>Apparently killed both the grandfather and father of the Society of Leopold's top guy and lives rent free in his head.
>As an African Tzimisce as his personal enforcer.
>Waltzed into the capital of the Anarchs and declared himself Prince, they had to go along with it.
>Every single other major player in the city seethes about him but besides the Sabbat can't move openly against him.
>Goes full moron in the last act, burns all bridges with his overpowered gofer and starts throws away most of his political advantages for a sarcophagus that MIGHT have an old vampire in it to eat.
I know the last act of the game was rushed out the door, but it's a shame how much the plot starts to break down by the end. It's just weird how everything in LaCroix's backstory paints him as someone not to be fricked with, but he just kind of crumbles at the end. Still a great game, I just wish that we had gotten the full vision Troika had in mind.
Also VTMB thread, discussion only about the original and related tabletop lore, please.
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Sabbat game when?
A Sabbat game would be really great, but also very hard to execute. It'd also have to be unapologetically edgy and genuinely fricked up one of the guides to the sabbat has advice on how to RP a rape scene , something you'd struggle to find a professional studio today willing to do.
But the inhumanity, degeneracy, and at points immaturity of the Sabbat contrasted with the genuine brotherhood of a Sabbat pack could make for an excellent narrative experience that's so far from the norm few RPGs have even attempted it, let alone succeeded at it.
although the real reason is because no dev wants to code Vicissitude and Obtenebration
Sabbat JRPG
"The power of friendship" while constantly doing the most awful things imaginable sounds like a riot.
Give me a page for those rape pages senpai
Never ever, given that current IP holders (I am honestly lost who owns VtM IP at the moment) tries to bury Sabbat as much has they can.
Now we have Lasombra in Camarilla and Tzimisce in Anarchs, because frick you, I guess.
The wider setting isn't really as interesting as the game makes it appear.
It is and it isn't. The highs are high and the lows are low. WoD's biggest problem is it wants to have a shared universe between all the supernaturals but didn't bother to write them all in a way where it actually meshes together. Instead you've got a technically shared world that feels separate and gets very dumb very quickly when put together.
>the lows are low
Damn, shit is so bad?
It's only a recent edition that went full moron but the overall WoD has always been mid at best. The poster I was replying to is correct that a big problem is mashing together various creatures and societies that should have had their separate universe with at most common cameos.
Vampires are relatively low on the supernatural totem pole but obviously are the sexiest option to market beyond roleplay autists so the game was about them.
>wants to have a shared universe between all the supernaturals but didn't bother to write them all in a way where it actually meshes together.
Marvel/DC syndrome
I like the greater lore of WoD circa V20 and how almost every splat have different creation myths (even though Vampire's is correct), it adds a feeling that the world is just beyond ancient.
Bloodlines is the better video game but Redemption sold me more on the setting and had the better story
I really like redemption's story, but one thing that struck me as a little odd as a tabletop player is Vukodlak's plan. The game hypes it up like he really could do it, just chain devour Antediluvians and usher in a fricked up vampire Utopia. Considering where the final act of the game takes place, his clan, and what I knew about the Antediluvians, it was very dissonant for me having us rush to defeat this man who I know for damn sure is going to fail horribly on his first attempt to eat an Ante.
of course, Anezska is the real stakes here, not that this idiot really thinks he's going to get anything but the good lad treatment.
True, tho tbf the RPGs take some liberties when it comes to the setting
Just look at the vtmb Fledgling being able to fight and win against a centuries old Tzimisce of (probably) lower gen than them, despite only being a vampire for a few weeks at most
Cain does not exist, Beckett was right
I agree the game sorta broke down towards the end, however LaCroix as a character is pretty consistent. Undoubtedly a powerful vampire in his own right, his fatal flaw was always his greed and uncompromising obsession with framing and killing his opposition (you can see hints of this as far back as the opening), which comes back to bite him in the end. LaCroix is so driven by the thought of ancient diablerizing that it begins to erode his cunning and political power.
I'd agree with that if not for the fact that he HAD the Sarcophagus when he starts to have his melty and destabilizing the political situation just put him more on the clock. It also doesn't help that he has you blood hunted regardless of how loyal/disloyal you've been, and has no real reason to view you has opposition that late into the game. He could have done less to win, and even if he does just take Jack's bait hook line and sinker, it really isn't helped by how meekly he goes down in the end. At least give us a boss fight.
You're right, it's frustrating that he calls a blood hunt no matter what. I roleplayed as a Camarilla bootlicker on my first run and this part made me feel like a fricking idiot, it felt as though the game wasn't really observing my choices in the main story. It does demonstrate why LaCroix was always doomed to fail for being a greedy chump, but ignoring 30 hours of player choice is a terrible way to cement this idea to the player.
I agree with the rest of your statements too, except I kinda like that he's a meek little b***h. After spamming Dominate the entire game, having this Ventrue minmax loser kissing the feet of a fledgling is enormously satisfying, and a good demonstration of how much stronger the player character has come from the beginning of their new life.
>LaCroix as a character is pretty consistent
This. He was supremely arrogant and paid for it. Besides, if you think there's an actual Antediluvian inside the coffin wouldn't you maddeningly do everything to secure it and possibly become one yourself?
It's pretty consistent that Lacroix thinks he can actually diablerize an Antediluvian. These dudes are pretty much walking gods and trauma events. Nothing gets done to them without their permission, pretty much only Cain and other Antes can overpower them.
>Goes full moron in the last act, burns all bridges with his overpowered gofer
I'm still convinced that Smiling Jack was the one that started the fire at the park to frick up peace talks.
