28 replies to this topic

[SnakeEyes]

Tomorrow, I having a character creation session for my new WoD game. I'm using old WoD, because I don't intend to get the new wod until the other books are out, due to my players liking such different characters. Note 'such different characters'. Now I like for players to run their ideas past me so I can try and fit them in the story. I'm rather lenient, and my last merry band of travellers consisted of two werewolves (a silent strider and a red talon, no less), a mage, and a psychic cia agent on the run.

Now I know that anyone who knows Werewolf will probably freak at the thought of a Red Talon and 2 humans travelling together, but the reason I allowed him was because he was a kind of diplomat. Nicknamed 'Monkey-Talker', he actually fitted in rather well.

Anyway, I digress. This time I have to chuckle at the selection of characters laid before me. We have recently lost one player, but gained 3 more, for a total of 7 players (which is my maximum). They've run their characters past me, and I've stretched my story around them.

So the characters will be- A bastet (werecat for non-wolfers), two mages, a corax (werecrow), a garou (werewolf), an arthurian knight (using highlander rules), and a mortal (nanotech enhanced) escaped convict.

I thought I had a weird bunch before... ::crazy

I'm seriously looking forward to the challenge.

Have a laugh,
SnakeEyes  

Edit: Ach! Now my printer's gone kaputt, so 2 of the character sheets might not be printed for tomorrow... damn you murphy! *shakes fist* ::ohcrap

[knave]

Nice... but ouch.  I've run game with Mages and Werethings together before before and found it extremely difficult to present them with any sort of challange that A) Didn't get instantly killed by them or B) Would kill them all instantly.  

Good Luck!  

[SnakeEyes]

Ah, I worked around that in my first run STing... I fudge my die rolls...  ::hehe if it seems too easy for them, I fudge my rolls... they don't know the grunt's stats, anywho. If it's too difficult, I alter story a little... have something happen that makes it easier...

I'll try not to kill them all instantly (not until the end, anyway   )
Cheers,
SnakeEyes

[Nullifier]

Honestly, fudging dice rolls and making up stats on the spot is the only way to run a Mage game. It's too freeform to run it any other way. I never fudged the really important rolls, but I always ran combat somewhat fast and loose, 'cause otherwise it's almost always either too easy or too hard.

[Bahamut810]

Its all luck anyway...I dont play and ST games IRL (no one to play aberrant with), but I do have a HU game on.  Let me tell you...I *have* to design my characters to hace decent bonus', becuase a good 75% of my roll are under 8 on a d20.  No joke.

[knave]

I know what you mean about fudging stats SE - I recently was at a con where a module writer quoted me saying, "Opponents should have as many health levels as they you require and die when you need them to"... or some such drivel.  What I meant was that it's pretty hard to fudge when what is a decent fight for a Wolf will eviscerate a Mage if he's not careful - and what is a decent fight for a mage can often annihilate a wolf.  It all depends on who is prepared.  Technocracy using silver bullets?  Formori dropping through the roof in droves.  That sort of thing.

It's pretty tough to explain why something that did 10L Agg one round doesn't the next...  

[knave]

And yeah... killing characters is no fun until the players are really really attached.   ::devilangel

[Nullifier]

Generally speaking, prepared Mages are more dangerous and unpredictable than any other group. I once had a mage in one of my games who knew they were going up against a bunch of vampires bottle sunlight using forces and prime. It wouldn't have been so bad, except when he went unconscious with lethal damage, he dropped the 4 remaining bottles, which shattered and released their contents, instantly reducing the whole room full of vampires to ashes, and incidentally blinding the rest of the cabal. This is the reason I prefer to keep Mages in dark as much as possible, and almost always have a few surprises up my sleeve even if they think they know what's coming.

[Bahamut810]

Gotta love that one.

::Me makes a mental note in case he ever gets in a mage/vampire game::

[knave]

This is the reason I prefer to keep Mages in dark as much as possible, and almost always have a few surprises up my sleeve even if they think they know what's coming.

Again it's a tricky balance.  Mages tend to be pretty good at predicting things, and Wolves have spirits that try to keep them up with current events.  The tricky thing is to make the players FEEL like their precog powers are useful and still challenge them.

