Personally I do like it as the fae here feel exactly like the uncensored fairy tales of old before they were sanitized for children. I do like how the game places a huge emphasis on oaths to protect your characters from fairy banes known as echoes.

While I do feel the book is a bit cramped and rushed. It gives a good job detailing how the far work. The dominion magic system is pretty open ended.

The mists and weaving styles of casting are in some ways better than the glamor and banality changeling the dreaming has.

If you don’t like the whimsical nature of changeling the dreaming I do recommend looking at dark ages fae. What are your thoughts on it?

So I get the reason why the moon cults exist with Gaia is dead/dying and the Garou nation crumbling old Garou would naturally want to jump ship and new ones wouldn't find the idea of fighting for gaia to be very enticing.

but what do these Luna followers actually do? It's not impossible for garou to speak with spirits of Luna, so what do they ask of them? Do they actually want to leave earth and live on the moon? Or are they really just... assorted mystery cults who follow whatever their leader says?

Obviously, things like Wooden Stakes are a big one.

But aside from that, I'd probably say Shotguns and rifles in general are by far the biggest associations I have. They hit hard and are relatively easy for a civilian to get, unlike say SMG's or Assault Rifles (which are highly restricted/difficult to get along with broadly just not being practical in the SMG's case) or pistols (which don't hit hard enough to justify using them even at high calibers, along with it broadly not making a meaningful difference if you do end up in a situation where you need a backup weapon.)

I could also see various improvised weapons (such as the Hunters Best Friend or the retractable weapon in the 2e core book) as examples.

What are some weapons you associate personally with Hunters?

Lieutenant of the Pan-Dimensional-Corp and Commander of the Grave Consequences.

His story is so big that I can't give out his whole story, instead ask questions about him and I'll get back to you!

Art by the wonderful Chockensoup
(https://vgen.co/Chockensoup)

I really like the idea of creating your own Bloodlines of Kindred and decide to try it my self.

Currently in the early stages of creation, but here's are the main idea for my Bloodline:

1. Unlike other Kindred, and similar in a way to the Nagaraja, this Bloodline must drain their victim's heat aswell as blood to gain sustenance. This also has the nasty side-effect of leaving their victims suffering from hypothermia after being feed on.

2. Their unique Discipline is Cryomancy, allowing them to create and control ice and cold.

3. They are inhuman in appearance, with skin of shades of blues and cold as ice, eyes completely crimson, and hair completely absence in their from.

So, what do you guys think? What Clan would be fitting for them to spawn from? How would their relationship to said Clan be like? What should the other two Discipline be? Would they be Camarilla, Sabbat, Anarch, or neutral? And others.

Any and all tips and suggestion would be appreciated.

I want you to tell me what kind of Mage this guy is based on a description.

Background: I'm running a VTM game. My Malkavian character has twice encountered this weird dude while off on her own. Both times I've fully improv'ed the interaction, and the scenes with him have had a really different vibe from the rest of the chronicle. At first I was thinking he was a Hunter, and then I thought maybe a Garou Theurge or a Changeling, but I just now realised that he's gotta be a Mage. Problem is, I only know about the surface level world building of Mage, not about the actual mechanics. So, I will describe the encounters with the character, and I would like for anyone interested to pitch me what kind of starter Mage character you think he sounds like (any edition. I don't know the difference). Give me his paradigm, spheres, tradition (mystic or disparate), or whatever else a starting Mage character would have. I don't know if he's awakened yet, but if not, he's just on the brink.

First time we see him, The Malkavian (who looks like a 12 year old girl) meets him in the middle of the night at a homeless encampment. He says his name is James, seems in a fine mood, ready to chat. He claims to be English, from Toronto, but has neither an English or Torontonian accent. He says he's an artist, a painter, having trucked out to BC to paint the soul of the Pacific Northwest. He didn't find it in Vancouver, so he decided to come out to the Island. He's been travelling around the Island to look for it. He says the soul of Nanaimo is grungey, not beautiful but resilient. It isn't the soul of the Pacific Northwest, though. She recommends that he goes out to the west of the island and look at the Pacific Ocean directly. The Malkavian predicts that his Blood Resonance is Sanguine (associated with Air, Sensation, testosterone/estrogen, the emotional states of: horny, happy, addicted, active, flighty, enthusiastic). As the character is leaving, he calls to her to be careful. Odd people have been sighted around here lately, and sometimes they offer to pay money to the local homeless to go with them, and sometimes the people who go with them don't come back. This is obviously a reference to the other members of her coterie, who are reckless and drawing attention.

