How to create enemies for your campaign - Second Inquisition and Sabbat V5 Review
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- čas přidán 30. 03. 2022
- Josh reviews the new Second Inquisition and Sabbat Vampire books that provide GMs ways to create and challenge their players with new powers and enemies.
Edited by SaffyPie: / saffypie
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I always thought of Sabbat vampires being like the ones in 30 Days of Night...
I agree with your assessment that one of the greatest weaknesses of V5 has been drifting too much toward vague framework lore rather than rich detailed lore. Not everybody is a master GM/ST and many times if you have rich detailed lore to work with it is easier to spring board it into your version with a twist or something new all together.
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It is cool that they kept the idea you could find in an Easter Egg you could find in the base that the Society of Leopold had found a second Sarcophagus.
So I actually bought the SI book a little after watching this and I just finished reading through it. Personally I found it really helpful but I am new to GMing VtM and I went in wanting to build a story around the inquisition. There are a *lot* of stat blocks. Too many for my tastes. But they did give me a lot of ideas for the game I want to play. It was a really good starting point for building different sets of hunters who aren't really working together, with different resources and strengths. And I got some new ideas for involving touchstones that I'm excited to try.
I was disappointed there wasn't more lore. I think it would have been nice to have some other faith based hunters aside from just the Catholic Church. And I don't think everyone would get a lot from the book. But it was really helpful for me.
I think these books are definitely geared toward new players and GMs. And that is not a bad thing. Vampire has a long history with a lot of baggage. These books help reboot/reset both of these organizations so that new players don’t feel overwhelmed by the 25+ years of back story!?
@@BottomTableTyrants Definitely. Especially since as a GM I know I'm gonna end up throwing out a lot of setting lore. That isn't anything against the creators and it doesn't mean the lore is bad. I just know that I tend to homebrew things to a certain extent. It helps me feel in control of the setting and allows me to adjust the game for my table/s.
25+ years of lore is great. It's fodder for ideas, it's interesting and I'm sure it helps people who have been playing for a while stay invested. But a lot of GMs aren't going to stick to it. And that means condensing it, rebooting it or reseting it can serve as a great jumping on point and 'permission' to mess around with the lore. :)
@@lkriticos7619 yep every story/adventure I have ever run I end up “tweaking” significantly to fit my style and intent to the point where it sometimes would not be easily recognizable to anyone else as the originally adventure!?
The SI seems like a stalker type of enemy that do DOT to your party, which works in very few scenarios where from the very start of your games you establish (or preplan) for an agent to look after your party and what they do to study the party. It's interesting, but the time elements of SI seem like a burden if it's a quick session unless the GM does some house rule modifications. They seem like a cool end game threat once they have gotten enough information to tackle your players with the knowledge.
I always thought the Second Inquisition being handled as a police/surveillance state would be a particularly disturbing brand of horror, given, as you said, it hits pretty close to home (and it follows the logic of the NSA having cracked down on ShreckNET and all). A lot of these RPGs (whether they be the World of Darkness ones or something like Cyberpunk) have always been a (sometimes very slightly with how on-the-nose they've become as real-life has morphed into more and more of its own horror story) hyperbolic take on reality and where present-day issues could potentially lead under the lore's circumstances, so it makes a lot of sense. Stream of Blood once took the Second Inquisition in their Vampires of Pittsburgh campaign and had them take advantage of the pandemic to put the city on full lockdown to make the vampires vulnerable without drawing too much of the public's suspicion (and this was all a consequence of a massive Masquerade breach), so that's definitely one way such a thing could play out. But they had that idea long before the Second Inquisition book came out and it's not really something you'd need it for, so yeah.
In WOD humanity has always been at the bottom of the food chain but the reason for the so much secrecy and covertness is that a mankind aware of the darkness is a dangerous future not only for the vampires but for everyone that includes humanity (except maybe the mage). Humanity can win against the less numberous/Psychical inhabitants of WOD but it cannot compete with the more reality warping powers that is the technocracy.
Also faith is extremely effective against the creatures of the night, So why is their no armor clad zelous knight with a Anti-Tank Lance smh
More great VtM coverage and lots of great ideas for campaign opposition. Thanks, Josh. =D
Glad you liked it!
While reading the inquisition book it gave me great ideas for vampire enemies and there minion's. Especially for the Camarilla.
I know it's the wrong faction. But a lot of these archetypes could be used to serve a vampire instead if the SI.
I'm interested in the SI book and haven't seen it yet. I think it's mostly just cos I think they'd be really cool in a campaign and I'd like more ideas for how to build something like that. Especially since while I've been playing VtM for a year or so now I've never GMed. Some kind of reference sounds good as a way to spark inspiration and serve as a jumping off point.
Correction sleeping mortals do not have magical powers but the awakened once blend reality
This book felt like it was designed for dnd gms who walked over to our side of town and said, “how do I kill my PCs”. Surround elysium with snipers and let them all take out one vamp each with an 8 dice pool at DC 1 with no chance at reaction unless celerity 3+…..
