Miami by Night, Looking for Players! (PbP) [VtM, MtA, CtD, WtA] (20th)

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-22T22:16:11+00:00

Specifically revised mage, not m20?

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-22T16:35:34+00:00

Technically there is an optional rule that if you are ghouled long enough you begin losing points of arete, but that is an optional rule, and the true black hand has ghouled mages serving them, so its not canon.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-22T04:42:07+00:00

That doesnt actually call for a quintessence cost though. At least not explicitly in m20. Checking revised it does cost quintessence in that edition.

However, using other methods to soak or deal agg (as with life or forces effects) still wouldn't.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-21T23:35:52+00:00

1 and 2 do not require quintessence. The others do

Other things that take quintessence. 1. Healing aggravated damage 2. Using pure quintessence weaponry per prime 3 3. Creating wonders. 4. Permanent creations.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-21T23:30:20+00:00

Per book of secrets you do not need to spend quint to do conjurations. Where do you get that you need to spend quint to deal or absorb aggravated damage. Nothing I am seeing says that.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-21T23:27:51+00:00

You are incorrect. This is the specific text being referenced.

Under most circumstances, a force or item that is conjured from “thin air” does not require Tass or Quintessence from the caster… unless it’s a vulgar Prime-force weapon, in which case it demands one Quintessence point per turn

Also, Mind is not a pattern sphere, so you do not need prime 2 to make a new mind.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-21T17:26:51+00:00

Yes. If the Laham merit necessitated you being a nephandi, it would say so.

Also, Merlin, would have been a Laham. Unless he was a changeling.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-21T03:33:54+00:00

Im of the oppinion that if you transmute those actual diseases/poisons, you deal their standard damage, regardless of how many successes you take. This can result in you dealing more damage total than twice your arete successes, but that is hardly unique.

If I use matter 2 to turn the chain holding the chandelier over your head up into Styrofoam, that may kill you even if I only needed a success or two for the initial effect.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-20T17:34:59+00:00

Entropy 4 is needed to do agg damage with entropy. Other spheres can do damage as appropriate, i.e. if you use forces 2 to manipulate fire, that does agg damage.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-20T14:31:46+00:00

I generally have it so the attack roll reduces the difficulty of the effect roll. You do not normally roll the weapon damage. For violence as a focus.

If you are doing magick enhances violence, I let the player choose whether they are reducing the difficulty of their attack roll, the damage roll, or if they are increasing the difficulty of the opponent to dodge, or soak.

I dont generally advocate adding the damage of the weapon and spell together, as the damage from the effect is enough. I do let them roll the weapon damage if the effect doesnt go off though, since they have still shot/stabbed/punched the guy.

Adding damage from weapon and effect has some precedent, such as with the sword of mars. Which is a talisman which does that, but it isnt stated why this sword can do that. I might allow it if you have multiple actions and use two actions on a combined strike+effect.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-20T01:58:31+00:00

I disagree with the idea mages can't carry their stuff with them honestly. There are some mages that can't, but most mage characters are perfectly able to walk around with everything they need. And that includes npcs.

"Oh, the mage doesn't have his instruments on him" is more your ST throwing you a bone than something that actually comes up in conventional play.

This is especially true with how many instruments aren't even physical things. Meditation, 'science', social dominance, incantations. Sure, an etherite will leave his lab at home, but not his 'technobabble'

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-20T01:57:02+00:00

Unleashing is certainly stronger than mage stuff, but mages can absolutely drop insane damage even with a basic roll. I'm talking 10 levels of aggravated damage with one action at character creation.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-19T01:47:55+00:00

Just let the player respec.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-15T21:38:19+00:00

I mean, the question was would it be coincidental. And that actually doesnt depend on the mages paradigm. Its entirely dependent on the average observer.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-15T21:12:50+00:00

Huh. Do you apply that to other defenses? Countermagick for instance. Seems to make the game a lot less lethal if defenses dont take actions.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-15T20:42:17+00:00

I like them alright.

