Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)

[123Chikadee]

Oh, I only got to play a single campaign. Is WoD hard to learn?

[peregrine]

It's fairly straight forward.  You roll one dice per dot you have in both stat and skill, and count how many successes you get (which is to say, rolls over a certain target number).  Then it depends on what other random things are going on, but that's the base mechanic.

Also, pagan anti-authoritarianism good, status quo bad.

[123Chikadee]

Oh nice, I'll think I'll check it out, if I ever have a group of friends who are interested. When I was in that campaign, I was the only inexperienced player and it showed. We had a pretty good GM, so it was a pretty fun time.
LOL, now that works for me.

[Silentbrick]

Unfortunately, Vampires got screwed by being the first game.    Everything that came after was just more and more powerful.   My favorite to play was Mortal+ sorcerers.  Combine Hellfire and Enchanting and you get mages begging you to make them equipment.  Especially after demonstrating Strength enhancing enchantments combined with a Hellblade.  When the Mortal+ guy takes out a Hit Mark, the mages take notice.

But you had to be prepared for it to work well, just like wizards in Dresdenverse.  You really weren't good at doing stuff on the fly.

[123Chikadee]

Huh. So did the vampires get powerful as well, or what? That sounds like an interesting game.
Neat. I know there's a Dresden Files game; I read a recap/review of it, but some of the mechanics seemed confusing.

[Bad Alias]

I agree, but the same argument says some people will believe it's magic. The masquerade made not completely fall but it will be weakened a lot (perhaps enough for paradox kicking, if you ever played the Mage: The ascension  .

And some people do believe in magic and are regarded as crazy or scam artists. The masquerade is already fraying at the edges. I can't remember which book it's in where it is mentioned. I think it's Skin Game, but it might have been a short story.

From one of his interviews/appearances, I got the impression that when the series ends, the masquerade will be completely over. I don't recall it being an explicit statement.

@Bad Alias. LOL, to be fair, it's probably the authorities who are shooting at Hulk, all things considered. I'm yeah those are good points, but I'm pretty sure the flat Earth and moon-landing hoax theorists are just not regarded well in general. The vaccine thing, well that can't be chalked up to too many people not knowing how modern medicine works. That Sun dancing thing sounds interesting, Imma have to check that out.
@Dina. Nope, never played, what's the paradox?

A better example may be politics. Half the people who look at politician X's statement believe politician X just did something awful that is completely unacceptable, even criminal. The other half of the people think the statement was the best thing to come from a politician's mouth in years. It's really crazy how people can look at something and see different things. Both groups can't be right (usually).

Here's the link to the wikipedia article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun.

I also haven't played the game. Sounds like a cool idea.

[123Chikadee]

Yeah, agreed on both points. Hm, I know there's a mention of people noticing things in Ghost Story, but I bet it gets reinforced in Skin Game too.
True and I think the burying your head in the sand metaphors really only work in political or social contexts. Harry talks about people doing this in regards to the supernatural, but really you can't bury your head in the sand against something that you don't believe exists.
Yeah I read that and wow that's fascinating. I once got to see a solar eclipse and while I was hoping to see it under more glamorous circumstances, but it was still pretty friggin' cool. You gotta be careful with protecting your eyes. So honestly, I think the sun dancing might be more of a combo of factors. I'm usually pretty skeptical of miracles, but I should hope that Mary wouldn't want her believers to have vision problems.
Yeah I haven't got as far into tabletop as I would like.

[morriswalters]

True and I think the burying your head in the sand metaphors really only work in political or social contexts. Harry talks about people doing this in regards to the supernatural, but really you can't bury your head in the sand against something that you don't believe exists.

Isn't that exactly what burying your head in the sand means? Dicken speaks to it. Most famously in Scrooge's dialog with Marley.

You don’t believe in me,” observed the Ghost.
“I don’t,” said Scrooge.
“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own senses?”
“I don’t know,” said Scrooge.
“Why do you doubt your senses?”
“Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are.”

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, if anything, not believing something exists is only going to make it easier to ignore.

Some things to keep in mind, vis a vis the Masquerade:

1. Most supernatural creatures have some way of appearing human, or at least human enough to get by on a first glance. Even ghouls have a flesh mask that lets them wander around in broad daylight unmolested.

2. Most supernatural creatures operate at night. It's a lot easier to disbelieve you were attacked by a ghoul if you never got a good look at it.

3. Things like the fae mess with your head in a way that's easily explained away as, "They must have put something in my drink..."

4. Nobody else believes the supernatural is real, so, obviously you didn't see a ghoul, and your friends, relatives and coworkers will just think you're nuts if you said you did, so you might as well not bring it up.

[Dina]

I've always have room in my heart for the miracle of Fatima. It has been only a little more than a century ago and many people present there were alive in my time, including the elderly nun, Lucia. So it felt...near home. I had a book about the Fatima children when I was a child I cherished it.
(laugh at me if you want, go ahead)

[Mira]

I've always have room in my heart for the miracle of Fatima. It has been only a little more than a century ago and many people present there were alive in my time, including the elderly nun, Lucia. So it felt...near home. I had a book about the Fatima children when I was a child I cherished it.
(laugh at me if you want, go ahead)

I agree with you, I remember the funeral Mass for Sister Lucia, it is a beautiful story.

[Bad Alias]

Hm, I know there's a mention of people noticing things in Ghost Story, but I bet it gets reinforced in Skin Game too.

The one from Skin Game is from Butters says "even the straights started to notice." It's in his speech about how Harry shouldn't be trusted. I don't remember anything from Ghost Story or Cold Days about it.

(laugh at me if you want, go ahead)

I think that goes a long way to making my point. A bunch of people believe in supernatural things, but don't talk about it because they don't want to be teased, and I'm not just talking about religious beliefs. In 2017, only about 25% of Americans said they didn't believe in ghosts, according to one poll. https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2017/10/10/belief-ghosts-rise. Over half of Icelanders believe in elves/fairies. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/icelanders-protest-road-would-disturb-fairies-180949359/. And that's not counting people who act as if they believe in the supernatural.

[JTass]

Where does Christmas Eve fall on the DF timeline? Before or after Skin Game?

[morriswalters]

after

[peregrine]

Where does Christmas Eve fall on the DF timeline? Before or after Skin Game?

After both Skin Game and apparently Peace Talks.