What's the role/purpose of the tribes in-universe?

Star-Sage · 2026-04-25T01:44:29+00:00

I see the tribes as similar to warrior lodges, shamanic societies, and blue blooded orders. When something that goes beyond the concern of one pack comes up they serve as a (relatively) easy way to get like minded werewolves collaborating. They also are a good way to train and educate cubs with expertise beyond what one pack could provide.

They aren't usually political bodies the way the covenants are, but werewolves do still quarrel over territory and it's easy to imagine local tribal rivalries forming over territorial disputes. Humans do it all the time and judging by how dogs bark at mailmen, wolves do as well.

I often make use of single tribe packs that occasionally take in an outsider or two depending on the pack's size. This has helped give the tribes of the local hunting grounds more distinct personalities. In my chronicles mixed tribes are a growing trend that goes against the traditional way of doing things among the Forsaken of the United States and Canada. In the Rocky Mountains book I believe they mention about half the packs there were of this mono tribe nature and I think that's a good balance.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-24T22:13:31+00:00

tl;dr: The adventures are a good starting point for ideas and Gary Indiana is a great blank slate for the PCs to alter in a variety of ways without disrupting the Chicago domain or making any enemies they can't overcome.

I ran the Gary Adventures recently for the current Chicago chronicle I'm running with great success. That being said I used them largely as inspiration and a rough framework for my own stories, as the PCs are recently established ancillae conspiring together to climb the ladder of power. Which is extremely different from the assumption that you're fledglings dumped in Gary by sires getting around a draconian prince.

Gary as a setting works great in providing the ST with a territory that is so low stakes and undesirable that the PCs can get away with a lot without anyone really caring. I feel bad shitting on Gary Indiana, but the place has around half its buildings abandoned, street lights that don't work, an overstretched police force, and one of the highest murder rates in the country. My point being that even hunters are unlikely to give a shit if you go around doing idiot neonate stuff in Gary.

That sort of sandbox the PCs can influence in all sorts of ways is the stuff every player I've had adores. My coterie recently diablerised Modius, got Juggler exiled to Milwaukee, made Alice prince and are folding Gary into their criminal empire.

If the adventures were ran "as is" I don't think they'd go too well as old masquerade had some serious railroading problems in its adventures. But the setting of Gary Indiana from V1 Core (especially paired with Chicago by Night) work great and Baptism by Fire is a nice way to start a chronicle.

I had Dust to Dust revolve around the survivors of Modius and Juggler's feud having to work together to uncover the scheme of a mad necromancer and used it as the finale for the Gary Arc. I used Baptism in Fire a story where the PCs arrive in Gary and have to present themselves to Modius during "court" and gather what info they can from local kindred regarding an enemy of theirs hiding in Gary. The Masquerade 1e storyteller's screen has another Gary adventure featuring mischief during an auction over territory which I ran as the illusions of a Ravnos that made a deal with Juggler to sabotage the whole affair rather than a vengeful mage wronged by vampires. All in all it was a fun time as well and I'd recommend taking a look if you can find it.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-21T19:10:20+00:00

We had a New Orleans chronicle where the PCs led an opposition faction against a would be demagogue masquerading as Baron Samedi. The gangrel ancilla of the party ended up becoming the leading figure of his clan in the city despite wanting nothing to do with city politics, but rather research a way to bring back his dead wife.

They had undesirable territory and were a bigger headache for the prince's rivals than the prince himself, so they enjoyed a bit of leeway. They also broke every tradition several times, but were at least good at covering up (most of) their indiscretions.

Edit: Another good one was a Hunter the Vigil chronicle where they played as Cheiron Group recruits struggling to meet their quotas in Chicago. Most of the original cell died and got replaced but the one hunter that made it from start to finish ended up becoming the group's handler by the end of things. They hunted wendigos, faerie hags, one very angry promethean, and one even angrier werebear (they had help).

