It’s the same bar: self-serving vs self-punishing. It just shows that way because there is no space. This is a relatively common HTML layout problem
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Some more points and considerations:
- good point: the tone. An underlying dark humour with some horror, that does not leave space for power fantasies, unlike other works (I am looking at you, VTM:Bloodlines)
- bad point: many, many things after the burning of the house. You don’t know anything, you have no agency, things happen at random and you don’t have a clue on why.
- moreover: starting with a major dumpload of explicit character creation questions is less than ideal. You don’t need to have a high-stakes starting scene as other stories, but the character definition questions should pop up “organically”
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Last question … do my MC get to make a vamp? Cuz achievements have The Embrace: embrace your own child does that mean if I chose a child from my MCs pastself and promised to keep in touch of the fam I’ll be able to turn them? 
and unlock another Achievement called Promise Kept? Anyone have done that b4?
PS: even thou its still felt rushed I still liked it, I know it lacked content compared to the first three but still it felt connected, I think the true route here supposed to be is that the Camarilla loses hold of athens thus making the place vulnerable, giving opportunity to the Masquerade to establish and the shenanigans from VtM:nightroad Julian Sim experiment route will benefit from here lol … But nahhhh nvm meeeee and my theories
That’s a bug, yes.
What device/app are you using to play the game?
I have to disagree with you here.
The Masquerade is a funny thing; it’s there to punish people that the Prince wants to punish. Vampires “break the Masquerade” constantly. Think about all of the ones that literally hang out at Goth clubs!
Every thing a vampire does—especially a young vampire—is a balancing act between holding onto their humanity and keeping themselves safe.
Going to the same tattoo artist over and over again is safe. That artist clearly appreciates the PC, whether as a friend or a customer or whatever. As with any type of body work, a tattoo artist likely values a known quantity such as the PC. They’re taking the PC’s money and redoing the tattoos; that’s be a pretty good gig from their perspective, and their discretion is all that’s necessary. Maybe they suspect something’s hinky, maybe even they know, but they’re just as likely to shut off that part of their brain and take the money.
As for why would someone pursue tattoos instead of body painting…well, I’m guessing you don’t have a tattoo. For someone that’s into tattoos, there is no comparison between the two. Tattoos can be a form of disciplined or mediated self-harm. One could also make certain parallels between tattoos and BDSM. The point is, body painting is no substitute for that experience.
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Quick question does Markos actually care for/love mc or is he just using them?
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Depends on your relationship with him. I believe some playthroughs will have more explanation from him than others.
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Well, yeah, that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with diablerie.
I’m not certain the author has ever played VtM…
(Hell, I haven’t played it. But I have read the entire rulebook and some supplementary material.)
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FYI, being forcibly Blood Bound by Kapriel or Neoptolemos is presented as just that: being forcibly Blood Bound, not as diablerie.
Diablerie can occur in a couple scenarios: defeating Kapriel when he comes to take you back. If you’re Banu Haqim, either you or Gor can drink him dry and end him. If you’re a thin-blood, you can ask the Prince (whoever that may be) to sanction you eating another vamp of your choosing in order to become a full vampire.
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Ok, that makes more sense.
The cases of diablerie:
Spoilers 7-allegiance
Kapriel is implied to have gotten Markos
But there’s something about him. Something different, and yet familiar.
Kapriel’s looking straight at you. “What is it?” he says. “Do I remind you of someone?”
Got turns around and puts himself between you and Kapriel. There’s something like terror in his eye. He shakes his head. “Don’t look at him,” he tells you. “Don’t listen to him.”
But you can’t. You can’t not look at him, not listen to him.
Because it’s not Kapriel. Or not just Kapriel.
Markos is in there, too.
“What have you done?”
“He’s gone, ${name},” Gor tells you. “Markos is gone, don’t be confused. Kapriel’s just trying to get to you.”
You get Kapriel
You kneel next to Gor and put a hand on his shoulder. “Please,” you tell him. “Let me. It’s the only way.”
It takes effort for Gor to lean away from his sire. He nods at you. "I understand," he says. "Do it." You lean closer to Kapriel's inert body then. Put your lips on his neck and, for a brief instant as your teeth break skin, he smells exactly like Markos. You drink. The Blood is so thick and viscous you have to use all your strength to keep it flowing into you. It takes a long time and, by the time Kapriel's veins run dry, the muscles in your neck and jaw are sore. The body before you is drained, and yet you keep going. Then it happens. That something, the hidden unnameable thing leaves Kapriel and enters you. Something inside you breaks. Something else settles into place.
Gor gets Kapriel
He kneels next to Kapriel and turns him around so he faces the sky. Then Gor places his hand on Kapriel’s forehead, covering his eyes, as if he wants to avoid Kapriel’s blank gaze. He turns his sire’s head to the side, exposing the neck.
Then, he bends down, and, crouched as he is, he looks as if he’s praying.
When the skin breaks, you can smell it, @{banuhaqim the intoxicating aroma of vitae|the old Blood}. Gor drinks hungrily, with effort, with his entire body. After a while, Gor lifts Kapriel’s upper body, cradles it like a child’s and places it on his lap to ease his drinking.
It takes long. So long. You will never forget the gurgling sounds, the lapping up, the groaning. It’s still in your ears, even after it’s done. And that last bit, that final transgression, you’ll never forget that either. What was it? Something transferred. A spark, a soul, a thing that is. Do you even believe in such things?
