World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Not really, they're just much more clearly defined than previously.

Couldn't you say that they are the focus of the metaplot as far as the american west coast is concerned?

The Americas are basically the chaotic shithole of the vampire world, with the Sabbat basically owning most of it and the Camarilla sieging and counter sieging their cities. Thinbloods in general tried for safety in numbers, notably in the west coast and in the greater LA region. With the Sword of Caine in particular and all the strongest vampires in general fucking off to fight in the middle east and the Camarilla becoming paranoid neets, the weakest vampires, the handful of elders who still resist the call of Gehenna and the thinbloods are sort of inheriting the domains.

I wouldn't say it's so much that the Thin-Bloods are the focus, it's that the focus has in general shifted to street level where you'll find Thin-Bloods at. Like mentioned, 13th Gen is the default for PCs now, and it reflects pretty all around given that the Beckoning is basically just them taking a hedge trimmer to their vast catalogue of mega-powered NPCs. It's more than Camarilla doesn't have effectively infinite cash and manpower anymore so they can't just ignore everyone aside from the Sabbat, and vampires aren't insulated anymore either with the government spooks around the world getting in on vampire-hunting, so basically everywhere is potentially contested domain. They've gone to some pretty major lengths to reel in the globe-trotting conspiracy X-Men stuff that was the default where an official module most likely culminated in "and then the players watch the NPCs do something awesome or tell them they'll leave them now so they can go do something awesome" (though not entirely succesfully, since they still can't help but unzip and start furiously masturbating whenever Beckett steps in).

 

[Kem0sabe]

WTF is wrong with Mitsoda's head? He looks yellow while his arms are normal skin tone.

 

[hivemind]

wh*toid aging

 

[Vibalist]

WTF is wrong with Mitsoda's head? He looks yellow while his arms are normal skin tone.

I think something's wrong with your eyes.

 

[Kem0sabe]

WTF is wrong with Mitsoda's head? He looks yellow while his arms are normal skin tone.

I think something's wrong with your eyes.

I looked into Mitsoda's eyes but they aren't yellow, so jaundice is probably out as a cause. I guess that he is just vain motherfucker with that silly perm, that trimmed goatee, those gloves and that yellow makeup on his face.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

I looked into Mitsoda's eyes but they aren't yellow, so jaundice is probably out as a cause. I guess that he is just vain motherfucker with that silly perm, that trimmed goatee, those gloves and that yellow makeup on his face.

A perm gives you curly hair, sis.

 

[Storyfag]

the focus has in general shifted to street level where you'll find Thin-Bloods at

Which moves the focus away from the meat of the setting - the intrigues of the Prince's/Archbishop's court.

 

[S.torch]

The fact that this games will come out almost at the same time that cyberpunk 2077 is great, because if the game is good we will have two excellent RPGs to play, but if the game is bland as it seems, they will flop really hard, everything for trying to please the twitter crown

 

[Orma]

Cara Interview

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

the focus has in general shifted to street level where you'll find Thin-Bloods at

Which moves the focus away from the meat of the setting - the intrigues of the Prince's/Archbishop's court.

I personally disagree, but this is mostly in that my personal experience of politics PnP (of any sort really, Vampire's just worse) is that it most often comes down to self-masturbatory nonsense where most of the players just watch the ST and one player overact smugness. Another thing I suppose is that I feel Vampire has a big problem with age being treated as a completely irrelevant detail (this also tends to apply to how people play Vampire in general, the fact a character might have grown up before electricity isn't even registered as a possibly crucial problem for them; similarly everyone has prepostrous networks of spies who presumably consist of stop signs and lightbulbs).

To me, the meat of the setting has always been in mystery (since just like how politics doesn't make for riveting stuff for an entire group almost ever, so doesn't some hoity toity serious business about vampiric condition). Core V5 doesn't really do much to me in this regard, I mostly just look at the core book as a set of stuff I'd yoink since I have zero loyalty to any system because PnP devs are stupid people who don't understand their own mechanics; I think you should *always* customize and alter the rules based on what you as ST and your players need for enjoyment and narrative purposes. And since I have no loyalty to any "canon" either I just look at stuff to steal and then have my way with because they were neat ideas. This is also kinda helpful approach when it comes to mystery, since it keeps the players on their toes if they know they can't trust the splats (speaking of which, V5 splats anger me, they're basically just wordswordswords jerking off without any crunch) et al and their GM is a goddamn liar who feeds them false leads with a straight face.

 

[BANANA CONDUCT]

the focus has in general shifted to street level where you'll find Thin-Bloods at

Which moves the focus away from the meat of the setting - the intrigues of the Prince's/Archbishop's court.

I personally disagree, but this is mostly in that my personal experience of politics PnP (of any sort really, Vampire's just worse) is that it most often comes down to self-masturbatory nonsense where most of the players just watch the ST and one player overact smugness. Another thing I suppose is that I feel Vampire has a big problem with age being treated as a completely irrelevant detail (this also tends to apply to how people play Vampire in general, the fact a character might have grown up before electricity isn't even registered as a possibly crucial problem for them; similarly everyone has prepostrous networks of spies who presumably consist of stop signs and lightbulbs).

