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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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GLOG Class : the Mystic

I am making GLOG stuff now. Comments in [Brackets] are my best attempt at making this system-neutral. Comments in italics are my personnal comments. If you don't know what the GLOG is you should probably go ask someone else.

Mystics

A Monk-equivalent stolen from Meandering Banter’s Pscion. You peer into the veil behind reality, beholding Truths beyond your understanding. Then you use it to punch people in the face.

A : Disciplines B : Contemplation C : Understanding D : Mastery

Skills (D4) : 1 - Meditation, 2 - Hallucinogens, 3 - Occultism, 4- Prayer, and one more determined by your starting scroll.

Stuff : || A burlap robe || Incense || Five candles || An ancient scroll containing three Disciplines (There are two : Twenty-Six Enticements, Seven Torments | DIG | and a third, half-baked one : The Way of the Open Hand) || One more item determined by your starting scroll.

Disciplines :

Disciplines are the strange, otherworldly applications of a Mystic's understanding of the hidden workings of the world. Every Discipline is made up of a Focus, a Surge and an Ordeal.

You may Focus on any Discipline you know by succeeding on a Willpower [or system-equivalent] test (DC [Average]). This counts as an action during combat. While Focused on a Discipline, you bring a small part of its Truth into the world, and receive the corresponding benefit.

Becoming part of a greater whole is a careful balance to maintain. While Focusing, you must make a Willpower [or system-equivalent] check (DC [Average]) whenever you are hurt, witness horror or are similarly bothered. If you fail, you lose your Focus. This is a little bit like losing a lover and a little bit like a quiet death : you gain Stress whenever it happens. [if you don't have a stress system, every point is -1 to mental rolls and you do something panicky whenever it causes you to fail]

As an action during your turn, you may end your Focus and perform the Surge of that Discipline as you let out your small piece of Truth into the world. Doing so means you’re not Focused on that Discipline anymore - you held the Truth, and you let it go (you have trained to accept the loss, and Surging doesn't cause you to gain Stress). You may not Focus on more than a single Discipline at a time.

Anyone can learn Disciplines, and anyone can use them. To Focus on a Discipline, other people need to spend five minutes meditating on its Truth - they simply don't have the training you do.

To learn a Discipline, find the way to its particular enlightenment through ancient scrolls or wise masters, and accomplish the appropriate Ordeal (the Ordeals provided here are meant to serve as examples : you can't simply perform them whenever and gain the associated Discipline unless you have some sort of guidance).

A learned Discipline takes a Spiritual slot : you are not only holding the knowledge in your mind, but the Truth itself in your being. As a Mystic, you get "free" Spiritual slots to hold Disciplines in equal to your number of Mystic Templates. [If your game doesn't have Spiritual slots, make them take off a Charisma point or something]

You start with a single Discipline of your choice from your scroll, and that scroll counts as a source of guidance for the other Disciplines contained inside.

Contemplation :

You may choose a favoured Discipline among those you have learned : when Focusing on another Discipline, you still gain its Focus effect (but may not Surge with it unless you're specifically Focusing on it). You have mastered that Truth, and Focusing on it is second nature to you.

Understanding :

You may Surge with any Discipline while Focusing on your favoured Discipline (meaning that you didn't get that Focus by choosing another Discipline; this doesn't synergize with your 3rd level bonus). You are starting to piece together how to reconcile these disparate and sometime contradictory Truths.

Mastery :

You may Surge with any Discipline while Focused on any Discipline. True understanding is yours, and you may now teach Disciplines to those willing to pass the Ordeals.

Δ Domain Feature :

If you have a stronghold capable of housing them and have all four Templates of Mystic, your knowledge of mystical secrets can attract :

+ d4 Stupefied Scholars (each with a subject of expertise), desperately trying to reconcile your teachings with the observable nature of the universe.

+ 6d6 monks, free-folk and lost souls that believe your Truths will lead them to a better life.

These people will generally help around and be willing to work for you, as long as you are ready to house them, protect their homes and be an overall decent ruler. In addition, every Domain turn [a month or something] the referee will roll 2d6 : on a double, some sort of mystical trouble brews up - it might be a rival after your secrets, a runaway fragment of Truth causing chaos, or a greater danger threatening the local fabric of reality. It's not that these things didn't happen before ; they simply were way above your pay grade - now that you've proven yourself, your peers expect you to step in and handle it.

Disciplines : the only meaningful change I've made is adding the Ordeals. I think they're neat for two reasons :

It gives players an incentive to do extremely weird shit, and concrete goals to follow to gain power beyond generic adventuring.

Monks should be doing weird shit in their eternal quest for Enlightenment. If you're going to give them something boring like Flurry of Blows at least make the lore surrounding it interesting.

The scrolls exist because lore should either impact gameplay or go into your fanfic writing where it belongs (not dissing, just... lore for sake of lore has no place at a gaming table). This should make players investigate tales of long-dead hermits because now they have a reason to care.

The Domain feature exists because they are both optional and extremely easy to make. You're only rolling 2d6 because I assume that if one of your PCs is doing something with Domains, then they all are, making doubles more frequent.

The actually cool/customizeable part of the class is in the scrolls, I should have three of those posted pretty quick.

#glog #ttrpg homebrew #osr #my shit

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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An alternative to social rolls

Every single time a player of mine rolls to remember relevant information or lie to someone, I die a little bit inside.

That's because both of those things are incredibly stupid - not in a "haha, your 20 charisma bard can roll a 1 to charm the barmaid" kind of way, but in a "Oh wow you did everything absolutely right and yet the dice fucked you over when it should have worked" kind of way.

