Help starting World of Darkness

[Elric VIII]

My group is going to start a World of Darkness campaign next weekend. It is going to take place around the 1880-1890s in England (specifically mentioned that we would be dealing with things around Jack the Ripper's time). Except for the DM, none of us have played this or anything else by White Wolf. So, to help make the DM's life easier I want to start reading up and learning the system. Most of my experience comes from D&D 3.5 with a bit of pathfinder.


Where should I start in terms of books (i.e. the core essentials)?

What books would you recommend to supplement a game in 1880-90s England?

Is there any general advice you think would help (such as in 3.5 Monks are terrible and casters are awesome)?


Thanks.

[satorian]

Old World of Darkness or new? If you don't know, give a name of a sourcebook you are using, and we will know from that.

[Pilo]

World of Darkness is a game with secrets, I advise you to read nothing about it, you can however get general knowledge of the Victorian era on the Internet regarding profession, clothing, housing and etiquette.

Regarding characters:

To be good at something you should have around 6 dice in your dice pool.
Backgrounds are more important than anything except willpower. If you get freebie points, put them in there and in willpower (put 6 in willpower if you can then the rest in the backgrounds).

You should specialize your character in one or two fields, and to be descent in 2-4 others (good: 6-7 dice, descent: 4-5 dice).

If you play old world of darkness, Merits always worth it, take the max you can, Do not hesitate to take flaws that give you 3 or 2 merits points. Regarding this point, ask your Storyteller if you should take the merit/flaw or not, or which of them fit your concept.

[Asmodai]

I'd disagree on merits in OWoD. They're king in nWoD.
Mind you, we do need to know which WoD you're actually playing. Things are drastically different between them book, fluff and rulewise. Comparisons to D&D won't get you far as both WoD's are a completely different beast from D&D. They stress character, choice, interaction and consequence over a combat engine with a lot of customisability.

The first thing that comes to mind is Victorian Age: Vampire, though? Is that involved?

[Fouredged Sword]

General advice

- Combat is deadly. HP are sparse. There is little you can do about that. Hitting first and hitting hard are VERY important in combat. For this, stealth and perception abilities are key.

- Minimal social skills are vital in every character. Avoid having zero ability to interact with people.

- Pick a combat method and go with it. Melee, guns, and brawl are all able to be focused on with good effect, but pick ONE and be good at it. Then put a rank in a skill that lets you hit the other distance (ranged or up close), to cover your bases.

[comicshorse]

It may seem obvious but I'll say it. Figure out a way your character is going to feed. Have the physical capabilities and Street-Wise to mug people, have the social skills to seduce victims or the Larceny skills to break into their houses and feed on them when they are asleep, buy the Hedr merit, etc
As a Vampire you need to know how you're going to get blood

[The Glyphstone]

It may seem obvious but I'll say it. Figure out a way your character is going to feed. Have the physical capabilities and Street-Wise to mug people, have the social skills to seduce victims or the Larceny skills to break into their houses and feed on them when they are asleep, buy the Hedr merit, etc
As a Vampire you need to know how you're going to get blood

And what if he's a Mage, a Changeling, a Garou, a Forsaken, a Promethean, a Sin-Eater, an Arisen, or a bog-standard mortal? I know a lot of Vampire players like to pretend it's the only game White Wolf makes, but there are other possibilities.:smallsmile:

[ActionReplay]

OP never actually stated they were playing vampires. Only that it is the world of darkness. So in addition to old or new version, what splat you are going with would also greatly help us to give advice. I personally only have minor experience with NWoD. From what I can say, is that the boxing fighting style can end up being OP. Same with dirty fighting if your GM allows it.

Although pretty generally, "Don't break the masquerade" tends to be key. Every splat has it's reasons to not want to be discovered by humanity. Vamps don't want to be wiped out by zerg tactics and flame, mages want their magic to work and for themselves, hunters don't want to be arrested for crimes they can't explain away without sounding insane, etc

Edit: Ninja'd by glyphstone...

