[Mutant Future] My player starts to understand how it works now

This post is copy from a reply I wrote in Google Plus conversation so it might be a little silly as a blog post. But the idea is what I want to share here for my readers.

Now I am Game Mastering Mutant Future and my player-girlfriends starts to understand the gist. She can do stuffz and doesn't have to rely on character skills and knowledge (as there is none). Also she starts to be really suspicious about encounters and tries to evade them (got beaten by HD6 Zunicorns pretty bad). At first I think she thought that if I put an encounter on her that's something she is supposed to fight. Now she understands that it doesn't work that way.

Last time we played went like this:
She talked to one person and then saw movement in another direction and decided to turn and check it out.
The person she talked to now behind her back decided to attack her and from the inside one guy heavily armed (melee) ran out and someone climbed upstairs. She attacked  the guy behind her incapacitating him (HP to 0 doesn't mean someone necessarily dies but is out of action in my games). Then she started to fight the armored guy but from the upstairs that third guy started to shoot her with a rifle.

The fight could have been roll d20 to win person attacking me directly then go to roll d20 to kill the next opponent...

Even though her character did very good fighting the armored guy and the guy above didn't hit her with his rifle only after two rounds player decided that it is too risky to fight this way (in MF her 1st level character has 50 HP so it's not as risky compared to D&D and other clones). She didn't check her character sheet what she could try to do with best probability to success (as she usually would do and for inspiration from skill names) but she told that she takes cover behind the incapacitated dude.

That solved the situation. The guy upstairs didn't want to shoot anymore and risk to hit his comrade and the guy with an armor couldn't attack as player's character had an advantage to kill his hostage in addition to the risk hitting his comrade.

This combat wasn't only rolling d20 to see if someone hits nor it was using character sheet's skills and some die check to resolve the problem. Nope. It was player's actions.

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The point is, that in Mutant Future (as an example of OSR game here) there are no skills. There is a suggestion that if Game Master wants a die check for a character activity he can rule player to roll d20 below ability (climb a tree d20 below DEX for example). My player is used to:

• Describe what his character does and then wait if any skill roll is needed
• Check her character sheet for inspiration what skill roll or action she could use, then the above
• Ask Game Master what she could do in he situation and possibly the aboves

So I think this is a great improvement in roleplaying skill here. Naturally she has always known that characters can do anything but thanks to other games there's always been skills involved even though the roll isn't needed (easy enough for character for example). Now she doesn't have that skills list to rely on in Mutant Future, so everything her character does is up to her only.

If she decides to stand still and hit rolling d20's that's ok, but she has found out that is not good option to fight. Even if there are no special combat manouvres or other combat actions to choose from it doesn't mean you cannot do special actions. Actually special actions are encouraged in OSR (as far as I understand it). Especially in games where you roll for HD. 50% change to get hit and 50% change to die from damage, you don't want to roll d20 in turns with GM and just see who wins this gamble.

This is great in OSR games (Mutant Future and LotFP in my experience). When there is a possibility for a combat or other hazardous scene player first starts to think how to outwit or get around it.

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Side note: World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling etc.) are Storytelling games. Yes, the system is called that. But why the fuck in a Storytelling game there are more rules than in d20 retro games? Tell me that!

[forwarded] What are your "must-play" games for designers?

Ryan Macklin http://ryanmacklin.com/2012/09/must-play-games-for-designers/ made a post where he asks what three games in your opinion are the ones game designer should play. Go check out the post in link above for details.

My three games following the rules above would be:

Lamentations Of The Flame Princess
LotFP is two things. D&D 3rd edition made more simple or OD&D made more straightforward to play. But there are more. Rules are simple and extra lite. The take on monsters is different as monsters are not meat sacks you beat but unique and strange entities. There is also great Tutorial and good article type chapters from Raggi. There are also several small rules you could say are house rules or improvements but what make LotFP a little different.
LotFP makes old fresh and totally playable straight out from the box. Great read and improvement to old.

My Life With Master
I haven't read or played many indie games with focused rules for its genre and setting. But MLWM is one with a great impact on me. The rules do focus on few topics but you can still use those for almost everything an adventure and roleplaying involves. And there is end game and ending conditions. And it is a short read.

World Of Darkness
For full benefices one should be familiar with old WoD games. In nWoD rules are improved and every splat book uses the same rules as a base for a game. There are some things I don't like that much but the difference and improvements compared to old splat books with rules what are the same but still different is what makes this an important rules book. But without comparing nWoD core book to oWoD rulebooks it doesn't work right.

nWoD has been intimidating. My solution

New World of Darkness has been intimidating to play because of you need at least two rulesbooks to run it. World of Darkness core rules book and a book what you are running (ie. Vampire: the Requiem or Werewolf: the Forsaken). Even though in old World of Darkness similar set of rules took unnecessary space from each of the books it was handy because you only needed one book for rules. In the other hand another problem was that rules where slightly different from setting to setting so crossplaying was a bit hard.

Anyways... in World of Darkness core rulebook there is lots of fluff and rules hidden in there between walls of text of setting fluff. And White Wolf's style of writing is putting so many extra words everywhere it is hard to quickly find a rule you need.

