Hunter: A Chronicles of Darkness Game of Thumbs

[Twig]

I'm tryin' to think of more backstory but as is obvious from the character creation, I'm trash at that. Historically, I build the character as I go along, rather than upfront. I understand that backstory is important, but, well, you know.

 

If I think of anything, I'll inform you immediately, but otherwise I'm perfectly fine with you inserting anything and everything!

[Fingus]

 

Got a little baby USB mic so hopefully now I'll be audible (dot com slash wizard).

[Vulpes Absurda]

Sorry I've had a busy week and forgot to post aspirations. For short aspirations I'll go with "Get to know these people" for getting to know the other characters, and "Figure out my place in the world". Longer term I'll say "Learn about the Fae and what they've done to my brother".

 

For the awakening I was thinking he was out camping in the woods came across a wolf, started backing up to get away fell down a cliff, almost died, scary visions all that jazz, woke as a mage and the wolf was his familiar.

 

That's all I got.

 

As for a mic I have a Yeti mic I was trying to setup but everyone told me the webcam mic was fine so I never set it up. I'll work on getting that working before tomorrow.

[Reyturner]

I'll post mine tonight. I've been sick and also lazy so I haven't done it yet >.> 

 

The basic gist i have in mind is kind of like in Ghostbusters: guy with extremely specific psuedo-scientific / occult knowledge along with academic and practical experience suddenly discovers the psuedo-science / occult stuff is real but now he doesn't have a job so how's he going to make any money. 

 

Not 100% blue collar as there's also the desire to pry the secrets open for the sweet sweet power goo inside. 

 

I'll properly formalize these ideas according to how the CoD core book describes tonight. 

 

EDIT: As promised

 

Short Term 1: Open a new firm and start looking for clients 

 

Short Term 2: Gain access to Mage documents / archives / information regarding magical spaces, lay lines, etc to find clues as to what the building he designed before his awakening could be for

 

Long Term: Find his place in the world (this could mean the dramatic "kick in the doors of heaven" route or being forced to come to terms with his role in the universe) 

[Smart Jason]

Wait, so if you quit your job, then we need to talk about your Resources Merit, because (as per the house rules) this implies an ongoing source of income. Hence why Jacob's character, despite not being destitute, has none.

 

If you want I'll just let you say you have a certain amount in savings (give me a figure) and reallocate the dots.

 

Meanwhile, speaking of reallocating dots, Hunters, since it was pointed out to me that you don't actually need a point in Drive just to use a car (or Computer just to use Facebook, likewise), if you want to reassign a single dot from those skills, let me know.

[Smart Jason]

So, would anyone find it cheap of me if I started both games with a module? (A pre-written custom game.) My biggest weakness as a GM is coming up with beginnings of plots (also, middles, and sometimes ends) and starting things out with something pre-written (into which I could obviously not only slot your characters but recurring supplemental characters) might help me out considerably this first week, and maybe some players as well.

[Vulpes Absurda]

That's fine by me. But if we go to a cave to kill some goblins I might find it a bit out of place.

[Reyturner]

Starting with a module is fine by me. I'm guessing it's likely written to accommodate a wide range of characters and we can see how ours run in a bunch of different scenarios. 

 

How does CoD handle Merits could be lost during the normal course of play? Like, I could imagine you piss the wrong person off and they get you fired; would that character just lose those dots? 

 

As for Brut, I would imagine that since the opening of the building he designed was a success he would still have his old job. I don't think the client would know he awakened. I'm not even sure if the client himself was supernatural in any way (could be a dupe being used by someone else). So I don't know if he would have been fired or targeted by hidden forces. I also imagine it would be expected that he'd take some time off after a big project so any writhing around in existential horror in facing the truth of reality could be excused as taking personal time without him losing his job. More that he would find it impossible to continue to work in that firm/ for that client knowing what he knows now (that his talents are being used to reinforce the systems intended to keep him a slave. It's likely that he's still working at his previous job but doing poorly. Likely to get fired soon if he doesn't quit first. A successful transition out of that job and into something else would be his most pressing short term aspiration. There's also the danger that whoever was having him build weird supernatural infrastructure into the building he designed could realize that Brut knows more than he should, which could result in danger and intrigue and running and shouting. 

 

This is all just spit balling. It can change to jive better with the overall chronicle. 

 

The basic trope is "up and coming establishment guy becomes disillusioned, starts a new life, finds his old assumptions challenged, overcomes adversity and maybe gets his head punched off by a vampire suddenly due to an unlucky roll of a D10". 

 

Classic

[Smart Jason]

There's actually a part in the book that talks about that exactly (Sanctity of Merits, Chronicles of Darkness PDF 44), which says that if you lose Merit dots through the course of the story they should be reimbursed at the end of the chapter in equivalent dots of a new Merit that makes sense.

