Having played the Night's Black Agent game on GenCon, I can say it was a really great experience. Of course, a large part of that was due to PirateCat as GM and the other players (Klaus, DucosDucos, Nerfherder, TheUniverse, DangerGirl! and Underpants Gnome), but the mechanics also peaked my curiosity.
I am intrigued enough to consider trying this as an one and off game, not sure though how well it will work in "our format" at our online table. But I already have some ideas.
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My Vampire concept will be "Dark Matter Vampires". Humans that due to some crazy mutation and a rare element are able to gather Dark Matter and gain energy from it to fuel regeneration and other powers. I will try to use at least one plot element I have in my head for a long time - a secret satellite from the SDI / Star Wars project that serves as nuclear launch facility - a project abandoned after the satellite was in space but before it was armed, and that mysterious earth quakes in Australia that some suggest could be the results of nuclear weapon tests, and a mysterious area in Australia bought by a Japanese sect (?, have to look that up again, the same one that launched those Sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway )
A Vampire is going to bring the station back to work. But i am not sure this should be the highest level of the conspiracy, just a means for some yet to determined purpose...
My idea for the first adventure will be the kidnapping of a Russian nuclear scientist, and the PC's being hired to investigate and ensure that the son of their employer is safely returned after the ransom is payed.
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So glad I didn't read this thread before the NBA game you ran at Gencon!
I bought ToC last year, but couldn't really get the feel for it from reading the book. That was part of the reason I wanted to play in your game (the other being that I had so much fun the last time).
If I didn't have so many games already, I'd be very tempted by AS.
A couple of things that didn't click with me, or where I thought there could be improvement:
1) More graphical separation between investigation skills and general skills - this was more of an issue for me with the ToC character sheet. The skills work in very different ways, and I think it would have helped me to grasp that if the character sheet divided them up more clearly.
2) Stability - I didn't have a clue (no pun intended) whether I should be spending lots, some, or any stability to avoid losing Stability. Maybe I missed something here.
If all you can lose Stability for failing yoru Stability chekc, it would be helpful to know how much you lose. In cases like a suggestion/dominate ability, I suppose how much you spend depends on how much you don't want to be dominated.
But I wasn't sure if there was a limitation to how often/how much such an ability could be used. If it can be used repeatedly, your stability will erode anyway and you can only fail.
In combat, that may even work, since each attempt is another round that you can do something else to deal with the Vampire on your turn. But in scenes without round-by-round tracking, it's difficult.
(Having read the rulebook - it could be that the Vampire has to spend points from his own pool to use the ability - so he may stop simply because it becomes too costly for him... )
BTW: You should ask Pelgrane Press for a provision, PC, I may not have bought this game otherwise.