I have got World of Darkness core rules in PDF when they were shared for free at Drive Thru RPG. I got this idea from James Edward Raggi IV who modified Basic Fantasy in A5 format manually from PDF. So, yesterday I opened my World of Darkness PDF and Open Office. Started to go page by page and copy paste essential rules and sometimes re-write them in shorter form. I also got Fineprint to easily print this hand made World of Darkness rules in a booklet.

Not ready yet, but I will make a booklet where are only the rules in simple way to run World of Darkness. Cover will be World of Darkness rulebook's cover with additional (photoshopped) title: Basic Rules Compedium. Maybe that will make it more simple to run the game. Unfortunately because of legal stuff I cannot share the file, but when I print it I can take few photos to show what I made.

You can get Fineprint for free but in each printed document there will be a banner what tells what program was used to print it. Buy it to get rid of it.

Things I like in pop-culture relating to rpg's

Started my work day and while working I started to think about different things I like in pop-culture what are related into roleplaying games or my roleplaying hobby. Now I am sitting down taking my coffee break and thought: Why only entertain myself, why don't blog about it. So, here are things I like in popular culture what are related into roleplaying games or my roleplaying hobby.

Vampires


Yeah, I had to take this one first, because Vampire: the Masquerade is my favourite and most played roleplaying game ever. Vampires in it can be almost anything: monstrous, animalistic, sophisticated, artistic, warriors, gang members, business men, devil worshippers, traveling gypsies, arrogant, repulsive, repenting, embracing the darkness...
If you are new to Vampire you can easily pick up a clan with its stereotype to determine your character (businessman Ventrue, biker Brujah, artist Toreador) and if more experienced can do characters thinking out of the box with unlimited possibilities. You can play political game or territorial war game. That makes both Vampire game and Vampire characters awesome.

I also like monstrous vampires (30 Days of Night, Against the Dark). They can also be easily used in Vampire games but also make good villains in other games. I do also like Count Dracula styled vampires.

But I don't like all these now so popular vampires. Good example is Twilight. Hate them. I also don't think all those gothic vampire pictures what I found really lame. You know, every Youtube Evanescence fan video has those gothic vampire chick pictures.

Giant Robots


Every boy loves giant robots what fight. I had Battletech strategy board game and liked it. I am not sure did me and my friends ever understood the rules as they were a bit complicated, but it was fun. Also Mechwarrior PC games are cool with those big destroying war machines.

Japanese robots are also cool. They are usually more sophisticated and fast than their American warmachine brothers. For example old PS2 game Zone of the Enders is really cool. You fly and duel in the air in fast based combats.

Also Transformers are cool. I did have those cool toys and comics. Also at least first of the new movies is really great. Others are cool but not that good.

I like heavy and clumsy machines of destruction, sophisticated and fast mechas and robots changing from vehicles to battling bots.

I don't remember playing any roleplaying game with giant robots nor owning one. I have to correct that. Heavy Gear is really interesting one.

Solo Tough Guys


Guys who do all neat stuff basically solo are awesome. Steven Seagal movies are awesome and I own bunch of them. Basically Steven plays same character with minor changes all over again but that makes his movies safe. You know what to expect and you get it. Also for example Machete is awesome. I remember having both Grindhouse movies (Death Proof and Planet Terror) and in one of them was this Machete trailer. I didn't expect to actually see Machete the Movie in real but I thought the "fake" trailer was really neat. When I found out that there actually will be Machete movie I was thrilled. Well, the movie could have been a bit better, but it is Machete!

That kind of things I do like and also use in roleplaying games.

Zombies


Zombies are probably the best monsters ever. They are really versatile and can be used in every possible setting and campaign. Post-apocalypse, Caribean seas, space, fantasy dungeons, your backyard. Also because there are different kinds of zombies from slow idling corpses (original Resident Evil video game zombies) to fast running zombies (newer zombie movies). You cannot forget also different zombies with special qualities to huge monstrous size (Left 4 Dead video game).

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the roleplaying game you have to mention when you talk about zombies and roleplaying games. Infinite Deadworlds and several possibilities to custom make zombies from cows to nearly intelligent hunters.

Even though mutants are different from zombies I find some similarities with the most advanced zombies. For example Hills Have Eyes clan could be easily done with AFMBE to give a different approach to a similar game campaign.

Cars


I love cars. From powerful muscle cars to exotic tuning cars. My enthusiasm to cars started with Need For Speed Underground and continued to a point where I started to build my own car. I had to buy second car so I could build the first one. I also have used tuning cars and culture as one of the main themes in Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle.

Movies here would be for example Fast and the Furious series. Also tuning culture with street cars from garages, shows and magazines are to be checked out.

Unique Monsters


Monsters just being statistics you can beat to gain experience (looking at you D&D) is nothing wrong. It's one genre. But I am more fascinated in unique monsters what are truly monsters because you cannot find them around every corner. That makes them more terrifying because after you killed it and learned it's weakness you cannot use same tactics again because every monster you encounter is different one.

Even though in Call of Cthulhu there are several monsters what are not unique (deep ones and Mi-Go for example) they have a certain feel, as you don't just run through every campaign killing same monsters all over again. Of course the fact characters are near helpless against them makes a big difference. And there are many "monster of the campaign" entities you can build your whole campaign around.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess also is great example here. I have read the free version and like everyone knows there are no monsters listed as every monster player characters encounter should be an individual. That's cool. Similar thing is with Praedor. There are basic stats for different sizes of monsters but every single one of them are individuals.

