notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
I really dislike what 2e did to the Ordo Dracul.
White Wolf's World of Darkness
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I love the Second Edition in general, though there are aspects of the First Edition that I miss. I think Conditions are a cancerous overgrowth on the system that threatens to overgrow and consume the goddamn books. But otherwise I love the system and everything it stands for.
God-Machine Chronicle: Yo dawg, herd yo liek Gawd-Masheen, so wi put Gawd-Masheen in yo Gawd-Mascheen so yo cna Gawd-Masheen while yo Gawd-Masheen. Why is the God-Machine mentioned so much? What is it doing in the Virtues and Vices section? What is it doing in the Integrity section? What am I reading?
Demon: The Descent: Great game, great ideas, some flawed execution, some horrible mechanics but I like it.
Vampire 2e: Great, wonderful. Too many Strix, too many Conditions, otherwise good.
Werewolf 2e: Wonderful, the Idigam are big antagonists but don't overshadow the rest, the Pure and the Hosts are mentioned frequently, the Gifts are cool. Overall a good book.
Beast: Burn.
God-Machine Chronicle: Yo dawg, herd yo liek Gawd-Masheen, so wi put Gawd-Masheen in yo Gawd-Mascheen so yo cna Gawd-Masheen while yo Gawd-Masheen. Why is the God-Machine mentioned so much? What is it doing in the Virtues and Vices section? What is it doing in the Integrity section? What am I reading?
Demon: The Descent: Great game, great ideas, some flawed execution, some horrible mechanics but I like it.
Vampire 2e: Great, wonderful. Too many Strix, too many Conditions, otherwise good.
Werewolf 2e: Wonderful, the Idigam are big antagonists but don't overshadow the rest, the Pure and the Hosts are mentioned frequently, the Gifts are cool. Overall a good book.
Beast: Burn.
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
I still need to finish the Kickstarter prewiev, and see if what i believe will be the official rewrite is any good, but Beast could be wonderful with two simple(?) changes: make the heroes playable too(With similiar but slightly different mechanics. Maybe make beasts and heroes propagate each others?), and transform it about a game in which you should decide if you should escape your role or embrace it.
Really, you are a pawn of ancient forces who are fighting from the dawn of humanity: are you going to use the same heavy handed method they are using for an eternity, are you going to be more subtle but still fight the fight, or are you going to simply say "Fuck it, i am out" and do your own thing?
I am barely a RPG player, no GM, and know barely anything from the WoD, but i would be very interested in such a game. Is the idea any good, or it doesn't fit the WoD/i am misinterpretating the themes of the WoD?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Eh, I kinda liked it. I actually can sorta respect that opinion though, because I did think 1e Ordo was pretty cool, but I did find the pivot from 'overcome the curse' to 'become a Super Vampire' to be pretty nifty. And I thought their special abilities seemed pretty neat, too.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Whether Beast fits the World of Darkness is a good question, personally I would rather have that they focus on old gamelines (And Deviant, I am cautiously hyped) rather than making new gamelines all the time, I mean where is my Mummy 2e?[1]
In my opinion, Beast, a game about playing a monster, does not fit in a setting where nearly EVERY. OTHER. GAMELINE that exists is about playing a monster.
[1]I am indeed one of the four people alive that likes Mummy.
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- Location
- Canada
I haven't actually looked at Beast but the other gamelines aren't just about playing a monster. Yes, you play a werewolf/vampire/Frankenstein monster/faery/whatever but your not defined by being a monster. your defined by how you react to being a monster and what you do with it. I'm guessing by what has been said about Beast that its a game where you play a monster and that's all you really are?
Vindictus
XENO
- Location
- Texas
I think the basic idea behind playing 'Beast' is that you're supposed to be born... different.
You're the one who never fit in when you were a child, the one that sat on the outside of the group looking in.
There's some potential, I think, in that basic idea. You could make a very compelling narrative about a monster's struggle to be human. The problem, really, is that that's the basic plot of most WoD games; It's not something special and unique to Beast, it's one of the basic premises of Vampire, Werewolf, etc. Everyone is struggling to remain human, to some degree or other- Beast isn't unique or special in that arena at all.
You're the one who never fit in when you were a child, the one that sat on the outside of the group looking in.
There's some potential, I think, in that basic idea. You could make a very compelling narrative about a monster's struggle to be human. The problem, really, is that that's the basic plot of most WoD games; It's not something special and unique to Beast, it's one of the basic premises of Vampire, Werewolf, etc. Everyone is struggling to remain human, to some degree or other- Beast isn't unique or special in that arena at all.
