VtR Questions and Scene Talk

[West]

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[West]

Not long after their earlier conversation, Reeve Antinori receives a text from Cross[...]

Okay, I think we need to have some talk about people playing fast and loose with time. You can't narrate when Scenes happen as you like, which seems to be going on a lot with the Longstreet body shuffle.

Scenes happen when they close. Period.

And I'm going to break down how that works in play:


6.24 Asa asks for Longstreet here.
6.27 Three days later, Alessandra calls Robert.
6.30 Robert goes to get Longstreet.

6.30 Robert > Alessandra: Longstreet woke up/tell Asa.
TBD Alessandra > Asa: We were going to bring Longstreet over, but he woke up.
TBD: Asa > Alessandra: Really? Because I asked for that body (at least) a week ago.

So, just an FYI. All this narrating 'right after' or 'later all that night' doesn't mean anything. Scenes happen when they close and trying to god-mod them isn't a CYA :P It's not that I want to be a jerk about a PC being in Torpor, but it irks me to be written into a corner :/

[unlimited sink]

Hey West,

Wasn't trying to God-Mod or write you into a corner. Sorry if it appears that way! I had every intention of having Cross bring Longstreet to the Nox as requested, but Yumyumcrow's reminder that Longstreet was due to wake up now (as in: at the time of Cross and Ale's phone conversation) kind of threw a wrench into those plans. The time weirdness emerges, I think, with that "Once in her car" at the beginning of Ale's comms post, denoting her call comes the same night as her meeting with Asa. Not blaming Orianna here, just trying to highlight why these actions made sense to me as unfolding on the same night. The two-day delay between that comms thread and my posts this morning are the result of consulting with Woland and Yumyumcrow as to an appropriate course of action.

That said, if it would be easier to wipe the slate clean and just play it as: Cross delivers Longstreet as promised to the Nox / Longstreet awakens there. That's fine with me! Whatever works for all involved.

Again, apologies for the chronological strangeness.

[West]

Honestly, if that 'same night' idea made sense to you, you need to re-read the rules. Continuity is very clearly covered. Again, not being a dick (altho I'm sure it seems I am) but the only way that could make sense is if you don't know the rules.
- http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Rules
- http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Scene

Longstreet waking has nothing to do with the price of tea in China. If you wrote a Glimpse dropping off his Torpid body today, it's still a week later. (And that sort of retcon would be up to YYC)

I'm not trying to single anyone out or say this is some god-awful thing that Asa's going to go nuts over...

...I'm just trying to say it's pretty clear people need to read the rules and consider how continuity works.

(and not assume other people's charity and good graces when they dawdle)

[West]

Also...

Just to be perfectly clear... I'm not going to make a fuss about this ICly. So no one worry, and lets try to get our two Torpid vamps back in play and everyone having fun.

But.

This is a perfect example of -why- we have to have continuity rules and why they need to be followed. Everyone can't treat the timeline as their personal plaything and relative -only- to their own character. Each character has to bow to the global continuity/timeline, rather than stretching it to suit them.

- What if Asa wanted Longstreets body for something time sensitive (like Vinc'ing him) ? I could have Vinc'ed or Diab'ed him a week ago and I can't now.
- It -should- annoy him that it took a week to fill out a simple request.
- What if we were actually clock-watching and Longstreet was due to wake up in transit?
- What if I were trying to get Longstreet a few posts in for the month to qualify for Longevity XP?

So the rules we have about Scene continuity is how we create the global timeline/continuity and arbitrate any confusion. That's why it's important to be aware of it -and- that it cannot be changed to suit each person.

Ideally, everyone walks away with from this more informed and stops trying to do it before it turns into a trainwreck/really matters.

[West]

I'm going to assume, for simplicity's sake, that Longstreet didn't use any of his Vitae to heal while in torpor, which puts him at 2 Agg and 4 Lethal at the moment (one healed automatically). I'm also going to assume that the man had the average 7 points of Vitae in him, 4 of which are spent on healing the Lethals at first opportunity. I am aware of the spending limit, but since this is not a combat scene I don't think it makes that big a difference. I know Crow/West is probably reading this, so if I'm wrong feel free to scold me.

Yeah, it's definitely always better to do a little bit of legwork and -follow the rules- instead of making assumptions.

Found this little tidbit really easily under the big 'Torpor' section of the book:

While in torpor, a wounded vampire can expend Vitae but can take no other action. His undead body still expends one Vitae per night as it tries to restore itself to its post-Embrace condition. The character can also expend Vitae to heal himself — a good idea, since otherwise the Vitae just trickles away without doing anything useful.

Of course, it's on the wiki, too.

Aren't you in the least bit embarrassed at having to be spoon-fed because you're too lazy to open a book?


So RL wakes with 0 Vitae, consumes 7 Vitae, and expends 4, leaving him with 3 and owing a Degeneration Roll for Murder.

[West]

No, not really, because it's not laziness that is at fault here, but miscommunication on my part (and perhaps, indeed, I misread the rules, but not in the way you think).

In that case, that's why it's important to have an accurate recording of either the starting Vitae pool or current Vitae pool -- of which you had neither, so you were 'declaring' that LS began the Scene at his full AVP which is why I said what I said.

[Parable]

I had a question about Occult and Baddacelli Bloodline knowledge that's come up in my scene's conversation. Kenneth currently has Occult 2 so he potentially knows about Clan Bloodlines; which Baddacelli is Nos. However, Baddacelli also falls under Chosen Bloodlines which requires occult 3 to know about fluff.

Is Gilroy able to roll to see if he knows about Baddacelli?

[West]

Okay, so the Occult 'knowledge tiers' (for lack of a better term) came into existence when there was a LOT of liberty being taken with characters spouting obscure mechanics or details that were clearly out of scope of their Occult Skill dots. Something -had- to be done to stop players form just spewing mechanics at will and unfortunately the original discussion threads about the limits are long gone.

So the way it works is that the examples given are what you can know 'off the cuff' without rolling. As you move up/away from your personal knowledge base, it's a penalty per tier. Kenneth is one step removed, so he could roll for Badacelli fluff but not specifics about their Mimetismo, weaknesses, etc. It would be up to YYC what that penalty would be...

...however...

Clan Bloodline 'supersedes' Chosen Bloodline, so Kenneth has a working knowledge of the Badacelli (with no roll) and -could- roll for specifics. I designed the system that way to try to preserve the integrity/idea of Clan 'closeness'. Nobody knows you like your family!