I love monsters in movies also. In horror movie if there is a monster, it's way cooler than the guy from school who stabs others. World of Darkness sourcebook Slayers should be mentioned here.

[C:tL] This is how changelings are explained in media

You are kidnapped to be a servant for fae. But there is something put as a replacement of you, who continues your life as you serve as a slave...

But there must be some accounts of people missing? Take a look at this news article for an example:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/30/nation/7330365&sec=nation

Siti was captured after several failures, where she was found in strange places. When she was actually captured, her replacement was found 600 km away from his home.

In the world of darkness, there is always something behind the mysteries. Strange incidents can be explained if you know more. And in this case, if you know more, you know what really, really, happened.

M-m-m-monsters!

I accidentally A-Z challenge twice, is it bad? So this is individual post :D

Monsters in fantasy games are every day encounters what trouble villages, block dungeon paths and give challenge and experience points for players. In my opinion monsters are a bit too common in fantasy games to be really terrifying anymore. Usually monster becomes terrifying in fantasy games if:

- It's really huge, final boss type.
- It's something player's haven't met before and in meta-game players don't know how much damage it does, how hard it is to hit, or what abilities it has.

Other monsters are just there to kill. One eyed octopus with visible brain? Kill it. Orc raiders with human skulls hanging on their armor decoration? Kill them. Woman with snake lower body? Kill it.

But how monsters could be more horrible?

Low Fantasy Setting


Fantasy games, what are more fantasy medieval and human are the main race, monsters could be more terrifying. If in game characters don't posses all these special abilities, but are more "normal" but more skilled people who encounter mostly "normal" challenges and antagonists, monsters might be more terrifying. If seven game sessions have been fighting against hungry wolf pack at wilderness, defending against raiding tribesmen, hunting down rogues down the city streets... a strange mutant in cave could be more terrifying. If game master is not shuffling his monster manual every few minutes during the campaign, but once reaches on it, it could mean some serious business.
Other method is, don't shuffle your monster book at all. Just describe something horrible. Players don't know if it is something you already have prepared for in advance taking from monster book, or is it something unique you have created for this encounter. Monsters you create are more terrifying than monsters you can find from some book.

One example is Praedor. Praedor is low-magic fantasy setting, where every single monster is unique. Every monster player characters encounter are created individually. Even smaller ones can be dangerous, but if you meet a pack of human sized monsters what are intelligent enough to use weapons, or meet a monster size of house... it is scary. Also, monsters don't roam the countryside. They live behind the borders of known world in the infinite corrupted labyrinth of ancient now forgotten city where wild and strange phenomenoms of wild magic, ancient temples with residential demons and corrupted and twisted monsters live. Sometimes one or two of these could wander by accident to known world...

Another good example of terrifying monsters could be LotFP. As far as I know, there is no monster list but Raggi encourages game masters to create their own monsters. Cannot tell you more about LotFP, because haven't read it but it sounds really good OSR game.

Mythos Monsters


What is great about Call of Cthulhu is that there are monsters. Smaller ones you might fight against, and huge enough to make you almost instantly insane. You might pack yourself with shotguns and dynamites, but they are no help if you fall into madness before you have your own turn. Most of the bigger Cthulhu monsters are the ones you cannot defeat at all. They are ancient, immortal, but still they might be the plot of the game.

Monsters Of World Of Darkness

In several WoD game lines you actually play a monster yourself. Werewolf or vampire for example. But still, even though humanity considers you a monster, you have your own monsters. Vampires are vulnerable to werewolven, werewolven fight against corruption of spirit world. Even your own kind can be monster for you.
Also, if you play mortal in WoD, you might find out that world and reality are not what you are used to. Humans are not top of the food chain. There are more powerful beings, what can be evil in you view. If you play a mortal, you don't care what clan or bloodline this one vampire antagonist is. It's a freaking vampire!
Also for human monsters (or what human is left in them) I suggest you to look at Hunter: the Vigil sourcebook Slasher. These are the monster serial killers you see in the movies from Jason, Freddy, Norman and Hannibal. And as WoD games are personal horrors, what if you are the monster yourself for yourself (V:tM humanity).

Reality Is A Lie


What if this world was just an illusion and behind the curtains of what we see is the real world? Ruins of times of gods and angels what is now corrupted and really messed up. What if the curtain of reality rips off and you get to see the real truth? Kult has one of the best settings ever. The reality behind this illusion is truly horrible where you might get lost. And Kult monster gallery? It is twisted and horrifying.

Zombies, All Time Favourite


Who doesn't like zombies? Lots of people must like, as zombies are present in various games. Fantasy games have zombies, horror games have zombies, even science fiction game Fading Suns has its version of zombies. And there's a game about zombie scenarios (All Flesh Must Be Eaten). Zombies are one of basic monsters. They are dead people who walk again with their rotten corpses wanting for flesh. They might be cursed, magically raised, toxic catastrophe aftermath, anything. But are zombies terrifying? It depends. If zombies are just another monster gets on the way of dungeon crawling group, they might not be that scary. But read CoC example play with a zombie, make whole city full of zombies in AFMBE, put zombies where they don't setting wise belong. Make them tough and hard to kill. Describe them how they sniff the air when player characters are hiding. Make them block important route with a mass of rotting flesh. Make huge horrific mutant zombies size of a building constructed from several dead bodies. Make them faster than running men.

