General World of Darkness Discussion Thread QQ Edition

[Maragas]

Unless you have reached Golconda, you still have your Beast to deal with, can you really be comfortable with an ever nagging hunger in the back of your mind? Or knowing that you could lose control and go into a Frenzy? We tend to not think about it because the roll is so low but even "Lighting a cigarette" is a Rötschreck Test (according to V20 corebook), it is only difficult 3 so the chance of success are high, but even if you succeed that just means you can "ignore" the beast telling you to flee and not that you don't feel it.

I guess you can if you have time to settle and get used to it, but the "you" that could get "used" to that. Now you could argue that the person that becomes "used" to it, isn't really the same as they were when they were turned... But then we get into phillosphy "is anyone ever the same person, they were 10 years ago?" Probably not, but the personality changes after adapting to being a Kindred are much more severe than how a humans personality would change in a decade (imo).

So nah, being a Kindred sucks. There is a reason it is called a curse. That being said I still stand by the fact that being a Mage is also not great, nor is being a Werewolf, Wraith, Changeling or Demon.

On my personal scale of best to worse fate: Werewolf > Mage > Vampire > Demon & Wraith

Haven't played Changeling enough to place it.

Click to shrink...

For the first decades, yes. But even then, your life as a human and a living mortal will be equivalent to your childhood.
After a few centuries, it will be equivalent to being a baby. By that point, I would be honestly surprised if you even remember actual full details about your human life unless you deliberately kept track of it.
We see what happens at that point. Either you get put into the track to be a humanist and make peace with it, like Menele. Or inhuman and don't care.

And honestly, Werewolves have it worse.

Most of the time you are going on your business, get through the First Change, gain new senses, urges and most likely commit a mass slaughter, get dragged to the supernatural by other Werewolves and if you are fortunate they are the good ones and not of the Wyrm, told you will be fighting in a war you are losing and losing fast, there aren't enough soldiers, you only get a dozen or so replacements each year and you will most certainly die young.

Spoiler: Werewolf Population

 

[Skitzyfrenic]

The Beast is really manageable.

Because the Beast is you. It's your hunger, it's your fears, it's your rages. It's your lizard brain cranked up to eleven. But it's still you. You can learn to be an adult and greatly increase your control over yourself and manage your environment.

Golcanda might be extremely difficult to obtain, being vampire enlightenment, finding a happy controlled equilibrium isn't. Even RAW.

That's part of the reason V5 has hunger dice to encourage vampire like behaviors, and 'true' vampire role playing. Hunger and the Beast were easy to manage just by being a modicum of heads up. So RAW and RAI line up and you do more vampire things and less superhuman who is a hemovore things.

Especially in modern nights. Remember that PCs are examples of exceptionally busy kindred. And they could fairly easily manage the Beast in pre-V5 editions.

Once you figure out how to manage your hunger, and what sets off roetschreck and other frenzy things, you can pretty much just... via humanitas and coast, just like any human. For eternity.

It's having to spend blood constantly, and dealing with people who know how to poke the deeper parts of you, aka The Beast, to their advantage that makes things difficult.

The 'problem' is that if you're that kind of person, you probably weren't embraced. Clans overwhelming look for someone who is exceptional in some way. Sometimes they're exceptionally fucked up, but that's still exceptional.

But Autarkis do exist. And so do 'generic member of the Anarchs/Cam.' They don't really go crazy all the time. They're just kinda doing stuff. Doing their thing, you know?

The Sabbat is pretty focused and active in such a way that while you might not proc the Beast a lot, you will probably end up in frenzy somewhat regularly and is philosophical opposed to 'just living my best unlife.'

You don't have to be part of an organization, though it makes things easier.

A real ladder of best to worst probably looks something more like Mage (becoming God is on the table, but it is called Ascension War soooo) >= Vampire (Sometimes hell is other people not being willing to let you just chill) >>> Werewolf (forced to be angry and retarded) > Changeling (you have to deal with the fae) >>>>>>>>>>>> Wraith (Being dead sucks alot) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Demon (10k years+ in a sensory deprivation tank and possessing the body of some utter loser just to keep your sanity) > Mummy (there's 3 of you and you're just kinda not enough to unfuck the situation, it's pretty much injecting despair right into your heart).

Demons have some pretty sweet powers though.