[comicshorse]

And what if he's a Mage, a Changeling, a Garou, a Forsaken, a Promethean, a Sin-Eater, an Arisen, or a bog-standard mortal? I know a lot of Vampire players like to pretend it's the only game White Wolf makes, but there are other possibilities.:smallsmile:

DOH !
You're absolutely right, its just when he mentioned a Victorian game my mind went straight to Victorian Vampire and apparently stuck there :smallredface:

[Elric VIII]

Okay, so I got in touch with my DM and he said we're dealing with 2nd and 3rd edition, but not 4th.

Also, while he didn't mention any specific splat books, the option of playing vampires, werewolves, mages, and various forms of human all came up. So I'm guessing that there may be some overlap in splats.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Sounds like Old World of Darkness then. I guess? NWoD doesn't really have discreet editions.

Book-wise, figure out what you want to play and grab the book for that, to start with. Old World of Darkness doesn't have a "core" book like the Player's Handbook - it just has one for each type of supernatural with the core mechanics repeated (and slightly tweaked) in each.

[The Glyphstone]

A brand-new group.

Playing Old World of Darkness, with both 2nd edition and (I think) Revised Edition material.

In a cross-splat game.

...

May whatever gods you worship have mercy on your collective souls.

[satorian]

Er, yeah, kinda what Glyphstone said. Much as I love OWoD, this looks a little worrisome.

That said, the answer to what you should play has much to do with what kind of person you are. If you are going to have fun, you will want to play on the platform that sparks your own personal creativity.

Think THE DARKNESS is awesome, enjoy having no choice but to be evilish, and being angsty is your thing? Be a Vampire.

Like creativity and power, both set basically by your imagination and ability to bullsh*t? Be a Mage.

Like just being weird, and fighting for your ability to keep being weird? Changeling.

Like kickin' butt? And being an environmentalist? And kicking butt? Be a Werewolf.

Like awesome power and not being able to play with the rest of the group? Mummy.

Like crazy power within defined limits, being REALLY angsty, and also not being able to play with the rest of the group? Wraith.

Enjoy dying quickly? Be a human.

[The Glyphstone]

You forgot Demon, but I don't know anything about D:tF. And Hunter The Reckoning - they're definitely squishier than others, but they get some interesting powers to make up for it, if you still consider them 'human.

[Asmodai]

A brand-new group.

Playing Old World of Darkness, with both 2nd edition and (I think) Revised Edition material.

In a cross-splat game.

...

May whatever gods you worship have mercy on your collective souls.

I have to third this as well. New players without direction in a cross splat game for WoD cannot end well. I generally disaprove multisplat games, but this is begging for pain. The individual splats are about utterly different things if you want to play them in character and their powers are weighed towards them playing with themselves.

WoD has 1st edition, 2nd edition and Revised. Funnilly 80% of all material is compatible between all three editions. nWoD is empathically not fourth edition as it's kinda like comparing strawberries and raspberries.

[Nerd-o-rama]

You forgot Demon, but I don't know anything about D:tF. And Hunter The Reckoning - they're definitely squishier than others, but they get some interesting powers to make up for it, if you still consider them 'human.

Hunter the Reckoning is the one where you play Buffy. Hunter the Vigil is the one where you play Buffy's friends.

Demon the Fallen you play a fallen angel who's possessing the briefly-dead body of an angsty human. I have no idea how that plays out in practice.

[Elric VIII]

A brand-new group.

Playing Old World of Darkness, with both 2nd edition and (I think) Revised Edition material.

In a cross-splat game.

...

May whatever gods you worship have mercy on your collective souls.

It can't be worse than the D&D 2.3.5.P we have been playing, right?

But seriously, assuming that we will most likely have a homebrew setting using just the character mechanics from the various settings, will it work out?

[The Glyphstone]

It can't be worse than the D&D 2.3.5.P we have been playing, right?

But seriously, assuming that we will most likely have a homebrew setting using just the character mechanics from the various settings, will it work out?

Oh, it most definitely can be worse. The problem is that each of the character mechanics types were not designed to interact with each other, let alone the fluff. They use rulesets that are only vaguely relatable, and each supernatural creature has its own special rules and quirks. It's to the point where each book has 'conversion' rules - for example, the very back of the Vampire book has an appendix that more or less states "if you want werewolves in your game, don't use the Werewolf rules, just stat them as vampires with Powers X, Y, and Z', and the back of the Werewolf book does the same thing for vampires.