Modern fantasy feat. Harry Potter and WoD (A-Z part "M")

I watched all the Harry Potter's in order I had access to. From first to sixth. And I have to say, I enjoyed them! Even though the first is old, and Harry Potter is young and the whole movie is like overly long introduction to the series I liked it a lot.

When I first time saw the movies, I didn't find them that fascinating or interesting. I started to watch them the second time, because I enjoy boring movies in the night. Helps me to fall asleep. Still, even though I thought that Harry Potter's would be perfect sleeping remedy, I was wrong!

Why Do I Like Harry Potter Movies?

They are magical. There's magic everywhere, and I like the real world in it. It's normal, like ours, but slightly different. And behind the curtains of this normal world is this fantasy world with wizards, strange plants, mythological beasts etc.

Harry Potter, when in summer break, comes to our normal world and basically tries to live like any normal kid. But when his semester starts, he enters this world of magic and wonders.

I like the special effects. They are good enough. And there's some magical stuff happening all the time, even though it is not relative for the plot of the movie. I thought, if I watched the movie and pushed "pause" button and wrote down every time some strange or magical was on the screen with all the six movies I have seen, I'd write a pretty decant sourcebook of magical items, creatures and spells. Seriously, I have thought about that!

Secondly, I think that the main characters are quite neutral. Even though Harry Potter is the chosen one and everyone is like "OMG POTTER", he's quite modest guy. He doesn't brag, and earlier in the series he is not the best wizard in main characters (Hermione Granger is). Hermione was first pretty annoying know-it-all, but well, she's a girl who knows-it-all thanks to reading a lot. Still, she is good friend with Harry and Ron and doesn't try to show off with her knowledge mere than help. Ron... his sympathic. Not annoying at all.

Dumbledore is boring, otherwise other characters work well.

Huh, Harry Potter movies are something that I shouldn't like at all, so I have no idea why I find them so fascinating. Haven't read the books, and I think I never will. Movies are enough...

But, how does this relate to roleplaying games?

Mage: the Ascension

Mage, after watching Harry Potters and heard good about Mage and that I knew how versatile the spell system is, I though that it could be cool to run World of Darkness version of Harry Potter universe. I don't know if I ever will, but it would be cool. Harry Potter could be easily turned into World of Darkness setting, just add a bit more dark, and that's it. Also the school of magic could be in remote location, or somewhere at Umbra. That's how they access the school like in Harry Potter walk through a pilar at train station to get to the "other" station platform.

Could it work, Mage: the Potter? I don't know. I started reading Mage: the Ascension 2nd edition and I have to admit, that the beginning of the book bores me to death. I am not interested in Umbra and all the planes. That's why Werewolf (both Apocalypse and Forsaken) are a bit turn off in that aspect. I do like werewolves, but all the spirit worlds and that? Noooope. Well, maybe for certain tribes etc. but not in general.

So, when Mages share these extra universes, and almost all the pages I have read this far are about it, I am not that pleased.

But I think, when you master the idea of Mage or Werewolf, it's easier to approach the other. This far I have been mainly playing Vampire: the Masquerade, and they don't have to worry about that shit.

Bubba Ho-Tep, senior citizens versus ancient evil

About the movie itself and how to make roleplaying scenario out of it.

Retirement Home And The Mummy

This section might include minor spoilers!

Bruce Campbell is Elvis Presley, or so he claims. He lives in retirement house not in that good shape anymore. One of his fellow residents who claims to be JFK in black body thanks to goverment's plan, claims, that there is a great evil sucking old peoples souls to feed itself. An ancient Mummy!

So Elvis Presley and black JFK decide to fight this ancient evil.

Sounds weird, doesn't it? Yes it does. The movie was not that rediculous as it sounds, and definately in my opinion was not best Bruce Campbell movie out there, but it was rather entertaining otherwise. Best part in the movie is that you can actually make it a roleplaying game scenario for one or few sessions.

For the movie itself, I'd give 3 out of 5 stars. Entertaining yes, but nothing spectacular for viewing it again.

What Game To Use?

In this case I think it's mostly gamemaster's own opinion what rules he wants to use. But I have few suggestions based on my own collection I could use. I think, that more rules light game is better suitable than crunchy one.

World of Darkness Core: Storytelling rules are simple and quite versatile and they cover supernatural aspect pretty well.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Also pretty light rules to use, versatile character creation and you can quite easily create your Mummy horror with zombie creation rules.

Call of Cthulhu: Again, really simple and fast rules including insanity rules. You might want to ignore those though, as elder main characters might be senile and a bit crazy. And what fun is it to fight against evil Mummy if you go catatonic right after seeing it? CoC also is focused more on investigation than gunslinging what is a merit.

Those are only three first games came up on my mind out of my own games shelf, but basically you can use what ever rules you feel most suitable for the idea.

Character Creation

Characters are old and a bit crazy. You might want to reduce physical attributes to make characters have to rely more on mental problem resolution than just physical. Destroying Mummy should be more a puzzle than muscle.
Making characters individual and more outstanding from the crowd, feel free to allow players make their background as weird as possible! Elvis Presley who got tired of fame and replaced himself with Elvis impersonator for early retire. When this impersonator died, "Elvis" was dead. But real Elvis is still alive. JFK was not murdered, but his skin color was changed.

Use your imagination. I suggest that players choose some character from near history (around 60's to 70's) who might be dead, but for some reason is not really died as he's now in retirement home and concired as just a silly old fool.

