, intending to specialize them further possibly into guard dog, hunting hound/retriever, infiltrators, pack leader, and attack dog roles with their own pools of supernatural Gifts, but has not yet devised satisfactory means.
Forms: Hellhounds possess four natural forms, the most of any Mockery Breed: Jojo (almost human, a Glabro equivalent), Crinos, Cujo (giant dog, a Hispo equivalent), and their breed form, Canis (dog).
Jojo has Strength +1, Stamina +1, Manipulation -1, Appearance -1. This form is several inches taller than a Homid would be, and has a good 20-40 lbs in extra muscle and bone mass, but could only be confused for human in very poor light or if presented as deformed. This is the only form they possess that is capable of speaking human languages without restriction, albeit with a growlish voice and a small vocabulary born of minimal and specialized education. (difficulty 7 to shift)
Crinos trait modifiers are Strength +3, Dexterity +1, Stamina +2, Manipulation -3, Appearance 0. It can make claw and bite attacks as per Crinos Garou, and in most other respects is largely equivalent to a slightly smaller (roughly 8’ high) Garou Crinos form. Their Crinos form inflicts reduced Delirium; move any witnesses two levels “up” the Delirium chart. Hellhounds in this form can speak in human languages to a very limited degree, just like Crinos Garou. (difficulty 6 to shift)
Cujo has Strength +2, Dexterity +2, Stamina +2, Manipulation -3, App 0, and inflicts one extra die of bite damage. While in this form, Hellhounds cannot speak. (difficulty 7 to shift). This form has about the same overall mass as their Crinos, but redistributed into a fully quadrupedal form, with a particularly massive head and neck suitable for mauling Pentex enemies with powerful bite attacks.
Canis has Strength +1, Dexterity +2, Stamina +1, Manipulation -3, and is indistinguishable from a large dog of the character’s particular breed.
Powers: Hellhounds can step sideways, but must use fabricated reflective surfaces such as mirrors or chromed installations: still ponds and the like are of no use to a weredog. Also, because they are nearly as much of the Weaver as they are of the Wyrm, they use the following chart, essentially reversing the traditional Garou chart (in much the same manner as the Ananasi, but without the penalty that the were spiders face in heavily Wyrm-tainted locations):
AreaDifficulty
Science Lab/Server Room 2
Inner City/downtown/Office Building 4
Average City Street 6
Rural area/Farmland/Large Park 7
Untouched Wilderness 9
This Breed heals identically to Garou, but suffers no adverse effect from silver, one of their few inherent edges in dealing with the werewolves. They are immune to the Delirium, and Gifts that detect Triatic Taint can pick out the marks of the Wyrm and even the Weaver upon them.
The Hellhounds learn Gifts from spirits of violence, the city, servitude and predation. They begin play with two Gifts. As of yet, they pick all of their Gifts from one Breed list (see below). Most Hellhounds learn their Gifts from one another, or with Yeren or Pentex mystics acting as intermediaries with the teaching Banes; the megacorp prefers to tightly control what Gifts their attack dogs have at their disposal.
Renown: Procyons advance slowly in Renown, placing high value on Power, Obedience and Cunning. Obedience is regarded as the highest virtue, followed by Power.
Rites: the Hellhounds are fully able to perform Rites. They don’t tend to know very many, as new a Breed as they are, but Pentex mystics have developed a few specific Wyrmish Rites to their use.
The Rite of Man’s Best Friend (Rank 2 Rite of Accord): This Rite, a variant of the Bonding Rite and the Rite of Pack’s Blood, temporarily links a single Wyrm-tainted human (including human-host Fomori, or corrupt Mages, but no other shapeshifters, with the notable exception of Yeren, who are, after all, the ultimate Apes) to the pack, allowing that character to be treated as a full member, including access to the pack link communication if the pack has access to that Totem benefit, though the recipient of the Rite does not gain access to any of the pack Totem’s other benefits unless they are a Yeren and thus subject to the Pact. This Rite does not confer the ability to Step Sideways, but does grant protection from the Delirium for its duration. This Rite was created to allow the pack better coordination with a human handler that has been assigned to act as their temporary alpha.
Procyon Gifts
Level 1: Acid Talons, Bale Armor, Bulldog’s Grip (as Falcon’s Grasp), Glass Canyon Predator (as Ways of the Urban Wolf), Hare’s Leap, Heightened Senses, Hunter in Crowds (as the level 1 Nezumi gift), Lift-Your-Leg (as the Wendigo gift), Pack Tactics, Resist Pain, Scent of the True Form, Sense Wyld, Sense Wyrm, Skyscraper Vision, The Hungry Hound
Level 2: Burrow, Eye of the Eagle, Scent of Sight, Howls in the Night, Pulse of the Prey, Wyrm Hide,
Stereotypes
Black Spiral Dancers: Mad dogs should be put down.
