I would like to move Into The Spider-Verse.

Haul

Have now confirmed that my Ant-Man And The Wasp and Star Trek Discovery discs work, as did the Neil Gaiman book and the box of chocolates. Had to test the latter very thoroughly.

I had a nice quiet Christmas (so far anyway) though it feels like at least two years since the last one.

Happy applicable holiday!

Happy applicable holiday! If none apply, Doctor Who is next week.

Didi 10

Demon cult defeated. I used coincidental magic to be at the right door to trip the evil wizard as he tried to escape the righteous Akashic beatdown.

Also, an unhelpful contact was threatened with infertility through hexing.

So yes, THE WORST.

My work here is done.

'Tis now the totally bitchin' time of night

Last Mage session (for now?) tomorrow, so I may have to go all out and steal someone's boyfriend or diss someone's hair.

Didi 9

This week, we investigated the big boss demon thingy.

Didi 8

This week:

Not pictured, the Ecstatic she drank under that table.

Did I mention she was THE WORST?

Didi 7

This week Didi was supportive and only mildly snarky with Cara the lovely Akashic.

But she was extremely cutting with some cultists so I feel it balances.

Didi 6

Tonight, we went into battle. and our hero stomped on a guy's foot with a high heel and then fell over as he pulled it away.

"Ya weren't expecting that, huh?!"

Yeesh.

Happy Bloodlines night!

Didi 5

Up to now, our hero has run entirely on normal abilities and coincidental magic, being a distraction and/or irritant to the various bad guys (demon cultists, security for a sinister occult collector, various other idiots trying to recover a world-threatening artefact) but this time out I actually had to do a thing.

So her paradigm is based on uncertainty and distraction, like magic tricks (and picking pockets, but that's totally beside the point, ahem) so I've made her good at nudging vulgar magic to vulgar without witnesses if she can't make it full-on coincidental. "I bet if you hit the door just right you can get the hinges to pop out." She mostly uses her "I'm a wiiiiitch!" shtick to scare people in the know.

Didi 4

WORSTNESS INTENSIFIES

Added much insult to various demon cultists' injuries after our Akashic friend demolished them.

I'm sure some of the still conscious were deeply chastened by my words.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, or as I call it, Us Day.

Didi 3

Was I THE WORST some more? YES.

I distracted some guards with a technique learned from Claudia Welles involving inappropriate popsicle eating.

Possible Didi background

Thanks be unto Reuel

"How do I set an alert again?"
"Damn it, Covenmom..."

Bad Times At The El Royale

Bad Times At The El Royale was more straight-up noirish and less comedy-noirish than I'd been expecting. Although it didn't skimp on shirtless Thor.

Didi week 2

Operation: Being THE WORST continues.

On needing to summon and question a demon: "We could go down to the crossroads with a guitar and offer him your soul?"

Didi Duvall

Achievement unlocked:

Didi is indeed THE WORST.

"I'm trying to be supportive and not take off my shoe and throw it at you. Because these shoes were really expensive."

"Yes I have a poster of The Craft on my wall, what is your point?"

The Hermetic occult scholar, Ecstatic DJ, Adept hacker and Akashic warrior must be so pleased.

Being just a player for the next few months feels weird.

Introducing Didi. She is the worst.

Vital Mage: The Ascension news:

Since someone else has chosen to be all heroic, I have decided to be a terrible sidekick.

I will at some point be reacting to a plan like this.

Or this.

Maybe also like this.

Possibly even this.

I will probably give her nice moments too. Probably.

Sometimes.

Gaming this autumn...

I'm playing Mage: The Ascension.

YES I'M A HOLLOW ONE

YES I HAVE A BLACK CAT

IT IS OCTOBER

MY TIME OF POWER

BATS!

Sins & Laments

An interview with Claudia Welles, an artifact of New Bremen from 2002. Thanks to Jonathan for hosting... for over fifteen years. :D

She saves the world a lot.

The last issue of Buffy from Dark Horse Comics came out today. I'm dealing.

L.A. By Night

The V5 game L.A. By Night on Geek & Sundry started on Friday night (Saturday morning here) and went well. Having just one newly-Embraced PC was a good move. (Helped by being a proper acting freakout!)

Not sure I'll stay up till 7 a.m. for every episode live though - depends how quickly it's available to catch up.

Helped as a TV-kinda-thing by everybody looking the part, which you can't always arrange in RPGs, even LARP. If you can get a monster actor as your Nosferatu, go for it!

