V5: Conflicting power info

Vampire Nexus & Character Tools
1

The Players Guide did a weird thing: it reprinted some powers (notably Oblivion powers), but changed the text here and there without noting the changes as errata.

An example: in the Players Guide, Host Spirit is missing the last paragraph, which states:

A vampire whose body succumbs or is voluntarily opened to the possession attempt finds all Willpower damage healed once the wraith departs, as the spirit subdues the Beast for as long as it is present.

On the Nexus, if I open Cults of the Blood Gods to Host Spirit, I see that line. If I open the Players Guide to Host Spirit, the line is missing. So far, so good; it’s what I’d expect.

However, in the powers browser, Host Spirit is missing that line. I figured this meant it was pulling from the PG rather than CotBG, but if I click the “details page” button, it tells me the source is Cults of the Blood Gods. I’m not sure which source is the “correct” one at this point (because Paradox did a poor job of signalling this), but the Nexus is at least incorrect in saying it’s showing me a ceremony from Cults of the Blood Gods. It’s the Players Guide version.

Another instance is the Oblivion power, Passion Feast. Where the PG nerfed Host Spirit, it buffed Passion Feast by removing a line only present in CotBG:

That Hunger returns on the following night regardless of Rouse Checks, as the feeding is only a nepenthe to dull the vampire’s hungry urges.

Again, the powers browser shows the Players Guide version but claims it’s from Cults of the Blood Gods.

Ideally, I think three changes would make things clearer for the user. I’ll arrange them from what I perceive to be easiest to hardest:

  1. The details page needs to be correct about the power source.
  2. The powers browser should show what source a power comes from without needing to click the details page button.
  3. The details page (and possibly the powers browser) should let you toggle between sources when discrepancies such as this exist. (Bonus points if it highlights the differences between them, but I don’t expect that.)

As I recall, these two powers aren’t the only places such a discrepancy occurs. The Players Guide has several of these unmarked errata (if they even are errata). It leads to a poor experience for players and ST alike, but my hope is that Demiplane can help alleviate some of the confusion!

2

So this rule was updated in the Player’s Guide, from its initial version in Cults of the Blood Gods, and while there is no errata for CotBG yet, it is an intended change to the rule from the World of Darkness team, so we updated the element as it appears everywhere else on the NEXUS. This way, no matter which book you own, you have access to the most recent version of that rule.

The game element is linked to every source that it appears in, but we only display the primary source (ie. where it was first published) in the listing to avoid confusion.

One of the benefits of digital tools is that we can handle errata like this to give people who own a book with an outdated version of a rule the updated version. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
3

Is the WoD team intending to update CotBG sometime soon? If so, then you can ignore this.

If not …

The thing is, it’s still confusing. Case in point: me. When I opened the power detail page and saw it said it was from CotBG despite having the PG text, it prompted me to open several tabs and re-download the PDF from Renegade to see what had changed. If the Nexus indicated it was using the updated text from the PG, then there would have been no confusion.

4

We don’t have any details to share on the World of Darkness team’s plans on that front.

We are simply following the guidelines they have laid out for the most current version of the game rules and what they want presented, but we will continue to monitor feedback like yours to see if there are adjustments to that presentation that we can make on our side to make things clearer.

Thanks!

5

Oh, does this mean that the team has indicated Fatal Precognition is still in the game? On Discord, they seemed to suggest Fatal Prediction was intended to replace it.

6

Since they have separate names, both game elements will exist on our end until we get official guidance from them indicating that one should be removed. I would follow whatever guidance they have shared in regards to Fatal Precognition/Fatal Prediction on their channels. :slight_smile:

7

Makes sense. It’s definitely an odd case (not least because Trail of Ash and Bone, which isn’t on the Nexus yet, adds a ceremony that requires Precognition). I really wish the PG had an errata section that laid these changes out, but that’s neither here nor there.

8

I noticed last night that if I browse the compendium → disciplines → oblivion, it shows the text from Cults of the Blood Gods, not the updated text in the Players Guide. For instance, “shroud” instead of “veil”, as well as the CotBG text for Host Spirit and Passion Feast. Some non-exhaustive screenshots:

non-pg-text-2
non-pg-text-22048Ă—549 157 KB

non-pg-text
non-pg-text1920Ă—1514 206 KB

9

Thanks for catching that! It appears we missed updating that Discipline Primer when Player’s Guide released. I’ve gone through and done an overhaul of it–let me know if you catch anything further!

10

Looks good now. One thing I’m curious about:

In the Disciplines compendium, there are two “power” sections. The first shows the powers inline; the second is the same picker you get when you visit Game Rules → Powers.

Is the inline section supposed to be a complete listing, or is it just supposed to be a preview of some of the powers on offer?

I ask, because Oblivion is complete: it has everything from Chicago by Night, Cults of the Blood Gods, and the Players Guide. Meanwhile, if I look at, say, Protean, the “inline” section only has powers from the core rulebook.

(It’s occurred to me that the difference might stem from the fact Oblivion is the only Discipline not in core, but I’m still curious!)