Decorative Katana Like Wall Hangings Need Not Apply
April 1, 2015 11:23 AM Subscribe
Katanas & Trenchcoats! Do you yearn to portray the passionate and harrowing drama of awesome Immortals in a secret supernatural world? Does your heart sing the ancient aphotic melody of ’90s storytelling? Does endless fire burn within you to make an everlasting mark on this Darkest Cosmos? If you meet another Immortal in on a windswept street, do you fight with swords as your way of saying hello?
The dream of the 90s isUNDEAD UNDEAD UNDEAD Immortal in Ryan Macklin's Katanas & Trenchcoats. Are you tired of elves and dwarves and the magic rings they tend to come with ? Do you yearn for a darker time when White Wolves stalked the bookstore shelves with teeth made of d10s? Do you have a katana hanging on your wall and a pair of wrap around shades in your glove box? Then pull out a character sheet, crank up the tunes, and get started.
The dream of the 90s is
I put on my robe trenchcoat and wizard hat mirrorshades...
posted by nubs at 11:43 AM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by nubs at 11:43 AM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
Though, that said, my (sort of) hometown of (not exactly darkest) Lynchburg Va. did have an SF Convention once in the 90s - as an official part of the city's annual arts and culture fectival no less. so it was like the OFFICIAL LYNCHBURG VA SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY CONVENTION. (I think this happened because Lynchburg College was home to one of the nation's preeminent Roger Zelazny scholars or something like that, but somehow we had not just some kids putting on a show, but an official city government funded SF convention.)
And so, in the city's snazziest hotel, where the well-dressed elites were having banquets and things and talking about the theater and the symphony and so on, we had a real SF convention going on at the same time. And of course, this being the 90s, a highlight was the huge White Wolf LARP.
So of course, (this all follows from the premise with mathematical inevitability) every single doorway into the hotel was occupied for the whole weekend by a bunch of really skeevy looking young people in trenchcoats and goth gear being all furtive and muttering to each other about secret conspiracies. And every six minutes some middle-aged bank executive and his wife would have to sort of tiptoe through them in their evening wear on their way to a fancy arts do upstairs and wonder what the fuck was going on with the swords and shit, and pray they wouldn't get mugged. It was a fun weekend.
And so, of course, the SF convention part of that thing never happened again. But it did happen that glorious once.
posted by Naberius at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2015 [13 favorites]
And so, in the city's snazziest hotel, where the well-dressed elites were having banquets and things and talking about the theater and the symphony and so on, we had a real SF convention going on at the same time. And of course, this being the 90s, a highlight was the huge White Wolf LARP.
So of course, (this all follows from the premise with mathematical inevitability) every single doorway into the hotel was occupied for the whole weekend by a bunch of really skeevy looking young people in trenchcoats and goth gear being all furtive and muttering to each other about secret conspiracies. And every six minutes some middle-aged bank executive and his wife would have to sort of tiptoe through them in their evening wear on their way to a fancy arts do upstairs and wonder what the fuck was going on with the swords and shit, and pray they wouldn't get mugged. It was a fun weekend.
And so, of course, the SF convention part of that thing never happened again. But it did happen that glorious once.
posted by Naberius at 11:45 AM on April 1, 2015 [13 favorites]
This looks like a straight-up White Wolf parody, and it's all April first, but since there's a real paypal link, I just don't know what to think. $5 is a bit more than I'm willing to pay just to satisfy my curiosity.
posted by Edgewise at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2015
posted by Edgewise at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2015
*scans track list for "This Corrosion" by Sisters of Mercy*
*finds it*
Yep, everything seems to be in order here.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2015 [17 favorites]
*finds it*
Yep, everything seems to be in order here.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:46 AM on April 1, 2015 [17 favorites]
Edgewise, a mention of this elsewhere described it as a "surprisingly playable" parody, so I'm assuming there's enough there to warrant the $5 if you'd feel like buying such a thing.
posted by Four Ds at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2015
posted by Four Ds at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2015
*too happy to post anything in response*
posted by Poppa Bear at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2015
posted by Poppa Bear at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2015
Might as well be called Neckbeards & Fedoras.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by MartinWisse at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
A little more. Looks like this has been gestating for just over a year. The tone reminds me of XXXXtreme Street Luge.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
What's great/mildly embarassing is scanning down that playlist til you hit a track you don't already have an mp3 of.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:08 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:08 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't do events like this since my sweet fedora got knocked in a puddle and ruined.
posted by Samizdata at 12:21 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by Samizdata at 12:21 PM on April 1, 2015
I won't, I won't. Meh...
