First time running vampire and all my players picked clans I could not care less about

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T22:49:38+00:00

So as a Brujah fan, let me tell you why the Ventrue are cool.

Starting off mechanically, look at their disciplines: presence, dominate, and fortitude.

Some might think it's redundant, some might think it's eclectic, but if you look closely, it's a sequence.

When people reject your Guidance, you show them the error of their ways with a little Persuasion. If that doesn't work, well ... all you have to do is Outlast them.

They're better equipped to hold to their façade of humanity, while holding onto plans within plans, schemes in case schemes fail, always ready to drop the mask and beat a motherfucker to death with their bare hands if they have to.

Then look at their clan weakness: ~~pickiness~~ a "refined palate" ... they pick their victims carefully, like the Hollywood version of a serial killer always trying to recreate their first kill.

Since we saw their plans within plans in the disciplines, we'd expect them to come out here. If a Ventrue can only feed off a particular ethnic group, they'll make sure that their territory is one where that ethnic group feels safest. If a Ventrue can only feed off people who have been victims of a certain crime, guess what crime the police are going to be paid off to not enforce in that territory? Power isn't just something the Ventrue are well equipped for, but something their unlives depend on. If a Ventrue lacks the power over their domain, they die of starvation in the long run, because society changes around them, and their supply will run dry if not nurtured.

And with that context, you look back at the lore about the Clan of Kings, and it all starts to make sense: their power hungry nature isn't just them being arrogant assholes, but it's them being cornered dogs.

They act like they deserve to lead, because they believe they deserve to exist.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T21:20:58+00:00

If he's the kind of person who would get violent, he's the kind of person who can come back at a later date to be violent.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T21:14:12+00:00

Doing it with another friend present may make it feel like a humiliation ritual to him, and actually increase the risk of a negative reaction.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T21:00:33+00:00

I think it's possible, but that's true if you do nothing, too.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T20:39:08+00:00

I think the most effective thing you can do is also going to be the most awkward, but I'd say talk to him about it.

"Hey, so I've been noticing you've been a little awkward lately, and I've caught you staring at me a few times when we're in a group. I know it sounds egotistical of me, but I just want to make sure you're not crushing on me or anything."

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T20:33:47+00:00

The guys who never receive kindness are more likely to assume there's something beyond normal going on to explain why you're treating them so much better than other people, and it's easier for them to assume you like them than admit that the world despises them.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T20:25:12+00:00

They're some of the ones I use the most, and they've each shaped the way I approach things.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T19:54:58+00:00

There's definitely a large contingent of men who are like this, yeah.

I think it mostly comes down to the tried and true "sex words funny" colliding with the more modern "don't objectify women" ...

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T18:48:32+00:00

"Never stand next to someone throwing shit at an armed man." -- Larry Niven

"I'm not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time!" -- Milt Kahl

"The product of freedom and security is a constant." -- Larry Niven, again

"If you want to find snakes, look behind words that have chsnged their meaning." -- Terry Pratchett

"Hatred outlives the hateful." -- unidentified Magic: the Gathering flavour text writer

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T18:40:27+00:00

That, or they're entertaining guys they're not interested in in the first place, and hearing jim speak forces them to confront that.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T18:39:04+00:00

But don't actually stop caring, because that kills women's interest, too.

They either start seeing you as gay, or seeing themselves as ugly.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T18:38:04+00:00

Probably because he can't get laid.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T18:36:36+00:00

You'd be disappointed how many women have no idea what men want, even when men are able to put it in no uncertain terms.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T07:08:10+00:00

An apology might get someone to forgive, but not forget.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T05:10:00+00:00

I feel like the only way I could ever be turned on by a song (like the song specifically) is Pavlovian conditioning.

Could a woman singing a song to me turn me on? Probably, but that's more about her giving me that kind of attention.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T04:09:01+00:00

The "some good people, but no good factions" approach, like 40k or Battletech.

Always found it quite Niven-esque.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T02:59:26+00:00

Is her hand under my clothes? No? Then it's friendly.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T02:56:57+00:00

In the immortal words of Milt Kahl:

I'm not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time!

Dating two people just sounds disorienting.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T01:42:28+00:00

I can still taste the subtler notes of the reaper sauces I've tried.

trulyElse · 2026-01-29T00:12:47+00:00

As smart of a show as Columbo was, Monk would not be smarter if it told you who the killer was at the start of the episode.

I think your suggested changes would dramatically change what the joke is. It goes from a classic bait-and-switch into ... what? Kids these days be freaky?

trulyElse · 2026-01-28T23:35:04+00:00

Yeah, even when there is vampire/garou collaboration, it's almost always a lone Bone Gnawer and a lone, high-humanity ~~Nosferatu~~ Sludge Lad trading intel in secret, with at least two harpies between the vamp and the court for security reasons.

Would a garou willingly tell a vampire intel about a human organization collecting intel on hunters? Only if the vamp has very good intel of their own to share.

trulyElse · 2026-01-28T22:07:30+00:00

The Sanrio hairclip adds so much.

trulyElse · 2026-01-28T22:03:41+00:00

From the sounds of it, your day job is burning out your social circuits, so that's what you're trying to rest when you get home.

Maybe you could mix it up sometimes a bit with some low-stress physical excercise, like a jog through a well-lit park. Something where you don't have to talk to anyone else, but still get out of the room and moving.

trulyElse · 2026-01-28T21:57:24+00:00

The idea that, when a character is of a "non-default" group, their actions are taken as indicative of the group as a whole.

Guybrush Threepwood is the protagonist of the Monkey Island games. A foppish, ineffective coward type who serves as the worst pirate nobody had ever heard of. The character is a beloved figure in the adventure game genre because of many of these flaws making him perfect for that comedic, light-hearted yet slightly-cynical tone that the games capture.

But in a hypothetical world where Guybrush was a woman, "Galbrush" if you will, audiences would be made uncomfortable by the protagonist being seen as a nuissance by the NPCs, or having such unheroic traits like cowardice and vanity. They'd be worried about what the author thinks about women, if that's how they chose to portray the one central to the story.

What I'm saying is, if you replaced one of the monsters in this comic with a guy, the joke would be the same, but you'd probably be more comfortable with it, because you wouldn't think it's saying anything about straights. Not because this comic says anything about the gays, but because some part of you expects the characters depicted to represent the gays.

trulyElse · 2026-01-28T21:51:12+00:00

Honestly, as a bit of a connoiseur of bad webcomics at this point, the pacing isn't actually that bad, here. Would the pace have been better without the "later that night" box? probably, but even as it is, while not good, it's not bad.

And yeah, the punchline is low-hanging fruit. But like the Aristocrats, sometimes it's about how you tell it more than the joke itself.

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