[nWoD/DnD 3.5]So close...

[Drakevarg]

One of the players in my DnD 3.5 campaign has been recently telling me about nWoD, pretty much describing its tone as exactly what I've been making 3.5 bend over backwards to do, with varying degrees of success (those who know me will probably recall how well that went over for the first few campaigns I ran). One major problem, though: I like medieval fantasy. I love it to death. nWoD is rather pointedly set in modern times, with rules built around that assumption.

So the very simple question is, is there a system that is essentially nWoD except set during the 11th century or so? Or a splatbook that covers how to run nWoD during that time period? Otherwise when I get around to picking this system up I'll have to subject my players to beta-testing campaigns while I figure out what the hell I'm doing.

[Kiero]

nWoD is mostly a generic system with a few call-outs to "personal horror" (in the corebook that's basically just the Morality system), there's nothing intrinsically modern about it at all.

You could use nWoD: Armory for your usual medieval weapon selection, but the crunch is rather wonky. As are the Fighting Style Merits, which in our games we've always replaced with something my less abuse-able and variable in utility.

Otherwise it's still a fairly traditional RPG which runs in much the same way as any other. So I don't think it will be all that hard to do. There's some discussion in Mirrors about doing fantasy, but frankly it's not really necessary.

[Drakevarg]

So how difficult would it be to cram elementals, nigh-omnipotent dragons, Lovecraftian horrors, demons and angels, and all those other things from DnD that I like when used in the right doses into nWoD? Or is the game sufficiently freeform that I can just slap a few basic attributes together and say 'this is a dragon'?

[Morty]

I'm honestly not sure how well nWoD's engine, which is tailored to smaller-scale things, would render dragons, pit fiends, storm giants and other large-scale monsters and effects D&D worlds tend to feature. Still, creating creatures from scratch isn't terribly difficult if that's what you want to do.

[Kiero]

So how difficult would it be to cram elementals, nigh-omnipotent dragons, Lovecraftian horrors, demons and angels, and all those other things from DnD that I like when used in the right doses into nWoD? Or is the game sufficiently freeform that I can just slap a few basic attributes together and say 'this is a dragon'?

It's sufficiently freeform that you could do that, though certain things might be easier with games beyond the corebook.

Also worth noting that it's a good idea to change the damage and armour mechanics to remove the "bigger weapons are more accurate" problem. That's done by not factoring damage as additional dice, nor having armour reduce dice pools. Though you may need to downgrade damage values rather than a straight translation.

A nuance you get by doing this is you can use an Armour Piercing quality rather than just making something do more damage.

[hiryuu]

Mirrors has the Dark Hero template, which is totally freakin' awesome.

[Yuki Akuma]

nWoD can totally be used for medieval stuff - especially if you have Armory, that has a fair share of medieval weaponry and armour, and a ton of medieval combat styles.

You might want to buy some of the other gamelines for ideas for montrous things, though. Book of Spirits might be good, as would the Book of the Dead.

[Albonor]

Well, I am doing pretty much exactly this at the moment so here are my basic house rules to "balance things":

Divine caster use the Werewolf Gift and Renown mechanic: Impress your God enough, you get the opportunity to cast more powerful spells of their domain. I also give them acces to a few of the Hunter's Endowment (Benediction, etc.)

Arcane Casters needed a nerf (BIG time) by comparison: By spending one Magic Point (I forget the real game term) in one School of magic, they can cast a number of spells (rotes) from that school equal to their rating in that school. Otherwise: 1 spell = 1 mana. They also cannot to healing.

Damage: An armor's rating downgrades lethal damage (and aggravated if the source is weapony) to bashing and reduces the bonus dice to damage by HALF of their rating. Hence, a chain mail with 3 in AR would reduce the first three points of damage to bashing and a swordman who rolled 3 successes on str+weaponry-defense, would only add another die to determine final damage.

Hope that helps. Of course, as you can see, you can kiss goodbye to any "four encounters a day" ideas fron DnD....it's still gonna be brutal.

[Hiro Protagonest]

You know, you COULD just play Call of Cthulhu...

[Selrahc]

So how difficult would it be to cram elementals, nigh-omnipotent dragons, Lovecraftian horrors, demons and angels, and all those other things from DnD that I like when used in the right doses into nWoD? Or is the game sufficiently freeform that I can just slap a few basic attributes together and say 'this is a dragon'?

Yeah.

The system has all of those things statted up, in various places. (respectively, Equinox Road for the dragon(/true fae), Second Sight for lovecraft beasts, Hunter: the Vigil for Daemons and Promethean:the Created for Angels)

For the most part, creatures like that don't get full stats. They get Power, Finesse and Resistance. Then they get a supply of "energy"(varies by gameline) then a set of powers they can use. It's pretty easy to homebrew them just based on what you get in the corebook on ghosts. That sort of thing works quite well for all the more abstractly powerful monsters. The lovecraft beasts get a slightly different treatment, and you'll mainly be fighting cultists and mutants rather than directly facing the Things.

What might be a bit of a lurch though, is that all those things will probably be super deadly. Even for an established character. If they're commonly fighting them, you're going to have a hefty turnover.