- Location
- Canada
So, they took the subplot of almost every WoD game ever, stripped out everything else that could be intresting, and then made it into its own game?
Right, I shall now begin to avoid this like the plague.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I think the point is that you weren't? Like, it was a game for the person who always chose Circle of the Crone.
The whole idea of beast seems to being born a monster, spending your whole life wondering just what is that makes you different from others, finding out about yourself, and choosing weather to revel in it or try to do the least harm while teaching humanity to fear the darkness. I like it to be honest.
- Location
- Over the hill and far away
So.... with Beast, what sort of critter are you? Because if you're bogstandardhuman.... then what's the point?
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
i heard rumors you could be a dragon?
Vindictus
XENO
- Location
- Texas
Only in your dreams, though.
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
I already do that.
Legend of Ruina
Growing eyes on the inside
You're a creepy sociopathic human, who gains power by being a creepy sociopathic human. On a physical level that's all you'll ever be barring the poorly thought out excuse for a Z splat that's basically a few ways to commit suicide and one poorly defined set of options for if you hit power stat 7 and really fuck up a Hero (but don't worry by that point Heroes are utter jokes anyway).
On a metaphysical level you're some random monster. This lets you look at people scarily and do a few tricks with imposing the attributes of the monster in place of your own. When you're in the Astral Realm you actually look like the monster and don't have to expend resources to overcharge your abilities.
Actually thinking on it some there was a better version of Beasts already in first edition: they're called Slashers.
You're a living nightmare wrapped in human flesh. You can chanel aspects of your nightmare self into the physical world to fuck things up or screw with people's heads. You have a lair in the astral which you can superimpose on reality when in places that are similar to it which imposes environmental conditions on the area which don't effect you. Think fire, darkness, your typical nightmare scenarios.
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
Can you be a bit less vague?
What differences are there between a beast and a human are they stronger faster smarter? are there any limitations?
i am leery of any description that seems like it goes out of it's way to make something sound cools without mentioning any downsides or limits.
Legend of Ruina
Growing eyes on the inside
That's partially because Beasts have few downsides. You have to be an asshole regularly and occasionally accidentally turn people into sociopaths with a couple neat tricks geared towards killing you. Also Beasts have performance issues long term because they're stuck with 9 resource points maximum, although they can spam the basic forms of their powers for free.
The fear stuff is effectively various save or suck effects (only one on a victim at a time), while the channeling bits of the monster is supernatural physical attributes mostly, passive and fairly useful. Both can be overcharged for one resource point with varying (usually ridiculously potent) effects. And then there's the Lair which is a headache to explain succinctly, basically you can evoke your lair in the Astral realm onto areas vaguely similar to it.
Technically the sociopaths can also instill an additional weakness onto a Beast but that requires them to hit the Beast while they're at a certain resource level. Please note Beasts have no per turn spending limit and quite a few powers they can dump an arbitrary amount of resources into, meaning it takes the Beast being an utter moron for it to connect.
The major issue with Beast is they get a lot of cool powers but very little to actually do with them. The general splat goals are to survive and kill the Heroes (the aforementioned sociopaths), with a side note of "teach lessons through fear" (slapped in by the rewrite), and "Crossover because we can't be bothered to make original story hooks". Beast notably also lacks a social splat (instead having general monster type and what brand of asshole you are) or a long term goal splat (bloodlines, legacies or so on).
Fair enough, you can peruse the mostly finished text released as part of the kickstarter here.
Now, for a proper summary:
Beasts are people who have living nightmares instead of souls. The nightmares are called Horrors and are natives of the Primordial Dream, a region of the astral that contains all of humanity's most primal fears. Beasts are born human and for much of their lives believe themselves to be such. Eventually the proto beast gets it vestigial soul ripped out allowing the horror to take its rightful place and the beast comes into his/her own in a process known as the Devouring, when another beast does the ripping for them, or the Homecoming, when the horror gets tired of waiting and does it itself.
Beast are broken up into five families:
- Anakim, the Giants. - These beasts specialize in being overpowering physically, mentally, or socially. They have an affinity for powers that make them better at being strong and intimidating others. Their family ability lets them destroy any physical barrier once per scene.
- Eshmaki, the Lurkers. - These beasts specialize in stealth and brutality. If you've seen them it's probably too late. They have affinity for powers that make them better at being sneaky, tough, brutal. Like one of the powers they they have affinity for is called "Limb from Limb". Their family ability lets them inflict tilts like "leg wrack" or "arm wrack" on a successful hit or go straight from the hit into a grapple.
