I'm also still around, just busy and tired all the time. I've never played VtM, but I did pay WtA20 for a while and really enjoyed it. I unfortunately had to leave that game because of scheduling issues, and now I'm playing Pathfinder 2e, which is quite a switch. The Werewolf game was basically 75% roleplay, and the Pathfinder campaign is far more exploration and tactical combat. Fortunately I enjoy all of it.

Ah - scheduling, every campaign's more despicable villain.

White Wolf games are certainly different from the D&D family tree. I've yet to actually get a session in for any of them, as scheduling got the Promethean game I was going to play in and prepped a character for in anticipation of Session Zero, but I have felt my way around them.

Honestly, it may be an unofficial fan entry but Genius: the Transgression was great stuff to try to digest.

I would love to play Mage at some point.

And the scheduling issue that made me leave the Werewolf game was just me realizing that playing a game until 11PM when I have to wake up for work at 6AM and also regularly get my sleep interrupted but a baby was unsustainable. The Pathfinder game is on Fridays, so no early mornings to worry about.

Ain't that the truth. My group has been in our current campaign since around May or June, and we've played maybe five or six times. It started off alright, but we've basically played three games in as many months now, due to a cavalcade of scheduling conflicts. I'm really hoping that after this coming weekend, we'll be able to get back into a regular rhythm, but we'll see what happens.


I have not heard of that one. I'll need to look into it.


I am likewise not familiar with Mage. I feel like I've heard of it, but not enough to know it.


Yeah, this is part of my problem, too. I get up absurdly early when I work, so the only nights I can justify playing would be Friday or Saturday, and my Fridays are already spoken for, so during the school year, I can really only play once a week. I've got a friend that I really enjoy playing with who, because of a new job, cannot play on Saturdays anymore, which sucks. But that's just the way it goes.

One of the best parts of doing pay to play is that people tend to actually show up to sessions they've already paid for.

Happy birthday, Barinellos! I hope it manages to be a particularly pleasant day and that everything goes marginally well for you!

Well, long day at work, but at least I have this to share with everyone
Thanks for the birthday wishes

Happy birthday, and congrats on the paint job!

Happy birthday, Barinellos! I hope it manages to be an extremely pleasant day and that everything goes better than marginally well for you!

Ah, Mage. I've never played Mage: The Ascension, but I've read the rulebook and it's pretty cool. It's regarded as a game with great flavor and terrible game balance.
Mage: The Awakening came out as something of a remake, which redid all the rules and tossed out the flavor everybody played the original game for. I think Ascension is the fan favorite.

Yeah, Awakening was part of the Chronicles of Darkness like of games, which was supposed to replace the World of Darkness. But then almost everyone preferred the WoD lore, so they switched back for the 20th anniversary editions. And now it seems they are changing a bunch of stuff again for 5th edition, at least in Werewolf.

And as far as game balance goes, there is a reason the WoD games call their rules the Storyteller system. A compelling sorry trumps balance every time in those games.


On a completely different note, guess who FINALLY caught COVID?

Umm, hopefully an ill-tempered and generally unpleasant 50-something man working a middle-management job in uptown Cleveland who treats his people poorly and once hid his wife's wedding ring just so he could make her feel badly for losing it because he was mad at her for buying him the wrong brand of pickled herring, which was his own fault because he didn't pick them up on his way home from his boss's nephew's softball game, which he only went to as an excuse to get out of work and do a little day-drinking, and because his handwriting on the grocery list was sloppy and a bit smudged because he had set his coffee mug on it and spilled a little bit, which he noticed but still didn't bother to rewrite, and who childishly teases his neighbor's dog in the morning for no reason whatsoever except for that one night when the dog wouldn't stop barking but it wasn't even that big of a deal because this guy wasn't even trying to go to sleep or anything, he was just rewatching a mediocre episode of a show he had watched through twice before already.

Is it that guy?

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The weird thing is, the "storyteller system" isn't a story game. THere's no narrative mechanics. It's all old school RPG.

I heard my brother was sick, but I didn't think to ask if it was COVID. Thanks for bringing that up.

Also I am sad to hear that you obviously have COVID.

So, anybody else watch Digital Circus?

I am not familiar with it, sorry.

Well, it has more stats covering the morality and psychology of characters than many classics like DnD, VtM especially. Whether mechanically tracking RP-heavy aspects is a good thing, since it can lead to building a character's personality according to what's most effective in game, is up to anybody. (example: building vampires that are cowardly and/or severely lacking in self-control is mechanically a terrible idea, while paying mere lip service to morality tends to work rather well. You may argue, though, that vampires would rarely- well, that they wouldn't turn people unsuited for vampirism THAT often)


Never heard of it, I think.

I have seen videos about it pop up on Youtube. I have not watched those videos. Is it worth my time?

I would thoroughly endorse it based entirely on the fact that it's ambitious and independent, but even outside that, I've enjoyed it quite a lot.

Well, back from the convention and it was kind of a strange year if I'm honest. Of most note is that my plans to secure some early Christmas shopping did not go as intended. It, in fact did not just fall through, it totally imploded.

Yeah, that happens. I'm about half-way through my Christmas shopping right now, and have little to no idea what to get for the remainder.