So how exactly do you run a Promethians game? It seems really directionless. I have no idea how to create a story for this.
>>44138735
Promethean probably has the firmest direction of any WoD gameline. It's a fundamentally episodic gameline about a group of people who wander into situations (that they often indirectly either caused or escalate) that teach them valuable lessons about human nature. The main difference between Promethean and other WoD lines is that it's about a journey, rather than centering around one setting locale for the entire game.
The Incredible Hulk TV show is basically Promethean.
>>44138735
Like >>44138791 said, Promethean works really well as an episodic narrative with an overall goal. The disquiet and wasteland effect encourages moving from place to place regularly, while the Pilgrimage encourages interacting with new people and interesting things. They've all got one goal, and you've got fodder for mini arcs (Prommies meet a vampire! Prommies get trapped in a small town for whatever reason and need to wait for someone!)
The other major component is the Quasmalim. An Angel appears and ... [insert plot here]. Maybe its going to destroy a city with people the Prometheans like, and so it becomes a race to try and stop it. Maybe it tells them something important is at a specific location, and that sparks a whole adventure.
Road Trips are a good model too. Four prometheans in a camper van, going from coast to coast and encountering strange events along the way. Although that does make me wonder, would the Wasteland effect begin to generate specifically around the campervan over time. A moving black hole of unpleasantness that gets worse and worse over time but only really impacts on the rest of the environment when it parks.
>>44138791
That sounds like it's going to be a lot of work to run.
>>44139678
No more difficult than, say, D&D. Lots of games are built around travelling to different locations.
>>44139678
Its not really any more than any other game. If anything, the fact it comes with a default end goal for all the players that's actually achievable means that you can structure the plot like a real story with a beginning, middle and end. Fill out the middle with linked episodes that lead up to a finale where they can show all they've learned. You can even add in recurring villains in the form of Quashmal (for oblique, uncaring near unstoppable forces) and Centimani (for personal foils that are similar to the players but have very different motivations and could aim to tempt them to the dark side). You could even have a villain redemption arc with a Centimanus more easily than basically any other supernatural type.
>>44139708
Plus this. Its unusual for WoD to not be stuck to a single location all the time, but not RPGs in general.
>>44139643
>Although that does make me wonder, would the Wasteland effect begin to generate specifically around the campervan over time. A moving black hole of unpleasantness that gets worse and worse over time but only really impacts on the rest of the environment when it parks.
I want to know this.
>>44139920
I mean, when you think about it would basically be a single location that Prometheans stay in for extended periods of time. That's Wasteland generator 101. Mixed groups would delay the growth but not stop it.
I haven't got the book to hand, has anyone got the Wasteland rules?
>>44139920
Right, I looked the Wasteland rules up. Its p. 174 onwards of the main book, I can't remember if there's anything in the expansion ones.
>The first thing to understand about the Wasteland effect is how far and how quickly it spreads. When a Promethean arrives in a new, undisturbed area, the blaze of his Azoth mystically and invisibly scorches the land in the first place where he stops to rest for one full hour. This mystical mark applies to an area of about 20 yards in diameter. For the next 24 hours after this mystical mark is laid down, the mark remains where it is as long as the Promethean stays within a one-mile radius of the spot’s exact center. Should the Promethean remain within that one-mile-radius area for a full 24 hours, the Wasteland effect takes hold in that area at its first stage. Should the Promethean remain within that area for one full week, the Wasteland effect increases in severity to its second stage and the radius of effect increases. This increase stretches the radius of the effect a number of miles equal to the character’s Azoth, and the Wasteland effect takes hold at its first stage in this new territory.
>Thereafter, the Wasteland effect changes on a month-bymonth basis. At least one affected region always intensifies to the next stage over the course of the month, and the effect might also spread in that same period of time. If the character is not a careless wanderer, he can remain within his original one-mile boundary for a while and not inflict too much damage on the surrounding landscape. For every month that the Promethean spends within the extended area of his Wasteland (equal in radius to one mile plus a number of miles equal to his Azoth), the severity of the Wasteland in the original one-mile-radius area increases by one stage.
>>44140835
>The stage-one Wasteland area outside that original area does not increase in severity, though, unless the Promethean spent 24 or more consecutive hours in that extended area. If the Promethean does spend 24 or more hours in this surrounding area at any point during the month, though, the original area increases from stage two to stage three and the new area increases from stage one to stage two. The radius of the effect then increases again by a number of miles equal to the character’s Azoth. The Promethean may now move freely within the original area and the area immediately surrounding it without spreading the blight any farther. The Wasteland effect intensifies once more over the next month (bringing the stage-three area up to stage four and increasing the stage-two area up to stage three), but it does not grow as long as the Promethean remains within his new boundary. Should he move beyond it and stay in the surrounding stage-one area for 24 or more consecutive hours, the effect intensifies by one stage in each interior area and increases the radius of effect by another number of miles equal to the character’s Azoth.
