The ST team just had a meeting over the course of several hours, and while we still have lots of work to do before game, there are some announcements we want to share with you.

Blinking Lights OK?: We are considering using blinking lights during an encounter to signify NPCs in the umbra, because that is more visually distinct than a solid light. If this would be bad for you in some way, please let us know or let XO know and we won't do it.

Plot Start Time: While game on is earlier, don’t expect much ST content to come out before 9 or 10 on Friday night. Most of our team can’t get to site in time to run content earlier than that. However, we might be able to send out non ST played NPCs.

Tell us you are IG: Please let ST camp know when you are in game Friday, so that we have a reasonable idea of how much of game is ready to play, and if NPCs want to talk to you, we know we can send them out.

Pen Pals: Are you interested in being an NPC pen pal with a character in game? Are you interested in your PC having a pen pal? Both? Please let us know and we will coordinate pairs with you and give the NPC half of the pen pal combo some information to include in letters.

Policy on Triatic Taint: NPCs that understand what Wyld/Wyrm/Weaver taint are and know the origin story of the Triat will share the following opinion: “there is no such thing as taint from the un-fallen Triat, allegiance to these powers does not manifest as taint. The reason that Wyld/Weaver/Wyrm aspected spirits have taint, even if allied with the unfallen Triat, is that the Triat are so thoroughly fallen that allegiance to them conveys some of their fallen taint.” NPCs will not all share an opinion as to what should be done about this allegiance/taint.

Opt In Conflict: ST team ran a poll a while ago asking if people wanted more inter faction conflict, and the player base was split evenly between yes and no, so we have devised a compromise. Please let ST camp know if you are interested in participating in the following content. Participants will be contacted by an NPC asking them to do something mildly detrimental to another participant in exchange for a reward. The requested actions will be small inconveniences or annoyances, and not harmful in a major way. In theory, this way we will give players who want conflict conflict, without drawing anyone in who doesn’t want in.

Cast NPCs: We continue to desire to cast recurring NPCs. If you are interested in having an NPC role that you can play frequently, please let us know and we will help you develop one. Is there a recurring NPC that you wished existed for you to interact with? Let us know and maybe we can give that idea to someone who wants to play a cast NPC but doesn’t have an idea for one. One upside to cast NPCs is that you can choose to work out with ST between games what your NPC will do, and then you can play them without even having to walk to ST camp. You could change in your cabin, play the NPC, change back in your cabin, and just submit your NPC report later.
Some recently filled cast NPC roles include: Cockroach, the Tremere Lord in San Francisco, a conservative Silver Fang, a wraith preacher, and someone from North Quarry Creek campaigning to have quarry creek choose a 3 Selectmen system instead of having a mayor. A cast NPC is just an NPC that comes back to town a lot and helps make the world feel bigger.

NPC reports due: If you want NPC XP in time to use it for Check-In at 5.2, NPC reports must be completed by our next ST meeting on 10/21.

Hello Prospectors. We hope you had a lot of fun at our Season 5 Premiere. Our next game is a ways away on November 30th, but we hope most of you will be able to make it out again.

There are a few links we find useful to post up for use between games:
-- For starters, make sure you've completed any check-out cards for the most recent game. ( https://darkprospects.us/check-out )
-- Support your fellow players by voting to get them extra XP ( https://darkprospects.us/eepvote )
-- Help out the Storytellers by:
-- -- Submitting NPC reports for characters you played. ( https://darkprospects.us/NPCReports )
-- -- Submitting feedback the STs can use to improve plot. ( https://darkprospects.us/STFeedback )
-- -- Sending in downtimes to set yourself up for the next game. ( https://darkprospects.us/Downtimes )
-- -- Send in a request for spirits, or ideas for a guest plot. ( [email protected] / [email protected] )
-- Join us on the forums for role-play ( viewforum.php?f=3 )
-- Register and check-in for our next game. ( https://darkprospects.us/Register / https://darkprospects.us/characters/check-in )
-- Make an alt ( viewtopic.php?f=35&t=402 )

Players voted and these are the results!

