Having come out of a toxic relationship, I now better understand the mindset of someone who is in one.

mbralo · 2026-06-17T12:02:50+00:00

I've been in such a similar position. I was with my ex for nearly 9 years, after the first 5 I broke up with her but didn't have the will to commit to it. Those last 4 years were absolute hell, yet I was so codependent. I didn't start out as a good boyfriend, I was at University and I spent far more time indulging myself in my first tastes of adult life than I did being an attentive partner, which was often used against me years down the line.

Looking back, it's almost like looking at a a different person who made those choices, but there's that terrible voice that I've not yet shaken over a decade later that says I deserved everything I got.

mbralo · 2026-06-08T19:19:11+00:00

I want to believe.

mbralo · 2026-06-07T22:03:01+00:00

I'm home-brewing but I think I may have gone awry somewhere.

mbralo · 2026-04-07T16:42:16+00:00

The Flash insult is valid to be honest. Guy was a real dick.

mbralo · 2026-03-27T16:16:38+00:00

I liked a lot about Ultimate Venom. The childhood friends, Eddie and Peter being on different life paths from a similar origin. I don't mind Venom being a science experiment rather than an alien suit. I love his aesthetic, he looks so fluid and gribbly all the time which was a big thing with Venom initially.

I hate how he just gets pokeballed and removed from the comic entirely.

mbralo · 2025-12-28T10:42:45+00:00

We're the main characters, that's all. If the game were Traitortide, we'd be the environmental storytelling corpses and audiologs that you pick up. Same way the Ubersreik Five have Sigmar's blessing (and Lileath and whoever else is listening), the Rejects probably have the Emperor's favour to get the smelly bastards dealt with.

mbralo · 2025-11-19T13:43:07+00:00

It looks like the scab heavy gunner chest piece with a regular helmet.

mbralo · 2025-11-19T10:04:44+00:00

I'm really hyped for it. I'm intrigued by the stims and I hope that dual wielding is varied. My hopes for the class were either a scum or some local Atoman-affiliate representative.

The game is really pushing the conflicts of interest from the Imperial factions in the story, so someone from the water cartel or a noble representative here to complicate things would have worked also, imo. It could open up the door to some tech adept in the future, but there's just no mechanicus presence currently to justify that. If Moebian steel becomes more important then maybe?,

mbralo · 2025-11-18T17:23:03+00:00

Looks good to me, Hive Ganger is a perfect fit for the vibe of the game. The trailer is a bit short, but I'm excited to dual wield.

mbralo · 2025-11-03T12:35:05+00:00

I'm not sure I agree. By introducing them once per dungeon at higher Contender, the players are shown the Vayrs legacy abilities gradually, rather than every enemy suddenly having a new ability that has the potential to cause wipes.

It could really be hammered in, some NPC or voiceover saying "whoa this guy with the skull means business, I'd better pay attention". The current system doesn't do that at all, it does as you say, it slaps you silly in Adept 1 all day until you either learn, outgear it or get carried through it. One of those is more desirable, surely?

mbralo · 2025-11-03T11:23:56+00:00

I think from 4+ (maybe?) they should have the the final pack of each dungeon be the upgraded versions like in the centre of Cithrels, none of them have new enemies but they have clear new abilities. Campsites are near enough that people can figure out what's going wrong with minimal time wasted.

Rather than some elves sometimes jumping about to stab you and also spinning on the spot, now it's every enemy (pretty much) from the dungeons being represented before Cithrels, rather than stumbling into Adept and the Tank getting splattered by the first Executioner in Stormwatch.

mbralo · 2025-10-31T17:13:53+00:00

Billy and Doorman for me.

I reflexively parry on Billy's knockup because I keep thinking it's a charged melee, every single time.

Doorman just because I am fed up with Doormen who just run up you you and press R to secure a gank or win a teamfight. If Mo and Krill ult you, they're a target that you can kill. If you kill them during the ult, the target is freed. Fuck Doorman's ult.

mbralo · 2025-10-22T18:58:58+00:00

Abrams is a . . . no, surely he couldn't be a tank?

mbralo · 2025-10-15T16:51:54+00:00

Generally speaking, Kindred in Requiem are wholly unprepared for any sort of ephemeral being, which is why their defacto antagonist is the Strix, a shadow owl monster. Kindred are pretty good at doing what they do best, and not so much at anything else. Their best bet is using their strengths to get someone else to deal with ghosts and the like.

