Exalted vs World of Darkness

[RSGAlex]

What concepts have people decided on at this point?

To expand, I'm pitching an isolated hedge mage, though for maximum Greco-Egyptian synecretism I should make it thrice isolated. But my current thought is as such: it's isolated from the larger magic community because many, many times repeated great-grandpa withdrew after not getting support for his anti-vampire crusade, a few-degrees-less-great grandpa started outright avoidance, and currently debatably isolated in New Westhaven until she can figure out what was wrong with the person she ended up investigating half on accident.

For ironic purposes, the person should be something she mistakenly ID-ed as a vampire, and so is isolating from her family because she thinks she poked the bat's nest when it's something else, probably less control-y and connected. Or equally.

[Muse]

  I've been digging for an idea. 

  A.  Would it be okay if my character were in college?  (She could cut back on classes or even not enroll after the current semester.) 
  B.  Is it okay if she's not too combat savvy starting out?  I'll make her more so than I originally intended for this concept.
  C.  could i have a Virtual Adept secondary character / recurring guest star using the appropriate merit?

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Anna Walsh
Age: 22
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual virgin, prefers men. Hypersexual and kinky in her fantasies, Anna is both shy and cautious in real life.
High School Background: Graduated in the bottom 20% of her class... But she did graduate!
Family Background: Upper middle class parents. Thomas is an engineer. He immigrated from Australia after college with his brother James. Thomas's wife Marry is a family practice doctor. Anna's older sister Connie got most of the attention. Anna's best friend sinclue her cousin Jono—Jame's eldest son.
Hobbies and Interests: Video games, pen and paper RPGs, text based RP. Collectables. The rock and roll her dad listened too. Body art. Vaping.  Skating.  Martial Arts. 
Likes and Dislikes: See bellow.
Personality Traits: See Bellow.

Anna is 22.

Her dyslexia almost stopped her from graduating high school. Words looked strange—especially when she was under pressure. Having to read fast—even socially—induced anxiety. Sometimes really bad anxiety.

Anna's parents quietly stopped encouraging her to go to college and she was relieved. She got a job as a barista and settled down to relax for a while--working, playing video games, and reading books she wanted to read at her own pace.

Now that the pressure was off, Anna discovered something very surprising. She actually... Kind of liked learning? In high school she'd developed really strong google fu to compensate for her dyslexia. Now that she wasn't in the crunch, it was fun to look stuff up and just find out about it. She realized that she was more politically informed than a lot of the people around her. She spent more time reading, too.

Anna found something else surprising. She liked to write! It started in with in an MMO she played with her cousin Jono. They got into a bulletin board text based roll play with their characters. This lead her to playing pen and paper RPGs with in prose on bulletin boards. Writing erotic stuff with her characters was the cherry on top!

This was also how she met Tarsmen. A sweet guy somewhere in the same city, Tarnsman was the nicest guy she could imagine out of character. In character he was an extreme dominant who could tie her up, collar her, whip her just right, and generally make her moan the word master in her sleep. Tarnsmen did some cutting edge computer stuff.

For Anna's 21st​ birthday Tarnsmen got her to share a PO box. He sent her a cutting edge wrist computer. It basically had all the functionality of a smart phone but with a larger screen. Color filters on the screen used ambient light to ease her dyslexia. It was just the best tool she could imagine for someone with her learning differences to tackle the academic world.

So...

"Erm... Hi, my name's Anna Walsh. I'm an entering freshman."

[AndyZ]

Sure. I haven't done more than glance at the book yet though. I probably won't get a lot of time to before the weekend.

What do we have for character concepts though, not castes?

And is there anywhere that has a list of all the different merits and backgrounds referenced from different books? Most of them I don't know.

Our Dawn is a five foot nothing biker chick, and as I understand it, with all of the sass and not just some of the sass.  No word on our Zenith. Our Twilight is a Hedge Mage/Sorcerer (and True Magick is arguably to Sorcery what vampires are to ghouls, or Celestial Exalts to Terrestrial Exalts: a viable but pale and weaker comparison).  Our Night Caste is a professional government hitman.

[ShadowFox89]

Does anyone mind if I do a first person background? I very very rarely write in that style but I feel like it might fit this character.

[AndyZ]

Naturally we’ll have plenty of posts to have people explain concepts the one time I don’t check through everything very well and want to go sequentially…

I dug into VtM20 and a 4 dot skill is pretty much 'you're a pro' at it. Lets use drive.
3 dots Competent: Professional trucker.
4 dots is Expert: NASCAR daredevil or tank pilot.
3 is character creation cap except Caste Abilities can go beyond that. Given the Exaltation and that these are pretty much demigods I can sort of see such a jump in skill coming after the awakening I'm just... We can do it but should we?