Top Choice:
----Lindsay
----SintangibleSkye
----Inkfingers
----TheBadMan
Most Death-Defying!:
----Inkfingers
----Channing
----PeterS
Most Touching Moment:
----indianaknoppel
----Lindsay
----Chew
Best Improvised Conversation:
----Twoey
----Chew
----PeterS
Best Schemer:
----Inkfingers
----Pohizzzle
----Bishop
----Ralph
Non-Staff Game Support:
----ajdelossantos
----joakhurst
----Jennifer

Hello Prospectors

As the game grows we continue to work to improve the game for everyone. As part of that, we're going to make some changes to the Check-In process starting with Season 5, Episode 2 (S5E2).

All players must either use the online pre-check-in process or notify staff at least 1 week in advance if they need on-site check-in.
New players would be exempt from this requirement for their first 3 games.
Bonus XP granted for non-physical donations (articles, rituals, literaries, etc...) stops 1 week before game. Any XP earned from these tasks after the 1 week deadline apply to the following game.
Bonus XP for physical donations (food, drink, supplies) applies to the following game. This includes the cash donations made at check-in.
Your attendance XP is calculated into your current XP already, as it is considered "already earned."


While these changes are initially inconvenient, we hope that they streamline the check-in process, and result in faster, easier, smoother check-in processes for all. Thank you for working with us to make Dark Prospects an amazing place to play.

Hello Prospectors - a new version of the Character Sheets tool has been uploaded and now has the Check-In functionality integrated and Rituals moved to their own page. We hope this new tool serves you well!

SYSTEMS: GENERAL
- New section: "Consent to Physical Role Play"
- New mechanism added to Willpower: Shaking Off.
- New mechanic: Enchantment has been added to the rulebook. This is applied by Changeling NPCs currently, but will be expanded to Changeling PCs when they are introduced.
- Form and Body powers are defined explicitly under this chapter.
- Interacting with The Umbra clarifies that ranged weapons do not work in the Umbra, not just "no guns".
- We now clarify that Merit modification does not count as a Major character change. This means the partial rewrite players get when they first change do not apply to Ghoul or Kinfolk merit addition during game.
- A link has been added to the end of the Systems: Information chapter to see the current Restricted costs.

SYSTEMS: CONFLICT
- Shaking off Mentals has been added to the rulebook. This new mechanism allows a character to, once per hour, immediately resist an active mental effect already on their character.
- A new section defining effects with Duration vs. Instant effects has been added. Importantly, if an effect has a duration, it may not be used reflexively.
- Immunity stacking has been clarified to include a note that while you may lose the immunity effect of a power, you may retain its other effects while these are active.
- A new section titled "Effects that Level and Effect Caps" has been added to the book. Maximum damage information is now in this section.
- Firearm damage cap is now 5 instead of 4.
- Form Power overrides have been added to the "Overriding Effects" section.
- Node Tick regeneration has been clarified. If you are benefiting from accelerating ticks and the affected pool goes down for any reason, your tick speed resets.

SYSTEMS: INFORMATION
- Armor and Shields have received a minor revamp. We've done away with shield sizes. All shields now have 5HP. Shield and Armor repairs have had overall costs increased. It is likely these pieces of equipment will see additional changes going forward.
- The list of Effect types has been updated.
- The list of power Modifiers has been moved to just before Powers in the book.
- An additional signal has been added to the rules. Green glow sticks can be used to represent Convergence (the power that used to be Umbral Body)
- The crafting chart has removed Large and Medium shields. Small Shields have been renamed "Shields" here, and the craft/purchase cost is the same as Small shields used to be.
- A link back to the section under Systems: General for "what Restricted characters are" has been added.

UNIVERSAL CHARACTER INFORMATION:
- No mechanical changes. Updates to formats, text, and power names.

MORTAL RULES:
- No mechanical changes. Updates to formats, text, and power names.

VAMPIRE RULES:
- Blood Bond text has been updated. This should be non-mechanical changes, but the descriptions have been updated for clarity.
- The "Light Averse" weakness (Lasombra, Setite) has been updated to state the override effect for the Resilience power.
- Instances of Resist: status have been normalized to 2 Blood.
- Flawless Parry (Celerity EP) has been combined with Celerity 4.
- Counterkill, NC, 1x/day has been added to Celerity EP.
- Sepulchre Path L5 Turncoat has had Breach added.
- Presence 2 has had the new Charm power added to it.
- Presence 3 has been replaced with Love, 10m.
- Presence 4 has been replaced with a Persistent version of Love (24h)
- Presence EP Quell / Riot have both been increased from 1B to 3B, in-line with other Mass powers.
- Updates to formats, text, and power names.