Gaian Garou: Wild animals that try to hurt our masters and want to drive Man back to the caves. Hunt them down and prove that you are a good dog.
Yeren: The ape men are very mean and think only of themselves. The masters can’t be wrong to trust them, can they?
Pentex: The Masters bred us to be the best, and we are loyal to them, because we are good dogs. Trust and obey them. Or else.
Obligatory Legal notice:
Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved. For more information please visit worldofdarkness.com.
My crossover Werewolf: the Apocalypse / Mage: the Ascension chronicle is a strange animal, and has recently emerged from an extended hiatus, with a whole new gang of Garou to join the fray alongside the ragtag remnants of the previous play group (which had no Garou PCs left), and that new crew wanted to form a proper pack. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing options for what totem they should have, and the players liked a number of the options out there, especially Owl and Harrier, but nothing felt quite perfect to them for what they wanted to do as a pack, and for the themes of the Awakening Chronicle.
So after talking with them about what they wanted in a Totem and taking their input, I created the below. I felt like sharing it with the internet, and now here we are. Totems of Respect tend not to get enough player love; in my experience, players tend to be more attracted to the War or Wisdom categories, and it felt nice to write one up that my players found exciting, that would specifically facilitate the kind of game that they wanted to play.
Totem Glyph for the Unifier
The Unifier
Totem of Respect
Background Cost: 5
The Unifier is a spirit of honorable cooperation and alliance, of finding common cause to achieve victory in battle, and building brotherhood where there had been enmity. Just which great Totem Brood (if any) it is a member of remains unclear; some Theurges insist that he is Falcon’s own, while others point out his clear ties with Unicorn. This was a popular Totem many centuries past, but as the Silver Fangs and their Concordiat warred needlessly against their fellow Garou and fell into decline, so too did the Unifier’s prestige and influence among the Garou. The continued ascendancy of The Patriarch, Tammany Hall, and The Man, the rise of Manifest Destiny and America the Beautiful (which later became Murica) and other spirits of nationalistic, exclusionary identity further diluted its influence in the world until it had nearly been forgotten. As the dying times have worn on, however, idealistic people that dream of pushing back against divisions to overcome common challenges have gradually given it new vigor, as have developments like the EU, NATO and the Ahadi. Now, some young Garou that hope to heal the deep rifts between the tribes, or even between the Garou and the Fera to band together before the Apocalypse, increasingly clamor that the time to call upon the Unifier is now.
Avatars of this Totem seldom hold to one consistent form, and may appear to their packs in many different guises of warriors and generals of any era or place that are both gracious and honorable. They may reference or even mirror leaders from history, folklore and popular culture known for might married with diplomacy, for turning rival or enemy into friend. Hiawatha, Arthur Pendragon, Robin Hood, Charlemagne, Alexander, Genghis Khan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, George Washington, Menes, Gilgamesh, Jean-Luc Picard, Aragorn, Aslan, Joan of Arc, Obiwan Kenobi, Son Goku, or even Twilight Sparkle might all be faces for the Unifier at one time or another.
Individual Traits: Each member of a pack devoted to the Unifier gains one point each of Honor and Glory Renown.
Pack Traits: The Unifier grants its packs -2 difficulty on all Social rolls to do with negotiation, truces and alliances. It also grants +1 Melee and +1 Leadership. Also, when going into danger, the pack can have a member roll Charisma + Leadership and for each success, can designate one being as a Pack Ally until the next day. Pack Allies are treated as full albeit temporary members of the pack for purposes of Gifts, pack initiative, and in every other way other than benefits specific to a Totem bond. For example, Pack Allies do not gain the Unifier’s other Individual or Pack Traits, nor can packs that have bought the totem intra-pack communication link share this with Pack Allies. Virtually any being that is not an enemy to Gaia can be a Pack Ally, including friendly Garou packs, Kinfolk, Fera, other supernatural creatures that are not of the Wyrm, or even sympathetic humans (though the Totem grants no protection from the Delirium). Allied shapeshifters still retain their own pre-existing Totem and pack bonds, if any, when they are designated as Pack Allies.
Ban: The pack must make some effort to arrange a nonviolent outcome to any conflict that is not against the forces of the Wyrm. When negotiating to avoid or resolve a conflict, the pack must not violate a truce, and must deal in good faith.