[SnakeEyes]

One of my mages has the oracular merit. I've given him visions in a previous game, that although completely correct, are so enigmatic that he didn't realise what they meant until the time was almost upon him. I have more lined up that I'm pretty certain will have the same effect.

And as for killing them when they get attached to their characters, I've done that before, but it wasn't my fault!   the mage was an awful shot with a soul sucking sword... and when the target is being held by a fellow player..... ::lookaround

[Obsidian Shade]

Hm, what about a demon/mage game? In one of my last Demon sessions my character found out how useful this damned lores are. Sure, a mage is definitly the mightiest character you can play in the old WoD. But if you are a Vampire you can easily use lots of sleepers to get a mage in major trouble if he must work magic in front of them... A truly dangerouse vampire has no need to get involved in things personally.

[SnakeEyes]

I never thought about that aspect... I've often used a similar tactic with the technocracy and the likes, but not with a vampire... cheers for that idea!

And as for demon/mage, I would certainly consider it, but this time I have 3 of the changing breeds, which are unlikely to accept a demon as part of the group... but mayb, for a short game, I'll try it... (I'll have to nip out and get the book before it disappears from my local bookshop too... that is, unless it already has)

Cheers,
SnakeEyes

[ProfPotts]

My first WoD game at uni' had Werewolf, Vampire, Mummy, & wizard PCs. I say 'wizard', since the guy was created via the rules in the Hunters Hunted book (this was long before Mage came out). It was no problem (& enourmous fun) to run, & all the players involved still get together now & then to play another session or two (no-one wants to call it a day on that particular campaign).

Over the years we've had Wererats, Mages (after the book came out), Technocracy agents, Kinfolk, secret agents, & various other characters pop in & out (usually due to deaths amongst the PCs).

The key, I found, to running a 'cross-over' game is that in the WoD combat isn't really that important - it's the talking & roleplaying that's the important bit. In fact, the deadliest player character ever in the game (as rated on sheer kill-success) was a mortal sniper who worked as a government assassin.

Sure, we've often had PCs scheming against each other, even a few attempts on each others lives - but the setting (modern day) & the general lethality of combat has always helped to keep overt violence to a minimum - it's all about plotting & counter-plotting, information brokering, & the social-scene between the PCs & the various NPCs (who have been of pretty much every variety in the WoD).

I guess we all fell in love with the Storyteller system because it really did (& does) promote role-playing over roll-playing. There's no artificial imbalance towards combat-related abilities as there is in a great majority of well-known RPGs - they're just one of the many available character traits, no more or less important than any other.

The first scenario, IIRC, was a kind of a 'quest' to help a child Salubri find the 'temple of humanity' (yes, I nicked it from that 3x3 Eyes animé) - each of the PCs had different reasons for wanting to tag along, but each also wanted to achieve their own goals more than they wanted to kill the other PCs - & realised that mutual (if not friendly) co-operation was the best way forward. After that first 'quest' the characters just had a tendency to use each other as contacts & the like when situations cropped up in their own lives - hence the group continued - never harmonious, but always managing to end up in the same place at the same time. They also had a tendency to share enemies as well - which is a great way to unify even the most diverse of protagonists.

[SnakeEyes]

The key, I found, to running a 'cross-over' game is that in the WoD combat isn't really that important - it's the talking & roleplaying that's the important bit.

hear hear! I wouldn't usually allow demons or vampires in my games if I already have werecreatures, because of the potential clashes. Of course, if one of my players comes up with a good idea for one, then I might consider it.

I'm still waiting to use orpheus, but no-one seems interested as yet. An old player might be coming back soon, and he has so far tended towards mortal characters (his first was a psychic cia agent, and he rather enjoyed the experience), so I may have yet another different character.

Today though, has been my biggest character creation session, and I'm absolutely knackered. So far, the escaped convict seems a genius invention, even managing to emphasise my planned story completely by accident. The arthurian knight is quite possibly the most powerful character in the game, but the technocratic assassin might have something to say about that. It may be tiring, but when the story gets going, it's gonna be worth it.

