"Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives"—Spy for your sire to save an undead Prince!

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That’s right! Their deformities can be shaped in a way that evokes the uncanny valley instead of straightforwardly abhorrent. I found it pretty cool actually, again as someone who used to play as Nosferatu in previous editions it’s good to see one of my favorite clans turning into more player-friendly roles.

Edit: Also as I just checked in the book, their clan bane severity varies alongside their blood potency. Thus, age and/or generation may influence directly in their appearance!

Edit²: As a Qui fangirl I must say YES HE IS MAGICALLY HOT AND IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT COME AND FIGHT ME

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Hi everyone! Was wondering if anyone has any tips for the last three achievements I’ve been hunting down :slight_smile: I’m trying to get the Snooping, Dead Bodies Everywhere, and With Friends Like These achievements but haven’t quite figured t hem out yet - I’ve really enjoyed this game and had a lot of fun playing it!

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Since Mr Dean is here and we’re talking about character construction, I would like to ask something about it.

Mr Dean, in your process of character creation, did you planned them based in the character creation displayed on tabletop V5 or through regular/general narrative character creation technique?

If you used V5, I’d like to ask about Bouchard again (him, alongside with Qui and Corliss turned to be my top 3 favourite characters in the videogames I’m currently playing, so sorry if I talk too much about them). I simply love character creation, and since I’m currently working as a game writer I spend toooooo much time researching about it, sometimes in TV Tropes, and found the “Sour Outside, Sad Inside” trope that just fits Bouchard very well (please correct me if I got it all wrong).

So, in terms of play, in the 5th edition of Vampire The Masquerade the vampires need to have touchstones attached to their convictions to keep up their humanity. When reading through Bouchard’s route and learning about his past with Gloria and the painting she gave to him, I was wondering whether the painting was a touchstone for Bouchard or not, since Gloria was dead for a long time now (considering, of course, that he follows the path of humanity, since that’s the standard for V5 right now), and the conviction that was attached to it. Although the book says that touchstones must be a living person, since you worked closely with Paradox/White Wolf/whoever the IP owners are now, I wonder if they expanded the concept of touchstones or I am just blatantly wrong about your characters and making no sense at all.

Sorry for any weird phrasing, I know my english is not the best, I hope I made myself clear and wasn’t rude ><

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I think I got the Snooping by playing Nosferatu, getting free from Hauberk in the streets, and instead of going to Alisha’s exhibition I went right to the address he left in my pocket. From there the MC climbed in a building to spy on Ward and Sevinc, and if you have Obfuscate you won’t get caught. If you try this without Obfuscate, tho, Sevinc will find you and toss your ass in the asphalt below. Ouch. The other one I can’t remember and the last one I haven’t achieved yet, sorry :frowning:

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Oooh that’s super helpful!!! thanks I’ll try it out >:D

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Snooping : After being ambushed by Hauberk on your way to the exhibition in chapter 5, you must successfully escape him. Once you’re alone, choose to spy from the roof of a tall building and pass a check with dexterity or resolve of more than 44.

Dead Bodies Everywhere : Go to Arundel’s villa in chapter 10 and guess the wrong password in the basement twice.

With Friends Like These: Ally with Vivian, go to Arundel’a villa, and betray her. Fail this check to get this unique ending: ((strength > 69) and (composure > 49))

Standard character creation in my own head, aided by the rule books (including my old Revised book and v20 editions.) I wanted a Primogen from all major Camarilla clans, so I started there and fleshed them out on paper. I’ve never really made a full character sheet for any of them except Jordan because I was trying to figure out exactly what their power set should be and I was having a hard time.

Normally in my writing, I start with basic ideas for what I want my characters to be like, and they take shape while I write them in the first few chapters. Usually by chapter 3 or 4, they’ve told me who they are and I go back to make some revisions to keep them in-character.

I just looked it up, and yeah, that fits pretty well. Like a lot of my characters, Bouchard came to me while I wrote. I decided somewhere in chapter 2 that I wanted his lair to be full of well-preserved weapons from all eras and that he was ancient compared to most of the other resident Kindred. From there I decided that unlike many Nosferatu, he hated technology and kept things written on pieces of paper rather than a modern Nos network like SchreckNet. He became a luddite from there (see the relevant achievement) and I could tell he was pining after something from the past.

He didn’t tell me what his touchstone was or vulnerabilities were until I wrote chapter 8. As you might expect from a guy like Bouchard, he didn’t open up to me right away. He took his time. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s just kind of how I write most of the time: basic outline and description, try out some dialog so they can get a voice, describe their home environment, and let them grow into it.

Thematically, that was the intention, yes.

The main things we worked on were making sure that everything fit with lore, location, style, and lexicon. We very rarely got into the actual nuts and bolts of character creation because PoK’s not actually a tabletop game. Rules-wise, most of the notes they gave me were related to how I used disciplines; they were very specific about a lot of that.

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Thank you very much for the guidance!!