[Chen]

There is definitely a lack of granularity in any WoD system. There are generally strict power limits on characters in that its rare your traits will be higher than 5 dots. So most rolls that use an attribute and trait will cap out at 10 dice. Mechanically the system has its quirks and I'm not sure how modifying this cap would work. Monsters with higher trait caps and with more health levels can also cause problems balance wise. D&D is far better at being able to modify creatures for this reason. Giving a monster an extra dot of strength can be a significantly increase in power in WoD, whereas adding an extra +1 to hit in D&D can be negligible. Similarly adding an extra health level can be a big deal but adding an extra hit point is again negligible.

[Yuki Akuma]

You're forgetting specialties and equipment bonuses - 15 dice or even higher is totally possible before Power Stat 6.

[Chen]

You're forgetting specialties and equipment bonuses - 15 dice or even higher is totally possible before Power Stat 6.

Hmm true its nWoD (was thinking more oWod) but its still far less granular than D&D. Plus the whole 10-15 dice thing is pretty much the max you should be getting. Most rolls are significantly lower (especially out of combat).

[SiuiS]

One of the players in my DnD 3.5 campaign has been recently telling me about nWoD, pretty much describing its tone as exactly what I've been making 3.5 bend over backwards to do, with varying degrees of success (those who know me will probably recall how well that went over for the first few campaigns I ran). One major problem, though: I like medieval fantasy. I love it to death. nWoD is rather pointedly set in modern times, with rules built around that assumption.

So the very simple question is, is there a system that is essentially nWoD except set during the 11th century or so? Or a splatbook that covers how to run nWoD during that time period? Otherwise when I get around to picking this system up I'll have to subject my players to beta-testing campaigns while I figure out what the hell I'm doing.

I'm trying to work out this very same thing. The only hitch is trying I keep classes. If you want medieval and don't want Magic User/Warrior/Priest/Rogue you're golden. If you do want those you've got more work for yourself. A knight has resources, status and something to represent his obligations (possibly the Pathbound merit if you can find it). A priest likewise. It's also much easier to do political intrigue if that's your thing.


So how difficult would it be to cram elementals, nigh-omnipotent dragons, Lovecraftian horrors, demons and angels, and all those other things from DnD that I like when used in the right doses into nWoD? Or is the game sufficiently freeform that I can just slap a few basic attributes together and say 'this is a dragon'?

Yep! It's a combination of the two. A little bit of template with a lot of "yeah, this sounds good". Just keep in mind, if you want mythic heroes you will need to allow players to develop as mythic heroes. A dragon could easily show up with flight, crazy armor and massive stats, making them a total party wipe. On the other hand, the rules already include incentive to run away from the dragon, research it's history, discover it'a name an lure it into a trap to bravely fell the beast. Or to find a demon bound by eight concentric rings hich break if you lie in its presence (and the ability to read minds and ask things you don't want to tell the truth about).

Just be careful. I've got WoD core, Mage, werewolf, changeling, hunter and a single vampire book, and there's always something more that's worth getting. The hedge and hedgespun for bardic types. Werewolves for Druids. Mage for casters. The Mystery Initiation merit for priests (to reflect their internal status and access to hidden lore, relics of saints and possibly blasphemous non canonical scriptures), Oathbound for paladin types who can swear to their ledge so strongly it bolsters them, fighting styles and their systems for fights types, movement styles for rogues, contracts, pacts, hacks. It's a fun system.


Well, I am doing pretty much exactly this at the moment so here are my basic house rules to "balance things":

Divine caster use the Werewolf Gift and Renown mechanic: Impress your God enough, you get the opportunity to cast more powerful spells of their domain. I also give them acces to a few of the Hunter's Endowment (Benediction, etc.)

Arcane Casters needed a nerf (BIG time) by comparison: By spending one Magic Point (I forget the real game term) in one School of magic, they can cast a number of spells (rotes) from that school equal to their rating in that school. Otherwise: 1 spell = 1 mana. They also cannot to healing.

Damage: An armor's rating downgrades lethal damage (and aggravated if the source is weapony) to bashing and reduces the bonus dice to damage by HALF of their rating. Hence, a chain mail with 3 in AR would reduce the first three points of damage to bashing and a swordman who rolled 3 successes on str+weaponry-defense, would only add another die to determine final damage.

Hope that helps. Of course, as you can see, you can kiss goodbye to any "four encounters a day" ideas fron DnD....it's still gonna be brutal.

Interesting. I hadn't considered the gifts from that angle, but it's a good point.

I have actually been working on a tweak for using Mage rules for casters. Each 'class' has limited arcanum access, such a life for a priest, forces for a wizard, death for a necromancer, etc., let them pick totes based on Gnosis+Arcanum (allow non-arcanum rotes maybe) an make everything not a rote vulgar. You end up with casters who have schtick spells unless they want to blow their XP budget on magic and live as a friendless broke unliked hermit with no social standing and a price on his head. It also let's you give "arcane" atypical experience to each class, do the fighter had a budget to improve his fighting specifically, as well.