Here’s some hopefully welcome crunch, as I work on taking into account all of the player feedback from the previous Kindred and technology post. It sounds like players are wanting fewer generalities, but also fewer extreme specificities. Gotta find that sweet spot in the middle, which has been a challenge (but fun). The plan is to give more stuff that’s usable in a story, whether in the form of a ritual (below) or a plot possibility (as with the Giovanni section from the previous excerpt). Is this headed in the right direction for your tastes? Let me know!
"I think what we're dealing with here is some sort of psychic Dracula teenager criminal YYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH"
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<3>Simulacrum of Life (Level-Two Thaumtaurgical Ritual)
<n>This ritual allows the Kindred to display all of the vital “signs of life” that briefly cause her to appear as mortal: respiration, blood movement, temperature, brain activity, etc. However, these vital signs appear only to scans performed by medical equipment such as EKG meters, CAT scans, even stethoscopes and thermometers. The ritual does not create any physical effects such as a pulse or bleeding, but simply causes a standard result to be displayed by the medical device in question. The signs displayed are uniform, showing no variance or excited activity (which may cause some suspicion in and of itself). The ritual remains in effect for the duration of the scene, fooling any and all medical devices in that time.
As a separate invocation of the ritual, the effect may be cast upon a talisman — any physical object — that confers this ritual’s effect on any single Kindred carrying or in contact with the talisman.
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Combined with the blush of life effect, you could just pass yourself off as a human with a very weak pulse. Neat!
I’d actually advise opening it up to all elements of technology, not simply medical ones. Although you could get away with it by saying that something like a thermal camera is, to be technical, a medical device, that would stop a lot of player and GM arguments right there. Something like a chaoscope would not be affected, though!
Yes, that was one of the things on which I wanted to gauge feedback. Should this expand to account for multiple technological devices? Or, in the interests of limiting the “must-have” ritual, should a variety of these exist for a variety of different technologies? Should make for interesting discussion.
I think as a level 2 ritual this is great. I’d say for a more inclusive tricking of technology, such as thermal cameras, it should either be a higher level ritual (level 3 say) or simply make a higher level ritual that accounts for more technology.
Not sure how to phrase it, but a useful distinction could be: If trying to determine if you’re alive or your condition of living health, you read as alive. For all other purposes, you’re still an ambulatory corpse and are read as such.
Clarifying example popped into my head:
A thermographic camera would still see you as a cool region, but a thermometer under the tongue would register a body temperature (presumably low, but within plausible human range).
A more game-useful phrasing (and hopefully less likely to create table-arguments from ambiguity) might say draw the distinction between something specifically measuring the vampire, versus the vampire happening to be in a more general scan. This makes it useful without making the Tremere have no more problems upholding part of the Masquerade. Which, unless my reading comprehension has taken a dive, is what you’re aiming for with the original phrasing.
I tend to prefer crunch, save when it’s lore related…as with this. I think it would be a good “must-have” ritual for the more modern kindred, those that understand that technology can unmake many a lick. Elders thaumaturges will not want it, given the rare time they spend risking their necks and needing it. As for variety, maybe there could be a level 3 version of the ritual that you can use on other kindred…which many Tremere can use to reap boons from other vampires in compromising positions?
I missed the second part of the ritual…seems you already do that! Still, my point of Tremere using this on other kindred stands.
In terms of generalities/specifics, I’d start with an overall theme – like CSI: Masquerade – and then “drill down” to some specific examples that provide story hooks. This ritual is a good example of a story-hook specificity to Margali’s general theme of “technology threatens the Masquerade”. It immediately started me thinking about why it was first developed and who’s using it, which is what a hook should do.
I think the nitty-gritty of the ritual itself could stand some tweaking. A stethoscope or ultrasound uses sound waves, whereas X-ray, MRI and thermometers all use different portions of the EM spectrum. They’re very different, and yet a single talisman can fake all those different readings? “One ring to fool them all, one ring to blind them…”
You could argue that expecting realism and logic in a game about vampires is missing the point. But to me, it would make more sense if the talisman were actually working like a life-support machine, thaumaturgically stimulating the organs and nerves into activity to provide all those different fake readings.
Unlike the Blush of Life, I think that the constant alien stimulus ought to impose a penalty – maybe a +1 on perception-based rolls due to distraction – because the Blush of Life is a function of vitae and part of the Kindred’s normal “life” process, whereas this is an external influence poking the body into activity every couple of seconds.
