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View Full Version : nWoD set in Faerun - Thoughts, Feedback, Comments Welcome



Fearghus
2015-04-17, 03:53 PM
I was able to run my first session using the nWoD rules set in Faerun. The players liked the simplicity and flexibility of the system, so that made it all the more delightful for me.

The players are casual gamers so the intent was to make character creation simple. The core WoD was used along with pieces taken from Mirrors, Requiem for Rome, and a site to which I have lost the link. I have an old WoD sorcery book for some simple types of magic and one off powers for those that are not wholly wizards.

The arete trait was pulled from mirrors to act as a caster level, and then I left the 8 schools of magic available with general descriptions of what could be done with each (summary straight form D&D/PF). There are individual spells to be learned, but learning them only takes time and resources; not xp. Casting a spell is ability + skill + arete.

Character creation used three-plus for abilities and three-alone for skills. This was taken from mirrors. Stacking specialties, up to three, were an option to allow for a customized and specific design. This enhanced the characters in their area of specialization.

Players were allotted the normal set of points for merits, but the 2 point cost for a 5th dot was waived. These could be used to purchase an arete rating for those that wanted to play wizards in the classic D&D sense.

Everyone started off with a conviction rating of 1 out of 10. It effects the number of willpower one can spend per turn, and grants bonuses to passive resistances (think saving throws). Also 1 point can be spent per session for a bonus that lasts an entire scene instead of a turn like with willpower.

*** Equipment ***
Armor Rating Example Str Def Price
|-> Light 1 Gambeson 1 - 2
|-> Medium 2 Maille 2 -1 3
|-> Heavy 3 Plated Maille 3 -1 4
|-> Harness 4 Gothic Plate 3 -1 5
For later periods add in full harness, 3/4 harness, and half-harness. Also munition armor/almain rivet (cheap half-harness of helm, breast/back plate, gauntlets, )
Each point of difference between physical.power and armor str requirement is additional def penalty, and die penalty to all physical rolls. This displays the difficulty of moving in the armor. This might be a worthwhile penalty since armor rating is not reduced per the number of attacks sustained per round.

Shields Defense Str Example
|-> Small +1 1 Buckler to heater shields and other similarly sized shields.
|-> Medium +2 2 Neck to knee style shields.
|-> Large +3 3 Tower shield that would be carried with two hands while a x-bow man fired from behind.

Weapons Modifier Examples
|-> Simple 0 Dagger, dart. They deal lethal damage but are ineffective against armor.
|-> Light 1 short sword, javelin.
|-> Medium 2 or 3 (two-handed) Arming sword, longsword, mace, hammer, axe
|-> Heavy 4 Polaxe, great sword
Another thought is to have these items not grant bonus die, but to simply provide armor penetration on a scale of 1-4. If the armor rating is reduced to zero or less, then the damage is moved from bashing to lethal.

How to handle arete...
An arcanist uses an ability and a skill along with their arete score to cast a spell.
What are the limits of magic?

The magical philosophies. Intelligence + Academics + Arete
These are philosophies, and as such are not sciences. The rules are not hard and fast as to what can or cannot be achieved with each philosophy. Some overlap, some not at all.

Abjuration: Ward against and banish any entity. Break enchantments, dispel spells.
Conjuration: Summon, bind, dismiss and ward against entities from beyond space and time. Move across space/time.
Divination: Interpretations of the past, present and future. Supernatural awareness and sight past the material world.
Enchantment: All manner of mind cotrol and fascination.
Evocation: Mastery of heat energy and the natural elements.
Illusion: Deceive sight, hearing, taste, touch and scent.
Necromancy: Summon, bind, dismiss and ward against the spirits of the dead.
Transmutation: Change the state, or nature, of something.

It is a work in progress, and one I really enjoy tinkering and playing.

Anonymouswizard
2015-04-17, 06:02 PM
Suggestions made under the assumption you'll run another campaign.

First off, why don't you read an oWoD Dark Ages book or two? It'll give ideas on how to use the ruleset in such a period.

For character creation, I'm not sure why you'd want to get rid of skills, in my experience they seem to be the easiest way to differentiate characters, but specialties do that. Different strokes for different folks.

Magic wise, it depends on what you want. My idea for a WoD fantasy setting just used vampiric disciplines, but that was a conscious choice. A better way is supplied for the system.

Mage.

Seriously, if you get rid of spontaneous casting and tack a man's cost onto spells, mage is the best system for fantasy magic I've seen. Just get rid of watchtowers and make all arcana cost as non-affinity. Be warned that mages who are clever will soon oustrip mundanes, but less than you currently have, if I understand correctly. Sort of like D&D.

The ten arcana are also more flavourful.

Use nWoD 2e/GMC rules for experience is another of my suggestions. Really, I suggest using all of 2e, 9 attributes and all, but that's because it got me to like the nWoD. But the XP rules are definitely better.

