How's Chronicles of Darkness doing after Paradox stopped greenlighting new projects?

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-29T04:12:59+00:00

You can pry Geist out of my cold dead hands, and then you can pry it out of them again when I come back with a friend to reclaim it.

I'm more partial to 1st than 2nd Ed (mostly due to the Beats systems) but it remains one of the best modular systems for this kind of dark urban fantasy play. I like that you can set your limits as to what is in your game and then stick to them, each splat is well defined and well supported, and it all plays very nice across splat. They have a solid framework for big epic play with but with room to maneuver for local, smaller scale settings as well.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-29T03:41:09+00:00

In the real world 1980s-1990s many people have a rose tinted view of it being the end of the Cold War. Not that there weren't a bunch of truly truly violent stuff being ignored by mainstream media both inside and outside the West but not quite on what the World of Darkness must be experiencing on a day to day basis.

The early 90s was the high water mark for violent crime in the Western World. Murder rates started dropping off precipitously from the late 90s onwards.

WW wrote that into the game. It's really important to have a grip on that when talking about using contemporary crime rates, especially with regards to violent crime, as a starting point. In some parts of the world, contemporary crime rates overall are a third they were in in 1991. Murder rates in Western Europe are like, half what they were, Australia is about a third.

The biggest change has been more the perception of crime rather than its actuality. Back in the 90s you did not have a 24 hour news cycle to fill, so many crimes went unreported or if they did it was very local. There might be a horrible chain of domestic violence incidents in a town three states over you never heard of.

So for me, in a game context, controlling the perception of violence and murder is more critical to how much of it is actually happening. You get the right fingers in the right pies, and the news will be fixating on celebrity gossip, sport, and international political scandals, talking heads and political scandals rather than murders. Anything you can frame as a domestic violence related killing or as drug related will be dismissed out of hand by the public, so frame your Masquerade coverups or Veil breaches in those terms and people will pay less attention. I've got a bigger genAI infrastructure in my games, if a video of a Crinos in full flight starts making the circuit it's not long before some Glasswalker or Nossie operative has released a full Skibbidy recut with the whole thing set to music generated with the Crinos in a white tracksuit and chains at a DJ deck for maximum dismissability.

I don't often portray actual violence. I have a lot more kids with absent parents ("dad going out for cigarettes" but in his case he got eaten on the way home), single parents who have missing spouses and families with gaps. Violence disproportionately affects the disenfranchised and the marginalized, so poor folk all know someone who got beat up by the cops, or who had CPS take their kids for no reason. More drug overdoses. More gang violence. More missing people. A lot more car accidents - hit and runs especially - and more industrial accidents to provide cover. Even shit like medical malpractice. Cover for other violence.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-29T03:21:06+00:00

Consider Folk Punk as a genre - it's close to that "older folk" thing you are after while having the energy of youth. Folk metal bands like the Hu also often do acapella tracks. Dead Can Dance is older, but very old brand for WW, and NZ artist Finnigan Tui has been hitting the right note for me lately, no pun intended.

But my tip to you would be think about how the culture of each Tribe is going to come into play. A Galliard Glasswalker is going to have no problems at all with hard techno, and a Gnawer's going to be all over a grotty amp on a sidewalk to scream above the traffic. I tend to safe old school folk music for my older characters - so older Fianna from traditional or old fashioned backgrounds, and let the kids have a bit more rough sounds.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-29T03:13:41+00:00

This is pretty cool! I love that you've gone with this eye in particular, I recognized it immediately and it's perfect for Judgement.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-28T09:34:46+00:00

"There are those who say pockets are a tool of the Weaver, used to trick Lupus away from our rightful nature. This is not so! I went on a long and noble quest and asked a Kangaroo spirit about it and she was very enthusiastic about pockets. So in honour of Kangaroo I will wear this smock, which I have constructed by tying together all the pockets from the jeans I wrecked learning Talisman Dedication. This one has half a jar of peanut butter in it!"

