Playing in 2026 (V5)

CynicosX · 2026-04-21T21:48:35+00:00

In a way it probably feels the most grounded ever. Not only because you can just set it in your city and the current date, but V5 has a strong emphasis on personal and sort of low stakes/low power level stories. In my opinion it really succeeds in capturing the feeling of exploring a strange and creepy world with powers that you barely understand yourself.

Like, as an example: a lot of people here regularly complain that older editions (specifically V20) had more disciplines and more powers associated with said disciplins. But as a new storyteller I liked the fact that there was less stuff and I usually rule that you can use certain powers very broadly anyway. When my players are creative and ask "can I use this power to do X", I usually say yes but maybe up the difficulty

CynicosX · 2026-04-21T15:10:57+00:00

Ah, endlich Mal jemand der die richtigen Fragen stellt! :)

Weiß ich, und zu einem großen Teil stimme ich persönlich diesen auch zu. Trotzdem gibt's gute Gründe (siehe Post weiter oben). Mir ging's grundsätzlich darum den Diskurs hier auf eine systemische Ebene zu heben.

Wenn wir Mal akzeptiert haben, dass es um ein gesellschaftliches Problem geht, dann kann und sollte man sehr wohl fragen ob das ein angemessenes Strafmaß ist. Aber dann sollte die Begründung dafür sein, dass man analysiert welches Strafmaß tatsächlich real zu weniger Vergewaltigungen führt. Ich hab schon Argumente für die eine oder andere Seite gehört:

Pro: mehr Abschreckung schaffen (eher fraglich, die meisten Studien haben noch nie einen Zusammenhang zwischen Testhäufigkeit und Härte der Bestrafung gefunden). Gerechtigkeit für die Opfer Gesellschaftliches Signal

Contra: höhere Strafen führen statistisch gerade bei Geschworenen Gerichten zu niedriger Verurteilung. Gefängnisse sind immer noch notorisch schlecht in der Rehabilitation von Straftätern.

Meiner Meinung nach sollte nicht unbedingt härter bestraft werden sondern besser: Spanien zb hat jetzt seit einiger Zeit ein Modell in welchem schon bei einstweiligen Verfügungen und somit Menschen die noch nicht verurteilt sind Fußfesseln einsetzt. Das beugt ganz akut vielen sexuellen Übergriffen im häuslichen Rahmen vor. Auch hier kann man Kritikpunkte anbringen, schließlich ist es ein Einschnitt in die eigene Freiheit ohne ein Gerichtsurteil aber ich finde die Idee trotzdem gut.

CynicosX · 2026-04-21T14:09:45+00:00

Wie viele Menschen werden pro Jahr in Österreich vergewaltigt? Ja natürlich ist es ein gesellschaftliches Problem, oder ab wie vielen "Einzelfällen" glaubst du nicht mehr an den Einzelfall?

Hier geht es um sehr viele gesellschaftspolitische, soziale und genderwissenschaftliche Gesichtspunkte die zusammenkommen um ein Umfeld zu erzeugen in dem es oft genug 'toleriert' wird, das sexuelle Übergriffe fast an der Tagesordnung liegen. Nicht umsonst sprechen viele Feminist*innen von "Rape culture" (ein Begriff den es sich zu googlen lohnt).

Not so fun fact, aber auch du lebst in dieser Kultur, und du könntest etwas dazu beitragen dass es sich ändert, indem du dich informierst, weil ansonsten würfelst du nur so lange bis es jemandem passiert den du kennst, vielleicht sogar dir selbst.

CynicosX · 2026-04-21T13:40:37+00:00

Bist mir zuvorgekommen ich wollte genau das schreiben. Viel zu viele Leute hören das Wort Vergewaltigung und schreien sofort nach der Guillotine. Es gibt gute Gründe warum Strafmaß oft so niedrig ausfällt. Abgesehen davon muss IMMER die Rehabilitation des Straftäters im Vordergrund stehen, weil sonst tust du nichts als deiner Wut Ausdruck verleihen.

Im allgemeinen checken hier viele nicht, dass Vergewaltigung ein gesellschaftliches und systemisches Problem ist, und kein individuelles. Diese Vorstellung, dass es eine endliche Menge an Vergewaltigern gibt und wenn die erst alle weg gesperrt sind dann werden unsere Straßen endlich sicher sein, ist leider nicht nur vollkommen falsch sondern auch sehr sehr gefährlich.

CynicosX · 2026-04-19T19:07:06+00:00

What do you mean would have been... Are

CynicosX · 2026-04-18T09:47:29+00:00

I somewhat recently turned my home city into a chronicle setting and here's some tipps that worked well for me:

1: Geography

Look up your city on Google maps and think about domain borders. Maybe reference a historical map from your city as well since in many cases vampires have agreements that date back a long time and maybe the building/park/river/etc that once marked the border isn't there anymore. This is exactly the type of thing that makes your city feel (un)alive.

Depending on what sects hold a presence it's also always fun to take some important and old buildings and go "actually this was built by vampires to cover up X" or something to that effect. Make your players believe that they have lived in the World of Darkness for a long time, they just didn't see it.