To me, the meat of the setting has always been in mystery (since just like how politics doesn't make for riveting stuff for an entire group almost ever, so doesn't some hoity toity serious business about vampiric condition). Core V5 doesn't really do much to me in this regard, I mostly just look at the core book as a set of stuff I'd yoink since I have zero loyalty to any system because PnP devs are stupid people who don't understand their own mechanics; I think you should *always* customize and alter the rules based on what you as ST and your players need for enjoyment and narrative purposes. And since I have no loyalty to any "canon" either I just look at stuff to steal and then have my way with because they were neat ideas. This is also kinda helpful approach when it comes to mystery, since it keeps the players on their toes if they know they can't trust the splats (speaking of which, V5 splats anger me, they're basically just wordswordswords jerking off without any crunch) et al and their GM is a goddamn liar who feeds them false leads with a straight face.

You seem like you'd make for a really good GM. And I mean that sincerely

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well thank you, I do try.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

WTF is wrong with Mitsoda's head? He looks yellow while his arms are normal skin tone.

Obviously Annie gave him a hot golden shower just before the interview.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Bloodlines 2

in before girls buy it thinking it's a Twilight game and immediately refund it after more than 15 minutes go by without some tabula rasa, underwear model-looking prick dead staring a teenage airhead and professing his truly inexplicable love for her.

 

[Viata]

in before girls buy it thinking it's a Twilight game

It could be worse. Like guys buy it thinking it's like Bloodlines 1.

 

[McPlusle]

One of my biggest worries with this game is that it might not learn from the one thing I really didn't like about Bloodlines 1: boss fights and forced combat gauntlets (the zombie graveyard, that one part where you get captured and have to do the torture trials, etc.). Maybe I'm just salty since I mainly did a build tailored for speech/exploration and it ended up being a really hard game toward the end, but scenes like that do kinda go against the game's framework.

 

[Yosharian]

One of my biggest worries with this game is that it might not learn from the one thing I really didn't like about Bloodlines 1: boss fights and forced combat gauntlets (the zombie graveyard, that one part where you get captured and have to do the torture trials, etc.). Maybe I'm just salty since I mainly did a build tailored for speech/exploration and it ended up being a really hard game toward the end, but scenes like that do kinda go against the game's framework.

My biggest worry is that the game will be shit

 

[Nano]

the zombie graveyard

Not forced, you can talk your way out of it.

that one part where you get captured and have to do the torture trials

There's no combat in those trials except towards the end, and even then those fights were easy. What, were you expecting to break out of there through diplomacy? The researcher dude already made it clear that he's a psychopath.

There were a few parts towards the end of the game that were genuinely bad (e.g. the Warrens), but otherwise people exaggerate how hard/sloggy the game is post-Hollywood, IMO. I just finished a replay with a talky Toreador character and it really wasn't that bad.

 

[Roguey]

You can also just plain not do it. It's a sidequest, not part of the critical path.

One of my biggest worries with this game is that it might not learn from the one thing I really didn't like about Bloodlines 1: boss fights and forced combat gauntlets (the zombie graveyard, that one part where you get captured and have to do the torture trials, etc.). Maybe I'm just salty since I mainly did a build tailored for speech/exploration and it ended up being a really hard game toward the end, but scenes like that do kinda go against the game's framework.

They've confirmed that there are mandatory fights. It appears as though you probably won't be able to build a non-combat character though.

 

[Okagron]

the zombie graveyard

You have the choice of two quests here: you can either do that one or do the other where you get a prostitute for Romero (this one has no combat). You are not forced into the stop the zombies from fleeing the graveyard quest. Doing one will not allow you to do the other, so the prostitute one is the "no combat" quest.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Not to mention you basically have to make active effort in BL1 not to play as an Absolute Chad who can do everything perfectly.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

Is anyone else still trying to wrap their head around how BL2 has been shown to have a real SJW slant so far and yet we will basically be playing a murder simulator? I mean, it even looks like we will be forced into regular intervals of mandatory combat.

I suppose not being able to play as one of the 999 genders is more egregious than killing people. But you are playing a vampire and have to eat people by your nature. Even Vampire Diaries gets it.

 

[Wesp5]

What, were you expecting to break out of there through diplomacy?

Exactly. This is what annoyed me the most in Fallout: New Vegas: I slaughtered the whole of Cesar's Legion and then I could let the boss go and he did it without a fight? I'm rather with the Deadpool movie on this !

 

[Strange Fellow]

BL2 has been shown to have a real SJW slant so far

Citation needed.

 

[fantadomat]

BL2 has been shown to have a real SJW slant so far

Citation needed.

Ah it will have sjw garbage for certainty mate,tho from the gameplay it is not up in your face.....only in the shown segment. Tho the bigger problem is that it looks......mediocre.