EPTPnP Organisation - Page 71
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
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Sugarfluff
Sweden132 Posts
He had hoped in time Madeleine would be less disgusted by his appearance but alas that was not to be. It mattered little, though, she hid her feelings like a true noblewoman. The court and the surrounding peasants all seemed pleased with her rule, something Kanut gathered from the few times hearings were held late enough for him to attend. He also gathered that Madeleine was filled with enough dainty morals to rival Isabel herself. This would undoubtedly lead to some problems he would have to deal with himself, when Madeleine was found too weak; yet it was preferable to constantly babysitting a harsh ruler who had to fear retaliation from the subjects. On that note, he would instruct Madeleine to choose a lover from the court. She needed to mother children to continue this position of figurehead. He would let her choose freely, better to keep the relationship secret that way. Still, he would also ask Arisztid to dominate the fellow she chooses: all the easier to dispose of him later, should the lineage of the children ever come into question. Meanwhile Kanut would continue to search the castle for more secret rooms and passageways. He'd found a few, and had decided to dig a few of his own, but he was certain there were more to be found. He'd heard Rupert had an effective labour force working on his basement, one he intended to give to Arisztid to set free. Ridiculous notion, really. Kanut decided on asking Arisztid if he could borrow the work force himself for some castle improvements when they left Ruperts hands. | ||
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Sugarfluff
Sweden132 Posts
On June 23 2015 07:35 Xoronius wrote: And yes, I am aware, that in their search to cleanse the world from all evil, a few of them might run into Kanut and not make it out. Haha, that would no doubt be a lot of fun to roleplay. But I was actually wondering if I'd be allowed to change my nature away from monster, not to something completely different, but to something a little more calm and collected. If allowed, I would like the 40 years of semi-ruling a... countdome? county? of being a count, to have changed Kanut in some significant ways. That being less of a loner, more patient, more inclined to understand the beliefs of others even if he believes otherwise, and most importantly, more ambitious. Even with these changes I guess a man devoted to Christianity would still find Kanut one hell of a heathen, just one not quite so obvious. | ||
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Simberto
Germany11249 Posts
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
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Sugarfluff
Sweden132 Posts
An opportunity presented itself, however, for outside the castle the squabbles of peasants continued unimpeded, and one of their late night dinners was interrupted by folks demanding immediate justice towards a young woman who apparently had found her way out of a betrothal to a man three times her age‒‒by clubbing him over the head at the engagement party. The trial would have been very straight forward, and the people wanted her hung immediately, but Kanut instructed Madeleine to wait until tomorrow with the sentencing. He saw a will to this girl that reminded him of the few other cainites of his clan he had met. So after the sheep had been herded back to their homes and the girl imprisoned, Kanut made a point to visit her. She wasn't crying, like he had seen others do when they awaited death, undoubtedly she had known what bashing her future husbands head in would lead to and come to terms with it then and there. He gave her a choice, something he himself wasn't sure he would have done in the old days, and she was eager to accept. It wasn't until after turning her Kanut asked her name. She told him it was Elle, something he doubted but let her have a new name for new times. Plans were made quickly: the hanging changed to a burning, from a distance, another girl snatched from one of the villages, her mind addled and prepared to replace Elle. Madeleine wasn't pleased with the notion of burning someone else, but she didn't argue. Ever since her children she has backed down from any confrontation. At first Kanut didn't realise why, until he made time to see her with her children. She obviously cared more for their safety than she ever did for her own. The burning took place at first light, and Kanut made a point to stay awake and watch from the shadows of a balcony to see that there were no complications. Elle had wanted to watch but succumbed to sleep immediately, perhaps for the best. The next night he took her for her first hunt. While he had ghouls and other servants it would not do to coddle his new apprentice. She would