Is character really Elvis, JFK or John Lennon or is he just crazy old fool? Does it matter? No.

Mummy

You can use movie's plot about the mummy. Museum artifact what was dropped into a river during transportation incident and ancient seal broke open and let mummy free. Mummy needs souls to feed and chose old people. As soul sucking does kill the victim, old people are good victims as they are close to the age of dying more or less naturally. Oh, and mummy sucks souls out of butt. Don't ask.

Mummy should be powerful and not to be killed with straightforward power but some other trick. In the movie, the trick was fire. You might use it but if it does sound a bit too easy, make some other way to destroy it. But remember, in old a bit crazy people's retirement house obtaining source for big fire can be hard.

Obstacles of Old Mummy-Slayers

One problem is mobility. Character's aren't in the shape they were as young. They get exhausted, might have problems with mobility (stiff back, bad hip, weak legs, wheelchair), problems with health (heart problems, need for oxygen tank, second precis medication) and of course staff what won't necessarily like that old people wander outside or steal mummy-destroying items in night.

Another problem is that they are on their own. If they told to the staff that there's an evil mummy in lake what sucks old people's sould from their butt no one would believe them.

Character Death, I don't Think So

In my opinion this is just one-shot campaign (well, it might last few sessions but there is not necessarily any further continueity) so I advice GM to keep characters alive. It's not fun to die during small adventure with clear focus, is it? So, keep character's alive but don't tell it to players. If players know that they won't die, it is not as exciting to play. You might give some "Hero Points" what can keep them out of really dangerous situations.

Before nWoD I made houserules almost nWoD

Before you could find nWoD in stores, I did a rules hack to old World of Darkness. So basically before new World of Darkness rules were available, I did a rules hack/house rule similar to it.

Basically I thought, that for storytelling game fighting should be a bit faster. I mean, there are almost always three dicepool rolls involved:

1. Roll attribute + skill dicepool to determine did you hit or miss
2. Roll damage, what is weapon damage + successes from previous roll after first
3. Opponent rolls stamina as soak
4. Decrease successes of stamina roll to determine damage dealt

There are three rolls to determine did attack inflict wounds. I thought, it might be done easier.

First I thought, what if you decrease opponents stamina from your attack dice pool and the successes are damage. I found out when testing this, that damage was dealt more than previously. Problem was a target number of 6. So I tested with higher target numbers 7, 8 and 9 and found that with target number of 8 you got similar results as several rolls.

So, now I had one roll to determine did character hit, and how much damage was dealt.

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I also like exploding dice (get highest number from a die, roll again) but was not satisfied on how it was dealt in oWoD. If you had specialization in skill, you could roll 10's again when tried a task with that specialization.
So I modded it this way:
Everytime you score a 10, roll again for possible bonus successes.
Specialization in skill means that you get +1 to dice pool if you try a task involving that specialization.

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Those rules I houseruled waaaay before year 2004. But actually I never used first simplier combat rules because I felt that it was too much hack for the rules. Now was thinking, that maybe I should after all.

New World of Darkness is not for me...

I cannot help it. I have tried. I have really tried to read a nWoD book and plan to run a game, but no. It is not interesting.

I tried to run W:tF and it was fun storytelling, but when game changed to technical where you actually needed Forsaken setting the campaign died. I had no interest to read the fluff. I could do Werewolf character, and that's it.
Now I have tried to read Vampire: the Requiem and got to page 20 or so when I started to read Clanbook Nosferatu for V:tM and A World of Darkness sourcebook and totally forgot whole Requiem. I have already read both AWoD and C:N, but I found that I'd rather start to read them all over again than read Requiem the first time.

I cannot say if nWoD is good or bad. It is just not interesting enough for me to study. But old World of Darkness. Wow, that really turns me on.

So I made a hard decision. I like to collect rpg's and I appreciate my nWoD collection. As a decoration. But they are useless for me and I hope there is someone who will appreciate them and use them. They are not for me and as pretty (and filling) as they are in my shelf I am selling or exchanging them away.

I want money for them, or I'd be glad to swap them to oWoD core books I don't already own or V:tM sourcebooks. I also concider some other core books from different game lines.

Unfortunately this advertisement is in finnish, but if you are finnish and interested in nWoD stuff (+ Werewolf: the Apocalypse 2nd edition) check out this: http://roolipelit.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2173&highlight=

What game next?

In previous post I told that current Fading Suns campaign is nearing it's end, and now I have to start to think what will be the next game to play to do some preparations. Preparations would include making character with player, learning or re-reading rules, getting idea of campaigns concept.

There are some options I have been thinking to run next.

My Life With Master is really interesting game. Rules are light enough, you can "win" the game without deciding the conditions for ending the campaign, and you got concept what you will gamemaster. Game is also ment to be quite short, so it would be nice to play in between of next longer campaign. My player isn't actually very interested in MLWM, but I could try to get her into it. Anyways, it would be short so she could give it a shot. I have also an idea for setting. Master will be a vampire in his castle near the village and player character would be his ghoul. My idea is quite World of Darness-ish, but it could work for WoD and Vampire fan player of mine.

Another game I would love to run is All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I started BBQ from Hell campaign I planned, but player didn't like it. Not sure didn't she like All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the campaign or wasn't the time just right. If BBQ from Hell isn't working for my player, I could run another AFMBE scenario for her. She is not as big of a zombie lover as I am.

