stealthbanana
2nd of September, 2006, 17:13
Promethean Demo
A Brief Recollection
Okay, so tonight (being Friday, September 2nd 2006) my group decided to play the Promethean demo. The lot of us being a semi-experienced group of White Wolf players, we grabbed our dice, our character sheets and pencils, and dove into the Saturnine Night.
And what a night it would become. I think we should start with a quick recap of the players / characters.
Marcus – Widely known as the idiot-savant of the group, Marcus will often break up any intellectual conversation with things like “I farted,” or “I’d hit that shit,” the latter response often being in reference to something either A) dead or B) non-human. He also possesses a great sense of humor, and when we get him on track and feeling confident he is an excellent role-player. Marcus played Peter, a conspiracy theorist with paranoia of the worst kind. [Ulgan]
Jesse – The self-proclaimed know-it-all of our group, Jesse often plays intellectuals and distant controlling type characters. He goes off topic a lot, but when I’m not trying to steal his food or break something shiny of his, we usually get along and roleplay just fine. Jesse played Naomi, a kind, gentle doctor who cares for humanity more than she cares for her fellow Prometheans. [Nepri]
Steven – Our resident fat-man. Steven possesses a stunning array of knowledge when it comes to anything that shoots lead, and his characters usually show a similar type of uncanny and unlikely knowledge. He enjoys playing ruthless, mind-trip characters that ends fights with words as often as he ends them with a gunshot. Steven played Kelly, a ruthless real estate agent who, once again, managed to end up with a bloody gun. [Nepri]
Ben – Our resident Exalted nut. He will compare any thing, at any time to the game Exalted. Sometimes it makes me want to shoot him, but when he gets over the idea that all White Wolf games are just stupid metaphors for Exalted, we have a great time. He played Alex, a technophile and hacker of the highest caliber who hates humanity for what their kind did to him. [Tammuz]
Asian Ben – Our one-eyed software pirate, we call him Asian Ben because, well, he’s Asian and we’re assholes. He’s a bigger asshole, however, and generally plays sickeningly cute schoolgirl type characters. How I loathe that aspect of him. Strangely, he ended up with Mickey, the Frankenstein neo-nazi who was just as likely to punch you in the face as he was to speak to you. He really showed his colors when confronted with any sort of human condition. In response to the moral problem occuring when one plans to kill someones wife, Mickey responded by saying "Let's gate-crash this motherfucker and shoot her in the face." Oh, the Humanity of it all! [Frankenstein]
Tiffany – One of the few females in our group, Tiffany often sits back and laughs at all the weird shit we boys manage to dish out. She’s a solid role-player when you knock the arrogance out of her, and she ended up playing Linda, a perfectly formed woman who is used to using her looks to get her ways. [Galatea]
Of Virtue and Power
The game started off well enough. We worked out the few mechanical issues we didn’t understand and dove into the narrative. The player’s find out they can use electricity to heal themselves. They debate over whether or not they should help a woman in the process of being raped. They light a warehouse on fire. Much Humanity is lost within the first ten real-time minutes of the game. They escape into the night, and we move on to Act II.
I’ll just cover the highlights of Act II
Driving an SUV through the gates of a mansion and right into the front door. Exiting said SUV with firearms, scalpels, and scissors intent on killing a man’s (clone) wife. They even said hi to the man, who promptly gave up the baseball bat he was wielding and pointed them off in the direction of the clone they were after. After putting two bullets and a dose of Mickey’s fist into the clone, they exit, but not before Peter exclaimed, “Hey guys… what if this was the wrong house?” Much laughter (disturbing) ensued. Humaaaaaanity loss!
Peter taking a baseball bat to the head of a small (clone) child and coming out of the room covered in blood, giggling. He had lost his third point of humanity at that point, and was more than a little crazy.
Walking into the middle of a busy office, securing an interview with the president, and then at the last minute grabbing his (clone) assistant and jumping out a plate glass window to pile drive said clone into the ground four stories below. Once again, much humanity loss ensued.
The Act ended with the group breaking into a hotel room, beating a special ops unconscious and grabbing the other spec ops in the room before the cops showed up. They ran into the sewers, kneecapped him, and beat the information out of him. Naomi tried to help by patching him up, but then just left him in the sewers after they left to get the Real Bad Guy. Humanity loss? Nahhh…Act III was similarly horrifying. Loaded up with make-shift flame throwers, cheap Molotov cocktails (hotel room wet bar, how I loathe thee…), they set out for a shitty park where they heard the Real Bad Guy was holing up. After scaring off some possessed bums, Peter charged wildly at said Real Bad Guy with a baseball bat, who responded by shooting arcs of lightning at the group and stabbing them with a combat knife. The fight ended after Mickey punch him in the chest, both Kelly and Alex shot him, Naomi threw a scalpel right through his eye (goddamn those tens!), and then they burned his corpse and took his car keys.
Finally, at the end I was able to crush their spirits. They found plans indicating that more Real Bad Guys were doing similar Bad Things in other cities, and as Big Damn Heroes they had to do something about it. Or not. It was midnight, and I was too horrified to go on.
I chalk it up to White Wolf designing character that don’t mesh well together to begin with, people players characters they weren’t comfortable or skilled with, and playing creatures that are inherently loners.
All and all, Promethean is another hit for White Wolf fans. I'd say it's easily the best of the nWoD products released thus far, and I look forward to running a game of my own devising someday.