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Noooooo It makes a lot of sense actually it’s the way I do it too but I thought that it was because of my ADHD because no one else that I know in person creates characters that way and every time I say something like that people act like it’s a “wrong” way of doing it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I feel so good right now

Thank you very very very much, I really love to learn about your creative process and characters! I’m so grateful the author of my new favourite game is such an accessible person! :heart:

Also, can I ask you some more tiny, quick questions? This time about Corliss. As far as we know, if I got it correctly, she diablerized the previous Prince, and got her back covered by Arundel in a plot to take over the city under the statement that she (the Prince) was actually Sabbath. Is this actually correct and Grace was in fact Sabbath or is it just what Arundel and his allies set up to “soften” things and justify their coup? Also, as stated both in V5 and the previous editions of VTM, when a kindred commit diablerie, there’s a contest of wills between the victim and the assailant, and there’s a chance that the victim could actually get over the assailant’s mind if they’re not strong-willed enough. But in V5 specifically the Beast itself can “talk” to the vampire and even surface and have influence in the kindred behaviour if they get a bestial failure. Throughout the game Corliss show some strange behaviours now and then, going from a perfectly calm, stoic and polite (cold, even) to a bloodthirsty, vicious and full of wrath in a matter of seconds. Is this how she was intended to be or are the furious rampages part of Grace’s personality that shows up from time to time or is it her Beast taking over? If the first one is correct, how much of Corliss is actually there? Is something she had under control at some point and now is surfacing because of Arundel’s absense or she had lost the contest of wills in the diablerie and she is actually Grace acting as Corliss this whole time?

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Fwiw this CoG author does it that way too. :slight_smile:

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AAAAAAAAA that’s so great! It’s so nice to know people who are like that! I’m so pleased lol

I’m sorry, I’m new to this forum and to CoG games (I had played only 2 of them by now), what’s your game? I’d love to take a look!

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Mine is Choice of Rebels-- thread over here.

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OMG this looks awesome! Gonna check this out as soon as possible, for sure! Thank you very much :heart::heart::heart:

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Gotta say the art for this game is utterly gorgeous. But really? CANADA? Dont tell me cause the Vampires don’t feel the cold. Okay, now I see the Prince as Trudeau! Oy Vey! :rofl:

@GreekWinter kay, finished playing. I gotta say I enjoyed the game. Left me frustrated on some front, but all in all, it was fun.

I joined my sire twice lol let’s just say the Anarch side wasn’t appealing, and Ward is a horrible actor. Also, really? I get Quebec? Urgh. Give me Vancouver damnit! Unless you make Legault a Ghoul…I don’t want Quebec!

For romance? Jordan was okay I guess. Qui is fine. But feel really…human? he remind me of well…kinda give me the vibes he should be in the Minutemen in fallout and not a Vampire lol

Jordan was fine, but I’m wondering if her romance would change if you are with the Anarch. She come off as an anomaly outside of all this conflict.

My
candidate for a romance are: The Archon (What? I like to live dangerously. Think Long distance-Fling-friend with benefit relationship).
Your sire (She is in a perpetual ‘Annoyed’ mood, maybe a Smooche would help with her wrinkles?)
Your Sister (She got more screentime than Jordan, and if I side with my sire…she would be perfect as a romance, you know? like one for X side and one for Y side?)
This brings me to the last candidate! The lady with the dogs! (Saw her only once, but that was plenty…nice doggie…)

Outside of that, I gotta say the game left me hanging on a few things: Like confronting Ophelia? I never get to tell my sire I saw her or heard her in her office. And nothing come up from that. Being Loyale to my Sire, still end me in Jail with Sister as the interrogator, that was weird. Especially when I’m told ‘You are her favorite’, and I’m like…when? on Sunday?

So, we go
to the mansion and find the Abbatoire. And where is the damn Prince?
I liked the sire we get, but I gotta say I found that her biography really doesn’t match her personality. I don’t know why Vampires are always written as sycophants, that always snap at little things, lose their tempers, and know no patience. I’m like HELLO! You are IMMORTAL! What’s the freaking rush? Didn’t you get Vampires Etiquette training? :rofl:

Anyway, all in all: I had fun! so there you have it. :grin:

Oh yeah, about the Art? I said it was gorgeous. But really, that whole ‘Vampire must have a line of blood down their chin’ thing? Unnecessary. And it make me wanna dab the darn thing away…like you guys don’t know how to drink your blood? Tsk, someone need a dib! :sweat_smile:

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I can relate, I would die to ̶m̶o̶m̶m̶y̶ ̶s̶t̶e̶p̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶m̶e̶ smooch Corliss :pleading_face::pleading_face::pleading_face:

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That must be due to the VtM Humanity system. It is pretty difficult to keep your human traits throughout the centuries when you’ve already killed a bunch of people (either by accident or by need) and seen a bunch of genocides and gruesome things like that.

I FEEL YOU, MATE

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I think you’re going to be happy with the forthcoming DLC. :smiley:

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More Smoochies? :kissing:

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Maaaaaaaaaaaaybe.

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I’ll look forward to it then, thanx! :wink:

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It was taking a while but I was making V5 character sheets for the characters of PoK b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶A̶D̶H̶D̶ ̶b̶r̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶ h̶y̶p̶e̶r̶f̶i̶x̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶
Now that the DLC is coming out I think I’ll wait until the release to replay the game and have a more accurate view of the characters for that purpose :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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