I'm now going to bed before I collapse at my desk. (the advantages of having a laptop and wireless network... my bed is right next to me   )
SnakeEyes

[metaphysician]

I'm in a campaign right now where the PCs are:

-A Technocracy NWO field agent. . . in a universe where the Technocracy are unambiguous good guys

-A Humanity 8 True Brujah methuselah, who tries not to get involved in major events ( and fails miserably at it )

-A Brujah gunbunny with something of a death wish, incredible luck, and a willingness to mouth off at *anything*

Btw, all three characters are from entirely different universes ( the two vampires are imports from separate earlier campaigns ).

So far, the Brujah gunbunny had her head cleaned up some by a visit to the Dreamtime, the methuselah has been elected head of the Verbena, and my poor character has been assigned as liason to the other two.  Oh, and we killed Set.

[Chuckg]

To be fair, we merely /found/ Set, which was hardly a chore because this timeline's Set was sleeping in the same place that he'd been napping on the Methuselah's home timeline, so all he had to was remember 'where did our Set arise from in his wrath again?'

The nuclear orbital strike you called in from Technocracy HQ actually did the killing.

Just barely.  

Antedeluvians, *brrrrrrrrrrrrrr*.

[BcAugust]

While you guys are the most varied group I've gmed, I have played in a weirder group.


One dhampir(My character, built basically as a Gangrel, but with some obvious limits)
One Mage
Three Adventure characters(I don't know the exact details, but they were all different types)
A Fae


It was a good group, pity the gm was one of the most horrid I've ever seen.  (Oh, and it was basically a supernatural Buffy-type game, in case you were wondering)

Oh, and in gming, at least you're doing better then my mixed Kui-jin/Kindred/Mummy group.

[Finbar]

Gee, the best I have:

Bastet Kinfolk Sorcerer
Mage
Eastern Fay
Gypsy
Three Vampires
One Garou

And there are three types that can shut a mage/were party down:

Sorcerer (as per Sorcerer Revised; can counterspell mages while limiting where garou can move)
Gypsy (a gypsy with Dance of the Knives 5, Spirit of the Wolf 3, Talith 4, and the Catspaw Tatoo, can have up to 48 attacks/action, as well as access to some serious tracking abilities and weird abilities)
Eastern Fae (more versatile than mages, and almost as much raw power)

If it helps...
FR

[metaphysician]

Gypsy (a gypsy with Dance of the Knives 5, Spirit of the Wolf 3, Talith 4, and the Catspaw Tatoo, can have up to 48 attacks/action, as well as access to some serious tracking abilities and weird abilities)

Eastern Fae (more versatile than mages, and almost as much raw power)

*More* versatile?  How do they manage that?

[Finbar]

Keep in mind three things:

1) These are not the fae as per The Changeling core rules. These are actually different races altogether.

2) There are five elemental paths with a wide variety of effects, as well as a balance path. Each path has a wide variety of things that it can affect, even though the specific effects may be limited (such as diminishing or enlarging something). Given the variety of affected materials (fire, for example, can affect passions, fire, energy sources, etc.), the paths can be as versatile as spheres.

3) Unfortunately, the raw power comes from stringing together a number of limitations, and, even though you can combine different paths, it's possible to counteract one path while adding power to another, and you can't really do things on the fly. For example, you need to tie together the color of your clothes, direction that you're standing in, materials at hand, what materials the subject is standing in, and a dozen other things together...It can get really obnoxious...

FR

[SkyLion]

Which book are these Eastern Fae to be found in?

[Finbar]

It's the Land of Eight Million Dreams (link)...

FR

[SkyLion]

And where might the Gypsy's be found Fin?

[Finbar]

Gypsies : Their own book, of course. A little stereotypical, perhaps, but you could do worse. Some interesting stuff (especially if you're a Ravnos or Silent Strider fan), and definitely if you just want to add something weird to the equation.

If you do get the book, I would really quick figure out how to raise Blood Purity (which acts like Quantum, in that it not only limits what the Gypsy can do (a gypsy is limited to [Blood Purity] paths of [Blood Purity] dots each), but also adds difficulties to social interactions). I would also suggest treating all of the magic paths just taking up one dot of Blood Purity, while allowing them  their own ratings (it'll make sense when you see it).

But that's just me...

FR

[SkyLion]

Danke!

And less than 6 bucks too!!!

[Finbar]

NP!

FR

[SkyLion]

NP!

Nova Points?  No Problem!

[Finbar]

<slap!>

FR