I really wish we had gotten like 1 story from each of the factions on how they executed an operation. (I need to still read the last half of the book, got bored after the ammunition)
Hello Josh! I thoroughly enjoy your content, be it commentaries or actual play (To the Grave is soooo cool, by the way; a round of applause!). I got curious about one point you mentioned in the video about the combat in V5 "suck[ing]". Would you mind sharing what exactly you think are the shortcomings of combat in VtM? I'd love to hear your opinion.
Sure! I was quick and flippant saying that V5 combat sucks because of the videos focus but overally i dont think its very good. Having run a lot of V5 combat, I think there is a disconnect between the rules being written for social and political drama and those for physical threat. The way damage is calculated is cumbersome requiring halving superficial for vampires, access to aggravated damage is limited, and over multiple rounds it's unlikely that someone with 6+ health will feel a significant threat to their character, whereas non- combat characters dont have many options but to hide or run, which is only interesting if they're not excluded from the game while the Gangrel takes on their enemies for them. The book provides the 1-roll combat and the 3 turn combat options as a bit of a crutch to fit it more neatly into the pace of the rest of the game, which is useful but undermines many of the cool powers and tension of a fight. Also the initiative is not convenient to use/remember during play. Mostly the combat rules add extra hurdles instead of helping simulate the scene. I don't think the system has to be balanced or fair but it does require careful use by GMs.
Given that this comment was a lot longer than I expected, I might want to make a video about this haha
@@StrangeAdventures Thanks so much for the insight; it is really interesting to see various perspectives when perhaps one is used to running things in a certain way and does not necessarily encounter certain aspects of the rules that others might find lacking simply because their focus is different (or when they are lacking experience like in my case). It is also great to see where perhaps one needs to put a little more effort to avoid these pitfalls in the future.
It does seem like a good idea for a video, actually!
Had to wait until I had posted my reviews of these books so that your review didn’t influence mine but as usual I totally agree with you on your takes on these! 😁 Not sure why these books have gotten such bad reviews on DriveThruRPG? Sabbat is probably my 2nd fave book in V5!? Great work!
Thanks! Love to hear other reviews of the books too :)
The Sabbat book has been my favourite in V5 giving much of what I was looking for personally in that sect. And is the most terrifying sourcebook where the ghouls alone and the fleshcraft war machines are extremely terrifying. Where one solo Sabbat character is horrifying enough to face.
The S.I book is a 60/40 for me. They should of done a bit more or went further more with it. Some more art as well. All those stat blocks and just big bunch of paragraphs is tiring. A bit more lore would be appreciated and fiction would be cooler with it. Neat overall but it fits a particular niche for certain chronicles.
So glad to FINALLY hear ya thoughts on it. And really thankful for ya insight on the contents.
For the Sabbat, are you planning to check the Playing Sabbat book? To see your introspection or how it feels for you personally to run a Sabbat style Chronicle.
I've not had a chance to look at any Storyteller vault stuff so I don't think I'll make a video about it but I might give it a go :)
So they did release rules to actually play Sabbat? That’s good! When I heard Sabbat was strictly an antagonist faction, I was immediately turned off.
hi watt musik is it in the video ??
I might really appreciate the stat blocks in the books, if they had balancing for bigger groups. If I run enemies straight outta the book against my seven mid-level players, they'll demolish anything I put in front of them in seconds. When you have a group that size, the stat blocks for enemies are pretty useless. Just gotta keep homebrewin'!
blown away by how good the second inquisition book is, but I agree it needed more
I'm coming at it from a 'cool ideas for hunter vigil/reckoning games' angle though, not from a 'how to inflict more misery on vampire players' angle
An answer to my prayers
I'm feeling like I'm going to skip the Second Inquisition book. Honestly Between various streams, Video games and such I've got a good enough ideas of how to use them if desired in my chronicles. It doesn't seem like there is anything in there I am really desperate to have access too.
i feel you could still play Sabbat you just need to be sure of your table and have the confidence in your writing story telling i would think
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Me with plan to make Camarilya an enemy :😧
So The Joker is Sabbat.
He could live in that society i suppose
@@StrangeAdventures - I see you're something of a joker, yourself.
The SI book was dry and boring and written by ppl who don't ST. Feels like they don't want to take risks and provide lore.
Given how vigil depowered many mortal hunters and how faith became a meme, SI could have been a reverse beastiary for the WOD.
Its almost there if only the author remember that the WOD is focused more on mystery/Espionage than just urban fantasy adventure
Seems like you have a very singular interpretation and non nuanced perspective of the Sabbat as a whole. You keep giving interpretations of pure monsters, denigrating/reducing them down to a near alien collection of creatures. The Sabbat exist for more than that purpose in storytelling.