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View Full Version : So I picked up nWoD...



jjpickar
2007-09-16, 06:13 PM
Recently I picked up the new World of Darkness the other day and I feel inspired to run a game in it. I have previously only played d20 games (Starwars d20, D&D 3.5, and Star Wars SAGA edition) and I've really become enamored of this new storytelling system. I'm an experienced DM in 3.5 but this new system is what I will be using (maybe) in a game on this site later this week. So, Does anyone have any advice for a new storyteller? Or perhaps some suggestions on further games to buy (Werewolf or Vampire for example)?

Laesin
2007-09-16, 06:18 PM
Which nWod, the blue storyteller system core book or Monte Cook's world of darkness?

If the former my recommendation is to pick up Vampire:The Requiem although it will take you a while if you choose to collect the many supplements available. Another choice is Changeling: The Lost which is a recent release so you can stay on top of the supplements.

If the latter I have no suggestions.

jjpickar
2007-09-16, 06:25 PM
Its the Blue Storyteller book. I would prefer not to buy to many supplements but I am actually most interested in Vampire: the Brooding. Is it still good without supplements? Changeling and Promethian don't interest me as much but Werewolf and Mage sound very cool. Can anyone describe the differences in play between Vampire, Werewolf and Mage? Alternatively, which is better in your opinion?

Townopolis
2007-09-17, 12:52 AM
Each subgame is very different. Werewolf, for example, is more about beating the snot out of people and ripping their throats out. Mage is for people who like to play characters with 1,000,001 tricks up their sleeve. A hidden magic that must be used carefully and with much planning for the best effect. Lots of planning, thinking, and talking must go on between mages before anything special gets done. You're all still human... basically, but you are all capable of shifting reality. So on and so forth. (As you can probably guess, I'm more familiar with Mage than anything else.)

Each subgame plays very differently, to the point where each one is only better in the minds of it's fans.

Vampire is about skulking around and being gothy. Which basically means you shouldn't listen to me about Vampire. I'll let someone else give you a real answer for that.

Ralfarius
2007-09-17, 01:16 AM
Vampire is about skulking around and being gothy. Which basically means you shouldn't listen to me about Vampire. I'll let someone else give you a real answer for that.
You totally hit the nail on the head. The others are about right, as well.

Also, in the new world of darkness, all the major games have essentially fully interactive rule sets. Werewolf, for instance, offers rules for how creatures that do not have werewolf-specific stats can resist werewolf abilities, and vice versa.

Werewolf is heavily invested in animism. Spirits for everything, and they all want something. Instead of seeking knowledge like Mage or manipulating everything an d being mopey like Vampire, you're trying to preserve the balance between the world of spirits and the physical realm. It's got a combat-heavy leaning, but like any game it all depends on how you run it.

Beleriphon
2007-09-17, 01:40 AM
I'll point out that the Core game (being World of Darkness) is all about being a mundane human in a world that you really don't want to understand or explore. Its pretty good as the core system since Werewolf, Vampire and Mage all build off its basic rule set.

The nice thing between all of the different creature campaigns is that they work together much better than the previous incarnations. Thus a werewolf and vampire just starting out are roughly equivilent in terms of power, although for different reasons, where as in previous editions a starting werewolf even without a combat focus was better than a vampire without a combat focus, and both could be equally non-combat effective.

drawingfreak
2007-09-17, 09:45 AM
I don't see how anyone can run a Promethian only game. The very nature of Promethian is being lost and alone with but one goal: to find your soul and become human. I've used them as NPCs which is very interesting, but as a stand alone game, I just don't see it happening.

Mojo_Rat
2007-09-17, 11:46 AM
I cannot coment on Mage but I can speak about the Vampire and Werewolf for the NWoD.

Werewolf -the current version about the game is very much about survival, You can Make it te various plot types though man vs himself man vs the world man vs society and so on with east. The new version of werewolves are much better in my opinion, You can either do them as a Combat oriented game (Your back vs other packs, Your Pack Vs the pure (Which are another type of werewolf who are much more numerous and most importantly /not/ forsaken) Or you have alot of room to focus on the Spiritual aspects of the game involving the new Spirit world and So on.