I can see Lacroix throwing the player character under the bus after everything already goes to shit, but it doesn't make sense to me why he'd self-sabotage like that beforehand if you were nothing but loyal and easily manipulated up to that point. Whereas Jack was just wanting to sow chaos for his prank and keep things messy between the Camarilla and Anarchs.
>I'm still convinced that Smiling Jack was the one that started the fire at the park to frick up peace talks.
100% the only people who don't benefit from the Cam-Anarch alliance are him and Ming. So they're the only logical perpetrators.
It helps explain why Jack was immediately there to find and "help" you as well.
You could say Jack is just a solid dude that's there to help and give you advice from the beginning, but he doesn't stop or warn you away from opening the sarcophagus at all. Not like Beckett does.
Why does Beckett suddenly do a 180 and decide opening the sarcophagus is bad? I always assumed Jack let him in on the plan but I don't think it's ever stated one way or the other.
He probably realized it was a bomb, and Jack told him that either he keep quiet about it or they were going to have a problem. Beckett's a little younger than Jack but of much stronger blood, so I don't think he was outright scared, just figured it wasn't worth getting into a fight over Sebastian and a mundane archaeological find. Warned you on the way out.
I also have a more schizo theory based entirely on the "wait" he says to you before starting the conversation sounding off, I don't think that was Beckett. Just someone else using Obfuscate to impersonate him to you. Not sure who it would be exactly though.
>I always assumed Jack let him in on the plan but I don't think it's ever stated one way or the other.
Smiling Jack tells him about it since Beckett was drooling over the finding, and since Beckett liked you, he warned you. Jack not warning you is a test from him, to see if you deserve your Final Death or have some undead brains.
I think if you tell Jack that Beckett was investigating the sarcophagus he leaves, saying he has to take care of something. So a lot of people theorize that Jack warned Beckett away from it, assuming that Beckett didn't smell gunpowder and somehow find out himself. I think it makes sense that Jack respected Beckett as one of the few neutral loners out there though.
Jack probably believes that if you open the sarcophagus after all the warnings, you deserve your fate.
Course if you ask him if you shouldn't open it he basically tells you that if you don't then someone else will.
So, who do you guys think "A friend" is? I've played this game twice and have no clue.
The cab driver. The emails match the way he talks.
Hmmm, I see. What motivation would he have for sending these cryptic chess messages, though?
Equal parts manipulating things from the shadows and fricking with everyone for the lulz.
The cab driver is Cain. It is never explicit in the game but the game files make it clear.
Grout. The emails are full of chess metaphors and Grout has chess stuff all over his mansion.
wait, vampires can smoke?
If they pass their will saves to not freak the frick out then yeah nothing else is really stopping them.
>Camarilla Ventrue
Bootlickers, Brown-nosers and upstart princelings
>Sabbat Ventrue
Badass undead paladins
>This nonsense rhetoric again
Some light reading for you Kindred.
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Auctoritas_Ritae#Games_of_Instinct
Such noble paladins indeed, paragons of serving the Tzimisce and Lasombra so dutifully.
What about Anarch Ventrues?
The undead equivalent of rich kids LARPing as socialist revolutionaries. They probably failed their agoge, kill on sight.
Just played the game after some anons recommended it a few days ago. It is SOVL.
What clan did you play, Anon?
Picked Nosferatu. They seemed pretty cool.
I'm trying to make my own WoD rip-off setting, what are you guys' dos and don'ts?
Do: Keep a level of flexibility with how you tackle the mythos and creation of each supernatural.
Don't: Half Ass It.
Do: Be consistent in the work you do.
Don't: Half Ass It.
Do: Have Fun with both the based and cringe aspects of the splat or series you're working on, passion is a form of fashion.
Don't:Half Ass It and cram inconsistent shit into it.
Well if there's one thing I'm good at its adding too many autistic details.
Wasn't it part of Sebastian's lore that despite his achievement in the Ventrue and Camarilla at large he's still considered a low tier chump sent to a fool's errand of a crusade to pacify THE anarch free state by actually important Ventrue? And that part of why he's playing so desperately is because he knows the cards are stacked against him.
It's amazing that LaCroix was able to go centuries with a stick up his ass without ever taking it out
I'm gonna be honest y'all, I only ever liked VTMB. I don't know shit about shit when it comes to the tabletop controversy and what chunk of wiki pages is better than another.
oh for sure, world of darkness or whatever seems absolutely hoity-toity
just wanna go to thinblood beach and hang out with some losers around a barrelfire
I'm actually playing the ttg rn and its pretty fun. My only gripe is it really REALLY relies on the theater of the mind. Too much really.
How powerful would Caine's ghoul be?
[Plot Device] level
He'd just be a vamp
>play this game because it's supposed to be a classic
>game is a buggy mess and lets me invest infinite starting points
>game immediately gets mad at me and has an NPC reprimand me for taking advantage of it being a buggy mess
>lol and lmao
>shit is clunky as frick
>walking is boring as frick
>naturally just gravitated to melee combat because it's OP and I don't need anything but my fists
>cool spooky mansion, pretty nice.
>"HAHAHA republicans xD" not once, but like three times. Guess one of the writers didn't have a good relationship with their republican-voting dad.
>guess the women were the hottest shit back in the days, but now it just looks hella weird
>story is alright, but choose to open the sarcophagus and the writers really just pull a "but it's a bomb" out of nowhere because frick you.
4/10 hasn't aged well.
Nugga u el stupido
okay cool.
awful bait but morons will still respond to it