 

My own house rule corollary to this would be that I'm typically willing to give out freebie Merits as the story goes fairly generously, but expect the ones which you get for free to always be potentially subject to sudden loss.

 

Jeff, I want to send you a PM to make sure I'm totally clear on your backstory.

[Smart Jason]

Don't want to do this live on stream, but I always asked my old groups after every session for feedback on how the game went, what worked and what didn't, what could improve, etc. Would love some of that.

[Vulpes Absurda]

My first thought is that everything went pretty well! Any issues I had were ones that will get eased over as we all gel more as a group.

 

The only issue I had is that I misread the merit for familiar and thought I need four points for it to manifest at all. Really that just makes it a familiar that exists in the real world at all times, which is fine, but with a wolf as a familiar it makes it hard to take any where other then the woods. Which the game allows for, I don't need to be near the thing at all. I could have it on the moon and it would matter. Aside from the lack of oxygen anyways. But unless this campaign takes a left turn that is really specific to my character it seems like a waste of both points and storytelling potential so I need to think about what I want to do about that. My main options seem to be A: A house rule of some sort. B: a slight re-spec of one point to bring it down to three points. Or C: Telling people its a really big service dog, which given that it has a -2 to perception to anyone other then me is doable. I lean towards C but if anyone has opinions let me know. I figure I have until the next scenario starts to figure it out so I have time.

[Smart Jason]

You can psychically summon your wolf to come running to you at any time if shit gets heavy, or have it tag along if you know you're not somewhere very fastidious and full of Sleepers. The thing with the Innocuous Numen (-2 to Perception) is that it doesn't make something that people can obviously see less conspicuous, it just makes them better at not being noticed at all (hence why example familiars are cats and rats and shit). That's not to say it doesn't apply to your wolf - it's easy to imagine it watching you from a guardian vantage point on top of a building or hiding in an alley ready to flank an attacker - just that you can't bring it along with you in a car ride and into a museum in broad daylight and tell people it's a dog (unless you want to throw a bunch of points into Subterfuge or some relevant Mind rote).

 

I like the wolf familiar a lot (you should name him or her, by the way), and I think it will definitely add to your character. Remember: you're bonded: whether or not the book explicitly says this, consider it a house rule that he can (if not obstructed) race to aid you with a thought.

[Reyturner]

Feedback.

Mostly great!

1. I think you fudged the right rolls in favor of rad things happening. WoD and WW lore games in general has always been poorly served by their D&D-ish rules. In my experience, Storytelling System games require a lot of GM discretion.

2. The music worked really well. Unfortunately a lot of the packed in roll 20 stuff is full of water marks.

3. You got the characterization of the NPCs down well.

4. There was a couple points where it felt like we (the players) didn't have enough to go on which lead to some awkward silence. Some players just need a long enough silence to leap into action but it's always good to have a couple things to go on. The brochure in the SUV scene was a good seed.

5. The characterization of TF was kind of frustrating. I was never sure if you were searching for something to say or RPing. There's a fine line between RPing an awkward silence and a real one.

[Vulpes Absurda]

"What's that? Isengrim is trapped in a museum with a crazy lady and a dude who has a fetish for tornadoes?!? I have to save him!" *Cut to a scene of a wolf on a subway car on it's way to the museum* "Man I knew we had a coyote problem around here but these things are getting BIG"

 

As long as there's a way to make it work. It's just that if it doesn't work it's a waste of points and storytelling potential so I wanted to bring it up. As for a name I'll come up with something at some point soon.

[Reyturner]

Lupine Fiasco

[Vulpes Absurda]

To show you how much I know about hip hop my first thought was "Isn't he the guy who thinks the world is flat?"

[Twig]

Lupine Fiasco

Shit. Shitttttttt.

 

Listen Jason I'm-a have to make you let me be a werewolf. For reasons.

[Reyturner]

Good sesh!

The dark middle chapter of A Fight in the Museum.

[Smart Jason]

I'm so mad I didn't call it that first.

 

Thanks, I was going to wait to ask for feedback until I finished with the Hunters, but yeah, as always, please, tell me what you thought worked best, what had you the most engaged. I had a long conversation with Andre after we finished last night about why he hates being a mage and gets distracted. Even though he thinks the problem's unsolvable it's still good for me to know so that I can try different things with him in the future, or something.

 

And I promise, promise, everyone that the rules are going to get easier and easier to deal with. The momentum's going to get faster and faster as we go. I know progress seems slow on your end, but I'm seeing it on mine running all the sessions and prepping them and how much I'm committing to memory what I wasn't before and this is really good for me, so I beg you to not be discouraged.