Kapriel’s body decays before your eyes.
And something’s happening to Gor, too. Some kind of internal struggle that shows its traces plainly on his face.
His features become drawn, tense, malleable.
His face looks…hard to describe the difference. It’s subtle, like an imperceptible rearranging of the bones of his skull that makes his face sharper. More like a predator’s.
In another example of non-PC diablerie, you can ask the Prince to execute another vamp using diablerie, in which case you may see black tendrils over the Prince’s aura after it’s done.
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Ah yeah I probably missed it, I’m only at chapter 7 rn poking through the code trying to figure out why some of the stat checks appear to be really challenging
Edit: weird things i’ve found so far
- the highest stat check to beat Kapriel that ive found so far is 60. but most of them require stats in combination with specific disciplines
- I think the ward stat check when escaping with Isidoros is bugged, it appears to require celerity and athletics instead of composure
We’re working on some stat difficulty balancing right now. If you have specific bugs you think you’ve identified, please email them in.
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Spoilers for all of chapter 7, and this is as of 3/28/2022, it sound like they’ll be doing stat rebalances at some point but ways to beat Kapriel
Vs Kapriel after Train with Gor:
#Attack with the only weapon I have. My teeth. → fight greater than 40 or pet, potence greater than 0
#Grab Gor and flee. → stealth greater than 40 or celerity greater than 1, athletics greater than 60
#Attack as fast as possible. → celerity greater than 3, hunger less than 4
#Attack as fast as possible. → celerity greater than 0 or athletics > 40, fight > 40
Vs Kapriel while talking to Gor
#Help Gor. → potence greater than 0, fight greater than 40 or pet
Vs Kapriel w/ human
#Find refuge and use the ward Markos taught me. (need ward from Markos) → composure greater than 40
For the following, if both stats are greater than 60, you get away scott free, if both stats are greater than 40, you get away but the human is injured, if either stat is greater than 40, the human gets away but you get blood bound
#There’s no way I can fight him here. But I can make a scene. → persuasion and etiquette
#Flee. → celerity greater than one and athletics
If you’re with Isidoros, the [#Find refuge and use the ward Markos taught me.] is currently a celerity greater than zero or athletics greater than 40 check NOT composure
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That’s one of the reasons why it’s dangerous to do that. What if he wants to punish you? Or he decides to use you to punish Markos? What if the Sheriff’s just a bit irritated with you or Markos so he decides to “clean up the loose end you left” just to send a message? Getting your tattoos done like that is an action that has the potential for some very real consequences, and on top of the risks to you it’s also setting your friend up to be collateral damage in vampire politics. There are some vampires who would do that without hesitation, of course, but I think it’s a significant enough thing that you should get to choose whether or not you do it.
And that’s really the issue here, to me. It’s the fact that choosing tattoos as your hobby gives you the de facto personality traits “sort of careless with the Masquerade” and “sort of careless with the lives of their friends”, and it does that before you know anything about the characters or the game. I think that’s a very weird design decision, especially when it’s the only option that does something like that. With every other hobby you cut that tie from your past, but with tattoos you not only maintain it but you keep participating in a hobby that has inherent Masquerade risks and you never get a choice about that.
And I agree that body painting isn’t the same at all, but it’s a form of body decoration where the results last longer than a night. In Night Road there’s a bit where Dove sits there smelling a cup of coffee, because she can’t drink it anymore. I look at it as that kind of thing. It’s not the same, because nothing can be the same, but it’s something.
A good option here would have been to let the player choose what they do. Do they keep going to the same artist and accept the risks involved? Do they look for an artist who’s already inside the circle? Do they try their hand at doing their own tattoos, knowing that mistakes will be gone by the next night? Do they settle for body painting so they get more than a night to admire the work? Do they give it up entirely because they’re not willing to settle? All of these things could be valid choices and they’d all say a lot about the character who made them.
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You’re 100% correct, with the one caveat being, the Prince/Sheriff has to find out first. It’s not like a magic billboard lights up saying “Masquerade breach in zone 14!” Like, you’d have to have drawn someone’s ire, and then they’d have to go through the process of having you tailed, but yes, it’s a risk.
But that’s what being a vampire is; hell, that’s what being a human is. Balancing risks and rewards.
As for “significant enough thing that you should get to choose whether or not you do it,” you choose to have the hobby of getting tattoos. How was that not a choice?
ok, but getting tattoos is a very different type of hobby, and one that speaks to a very different type of person.
If you’re looking for parity here between the hobbies, I can understand why you’d be disappointed. But this isn’t about balancing the different possible PCs against one another, but about telling a certain type of story. And being addicted to tattoos–when they vanish every morning–is a beautiful metaphor for existence as a vampire.
And that, I think, is the crux of our disagreement here. You’re right that choosing that option establishes you as a certain type of person, but as a reader, I’m desperate to see where that character goes. I don’t want to see that choice compromised or attenuated because—as a player—I’m trying to stay in good with the Camarilla.
(And, Dove’s relationship with coffee is a very different relationship than someone who’s into body modification.)
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An iphoneX in the omnibus app 
thank you!
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I don’t know who the Sheriff is in this game, but they sound pretty incompetent compared to the ones in other VtM games. Is that intentional?
(According to startup, it’s Neoptolemos?)
Yes, in this game the Sheriff is referred to as the Scythian (an affectation of Peisistratos’s), and when the game begins it’s Neoptolemos.