TTRPGs, at their core, are about making interesting choices. In that light, you want to minimise dice rolls as much as possible. Dice rolls are bad, they mean you can't arbitrate what's happening through simple logic. They're a last resort.

And the truth of the matter is, there is rarely any reason to actually roll charisma. There just isn't. You know the character, you heard the PC's arguments, you can decide whether the NPC is convinced or not. No dice roll necessary. This is a good thing. It means social puzzles and encounter provide meaningful, impactful choices to your party.

The problem, of course, is that this method relies completely on player skill, as opposed to character skill. If your PC isn't really good at improvising arguments, then they can't really play a bard.

So social rolls suck, but you still want players to be able to use the game's rules to impact social situations. This has been a thorn in my side for quite a while, until a friend came up with the solution for me : Just Use Tokens lolz.

Here's the rules : you get a number of tokens equal to your charisma, or social score, or 5 + Charisma modifier, or one token per point in the social stat, whatever. You can spend those tokens for the following effects :

Make someone reconsider an argument they've dismissed

Make someone give you one more chance to argue your case

Force a subordinate to obey an order

Momentarily get a crowd's attention

Get a general idea of someone's mood

Immediately learn if someone lied to you or not

Block the above effect. If you choose to, you can both keep spending tokens until one of you gives up, at which point the truth is either revealed or left in limbo.

If you're unfortunate enough to be using a system that has a social skill system, just split these possibilities between the appropriate skills and distribute specialised tokens, or use the skill as the maximum amount of instances tokens can be spent in a single conversation or whatever. It's dirt simple to implement and won't make your rules more complicated in any way that matters.

Here's the thing : none of the above effects replace or supersede player skill. They only either give them a chance to actually play out the social puzzle or give them more information to solve it with. This gives socially bad players a chance to play socially good characters without making it all about dice rolls and eliminating choice : their role as the party face is to buy them time to convince the other party and weasel out enough information to actually do so - they barely have to talk at all except to beg the local bigwig to reconsider and give them a moment of their time.

If you can't see just how much better this is in every single way, I don't have the words to explain it to you. It increases player knowledge, give them tools to play with and preserves player choice. This is the holy grail of game dev right there.

The exception is the insight/deception bidding minigame. But that's just cool. Imagine, for a moment, a player taking a risk a lying to a dragon or something :

Dragon puts down an insight token. Player puts down a lie token. Dragon puts down another. Player. Dragon. Player, sweating. Dragon, smiling. And this uber-powerful entity just keeps putting down tokens. Imagine them sweat ! This is just good gameplay.

And like okay, there's probably some fine-tuning to be done. I haven't actually given you any rules for a concrete system yet. But in the broad strokes, this just… solves social rules forever. There are no possible drawbacks to using this system over dice rolls.

And I'm a nerd, and that got me very excited, so I'm putting it out there. Use this and thank me later. I beg you.

#ttrpg design #gming #house rules #I cannot tell you how exited this makes me #it's kinda ridiculous to be honest #but the social character/asocial player problem has been plaging me for so long #AND NO MORE #use this sam

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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Clan Clock : Toreador

Notice the title change :/

Yeah, turns out I can only summon limited energy for things I'm not going to use in a game soon. Oh, well. I guess I'll just leave it at two until motivation strikes back.

Characters : Two local Toreadors ('Abby' and 'Breta'), two local human surgeons, a nonlocal Tzimisce ('Carl'). Note : the clock gets wonky if you have a Tzimisce just... on hand.

Plot : Two Toreadors enter into a one-upmanship contest of fashion and sexiness. They do that by mutilating themselves into smaller waistlines or apparent abs, and then just... not healing that damage. Obvious TWs are obvious, but you know. Trigger warning for self-harm and body image issues.

1' : Scandal ! Breta finally managed to upstage Abby during the latest Kindred social event - and by a lot, at that. Abby is presumably seething, and Breta incredibly smug.

Advance when the next Kindred social event happens.

2' : Abby and Breta keep one-upping each other. They do so through crude surgery - Abby does it first, but Breta follows suit. They have each ghouled a surgeon in order to "work on" their body before every social event, and only heal the damage afterward. To be perfectly clear : they are cutting bits out of themselves in order to better fit into their designer pants, or sculpt themselves a perfect ass.

Anyone who spends some time in their company will notice the changes with a D3 roll - they are discreet, but vampire bodies just don't change normally. It stands out. Any local Toreador elder knows exactly what's happening : they have seen this before. They treat it like a rerun of a good but not beloved movie.

If the coterie has nothing to do with either Abby or Breta, consider using the surgeons as an 'in' instead - they're keeping strange hours, are restless and moody... human friends and family are getting worried.

Advance this plot when they have had this little back-and-forth a couple of times.

4' : If the PCs have any rapport with either Abby or Breta, they are hired by them to go find a Tzimisce : it's time for a more permanent solution. For something daring. If the PCs come into contact with one of them by investigating the surgeons, then they are asked to do so in exchange for freeing them from the blood bond. If the PCs are in contact with both Toreadors, then they are hired by both.

Advance this clock when either Carl is found by the coterie, or some weeks have passed (they have been found without their help).

6' : Carl has the bright idea to launch a bidding war between the two clients - they have heard of their kind being used for these purposes, and are confident they can deliver, but are looking to have some fun in the meantime. Tensions between Abby and Breta escalate further.

Advance this clock when this information has reached your players.

