Geist: The Sin Eaters Preview

Geist: the Sin-Eaters is the reimagining of the original World of Darkness game-setting called Wraith: the Oblivion. While the general concept of playing an entity that can operate in both the realm of the dead and the lands of the living are still present along with a smattering of terminology (like caul and [ecto]plasm), that is where the similarity ends. Notice how Geist’s cover has keys, but the old Wraith book had chains and a lock? That is very indicative of the difference between the old and the new.

This is a good thing, because the new setting is pretty damn good in its own right.  The Atomic Array was kind enough to give me a pre-release PDF copy of the Geist core book that will hit the shelves during GenCon. I’ve spent about a week reading and skimming the pages, mostly reading the always excellent short fiction pieces that bookend each chapter.

Premise

In Geist, players take on the role of someone who has died, but came back to life. However, it wasn’t without a price. When the character died a Geist, a spirit of the dead, offered a deal to be returned to life if the person also allowed the Geist within them. This gives the character extraordinary powers, but also causes them to truly become someone other than they were as the process merges the two entities.

Every Geist was sensitive to the supernatural before their death, so they are not wholly unprepared. But now they have been given a new lease on life, strange powers, new motivations, the ability to walk in both worlds, and presented with new challenges. How these characters meet these new challenges with the knowledge of death is what a Geist chronicle is all about.

Sin-Eater Template

Just as with the other settings in the World of Darkness, Geist offers a new template to add to the basic World of Darkness character that provides some unique new traits. You begin by making creating a basic character per the World of Darkness core book, and then apply the template.

Archetype

An Archetype is a more advanced Virtue/Vice mechanic in that if the character would regain Willpower from actions that are in line with those elements, the character would also regain Plasm (the Geist energy trait) in the same fashion.

Additionally, if the character activates a Manifestation (the Geist supernatural powers, similar to Disciplines or Gifts) in a manner that reflects her archetype, then the cost in Plasm to activate the Manifestation is ignored; of course what is in line with a Geist’s Archetype is up to the Storyteller to determine.

New Advantage: Psyche

Psyche is a measure of the strength of the bond between the Bound (the living person) and the Geist. Mechanically it limits the amount of Plasm a character can have and spend and maximum attribute and advantage scores (much like a Vampire’s Blood Potency trait).

Anchors

Geists with powerful Psyches require Anchors to connect them to lands of the living.  Destroying anchors can have profound effects on Geists as they lose their connections to living world.  It is very much akin to the Fetters of ghosts.

Plasm

Plasm is the fuel that empowers a Sin-eater’s Manifestations and other supernatural abilities (mechanically similar to Blood for a Vampire). Other supernatural abilities include healing and opening Avernian Gates to the underworld.

Synergy

Synergy replaces the standard World of Darkness Morality trait and represents how in tune a Bound is with their Geist. There are of course a new set of “laws” that govern what a “sin” is for Synergy. Example sins include killing other Geists, destroying anchors, and murder.

Merits

Several new Merits make their way into the World of Darkness. The first is Ceremonies, which are just rituals that can be performed to aid a character on his mission.  The next Merit is Haunt, which is a refuge for a Geist to restore Plasm or make it easier to cross over into or out of the underworld. The final Merit is Momento, which are powerful relics that serve as foci for supernatural power.

I hope you enjoyed the small preview, check out the book when it hits the shelves this August.

Want to learn more about Geist: The Sin-Eaters? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Geist: The Sin-Eaters (Atomic Array 027)
• Game Cryer: Review by Chris Perrin
• Flames Rising: Deal with the Dead
• Gnome Stew: Running Geist
• RPG Aggression: Rudis Review
• Atomic Array: Free Demo Quickstart

Drop by White Wolf Publishing today!

Listening to: Skinny Puppy - Rabies – Worlock

Poke Mind’s Eye in the Brown Eye

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article are solely of Mad Brew and are not necessarily the views of Mad Brew Labs, its parent, affiliate, or subsidiary blahs.  The opinions may not even really belong to Mad Brew, but this a rant and he is going to say things that will piss people off and he may or may not (most likely not) regret later.

