AUGUST 28, 1999

GREETINGS!

Hello and welcome to another month of Saskatoon by Night!  Yes, this is Randy, but no, I'm not back doing the main Storytelling yet; I'm just giving Jill and David a hand at the game this month.  Amy and I will be heading off to Santa Fe, New Mexico in September for two weeks, so until we get back, Jill and David will still be your main contacts for your entire Storyteller needs.

LAWS OF THE NIGHT REVISED

Next month, White Wolf publishing will release the new Laws of the Night Revised Edition for Mind's Eye Theatre.  Peter Woodworth, Jason Carl, and Jess Heinig are the main developers for this new edition, and they've reworked the system from the ground up.  For the most part, the mechanics are still basically the same, but much has changed in the way the game has been structured.  Blood Traits, Willpower and Disciplines have more of a direct relation with the tabletop Vampire game.  Beast Traits are gone, and Backgrounds have been introduced.  All Disciplines have been made into 5 levels (2 Basic, 2 Intermediate, 2 Advanced).  In short, they've pretty much done exactly what we've done in the Saskatoon by Night Manual v2.0!

It looks like they've finally cleaned things up a bit.  I've already got mine on order (if you want to order one, leave your name and number on a sign-up sheet at the front desk, and I'll pass it on to Darren at Dragon's Den for him to order).

So what does this mean to SbN?  Well, we'll probably adopt the Revised edition as the core rules for SbN, and make whatever changes/clarifications that are deemed necessary to make the game run more smoothly.  Essentially, they'll still be an SbN manual, but it'll be a LOT thinner than originally created (that's why you haven't seen any SbN manuals kicking around yet; we thought it'd be a waste to do TWO printings!).

LORES IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

There is a good article in Mind's Eye Theatre Journal #3 regarding Lores in the World of Darkness.  If you possess any levels of Lore, it provides an excellent reference on what you know about the various denizens of the World (Vampires, Werewolves, Wraiths, and Faeries are covered in this issue).  As required, we will put out additional Lore levels for other creature types as characters get to know them (Mages, Spirits, Cathayans, etc.)  The Journal will be made available for reference at the front desk for people to refer to when necessary.

LEARNING OUT-OF-CLAN DISCIPLINES

It has never been made totally clear in any White Wolf sources what exactly is required to learn Out-of-Clan Disciplines.

"Though characters gain Disciplines simply by spending experience points, the Storyteller may want to restrict the process somewhat more.  For instance, if a character wishes to learn a new Discipline in which she has no current rating, she may have to seek out a tutor or discover a  magical amulet which awakens her latent Discipline. How this works is up to the Storyteller; unless the Storyteller says otherwise, players can simply use experience points to purchase Disciplines."
Vampire: the Masquerade, 2nd Ed. p. 184

"Out-of-Clan Disciplines [...] Who taught the character? Out-of-clan disciplines are not instinctive. The character would have had to pick them up somewhere and from someone"
Guide to the Camarilla, p 64.

One reference in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction mentions that non-standard Disciplines can be learned by ingesting the vitae of someone who possesses the Discipline in question.  This seemed a reasonable way of handling things, so we came up with the following:

"Vampires also have the option of learning Disciplines outside their Clan, but this is limited somewhat.  First off, the vampire must have another vampire that knows the Discipline in question to act as a teacher.  Second, in order to impart the knowledge of Discipline the teacher must impart some of his or her vitae to the student.  This serves a dual purpose - it forms a bond between teacher and student through which the training can be done, and it imparts the unique blood qualities of the teacher's Clan.  Finally, the teacher may only impart knowledge up to one level less than the teacher's full knowledge (i.e. if the teacher knows only Intermediate levels of a Discipline, he may only impart Basic levels to his student).  In this manner, the only way to learn out-of-Clan Advanced Disciplines is to have a teacher that has a Master-level in that Discipline.  The cost for out-of-Clan Disciplines for vampires is 4 for Basic, 8 for Intermediate, and 12 for Advanced (this applies to Caitiff as well)." Saskatoon by Night Manual v2.0, Disciplines

Keep in mind the ingesting of blood is only required once for a single teacher.  Thus, a Ventrue can impart knowledge of Dominate and Fortitude to his Toreador lover after the Toreador has ingested but one trait of the Ventrue's blood.

COMBAT SEQUENCE

Combat in LARP has always been a pain, but we're trying out combat sequences in order to clarify everything.  FYI, the combat sequence is as follows (full details can be found in the SbN Manual v2.0):

    1. Declare Blood for Celerity Actions

Normal Round

    2. Declare Blood for Alacrity Actions
    3. Declare Non-Alacrity Actions
    4. Declare Alacrity Actions
    5. Perform Alacrity Actions in Order of Initiative
    6. Perform Normal Actions in Order of Initiative

Celerity Rounds