(From Google Image Search: "New World of Darkness")
Today I will be starting a new segment which will involve a new layout and hopefully shed some light onto the many different R.P.G games out there in the modern world.
I'm going to call these segments; for lack of a better descriptor, 'Game Reviews', as they will be an in-depth look at the systems in terms of genre, play style, learning curve, and the technical aspects of the game. (Such as: What type of dice does it use? What's combat like? How is the game played? etc.)
Obviously, I cannot cover EVERYTHING in the books; they can be pretty heady after all, but I'll hopefully give you wonderful folks a chance to get a feel for the games that are available to you and your party and perhaps even help you find the game system that's right for you.
Just as a disclaimer, I do not work for any of the companies I mention,(even though I'd love too) nor do I want to sell you on their products, nor do I own or claim to own any of the rights to these games.(Those belong to the companies in question.) I am merely here trying to get my opinion out there into the wide world of the internet and help people find the joy and wonder in these great games.
Now that the boring legal disclaimer has been covered I can move on to the fun stuff!
Today's game system in question is the "New" World of Darkness (Or "N.W.O.D") by White Wolf Game Studio. The cover of the Core Rule Book is above and is the focus of this weeks blog, but first, I'm going to give you guys a nifty layout I thought up to sum up the Genre, Dice System, Creator, Publishing Date, and Edition.
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Modern / Dice System: D10 / Creator: White Wolf Game Studio / Year Published: 2004 / Edition: 3rd (?)
(Pretty cool huh? No? Alright I'll move on...)
"The world is not what you think."
This excerpt of flavour text on the back of the Core book perfectly describes the setting and feel of the game. The world as we see it in our day to day lives is not all that it appears to be. There are forces (and things) out there that defy and challenge the comfortable, secure, reality of the world around us.
The book proposes a world in which our darkest fears and nightmares are not just imaginary but living, breathing, hauntingly real things. Vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, and other more grisly and nasty denizens of out wildest imaginings are out in the world right now, and they herd, stalk, prey upon, and kill people just like you every day. (Pretty gritty and gothic, right?)
However, that is just the kind of setting the system suggests you use it for.(Since it works really well with the other books in it's 'family') As a whole though, the system allows for games that could be action oriented, drama oriented, or even fantastical. As it happens,one of my favorite things about this system is that any kind of game you'd like to run could potentially be done through the N.W.O.D system because it is just so easy to learn and adapt to, but I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I'll just give you a system breakdown with a few key points about the game.
System Breakdown:
1) Social Based: This is an incredibly social game, which means, the game focuses more on role playing and storytelling, then it does on intense combat. This doesn't mean you can't have a combat heavy N.W.O.D game, nor does it mean there isn't combat in the system, it just leans more heavily on character drama and realism then other games do. So, charging into the jewelery store guns blazing to stop the robbers from stealing or hurting anyone can; and is, be done, but it will likely get someone killed...Most likely your character.
Good role playing and deep characters make this game exciting and fun to be a part of. Even the character creation system is geared to making very realistic and believable characters. Not the combat heavy, magic infused, goblin crushing, kung-fu masters we see traipsing around in some other R.P.G settings. (Although, there are expansions for the game where those kinds of characters do exist...)
2) D10 Done right: One of the many things role players worry about when trying to create, use, or learn a new system is what kind of dice the game uses. Most popular R.P.G's use the D20 system or some variant of it but N.W.O.D uses an incredibly easy and well developed D10 system that new players and old veterans can pick up and play quickly. (Which I actually prefer to most D20 based systems.)
The system structures itself around a very simplistic "dot" based character sheet divided into two "main" sections: Attributes and Skills. Attributes are inherent Physical, Social, and Mental qualities your character has, meanwhile, Skills are more specific fields which your character is proficient in. (Such as Athletics, Drive, Computers etc.)
These two fields are then split up into three categories; Physical, Mental, and Social, and most of the time you will generally combine the relevant Attribute with the Skill in question. (For example: if you wanted to jump over a small fence in game, you would roll your Athletics Skill and your Strength Attribute. Pretty self explanatory right?)
I mentioned that it was a "Dot" based character sheet earlier, this just means that the character sheet calculates how many dice you roll, based on the number of filled in dots on the sheet. (Most of White Wolfs' game systems use D10 dot based character sheets but N.W.O.D is definitely the easiest and simplest of this genre to grasp.)