LARP: Live Action Role Playing.  What a cool concept.  I mean what could be more fun than dressing up as your character and performing your actions as you interact with other players and the environment?  Probably nothing if you have the right people, the right rules, authentic costumes, and a controlled environment with authentic props.

My Experience

One hundred percent (100%) of all the LARPs I have participated in have disintegrated into vulgar races for power with in character and out of character squabbles bleeding over the edges into each other.  Add cheating, favoritism, hideous costuming, poor acting (roleplaying?), and the odious smell of unwashed bodies then you have a recipe for SUCK.

Do you realize people PAY for this?  I’m not just talking about the typical buy-in a player must ante in to obtain the rule books and other necessary tools for gaming.  I am talking about a cover charge to play per session.  About three-quarters of the LARPs I played in charged money to play (ranging anywhere from 3 to 10 USD).

At this point I should probably make an important distinction.  The only LARPs I have participated in are of the World of Darkness variety, and predominantly Vampire LARPS.  I have had a long love affair with the World of Darkness, and our steamy escapades stretch back to the early 90s.  I still carry a flame for the Storytelling(er) System.  Now enter the Storytelling System’s red-headed stepchild, Mind’s Eye Theatre (MET).  The title of this article should sum up my feelings for MET.

The Problems with MET

I’ve played official Camarilla games, One World by Night (OWBN), and unaffiliated games under both oWoD and nWoD rules.  The issues are always the same and I think the root of all MET’s problems can be boiled down to these three things:

1. The Premise
2. Character Advancement
3. The Player Base

In the beginning, problem 3 (the player base), was only a symptom of problem 2 (character advancement) and the genre of the World of Darkness.  Since then, the player base has grown to become a problem in its own right.  Now I will explain my theory.

The Premise

There is a lot less cooperation and a lot more struggle between player characters in MET, especially Vampire, than other role-playing games.  The premise is not everyone being united against a common threat.  It is a game of social dominance over your fellow players.

Mostly, players will gravitate towards their out of character friends and plot against the other players.  So if you game alone at a MET LARP, and do not find a group to ally with, you tend to fall prey to the cliques fairly quickly.  This of course feed directly into the next problem of character advancement and power gaming.

Character Advancement

Mind’s Eye Theatre becomes a haven for the power gamer, and I am not talking about min/maxers who can still role-play either.  I am talking about the players who really only lust to have the most powerful character in the game.  They seek to be omnipotent so they can impose their will upon other players, often because of out of character (OOC) prejudices.

But how does MET’s character advancement lead to this kind of gaming you ask?  MET allows a wide variance of power levels between characters, and those characters who have been around the longest have accumulated more experience than the character of a new player.  This rewards players who keep their characters quiet and in the background until such a time arises that they have survived the conflicts of their peers and now stand alone at the highest tier of power.

Not to mention that many venues require you to pay to play.  This can lead to Storyteller’s Greed, a syndrome where the presiding ST realizes that he or she can pry extra money from their players.  So now you can pay for a missed game and recieve its experience, or worse yet, just pay for experience.  So now you have players who only show up once in a blue moon all of a sudden becoming a monumental force to reckon with.  And now they finally come out of the shadows to prey upon the weaker characters.

I find the great chasm of experience that separates the old and powerful from the new and weak to be a great buzz killer.  Especially when you attempt to become part of the story and you have the power gamer bullying your character around. And there is nothing you can do about it.  And so the cycle begins anew.

The player sees he must attain more experience to become effective in play, so he waits in the shadows, biding his time until chance finally removes those above him in the pecking order, allowing him to stand in the lime-light.  This kills any fun a casual gamer can have as well, because if you don’t have the free time (or money) to show up and receive your XP, it could take years before you can be able to exert influence in a game.

The Player Base

To begin with, the World of Darkness is a gothic-horror setting.  So of course, “goths” are going to represent, if not dominate, the make up of the player base, especially in the Vampire games.  Then of course, we have the power gamers discussed in the previous section.