Maybe let players have 10-15 points for merits, but players can only buy 2/3 points of Arrte/Gnosis?

What about using Arete from Mage the Ascension. It has simple rules:

Whenever a character casts a spell, their dice pool is made up of Arete, and Arete alone.

I like this, partially because I'm working on a different setting from a similar idea (Werewolf 2050: Weaver Ascendant, using Shadowrun instead of Faerun).

Fearghus
2015-04-17, 08:35 PM
Thank you for responding. This is exactly the sort of feedback I wanted.



First off, why don't you read an oWoD Dark Ages book or two? It'll give ideas on how to use the ruleset in such a period.


Excellent suggestion and I did. I have the the oWoD Darkages book; Liege, Lord and Lackey; and Ashen Knight. I have a cappadocian and baali clan book for inspiration on antagonists. I like the streamlined rules of nWoD, especially for combat. Instead of rolling to hit, do damage, then an opposed soak roll, everything is completed in one simple roll.

Depending on my players, I would switch to the old rules if they rejected the new. I know a couple of my regulars dislike the nWoD rules, but really like oWoD mechanics.




For character creation, I'm not sure why you'd want to get rid of skills, in my experience they seem to be the easiest way to differentiate characters, but specialties do that. Different strokes for different folks.


Absolutely. I have some experienced players that have used several different rules systems. For them I would leave the abilities and skills as is. The group that play-tested this for me were my nephews. Ages ranged from jr. high to seniors in high school. I first introduced them to gaming with Labyrinth Lord, then 3.5/PF. Their eyes glaze over with all of the minutia. The three-plus and three-alone from mirrors with stacking specialties allowed me to get them all through character creation in about 20 minutes. As you pointed out, the specialties allowed for the extra differentiation. The one thing they were all hung up about was getting their back-stories across to me. We probably spent near an hour going around the table as they all told me how their character's grew up, and why they were adventuring.

Some of my veteran players really enjoy the details of the PF character sheets that have near 8 or more pages, and find the minimized system I used for the boys to be limiting. I was hoping for the opposite effect, but as you said it is simply preference. Which I prefer depends on my mood.




Magic wise, it depends on what you want. My idea for a WoD fantasy setting just used vampiric disciplines, but that was a conscious choice. A better way is supplied for the system.

Mage.

Seriously, if you get rid of spontaneous casting and tack a man's cost onto spells, mage is the best system for fantasy magic I've seen. Just get rid of watchtowers and make all arcana cost as non-affinity. Be warned that mages who are clever will soon oustrip mundanes, but less than you currently have, if I understand correctly. Sort of like D&D.

The ten arcana are also more flavourful.


I started off using this system, nWoD, for a LotR story i wanted to run. That is why I was using the sorcery book from oWoD. Combining that with the generics of arete out of Mirrors let me mimic near everything I wanted in Middle-Earth. I started tooling around with some other mechanics for a more D&D feel where magic is not as subdued. I have the Ars Magica 5 book and would love to figure out how to make that work.

I do not have the mage book, but after reading your comment I will have to put it on my "to-buy" list. If you are willing to elaborate on it I'd like to learn more.




Use nWoD 2e/GMC rules for experience is another of my suggestions. Really, I suggest using all of 2e, 9 attributes and all, but that's because it got me to like the nWoD. But the XP rules are definitely better.


That was Greek to me! The 9 attributes and 24 abilities simply depends on my group. Obviously, for experienced gamers like you and my primary group I would definitely leave in all of the options. For NPC's and casual players like my nephews, the options from mirrors was crucial to quickly get the ball moving and keep them engaged. Anytime they have to deal with mechanics their eyes glaze over. They just want to get on with the story and action. I should have taken the 5 minutes to pre-summarize thir die pools for common tasks.




Maybe let players have 10-15 points for merits, but players can only buy 2/3 points of Arrte/Gnosis?

What about using Arete from Mage the Ascension. It has simple rules:

Whenever a character casts a spell, their dice pool is made up of Arete, and Arete alone.

I like this, partially because I'm working on a different setting from a similar idea (Werewolf 2050: Weaver Ascendant, using Shadowrun instead of Faerun).


That is a good idea on the merits. I do not have the mage rules which is why I used the arete from mirrors and then modified to my needs again from there. Is the mage arete on 1-10 scale? More or less?

I used to live in southern Illinois, near St Louis MO. There are all sorts of refineries and factories, strip clubs, casino's, dance clubs, biker bars and what not in that area. i could never drive through without thinking about all of the wyrm spawn waiting to have their story told.

@Anonymouswizard, thank you for responding. I'd like to hear more of your house rules and campaigns. It will speed up my design to see what others are using in their non-standard n/oWoD chronicles.

Anonymouswizard
2015-04-17, 09:06 PM
Thank you for responding. This is exactly the sort of feedback I wanted.