Even when using one single splat/supernatural, it'd be hard, because Old World of Darkness is a very unwieldy and clumsy ruleset. Cross-plat OWoD games are the stuff of nightmares even for experienced players...you've set yourselves up for a epic trainwreck, so remember to bring lots of popcorn. Or beer, if you're of legal drinking age.


Also, I think you just asked 'what's the worst that could happen'? You poor fool.:smallsmile:

[satorian]

One example: there is a mid-high "level" Rote in Mage that allows you to turn Vampires back into humans. Consider the ramifications of that for a second.

Really, you may want to consider playing just one of the rulesets first. Each one is clunky, but playable within itself. And there is plenty of variety between the different traditions/bloodlines/whathaveyou. This is not a difference between playing a level adjusted werewolf fighter along a half-dragon bard in 3.5. This is the difference between playing a 3.5e wizard, a Palladium psionicist, and a OD&D elf in the same game, each still using their own separate rulesets. But that is OK in OWOD, and isn't boring, because there is plenty of variety between each of traditions within a given supernatural type. Dreamspeaker and Brujah are the "classes", not Mage and Vampire.

WoD has very different assumptions from D&D. The tone is different. You are not murder-hobos. Magic items and treasure are not much of a thing. You can expect to kill tings and not get "XP", or not kill things and get lots. There is an element of survival horror to even the comparatively cheerier games, like Mage. Using some consumable personal resources, like Willpower, will essentially kill you if not replenished by roleplaying well.

I like some WoD, well just Mage and Werewolf, better than I like D&D. It's a neat system. But like the underlying assumptions for Connect 4 will not be valid for Chinese Checkers, D&D's assumptions are not valid WoD. They are both RPGs, and being awesome is fun in both, and there is magic and monsters, but these are wholly different games.

[Friv]

It can't be worse than the D&D 2.3.5.P we have been playing, right?

Well, assuming that only Vampire, Werewolf and Mage are being represented...

It would be not unlike a game where one player was using 3.0 rules, one player was playing with d20 Modern, and one player was playing Mutants & Masterminds.

[The Glyphstone]

I like some WoD, well just Mage and Werewolf, better than I like D&D. It's a neat system. But like the underlying assumptions for Connect 4 will not be valid for Chinese Checkers, D&D's assumptions are not valid WoD. They are both RPGs, and being awesome is fun in both, and there is magic and monsters, but these are wholly different games.

This might actually be a better example. It's not like blending 2E, 3E, and Pathfinder, it's like trying to play Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and Chess on the same board.

[Elric VIII]

Okay, so I think I'll wait until this weekend and see what happens... Then I will come back and beg for ideas on how to return my sanity.

Thanks, for now. I will hopefully be able to pass these concerns on to my DM.

[Asmodai]

Just settle on one splat for the PC's and you'll be fine. The ST can involve anythign else he wants as NPC's and base their powers on what he needs rather then actually managing multiple rulesets.

[neonchameleon]

Just to agree on the don't mix the oWoD splats, oVampire is about superheroes with fangs a descent into madness and inhumanity and the compromises you'd make for survival. oMage is about the nature of reality, what if it were all a consensual myth, and what mindset should dominate. oChangeling is about the loss of wonder and childhood. oWerewolf is about Kill! Rend! Maim! taking action to prevent the destruction of the environment and what compromises you'd make in the face of Armageddon. And all the oWoD splats are in their way highly political. (I only mention the splats I know).

Mix and match them and you end up with the Superfriends or a twisted version - with none of the politics or dominant themes and narratives because you all have different ones. It doesn't look like the World of Darkness. And with each person using a different and incompatable rulebook in what is by now a very clunky and dated system you'd probably be better off going for a generic superhero game.

[Sith_Happens]

D&D 2.3.5.P

...What does that even mean?:smallconfused:

[satorian]

...What does that even mean?:smallconfused:

Pretty easy to play a rules hodgepodge of 2e, 3e, 3.5e and 3.P. Here, I'll do it with one enemy NPC and one spell:

Illithid Magus with a Haste spell that doubles the number of attacks and ages the caster a year.

[sktarq]

Illithid Magus with a Haste spell that doubles the number of attacks and ages the caster a year.

