Vampire: The Danse Macabre (The Final Nights of Pendros)
Game Master Goblins Eighty-Five

Opened!

Richard, I hope I haven't offended you the person what with Sasha calling your character a b$#$%. Of course, your character might very well be.

Wow. One post, and I already hate the queen.

LMFAO! Your response is SO funny!

Sasha's player, BTW, agrees that is EXACTLY how she'd act. And that she's being, well, a b$~%+. I tried getting her to play, but I don't think she's up for a PbP. TequilaSunrise, if you're reading this, you're a b#&#@. :P

Anyways, I'm glad to hear it Natasha.

Edit: Also, I'm really glad I had a chance to change that she didn't look a day over 1 to a day over sixteen, which is what I meant to post.

No offense taken :)

I'm sure Richard's been called a lot worse...

BTW, my wife has been looking at me funny for listening to all this Lady Gaga music lately. I never followed her music, but I'm catching up on it and it's starting to grow on me.

Yeah, I thought she was like Bjork or something at first. I used to listen to nothing but Classical and Heavy Metal, but when Sasha's player joined our gaming group, and brought all of her friends...

Now all I listen to is pop.

Richard, here are some places you might consider going next (okay, some of them maybe aren't ideal, but I'm giving you all the options):
*=Places that have special services for Kindred.

Fox Cafe: A three level cafe open 24-7. Entry level is like a starbucks, roof level is an open air café (serves lunch all day and night), basement level is for beatniks. Even though it isn't openly for Kindred, True Socialist Carthians and Brujas love the basement level.

Kings Arcade and Diner*: A 50's diner in the front, with an arcade that spirals underground in the back. Owner (Sidney) and Head Chef (Sal) are the only known Immortals in Pendros, and have a secret method for serving edible food for Kindred.

The Black Ale Tavern*: Located in Underpendros, this Tavern seems to come straight out of the 1700's. Since it is located in Underpendros, it only serves the Masked (supernatural) population. A great place for getting information. Their booths in the back are enchanted to let no sound out of them.

The Golden Goblin*: Nikos Maximoff's first and favorite Casino, it looks like a fantasy nerd's favorite Casino, but it honestly is built for the Kindred population. It hooks right into Underpendros, and has no windows to the outside world, meaning that those Kindred that MUST move during the day might find themselves here.

The Cherry Blossom Temple*: Built upon a hill and covered in Bing Cherry Trees, this temple is Shinto/Buddist/Taiost...well, no one really knows what it is, but it seems vaguely Asian...anyways, as long as their humanity stays at a 7 or higher, Kindred can enter, use the Dojo, seek enlightenment with the monks, or just walk the grounds; heck, they have plenty of places to sit as well. A favorite picnic spot; watch out though! The head monk loves spraying down couples making out on the grounds. Rumor has it that Ordo Dracul works out of the Temple, but who knows?

Main Street*: Running straight down the center of the city's interior is the city's old street. It has been closed to anything but foot traffic, and has old buildings that have all sorts of businesses (Previous players' favorites: The Old Fashioned Lemonade Stand, The Sound Emporium, Medusa's Statuary, and the Baba Ganoush Dojo). On either side of Main Street is...

Main Street Park: A large park much like New York's Central park. The Circle of the Crone meets here weekly, the city's Kappa population lives in it's ponds and streams, quite a few Changelings actually live here, and, along with Club V, The Black Ale Tavern, and Water's Old Court, it is the only place of Elysium in the city. Being in the center of the city, it is also the Neutral Zone for all the competing corporations, and as such, they pay heavily to keep it, and Main Street, very clean and very safe; both are under heavy surveillance.

Make Something up: If you don't like these options, and that's okay, make something up! Or, ask me about something else. I have tons of other locations in my notes.

@Richard:

This:

does the queen often make threats as an opening move in bargaining for what she wants

This is more likely the truth. She's actually way forgiving on violations on most of her laws; lesser things? *Pfff* Just don't ignore her, that'll tick her off. But she's known for HATING someone one week and making them her best friend the next.

How would you like to handle d10 system's rolls? The forum doesn't make the bonus rerolls easy on us- I'm partial to invisiblecastle.com but can go with whatever you prefer...

How would you like to handle d10 system's rolls? The forum doesn't make the bonus rerolls easy on us- I'm partial to invisiblecastle.com but can go with whatever you prefer...

6d10 ⇒ (8, 9, 4, 9, 6, 10) = 46

Well, we ignore the tally at the end.

I'm not sure I understand the problem Richard.

Edit: And, for reasons related to me checking the site on my phone (I fixed the problem), it is much easier for me that you just roll here. By the by, if you might mention how you are coming by your dice pool, I'd appreciate that as well. Because I'm not sure what you've rolled there.