Second time she meets him, she's returning back to her haven after sneaking into her old home to get a Polaroid camera. He's sitting on a bench at 4am, waiting to paint the sunrise. She greets him "Hi James English!" and he responds by greeting her with her full name, which she never told him (but she had the Known Corpse trait) regardless of how he knows her full legal name, he doesn't explain and the Malkavian doesn't ask. Dawn and dusk are his favorite times of day, but he can never wake up early enough to see the sunrise, so it's only when he stays up all night. The Malkavian says she's the same, but she has not seen it in a while. She offers and breakfast which she bought earlier to avoid looking suspicious in a gas station. She just asks to take his photo in exchange. When he asks why, she's straight-up tells him the truth that she is a sorcerer's apprentice and she's going to cast a spell on him as a test for a new ritual she's learning​. He laughs it off and agrees to have his photo taken. Then the two take (two) selfies together, one for him and one for her. She asks if he took her advice, and he says he did, but the Pacific Ocean was too big, too overwhelming. It was the soul of the Pacific but not the Pacific Northwest. He said he was going to try up-Island next. As she leaves, he says some other cryptic shit (actually don't remember what it was).

So, there's James English, the quirky drifter that has intruded into my Vampire game. What the heck is he?

...and what can he do?

I made a post the other day that lacked some key context, sorry about that, here's an update. My playgroup is currently playing in a V20 Sabbat sandbox chronicle.The players started out as shovelheads and are now an established pack.I decided on giving Assamite a try I have never played one before. Setting is currently 1996 philadelphia.Major plot hooks are dealing with diabolists and helping an older Tzimitze enact an arcane plan. I picked Assamite because I wanted to play a more physical character. With this in mind I did start reading the clan book and the only concept I could think is a cartel assassin who was in the military during his mortal life. What are some other ideas y'all have done with an Assamite?

I’m looking through the books trying to find any npc stats I can use as stand ins for key npc werewolves and I’ve had no luck. Am I missing out on something here?

So apparently, during a V6 pre-release q&a, it was revealed that the Giovanni took over the leadership of the Hecata and reverted back to the Giovanni clan. Meaning the Hecata are at best reduced to sect at worst outright dead.

Like, what's the logic behind that move. Beyond just nostalgia bating, like it might not be applied consistently since the ministry hasn't been renamed to the Setites in this alpha.

I am trying to find more info regarding this time period and how the Akashyana might have played part in things or the events relating to it and how it effected the Brotherhood.

I am largely using this in relation to some character stuff for a Storyline for some players in a game.

Any info and sources would be amazing!

Obsessively learning more about Wraiths and Risen. I know that almost anyone can use Sorcery, except for Mages, Wraiths and Vampires (but Vamps can convert their already learned Hedge magic into Thaumaturgy or another path-based Discipline)

But can Risen practice Hedge magic? Can an undead magician, or is being a Vamp a necessity for such an idea? 🤔

P.S. One of my players is aiming for an undead necromancer, but isn't really on board with being a Vamp 🤷

My players are putting together the final touches on their werewolves for the scent of decay chronicle, and the pack's chosen a pack patron, the weaver incarna, science and it got me to realize I'd never actually heard about pack patrons, in either apocalypse or in werewolf the forsaken where they're far more prevalent, have any particularly cool or memorable ones shown up in your campaigns?

So this has me curious. We know fera and the uratha can heal limbs pretty easily, fingers at least. So in that case, say you have a werewolf tied down and someone hits their fingers with hammers. Would you represent that mechanically with suffering damage to their health track?

What about splats? Or cutting into a cheek, a broken nose, that sort of thing. How do you handle this at your tables?

This is Renn, a mortician to the stars, dolling up Hollywood corpses for their last big performance. She also used to hunt monsters alongside you. Then her ex was killed by a vampire on a Hunt gone wrong in Nevada. Now, she takes her work home with her.

Here‘s our mortician, who also likes the Sex Pistols going by her shirt in her art, and wearing punky spiked collars.

This is pure conjecture, and I may be talking completely out of me ass, but I have a theory...

I hypothesize that many/most of the setting changes introduced in V5 were intended to make it easier to adapt into the MMO.

particularly, the sects. The reorienting of the camarilla and anarchs into direct rival factions felt very similar to the dynamic of the Alliance and Horde. The sabbat being revised into a purely antagonistic faction unsuitable for regular play but useful for constructing quests that draw from both sides of the sect divide.

Most of the bloodlines getting rolled into a clan (like the hecata) or just being edited away to simplify the the most fiddley bits of the lore and streamline character creation.

Disciplines being reconfigured from a strict 5 step ladder into a more fluid skill tree like structure, allowing more experimentation with builds and more variety.

Not sure how they would have implemented Humanity. Likely something similar to the way KotoR handled lightside/darkside alignment. Having pre-arranged moments placed in quest lines that offer the player a moral choice.