Saskatoon by Night NOVEMBER 21, 1998
THE STORYTELLING TEAM
 
Storyteller  Randy Mosiondz  652-0458 mosiondz@shaw.wave.ca
Influence Narrator Sean Farough  382-7426 bsvt@sympatico.sk.ca
Rules Narrators Seamus Paterson  955-1396 spaterson@sk.sympatico.ca
Jill Bell   934-0631 cenobyte1@home.com
 
 

SASKATOON BY NIGHT MANUAL V2.0 DRAFT RELEASE SOON!

We’re slowly slogging through the SbN v2.0 rules revisions (as those of you who are on the SbN Listserver already know).  We’ve just picked up Laws of the Hunt, the new LARP book by White Wolf, which deals mostly with mortal vampire hunters, but goes a long way to clarifying some of the other rules interpretations, as well as adding some new equipment rules.  In addition to Laws of the Hunt, Laws of the Night, Masquerade 2nd Edition, Liber des Ghouls, Laws of the Wild, Oblivion and Shining Host will be taken into consideration during the rules revamp.

One thing some of you may be wondering is “Why is this necessary?”  There are many answers to this.  First, the LARP rules straight out of the book are open to various interpretations.  Clarifications on these rules are necessary, and once a clarification is made, it should be consistent.  Second, some of the rules are broken; that is, certain powers can do too much while others do too little, and sometimes they simply don’t work the way they should.  Third, expansions on existing systems are necessary for use in a long-term World of Darkness Chronicle.  Originally the LARP rules were written for one-shot events, and so certain long-term rules were not put into place.  There are other reasons why the rules revisions are being made, but these three points cover a major part of it.  It is our hope that the SbN v2.0 Manual will lay to rest many of the questions that people ask on a regular basis and there aren’t answers for, and fixes some of the reoccurring rules mechanics problems in the game.
 

YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT…

If any of you have any comments as to the direction that you would like to see the game go, in terms of active and reactive plots, etc. please let us know.  We will try to address any questions, comments, and concerns that you might have. Contact your local neighborhood Storyteller, and we’ll either chat by email, phone, or over a coffee.  Otherwise we’ll continue hatching our evil schemes without your input… muhahaha…
 

OLD PLOTS, NEW THREADS

Are there any plots left over from way back that were never resolved?  Something that is gnawing at the back of your mind but is still unanswered?  Keep in mind that there were many plot threads that were started long before the current Storytelling Team was about, and we’d like to incorporate threads from those old plots into the ongoing story.  So if you were ever wondering about what happened to (fill in the blank), drop us a line.  We’ll make note of it, and you may be in for a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise during upcoming events.
 

KINDRED GENEALOGY

Exactly how far did your character fall from the tree?  Who is your sire’s sire?  Can you trace your lineage to Caine?  I’ve started compiling a Kindred Genealogy, incorporating popular Kindred characters in the World of Darkness, and am going to start placing the Saskatoon by Night Kindred in the overall structure.  So, if you have a history for character that includes your Sire, Grandsire, etc., let us know who these people are.  The more detail we include in a character’s background, the more real it becomes.
 

COOL RANT OF THE MONTH

The “Rant of the Month” I came across while perusing the new Vampire Revised Edition FAQ, from Justin Achilli, one of the White Wolf Game Developers.  The man speaks volumes:

Why are you so goddamn cranky?

It's part and parcel to the job. I bust my ass to make quality, exciting books that expose various malignant elements of the World of Darkness for a fraction of what Hollywood knuckleheads get paid to do the same thing with less depth and attention to detail. The only thing I have other than an ulcer, a DUI and several thousand dollars in debt is a festering yet undeniable love for Vampire and its sense of brooding, gothic horror. Every time some illiterate mongrel sends me a shrill, rabid e-mail demanding that he be allowed to play a Dragon/Angel Archmage and obliterate the city of Compton with the Level Sixty power of BlowShitUpus, it makes me want to put a gun to my head. Every whiny letter that complains how such-and-such clan used to be so cool but we fucked it up in the revised edition brings me one step closer to serial murder. Every poorly punctuated missive from a one-eyed high-school cave dwarf decrying me for how much better he could do my job makes the extinction of the human race all the more appealing.

If you like crossover games, fine. I don't. If you like Immortals, fine. I don't. If you like amassing millions of dots in Discplines and descending into the depths of hell to slay the Archduke of Tartarus, fine. I don't. I have a pretty purist viewpoint concerning Vampire and I pour every bit of love I can muster from my wretched, black little heart into my books. I hope you enjoy them. If you don't, I'll gladly accept that, but I hope you can take the pieces you do like and make them into something rewarding for you.

There's no "right" way to play Vampire. I bring all of the material in line with my vision, but who says who have to use my vision? Likewise, your vision isn't "right," either. As long as you're having fun, the game works and fulfills its purpose: entertainment. I think I do a pretty good job of making Vampire a sublime game of horror, mystery, moral ambiguity and passion, but if you'd rather do something else with it, that's cool, too. WoD bibliophiles, self-avowed experts, arrogant pundits and other fascists of ideas make me sick; there are a lot of them out there, and they never hesitate to send e-mail in my direction. By the time the 400th idiotic question finds its way to my mailbox, and it's sitting next to a six-page dissertation on why I should be fired for allowing a vampire to be Embraced from the Ugaritic Sub-Saharan Huns when their cultic religion so clearly prevents them from drinking blood, I get a bit disgusted. By the time I see my 3,000th Celtic Gangrel, merry Ravnos trickster or wacky, teddy-bear carrying Malkavian, I wonder why I even bother thinking about these books, when so many people seem to want the same old pap and stupidity each month. I may as well print pictures of my ass and write, "The Followers of Set are EEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL. Marilyn Manson Rules!" on the last page; people would buy it.

But I don't want to do that. To me, Vampire is vastly more than that. I'm gonna catch a shitstorm for the apparent "arrogance" of this little diatribe from people who can't read any deeper than the surface, but whatever. God help me, I want Vampire to be the cool, edgy, hip thing it was when it first burst on the scene seven years ago. It's all I can to do to keep that edge; Vampire, to some people, is just another game, just another fantasy-role-playing power trip in which they can beat up on orcs-- er, anarchs and rob the king-- er, Ventrue prince blind. We have indeed become the Generation of Swine, even in our little roleplaying pond. I don't want that either, so I make Vampire my valediction and my bastion of expression.

Then someone e-mails me with a request for a list of kickass guns for his character.

That's why I'm so goddamn cranky.

And by the way, Baba Yaga's dead.