GHOUL RULES:
- Updates to formats, and text - there should be no mechanical changes here.

WRAITH RULES:
- Built-In Gauntlet sight has had clarification added that it is only functional in Psyche.
- The Shadows paragraph has been clarified to state that you lose access to Gauntlet Sight while in Shadow.
- Mnemosynis Ingrained Detection 1&5 has been replaced with Resist: Phys/Dmg & Hanging On.
- Outrage 1 Resist Status has been normalized to 2 Pathos.
- Usury Ingrained Medicine & Sense Liability has been replaced with Sense Pool: Health and Sense Pool Energy.

FERA RULES:
- Bastet Felis R3 Bind Foot has been replaced with Sense Pool: Gnosis
- Balam R2 Terror has been replaced with Rage Regeneration.
- Balam R4 Poison has been replaced with Open Wounds.
- Swara R1 Resist: Status has been normalized to 2 Gnosis
- Bastet R4 Love has been switched to the 10m version.
- Bastet R2 Blindness has been replaced with Resist: Physical/Damage
- Bastet R4 HT&Clarity fixed - it is now correctly HT4+Clarity.
- Nuwisha are no longer permanently stuck in Cloak once they purchase the R1 Cloak power.

GAIAN SPIRIT RULES:
- Clarified text regarding tree purchasing - no mechanical change.
- Aspects have been clarified - no mechanical change.
- Roles have been clarified to remove the space ship operator.
- Defender 2 has had Cloak added.
- NPC Packmate benefit 1e/h has been updated to clarify that it doesn't stack if purchased more than once.

SKILLS:
- Craft added to skills.

POWERS:
- Modifiers section has been added here.
- Aura Sense has been renamed Sense Aura for consistency reasons.
- Clarified text for ghouling/embrace under Blood Healing. Clarified requirements to receive consent before Ghouling/Embracing.
- Energy to Health has been moved to the right spot alphabetically.
- Borrow Power limitations have have been clarified.
- Cloak clarified - mass powers can still target Cloaked characters.
- Cloak Sight power has had additional text added for clarity.
- Command is now a Signaled Mental instead of last season's Status. This effect can not be used to clear Mentals with durations. If the power isn't possible to perform, the target may instead contemplate how to perform it.
- Convergence updated to include the new visual signal.
- Daydream has been expanded to fully describe the effect.
- Deep Sense has been renamed Sense Deeply.
- Drain Pool has been updated. The character doing the draining may no longer move once the effect begins.
- Elemental Weapons now correctly lists an Immunity in its description.
- Emotional Regeneration is now in the rulebook. Should have been to begin with.
- Gauntlet Sight clarified.
- Hardened Flesh requires a sig call to activate.
- Hanging on allows a character to be healed by others, but not by self.
- Instill Desire updated for Persistent effects.
- Instill Goal updated for Persistent effects.
- Love is no longer persistent by default. It can still be made Persistent via modifiers.
- Sense Item has been renamed Item Sight for consistency.
- Sense Magic has been renamed Magic Awareness
- Sense Watchers has been renamed Watcher Sight.
- Taint Fetter has been renamed Taint Item. Now with more description!
- Thieving Talons limitations updated.
- Unforgettable is now rolled into Love.

NEW POWERS:
- New Power: Muse Regeneration allows a Changeling to gain Glamour from being near others creating art.
- New Power: Refund allows a character to call Immune to an effect, but return the resource the attacker spent on it.
- New Power: Animal form added.
- New Power: Charm (previously the L1 Blood Bond effect)
- New Power: Chimerical Creation - in preparation for Changeling. Allows Glamour Item creation.
- New Power: Creative Crafting added in preparation for Changeling.
- New Power: Enchanted Sight added - allows one to see across the Umbra without hearing.
- New Power: Enchant Object added in preparation for Changeling. Allows a Changeling to Enchant another character or pass Glamour to another Changeling.
- New Power: Has a Knack - in preparation for Changeling. Allows a character to craft 3 items at crafting cost regardless of whether they have a skill for it.
- New Power: Kith Form - allows a Changeling to gain access to their Kith powers at reduced cost.
- New Power: Rigging allows the creation of temporary items.