Ah!  A very respectable question.

Here’s the thing: for at least a thousand years, Dawns have existed in various states of kicking tushy.  That’s been unarmed attacks, all sorts of weapons that resemble and don’t resemble weapons of the modern day (you may even remember a Ba’atleth), things that reasonably resemble firearms but either fire gouts of flame or pure concentrated Essence, driving things that vaguely work like automobiles but follow similar rules for momentum, and it is all freaking ingrained like muscle memory even if you don’t consciously remember.

That’s why you get the five extra points that can go above 3 for Caste Abilities.  That said, pick the specialty your character would get as the effective one in charge and with active memories that override the others.

Thanks! I like twisting my characters up even if sometimes they slug me and take their own path.  To be fair the biker bit is that I've been wanting one. It's a really bad idea but I've been wanting one. So this way I can pretend.

Only thing I’d be worried about would be if you were completely obnoxious to everyone (but that’s more Charisma 1), and following the TV trope, somehow, inexplicably, you have all the friends and people just forgive you.

…unless you’ve browbeaten them into being completely terrified of you and they just pretend to like you, but, I don’t think this will be that kind of game.

And even after all this time I find small female brutes hilarious. It also helps to find something that isn't punching faces so that ones character isn't standing on the sidelines glowering at everyone when there's no combat going on.

One of the best silent teamwork methods I’ve seen work is that silent stare, perfectly disciplined as one of the talkers is having a conversation about how things are going to be now.  It’s the kind of look that just screams, “Listen to my friends, because if I have to step in, my actions will speak a lot more painfully than their words.”

Mechanically, it’s an Attribute plus Intimidation roll that works with teamwork to their roll.  (I can’t remember how Teamwork works right now.)

Technically she's in a FC or Family Club which is made up only of family members and sometimes friends. Doesn't keep them from interacting with the Patched Clubs but grants a bit more freedom of action

If she was in an actual Patched Club... She'd be unavailable frequently. When the motorcycle clubs say you ride somewhere you ride there no matter what. The club comes before even your own family.

Sounds good for either the Ally or Contact Background, whichever you think is more appropriate.  Sounds like Contacts to me but you’re definitely more knowledgeable on biker gangs.

I'd forgotten to factor in Intimacies. The plan had been for her to currently be a Lone Wolf, a rider traveling by themselves with no ties to the Clubs. Before the big light show she put on she was traveling the country seeing the sights. I'll try to stop mucking with points and get what I have of her background written up, I just tend to rely on stats for what a character actually could have done and what a background needs to explain them being able to do.

(This will make sense after the first IC post.)  Your letter - snail or e, whatever makes sense for the character - may well have come from halfway across the country, with your vampires from another city entirely.  Whatever date and time you get in order to get to the house in New Westhaven leaves enough time to travel with some leisure and see a few sights along the way, in sharp contrast to requiring a trucker’s more or less nonstop B-line without even enough time for sleep.

Others who choose to originally be from other cities have a similar option; you were asked to go to New Westhaven and you went.

A.  Would it be okay if my character were in college?  (She could cut back on classes or even not enroll after the current semester.

So, you can, but this means that the group is likely going to need to reschedule everything around you.  Just like having a 9-5, there’s a reason these things get neglected or abandoned.  (Or sleep, but presumably you know about the Seldom Sleeps merit and the Clear Mind Discipline charm, that’s no longer an issue.)

A strong recommendation from one of the NPCs is going to be online classes.  RL has the University of Phoenix where it’s entirely online but explains everything you need on whatever topic to get X degree, or at least, so I understand it.

For now, though, it’s summer break, so it won’t cause immediate effects but it’s something your character will have to deal with down the line.

B.  Is it okay if she's not too combat savvy starting out?  I'll make her more so than I originally intended for this concept.

Contributing to a group combat situation can be as little as having the one-dot Charm of Essence-Lending Method and juicing up your allies, but let me assure you that doing so can definitely be both meaningful and appreciated.

C.  could i have a Virtual Adept secondary character / recurring guest star using the appropriate merit?

So, when I read this, my creativity shot like a bullet to rewrite an old PC Virtual Adept college student.  Obviously, this was before I read the one you wrote up.  Let me tell you about this one; they may well be roommates.

