clanhanna
Journeyman Douchebag
The Muffin
Posts: 221
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller, O.R.E, Mongoose Traveller
Currently Playing: Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, D&D 5e
Currently Running: Vampire: The Dark Ages
Favorite Species of Monkey: Peanut-buttery Rhesus
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Post by clanhanna on Dec 18, 2011 21:22:22 GMT -8
I recently started running a Vampire: the Masquerade game for a group of four players. The five of us were in a Dark Ages game, set in ancient Rome, under a sixth person serving as Storyteller. We five were 6th generation vamps seeking to rid the Mediterranean world of a Baali menace. This game I'm running now is a continuation of that game, with the four other players playing their same characters, my character being relegated to NPC status, and the former ST not playing at all.
Their characters are now 1000+ years old (I've set the new game in the mid-9th century), and the whole reason I started running the game was because they were very attached to them, and wanted to play those same characters again.
Last session was the first combat of this new phase of the game. It resulted in one of the NPC opponents inflicting, in one attack, 16 aggravated damage to one of the player characters. I made the damage roll in the open, and because I didn't want to kill the PC, I nerfed the roll, said he would take 8 agg, and he could roll to soak what he could — at which point he wound up failing to soak any. So I said he could reflexively spend 5 blood to heal one level, bringing him to only 7 agg, incapacitating him and sending him into Torpor.
Now then, by game mechanics, his 6th-generation vampire who is 1000+ years old with a Road of Enlightenment rating of 4 should be stuck in torpor for a decade of game time. I'm working on a way to circumvent that, but the thought has come to mind:
Am I being too nice? In the first Vampire game I played in, I went through 4 characters, because they kept dying (usually due to Frenzying at inconvenient moments). Final Death is always a possibility in the World of Darkness, so should I be shying away from killing my players' characters? Or am I just being appropriately nice, because we all want the game to go on and have fun?
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azuretalon
Journeyman Douchebag
I poop violence!!!
Posts: 150
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Post by azuretalon on Dec 19, 2011 4:19:55 GMT -8
Customary disclaim: As the storyteller its up to you how to handle stuff like that in the interest of the best possible story and experience
Now, if it was me in that situation, I'd have waxed him. Then did something terrible to the remains (like a passing cat). Then laughed at him. Especially in a WoD game.
It might serve the story to keep the character alive, and then quickly out of torpor; but I don't know that it serves the "experience" side of the equation to see final death and even torpor thrown aside. And people will yell "not fair" when it comes their turn for a splinter bypass. Maybe institute an "Everyone gets one" rule.
And if you're looking for a way to get him out of torpor faster, maybe just gloss over the next couple decades with very little Baali activity. I always wanted to do a vampire game through the ages where time periods between sessions and scenes aren't "The next night" but "5 Years later"
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2011 5:11:39 GMT -8
I like Azuretalon's last idea. Especially with character's this old, skipping ahead could be cool.
I think this really comes down to your players. If their main thing is being attached to their characters, then try your best to keep them alive (gross stupidity notwithstanding).
If you think that the player would be okay if you said, "Dude, this character is *out*, we need to come up with a new one for you to play," then go with that. It gives things more of a sense of significance, which you lose if no one can ever die, you know?
This actually might be a worthy discussion with all your players, to see on which side they fall. But it's pretty specific to the group.
I tend to try and keep PCs alive... but what you described, I probably would've let them die.
--Pukka Tukka
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clanhanna
Journeyman Douchebag
The Muffin
Posts: 221
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller, O.R.E, Mongoose Traveller
Currently Playing: Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, D&D 5e
Currently Running: Vampire: The Dark Ages
Favorite Species of Monkey: Peanut-buttery Rhesus
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Post by clanhanna on Dec 23, 2011 23:02:50 GMT -8
The main concern I'd had was that this was the first combat of the new phase of the game. Also, I had not anticipated that the attack in question could do as much damage in a single attack as it did. I definitely had not expected a 2-dot Discipline to deal out 16 Aggravated damage in a single blow. It wasn't a particularly fantastic roll, either, maybe slightly above average.
