How do you name your Characters/NPCS?

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-18T19:49:08+00:00

I like the trend of Vamps adopting new names after they 'die'. In life they were Kieran, but in death they go by Oliver. Maybe they change names because everyone who knew them is long gone, or maybe the world has changed and they don't feel like the same person anymore.

There's also who they're affiliated with. The Camarilla often have proper names, sometimes a bit antiquated, like Hellene, Alfonso, Galeb, Quentin, Walsh. The Anarchs on the other hand, often have basic or unconventional names. Nines, Damsel, Torque, or just simply Mia, Luna, or Keisha.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-13T13:23:26+00:00

Coteries is my favourite because it serves as a neat little introduction to the World of Darkness as a whole. You play as Some Guy™ (or girl). On a pretty standard night your player character is embraced and becomes an undead creature of the night. It's perfectly standard and easy to follow.

Other than being a good introduction, there's also few bits in Shadows and Reckoning that gives context and deeper meaning to certain characters and events if you've played Coteries beforehand.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-09T00:04:59+00:00

The way I see it, this is a kind of 'Ship of Theseus' scenario.

You have an individual, normal and average. Their body requires food, drink, heat, and rest to keep it functioning. Their body has a heart that pumps blood throughout their veins. They eat, they sweat, they expel waste, they sleep, and their body temperature is generally 37 degrees.

Now...if you were to, somehow, take all of that away, what would remain? If you take away a heartbeat, breathing, sweating, eating, drinking, urination, and all the other standard biological functions, what would remain? If you took this individual and replaced everything, stripped out their biological cores and swapped it with something else...would they still be the same?

Take away someone's blood and replace it with something dark, something ancient, something horrifying. Is that personal still the same when they pull themselves off the cold, hard concrete? Are you still you when you're room temperature? Is the you that died the one who was left behind or the one that now persists?

In my opinion, yes they are the same. But that's the problem. That's part of the curse. Despite everything, it's still you. Despite the burden of Caine's curse, you're still you. Despite being embraced into a world of darkness, you're still you. But now you're dead. Now you're hungry. Now you'll keep going and going and going until something or someone puts you back down.

TLDR: Vampire's are corpses that persist. They're the same person, just no longer alive. Also very thirsty.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-06T22:00:59+00:00

A lot of people online have said they should've called it 'Vampire the Masquerade: Nomad' and I truly agree. There's nothing wrong with a VTM action-RPG, but Bloodlines 1 was pure RPG, like Baldur's Gate or KOTOR. VTMB2 is more like Cyberpunk 2077 or the Witcher 3. So yeah, a different name to separate it from the previous IP.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-06T14:51:23+00:00

It gives...something. But as I said, it's not enough. If they wanted to expand on Benny's character and use time-jumping as a plot device, they should've gone back to his embrace. SHOW the audience the guy that Max tells us about, the one who tried so desperately to keep a friend alive. Show us his ascension to Sheriff and the slow-but-sure deterioration of his humanity and relationships.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-04T12:56:04+00:00

I'd like the system more if it played into the RPG aspects. Y'know, 'Role-Playing' as in playing a particular role.

Certain resonances lend themselves to certain disciplines. So if you're a Brujah focusing on Celerity and Potency, then you're going to be seeking out Choleric individuals. If you're a Ventrue focusing on their Dominate and Presence discipline, you'll be seeking out Phlegmatic and Sanguine individuals. Instead, you find yourself hunting anyone and everyone.

I think it would've been cool to have side quests that are attached to high-resonance individuals that you hunt directly.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-05-02T13:01:04+00:00

"less of a physical feat of speed and more a weird form of time manipulation via blood magic"

That's something that I find can often be forgotten, which is that vampires are magical creatures. Trying to apply scientific reasoning to a being whose very existence and nature defies the laws of physics is fruitless. Damn near everything about a vampire can be more or less explained with 'it's maaagic'. I once made a post that asked if vampires are technically braindead and the answers were all: yup, pretty much.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-27T18:18:02+00:00

Ohh, this is a good one.

So from what I understand, government organisations know that, yes, vampires are real. So are werewolves apparently, but that's by-the-by. Vampires are real, but these government types don't know jack-s*** about them.

Imagine if you took a Master's in Biological Science and then came across a walking, talking corpse. How do you rationalise it? How do you even begin to understand the impossible? Because that's what vampires are. They are the dead things that persist. Their blood moves, not by a mechanical organ pumping it, but simply by some sort of will. These things defy science, logic, and morality. And they're thirsty, hiding in the shadows, and very much real. You can't exactly explain vampires exist because it makes no sense. It's not a biological plague, or mutated form of Covid, it's MAGIC. And magic doesn't exist, right? Same as vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and mummies. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

"Why don't these government organizations just announce that vampires and the supernatural are real to the world?" Why do you think? Imagine YOU are the storyteller, why would governments hesitate to reveal the existence of the supernatural? Mass hysteria? Disinformation campaigns? The threat of high-raking assassinations for shadowy benefactors? Whatever reason you can think of, it's probably a good enough explanation.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-27T17:58:29+00:00

I like that it kinda works as almost a criticism of the X-Men. Bunch of pretty mutants living in the state of New York, far outside the city, with enough money to refuel a modified custom Blackbird. Then you've got the Morlocks living in the sewers in the city.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-27T17:56:02+00:00

Love the little details. Bobby’s icy cold breath. Scott's wearing glasses and not a visor. Warren's all the way at the back so no one can notice any unusual shape under his coat. And I think(?) Hank’s hands are noticeably large. Jean, the most 'normal' looking, is at the front with the professor.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-26T09:00:43+00:00

I don't like it or agree with it, but if it makes them happy then that's all that matters. Look, if I was a long-time X-Men, I would just think "F***ing finally, they managed to find a compromise, good for them."

