Questions from Rowenne

Hello!

I'm Rowenne, I have stumbled upon this place through the forumotion search. I really enjoy Nwod but the people I play with online via yahoo are about sick and tired of the system so I am looking for a new group. Can someone tell me a little bit about the process of play, and your community?

Hi Rowenne!

Well, I can't remember all that's open to non-members, but the essential premise is that in a gang war post Katrina, most of the Biloxi Police were killed or wounded. As the city rebuilt, many of the new cops were a bit special.

All PCs are required to in some way be connected to law enforcement. This is generally as a beat cop (in their various forms) or a detective (typically homicide, but the lines are a little blurry), but we also have technicians.

Character creation is handled via a google doc spreadsheet, where you spend xp as normal. It is then vetted as a concept with the Moderators via an approvals forum. Currently, the two most active Mods are also the Admins, which are myself and "Admin of Doom +3". We've been friends for...oh god, forever, and run the game in tandem. Most of the other players are friends of either or both of us, so it's a close knit game in that regard.

Any nWoD supernatural is allowed save Prometheans, who do not work in a stationary game. Lost are also frowned upon, as no Changeling would make a living out of kidnapping (arresting) and imprisoning others. Well, I suppose a rather low morality one might! ;-) Mortals of course are the most variable character type, though they are all considered "Hunters" by Vigil rules for play balance.

Character creation is rather straightforward. Certain things that cops need are required and other things needed to be a cop are given for free. We also have extensive house errata, which can be found in the "nuts and bolts" forum.

Games are posted by any number of STs (which include the Mods) and run via Skype.

If you have more direct questions, please feel free to ask them.

Thank you both. : )
I have already begun looking around.

To admin of doom +3,
yes, I do have Skype so that wouldn't be a problem..

I will definitely let you know when I have more questions.

The forums that are "open" are generally self-explanatory.

Nuts and Bolts: custom rules calls for the game.
Setting: yeah ;-P
Roll Call: the PCs involved thus far
Cases: games and their types
Aftermath: the results of said cases, usually as police reports or media clippings
Rumors and News: things going on about the city.

Hah, new people, that'd be pretty cool. Hope you join in!

Would the group be interested in a medical examiner? It's just a thought but I thought I'd test the waters before I tossed the idea aside.

We already have an NPC as the coroner, but I think there's room for more than one doctor on the force. I'm not too sure if they generally have assistants or such, and thus could fit you in. However, I'm almost certain you'd get a spot as a lab tech specializing in biological fields.

By the way, don't worry about taking a job that has a legitimate reason to be on scene all the time. We play a little loose with that, often placing two homocide detectives and one special victims detective on certain cases that absolutely do not call for it :P. Basically, your official job might have some ramifications, but we usually ignore the ones that would get in the way of letting people play.

Indeed. This is one of our players, by the by, but intro's will be done if you decide to join.

There is indeed a Chief ME who is the standard go-to for this sort of stuff. We've never had an assistant for her, NPC or PC, although her role isn't as a cop/law enforcement really. She just runs the morgue, which is operated elsewhere.

Playing a forensics tech though is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, and Player of John is right, we do fudge reality to make sure that people continue to play. Generally this is done by stating that personnel are continuing to help with the investigation (usually you don't see techs or beat cops hanging around with Detectives away from the crime scene, for instance).

That idea has been batted around a bit. The initial problem is having the character do stuff after the body is sent to the morgue. Sitting in the morgue while other people run around and do stuff might be boring. Techs can be out in the field more, but med examiners are mostly stuck inside.

We might be able to wave an ST wand but if your out with the group then your not taking 8 hours to properly cut open the body. This is one of the reasons we built an NPC med person.

So... thoughts...?

That makes sense. I have a lot to consider. I'm kinda on the fence between being a cop/labrat but it shouldn't take me too long to decide, and apply for a character.

Cool. Just because I'm curious, do you have an idea of a supernatural type?

More than likely a hunter. I have in the past played both changeling and mage though.

Not to discourage you, but as we have cops of varying supernatural flavors, playing a Hunter can be a bit like playing in hard mode, even if you are not hunting PCs (and we heavily discourage antagonistic PCs). I'm sure we can talk it out more as you develop a PC and we get to know you better.

Gah, I'm a doof.

In the past I haven't had a problem with mixed games... for example when I played a changeling, that was a hunter game. There were two vamps, mages, werewolfs, and geists, and another changeling. We basically went after drug dealer vamps (who were killing mages) for a drug called 3i and were terrorized by Fae. I haven't really been a part of a game that hunted for the sake of hunting, there was always some unifying goal. But I can see how that would conflict with law enforcement because that wasn't a typical game and was civilian based.

I definitely need to think about this a bit more. Haha.

Actually we try to reduce outright PvP here. More its the investigation that gets harder. (But that's okay. Trying to do the" real" police work is fine.) If you want to go hunter I would just suggest not Cheiron group. There is some background narrative, but also I think that sort of hunter, one that has pieces of other supernaturals sewn into them, would not be very welcomed among a group of supers.

Oh, and because it's something I usually concern myself with, here's what we have going for ourselves, without giving too much away. I'll also comment on how useful various things are in the game we have going. It's annoying when you build a character whose skills are invalidated by the very campaign or setting ^_^

Most characters have some form of divination, special abilities useful in gathering information supernaturally. These are always useful, and the more the merrier, as games tend to be mysteries first. There is no such thing as too much information.