Victoria Stephenson hates her name and prefers not to go by anything but Vyx, and is a good enough hacker to get account names that aren’t supposed to allow only three letters.  In the real world, she can almost come off airheaded the way she’s always so perky, bouncy, and optimistic (and also drinks ridiculous amounts of caffeine) but is also an absolute genius and studies hard to maintain her amazing grades.  Computer RPGs and video games, absolutely, but she gets bored doing tabletop RPG if she can’t (admittedly rudely) bring her laptop along (which is why she’d only admit the desire to a friend instead of doing it).  LARPing is out, and she has no interest in taking things sexual but remains entirely friendly to rebuff polite advances.

She’s also very aware and ready to warn about the dangers and the downsides of technology.  She’s absolutely not an anarchist but would have wanted Anna to know that everything she texts or says into a phone is recorded and often scanned by bots.  Thankfully, Vyx has also reassured that she knows how to secure a line, if Anna needs to have a private conversation over the phone.  She just needs to be asked to do so “before a conversation gets heavy.”

That would be along the lines of a Supernatural Companion as per a 3 dot Merit from W20, with the two characters not knowing about each other yet but possibly suspecting.

Reading through, I have a harder time with Tarsman because I’m rubbish at being dominant and don’t usually go very sexual when I’m STing anyway.  If you like and want to buy Vyx, maybe she knows about Tarsman and “outs” the two of you to each other as supernatural beings, but Vyx will be more powerful and talented than Tarsman, thereby letting you (or someone else) NPC him without issue.

Finally, I have no idea if dyslexia is one of those minor things that gets “fixed” by the Exaltation, and it makes sense to let you decide that.  I don’t have the Exalted books ready at hand to even check the old rules for that, but I think it kept you from needing corrective lenses but couldn’t heal complete blindness, and even overcame some negative Wyld mutations.

Finally-for-realsies, I wanted to mention that I considered having martial arts from Mage20, even just putting it in as Brawl.  Is it even Exalted anymore if there’s no martial arts?  It’s hard to say yes, but also, they don’t get the Great Curse anymore, so there’s certainly benefits and drawbacks to this mishmash.  Ultimately, it’s best to say that only Akashayanna do the crazy Do that they do, and without an Awakened soul, their martial arts techniques they use can’t be learned even by Exalts.

Does anyone mind if I do a first person background? I very very rarely write in that style but I feel like it might fit this character.

You have my approval stamp.  It’ll probably flow better if that’s how your brain wants to do it; especially since every perspective can come with strengths and weaknesses.

[ShadowFox89]

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Name: Kailya Moore
Caste: Night
Concept: Hitman with a heart of gold

"Who am I?" Kailya asked, taking a sip from her glass. "That's always the question isn't it? I am, have been, many things. Enforcer, hitman, executioner. Had the proverbial and very literal, license to kill. once upon a time, I was just a kid in Chicago. Now, I won't tell you some sob story about growing up poor, my family was well off. Not fuck you rich, just had enough that I never worried about needing anything. I went to college, as most do, and somehow managed to catch the eye of one of those three letter agencies, CIA or NSA, I don't entirely remember. Either way, soon enough I was being trained to lie, to cheat, to kill. Turns out, I was a natural at it. Killing, that is.
Officially, I was never actually an agent. Senators and the public really don't like extrajudicial Killings on American soil. Instead, I was listed as an independent contractor. And I was good at it, one of the best I'd say. You could fill rooms with the bodies I left. If you crossed the US Government, chances were I would be knocking on your door with a gold lettered card.
Turns out there's things out there scarier than Uncle Sam. Real, blood sucking fucking Vampires. I don't mean 'sparkle in the sun' Twilight style either. I mean full on Dracula style. And I managed to kick the hornet's nest when a gold card with the name of a fairly strong one came up. Taking out his hirelings wasn't that hard, they died just like any other human. It was when the boss showed up that I had issues.
He took some kind of sick fun in hunting me, playing some kind of cat and mouse game. I would hide, take out some of his goons, then he would find me, attack, and back off. This went on for.... fuck, hours, doesn't matter anymore. By the end of it I was down to one bullet, a bloody mess. The blood sucker approached, I drew my gun for one last bullet to end the dance and....Boom. I'm standing surrounded by an aura of gold-purple light, feeling like I just got hit with the best mix of drugs in the world. It felt like the last few hours never happened. can't entirely say what happened, I just remember popping him in the face and then... he's gone.
Since then? Well, as you can see, I'm still Uncle Sam's attack dog. Only now I have a bit more... understanding of things. Ah, but what do you care? The sun's coming up and you're already dead." Kailya sighed, lighting a match and a cigarette, then tossing it on the tied up man. As the sun rose and she walked away, her phone ringed with a new email.

