Post originally by Jean-Paul Cardier at 2004-09-08 16:45:37
Converted from Phorums BB System

"Because I am concerned with style, mood and story, while you are trying to apply an engineering solution to a thematic element.

There are some elements of a mythos - things like "vampires do not reflect in mirrors" and "the land and the king are one" that serve a thematic rather than mechanical purpose. The fact that vampires do not reflect in mirrors has nothig to do with optics, or physics, or biology or the properties of light, it's just a facet of their nature."

You are both correct. There are two points of view here, the dramatic and the pragmatic. Which you use depends on how the moment strikes you.

For example, many people in Exalted had a lot of trouble with the concept of the Lunar's Tell. This is a marking that starts subtle and gets stronger as the Lunar increases his might through the Charm Deadly Beastman Transformation.

Thematically this harks to Monkey having a tail in all of his forms. Which is cool.

On the other hand, people asked "if my tell is Goats Hooves, and I am in a Shark form, my Shark form has Goats Hooves? Thats stupid!"

Both viewpoints are perfectly valid. Personally I like the thematic solution for Exalted and the pragmatic for VtR, but your mileage may vary.