I’m an Ftard. I admit it. My previous rants about Promethean were flawed. I … well, I was tempted to leave it at that but I may as well lay my stupidity bare. I don’t really have an excuse. The section on wastelands reads that if the Promethean leaves the 1 mile radius from where they they rest for one hour within 24 hours the effect stops. Somehow I read that as, if the Promethean comes back into that radius within the 24 hours the effect continues. But that isn’t how it actually reads.

I still feel that it is too far and killing a dead thematic horse that disquiet already accomplishes but it is not broken as I felt it was much less the dramatic failure I thought it was.

Malkav the F-tard. *hands in geek card and goes to cry in a pile of 2nd Edition AD&D books*

Wastelands

I want you to pick up the Promethean book and go read the Wasteland section if you’re not already familiar with it.  If memory serves the page is roughly 170, perhaps 172.  Got it or remember it?  Good.  Now, understand that any content involving Prometheans developed for Khallam will ignore these rules.

Now, ignoring book rules is actually unusual for me.  Its not unusual for me to add content but for some odd reason I like using books published as is.  I think its because I like for the books to be neutral ground.  I like for the books to be a point of common understanding and with the groups I play with we’re often so tight on time we don’t have the luxury of sharing debates over how we want to rewrite the rules.  So, my way of fixing things is usually to add options for characters (I’m almost universally the Storyteller).  So, I spent a great deal of time figuring out feng shui rules for mitigating this effect, then cobbling together a rewrite before I gave up.  One hour for setting down a track-able marker?  Instigating the first stage of wasteland in one day?  Finally, I realized that it was better to just chuck the whole thing.

It isn’t that I’m unsympathetic to the idea.  I love Promethean and think its a marvelous book.  I think the theme they are developing with the wasteland rules is a good one and appropriate.  However, I feel that the results of it are too constraining, require too much book keeping and the core theme is already developed well with disquiet.  True, the specific theme is a little different (rejection by nature rather than man) but at its core the theme that the world rejects the unnatural is already accomplished.  And perhaps on some level I disagree with it.  Aren’t the Prometheans alive?  Don’t they have that divine spark?  Isn’t this telling them that despite saying “I am” that they aren’t or at least shouldn’t be in this world?  I agree with the nomadic idea of the Prometheans but I can still see them as hermits and living in tune with nature.  I can see some spreading of disquiet in the natural world but not in the extremes listed and not in such as tight time frame.  And even that they should have ways to tone down to a bare minimum if a Promethean learned the alchemical secrets of shielding his Azoth.  Perhaps the disquiet powers should also limit the Wasteland spreading.  Its too much.  The wasteland is not only beating a dead thematic horse but punishing the player.  Prometheans often seek humanity and this requires some interaction.  Sure, they’re underdogs.  Its the World of Darkness, not World of Sunshine after all.  But give them a fighting chance.  Eventually the tipping point turns the under dog into a victim and that’s never fun to play.  Well, usually not.  Never say never.

Imagine a Promethean character beyond a short game series into long term play.  Other characters had better be pretty mobile.  And I’m not talking about a biker gang.  One hour at a  Waffle Hut and you’re setting down a mystic marker for enemies to track you.  One day at a bike rally and you’re playing havoc with everyone’s helmet’s blue tooth phone system if you’re a Frankenstein.  This kind of mobility is insane.  And the effect?  The World of Darkness is to me the real world with a horrific nightmare side.  With the square mileage that effects the wasteland spread Al-Qaeda would love to recruit a Frankenstein.  At Azoth 3 he would effect 28 square miles and change.  Manhattan is only 23 square miles.  In other words at a low level wasteland he could screw up all of the electronics of Manhattan (i.e. Wall Street) with bleed over to spare into other parts of NYC.  Sure, you could argue that some mage cabal would stop it.  Or werewolves.  Or whatever.  But even a few days could have disastrous economic effects and that kind of logic – that there isn’t some natural counter effect, that it relies entirely on intervention doesn’t sit well with me.  Though it might be a good adventure idea.  CIA mages track down Al-Qaeda Promethean slavers.  Pure gold, baby.

So, in summary.  Wasteland : no.  Wasteland as spreading disquiet, as its spreads out in the radius of effect: sure.  In fact, I encourage that idea but its nebulous, unfocused, it provides the idea of the Promethean as damaging his psychic environment and people would resist it better (double composure?) without direct contact with the Promethean.  The spirit world will be real pretty.  *cough*  At the later levels some of the physical effects might occur which draw the interest of mages and werewolves but the direct route leads to spirits.  This keeps Prometheans mysterious and rarely encountered.  I also think that supernatural entities should get extra resistance (Blood Potency / Gnosis / whatever) while animals could learn to over come it in time if they form a bond.

I like Prometheans and I like the toolbox of the new World of Darkness.  I want them to be beleaguered, even tragic figures, but not victims.