A Brief Recollection
Okay, so tonight (being Friday, September 2nd 2006) my group decided to play the Promethean demo. The lot of us being a semi-experienced group of White Wolf players, we grabbed our dice, our character sheets and pencils, and dove into the Saturnine Night.
And what a night it would become. I think we should start with a quick recap of the players / characters.
Marcus – Widely known as the idiot-savant of the group, Marcus will often break up any intellectual conversation with things like “I farted,” or “I’d hit that shit,” the latter response often being in reference to something either A) dead or B) non-human. He also possesses a great sense of humor, and when we get him on track and feeling confident he is an excellent role-player. Marcus played Peter, a conspiracy theorist with paranoia of the worst kind. [Ulgan]
Jesse – The self-proclaimed know-it-all of our group, Jesse often plays intellectuals and distant controlling type characters. He goes off topic a lot, but when I’m not trying to steal his food or break something shiny of his, we usually get along and roleplay just fine. Jesse played Naomi, a kind, gentle doctor who cares for humanity more than she cares for her fellow Prometheans. [Nepri]
Steven – Our resident fat-man. Steven possesses a stunning array of knowledge when it comes to anything that shoots lead, and his characters usually show a similar type of uncanny and unlikely knowledge. He enjoys playing ruthless, mind-trip characters that ends fights with words as often as he ends them with a gunshot. Steven played Kelly, a ruthless real estate agent who, once again, managed to end up with a bloody gun. [Nepri]
Ben – Our resident Exalted nut. He will compare any thing, at any time to the game Exalted. Sometimes it makes me want to shoot him, but when he gets over the idea that all White Wolf games are just stupid metaphors for Exalted, we have a great time. He played Alex, a technophile and hacker of the highest caliber who hates humanity for what their kind did to him. [Tammuz]
Asian Ben – Our one-eyed software pirate, we call him Asian Ben because, well, he’s Asian and we’re assholes. He’s a bigger asshole, however, and generally plays sickeningly cute schoolgirl type characters. How I loathe that aspect of him. Strangely, he ended up with Mickey, the Frankenstein neo-nazi who was just as likely to punch you in the face as he was to speak to you. He really showed his colors when confronted with any sort of human condition. In response to the moral problem occuring when one plans to kill someones wife, Mickey responded by saying "Let's gate-crash this motherfucker and shoot her in the face." Oh, the Humanity of it all! [Frankenstein]
Tiffany – One of the few females in our group, Tiffany often sits back and laughs at all the weird shit we boys manage to dish out. She’s a solid role-player when you knock the arrogance out of her, and she ended up playing Linda, a perfectly formed woman who is used to using her looks to get her ways. [Galatea]
Of Virtue and Power
The game started off well enough. We worked out the few mechanical issues we didn’t understand and dove into the narrative. The player’s find out they can use electricity to heal themselves. They debate over whether or not they should help a woman in the process of being raped. They light a warehouse on fire. Much Humanity is lost within the first ten real-time minutes of the game. They escape into the night, and we move on to Act II.
I’ll just cover the highlights of Act II
Driving an SUV through the gates of a mansion and right into the front door. Exiting said SUV with firearms, scalpels, and scissors intent on killing a man’s (clone) wife. They even said hi to the man, who promptly gave up the baseball bat he was wielding and pointed them off in the direction of the clone they were after. After putting two bullets and a dose of Mickey’s fist into the clone, they exit, but not before Peter exclaimed, “Hey guys… what if this was the wrong house?” Much laughter (disturbing) ensued. Humaaaaaanity loss!
Peter taking a baseball bat to the head of a small (clone) child and coming out of the room covered in blood, giggling. He had lost his third point of humanity at that point, and was more than a little crazy.
Walking into the middle of a busy office, securing an interview with the president, and then at the last minute grabbing his (clone) assistant and jumping out a plate glass window to pile drive said clone into the ground four stories below. Once again, much humanity loss ensued.
The Act ended with the group breaking into a hotel room, beating a special ops unconscious and grabbing the other spec ops in the room before the cops showed up. They ran into the sewers, kneecapped him, and beat the information out of him. Naomi tried to help by patching him up, but then just left him in the sewers after they left to get the Real Bad Guy. Humanity loss? Nahhh…Act III was similarly horrifying. Loaded up with make-shift flame throwers, cheap Molotov cocktails (hotel room wet bar, how I loathe thee…), they set out for a shitty park where they heard the Real Bad Guy was holing up. After scaring off some possessed bums, Peter charged wildly at said Real Bad Guy with a baseball bat, who responded by shooting arcs of lightning at the group and stabbing them with a combat knife. The fight ended after Mickey punch him in the chest, both Kelly and Alex shot him, Naomi threw a scalpel right through his eye (goddamn those tens!), and then they burned his corpse and took his car keys.
Finally, at the end I was able to crush their spirits. They found plans indicating that more Real Bad Guys were doing similar Bad Things in other cities, and as Big Damn Heroes they had to do something about it. Or not. It was midnight, and I was too horrified to go on.
I chalk it up to White Wolf designing character that don’t mesh well together to begin with, people players characters they weren’t comfortable or skilled with, and playing creatures that are inherently loners.
All and all, Promethean is another hit for White Wolf fans. I'd say it's easily the best of the nWoD products released thus far, and I look forward to running a game of my own devising someday.