Masquerade Violations

Confuzzled · Post by **Confuzzled** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 9:55 am

Criminal violations do seem to occur only when see committing a crime. However, that does not seem to be limited to cops seeing you, although much of this seems to vary depending on my game's mood. And sometimes the definition of "seeing" can be somewhat unusual, including where there are no obvious witnesses. Always best to play safe.

And yet no one ever arrests the brawlers and graffiti artists down town...

Does anyone else think the possibly increasing problems with access to cameras might be a reason White Wolf made vampires invisible to them in Vampire WoD?

pennypincher · Post by **pennypincher** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:06 pm

[QUOTE=MalaksBane]I wasn't aware that your police had so little interest. Anyway, mr_sir, you make it sound like there is no need for a Masquerade at all, since nobody is going to believe anything about vampires anyway. Then, why bother?[/QUOTE]

99.99% of people would look at a photo of someone bitting someone and say "Yeah, it's a pyscopath, big deal." or a video of a man being shot 30 times and still running away and say "Yeah, so he's pumped up on PCP, if the bullets don't kill him the drug will in about 20 mins."

That's the BEAUTY of the Masquerade. Having ghouled professionals stand in court and make a laughing stock of people with actual proof to the point that the educated society at large scoffs at real evidence is the essence of it's beauty... However...

The reason you still make evidence like this vanish is because there are certain groups who DO belive it, Hunters, Mages, Werewolves, Fae, Wraiths... The many and vaired other Vampires... All the enemies of the Kindred at large. THOSE are the people you don't want to see the photos... Because while Bob and Jan are scoffing and shaking their head at http://www.realvampires.com, Jimmy the Vampire Hunter with his home made flame thrower, ****tails and grenades is looking at it and saying:

"That looks like down town L.A. I can be there in 3 hours!"

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:08 pm

[QUOTE=mr_sir]there is still a need for the masquerade. all i was saying is the odd video or picture here or there would not be taken seriously. if there was 100s and 1000s of the things popping up then of course people would start taking it more seriously. all i meant was that the odd one getting out and being missed by the vampires would not be too much of a problem.[/QUOTE]
Especially with digital (and cell-cams are digital). There are ways to prove an analog photograph has or has not been tampered with. How do you prove you didn't photochop a digital picture to make it look like it was a vampire? Short answer? You don't. Seeing somebody turn into a werewolf before your very eyes, or vanish, or take off like the Flash - now that's a different kettle of fish.

MalaksBane · Post by **MalaksBane** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 5:54 pm

Ah, I knew there had to be a reason I am sticking to analog/chemical photography even if processing times are not as fast (15 minute shops, about 1 hour if I do it myself).

[QUOTE=Confuzzled]
Does anyone else think the possibly increasing problems with access to cameras might be a reason White Wolf made vampires invisible to them in Vampire WoD?[/QUOTE]

Could be, would resolve a lot of problems. Is that for video (and digital) as well as chemical?

Back to my own topic, I found it's damned hard, near impossible, to keep two violations on my sheet, unless I'd start feeding in the streets only to get violations, which is not very In Character. I managed once, helped by, what's her name, Amanda? Interesting phonecall she makes. And the hunters aren't that exciting, one fire juggler spawns, always at the same spot it seems. Not enough excitement.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:28 pm

[QUOTE=MalaksBane]Could be, would resolve a lot of problems. Is that for video (and digital) as well as chemical?
[/QUOTE]
It would work for audio and videotape as well, as they're analogue media and tampering with them leaves tell-tale 'footprints' in the media, be it an image recorded on film or a signal recorded on tape. Digital, however, is discrete. It simply doesn't have the continuity that analogue has to allow tampering to be detected. Tweak a few pixels here and there, and nobody will ever have any clue that they may have been different at one time.

MalaksBane · Post by **MalaksBane** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:49 pm

Mhh, but you'd have to tamper before storing, at least, there are systems that digitally sign the recorded data. And lossy compression might make tampering a bit more involved. If one can tamper with the images before storing, video would be affected too.

On second thought, it's just a game, WW wouldn't consider such nuances. Nor would most players. I must retreat and discipline some of my personalities.