{Vampire: The Masquerade - OOC} New York by Night

[Catulle]

Hiya folks,

Sorry if it looks like I've dropped the ball on this one, but I've been offline the past 24 hours (lousy LAN messing up my settings - grrr). I'll try to add a little clarity on a point-by-point basis for everything that's come up since I fell off.

The confusion about the lessons seems to have been cleared up; the details were tucked away in one of my posts for reference (near the bottom of p2).

Regarding child vampires; note that there have been 'death threats' already - Qadir and Nikolai may yet be watching just in case the balance requires 'correction' and I think Nathaniel's outrage is obvious. Otherwise, what I was aiming for was a kind of strained silence from most of the Kindred. Like not looking at the deformity of a man in the street... From a point of interest, it's worth noting that the Tremere primogen in Chicago looks to be 10, and the Toreador Justicar, 16. Certainly reason enough for a little caution, at least from the 'elders' or politically aware Kindred. As ever, folks, keep nature, conscience and humanity in mind as the real yardsticks of character morality.

Should I deal with IC actions that require OOC collaboration here or on the main thread? I'd quite like the former, to keep the IC stuff clean and easy to read, but give me your feedback, please.

As an example of the above;
(Nikolai Aura Perception - 10,8,6,4,3,2,2,1 plus reroll 7 - 1 success). Which lets him know Gabriel has a pale aura (if he'd scored enough to discern a mood, I'd now be asking Ashrem for his input before anythig went over to IC).
For the eavesdropping, (Nikolai Per/Alertness - 10,10,10,9,5,4,4,2 - 4 successes) he'll gain a good idea of the conversation up to the start of the performance. (Nikolai Willpower - 9,9,8,7,6,6,5,4,1,1 - 2 successes) Strength of mind keeps him on just the right side of disorientation.
Resisted Per/Subt vs. Man/Subt for the sake of discretion gives Nikolai 6 successes to Qadir's 3, Carter's 4 and Aisling's rather shocking 8... perhaps more on that later, then.

Otherwise if you have questions please feel free to raise them (I could easily talk more about child vampires, for example),

Regards,

Barry

 

[reapersaurus]

Questions:
When you post roll results, do you ever mention what the Difficulty of the roll is? Do we assume unless otherwise mentioned that it's a 6?
For example, Nikolai's Aura Perception would have been 3 successes if the difficulty was 6, right?


And the Willpower roll if 6 would have been 6 successes, not 2 right?

And to understand the opposed roll :
why would Aislinn, Carter and Qadir notice if someone was simply attempting to overhear their conversation at a party? I wasn't thinking that Auspex 1 and using Hearing is an "active power" - how/why does it go like that?

And as a rule, I love any discussion of rules, and welcome any opinions/insights.

 

[reapersaurus]

Grrrrrrrr. I oopsed.

 

[Vychtorya]

Should I deal with IC actions that require OOC collaboration here or on the main thread? I'd quite like the former, to keep the IC stuff clean and easy to read, but give me your feedback, please.

I like the idea of keeping the IC stuff clean too. It's easier to read that way I think, more fluid.

 

[Catulle]

Questions:
When you post roll results, do you ever mention what the Difficulty of the roll is? Do we assume unless otherwise mentioned that it's a 6?
For example, Nikolai's Aura Perception would have been 3 successes if the difficulty was 6, right?

I've not been posting difficulty for the sake of brevity, but most of the time, it's 6. Aura Perception's always at difficulty 8, for example, as per the book. I can start adding a note of the difficulty number if that's useful, though. I set the Willpower roll at 7 (since there was a fair ammount of distraction), and with Caitlyn's check to notice Nathaniel I raised his difficulty and lowered hers (she was in prime position to notice and he was a tad distracted by fighting frenzy).

And the Willpower roll if 6 would have been 6 successes, not 2 right?

As I say, I set that at 7, and the 2 '1s' knocked 2 of the successes off the total.

