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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4602670" data-attributes="member: 58439">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.</blockquote>

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