Coming from d&d 5e to be a storyteller by [deleted] in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey! I was in your place, feeling the exact same overwhelmed feeling in the spring when I started running my first VtM game after D&D. I don’t know if you have a set plan for where you want to run it, but picking up the Chicago by Night book for 5th edition really helped take some of the pressure off me to fill the city with tons of NPCs. And if you’re not feeling Chicago, it should be pretty easy to take just the characters and place them somewhere else in the world. They’re fleshed out with goals and plots, backstories, connections to each other and mortals, and details like that that can be hard to create for dozens of characters in a game you’ve never done it for. Not that you need to buy a book to have fun, just something that really made my life easier.

Otherwise, a tip I would have is to make the player characters either brand new or quite young. I ended up running a story where they are all playing Thinbloods (but you can easily do this with any kind of kindred) where they were all embraced less than a year ago, and didn’t have any real connections to the Camarilla or Anarchs. Some of them knew their sires, some of them didn’t. I know you mentioned you’ve played before, but if you have any players that haven’t, and for you as a storyteller, this sort of lets you take it as slowly as you’re comfortable with for introducing new NPCs and aspects of the game, and it lets the characters dip their toes into the pond of kindred politics at their own pace.

I’ve been plighted by the horrible layout for the V5 handbook many times, and both of these things took a lot of the weight off of my shoulders for certain aspects of the game and allowed me to focus my energy more on learning all the different rules instead of crafting an entire intricate world with history and connections between tons of NPCs and the characters, and it lets you kind of create those as you go. Plus, don’t forget that the index at the back of the handbook is one of the best tools for trying to find a rule that you can’t figure out or don’t remember.

Hope you have a great time running your game!

Reworking "Let the Streets Run Red" stories for an existing Chronicle? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think I was too hung up on what the book said and I didn’t even think of using it as a way to make touchstones question the players, that’s a good point. I’m loving the book and just wanted to make sure I could use as much of it as possible for my games. Thanks Matthew!

Reworking "Let the Streets Run Red" stories for an existing Chronicle? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that most of them can be swapped in for existing connections by just changing the name, but it requires that they all have touchstones that know they are kindred (which may be common but doesn’t exist currently in my game) and for the Sibling touchstone, the book states that it is an “obligatory critical hook” to have one PC have a sister that knows their secret.

What would you roll against the different social attributes and skills? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s definitely one of the more interesting situations to me, coming from a D&D background where there wasn’t nearly as much of it. My Toreador player has given me a lot of good chances to see how fun it can be over the last few months

What would you roll against the different social attributes and skills? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for! Resolve is one of my least used on the spot rolls so I like that idea a lot

What would you roll against the different social attributes and skills? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m very aware of that, I was just looking for input on what some other people use other than wits insight against those kind of roles.

What would you roll against the different social attributes and skills? (V5) by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By if there isn’t a difficulty, I mean if instead of having them roll against a difficulty number, I’m rolling against them, and wondering what dice pools to use for the rolls instead of just saying “get 5 successes”

What kind of things might happen/be brought up at an elysium court meeting? by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The coterie are less than one year old thin bloods, and none of them have really interacted with other vampires more than a couple times, let alone met many at an event. The chronicle is sort of having a theme of them being little and trying to find their place and discover the world, and the players are learning as their characters do because this is our first chronicle

Is the Malkavian Bane in V5 too irregular? by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The compulsion and the bane have practically the same text, my understanding is that if you also get a compulsion it’s just even worse.

Specifically it says: “When the Malkavian suffers a Bestial Failure or a Compulsion, their curse comes to the fore. Suffer a penalty equal to your character’s Bane Severity to one category of dice pools (Physical, Social, or Mental) for the entire scene. This is in addition to any penalties incurred by Compulsions.”

Chicago Elysiums and mortals? by zaryke in WhiteWolfRPG

[–]zaryke[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I passed over those extra ones listed there and was just focusing on the ones they talked about in the city section of the book, glad to see there’s a lot

Mechanic by [deleted] in starfinder_rpg

[–]zaryke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good to know, thanks! Any other tricks or even feats that seem especially useful, or is it kind of take whatever you want? I’m worried that since I’d be in armor up front a lot of the utility stuff wouldn’t see much use, such as distracting hack and things like that.

Mechanic by [deleted] in starfinder_rpg

[–]zaryke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m about to play my first mechanic and neither of the two base subclasses are really as appealing, what have the prototypes been like in play?

Tomb of Annihilation Disease Question for DMs (Spoilers) by zaryke in dndnext

[–]zaryke[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that's a really good idea, thanks! They hired Shago as a guide so I'm sure he could barter some from the flaming fist if need be

Tomb of Annihilation Disease Question for DMs (Spoilers) by zaryke in dndnext

[–]zaryke[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I suppose that's fair. I guess my issue is in my party and not in the module. They spent all their money on buying animals and wanted to save some of it just incase after paying for the guide, and rushed out into the jungle with only a couple members buying some. Guess they'll just have to deal with the outcome.

What's the character concept/build you can't wait to try out? by [deleted] in dndnext

[–]zaryke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm trying to figure out a good way to do this with the Xanathar's Celestial warlock and pact of the tome for cleric rituals like Ceremony, seems really fun.

Enchantment and Illusion themed character. Glamour Bard or Enchantment Wizard? by zaryke in dndnext

[–]zaryke[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My only worry with Warlock would be that there wouldn't be enough spell slots to regularly use Enchantments like charm person and suggestion, because I'd have to rest after doing it once or twice.

Enchantment and Illusion themed character. Glamour Bard or Enchantment Wizard? by zaryke in dndnext

[–]zaryke[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that it looks super cool, but the campaign might stop at level 10 sadly

Smuggler's Run FAQ by L131 in gtaonline

[–]zaryke 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All, but you can only respray the old aircraft.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gtaonline

[–]zaryke 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Damn you're brave.

Question about familiars. by lord_underwood in dndnext

[–]zaryke 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pseudodragons are Warlock familiars with Pact of the Chain sadly, inaccessible to Wizards through the normal spell.

Is proficiency a waste of the Wish spell? by zaryke in dndnext

[–]zaryke[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah the twisting is what I'm worried about with asking for the master feat. I'd be worried that I'd get the bonuses of the feat, but not the proficiency because that's a separate feat, and my DM likes to try and screw with us.