I've been GMing Shadowrun 3e for about 3 years now. Everyone who has played it, likes the setting. Finish Maria Mercurial, same characters playing Euphoria. I'm looking for another model ti run next.

are yall coming back?

Didn’t start with a bunch of virtue signaling.. so I’ll listen…

Lost me at stigmatized. 🤣

Good discussion. I'm a WoD newbie but I'm starting a game soon. Definitely gave me some stuff to think about!

One thing some people underestimate is how much of an advantage the Ventrue have. In order to become a full member of Clan Ventrue every single neonate is expected to go a years/decades long education program called the Agoge which trains them on how to rule, and there are surviving documents from Ventru and his childer themselves on how to rule. Ventrue literally have access to tens of thousands of years of experience and learning on how best to rule, which is a lot more than other clans can say. Additionally the Ventrue have this tradition of Ethic Succor. Essentially any True Ventrue if they get stuck can call on any other clan member for aid, and the other Ventrue is required to do everything in their power to come to their aid. If they fail to do so their dignitas is going to suffer for it, and nothing is worse to a Ventrue than suffering a loss of Dignitas. Which obviously means that once a Ventrue gains power it's incredibly easy for other Ventrue to gain power through the aid of those who already got there. (By True Ventrue I mean Ventrue of the Camarilla who went through the Agoge, anyone else is considered to have renounced their clan, and True Ventrue don't owe anything to those). Additionally Ventrue as a Clan don't care much for wealth or status on it's own, nobody cares if you control a fortune 500 company, most Ventrue have more money than they know what to do with within a few decades of completing training anyways, it's all a matter of what you can do with it. Also yeah, Ventrue do use Influence, primarily because absolute control is a headache, and it's a lot easier and more efficient to know what you can hold over the mayor's head to push him to do what you want when you need it when necessary then to micromanage his every move. Plus relying on mostly mortal methods like good-old fashioned blackmail and bribery makes it a lot less likely to cause a Masquerade breach.

I loved the card ideas specifically gliphys.... I will use them

This summer I'll begin my first VtM chronicle, and I have an idea for the main plot to basically be two completely different main conflicts, one connected more with Camarilla (Closer to murder mystery) and the other with the Sabbat (Basically a race between the players and Sabbat agents to seize two very important items). I'm not planning for the two to be connected, but I'll lead players on a little so they think these are connected and despite being unrelated one plan's success might disrupt the others. The problem is, I'm a bit afraid of players potentially not engaging with the intrigue to figure out these plots, instead just assuming I'm gonna lead them to a preplanned ending of the campaign. I don't like running games that way, I want players to act, figure things out, beat the challenges I put in their way and make their own ending. I'll try to encourage them to make lots of notes, maybe that'll help, that's a good idea from this video. It'll also be pretty funny if they end up discovering at a super early point who the murderer is.

Hey! Just ran across your channel! I'm a fellow OK gamer and Battletech enthusiast! Would love to connect some time!

I kind of like the hunger dice thing. However, they ruined a lot of uniqueness you could develop on a character with the disciplines. In previous editions they was individual and robust abilities. For gaming purposes they streamed lined it and watered them down and blood potency is interesting however, weakens alot of the characters. Story line in werewolf and mage and vampire I don’t think it should have progressed the way they have.

"You love to play Fortnite, you can only play matches at night but..." bro is going outside to play Fortnite?

Arr, harr, ahoy and avast. This historic revision's a pain in the ass. Your vamps cannot die and the nazis are glass.

"Want"? WANT!? Since when "want" was a part of the deal? I "wanted" to go home, I "wanted" to still be able to have some ice cream, I "wanted" to learn how to knit a scarf. "Want" was never on the equation. "Want" wasn't on the path of the little ball. "Want"... Pffft...

I literally play the non-medicated version of myself for my disorder and the number of people that have told me I'm not playing it right or that not how it works is staggering

If I were a Tremere why would I waste my time trying to learn other people’s spells. I would spend my time trying to get stronger by creating my own spells and mastering my own power. If I were a Tremere I would be aspiring to be a Mage. Learning Arcane arts is all about becoming strong enough to cast a spell whether that source be in your head or heart. Becoming a vampire would be inconvenient but not the end. I think the main issue for me is vampires and mage power ups are different. Vampires get stronger the longer they live and this is not the case for a mage.

VTM is so very different from D&D, I have all the mechanics down, but this was a help, thanks guys, earned a sub.

Pdf save a tree

Its taken me years to get a group together and attain the influence of a GM. Im starting my first chronicle with the lads tonight. V5. But some imports from V20. You cant take Dementation away from me lol.