World of Darkness is my favourite setting (particulary old WoD) and I think I never get bored of it. Vampire: the Masquerade is a game we will play again. We planned that we start new V:tM campaign when the fall comes, it's dark, cold, rainy and angsty. But for now we delay our favourite game. We did try to start a campaign of Werewolf: the Forsaken, but it died because I actually never ended reading the book. So I didn't have enough background information about the setting to make it interesting. And atleast I can say I have played it. Werewolves are quite interesting, so I decided to buy Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Maybe we never got into W:tF because there is something in nWoD that doesn't work for me. So, maybe Werewolf: the Apocalypse could be great game to start new campaign with?
Other games from nWoD what are interesting are Changeling and Hunter. Haven't read either of them though, but I've heard only good about Changeling: the Lost. Could be really interesting and magical yet grim campaign. Something like Tim Burton would do. I am not that interested in Hunter: the Vigil, but Slayer seems to be really cool.

We had one shorter campaign of Call of Cthulhu and it was quite enjoyable. It was long hard road to get my player into gaming it, and I gave him not that horrific mind shattering tentacle monsters from another dimension campaign, but more horror/mystery style. She did like the campaign, and asked if we could play CoC again some day. So, Call of Cthulhu it will be in the future.

Kult is a game where is setting I love. It is terrifying. Rules I don't like that much though. I have imagined grabbing Kult again, enjoying to read it, and enjoying to scare hell out of my player. Not sure is it going to happen ever though.

One game I would like to give a try, also one game system I don't like, and genre what is not for me... yes. Dungeons & Dragons. I have read 3rd edition once so I got basic mechanics somehow in hand. Some basic fantasy adventure could be quite fun. I have to give this a try some day. I also got AD&D 2nd ed. but that is just not for my taste.

So, here's the list for potential competitors for my next campaign:

1. My Life With Master
2. All Flesh Must Be Eaten
3. Werewolf: the Apocalypse
4. Changeling: the Lost
5. Hunter: the Vigil/Slasher
6. Call of Cthulhu
7. Kult
8. Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Give your vote, what I could play next!

[Rules] Fading Suns and Storytelling similarities

First, I have to mention that designers of Fading Suns Bill Bridges and Andrew Greenberg have been involved in World of Darkness (hit me if I am wrong, but Mage: the Ascension and Werewolf: the Apocalypse) and I can see that in Fading Suns.
Long before I knew this background of those developers, I had always that picture, that somehow Fading Suns was similar to WoD. Well, now it is explained to me and is quite clear why so.

Fading Suns and old World of Darkness are different game system, and ofcourse different, but there is some similarities I point out now.

Attribute + Skill

Basic mechnics to resolve what characters ability to success is quite the same. In both games you add your attribute rating to your skill rating. So, if you shoot, in Vampire: the Masquerade you add your Dexterity to your Firarms. In Fading Suns you add Dexterity to your Shoot.
Difference is, that in Vampire (oWoD) usually Attributes and skills range from 1 to 5, when in Fading Suns range is 1 - 10. So, in Vampire Skill + Attribute varies from two to ten, when in Fading suns it varies from two to twenty.
But still, (usually) both work with Attribute + Skill.

Dice

In World of Darkness you use D10, but in Fading Suns you use D20. But if you think about it, it makes perfect sense and the basics is still very close. As in WoD Skill + Attribute range from 1 - 10 and in Fading suns from 2 - 20, it is not hard to see the dice. WoD highest score is 10 so the used die is D10. In Fading Suns highest score is 20 so you use D20. Makes perfect logic this far, doesn't it?

Dice pool versus Victory chart
Here comes the tricky part, but you can see, it is basically the same whether you throw bunch of dice or just one die. See, in WoD amount of dice you roll is equal to your Skill + Attribute. And (usually in normal tasks) every D10 result over 6 is one success. So, if you're Dexterity + Shoot is 7, you roll total of 7 D10's and every D10 what results 6+ is a success. So, you roll for example:
3, 6, 7, 3, 2, 9 what equals to 3 successes. Not bad!
In Fading Suns, you roll only one D20. But, you have a Victory Chart to refer. You try to get below your Attribute + Skill score to success. The nearer you get to your Att + Skl the more you gain Victory points equals successes. So, with one die roll referring to Victory Chart, you can see how many successes your character got.

Basically those are similar, even if die is different and other uses chart to reference successes and other dices.

Multiple Successes
In Dicepool system you easily see how many successes you got. Some of dice you threw are successes, some of them aren't. In Fading Suns you first check did you success (score below than your Attribute + Skill) and then refer to Victory chart with the score you got. You see how many successes your character got.

In both game number of successes tells you how well your character did. Only one success means you made it just and just, but 5 successes tells you did a great job.

Autofail and Botch
When you just don't fail, but really screw things up it's different in both games. In oWoD system if you score 1's more than you success, you fail no matter what. But if you get even one 1 but no successess at all, you botch. Something terrible happens when you fail.
In Fading Suns when you score 20 with a die, you botch. It has nothing to do with character's abilities. So, it doesn't matter are you a peasant with little battle training or lord of the lazer swords, you fail every 20th time. And in Fading Suns result 19 is always autofail.