Metafilter: $5 is a bit more than I'm willing to pay just to satisfy my curiosity.
posted by JaredSeth at 12:32 PM on April 1, 2015 [7 favorites]
Metafilter: $5 is a bit more than I'm willing to pay just to satisfy my curiosity.
posted by JaredSeth at 12:32 PM on April 1, 2015 [7 favorites]
I wonder if the live roleplaying rules are as good as the ones for HOL which included going up to people who looked like GMs in public and asking if they'd "got any xps" while rubbing your fingers together :).
posted by invisible_al at 1:00 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by invisible_al at 1:00 PM on April 1, 2015
Dibs on Richie! Ha, ha, as if anyone would want to roleplay Richie.
posted by rikschell at 1:13 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by rikschell at 1:13 PM on April 1, 2015
I have a group of guys I still play Shadowrun and Vampire with on occasion. I think we're uh... going to actually play this.
posted by Oktober at 1:30 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Oktober at 1:30 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
Whenever I drive by the Shell refinery at night it is all lit in spooky oranges with smoky shadows. It is the PERFECT place for a Quickening. Just sayin'.
posted by charred husk at 1:38 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by charred husk at 1:38 PM on April 1, 2015
rikschell:
Also, you could pull some sick shit with Richie in the Highlander CCG. So I've heard.
And the next Music Swap CD I make will NOT be the Four Horsemen album that consists of Goth and Celtic tracks with clips of dialogue from the Four Horsemen episodes. Because I never made those for my three other friends who were never into Highlander like I wasn't.
....... anyone wanna take on my Luther "lean and mean" deck?
posted by charred husk at 1:52 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Dibs on Richie! Ha, ha, as if anyone would want to roleplay Richie."Well, if you ever wanted to play a Highlander RPG then someone has to be the Richie. The master/apprentice shtick is a good explanation why two immortals would willingly hang out together. Not that I would know anything about that. Just theorizing.
Also, you could pull some sick shit with Richie in the Highlander CCG. So I've heard.
And the next Music Swap CD I make will NOT be the Four Horsemen album that consists of Goth and Celtic tracks with clips of dialogue from the Four Horsemen episodes. Because I never made those for my three other friends who were never into Highlander like I wasn't.
....... anyone wanna take on my Luther "lean and mean" deck?
posted by charred husk at 1:52 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
And the next Music Swap CD I make will NOT be the Four Horsemen album that consists of Goth and Celtic tracks with clips of dialogue from the Four Horsemen episodes. Because I never made those for my three other friends who were never into Highlander like I wasn't.
I would like to subscribe to yournewsletter internet radio station. Guess who's square in the target market for this parody?
posted by immlass at 2:11 PM on April 1, 2015
I would like to subscribe to your
posted by immlass at 2:11 PM on April 1, 2015
The timing of this could not be more perfect, as watching What We Do in Shadows recently inspired me to start up a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign after over a decade away from the White Wolf universe. We've been having a lot of fun, and reading a loving parody of the genre would be the icing on that particular cake.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:40 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:40 PM on April 1, 2015
I've got a great idea for a game. Start a MetaFilter thread about RPGs and take bets on how many comments the thread will get in before someone posts a comment rife with self-loathing coded by the relevant signifiers and tropes.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:41 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:41 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
What with the Mage 20th kickstarter, I thought this was for a rerelease of Mage 1st ed. Katanas, trenchcoats, epic battles...NODE WARZ!!!!
posted by Lighthammer at 2:55 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Lighthammer at 2:55 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Site doesn't contain any epigrams by The Cure or Trent Reznor. Disappointed.
posted by Apocryphon at 2:59 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Apocryphon at 2:59 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
I am the only person who knows how to roll play Vampire the Masquerade. Every single one of my characters committed suicide rather than live as a monstrous parasite.
I only regret that, unlike in Traveler, I can't die during the character creation process.
posted by bswinburn at 3:45 PM on April 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
I only regret that, unlike in Traveler, I can't die during the character creation process.
posted by bswinburn at 3:45 PM on April 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
Every single one of my characters committed suicide rather than live as a monstrous parasite.
If humanity really possessed the conviction that suicide was preferable to being monstrous parasites, none of us would be here.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 5:11 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
If humanity really possessed the conviction that suicide was preferable to being monstrous parasites, none of us would be here.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 5:11 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
What with the Mage 20th kickstarter, I thought this was for a rerelease of Mage 1st ed. Katanas, trenchcoats, epic battles...NODE WARZ!!!!
