I love a lot of the new Chronicles of Darkness settings and splats (Demon the Descent, Werewolf the Forsaken), but the rules are pretty complex (for me), with lots of crunchy bits for everything (Doors, etc.). Can anyone think of a medium crunch system I could convert to without loosing all of the neat, different powers players get? Things I've thought about:
- Savage Worlds - not that many powers
- Fate / Dungeon World - not a fan
- Humanish - neat idea, but only a handful of fixed powers
- BRP - maybe
Thanks!
Quote from: PencilBoy99;899455- Fate / Dungeon World - not a fan
These two aren't even remotely the same, but the Powered by the Apocalypse game
Urban Shadowswas explicitly designed to be rules-light World of Darkness.
Quote from: daniel_ream;899464These two aren't even remotely the same
They're the same in that he's not a fan of them.
yes. I appreciate that everyone else in the world loves the * World games, but I can't stand them. Just a personal thing. I grouped them together also because they're always the default for "how can I run X in a generic/lighter system."
If you can find a copy, Stellar Games' Nightlife covers a lot of the same ground with more traditional mechanics. The splatterpunk elements are cosmetic and easy to ignore.
Nightlife looks very cool.
Frank Trollman wrote a WoD heartbreaker but I'll be damned if I remember the name.
Of course, there's Eden Studios' classic Witchcraft RPG, OOP but free to download (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/692/CJ-Carrellas-WitchCraft). Uses Classic Unisystem. The Mystery Codex has rules for playing vampires, ghosts and risen, and werebeasts are in the Abomination Codex.
Nice game, interesting setting material; never played it, though.
Apologies, but since it still qualifies as a "which system?" question despite the aforementioned disqualified candidates, it must be done...
:p I'd say Savage Worlds, FATE, or maybe *.World. Have you tried Jenga Dread?* :p
*note: this will be my stock answer to all such "which system?" questions until this meme is a fine pureé of beaten dead horse.
On a more serious note, I'd say oWoD. Just use the first editions' footloose and fancy free GM variable target number, and be ready to ignore most of the exception-based design powers that plagues all White Wolf systems. It will require an incredibly tight leash, however, and a healthy predisposition for firing from the table those trying to munchkin crunchify oWoD's loose beanbag of a system chassis.
Quote from: The Butcher;899565Frank Trollman wrote a WoD heartbreaker but I'll be damned if I remember the name.
AWoD (https://code.google.com/archive/p/awod/)
You could just play the first edition COD known as new world of darkness. Other than merits the game is fairly rules light.
Quote from: Snowman0147;899621You could just play the first edition COD known as new world of darkness. Other than merits the game is fairly rules light.
That's a good idea. And the books are readily available, too. Also you compete less in the oWoD used market, which is good for me.
Quote from: Snowman0147;899621You could just play the first edition COD known as new world of darkness. Other than merits the game is fairly rules light.
Unfortunately, the Merits are also an epic clusterfuck of terrible rules, and the combat system isn't much to write home about, either.
Quote from: Kiero;899638Unfortunately, the Merits are also an epic clusterfuck of terrible rules, and the combat system isn't much to write home about, either.
Word. I'm actually disappointed that 2e/CoD didn't quite fix these things.
Sonetimes I just want to swap the whole resolution mechanic, combat included, for ORE's. Keep the same Attributes, Skills and nearly everything else; cap everything at 5, with supernatural levels of power or skill getting Hard Dice or Master Dice. Height x Width does away with extended rolls, Hard Dice and Master Dice end the huge dice pools.
Supernatural powers would probably require a major rehaul, though. Especially Awakening magic.
Get the supplement called Mirrors and look up at custom merits. That should fix the merit issues. As for combat? Good luck with that.
Quote from: Snowman0147;899778Get the supplement called Mirrors and look up at custom merits. That should fix the merit issues. As for combat? Good luck with that.
The supplement that has nothing but handwavium and warm words, rather than much by way of rules?
Combat's a relatively easy fix - use the GMC update which is much better, or at least parts of it are.
Quote from: Kiero;899785Combat's a relatively easy fix - use the GMC update which is much better, or at least parts of it are.
The GMC update looks a bit like my 1e houserules. :)
I'd love to see a ORE conversion. I think it would be really coodl.
No the rules are in there. You just have to find them.
EDIT: You know what? Fuck it I will post these rules here anyways. I am going by memory so bare with me.