Candyman

Candyman
Candyman
C- okay, I'll stop that.

I'm okay with the possibility of a remake, or a reboot, or whatever, and Jordan Peele would do it well - assuming it isn't a Guillermo Del Toro situation where he's attached to eight billion things.

Game plans for the academic year

Today I got an email asking what I'm GMing this academic year, and ran into someone from the games society who asked the same thing... and apparently we don't have any rooms booked.

So, uh... something I can run in the cafe I guess.

What would New Bremen V5 be like?

They'd have to figure out how to track Hunger for lots of people. And decide on the Chronicle Tenets and Convictions. And how NPC Touchstones work. And You Are What You Eat. And...

Okay, it would be a lot of work.

But hey, we never really made Blood pool work reliably in the old chat, right?

And it would be fun to see, for example, the mess that the Tremere are in develop night to night, with loyalists on the Camarilla side and House Carna in with the anarchs for example.

It would have a new prince, again, obviously.

Sitewide messages for graffiti tags?

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

I'll probably run V5 some time. Because I like VTR2 and it's learned a lot from it.

Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, Thin-Bloods.

The Disciplines and clan weaknesses have gotten quite a bit of tweaking as well as the new dice measurements and the Hunger system. (The hungrier you are, the worse your clan weakness is - Ventrue can feed on anyone, but feeding outside their preference is harder the hungrier they are.)

The Tremere have changed weakness again, as part of getting metaplotted upside the head.

The game is focused on Camarilla and anarchs for now, with the Sabbat off to the side and the independents seemingly falling in the cracks.

And hey, if there's a chat...

Although I imagine Hunger would be a pain to implement. (But then again, Blood Pool was pretty much dependent on the honor system in old New Bremen...)

The Crow: Memento Mori

The Crow: Memento Mori is all out now. The first series in a while, and the first I've picked up since Skinning The Wolves, the one James O'Barr plotted a few years back. After that one went with someone bearing the marks of his death, this goes back to the shirtless guy with dramatic makeup.

And, oh, it's about terrorism. And the reason behind it is, well, it's a twist certainly.

It's pretty. It's pretty vacant, and we don't care.

So it keeps up the "the original was great because it came from the creator's life, and the first film works because it put that weight into it, and nothing else stands up" tradition. So, there's that.

BOOM

Many V5 previews. All sound interesting. Have to stop reading on my computer because of thunder and lightning overhead.

Birthday!

Pizza, banoffee pie, and Black Panther and Luke Cage on Blu-Ray. Noice.

V5 Preview

VtM 5, 27 pages out of 400+. Free on the worldofdarkness site.

Toreador are distracted by ugliness instead of beauty, Celerity has dot-specific powers, vampires have Touchstones (which are narrower here than in Requiem 2, specifying them as mortals) and Theo Bell killed Hardestadt. Good for him.

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer (and producers and surprise guest Denis O'Hare) were charming as you'd hope.

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For: Ten

Vampire: The Requiem

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Ten: You're the only thing worth dying for

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine 

Sarah found Daniel's sire at the cafe.

"Did you know I was looking for you?"
"I thought you might be."
"Where is he?"
"Looking for Matthew. Trying to keep you safe."
"Then why aren't you helping him?"
"I am. You're safe here with me."
"But Matthew could - "
"Yes, he could."
"So, what. he's gonna go and die for some macho bullshit?"

The older woman - how much older? - studied her for a moment, a brightness in her eyes.

"You'll find Matthew at the old medical school. You best hurry."

...

The medical school had been used for storage since they built its replacement in the 1940s. As Sarah approached, she reflected that it would be the perfect place for something like Matthew to hide out near campus.

Daniel sat watching from the rooftop of the old quad tower, across the way. He stood up as she pulled her car to a stop, and clambered down the fire escape one floor at a time. 

"He's inside. You should go."
"I'm not leaving you."

He paused, looking into her eyes, and then nodded.

"Do you have the spray? Keep it ready."
"Actually, I have an idea about that. He really doesn't understand the modern world very well, does he?"

...

Daniel pulled open a goods door at the side of the building, one he knew Matthew used, and walked into the dark halls.

"So now you think you can challenge me on my own domain." 

Matthew dropped from the ceiling behind him. He spun around, bringing up the spray and blasting it into Matthew's eyes. 