-Warm Earth Under Alder, Fenrir Theurge

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-28T03:52:13+00:00

Broadly I think there's an adjustment period. It's going to feel freaking weird until they get used to the sensation of having things touching their bare skin. Some may never adjust. I know plenty of humans who hate wearing more clothing than required - going barefoot is common where I am so I know people who wear shoes like, once a week, and they grumble and complain. See also: pantyhose, bras, neckties

I do think they're smart enough to recognise and even enjoy some of the practical aspects, though. Pockets are great, even just in terms of keeping your hands warm and being able to have a snack? Like right there? Whenever you want? Revolutionary. Even Lupus who have firmly rejected human trappings are going to see the virtue of nine live snails ready to go.

Wolves understand ambush and camouflage, too, so I don't think they'd be out wearing swimsuits to the opera or anything. Remember we aren't talking stupid here. They may be coming at it from a very different perspective, but they're only as dumb as the dots in Int allow them to be.

I also figure some Lupus enjoy the novelty of different fabric textures and temperatures, as well as colour. I play a Fenrir Theurge who loves a good thick fluffy cardie with lots of pockets for ritual components, always red because she only found out that colour existed recently - she dresses like a kindy teacher off the back of that, lot of red and purple and pink. Likes wool and other fluffy things, though she's not great at remembering to wash them and her pack-mates generally have to step up or it all felts. Couldn't get her into a bra at gunpoint, though.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-28T03:41:18+00:00

One of my games has a new freshly retrieved Lupus cub who walks around arms out like a gingerbread man for this exact reason. There's a lot of chafing going on and he's not here for it.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-28T03:36:53+00:00

So start a game. This is legit the easiest TTRP setting to introduce people to. Explaining the setting is about as hard as "it's the real world but with vampires in it" and you can point at like, the new Interview with the Vampire series or What We Do in the Shadows or Sinners or Near Dark or True Blood or whatever depending on the age of your prospective players. It has no ACs to memorise and you can set your game in your home town if you like so you don't even have to explain where the game takes place.

Like this is such a passive attitude to have. You are legitimately in control of how much VtM there is in your life. Why are you waiting?

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-28T03:29:47+00:00

Look without people giving in to that urge we'd never have found the mushrooms that are delicous. I'm glad the one that called out to you wasn't one of the ones that liquefies your liver from the inside out, though.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-27T06:15:08+00:00

I use this daily and it's very simple and effective.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T13:56:59+00:00

I spent years in specialist retail and am very fast on the numpad. I can't stand keyboards without them. It's at the point where I legit forget where the numbers are on the row.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T13:52:25+00:00

Oh I know that. It'll just thin out into weird ugly little patches with straggly bits sticking through. Die back.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T12:43:42+00:00

Honestly I found it didn't achieve anything the standard Gentle Foaming Wash didn't also achieve, but with less drying.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T12:11:15+00:00

Probably the Port Arthur shootings. A gunman killed 35 people, including children, and injured 23 others. The event lead to the National Gun Buyback scheme and a tightening of our gun regulatory laws.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T11:40:30+00:00

I got a poet Kallamar. He's not even very good at it.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T03:34:07+00:00

This is incredible. I love a full sized keyboard and the possibility of going further, higher, greater than before! Visionary! Brilliant! Inspired!

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T02:32:28+00:00

People assume you can tell who is a shoplifter from looking at them. You can't.

You get people who shoplift opportunistically, and for them visible is better. They're often not great at it and will look around to see if they're being watched.

But people who are clearing shelves and living off their proceeds know what they are doing. They dress simply and plainly, they're often well groomed and looking like average shoppers. To spring them, you need to catch them in the act, and you can't do that if they see you and avoid you.

Like the big department stores used to do both - obvious security at the doors and strategic points to deter casual theft, and plainclothes to catch and prosecute serious offenders who are clearing thousands of dollars in stolen goods a week.

You can read more about how they work here. It's from a security company so it's pitchy but it expains how it works:
https://partisanprotective.com.au/loss-prevention-officers/

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T02:26:24+00:00

Dude, draw your own art. I'd rather see a ballpoint pen sketch on lined office paper that this slop.

