D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[JConstantine]

Cool. Reign of Assassins is one of my favorite movies by the way (since you mentioned that).

I'm trying to avoid too much thread drift (though that seems to be de jure here), but I enjoyed Reign of Assassins, and I think it's good inspiration for a wuxia RPG campaign. I'd also throw in Sword of Destiny too. It's a terrible sequel to Crouching Tiger, but it's a great standalone wuxia film.

 

[zakael19]

So some players like to try and get a Trauma early in play because it gives them an additional way to play their character, and another possible source of XP. Such players are going to try and spend all their Stress so they take a Trauma early on in play.

My Songs players were super cautious for a while, and then it was like a switch flipped and they started racing each other for their first Scar (Trauma analogue). Not for XP, but just to show the wear and tear on their characters and find a new interesting thing to twist their role-play. Was super cool!

 

[zakael19]

I'm trying to avoid too much thread drift (though that seems to be de jure here), but I enjoyed Reign of Assassins, and I think it's good inspiration for a wuxia RPG campaign. I'd also throw in Sword of Destiny too. It's a terrible sequel to Crouching Tiger, but it's a great standalone wuxia film.

Have you read the OP? The last 500 pages of discussion have like nothing to do with it.

 

[JConstantine]

I do not have to tie myself into knots or deal with the sorts of setting level contrivances that drive me crazy in Vampire: The Masquerade and most D&D settings.

Have you tried V:TM V5? The way you talk about Masquerade, it sounds like you haven't. If that's the case, it draws inspiration from Requiem, bringing in the touchstones (though limited to mortals only) as a means for Kindred to maintain their humanity. Gone are the Paths of What I Would Have Done Anyway, replaced with Convictions for characters and Tenets for chronicles. The blood pool resource management system has been replaced with a risk management system in hunger dice. V5 focuses on street level, night-to-night unlife, actually delivering the personal horror promise made by first edition.

 

[Lanefan]

When I play Thurgon and Aedhros, I am playing in actor stance - I make decisions using knowledge and perceptions that my character would have.

Great. Love it!

Except.....

Note that actor stance and director stance can occur simultaneously,

.....because in some (or all?) of these games you were more than just a player; you were also co-GM. That makes the play examples that you post fairly significant outliers, and while they might be the norm for you they sure ain't for the vast majority of the rest of us.

For most of us, the GM is the one who worries about director stuff, leaving the players to choose (or jump back and forth) between actor and author. Director stance never enters into it, because we're not the GM.

Therefore, while director and actor stance can occur simultaneously in the specific way you play, expecting people to accept it as any sort of greater norm is a bridge way too far.

 

[Lanefan]

And yet you raised nary an eyebrow when @robertsconley stated that he did exactly this and that it was expected that the same DM running both groups would have radically different campaigns.

Due to the different choices the players made!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh, absolutely... ultimately, that's the only justification anyone needs.

But, in the context of why I asked @Micah Sweet is because he didn't offer anything other than to tell me that I was wrong to make a suggestion that it's not the best advice... which I would think we'd all agree is an opinion as valid as anyone else's.

I know you just kind of jumped in to offer your take, and I get that. I totally respect your opinion and Micah's as well... but his contributions to the conversation seem to only be about trying to scorn those who disagree with him. So I was asking him specifically to actually say something.

I did respond to you. It just wasn't (as far as I can tell) what you wanted to hear from me.

 

[JConstantine]

There were three popes in two-and-a-half months in 1978. Weird stuff happens.

Laughs in British politics.

 

[Campbell]

Have you tried V:TM V5? The way you talk about Masquerade, it sounds like you haven't. If that's the case, it draws inspiration from Requiem, bringing in the touchstones (though limited to mortals only) as a means for Kindred to maintain their humanity. Gone are the Paths of What I Would Have Done Anyway, replaced with Convictions for characters and Tenets for chronicles. The blood pool resource management system has been replaced with a risk management system in hunger dice. V5 focuses on street level, night-to-night unlife, actually delivering the personal horror promise made by first edition.

I have tried V5. I still prefer Requiem Second Edition to it (Requiem 2e is still my favorite published version). Our home play group uses a variation of Requiem's rules with a substantially altered version of Masquerade's setting.

@RenleyRenfield is the designer and the Storyteller for my group's Vampire games.

Vampire the Requiem by StorytellerRPG

Playing vampires in a game of personal horror

storytellerrpg.itch.io

 

[Lanefan]

Summaries would be good, but I do not do them.
I used to provide details on pertinent information religiously on our Obsidian Portal page, but it soon became work for little to no benefit, I felt. And the need for perfection crept in and I found myself always adjusting and fixing.
Also, not enough of the players are invested on that level to take time to read.

When they're in the field, my start-of-session summary consists of telling them what hit points, spells, etc. the're currently at, reminding them of any ongoing spell effects, and a brief re-description of where they are right now and what time of day it is. If they want to what led up to their being there they can read the flippin' game log. That's what it's for.