8' : If the PCs have any rapport with either Abby or Breta, they are hired to go take photos of the other being cut up before the next social occasion (both of them realized quickly that the other was doing the same thing). If the PCs have rapport with both, they are hired by both. If they weren't contacted for the photos, or refused, or whatever : roll a dice for both Breta and Abby. On a 6+, that one obtained photos of the other (if the PCs warn one, then getting the photos becomes impossible and you'll only make one/no roll).

Advance this clock when the next social event happens.

10' : Abby and Breta enter in open conflict over Carl. Unless the PCs have contrived to make this impossible, it starts with the circulation of the photos (of both sets if both have been collected). No physical violence is yet involved - they use blackmail and scandal. Both may hire the PCs once again to dig up dirt on the other.

If the coterie isn't involved, just seed rumors of scandal and blackmail.

Advance this clock whenever you feel either Abby or Breta has been pushed to their breaking point, or whenever you need something distracting to happen if the PCs aren't involved.

12' : One of the two Toreadors flips out and attacks the other during the next public gathering. If nothing is done to prevent it, they will be executed the following night. Carl will fulfill their end of the bargain and leave having had a jolly good time. Whichever Toreador survived probably still ends up with a ruined reputation. The greater Kindred community moves on, bored once again.

A note I should have provided earlier : any clocks I post here are something to be used alongside your "main" plot or whatever. These are meant to provide some dynamism to the local scene, make sure that things are happening whether the PCs get involved or not (obviously you want them to get involved, but you also want to intersperse things that would've happened with or without them in your world to give it life).

#vampire the masquerade #V:tm #vtm v5 #vampire plots #a clock for every clan #Toreador

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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If I had my way and my brain would just do the thing every single ttrpg monster I run would be half as good and packed with Thematics and Potential For Player Fuckery as this one is.

Related : This blog post should be the first thing that you think about when designing a monster in a game that wants them to be more than sacks of numbers to make smaller with your numbers. Like even if you specifically don't want Themes and Meaning in your ttrpg game, this will produce adversaries and threats that are directly enmeshed in your world.

And that means that players can Fuck With It, which is the golden standard of design. If you put something in your game that your players cannot Fuck With, it shouldn't be here.

Those minautors are incredibly enmeshed in their world, and therefore immensely Fuckable With. Introduce this post word-for-word to your table of players and count to three, and if not a single one of them comes up with some hare-brain scheme to exploit that lore tidbit i'll make myself some hot chocolate.

Also i remember reading about someone wondering about what a socialist rpg would look like somewhere

and like

this

this is it

this is the socialism

Urban Fantasy concept: Minotaur as an emergent phenomenon. Any sufficiently labyrinthine structure, left unattended for long enough, has a chance of generating a minotaur, if the area is properly “primed” by any kind of mass “sacrificial” death; from there the minotaur self-perpetuates by murdering Urbex practitioners, health inspectors, and dumb teens looking for a hangout.

Premodern Minotaurs were generated at human sacrifice sites and perpetuated themselves due to, you know, already existing at human sacrifice central. Contemporary Minotaurs are generated at the sites of major industrial accidents resulting from negligence, such as the triangle shirtwaist fire, mine collapses, and the Chernobyl meltdown.

#ttrpg stuff #use this #ttrpg design #ttrpg monster design #gming

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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This ABSOLUTELY works.

I have used this for many years. Definitely b do it.

#might be a useful message/link for someone someday

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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officially decided that anyone who tries to divide the lgbt community is a fed. i dont care if you're not actually a fed, if you're causing infighting in a minority community then you're a fed who just isnt getting paid to be one. either apply for a job at the CIA or shut the fuck up

#images to send to people being idiots/dipshits

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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Things to do in your V:tM game, pt 2

Your players meet a local bigwig, or attend an important event in Kindred society :

Whoever sent them there, or got them the invitation, they visibly did not have their best interest in mind :

1) It is structured like a charity gala. The host is visiting everyone, complimenting their dress, talking passionately about the chance to do some *real* good here. The hostess is only playing the hostess because she owed the host a favor, and is playing the part of the perfect wife impeccably. The help is visibly terrified, silver collars sewed into their necks - they'll survive the night, but will not remember it. Feel free to sample, but don't kill them. The players will have to figure out what exactly the "cause" is before the host gets to them, and find a way to meaningfully contribuate (otherwise how did they get invited ?). 2) It is structured like a dinner between long-time (and rich) friends. There is an actual, seven-course dinner. Everyone is using the Blush of Life and eating, discreetely excusing themselves to vomit copious ammounts of blood. Everyone is pretending to still be alive - vampire business is discussed through code and suggestion, and any "special" vocabulary is taboo. The host cooked the food themselves and simply insists that you tell them what you thought of the prawns. There's like half an hour between each course, over the entire night - the players will have to figure out how to repeatedly quit a conversation (gracefully and discreetly) to vomit and probably find where the blood is hidden (1 hunger check per vomit, surely the Harpy must have found some blood, she must have powedered her nose a dozen times already !). 3) It is the "birthday" of a new Kindred - they are human, but will be embraced at the end of the night. The Sire is terribly proud. Everyone must (in front of the sire) give the future neonate a present, their well-wishes, and a compliment over the course of the night, all without breaking the Masquerade (they're still human, after all). The Sire will grant their favor to the most "cheeky" gifts / wishes / compliments (as in, the neonate won't be able to believe they didn't immediately clocked this was about vampires all along). As per tradition, the neonate-to-be will be presented with three dire warnings and three occasions to bow out - those that manage to deliver those without making them take the out will receive favor. If you need more drama, the prospective vamp brought a human +1 along, an interloper is aware that the human will be embraced, or a rival will try to embrace them first (or all three).

