Interested in using Curseborne underlying systems, maybe lore and world, and powers, but want to incorporate the Clans from Vampire: the Requiem?
I’m also interested in this, since I adore VtR and consider it the best Vampire game around.
Looking over the spells in Curseborne, if i were going to do this, I would assign one Practice per Clan as their “unique” Practice/Discipline.
I’d have them start with a Spell from their Unique Practice, their Secret Spell, and then whatever they like from the Commons.
Since I’d be focusing very heavily on Vampires to the exclusion of other Lineages, I will be pilfering their powers. 😆
Ventrue / Heir
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Iron Edict
Secret Spell: Incorporeality>Shared Senses
Mekhet
-
Smoke & Shadow
Secret Spell: Illusion>Overload
Nosferatu
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The Stranger
Secret Spell: Metaphysics>Haunted Ground
Gangrel
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Mutable Form
Secret Spell: Mayhem>Implacable Pursuer
Daeva / House Bathory
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Emotional Manipulation
Secret Spell: Mayhem>Archonic Voice
COMMON
- Physical Perfection
- Vital Force
- Depthless Fury
- Consuming Siphon
- Metaphysics>As Smoke
- Incorporeality>Soul Scry
Let me know if this interests you! What would YOU do?—
Sorry, this post is the first I’ve heard of Curseborn. What is it exactly?
I’m broadly familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade, and aware of Vampire: The Requiem as a failed attempt at rebooting/simplifying that game’s universe but I don’t really know any of the specifics.
Curseborne is a spiritual successor to those older Storytell* game lines, World / Chronicles of Darkness. a new Urban Horror game designed with supernatural type crossover baked in from the start. made by some of the old hats from old WW and associated ppl who have been involved in the licensed products over the years.
It uses the Storypath Ultra system.
it’s made in-house by Onyx Path Publishing so they don’t have to deal with Paradox/White Wolf licensing.
addendum: Requiem was actually quite successful as a gameline, even if it could not outright replace Masquerade in public mindshare. but it doesn’t have to since they are different games, even if there’s overlap.
Ah ok. So in a way it’s kind of like Pathfinder to D&D? Pretty similar mechanically (I noticed in the Drivethru page that it’s dice pool d10 skill+attribute), made by a former third-party publisher.
Being designed for crossover from the start is interesting. They’ve obviously got Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage equivalents, but I’m not sure what the Outcasts or Dead are. Wraith and Mummy? (Or vice versa?)
I also wonder about theme. Each of the WoD games have pretty strong themes. Vampire asks: what does it mean to be human? It deals with human-like political and interpersonal conflicts through the lens of the supernatural. Werewolf is about protecting nature and deals with topics like ecoterrorism vs industrialism. Mage is more esoteric and about what reality is, and how our sense of the real is created. Wraith is about death and what it means to our lives. Etc. Each game has its own unique and quite strong theming that makes it stand out from the others. Not saying that a competitor needs to have the same themes, but for me the appeal of all these is that the themes are so strong. Does Curseborne manage to keep strong themes while also enabling cross-play?
The world is cracked. We seeped through. Now we’re here.
In Curseborne, our world is connected to disturbing realms via liminal spaces.
Can you taste that emotion in the air? Someone close by is hiding. And they’re scared.
In Curseborne, you are damned. Your damnation grants unnatural gifts and terrifying impulses.
I never asked for this. An ancestor made a deal with the devil. I bear the consequences.
In Curseborne, the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Your accursed family’s pacts and crimes lead to a web of political intrigue and lasting perdition.
You think I’m scary now? Wait until you see the beast I become.
In Curseborne, monsters are real. And you play as one.
This book contains:
yeah! a bit like Pathfinder! i hadn’t thought of that comparison. Storypath system is clearly a descendant of Storytell*, mechanically.
Outcasts are, right now, like Angels and Demons, though thematically they could also one day include things like Prometheans and possibly Changelings.
Dead are, well, dead! XD Like Risen, if you remember those. Like the Crow. They are ghosts that inhabit their dead bodies. No Mummies yet, sadly, but I expect they would also fall under Dead in the future.
You are right that each WoD game, and I’d say CofD game, have very strong themes, that that has also been an appeal to me.
Curseborne is an approach that, at least right now, is more breadth than depth. Each creature shares the same history and cosmology, in that the world is Cursed, and curses manifest in the lives of everyone in small to large ways, including becoming Accursed.
Each Lineage will showcase some smaller, unique themes as well, such as The Hunger for Hungry, or Elemental connection for the Primals, but by nature of fitting it all into one book, the themes are a fair bit thinner and less developed.
This isn’t necessarily BAD, especially when we have decades of other similar books to pilfer and adapt, but it is different.
I do think it’s worth the read, and I’ve never even been a fan of crossover games! But I like what I’m seeing here, and I appreciate the unified underlying systems and cosmology between all the Lineages.
I do expect them to be fleshed out more as time goes on, with Lineage books to focus on each Lineage in more depth.