I talked it over with my players, whether they are willing to have the game have a more lethal potential. They took the events of the previous session as example of what is possible. We also discussed that, should one of their 1000-year-old be turned to ash due to damage, how they might be able to bring in a "new" character — of equivalent power level, if not age — into the game. The players may or may not be more cautious in their play style, depending on what they think their characters would do.
I woke the character out of torpor with a dose of blood from a 4th-generation methuselah mixed with blood from each of the other members of the party, mixed in a Vaulderie-esque ritual.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2011 6:45:51 GMT -8
Well, first combat of the new arch, and you mis-calculated the combat.... fudging there seems fair. And it sounds like you handled it perfectly, talking it over with them, and finding a functional way to make things still work.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2011 9:39:10 GMT -8
My only character death in my current D&D game wnet something like that. The DM miscaluculated the dmg when he lowered the monster down to our level. He ended up doing 55 damage in one hit to my level 7 character and essentially oneshotted me. We talked it over and the group as a whole decided that I was just kinda comatose for a bit.
Made for some interesting Roleplay and I have played my character has alternating between extra cautious and extra reckless as a result as he deals with his thoughts on his near death.
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Post by Bill Roper on Dec 27, 2011 11:30:21 GMT -8
Another idea is that you have a younger minion / family member of the player's character that is in Torpor have to do something to bring him out faster. You get a cool story-arc that lets the player create/use an associated character to get his main character back into action. If you find that the player likes the new character and would be willing to deal with being underpowered, so be it - or even better, have that new character need to sacrifice himself in some way to complete the ritual.
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julien
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 49
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Post by julien on Jan 8, 2012 9:07:25 GMT -8
I am playing in a similar campaign right now, it's using the new WOD rules, and we are playing in ancient egypt. I've joined the group in october, while the chronicle is running for about two years, almost every week. So my nosferatu is really weak compared to the other players, and last session we stepped into a trap : an oasis full of werethings (jackals and wolves mostly). After a short discussion the monsters jumped on us. While the other characters managed to escape (using celerity, obfuscate and such powers), mine couldn't. I expected final death, but the GM ruled otherwise, maybe out of guilt as my character clearly hadn't any chance to survive.
So the others managed to save the nosferatu, in torpor after having lost every limb... And while another player woke my character giving it blood, he managed to get him bloodbonded (without any arms and legs, again totally screwed).
There are two things to be said from a player's perspective here :
- first about the other player abusing the situation to get another PC to be his slave, not a great moment in roleplaying but in character... That has been dealt with.
- second about being a nice GM, i really would have prefered the GM to kill my character. I had deserved it walking into the trap ! Maybe it was nice of the storyteller, but storywise it didn't accomplish anything.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2012 14:33:39 GMT -8
- second about being a nice GM, i really would have prefered the GM to kill my character. I had deserved it walking into the trap ! Maybe it was nice of the storyteller, but storywise it didn't accomplish anything. You bring up a good point there. If you're going to be a nice GM and let the character survive, talk it over with the player first. They might not want to survive. I had a character get blown up. He was trying to steal a car (well, his *own* car). The situation was pretty obviously a trap, but the player didn't catch on. I threw him about a dozen perception rolls behind my GM screen, and they always failed. He never checked for a trap. So he finally successfully started the car, and BOOM! I came up with a weird way to save him. This was Shadowrun, and it was going to involve basically making him a downloaded consciousness for awhile, and then go from there. I didn't tell the specifics to the player, I just said, "I've thought it over, and I have a way your character can ultimately survive, if you want. It'll be weird, and you won't be like you were before... but if you want to keep him, you can." He didn't. He felt that the situation was stupid enough and black-and-white enough for the character, that the character basically *deserved* to die. He made a new char. So, if you're going to cheat in favor of PCs.. make sure it's what they actually want. --Pukka Tukka
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