That is the biggest difference between World of Darkness' Storytelling rules and Fading Suns 1th edition. But I think you all can see the similarities in both. Even if one uses tons of dice for a resolution and other uses one die and a chart, I think their function is basically the same.

And did I tell you how you throw damage on both of the games? Well, here is similarities more than before:

Damage
In Storytelling system you throw D10 equal to your damage rating (successes + weapons damage). Every die result over 6 is one point of damage. In Fading suns you throw D20 equal to your damage rating (victory successes + weapons damage). Every die result over 13 is one point of damage.

See, that's like 1-on-1.

Ninjas, vampires, vampire ninjas... failure

At some point I was thinking after sawing the movie Chanbara Beauty, that I would mix assamites, katanas and ninja-action together. But quess what, not everything is ment to be mixed with Vampire: the Masquerade. At first the idea sounded fun, but when playing it few times I suddenly realized that even if katana is cool, ninja is cool and vampire is cool, together they are ridiculous.

I don't say, that ninja katana game wouldn't be fun, but there is some limits for it. There is lots of games and systems you can play that type of action packed slicing and sneaking, but I think Vampire is for different kind of gaming after all.

Looking at my game shelf and thinking what games would have been better for that kind of action than choosing V:tM.

For Chanbara Beauty like zombie katana action, All Flesh Must Be Eaten would have done it well, I suppose. I only have read the Introductory pack but the rules are quite lite what means quick play. I am not sure what kind of martial arts or hand-to-hand manouvers basic rules have to offer.

Code/X could work, it is also simple system, but it is more like military operations spec ops game than ninja-action.

Cyberpunk v.3 not sure at all, it is too intimidating and damn ugly to even open anymore. I tried to read it but couldn't. Though if I had CP2020 I would check it out if it could handle the ninja stuff.

Kult has martial arts skills and manouvers, but for me the system is a bit too clumsy. Great setting, but rules could be better. And for that ninja stuff all supernatural and occult stuff presented in book are not necessary at all. So only rules would be used, and that would be failure for me.

New World of Darkness core rules. They are simple and easy to apply, but somehow too simple for me. Or I don't just get them right. There is Armory Reloaded what introduces more combat rules, but I don't own it. As how nWoD rules are presented in core book, they are easy and fast, but a bit too simple for my purpose.

Old World of Darkness/Vampire: the Masquerade rules are great, and work in the purpose, but as I said in the beginning, mixing vampires into ninjas and katanas is a bit too much for me.

Unknown Armies could work, what I have read it I like the rules. They are also quite simple. Not sure though, how does it handle the martial arts and melee fighting and acrobatics and other special and neat manouvers. And there is also that supernatural background what would not be useful in my action game.

Problem is, there is some setting I own could handle the ninja-stuff, but any of them doesn't sound cool or useful, let's say "agile" enough to handle it properly. And many of those games are horror, what is not needed for that scene. I am not sure what game would do it for me, maybe Feng Shui? Haven't actually played nor read it ever, but it might be that hong kong action game what could handle it well what I tried and failed with V:tM.

If I find a cheap copy of Feng Shui somewhere, I might try it out.

Oh, and I have downloaded pdf of Violence roleplaying game. Not sure though, is it for more brutal action. Like not sneaking behind your enemy and slitting his throat open, but hitting your opponent with a log and spitting on him. Could check that out soon enough though.

World of Darkness with miniatures and battlemap?

This is a thing I have thought sometimes, does any WoD/Storytelling player use miniatures or battle maps. I came to a conclusion, that no. Surely in some action based scenes and fights people certainly use some kind of game marks and maps to point positions, but playing it like miniature strategy, no.

Then I started to read Werewolf: the Apocalypse and found, that there is in rules actually lite rules for miniature fights with World of Darkness rules. They are basically the same you use with regular play, only with addition for grids, facing, movement etc. rules specifically used in miniatures.

I thought it a bit and was "yeah, why not". Actually, rules did not differ from regular Storytelling rules, there was just addition to move those little guys on grid, but I thought, as I love Storytelling rules in general above all, why wouldn't it be good for miniatures also?

They are enough simple so action will be fast. Also only imagination is a limit what characters can do thanks to that simple system. Also all manouvers used in minis are used, like aiming, hand-to-hand etc.

I started to think about it and realized, as I like WoD and have played miniature games in the past (mostly Necromunda) and enjoyed them back then, why cannot mix game I like the most with miniature battles.

To think about it, two teams, Vampires versus Werewolf for example. And werewolf characters in wolf or near-wolf form could be used from several fantasy miniatures, for human-form-werewolven and vampires you can use many modern or near future characters. There is lots of ready obstacles, but they are also quite easy to make yourself from household items and used packages.

Would be pretty cool, to have some fight with miniatures based on city or chronicle what you have been roleplayed in. Vampires vs. Werewolves, Sabbat vs. Camarilla.

Could be fun!

Advantages and disadvantages of nWoD

There has been lots of discussion over the internet about one major advantage in nWoD. When you buy World of Darkness core rule book, you basically buy rules set only once. After it you decide by buying the supplement you want to run or play. You don't have to buy basic rules over and over again with every new book. Also, the rules are the same for every "race" was it Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Changelings, Hunters etc. In those supplement books come ofcourse additional rules for those "races" but core books are always the same. Always the one you originally bought in that one - World of Darkness - book.

