Hard to learn

I have now Storytelled new World of Darkness mortal horror/mystery game for a while, and it is supposed to turn into Werewolf: the Forsaken, as character is assumed to go first change soon in chronicle. But there is a problem.

World of Darkness core rules were easy and fast to read and learn. There was no question or problem on them. Well, basically they are just core-rules and World of Darkness is already familiar to me and I had image of dicepool system from oWoD series so it was simple to learn and ready-to-play in two evenings.

Now I have tried to read Werewolf: the Forsaken so character can go first change when ever it suits the chronicle. But there is a problem for me. I don't know am I stupid nowadays or what is wrong with me. I have read, played and game mastered dozens of systems, but why is this nearly impossible obstacle for me?

Ok, first of all, book is quite heavy. And as I know there is not wasted space for same rules WoD-core introduces, W:tF book is huge! I know White Wolf has this style of writing games full of examples and quite longish explanations on things with tons of fiction. They are nice to read and don't seem as much as an game book. But, simple things are usually explained complicated. You can read several pages of something what could have been told in few sentences more clearly.

For some reason, as I read W:tF it just doesn't make any sense to me. I get so damn frustrated for it. I have no idea why it seems to be so hard to understand. We tried to make character, or actually add Werewolf template to current campaign's character but couldn't do it! Ok, almost everything got filled but there is some unexplained gaps there.

Am I the only one, or am I just so stupid I got hard time learning Werewolf: the Forsaken? What is wrong with me or my learning? Am I too old or have I played too long same games so learning new is a bit troubling for me? Do I need a hint, what game is about so it opens to me and I get full insight of it? *sigh* I _have_ to learn it soon, or our World of Darkness campaing stays in mortal, forever.

Magic item for fantasy settings

Great wizard Munchkin' A'lot presents:

The great magic ring of encumbrance penalty nullifier

It was a time, when wizard did adventure. It was a time long ago, as the wizard nowadays is very old. And wealthy of mass producting his magically crafted ring of The great magic ring of encumbrance nullifier.

HISTORY

See, this now old and ridiculously wealthy wizard used to travel and adventure at his youth. He had this comrade, Borak The Big Barbarian. You quessed right. Borak had his birthname for being a barbarian and a very big barbarian he is.

At the time when wizard and barbarian did travel and adventure (totally irrelevant how did they met and we talk about magic item here) - and so good they were too - they had a problem. You couldn't stay long enough in the dungeons to get maximum efficiency of looting. You had to head back to nearby town (there is always a town nearby a dungeon, or vice versa did you know) for resting and healing their wounds. And after that when they did return the dungeon they had looted before, it was allways re-occupied by same monsters, they had already slain. What a waste of time it was, but good for experience.

Luckily the nearby villages pharmacist, alchemist or wizard had a stock of various potions to sell from a stock what seemed to be unlimited and never ran out of goods. Only thing they needed was gold. And gold they had plenty as even every lesser rat in dungeon did drop a pile of gold after defeated by barbarian mighty +1 great axe for wizard and barbarian to collect them. And even if gold is known to be heavy, they just ignored it's weight and were able to carry thousands and thousands of pieces with them.

With great stacks of potions bought with ever greater stacks of gold they did travel this dungeon deeper and deeper they ever did before. If they got tired, they had a potion. If they got wounded, they had potion. There was no harm potion did not help. And they were delivered in unbreakable vials too.

When they started to find weapons from bigger monsters of almost human form but intelligence only to attack, they also started to find treasures what apparently those monsters did guard. Who knows did they or didn't? Treasures of golden plates and statues made of diamonds and they got now a new problem even potions couldn't solve; how to carry all that shit back to the town for sell?

Depressed and black was wizard's and barbarian's minds when they returned the town. They changed few looted weapons and found treasure for more gold and headed to the tavern. At this point they were already notably wealthy but it wasn't enough. What other meaning of life there is for an adventurer than loot dungeons for more gold? But they were bored to kill those same monsters over and over again.

Barbarian went drinking, wizard went thinking. More drunk barbarian got more gold he spent on barrels of beer and lap dancers to who barbarian gave more money the prettier they looked. And indeed, more barbarian drank more prettier those old hags changed in his drunken view. They were starting to run out of gold.

The wizard started to work his idea to magic and magic to item. He called this experiment "an idea of the magic item" and was pretty pleased with himself for coming up with so good idea for the name of his idea. What a witty name it was. And great idea too.

Several rolls of... moon he worked on it. A ring, what he called it to be. But it was no ordinary ring. It was an idea of the magic item ring. Special ring just for adventurers like he and barbarian were back in those old-school days, how wizard likes to call them.