Obligatory Legal notice:
Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved. For more information please visit worldofdarkness.com.
So I came up with a new Rote for Mage: the Ascension that I felt like sharing.
I Know a Guy That Knows a Guy (Mind 3, Corr 3, Entropy 1)
Need a guy that knows how to do the thing or how to find out what you need to know? Filter the universe through the complex and often random interconnectedness of humanity and you should, within a few degrees of separation, be able to trace those chance connections to find a guy you know that knows a guy that knows that guy, and how to make the connection. You might also add a dot of Matter to find a guy that has a specific type of object you’re after. The more successes gained, the fewer degrees of separation. Ever wonder how that Syndicate fixer always knows a guy? This is how.
Possible tweaked versions folks have suggested:
add life 3 to make a “guy guy” by adding to the duration you lock the effect onto a preexisting contact that then uses it to build up a stock of “guys” that he can tap at a moment’s notice letting the mage build up contacts and influence over time. (William Macklin)
add Time 2 to know not just how to contact your “guy”, but when is the most advantageous time to do so. “So… make sure you talk to him before next Tuesday.” “Why?” “Well… he’s going to have an unfortunate accident.” (Daniel Jones)
Add Spirit to include spirits or ghosts as “guys” in your degrees of separation. “I do know a guy that used to know a guy. Bad news is, he’s been dead for awhile. Good news is, I know how to get in touch.” (Daniel Jones)
It’s time for me to post more content for the Possessed. Yay? The original source of the Powers below is World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed Tides (pp. 14-15), but the mechanics needed a little tidying and point values, so here is my adaptation of them to the rules in Possessed: a Player’s Guide. They were originally intended for Rorqual (a specialized form of Kami cetaceans), but may have broader applications. For reasons that I will cover below, two out of three of these particular powers needed considerable adaptation to become playable. Note that my text uses the terms Gnosis and Steep interchangeably, a nod towards the Rorqual themselves.
Breach (5) – Only Kami may take this Power, and it is all but unknown outside the rare cetacean Rorqual. The Kami can make a spectacular leap from the water that has a purifying effect on the waters around her from toxins such as crude oil, or even supernaturally active toxins. When she reenters the water, she may spend as much of her carried Steep as she likes; the first point spent cleanses the area covered by the Kami’s actual splash, and to the depth that her splash down carries her. Additional points of Steep increase the area of effect by half the radius of the first, with a maximum range out to line of sight. While supernaturally active toxins can be cleansed, the area of effect is reduced to one fifth in such cases. Naturally, a Rorqual will only use such a Power as a last resort, as they do not consider the energy they carry to be theirs to spend.
Song of the Sea (3) – Only Kami may take this Power. The Kami sings a sad, haunting alien melody to coax the power of the Grottoes or a Caern into their body. It usually takes about ten minutes for each point of Gnosis that they absorb. This may be a long, slow process but it is considerably faster than conventional meditation.
Steep Reservoir (6, 7, 8, 9, or 10) – Only Kami may take this Power. This character is functionally a living Caern, able to collect and store vast amounts of Gnosis from undersea Grottoes or terrestrial Caerns, well beyond the limits normally imposed by their own Gnosis score (the Rorqual refer to it as Steep), and is capable of transmitting it to other supernatural creatures (Shapechangers, Changelings and Mages being the most likely recipients) via touch. Supernatural creatures can be granted up to 5 points of Gnosis (which are converted upon transmission to Glamour, Chi or Quintessence etc, if necessary for the recipient in question). This Power comes in several tiers, with the maximum available tier a function of the Kami’s overall body mass. Smaller Rorqual in the form of porpoises or dolphins, for example, can hold 100 points of Steep. Certain larger Rorqual are theoretically capable of holding five or ten times as much (another reason not to restrict such leviathans to NPC status). A dolphin sized character can store up to 100 Steep for a cost of 6, a small one like a Beluga (up to perhaps 15 feet, comparable in weight to a hippo if you want a terrestrial equivalent) can store 200 at a cost of 7, a moderate sized whale like an Orca or Minke whale (or an elephant, which is of similar weight) 300 at a cost of 8, a large whale like a Humpback, Grey or Sperm whale (say, 60’ length) 500 at a cost of 9 and a huge one like a Finback or Blue Whale 1000 at a cost of 10. No extant natural terrestrial animal is large enough to accommodate the 9 or 10 point versions of this Power, though not all Kami are derived from terrestrial animals. Obviously, Spirit Ties is a prerequisite for this Power. (This power was extrapolated from World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed Tides, pp. 14-15, and is not explicitly named there. I codified the specific tiers, within the overall range found in the source material).