>Remaining a hermit can keep a Wasteland contained for only so long, however. When a region of a growing Wasteland reaches its fifth stage of severity, it can’t actually get any worse. Instead, when its month at stage five ends and it would conceivably intensify to stage six, that region instead increases the intensity of the Wasteland effect in the immediately surrounding region and increases the radius of the over all effect (just as if the Promethean had stayed for 24 or more hours in the stage-one perimeter). If the Promethean happened to spend 24 or more hours in the stage-one perimeter anyway, the stage-fi ve region only increases the intensity of the region surrounding it once. It does not expand the radius of the Wasteland anymore than the Promethean’s wanderings already did.
>>44140870
There's some stuff about temporarily clearing Wasteland by burning Azoth, but that's not a long term solution.
>Aside from curing a Wasteland effect, the only way to mitigate the spread of the blight is to either remain confined to a small geographic area or form an alchemical pact with a throng of other Prometheans who are not of the same Lineage. Being part of a throng has no effect on the spread of the Wasteland in the fi rst 24-hour period or the one week period that follows that. Thereafter, however, being part of a Branded throng adds to the time it takes for the Wasteland effect to spread. The amount of time it adds is equal to an additional number of months per throng member who is not of the same Lineage as the one whose Wasteland effect is being considered. That is, the normal expansion of a Wasteland progresses one month at a time after that first day and subsequent week of seeding the Wasteland. If a Promethean is part of a Branded throng in which one member is not of his same Lineage, the fi rst period of expansion takes two months instead. If the Promethean’s Branded throng includes three others who are not of his Lineage, the expansion period is four months. Yet, while differing Lineages within a Branded throng slow the spread of the Wasteland effect, matching Lineages simultaneously extend the range over which the effect spreads. When calculating the distance over which the effect spreads in one period of time, multiply the character in question’s Azoth by the number of Prometheans in his Branded throng who share his same Lineage. Then add that number (in miles) onto the number of miles the Wasteland effect would normally spread in the same amount of time if the character were not part of the throng.
So looking at that, I'd say the Campervan definitely initially counts as " new, undisturbed area" of about "20 yards in diameter" that they stay in for an hour. Just driving to many places would do that. Assuming that they're living in it, the stage one Wasteland should happen fairly quickly. When they notice its getting bad they drive off, which is where things get a bit sticky. The area they were parked in definitely would remain a Wasteland for a while, but would the campervan itself? On the one hand, its essentially a living space that they're lingering in all the time and formed a major part of the original marked area. On the other, its not a wider poisoning of the earth.
Unless there are specific rules for how items that are constantly used by Prometheans are affected by their nature, I'd say that the van itself would become changed over time. The Wasteland is essentially the Divine Fire warping the area around the Promethean, if they're in the van all the time its going to soak up some of it. It probably won't be as noticeable as regular Wastelands for a while, which could lead the Promethean or Prometheans inside to get careless, but there's going to come a point where they stop for more than a day or two and then all hell is going to break loose. You'd better hope there's not an Ulgan aboard, or else the local Spirit world is going to APESHIT.
>>44141452
That's not a bad hook for a Werewolf game either. Everything is fine, then an Ulgan drives into town and parks somewhere nice and secluded. Suddenly all hell breaks loose.
>The Ulgan Prometheans belong to the element of spirit, and they stand at the threshold between the physical and
ephemeral world. When they stay too long in one place, the distinction between those worlds blurs, causing a host of bizarre troubles that are inexplicable to all but the Ulgan.
>Stage Two — Twilight spirits stir unceasingly. Voices whisper out of nowhere, taunting and teasing rattled listeners in languages they cannot understand.
>Stage Three — Jagged rents appear and disappear in the air, visible to physical witnesses but too fast for them to understand what they’re seeing. Spirits whisper ever more loudly to their chosen subjects, urging them to commit strange acts either for the spirits’ inscrutable benefi ts or against the aims of the Promethean.
>Stage Four — Holes tear themselves in the wall between the spirit realm and the material world and sometimes stay open long enough for things to emerge. Such things ride or possess mortals with uncommon facility (as the victims suffer a -1 penalty on the standard Resolve + Composure roll to resist possession). People even disappear as these holes yawn wide, blundering directly into the spirit realm before they realize what’s happened to them (and usually just before they hear the sickening sound of the barrier sealing behind them).
God knows what would happen if the Doom Van also develops a spirit reflection as it goes along.
>>44141562
>Doom Van
So I came to this thread cause I run a promethean game were the players have a van.
And they REALLY do call it the doom van so your name choice is errie.
Thoug thats partly because vehicles tend to explode if owned by pcs in my games.
Disquiet even spreads to Promethean threads, making them hit page ten before most well intentioned discussion.