Combat is uncommon, and usually short. You can fairly safely get away with no combat capability (One character spends most combats hiding behind cover, while texting), but again, it never hurts to have some capability (Even if it's just basic firearms training) as you never know when the heavy combatants will be around. For how often we get in serious combat, this section of the game is generally well covered.

Social. This is reasonably covered, but somewhat limited in terms of subtle solutions. We have solid capabilities of 'forcing' social issues (i.e. mind control), but little in the area of coaxing them (high persuade scores). Basically, it's the difference between persuasions and threats. If the threat goes south, you'll find yourself in more trouble. This usually isn't a problem, however, but getting people to do what you say or to talk is important, and pissing someone off by trying to mind control them first can cause issues.

Tech. We have one tech in the game, but to my knowledge, she's just a computer tech. Physical science knowledge is rather lacking in the group. Special abilities can make up for it, but no-one really has high dots in mundane sciences (I think). The issue hasn't come up much, but that might just be because no-one has the dots to bother

Bear in mind that this is no attempt to get you to play one thing or another. Play whatever you like (As long as the person could actually remain employed by the Biloxi Police Department ^_^), this is listed just to give you an idea of how we go about things, just in case that is important to you.

Oh, one last thing. Every supernatural type allowed (Except changeling) is present in the player base. I provide this information in case you want to form a small size social group (Tribe, Krewe, etc...) with the other players. Of course, whether the other players wish to do so is up to them ^_^.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Hunters are accepted. We have a lot of humans in the game, all of which are considered Hunters mechanically. But various supernatural codes of secrecy can get iffy, and they have to be accepting of their fellow officers to be able to play, really.

Mixed genre games are always interesting, but there are a lot of considerations on how to adapt to a police game, which we've all found interesting and challenging to one degree or another. We just found that because we're all over the country, that this is the best format to allow us to continue to play together.

But Admin of Doom (+3!!) is right, Cheiron might be a problem, for multiple reasons ;-P

And Player of John is also correct. While not discouraging you from any particular mechanical concept, investigative/divinatory powers are obviously common as it is an investigation heavy game. Combat ability is common as most cops have at least (I think its required) 2 dots of Firearms. Social abilities and powers vary, but there is some significance there.

And Player of John, you'd be surprised who has science ;-P Quite a few people do, as at least one dot is usually a requirement for Detective. Not sure there are many with it higher than 2, but I think at least one or two people do ;-P

But that doesn't mean that a dedicated science tech wouldn't be a welcome concept. As I said, there can be a lot of variation, and a lot comes out in the approval process.

Though if you haven't looked, I would direct you to "Tales from the 13th Precinct." I don't know if we've copied these anywhere, but that book has general requirements for being a cop or detective.

What if I started out, to just go basic character, no supernatural abilities, but open minded enough to be aware of vampires, werewolves, and the like... but not magic. This hypothetical character would be very empirical and just a basic human character, but heavy on the medical and sciences side. I wouldn't mind not being involved in the entire case's RP, as long as I was allowed to watch - it's just as fun for me.

Then... later, perhaps 6 months-year (after a few cases at least) ... I could "awaken"?

Seems like a lot of trouble but I kind of like the idea of playing a human for once.

Oh for crying out loud. Just call me John. Or, Geoff, because if this person starts playing, it'll probably be mentioned over chat once or twice

Oh, and of course, all my information is from a players perspective. I technically have a mod account (though I haven't run a game yet), but I prefer to remain in the dark whenever possible Keeps the mystery, y'know?

We've had a hunter awaken before (Although I missed out on that, apparently) so it's perfectly reasonable. Anyway, the idea seems fine, although I don't know why a character might have no problem believing in shapeshifting (Giving conservation of mass/energy the middle finger), but consider magic to be pish-tosh :D. Or is it a question of unique body types. Perhaps the character has no problems with the unusual bodies of vampires and werewolves, but doesn't go for the supernaturals that have had changes primarily in their soul, such as Mages and Sin-Eaters (Geists)?

I like the idea, just kind of curious. Not that you have to share too much character info with me That's for the admins.

Well, no offense to our guest, but I was trying to not use real names yet. We don't know them from Adam, but are willing to try. ;-P

And John, you're an ST, there's a difference ;-P

Anyway, games happen in "real time", so it would be more like in 3-4 weeks, something happens. Also, pure humans are generally frowned on but not completely, we have at least one, but cases can be hard. Also, the less supernatural you are the more likely you are to get mind-wiped or ghouled or something.

At this point, my suggestion is to come up with a concept you'd really enjoy, outside of the context of what we've told you (other than considerations for supernaturals and case-play) and once you've named that PC, create an account with that name. Worry less about the ins and outs and "what the party is", and let us help fit the character once you have a good grasp of it.

And if you're willing, email woderator.awesome@gmail.com with stuff about yourself. We'd also like to get to know you a little first, so anything you're willing to say at this early stage, though really time zone is the most important. I can assure you none of us are freaks (more so than RPing in the WoD).

If you wqnt to play a mostly straight up mortal, Sleepwalker merit is your friend. You can perceive magic and count as special enough not to be mind wiped, but don't need powers.