Author Topic: RCV and Mental Consequence  (Read 1528 times)

Offline Jabberwocky

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RCV and Mental Consequence
« on: May 10, 2014, 05:46:02 PM »
Gentlemen, how would you handle (both rules-wise and story-wise) such a situation? I mean, how would you work with the mental consequence and the vampires' approach?
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TL;DR version: The PC Josef gets addicted to Kateřina's venom and gets a mild (Crush on Her) and a moderate (In Love with Her) consequence in two consequentional contests on two separate occasions. He likes her and is compelled regularly to try to see her.

Now, does seeing her (and potentially sleeping with her, being fed off, etc.) prevent recovery from even starting? Should I call for more consequential contests? Or do the consequences "heal" eventually, while the temporary aspects remain if they keep seeing each other?

As for the motivation of the dramatis personae. Kateřina is an RCV brat and doesn't give a damn about Josef but: 1) She likes the taste of his werewolf blood and doesn't want to lose access to it; 2) Bianca* is extremely interested in the PCs, too, and in Josef in particular because she currently lacks reliable allies and a werewolf in your pocket can come really handy, if used at the right time. The PCs have already worked for the scheming Bianca and they captured Kateřina's father and handed him over to Bianca. Having lost access to her dad's assets Kateřina is probably going to swear allegiance to Bianca who in turn will probably encourage her to see Josef further. This is the basic plan but, of course, things may change and a little brainstorming always helps :-)

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* I know, I know, not original, but I really liked the name and the general concept of the character so I merged some characteristics of book Bianca and TV Bianca as a basic concept and added a lot of detail and backstory suitable for Prague - it's quite a different character now. Besides, my players know neither the books nor the TV series, not even Jim Butcher's name :-)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2014, 05:51:49 PM by Jabberwocky »
A Hundred Towers? – Our Prague campaign.
Dramatis personae – Cast of characters, both PCs and NPCs.

Offline killking72

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Re: RCV and Mental Consequence
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2014, 10:38:09 PM »
Well compelling him to see her, only to have his mild/moderate consequences filled up again, so you can compel it more, only to....vicious cycle. What I would do is every time you wanted him to go over there, have him roll discipline against either the mild or the moderate consequence attacking him. a 2 or 4 shift attack against his discipline. If he fails against the 2 shift, give him a fate point and have him go over there, if he fails against the 4 shift, I'd give him 2 fate points. The poor guy will be in a cycle of no consequences, because of bad dice roll, so compensate accordingly.

Second, you could always just put a really really stick aspect on him, have him defend against a certain discipline attack to make him go over there, and if he doesn't, still give him fate points because he will constantly have this over his head.


Offline Taran

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Re: RCV and Mental Consequence
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2014, 12:32:55 AM »
The mild will go away but the moderate can be compelled.  She can feed without causing stress but she'd probably want to reinflict the mild to get another free tag.  He can always pay off the compel which would give him time to heal.  So I don't see it being totally cyclical.  Then she might be forced to go to him under his terms just so she can keep him enthralled.  Which could lead to interesting things to happen if he has allies around

Offline Jabberwocky

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Re: RCV and Mental Consequence
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2014, 11:44:26 AM »
killking72: Yes, that potential circulus vitiosus bothers me. Partly it may be beneficial for the vampire but if the vampire (either of them) wants her new "friend" to be useful in a potential confrontation on her part it's a bad idea to have him accept consequences. I mean, such a vampire probably wouldn't suck her "ally" dry physically and, sadly, mental consequences work the same way as physical do - once filled, they reduce the punishment one can further take... This whole thing is a bit too "meta" for me - I like telling a story, not looking for a way to express the story through the rules. Also, I'm quite not sure about the concept of "if you fail a roll than there will be a compel" - is it expressed that way in the rulebook somewhere? Anyway, I like your idea of a sticky aspect without inflicting further consequences. The renewal of addiction would be treated as a manoevre that way, which would leave the vampire with the "tag thing" while the PC won't turn into a useless wretch with no free consequences (sure, vampires like to turn people into wretches but in this case they want the PC to be functional ... at least Bianca wants that and Bianca is currently the one who has the say).

Taran: That need of renewing the aspect (if not the consequence) is a strong story propeller. I could even make it a compel on her high concept so that she doesn't enter the potential confrontation with his friends totally devoid of fate points :-)

My plans for next sessions: Bianca exploits the situation after Karel Petera's capture, takes over his assets and goes on with some of his planned operations. This includes buying Josef's rock club from the town council but, unlike Petera's original plans, letting Josef run it. This is a win-win situation for her. Josef will probably see her as a benefactor who saved him his club while she will use the club as a new and safe hunting ground for her lot (under strict no-causing-problems regulation), which in turn will further support her claim on Prague within the Red Court inner politics. It is in her interest that Josef remains addicted to Kateřina and that Kateřina treats him nice but we will see how this goes with the rest of the PCs and Kateřina's bratty and rebellious personality.

Thanks for your thoughts so far, gentlemen.
A Hundred Towers? – Our Prague campaign.
Dramatis personae – Cast of characters, both PCs and NPCs.