blood magic for dummies

70/1000!

my hater WoD opinion is that I can't stand joke or pop culture reference characters. from reddit: what if the new Tzimisce is the sesame street count, what if my gangrel picks 'human' as their animal features, what if my character was morbius- what if you had some goddamn sincerity for once.

200/1000!

I have not seen a single post about how vampire bloodlines 2 came out today.

Ive heard its not very good

I have as well, but the main things I heard were "wehhh the seattleites are too androgynous waahhhh" and "the elder vampire who can explode people with their mind doesn't use a baseball bat on people, day ruined" but maybe I'll look into it more

I've heard that it's a very atmospheric vampire action adventure, it just totally fails as a sequel to such a deeply immersive RPG - everyone says the side quests are all very bland, clan choice & dialogue options are inconsequential flavour, I've heard mixed things about the main story writing, combat mechanics are serviceable but unremarkable, but everyone who's gone in with an open mind says the world still feels very cool and gothic, there's genuine attention to detail in the environments such that it's a shame there's not really an awful lot of interest to do in them.

I think one of the biggest traps that White Wolf writers fall into is marketing the World of Darkness as "Gothic Punk" but misunderstanding the difference between Gothic Punk and Grimdark. There are superficial similarities between these two world building styles, but in the important details they couldn't be more different Gothic Punk means three primary things. The world is like ours but has its worst problems, like crime, overpopulation, pollution, etc, all played up from how they are in reality. The world, despite its darkness, had a great deal of beauty to be seen within the darkness: that's the "Gothic" aspect. Finally, there is hope in the setting for change, and a chance to fight back against the powers that be and change things for the better, even if it's a long shot, and hard as hell, the chance for hope is there: that's the "punk" aspect. Grimdark is where the world is hopeless. There's no chance for things to ever get better, and the best you can do is try to prevent them from falling apart as fast, and maybe creating a future for some small group if you play your cards right. Grimdark can be fun too, but things in a Grimdark setting are even more fucked up than in Gothic Punk. The fun of the setting comes from the whole "rage against the dying of the light" mood, where you know things are going to shit fast, but you plan to go down fighting The distinction between these two moods is what separates the World of Darkness from something like 40k. Gothic Punk is a world where a dumb Brujah neonate can get lucky and kill the founder of the Camarilla, or, if you've played bloodlines, where a dumb neonate with luck and a lot of help can dust the Prince of LA and a Tzimisce elder. It's the world where the Garou maybe have a shot at taking down Pentex, even if it's a hard one. Where the Traditions can score major victories against the Technocracy every now and then, and hold their own. There are some writers at White Wolf who just don't understand this. And most of the dumb choices that are made in the Metaplot, especially in recent books, can be traced back to this.

HUHHHHHHH

Ai is a Camarilla invention (Nos design?) to make the masquerade easier to protect. Most Hunters are anti ai because of it. Garou love munching on the wires of AI server banks (their umbra spirits are really annoying).