[WoD] Fractured Philly – Beast: the Primordial

[Xildur]

Please tell me if there things that unacceptable from this application.

Application Name : Igor Pavlevich Character Concept : Hunting Professor Family : Ugallu Hunger of Prey Legend : Watchful Life : Cautious Occupation : Law Professor in University of Pennsylvania Age : 35 years 3 Aspirations : 1. Establishing himself in Philadelphia 2. Fully expanding his own power 3. Becomes Beast Incarnate Description : Igor has friendly smiles and serious attire. He is often dress smartly in public. But many of his dress is mute color, making him inconspicuous with his surrounding. He wears glasses for show, but not actually need one. Biography : Igor was born in Little Odessa, NYC from parents that immigrated after ousting of Khrushchev. They were part of sleeper cell for KGB, but KGB never use them (or no one never knows about it). Hence, they live peacefully in New York even die there. Igor is only son in their family and his parents are never talked about his family in Russia, so he lost touch with his extended family. His parents died when he was abroad at Russia to finish his degree because of accidents. Their death was another shock for him, but at that time, he has become Beast and not really care about them anymore. Igor is kind of living American Dream. Well, kind of. At that time, Russian people are not many and they were looked with suspicion as spy in Cold War. However, even from his childhood, Igor knew that he was different from other kids and had quite stern gaze that made other children fearful toward him, hence in most cases, left him alone. Therefore, Igor likes to read or watch others from distance, instead of playing with other children. Thus, learning and observation become natural for him. Due to his intelligence, he got scholarship to New York University Law School and then works part time to get his Master in University of Pennsylvania. Because of his unique heritage and his intelligence, he got the offer for a position on University of Pennsylvania if he can get PhD. Igor applied for Saint Petersburg State University and took specialty in Criminal Law and Criminology; Executive Criminal Law with exchange agreement between UPenn with SPSU. This contract also bound him to teach in UPenn for at least 5 years. However, there was a major thing happened in his life. Some Russian mafias were planning to kidnap him, just after his graduation day, and then ask for ransom from "rich American", although he came from Russia just like them. Their kidnap plan was working but when they learnt that Igor just another average joe and not rich businessman, they were furious. While they were discussing what to do with him, he was tied on small and dark room alone. And there he experienced his Devouring. Igor had plenty nightmares before. But he thought it just another mind trick. When he learnt psychology, he accepted Freud's theory that dream is just matter of ego and id. The deep and dark place within is just another way of your subconscious tell you that you are afraid of your future ahead. The beat of wings' sound is just another noise that disturb your psyche and so on. However, this time was different. He could see big black bat in above him and then he was pinned on the ground before there are sharp fangs are tearing into his neck. Then all black. He becomes the Beast. With his new power, he made the mobsters obeyed him. Thus, he could get back safely. Nowadays, Igor is newly arrived professor in Criminal Law Research Group at University of Pennsylvania. He gets the job as his specialty is about Organized Crime. He postulates many factors that made Organized Crime attractive for many minorities. Thus, he has made some friend on Police as source of data and someone in Russian mobster as contact. Igor has really no qualm with mobster, since he knows that this is like tribalism response toward global society. But he wants to keep progressing and maybe someday get a big time success in his field.

[swapna]

Okay, I kinda like this game. I'll have to read up on the rules - are you still planning to run it? If yes, I'll make a character this week

[Qalyar]

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

You are the first person I've ever met who's been a Storyteller for Prometheus. Teach me your ways.

While a little off-topic unless I change my mind and pitch a Promethean...

Prometheans make telling certain kinds of stories easier. WoD characters hate travel, because it's not safe. But Prometheans compel a certain amount of travel, because Wasteland effects are worse than facing the dangers of the open road. So, they automatically make it a great time to bust out Midnight Roads... erm, or would, if that book wasn't dreck. So maybe you go back to oWoD for chronicle inspiration by reading Nomads... no, wait, no, you don't do that either. WoD Storytellers hate travel because there's such wretched support for it. This is the biggest challenge of a game with Prometheans. Be prepared for it ahead of time.

Don't overplay Disquiet. It's easy to get the idea that everyone's supposed to omniloathe the Promethean on sight, and that's not really the case. Normal people don't trust him (a situation that can get worse as Disquiet deepens), but we all have customers, coworkers, and family members we don't trust; we don't interact with them with Brawl rolls (hopefully!).