I have only played it online but It appears to be a pretty good game.

Vampire-If You are familiar with the Old game the political situation of the new one Much more resembles the Dark ages vampire system. In that it is a political game much more focused on The city you live in. The politics and the goals of the vampires in that city are really all that matters. Theere is no longer any Vast metaplot involving vampire sects trying to take over the world.


One thing i really like about the NWod game is that Supers are muchc loser in power now to Mortals cand cannot just walk over them as if they didnt exist. It ultimately changes the game Dramatically and I really like it for that. The Removal of the vast metaplots helped alot as well.

Attilargh
2007-09-17, 12:30 PM
So, Does anyone have any advice for a new storyteller?
I'd really love to play in a Mortal road trip -type game. :smallwink:

Okay, serious mode turn on.

I'm still halfway through Changeling, but what I've read I really adore. It's got heaps and heaps of beautiful madness and Gaiman-ish lunacy in it, and the fae are nasty. The characters also seem much more human than in Werewolf or Vampire (I've never managed to get interested in Mage, and have yet to read Promethean), possibly because the Changelings' innate power is much more subtler than with Vamps or the Forsaken. For example, they still drop like Joe Schmoe the overweight bartender, or whoever they happened to be before going for a trip through the Thorns.

jjpickar
2007-09-17, 01:47 PM
The descriptions of the main 3 are about what I expected, though I still don't understand what vampire is supposed to be about. But I am now officially intrigued by this Changeling game. Please tell me more.

Attilargh
2007-09-18, 02:23 AM
Basically, there is our world (or rather, the World of Darkness) and then there's Faerie. These two are separated by the Thorns, and sometimes people stumble through, either by accident or some Fae ploy. In Faerie, they are then captured and enslaved by the inhuman True Fae, and eventually escape. The experience changes them in many ways, altering their appearance and making them supernatural fae in their own right: Changelings. As normal with the WoD games, these changes are not apparent to normal people like you and me, but other Changelings (and possibly other supernaturals as well, can't recall) see them for what they really are. A person used as a pet might have features of a dog, or someone kept literally in the dark might become slightly "less present", for example.

That's just character creation. Time passes strangely in Faerie, and a Changeling might find out that while he was away for what seemed just a month or two, his baby boy is already an angsty teenager. Even if they come back at about the right time, there is often a nasty surprise left by the Gentry: A magical construct known as a fetch stepped in when the character stepped out, and is, for all intents and purposes, being him living his life. (The game isn't called "Changeling" for no reason, after all!) As you can imagine, stepping back into one's previous existence might be a bit hard, when it's already occupied.

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling:_The_Lost) has a fairly good article about the game, and a link to the free demo.


Regarding Vampire: Basically, you're dead, have to prey on the living to survive and your feelings are actually just memories, so there's quite a lot of room for moping. However, you've also got decades and decades long unlife expectancy, and being fairly cold and emotionless, you could just as well pass that time playing politics, which really is the focus of the game. The Prince stands on top, and everyone would like to either topple him, or just topple the guy from under him and become the new Man Behind the Man. Because everyone does it, everyone is constantly plotting against each other as well, and the Prince stays on top, most of the time.

And then some bright guy has the idea of Embracing someone new, and that's where you come in. You're not going to survive alone for very long, so you find some equally clueless folks to watch your back in exchange for having their backs watched, and now you've got a Coterie. You're pretty much on the bottom of the food chain, so you better pick up your end of it and beat someone with it until you've got some food. In other words, it's not a bad idea to take over a night club or something.

Beleriphon
2007-09-18, 06:40 AM
And then some bright guy has the idea of Embracing someone new, and that's where you come in. You're not going to survive alone for very long, so you find some equally clueless folks to watch your back in exchange for having their backs watched, and now you've got a Coterie. You're pretty much on the bottom of the food chain, so you better pick up your end of it and beat someone with it until you've got some food. In other words, it's not a bad idea to take over a night club or something.

In effect Vampire is a survival game much like Werewolf, although its a radically different kind of survival. Rather than trying to survive against the world, you're trying to survive being turned inside out, upside down and backwards by your own kind. Its political survival, with quite a bit of literal survival thrown in for good measure.