I'll just pretend I didn't see this. - Migraines are too painful.

As for the OP's situation,
Now if the none of the players have played any of the oWoD games and the ST is mixing both editions (to which my responce is "with care") and splats (my responce being-only if you are very experienced with a definite plan) this game should be recorded for comedy and educational purposes.

[satorian]

I'll just pretend I didn't see this. - Migraines are too painful.



Oh, come now. I didn't say any of the specific rules I chose were a good idea, but only that it is a pretty easy kludge to combine the games.

[SiuiS]

I have to third this as well. New players without direction in a cross splat game for WoD cannot end well. I generally disaprove multisplat games, but this is begging for pain. The individual splats are about utterly different things if you want to play them in character and their powers are weighed towards them playing with themselves.

WoD has 1st edition, 2nd edition and Revised. Funnilly 80% of all material is compatible between all three editions. nWoD is empathically not fourth edition as it's kinda like comparing strawberries and raspberries.


Actually, it sounds like the new V20 rules, in which they revamped... Ah, aha ha... The oWoD ruleset for vampire and are doing so with othe splats as well.


This might actually be a better example. It's not like blending 2E, 3E, and Pathfinder, it's like trying to play Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and Chess on the same board.

That is actually really fun. Calvin ball is best board game!

2.3.5.P? Use 2e, the Player's Option supplements, convert AC as thac0 mentally to work like a DC and BaB within bounded limits and apply the later edition holism of rules and sovereignty to the whole affair.

It's basically what we were playing for half a decade before I moved. No pathfinder though.

[Elric VIII]

Illithid Magus with a Haste spell that doubles the number of attacks and ages the caster a year.

That would be awesome, but it's more like we have a few people using PF rules (PF Cleric, an Alchemist, and a Summoner/Oracle/Bard), a few people using 3.5 (me as a Ranger/Fighter/Rogue/Chameleon and a Swashbuckler), a Ranger using 3.0 Favored Enemy and a combination of houserules and relics from 2.0. We also have a 6th level Fighter with EWP (fullblade) and Toughness x7. Although I have convinced him to retrain into Improved Toughness, at least.

Anyway, for the campaign, we started building characters today. So far we have 2 mages, a sorcerer, a hunter, a cat-turned-lycanthrope, and a vampire. We have 4 more players that couldn't make it today.

[The Glyphstone]

All of the aforementioned problems....and you're doing it with 10 players? It's like a perfect brewing storm of disaster....bring plenty of root/beer to your first session.

[Elric VIII]

Well, we usually only have 6-7 players at a time. Only 4 of us are regulars, the others drift in and out. Which probably makes things worse, in fact. But in my experience the session is all brought together by the DM's general disregard for the rules. He has constructed his own little world of misinformation and non-related systems. But he's very consistent about it, so it tends to work out. For example, from what I've heard and seen, Truenaming is actually decent because it is much more freeform and versatile.


But, I'm rather excited to see how this pans out.

[The Glyphstone]

That's slightly positive, in a way...a good rule of thumb for Old World of Darkness is that the more you ignore the rules, the better off in general you will be.

[satorian]

That's slightly positive, in a way...a good rule of thumb for Old World of Darkness is that the more you ignore the rules, the better off in general you will be.

So long as your ignoring of the rules is consistent and understood by all involved.

[Elderand]

It speaks rather badly of the system when you're better off ignoring it entirely. Note I said system, not fluff. (Altough I'm not a fan of the fluff either.)

[The Glyphstone]

It speaks rather badly of the system when you're better off ignoring it entirely. Note I said system, not fluff. (Altough I'm not a fan of the fluff either.)

The weird bit is that this was encouraged by the designers early on - they considered it a selling point that the Storyteller was expected to hash up the rules as much as they needed to (a lot).

[SiuiS]

The weird bit is that this was encouraged by the designers early on - they considered it a selling point that the Storyteller was expected to hash up the rules as much as they needed to (a lot).

It's still considered a selling point, actually. Several of them have flat out dismissed the validity of the rules as physics and suchlike.

[Nerd-o-rama]

It speaks rather badly of the system when you're better off ignoring it entirely. Note I said system, not fluff. (Altough I'm not a fan of the fluff either.)

