Tell me about World of Darkness

[dgnslyr]

I saw a copy of the World of Darkness rule book at the library for sale for only $5, and decided to buy it for no reason other than that it was cheap and on sale.

Anybody on the playground want to give me an idea what I'm in for, and a quick summary of it's basic setting/rules? This is for a person most familiar with DnD 3.5 and starting to learn DnD 4e.

[Tokuhara]

I saw a copy of the World of Darkness rule book at the library for sale for only $5, and decided to buy it for no reason other than that it was cheap and on sale.

Anybody on the playground want to give me an idea what I'm in for, and a quick summary of it's basic setting/rules? This is for a person most familiar with DnD 3.5 and starting to learn DnD 4e.

I recently played in a WoD campaign as a quick rollup for a party who's having trouble roleplaying. I'll say this, it is refreshingly simple and fast.

Think D&D without classes, a streamlined ability score setup, and quite low-magic. Definitely a blast and a half

[WalkingTarget]

I'm assuming this is the basic new World of Darkness rulebook you're talking about.

The setting is essentially modern day Earth, but where there's real supernatural stuff going on that the majority of the population is unaware of. It's a bit more grimdark than reality by default, but most of it is recognizable.

The basic book has the basic setting details and you can use it to play a normal person, but if you want to get into the real meat of it you'd have to get the splatbooks for Werewolves, Vampires, Mages, or whatever other types of critter you want the game to center around. Each of those will have the particular worldview/history/metaphysics and mechanics that apply to that kind of character.

The rules are different from D&D in that it's a dice pool mechanic rather than single die with numerical modifications. That is, you roll a number of d10s determined by your character's statistics that would apply (say, Dexterity + Melee Weaponry for an attack or or Manipulation + Persuasion to convince somebody of something) and count the number of dice that come up over a certain value. The number of dice that meet/exceed that target determines how well you succeed. Bonuses/penalties operate by adjusting the number of dice you roll rather than altering the results of the rolls themselves.

Edit - also, it's pretty far removed from D&D's origin as a tactical wargame. There is no battlemat/grid or need for miniatures. There are plenty of combat-related abilities and whatnot, but it's not structured with D&D's focus on the fine details of group tactics. It's much more about playing out a scene in a story than the minutia of movement by squares and stuff like that.

Second Edit - lousy change of ability names from oWoD to nWoD.

[Tokuhara]

I'm assuming this is the basic new World of Darkness rulebook you're talking about.

The setting is essentially modern day Earth, but where there's real supernatural stuff going on that the majority of the population is unaware of. It's a bit more grimdark than reality by default, but most of it is recognizable.

The basic book has the basic setting details and you can use it to play a normal person, but if you want to get into the real meat of it you'd have to get the splatbooks for Werewolves, Vampires, Mages, or whatever other types of critter you want the game to center around. Each of those will have the particular worldview/history/metaphysics and mechanics that apply to that kind of character.

The rules are different from D&D in that it's a dice pool mechanic rather than single die with numerical modifications. That is, you roll a number of d10s determined by your character's statistics that would apply (say, Dexterity + Melee for an attack or or Manipulation + Persuasion to convince somebody of something) and count the number of dice that come up over a certain value. The number of dice that meet/exceed that target determines how well you succeed. Bonuses/penalties operate by adjusting the number of dice you roll rather than altering the results of the rolls themselves.

I tend to prefer the highlighted course of action. WoD is better at rewarding the nonviolent courses of action

[CodeRed]

Combat is Fast-paced and Brutal. It operates on a very small life pool but with multiple damage types to denote different, more realistic, levels of damage.

There's Bashing which is punches and the like which heals rather quickly over a day or so, think bruises. Then there is lethal which exactly what it sounds like, knife wounds, bullet wounds and the like. Aggravated is the next step which are the really terrible wounds like a collapsed lung or severely broken bones.