If you think any of those can be solved by just asking the other guests questions, you are playing other Kindreds like people rather than immortal, psychopatic, entertainement-starved monsters. Nothing is ever easy when it involves these guys.

#vampire the masquerade #things to do in your v:tm game

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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It's so weird talking to people who's view of "here's the way life is for everyone" is shattered as soon as they talk to someone with disabilities (physical, mental illness, any). Like you'll say you'll have a problem and instead of helping you they'll argue with you about how you're not actually facing that problem. Like,

Me: Hey, I'm really struggling to find a job and a part of it is my resume. I was depressed & psychotic during highschool so I didn't do anything to gain skills or achievements to put on my resume. I also don't have anyone to put as a reference. What can I do?

Them: You can add your skills, hobbies, clubs you're in, and different volunteer work you've done! You can also get your teacher as a reference.

Me: I already know what to put on a resume, my issue is that I don't have things that I can use. Also, I'm in my mid 20s so I don't know if I can put my highschool teacher as a reference.

Them: Well if you're a part of a church or an activity group, you could add that. Also, think of any projects you've worked on in the past.

Me: I already know you can put these things on a resume. I'm not looking for suggests of things I've already done, I'm looking for what I can do now if I haven't done anything.

Them: There's no way you didn't do anything during highschool?? What about some odd jobs you definitely did for extra money, like babysitting or mowing the lawn?

Me: I spent all of highschool either in modified classes or in bed doing nothing - not even hobbies, what about that do you not understand?

And then you talk to someone who's also disabled and they're like "Here's a bunch of jobs you can do from home that don't pay much but look good on a resume, here's some free online courses that also look good on a resume, here's how you can be making small amounts of money in the meantime, here's some things you can put besides a professional reference, and here are your rights if your future employer tries to take advantage of your disability - which you probably shouldn't tell them about unless you need accommodations."

And suddenly my will to continue trying returns!

#might be a useful message/link for someone someday

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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i love what you wrote for chimerstry!!! i really like the rewriting of the restrictions because lordy are they not well written in the actual book lmaoo. you dont give yourself enough credit because all of the disciplines sound so fun to play and im about ready to bully my storyteller into letting me use your homebrew for my character. tysm for all ur hard work. <3 -v5 ravnos player

Thank you ! that's very kind. Honestly i was pretty half-hearted on it but the ask motivated me to finish it right after work

I feel like the rules were actually well done in the book, it's just that they're presented in like a single paragraph of tiny text that takes a quarter of the page. Most of V5 is excellent rules-wise really, I feel like not enough people praise the alterations from V20 to where we ended up.

And hey if you manage to convice them i'd love you to tell me about it / share any feedback you or your st might have

#ask box

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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Chimerstry standalone Discipline for V:tM V5

Here I am, back again with my bullshit. I am honestly stunned by the rythm I've been able to put these out, don't expect me to be that quick about it in the future (I have like, three clan clocks ideas languishing in a text file). I'd make Ravnos use Animalism / Chimerstry / Obfuscate for maximum "trickster" energy, but you can swap Obfuscate out for Fortitude and get back to their old spread.

As usual, commentary is in italics for copy-pasting convenience.

Chimerstry

These are not illusions, but hallucinations : they cannot be recorded, and will not deafen or otherwise overwhelm the senses of a victim. Hallucinations cannot appear to affect the surrounding reality - a flood won’t wash away cars parked in the street or pedestrians, and an explosion created with Fata Morgana will not cause any damage, hallucinatory or otherwise. A collapsing staircase won’t tumble anyone currently descending the staircase. A hallucination cannot make an existing thing disappear (like an hallucination of "silence" somehow covering your footsteps) although it may cover something up (a roar covering the sound of said footsteps). This means that in the event of an hallucination covering something up moving, the thing covered up by it must move with it or be revealed.

Vampires and other supernatural creatures have a chance to disbelieve the hallucination, but mortals can only do this if they have reason to suspect it to be fake. In both cases they roll Intelligence + Awareness against a Difficulty equal to the user's Chimerstry rating. A success means that the individual in question is no longer affected by the hallucination, and it effectively disappears for them.

If affecting a large crowd, roll a single dice per person instead : for every dice that shows a result equal or superior to the user's Manipulation + Chimerstry, a single individual disbelieves the illusion. Remember that such a crowd roll only happens if too many victims get a chance to disbelieve than can be comfortably (or quickly) rolled for - for four or five people, simply ask every player to roll for a given character.

Any attempt to interact with the hallucination will also cause it to lapse entirely, as everyone present will become aware of its unreal nature (as with the collapsing staircase example, if someone is using the staircase). Note that the use of this Discipline is not overt : even if the hallucination is revealed, it is not obvious from whom it originated. These hallucinations can never be recorded or transmitted (such as by using Ghost in the Machine).

Other rolls (such as Manipulation + Subterfuge) might become necessary in order to prevent victims from realizing something is wrong, like if for example the user is pretending to be someone they are not under a hallucinatory disguise.

By default, the five senses available for use by Chimerstry are Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch and Taste. More "niche" senses, such as proprioception, can be unlocked by specific powers - such senses are considered too complex a manipulation for beginners to pull off otherwise.

A neat thing about making this a Discipline is that I can move all of this in the Discipline's description, rather than crowding out Fata Morgana's.

About removing the "no covering things up" aspect : if the player can see the victim, the victim might have already seen what the player wishes to hide. If it hasn't, then the PC could still hide it by other means anyway.

About "no making things disappear" : that's Obfuscate, get off the nosferatu's lawn. You can use distractions to sneak, or pretend to be a cardboard box, etc. but straight-up invisibility is not your turf. You can take Obfuscate anyway.

