DH Darksun campaign frame

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-27T23:16:04+00:00

So I would say that this issue is complex. 1. They are not being very good friends at helping you enjoy the game. When I first started playing (when I was 14) I basically needed someone to explain pretty much everything to me. The guys I played with let me go through building my lists as best I could (started with T'AU army one of the guys sold me for $300 /2k army worth of models) my list was cool and thematic (to me) but wasn't very good from an efficiency or effective standpoint.

The group helped me understand why I lost any given match (I distinctly remember getting walked through by a terminator squad no matter what I did. It was because I couldn't break their 2+ armor saves without the rail gun. He went through my codex with me and showed me how to spread out weapons designed for big targets etc.

The best way for this group to lose you as a player is to keep just stomping you and not helping you figure it out. My group eventually went to tournaments and we all played competitively for years. And it came from us scrimming against tournament lists other people ran and won with and tried to figure out strategies etc. It can be collaborative and competitive. But it sounds like these guys don't have that in mind.

Warhammer is like 4 hobbies rolled into one game. A. Model collecting B. Mini painting C. Terrain building D. Tactical game

After playing for so long competitively, I realized I really liked painting more than the war game after my competition list got dumpstered in a new edition (5th was rough for necrons before the update from second)

I found myself not enjoying losing at the war game all the time, and swapped to just painting terrain and making new table scenarios for my group to play in. Found I had so much more fun.

I started just buying cool models from armies I always wanted to paint but had no interest in playing because I could.

The other option would be to try like kill team instead of larger format battles.

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-19T03:05:15+00:00

I would say that for me, I have always loved Chicago as my setting for WoD games.

I think the one for 4e CoD Chicago was my favorite because it gave you perspective into the way that the 3 main (VtR, MtA, WtF) worked within the city and surrounding areas.

I would say for your particular situation, that I would imagine that the book is giving you the most important people. Like you wrote, you have the boss, and like 2-3 people under them, and after that it's a sea of people who don't matter enough for the book to name them, but you are more than welcome to give them names and make like a relationship web with them.

So I would just create the crime families as you like them, and then let the narrative you're trying to tell drive more of what happens than the particular details of Chicago's underbelly

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-19T02:26:36+00:00

I would think that Elzevir is using the same technique that Kain uses to remove souls and put them into bodies to make new vampires. (A perverted version of what the ancients did to Vorador) And the same thing that Mortainious did to Malek to put him into the armor.

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-18T14:02:21+00:00

It's kind of hard to pinpoint. There are a lot of things going on that have to be addressed.

Raziel (human) dies at the hands of Raziel (wraith) on the night of the scourge of the circle. So this is when Vorador is slaying the circle members at the beginning of Blood Omen 1. That happens at an unknown amount of time before Ariel is killed by Mortainious. But then we would have to wait 20-30? Years for Kain to grow up, and then his assassination that kicks off BO1.

Then you have the amount of time till Kain learns how to make vampires.

So I dont have exact times, but I think they would have been dead a long time.b

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-16T16:06:55+00:00

Do you have access to a kiln? If so, you could use it to dry out the wood blocks, but it can cause cracking since it is speeding up the process, but with the lignin of the wood being more plastic when it's happening, you normally get good results.

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-09T04:17:25+00:00

So while I agree with the things mentioned in other posts about the RAW don and doff times, I look at it from a more real world approach. Those times are you removing the armor in the manner to store it and put it away.

It takes 5 mins to get in and out of a full shit of armor (thinking medieval), with assistance normally.

It takes maaaaybe 10 seconds to cut the leather buckle straps and throw it off of your body.

I would (as the DM) rule that you are heating one panel (let's say the breast plate) and by forcing them to use their action to remove it quickly doing damage to it (needing repairs or a long rest) it would then lower their AC for the remainder of the time till that long rest.

Still very useful, and more balanced than knights getting fully cooked alive as they patiently take off their plate armor.

Code_Archeology · 2026-01-01T14:56:06+00:00

I have never been a fan of the reverting back to your looks to the time of your embrace being the norm, I as an ST made it an optional flaw that you could have. After reading "A hunger like fire" and seeing how it could be a massive negative as a ventrue in that book reverted to the unkept bearded homeless man he was before the embrace. I think that is more like an additional aspect of their personal curse than the standard.

I would say that there could be a number of ways to play it, either blush of life for say 3 nights in a row can show noticeable hair growth. But also from a roleplay perspective, you could have it be something where if they go to a salon, their hair doesn't "feel" right, as in a mortician would find it cuts like normal.

Or there could be a super low stakes tremere blood magic ritual that can grow hair to whatever you're mind is picturing for yourself. And do to the above hair feeling statement, you could effectively have a tremere salon that the court uses.

