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Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

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[Calidovi]

Thanks for the advice. I don't see the fun in minmaxing, I've always been more into the character aspect of things as well as participation in an overarching story. Part of the reason I placed importance on charisma is so that I can get the speaking part of roleplaying down instead of punching things in the face. I am running Pathfinder by the way, just to clarify.

However, I'm glad to note that I've been setting the right stats. I've been thinking of focusing on ranged dps with bombs, a bit of potion work with alchemical weapons, and a light crossbow with a small stash of bolts, mostly because I can count on cover by our melee rogue, cleric, and druid companion. Maybe that'll work, maybe it won't; it doesn't matter as long as I learn something.

[Rolan7]

I love minmaxing in video game RPGs, but yeah it's not so great in tabletop gaming.  I am guilty of optimizing my characters to support others, in lieu of having a proper character myself.  Which is not a good thing - I'm just not good at roleplaying, actually.  But I love observing it, so I have a strong incentive to mechanically help along the group and the GM.  So I often end up as both healbot, and "the player who keeps track of setting trivia and suggests quest hooks the DM offered sessions earlier"

It's a very equitable arrangement.  Only downside is I have a constant impulse to "police" the party, paladin-style (because we're the heroes, and heroes behave a certain way...).  I try to keep that in check and let things evolve interestingly.

Particularly since we're playing NWoD vampires now, haha.  I was very fortunate, last session, in that I wrestled with the Beast and bought it off with regret and hope.  My party members have mostly fallen.  That's the setting, and OOC I have *no* problem with that.  I just want to keep my character relatively humane...  I think it's important that a sneaky, conniving vampire maintain a strong link with the remnants of his humanity.  I mean, our gangrel moves like a machine now.  People instinctively fear her, and she looks unnatural.  Her human side has been mostly overwhelmed by the Beast.

But a Mekhet has to retain control.  A gangrel can operate instinctually (though they don't have to).  A Mekhet needs the finesse and long-term planning of a cautious and sentient human.

... Allied with the Beast.  Which offers such seductive powers.  I drain someone to near-death every other night.  Not because I have to...  I could feed once a week, or feed on animals.  But my character's vice is gluttony, and I *need* more blood.  More power.  I have to...
Feed The Beast

[Yoink]

Min-maxing seems pretty lame to me, but I can't deny the appeal of trying to optimize my abilities until I'm able to kill entire encounters of enemies with a single swing of my sword. It's... just... so badass! I can't help it! ;_;

Also you need to taking throwing/grappling-related feats if you have a halfling or other shortass in the party.
Hurling 'em into a horde of ghouls or other nasty enemies is always good for a laugh, especially if they've been making fun of you.

[Jimmy]

Fling ally feat, anyone?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sadly not Pathfinder, though there is the Ally Shield teamwork feat. Given they actually have to spend a feat on this thing, I doubt it's worth bothering with.

[MrRoboto75]

Get hulking hurler levels, level cities with your halfling friend

[Calidovi]

I played a round, I used some bombs, I managed to cripple an enemy using bolts rubbed against a vision toad.

Good fun.

[Rolan7]

Continuing my tangent from the WTF thread here instead:

So my vampire is Jewish...  We've decided that means he won't drink blood from animals, and prefers people with kosher diets, but he's also following the 10 commandments in regards to Jewish people (and other vampires).  Which means no stealing their blood.  Instead he's subtly influencing and observing the residents of our apartment building, forming an unwitting herd via Mekhet spookiness.  Eventually the entire building will be full of people who never think to eat pork or dairy, watched by cameras that nobody notices.

When his humanity inevitably falls enough, he'll probably stop considering Jewish mortals as part of his community.  Such is practically inevitable in the grimdark World of Darkness...  I'm making IC and meta efforts to delay the process, though.  Watching his party members get consumed by their beasts is actually helping to scare him straight, heh.

A nice thing for avoiding morality-debates (ugh) is that he doesn't have to police the party.  It's plainly obvious that the world is grimdark, and working with monsters is just basic survival.  He just needs to stay sane and do his best from within.  Right now that means avoiding conflicts with his illusions and social engineering, when possible.

Of course, tomorrow we have a mission from the Prince.  Specific orders, which he declined to budge on:  Find a certain vampire-hunter safe house and slaughter all within it, no survivors.  The Prince doesn't want prisoners, and neither do the other party members.  "Just following orders" is no defense against losing one's hold on humanity, either.  Not sure what exactly my character will do...  Probably help the party, though.

Oh, and my sire revealed that the "hunters" inside will probably be mostly unarmed civilians.  So...  I should probably be thinking of ways to make their deaths relatively painless.  Maybe... flooding the building with nitrous oxide?  My character might be able to acquire enough in time...

I'm not really worried about preventing combats, btw.  I think even the gangrel player is having fun intimidating and sneaking, and we do get in small combats fairly often.  Particularly while feeding, heh, which we tend to have a bit of "fun" with.  Even my character enjoyed sneaking with the Gangrel into a football stadium's locker rooms *during a game* to feed from a ballboy.  Why?  Because we could, and we stole a bunch of jerseys as trophies.

[Sirus]

This Vampire game sounds like something I'd really like to play.

Don't suppose there are any interested GMs out there looking to start a forum game?

[TheBiggerFish]

This Vampire game sounds like something I'd really like to play.

Don't suppose there are any interested GMs out there looking to start a forum game?

Aye...

[Twinwolf]

It seems to be one of the World of Darkness games, although I can't tell if it's the New World of Darkness or the original.

[Rolan7]

It's...  the version names are a bit wonky, but it's New World of Darkness (Vampire the Requiem) edition 1.  Not the second edition which was called Stryx Chronicle but I'm not sure that's right anymore.

The main difference in Requiem compared to Masquerade seem to be that Abel/Cain and antediluvians aren't a thing, vampires just existed in prehistory probably for mysterious reasons.  The clans were pruned/combined down to 5 (with many existing as bloodlines of other clans now, but largely changed).  Celerity has its uses but no longer is a god-ability which gives you multiple actions per round.  Obfuscate is now purely a mind trick instead of actual invisibility, so it doesn't help against surveillance cameras.  And lots of other mechanical things about XP and combat.

Fniff is running a game in the same system I think, set in the Irish potato famine but with non-vampires in the party...  I don't think it has openings tho.

Whatever happens with this vampire hunter base tonight, I'm sure I'm going to share it~  I'm actually going to use caffeine to stay the distance, there's no way I'm letting RL stuff ruin this moment.

And in another session or two I'll be meeting with that renegade elder Gangrel I testified against.  The one who has demonstrated the ability to sneak into our hive silently, and has mysteriously declined to kill me yet.  My character is going nuts worrying about that, heh, but logically he's sparing me.  Probably wants to make an offer I won't like...  I've decided against trying to set up an ambush, though, since he seems to have clever allies who'd probably notice.

[Sirus]

I went ahead and added World of Darkness to the looking-for-game link in the OP.

[Calidovi]

-jewish vampirism-

How many bar jokes do you going to make with that premise?

[Rolan7]

A Jewish vampire, a dissociative personality vampire, and a violent psychopathic vampire walk into a bar...
The Jewish ones comes of age, the dissociative one becomes Jewish, and the psychopath says "ow" and goes into a frenzy.

[TheBiggerFish]

Yeah, I saw Fniff's game.  I think.