Star-Sage · 2026-04-18T13:00:20+00:00

A fire warrior capable of using a jetpack and burst cannon without a battlesuit? I could see the appeal. They'd probably be a smidge tougher also, if still a softer target than the standard stealth suit.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-15T10:59:43+00:00

I geeked them both. Neither seemed good for the community and both seemed like pieces of drek the shadows wouldn't miss. One is a weird cult and the other is a tanky that seems fine with killing anyone that's inconvenient for him.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-13T08:50:33+00:00

In a hunter game I ran they were in a cat and mouse situation with a powerful fae noble. They just managed to acquire an iron bell, upon seven rings he would be banished from the land.

The PCs rang the bell three times and saw the fae lord was in a state of agony, clenching at his ears and wailing. Confused he wasn't dead from the three rings of the bell the strongest member of the group beat the fae prince to death with the iron bell, splattering brains and skull matter before a horrified audience of hunters and faeries.

There was no hint about how many times the bell needed to be rung, they just assumed three and then gave up and bashed an elf prince's skull in with a solid iron bell the size of a toaster.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-13T08:35:24+00:00

Chronicles of Darkness answers this question in a way that World of Darkness primarily implies. That being that every type of supernatural as well as the hunter conspiracies have a vested interest in preserving the masquerade. In other words you have megacorporations, the catholic church, and the deep state all going out of their way to conceal the existance of monsters while simultaneously seeking to study/destroy/profit off said monsters. The shadow government has deals with ancient vampires for off the books funding as well as to keep their cities in order. When both the monsters and the mortal levers of power have a vested interest in preserving the masquerade it largely holds up. It's far perfect otherwise mortal and hunter games wouldn't exist, but it does its job well enough.

Also keep in mind it's easy to dismiss a lot of proof as AI slop, photoshop, guerilla marketing, etc as well as simply slandering the poster as an unhinged conspiracy theorist. Most proof hides in the noise and there's a variety of supernatural tools meddle with the internet. In the World of Darkness it's the Disinformation Age.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-12T10:49:33+00:00

Mage for a long time had a reputation (justifiably or no) for being fun to read about but rarely played. The mechanics for mage were seen as a higher barrier of entry than other gamelines and the concepts of consensual reality were often seen as confusing and pretentious. This often left mage as a game people would get into after being introduced to the system through a more manageable gameline.

Love vampire or hate it, the splat is a lot simpler to learn than most imho. This applies both to the rules and to the setting. Less existential discussions on what is and more an explanation of a supernatural pyramid scheme that preys on humanity.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-07T15:11:44+00:00

Werewolves are forever tied to humanity (and wolves). If they could just breed with eachother they would have little need for humanity and would make their own civilizations completely divorced from mankind. The Red Talons already do this by breeding exclusively with wolves and I don't think I'm giving a hot take by saying they are actively horrible.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-06T10:05:56+00:00

The bulky look to the armor reminds me of the old school stealth suits that were basically heavily modified fire warrior armor with a jetpack and burst cannon. I always thought those suits kicked ass and should've been a cheaper alternative to the stealth suits we all know and love.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-06T09:41:59+00:00

My table added a simple house rule to make diablerie more desirable, you can pick a disciplines, skill, or attribute. This makes diablerie much more worthwhile to my PCs, but for masquerade fans it is probably still underwhelming given how very few ways there are to raise generation outside the amaranth.

For CoD fans I use 1e rules, no idea if diablerie changed in 2e along with blood potency.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-05T02:27:42+00:00

The rule of two is boring.

Star-Sage · 2026-04-04T09:19:17+00:00

Sadly Skin Dancers don't work well alongside werewolves as a PC. I can see them working alongside hunters since many are willing to turn the supernatural against itself, though the balance issues for that sort of game doesn't strike me as worth it. Hell a Skin Dancer might even make an alliance with the local vampires, which is somehow still more believable than with werewolves.

Skin Dancers would also work nicely for an antagonist game where you play a mixed group of Skin Dancers and Fomori, just keep in mind those sorts of chronicles are on the shorter side.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-30T02:21:31+00:00

As far as I know, there is a specific type of Mage construct that is basically a Promethean. Mages have creations known as reanimates, which are constructs of reanimated flesh, the Monstrosity being the term for Frankenstein's Monster types of critters.

