How much mileage do you get out of the blue books of the new WoD mortal line?
When I see books like Mysterious Places, Midnight Roads and Urban Legends, I like some of the ideas in it, but I don't know what to do with it. And some other ideas are a little too mundane for me.
You can pretty much run any modern day horror with nWoD. I ran Nocturnum for Call of Cthulhu with nWoD and it was great. It is also immensely easy to overlay material from Hunter the Vigil on it, as the PCs get deeper into the darkness. Plus we also now have GMC which adds another layer if needed.
I really like the new God Machine Update, which rationalizes XP costs and such. As for the other blue books, I haven't worked extensively with them. But they look good if you want to run things along the lines of more conventional horror - ghost stories, slashers, and so on.
Quote from: jan paparazzi;736348How much mileage do you get out of the blue books of the new WoD mortal line?
When I see books like Mysterious Places, Midnight Roads and Urban Legends, I like some of the ideas in it, but I don't know what to do with it. And some other ideas are a little too mundane for me.
I have squeezed all the books dry, either in my WoD games (with Mortals or Vampires) and in other horror games. I am really liking the GMC.
Most of the books are quite mundane and explicitly geared towards a "core/mortals only" game, complete with inexplicable one-time stuff. You could argue that a "core/mortals" game no longer makes sense since Hunter: The Vigil came out.
I recommend Book of Spirits to anyone running a Mage or Werewolf game for obvious reasons. Also great for a Hunter game.
I also enjoyed Asylum and Precinct 13.
Slasher is very obviously a Hunter book (an amazing one at that) but really, it also makes for great reading for any gamer who's also a horror movie fan. :)
Well, let me explain. With mundane I mean "not really that special". There are a lot of things in like: "Your neighbour is a demon. Your mother bought a cursed mirror. Someone died in that prison cell and now it's haunted.". Not really pushing my cool buttons. When I saw hunter with it's übercool conspiracies, I knew what was missing. I find the hunters in Antagonists very bland compared to the Men in Black and the Inquisition from Hunter.
That being said: What do you do with the books? What do you use from it? How do your games play out? It isn't always that obvious what I should do with it compared to other games.
I have an idea. I think I can use the Book of Spirits to tie things together. I mean it all becomes more interesting if there's a spirit behind certain things. Or when certain acts lead to attracting spirits.
One thing I don't get yet. Do spirits have a physical attack? And if they manifest themselves? Or when they are in the Shadow?
Second Sight is meant to be one of the meatier blue books - it has rules for mortal psychics so it's effectively Psychic: the Psychening.
I get a lot of value out of the Blue books.
Most of my WoD games start in them. I don't even tell my players (generally) if we're doing a specific splat. I play with them in the blue books to establish their characters, their relationships with any NPCs, contacts, etc.
A BIG boost to that is the Hunter: The Vigil. There are plenty of solid ideas to mine out of there to enhance the Blue-book stuff.
In that series - I find the Precinct: 13, Midnight Roads, and the Armory and Armory Reloaded, Book of Spirits are indispensable.
I think I will be using the Book of Spirits in combination with Hunter and Tales from the 13th Precinct. I make some police setting combining VASCU or TFV with some stuff from 13th Precinct. And I use the Book of Spirits as the stuff they will dive into. I think I can tie a lot of different books (like mysterious places, asylum) into the spirit world.
Quote from: jan paparazzi;736515I think I will be using the Book of Spirits in combination with Hunter and Tales from the 13th Precinct. I make some police setting combining VASCU or TFV with some stuff from 13th Precinct. And I use the Book of Spirits as the stuff they will dive into. I think I can tie a lot of different books (like mysterious places, asylum) into the spirit world.
Boom. You got an awesome campaign in the making, sir!
My first NWoD game started exactly like that. Made me like the system a lot. Guns are.... LETHAL...
Apparently manifested spirits do bashing damage when attacking. Spirits do bashing damage in the Shadow to other spirits and visitors as well.
Has anyone combined Mysterious Places with the Book of Spirits? I am thinking about making the University some kind of location spirit with possibly a cult worshiping it. But I don't really know what to do with it. I can't really figure out what kind of motivation it has and what those drawings have to do with it.
Quote from: jan paparazzi;737818Has anyone combined Mysterious Places with the Book of Spirits? I am thinking about making the University some kind of location spirit with possibly a cult worshiping it. But I don't really know what to do with it. I can't really figure out what kind of motivation it has and what those drawings have to do with it.
I combined the Junkyard with the Book of the Dead.
I was wondering what kind of spirit the being in the University chapter could be. It gets it power (or it unlocks) when those teachers draw symbols with chalk in a classroom. I can cover what it can do (mostly make people feel menaced) with the numina in the Book of Spirits or in the GMC. Only I am a bit puzzled about the symbols. Mages involved?
Quote from: jan paparazzi;739145I was wondering what kind of spirit the being in the University chapter could be. It gets it power (or it unlocks) when those teachers draw symbols with chalk in a classroom. I can cover what it can do (mostly make people feel menaced) with the numina in the Book of Spirits or in the GMC. Only I am a bit puzzled about the symbols. Mages involved?
A maths or CS professor who teaches Cryptography gets a hold of a Voynich Manuscript-like text and becomes obsessed with deciphering it, attracting the attention of Spirit that once fed on discovery and turns into a Spirit of secrecy, obsession and paranoia. The symbols come from the manuscript and whether they're an Atlantean grimoire, a First Tongue chronicle, a God Machine broadcast or a hoax is up to you. :)
Quote from: The Butcher;739147A maths or CS professor who teaches Cryptography gets a hold of a Voynich Manuscript-like text and becomes obsessed with deciphering it, attracting the attention of Spirit that once fed on discovery and turns into a Spirit of secrecy, obsession and paranoia. The symbols come from the manuscript and whether they're an Atlantean grimoire, a First Tongue chronicle, a God Machine broadcast or a hoax is up to you. :)
Good. That spirit of discovery/secrecy does it. It could also be a spirit of knowledge. Don't know much about werewolf or mage, but a first tongue chronicle could be a good fit. Bringing in the God-Machine could also work. Thanks!