Ignoring the rules and just rolling with the fluff is generally the best way to play CthulhuTech, too.

[Elderand]

This is one of the reason I prefer the new world of darkness. While you are still encouraged to ignore the rules when necessery, they are far more functional than the owod ones.

[The Glyphstone]

This is one of the reason I prefer the new world of darkness. While you are still encouraged to ignore the rules when necessery, they are far more functional than the owod ones.

Though the fluff is much blander....which, now that I think of it, might be a partial explanation for why OWoD devotees dislike the NWoD so much. They spent years being indoctrinated by their gamebooks to ignore the rules at-will and focus on the fluff. The new version of the game shored up the rules but abandoned the old setting, so as far as Owod players had learned to think, the new books literally contained no content they could use.

[Elderand]

Personaly I very much disliked the owod fluff. the whole science is bad thing was a real turnoff. The blatant racism in werewolf didn't help either.

[Friv]

It's still considered a selling point, actually. Several of them have flat out dismissed the validity of the rules as physics and suchlike.

That's not the biggest problem. Dismissing the rules as physics is almost always the correct approach, because rules are, by necessity, going to be less complex than physics. (The alternative leaves you with things like the Commoner Railway/Railgun.)

The larger problem is that many of the oWoD devs liked to dismiss the validity of rules as rules. When basic rules combinations led to totally absurd results, the answer tended to be "then just don't do that", which worked great if the combination was "Combining seven things from six sourcebooks into one action" and not nearly as great if the combination was "Combine a single power with its intended purpose".

[Nerd-o-rama]

Personaly I very much disliked the owod fluff. the whole science is bad thing was a real turnoff. The blatant racism in werewolf didn't help either.

Check out some of the Vampire splats sometime.

And at least on the "science is bad" thing we have the Sons of Ether.

"Science is Bad but SCIENCE! is Good" is something I can get behind in a game.

[The Glyphstone]

Check out some of the Vampire splats sometime.

And at least on the "science is bad" thing we have the Sons of Ether.

"Science is Bad but SCIENCE! is Good" is something I can get behind in a game.

Does WoD: Gypsy count as a vampire book? Or do we just pretend it doesn't exist?

[MugaSofer]

Regarding characters:

To be good at something you should have around 6 dice in your dice pool.
Backgrounds are more important than anything except willpower. If you get freebie points, put them in there and in willpower (put 6 in willpower if you can then the rest in the backgrounds).

You should specialize your character in one or two fields, and to be descent in 2-4 others (good: 6-7 dice, descent: 4-5 dice).

Minor note:

3 dots in a stat is unusually good, 2 is average. "Average" for Skills is, y'know, not having that Skill. "Decent" is about 3 dice, 4-5 is professional-level. In practice, most PCs are VERY good at what they do, which kind of makes sense when you think about it.

(Or are these guidelines different in the oWoD?)


One example: there is a mid-high "level" Rote in Mage that allows you to turn Vampires back into humans. Consider the ramifications of that for a second.

... huh.


This might actually be a better example. It's not like blending 2E, 3E, and Pathfinder, it's like trying to play Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and Chess on the same board.

... I kind of want to play that now.


So long as your ignoring of the rules is consistent and understood by all involved.

Quoted for truth.


Personaly I very much disliked the owod fluff. the whole science is bad thing was a real turnoff. The blatant racism in werewolf didn't help either.

A lot of people prefer to play as the Technocracy; they released a book for it that's basically identical to a regular splatbook.


That's not the biggest problem. Dismissing the rules as physics is almost always the correct approach, because rules are, by necessity, going to be less complex than physics. (The alternative leaves you with things like the Commoner Railway/Railgun.)

The larger problem is that many of the oWoD devs liked to dismiss the validity of rules as rules. When basic rules combinations led to totally absurd results, the answer tended to be "then just don't do that", which worked great if the combination was "Combining seven things from six sourcebooks into one action" and not nearly as great if the combination was "Combine a single power with its intended purpose".

Indeed. Have you seen the latest post on the Demon devblog?