Nearly blinded, he ran after Daniel - and was just starting to turn as he heard the engine as Sarah slammed her car into him, pinning him against the wall.

Her airbag went off, hitting her in the face.

Matthew clawed at the hood of the car as she ground the gears up. Something more cracked, his legs gave way and he slumped over, skin peeling and cracking, collapsing to bone and dust before her eyes.

Sarah went to open the driver's door, found it was wedged. Daniel came over and tore it open, helping her out.

He saw her bleeding nose and cut lip... shivered for a second... and gave her a handkerchief.

She saw that hesitation, and then smiled as she took it.

The End

Alice Glass

Therese Voerman has a new band? ;)

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For: Nine

Vampire: The Requiem

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Nine: We're still aching for tomorrow

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight

Daniel broke the kiss, looking into Sarah's eyes as she opened them. She saw longing, and pain, even as he smiled slightly 

"Don't go," she said softly, raising a hand to his cool cheek, keeping his lips close to hers.

"I can't be what you want. I can't be what I want."

"So be what you can." And she pressed her lips to his again. This time he held the kiss.

They agreed to meet the next evening.

Mentioning this to Caitlyn and Gemma the next day, Caitlyn insisted on being there.

It was a minute before he was due that he called, to say he couldn't make it.

"Has something come up?"

"I'm being followed. Stay there, or go somewhere else that's public."

"I can help. I've still got that spray..."

"I don't want to put you in danger."

"I don't particularly want that either."

"I'll call tomorrow, if it's safe."

He didn't call the next night...

She went to find his sire.

World Of Darkness Challenge 2018

From the Facebooks and Twitters:

250 posts!

... And no game session to talk about.

Solo

Solo: A Star Wars Story was pretty fun.

Girls' Middle School D&D Club

The Girls Middle School D&D Club is the best.

"D&D Club has expanded into a D&D elective class and an upcoming summer camp for these passionate girls."

Summer

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For is more off than on (when you have two players that'll happen) and V5 arrives in August, so in the meantime should I run or play something that isn't about vampires? That seems weird.

Storytellers Vault: Minds Eye Theatre

Hmm.

We will deep fry your kebab

Avengers: Infinity War gets Edinburgh's geography better than Trainspotting.

A short review

The twist in Ghost Stories was probably clever when done with theatrical effects.

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For: Eight

Vampire: The Requiem

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Eight: We're still waiting for tomorrow

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six 
Seven 

Daniel's sire stepped into the light.

"What do you want?"
"I came to warn you. Daniel... feels very deeply. That was what first drew me to him. And what drove him away."
"You're saying I shouldn't see him?"
"He is what he is, you are what you are. There is no way back for him... would you want to be like he is?"
"Seems like he doesn't want it either."
"So it seems, yes." The woman smiled sadly.
"Why did you do this to him?"
"He was kind and brave, and I thought he would not miss the day like he does."

With that, she stepped away, gone into the dark.

...

Caitlyn and Gemma took Sarah out the next day, food and some drinks, believing she was suddenly single and in need of a good time. She was somewhat cheered, but not as much as they'd planned.

"So, seriously, mopey unreliable boy. Where is that going? Because the mopey is clearly contagious."
"I... I don't know."
"Welp. At least that's an honest answer."

...

She called to meet him at the cafe the next night. He was there when she arrived, reading a new book bought to make up for his lack of drinking coffee. He was already standing as she saw him, like he spotted her first... perhaps he caught her scent.

"Your, uh... maker came to see me."
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, she... wanted to warn me. About you."
"What did she say?"

She moved in and kissed him.

The Forgotten: Sixteen

Colds and snow delayed this final session, but here goes...

Samuel grabs Carlin's coat collar and it bursts into flames under his hands. Carlin snarls and struggles to get away, giving the group a chance to run past him.

Jones signals for Samuel to get back, and slashes Carlin's throat with his fingernails.

"Keep moving! He wasn't alone!" Davis calls back to them as they linger.

"How right you are." Elise steps out of the dark, red eyes catching the dim light.

Jessica steps forward, with a can of hairspray and a cigarette lighter.

Elise burns.

Jessica looks horrified by what she just did as Elise runs, shrieking.

"This is too much. We have to get out of here." David leads the way to the next manhole.

Up above, they can hear the crack of gunfire in the distance.

"Are the police gonna come?" Jessica asks.
"Out here?" Mia shakes her head.