I find that many of these players have little to no imagination, and acting tends to be too dramatic or limited to the sum of their attributes and the value of the card they just pulls (or the outcome of Paper-Rock-Scissors-Bomb depending on the edition).

Now I could argue that your average Lick probably would not be into the “goth” scene, and would avoid it like a burning stake, but whatever dude, if you want your character to wear more mascara than Madonna and fishnets on his arms, it is all you.  But seriously, if I trip over those goddamn straps on your oversized, canon-legged pants again, I’m going to…

Moving on to the ladies.  Listen up gals, I know we are all pretending and acting, but I don’t have enough imagination to hide those muffin tops (but at this stage it is more like mountain tops now isn’t it) showing between the three sizes too small bustier and whatever is showing behind that slit in your PVC mini-skirt, and where did those thigh-highs end?  OH GOD, your thighs are sucking them into Oblivion!

I mean come on, I know we all want to play out our fantasies, but please use common sense when dressing yourself for LARP.  I know no one wants to see me in mascara and thigh highs!  The people that are attracted to these games have fueled many a nightmare.  And please, for the love of Caine, THINK about creating an original character!  We all cannot be Brad Pitt or Kate Beckinsale, or their vampiric characters.

The Solution for MET

I wouldn’t bitch so much about Mind’s Eye Theatre if I didn’t want it to work.  I love the concept.  And I don’t like complaining without presenting a solution to my gripe, so this is how I would run an MET LARP (Camarilla, take notes).

Change the Premise

This is probably the most difficult solution to implement.  The Storyteller needs to craft exterior forces to cause cooperation among the player characters.  These forces will tend to be NPCs.  Since it is Live Action, you need actual bodies to play the roles of adversaries, which means a Storyteller will have to pull players to fill the roles of NPCs.  This can work if you have willing players who are not in the current scene.

How a Storyteller overcomes this obstacle depends on his resources.  Having a group of players willing to be narrators works the best.  A creative Storyteller could even use cardboard stand-ups, manicans, or perhaps just simple paper tiles that denote the presence of NPCs.  The ST can then “step into” the required position as the NPC when the need arises.  This method would work best when actions need to be resolved and not as well during “free movement.”

Mentoring

I would also assign new players to mentors, old players who are willing and able to teach the ins and outs.  The mentor would be responsible for getting the new player into role-play and stitching the character into the existing narrative.

Experience Threshold

I do not think that every player should have the same experience on their character sheet.  But I do think there should only be a 10-25% margin between the highest amount of experience on a character and new characters.  This still rewards people that show up every week without fail with a slight edge but doesn’t leave new players in the dust.

Dress Code

Probably the next most difficult solution to enforce, especially if a Storyteller doesn’t like to hurt people’s feelings.  I would just state that all clothing should be appropriate, tasteful, and the Storyteller has final say on what isn’t.  Then if you see someone not wearing something up to par, pull them to the side and let them know.  If it happens again, send them home.  A third time and they are no longer welcome.  And make sure this rule is posted and visible.

Money

This rule is simple.  Don’t accept money for play.  However, I understand that sometimes venues need to be rented, so it should be pretty transparent.  Your players should know the cost, how much is collected, and where any extra money goes.  And STs sure as hell should not sell experience for money or gifts.

Listening to: Fear Factory - Obsolete – Smasher/Devourer

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The World of Darkness Online

Expect to see WoDO, or The World of Darkness Online, within 3-5 years as CCP/White Wolf is currently accruing talent to begin development on the new MMORPG.  No doubt many of you are aware of the merger of the two companies that happened almost two years ago exactly.

CCP being the developer of the popular EVE Online, “a player driven science fiction MMORPG where players pilot their customizeable ships through over five thousand galaxies” (Wikipedia).  And we all know White Wolf as the publisher of the Storytelling System of books that includes Vampire: the Requiem.

