Multi-Splat games

[RockaHorse]

Greetings

I'm running a homebrew nWoD game where the players are playing Mages, Changelings, and a Vampire. Googling for inspiration I've noticed a lot of people seem to have bad experiences mixing splats? Why? I mean sure, if you want to stick strictly to whats in the books it may take some creativity. Yet, I've always found taking all the lore in really doesn't interest many people unless there is solid literature surrounding the world, like with D&D and Star Wars they can read into. I tell a player about Werewolf, they think of old horror movies and things like Lycans from Underworld. Not Protecting the spirit world and mortal world from each other.

Anyone else have experience running multiple-splats in one campaign? If so, how did you keep everything balanced and making sense?

[fishyfishyfishy]

The Chronicles of Darkness lines work perfectly fine as cross splat. Negative experiences typically come from the classic games, which often have unusual interactions and rules that don't translate well. The only issue with a CofD game using multiple splats would be settling on an overall theme.

[Anonymouswizard]

Honestly, the main problems are working out a story that makes sense, and the power imbalance. In nWoD1e the power imbalance is somewhat less, as there was an attempt to keep everybody on the same scale, but it was still there, and in some ways CoD stopped caring about the power imbalance.

The first rules thing is, Mages overshadow everybody in terms of versatility. While Arcana can have a delayed raw power progression (although this isn't always true), the fact remains that most of them give the equivalent of several powers from another splat. Seriously, the Mind arcana covers Vampire's Dominate, Majesty, Obfuscate, and Nightmare, and arguably replicate a few Animalism and Auspex powers. One Arcana has the same range as almost half the core Disciplines.

Secondly, the different splats focus on different areas. This isn't a major problem, until you run a social based session and the werewolf is useless.

But yes, most of the problems are oWoD, the nWoD games are much better balanced.

[comicshorse]

From a very brief experiment with it the main problem we found was that the Vampire player got bored as hell because as soon as it started getting close to dawn he had to run back to his coffin and wasn't involved in the game until the sun set again

[Mordar]

From a very brief experiment with it the main problem we found was that the Vampire player got bored as hell because as soon as it started getting close to dawn he had to run back to his coffin and wasn't involved in the game until the sun set again

I played in a great GURPS WoD conversion game (during oWoD) that included a changeling (troll), 2 vampires (Brujah and catiff) and a mage (Verbena) that worked out wonderfully. I do not generally like "ports" of games, but because of the power scale/imbalance mentioned earlier it was a fine compromise.

While the changeling and mage were able to be active during the day, we intentionally went with a more nocturnal patter of activity to accommodate the sunlight allergy. Everyone was on board with that from the beginning, being adult friends getting together for something fun and entertaining. It was a simple solution to not much of a problem, and we could still take advantage of having 50% of the party active in the daytime if the story demanded it.

In short, don't let that be an obstacle to general play...for specific stories/times/purposes absolutely, but it has to be the exception, not the rule (just like any other decisions that split the party).

- M

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

There is also a book in development (the Contagion Chronicle) that is specifically built to facilitate cross-over games. Somehting to look out for in the future.

[RockaHorse]

I was unaware of the Contagion Chronicle coming out. I knew Onyx Path was planning on releasing some 2nd editions to the nWoD that haven't gotten converted yet, but that's good news. Currently to keep it all balanced, I chose not to let people play demons and I'm banking on the fact they're newbies to avoid the Mages from breaking anything. I'm going to have to come up with something to deal with the daylight for the Vampire as for some reason that didn't occur to me at all. What seems to be the most difficult thing is making encounters that will pose a challenge to the group as a whole. It's good to know there are people that share my optimism that it can be done lol.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Convince the party to mostly operate at night? That's the easiest thing.

[vitkiraven]

Hello!
I'm currently running a multi-splat game (Were-rat, Changeling, Mage, Were-Monkey, (sometimes) Changeling/Mage, and a Dark Hero from Mirrors). There are good things and bad things about same splat games, but my group specifically decided to stay away Vampires in this game.
One possible recommendation for the vampire character is to get a ghoul and have them be the player's expy during the daylight hours.

[Beans]

Mixed games tend to not go very deep into the lore of any single splat, which is good or bad depending on if you want that. Exceptions are a thing, of course, especially if it's more a "this is a Werewolf game but Janet's a Changeling and Eric's a Demon" than a relatively even monster mash.
Mage admittedly messes with balance due to Mages' versatility, though 2e at least avoids a 1e method they used to gain a bazillionty successes on casting (1e ritual casting was an extended action, whoops).
Vampire has the aforementioned "only at night" issue, but eh.
Promethean arguably doesn't play very well with others not due to balance concerns, but because it really demands a focus on its lore and themes. Also Disquiet, though 2e made it less harsh I think?

[JeenLeen]

I'd recommend trying to figure out what each 'race' is good and bad at, and making sure the players don't have any misconceptions about limitations and that they are okay with what the other might be able to do better. I haven't done much nWoD (more of an oWoD dude), but I'm sure you can find other sources for that info (including here.)

For the vampires, if it's an issue, maybe just give some artifact/enchantment/whatever that lets them operate in the sun. Perhaps their Blood Potency is effectively halved during sunlight, or something like that, if you want it to have a cost. But, really, I'd probably recommend giving it for free just to let the party work together. Maybe give the changeling a Charm that lets them take non-changelings to the Hedge, if you need to keep the party together (and that's not something they can already do--don't know much about Changeling.)

You might want to boost or weaken some powers, to make things more in line, but nWoD does at least try to keep things such that a mutli-splat party doesn't utterly fall apart. There might be some power discrepancy, but at least you have mechanics for how the different abilities interact.

[comicshorse]

Maybe give the changeling a Charm that lets them take non-changelings to the Hedge, if you need to keep the party together (and that's not something they can already do--don't know much about Changeling.)

As I remember Changelings can take anybody into the Hedge, its just the nature of the Hedge to drive insane and warp those not attuned to it.