[Salbazier]

That would be awesome, but it's more like we have a few people using PF rules (PF Cleric, an Alchemist, and a Summoner/Oracle/Bard), a few people using 3.5 (me as a Ranger/Fighter/Rogue/Chameleon and a Swashbuckler), a Ranger using 3.0 Favored Enemy and a combination of houserules and relics from 2.0. We also have a 6th level Fighter with EWP (fullblade) and Toughness x7. Although I have convinced him to retrain into Improved Toughness, at least.

Anyway, for the campaign, we started building characters today. So far we have 2 mages, a sorcerer, a hunter, a cat-turned-lycanthrope, and a vampire. We have 4 more players that couldn't make it today.

The first paragraph is wow :smallbiggrin:

The second, ehhh, I know little about oWOD but this sound morbidly interesting. Would you mind posting some sort of campaign journal? :smallbiggrin:



Indeed. Have you seen the latest post on the Demon devblog?

Eh, I just heard about the new Demon game. What does it say?

[Asmodai]

Though the fluff is much blander....which, now that I think of it, might be a partial explanation for why OWoD devotees dislike the NWoD so much. They spent years being indoctrinated by their gamebooks to ignore the rules at-will and focus on the fluff. The new version of the game shored up the rules but abandoned the old setting, so as far as Owod players had learned to think, the new books literally contained no content they could use.

Uh... Wow. I think that may be one of the best analysyes of OWoD Vs. NWoD I've ever seen. Hat off, kind sirrah!

[Elric VIII]

The first paragraph is wow :smallbiggrin:
Yeah... Although "low op" is proving to be fun in its own right. Not that I'd want to do it more than once.


Would you mind posting some sort of campaign journal? :smallbiggrin:Sure, I could give it a shot.



Now, just a few questions on character creation:

What is the difference between the Meditation skill and the Concentration merit? Is it worth it to have both?

Is it worth it to purchase additional quintessence at character creation? Is it a finite resource or relatively easy to restore?

Do you get a finite number of rotes or are al of them accessible to you provided you have enough dots in the sphere in question?

[The Glyphstone]

The only stat you need to play an OWoD mage is a high OOC Charisma score.:smallcool:

[satorian]

If you're really going for minmaxing, which, of course, you don't need to, pumping Arete at the get-go is a good idea. You'll be prepped for your first four dot powers, which you want.

[SiuiS]

That's not the biggest problem. Dismissing the rules as physics is almost always the correct approach, because rules are, by necessity, going to be less complex than physics. (The alternative leaves you with things like the Commoner Railway/Railgun.)

The larger problem is that many of the oWoD devs liked to dismiss the validity of rules as rules. When basic rules combinations led to totally absurd results, the answer tended to be "then just don't do that", which worked great if the combination was "Combining seven things from six sourcebooks into one action" and not nearly as great if the combination was "Combine a single power with its intended purpose".

Aye. Good points.

Also, isn't this starting to verge onto an issue with the whole one topic one thread rule? We should stick to oWoD startup stuffs.

[Friv]

Aye. Good points.

Also, isn't this starting to verge onto an issue with the whole one topic one thread rule? We should stick to oWoD startup stuffs.

Good point. Consider my comment on the matter closed. :)


Sure, I could give it a shot.

yessss


Now, just a few questions on character creation:

What is the difference between the Meditation skill and the Concentration merit? Is it worth it to have both? I do not recall what the Concentration merit does, so I'll leave this to others.


Is it worth it to purchase additional quintessence at character creation? Is it a finite resource or relatively easy to restore?

Never worth it.

How easy it is to restore Quintessence depends on three major factors:

1) Has your ST given you access to a Node / allowed you to buy that Background?
2) Do you have Prime?
3) Does one of your buddies have Prime?

If the answer to all of those questions is no, getting Quintessence is a horrible slog, but you already have a limited supply and I would just work at not having to spend it. If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you have a renewable supply and you are fine. There is no situation in which spending points on Quintessence is preferable to spending them on Node.


Do you get a finite number of rotes or are al of them accessible to you provided you have enough dots in the sphere in question?
I think this depends on the edition, and you mentioned that you were using an edition melange. IIRC, Mage 1st and 2nd edition did not require spending anything on rotes, just justifying having a way to learn them. Mage Revised instituted a 1-xp cost per rote.

Am I remembering correctly? Someone may want to check that.