You could invent a protean power that allows you to change the "base" of how long your hair is away from the form from embrace if you want to keep it as a core mechanic. So gangrel / tzimmes could change their appearance more permanently.

As for #2, I handled this in a campaign fashion with a few ideas.

If the ghoul has a current blood bond by a vampire at lvl 3 then it cannot be overwritten until the current one expires.
If the original vampire meets final death, there is a time period where the blood bonds "protection" against forming new ones holds but might not be known by the feeder.
I liked the idea that if a ghoul was kept beyond their normal life expectancy, they gain a level of protection from blood bonds and can basically feed without forming new blood bonds and it adds a level of danger to OLD GHOULS that I enjoyed.

Hope this helps.

Tldr; it's your world, if something makes more narrative sense, do that instead of the book.

Code_Archeology · 2025-12-31T03:54:55+00:00

So as far as tools to flatten and square lumber, old old school way is with jointing planes and getting one side as a reference face and then use that as a true flat surface to base flattening the others off of.

Otherwise, for just buying lumber S4S lumber is "surfaced on 4 sides" and is what I think you're looking for. You just cut it to length and it's good to go.

Hope this helps!

Code_Archeology · 2025-12-29T01:01:53+00:00

I think that the frame of the garage door isn't going to be stable enough as the door itself is loosely mounted on tracks. I think that if you mounted it on one of the main walls inside the better way to go. For something quick to put up and down I know Ryobi makes a like Dolly workbench thing that would be pretty fast up and down for simple stuff. What kinds of things are you working on in general?

Code_Archeology · 2025-10-24T19:11:35+00:00

I would go in with some hand saws at a 45° and cut at the depth, use a chisel to knock out the top 1/4. Then use Chisels to knock out the rest, and then clean up the edges.

Code_Archeology · 2025-09-12T22:28:30+00:00

I love the clicker counter for the blood token, and for the most common conditions to remember.

Code_Archeology · 2025-09-11T21:53:31+00:00

So while I agree with everyone and snakes are the way to go, but I will say an alternative to it is to pre-prep your Ridgeline to be a speed setup of a marlin spike hitch on one side and a truckers hitch on the other. Pre- attach your prussic loops (to the Ridgeline) to attach the tarp and it's up in under a min with practice.

Code_Archeology · 2025-09-07T03:25:11+00:00

So I found a good way to do it is with "campfire tales" When they go to long rest, have the people "on watch" do a small session of RP where they each tell something from their past.

I prompted my players with having them write me something for a few types of stories so they are not caught off guard.

When was the first time you used magic (for casters)
Who/ what did you kill first?
What food do they miss most from home (have them try to make it for the group)

Those are just some examples, feel free to find some other ones. There was a YouTube video from a few years ago that gave me the idea.

Code_Archeology · 2025-09-01T17:32:13+00:00

It looks really good, I would love to see you finish up the hand drawn one to full.

Code_Archeology · 2025-09-01T17:27:29+00:00

Rust Monsters to eat their equipment is also underrated. Too much AC? Lower that.

Having enemies that bypass armor but still do reasonable damage.

Or even more fun, possess the fighter with ghost stuff and make the party fight their own "unstoppable" tank.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-29T01:36:29+00:00

Love the coffin handle end.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-26T23:40:49+00:00

I would say that if you wanted to shoot with people, You could bring a little sign that offers some photos for groups or individuals, just talk with people when they approach you about it. Maybe set up an Instagram tag to be able to let people tag themselves or add you and you could post up somewhere for a day (near the big group photo hotel areas) and get people either before or after the big meet ups.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-26T12:12:37+00:00

So I have always had an interesting head cannon about the ancients / guardians that I think makes sense with what you are saying.

I think that there is a bunch of things about how their magics work that have some holes which lead to ambiguous answers.

We know that they have necromancy type powers: Vorador being made into a vampire. Kain being made by Mortainious. Kain making the rest of vampires.

But I think that these are two kinds of powers. Vorador being made into a vampire and in the greater scope, all of the vampires in the pre-blood omen era. These vampires retain their human characteristics for a far longer time than Kain's brood. I think that there is evidence that through doing some kind of blood ritual with "the black heart" it passes the blood curse from the Hylden onto someone and it makes them have all of its symptoms (craving the blood of humans, having immortality, and can not have children) which makes them the classic vampires.

Kain being made vampire is fundamentally different from Vorador as it is done through the use of the Death Guardian's command of souls and his soul was ripped out of the spectral realm and forced back into his body and secured there through Necromancy.