Excellent suggestion and I did. I have the the oWoD Darkages book; Liege, Lord and Lackey; and Ashen Knight. I have a cappadocian and baali clan book for inspiration on antagonists. I like the streamlined rules of nWoD, especially for combat. Instead of rolling to hit, do damage, then an opposed soak roll, everything is completed in one simple roll.

Depending on my players, I would switch to the old rules if they rejected the new. I know a couple of my regulars dislike the nWoD rules, but really like oWoD mechanics.

It's a matter of taste. Despite the fact I started roleplaying after nWoD came out, I just prefer the weirdness of oWoD. I've done work to streamline and adapt it though, which will be play tested in my next chronicle.


Absolutely. I have some experienced players that have used several different rules systems. For them I would leave the abilities and skills as is. The group that play-tested this for me were my nephews. Ages ranged from jr. high to seniors in high school. I first introduced them to gaming with Labyrinth Lord, then 3.5/PF. Their eyes glaze over with all of the minutia. The three-plus and three-alone from mirrors with stacking specialties allowed me to get them all through character creation in about 20 minutes. As you pointed out, the specialties allowed for the extra differentiation. The one thing they were all hung up about was getting their back-stories across to me. We probably spent near an hour going around the table as they all told me how their character's grew up, and why they were adventuring.

Some of my veteran players really enjoy the details of the PF character sheets that have near 8 or more pages, and find the minimized system I used for the boys to be limiting. I was hoping for the opposite effect, but as you said it is simply preference. Which I prefer depends on my mood.

Apart from having no idea what ages you're talking about (you have 7 years of primary school and 7 years of secondary school here in England), I get exactly what you mean.


I started off using this system, nWoD, for a LotR story i wanted to run. That is why I was using the sorcery book from oWoD. Combining that with the generics of arete out of Mirrors let me mimic near everything I wanted in Middle-Earth. I started tooling around with some other mechanics for a more D&D feel where magic is not as subdued. I have the Ars Magica 5 book and would love to figure out how to make that work.

I do not have the mage book, but after reading your comment I will have to put it on my "to-buy" list. If you are willing to elaborate on it I'd like to learn more.

I don't own mirrors, so I was assuming Arte was power-stat like. I've never read the sorcery system though, but as I understand it's basically thaumaturgy.

Plus Ars Magica 5 is awesome. Its what I think D&D should have been like. Apart from the lack of dice pools, the magic is fairly similar to mage the awakening.


That was Greek to me! The 9 attributes and 24 abilities simply depends on my group. Obviously, for experienced gamers like you and my primary group I would definitely leave in all of the options. For NPC's and casual players like my nephews, the options from mirrors was crucial to quickly get the ball moving and keep them engaged. Anytime they have to deal with mechanics their eyes glaze over. They just want to get on with the story and action. I should have taken the 5 minutes to pre-summarize thir die pools for common tasks.

O Theós Machine Chronicle eínai mia eni̱méro̱si̱ gia tis vasikés diatáxeis, i̱ opoía échei anagno̱risteí epísi̱ma o̱s mia déf̱teri̱ ékdosi̱. Oi dýo megalýteres allagés eínai óti to kóstos si̱meío empeiría den eínai pléon klímaka, étsi mia teleía se mia dexióti̱ta kostízei pánta dýo póntous empeirías, ta paliá statistiká i̱thikí̱s eínai perissótero gia ti̱ logikí̱, kai óti oi nées ekdóseis tou supernaturals eínai ischyróteri̱. Eínai í̱di̱ anagno̱risteí episí̱mo̱s o̱s mia déf̱teri̱ ékdosi̱ tó̱ra kai éna néo ble vivlío eínai sta skariá, allá pistév̱o̱ óti i̱ eni̱méro̱si̱ exakoloutheí na eínai diathésimo gia do̱reán.

The God Machine Chronicle is an update to the core rules, which has been officially acknowledged as a second edition. The two biggest changes are that experience point costs no longer scale, so a dot in a skill always costs two experience points, the old morality stats being more about sanity, and that the new versions of supernaturals are stronger. It's been officially recognized as a second edition now and a new blue book is in the works, but I believe the update is still available for free. Horay for Google translate.


That is a good idea on the merits. I do not have the mage rules which is why I used the arete from mirrors and then modified to my needs again from there. Is the mage arete on 1-10 scale? More or less?

I used to live in southern Illinois, near St Louis MO. There are all sorts of refineries and factories, strip clubs, casino's, dance clubs, biker bars and what not in that area. i could never drive through without thinking about all of the wyrm spawn waiting to have their story told.

@Anonymouswizard, thank you for responding. I'd like to hear more of your house rules and campaigns. It will speed up my design to see what others are using in their non-standard n/oWoD chronicles.

I'll write up my house rules when I'm not sleep deprived, you can probably expect less Greek in that post.