I am starting my first VtM chronicle tomorrow and I'm super excited. I've been running A Song of Ice and Fire with my D&D buddies successfully and its always been the masterplan to get down the RPG pipeline and hit VtM and OWoD. We will be playing v5 but of course with imports from v20. Dementation and Vicissitude are a must. Thanks for the last minute tips! I am a pretty chaotic ST and its very grounding :D

Can you upload the clan chart please <3

Too bad about the typo when the title card

I'm also a repeat Malkavian player and I tend to use a different approach. For me its all about them not being defined as a character by their mental conditions or by the fact of being a Malkavian (it helps if their conditions are a bit more interesting than being a Joker knockoff or something equally common). As an example: Ohm was very much not interested in socialising. Instead, he had turned the junkyard his sire had left him into one of the most technologically advanced waste-processing facilities in the country. Additionally, most of his work force was purposely contracted from ex-cons and rehabilitated addicts, contributing in a way to a better societal fabric. Ohm was a technological genius and a semi-recluse who spent most of his nights working. Sometimes he developed new tech, sometimes he conducted studies (consensual, informed and paid for) with other vampires... but most of the time he just stalked a specific human. In fact, he also devoted most of his gains to that mission, paying people to get near that human, spy on him and send back reports about his activities. And, yes, he was a Malkavian

That is a great idea. How do you state him or is it what the story needs him to be?

I always thought Malkavians make the best investigators

The reason a lot of low-level Sabbat vampires are called shovelheads goes back to one of the Sabbat practices for mass embracing. They'd gather a bunch of random people, bring them to a graveyard, and exhaust them by having them dig their own graves. Then they'd take those shovels and use them to knock the new recruits out. While unconscious, they get embraced, then buried alive (in a manner of speaking) as the change from human to vampire sets in. Once they wake up, the combination of the Sabbat blood running through them and needing to dig their way back to the surface traumatizes them. Some think this makes them more willing, savage shock troops, others think it makes them more accepting of the Paths of Enlightenment, which the Sabbat has gone to in favor of Humanity. That should clear a few things up!

He doesn’t know shit about southern accents. Dude should stop talking

I don't think this is bad, but also you're just talking about aspects of other tabletops that do exist. Not that things can't be integrated into your game either.

Or instead you can use it for what insight is meant to be. You are reading body language, eye movement, maybe slight twitches in a spellcasters hand. Maybe your character misses a tick, maybe the being is too weird or alien for your character to get a read on, or maybe your pc is reading them like a book. Never just say “yea they’re lying” or “nope they’re not”. Insight is insight, it’s not Circle of Truth or Detect Thoughts

Instead of saying whether or not they are telling the truth or lying, I just say something along the lines of “you can’t tell” with extra character appropriate flavor or I describe the feeling they are openly projecting. Someone good at lying could project confidence while someone bad at it could be fidgety and unsure while the same could be said of someone actually confident or nervous as they tell the truth. I still make it clear to the players that they failed but it still leaves the truthfulness of the npc in question.

Wow. This is actually terrible.

Smart

I actually like flaws from v:tm

Taking away rolls from players is stupid

I think this rule is a good idea on paper, but I think that it is a bad idea in practice. I remember in one of my earliest D&D days I wanted to do the same thing with stealth rolls, and one of my players piped up and flat out said "He's taking away our rolls." It takes away a feeling of agency. After all, you already have the secret roll on your side for the deception. Why should a player not have the tactile feeling of making a roll on their side? As a DM, you should be able to first, TRUST your players can act in character and not metagame, but more importantly, play it off in a way that makes sense to the roll, describing it in a way that makes sense without giving away too much. Beating or not beating the threshold just means you can tell if they are lying or misleading you, but the roll itself whether a success or failure can give different results based on how good the roll is. Examples: Player rolls high, NPC rolls lower: "They are lying, you can tell they are hiding something and they keep making eyes at the corner bookcase." Player rolls low, NPC rolls higher: "It's hard to tell." Player rolls low, NPC rolls lower: "Something's up, but you can't tell what." Player rolls high, NPC rolls higher: "This guys is REALLY hard to read, he has a very good poker face, but you can't tell if he is lying HERE." Player rolls mid, NPC rolls low: "You're fairly certain they are telling the truth." Player rolls mid, NPC rolls barely higher: "It's hard to tell." Player rolls mid, NPC rolls VERY high: "You're fairly certain they are telling the truth." This allows players to have their rolls and they understand how certain they are in the moment, but also allows you to shield them from not knowing TOO much.

You forgot about Savage Rifts “Blaze of Glory” mechanic

Then don't tell them those exact things? I feel like needing to change the way the rolls are made is just a skill issue

This just does the same thing in reverse. Now you can never trust high rolls because you don't know if you rolled well making insight worthless.