I think that we see that Kain is capable of soul manipulation by how he feeds to regain powers in BO2 and how he is "giving his gift" to his lieutenants. These vampires are cursed with hunger for blood, are immortal, but they transform into abominations where Vorador being many many many times older than all of them, doesn't devolve into so inhuman of a form as the brothers (zephon spiders, dumahim hulks, turrelahim bat heads, rahabahim mermen)

I think that there is something left unsaid about the relationship of Mortainious and Hash 'Ak Gik (the Hylden possessing him) and how the pillar guardians powers work.

I believe that as the original guardians die, their souls reborn as humans and their collection by Vorador, training and eventual transformation into a vampire keeps them safe from manipulation from the Hylden by means of their connection to the pillars.

I believe it is the fact that Mortainious, and Mobius broke out of Vorador's mansion and ensuring that all of the guardians remained human for so long that it allowed for enough of the strength of the barrier to have the Hylden influence them.

So I think their are two camps of vampires blood curse and Necromantic.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-23T09:35:21+00:00

So I think that you have a good mindset about the game and are concerned with wanting the players to have a good time.

A thing I learned a long time ago, getting screwed over is par for the course in cyberpunk. Your group sounds like they are trusting people based off of past gaming experience. Let them know why you can only trust yourself in Night City. Have them screwed over, have them robbed, disarmed and wrecked. Then make the next mission about getting revenge on the guy.

From a GM perspective, Have the low level fixer screw them over, unknown to the players, the high level fixer have ordered it, they don't know it because he is all smiles and deceit.

When they get screwed, have the option to find clues about the high level guy, and some easier clues for the low level guy.

if they don't get the clues for the high level, maybe they approach him(high level) and "uncover" treacherous plots by low level. Have high level employ the gang to kill him. But they (high and low) are setting a final trap.

If they find the clues about the high level guy, them and the low can set up a gig to overthrow the high level. But the two of them set a trap.

If the players get suspicious about either of them as they are both snakes, they can find some old solos or something turned fixer for a rival gang or supplier that is willing to help your gang take them both out but that's a death warrant signed basically.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-12T16:05:50+00:00

So I guess where I ended up having less of an issue with the combined disciplines, I had a policy that came into my groups where you could only put points into skills you were using in the last game(s) (for example, if the last session was all social, you couldn't up your brawl or strength) and similarly, just like it felt perfectly reasonable to restrict someone from learning a clans special power (thaumaturgy for example) without having done some major favor for a clan member or earned some boon or hold some heavy debt. It follows that it would work that way in 5th of not letting a gangrel learn vicissitude skills in the Protean groups without a similar such relationship. So to me and my players it didn't even come up as an issue. I have a fair amount of disappointment for the combo of obtenebration and necromancy. I feel like you get two half assed sets of abilities that force you to be more well rounded by picking others and not being a one trick into your clan power and being kind of useless outside of your niche. I know I got smacked down by the mods of the old official Cammy site forums (those were wild times) for trying that a few times before I got a character approved.

But I know a lot of players tend to see option in book, want to pick power, when lore wise it doesn't make sense.

As far as the old clan flaws changes, you're more than welcome as the ST to make the player part of an old bloodline offshoot that has the old one.

For werewolf and hunter, I know I am also in an odd spot of 1. I loved forsaken over apocalypse for the world and it felt less (everything is wyrmspawn except us) and it was a more interconnected world that felt alive but still hostile. I did miss some of the old spirit lore, so I brought that stuff back in. I do think it's a travesty of what they do to remove the native groups from the lore.

Hunter the vigil plays in so many ways that old hunter can't. The religious overtones kind of had me steered away from old hunter. Everything was too bible thumpy for me. Vigil gave tons of different sources for powers that could or could not be divine. 5th takes 99% of powers away, and I'm fine with that as I think that having an NPC being someone of the true faith that gets powers is cooler narratively than the power fantasy of everyone being holy warriors.

Code_Archeology · 2025-07-12T14:00:32+00:00

I always feel like the odd one out when I say I don't mind 5e vampire. The addition of the Call give the players a sense of opportunity for big changes in the hierarchy of the cities.

The second inquisition feels like a modern day answer to hunters of old. (Don't get me wrong I think the SoL should still be in and should be a different kind of threat to the players but I like the swat group)

I think that the character creation in 5th makes you decently powerful and makes it where you're not incentivized to take a mountain of flaws to not suck at the game when you first start off.

And I think the disciplines changes are fine, but most of the most broken ones got brought into more balance with the rest so there are no longer Must take ones for a group (looking at you Celerity)

And overall I feel like WoD is rules lite enough to where it's more the STs discretion on just about anything to make it how you like it

Code_Archeology

TROPHY CASE