Players get a certain amount of dots at character creation to distribute between the three categories of both their Skills and Attributes in order to make a character. However, realistic characters must have some weaknesses, (Not everyone can be smart, pretty, and strong) so to reflect this all characters get a very limited number of dots to divide into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Skills/Attributes.
I make it all seem pretty complicated, however in practice it should take you less than 15mins to write up a character once you have the rules down.
If my explanation doesn't help, there is a section at the bottom of the character sheets with a little guide to help in character creation. So, all the math and numbers are already done up for you...Which if you're like me and suck at math, is awesome.
This all combines to make a very smooth going, easy to learn gaming system that isn't very rules heavy, and creates deep, interesting, and believable characters within literally a few minutes so getting right into the thick of a game is easier. (White Wolf gets total kudos for optimizing and smoothing out this system from a Players/G.M's standpoint.)
3) Horror/Drama Storytelling System: Another nifty aspect of this game system is that it uses a Morality system to judge how your Players make choices in certain situations and even details consequences for each action/psychological test. This is done through a "Morality meter" with numbers from one-ten. One being morally devoid sociopathic/psychopathic characters and ten being morally virtuous/zealous characters.
This system makes for excellent role playing opportunities by creating characters who eventually become "tainted" or "scarred" by their experiences and choices in the World of Darkness through accumulated character flaws called Derangement. Long story short, if a character drops in a morality point for any reason whether that be robbing a store, knifing a thug, experiencing the death of a loved one, having problems wrestling with the fact that your characters' sister has become a ravenous werewolf etc., could potentially get a Derangement.
So, using the examples I gave above, I; as the G.M arbitrating which Derangement is appropriate for the crime/situation, might give the robber the Kleptomania, since it was so easy the first time to steal something, or give the person who stabbed the thug Hemophobia, because of all the blood that was split during the fight, or the character who witnessed their wife being shot to death I might give Nightmares, because the effects were so traumatic, or the character trying to cope with a werewolf sister, I might give Anxiety because of the stress and worry that her sister might turn on her at any point. (That would be enough to make me a little nervous...)
To top it all off, the only way to get rid of these types of character flaws is to atone for your actions/ cope with your past via good acts or emotional/psychological growth "in character" and gain back lost Morality, which also makes for awesome role playing experiences. The Kleptomaniac could atone by giving back everything they ever stole, the Hemophobiac could face their fears by donating blood, the character who witnessed their wife get shot could set up arrangements for a lovely funeral or take a vacation, (Perhaps even sleeping pills?) and the Anxious character could try and cure her sisters lycanthropy or maybe even move to a completely new town.
At any rate, you can see how the game caters to the Horror/Drama/Thriller type genre because of its in depth psychological game system...
Game Pro's and Con's:
Pro's:
1) Easy to learn
2) Awesome narrative/story telling heavy game system
3) Very adaptable for different settings
4) Lots of Extra Source Books/Expansions (Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken etc.)
5) Great game for quick one shot ghost stories or lengthy campaigns
Con's:
1) Heavy Mature Topics/Themes (Definitely not a game system for kids or young role-players. 16 up.)
2) No More New Source Books (White Wolf has unfortunately stopped publishing new books in the N.W.O.D line...They have a lot of books out but its still sad that there will be no more new content.)
3) Expansions can be heady or difficult to combine (It is really hard to combine a few of the Expansions into a coherent and interesting plots which is sad because all of it is really cool. For example: Giest: The Sin Eaters and Changeling: The Lost would be very hard to combine together to make a cohesive and interesting game for all the players...I mean it could be done, but it would get very heavy, very quick.
Conclusions:
I love the N.W.O.D system. It has always been a pleasure to run games using it, from simple 'one shot' grab-and-go mystery sessions, to lengthy Vampire: The Requiem campaigns spanning over a three year long period. (Highly recommend that particular "Expansion"book...)
It has been a favorite stand-by game of mine and I am currently running and working on a few games at the moment using this Core system. It's easy to adapt, flexible enough to make your own rules/merits/antagonists to tailor into a game you'd like to run/play in, and it is mature/fun enough to keep a twenty-something year old amused and hooked on role-playing games long after his D&D years.
I hope you folks enjoy this critique and I'll post a few links to White Wolf and their online store for those of you who would like to check this system out.
Thanks again folks and as always,
Keep 'em Rollin',
Leighton
White Wolf Publishing:http://www.white-wolf.com/
Online Store for N.W.O.D Stuff: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=1&src=WWOnlineStore
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