Given how low level rituals like Defense of the Sacred Haven are (useful every night/day and life-saving) I’d say that letting the one ritual affect all scans and readings is fine. I could see splitting off the “affect others” aspect into a seperate third level ritual, though.
Just a vocabulary note — the word “simulacrum” implies an object, not a condition. Is there a better name for the ritual?
“Simulacrum” here refers to the vampire. I thought about using something that described the state, but I recall an old Merit or some such named “Blush of Life” and worried that it might tread too closely. I might have to just rename the whole thing.
I thought the Merit was called “Baby Face”. I vaguely recall that it was in the first edition Players’ Guide, or maybe the second. I always thought Blush of Life referred to using vitae to simulate life.
Could be. I know I’ve used the phrase before, but I’m not turning it up as such in an archive search. After millions of words, my brain starts to overflow.
System? ingredients? otherwise i like it.
Looking at this in conjunction with the previous post on the Independents and technology, I wonder if the organization of the chapter(s) should be changed?
You’ve broken your consideration of technology down by clan. In practice, though, there’s going to be some overlap between the technologies that each clan uses, even for its specialized strengths. Ventrue have as much use for financial tracking software as Giovanni. The Gangrel will find a GPS device as valuable as the Ravnos. Elders of any clan might invest in computer-controlled defences that are immune to mental Disciplines. Every Kindred, young or old, has an interest in defeating forensic advances that threaten the Masquerade. A clan-based breakdown means wasting word count on duplication, surely?
Why not instead organize the chapter by technological category – personal communication, computing, forensics and so forth? For each one, consider the opportunities if offers to the Kindred, the threats it presents and how they defeat them (which could include things like this ritual), and the impact it’s had on Kindred society. For example – has the Camarilla used cell cameras and forensic advances to justify a crackdown on the anarchs? Have the anarchs or the archons best used communications advances to min-max the impact of their limited numbers, and why? Is the Sabbat philosophy of “we don’t need no steenkin’ Masquerade” showing any cracks?
You could always include a sentence or two noting that some clans find more use for particular technologies than others, but some technologies, like smartphone cameras, are now so ubiquitous that their impact won’t be confined to a single clan.
Great idea, Jez.
This gentleman just reinvented clever.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the chapter arranged as a sequence of IC reports by iconic characters such as Masika St. John (Blood magic and technology), Douglas Netchurch (Cainite physiology or “what precautions you should take not to rip the Masquerade wide open”), Smiling Jack (how to fool your elders) and Jan Pieterzoon/Beckett/Aristotle DeLaurent (how Technology aids occult research, from carbon-14 datation to geophysical methods in archaeology)?
Very nice idea.
Why not make it a set of forum posts on Schrecknet? Or a single essay which a set of different posters have commented on, Shadowrun-style? cWoD used that format a lot in the Hunter series, and even in Road of Kings for Dark Ages. I think it worked very well. And it would be a very appropriate format for the topic.
I’m a little leery of delving back into whole chapters that are from IC perspectives. They cost a lot in terms of word count, because you have to establish context, and I’m already kicking word count in the junk on this chapter.
Pity, but I see where you’re coming from. I get the feeling that you’re trying to cram a book-sized topic into a chapter, and feeling the pinch. Would it be worth your while to release the “overflow” material as a separate pdf? I don’t know how publishing electronically through DriveThru affects your break-even calculations.
You’ve got a ton of potential for modern-tech-related SAS-type Masquerade scenarios… “Online identity theft can be useful to an immortal. But what if you steal the wrong identity?”. Maybe selling your additional notes would help gauge whether a “tech scenario” SAS compilation, or sourcebook expansion, or whatever, would sell?
We’re in agreement on this. I broke the organization (again). Goddamn this chapter.
So, going back to the drawing board, there’s not as clean a division by clan/ sect (I still have a morgue of material at the bottom of the doc, which I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to keep or cut), but the bulk of the doc is actually about the technology and how vampires use it, as opposed to about vampires and their favorite technologies.
Iteration! Feedback! Internet.
I think this ritual is kinda like the get out of jail free card. It takes away the necessity for Cainites to be cunning and careful when dealing with mortal society, which takes away much of the coolness of the modern day setting imho. I foresee that 99% of all new characters will be created with a small boon owned to the Tremere for a Simulacrum of Life Talisman… Bleh.