Jones heads toward the sound of fighting. Mia calls after him, but he doesn't look back.

David starts ushering Jessica away.

"Are you coming with me?"
"No. We... I can't let any of them win."

Jessica starts to nod, visibly scared and shaken.

"We'll go," Mia says, looking to Samuel, who nods in agreement.

And they go their separate ways.

...

Ending on the decision rather than the fight seemed like the right way to go.

The Night In Question

A big one-night immersive Vampire: The Masquerade LARP. In Texas, The Night In Question isn't exactly handy for me, unfortunately. But it looks preeeeetty cool.

London Kills Me. And You. And You.

Grim London, an interactive map of hauntings, murders, mysteries and more.

The Forgotten: Fifteen

Vampires and their human and ghoul supporters on both sides, and the coterie stuck in the middle.

Jones grabs a manhole, wrenches it out, and gestures for the others to get in.

Heading into the storm drains cuts off their pursuers - but the sudden rush of rats giving chase suggests someone using Animalism to get them out of the way. David puts himself between them and Jessica, and Mia joins him. She takes his hand as they run.

They run on through the dark.

"Where are we going?" Jessica asks, stopping to draw a breath, aware that none of the others need to.
"We have to get you safe," David says.
"Is anywhere safe?" she replies.

Up ahead, Jones hears movement. He sniffs the air, and a red glow burns in his pupils.

"Running from an attack on our prince. Disloyal." Carlin shakes his head. "Like your sire."

Samuel tenses defensively.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give you a telling off. Run all you like."
"You're in on it."
"They needed someone to help bring them in."
"And my sire?"
"Please. Your sire killed you, made you this."

Samuel lunges at him.

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For: Seven

Vampire: The Requiem

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Seven: Love me for what I said that I would not become

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six 

Sarah moved over to where Daniel stood. He looked like he might leave, but decided against it.

"I thought I might never see you again."
"I had to make sure you were safe."
"Another...?" she hesitated to say the word vampire.
He nodded. "Matthew. I want to make sure he won't come after you."
"And you don't mean a stern talking to, do you?"

He grimaced, and nodded.

"If you're gonna fight him... does it have to be a fair fight?"

At which point Caitlyn came over, putting a protective arm around Sarah's shoulders.

"I should... I'll call. Soon." He stepped away.

Caitlyn took Sarah's hand and led her back to their table.

"Okay, I don't wanna say that guy's trouble, but..."

Sarah could just nod, glancing at the space where he had been.

...

He did call, that night, leaving a message before she got home.

"I've left something for you. It'll drive one of us off. I'll let you decide who to use it on."

She opened the small parcel to find a pepper spray that smelt faintly of garlic.

...

She had it in her bag the next night, coming back from a late class, when she felt someone might be following her...

The Forgotten: Fourteen

Jones stops the stranger before she can beat Mac into torpor. He claws at her, she returns the favour. It's all a question of who falls first.

Until Jessica arrives and hits her with her car.

...

They manage to rouse her from torpor with plenty of pig blood, pelvis still broken and chained up in the boiler room of a boarded-up apartment building.

She gives them a name, Elise, and not much else.

"What do you plan to do with me? Trade me to my brood? In exchange for what?"
"Call off the assault," David says.
"Feh. This city is ours by right. If you really want peace, you'll stand aside and let us bring Barrett and his circle down."
"And kill anyone who gets in your way?"
"You are children."

Mia leads David away.

"What do we do with her? Will any of them be more reasonable?"
"I kinda doubt it. But we have to try."

...

They let Elise heal and she makes a call, and they leave her in the trunk of a car in a lot for her brood to retrieve her.

And as they head away, they see Barrett's people coming.

Trinity Continuum

Kickstarter is up, and funded!

The Forgotten: Thirteen

Mac jumps down to join David and Samuel.

"So, you can see their faces. Can you find them? Because they don't live after this."

Samuel nods, and starts looking through the building for more details.

...

David gathers together those affected by the unknown elders. Lake's gang, Grey, Danton, Mia's sire Elena and 'brother' Sean.

"There's a war coming. Barrett took this city years ago, some of the old prince's brood made it out, now they think they can walk back in, they don't care who gets in their way."

Plans are made.

...

Jones finds the stranger. Mac comes to back him up.

"Considered my offer?"
"Yeah. How about a counter offer. Get out of town."

She considers this for a moment, then snorts derisively.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Mac says, and charges her. She takes his hits and barely stumbles, then throws him into the wall.