I still have my Euthanatos T shirt. Bring it on.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:32 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
I still have my Euthanatos T shirt. Bring it on.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:32 PM on April 1, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yeah, you are alive in the first world. Your protests about dying rather than being a monster are highly suspect.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:45 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:45 PM on April 1, 2015
Might as well be called Neckbeards & Fedoras.
I think this is more pre-Fedora. I say this as someone who, in 1995, had a katana and wore a trenchcoat even in the summer (and sunglasses at night, obviously). I don't remember many fedoras.
posted by thefoxgod at 7:04 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think this is more pre-Fedora. I say this as someone who, in 1995, had a katana and wore a trenchcoat even in the summer (and sunglasses at night, obviously). I don't remember many fedoras.
posted by thefoxgod at 7:04 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh man, all my Saturday afternoons in high school, washed away like tears in rain. I dated be-ponytailed fedora and trenchcoat boys before they were famously awful. I thought they were cool, and in 1995, just for a little while, that was enough.
We were all trying to out-angst each other with the backstories, but even so I got tired of the Acting! after a while. You had to play a Ragabash or aperkygoth Malkavian just to let a little light into those games. I never had a Goth music playlist, but I was listening to a lot of Oingo Boingo at the time and I had decided that "Dead Man's Party" was the Vampire song. I don't know what the others were.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:05 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
We were all trying to out-angst each other with the backstories, but even so I got tired of the Acting! after a while. You had to play a Ragabash or a
posted by Countess Elena at 7:05 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yeah, fedoras are more a post-2000 thing, like what, 2005ish, I think, was the first time I remember seeing people in them as a nerd thing.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:32 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:32 PM on April 1, 2015
Where's the obligatory colon and gerund subtitle?
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:33 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:33 PM on April 1, 2015
I still play in a vampire larp on the mean streets of San Francisco. This is going to crack my friends up.
posted by gryftir at 12:44 AM on April 2, 2015
posted by gryftir at 12:44 AM on April 2, 2015
Lighthammer, I thought it was about Mage as well. "Too many katanas" is about as on-the-nose as you can get about the art in 1st edition Mage.
Also, I showed this to a friend and he immediately bought an Immortal edition of K&T. And then I bought an Immortal edition of K&T as soon as I got home from work. So if anyone wants to play Katanas and Trenchcoats sometime please let me know! But you should be aware that my character will have +3 Grandeur right out of the gate, and that means he's objectively cooler than your character.
Just to be clear, I bought the game at a 400% markup so I could meta-twink a game I'll never play, and it was worth every digital penny.
posted by Poppa Bear at 5:52 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, I showed this to a friend and he immediately bought an Immortal edition of K&T. And then I bought an Immortal edition of K&T as soon as I got home from work. So if anyone wants to play Katanas and Trenchcoats sometime please let me know! But you should be aware that my character will have +3 Grandeur right out of the gate, and that means he's objectively cooler than your character.
Just to be clear, I bought the game at a 400% markup so I could meta-twink a game I'll never play, and it was worth every digital penny.
posted by Poppa Bear at 5:52 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Urban Shadows is a White Wolf update I'd like to try.
(I automatically started typng that link in bbcode, 'cause that's what the rpg.net forums use and my fingers assume that's what you use for rpg links.)
posted by Zed at 6:12 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
(I automatically started typng that link in bbcode, 'cause that's what the rpg.net forums use and my fingers assume that's what you use for rpg links.)
posted by Zed at 6:12 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Speaking of the rpg.net forums, the thread on Katanas & Trenchcoats is pretty funny and led me to the even funnier But it's a katana!.
posted by Zed at 8:46 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Zed at 8:46 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just to be clear, I bought the game at a 400% markup so I could meta-twink a game I'll never play, and it was worth every digital penny.
Well, it also turns out you also donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital as, surprise!, that's where all profits from the sale of this game are going.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:34 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well, it also turns out you also donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital as, surprise!, that's where all profits from the sale of this game are going.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:34 AM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, fedoras are more a post-2000 thing, like what, 2005ish, I think, was the first time I remember seeing people in them as a nerd thing.
I got a fedora in '92 or '93, because I wanted to keep the rain off but didn't want to carry an umbrella. It was nice. I liked it. I still have one, but obviously I can't wear it anymore.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:45 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
I got a fedora in '92 or '93, because I wanted to keep the rain off but didn't want to carry an umbrella. It was nice. I liked it. I still have one, but obviously I can't wear it anymore.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:45 AM on April 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
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posted by Pope Guilty at 11:33 AM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]