The idea of the idea of the magic item ring was simple. You put it on your finger and can carry as much loot on yourself as you wish. Now they had potions to endure in dungeon as long as they wanted, and also a magic ring to carry as much of loot as they could find. No more unecessary hopping between the town and the dungeon.

HOW TO GET THAT AWESOME RING THEN?

Now wizard is old and barbarian is old drunk. It doesn't mean they couldn't loot dungeons anymore (thanks to the potion of instant soberness) but they got bored on it and decided to retire as npc's from now on. Still wizard loved gold and wanted a steady flow of income for his old days and barbarians neverending thirst of beer and bad taste of chicks, so he decided to start mass-prod, umm, mass-casting them - for good price ofcourse need I mention that to you? Some just created adventurers have tried to buy the ring right away as they were popped almost like out of nowhere to the town's tavern, but wizard always told them: "rookies, you first need to loot few dungeons, before can buy this" showing his display counter of rings. For fashion aware adventurers they come these days in various colours and shapes too.

Note: Even one groom did once buy that kind of ring for his wedding to be able to carry his newly wed troll-wife over the doorstep.

ITEM INFORMATION

The great magic ring of encumbrance nullifier does what it's name is. Need I say more?

You can find the tavern where wizard and barbarian are as npc's in the town near your local dungeon. If you want that tavern has a name, it has a name what ever the tavern's name in the town is where characters are located . If you still don't know taverns name, you should contact your game's author you are playing, and insist to know the name of that tavern in that town. Prepare for waiting for the answer though.

When male characters are shopping rings upstairs of the tavern where wizard's room is, female characters can earn few extra gold by giving lap dance for the barbarian. Throw 1D20x100 gold for 10 minutes of dancing. Add 10% if topless.

10% change or result 1-2 on D20 that barbarian has passed out. Then female character must buy 2D3 beers to get him awake and then start dancing.

If male character tries to lap dance barbarian, barbarian instant kills character. No dice needed. Period.

If this is article for magic item, why do I continue giving rules for lap dancing drunken barbarian who is ex-adventurer?

Cost of one ring is loot of 1D6 dungeons.

Notes: I was today quite bored in work, so came up with this just to entertain myself. It is joke, if you did not notice it.

Sorry for all typos and bad english.

This also can be found at my blog at http://roolipelit.net/index.php?module=v4bJournal&func=detail&id=326

Playing "Tähti" in msn

I announced some time ago in roolipelit.net to seek game testers for game Tähti, what I am intended to review and got total of four players to sign in. Only two of them actually played today. It was quite good actually that no more players involved as Tähti is game where characters are in focus. It might have been a bit of a mess with more players.

In general, game went quite well. Players got their role of teenage girl pop-stars well and played their character nicely. There is not so much importance in game mastering the game as there is in players making the story.

I have to say, even if Tähti in the first place is not my type of game, I enjoyed that session. It went well, was quite fun and good for one shots. I planned this game to four scenes and thought one scene lasts about an hour, so we could play whole setting in two days. Still, this first scene took about 2 hours in total with talking pre-game. Tomorrow we are going to play again, and try to get those 3 last scenes through.

Playing table top games via msn is great. You can play with new people basically all over the world and with new people. It doesn't differ too much from table top gaming what farp does. Msn based roleplaying is best for oneshots, but also campaings are possible.

Planning to add template to nWoD Mortals

I have Vampire: the Requiem, Werewolf: the Forsaken, Mage: the Awakening and Changeling: the Lost on my bookshelf and was planning to make this mortal character in my new World of Campaign to change in some supernatural being after a while of playing regular mortal horror. I asked my player, what would she like the most his character to become, and she chose W:tF.

Reason for that was we have played lots of vampires in Masquerade setting, so Werewolf would be kind of new experiment and experience for both of us.

There was one question after my players selection of supernatural being her character would become. How do I make her character a werewolf? Character is now 24 years old and usually mortals become werewolves in puberty. I asked that question in roolipelit.net Werewolf: the Forsaken topic (finnish) and got all good and inspiring answers and suggestion, how to do it and am planning to use one of the suggestions made there. I am not going to reveal it here yet, as my player might peek this blog and find the answer, when the exitement of game is ruined.

One problem also was, that I never actually had read Werewolf: the Forsaken, even if I owned it for almost an year this far. I have had some sneak peaks but not actually read it. This had some minor problems, as I didn't know anything about wuffies. Luckily what I have storytelled in game this far, suit for the Werewolf concept more than great. Lucky me, that my imagination went so well with original White Wolf Werewolf fiction.

Now I am storytelling to that first change, and same time reading at haste W:tF rulebook.

nWoD core book is great rule set. Mortals is fun to play. I hope Werewolf: the Forsaken will be atleast good, hopefully great.