As an ST, I don’t think I’ll allow it for PC’s. However, I think I’ll use this ritual (or rather, the talisman) to be used as punshment for characters that get in Masquerade trouble. The Prince arranges for the character to be pulled out of trouble and is given a talisman as a guarantee that the character won’t f*ck it up anymore. ‘If you need this talisman, you’re too inept to be trusted to make it on your own’. That sort of thing.
Well, if the Talisman was just a one-shot item, however, its effects only lasting X hours (where X is equal to the number of successes rolled) from the moment it was worn, it would stop being a “get out of jail free” card.
Just thought it might be worth considering.
True *thumbs up*
Note that it lasts only for the duration of the scene in which it’s invoked. I know the system is missing, but:
1) Is the duration too long, and
2) Is it really an issue if the player “preps” the ritual during each scene? I don’t think that’s any different from activating any other Discipline (especially defensive Disciplines) as they’re necessary.
True, that does help. A talisman that only works for a scene once it’s activated. I suppose a bloodpoint would reactive it again the next scene? Or would a trip back to the Tremere salesman be in order? Details, I know, but it helps to place this Talisman in it’s right proportions
I prefer to keep it to work during one scene only (on the same night the ritual was performed). If you want it to work multiple times (still during the same night, I think) it’s better to increase the level of the ritual (make a third leve ritual).
Eh…. I would tie duration to blood expended.
1 point = 5 minutes game time/3 rounds combat time….why would you use this in combat?
2 points = hour/scene
3 points = 5 hours-ish (just about long enough to get out of ER Trauma)
These need to be thought out longer than I have thought it out (which is exactly the same length as typing this post)
also of note, this ritual does not cover the vast majority of medical tests I would assume – So if your Tremere HAS to go to the hospital to keep up the masquerade (like..you fell out of a 20 story window…), it will help with the x-ray, but I doubt it will do shit when they draw blood for testing. With that limitation in mind, it isn’t TOO powerful or TOO long.
This ritual will be great even as a Necromantic Ritual with some changes (capture wraith – brainwash wraith – put wraith in laptop => got undead firewall)
maybe as a level 3 or 4
ehm… I oversimplified… sorry
I was talking of as a “firewall”
(damn html encode)
** I was talking of “As a separate invocation of the ritual, the effect may be cast upon a talisman — any physical object — that confers this ritual’s effect on any single Kindred carrying or in contact with the talisman.” as a “firewall”
While I like the general idea, a ritual to hide your nature to a general medical examination, I’m extremely vary of expanding it to other technology at large. Why? Simply because I feel it cheapens the Masquerade and the danger of human innovation that technology represents. Also as someone mentioned this would give the Tremere a considerable edge compared to other licks and while I love the Tremere I don’t think beating technology is where their strong suit should be.
Although I am rather interested in the materials and costs of this ritual as it lasts only a scene, which means if it has proper requirements that acts as a really suitable limiter on this one keeping players from trying to wear technology fooling talismans all night long.
Here’s a Necro ritual I wrote the other day, funny that you put the CSI pics up there.
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Ritual: “CSI Techs Are Stupid” (Basic) A custom ritual that allows a necromancer to alter a corpse to change its cause of death to even the most skilled CSI investigator. To perform this ritual, the necromancer combines a trait of his blood with a handful of grave earth and cooks it over a brazier burning with dried wood and a small amount of dead flesh. The blood and earth converts to a black ichorous substance which is poured into the body. The stipulation of this ritual is that the cause of death simulated must be at least as violent as the original.
Some examples, though many are possible: A bullet wound in the head can be healed and replaced with a knife wound to the chest. Pneumonia can be made to look like a heart attack. Cancer can be made to look like AIDS. Burn wounds can be healed and the lungs filled with water. Exsanguination can be made to look like sexual assault and strangulation. In the case of exsanguination, the ritual substance replaces the blood lost, though this “fake” blood will pass any scientific test it cannot be drank for nourishment. The only cause of death that can’t be simulated is natural old age.
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When deciding on word count for this section, remember that Thaumaturgy is practiced by exactly one Camarilla clan and one minor faction of two Independent clans. It was always frustrating buying certain books (MET Guide to the Camarilla) and finding half of the word count being used for Thaumaturgy. Great, what about those of us who don’t play Tremere? Why does every book have to have 100 pages of kewl tremere powerz and ignore the rest of the clans? Why did Thaum need 2 whole books in CWOD? Does it really need more space here? Sure some players like playing Tremere, but assume they’re roughly 1/7th of any Coterie of PCs, why does their stuff get so much space while the Brujah haven’t had anything eventful happen in their history since Carthage? It comes down to White Wolf’s biggest weakness as a publishing company; you print books full of neat stuff and then tell players “oh but this is so rare you can’t have this.”