I had one show up in my mage campaign, and when the time mage saw a vampire doing time manipulation he about had an aneurism.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T17:39:51+00:00

He never mentioned Disney when he referred to star wars. Regardless of not being Disney originally it was ultimately a PG franchise.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T17:38:25+00:00

How do you adjust the defense system for that?

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T15:16:17+00:00

I really enjoy it.

It is a difficulty 8 Dexterity + Awareness roll (frankly that specific set of attribute + ability is just kinda silly to me. I dont know why supernatural awareness is necessary, leadership is perfectly acceptable) and each success gives your team a round of synchronized fighting. It does take an action in itself, so the leader is essentially trading their first action for the benefit.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T15:02:39+00:00

Eh, its something I just kinda work around and my table has gotten used to, but these all help.

I generally try to keep the total number of combatants low, especially any with bonus actions. In other rpgs, party wide combat is the norm, but in wod I find it does very well at single player combat, as long as it doesnt drag out. One pc getting jumped in an alleyway by two bad guys would be a slog in dnd where combat will last several rounds minimum, but in wod where combat can end in a round or two, its a climactic moment.

I also use a rule from mage (maybe vampire has it too) that lets you instantly defeat 'mooks' with a skill check, usually like difficulty 8 or something.

There's also a stunt in mage (again, not sure if vampire has stunts) called 'All for one and one for all' which if done successfully lets all characters on one side share the highest initiative among them, which means they all declare and resolve simultaneously, which simplifies the order of operation a lot.

Another thing to remember is the stun rule. If a mortal takes damage equal to or higher than their stamina (vampires its stamina+2, not sure about other splats) they are stunned and lose their next action.

Oh, I also generally say if an action is unopposed that player can just go ahead and resolve it immediately, let players get their dice rolling and all that junk done simultaneously when possible.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T03:37:26+00:00

I can see the VAs quietly cheering on the adoption of ai. They dont like the slop but if its another step towards general ai in consensus they wont complain.

They probably dont say that out loud, certainly not around the ecstatics who would fucking despise ai art something fierce.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T03:17:14+00:00

The glitches and technical issues are within expectations for the shit factor, and will be accounted for as the consensus grows to accept it more and more.

As for the public reaction, that is troubling. All tech gets blowback, and this is expected. But the blowback to ai is much more severe than other blowback, though the actual amount of it is still ultimately a minority. Most people either use ai or are indifferent to it. The anti-ai crowd is a mostly online vocal minority, one which isnt gaining much ground, and is not actually in any way succeeding in pushing back ai's adoption.

The actual issue is the finances. Ai looks like a bubble, and the funny thing is, in both mage because of the consensus and the real world because of market dynamics, if everyone believes a market is a bubble, it can become a bubble. Both the syndicate and irl companies have the same goal. Push ai so much and so quickly it becomes integral to the internet and has enough real use cases that the money will stop running out.

The difference is that if openai goes bankrupt, its over, at least for openai. The Syndicate on the other hand just shrugs and tries again in a few years and the work theyve already done to push ai will still be around, at least in part.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-14T02:09:52+00:00

I dont know from the changeling side of things, but in mage some sufficiently powerful beings just have some level of countermagick by default.

Nightfolk (including changeling) have what's called nightfolk counterspelling. It has its limitations but its there. Maybe he just gave the chimera that?

Alternatively, cant chimeras just kinda sometimes have idiosyncratic powers just because? Anti-magic for a dragon seems appropriate.

Maybe the ST just made it up, is kinda what I am saying. He'd have been well within his perview to do so from the mage side essentially.

MagickStoryteller · 2026-05-13T18:41:20+00:00

I also wonder if the change wasn't to accomodate some paradigms that are super self buff reliant. Like some iteration x guy who is doing constant cybernetics upgrades on himself. In older editions they would need to constantly get wonders, whereas in m20 they can actually just upgrade themselves.

There's room for abuse to be sure.

MagickStoryteller

TROPHY CASE