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

[Delterius]

without committing heinous acts of magical cannibalism?

Is it that heinous really

 

[Sarathiour]

Is it that heinous really

We're still talking about eating people ? I'll go for a yes then.

 

[Delterius]

Is it that heinous really

We're still talking about eating people ? I'll go for a yes then.

what's so especially bad about eating a vampire if you already eat people for a living

 

[Sarathiour]

Uh it's bad in both case, even though most of the vampire don't really treat human as something more than cattle. Also feeding on someone is obviously not the same as outright killing them.
Diablerie is supposed to be extra bad because it's planned murder + disobeying the camarilla + you're literally moving up in the rank by eating your superior, which might not be the most stable foundation for any kind of organisation.

 

[Delterius]

i get that it's politically and socially a bad thing to eat your fellow monsters but heinously evil come on man

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I think Everlasting (another 90s tabletop rpg written by an ex-WW freelancer) had an interesting take. Vampires have a statistic called "blood-potency" that serves as a cap on other statistics and increases over time (this was published in 1997, years before WW used the mechanic). When a vampire makes a new vampire or living vampire servant (think Cirque du Freak's half-vampires) then they sacrifice a bit of their potency and their creation starts with half the value of their creator. By drinking the blood of a higher potency vampire, a vampire of lower potency may slowly drain the potency from the donor and increase their own. However, drinking the blood of a higher potency donor causes the drinker to steadily develop a quasi-romantic obsession with the donor and the donors use this to control their servants. Once the drinker's potency is equal to the donor's, however, this infatuation vanishes and no more potency can be drained.

It's clearly derived from previous entries in the vampire genre but also unique in some respects, so kudos to that. Not that this stopped the writer from inserting a "blood war" into the backstory where the bloodlines of Vlad Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory (who were damned by some higher power for their atrocities) went around stealing the blood-potency from older bloodlines to increase their own power.

 

[Storyfag]

Really the only ones who do diablerie are the Sabbat and that’s because they are insane

Oh how naive you are. Please step into the vohzd pit for... reeducation.

You’ll have to do better than that for me to ever step foot in a place like Montreal, Canada.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. It will get into the vohzd pit or it will get the hose again!

 

[Storyfag]

without committing heinous acts of magical cannibalism?

Is it that heinous really

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

 

[EvilWolf]

Is it that heinous really

We're still talking about eating people ? I'll go for a yes then.

what's so especially bad about eating a vampire if you already eat people for a living

It's more than simply eating their body. Most kindred believe that their blood is their very soul and to Diablerize someone is viewed as an ultimate taboo. This "theory" is backed up by the fact that if you diablerize a victim low enough in generation compared to you that they can literally take over your body with their blood.

 

[Delterius]

Is it that heinous really

We're still talking about eating people ? I'll go for a yes then.

what's so especially bad about eating a vampire if you already eat people for a living

It's more than simply eating their body. Most kindred believe that their blood is their very soul and to Diablerize someone is viewed as an ultimate taboo. This "theory" is backed up by the fact that if you diablerize a victim low enough in generation compared to you that they can literally take over your body with their blood.

and if you apply that to everybody else people eat then it's all twice as fucked up

 

[J1M]

Is it that heinous really

We're still talking about eating people ? I'll go for a yes then.

what's so especially bad about eating a vampire if you already eat people for a living

It's more than simply eating their body. Most kindred believe that their blood is their very soul and to Diablerize someone is viewed as an ultimate taboo. This "theory" is backed up by the fact that if you diablerize a victim low enough in generation compared to you that they can literally take over your body with their blood.

That's just some retcon wankery to revive some prominent characters.

 

[Cricket McBangle]

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/twa7sw/quartertothree_user_claims_vampire_the_masquerade/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The gaming leaks subreddit has found someone else saying Bloodlines 2 is being developed by The Chinese Room

 

[Roguey]

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeak...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The gaming leaks subreddit has found someone else saying Bloodlines 2 is being developed by The Chinese Room

I spotted that months ago. https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-543#post-7633802

 

[Cricket McBangle]

Alright, is there a betting pool for which developer it is?

 

[Riddler]

I think it’s possible to make a contemporary urban fantasy crpg without inserting obnoxious partisan messages. If we can do it for imaginary pasts and futures, then we should be able to do it for imaginary presents.

