u/Lurkoner

TL;DR: "Blood Sorcery" Discipline about edgy blood powers as the basic prerequisite for vampire magic is a good idea. But Thaumaturgy, Koldunism, Setite Sorcery, and the rest should branch into separate magical Disciplines built on a few genuinely distinct mechanical frameworks - easy to differentiate and customize - rather than all becoming either “Blood Sorcery rituals, but themed differently” or “Thaumaturgy, but themed differently.”

I am not sure what the general community opinion is, but I actually like the basic idea behind V5’s approach to Blood Sorcery. The problem is that its implementation feels far too flattened and narrow.

To me, Blood Sorcery should first be a foundational Discipline about directly manipulating vitae itself. It could combine:

• Quietus-style blood transmutation (there right now pretty much)
• Harnessing vitae as a source of supernatural energy (there right now pretty much)
• More direct, aggressively supernatural applications similar to Bloodworking or Sakti Pata from VtR (and honestly, if we can appreciate Obtenebration as gloriously edgy vampire nonsense, we can appreciate weaponized blood magic too).

Possessing a minimum level of this foundational Discipline - perhaps one or two dots - could then serve as a prerequisite for learning actual magical traditions such as Thaumaturgy, Koldunism, Setite Sorcery, and so on.

The important part is that all these traditions shouldn’t be forced into the same mechanical framework. I would rather see several distinct types of magical Discipline.

1. Path-based sorcery

This would resemble older Thaumaturgy and Koldunism.

You would learn Paths containing immediate powers that function similarly to ordinary Discipline powers, while also gaining access to comparatively rigid, prewritten rituals. Some rituals might be granted automatically as the Discipline advances.

2. Ritual-based sorcery

This would be closer to current V5 Blood Sorcery, Crúac, or Theban Sorcery.

The Discipline itself would contain no conventional powers. Instead, increasing it would grant rituals and features that modify how those rituals are performed.

For example, progressing dots could let a sorcerer pick things like:

• Suspend a ritual’s effect and trigger it later
• Shorten casting time
• Extend duration
• Make limited alterations to a ritual
• Increase its potency by adding stricter requirements or sacrifices
• Improvise weakened versions of rituals below their current rating
• Maintain several prepared rituals at once

Each dot might also provide two rituals automatically.

Different traditions could then have additional genuinely different underlying gimmicks, rather than merely different ritual lists (the difference between Crúac and Theban Sorcery is the kind of distinction I have in mind - like, there is here with one having some auto-features about empowering/make it easier to cast with additional blood vs Willpower and sacraments of another).

3. Transformative or initiatory sorcery

Something inspired by the Coils of the Dragon could focus on permanent or semi-permanent modifications to the vampire.

Instead of throwing magical effects around, its practitioners would gradually alter their relationship with vitae, frenzy, the Beast, sunlight, torpor, physical form, or other parts of the vampiric condition.

It would still provide access to "rigid" rituals, but self-transformation would be its primary mechanical identity.

4. Spirit or possession-based sorcery

Another framework could focus on bargaining with, binding, summoning, consuming, or becoming possessed by spirits and other entities.

Its central mechanics might involve relationships, obligations, temporary powers granted by entities, prepared vessels, possession, and dangerous bargains. Again, it would include rigid rituals as Thaumaturgy.

5. Something else i cannot quite differentiate enough?

The result would be several genuinely different approaches to vampire magic:

• Immediate Path powers supported by rituals
• Ritual-focused traditions with customizable casting
• Permanent occult self-modification
• Spirit-binding, possession, and supernatural bargains

That seems much more interesting to me than making every magical tradition into a slightly different collection of Blood Sorcery rituals - or “Thaumaturgy, but snakes.”

It would also give Tremere, Banu Haqim, Setites, Tzimisce, sects and other occult lineages room to differ mechanically, rather than mostly through lore and which individual rituals they can access.

At least, that is the general direction I have in mind. I assume either designers or fans must have tried something along these lines before. Is there some major problem with this structure that I am missing, aside from the added overhead? Because honestly, compared to the amount of Thaumaturgy material V20 already had, the overhead does not seem particularly extreme.

TL;DR: "Blood Sorcery" Discipline about edgy blood powers as the basic prerequisite for vampire magic is a good idea. But Thaumaturgy, Koldunism, Setite Sorcery, and the rest should branch into separate magical Disciplines built on a few genuinely distinct mechanical frameworks - easy to differentiate and customize - rather than all becoming either “Blood Sorcery rituals, but themed differently” or “Thaumaturgy, but themed differently.”

I am not sure what the general community opinion is, but I actually like the basic idea behind V5’s approach to Blood Sorcery. The problem is that its implementation feels far too flattened and narrow.

To me, Blood Sorcery should first be a foundational Discipline about directly manipulating vitae itself. It could combine:

• Quietus-style blood transmutation (there right now pretty much)
• Harnessing vitae as a source of supernatural energy (there right now pretty much)
• More direct, aggressively supernatural applications similar to Bloodworking or Sakti Pata from VtR (and honestly, if we can appreciate Obtenebration as gloriously edgy vampire nonsense, we can appreciate weaponized blood magic too).

