Seeing people

People, sitting together, sharing food, not buffering at any point. It was weird. But nice.

CHVRCHES, Screen Violence

CHVRCHES, new album, kind of angry, bit spooky.

Inaugural gig held in the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. C-bomb and all, because we're like that as a people. Part 1, part 2.

What We Do In The Shadows season 3

What We Do In The Shadows season 3 features a common event in every Vampire LARP, the PCs end up as the Primogen by accident.

J: And they're almost always horrible at it

Me: With ten episodes in each season, they'll probably be there longer than most PCs in positions of power.

#RPGaDAY2021

#RPGaDAY2021 prompts for talking about RPGs throughout August.

1: SCENARIO

I hardly ever use published adventures, partially because I hardly ever run games that have many.

2: MAP

If I provide a map for a location, I expect that location to be A Very Big Deal.

3: TACTIC

In a fight I'm much more likely to go for cool than effective. I do my best to tell players this in advance.

4: WEAPON

I like a magic sword, but the most effective weapon I used in my last game was a well-aimed high heel stomp.

5: THRONE

I have actively avoided becoming Prince or taking another title in various Vampire games. Maybe in a game where that was the idea, but definitely not in a game with a big player group like a LARP or chat. Too much pressure and too many assassination attempts.

6: FLAVOUR

Like a recipe, my game will be different than yours, and a game with the same GM will feel different with different groups of players too.

7: SMALL

One of the nice things about really large RPGs like chats is that you can play small side things. New Bremen is the only place I've gotten to use Mummy: The Resurrection, let alone play a high school kid in the World Of Darkness.

8: STREAM

I imagine you could talk about small rivers here, but... … See more

9: MEDIUM

Tabletop, distanced tabletop, LARP, chat, PBP, they all have advantages and disadvantages. My love for New Bremen comes in part from how it encouraged personal stories advancing on a nightly basis.

10: TRUST

You don't have to trust the other player characters, in some games you really shouldn't. You should be able to trust the other players to have an enjoyable game though.

11: WILDERNESS

I don't run or play a lot of wilderness adventures, more a fantasy thing than my usual genres.

12: THINK

It's always nice to think of something and have it work. Sometimes you have to consider if your PC would think of it though. Perhaps you can pass an idea to the player of a more suitable PC, which is easier in games where you can break character to do so.

13: FLOOD

I haven't played some games in my collection that now have new editions.

14: SAFETY

RPG safety tools are a really positive addition to gaming, and not just for making some people it's best not to play with tell on themselves.

15: SUPPLEMENT

There are some great RPG supplements out there, and electronic publishing means they don't all have to hit a specific page count.

16: MOVE

I loved this little bit of worldbuilding in the pilot for Buffy.… See more

17: TRAP

Technically it's an ambush, Admiral.

18: WRITE

Playing by text feels very different than face to face. Even live chat lets you consider word choice. It also helps with typing speed!

19: THEME

It's good to discuss intended themes in an RPG, especially a big one that doesn't have a narrow theme built in.

20: FOUNDATION

RPGs are good for socialisation, confidence, arithmetic, problem-solving, spelling, and usually mythology and the like.

21: SIMPLICITY

I like RPG systems that I can, y'know, understand.

22: SUBSTITUTE

Using a different system than published will result in a different feel. Which may well be the point of doing so.

23: MEMORY

I have fond memories of games from decades ago. (Hello New Bremennnnn!)

24: TRANSLATE

Moving from tabletop to chat, PBP or LARP is like translating stories, not just technical writing. What works in the new style?

25: WELCOME

I try to be welcoming to new players and not drown them in lore and jargon. I may not always succeed.

26: THEORY

The Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist theory works as shorthand and in short pitches, but as Eddy Webb notes in his "Your Game Sucks" presentation people move around.

27: FRACTION

Being a small part of a big game feels different than being the players in a small game. The sense that the world really isn't all about you fits some games, not others.

28: SOLO

One-on-one and small groups can make for the best dramatic play. Of course it depends on players being available.