I don’t think the topic IP is suited for this, even if it wasn’t owned by Paradox. It has a blatantly partisan counterculture message baked into it since its inception three decades ago. Even the mechanics reflect this, with it being impossible to increase your magical power without literally cannibalizing the higher ups. “Eat the rich” indeed. The other games in the IP are no better in this regard: e.g. the werewolves are eco-terrorists and the wizards think science is bad/wrong.

If we want contemporary urban fantasy crpgs, then these will have to come from somewhere else. But that’s just my opinion after years of burnout

I won’t deny that people want to shove blatant and lazy political posturing in VTM but Diablerie being that directly tied to “eat the rich” is something I kinda disagree with.

Really the only ones who do diablerie are the Sabbat and that’s because they are insane, not because they are part of the proletariat. Also, absorbing or eating or whatever higher level stuff is a trope that existed long before Marx and Engels.

Is diablerie any different to "There can be only ONE!!"

Well, go high enough up and it doesn't seem to take all that well and you'll eventually be consumed from the inside by the elder you tried to absorb.

 

[Wesp5]

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

Isn't it possible to see with Auspex whether someone commited Diablerie and thus broke Camarilla law?

 

[Delterius]

Alright, is there a betting pool for which developer it is?

yes

coincidentally it's also an AA meeting place

 

[J1M]

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

Isn't it possible to see with Auspex whether someone commited Diablerie and thus broke Camarilla law?

It leaves a mark on your aura that fades over time.

You could claim it was from a sanctioned blood hunt.

 

[Cael]

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

Isn't it possible to see with Auspex whether someone commited Diablerie and thus broke Camarilla law?

It leaves a mark on your aura that fades over time.

You could claim it was from a sanctioned blood hunt.

Black streaks, IIRC. And Auspex 1 is enough to see it.

 

[Storyfag]

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

Isn't it possible to see with Auspex whether someone commited Diablerie and thus broke Camarilla law?

It leaves a mark on your aura that fades over time.

You could claim it was from a sanctioned blood hunt.

Black streaks, IIRC. And Auspex 1 is enough to see it.

Asupex 2 per the classic rules and Asupex 3 per the V5 rules, actually. But yeah, black streaks in the aura. They disappear in a number of years equal to the generational difference between you and the victim.

 

[Cael]

Nope. Only the Camarilla makes a big deal out of it. It is dangerous for the practitioner, but that's that.

Isn't it possible to see with Auspex whether someone commited Diablerie and thus broke Camarilla law?

It leaves a mark on your aura that fades over time.

You could claim it was from a sanctioned blood hunt.

Black streaks, IIRC. And Auspex 1 is enough to see it.

Asupex 2 per the classic rules and Asupex 3 per the V5 rules, actually. But yeah, black streaks in the aura. They disappear in a number of years equal to the generational difference between you and the victim.

Auspex 2, then. Auspex was another player's thing. I was playing a Life/Mind/Forces Mage martial artist obsessed with permanently enhancing his natural abilities.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

Hot take: VtMB2 already released and it's called VtM: Night Road

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Alphons]

VtM: Night Road

As far as CGs go it was alright, really enjoyed how many choices it offered (though some of them turned out to be fake).
The author's cool OC Julian and "we're vampires, but humans are true monsters" with the cops getting away with murder and super border patrol fort turned into a concentration camp ran by feds, state police, local sheriff and actual Ku Klux Klan and unnamed neo-nazi militia were pretty funny.

At least you can sell out everyone to hunters and enjoy the BBQ.

 

[Semiurge]

rewrite problematic original content

Is it even possible to remove the "problematic" content without removing the game itself?

Lemme see... Tourette? Out! Venus? Out! Fat Larry? Out! Velvet? Out! Kuei-Jin racism? Out! The hooker from the pestilence investigation? Out! Grout? Out! The snuff film? Out! The Sin Bin? Out!

That does leave *some* meat, but admittedly not much.

Romero's part in the game would be made bigger.

 

[Semiurge]

'd qualify the obsession as sufficient manifestation of Malkavian insanity.

The flowery, wordy dialogue was probably just Troika's Lovecraft reference.

what part of this painting makes you think grout is crazy

for the record i thought it was his wife's portrait back when i first saw it

It looks like he compensated for the loss of his wife by impersonating her, by growing his hair long and dyeing it red. Her ingame model had reddish hair.