Gaming W/Jemal: World of Darkness Vampires (Recruiting)

[Jemal]

Do you guys feel comfortable trying this with just three players? If so we can begin character creation, and there's always room for people to join in the future if we get more interest later.

If so, Characters will be (As stated in opening post): Standard NWoD with Vampire template added, and 50 XP.
*On second thought, Since we're starting with so few, make it 60XP, and you start with 10 merits instead of 7, but at least one must be spent on some sort of Status.
OPTIONS: You all start at Blood Potency 2, and I will be allowing the 'Lower Humanity to gain 5xp' option.


As far as the 'classic coterie', that's up to you guys, but I don't feel it's necessary.
The main reasoning behind Coterie's (From a Game point of view) is an excuse to keep the PC's together - A bunch of separate storylines doesn't work in RL Gaming because you have to split your time between players. This is not an issue in PBP and as such, I see no reason to lump you guys together into a specific group unless you want it - go your own ways, do your own things, so long as there's at least SOME connection between your characters, and thus reason for PC interaction at some point, so it's not just a bunch of separate games that 'happen' to occur in the same city.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

How hard would this type of game be to pick up if I have never seen/read the gamerules?

 

[Jemal]

It's fairly straightforward and easy.
HERE Is a brief rundown of the character generation, though the site is based around changeling rather than vampire. It's the same base, just ignore anything that refers to changeling.

If you'd prefer I could help whip you up a character, just tell me your concept, and maybe use the list of skills/merits on that site as examples to help shape.

The vampire template add-on is, IMO, the most complicated part, b/c it involves picking a clan and disciplines that mesh with the human character you've created. But it's still rather easy.

the actual gameplay is really simple. Everything is done via a "dice pool" of D10's. You add an attribute (your raw physical/mental/social powers, like ability scores in D&D) and a skill in whichever way the GM thinks is appropriate, add whatever modifiers you or the GM are adding, and the resulting number is your 'dice pool', meaning that's how many dice you get to roll to see if you succeed.
Any dice of 8 or higher are 'successes'. Any 10's give you another dice to roll to try for more successes (This is called "ten again" and if if the reroll is also a ten, you keep adding.)

EX: You say you want to throw a bottle at somebody's head. That would be dexterity(for ranged aiming) + Athletics(Throwing), -1 from the GM's modifier for an 'improvised weapon'. If your dex was 2 (Avg) but you were very athletic (4), you would have 2 + 4 - 1 = 5 dice.
So you roll your dice:
1d10=5, 1d10=1, 1d10=2, 1d10=7, 1d10=9
SO, one dice is 8+, no tens, so you gain one success.
Number of successes indicates how well you did- in many cases, it's a "GM's call" what extra succeses do, but for certain events (like combat) it's predetermined - In this case, one success indicates one level of damage.
There's more details in combat (Defenses, types of damage, etc), but that's the basics.

Ex 2: If you wanted to seduce a woman back to your place (for sex, feeding, or to rob her, whatever your nefarious purposes may be), you would make a different roll.
Actually, for cases like this, your purpose matters - For example, if you're straightforward with her, and are trying to get her for sex, it would be Presence (Charisma/looks) + Persuasion(Seduction), wheras if you were planning on feeding from her, I would say Manipulation + Persuasion, and if you were trying to trick her for even more nefarious purposes, I'd probably go with Manipulation + Subterfuge(Lieing). So say your Vampire's intent is to lure a woman back for Feeding purposes: If Your Manipulation was 4, and your Persuasion was 3 - that's 7 dice.
You roll: 1d10=8, 1d10=9, 1d10=3, 1d10=8, 1d10=7, 1d10=5, 1d10=6
That's 3 that rolled 8+, so three successes. You could pretty much have your pick of delicious vessels.

Now in some cases this could be what's known as a 'contested' (Opposed) roll, meaning that if the GM think's it's appropriate, the other person can resist. If you were trying for a specific woman, I might rule such - say if you were trying to seduce and feed on the bartender in particular, I could rule that she has reason to try and resist (Remain professional, etc). So I would roll a resistance check for her - Resistance to social skills is Composure, so if she has a 2 composure (Average), since I don't believe there are any specific modifiers (No overt reasons why she would specifically avoid your attentions), I would roll 2 dice:
1d10=8, 1d10=1
One success.
Now, for contested rolls, you subtract the "defender's" successes from the "Attacker's", and if the 'attacker' has any leftover, he wins. In this case, your 3 - her 1 = 2. You manage to successfully lure her back to your place - and since it was more than one success, I might rule that she doesn't tell anybody where she's going.
If she had managed to get more successes as the defender, she would have resisted your advances.

What happens next, well that's a new scene.

 

[Shayuri]

I didn't think 1's deducated from successes in the new WoD rules.

 

[Jemal]

Hmm will have to check when I get home. I haven't had much chance to play so that may indeed be an old relic stuck in my brain

 

[Jemal]

So I double checked and you are correct Shayuri, ones only matter for dramatic failure on a single-dice chance roll.
Though I will be using a variant on a house rule I've seen in the past which allows for dramatic failures in extreme circumstances where someone rolls a lot of ones and no successes.
I'll say if you roll.. 3 more "ones" than successes, that also counts as a Dramatic Failure. If your luck's THAT bad on a roll, it's deserving of a dramatic failure.

*I've edited the previous post to remove the incorrect information. I've also expanded the second example to give Fangor a bit more insight into how the game works.

 

[Thondor]

I believe there are some specific Clan weaknesses that deduct 1's from success for specific rolls.

I'll come up some more details on character next week. Right now I am hammering away at my submission for Enworld's write an RPG in 7 days. I'm callling it Reality Warp.

 

[Jemal]

so I've talked to Raivon, helping her work up a socially focused Daeva who owns a night club and is one of the cities Harpies.
any concepts from Shayuri?
Fangor, any ideas you want help with, or questions you have? (I realize the details of the above concept may not make sense atm but all you need is ideas, I can give you the specifics.)

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Ok, I think I have the idea of the schematics. Sounds basic enough to grasp and test out my first vampire. Would it be better if I read up on this gaming environment/world or just start fresh and unknowingly as to the type of world we'll be playing?

 

[Shayuri]

Yeah, gonna do my archeologist Moros...I'll work up stats over the weekend.