Possessing a minimum level of this foundational Discipline - perhaps one or two dots - could then serve as a prerequisite for learning actual magical traditions such as Thaumaturgy, Koldunism, Setite Sorcery, and so on.

The important part is that all these traditions shouldn’t be forced into the same mechanical framework. I would rather see several distinct types of magical Discipline.

1. Path-based sorcery

This would resemble older Thaumaturgy and Koldunism.

You would learn Paths containing immediate powers that function similarly to ordinary Discipline powers, while also gaining access to comparatively rigid, prewritten rituals. Some rituals might be granted automatically as the Discipline advances.

2. Ritual-based sorcery

This would be closer to current V5 Blood Sorcery, Crúac, or Theban Sorcery.

The Discipline itself would contain no conventional powers. Instead, increasing it would grant rituals and features that modify how those rituals are performed.

For example, progressing dots could let a sorcerer pick things like:

• Suspend a ritual’s effect and trigger it later
• Shorten casting time
• Extend duration
• Make limited alterations to a ritual
• Increase its potency by adding stricter requirements or sacrifices
• Improvise weakened versions of rituals below their current rating
• Maintain several prepared rituals at once

Each dot might also provide two rituals automatically.

Different traditions could then have additional genuinely different underlying gimmicks, rather than merely different ritual lists (the difference between Crúac and Theban Sorcery is the kind of distinction I have in mind - like, there is here with one having some auto-features about empowering/make it easier to cast with additional blood vs Willpower and sacraments of another).

3. Transformative or initiatory sorcery

Something inspired by the Coils of the Dragon could focus on permanent or semi-permanent modifications to the vampire.

Instead of throwing magical effects around, its practitioners would gradually alter their relationship with vitae, frenzy, the Beast, sunlight, torpor, physical form, or other parts of the vampiric condition.

It would still provide access to "rigid" rituals, but self-transformation would be its primary mechanical identity.

4. Spirit or possession-based sorcery

Another framework could focus on bargaining with, binding, summoning, consuming, or becoming possessed by spirits and other entities.

Its central mechanics might involve relationships, obligations, temporary powers granted by entities, prepared vessels, possession, and dangerous bargains. Again, it would include rigid rituals as Thaumaturgy.

5. Something else i cannot quite differentiate enough?

The result would be several genuinely different approaches to vampire magic:

• Immediate Path powers supported by rituals
• Ritual-focused traditions with customizable casting
• Permanent occult self-modification
• Spirit-binding, possession, and supernatural bargains

That seems much more interesting to me than making every magical tradition into a slightly different collection of Blood Sorcery rituals - or “Thaumaturgy, but snakes.”

It would also give Tremere, Banu Haqim, Setites, Tzimisce, sects and other occult lineages room to differ mechanically, rather than mostly through lore and which individual rituals they can access.

At least, that is the general direction I have in mind. I assume either designers or fans must have tried something along these lines before. Is there some major problem with this structure that I am missing, aside from the added overhead? Because honestly, compared to the amount of Thaumaturgy material V20 already had, the overhead does not seem particularly extreme.

Worked fine, then two days ago every filesystem call started failing instantly:

Failed to call tool "list_allowed_directories".

Failed to call tool "list_directory".

Already chased the obvious stuff, so skipping ahead:

- Path is correct, `Test-Path` returns True.

- Server's healthy - log shows clean `initialize` + `tools/list` on every spawn.

- Full tray-quit and relaunch, no change.

- The failing calls never reach the server - no `tools/call` in the log at all. They die before dispatch.

- My Obsidian MCP (same machine, same app) works fine. It's on a local socket; filesystem is bare stdio.

Win11, node 24, `@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem`.

Anyone else seeing this after a recent updates?

subj

Noticed the fields are cleared rn. Mayhaps i did it sometimes back, but don't remember it - though doubt it. Anyone encounter this?

Bruv, even fucking Mersheimer is saying Russia isn't winning for a while.

They do push forward still on some points of front... Paying 1k bodies per kilometer.

Bruv, if u throw unlimited bodies at meat grinder to flatten and then take a city/village - u WILL take it, but is cost reasonability not an an issue to him? And that proportions of resources spent here are strictly on the side of defender that mows down invaders while slowly ceading flattened positions when they lose value? And increased capabilities of defender striking into Russia full range with ongoing and escalating oil crisis?

I can't . This is silly even by the measure of z-bloggers that continue crying about shit going on.

upd: Mersheimer point doesn't seem to stand: looking through recent titles of his vids - i might've been clickbaited or it was some segment in particular where he sounded more cautious. Do not find the thing at least.

hi

So switched to vert tabs in chrome in the last couple days, but the annoying thing is that whenever new page is opened or session is restored - all "vertical tabs" panels are fully expanded by default. Can this be addressed somehow?