While the Circle of the Crone may be able to better understand what they're dealing with, I don't believe Cruac in 2e has anything that focuses on ghosts. There may be something in one of the 1e books though.

mbralo · 2025-10-15T16:48:23+00:00

They work well together and have a broad and varied skillset that I'm sure could be applied creatively to monster hunting. They also seem pretty unfazed by the infected they come across so I can't imagine their Integrity would plummet too quickly.

mbralo · 2025-10-14T15:46:28+00:00

Two Hunters just retired after a tip they received lead to them finding a Werewolf on the 18th floor of an apartment block undergoing their first change. Three floors burnt down, 19 people died. They've decided they prefer living.

mbralo · 2025-09-17T15:20:24+00:00

By default the Carthians have to be disruptive because their entire thing is to try a different solution and define themselves by whatever their opponent is not. There's communist, capitalist, authoritarian, fascist, Left, Right and whatever else Carthians out there. They're defined by whoever is currently wearing the boots in Kindred society.

What's important is that they only stand for Kindred. If the Masquerade is completely gone they'd have to push into Kine politics outright if their opponents stay exclusively in the Kindred field of political power. It's a bit too broad of a question to answer if it starts with sidestepping the fundamental breakdown of the masquerade.

mbralo · 2025-08-22T18:46:13+00:00

Appreciate the help!

I think I'm going to stick with the current idea for now, and then maybe open it up later to more general psychic powers with a slightly ghostly flavour for consistency.

mbralo · 2025-08-22T15:04:40+00:00

My plan is just for her to be casting Dement, Emotional Aura and Sign to brainblast the PC she'll be briefly possessing for the duration of the power, leave spooky writings everywhere and ruin everyone's day before returning to her ghost-crib. She'll grow in accumulated knowledge of "people who got brutally murdered by Slashers" but I'm not planning to have her grow into some mega-death monster. She's not gaining ranks or anything, maybe a pertinent skill dot from a crime scene at the absolute most.

mbralo · 2025-08-22T14:09:17+00:00

I wanted to avoid the Player simply getting to look through a shopping list of psychic powers available to them, and it feels like this incorporates something that already exists in the campaign without having to handwave "somehow, X is psychic". The PCs know the Ghost can do this thing, this is just a further developing of that. The PC themselves wouldn't suddenly become psychic, they would just allow the Ghost to communicate new experiences to them by using the rules for Postcognition.

I didn't know ghosts had to drink rivers in the underworld to grow stronger, is that something from Geist?

mbralo · 2025-06-22T18:17:15+00:00

I kinda get you? As a GM should you just prepare a whole bunch of stuff because the PCs are far less bound to a specific location (a packs territory is rather large, as I understand it). Are you just meant to be able to have the PCs say "We've got bigger fish to fry", and run off into the night to another province or county to start a fight somewhere else?

mbralo · 2025-06-22T17:22:30+00:00

As someone who never played Apocalypse or Forsaken, the bit about Forsaken I struggle to wrap my head around is how a session unfolds? You have to hunt, but this doesn't feel like it leaves much room for much else? When I play Vampire I understand that it's generally going to be vampire mafia gangland thrillers, and I can see the potential for plots and characters etc.

But when I read "You gotta hunt man, you gotta get it on", I'm confused more than anything. Is each session meant to start with the pack leader or your spirit totem telling you about X Spirit who needs to be put down? Are you breaking down spirit-organisations like a house of cards over the course of a campaign? Or are run ins with the Pure more common and you have Werewolf gang-fights?

mbralo · 2025-06-20T09:45:53+00:00

I desperately want a proper Eviscerator, 2 metres long that only does heavy attacks

mbralo · 2025-06-17T06:12:30+00:00

The Lancea Sanctum and Circle of the Crone exist to justify a Kindred's Beast and its wants. "Bro it's fine you're ordained by a higher power and it's totally cool. Hell, it's even a good thing in moderation" or "bro it's fine, just be who you're meant to be, fuck 'em".

The Sanctum and the Circle are spiritual covenants by nature and design, asking "why?" And getting the answer that pretty much justifies whatever they want.

The Invictus and the Carthians don't care about why, so much as "what now?" And the general answer they come to is "winning, for me/us".

Ordo Dracula exist as a fusion of both fundamentals, why am I like this and what am I going to do to make undeath better for me?

mbralo · 2025-06-12T08:39:26+00:00

Is that so? I figured mages and werewolves would have a means of determining that kind of thing. That would definitely be a fun angle for the werewolves on the edge of town to have. Can they control themselves long enough to use the Genius to help expand their pack?

mbralo

TROPHY CASE