VtM Bloodlines v8.8 unofficial patch by Wesp5

I played a ton of WoD (mostly mage) over the years, so a lot of this stuff I just remember from lore discussions or from it coming up in a game. I did refer to the world of darkness wiki a few times when I couldn't remember an exact name.

And as for knowledge from the game, that just comes from playing it. I've probably beaten bloodlines no less than 10 times.

 

All the 'stuff' the animation is used on are actually vampires, or monsters produced from vampire flesh (the fleshcrafted monsters from the Tzimisce for instance). In actual lore, that effect depends on the age of the vampire so the game is not 'accurate' anyway. You'll notice that the Kuei-jin leave corpses for instance (although i think they shouldn't actually).

edit: actually the differences between Kuei-Jin and Kindred that white wolf cooked up in their fucked up meta-cosmology are interesting. The Kuei-jin are actually dead returned to life from the spirit world, while the kindred never went there for instance, so the Kuei-jin are actually 'more undead' although they're much more alive.

 

Kuei-Jin were tortured in Asian Hell prior to returning as vampires. Dying a second times hints at them being even more screwed than Kindred.

 

I don't like Wraith as a concept. I mean sure, it's a nice dodge for the various religions that the world-walkers in the game are obsessed about, but it introduces absurd nihilism and anti-climax, so yes, i'm more sympathetic for the themed hell of the Kuei-Jin than the undifferentiated, slightly western-purgatory-gone-wrong themed mess of Wraith.

 

I think it's p. cool.

 

A vampire dies, becomes a wraith like most everyone else. Lulz, there's your curse of god ol' boy. Centuries of emo, just practice for the greater emo... sorry 'pathos'.

Don't get me wrong, there are cool ideas that evolved from Wraith (like the Risen). But the shadowlands, its 'politics', 'grandmother' and ghost-themed stuff can go take a hike.

White wolf wikis pages on God are hilariously non-specific, 'maybe this, maybe that' dancing on the head of a pin freestylin'.

 

WOD is a pretty cool setting and troika did a good job implementing interesting abilities (dominating people into being your bitch as a Ventrue is quite entertaining even if it borders on larping) as well as providing a fairly open environment in which to use said powers. So it's quite easy to forgive the flaws in it.

 

Oh come on, the zulo war-form works too. Or just let a vhozd loose on them

 

One time I took out a werewolf using celerity, potence, and a silver letter opener. It really just depends on the tools you have on hand.

 

I'd suggest getting a game for PnP going but I don't want to be surrounded by faggots who like True Blood.

 

Question to you lore-minded folks; is the Sherrif a Tzimisce? His Chiropteran Marauder form is a Vicissitude ability, nyeah?

NVM: looked it up and it seems he's a Nagloper which is an offshoot of Tzimisce. Heh. Close enough I guess.

 

Naglopers were fucking awesome. Very damn hardcore in combat thanks to Potence and Vicissitude.

 

Yeah, african tzimisce basically. I'd like to sound scholarly about this but it comes down to the degenerate cranial features.

 

Suddenly I am reminded of that excellent CYOA LP on the forum. I think I shall have to take another gander at said thread.

 

I'm fairly sure most of you must've heard these tracks before (they're now included in the WESP's patch, I believe), but here goes, some unused music from Bloodlines :







I can see why they weren't used, they do sound a bit unfinished. Open Season's pretty cool though.

 

This upload:

doesn't have the glitch at 1.03s. The twinkling sound is corny...

 

It's weird because the guy is presented as a hulking monster that seems somewhat braindead (he never speaks) and thus potentially dominated by the prince (it's never directly implied, at best people say the prince got him in Africa a hundred or so years ago), which doesn't seem to go that well the theme of the naglopers. Then again i don't know if Ventrue Domination makes distinction between mage or fighter types or intellectuality.

I also always presumed the prince already diablerized his sire (some belgium noble) because 1. he seems so eager to repeat it 2. he seems more powerful than his age should indicate and 3. The recordings in the malkavian primogen house (Grout was the name?) where said malk says that the voices talk about the crimes, past and future of this evil vampire at the primogen meetings (p easily assumed it's Lacroix).

I never really got something though, was hoping for some clarification - when you talk to the seer on the Santa Monica pier (the thin blood who predicts the future) she tells you you can trust "the man on the couch" and "the lone wolf". I get the lone wolf is prolly Becket, who the fuck is the man on the couch? Nines?

 

It's Mercurio. 'On the couch' refers to the first few times you meet him, when he's injured there, which is something that already happened, so it's easy to be confused.

 

Diablerie is considered to be a severe crime in the camerilla, and diablerizing leaves a permanent black mark on the soul of anyone who does it that shows up via auspex, so I doubt LaCroix would risk that for a minor power boost. Also I believe that all references to LaCroix being more powerful than he should be for his age were referencing his political station - he's only a few hundred years old but he's already a prince, and princes are typically much older than that.

As for dominating the Sheriff, I had never really thought about it but I suppose it's possible. The PnP rules for dominate 4 allow for someone to be so brainwashed that they basically become a mindless automaton, fulfilling their master's orders literally and without question.

LaCroix was obviously who Grout's delusions were talking about, but he didn't mention what they said specifically, and Grout wasn't involved enough with vampire society to know how taboo diablerie is in the camerilla, so I doubt it's something he'd even pick up on as bad.

 

Somehow I had the impression that the sherrif was just obligated to the prince for some reason - like e.g. owing him his life and swearing some kind of oath.
Who knows, might also be a result of dominate, of course.

 

I thought that 'lone wolf' was Jack. I always trusted him and never really trusted Beckett, though I liked him.

And if we are taliking about Bloodlines.. what the fuck happened on 'Elizabeth Dane'? Why the crew was dead?

 

Jack killed them obviously.

 

I'm assuming it was either the kuei-jin or Jack.

 

Are you sure it's permanent? Wiki says it only persists for a few years.

 

Except that there's the possibility of legal diablerie via a Blood Hunt. And once you've done that, your aura is tainted anyway, so there's little to stop you from indulging again, this time illegaly.

The power boost is stupidly minor though, I fully agree. I've always house-ruled it to be generation difference diveded by two and rounded up, making snacking upon Vampires several generations removed actually a sensible idea.