29: SYSTEM

If the character sheet is more than one sheet that's a no-no.

30: MENTION

Always nice to see somebody refer to me regarding gaming.

30: THANK

Thank you to GMs, players, writers, artists, publishers and all.

A promise or a threat

If our Mage game returns and we do a beach episode, Didi Duvall, in her duty as THE WORST, will totally get a Tarot Hawaiian shirt.

Tanith on Hero Forge

Hero Forge has added decals to its color options, for skin coloration, makeup, hair streaks, blood and other splatters... and, yes, for crying and streaking your makeup.

Cloak & Dagger

All through Cloak & Dagger (except their appearance in Runaways, which I should probably get to next rather than watching the third-last episode in isolation). Aww.

Birthday!

The Invisible Man (2020) on DVD, Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, also pizza and cupcakes.

Vampire: The Masquerade 30th Anniversary

Hello to the friends I made in this dark corner of the world.

This year, Vampire: The Masquerade is celebrating its 30th anniversary! Let's celebrate with some nostalgia - whether you're here with us for a few weeks or over a decade, tell us:

1. When have you heard about VTM for the first time?

2. What's your most fond memory connected to VTM?

3. Have you met anyone special through VTM?

Raise your blood bags for 30 years more!

World Of Darkness Facebook

1. Adverts for the first edition. In magazines. In print!

2. Little human moments in all the horror, like the time Claudia taught Tanith to play skee-ball.

3. I have friends going back decades, some of whom I've never actually met.

Charles Ashe: I would love to hear more about your dramatic experiences.

I have been asked to talk about my character! Mwahahaha!

Since y'all asked about the skee-ball story on Twitter, sharing for people here:

They were at a fairground after hours following a gig nearby, and Claudia (singer and reluctant leader of the New Bremen Toreador despite being undead six years) spotted a game at the late-night arcade. Tanith (art historian Brujah bandmate) had never heard of it (as I hadn't either) and Claudia attempted to explain while also trying to win without using her superhuman vampire reflexes.

Claudia was also there for the big dramatic story I talk about most often, when due to a Mage and a magic potion (from the first edition Sabbat book!) they became human for a day, and Tanith never really recovered.

See also the time I demonstrated I was actually a Brujah by having to be restrained from throwing Kufuu the Setite out of a window in Elysium. Hi Reuel!

(New Bremen was a strange place.)

Reuel: #KufuuDidNothingWrong

Vampire: The Masquerade 30th Anniversary

Happy Vampire: The Masquerade 30th Anniversary!

30 years ago today, Vampire: The Masquerade premiered at Origins Game Fair. Happy anniversary to Vampire and the World of Darkness!

(This logo is just for fun, there's no V30 book.)

Onyx Path on Twitter

Happy 4th of July

Leave milk and apple pie for Captain America!

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Made it into the alpha weekend for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt (trailer). As predicted, I was terrible.

The five minute tutorial took me half an hour as I had to find out you have to be running already to slide. After that, I made it to character creation. 

Note that there are not action shots. :D 

Hanging out in Elysium has always been more my playstyle anyway.

(And posting this on Twitter got a Like from the Associate Character Art Lead. :) )

I had fun being demolished, but would definitely love a "look around Prague" test setting, or an RP hangout.

The first expansion clan is Ventrue, so we have all the "regular modern vampire" clans as well as the "visual interest and stealth" Nosferatu who always seem more popular in games with a visual element than at the table. 

I can confirm that the menu music is very atmospheric.

And the title sequence, featuring the already confirmed Katana And Trenchcoat.

Labyrinth

Labyrinth came out 35 years ago today. 

It's only forever 

Not long at all

Ah, the nights are drawing in...

The Thin Dark Line

Welp, just watched a horror movie sight unseen (Last Shift, it's not bad but goes from atmospheric beginning to too-big ending, and the trailer spoils several of the best scares) and now I have another WoD chronicle idea, like I needed another one of those.