[satorian]

You're definitely right about the rotes in 1st and 2nd. I never played revised. But yes, rotes originally were really just presented as examples of what could be done with a certain number of dots. I almost never used them, save as guidelines for what was within my power to do. We just played that you should always do magick that arises from your character's personal background, worldview, sense of aesthetics, and power, and maybe the personality of your avatar if we felt like roleplaying that out.

[Asmodai]

You can have as many rotes as you talk your ST into letting you have. Not that you really need them, as you can do anything and everything those basic rotes suggest for the spheres you have.

[Elric VIII]

You can have as many rotes as you talk your ST into letting you have. Not that you really need them, as you can do anything and everything those basic rotes suggest for the spheres you have.

Ah, excellent, thanks.

I've also figured out the Meditation vs Concentration issue; Concentration is an auto-success for any non-damaging use of Meditation. so both can be worth it.

One last thing: does the limit of 3 dots at the start apply to backgrounds as well?

[Mewtarthio]

a cat-turned-lycanthrope

You mean like a reverse werecat, or a cat that turns into a wolf? Or a cat that turns into a person who turns into a wolf?:smalleek:

[Elric VIII]

You mean like a reverse werecat, or a cat that turns into a wolf? Or a cat that turns into a person who turns into a wolf?:smalleek:

From what I gather it is a normal cat that has somehow achieved a humanoid form and sentience. That called it a "Bastet," if I recall (like the Egyption diety).

[Salbazier]

From what I gather it is a normal cat that has somehow achieved a humanoid form and sentience. That called it a "Bastet," if I recall (like the Egyption diety).

Isn't Bastet is the werecats? Oh, I remember. The changing breed in oWOD can come from either human or animal that gain sapience (wonder how that works with the werespider). Reverse werecat sounds right.

[KillianHawkeye]

Isn't Bastet is the werecats? Oh, I remember. The changing breed in oWOD can come from either human or animal that gain sapience (wonder how that works with the werespider). Reverse werecat sounds right.

Yeah, Bastet are the were-cats. I'm wondering which breed it is specifically?

Also, you're right that the shapechangers in OWoD could be either humans or animals originally (or actual native crossbreeds, the children of shapechangers, but we don't talk about them).

But hey, at least nobody's playin a Black Spiral Dancer or a werewolf/vampire abomination! :smallwink:

(Oh yeah, and the Anasasi do it the same way as the rest do. Born like a spider, devour your own siblings, until one day you discover the ability to shapechange. Preferably somebody comes to show you how it's done.)

[DragonclawExia]

That would be awesome, but it's more like we have a few people using PF rules (PF Cleric, an Alchemist, and a Summoner/Oracle/Bard), a few people using 3.5 (me as a Ranger/Fighter/Rogue/Chameleon and a Swashbuckler), a Ranger using 3.0 Favored Enemy and a combination of houserules and relics from 2.0. We also have a 6th level Fighter with EWP (fullblade) and Toughness x7. Although I have convinced him to retrain into Improved Toughness, at least.

Anyway, for the campaign, we started building characters today. So far we have 2 mages, a sorcerer, a hunter, a cat-turned-lycanthrope, and a vampire. We have 4 more players that couldn't make it today.

Soo....not to be rude or anything, but shouldn't the first thing that happened with your party is they kill each other horribly/paradoxed to THE VOID/bring forth the wrath of THE WYRM/WEAVER/TECHNOCRACY/CAMARILLA/METATRON/ERRROR CANNOT COMPUTE, SHUTTING DOWN ALL EXISTENCE?


Or are you just Rule Zeroing every faction rule about the Fluff to Oblivion? Has your train wreck started and retroactively already escalated into an Dimensional Apocalypse with Reality itself tearing itself asunder from the madness yet?

[Dogbert]

Oh a game!

I read the title and thought you were looking for tips or otherwise help on becoming a supervillain.

...not that I'd know any of that, nossssssir! Now I have to go and do... good deeds! Yeah, that...

[vitkiraven]

That would be awesome, but it's more like we have a few people using PF rules (PF Cleric, an Alchemist, and a Summoner/Oracle/Bard), a few people using 3.5 (me as a Ranger/Fighter/Rogue/Chameleon and a Swashbuckler), a Ranger using 3.0 Favored Enemy and a combination of houserules and relics from 2.0. We also have a 6th level Fighter with EWP (fullblade) and Toughness x7. Although I have convinced him to retrain into Improved Toughness, at least.