Dark Prospects community,

The Camp recently notified us that they needed to raise our price. To be clear, this is not because the Dark Prospects community has done anything wrong. The camp is overall happy with us as a group. Regardless, the increase is required. Unfortunately, this means we need to have a serious conversation with our community about what we want to do going forward.

Importantly, the August game's price is unaffected by the price increase, as it was negotiated before the end of last season.

We're looking at the following options for the future of Dark Prospects.

The first option is to increase the attendance fee from $35-$41 to $55-$61 per game, and maintain our plans to continue Dark Prospects into season 6 and beyond.
The second option is to maintain the current $35-$41 fee and plan to make the Season 5 Finale the end of Dark Prospects. In order to do this, remaining sessions will use the game's banked donations in order to cover the additional site fee.

It really comes down to how willing we all are to shoulder the cost. Please answer the following poll.

Prospectors!

We're excited to announce that we finally secured our first three sessions for Season 5 with Camp Harmon. Including the newly scheduled date our first three sessions are now:

August 24-26
Nov 30 - Dec 2
Jan 4-6

We're continuing to work with the camp to schedule the last half of the season.

Hello Prospectors!

I just wanted to remind everyone that the Check-In Department is hiring! We are looking for a third person to help us every game. A general description of what we would need from anyone interested includes:

-several hours worth of time in the week leading up to each game
-getting to the game site around 1-2pm to be available for game prep and set up
-being willing to miss potential game play Friday evening
-being available to occasionally help players through the rest of the weekend

**Please note** Most of the work processing tickets is done online prior to game so it is not required for anyone interested to be local to the Bay Area. So long as you can arrive early on Fridays of games, we can make it work!

Please PM any interest to the XO's on the Dark Prospects website. Feel free to ask here, PM me, or PM the XO's with any questions.

Playtest Notes From ST


PLEASE READ -Philosophy of a Playtest:
A playtest is not a day game. The purpose of a playtest is to stress test the new rules and get a feel for how they work in play. That said, our rules are not built solely for combat, they work in a myriad of ways when it comes to role play situations and slow times at game.

The easiest way to incorporate those other rules impacts is to have a story and player characters at the playtest. Also, it is more fun for more people, and incorporates people who are less rules minded.

The ask from ST camp is as follows: Please consciously make meta decisions to incorporate the rules. For example: Many of us are inclined to resolve situations entirely with RP. In an ongoing or a one shot larp, this is fantastic. In a playtest it is less so.

For a playtest, we really need to test rules and system. Thus, if you have a choice between resolving something with RP or with the system and mechanics, whenever is practical, please choose the system. Especially if it is a new part of the system.

When building and playing characters, to the extent that is practical, please treat this as a playtest with a story and not as a one shot day game with test rules.


Pre-Game Character Ties Workshop:
Having just belabored the point about this being a playtest and not a one shot, we would also like to facilitate character ties at the playtest. This is both to simulate a game that has been going for several years, and to help people dive right into RP interaction as smoothly as possible as the playtest begins.

To that end, we are going to run a character ties workshop for anyone present at game start who wants to join. Players are more than welcome to pre arrange additional character ties beforehand, these connections are just a way to kickstart the game.

Each player will write their name on a piece of paper, and place it in the hat during any rounds they like. During each round each player will draw a name from the hat and have a certain tie with the person whose name they drew. The 2 players can then define the details of that relationship.

Round 1) Work with the person you drew to define a seriously antagonistic relationship you have with each other. This means each person will have 2 such enemies, the person they drew and the person who drew them. Remember, you can opt out of any rounds you like.

Round 2) work with the person that you drew to define a mildly antagonistic relationship you have with each other.

Round 3) work with the person that you drew to define an allies/friends relationship with each other.

Round 4) inform the person that you drew that you owe them a favor, and work with them to define why you owe them what.



Setting and Characters: Your characters are all attending a large annual fair that is held west of Sacramento. For one reason or another you did not attend last year, even if you are normally a regular. The fair is large enough that even people who have been coming regularly for years don’t all know each other.

Character Sheet Request: please make two versions of your character sheet. For one, consider only raw power/effectiveness in your build. For the other, focus your build on rp choices and theme. You may begin game using either one.

Tags: feel free to make your own with scratch paper as appropriate.