There was speak of producing RPG material for EVE, but I have yet to hear of anything solid.  And the big deal was that they confirmed an MMORPG version of White Wolf’s World of Darkness.  Bringing a persistent world for players of their Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and other supernaturals.  If it is well executed, this may be the first time I try an MMO subscription, but we’ll have to see how it develops.

I know first hand they are beginning to hire, because I was contacted by a recruiter for a position with CCP/White Wolf.  I have declined to pursue the offer because 1) I am not a fan of the ridiculus work hours that you put in at a game development house and 2) I am not fond of Georgia, where the position is located.  CCP also has the jobs posted on their site if you are in the market.

Sorry for the short post, but I have been under the weather for a bit as well as working on some projects for the Labs.  Oh, time is getting close, I have a date at the Blogger’s Bloodbath.

Listening to: Anthrax – The Sound of White Noise -Black Lodge

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Beast: the Ravaging – Officium

In Beast: the Ravaging, your beast may belong to an Officium.  Officia are the guilds of battle.  Each Officium is tasked with a role that enables the warmongering hordes of the Beasts to conquer their foes in battle.  From ranged archers to frontline defenders, each Officium dedicates itself to a specific style of combat.  In every horde. each Officium is led by a Taskmaster, who directs the training and deployment of troops under his command.  The Taskmasters report to the Warlord of the horde, which is usually the biggest, meanest son of a beast around.

Membership in an Officium grants access to the specialized Aptitudes of their role in battle.  These Aptitudes allow members to execute extraordinary powers that allows the invoking Beast to ravage his enemies on the field of battle.

Artillery

The Artillery of a horde may consist of boulder throwing Giants, Javelin wielding Kobolds, crossbow wielding goblins, or mix of Beast and ranged weapon.  The role of the Artillery is to pin down enemy units and destroy their vanguard before they can reach the front lines.

Beasts of the Artillery Officium are usually deployed behind Soldiers and Brutes and shower death and destruction upon the enemy.

Brute

The largest and most power specimens of Genos usually find their way to the Brute Officium.  Brutes excel in punishing the enemy with devastating attacks.  However, Brutes are often slow and are thus easy to strike themselves.  Even so, it is a long grind to bring down the hordes’ Brutes.

Beasts of the Brute Officium are usually deployed to shield the leaders, Controllers, and Artillery of the horde.

Controller

Beasts of the Controller Officium are master manipulators of the battlefield.  The method Controllers use to exert their influence over the battlefield may include casting spells or merely employing clever tactics to turn the terrain against the enemy.

Controllers are usually deployed behind front line combatants, but should the need arise, they have no qualms against entering the fray themselves.

Lurker

Lurkers strike from the darkness and quickly withdraw, eliminating the enemy’s commanding officers, controllers, and destroying their moral.  Most Lurkers are deadly assassins that keep to the shadows, however some from this Officium merely disguise themselves as unlikely opponents.

The Lurker Officum is the wildcard for the hordes.  They are deployed anywhere on the battlefield where their services would prove most effective.  This usually means behind enemy lines.

Skirmisher

Skimishers use their speed and maneuverability to flank the enemy.  They move in and out of the melee, distracting and harry their opponents where they are vulnerable.  Mobility is the strength of this Officium.

Skirmishers are deployed on the battlefield to work in concert with Brutes and Soldiers.  They attack once the enemy is engaged with the frontlines.

Soldier

The Beasts of the Soldier Officium are the mainstay of the hordes.  Soldiers make up the bulk of the horde’s fighting force and are usually first to engage the enemy, at least after the enemy has moved through the storm of death rained in by Artillery.

Soldiers are deployed so their numbers are concentrated in the front and center the horde, though tactical minded Warlords often hold large units of Soldiers in reserve to crush their opponents when the oppportunity arises.

Aptitudes

So what cool powers do the Officia have to offer?  Can you smash your enemies with a boulder?  Or cleave them with brute strength?  Well you’ll have to wait until the next installment of Beast: the Ravaging to see.