About making disbelief roll against Difficulty (Chimerstry level) : a single roll is twice as fast as making two. Keeping things fast and simple is really important, especially with a discipline as complicated as this one.

The crowd rule : this Discipline desperately needs a way to handle crowds easely. Putting this in the rules lets the player know in advance that they'll always have an easier time fooling one or a few people than a dozen, as in all things vampiric. The numbers might be fucky but I'd rather have something unbalanced or weird than something that takes fifteen hours. You could change it to Charisma + Chimerstry if a player wants to be a charismatic Ravnos rather than a tricksy one - it doesn't really matter, the player should just be able to reach a 5 or 6 pretty easily at character creation and max out at 10.

Parlor Trick (•)

The vampire is able to create brief but vivid hallucinations, distracting and drawing the attention of those affected. A hallucination can affect any single sense — it can be visual, audial, tactile, etc. — occurring long enough to make an impression before ceasing. The user decides on the specifics of the hallucination, though due to its brief nature it cannot convey more than something glimpsed for a moment or a voice heard for a couple of seconds (it cannot be employed to create a fake ID, for example, if the vampire intends to do more than flashing it at someone).

Is good power, won't touch it. The only change is clarifying the text to allow for more than distractions, in case someone wants to do a one-level dip into it - they should still be able to pull off shenanigans. Rules are in the V5 Companion, p. 25 under "chimerstry".

Fata Morgana (••)

The vampire can craft an elaborate hallucination, making any victims in their vicinity see, hear, and feel whatever the user can devise. From seeing and tasting a takeout container filled with maggots and rice to a thunderous torrent of reeking, rancid blood boiling out of the sewers, Fata Morgana causes witnesses to experience circumstances that just aren’t real.

Fata Morgana's hallucinations can affect up to the user's Chimerstry level senses at a time (so a vampire with Chimerstry 4 may choose up to four senses to affect every time they use this power).

Cost : One Rouse Check.

Dice Pool : Manipulation + Chimerstry vs (Believability)

System : The user makes a Manipulation + Chimerstry test against a Difficulty dependant on the believability of the hallucination - it might be 1 for innocuous or expected happenings, 3 for a sudden or surprising turn of events, and 5 for the utterly unbelievable or ridiculously unlikely. The vampire must be able to perceive any would-be victims directly.

These hallucinations otherwise behave as described by the Discipline's description, and can be disbelieved as ordinary.

Duration : One scene, or until disbelieved.

First off, making it level 2 : I feel that the combined limitations of # of senses, believability and number of victims is large enough of a nerf that it could be level one, except you couldn't do a lot with it and Parlor Trick is better in line with V5's general design of 'neat trick you can pull at level one'. So it's level two. Getting the thing early is always good, give your players more tools.

Number of senses equal to Chimerstry : it's better to have a fixed number for the player to toy around with. Given that you get more niche "senses" as Chimerstry progresses, it should make for interesting choices even at Chimerstry 5.

Making it about believability : the measuring stick of "not weird / very strange / ridiculous" for Difficulty 1 / 3 / 5 makes ruling this at the table convenient. Alongside already knowing how many senses the hallucination covers it should make FM use at the table quick and easy. It's also a neat thing where some hallucinations would be easier for a vamp to believe in than for a mortal - like, say, making it appear like an explosion didn't hurt you (one sense, visual, to overlay an image over yours, and then D1 or 2 for a vamp and D4 or 5 for a mortal).

Vertigo (•••)

The character learns the particular trick of affecting the brain's interpretation of the vestibular system : the often overlooked part of our brain that tells us that up is up and down is down. Being told by your own mind that you should be falling right now is often a disorienting experience.

Dice Pools : Charisma + Chimerstry vs Composure + Wits

Cost : One Rouse check per turn

System : When using this power, a vampire must choose one of the options below :

The vampire provoques a sudden lurch in the gut of anyone they can see, as if they were falling - their sense of balance is scrambled, and while simply standing is only a matter of continuing to do so, anyone running or balancing in a precarious spot must succeed on a roll of Dexterity + Composure vs the Ravnos's Charisma + Chimerstry or immediately fall. This effect entirely bypasses the effects of the Cat's Grace Celerity Discipline, although vampires that know it gain a bonus of two dice on their roll. A character that has fallen down may spend their action getting up and moving some, but any other action may suffer a one- or two-dice penalty accordingly.

The vampire may now affect a victim's balance when using Fata Morgana, in order to (for example) make a victim feel as if they were falling along with any other sensory hallucination of such. Doing so counts as adding a sense to the Fata Morgana hallucination, and is adjudicated using Fata Morgana's rules.

The vampire continually affects a single victim's sense of balance, giving them the impression of being thrown around by some invisible, intangible hand. Any Physical roll performed by the victim that would benefit from not being subjected to that particular experience is penalized by the Chimerstry rating of the user. The effect lasts a single turn by default, but it can be prolonged by spending another action manipulating the target.

Duration : Immediate or a single turn.

So this is the opening afforded by Chimerstry being retconned into hallucinations rather than illusions (hallucinations also play better with folklore, since mind tricks have been associated with vampires in a way that illusions just haven't). Gameplay-wise it's either niche (make people fall), a boring sidegrade (more FM creative use) or a debuff. Not great overall, but let's be honest the meat of this Discipline is Fata Morgana anyway - the rest is just bonus. It's also mostly me putting down rules for the two most common uses I can see coming from this power (making people fall or otherwise fucking with them) while keeping things relatively balanced and simple (single check or dice penalty). The debuff might be too strong (it can max out to minus 5 dice), but I feel that making it take your whole action just to inconvenience somebody makes it OK. ymmv.