No matter what the Promethean setting says, it is best as a crossover game. Running four Prometheans is going to drive you insane, trying to keep track of Wasteland mechanics and Disquiet contamination. Besides, crossovers with Prometheans force characters like Werewolves and Vampires and Mages who would normally "den up" all the time to not do that, and that's good. Discomforting characters is what the WoD is for. Yes, this makes the Pilgrimage harder. Too bad. First lesson of mortal existence, Mr. Promethean: Life's not fair. Crossover also makes life easier on the Storyteller; Prometheans are guaranteed outsiders, and its sometimes convenient for them to be friends with someone who actually has contacts in the mortal world in a conventional sense.

Realize as a Storyteller that the power level in Promethean is apparently the result of random number generation by the writers. They can be exceptionally durable (best-in-setting at some XP values), or exceptionally perceptive (better than anyone except some Mages), or credible bruisers, or decent enough at two or three other task categories (Contamination/Disquietism builds drive people to directed insanity in ways that make Batman villains proud!). But unless you have characters with a zillion experience, they are wretchedly terrible generalists. This is why they are supposed to Throng, but it doesn't really work that way in practice. And some of the Transmutations are just awful: Alchemicus in particular, but Saturninus is a trap for characters under 150-200 XP or so, and Spiritus is pretty much only worth looking at in dedicated "1 Promethean in another setting" crossovers). So if your players like those concepts, you've got ... erm, really durable mortals that everyone dislikes. Plan accordingly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the splat, and I might be talking myself into pitching one here. But it inverts a lot of the concepts of the World of Darkness, making it a bit of a challenge to run for. When it works, it's worth it, though.

[Qalyar]

Also, apparently 2E Promethean is totally reworking the Disquiet system and the Transmutations, including how they are purchased. So, yeah, pitching a Sin-Eater shortly.

[Gulielmos]

From my reading Ab it could go either way but the feeding depends on what your Hunger is. For instance I am toying with an Anakim Ravager. So he creates nightmares where it shows how weak the person actually is. He feeds through wanton destruction like using knowledge to break into your house and destroy that one special thing you have grown up with. So the act seems to be the actual feeding.

[Gulielmos]

Xildur very nice app and i will hold off on what I would want to see better explained until mofous reads it.

[Qalyar]

Character Basics Name: Sebastian "Ian" Corsus Age: 31 Type: Sin-Eater Threshold: The Forgotten Flesh: Diligent Spirit: Dauntless Aspirations Ian's geist didn't strike the bargain just because of some similarity to their deaths. While The Unhanged Pirate was a legendary... well, pirate, Ian has the potential to be a legendary antiquarian, which is why it's significant that he dodged the death due to someone choosing that suicidal of a career path in a Chronicle of Darkness! This is a step toward that legend.Obtain an legitimately magical or supernatural object... and then sell or trade it to a knowing buyer. It's not enough that Fate killed him before one of the monsters in the shadows could. The monsters in the shadows need to try... and fail.Survive combat with a supernatural opponent. Longterm: As behind him, so ahead. Finding someone who qualifies, and knowing why, then being in a position to kill him but not actually doing so isn't straightforward, and is probably a long time coming. And may have other consequences, including potentially a Synergy Breaking Point (especially if he was too close to not sparing the victim).Spare the life of a mortal who "should" die by his hand.

Background Sebastian Corsus (Sebastian in business, Ian to his friends) was born to a long-naturalized Italian-American Catholic family in Philadelphia. Impressed from an early age with the importance of preserving and respecting history (and regaled with tales of how the world "really is" from his aunt and grandmother), Sebastian dedicated his life to making a living from the past. Fortunately, Philadelphia has a great deal of past, some of which is still, even today, genuinely overlooked in attics and basements. Although not fantastically wealthy, Ian has made a respectable living over the past several years as an antiques and rare books dealer, appealing to at least three groups of customers. Items with documented value sell to legitimate collectors. Kitschy or faux-historical items are easy enough to pass off to the never-ending stream of historical and cultural tourists. And odd items and works of uncertain provenance more often than not still find a home with members of the city's "occult community". His aunt's ideas about the shadowy secrets of Philadelphia may have been nonsense, but people who believe in them have money that spends as well as anyone else's, after all. Of course, the world being what it is, we all know how people like Ian Corsus meet their end. A danger to the Masquerade, removed (or worse) by a local Vampire. Torn apart by tooth and claw for dealing in appropriated Fetishes. Or merely another unsolved disappearance in the City of Brotherly Love... And that might be how he was supposed to die, but it's not what killed him. Instead, while drinking a frozen margarita and watching fireworks at a client's Fourth of July party, he dropped dead. Rushed to the hospital, paramedics quickly determined he died from a bullet to the brain -- not because he was shot, but because the celebratory gunfire of a street gang, firing their pistols into the air from probably a half-mile away, succumbed to the inexorable pull of gravity. Of course, later that day, it was actually determined that there had been a terrible mixup. Ian hadn't been slain by a falling bullet. He'd merely lost his footing, slipped, and been knocked out by an unlucky head injury. It bled profusely, and the alcohol in his system depressed his vital signs, which meant it took far longer than acceptable to realize he'd apparently been confused with some unlucky street thug, who arrived on the next ambulance in, and who actually had died to the tumbling bullet of a gun fired into the sky. Ian Corsus, on the other hand, made a full and rapid recovery. Since his "brush with death", though, Sebastian has been a bit more focused on the occult side of his book and antique dealings. It's funny how a near-death experience -- even one that only happened on paper! -- can change someone's perspective about the world, isn't it...?

