Development Info Droplets of info at Bloodlines Inn

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Shane DeFreest, <a href="http://www.activision.com/" target=_blank>Activision</a> Communities Liaison for Troika's upcoming <i>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines</i>, has done a short (but somewhat interesting) <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/63851789/?0" target=_blank>"weekly update"</a> at the somewhat empty<a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/Bloodlines_Inn/b22439/" target=_blank> Bloodlines Inn</a>, which basically contains answers to some common questions:
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<blockquote>
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1. Will there be a Background system in play for character creation?
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<br>
Yes, we have a background system in place in which the player can choose
<br>
a "history" for his character, which gives his character some bonuses as
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well as some negatives. For instance, in choosing a certain background
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you may get extra points in a stat or two but be restricted to only
<br>
raising another stat to a certain level. We're tailoring this background
<br>
system to our game, so while you may recognize some backgrounds from
<br>
Vampire: The Masquerade, others will be new.
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</blockquote>
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If only they could release a little more decent chunk of info on the game soon, but as they say: some is better than none, right? Right...?!
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I'm not familiar with how the Storyteller system works, anyone got any good links?

 

Storyteller system of gameplay doesn't really use dice. It's more like an interactive novel where the GM tells you what's going on and you respond and then he tells you the results of your actions. This is the mode my current GM and I use alot. As long as you don't make stupid decisions, things usually go in your favor. Sometimes he will ask for a die roll, but it's very rare. Not sure about any links on it because we never really bothered looking it up. We just went with our own version of how we felt it should be.

 

Uh - my storyteller had us roll a buttload of dice when we played Vampire back in the days, so the rules are there - it's just a matter of interpretation of when to use apply them. And I believe there's some sort of online resource for the storyteller system over at white wolf... ?

 

Well, like I said, we never looked into it. My GM just interpreted it the way he wanted and we went with it. We still have games we play with dice and all, but every now and then it's fun just to weave a story together.

 

RPG without any random elements has lots of role-playing, but it ceases to be a game.

 

I disagree.

Game: n 1. An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime,

Now, yes, there are other definitions, but that's the only one I need to make a point. We get lots of entertainment and amusement out of our Storyteller sessions. Sure, it may not be everyone's bag of chips, but it is ours. And it IS fun. Therefore it IS a game.

 

It is playing with imagination. Games have a set of rules. The purpose of RPG is that there is a system that decides if you succeed in a certain action or fail. It is different from a bunch kids running around going, "You didn't shoot me, I shot you first!".

 

Sounds like a circle jerk with a goth theme, then.

 

I never said we played Vampire. Fuck that game. I'm not into goth or anything to do with goth. As far as a 'circle jerk' goes, that's your opinion. We have fun weaving a story. Gotta problem with that? So what.

 

only girls weave stories, wuss, WARE SI YOR DOLLHOSE

 

My testicles cry out for dice!

 

Wrong.

 

men build, women weave. get back to your loom, handjob.

 

Hmm... lame-ass took time from his SEKRET PROCEJT to post meaningless drivel here. How surprising. Look up the different meanings of weave sometime while you're at it. Oh.. wait... better yet, ask your English Lit. girlfriend what the different meanings of the word are since looking it up would take precious time from your MYSTARY GAEM.

 

why the fuck would i work on the weekend, handjob?

back to your loom, ladyboy. no one likes an uppity seamstress.

 

I don't use a loom. And weekend is a subjective term, moron. Simple. Like you. Kbye.

 

no, days off are subjective. maybe you have one of those loser jobs where monday and tuesday qualify as your 'weekend', but the rest of the civilized world objectively refer to friday night, saturday and sunday as the weekend. technically, the gregorian calender does start it's week with sunday, but that's about as relevant as not eating meat on friday.

my bad, i didn't know you were into cross-stichting. good luck with that, handjob. next stop, a blue ribbon at the ladyboy county fair!!!

 

I just don't see the point in playing an RPG where everything will eventually go your way because there's no randomness involved and no risk. Without dice, a player character can't really die or suffer anything that bad because then it's just a case of He Said/He Said. A player would have to do something extremely stupid, and basically want to die in order to be killed.

 

Or, more simply put, without dice rolls or a certain random element, RPGs become just children playing cowboys and indians, screaming "Bang, bang, I killed you!" and "No you didn't!"

 

At least he doesn't have a loser job contracting out to the worst CRPG developer in human history!

Also couldn't help but notice how often you bring up hand jobs. Getting plenty of practice? Does your contract include tending to SEKRET PR0J3KT DESIGNER Dave's sexual needs as often as demanded?

 

hanzo is to handjob as jed is to cumjug as lamat is to lameass :shock:

stop with the obsession already, rentboy. it's kind of getting scary. every time i post, there's cumjug! how long before you start yelling shit at my appartment window and slashing my tires?

 

Shit and fall back in it, Bio-lackey.

 

The point is, as I said above, we DO play with dice and rules. It's just this one campaign we have, set in a sci-fi universe of my GM's creation, that we utilize the storyteller method I described. I agree with the whole rules thing, but we are working on a book and doing it differently than other people. It has nothing to do with living or dieing at the toss of a die. It's about WEAVING (yes, lame-ass, I said WEAVING) a tale to be put down for possible future publication. It's actually turned out to be quite a blast and hopefully someday it will be published.

 

I fucking love this guy. There's something about a developer that'll call someone a cumbag on a forum that just makes me tingly. I'm sick in the head like that. Seriously, more devs need to release the angst. It's good for the soul.

Then again, I'm also the only person on the internet that doesn't buy Derek Smart's games that really likes the guy. He's interesting and I think the space sim genre would be boring as shit without the man. Like I said, I'm a sick bastard.