World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate
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I sometimes think I would like to play Dark Ages: Mage, but then I think about how long my character would go between baths and my skin starts to crawl.
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@GF said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
I sometimes think I would like to play Dark Ages: Mage, but then I think about how long my character would go between baths and my skin starts to crawl.
So long as you remember that the Dark Ages is before the enlightenment, so the 9 spheres don’t exist actually, and it’s a lot more like sorcerer. As for baths, obviously give yourself a geas that requires you bathe regularly. Now you’ve got a flaw/extra bonus points, which gives you proper hygiene!
edit to add: ALSO OPEN DARK AGES: FAE! And maybe wyrm, too, for the lulz.
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@Jennkryst Yeah, I’m aware of the mechanics of DA:M. It’s the big draw for me. I know it kinda works in the meta that every Tradition was eventually forced to conceive of magic through a Hermetic lens, but I like the other Traditions having their own ideas, and I like the magic system in general being a little more narrative in nature.
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@GF said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
I know it kinda works in the meta that every Tradition was eventually forced to conceive of magic through a Hermetic lens
Eh, not… really? I mean, OOCly, sure, because real world science helps explain IC stuff. But each tradition does view it through their own paradigms and junk. This is why different traditions might have a rote for a spell that other traditions don’t (though in oWoD, a Rote is just a -1 on the difficulty of the spell, if memory serves? THEN AGAIN, you can also ‘aim’ your spell with a skill roll, and the whole idea of getting rid of a focus with each Arete raise means you are learning that traditions and paradigms are all an illusion, all that matters is knowledge and will, and oh god, how did we end up discussing mechanics?!?)
AHEM.
But yeah, totally pick up that geas, give you a reason to go meditate under a waterfall while naked or whatever.
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@Jennkryst said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
Eh, not… really? I mean, OOCly, sure, because real world science helps explain IC stuff. But each tradition does view it through their own paradigms and junk.
Their paradigms are mechanically indistinguishable from a Hermetic one, using Hermetic concepts like Spheres and Arete but with a different shirt, like the difference between Mario and Luigi. I think that acting as if Hermetic isn’t the magical default is bad game design; I think the fancy term for it is ludonarrative dissonance.
DA:M doesn’t make a new magic system for each Fellowship, but it does enough to make me feel better about them.
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@GF I believe the idea that they didn’t bathe that often in the dark ages only applies to certain locations and is something of a myth overall. IIRC bath houses were a thing exported by the Romans to much of Europe.
Then again, it’s WoD, so of course it’s nastier and darker than reality.
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If you’re a Mage and not using magic to shower you’re doing it wrong.
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@shit-piss-love said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
If you’re a Mage and not using magic to shower you’re doing it wrong.
THIS, also. Because also remember, the reason that the Technocracy exists and invented SCIENCE was because the other wiz-nerds built mage towers and flaunted their majikz over people.
… or something like that.
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The Technocracy were the only actual heroes of oWoD.
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@shit-piss-love Ohh, I’m now fascinated by that hot take. Tell me more.
I don't know what I'm doing. Poke at Seven Nations sevennations.aresmush.com port 2021
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@WhiteRaven said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
Tall, dark-haired and in charge has been my type ever since.
️ Step
On
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@Testament said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
@shit-piss-love Ohh, I’m now fascinated by that hot take. Tell me more.
The Technocracy’s position is that reality should be dictated by the unconscious consent of mortals. Everything else is a Reality Deviant seeking to exert nonconsensual force in the pursuit of their urges and/or agendas. Are their methods, uh, suspect? Maaaaaaaaybe.
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Eh, Technocrats and Traditionalists are about equally prone to fascism. I reckon the Disparates would be just as bad if they had the numbers and/or organization to be.
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@GF Yeah it can be awkward if you’re not used to it, trying to take the MtA game mechanics that are all written Hermetic-first, and try to play an Etherite or anything else with them.
But it can be done. It just takes more work than just being able to talk about ranks of Ars Stuckupica
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@shit-piss-love
The Technocratic Union, in their higher ideals, are building a world built on comprehensible and predictable rules where the laws of the universe and the ability to effect it is the same for everyone, not the result of having special magic powers, and where the things that go bump in the night get shut the fuck down.
It was introduced back in the Guide to the Technocracy as more of a justification for why the forces of The Man are stomping on human faces forever, but it has been taken more or less straightforwardly in a lot of later material.I will also say that, these days, the fact that Mage: the Ascension has the heroic psychic surgeons, homeopaths, and crystal energists trying to overcome the paradigm of the evil germ theorists makes me feel… less enthused about the game’s presentation.
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That’s actually the most reasonable breakdown of The Technocracy I’ve heard in a long time.
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@insomniac said in World of Darkness: The Weird Little Monster We Love and Hate:
I will also say that, these days, the fact that Mage: the Ascension has the heroic psychic surgeons, homeopaths, and crystal energists trying to overcome the paradigm of the evil germ theorists makes me feel… less enthused about the game’s presentation.
To be fair, presenting that conflict as good versus evil was much more a 1E thing, but it is still one of the weirder and occasionally uncomfortable aspects of the game, making the whole “my opinion is just as valid as your knowledge” shit we’re all dealing with as a society very literal. Like, I know people IRL who would be miserable to play with because they would be a liiiiiitle too into it.
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Yeah to be clear my tongue is firmly in cheek here. Nothing in oWoD should be taken remotely seriously. I just really like the against-the-grain generous interpretations of the Technocracy. Some of the most fun characters I’ve seen were like NWO agents with complicated social philosophies, It-X researchers trying to solve food insecurity, or Void Engineers trying to equalize the access to Technology across socio-economic lines.
edit: My personal favorite Technocracy trope is “did you think we want to just mirror mundane society hierarchical models? fuck that, those always end up with the wrong people in charge. we’re concerned with making the system actually work for everyone.”