Note: the Human Form power from WoD: BDT is not included here because it is just a specific instance of the existing Power: Transformation.
Note on Breach: I modified this Power’s area of effect considerably. The original scope of this Power’s reach was laughably small – it seems to me this came from the writers not having really thought about the scale of bodies of water, even though Blood-Dimmed Tides repeatedly reminds readers just how vast the ocean is. One cubic foot of water makes up 7.48 gallons and would cost 2 points of Gnosis to cleanse in this way. A theoretical Blue Whale Rorqual with a Steep Reservoir of up to 1000 points, if they blew the entire thing, could purify 5000 gallons of water.
An Olympic-size swimming pool is approximately 50 m or 164 feet in length, 25 m or 82 feet in width, and 2 m or 6 feet in depth. These measurements create a surface area of 13,454.72 square feet and a volume of 88,263 cubic feet. The pool has 660,253.09 gallons of water. An adult humpback whale is up to 52 feet in length, a sperm whale might reach 60 feet and a blue whale might be 100 feet long and weigh in excess of 200 tons. 5000 gallons of water amounts to 668.44 cubic feet of water, so compare: 88,263/668.44 = 132.043. It would cost 1000 points of Gnosis to purify less than 1/100th of an olympic sized swimming pool (the entire pool is only half-again as long as the whale’s own body!) Volume = side length cubed, so to determine the size of a cube that would occupy 668.44 cubic feet of water, we only need its cubed root: 8.74 feet. So 1000 gnosis can only purify enough water to fill a cube with sides 8.74 feet long. That’s… pitiful. According to this link, a typical suburban swimming pool with 18’ x 36’ in dimensions, 3 feet deep at one end and 8 at the other would hold 26,658.72 gallons of water. So purifying a volume of water too small to even hold the body of a moderate sized Rorqual (say, a grey whale @ 49 feet in length or a humpback @ 52) would require 5332 Gnosis to purify. The splash from the whale’s actual breach probably displaces more water than that. 1000 Gnosis would only be able to purify 1000 gallons of water if it is supernaturally poisoned – a big rig trailer can move 18 portable water tanks of 1k gallons each.
Okay, so anybody that read my previous M20 related post knows that my initial reaction to the division between Brawl and Martial Arts in M20 was extremely negative. During a discussion with Satyros Phil Brucato, the game’s developer, in the M20 Facebook group, this fact came up, and I’ll shortly get to why that fact is relevant to this post. I have great respect for his wide ranging talents, his creativity and his hard-charging work ethic, even if I don’t always agree with his output. To be honest, how could anybody ever really always agree with another creator’s or artist’s or writer’s output if they’re actually thinking for themselves? It’s just not going to happen. So long as folks can be polite about those creative differences, cool.
Anyhow, Satyros argued that I was giving this particular creative decision short shrift and that I ought to take a closer look at how he integrated a meaningful distinction between the two more fully into the combat system and also built it into the Focus rules. He pointed out that this distinction was not exactly new to the Storyteller System, having appeared previously in Kindred of the East and World of Darkness: Combat back during the 2nd edition era. To that last I maintain that I disliked the division back then too and don’t care for either of those prior books. I took those rules’ having been left out of the Revised editions of Vampire, Mage and Werewolf as a sign that White wolf had moved on from the concept also at least insofar as the Storyteller system was concerned. He suggested that I step back, blank my slate and ignore the negative associations I have with the prior sources and look over the combat and focus systems on their own merits with an open mind. This I have done over the course of the past month or more, mulling over the implications of the division within the rules themselves, on play and how I feel about said implications. A more serious and thoughtful dive into the book did change my views on a number of things from my first impressions (the value of Esoterica, for example), but I hardly found all points persuasive. (more…)
Backers of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Mage: the Ascension have got their hands on the prerelease version of the PDF, and though I’m sure there’ll be updates, what backers (like myself) have is largely what the final game is going to look like. My own impression is, of course, mixed, as the reception of anything related to Mage inevitably will be given the nature of the game and its interminable edition wars, paradigm-related flamewars etc.
Overall, it’s well constructed with an eye towards giving fans of all three prior editions something to smile about, and it also embarks on the challenging task of updating the setting and Awakened society without stifling creativity, making the Spheres, Paradigm and Consensual Reality more accessible to players as well, with laudable aplomb and skill.
