As I ramp up development and turn words into final drafts, I plan to share more and more content. So here’s a good way to start: Necromancy. This is just the paths. It’s a pretty big chunk of wordcount, though. I felt it deserved a lot of attention, so did Thaumaturgy. Because, you know, Cappadocians, Tremere, all that jazz. We also have a couple of additional bloodlines that use Necromancy.
This draws a little from Dark Ages, a little from V20, and a little from new design. If thinks go the way I think, I have one more Path to add before we finish. It’s a Google Doc, so ignore formatting issues.
New content and adaptations come courtesy J Dymphna Coy, who wrote our Lamiae bloodline writeup earlier in the week.
As with all the progress stuff I’m posting, I’m posting this before I send it over to our editor. So little stuff like typos or minor word choice stuff? Not necessary to bring up. This is purely a content dump. It’s got eyes to see before it goes live.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8mAieDqLPN-mXyFWM3SxGvkZOHmK8lVksoFFCy1knI/edit?usp=sharing
Comments
12 responses to “V20 Dark Ages Necromancy”
Just one tiny point that I spotted in the first few seconds (I haven’t had a chance to look in detail yet)
discrete = separated, distinct
discreet = keeping a low profile
Loved the Mortuus Path! It should be the primary Cappadocian necromancy path!
I like that all the Paths are included (except Cenotaph, which is a lame Path anyway), but I feel like there could be a lot of powers trimmed down in word-count to maybe fit in more Rituals? Or, amazingly, a whole new path! Working with some other forumites and fans, I was able to write up 21 new Paths of Necromancy, so it isn’t like Necromancy’s lacking in areas to cover. Plus, shorter powers tend to be easier to use and remember, so I just generally support trimming a few powers down a bit.
My big issue is that the writer chose to merge Bone Path and Cadaverous Animation together, but went with Bone Path as the primary source. Bone Path is incredibly inconsistent. Zombie-Zombie-Zombie-Soul-Soul. There’s no connection between levels 1-3 and levels 4-5. Cadaverous Animation flows much better, being 100% about zombies.
A less-big issue is names. First, Vitreous Path: why is it still called that? It never made any sense to be called Vitreous Path (vitreous means glass-like or related to glass) and now it’s the Dark Ages, its the signature Path of a bunch of Indian/Tibetan/Nepalese necromancers descended from the Chakravanti Mages… aaand it’s named Vitreous. So many of the other new names are evocative and great, but Vitreous just bugs me.
?Second name issue is The Mortuus Path. It used to be Corpse in the Monster, which was way more Dark Ages-y. I get that someone wanted to finally use that stupid Mortuus name and settle all the issues with it, but Corpse in the Monster is cooler.
Also, on the subject of names, if there’s wordcount, I’d really like to see a DA-to-Modern translation of the Path names. In Modern, the Giovanni have swapped to a name system where everything is “The X Path” where X is some death-related Adjective or Noun. But in Dark Ages, everything is longer and more flowery. It’d be cool to know what The Grave’s Decay is called in modern times. The Grave Path? The Decay Path? Oh, hey, if you did that, then you could say that Corpse in the Monster is called Mortuus in Modern Nights!!
(Note: I’ve already written a translation table, but it’d be nice to see one in a book)
I totally agree. I feel that its loosing a bit of the DA flavor.
These seem pretty powerful. How many Spectres does Howl of the Maelstrom summon? Do targets get a Willpower roll to dodge the effects? If they fail, are they automatically dead?
I meant the last two questions to be about Lament of D’hainu.
I agree. Instant death/torpor definitely seems like overkill. Maybe it could cause the victim to lose a certain number of Willpower points based on the player’s number of successes, and if the player scores 5+ successes, the victim gains a temporary derangement or something?
Sepulchre Path
The first power is called Peering across the shroud. In the text, the power is referred to as Witness of Death.
• Peering Across the Shroud
The dead walk among us unseen and unheard. To command them, a necromancer must be able to perceive them. Witness of Death allows a vampire to see and hear the dead. She cannot touch them; they appear hazy and indistinct to her eyes, and they speak in soft whispers or echoing moans.
Is this there going to be a kickstarter deluxe edition for this, or only PDF/PoD?
It will be Kickstarted.
There’s not the Haunting Path ? So disappointing.
More seriously, something is bothering me. In the first edition of DA, Giovanni created Necromancy and did not want to teach it to Cappadocian. In the second edition, with the fusion of Mortis and Necromancy, the last was a mere path of Mortis (I loved it). Giovanni was reluctant to teach it to Cappadocian. But now, I don’t see Path of Sepulchre as a creation of Giovanni, it’s like it existed since always, and more, it seems like they don’t care about teach it of their parent Clan.
I don’t see why not but is it not like an inconsistency of the plot ?
i have some questions about the vitreous path: pischachas feast
if you have lots of this energy but no normal vitae, do you suffer the effects of hunger?(frenzy upon sight/smell of blood etc)
can you use them to heal the damage caused by not having normal blood to spend when waking up?
finally does this power drain pathos points or corpus levels ? or both?