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- Registriert
- 25. April 2003
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- 2.121
Nachdem die letzten News zu V:tR ja nicht so die Bringer waren (IMHO!), packt WW jetzt wohl die großen Geschütze aus. Zum einen hätten wir einen Beitrag aus dem Game Trade Magazine (http://www.worldofdarkness.com/dailies/GameTradeRequiemArticle.pdf), welcher zwar hauptsächlich bekanntes wiederholt, aber trotzdem ganz nett ist. Das ware Highlight ist allerdings der neue Quarterly (http://www.white-wolf.com/Catalog/QuarterlySummer2004/Quarterly2pt3.pdf ), welcher nur so vollgestopft ist mit Neuigkeiten.
Mal ein kleiner Auszug:
Es scheint ja doch noch alles gut zu werden!
Mal ein kleiner Auszug:
Clans and Bloodlines
Yes, the game still has clans. They’re a great idea, and we’ve
refined the nature of what clans are to allow you to customize your
own lineages. The five clans themselves are the archetypes that come
to mind when you think of vampires’ literary origins. The new
bloodlines allow you to add your own twists to the vampire myth and
truly make the game your own.
New Clan: Daeva
Other Kindred envy their beauty and grace, their ability to incite
passion in mortals, the ease with which they glide through the
masses — and that envy is almost as potent a draught to the Daeva as
blood itself. These Kindred are consummate predators and would seem
to be the perfect vampires. Alas that most are too dead inside to
enjoy it.
Called Succubi by other clans, the Daeva are experts at making their
prey come to them, victims practically offering themselves not merely
as food but as playthings. Most Succubi are overtly passionate
beings, drawn by beauty and blood in equal measure, but it’s an
artificial passion. Their ability to feel a true attachment to other
people atrophies over years of manipulating the love of mortals and
the respect of fellow Kindred. The result is Daeva who no longer
understand those emotions as anything other than tools to be
exploited and rote steps to follow. For all their apparent fervor,
most Succubi are as dead spiritually as they are physically. They
claim to understand desire, but all they truly know is need, and it
is this deadening of emotions that causes so many jaded Daeva to
become depraved in their efforts to feel again.
Disciplines
What would a game about vampires be without fearsome supernatural
powers? Disciplines return with their own systems closely related to
those of bloodlines, allowing you to expand on what undead powers can
do.
Covenants
Social conflict is much of what makes Vampire interesting, but I
didn’t want to simply reintroduce the familiar sectarian struggles.
Membership is now more fluid. Characters may move from covenant to
covenant over the course of their unlives, or even forsake the
artificial politics of sect culture entirely. Further, vampire
society now has several different organizations (as opposed to the
almost universally dominant two from Vampire: The Masquerade), and
none of those covenants can truly be said to have the upper hand
except in individual domains.
Individual Domains
While vampire culture permeates the world, universal structures do
not. Even the conventions of prince and sect can vary by location.
So, the extent of the vampire’s world is almost entirely local.
Undead in their domains are xenophobic and isolated, not trusting
outsiders and preferring to keep to themselves, where rivals are
known quantities. Kindred society is neo-feudal, with a local lord or
ruling body and little concern for faraway vampires whose affairs
have no bearing on nearby Kindred.
Territoriality
Vampires are predatory creatures, used to having their own territory.
When a vampire sees another Kindred whom he doesn’t know, frenzy is a
possibility. Certain vampires cause an aggressive fury, a desire to
tear the interloper a new asshole for having the temerity to step
into one’s domain. Others cause fear frenzy,
exuding such an aura of predatory menace that onlookers just want to
get away. In any event, vampires feel and cause this predator’s urge
on sight — which means the undead instinctively recognize other
vampires for what they are.
The Fog of Eternity
For the Kindred, history is an inconstant companion. Even if a single
(formerly) mortal mind could conceivably retain all that it saw,
learned and experienced over a period of centuries, the very
physiology of the Kindred forbids such clear and detailed recall. A
vampire’s blood increases in potency the longer he stays awake and
active. The more potent a vampire’s blood, the more difficult it is
for him to remain at ease with the world around him. Potent blood is
demanding. It calls out for the vitae of other Kindred — a terribly
sinful urge in the eyes of undead society. Failing that, it calls out
for sleep, so that the blood may at least have a chance to thin over
time, returning the vampire to a semblance of his more composed self.
To make matters worse, certain vampiric misdeeds during a time of
activity can cause a Kindred’s blood to concentrate prematurely, thus
leading to further mental distortion, frustration and anguish.
The Circle of the Crone
The Circle of the Crone claims a naturalistic origin for vampires.
Members say they have always been a part of the world, spawned in the
dark places where mortals fear to tread and where guarded suspicion
yields to open fear. Their origin stories invoke such names as the
Russian witch Baba Yaga, the horned god Cernunnos, the Thracian
goddess of moon and magic Bendis, the animal-god Pashupati, Mithras
and his bull sacrifices, and the bloody incarnations of the Morrigan.
Occasionally, the Pagans even incorporate Cain into their philosophy
through Lilith, the first wife of Adam. Members of the circle reject
vampiric notions of penitence. They take a more organic approach to
unlife, one that allows for all creatures — even the living dead — to
continue to learn, grow and find enlightenment. While much of Kindred
practice places emphasis on guilt and absolution in the Judeo-
Christian tradition, the Pagans consider themselves outside that
framework.
VII
One “sect” among the world of the undead has no name. Although this
sect comprises vampires, those beings seem to hate all Kindred not of
their mysterious order, and literally attempt to destroy Kindred on
sight. The notion of this group as a sect might even be mistaken, as
it is unknown whether the group is a true sect, its own insular clan,
or just a particularly zealous cult. “Seven,” the name by which other
Kindred recognize the cult, comes from occasional icons that vampires
of the order leave after particularly heinous or noteworthy attacks
on Kindred — the Roman numeral seven.
Misc Info
Yet, many old concepts just didn’t make the transition: You won’t see
the word “Assamite,” for example, nor will you
see “Inconnu,” “Potence” or “Prince Lodin.” Some words we tried to
keep for sound and resonance, but just couldn’t because of the
preconceptions (read: baggage) that they brought. The Sabbat, for
example, was originally part of the new setting, but the new
incarnation was so little like its predecessor that using that name
only served to distract from what it had become. We liked the spooky,
hallowed sound of the name, but finally dropped it because it carried
too many connotations. That said, those words that do carry over
largely have the same or similar functions. “Dominate” still serves
the same purpose. The “Ventrue” still function in the role of
vampires-as-aristocrats. Still other ideas have been tweaked, but
still have at their core some degree of applicability to the new
setting. Cain is no longer the universally recognized father of
vampires. “Fortitude” is in the game, but not as people are
accustomed to seeing it.
We do have signature characters, but they primarily serve as iconic
representations of the game, people with whom we can characterize the
examples of play, and figures upon whom we can base fiction. As a nod
to the prior incarnation of the game, Vampire Vampire’s signature
city is Chicago, and its signature characters are residents of that
domain (New Orleans is the sample setting in the core book, but
Chicago is soon to follow). If you want to use those characters,
great. If not, you don’t have to worry about Chicago intruding on
your domain.
Es scheint ja doch noch alles gut zu werden!