World of darkness:noob questions

[mr.pink]

My gaming group usually plays dnd but we are going to play a world of darkness campaign but im a little confused so here are my noob questions about world of darkness

1. Can we use different books such as hunter, vampire and promethian in one campaign?
2. Can I have a character who is both a promethian and a hunter?
3. Would you suggest using multiple books in one character?
4. What happens when i get a big sucsess(5 or more i forget the real term) on a attack?

 

[ValhallaGH]

My gaming group usually plays dnd but we are going to play a world of darkness campaign but im a little confused so here are my noob questions about world of darkness

1. Can we use different books such as hunter, vampire and promethian in one campaign?
2. Can I have a character who is both a promethian and a hunter?
3. Would you suggest using multiple books in one character?

1. Yes, sort of. There are some serious balance issues between the sub-systems, though each is pretty good internally.
2. No. First there are mechancial notes that say "whatever you had is gone when you become one of these." Second, each type is unique and the flavor text describing the origin and source prevent most combinations.
3. No. The only books that should be combined are the "ordinary mortals" books (Core, Armory, a couple of others) and a single "Supernatural" book (Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, etc.). Most of the resources available to mortals are appropriate when available to supernatural critters.

 

[Crothian]

Agreed

The rukles for using the characters side by side make it possible but you'd really want a Storyteller very familiar with both games to make it work.

 

[mr.pink]

Oh, ok then. I wanted to play a hunter/promethian but i can't. which one of those two is more balanced to a mage?

 

[Crothian]

Doing what? It really depends on the campaign. A Promethian is stronger and tougher physically so if you are talking pure combat then this is what you'd want. But it is not balanced with a Mage in combat, it outclasses a Mage in combat. Hunters are probalby the weakest of the three but they have less baggage with negatives. I wouldn't worry as much about balance since White Wolf's games don't. Play what you think would be fun.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Big tip. The Storyteller system is designed to punish you for rolling dice. If your RP is so "weak" that you must roll dice then there will be a mighty chance of failure built into the system (and there is).

If you can manage it, never roll your dice during a session. Talk about your actions and dialogue in such a way that it's obvious your character will get exactly what he wants. This way, hopefully, the Storyteller won't ask you to roll, being pulling in by the RP. That's how you do really well in Storyteller games.

Good luck.

 

[Dyson Logos]

for your first WOD game, I really recommend that all the players stick to one setting - that way you can play the game as it was meant, which generally is about limited resource politics and adventure.

While you live in a world with billions of people, there are only a few of comparable power and interests to yourself in your region. Therefore you find yourself in a "game" of one-upsmanship with each other. This applies to *most* of the core games except Hunter. The power environment for each type of supernatural is effectively close to a zero-sum game. For one character to gain power in said environment, another is losing power. By using a mixed group, you have less interaction with any one of those environments, and only one of the group of characters is drawing power from any one of the zero-sum games, so there is typically less impact on that environment and thus less conflict generated with the other players of that zero-sum game.

This is a particularly strong theme in Vampire, but is also quite noticeable in the other games in question.

 

[Thondor]

If none of you have ever played nWoD don't mix settings. In fact unless a number of you are very experienced with the books your thinking of including . . . don't do it.
You certainly can play in a mixed setting, but its significantly harder flavour wise and rules wise. I would actually suggest playing a few games as mortals (just the core book). This will let you get a good feel of the rules and can be some really cool stories.
If you like your characters and you feel you want to move on to one of the 'monster' typse, you can keep the old characters and have them change. Into hunters, werewolf, mages, vampires. I'd still pick one to have you all change into.

I've played nWoD quiet a bit (mortals, Vampire and a bit of Mage) and I still havn't felt the urge to mix. There is just so many good stories as is.

 

[timbannock]

My gaming group usually plays dnd but we are going to play a world of darkness campaign but im a little confused so here are my noob questions about world of darkness

1. Can we use different books such as hunter, vampire and promethian in one campaign?
2. Can I have a character who is both a promethian and a hunter?
3. Would you suggest using multiple books in one character?
4. What happens when i get a big sucsess(5 or more i forget the real term) on a attack?

Different books are fine. You may find some oddities in interactions of powers, but nothing too bad. Hunters can often be more focused and less overall "powerful" so watch that as well. "Balancing" encounters may be tough, but is what it is in WoD games.

Hunters should NOT be any supernatural. Risking Willpower, Tactics, etc. are really what makes a Hunter a Hunter and thus more or less a "major template." This is not a hard rule, as far as I know, but a "strong suggestion" at least. Balance would be even harder if you have a Promethean who can Risk Willpower. Tactics make sense for Werewolf packs to me, but you need to redesign the specifics because many Hunter tactics just don't make sense for Werewolves to use.

Multiple books one character...depends. Hunter characters MIGHT jive well with the psionics in Second Sight, but that's about it. I'd definitely say that you should stick to "one game line" per character. In short, if you're playing a Vampire, you can only get stuff from WoD Core + Vampire books. If you're a Hunter, WoD Core + Hunter (and MAYBE Second Sight...maybe).

Exceptional Success on an attack is just more damage. Usually, that's more than enough! The Combat Hacks in WoD Armory Reloaded might have other ideas, but I don't recall. You could say that dealing 5 damage in one attack is a blow that cripples a limb or something, but really, the damage is its own effect.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

The original system punished you with dice by making "1s" take away successes. The new system does not. All rolls are a straight 8 or better on a die is a success and a 10 allows a reroll of the dice. The only way to critically fail is to roll a "1" on the luck die and you basically have to have enough negative modifiers to have a die pool of 0 or less left in order for that to happen.

As for mixed games, the nWoD makes it far easier to mix games, but the default settings for each game do not make that assumption. To mix games your Storyteller would have to do some work making them work together before you began to play. It fits the nWoD idea of a gaming toolbox much like AD&D rather than a game intimately tied with the setting like oWoD.