 

Everyone's homework for next weekend is to review their Merits. These are powers just as much as your rotes, mages. Make sure you know when they apply.

[Smart Jason]

Players, send me your questionnaire answers or prepare to face the most deadliest, spookiest consequences imaginable by man or mage...

 

OK, to be serious, I know the questions get challenging by the end, but be as brief as you have to and definitely get me the stuff that I for sure need to know (principally, your immediate living situation). Basically this is just prep for after these first modules/chapters end, which the mages' will on Saturday. The tutorial is over after that and the open world begins. People can essentially go anywhere*. I'm literally mapping out Philadelphia for the game - I want it to feel like a place with story hooks tendrils constantly at the ready for you all, and that sort of thing is helped exponentially by this kind of backstory preparation and character introspection.

 

*Having said that, there's likely an elephant in the room that needs addressing, as some of you may currently feel directionless, disconnected, or (to continue the alliteration) dicked over for various reasons. The idea of the world opening up to fewer explicit objectives and me piling more homework on top of you without really having given you any incentive to care about the game itself is only going to contribute to that discontent. (Hey, that's another D word, I should have used that.) I get that. I'm sensitive to that. (I'm possibly making all that up in a growing fit of self-conscious paranoia, but I doubt it.) I just ask that you bear with me. I ask that you sympathize with my inexperience and the challenges of running two groups, two game systems, etc. Anything I do that frustrates you, let me know. I can take it, and I'd rather hear it than not, I promise.

 

My goals are probably bare to see by now. I want to run a long, roleplay-heavy game in an open world. I want to collaborate with players to ensure they're on an arc, that they reach moments of pathos, catharsis, unity, betrayal, and so on. I am idiot for casting my ambitions so high, but I'm bound to keep from giving up because I'm streaming the game publicly - so if I fail it will be spectacular, rather than with a quiet fizzle like so many other tabletop games.

 

If this doesn't sound like the thing you wanted when you just saw a cool thing and signed up for a thing, let me know. If you think I genuinely am wasting your time, it's fine if you want to leave now. Dramatically, now's the perfect point for some bodies to drop - deaths now be much better in the long run than any other contingency. For the record, though, I believe in the longevity and creative and dramatic potential of all of you and all of your characters: don't quit just because you don't want to answer the questionnaire and think it'll be easier on both of us. If you think there's something specific we can talk about now, maybe we can do that instead.

 

Let me know.

[Vulpes Absurda]

So honestly I would love to continue playing in this game! But it sounds like what what you want is a bit more then I can give right now. I'm not in a super stable place right now as far as my life goes and I just don't think I can guarantee the commitment this campaign calls for. Not that anyone really can but me even less so then others. Which is a shame as I really like what you're going for and I wish I was in a place I could do it!

 

But I don't want to hold you back form you want out of this, because frankly it sounds cool and I'd rather watch from afar then hold it back. But it looks like I may be better off with a more casual D&D or Pathfinder game for now. Which is a bummer as I really liked this character, but maybe I can re-use him later.

[Smart Jason]

It's all good. I hear you. No hard feelings and I would love to play with you again down the line, whether it's bringing you back into this game when things are simpler or playing in a more casual game of Pathfinder that I'm feeling we might see get set up sometime soon.

 

So listen, one of our other mages, Andre, has also had it with his character/the mage template. Right now it's kind of vague on whether he'd ever be content with anything but another Sin-Eater. So Reyturner, it sort of falls to you as the mage group folds in on itself: do you think you'd be into joining the hunter group, if you're still down to play?

[Twig]

(I, for one, support an additional hunter in our group!)

 

(Also Jason I promise I'll get you some answers to your questions (at least the first few) today. Like I said in Slack, I'm absolutely not used to going into this much detail in my character backstories. I usually fill in the blanks as I play, based on what seems to be correct for who I'm playing. I think it's rad, though. It's just taking me some time to... think of anything.)

 

(Also, I don't want to be a butt, but remember when I said I was hesitant about four-hour sessions? Four hours is such a long time! I'm willing to continue, but I'd definitely prefer a three-hour session. It's not a deal-breaker, though, so if everyone else is happy with four, I'll keep going!!!)

[Reyturner]

Hah, I spent the morning writing up my response instead of reading the forums. I think I'll bow out so not to disrupt the group. For Smart Jason's sake it'll be easier to run just one game. 

 

I'll drop into the stream and see how you guys are doing tho! 

 

Thanks for running Mage Jason! Even if it was short lived. 

[Vulpes Absurda]

Are we going to finish this last game still? I'd be down for but if nobody else wants to I can go set up family movie night.