Turn-about (•••)

While the more dramatic manipulations of someone's sense of balance have their place, Ravnos with a more delicate touch might find their interest drifting to this discipline : while there is not, properly speaking, a "sense of orientation", careful manipulation of the vestibular system's signals can lead to much the same result than affecting such a sense would.

Dice Pools : Manipulation + Chimerstry vs Composure + Awareness

Cost : One Rouse check

System : The vampire subtly manipulates the victims' sense of orientation, making sure that they become - and remain - hopelessly lost. The character must maintain awareness of their victims' position directly : they must be able to hear, see or even smell them by their own means, and not through cameras (or some sort of science-fiction smell replicator). Victims must succeed on a roll of Composure + Awareness vs the vampire's Manipulation + Chimerstry or be endlessly turned around, no matter how familiar they may be with their surroundings.

The vampire may attempt to lead any victim to a particular spot by constantly turning them towards it : doing so may impose a one- or two-dice penalty on the vampire's roll, depending on how convoluted the way there is.

The effect lasts for a scene, during which the vampire must maintain direct awareness of their victims, as described above.

Duration : One scene.

This is just fun. The truth is that there's only two situations where this discipline can be useful : either you're isolating someone, or you need to stall a group. But like... it's just fun. It can make the Ravnos really threatening in a subtle way : even if you know you're being fucked with, you can't really do much about it except stop moving and get ready for the inevitable ambush or reinforcements. It's a really good defensive measure if nothing else, and I imagine the Ravnos have a need for those.

The Monster Inside (••••)

Some Ravnos turn their particular talents towards more tricky senses : here, proprioception. While the knowledge of that particular sense is now widely spread, the Ravnos Clan has been affecting it for centuries. Affecting someone's somatosensory system to that extent is difficult, but its effects can be impressive.

Dice Pools : Charisma + Chimerstry vs Composure + Resolve

Cost : One Rouse check.

System : While an ordinary illusion can make the target believe they are being affected by something that doesn't exist, this power allows the vampire to make someone feel as if they are something that they are not. The target must succeed on a Composure + Resolve roll against the user's Charisma + Chimerstry or suffer a penalty to any physical action they undertake for the scene equal to the difference between the two rolls, as they - for instance - reach towards a weapon with a hand that simply does not exist.

This Discipline allows the vampire to affect a victim's proprioception when using Fata Morgana, in order to (for example) make a victim feel as if they had turned into a toad along with any other sensory hallucination of such. Doing so counts as adding a sense to the Fata Morgana hallucination. It may allow the hallucination to inflict "illusory" damage, in that the subject will feel hurt but won't be otherwise affected. This effect is adjudicated by Fata Morgana's rules, and does not inflict a dice penalty as described above - the effect is found only in the victim's reaction to the hallucination.

Duration : One scene.

Another kinda boring power that only shines in the way it affects Fata Morgana. Depending on your table there might be a conversation to be had around how they feel about having a dysphoria button in play - like it seems obvious to me so I didn't put it in the rules themselves but idk your life. Clearly separating FM and the dice penalty is important to maintain flow at the table : doing otherwise will create an endless drag of "oh and then there's this bonus and this penalty and..." that grinds play to a halt. The dice penalty might be unbalanced, in which case you can just take it out. Making someone believe you just ripped out their arm or grew them a tail is powerful enough.

Hall of Mirrors (•••••)

Dice Pool : Composure + Chimerstry.

Cost : Two Rouse checks.

System : Composure + Chimerstry vs Difficulty.

As per Fata Morgana, but without some of the restrictions. The Discipline can now affect subjects that are neither perceived by the vampire nor perceiving the vampire, and the hallucination may appear to affect the surrounding reality as the user wishes.

The "illusion" can be constructed as an area of effect hallucination that grows every time someone becomes aware of the area the "illusion" exists in - it is, in effect, a disease of the mind that is transmitted by becoming aware of the area the "illusion" covers.

Hall of Mirrors otherwise functions exactly like Fata Morgana does.

The vampire can maintain the "illusion" for a number of turns equal to their margin of success on a Composure + Chimerstry roll against a Difficulty determined by the believability of the events, after which the illusion falls apart. Every victim must be perceiving the same thing.

Remember that this is still a hallucination : none of this is really happening, and it may not cause the impossible. Utterly unbelievable events (not falling despite the ground disappearing, bumping into an object that you saw being washed away...) may still cause a victim to realize what is happening.

Duration : One turn per success (I recommend just making a pile of the dice showing a success and taking one out of the pile each turn).

Heck yeah. Become the master of their reality. So this is once again incredibly broken, with the limiting factors here being time and "disbelief". But hey, I've stated before that I'm fine with level 5 powers being very (too ?) strong. Victims still roll to disbelieve, so... feels fine to me. Another win for the "just remove limiters lol" school of design.

Final thoughts : a resounding "meh". So much text to read. Seven variants on "and they get a dice penalty". The only really fun power is Turn-about. That's the risk you take when you make something with the sheer versatility of "illusion spell", I suppose. Once again : not playtested, run at your own risks. If anyone ever plays using one of those I'd love to learn how it went.

You can find vicissitude and dementation here.