And to understand the opposed roll :
why would Aislinn, Carter and Qadir notice if someone was simply attempting to overhear their conversation at a party? I wasn't thinking that Auspex 1 and using Hearing is an "active power" - how/why does it go like that?

Essentially, I gave them a chance to spot Nikolai staring avidly (Aura Perception) and 'tuning out' sufficiently to take in everything that was going on around him (Heightened Senses). It's an active power in my opinion since it takes a little effort to use; it's not 'up' by default and if it's in use when a strong stimulus occurs, there's a chance of something happening. The three in question were the ones he was exchanging converstaion with during his surveillance so it seemed reasonable to give them a shot. Of course, they're also the ones in the room with more than a fair whack of Auspex, so part of that's simply using the discipline in front of just the right (or wrong) 'people'.

And as a rule, I love any discussion of rules, and welcome any opinions/insights.

I hope that clarifies your questions in a good way, and I'll start adding a difficulty to mechanics parentheses.

Regards,

Barry

 

[Vychtorya]

(this is reapersaurus)
neat discussion of vampire powers - perfect for an OOC Vampire thread.

(Just my personal, non-rules view): I view Auspex 1 as being a vampire's normal ability, that would just about always be "on.".
Similar to using Perception, it just makes them more effective.
I can't picture vampires who have such abilities not using them all the time - it would be akin to someone not putting on their glasses when wanting to see a movie, or something.

 

[Catulle]

I'd have said it's akin to a kind of blood-fuelled tool (if that makes any sense). Need a microscope? Heightened senses. A sniffer dog? Heightened Senses. Reading Glasses? Heightened Senses...

Now, keeping it on all the time could well be like walking about like you have a hearing aid tuned up really high, or wering reading glasses - good for the purpose you've adapted yourself to, but not so useful in every situation and downright disadvantageous in others (witnessing a flare go off with heightened sight, for example - ouch).

Magnitude of sense is handled by heightened senses, but the ability to 'filter' those senses to useful effect comes from perception plus skill as per usual (usually alertness, though not universally).

Sensible?

Barry

 

[reapersaurus]

hmm... I'm not sure that my senses are attuned enough to grasp what you're saying.

Let me look closer at what you typed......

...closer.....

...closer.... *AGGHHHH!!!!** MY BRAIN! IT HURTSSSSSSSS!!

The shock of realization has just overloaded the rules lobe in my brain.

Seriously, though: what you said makes sense, and helps me understand how you're viewing it.

I want to add, though, that I belive it should be pretty damned hard to notice something as subtle as someone just concentrating and listening.

In real life, if someone calls me on what I'm thinking about, or what they think I'm listening in to, or something as internal as that, is the day I nominate them to be the star of the next Psychic Friends Network commercial.

In other words, the Difficulty should be a LOT higher to be able to guess what someone is thinking about than simply looking at someone, or listening.
If not, than you get the dangerous precedent where if you have enough dice in Perception, etc, than you become a omniscient observer of everything around you. (which becomes ridiculous once the vampire gets older)

 

[Catulle]

I want to add, though, that I belive it should be pretty damned hard to notice something as subtle as someone just concentrating and listening...<snip>...In other words, the Difficulty should be a LOT higher to be able to guess what someone is thinking about than simply looking at someone, or listening.

I'm thinking it's more akin in this example to wondering "Is he listening to me?" than "Oooooh, he's thinking such and such..." Especially if the observer in question is well versed in that particular field (like I say - target audience). The latter part is a function of Aura Perception (or Telepathy), which is a tad more involved.

If not, than you get the dangerous precedent where if you have enough dice in Perception, etc, than you become a omniscient observer of everything around you. (which becomes ridiculous once the vampire gets older)

This is also a darned good reason to only meet ones' elders on Elysium. Beware the old, indeed! (within reason, naturally)

Regards,

Barry

 

[KitanaVorr]

Also to let people know

real-life is catching up fast, so for the next week or so I won't be able to post as often as I normally do unless i can get a few things done first

I'll try to post at least once a day on every thread and definitely at least once a day on the threads I DM.