Two questions: where do I find equipment and how valuable is essence ratings? Like, should I bump my essence to 2-3?

[Muse]

  Not sure what your idea/request was, Andy? 

  I thought I would play Tarnsman when he was around? 

[HairyHeretic]

Ok, right now I'm leaning towards a possible crime lord. Need to look over the rules and see how well the concept would translate. Someone like Marcone from the Dresden Files. Tied in to both mortal and supernatural worlds. Acts as neutral party, middle man and fixer.

[ShadowFox89]

Sounds like we're all a bunch of people on the shady side of the law.... and one college student.

[Hexed]

Corruptions fun. Hand the college student a bottle of rum and chant chug chug before starting a bar brawl

[AndyZ]

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Name: Kailya Moore
Caste: Night
Concept: Hitman with a heart of gold

"Who am I?" Kailya asked, taking a sip from her glass. "That's always the question isn't it? I am, have been, many things. Enforcer, hitman, executioner. Had the proverbial and very literal, license to kill. once upon a time, I was just a kid in Chicago. Now, I won't tell you some sob story about growing up poor, my family was well off. Not fuck you rich, just had enough that I never worried about needing anything. I went to college, as most do, and somehow managed to catch the eye of one of those three letter agencies, CIA or NSA, I don't entirely remember. Either way, soon enough I was being trained to lie, to cheat, to kill. Turns out, I was a natural at it. Killing, that is.
Officially, I was never actually an agent. Senators and the public really don't like extrajudicial Killings on American soil. Instead, I was listed as an independent contractor. And I was good at it, one of the best I'd say. You could fill rooms with the bodies I left. If you crossed the US Government, chances were I would be knocking on your door with a gold lettered card.
Turns out there's things out there scarier than Uncle Sam. Real, blood sucking fucking Vampires. I don't mean 'sparkle in the sun' Twilight style either. I mean full on Dracula style. And I managed to kick the hornet's nest when a gold card with the name of a fairly strong one came up. Taking out his hirelings wasn't that hard, they died just like any other human. It was when the boss showed up that I had issues.
He took some kind of sick fun in hunting me, playing some kind of cat and mouse game. I would hide, take out some of his goons, then he would find me, attack, and back off. This went on for.... fuck, hours, doesn't matter anymore. By the end of it I was down to one bullet, a bloody mess. The blood sucker approached, I drew my gun for one last bullet to end the dance and....Boom. I'm standing surrounded by an aura of gold-purple light, feeling like I just got hit with the best mix of drugs in the world. It felt like the last few hours never happened. can't entirely say what happened, I just remember popping him in the face and then... he's gone.
Since then? Well, as you can see, I'm still Uncle Sam's attack dog. Only now I have a bit more... understanding of things. Ah, but what do you care? The sun's coming up and you're already dead." Kailya sighed, lighting a match and a cigarette, then tossing it on the tied up man. As the sun rose and she walked away, her phone ringed with a new email.

Two questions: where do I find equipment and how valuable is essence ratings? Like, should I bump my essence to 2-3?

Definitely liking the noir.  It feels appropriate.

There’s no listing for equipment beyond weapons and armor because it’d be impossible to list everything the world has for sale.

Life is being garbage.  Will try to post more as able.

[AndyZ]

Ok, right now I'm leaning towards a possible crime lord. Need to look over the rules and see how well the concept would translate. Someone like Marcone from the Dresden Files. Tied in to both mortal and supernatural worlds. Acts as neutral party, middle man and fixer.

One thing I want to get out while I have time: this is INCREDIBLY ambitious for the WoD setting, and can definitely be an end goal, but won’t be a starting.  Plenty of supernatural types hate each other and kill each other on sight, with communication doubtful.

[ShadowFox89]

 What do you call a meeting between Mages, Werewolves, and Vampires?

A bloodbath.

[Hexed]

Can be an wanna be crime lord. A recent made man come aware of the supernatural and trying to muscle in on that game. Start with a few informants or muscle anrd try working your way up to your own syndicate.


Speaking of gear do brass knuckles or any variants use melee skill?

And how do you want to handle weapons not on the chart?  Use the stats of the weapon closest to it?

[HairyHeretic]

Ok, how about someone who is part of an organised criminal gang instead? He handles the supernatural weirdness as much as possible.