Geist The Unhanged Pirate Pennsylvania, despite modern expectations, has long been associated with Fun fact: This paragraph about Pennsylvania piracy is actually more or less historically accurate!piracy. And with pirates who cheated death. The "Archpirate" Henry Every paid off the Governor of Pennsylvania in the late 17th century, helping him to escape what may have been the world's first global manhunt. One of Every's crew, or perhaps the pirate captain himself, even married the Governor's daughter! Although he left Pennsylvania afterward, Every was never captured; he took perhaps the greatest treasure of the Golden Age of Piracy with him into the mists of history. When Pennsylvania did see a pirate crew (albeit not Every's) brought to trial in the early 1700s, the captured captain escaped, and most of the crew was pardoned in his absence. Nearer the end of the 18th century, even a pirate sentenced to be gibbeted as a warning to others was given his freedom. In life, The Unhanged Pirate might have been one of those men, or someone else entirely. But in death, he's taken on their signs and their shared story: men who lived by the sword, the sail, and the gun, and who -- by embracing what they were -- received a fate they earned by cheating the fate they deserved. He appears in "pirate finery", and still bears broken manacles around his wrists and a slack noose around his neck, its hitch cut before it could ever be used. Unlike nearly all geists, there's no visible sign of his actual cause of death, merely the ways he should have died, but did not. He rarely speaks, instead communicating with the distant sounds of ocean waves or the faint echo of cannon-fire.

[mofous]

I'm going to try to get around to reading the applications this weekend. I've been slower than I'd like to be because my work life has become somewhat awful. There has been a merger and everything has been thrown into chaos.

I'll try to iron things out and get back to a normal posting schedule ASAP. Thank you for your patience!

[Aboleth]

So I've been making my way slowly through the book and a question occurred to me, it says that Eshmaki Collectors usually hunger for "raw resources", does that have to be the default or can it be altered (or am I not quite understanding how "raw resources" can be interpreted)?

[Xildur]

Just line up the word usually.
Your character can be in the mainstream or an exception Eshmaki Collectors, it is up to you.

Waiting for your input later, mofous.
Take your time.

[mofous]

Originally Posted by Aboleth

So I've been making my way slowly through the book and a question occurred to me, it says that Eshmaki Collectors usually hunger for "raw resources", does that have to be the default or can it be altered (or am I not quite understanding how "raw resources" can be interpreted)?

I agree with Xildur. A lot of these types of things can be argued through semantics and really all that matters is that it fits thematically. Again, this is my first pass at Beast, so my understanding/opinion of the rules are fairly loose at the moment. If you join the game, we'll fumble through this together.

Originally Posted by Xildur

Waiting for your input later, mofous.
Take your time.

You're application is definitely acceptable, Xildor. I like the concept of a professor. There is definitely something terrifying about a monster laying in the shadow of an enormous university. Especially a patient monster like a Ugallu Predator.

Originally Posted by Aboleth

You know I'm reading through the book and while I'm getting the gist of it, I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the concept of Hunger and feeding. So a Beast must create nightmares in order to sate its hunger but how exactly does it "feed"? Does it go into the Primordial Dream and literally feed on the nightmare or is the act of creating a nightmare in it of itself sating the Hunger?

Mind you I'm still on the part about what clans there are so feel free to tell me if they clear this up later.

Feeding is explained in depth on page 108.

It seems as though you can feed either in a dream or outside of a dream. And it would appear that the Beast feeds off of the victim's shock or fear. It does appear to be rather complex, and I'll be honest, I haven't completely wrapped my mind around it either. Again, we'll fumble through this together :P And I promise we'll have some fun doing it.

[Viatos]

Is this still open for new interest? I just started really getting into my backer PDF and it seems pretty awesome.

[Xildur]

Well, we have only gotten 2 application so far, so if you put your app now, I think you can still play.

[mofous]

Originally Posted by Viatos

Is this still open for new interest? I just started really getting into my backer PDF and it seems pretty awesome.

Absolutely. We've been slow out of the gate, but we are still accepting applications.

[Gulielmos]

That's true but its worth it