Jason: “Uber is unfortunately not running right now, due to The Apocalypse.”
Me: “Not even surge pricing?”
Jason: “So. We ended last session with Paul still in the Spiral Hive and Tom undergoing some fresh hell in the Underworld, but we’re going to put that on hold for a moment because tonight I want to focus on what’s going on in the real world. As the previous night ends, all the rest of your characters head to their various usual locations in the city for the day.”
Everyone: “Okay….”
Jason: “Then, some time later, they all awaken. Simultaneously, independent of Road or Path score.”
Everyone: “…Huh….”
Jason: “Rabenholz. As the oldest, you have the most experience with this sort of thing before and you instantly know something is wrong….”
I’m extremely excited to finally be able to share this with you. It’s something I conceived of pretty much from the first moment I learned combo-disciplines were a thing, well before Tom even got Obtenebration. I noticed that the canonical combo-disciplines using Obten were more for dramatic effect than strategic effectiveness, so I came up with this as an idea that’s a little bit of both and worked with Jason to hammer out the mechanics for almost two real-time years before I finally got to use it in play. We think the result is balanced pretty well, and from a narrative stand-point, both Jason and I agree that it’s the exact sort of thing that probably would occur from giving a Brujah Obten.
Me: “Wait, are you actually going along with Perpenna, or just going along with it while waiting for a better opportunity in the future to backstab him?”
Chris: “What’s the difference?”
I just wanted to take a brief moment to touch base and wish everyone a happy holiday season, whether you are a regular reader or just someone passing through!
I also want to apologize for the super delay in updates. As well as the usual drama of end-of-semester teaching and grading, this winter has been hard on my family. We had two major losses, one expected and one unexpected, so much of my energy these last few months has been devoted to family stuff. But, fortunately, I have been continuing work on transcribing, in fact I have about five and a half sessions noted down in raw format, but since the actual writing takes a lot more mental bandwidth that’s going much slower. On the plus side, having so many raw-transcriptions at once means that I’m able to smooth out a lot of plot holes and knots, so hopefully once things get rolling again it’ll read even better.
In any event, without question 2016 has been a very hard year for many people around the world, so I would like to say heart-felt thank you to those who continue to share your time with us. This game, and this writing project that’s spawned from it, have been one of the favorite parts of my life these last almost-four years–a source of personal growth as well as entertainment–and your continued support is the light that helps power it all.
That or I’m just glad to know there’s other people out there who appreciate asshole-ery as much as we do. 😉
Jim: “How do subs figure out where they are?”
Jason: “Well, GPS.”
Jim: “Even under the water?”
Jason: “Oh, no, not at depth. That would be sonar mappings. Soundings. Dead-reckoning to a point.”
Jim: “That’s…terrifying.”
Jason: “Yeaaah. Everything about submarines is terrifying. Everything.” *pauses* “Everything.”
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Me: “I mean, I am kinda curious, but Thrace is in Chinatown, and he knows I tried to kill him, so….”
Jason: “So you’re not going to follow them to Chinatown?”
Me: “WE CAN NEVER GO BACK TO CHINATOWN!”
Me: “…There’s no, like, security escape?”
Jason: “How the fuck should you know?”
Me: “Well normally there’s fire code—”
Jason: “Right, cause OSHA is totally involved in the construction of vampire dungeons.”
Me: “Knowing them, they’d probably insist on it.”
Jason: “Where you going?”
Me: “Across the bay to highway 24, north through the Caldecott tunnel.”
Jim: “Carrying how many weapons? On a motorcycle?”
Me: “…This is Tom’s M.O.”
Jason: “Tom…Intelligence roll, please.”
Me: *grumbles, rolls…* “…Two successes!”
Jason: “You suddenly recall, there are National Guard checkpoints all over the Bay Area.”
Jim: “And you remember what happened the last time you tried to cross a bridge while carrying a bunch of rockets?”
Me: “…”
Chris: “I’m imagining Rabenholz’s conversation with Theo Bell: ‘I know you’re fighting Perpenna and there are werewolves all over the East Bay, but there are more pressing concerns right now. Tom Lytton is loose.’”
Jim: “Mother of god….”
Me: “So…URG, I got like a thousand strings pulling me in a thousand directions at the moment. I could go back in time and save my dead boyfriend, or I could track down my estranged sister, or I could go save my werewolf-BFF-sister-from-another-mister—”
Chris: “Or you could keep making Paul proud.”
Me: “What? How?”
Chris: “You’ve been solving problems with non-violence!”
Jason: “For five entire minutes!”
Chris: “Yeah! You’ve been looking at people, finding their motivations, telling them things that make them want to act on the actions you want them to act on. You have become….a Toreador.”
Me: “…”
Jason: “And so, then it was that Tom murdered Paul.”
Me: “No, then it was that Colleen murdered Chris, let’s be clear here.”
 | Corvidae on #TimeHasNoMeaning |
 | LyttonUp on #TimeHasNoMeaning |
 | Will Lennard on 4/2/2015 |
| Corvidae on #TimeHasNoMeaning |
 | wispywillow0 on #TimeHasNoMeaning |
The Vampires of San Francisco 