New World of Darkness core book free on DTRPG!

[lissilambe]

There you go. The idea was to make it easy for new players to understand what the numbers meant, but using a one to five rating system, as in movies (and restaurants and hotels, etc). The idea being that everyone is familiar with a 1 to 5 rating system, but no one outside of gaming really understands quickly where a "12" compares in 3 to 18.

Not a bad idea, I personally think.

Take care,
Don

 

[Voadam]

I don't recall anything that lets you lose dots. I think they just wanted to be different. THere is no reason they couldn't have used numbers instead, it would have made the character sheets a lot smaller too.

In VtM:

Vampires could spend blood points to up their physical stats temporarily.

Willpower points got spent and recovered in game

Blood pools got filled and used in game all the time.

And IIRC being forced into torpor you lost a physical dot when you recovered.

 

[Turjan]

Gotcha. Given the breadth of the SRD and what the OGL has made possible, I think WotC has done their part for the "cool free stuff" effort.

I agree . I was just thinking about something else, more along the line "What do the two companies think is their most valuable asset?".

We know that companies are no charities, they have to make money in order to survive. If we look into what we were told about WotC's strategy in the early days of 3e, the d20 system itself was not seen as a big value in and itself, and that's why we get the SRD for free. We were told that the money lies in the sales of the three core books, and everything else was meant to merely maximize those sales. I don't want to discuss now whether this original notion might have been altered or extended during the last 5 years, but let's say, that it doesn't make much sense to give away the core books for free if you believe in that strategy.

If WW now decides to give their current core rule book away for free (though for a limited time only), this tells me that they see their main assets somewhere else. Do you think this may be because the core book itself is of limited use on its own, and you are supposed to buy more books in order to be able to play?

 

[Starman]

If WW now decides to give their current core rule book away for free (though for a limited time only), this tells me that they see their main assets somewhere else. Do you think this may be because the core book itself is of limited use on its own, and you are supposed to buy more books in order to be able to play?

Well, White Wolf's major lines are Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage. Each of those books requires the core rulebook to play. That's a two-book investment. By giving away the core book for free, they are probably looking to lure some customers in who have been relcutant to buy two books to try something new. Now, they can get the one book for free and pay for one book. And, if they like it, odds are good that they will eventually buy a hard copy of the core rules. Most people still prefer a hard copy.

 

[Blaque]

Well, while the basic nine are fairly static, remember that for some stats you can gain and lose dots fairly regularly. For them, the dots (and occaisonal checkboxes) make some sense. And from there you get some sense in having the graphic representation be the same for all...

Actually, WW mainly did "Checkboxes = Temporary, Dots = Permanant". THey've done that pretty consistantly since Vampire 1e from what I can gather. The exceptions were mainly:
- Some powers had a cost of a permanant dot in something.
- Werewolves could loose dots of Renown in later editions.
- Demon: the Fallen had the temporary version of a trait in dots.
- Humanity in Vampire tended to go down before it went up.

Their other games are more consistant though. Exalted, their fantasy ST game, uses the dots and boxes pretty damned consistantly. Very few things in that game eat permanant dots of anything, and the dots help to do math for some things like the dice-adders they have about.

NWoD has only a couple things that cost permanant dots ever:
- Vampire: the Requiem and Mage: the Awakening has some things that eat Willpower dots. These are generally big things like Embracing, or messing with metaphysical basics of yoru soul.
- Health levels tend to flux with werewolves. This is actually where the dots come in quite handy I think, since its a visual track rather then the hitpoint tracker. I actually'd of liked this for D&D somewhere, but HP gets too big usually.
- Morality traits tend to go down before they go up.

Personally, I like the dots myself. It helps put a nice cap on how human limits work. And it makes things with more then five in something pretty impressive, even if the number in other games might not be os much so. Its also easy for me to read quickly, and due to the point-buy nature of the WoD games, and the way the xp system works, it also helps with visuals I think. Its easier for me to count how many dots i have spent when they're all ou tin fornt of me, then doing math like I tend to do in games like Shadowrun or BESM. It also encourages to keep the numbers smaller overall, 'cept in games where the pools inflate anyhow, like Exalted.

If WW now decides to give their current core rule book away for free (though for a limited time only), this tells me that they see their main assets somewhere else. Do you think this may be because the core book itself is of limited use on its own, and you are supposed to buy more books in order to be able to play?

Well, there's the idea of "the first hit's free" I think. To be honest, the NWoD games are actually pretty self-supporting with just the core rulebooks of the game. The NWoD book itself is great for a mortal game with themes like Poltregist: the Legacy, X-Files, or other simaller-theemed shows with "Stuff out there" feel.

THe NWoD is structured with the "toolkit" approach. The books themsevles are actually pretty complete. They just are putting things out that will give you an idea of details you don't feel like filling in yourself. An example is the Covenant books for Vampire: the Requiem. You don't need them really, if you can flesh out the Ordo Dracul on your own, do it. But if you don't feel like making the whole thing from scratch, they did the work for ya.

Ummm, and stuff. This is coming from a dude more "raised" on WW games (WW stuff outnumbers D&D stuff about 15:1 on my shelf). So yeah. Download the book

Stuff.

 

[Pseudonym]

Dots are a hold over from Ars Magica, as are Storytelller, troup etc. I suppose they keep them as a brand identity, much as WotC kept certain things when they took over D&D.

 

[Staffan]

Dots are a hold over from Ars Magica, as are Storytelller, troup etc. I suppose they keep them as a brand identity, much as WotC kept certain things when they took over D&D.

The Storyteller and troupe thing, yes. But Ars Magica definitely used numbers instead of dots - sometimes even negative numbers (human stats range from -5 to +5, though I think in later editions they've taken steps to make the extremes more rare).

 

[nerfherder]

The Storyteller and troupe thing, yes. But Ars Magica definitely used numbers instead of dots - sometimes even negative numbers (human stats range from -5 to +5, though I think in later editions they've taken steps to make the extremes more rare).

Yup, the only dots in Ars Magica were between Rein and Hagen (unless they were in 1st edition, which I don't have - I only have 2nd, 3rd and 4th).

Cheers,
Liam

 

[Umbran]

Or Legendary Werewolves, or Archmages, or extremely powerful Sorcerers. . .

And, if you want to consider temporary stat changes, you don't need the "Legendary" or "Arch" in there either. A werewolf in crinos form, jfor example, could exceed 5 dots in a physical stat, and mages with enough Life magic who were willing to be vulgar about it could exceed the limit, too...

Of course, when you played Mage, the thought that stats are static kind of went out the window anyway. Ripping dots off your opponents is a fine attack form, if you can pull it off