That was a Wits + Composure (4 dice) perception roll with 1 success to notice the immediate environment around the club's entrance. How do you want to handle dice rolling? Should we put up dice whenever it seems it might be appropriate, or wait for you to call for rolls?

The site I linked to provides for syntax like 4d10.open(10) and 4d10.hitsopen(8,10) to automatically roll extra dice on 10s (the first example), or count the number of successes given a certain target number and also reroll 10/8/9 again automatically (the second example).

Not really a problem, I was just wondering what you preferred; if it doesn't work with your phone then I guess it's not an option. I will use the forum's built-in system for dice in the future.

You know what? I don't really care I guess. It's kinda like rolling in the middle of the table, rolling here. But as long as you don't always roll awesome, you can use invisible castle.

What I would like is if you could list your dice pools and their results here, linked back to invisible castle if you use them. You guys can do either or, I don't mind. I trust invisible castle for the most part.

As far as making rolls, it'll be both. If you want to make a roll, make it! If I need you to, I will ask you to do so. Sometimes I forget to list a response, so I might need reminding if you think I missed it. In regards to your last roll, there was nothing I could think of for Richard to spot.

Also, Natasha, I need you to make those changes to your character stats. I started the game assuming you would do so. It sucks that they don't take, but if you just posted them here in discussion as well, I can always refer back here when I need to.

Which changes didn't take?

Let me review your profile; maybe I missed something.

-Gangrel receive an extra dot in either Composure or Stamina.

-Change Academics [Russian and Canadian Military History] into Academics [History] and [Tactics]. This broadens the fields.

-Change Athletics [long distance marching] into Athletics [Endurance].

-Change Empathy [Recognizing stress related mental issues] to Empathy [Psychiatric assessment]

-Defense is the LOWEST of Dex or Wits. Change it to a 2.

-Change Morality to Humanity.

-You said you'd be changing Strong Back into Quick Draw. Please do so.

There. Looks like it took this time.

From the recruitment thread...

Would 'Iron Masters Werewolves' be a suitable contacts group to replace the silver ladder mages? Do they have any presence at all in the city? They're the only group of wolves that might share a philosophical bent with Richard, so if they're not an option I'll go with the city police.

Oh indeed! They have the highest membership, and are actually the only part of werewolf society that most people see or even understand; most 'masked' in Pendros assume the philosophy of the Iron Masters IS the philosophy of all werewolves except for The Pure, who were all but driven out in 2009/10.

I'd also like to point out that unless you have ranks in Occult, even your characters know very little about how most supernatural beings 'work'

Natasha! Yippie! The stupid thing took! Finally. I want to be clear; I'm not ticked off at you, but at the software for the messageboards.

1 XP for everyone!

YAY! Now we get to deal with the software again :)

OK, edited in the contacts, XP, and what we have so far for my retainers (under Notes spoiler).

I'd also like to point out that unless you have ranks in Occult, even your characters know very little about how most supernatural beings 'work'

Yep, we all keep our secrets. I figure Richard knows the basic "read the back of the book" blurb about mages, werewolves and changelings and that they're a little different from the movies and folklore but not exactly what they are or what they can do.

Quick question- I haven't seen anything about ghouls in your background info. How common are they in Pendros? Does one need to petition the queen for permission to create one? (I'd assume so, with the Poker Face law)

Nope, you don't have to ask for her permission to ghoul someone.

Micario, on the other hand, likes to keep a well documented record of who's been making ghouls, and who those ghouls are. Being on the Masked Council and Primogen of the Camarilla makes such breeches make him squeamish and angry. While he can't take direct action against those Kindred who do it too much, he can take actions against ghouls, and as such, most people do like to inform him of this activity.

But the Queen? She thinks it's awesome, and that everyone should have a ghoul. Or two.

Hmmm... there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between this:

Anyway, he dropped me off at some door, turned out to be a local office in the government, just not the government I was used to. They told me what had happened, and to show up certain times for work. I found out what happens to people who dont listen, so I kept working. I dropped out of college, but kept my paramedic license. Work keeps me busy, one or the other.

"I can't BELIEVE that Thomas fell under our radar for so long, but Natasha only just got turned. Of course, neither knows who did it. And Micario says that they're telling the truth. So..."

I just wanted to make sure that was deliberate before I started running with it...

The way I thought, is that he was so low level, nobody knew what was going on. And, knowing that the guy f-ed up, the low level guys kind of just kept him around, sent him on jobs, but never really reported his existence. Sound kosher?

Per the campaign info tab, there are "only" 300 vampires in Pendros, so someone keeping secrets like that (or creating his own private gang of vampire toughs while pretending to be a representative of the Masked) is a big deal. It definitely gives us an angle to start investigating if it's deliberate on G85's part.

