From: kbos@carina.unm.edu (Kurt "Some Guy" Bose)
Subject: Re: SJ Games Licenses White Wolf's Vampire
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 09:59:00 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1e989lINN3vb@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn) writes:
>Kurt Bose writes:
>>Which brings up another point.  Who will write the GURPS supplements?  One of
>>the good things about WW has been the relative cohesiveness of the game in
>>terms of the similar worldview of the authors.  
>
>Too bad the rules aren't written with any cohesiveness at all.

Ah.  White Wolf 101.  My favorite subject.  Hang on, boys and girls...

  The player's
>escalation handbook

Player's _Guide_.  

>introduces Chimenistry, which can in effect render
            Chimerstry.  Yes, I'm nitpicking...:)

>redundant Obfuscate, given the absolute lack of thought that went into the
>power.
Hmmm.  Obfuscate may be said to be a specialized form of Chimerstry, adapted
towards a chameleon-like ability to blend into one's surroundings, or it may
be a completely unrelated ability developed by the Nosferatu as a compensation
for their hideous appearance, or as a reaction to said appearance.  It's not
in any way relevant, really, except for the comment that anyone whose only
use of Chimerstry is to duplicate Obfuscate might, in fact, be better off with
Obfuscate...for that person hasn't the soul of a Gypsy.

> Illusions.
Well, yes...

>  Can I create the illusion that I'm not there?

What do you want?  Use Level One to make yourself invisible to the eye.  But
don't move, or the illusion isn't static.  And don't breathe, because the
illusion only works on sight.  You need levels three and two, respectively,
to move the illusion or to extend it to many senses...but you can only make
the illusion move in one manner.  Gee, it would be easier to use Obfuscate.
Guess it isn't "redundant"...

  Can I
>create the illusion that I look like someone else?

If you just don't want to look like yourself, get Obfuscate III.  If you 
need to look like someone else, you can, again, get Chimerstry 1 for a 
static illusion, Chimerstry 3 for a moving illusion (but only one set of
actions), and Chimerstry 6 for the ability to create multiple illusions (due
to the fact that you don't need to spend Willpower...)

  Can I create the illusion
>that the subject has been shot in the back (only one sense, so I'll mimic
>the gunshot noise.)

Well, if you know what the sound of someone firing a shot into someone's 
spinal cord sounds like, sure.  Or, you can use level 3 and simulate the
whole shebang, movement, looks, sound, smell.  Of course, your gamemaster
will have to figure out just how that helps you...

  Can I create the illusion that he's not speaking?
>
There's a fairly easy one.  Yes, under Chimerstry 1, you can project the
illusion of silence.  You'd need level two to project the illusion that his
lips are closed...

>The very opening of the Player's Guide admits that the book was intended
>to be for all types of vampire players, including methusalah hunters.
>Of course, I can choose not to use rules that don't fit, that I don't like.
>Of course, I can change the ones that don't work well, or don't work at 
>all. 

Well, yes, you can do that in any game.  V:tM just has the forethought to
admit that different parts of the game are not appropriate to certain genres
of Chronicles.  Your basic Methuselah hunter...if all he wants to do is kill
a solitary Elder, and has little or no interest in politics and boons and
the Camarilla and Chantries, etc...etc..., he doesn't care what the procedure
is regarding that sort of thing, and anyone who broke up the continuity of
a session to call someone on a point like that would be called a rules lawyer.
If you aren't prepared to forsake the letter of the rules to preserve their
spirit, then you'd have a hard time playing _any_ game system.

>I ask you this, in the midst of all my changing: what am I spending
>money for? 

In a nutshell?  An excellent, uncumbersome, flexible gaming system with one
of the best developed fully comprehensive worlds in the entire field of 
role-playing.  Yes, that "fully developed" part includes any of the so-called
gaming worlds of D&D, and it includes all of the GURPS "worldbooks".

>Bradstreet is the only contributor with whom I have no problems.
>
>And he's one of the artists.
>
He is good, isn't he???  But as far as I'm concerned, Tony Harris's work on
the splash pages in the Storyteller's Handbook is incredible for sheer 
creepiness...



-- 
Kurt Bose (as in Daisy, not Rose) * kbos@carina.unm.edu * Make outs, not walks!
TONIGHT-In "Ryecatcher", Holden Caulfield foils a plot to turn his old prep
school into a right-wing military acadamy run by Neo-Nazis. 8PM(7PM C/M) Ch. 7
                                                        -The Book of Sequels...
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