Listening to: Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me - Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)

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Tested: World of Darkness Core Book

World of Darkness
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: White Wolf
Date: August 21, 2004
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1588464842
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.8
Weight: 2 pounds

This is obviously not a new product, as it debuted at GenCon ‘04, but it is the first book I have taken the opportunity to re-read since I have started the Labs.  After reading it completely (for the second time), I found myself motivated to write my first in-depth review.

The World of Darkness began in 1991 with the release of Vampire: the Masquerade written by Mark Rein•Heigen.  Thirteen years after its initial release, the World of Darkness (WoD) was ended with the Time of Judgment story arc.

I was at the “End of the World of Darkness” party they hosted in the Arts Garden over downtown Indianapolis after the announcement of the Time of Judgment at GenCon ‘03.  It was an open bar and we got to chill and hang out with the designers, writers, and staff of White Wolf.  Needless to say, it was awesome and I was plastered.

Then in August of 2004, White Wolf Studios released the new version of the rules, dubbed the Storytelling System with this book.  But before I delve into the miasma of how the new system is different, for better or worse, than the old system, I want to discuss the book from the perspective of someone new to the game.

The Setting

The World of Darkness is set in a dark reflection of our own world, if you saw it through the worn, pitted and scratched mirror that rests in the dusty attic of your grandmother’s house.  It is a modern day version of this world where things are just a shade bleaker and the shadows just a shade darker.  The most interesting thing is that all the imagined things we fear in those dark shadows are real in the World of Darkness.

In the World of Darkness, you play an ordinary mortal who is confronted by the entities hidden within these dark shadows.  As you seek to uncover the answers to the mysteries that you encounter, you really only uncover more questions.  You only hope that one of the answers to your questions doesn’t end your hunt for the truth prematurely.

White Wolf markets the World of Darkness as a storytelling game of gothic-horror, or gothic-punk.  Theme, mood, and plot take precedence over combat and mechanics.  The goal of the Storytelling System is to bring a troupe (as a group of WoD players are called) together and weave a dark and gritty story of supernatural horror.  A designated Storyteller, or ST, moderates the story and the rules are merely there to determine the outcome of critical actions.

Each game session has scenes which compose a chapter or act in a story, and several stories make up a chronicle.  This parallels the more familiar progression of fantasy roleplaying that is composed of encounters, adventures, and campaigns.

However, I believe you could use any [popular] set of RPG rules and use them as directed to tell an excellent story.  The success of storytelling is dependent on the moderator, or Game Master, and the players.  So the question is, what does World of Darkness bring to the table that assists the creation of supernatural thrillers?

I believe the answer to this question is setting.  You may call it what you like: flavor, fluff, flatulence, etc.  But White Wolf excels at embedding their rule books with a significant amount of intriguing short stories.  These writings were very good at capturing my imagination and lead to instant plot hooks.

The first handful of pages are short narratives that usually mimic journal entries or reports and reveal just enough information to hook you, but not enough to spoil the mystery.  Any of these stories could provide the foundation of a horrific story if not a chronicle.

The Rules

The rules of the Storytelling System are fairly streamlined, though they can become sluggish and annoying the more experienced the characters become.  The system needs only one type of die the: pentagonal trapezohedron.  Or in laymen terms, the d10.  Often the Storytelling System is referred to as the d10 System.

It is also called the Dot System, because each trait is measured in dots with values from 1 to 5.  You have several types of traits including nine Attributes, twenty-four Skills, and Merits.  You also have a variable amount of Willpower and Health (6-11) and a maximum of ten dots of Morality.  Attributes and Skills are divided into mental, physical, and social groups and then Attributes are further subdivided into Power, Finesse, and Resistance.

The Storytelling System rules are point-buy, meaning experience is rewarded at the end of each session and each trait has a cost that players spend experience (XP) to purchase.  As a character becomes more experienced, it takes more XP to purchase new traits, but you usually earn XP at the same rate.  This means character advancement slows down as the chronicle progresses.

