Quote from: JDCorley;494476I ran a Victorian era adventure game set in a supernaturalized Paris in the late 19th century, and even fictionalized and made larger-than-life and exaggerated, as pulp adventure should be, I really was not able to find much to use out there in RPGworld.  And this is a setting that's just so amazing for Victorian-era stuff because it avoids a lot of the costume-drama/overwhelmingly mannered shit that you get if you dump your campaign in London.  

I agree. As a matter of fact ... (time to use those spoilers tags - players of Paris, don't look if you don't want to spoil yourself)

Spoiler

I have a PC Mekhet right now who discovered a Glass Harmonium kept in Fantômas's collection of antiques. It's basically a variant from an idea included in Mekhet: Shadows in the Dark.

When you play it (clicky link link), the instrument allows, among other things, to basically connect with the memory alive within the Vitae of Clan Mekhet, and "be" some other Mekhet back in time, exploring different events from different perspectives as if you "were" those Mekhets back in time.

This basically sent the PC Mekhet from the 2007 Paris back into the times of the Commune de Paris, in 1871, during the last weeks of combats around the city. So the player was her own character, Ambre, living in the veins of another vampire of Clan Mekhet, Madeleine Villard, with its own character sheet and abilities, with the player piloting the character as though she was reliving her memories back in time... it's been quite fun so far, as the player really had fun with it, having the two characters shifting back in forth within the same body and consciousness.

Here's a link to the play thread in case you read French.

That's a great plot concept and a good way to introduce some historical material in a horror/vampire way. I have a similar thing in my current supers game, at some point I want to stop the session halfway through and reveal that the events are being recounted by a precognitive to her therapist, years previous. "So, Marie-Ange, you believe these events are fated to happen..." And we start to play out her life. Playing with time is great fun.

I wouldn't call it a "plot" obviously, since I don't think of RPGs in those terms, but yeah, it's great fun, for sure.

I totally call what goes on in my campaigns 'plot'.

Suck it you french dog.  

You're doing whatever the fuck you want with your games, I'm not your mum, Pika-poo.

Quote from: GrimGent;494478Actually, my first thoughts after hearing about the upcoming historical supplement for Changeling: The Lost were that Victorian London is getting a little overplayed by now, and that instead fin de siècle Paris could make for a more interesting change of scenery.

It would, and I do think the Victorian era in London is overplayed in RPGs. Now you got to admit though, the combination of Changeling with that trope could give us some amazing results. Wait and see.

One thing I would like to mention as well regarding "by Nights" : the Requiem supplement Damnation City is absolutely excellent. It's sort of a toolbox, a huge tome that provides you with different modes of play, methodologies to come up with sites and domains and districts and power structures for your city, lots of NPCs archetypes and the like.

It really was a great read for me. I ended up using very little of the tools included in the box as-is, but it helped me consider the setting in different ways, using different angles and POVs, and it helped for my Paris Alchymique from an inspiration standpoint at least.

Also, I wanted to point out that just as I hunted down bits of background about Paris in WW supplements back in 92-93 when the setting was fresh and all to then build it to my liking, I did the same thing with Requiem. I did use some bits here and there : an NPC from the Carthians book, another from Rites of the Dragon, a bloodline from another sourcebook and so on. The descriptions of Paris, its power structure and the like (as is the case as an example amongst many other iconic cities in Damnation City) totally left me cold, however. It almost universally sucked. So I basically built my own from scratch.

Most people would call the situation, choices and experiences of a fictional character a "plot", but mote it harm none, do as thou wilt.

I agree, Damnation City is amazing. I used the district rules for my Vampire game set in 1801 Poland game to help give the various districts of Warsaw distinct feels. That way the characters could be like, "this area is too afraid, it makes hunting harder, we need to get the garrison to stop hassling people after dark" and have a goal that had some mechanical oomf behind it.

Quote from: JDCorley;494657Most people would call the situation, choices and experiences of a fictional character a "plot", but mote it harm none, do as thou wilt.

Yup. Except for me as a GM, kind of the point of a RPG is to consider these characters as not being fictional while we play, and the players to play as if they were the character, not manipulating a fictional narrative construct. But you know all this already.

Doesn't stop me from appreciating the WoD games, that said. It might be an important point for the discussion, since you don't have to get into the whole "storytelling" schtick to get the most out of the games.

Quote from: JDCorley;494657I agree, Damnation City is amazing. I used the district rules for my Vampire game set in 1801 Poland game to help give the various districts of Warsaw distinct feels. That way the characters could be like, "this area is too afraid, it makes hunting harder, we need to get the garrison to stop hassling people after dark" and have a goal that had some mechanical oomf behind it.

I can see how that can be great fun. I don't need the mechanical aspect personally, as I find that's not the focus of the game per se, and I prefer the rules aspect to remain secondary to the action itself, rather than its sole mean of expression, but regardless, the chapter on Districts gave me lots of food for thought to try and come up with different feels for different areas of the city.

One thing I'd like to try is a Primacy game. It'd be a significant departure from the current game play of the Paris Alchymique, but it'd be interesting to try in a different time period for instance, particularly with players who would know PbN and would have come to a basic understanding of the playing field after some time playing a game under the normal Requiem rules.

Quote from: Benoist;494667Yup. Except for me as a GM, kind of the point of a RPG is to consider these characters as not being fictional while we play, and the players to play as if they were the character, not manipulating a fictional narrative construct. But you know all this already.

Got news for you - the character doesn't become nonfictional no matter how you treat them.  You made them all up.

QuoteDoesn't stop me from appreciating the WoD games, that said. It might be an important point for the discussion, since you don't have to get into the whole "storytelling" schtick to get the most out of the games.

I've found that themes help me organize what can otherwise be a big sprawling mess of a game, even if I'm not doing much else story-wise.  Try it sometime!

QuoteOne thing I'd like to try is a Primacy game. It'd be a significant departure from the current game play of the Paris Alchymique, but it'd be interesting to try in a different time period for instance, particularly with players who would know PbN and would have come to a basic understanding of the playing field after some time playing a game under the normal Requiem rules.

The Primacy game in DC is pretty great, but also needs strong GM intervention. Like, they forgot to put in how many points you start with. Whoops.

Quote from: JDCorley;494673The Primacy game in DC is pretty great, but also needs strong GM intervention. Like, they forgot to put in how many points you start with. Whoops.

Doesn't bother me.

PS: for the 'story v. actuality' tangent, see there. I won't pursue this argument here.

Well, I decided to design a city from scratch. It's going to be located around the Kra Isthmus aka The Devil's Neck. I going to use Kowloon Walled City as inspiration and move on from there. I considered using an existing city but thought I do something a little more ambitious. A Created built this city with the requiste far reaching secret/implication(s).

Regards,
David R

Sounds awesome.

I remember going through each American state and re-naming it in case I ever wanted to do an "alternative world game" set in that state.  Pretty cool.

That sounds like a terrific idea, David.

Hey, so one thing that occurred to me is, if you're not using the nWoD in a story-oriented way, are you still organizing the game by scenes and chapters? How do you handle the duration of powers that are scene-length, or XP awards that are per-chapter?