VTM V5 early access update

General Demiplane Feedback
1

I’ve browsed the available content. Here is a bit of structured feedback I hope can help the upcoming developments:

  1. Source book availability: I think this is the major concern today. A lot of us VTM Game masters have already purchased digital copies of the sourcebooks. I own most of them for example. To repay the full price to benefit from them here feels like a shake off. You might want to address this before rolling out. Paying a reasonable price for the source access here on top of the digital version is ok: it is clear a lot of work went down in linking and bundling it. The ability to add to the nexus library books I already own for a reasonable fee ($5-$10) sounds like a must-have. Renegade and Paradox should be able to provide proof-of-purchase codes we could use here. Otherwise most GMs will probably only use the basics of the platform without add-ons, which is a shame: they look great and very well-made.
  2. Source book availability for the players group: If the GM has paid for sources, all the players in the adventure should have access to them for the duration of the adventure. I don’t think it’s the case now. If it is, you might want to make it clearer.
  3. Disciplines presentation: In the disciplines panel, you have level and discipline columns. I believe they’re unnecessary and eat up space for no benefit. There’s already the discipline icon on the left, and you could add the level next to it as a dot icon, like it’s done in all VTM sources (1, 2, 3, etc. dots next to the discipline icon. Or just a number next to it, if it’s simpler). Ordering by default by increasing level is the only order that makes sense.
  4. Amalgams presentation: Amalgam disciplines requires two disciplines. It would be better for them to show the two disciplines icons on the top line, rather than having the amalgam discipline hidden in the description (you have to click on the discipline to see it’s an amalgam, it’s not very usable).
  5. Rituals: In the Blood Sorcery discipline, you have mixed the actual discipline powers with the rituals. They are two different things so they should be in different categories (or with a different or additional icon or something). Discipline powers can be used at will, rituals need components and time for execution. You’ll have the same issue with Oblivion once you get to it.
  6. Advanced Conflict: Having the rules for advanced conflict manoeuvres somewhere would be very useful for GMs. Dice pools for Manoeuvre, block, all-out-attack or defense, grapple, thrown objects, cover, etc.
  7. Missing items: You’ve missed quite a few weapons listed in the Advanced Conflict section of the core book: they are presented as tables, but they should be included in the items list: Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Knife, Sword, Baseball bat, etc. Same thing for armors (Flak jacket, Military armor)
  8. Antagonists: You need more than the standard dice pools, you need all the dice pools indicated in the core book (Exceptional dice pools particularly are those mostly used in game).
  9. Factions: A lot of the material in the Anarch and Camarilla sourcebooks are factions, similarly in other later books (Second Inquisition, Blood gods). We would love a section for those (alongside other nexus sections like items and antagonists). You could list all the factions from those books with geographical information (like which countries/cities do they operate in? Are they worldwide?). A short summary then detail access when you have the source? That would be a tremendous help for GMs: VTM is a lot more about factions politics and lore than it is about items and antagonists.

There, I hope it helps the developers on this project. I’m very excited by this online tool for the game, which I hope to be able to use with my regular playgroups. The current state of development is already a huge demonstration of all the benefits we could get on such a platform so it’s great, keep up the good work and let’s see how this character creation module is doing :wink:

1 Like
2

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to type this up. I’ll add some responses below:

You are not paying the full price for digital access on the NEXUS. The hardcover version goes from $45 - $55 dollars, and the NEXUS version is $29.99. Additionally, we have partnered with Renegade to provide hardcover + digital bundles that are $59.99 - $69.99, which is a considerable discount for both products at once. For the first 45 days after launch, Renegade has also shared a 30% discount code off the Demiplane digital version with their customers (VITAE2022) to help onboard with the digital toolset.

In the end, our team is doing a considerable amount of work to bring this toolset to life - we have to be able to make money to keep it going, so that’s what your $29.99 (or less with the aforementioned discounts) is covering.

Content sharing is on the short term roadmap for the NEXUS platform on Demiplane. You will be able to share any sourcebooks or content you have unlocked with the individuals in your playgroup across all of the games Demiplane supports in the next few months. More details on how that will work are coming, but if you are familiar with how other digital toolset platforms handle it, it should all be pretty familiar (with a new twist that we believe will make it even better and more flexible).

Thanks for the feedback - we will consider it alongside what we hear from others as we look to make improvements in the days ahead. We know there are some tweaks we will want to make from the starting point you see today.

At the moment, all of that is readily-available in the Corebook in the Digital Reader. We’ll see if there’s additional community demand for presenting the Advanced Conflict options in another format like a listing as we go - we’re open to it if we see it will be something fans want.

These are on the list and will be added during Early Access. :+1:

Yeah, the listing columns are meant to be quick glance information, but all of the information is a single click away by expanding the listing row.

We went with standard dice pools because it was the data point that most antagonists shared (and even then, some don’t have it). Several antagonists don’t have exceptional dice pools, for example, and it would make it look like there’s missing data on several rows if we went that route.

We could potentially make an update in the future that pulled in certain data based on a prioritized hierarchy, but we’ll see what other feedback we receive before we make a call on that.

This would end up being what we call a “primer,” which would be along the lines of Clans or Disciplines as opposed to Powers or Items (which we call “listings”).

Factions are on the list - we’ll incorporate them as we are able to do so and keep everyone posted.

Thanks again for the writeup and keep an eye out - we have much more in store for the World of Darkness!

3

Thanks for the quick reply and the hard work the team has already done on VTM. Again, it looks fantastic already.

Just to add to the first point, all VTM books are also digitally available, and the pricing tag for digital PDF versions is around $30 apiece. I have bought all the available VTM books for a total around $200-250 already. I can absolutely understand that you have to make your platform available, but I would be more ready to pay a bundle price for all-access or even a subscription than to re-pay a similar price on top of the digital copies I already own. For newcomers, a bundle price for source in demiplane + digital PDF on the renegade side would be very nice too. A lot of GMs nowadays favour PDF digital version on the hardcovers.

It’s not very practical but definitely doable for GMs to use the PDFs alongside the demiplane website and CTRL+F in them instead of a comfortable hyperlink or section unfold. Which is I think a real issue: for people like me who have already bought all the digital books, we might end up not getting the fully integrated experience you have worked so much on, but also clumsily approximating it with our own devices just because of the price tag on sources.

4

The Vampire Companion clans list their Compulsions below their Banes, which makes sense since that book lacks a rules section to hold that info. It would be helpful to add that to the original clans as well, since the pages briefly mention their Compulsion but then the actual mechanical rules for their Compulsions are buried in the rules chapters. Thanks.

1 Like
5

The compulsion is listed with the clans if you use the drop-downs.

6

I only see a summary, like “Gangrel may become animalistic,” for example, not the actual rules for Feral Impulses.The rules for the core book clans compulsions, near as I can tell, can only be found in the Core book source under the Vampires chapter. That’s always been where they are, but I think it would be handy if they were on the main clan page as well.

7

You’re right; I skimmed too hard, it seems. Same for the bane. I agree, the mechanical details should be there as well.

9

This is such a great write up, really covers most of the isues I’ve run in to. I think part of the solution would be to add in the Storyteller Screen with hyperlinks through to sourcebook sections. Right now it feels like I’m jumping all over the place and still doing a lot of scrolling to find particular rules and rolls, a more interactive and useful index page of sorts.

1 Like