Depending on the action the character is taking, the player rolls a number of dice equal to the sum of the values of the characters traits involved in said action.  The number of dice is called a dice pool.  For instance, if a player needed to resolve the outcome of his attempt to punch his adversary, he would roll a number of dice equal to his Strength and Brawl.  Dice pools are usually comprised of an Attribute, Skill, and a supernatural trait if he has one.

Each die that rolls a value greater than or equal to 8 is counted as a success.  Five or more success is an exceptional success and therefore gains additional benefits. If any of the dice result in 10, then the player gets to re-roll them until the result is anything other than 10, and add any successes he gets to the results.

If a character has a dice pool of zero or less for a specified action, then he gets to roll a chance die.  Chance dies only succeed on a result of 10. But if a player rolls a 1 on a chance die, then he suffers a dramatic failure, which means bad things will likely happen to him.

I also believe the rules can lend themselves to drama at the table as well.  When you only have few dice to roll and you only have a 30% chance per die to succeed, you can be a little tense.  However, the drama can quickly turn into annoyance with more experienced characters as they have larger dice pools.  It can be a pain in the arse to find fifteen d10s to roll, and having that many dice hit the table at once can break the suspension of disbelief.

And consider this, I know a player that insists on rolling each die one at a time… yeah.

The World of Darkness is also used in the creation of supernatural characters introduced in their own expansions such as Werewolf: the Forsaken, Vampire: the Requiem, and Changeling: the Lost.  These expansions provide templates that are placed upon basic World of Darkness characters.

Grognardia

No game edition is not without its zealots, and the old World of Darkness (OWoD) is not any different.  Many of the complaints found are that White Wolf has done the following:

• Scrapped the Metaplot
• Increased or made the Difficulty static
• Just a re-hash to make more money
• Watered the game down
• Removed [insert favorite clan/tribe/merit/etc. here]

Let’s tackle the Metaplot first.  From the beginning, the World of Darkness that White Wolf envisioned is one that was plummeting quickly in a death spiral to the END.  They had actually built in an inevitable apocalypse.  The vampires had their Gehenna, the werewolves an Apocalypse, mages Ascended… I think it actually took some testicular fortitude to own up to the fate they had stitched into their games.  They actually did, they killed the WoD!

Story wise, they had really painted themselves into a corner with the Metaplot.  The Metaplot was the official background story that unfolded in the rule books and novels.  And there were very obvious inconsistencies with the story.  One problem was that the different supernatural lines were not written to be a shared world, but they eventually bled over.  Another seemed to be that no one was keeping tabs on what was written

I enjoyed the Metaplot as much as anyone else, but as creative as gamers are, do we really need one?  I think not.  Besides, if you still want to hang on to the idea of the Metaplot, create your own, modify the existing rules to fit it (name changing mostly), or keep playing the old rules.  No one is taking away your gorram rulebook!

Now on to the Difficulty of actions, or the result the die must reach (or better) to be considered a success.  In the old World of Darkness, the Difficulty was variable (usually a 6, but ranged nominally from 4-10).  I think the goal here was making the rules streamlined, but nothing is preventing a Storyteller from changing the Difficulty.

The other complaints are not really worth looking at.  If you’re pissed you can no longer play a Tzimisce, then port it over.  The mechanics should work with almost no modification.

The Verdict

The World of Darkness book has a solid, streamlined rule system as well as excellent writing.  I highly recommend this game if you are a fan of the supernatural, horror, or mystery/suspense.  I think everyone should try it once.

I love the classless point-buy advancement because it truly allows a player to customize his character.  There are caveats to classless systems however, as build trends inevitably appear.  However, with a good ST and Troupe, this shouldn’t be a factor.

I only wish they had included stuff from supplements like The Armory in this book.  The tightwad in me wants to see extra mechanics like those included in the core book so I get more for my money.

The Good

• Streamlined rules
• Classless advancement
• Superb writing
• Only need one die
• No Metaplot

The Bad

• Large dice pools
• Classless advancement
• Need more crunch in the core book

Listening to: Misfits – Collection II – Braineaters

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