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View Full Version : [WW] What Game to Run Next?



Blackjackg
2009-07-03, 12:07 PM
So, I've been gaming with the same group of people for the last few years (and some of the same people for a few more). We mostly play D&D (either 2e or 3.5), with one brief but screamingly successful venture into Paranoia. I figure it'll be my turn to run a game again soon, and I'd like to mix things up a bit by running a White Wolf game. But I can't decide which to run. I've got four ideas I'd like to try.

Background info: We're a group of 5-6 people, including the GM. Mostly guys, 1-2 girls, all in our 20s. We're most experienced at D&D, though I have played a fair bit of Exalted with another group and one of the other players used to play oWoD. No one else has ever played with the White Wolf system. I have some of the requisite books, and can buy or borrow any more that I need. I'm figuring on a relatively short series, probably running between 60 and 80 hours of game time.

Ideas:

1) Scion: Hero. This seems like a pretty fun system, and doesn't get too broken at the Hero level. If I just offer that my players should consider themselves "capped" at Legend 4 (or is it 5?), I don't think I'll have too many problems. This would probably be a globetrotting campaign, fighting cool villains in exotic locations. Fairly light and breezy.

2) Basic WoD. No vampires, werewolves or what have you. Characters start off as normal folks, go through a few ghost stories and weird monster encounters. About a third of the way in, I might introduce some Hunter: The Vigil rules to buff up the characters and would probably finish off the campaign as a zombiepocalypse survival horror.

3) Changeling: The Gloaming. This is a homebrew I've been half-working on for a while. It would basically be C:The Lost rules with a few minor changes and major refluffing to incorporate some C:The Dreaming rules (less Hedge, more Chimeric Reality). Would take some work, but I think it could be a lot of fun.

4) Exalted for Beginners. I love the Exalted setting, but I'm kind of tired of playing Exalted with players who know the books backwards and forwards, and don't keep their player knowledge and character knowledge separate. So every character somehow knows who all the Deathlords are and what their goals are, and where we can find famous Sidereals and so on. I think I have a rare opportunity here to try running Exalted with a group of players who are brand new to the setting. Actually use the dozens of magical mysteries to fuel some drama and wonder. It would be a Solar game, but I could see it becoming a series of games with ever-increasing depth. This would also be a lot of work, though.

Anyway, those are the ideas I'm thinking of. Any thoughts, suggestions, experiences that might help me pick one?

horus42
2009-07-03, 12:22 PM
I've been playing White Wolf games for about 5 years now, and I think that each of these ideas is really cool. I enjoy Scion immensely, and some of the most fun I've had has been with normal humans in WoD. The paranoia and sense of dread while facing the unknown is really exciting, and I love it.

That said, I've never played Exalted, although I've wanted to for a while. Changeling is really fun too. Basically, you've presented me with a problem, since I can't seem to offer any advice other than "you should do all of these!"

(And by the way, you become a Demigod at Legend 5, so if you want them to stay Heroes, cap them at 4.)

Warpfire
2009-07-03, 03:14 PM
:O Why would you want to refluff CtL to be like CtD? The Lost is made of awesome, and the Dreaming...well, I guess there's no accounting for taste. Probably just that I prefer Changeling the Lost's vision of The Fair Folk.

I highly recommend straight WoD, though. It's pretty fun to play, as long as you don't have any players that will complain about not having super cool special powers. Of the options you have presented, its the one I'd personally go with.

Yuki Akuma
2009-07-03, 03:23 PM
:O Why would you want to refluff CtL to be like CtD? The Lost is made of awesome, and the Dreaming...well, I guess there's no accounting for taste. Probably just that I prefer Changeling the Lost's vision of The Fair Folk.

Because Dreaming is made of awesome and Lost is far too much like every other World of Darkness game to make it stand out at all?

Seriously, why even say this? You're not going to convince him to suddenly hate Dreaming and love Lost. What's the point?

Semidi
2009-07-03, 03:26 PM
I've thought about doing a pure mortals game as zombie survival. I wouldn't recommend adding H:tV as there isn't anything in there to promote a pure mortals game. Rather, pick up "Armory" as it stats out just about every weapon and non-weapon most people can think of. It also has a lot of cool fighting styles

Hunter is less "average Joe" against the supernatural and more "exceptional people against exceptional odds." The only two acceptations are the Union Compact and Network 0.

I've heard really, really good things about Scion but have never played it.

I second the "Why change C:tL? It's already boatloads of awesome."

Warpfire
2009-07-03, 03:33 PM
Because Dreaming is made of awesome and Lost is far too much like every other World of Darkness game to make it stand out at all?