need to be strong, and strength began with self sufficiency. If she were to ever run this castle in his absence she would need the strength to stand up to his other less trusted servants. He soon learned he would not have to worry, she was quite the natural predator, luring a beast of a man into the shadows and having him fooled right up to the bite. The next few weeks were incredibly rewarding for Kanut. He had not imagined he would enjoy the company of another like-minded cainite this much. He imagined this must be to some degree what Madeleine felt, raising her own children. Though he never mistrusted Elle, Kanut decided to blood-oath her anyway. She was after all his answer to perceived disloyalty, it would be foolish to make dissension possible, no matter how unlikely. He was actually unsure if it had taken effect at first. Elle's behaviour towards him didn't change much, but he supposed there are only so many levels of worship one being can emanate. | ||
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Murgel
Sweden175 Posts
I can feel the nights pass. How many now? A hundred? I can’t move! Darkness. Was she scared? She could have fled! She could have told me to go to a priest, she could have gone to a priest herself, found a cure, anything. She could have done anything but she chose to kill me. She tried to KILL me. I CAN’T MOVE! LET ME OUT OF HERE! SOMEONE HELP ME! MOTHER! ARABELLA! FREE ME! GOD! FORGIVE ME! I want blood! I’m so hungry. WHY IS NO ONE COMING FOR ME! KYROS I’M SORRY! RUPERT! KANUT! BOLDISZAR! ARISZTID! FLORENTINE! No. He died in the flames. Dead like me. They could all be dead. I. CAN’T. MOVE. I can’t take this any longer. Why? The darkness. The stake. Cold. Hard. Unyielding. I can feel it. A sound. What’s that sound? Is someone walking on my cursed grave? I can’t scream! I’m always screaming. What are they doing? Is someone coming for me? Please free me! No, please. NO. NOOOO. DON’T WALK AWAY. COME BACK. CURSE YOU! I WANT TO BE FREE I CAN’T MOVE! IT’S SO DARK. PLEASE SOMEONE! How many years now? I don’t care. She put me here. Why didn’t she kill me? WHY AM I STILL ALIVE. She. I want to die. I hate her. WHY DID YOU KILL ME? I SAVE YOU AND YOUR DAMNED FAMILY AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME? Ha. I am the one who is damned. Something fell on my face. I think the coffin is starting to yield, slowly. The stake... is it yielding? It’s rotting. My god, IT IS ROTTING. Praise... NO. Like the body of a mortal it rots. But I don’t. Ha. Because I’m damned. Damned to eternal darkness. Curse you God, for what you’ve done to me. Curse you Joanna, Daniel, all of you. I’m still here, waiting in my prison. Always waiting, never moving, always in the dark. But the time will come. She did this. Oh but the time will come. It’s rotting. THE TIME WILL COME DEAR SISTER. I HAVE A SONG FOR YOU! I will make you sing it! No, I will make you scream. I will flay you, I will rip your heart from your chest, put a rotting stake through it and then shove that through your eye socket. I will drain you. I’m so hungry. It’s been so long. But it’s rotting. I’m covered in dirt and soil. The lid gave way. Sometimes I can feel an earth worm slithering across my skin. Slither, slither little worm. Your caress is cold. I will name you Joanna. Ha. Like I named the last one. Slither to the stake, Joanna. You did this, so now get it out, YOU BITCH. It’s pulp. It’s rotting. It’s rotting so SLOWLY I’M GOING TO GO INSANE. GET IT OUT JOANNA! It’s night. It’s THE night. It has come and I can move. A little bit. The earth is heavy, but the stake is gone. That cursed stake IS GONE. Slither. Fingers can move. Bit by bit. Slither like Joanna the worm. I WILL GET OUT. It’s night. Dig. Harder! I WILL GET OUT! Need blood. So hungry. Her blood. Her screams. So yes, I think I will switch to road of the beast. Kind of a hard choice because I do like Isabel the way she was, trying to justify every decision morally, not being perfect but trying pretty damn hard, and that's despite being frustrated with it at times too. Maybe she'll find her way back to the road of humanity in the future, but as she emerges from the grave she will not think very highly of others. She was betrayed by her own sister, and no one else came for her either. | ||
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Sugarfluff
Sweden132 Posts
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
Unless you have a dagger, you can't punch the same guy twice. page 194 if you use daggers you can use dex+1 max for each attack when doublestriking. Dicepool splitting is also supposed to work like shitty celerity, but I think we decided that this'd be horrible because it'd make combat order even more convoluted. Parry is stupid Also we should run around seperated fewer times. | ||
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Simberto
Germany11249 Posts