No matter how high your experience, since there are no levels, a human is never going to get above 10 hitpoints. As such, even a mook of a larger villain is a lethal threat if armed with the proper weapons. Like real life, guns are deadly and not to be messed around with.

Due to all this, WoD definitely puts more emphasis on free-form roleplaying and nonviolent solutions over a hack-and-slash style more reminiscent of D&D. When any punk on the street can kill you on lucky rolls with a gun, combat becomes a much less easy proposition. (Most of these points I outlined really only apply to the basic game setting. Werewolves and Vamps have much better hitpoints/defenses but are still not immortal. For example, Vamps take aggravated damage from fire so they really don't like it.)

[Tokuhara]

Combat is Fast-paced and Brutal. It operates on a very small life pool but with multiple damage types to denote different, more realistic, levels of damage.

There's Bashing which is punches and the like which heals rather quickly over a day or so, think bruises. Then there is lethal which exactly what it sounds like, knife wounds, bullet wounds and the like. Aggravated is the next step which are the really terrible wounds like a collapsed lung or severely broken bones.

No matter how high your experience, since there are no levels, a human is never going to get above 10 hitpoints. As such, even a mook of a larger villain is a lethal threat if armed with the proper weapons. Like real life, guns are deadly and not to be messed around with.

Due to all this, WoD definitely puts more emphasis on free-form roleplaying and nonviolent solutions over a hack-and-slash style more reminiscent of D&D. When any punk on the street can kill you on lucky rolls with a gun, combat becomes a much less easy proposition. (Most of these points I outlined really only apply to the basic game setting. Werewolves and Vamps have much better hitpoints/defenses but are still not immortal. For example, Vamps take aggravated damage from fire so they really don't like it.)

and yet, even with all of the ease of death via low HP, a mage can win any fight, just like d&d.

I however prefer WoD for its balance, and that Wizards could learn a lot from the guys behind WoD

[Kesnit]

and yet, even with all of the ease of death via low HP, a mage can win any fight, just like d&d.

Until the Universe bites the Mage in the rear.

That said, the idea behind WoD is not to mix supernaturals. If the ST wants to include some different types as NPCs, fine, but all the players should be the same type. It is possible to mix them, but you risk running into problems unrelated to balance. (i.e. Mixed Vampires and Werewolves. Can't run things during the day because Vamps have to sleep. Werewolves deal with spirits, which most Vampires cannot see or speak to.)

[The Watchman]

World of Darkness is set on present-day Earth. The only difference between its setting and our own world, actually, is that supernatural forces are very real, and they are lurking behind most of the bad things that happen. Vampires have their fangs in the necks of powerful political figures. Werewolf packs prowl the countryside. Ghosts and demons and spirits regularly interact with the material world, almost always to the detriment of the mortals involved.

World of Darkness focuses much more on role-playing and social interaction than Dungeons & Dragons. Each character, in addition to having the ordinary Attributes and Skills, possesses a Virtue and Vice, which help to define the character. In addition, playing to one's Virtue or Vice grants the character Willpower, which can be used to give a character a large edge in many situations. There are also many more Attributes and Skills associated with social interactions than in other RPGs.

Skills and the like are extremely easy to use. You simply total your Skill rating with your Attribute rating and roll that many ten-sided dice. Every eight or higher counts as a "success". In most situations, only one success is needed, but more successes can be useful in a few situations. Combat rolls, for example, inflict a number of wounds to the target equal to the number of successes rolled. Bonuses and penalties add and subtract dice from the pool.

Characters also have a Morality score, which tracks how in or out of touch the character is with societal norms. As a character's Morality lowers, they can go temporarily or permanently insane. This actually becomes a central theme of many games, particularly ones utilizing the expansion books (see below); the player characters must fight against monsters while attempting to avoid becoming monsters themselves.

World of Darkness is technically a stand-alone game, and it can be played perfectly well without buying any of the "expansions", but the other sourcebooks for the game can make the game much more fun for certain types of campaigns. Vampire: The Requiem, for example, turns the players into vampires, adding several special abilities and stats to the normal World of Darkness ones.

