WoD for Dark Tower Campaign?

[KanedaX321]

I thought I posted this last night, but I'm not finding it, so I'll take another shot:

I have a plot bug running through my head based loosely, if not directly, on Stephen King's Dark Tower series. More specifically, while I want to leave the door open (no pun intended) to allow the group to travel between worlds, the specific campaign would focus on the Tet Corporation: real world, modern world, human PCs with supernatural elements (like vampires, Low Men, Breakers, etc).

I flipped through the WoD book at Borders, since I haven't worked with it before, and didn't realize that it was an expansion of Vampires, Werewolves, Mage, etc.

Is there a particular system I should start with of the four WoD books? Or are they all interchangeable in terms of character creation, encounters, etc? Is there a system that someone else would recommend instead of WoD?

 

[Umbran]

I flipped through the WoD book at Borders, since I haven't worked with it before, and didn't realize that it was an expansion of Vampires, Werewolves, Mage, etc.

Technically, it isn't. The "World of Darkness" book is the core, and Werewolf, Vampire, Mage, and all are expansions of it.

Is there a particular system I should start with of the four WoD books?

Four? There's Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Promethean, and Hunter - so six games in addition to the root World of Darkness.

Start with the core rules - they are for humans with no supernatural powers to speak of, and will give you an idea of how the mechanics work overall, without burdening you with the extra supernatural stuff yet.

Or are they all interchangeable in terms of character creation, encounters, etc?

They are not interchangeable. They use the same basic stats and mechanic, but they quickly diverge with the various supernatural powers. There are symmetries of structure, though, so if you know one of the games, many concepts and forms will be familiar as you go from game to game.

Word of Darkness does not have an explicit notion of "encounters" and "encounter building" like D&D does. And darned straight a starting normal from the core book won't be a match for a starting Werewolf or Vampire. The games are not balanced in that sense.

 

[rkwoodard]

start with core

Hi,

I think the World of Darkness is a great system that can handle a lot of different genres and stories.

I would start with the Core World of Darkness book,

then,

buy the PDF of the book Mirrors (it is a book that tells you have to change the core rules to make anything you want).

Rather than get one of the big 6 (and I mean big in a literal sense), get Second Sight (for psychic and mystic powers) and then look around at their other books (books like Immortals, and Armory).

Hope this helps,

RK.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Four? There's Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Promethean, and Hunter - so six games in addition to the root World of Darkness.

Don't forget Geist, which is sort of the nWoD's version of wraith.



For a Dark Tower game I would recommend the World of Darkness core book, some of the antagonist books (based on where you want to focus), armory, and Hunter... Mainly Core book and Hunter.