Anyway, for the campaign, we started building characters today. So far we have 2 mages, a sorcerer, a hunter, a cat-turned-lycanthrope, and a vampire. We have 4 more players that couldn't make it today.

I'm the Bard/Oracle/Summoner(Synthesist) and the Sorcerer for this game. We also picked up a gypsy psychic for one of the four who were missing. It's been fun so far. I just about tortured a stuffed animal artifact.:smallamused:

Edit: Unless the laws of probability are playing me for a fool, and there is another game somewhere with those same players.

[Salbazier]

I'm the Bard/Oracle/Summoner(Synthesist) and the Sorcerer for this game. We also picked up a gypsy psychic for one of the four who were missing. It's been fun so far. I just about tortured a stuffed animal artifact.:smallamused:

Edit: Unless the laws of probability are playing me for a fool, and there is another game somewhere with those same players.

What's the plot of the campaign?

[vitkiraven]

As it stands so far, all we've done is get together. The Queen has tasked me to assemble a group of people (off the books of course) to determine what is causing formerly deceased individuals to become ambulatory again, and it's not magic.
The stuffed animal was another player's artifact that... my character had some issues with. Something regarding the consumption of sentient beings, and as a Brit in service to the Queen, I'll have none of that (unless one was in the navy, and then I guess it is fair game).:smallwink:
Character creation has taken the first two games.

[Elric VIII]

As it stands so far, all we've done is get together. The Queen has tasked me to assemble a group of people (off the books of course) to determine what is causing formerly deceased individuals to become ambulatory again, and it's not magic.
The stuffed animal was another player's artifact that... my character had some issues with. Something regarding the consumption of sentient beings, and as a Brit in service to the Queen, I'll have none of that (unless one was in the navy, and then I guess it is fair game).:smallwink:
Character creation has taken the first two games.

We also spent some time torturing stuffed animals. I see you already mentioned that, nevermind. It was clearly asking for it. Also it may have bad-touched me while I was otherwise incapacitated (but we won't mention that in the game because we'll be playing with some younger kids, PG-13 et al).

I'll post up a synopsis of what happened in the requested campaign log after this week's session. Last week was short.

As a side note, I think you may need to help arbitrate and remind about the magic rules because our ST has yet to assign me any paradox or give me any DCs to make the spells do stuff in spite of a few vulgar effects.


What's the plot of the campaign?

If you mean the D&D one it can be boiled down to "LEWT AND EXP!"

Basically we have this sentient pirate ship with obnoxious amounts of gold (doing my best to contain my inner munchkin knowing what I can do with a few hundred thousand gold at level 7) and we're trying to find One Piece Captain Flintlock's treasure.

[Salbazier]

I'll post up a synopsis of what happened in the requested campaign log after this week's session. Last week was short.
Yay! :smallbiggrin: Waiting eagerly.


If you mean the D&D one it can be boiled down to "LEWT AND EXP!"

Basically we have this sentient pirate ship with obnoxious amounts of gold (doing my best to contain my inner munchkin knowing what I can do with a few hundred thousand gold at level 7) and we're trying to find One Piece Captain Flintlock's treasure.

That sounds awesome but I was asking about the WOD one. Should have said chronicle (I think that was the term in ST?).

[vitkiraven]

If you mean the D&D one it can be boiled down to "LEWT AND EXP!"

Basically we have this sentient pirate ship with obnoxious amounts of gold (doing my best to contain my inner munchkin knowing what I can do with a few hundred thousand gold at level 7) and we're trying to find One Piece Captain Flintlock's treasure.

C'mon, it was more in depth than that. We were just starting up making the group into Avengers, (we had Hawkeye and Ironman, and were looking at a few other people for some other roles, possibly substituting Colossus and Wolfsbane for other characters). And we were gonna start up a country to oppose the oppressive elven regime that was there, in a place that had been taken over by a dead god of the undead.
Fun!

[Elric VIII]

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15326694#post15326694) is the first part of the campaign log. I have a bit of backstory on my character. I will get the first two sessions up this week (hopefully tomorrow if I have time). Enjoy!