- Makara, the Leviathans. - These beasts are basically Cthulhu knock offs. They have affinity for powers that play up their association with water; being a siren, beating the shit out of people like an angry octopus, etc. Their family ability lets them make everyone around them feel like they're drowning giving them a penalty on all physical actions, even works on people who don't need to breath.
- Namtaru, the Gorgons. - These beasts are all about grossing the shit out of you. They're not just fugly, they're supernaturally fugly. When they want to be at least. They have affinity for powers that poison you or turn them into hordes of insects, etc. Their family ability lets them lower the composure of anyone they interact with by one for a scene.
- Ugallu, the Raptors. - These beasts are all about knowing shit and being the terror of the skies. They have affinity for powers that learn secrets, summons storms, and fly(sort of). Their family ability lets them notice things that are hidden from them, assassins, loot, etc.
Beasts have lairs in the primordial dream. These lairs are really nasty places full of environmental conditions like fire, darkness, flooded, etc. If one or more of your lair conditions are present in a scene you can manifest one or more of your other conditions up to a limit imposed by your Lair rating.(your powerstat) These lairs have chambers based on places in the real world, or one of the various realms. These chambers are created by a mortal suffering a breaking point and you spending a dot of your Satiety (morality/fuel stat) to add that scene to your lair. If the area is similar to one of your chambers you can superimpose that whole chamber on the area which brings in all of your lair conditions and turns you physically into your horror which is sort of like warform in werewolf without the insane regen.
Beasts morality stat is also their fuel stat. It's called Satiety and is a measure of how full their horror is. See the horror needs a steady diet of the terror of mortals. Beasts can spend dots of satiety to enhance their powers or for things related to their lair. Each beast has one of five hungers:
- Power - These beasts need to dominate. They feed by putting others in their place. They're that asshole boss that everyone hates/fears.
- Hoard - These beasts need to take. They feed by taking things that are precious to others. They're like dragons nesting on piles of gold.
- Prey - These beats need to hunt. They feed by stalking, chasing, luring. The life of the prey must be in their hands.
- Punishment - These beasts need to punish. They feed by punishing those that break the rules and making sure they know why.
- Ruin - These beasts need to destroy. They feed by making it clear that people aren't nearly as safe as they'd like to think.
They also have a bunch of powers that make it easier to get along with other supes. They can super charge the powers of other supes, blend in with them, and open up doors to the others realms so they don't get left behind.
There's more but I'm tired and this took way too long.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Okay, that's weird. If anything I think it'd be better if Heroes were able to fuck you up the higher the Satiety you had. So that going 10 Satiety was just asking for a Hero to pull off ridiculous bullshit and kill you. Basically, once you become nothing more than the monster Heroes call you, they become nothing more than a Hero destined to kill you, with every advantage on their side, capable of going toe to toe with you and winning, 9 times out of ten.
That'd force the Beasts to actually be careful, and it wouldn't be that unusual for a splat to have a 'and then you're fucked' point. The True Fae, the Strix, the way there's always a bigger fish in Mage if you step too far out of line...
That'd force the Beasts to actually be careful, and it wouldn't be that unusual for a splat to have a 'and then you're fucked' point. The True Fae, the Strix, the way there's always a bigger fish in Mage if you step too far out of line...
Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
Satiety isn't the "How much you are a beast" stat: it is the "How much your inner beast is sated" stat.
If it is high, your power over nightmares increases, if its low your physical beastly powers increases. If too high your beast fall asleep, and you have nearly no powers and need to find a way to make it wake up. If too low you beast is ravenous: you lose access to your nightmares, you get incurably damaged every day you don't get out from the ravenous condition(After being out from the condition you can regenerate your healt normally) and your beast will rampage in the dreams of the peoples, risking the creation of a lot of Heroes.
Yes, in a non crossover the only thing that can threaten Beasts are basically other beasts, given the Heroes only gain powers if they slay beasts, and thus newby heroes are kinda useless.
What is interesting, is that in the Kickstarter prewiev the only thing that can create heroes are Beasts that are not sated, and thus beast who either cannot find anything to sate themselves, or Beast who are trying extra hard to not hurt nobody with their presence. Unfortunately the book then completel ignores this fact, villifying heroes and treating beasts as the best thing ever.
Read the revised text. Heroes got rewritten to make this not quite so horrendous. Heroes are born, not made. Now certain actions performed by the beast attract heroes.
Beast the Primordial Chapter Five said:
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
I think I have a post somewhere on my thoughts on Mummy, but they basically break down to "You have too many characters ignore the basic setup because the basic set up is so limiting that you don't get a game. Theme is great at places, but lots of those places also don't make for a good game. Oh, and your mechanics are just broken and don't do what you think they do."