While I could do without it being “Mage: now with 500% more kung fu!” that last part’s easy enough to fix by dropping that superfluous Skill along with a couple of other similarly unnecessary additions and possibly tweaking how players can get access to those pages upon pages of martial arts-related special maneuvers. The addition of Martial Arts as a separate Ability from Brawl feels reminiscent of Kindred of the East, The Book of Combat and Exalted. Man, I feel dirty from having had to reference any of those three in my blog, let alone all three in one post. However, that particular (minor but noisy) gripe isn’t what got me writing tonight.
No, what got me writing tonight is a character concept that leapt all but full fledged into my brain while I was making catfish tacos with mango salsa for dinner tonight (they were awesome, incidentally). One of the great things about the rise of Onyx Path is that they finally made the (beautifully nuanced) Revised-era Technocracy convention books that White Wolf left hanging after the excellent Iteration X Convention book. Probably my favorite from that line was, of all things, The Syndicate (though I disagreed with cutting off the SPD, but hey… I just might be biased) for its very interesting exploration of an easily demonized and oft-caricatured Convention.
Anyhow, as I was cooking, I was thinking on the Syndicate and on the Management and Human Resources sidebar from M20 and extrapolating on that. I was also thinking of sympathetic Syndicate mages, and then a character concept occurred to me. Here’s a breakdown of the concept below:
Healthcare Provider
You always felt the calling to be a healer. To nurture the growing, heal the hurting and comfort those whose loved ones are beyond help. Therefore, like many young people, you dreamed of becoming a doctor. Life has a funny way of kicking people right in the dreams sometimes. You had good grades in high school that gave you high hopes. Though you were a fine student, your real aptitudes were always people and groups and the “soft subjects” like debate and speech rather than biology or chemistry: you were the treasurer and student council rep for the Rotaract Club, and were a natural leader.
Still, you were determined to be a healer. Between your grades, extracurriculars, charm and skillfully leveraged family connections you entered a prestigious med school. That’s where your dreams started to crumble: while smart and competent, you just weren’t cut out to excel as a physician. Surrounded with driven, genuinely gifted med students, you rapidly fell into (and then below) the middle of the pack. Then you had to face the heartbreaking truth and find something else to do with your life. (more…)
Okay, so the collective wisdom of the backing Wyrm fans has spoken. My vote didn’t win, not that I expected it to. Based on the campaigns (rather than necessarily the characters themselves), the results here were two out of three predictable, at least insofar as, for what it’s worth, I saw two of them coming a mile off. One of those predictable results, Ian Robertson the Money Magus, is a very interesting addition to the cWoD canon.
The result that surprised me was The Unrevealed. So this guy never revealed who his nominee was, and he never really campaigned other than a really generic last-minute post halfway through the voting period, after the bulk of the votes had already been cast, but he got the #3 spot. I’m not quite sure what this means, but my best guess is that folks voted for The Unrevealed mostly as a “meh. None of the above” reaction as much as anything else. Most of the nominees weren’t especially exciting, so I can completely understand that particular reaction. It may have been some other motivator that drove this success, but I’m not sure what.
I totally saw the #1 coming, but the main thing I take away from this candidate’s success is that I’m apparently completely out of touch with the criteria by which the plurality of voters made their selection for a candidate. All I cared about was, to quote my prior post, “their merits as a possible board member to be added to the World of Darkness’ canon”. Clearly the voters and I had very different interpretations of said merits, because had I ranked my personal preferences in order from most to least desirable, this candidate would have been in the next-to-last slot. I’m okay with having a difference of opinions with other gamers however, since differing opinions over minutiae can be described as the very soul of fandom. I’m not going to shout “WrongBadFun!!1!” or whatever, but it’s also safe to say that candidate #1 is quite safe from existing or appearing in any game over which I am the Storyteller.
Okay, most of you that would actually read my blog are already aware of the W20 Book of the Wyrm Kickstarter. One very interesting aspect of this kickstarter is the election to place three new members on the Pentex board of directors. There are some really interesting nominees, and some… whose existence I will cheerfully replace with preexisting canonical board members or new ones of my own devising should they win. I’ll break down my take on each nominee here, strictly based on their merits as a possible board member to be added to the World of Darkness’ canon, which the most important thing we’re doing with regards to these guys and what I’ve seen of their campaign thus far. None of this is a value judgment on the creator of said character, just what I think of having them appear in a Werewolf: the Apocalypse supplement as members of the Pentex Board. (more…)
Casewerk: More Internet Ravings 