The available expansions are:
- Vampire: The Requiem
- Werewolf: The Forsaken
- Mage: The Awakening
- Geist: The Sin-Eaters (players are people who have returned from the dead by binding their souls to a "geist", a powerful pseudo-spirit)
- Hunter: The Vigil (players are ordinary mortals, but they're well-armed and ready to fight back against the forces of darkness)
- Changeling: The Lost (players are humans who were kidnapped by the fae and turned into pseudo-fae themselves)
- Promethean: The Created (players are basically Frankenstein's monster)

It's a really good system, very simple and streamlined without sacrificing any gameplay utility. Several of the expansion worlds are quite fun, but Vampire games, in my experience, tend to be very boring and saccharine unless the GM is very experienced. Geist and Hunter in particular are my favorites.

[Lycan 01]

I have a random question about the nWoD, which I will use this thread as an opportunity to ask.


The core nWoD rulebook has all the main rules, mechanics, and character creation stuff for normal human characters. My question is, what sort of antagonists does the core rulebook include? Ghosts, zombies, and cultists? Or does it also have basic stats for a generic vampire or anything?

Also, Hunters. Lets say I want to run a Vampire game where they run into a Hunter. The Hunter is, at that moment, not hostile to them, though their course of action will determine how he reacts to them. So, should combat arise, he'd need stats. Well, where do I find those? Does the Vampire rulebook have generic Hunter stats, or would I have to get the Hunter rulebook to have the stats for and know how to use generic Hunter NPCs?

[Electrohydra]

The core nWoD rulebook has all the main rules, mechanics, and character creation stuff for normal human characters. My question is, what sort of antagonists does the core rulebook include? Ghosts, zombies, and cultists? Or does it also have basic stats for a generic vampire or anything?

Ghosts are the only supernatural creatures stated in the core rulebook, but in terms of other things, animals are stated (so your players can get attacked by a wandering dog, or ride a horse), and there are a few others (from student to policemen to monster hunter), but making up your own is rather easy, more than making up a D&D NPC IMO.

[Lycan 01]

Ghosts are the only supernatural creatures stated in the core rulebook, but in terms of other things, animals are stated (so your players can get attacked by a wandering dog, or ride a horse), and there are a few others (from student to policemen to monster hunter), but making up your own is rather easy, more than making up a D&D NPC IMO.

So Hunter stats, or something close enough, are in the core rulebook. Excellent! Thank you.

[Ytaker]

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11124.phtml

Book of antagonists. It gives you all the foes you need. If you want the stats for a hunter or a demon or whatever though you have to buy their individual stat books. Or copy them from someone who has.

[Electrohydra]

Well, eh, actually I've only played the core rulebook, and glanced at the mage one, but from that I heard... well the monster hunter from core would get killed by just about anything supernatural real fast. But as I said, it's really easy to boost him up to give your payers a challenge.

[Attilargh]

Also, Hunters. Lets say I want to run a Vampire game where they run into a Hunter. The Hunter is, at that moment, not hostile to them, though their course of action will determine how he reacts to them. So, should combat arise, he'd need stats. Well, where do I find those?

In the new WoD, hunters are just people who hunt the supernatural, nothing more. Of course, Joe Schmoe is the underdog in pretty much any encounter with the supernatural, so the Hunter book has some advantages like tactics the hunters can practise and organizations that can back them up.

[WalkingTarget]

In the new WoD, hunters are just people who hunt the supernatural, nothing more. Of course, Joe Schmoe is the underdog in pretty much any encounter with the supernatural, so the Hunter book has some advantages like tactics the hunters can practise and organizations that can back them up.

Well, there are some Hunter organizations that have supernatural mojo going on (the Lucifuge, for example). It's just that there isn't a comprehensive mechanic shared by all of them like in oWoD, and individual organizations might have specific targets in mind.

That's not to say that you necessarily have to belong to one of these fancy-pants groups.