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What's the word, kids?

I've just come from the most recent "crossover meeting," in which we World of Darkness-type developers sit around a table and, mostly, make fun of me. This week, though, we also hammered out some conceptual and mechanical notions common to Vampire, Werewolf and Mage. In this case, I had wanted to pull on my fisherman's gloves and get up to my elbows in Ethan's and Bill's brains to see how a feature of the upcoming Ordo Dracul covenant book would interact with some similar features of Werewolf and Mage. What happened is, I think, the ideal result of these meetings: An existing idea was refined by folks smarter than me, solidified a bit with elements of setting and atmosphere, and augmented by a new idea that's going to net some new occult toys for the Kindred. Even better, it's sort of recharged my drive to get up to my neck in the book this weekend.

As an aside, I should say that matt milberger and Pauline Benney have made some amazing things happen on that Lancea Sanctum book. It's rad-looking and I'm eager for it to land with a 224-page thud on your game table. Careful with those drinks, dude, 'cause they'll spill. The point when a manuscript becomes a book gets me so jazzed. It's the powder that fires me out of the cannon at the next project.

Last thing: We also talked a bit about the hypothetical fourth game at the meeting today. Let me tell you, it's one of those things that I've been wanting to do since I was making home-brew Storyteller games for my old group back in the day. An intimidating thrill. This is the period when hot, molten ideas are getting thrown around — good stuff. (I've sort of come into the late stages of it on Mage, but that game's awesomenity was already cranked up so high when I got here that I can't hardly reach the controls.) No telling where this new game's gonna go in the next few months, but right now I'm inspired and enticed like I was when I read through the Werewolf proofs in my first weeks at the office.

Let's all enjoy my foolish green exuberance while we can.

Current Music: The Decemberists, "Shanty for the Arethusa"

	From: inscrutable	Date: January 21st, 2005 10:08 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Alien: the Probing?

That's my guess at least.

Anyways, glad to hear new stuff will be cool. Any plans for any more "generic" WoD books ala Antagonists or Ghost Stories?

From: coyotesdaughter	Date: January 31st, 2005 02:11 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Antagonists: Good book.
Ghost Stories: Not so good. Not really useful.

From: coyotesdaughter	Date: January 31st, 2005 02:12 pm (UTC)		(Link)

By which I mean: the modules in the GS book were all extremely well written but a hardcover twenty-something dollar book of modules with no new information about ghosts (in fact a word for word repeat of stuff in the main WoD book with some stuff missing) seems a little pricey.

	From: jackob	Date: January 21st, 2005 10:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I am very much looking forward to Lancea Sanctum. You have my full address so you can send the author's copies ASAP? :D

	From: innocent_man	Date: January 22nd, 2005 03:07 am (UTC)		(Link)

I have decided that being on this side of the table, after being on your side, sucks ass.

Especially since I wrote part of Ordo Dracul and I want to know what you're doing with my stuff! :)

But I'll wait.

	From: sim_james	Date: January 22nd, 2005 04:40 am (UTC)		(Link)

A new World of Darkness game is one of the things mostly likely to buy it and actually play it, rather than buy it, read a bit of it, and go back to thinking about Orpheus or Mummy. :)

	From: wolfspyder	Date: January 22nd, 2005 04:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Actually, and i kinda hate to say this, cuz it was an interesting idea, but You really couldn't cross Orpheus with any other setting in WoD except for Wraith. That and the only major villian they had for anyone was Bishop. It was "Bishop this" and "Bishop that". There were really no more antagonists other then Bishop.

I've looked over Mummy several times, and I would love to play a mummy game, but it's hard to find ppl interested...lol.

If anything, I think that Changeling, Wraith, and Demon have the best chances to be redone.

	From: mrisaka	Date: January 22nd, 2005 04:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, you're right. You couldn't cross Orpheus with anything else. They pretty much said it was in it's own little special World of Darkness without anything else.

And it doesn't seem like you read the later books, because another antagonist becomes extremely apparent.

I hope nothing else gets redone, except as an Orpheus style limited series. I'm all about the completely new game.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: January 23rd, 2005 04:58 pm (UTC)		(Link)

[Yeah, you're right. You couldn't cross Orpheus with anything else. They pretty much said it was in it's own little special World of Darkness without anything else.]

You say that as if it was a bad thing ;-)

-Wyrm

	From: mrisaka	Date: January 23rd, 2005 06:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

No I don't! :)

I heart Orpheus. Last week was the final session of our 1.5 year campaign. It was the best campaign I've ever played...

	From: inscrutable	Date: January 24th, 2005 11:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'm about two months into ours, and it's an incredible game.

Just yesterday one of my players commented on how when we started the game everything was all easy to understand and clean and organized, and they solved mysteries and everything was cool. But now it's all crazy and tense and there's a legion of nasty things out to kill them. That made me happy, because it means I set things up right.

	From: sim_james	Date: January 22nd, 2005 10:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

   I don’t want a re-do.

   At the moment the nWoD game that I’m most likely to actually play is Mage, because it seems as though it might be sufficiently different from the old Mage for my liking. Of course, I barely know anything about the new Mage yet, so I guess I have to wait and see.

   If the new Mage doesn’t grab me, then my next WoD chronicle is likely to be old WoD – Orpheus or Mummy, as I mentioned above. But an entirely new game would also be very cool.

	From: inscrutable	Date: January 24th, 2005 11:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Do what I did, run Orpheus using the new world of darkness rules. It's the best of both worlds.

	From: sim_james	Date: January 25th, 2005 01:25 am (UTC)		(Link)

That would be cool. Did you do the conversions yourself, or use someone else’s conversion notes?

	From: inscrutable	Date: January 25th, 2005 10:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Myself. Aside from Character Creation and Detect Nature Group, it was easy as pie.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: January 22nd, 2005 05:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Nothing will be "redone". Not Orpheus, or anything else. That's what Justin said in the last post.

	From: septembervirgin	Date: January 27th, 2005 09:33 pm (UTC)		(Link)

The idea of mages as being accursed and dark is stimulating! When would you see it possible to release a short blurb about the extent and style of mage power, that is, what a beginning mage could possibly do? I know you cannot reveal much, it's just that I am kinda jumping up and down in my chair wanting to know if they're more like Randolph Carter from Lovecraft stories and John Constantine from Hellraiser comics (sort of like mortal investigators but with access to greater power than most, and constantly risking utter obliteration and damnation), or more like mages in the Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear (being powerful yet still mortal, with potential to damage themselves if they go too far from human considerations).

I don't want to make my mages seem really powerful or really weak to begin with, nor allow them to do what they obviously could not, should they appear in my campaign... at present, a mage might appear but she's gonna be an utter beginner and somewhat reclusive from supernaturals and subtle in her use of power (since my players don't read nor know of this board, I'll mention the following), and she will be acting as a distraction so that other mages can gain foothold in the city and wrest it from the Carthians, quite possibly to allow the Invictus to take hold without knowing about their intervention -- so they could slyly take hold of the reins.

She's kinda a pawn and kinda expendable, though quite dedicated and with potential to be considered useful.