Can a House satisfy a catch

[Amelia Crane]

I disagree about *never* being used against them.  If that were the case,. the PCs would never get to use an enemy's +0 Catch against them, either.  I'd say that the Catch should only *exceptionally rarely* come up against the PC - say, only once or twice, and only in major climactic battles.

I stand by my never.  The thing is, I do not allow the same expectation to be extended to NPCs.  But then again, the catch value of NPCs is pretty much irrelevant.  If it gets used enough to make it worth +3 because every PC in the group has true love, it doesn't really matter.  They still have whatever powers they were going to have.

I should mention that the catch valuation guidelines under toughness are screwy and unbalanced (and do not adequately correspond to a value of +0 for True Love).

It's mentioned explicitly in the books

(click to show/hide)

, in Turn Coat, in the scene after the incident at Club Zero

; I can't get you chapter and verse right now (one of my players has my copy), but I distinctly remember it as an explanation on why Thomas was never burned by touching his brother.

Here is your quote.  It's from Chapter 10.

(click to show/hide)

“The White Court only get burned when they try to feed on someone touched by true love, right?”

“It isn’t as simple as that,” Thomas said quietly. “It’s got to do with how much control the hunger has over you when you touch.”

I grunted. “But when they feed, the hunger’s in control.”

Thomas nodded slowly.

“So why’d Madeline try to feed on Justine? She had to know it would hurt her.”

“Same reason I do,” Thomas said. “She can’t help it. It’s reflex.”

I frowned. “I don’t get it.”

He was quiet long enough to make me think he wasn’t going to say anything, before he finally spoke. “Justine and I were together for years. And she… means a lot to me. When I’m near her, I can’t think about anything else but her. And when I touch her, everything in me wants to be nearer to her.”

“Including your hunger,” I said quietly.

He nodded. “We agree on that point, my demon and I. So I can’t touch Justine without it being… close to the surface, I suppose you could call it.”

“And it gets burned,” I said.

He nodded. “Madeline is the other end of the spectrum. She thinks she should get to feed on anyone she wants, anywhere, anytime. She doesn’t see other people. She just sees food. Her hunger controls her completely.” He smiled a bitter little smile. “So for her it’s reflex, just like for me.”

But then again, in Chapter 9, it says this, which clearly indicates WCVs are hurt by objects symbolizing love.  Which is easy to rationalize if feeding is the default state of a WCV, thus escaping thier catch is not a "little problem".

(click to show/hide)

Thomas had told me about White Court vampires who had been badly burned by the touch of some wedding rings, or the brush of a sweetheart’s rose. But most dangerous of all to them was the touch of someone who was loved and who loved in return.

I’d seen Thomas give himself a second-degree burn on his lips and mouth the last time he’d kissed Justine.

[mostlyawake]

Dude, if a player goes through the trouble of singlehandedly building a house for his wife... placing every brick, driving every nail, laying every plank of the wood floor, all while always thinking about his wife and planning everything just the way she would like it....  yeah, that's got to count, and it's going to have a hell of a threshold, vamps or no vamps.  Probably even greater if they did it all together.

But hiring a company to build a house for your true love?  Different story.


Now, if I'm a player of a wcv and this perfect house happens to show up, you know as an NPC house where significant portions of a PCs time have been spent doing this....  well, thats a molotov cocktail waiting to happen. 

[Blackblade]

I disagree.  I've posted this before, but I feel that the only things that should meet the catch (besides people) are items that both the symbolic of love (Rose, Wedding Ring) and have been infused by it. 

[HobbitGuy1420]

Then why can Thomas not touch the scarf Justine made him?

[sinker]

Then why can Thomas not touch the scarf Justine made him?

I was about to make the same point. It's not a traditional symbol of love (like wedding rings or roses) but it was lovingly made by Justine as a gift for her true love and it burns WCVs.

[sjksprocket]

I'm sorry but I have to say it:

Houses should also satisfy the catch of wicked witches of the west.

[deathwombat]

I totally agree with sjksprocket but should be falling houses.