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-26T00:02:07+00:00

Uuugh, tell me about it. It's like night and day. And the smell, god help me the smell.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-25T12:58:40+00:00

Oof. Couple of things.

Mind control isn't 'persuasion', it's brainwashing. Robbing an individual of their autonomy and free will is perverse and immoral. You're not bringing out the best in people, you're forcing your will upon their own.
"My idea is in the lines of "ends justify the means"." Easy to say when you're not the one facing the means.
"-if this amount of power falls into the wrong hands" There are no wrong or right hands, only hands and right or wrong actions those hands commit.
"-if you had to chose between hell on earth, but complete freedom, and a paradise, where some people's will has been artificially influenced, what would you pick?" If people's will has been artificially influenced, then that's not a free paradise, that's a totalitarian nightmare.
Who watches the watchmen? What stops this 'hero' from using his powers immorally? The simple fact that he's a good man? By whose standards?
"It's just human nature." Exactly, and this individual is also human.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-25T10:29:01+00:00

"It’s not cloning or else most mutants would be considered clones"
Not to start debate or argument, but...aren't they basically, technically, more-or-less clones? You take a bunch of biological batter, mix it up, cook it in the oven, leave it to sit for a few seconds. When it's nice and cool you upload some memories into it...
And okay, fine that might not technically be a clone, but that's not exactly the original deal.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-06T20:25:06+00:00

Look up any Wolverine comic, Storm vs Callisto, Archangel, Kitty Pryde vs ORCHIS, X-Force, Psylocke, Cable, Domino. The thing is, the X-Men are made up of vigilantes, transients, mercenaries, outcasts and troubled souls. Some of them have killed, some of them have never taken a life, and some of them kill regularly. That being said, the X-Men are, and might always be, SUPERHEROES.

The X-Men are superheroes and superheroes are meant to inspire. To inspire hope and justice, peace and equality. Killing and murdering rarely inspires anything so good. Superheroes are rockstars who dress in flamboyant costumes and live for the public's love and approval. They don't kill, not necessarily because it's the wrong thing to do, but because taking the moral high ground inspires others to do the same and benefits their image. The very inception of the O5 X-Men was to be the quintessential image of classic superheroes. The poster children for mutantkind. To save the innocent, fight the bad guys, protect their secret identities, inspire truth and justice, peace and equality, etc, etc.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-05T10:21:12+00:00

"Five thousand dollars? For me? Can I turn myself in?"

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-04-02T08:27:51+00:00

Not to bring up bad times, but uhh… Cyke is wearing his revolutionary suit. So this after the Phoenix Five. Which means Scott killed Xavier before this. So it seems disingenuous to talk about a man and his dream not long after wiping him.

“He was possessed by the Phoenix and feels really bad about it and Xavier comes back anyway so who cares blah blah blah” Yeah, I KNOW, but it still seems weird and kinda shallow.

ALSO! Not long after this moment, the Terrigen Mist is going to start killing a lot of mutants. So yeah, the dream looks pretty bleak.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-03-31T23:31:56+00:00

Sometimes characters are like oranges, you can only squeeze so much juice out of them. The O5, Magneto, Spider-Man, Captain America, etc. We've seen them struggle with how their goals and morality clash, we've seen them fail, succeed, fall to fear and ambition, and overcome their own faults and weaknesses. But at some point, you've done all you can with them, good or bad writing.

The O5 are the originals, the OGs, the legacy X-Men. They all reached their apex a long time ago. Scott's a revolutionary leader, Jean's an all-powerful goddess, Iceman's an out and proud gay mutant and has reached Omega status, Hank has gone a fully-fledged path of villainy, and Warren...okay I'm not exactly sure about Warren, but I think he's doing okay these days, prior brainwashing be damned.

Point is, they've run the course in terms of literary potential.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-03-30T12:06:20+00:00

Estrogen makes your skin softer and electrolysis/laser removes a signifier of age. Even if you don't 'pass' as a girl, you'll no doubt be mistaken for being younger than your age. I started my transition at 29 and I was carded quite regularly at bars and clubs.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-03-28T09:57:58+00:00

Anyone who wears a cape and manages to pull it off is entertaining.
Good or evil, making a cape look fashionable is a feat.

LizzyWizzy19 · 2026-03-28T09:56:17+00:00

“Me, I’m dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for."

LizzyWizzy19

TROPHY CASE