From phone
I'd say that is what Thomas thought was going on; not the truth. he's only meet a few vampires (2-3) and he has only ever given vitae; I know you're an Enforcer, but that could be your future roll, not your past. If you'd been made to act as a strongarm before, you'd have been noticed.

To be quite honest, I set up the city to react to your actions, but it is otherwise your game. There's no plot train except for the ones you create.

Fine with me. I'm trying to post his perspective. If he's just plain ignorant, then that fits just fine. :)

Hey Richard!

I'm swapped with finals, but after next week, I'll have the profiles of your two other retainers.

OK. I might be leaning on Sam for some research or to get Natasha that paramedic's license but I'm sure we can wing it if we need to...

Thankfully, since this game is player driven, I can come up with stuff on the fly. It is what I am best at; I have an easier time with Sandbox games than AP's; less studying is required.

I'm the same way as a GM. It's why I like online campaigns.

I'm the opposite as a GM. I prefer to read up on a published adventure until I know it inside and out, then improvise from there. I have a difficult time keeping things moving in a world that's too open; with an adventure path someone else has spent hundreds of hours coming up with interesting characters and events that I just need to put in the right place at the right time.

Regarding the game, I think it's funny that both the younger vampires have a rank in occult while Richard doesn't. It would be really easy to look up a mage with Space •• to scry out your sires with the blood connection...

I don't have a rank in occult.

Umm...

Mental

Academics 1 [Tactics]
Computer
Engineering
Investigation
Medicine 3 [Emergency Care]
Occult
Politics
Science

EDIT: Oh, I guess I misunderstood how you were documenting you skills with placeholders. No number = no rank.

That was dumb of me. I did that before finishing the backstory. Alright, changed to reflect. A little retcon... :)

Richard, how the F@$! did you know there was a fountain at the north end of Main Street? 'Cause my mind is blown.

Just a lucky guess... parks always have fountains *somewhere*.

Glad I could contribute to some mind blowing.

Any suggestions on a map to use, or basic layout of the city? Just thinking on what Richard asked.

Thinking out loud, I'm gonna assume that its the outskirts of some downtown area. I clearly assumed that there was a University in the city, else my story doesnt work. So I could use that as a point of reference... Do you wanna give that a locale?

I thought the campaign description talked about the university.

So it did. :)

Ah, wonderful Volty! Yes, improvising sites is usually very okay.

I've already found something to blow that point of experience on :)

Do you require that dots in resources be bought sequentially, or can I save up the XP and have one big ••••• payday?

Oh, and should we assume that we were at (full -1) vitae at the beginning of the game?

Well, as long as you pay for each dot, that's fine (So, 15XP for ••••• dots in resources). I would like some sort of in-character explanation for any sort of character advancement.

And yes, I like max -1 for vitae.

@Volty:

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Computer + equipment (0 for you for now)

When you research Richard, make sure to remove 4 DICE from your dice pool. Make separate checks for each.

NATASHA!

Oh shoot. Before I forget, HOW did you get turned in Nova Scotia and end up in Pendros? You'd have dusted for sure in an airplane.

Gotcha. I figured that was about right, didnt know if research or computers was the appropriate thing. Gracias.

5200 words down, 2800 or so to go! lol final paper

At the moment Richard is living significantly below his typical lifestyle. As I get XP I will be spending it mostly on wealth until I'm back up to his usual 7-figure income. That would mostly represent his masquerade- as he weasels himself out of bankruptcy he would be able to get access to previously confiscated bank accounts, unpaid bonuses, stock dividends, etc.

I'm not sure if I need to spend that 1st XP on the dot of contacts (hackers) yet or not... it depends on whether Sam is interested in doing the job himself. If so then I'll just ask the favor from him and save the dot for resources, if not I'll spend it on the contacts.

Herself actually.

I'll get responses up tomorrow; I have a test to study for that I haven't even looked at! I've gotta stop wasting my time.

G85: If you are reading this before Monday, GET BACK TO STUDYING!

:P

NATASHA!

Oh shoot. Before I forget, HOW did you get turned in Nova Scotia and end up in Pendros? You'd have dusted for sure in an airplane.

Nova Scotia has a land connection to New Brunswick, albeit a small one. From there she drifted south and west over the next couple months via a mixture of walking and public transportation (trains and buses, mostly), sleeping in motels by day and traveling at night, ending up in Pendros a couple nights ago.

How'd the finals go? I managed to get my papers done... :)

My first final went Meh. I'll get a B. Actually, I still have two essays due on thursday, so I hope you don't mind, but I won't have responses till friday.

No worries. Work comes first, fun second. Unlike our other game, I dont believe this one is at risk of dying. *knocks on wood*