Grade the Storyteller System

[giant.robot]

The Storyteller system was to me an ok system with a lot of lore/metaplot that didn't necessarily congeal into a good game. Every ST game I ever played fell apart after a couple sessions because no one ever had any idea what the hell to do. The lack of direction was compounded by the fact that according to the lore the player characters suck compared to everyone else from the metaplot.

I'm sure with the right GM the game could be really fun. I never encountered such a GM. So the World of Darkness became one of the many games I bought just to read the lore.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Disclosure: I actually played more GURPS: VtM playtest than actual VtM.

I loved a lot of the WoD setting stuff, and really wanted to try playing them more, especially Mage. I have most of the original games, plus the NWoD book from Monte Cook.

But again, I didn’t want to play the games in isolation from each other, and the tweaks to each made melding impractical.

 

[dbm]

I played some Vampire back in the early 90s - whether that was first or second edition I can’t remember. At the time, I found it an ok system but we didn’t get very deep into it. I read some Mage: the Awkening when that came out, but never actually got it to the table.

In more recent times a I have looked at the Trinity Continuum books (including Aberrant, Aeon and Anima) as a possible core system to run a wide variety of games. If I compare it to Savage Worlds I think they occupy a lot of the same ground, with Savage Worlds being stronger on minis-based tactical combat and Trinity being a bit more ‘narrative’ (whatever that means…).

While the ’Storyteller / Storytelling’ system has a lot of potential it seems to be linked to a series of very distinct worlds which is a big plus if you want to play in those worlds specifically, but a bit of a hinderance if you are looking for something more flexible to run your own and more varied games.

For those reasons I think of it as ‘pretty good’ - it seems to have aims and meet them pretty well, but those aims don’t align to my personal preferences for a system.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Nature/Demeanor is a vastly better way of explaining personalities than any other RPG I'm aware of has managed and it has a once-current psychological basis for its model.

Nature/Demeanor was mind-blowing for my group at the time. That alone dramatically advanced our concept of role-playing characters.

 

[Umbran]

Nature/Demeanor was mind-blowing for my group at the time. That alone dramatically advanced our concept of role-playing characters.

It does create a character whose behavior has layers, which is a plus.

 

[aramis erak]

Have you used the Storytelling System (or its precursor, the Storyteller System) for your tabletop roleplaying games? If you've ever played World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem, Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game, Exalted, Trinity, or almost any other game published by White Wolf Inc., you've probably played with this game system before. Wikipedia has the following to say about it:

I've played and run oWoD - nothing long term, nor even mid-term.

VTM was rife with setting elements unsupported and undermined by rules. I get the ideas, but the mechanics reinforce other directions than the setting materials.

The only one that seemed to work well for the intended playstyle was Mage: The Ascension, where it was painfully clear that this was the extension of the concepts in earlier editions of Ars Magica.

The big issue seems to have been that WWG were unaware prior to MTA that their particular settings would be appealing to hyper-munchkin players.

I like the core mechanics, I just think they're a poor fit to the settings.

 

[CleverNickName]

Well, here's how the grades are going so far.

Our valedictorian is Savage Worlds with the highest GPA (3.00, a B+). Our salutatorian is The D6 System, which has a GPA of 2.85 (B). But honestly, everyone is in good academic standing (GPA of 2.00 or better). Storyteller is closest to being put on probation (GPA 2.05), but it's hard being the New Kid.

Class favorite depends on whether you mean the Most Loved (Powered by the Apocalypse, with 37% "Loved" votes) or the Least Hated (Cypher, Savage Worlds, and D6 all have zero "Hated" votes.)

Most Popular is Pathfinder 2E (129 total votes), followed by Powered by the Apocalypse (126 total votes). Least Popular is Storyteller (49 votes), but that's also to be expected from The New Kid. Previously it was Cypher (54 total votes).

Our Varsity Team (the most played) are Storyteller (82%), GURPS (80%), and Savage Worlds (72%). The third-string quarterback (least played) is Modiphius (53%, barely more than half).

 

[aramis erak]

I should note that I've also run a couple minicampaigns -- 5 and 10 sessions -- of Street Fighter. It's the very best of the versions, IMO, at least once one applies the (fairly minor) errata.

It does a decent job of describing the intended play mode, too - tourney fight of the week and an adventure wrapped around it. Plus, the art is a good match to the tone. It plays well, too.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It does create a character whose behavior has layers, which is a plus.

Exactly. That simple concept alone was transformative for my gaming group, where up to that point much of how we conceptualized are character's personalities was informed mostly by the Law-Neutrality-Chaos-Good-Evil axiom.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Exactly. That simple concept alone was transformative for my gaming group, where up to that point much of how we conceptualized are character's personalities was informed mostly by the Law-Neutrality-Chaos-Good-Evil axiom.

The joke meme showing Batman is all nine alignments really underscores how poor a fit that is. In comparison, I suspect getting the Nature/Demeanor right for him would generate far fewer than nine serious entries and be a good example of how one's Demeanor can be wildly different than their inner nature.