There was a guy who used to be in our group whod get pissed as situations lile that. Id roll poorly to check out an obviously trapped room or to see if someone is lying. And would rp appropiately, following the shadey liar, etc. It was hard to explain that *I* know this dude is sketchy, but Nox does not sooo here we go.

If my player rolls low, I simply say - you are uncertain. I give information on success and don't on failure.

I just run insight differently. On a low roll, they gain no useful information. On a high roll, they notice additional details that might reveal the NPC's true intentions or emotions. I don't just say they are lying or they are telling the truth.

It's only a lie detector if you let it be. If the player knows the character is lying, but their character doesn't have a reason, don't let them roll. If they roll, give them a ton of details, and let them come to their conclusion. "Are they lying?" "Well, they're a bit shifty right now, and they appear nervous, but they're also not used to being around a group of armed adventurers asking so many questions." I'll agree that not letting players speeds things up a bit, but I think this is on DMs being a bit too direct.

Theres lots of ways to play with insight. For one thing, I never say "this npc is lying" On a high roll, I might describe a lying NPC as being twitchy, shifty, paranoid, avouding eye contact. Ill describe an honest NPC as being calm, composed and intense. Ill compare this to the NPC's Charisma save. So even a 15 could potentially fail. Failing a check I could simply say that you faill to notice anything unusual about their speech or body language. You could say things like their robes obscure their body language, or the dim lighting hides their facial features, or the tavern sounds mask their voice. Or you could be intentionally evil and describe the NPC as lying anyways, giving your player a real mind fuck as they try to figure out why their 4 still yielded a "you think theyre lying". Rolling the save for the NPC adds doubt to the player. Maybe their 4 really did beat the NPC if they rolled a 1. Or maybe I'm fucking with them. Maybe their 15 is actually lower than the npc rolled. Really only a 20 has some amount of confidence

If they roll high tell them roughly right, if they roll low tell them they're telling the truth, regardless.

Thats actually just the rule in Pathfinder 2e

If they roll low, the answer is, "you can't really tell whether they are genuine or a really good actor".

As a player I think it’s important to play with the information your character has actually been given. If I roll a nat 1 on a perception check to see if a room is safe and my dm says “looks good!” I will run in headfirst without checking anything

I just say you can’t determine either way.

Tips I would give to new players interested in Malkavians is try to stick close to the concept of an "Oracle", this can be done a astronomical amount of different ways from a Ghost Seer, Blind Seer, A Seer who sees the future through google, a Oracle who uses Divination, an Oracle who believes they commune with God or Angels, an Oracle who believes they are an Angel or being beyond Vampirism, a Medium, a Journalist who reports future disasters and records them and only shares them to Kindred in a specific city these natural disasters are going to occur at, there's so many shapes and ways to convey the "Oracle" concept and it's probably the best approach, that doesn't mean you can't focus on other concepts but keep in mind the bane and compulsion of the Malkavians interlink with the concept of an Oracle, you'll most likely receive visions or insight even if your Malkavian has no dots in Auspex or access to the Cobweb. Dementation is a power that should be handled with care and flavor, you don't want to stereotype it simply as "Hahah I make you all crazy now" even though in concept that's what it is, try and go beyond that and flavor it to your own character's design, for example how does their dementation take form? Does the victim's mind get overhwlemed by visions of the future, does the victim see every mortal's future death around them causing them willpower damage? Do they see every future disaster or experience tortured spirits and ghosts or perhaps when using Dementation on someone they see a loved one cursing at them. There's so many forms it can take depending on the Malkavian concept in question. Finally to keep this short, Your Malkavian's "Mental Illness" doesn't have to actually be A IRL "Mental Illness" and probably shouldn't...by that I mean schizophrenia, DID, Depression etc etc has been seen countless times before and most cases or not has been done badly before, portraying a real-life mental illness without the knowledge of the mental illness in question will mostlikely lead to a 'Fish-Malk' a Malk whose seen as disruptive for other players and has no true character beyond their mental instability. A Malkavian can have a derangement that's supernatural just as easily, for example a Malkavian's derangement could be that they see the future deaths of the mortals around them constantly and so find it hard to connect with Humans...only Kindred whose deaths they cannot perceive or a Malkavian who believes they're the descendent of a Mythological being associated with Prophecy or Second-Sight (Apollo, Heimdall, Odin, Ra) to a Malkavian who hears all music as a cacophony of humanity's rage and resentment causing them distress when listening to music.

I’ve heard Brennan Lee Mulligan talk about this and basically if they roll low on insight you simply give them useless information rather than saying they are truthful or not. Example: “You think he might be your dad”

Just say that they're unsure dork