Advice about NWoD

[Shieldhaven]

I'm in an anything-goes sort of nWoD game right now. There's a Daeva vampire, a Moros mage, a Frankenstein Promethean, and an Elemental (fireheart) Changeling (that's me). As a side note, the Storyteller has done a fantastic job of giving us a reason to travel together: we're all part of a traveling carnival, a modern-day Carnivale.

Because of the way we've built our characters, the Promethean is by far and away the most powerful character, followed by (probably) the changeling, then the mage, then the vampire. This has a whole lot to do with system familiarity and playstyle, though; if the vampire were built in a more focused manner, she might be a lot more powerful. Another big factor there is that Pyros and Glamour are tolerably plentiful, Mana is marginally difficult to come by, and Vitae is giving the vampire some trouble. It's easier for me to inspire mortals with a performance than it is for her to get away with a tasty snack.

Another advantage that I have is that I can heal other people with one of my Contracts, whereas the others can heal themselves only very inefficiently. If the mage were a Thyrsus rather than a Moros, I would be largely wasting my time there. Further, I don't violate the Masquerade or cause Paradox when I break bad with my powers - and as a fireheart using Armor of the Elements' Fury and such, I am very flashy indeed. On the other hand, I lack the versatility that the mage could bring to bear if he tried, I'm more fragile than even the social-focused vampire, and a combat balanced to challenge the Promethean is one I can't really participate in. (This is a problem with min-maxing rather than a problem with the ruleset per se.)

In closing: we're all having a great time with this game. =)

Haven

 

[Cryptos]

The supernatural types of nWoD are considerably more balanced than in the old World. However, it should be noted that this is not balance in the same sense as a more tactical and unified game like D&D.

Balance in the nWoD between types is more along the lines of, "Generally speaking, the average member of X will kick everyone else's @$$ at Y, while you could potentially created a member of Z that holds his own in Y, the average member of Z will kick everyone's @$$ at A."

Werewolves are the grand masters of tearing things up and walking away (relatively) unscathed.

Vampires are the maestros of wrapping bits of society around their finger and sucking them dry from the shadows.

Mages are walking, talking, magical tricorders with essence de Spock installed as the OS, and will generally be the best at getting raw information, and taking care of business provided they have preparation up front. (Imagine walking around a D&D campaign with a Detect Anything at-will utility and you won't be far off.)

The others all have niche areas as well, although the core three are focused on broader physical, mental and social areas. Changelings seem to be the grand high poobahs of extreme skin-of-your-teeth escapes, near misses, and dumb luck. Promethians are the divas of taking what you can dish out and keeping everyone at arm's length.

Each of these games work on their own because a storyteller is providing challenges and obstacles that come up against the general weaknesses of the character type, and provide possibilities for success based on their general strengths. If you mix and match, you'd better be prepared to spin a lot of plates at once.

You need something nebulous and trickster-like to stymie the Werewolf from time-to-time, something that Knows how to screw with Vampires to muck them up every once in a while, something that knocks the wind out of the Mage with a flying tackle before he can finish that spell or confront him something that is just too damn weird to figure out. Those aren't the only ways, there are obviously myriad ways to challenge or engage each character type, but the point is that the methods are a little bit different for each. You have to try to engage each character type and challenge each character type at the same time, and with a mixed group get them to rely on each other and give each a moment to shine.

You need to balance the encounter with the killer that only goes out during daylight hours with the back alley deal-making meeting with the city official for the vampire, while making sure that the Mage just can't pick the one thing out of the official's head that will make him go along with the deal, thus stomping all over the vampire's toes. You need to have something that can withstand 800 pounds of furry muscle and teeth, yet something that doesn't make the others feel completely helpless.

It's not all that different from running a supers game where one character decides to play Aquaman, one character decides to play Batman, and one character decides to play Wolverine. What does Aquaman do when you bring in Sabertooth to attack Wolverine? What does Wolverine do when Aquaman has to go down to talk to the tuna? What do you do with the others while Batman is figuring out it was Colonel Mustard with the pipe wrench in the conservatory or figuring out how to build a win-button?

You can play a mixed WoD game, but it's very much like running a superhero game where each player was determined to create a character that has a completely uncomplementary set of strengths and weakenesses distinct from the others, all the while trying to allow each a moment to shine and trying to avoid stepping all over their strengths while giving everyone something to do.

That's the challenge for a storyteller of a mixed game. Just so you know. As challenges go, it's not insurrmountable and it could even be fun, but it will take a large investment from the ST.

 

[Shieldhaven]

Cryptos makes good point here, and the ST for the game I'm in has done a pretty good job of addressing it. Our chronicle has an episodic format - that is, one session will be mostly-about one character, with the other three not shining quite as much (but still contributing). This involves a lot of party-splitting, but in a session of 5-6 hours, we can all be satisfied with the amount of face-time we get.

For example, in the last session, the Daeva (who is part of the Ordo Dracul) was kidnapped by the Lancea Sanctum at the start of the session. The ST cut back and forth between her tense conversations and our desperate, running battle through the building where they were holding her. Good times.

Haven

 

[ValhallaGH]

Wouldn't that be the Crinos form and not Gauru? Gauru is, I think, the name Werewolves call themselves.

Crynos was the name in the Old WoD. In the new WoD, Gauru is the name of the war form. They changed a lot of the names when they changed the editions.

As for balance, Cryptos seems to have covered how it will work. Like a supers team with a bunch of wildly dissimilar characters on the team.

Good luck to the OP and his table.