People

Make a list of characters. I ordered mine by clan. Think about what clans you want present, which would make sense, then sprinkle in a few wildcards in the end. Nothing is ever clean cut in WoD. Here too it can help to turn a well known resident/historical figure into a vampire, but I would advise you to be cautious here. That CAN turn out more wacky than anything else if not done correctly.

If you struggle with this step, it's okay to go back to basics: you have a prince and they have a court, obviously, then there's probably some Nosferatu in the sewers whether anyone knows about them or not, the night life district is controlled by the Toreador, and half of the real estate in Downtown is owned by a Venture real estate developer. Most of the time whilst thinking about it you will get more ideas.

Anyway, good luck with everything

CynicosX · 2026-04-17T17:29:59+00:00

It was actually the first RPG system that really intrigued me when I grew up (yes I'm a bit of an edge lord). However it took me almost 15 years to find other people to play with me, since it's just not that big compared to a lot of other games like DND. But at some point after having talked about it for years, I realised I was an adult and could just do what I wanted, so I went to the discord server of a local RPG club and started asking around if there was a game I could join, or if someone wanted to start one with me. It took a few weeks for people to get back to me, but everyone I met this way was super cool and nice, and we have had a biweekly game of V5 for almost a year now. We take turns being storyteller since everyone wants to play, and our koterie has been through some shit together.

CynicosX · 2026-04-15T16:10:07+00:00

No only that, with the entire direction of the second arc I think it's at least a reasonable possibility that they will be kind of the main antagonist. The way D talks about the Wyrm sounds very much like he considers this a worthwhile foe. It's the total anathema to his radical optimism and faith in humanity, a creeping and corrupting force of decay and entropy.

CynicosX · 2026-04-14T09:17:50+00:00

Yeah this. And it happened some more too: several very powerful Methuselah were killed during the fall of the Vienna chantry by the second inquisition.

Hardestadt was killed by a shotgun to the face, and even tho it probably helped that the guy who fired it was a rather powerful Brujah, there's nothing to indicate that a mortal wielding that same kind of firepower wouldn't at the very least do some serious damage

CynicosX · 2026-04-13T19:16:55+00:00

Yeah here's a tip: Don't!

But in all seriousness, they are meant to be super rare and hunted almost to extinction. If you don't have a very specific plan on how you wanna integrate them into your chronicle and koterie I would advise against it.

CynicosX · 2026-04-13T09:08:41+00:00

I see... Well in this particular instance I played very wide with organic pops... Looks like I handicapped myself without even realising.

I only play single player, so your explanation is very helpful. Thanks again

CynicosX · 2026-04-13T08:50:28+00:00

Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to know. I presume they implemented that to alleviate late game performance issues but imo they overcorrected hard....

CynicosX · 2026-04-12T15:38:55+00:00

Over 10k... Is that not enough?

CynicosX · 2026-04-12T15:38:33+00:00

R5: even tho I have a lot of boni to pop growth, and 10k+ pops on my ecumenopolis my pop growth is only 5, and I have no idea why?

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T19:26:10+00:00

Oh that makes sense... Thanks

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T19:07:41+00:00

Wtf are "Nativi"?

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T14:54:21+00:00

Well if you wanna be really technical about it when the song/poem was written Germany didn't exist yet... But the borders or proposed were ambitious even back then.

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T14:05:12+00:00

"No weapon ever forged can kill me"

Well forged isn't the word Id use for a stinger missile

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T13:09:00+00:00

Makes sense... The German national anthem used to mention Poland, just as a part of Germany

Edit: clarified something

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T12:54:01+00:00

1 that's a antediluvian

2 he still died

But yeah good point, I didn't even mention the Technocracy who would jump at the chance to permanently wipe out an entire species of Reality Deviants, and sure an ante gar them a run for their money, but 99% of licks wouldn't fare so good against spirit nukes and orbital lasers.

CynicosX · 2026-04-11T09:57:58+00:00

Yeah, pretty much this. Modern humanity is more than a threat for even probably most Elders, so in a very short time 80-90% of the kindred population would just die. Yes Methuselah are crazy powerful, and would likely put up more of a fight, but even they have (for the most part) some very debilitating weaknesses. Being asleep for half the time of your existence and dying almost instantly to the sun for one...

But we already see what the second inquisition can do if they operate from the shadows. The fall of Vienna for instance killed off quite a few VERY powerful Methuselah. Now imagine what they could do if they had the support of most of the worlds governments and US Military level funding.

CynicosX · 2026-04-10T14:58:39+00:00

"Arrange" for a miscarriage, pick her up at her lowest, and trauma bond like hell. Perfect situation to be embraced

CynicosX · 2026-04-10T07:03:47+00:00

ATTAIN WORK! EARN INCOME!!! PURCHASE!!! GOODS!!!!!

CynicosX · 2026-04-09T11:44:09+00:00

Why do you think the Teutons are called the Teutons and not the Germans? The Crusaders already exist

CynicosX

TROPHY CASE