If I wanted another book full of magic I’d buy Mage.
They’re a publishing company, they have to write what sells. I guess the first Thaumaturgy book sold well enough to justify a sequel. Although I think the primary value of those books was for non-Tremere characters, exploring the distinct sorceries of the Assamites, Setites and Tzimisce.
That said, I don’t actually disagree; using Thaumaturgy as a get-out-of-jail-free card would be a mistake. Yes, it would be incredibly useful in some situations, but would the Ventrue, in particular, want the Camarilla any more dependent on the Tremere than they already are? That has story potential, actually. A faction of the Tremere is focussing on technological and forensic countermeasures with an eye to collecting Prestation debts. The elders of the other clans are either cracking down harder on Masquerade violations, or developing new strategies to deal with them by non-magical means, or both.
Some Tremere might be engaged in a kind of arms race, magic versus technology, but that’s not the only option the Kindred have. In general, I think the modern world would favour the Grand Admiral Thrawn approach; don’t rely on new gimmicks/superweapons/disciplines, just apply your existing advantages in ingenious and innovative ways. If modern forensics threaten the Masquerade, sink millions into medical research think-tanks and circulate papers on “recently discovered genetic abnormalities” that create “haemoglobin anomalies”. (Remember Schere’s Disease from White Wolf magazine?). Scientists who want to collect a pay cheque will always go for a scientific explanation in preference to a supernatural one, after all.
“A faction of the Tremere is focussing on technological and forensic countermeasures with an eye to collecting Prestation debts.”
I like this idea,
actually, a minor branch of Tremere (the ones who cherish the Techomancy Path) can be actively pursuing technological and forensic countermeasures as their ideal of Thaumaturgy, without giving an edge to the Clan Tremere as a whole.
Is hinted in a some books that the main core of Clan Tremere dislikes the techomantic Thaumaturgy, going as far as confiscate the “Techomancy Grimoires” (“The 8 Disks” or something like that), so a techologist Tremere have an edge on the Camarilla politics/prestation-pursuit/status using his abilities, but the plus are balanced by a deep distrust from the elder of his Clan.
I think that the write-up said that Technomancy is distrusted by some clan elders, but was approved by the Council of Seven. The clan as a whole respects those who make effective use of any tool of power, although some individual elders might feel threatened by new forms of sorcery in which they have less expertise than their subordinates. I wonder if that might tempt some Tremere elders – very, very quietly – to help the other clans limit the Tremere’s use of the tactic?
Probably.
Furthermore, in “Blood Magic” say clearly that some conservative elders seized the original document of the Techomancy Path. So, we can speculate some praticants of the “mystic” Thaumaturgy (probably Traditionalists or Guardians of Tradition) aren’t really friendly toward the Techno-Tremere…
And with this we got a plot were the Tremere, after running out of the Ascension War, recreated the parody of the Ascension War within their blood.
I couldn’t agree more. Rituals are the most fuzzy part of the rules. Learning a ritual is based on ST boot-licking, not XP and they are only available, if you have the right Discipline AND the right clan. The ritual mechanics in Werewolf or even the Sabbat are much neater. And the worst part: before V20 they were spread over virtually all rule books plus a few city books. Experienced Tremere character sheets would often include dozens of copied pages to have the rules for the rituals handy.
Please do not rewind the clock by adding useful and highly relevant world shaping rituals into something that is neither the core book nor a specialized magic book.
Or at the very least add a disclaimer that the ritual is an optional rule and requires explicit ST permission.
A few years ago, for LARP purposes, I had the huge technology fanboy of a Tremere Regent having created Apps for the rituals and Tremere communication (with awesome lol-references to Apple, like “there is a ritual for that”.. the guy was feared like hell by the PCs).
Kind of like Masika Saint Johns invented the path of technomancy…
Try to apply the path of tecnomancy to an IPad who has 3G, and you open the doors to about all internet devices in the world. The schrecknet got nothing on them
What does The Mentalist have to do with tech?
What about a tech revolution on Clan Tremere…?
kairam, thats right, no clan can do a revolution in that way like tremere.
and Justin can you give us something like a ward vs cyber – intruder? The name sucks but you got it, thats the obvious ritual.