But, even if that explained upper is a great advantage, there is also a minor disadvantage. You always have to have (atleast) two books in hand. For example, if running Werewolf: the Forsaken book you need to have World of Darkness book for general game rules and also W:tF book for Werewolf special rules (and setting).

As played today Werewolf: the Forsaken, I noticed that I have to check two separate books to figure out how things work. That was kind of a annoyance. It reminds me a bit of Dungeons & Dragons where you got own book for GM, other for players, third for monsters and possibly fourth for setting. And few extra books for advanced rules and other supplements.

Before, when I played Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Dark Ages it was quite simple. I basically just needed one book to run the game. Still, even if I had to buy rules several times with every new book, all I needed was within one cover.

Conclusion for nWoD is not absolute. It is good thing that you only buy one time the rules and the space used in next books is not repeated over and over again, but yet you need several books in hand to run the game.

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.

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.

First steps with new World of Darkness

I have been quite skeptic towards new World of Darkness games line. What I have read in internet some people adore nWoD over old one, some people despise it. I have to admit, that I had some serious prejudice for it.

Book itself is quite dull. Nothing spectacular for the book what started new World of Darkness line. Artwork is ok at it's best, and quite awful at it's worst. Most of the pictures are quite mediocre. Also there is quite much different shortstories what makes book also thicker, but also gives a bit of insight of the game. How it is intended to play. Most of the stories are ok even if none of them is a masterpiece. In whole book only one story I couldn't read through. It was just too boring for me.

Rules are quite simple. They have the same feeling as oWoD, but still they are different. For some reason I get the expression of a bit more gamistic, D&D like rules set what is strange, as basically rules are a bit easier for example reduced amount of dicepools needed. This feels more like a game. It might be that new WoD is desidned again, and flaws of previous versions have tried to crop out. As oWoD was Storytelling mostly, the new one has had attention more on rules also. I like the concept of the rules. Easy to learn, easy to use. Quite same as old but still brand new.

I started to Storytell World of Darkness Mortals game, with ordinary player character who witnesses supernatural events. It is quite fun, as for ordinary human this personal horror is more easy to provide than horror himself, ie. vampire character. There is something vulnerable in humans (duh) what makes game more mystery- and horror like. Also I can freely use as much stereotypes about supernatural beings in WoD fiction. I can forget all sects, clans, tribes, undead social districts et cetera because they aren't relevant for people. Humans only see the fanged monster lurking in the shadows, they don't see if he is council of city or something else. I like this. And it is so easy to make story go. For vampires (what I had Storytelled past 7 years) it started to get dull. Ok, you are vampire, today what magnificent things you will witness than human, who sees strange patterns in milk when pouring it to glass. Also, if human sees two red eyes in forest, he is terrified for the unknown as vampire would go "Fuck! Werewolf! Let the prince know!" If you get my point.

My style of gaming doesn't inolve that much dice rolling (what I'd like to have more, but the story takes all the attention). There has been few skill checks this far, and for my experience, nWoD runs quite smooth. It has that old WoD feeling, yet it seems to be new. Earlier in this post I Pointed out how for some reason nWoD feels a bit more like "game" as D&D but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

My experience this far of new World of Darkness basic rule set is awe. It is cool, seems fresh (some time last time I took a totally new game for me and ran it), works fine. For horror/supernatural game with humans I like this. If I compare nWoD to other horror games with humans, I think this is most earthly to come by. Characters aren't intelligent investigators searching for ancient mysteries and stumbling on huge monster with tentacles stuck on jaw, they don't have magical powers to be avatars, they don't see through illusion what monsters lurk behind the lie we call reality... In WoD mortals are postmen, worn out cops, office clergs - and in my game - girl working in horse ranch.

Horror in Vampire

I have always thought Vampire: the Masquerade as a horror game, but obviously the horror is different than in Mythos as actually players are "the" horrors themselves.

What is this "horror" then. Well, game states it as a roleplaying game of personal horror, what means, that as players themselves are vampires, they aren't supposed to be fighting great 'ol ones or such matters. They are monsters themselves.

There comes the twist of personal horror. As you are vampire, you are doomed. You cannot see or enjoy daylight anymore. Day by day, decade by decade your life around you withers and crumbles until it dies away in history. There is always more powerful being than you who might use you to his own agendas or kill you if you're face isn't good enough for him.

Those upper are obvious "themes" on vampire, but still, that personal horror is quite hard thing to handle.

Personal horror can easily turn to be angst making those Camarilla vampires bitch about how dark and meaningless their life is when they struggle to maintain their humanity. But what if you are monster long lost human morality and are in Sabbat? What is your personal horror then? Fear of Gehenna? You are ferosious beast and battle is your glory so you ain't scaring those Cammy in the other side of the field, your pack-mates can do you even worse. Do you scare your own sect if you aren't loyal? Do you know anything about being scared or any feelings anyways? You are beast what follows some creepy path anyways.

Personal horror is really hard thing to take in your World of Darkness campaigns, but it makes game a bit deeper. Something more than just kickin' enemies butts with neat superpowers. Personal horror in other hand taken too far just makes game angsting of vampires own misery.

This is a hard thing to get in games. Personal horror. It must be player's own agenda to find it for his character, not Storytellers. Of course ST is the one who makes the game and setting happen, but player is the soul for the character.

Paint your nails black, turn off lights and lit up candles. It is time for a story of blood, passion, loss, frenzy...