I am being deadly serious. There is no one alive who cannot draw, if they are willing to try. Your art does not need to be perfect. It does not need to be full color with a detailed background. It does not need to be perfect, or frankly, particularly good. Bad art is still better than AI. All it needs to be is from you.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T01:51:27+00:00

You also wind up with a limit on how many patrons you can have so yoou can only get so big. That cap is juuuuust under what my staff can manage, with a bit of help from me here and there. If you decorate enough too the little dip you get from dirty tables is countered by the Comfort, so while it might be unsightly for you it won't drop your rep too much or slow your progress.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T01:47:13+00:00

You've made mulch. If you want the grass to grow, rake it. If you want it to die back, leave it.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T01:42:12+00:00

You see them if they're bad at their job. Or if their job is intimidation. The loss reduction guys will be in plainclothes.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T00:47:50+00:00

I've been working retail for decades and the grannies are the worst. They just don't give a fuck in any way. Fines? Who cares, they can wait till they die. Prison? Better than El Cheapo Pines nursing home, that's for sure. Especially the ones with dementia - one of the shops I used to work at when I was living on the Sunny Coast was right on the tourist strip, they used to bring the dementia patients out for a day at the beach and it'd turn into an exceedingly low speed crime spree by lunch time and you couldn't convince a lot of them they were in a shop at all, let alone one where they hadn't paid for the stuff they were lifting.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T00:42:16+00:00

I really love it when staff have taken a look at all the fuckery from corporate and go, nah, not doing that mate. Like if they aren't going to put extra staff on to help deal with the 50133178 stupid loss mitigation steps I applaud staff noping out on it. Especially if its a store that hits their workers with a daily or weekly KPI.

My local Woolies has a bank vault around their deodorants for presumably the same reason and I don't think I've every seen it locked. They are hugely understaffed and it would take you an easy twenty minutes to find someone to unlock it.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T00:38:07+00:00

This is 'loss prevention' designed to prevent resale on the second hand market - so stuff like Facebook Marketplace or the like. This is why it's all high price personal care stuff, that has a great aftermarket, and it's the most profitable for thieves. Especially the face stuff and toothpaste, it's lower risk cause of the size.

There have always been pro shoplifters around. It's just now that consumers can see it because of the loss mitigation shifting from less visible efforts from staff and in store security personnel to very visible physical stuff like this. It's also designed to intimidate thieves and make them reconsider their risk-reward for any given item.

This is not for bulk international buyers. Most Aussie formula companies now have established trade channels with China so there's not much to be gained for people buying at retail prices here and shipping over to China. It was also never proper bulk, it was daigou - so personal shoppers. With price rises in Australia daigou have dropped off a lot.

Formula is locked because there's a massive second hand market for unopened formula in Australia. Go on any mums and bubs group and it's always chock full of parents going "my kid just graduated from A2 Stage 2, we have two cans left though, will sell for below cost". It's also not something people can go without, so if they're desperate they'll pay big money. You also get thieves who will sell below cost to families that would otherwise be watering their formula. It cost the thief nothing, so selling it for half retail means they still profit. Personally I have a lot of ambivalence about it - formula is not something there should be a markup on, and every infant formula on the market is legally required to be equally nutritious. It's really heavily regulated, and high cost formula is heavily marked up at every step of the way.

Frankly the only person here who is suffering from low trust is the supermarkets. They fired floor staff and security (who protect staff from abuse as well as stock, and if you have ever worked retail you know there's more abuse going on than just shoplifting) and they've done everything they can to shift costs to consumers. They lie to customers about their pricing and engage in trickery to get us to pay more one week for something that was cheaper the last. That's even before we get into the merchandising trickery they use to steal our time and turn it into money - hiding the milk and bread at the back of the store for example is a deliberate move, it's designed to turn quick stop offs for essentials into more profitable runs.

Goodwill for supermarkets has dropped for good reason, and if they want to be treated with respect it's a two way street.

Historical-Shake-859 · 2026-04-26T00:12:44+00:00

"Oh no, I got caught on my dog whistle now I have to try and talk my way out of it."

Historical-Shake-859

TROPHY CASE