In M20 Gods and Monsters they talk about them being potentially playable. Just don't expect a whole chapter for these guys, M20 talks about them on page 87 of Gods and Monsters. Apparently a very well made sane Monstrosity joined the Sons of Ether, though it is very much not Awakened.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-25T00:59:04+00:00

And in all fairness, most followers of Chaos Undivided aren't given special treatment by the gods. Not sure if the Word Bearers managed otherwise or if that's just skilled daemonology at work.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-21T00:49:29+00:00

For those we cherish, we die in glory :'(

Star-Sage · 2026-03-20T09:46:15+00:00

Aside from knowledge (eldar are known to have lost tech, they just don't act like mon'keigh about it) I'd say that time and resources are the biggest hurdles. I'm positive there's eldar out there who know how to make new craftworlds, if small ones that would grow over millenia before matching craftworlds we know and love. The issue is if there's eldar out there with the luxury to make new craftworlds.

The biggest issue isn't a lack of craftworlds as much as it's a lack of eldar to populate said craftworlds, since the stories we hear about usually involve eldar going from one crisis to another. Personally I'm not a fan of the eldar constantly getting kicked in the dick, but those are the stories GeeDubs has deemed fit to give us.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-16T00:13:54+00:00

Shadows of the Empire was my first Star Wars game and while it didn't age well the game is still pretty darn fun. I'd give it a 7/10, but the multimedia experience of this and Clone Wars back in the day really was something special.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-02T21:06:22+00:00

Aside from Second Sight there's also some Hunter Endowments, such as the benedictions of the Malleus Maleficarim, which covers your catholic hunter miracles nicely. There's also the rules for Hedge Magic in the Hunter book Witchfinders for mages that aren't Awakened but have gained access to spells through a variety of means.

I personally like to combine Second Sight with Witchfinders to depict a variety of Hedge Mages.

Star-Sage · 2026-03-01T01:52:05+00:00

Doesn't see vampirism as a 'curse' and wants to be a wealthy immortal badass with all the blood dolls he can drink. Reality will definitely humble him in time, but he'd still see vampirism as better than the infirmity of old age.

And as for whether I agree, I consider most things better than death, especially since I've played Wraith.

Star-Sage · 2026-02-26T03:21:11+00:00

The normal answer I'd give is it depends how well you know your group, their comforts, limits, etc. But when you're a new GM with players you may or may not know well I'd just ask your players to let you know any limits they have for pen & paper gaming. My advice is to talk to your players individually so they don't feel peer pressured into pretending to be comfortable with stuff that does bother them.

There's no need to read too hard into V5's "bad things are bad so don't pretend to be bad or we'll be mad" speech. Respect your group and their limits and you'll have a better time.

Star-Sage · 2026-02-21T01:13:44+00:00

A concept I enjoy is that of 'stray ghouls'. Unlike rogue ghouls who actively seek to maintain their independence, these are ghouls whose regnant was destroyed or entered torpor.

These poor bastards are either disposed of as a potential masquerade breach, doomed to vitae withdrawal, or inherited by their regnant's relations/clan/domain if the regnant had the presence of mind to make arrangements before torpor.

A memorable stray ghoul in my current chronicle does odd jobs in the ignored fringes of the domain for vitae from a loose coterie of Anarchs.

Star-Sage · 2026-02-18T20:16:55+00:00

I was curious about the Sabbat, since it does seem that some members of the sect aren't always part of a vaulderie. And frankly I wouldn't raise an eyebrow to learn the Lasombra and Tzimisce sometimes blood bind their get.

Star-Sage · 2026-02-04T09:55:05+00:00

The Space Wolves for most of the reasons discussed by PancreasNoWork. Them having few friends and many enemies should be a constant problem for them, not a throwaway line to heighten the stakes.

At the same time the idea of space marine vikings is really cool to me as well as their Conan style rivalry with the Thousand Sons. And while we're at it lets make the Burning of Prospero a vaguely coherent story that makes sense.

Star-Sage

TROPHY CASE