#vampire the masquerade #v:tm #vtm v5 #vtm v5 homebrew #vtm v5 chimerstry #these are untested btw #“chimerstry” is such a fucking pain to write btw

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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i love ur v5 discipline rewrites and im begging on my hands a knees for you to try ur hand at writing chimerstry for v5. -the only v5 ravnos player in the year 2023

thank you <3

Chimerstry's coming, it's just a really hard one to do. I don't want to just nerf it by a thousand cuts so to speak, becuse that's a lot of text to read to play a vampire illusionist, but it's hard to make a short illusion spell that both allow for creativity and doesn't break the game on its kness

I have a couple of idea I think you're gonna like though

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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1 & 2) Yep ! Most animals get freaked out by kindreds, 'cause they're corpses walking around and also very wrong in a way most animals can sense. In most editions you need Animalism, wich is a vampire power that lets you control animals, and a couple of Clans get that power "at (re)birth" (Gangrel included). But any vamp can learn.

In V5 you only need like, a point in a Skill called Animal Ken to have animals not freak out, but any vampire who gives a shit about not freaking out animals is probably gonna invest into the Animalism powers too so eh. Same difference.

3) Nope ! But all nosferatu look clearly inhuman, so they generally can't hide in plain sight by going in nightclubs and shit. The sewers are the cliché solution to that, but like they can go live anywhere people won't see them. Like in catacombs and stuff - if there is a single V:tM game set in Paris who doesn't have the Nosferatu hiding out in the catacombs I'll eat something tasty. Or you know, they can wear full-body, very ample clothing. Whatever works. But sewers are the default, easy answer to the common nosferatu problem of "I need to hide from all of humanity RIGHT NOW".

4) There are vampires basically everywhere there's humans. Except maybe in the places where the sun doesn't set for like, months, but even there there's probably an old vamp sleeping for decades or something.

Also as a general thing : Vampire the masquerade's lore is very large and sometimes very dumb (approving) and sometimes outrageously stupid (derogatory). It's also meant to be ignored or indulged in at your leisure. So like

You really shouldn't give a fuck about it if you don't want to, and you really shoudn't blow like 50 bucks or some bullshit on it if you're only curious about the lore and won't care about or use the rules.

yo if there are some cool people who are willing to talk about vtm

i’m very new and don’t have the source book yet, but I have some (maybe silly but simple) questions like -

besides gangrel - can other clans be in tune with animals?

or do animals like sense what kindred are and avoid them?

do all nosferatu gotta live in the sewers? can they reside elsewhere?

are there clans outside L.A? (my knowledge so far comes from a little bit of bloodlines and L.A. by night)

that’s all for now, thnx

#happy to spew lore about it all day though #I don't know how replying to people works on tmblr did i do the thing right ?

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elrhinochtone · 1 year

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Vicissitude standalone Discipline for V:tM V5

Again, love v5, except how entire Disciplines were subsumed into like, two amalgams. So I'm making my own. I did Dementation, here's Vicissitude.

Notes are in Italics, so you can dodge them while copy-pasting into your docs. I'll be making Tzimisce use Animalism / Dominate / Vicissitude because I feel Dominate works better thematically (the V5 designers just keep on giving) but you can swap it for Auspex if you really want to go back to the old way the clan worked (you shouldn't, V5 was right about this). If you wanna do something with Dracula's bloodline just swap out Vicissitude for Protean.

The obvious first step is to take out the Vicissitude 'tree' from the V5 Companion (p. 27-28) from Protean and make them into their own Discipline. You'll need to strike out One With the Land (•••••), because as cool as it is you can't really make it work since Tzimisce don't have access to Protean anymore (I mean they could bargain for it, but at that point you should really just let your players research their own Amalgams, because that's a cool thing to let your players do).

So now all we're missing are some • and ••••• powers, which is easy enough to do.

Malleable Visage (•)

A vampire with this power may alter their own bodily parameters : height, build, voice, facial features, and skin tone, among other things. Such changes are cosmetic and minor in scope — no more than a foot (30 cm) of height gained or lost, for example. They must physically mold the alteration, literally shaping their flesh into the desired result. Dice Pool : Resolve + Vicissitude Cost : One Rouse Check System : The user can change their appearance, either for the sake of hiding their identity, enhancing their Looks Merit, or to mimic someone else. Roll Resolve + Vicissitude. Every success on the roll allows a single cosmetic change to be made to the user. This is a time-consuming affair, taking an entire scene to perform, and requires a Dexterity + Craft test in order to succeed. Difficulty is 2 to hide one’s identity, 3 to increase Looks (each level of the Merit counts as one change and increases the Difficulty by 2) and 5 to mimic a specific person. A failure on the test yields no result while a total failure causes the Looks Merit to drop one level, potentially turning into a Flaw if at baseline. Nosferatu are unable to benefit from this power. Duration : Permanent.

Yes this is supposed to be part of the Vicissitude •• power. But like... why though. Taking it out to give it early changes nothing substantial, it makes sense as an early application, and maintains V5's throughline of • powers being nice-to-haves, if not really powerful. It's just a good solution. Yes this is just me making excuses for it being very very boring, leave me alone.

Vicissitude is now called Shape the Vessel and doesn't include the 'Appearance' option because it's covered by Malleable Visage.

I'd give you a write-up of what that looks like but at that point I would just be copy-pasting from the book which is, you know, a crime - and more importantly, kinda dickish to the people who spent time working on this. By the way, those people are named Justin Achilli, Alison Cybe, Erykah Fassett, and Karim Muammar. This post already spends a lot of time reproducing part of their rules, so I thought it was important to have their names in there.

Fleshcrafting stays exactly the same.

Actually now it kinda feels like they had a complete Vicissitude discipline ready to go but chose to convert it into Amalgams (probably a good decision since it's one of V5's big design commitments). But fear not ! We now come to some actual original Content !