What i earlier believed, that i want silliness to be just in the out of character talk, does not actually appear to be the case. Since i did in retrospect notice that i do put in quite a few silly characters, like the donkey man. I think if i were to narrow it down, i somehow designate scenes as more or less serious, and that might be related (partially, but not exclusively) to the stakes of that scene. If a scene does not have any particularly high stakes at work, some sillyness might be able to keep it interesting. And i don't like it if someone takes a serious scene and makes it silly. An example of a serious scene out of the last session would be Isabel emerging from the grave and going on her crusade to murder her family. Inserting random sillyness in there would have taken a lot out of it and made it a lot less fun. I think another thing i don't like is when a character takes action not for any in-character reason, but just because the player thinks it is funny, AND makes that action the focus of the whole scene that also involves other players. An example of this would be the various misschievous plans that try to produce chaos for no reason at all. I think a main point of critique players had was friendly fire. Friendly fire can be fine in moderation. If sometimes a house accidentally gets set on fire and chaos ensues, that is totally fine and enriches the game in my opinion. If it happens every time, it gets old very quickly. One thing i did forget in my rambling yesterday is some stuff i really liked. I really liked it when i get stuff that i can play off of. Like the fact that Boldiszar now has a bunch of childer in India. They will probably not be relevant in this time period, but i will definitively be able to use that at some later point. Or Elle. I generally like it if you give me things that you want to have in the game, and i'd like to have an atmosphere where there is a lot more creative freedom on the players, but that requires everyone to be on board with the general idea of how the game should feel like. As baby steps, those are things like me asking "So how did this go wrong for you?", to which i hope for an answer that is interesting and complicates the situation. It is very easy to answer such a question in a way that basically removes the problem, but it is a lot more fun in my opinion willingly accept trouble and see what happens. This does require a bit of distance between player and character, the player needs to realize that his goals are not necessarily his characters goals, but to have an interesting story. It also requires a lot of trust that you won't get screwed over if you don't choose the answer that is best for your character. This trust is hard to build up and runs contrary to the natural competitive mindset that people tend to have in games. Basically, i don't want a "GM vs players" game, i want a "GM & players tell a story" game. (We should definitively try a game of Fiasco at some point, that pretty much works only based on that principle) And now for a completely different question, which time periods do interest you guys the most in between 1241 and now? | ||
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Sugarfluff
Sweden132 Posts
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
This seems kind of a cool time to do stuff in, maybe you could spin it more as a revolt against the last vampire overlords or something. or the hussite rebellion in the early 15th century. | ||
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Murgel
Sweden175 Posts
Also we should run around seperated fewer times. But why? That just ends up either following one narrative or having to compete heavily for the spotlight to even participate. And then we half in character half out of character argue over what we’ll do, the next statement more ridiculous than the last. I’m also fine with any rules. That’s not what my problem is at all. If swordplay is nerfed I’ll go aww and then play with whatever new rules we need. Maybe I’ll be salty about it for a session, and then I’ll probably try to be strong in combat in other ways. But here’s my thing. Role playing games can be played in different ways, and I think Lucas and I do not agree which way we should play ours. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way objectively either. I think there can be experiences within role playing games that aren’t based around humour or rules. One of the most enjoyable moments I’ve had with this group was before our two newest members joined, when, in the Cthulu campaign, we knowingly sacrificed my character to, shotguns blazing, take out an innocent medium who was used by cult leaders trying to resurrect an ancient evil. We had a scene before where we said our good byes, hugged and shook hands and it was serious and fucking awesome. Why Bartholomew offered himself up was because he had argued not to trust this medium with the truth, and he felt guilty about not having done beforehand something that could have prevented this ritual. He was also an old fart while the rest of the party was relatively young. I don’t know if Lucas was there for that session, but I don’t think so? It might not be high drama, but I enjoy trying to create those epic moments of emotion and story where you are invested in your character and you get something back from that investment. That’s not really possible when on the other hand someone wants to create a human bomb out of a girl you’re trying to protect. Funny? Sure, but that’s not all I want out of roleplaying. I know some of you watch JP’s shows, or did at some point, since this group originally spawned out of a thread dedicated to those. If you want to see what I’m talking about watch week 24 of Swansong, which is a good example of the tension and yes, drama, that can happen if everyone is on board for the ride. This example has a lot to do with in-party conflict, which is super tricky, and NOT what I’m after at all. That can get ugly, and might be best avoided all together, but the tension they created is so cool. So yes, going too serious is not something I want either, out of character jokes and in character banter is fun and can go in any campaign, to an extent. I participate in that, to an extent. I don’t know why I’m saying this since we’ve all played and know very well how each of us plays. I highlight some of the silly things in the recaps because it’s funny as hell and fits well there I think? Sven hit it on the head when he said it’s suitable in some scenes but not in others. Like, making fun of each other when we’re smelly or dirty is fine. Basically I agree with everything Sven said. It’s entirely possible, and something I do want as well, this “having fun” in a serious campaign. But it’s so easy to throw off all the potential for meaningful story or character development. TLDR: Muh immersion. D: I don’t really enjoy arguing either. I’m more likely to just throw my hands up in the air and go do something else, which is why this is even harder. Bleh. As for time periods, I agree that a plague ridden, dark and really war torn time would be fun to try. Maybe that's what we'll be in shortly though. And the silly wigs, duels and perfumed hankerchiefs of the 18th century would be pretty cool too. There are almost always scenes of that in vampire stories. Or maybe I'm thinking of highlander. | ||
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
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Simberto
Germany11249 Posts
Note that serious doesn't mean "grimdark emo" or "Boring nothing happens just talking" Just investment in the characters and immersion, and meaningful choices about which you really care, as opposed to just goofing about with such a distance from the game that it becomes less the adventures of other interesting people, and instead just "a trickster version of me running around without a lot of powers and without any fear of consequences" Characters as characters instead of extended player arms. | ||
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
I don't see how trying to turn someone into a bomb is necessarily ruining things. Trying to use your "resources" in different ways might lead to an interesting discussion. I'd certainly rather do that than sit through a shitty version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. | ||
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Simberto
Germany11249 Posts
You used Shakespeare as an example. Lots of stuff happens in Shakespeare (I have to admit i kinda actually haven't exactly seen or read the originals ever, but i have a rough idea of their plots). Yet it would still very much qualify as "serious" in my book. Because there is investment in characters. Now imagine if during a climatic scene Macduff suddenly stops giving a fuck about anything, randomly throws banana peels at people walking by and blames this on the ghost of his dead son haunting them because they are evil, then starts coming up with a harebrained plan to use a tesla coil made from whale bone to destroy his uncle. That is no longer serious. And makes the story less good in my opinion. | ||
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United Kingdom3341 Posts
 Also, that sounds hilariously awesome, I'd watch that in a heartbeat. I'd just have a hard time being invested in someone likes Isabel's sister, who lets be honest, wasn't a particularly deep character, she basically only hated vampires more than she loved her sister or Madelein, who had no attributes but being a damsel in distress being kidnapped. It takes a lot of time to create characters who are interesting and moving, in my opinion it's not the place for that in pnp games because then you're taking away from the players play time | ||
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