Tentatively thinking he was hitting on a girl in a club, she got led off by tall, dark and gruesome, and when he followed them outside he saved her from being an involuntary blood donor, Exalting in the process. She was family to a high ranking crime boss, some of her entourage saw what happened (including the supernatural weirdness) and dragged him off to talk to daddy, whereupon he found himself being sworn in.

Needs fleshed out a bit more, but would that work?

[AndyZ]

Sorry for the delay.  I don’t want to try to answer questions when I’m not clear headed.

[ShadowFox89]

If anyone wants a connection to Kailya let me know. I think the only difficult one would be the college student.

Debating what my last two background dots on. Doesn't look like artifacts are really a thing.... maybe contacts or backing.


Edit: spoke too soon, saw the wonders section of Mage. Thinking a shapeshifting gun in the style of Bloodsport's gun from the good suicide squad movie. So can go from light Pistol to large to an smg, shotgun, etc.

[Muse]

  Yeah, sounds like i really don't fit in here... 

  But i don't think i could comfortablly play someone who did. 

  If people want an actually evil game, i'll bow out.  If people want to play a bunch of people who don't really fit into the situation of being heroes but are doing their best, then I'm game. 

[ShadowFox89]

I don't plan on Kailya being evil more..... James Bond meets Blade. Unless you're a vampire, working for them, or she gets a gold card with your name on it, there's little reason for her to have a reason to kill you. Indiscriminate murder is how you very easily get on the news and stop being a government hitman.

[Hexed]

All sorts of characters make things fun. Especially since it seems we'll be aimed at a task or something during the explanation part.

And it's not like the would be crime lord or hitman are going to flat out come out and say that's what they do... maybe?

And RSGAlex's hedge mage sounds more naive then anything else. Extreme isolation doesn't bode well for knowing how things are out in the world. Unless the isolation is just from the other magic types?

[HairyHeretic]

I wouldn't be intending to play an actually evil character.

[AndyZ]

I know I have a lot of questions on back burner.  Sorry. If I could talk about my medical problems on Elliquiy still, you’d understand.

I don’t see any characters here who really seem evil.  I see characters who are each looking for different ways to accrue power (including knowledge), and Hairy’s example NPC wasn’t always clean but I’d be hard pressed to press him even at Lawful Evil.

That’s the beautiful thing about a perfect circle and why I fight so hard for them despite that it means disallowing anything but Solars: it means that all five of you have different things to bring to the table and all five of you will be able to handle things the others have problems with.  Anna’s character will definitely add some purity to the table as a Zenith should.  (Not sexual, sure, but I can see her good heart providing helping push things towards good and providing alternative options a Dawn or Night may just not have.)  I predict in-character disagreement, debate, and ultimately accord as you all find the most harmonious method.

As far as knowing each other, I’ve hinted at this and now I’ll say it: someone you’ve never met named Papageorgio is going to send you all a letter mentioning your name, caste, and being a Solar Exalt.  You’ll be invited to a safe house on the south side of New Westhaven to meet one of his caretakers and get various information on the world as it was and is.  Little information on who he is beyond that he wants to make amends for what happened before by others, but doesn’t want to expose himself to attempts of vengeance, one of which already happened to him.

I like to give players things like decent secure comm lines because I know firsthand how quickly the lack of them can kill a game.

Right now, folks seem interested in vampires and mages, both of which make good groups for this.  I can tell you that Changelings are usually freaking hard - I’ll have to teach you about Banality, but Exalts are able to protect against the Changelings’ “everyone forgets them” problem, which helps a lot if everyone buys it.

[HairyHeretic]

I'm refining my idea a bit further so he's not actually a part of the gang, except in an 'honorary' fashion, but he is someone they might consult with from time to time.

Thinking of making him the owner of a 24 hour coffee shop/cafe near the university. I was thinking of giving him connections with some supernatural factions, and was thinking werewolves and fae, but I don't know if they're present in the city.

Also would someone be able to give me pointers on magic item creation? I'd like him to have one, but I don't know how you build / cost them.

[ShadowFox89]

So from what I understand, Wonders in Mage use sphere effects, with one effect per rating, the effects being up to the rating of the Wonder. Its Andy's game so he's got ruling on this, but I would say you can use charm effects in place of sphere effects. So like, my pistol idea would replicate the charm Immortal Armory of the Sun and maybe There Is No Wind. Both two dot effects for a rank 2 wonder.

[AndyZ]

I’ll be able to help with Wonders, but the primary question is what you want in order to help you make it.  With Mage, you generally want stuff where even if you use it in public, nobody would notice.