Subsume the Flesh (•••)

Through perfect mastery over the body, a vampire may take the flesh of another onto themselves. Perhaps the most sought-after Discipline by Tzimisce eager to increase their own power, the secret of this Discipline is carefully guarded by the elders of the Clan, who know to fear the ambitions of their lessers. While an independant vampire might stumble into such secrets by themselves, they should fear the reaction of their betters, should they learn of it. Dice Pool : Resolve + Vicissitude vs Stamina + Resolve Cost : Two Rouse checks. System : In order to use this power, the user must be able to work undisturbed on the subject, who thus either needs to be willing or restrained. An unwilling subject can resist with their Stamina + Resolve, with the user’s margin counting as Vicissitude successes. Each use of this power takes a full scene to perform. Each success allows the vampire to graft the flesh of another onto themselves, allowing them "free" Shape the Vessel charges, up to half their Vicissitude rating (round up). The change does not cost them an Attribute dot, as it is performed with the flesh (and cartilage, fat, bones…) of another. Again, the total number of Shape the Vessel changes cannot exceed the vampire’s Vicissitude rating. Each 'charge' thus taken inflicts 3 aggravated damage to the victim, alongside the loss of a Physical Attribute dot, and can never be healed. Should the victim perish at any point, the flesh the vampire took dies with them, and any changes made are lost (yes, the Embrace counts as death). A vampire who posesses both Fleshcrafting and Subsume the Flesh may use them to return any stolen flesh to the subject, or transfer it between two different victims. Duration : Until the death of the subject.

So you know how the book had those awesome Vozhd thingies ? They're made by grafting multiple victims together, and I felt like making it a power was probably necessary. And that power implies the ability to make 'grafts', so here we are. As written a PC would probably have to grab Fleshcrafting when they hit Vicissitude 3, then Subsume the Flesh at 4 *and then* Desecrate the Temple at 5 to make some, which to me feels like an appropriate level of commitment to create monstrous horrors from people. It also creates two big 'trees' in the Discipline, by either going that route or taking Subsume the Flesh at 3 and Horrid Form at 4 instead, and try to make *yourself* into a monstrous horror. So if for some forsaken reason you go for having two Tzimisce fleshcrafting players at the same table, they can distinguish themselves ! Yayyy ! There's probably some concern to be had about a player using this to become a combat monster, but uhhhh... You're playing Vampire. Like... this should not be a concern. Fights are either laughably easy (against mortals), a genuine risk (in which case having only one player be invulnerable is not a problem) or straight up impossible (in which case it doesn't matter how good you are at combat, the Elder wins, fuck you).

Horrid Form stays mostly the same, with one change : the player now has to use Shape the Vessel (and potentially Subsume the Flesh) to 'prepare' their form, and the power just unleashes it.

I prefer it that way because it builds in some limitation and forethought into the power (you can't just grow wings at the drop of a hat, you have to prepare for it) and limits how long it takes to use that power at the table : if a player uses Horrid Form, then shit is going down, and the last thing you want is for them to spend three minutes juggling Attribute points and counting possible changes like pennies. That way they'll have their Form all prepared and ready to go, and they can just pop it and keep going without interrupting combat.

Desecrate the Temple (•••••)

This terrifying power finally allows the Cainite absolute mastery over their own body : no limits may not be broken, no doors may be barred, no thresholds cannot be crossed in their pursuit of perfection. Dice Pools : None. Cost : Add one Rouse check to the power's cost. System : By making an additional Rouse check, the vampire may now reduce an Attribute to 0 while using Shape the Vessel, Fleshcrafting, Subsume the Flesh and Horrid Form. A subject with an attribute of 0 is incapable of movement (or indeed much of anything), and mortals must be put in intensive care if they want to have any hope to survive (Intelligence + Medicine extended check of 20 per day, with a roll every six hours, in a fully equipped hospital). Outlandish changes such as a network of skin and exposed nerve spread over a Haven are now in the realm of the possible, so long as a subject's vital organs are preserved (in kindred, the only such organ is the heart). Such projects are created with extended checks of both Intelligence + Medecine and Dexterity + Craft, and may require numerous test subjects before one survives the procedure - and some, like the terrifying Vozhd, may only be created by reducing a "donor" 's Attributes to 0. Consider if the desired change would require more bones, flesh or muscles than a single subject could reasonably provide : if it would, then reducing an Attribute to 0 is necessary. The total number of Vicissitude changes made to a subject may still not surpass the vampire's Vicissitude rating, unless such changes are made using a subject's last Attribute point (in which case the user may add up to 3 "free" changes, as per Subsume the Flesh). How many charges it takes to turn a child into a chair is up to the referee's discretion. Duration : Passive.

When trying to make something powerful, always consider simply removing limitations from something middling. This is... probably broken ? But like, Dominate 5 allows you to control an entire room full of mortals, or commit public masquerade breaches and have the whole street forget about it. So y'know. It's also clunky and involves too much bean-counting to my liking, but eh. I'd just have a player discuss their horrifying experiments with me outside of play sessions, so we can hammer out the rules before they roll for the attempt at the table.

To conclude : this is probably not my best work, and it certainly isn't on par with V5's stuff, but it'll do. You can hammer out kinks as they come up, and I won't get the chance to playtest this in the foreseeable future, so this is the best you're going to get.

I think I'll probably go for Chimerstry next, to celebrate the fact that the ravnos are no longer based on some nazi's carricature of roma people. It's probably not perfect, but it's certainly much better. It's done !

#vampire the masquerade #v:tm #vtm v5 #vtm v5 homebrew #vtm v5 vicissitude #these are untested btw

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