"You are children."

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For: Six

Vampire: The Requiem

You're The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Six: Can you love me for what I've become?

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

They held hands for a moment, and then she moved in, her other hand moving to his neck to help pull him closer and into a kiss. His lips were only slightly warm, and his hands were cool as he moved them up to hold her, but that didn't stop her.

Finally, he broke away, shamefaced.

"I can't - we shouldn't - "
"Why not?" she demanded.
"I'm a monster."
"No." She shook her head once, and reached up to caress his face.
"I'm not safe to be with. My life is dangerous."
"I'm in your life already."

He looked at her, struck with guilt at the danger he'd put her in.

"I should go."

But her hand slipped to his as he put it down on the table to push himself up, and he paused, and looked into her eyes. And she moved close and they were kissing again.

She rose with him as he stood, and clung to his arm as he finally pulled away.

She followed him out, but he was gone, vanished into the darkness.

...

She looked for him the next night, called and left messages, but there was no sign of him.

...

Caitlyn and Gemma picked her up the night after, taking her out in an attempt to get her to remember how to smile.

"I've never met anyone like him..."
"Ghosts when he gets cold feet, never calls back?" Caitlyn tutted. "I've met plenty like him."

And then at the corner of her eye, she saw him...

The Forgotten: Twelve

Danni gets up, shakily. David and Jessica go to help her.

"We have to tell the others. Everybody."

They call Jones, Samuel and Mia, and agree to meet at that twenty-four cafe near the university.

Danni explains what happened. Including pointing out that they could have killed her.

Jones mentions the stranger and her offer. Mia tells the group about Danton.

Samuel asks if he can try and see Danni's memories. She's understandably wary, but lets him proceed.

And he recognizes the same lean, dark-eyed vampire who killed his sire.

"So what do we do with this? Who do we tell?" Jessica asks.
"We tell the people we care about," Mia says.

The group breaks up.

...

Jessica calls her mother, relieved when she gets a response.

Mia calls Elena... and Danton.

Samuel leaves a message for Carlin, and another for Broughton.

David helps Danni get out of town.
"You seem like a smart guy. You should be getting out too."
"I have people relying on me."
"That's not a good place to be. For them or for you."

...

Samuel and David break into the Vault so they can both look around in their own ways.

Samuel is quickly drawn to Lake and his gang's usual table. "This is where he died. They just... smashed his skull against the floor."

David looks up and sees... someone watching.

Mac.

Ursula K. Le Guin

"I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth."
The Left Hand Of Darkness

The Forgotten: Eleven

So... there's a group conspiring against the Prince. Or at least so they claim. They're kicking up a conflict with the anarchs to make him look weak and perhaps pick off some of his followers. Or so they claim.

The Forgotten has a double meaning.

This is as well as the vampires of Lawrence, who want to overthrow the Prince, and then take over as well. And the anarchs, who want to overthrow the Prince anyway.

...

Jones looks skeptical. "So why tell me?"
The stranger shrugs with her eyebrows. "You don't seem to care much one way or the other."
"Maybe not. But if you start a war, people I do care about get hurt."
"Then take them to safety."
"So you have one less enemy when it hits?"
"Yes."

The vampire lying at his feet stirs and starts to rise, growling under his breath.

"And I'm supposed to take your word for that..." Jones notes as he starts to back away.
"If you like."
"So who's in charge?"
"Oh, no-one you've met, if that's what you were thinking."

...

Samuel and Carlin move through the boarded-up house warily, Samuel heading down to the basement. He hesitates, then places a hand on the floor, still stained with old blood.

He sees a memory of his sire fighting an unknown vampire, gets a clear view of his face. Hard lines, dark eyes.

...

Mia looks for Danton around the Rack. She finds him in a club, and he gestures for her to join him on the dance floor.

"So... you're working with Stewart, in Lawrence."
"I am. I hope that doesn't make us enemies."
"Not yet. He agreed to hold off for now."
"Good. I'd much rather we were... friends. Or would that earn me an enemy in David?"

...

David and Jessica go to check on Danni, awake from torpor and recovering in a rowhouse that's been for sale over a year.

"They weren't from Lawrence. I didn't recognize any of them. But they were... I think they were old. They had that look, like they hadn't made themselves warm in so long, you know?"
"Like we don't have enough problems..." David mutters.
"Blood in the water..." Danni says quietly.

Happy new year!