Seriously, why even say this? You're not going to convince him to suddenly hate Dreaming and love Lost. What's the point?

Maybe because I'm genuinely interested in what appeals to him about Changeling The Dreaming and like to hear other peoples opinions on things because I'm not completely close-minded?

I know, trying to have a discussion on a message board. It's crazy.

Don't really see how Changeling the Lost is similar, but then again I don't have much experience with several of the lines so I can't really make an informed comment on that.

Revlid
2009-07-03, 03:50 PM
2) Basic WoD. No vampires, werewolves or what have you. Characters start off as normal folks, go through a few ghost stories and weird monster encounters. About a third of the way in, I might introduce some Hunter: The Vigil rules to buff up the characters and would probably finish off the campaign as a zombiepocalypse survival horror.
I don't know about Scion (having initially mistaken it for Nobilis), but this I can definitely recommend. Hunters aren't so different (in nWoD, anyway) from regular PCs that it matters at low-scale games, but introducing some elements toward the endgame would probably be welcome (if not things like supertech, devil powers or frankenbugs). For the zombocalypse, I'd recommend adding a cunning tweest of some sort - Left4/Shaun of the Dead-style endgames can be cool, but are a little generic. Subplots centered around a relatively safe haven (think Dead Rising) interspersed with irregular waves of flesh-eating hordes that need to be defended against would make for a cool finale, with the survivors perhaps being inducted into the conspiracy that comes to clean-up.


3) Changeling: The Gloaming. This is a homebrew I've been half-working on for a while. It would basically be C:The Lost rules with a few minor changes and major refluffing to incorporate some C:The Dreaming rules (less Hedge, more Chimeric Reality). Would take some work, but I think it could be a lot of fun.
Hmm. I'd personally steer away from this due to my love of The Lost's fluff, but that's entirely up to taste.


4) Exalted for Beginners. I love the Exalted setting, but I'm kind of tired of playing Exalted with players who know the books backwards and forwards, and don't keep their player knowledge and character knowledge separate. So every character somehow knows who all the Deathlords are and what their goals are, and where we can find famous Sidereals and so on. I think I have a rare opportunity here to try running Exalted with a group of players who are brand new to the setting. Actually use the dozens of magical mysteries to fuel some drama and wonder. It would be a Solar game, but I could see it becoming a series of games with ever-increasing depth. This would also be a lot of work, though.
This could be really cool, too. Introducing a group of totally new players into a setting as vast and awesome as Creation could be a blast, but make sure they're in the right mindset, i.e. the exact opposite to that required for the WoD game.

A ST of mine tried this with us, but I was already fairly (though hardly encyclopediacly) familiar with Exalted through KoC, and my fellow players banded together to re-enact the Emperor's New Groove, with an Abyssal Sorcereress and Ex-Advisor with a heroic mortal bodyguard, a Solar Disgruntled Peasant Leader, and a Lunar Spoiled And Desposed Prince in a South-East city (his fault for specifying it was Aztec). The ST rolled with it magnificently, though, and we ended up working together to stop a Dragonblooded Realm inspection from working out that three of the more influential people in the satrapy have become celestial exalted.

In short - make sure your players are ready to be Epic, and make sure you have an Epic plot in mind, but be prepared to roll with some crazy shi'ite your players will pull.

Attilargh
2009-07-03, 04:25 PM
If you can get your hands on it, how about Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_(role-playing_game)), if only for the novelty of getting to shout Shoryuken! in the middle of a dramatic fight without spoiling the mood? :smallcool:

Blackjackg
2009-07-03, 04:37 PM
Thanks for the input.

For clarification, the appeal of Changeling: the Dreaming for me was the idea of a faerie reality super-imposed over the real world, that everything that exists there is some beautiful or twisted version of our world. Butter-knives become swords, schools become mythical dungeons, all based on our dreams and emotions. The True Fae are still there, just as malevolent. The main refluffing would be that Faerie isn't some Other place, it's This place... but different. Instead of crawling to freedom through the Hedge, changelings have come to a place in-between, where they can see and impact both worlds: this is the Gloaming.

I've been thinking about writing up a manifesto on it. I may start a development thread for it here (or rather, in the homebrew forum) if anyone is interested in contributing.

As for incorporating Hunter stuff into standard WoD, I was figuring on applying the formula for first-tier characters. No conspiracies or endowments, but give them professions and access to Tactics and Merits, and maybe that whole gray Morality deal. Something to reflect that they're in a bigger, darker world now without elevating them far above the status of regular mortals. I haven't figured out exactly how or what, but I think it could work.