First your character gets his five merits. He can name them any thing he wants. Want to be martial arts expert? Go for it. Want to be Richie Rich? Go for it. These merits are meant to be what ever you want. Once your done with your five merits it is time to move on.
Each merit is a one time use per session. So as long as the GM allows it your golden. You can add 2 to a stat for a scene, advance in a story, use it like a three dot social merit, and many more.
Now if you try to do more than mimic three dot merits you do get a complication. Think of this a extra challenge. It shouldn't be a complete fuck you.
The challenge for me is that I like the core setup of CoD and WoD - the players are all the same splat but they can be different enough so that they compliment each other. Witchcraft is clip, for example, but all of the characters you create within the X splat will be very different. It's just that all of the CoD rules plus all of the splat rules are a lot of rules
Quote from: PencilBoy99;899860The challenge for me is that I like the core setup of CoD and WoD - the players are all the same splat but they can be different enough so that they compliment each other. Witchcraft is clip, for example, but all of the characters you create within the X splat will be very different. It's just that all of the CoD rules plus all of the splat rules are a lot of rules
Which is why you stick with nWoD rules. It is CoD first edition with a lot less rules.
Quote from: Snowman0147;899832No the rules are in there. You just have to find them.
EDIT: You know what? Fuck it I will post these rules here anyways. I am going by memory so bare with me.
First your character gets his five merits. He can name them any thing he wants. Want to be martial arts expert? Go for it. Want to be Richie Rich? Go for it. These merits are meant to be what ever you want. Once your done with your five merits it is time to move on.
Each merit is a one time use per session. So as long as the GM allows it your golden. You can add 2 to a stat for a scene, advance in a story, use it like a three dot social merit, and many more.
Now if you try to do more than mimic three dot merits you do get a complication. Think of this a extra challenge. It shouldn't be a complete fuck you.
Like I said, handwavium. It's a complete circumvention of the Merits rules, just for this "one time".
my initial reaction was going to be Human(ish), but you nixed that. With Savage Worlds if you add the super power companion, and go with the point based power system in it you can have a hell of a lot of flexibility.
Guardians of Order's Dreaming Cities which uses the tristat dX system has a fairly flexible system, but could be difficult to locate. Cold Hands, Dark Hearts for BESM is basically an anime-ish version of the World of Darkness.
Strike, which is based off of 4th ed D&D, has attack powers that are largely generic, and looks to be much faster running then its parent. (not sure having only read it and not played it.
d6 Powers is a super power based d6 system game that you could easily use to create your chosen denizen of darkness
Cartoon Action Hour had a setting book that was basically GI Joe vs the universal monsters.
Nightlife is interesting, and you have multiple creature types available with just the core book (without digging it out, I believe you have Ghosts, Vampires, Demons and Werewolves at least) to have full fledged magic you need the magic source book.
those are all I can think of off the top of my head.
oh, maybe check out Better Angels. an ORE super villain game. You know how in the old comics and cartoons where the villain has some crazy plan, like, I'm going to steal all the bananas in the city? well, in this game you do things like that because you picked up a demon from somewhere. (you really should NOT have rubbed that old lamp your grandpa said had a genie in it) the good news is you get super powers. Bad news, the demon gets bored. If it gets too bored, it takes over and starts killing. However if you can keep it entertained, say, by trying to write your name on the moon with a giant laser, it won't go on a murder spree, and eat the neighbor's dog again.
There is First Edition New World of Darkness, which is good.
Also, on a related note, I am currently working on converting Vampire: The Requiem and a few other White Wolf games to Big Eyes Small Mouth 1st Edition if you are interested.
Yes I am interested!!!!l
Quote from: Simlasa;899480They're the same in that he's not a fan of them.
And that they were both invented by, and are extremely popular among, Swine.
But FATE has some redeemable features. Dungeon World doesn't.
Quote from: The Butcher;899723Word. I'm actually disappointed that 2e/CoD didn't quite fix these things.
Sonetimes I just want to swap the whole resolution mechanic, combat included, for ORE's. Keep the same Attributes, Skills and nearly everything else; cap everything at 5, with supernatural levels of power or skill getting Hard Dice or Master Dice. Height x Width does away with extended rolls, Hard Dice and Master Dice end the huge dice pools.
Supernatural powers would probably require a major rehaul, though. Especially Awakening magic.
We should totally work on this. Can't say about Awakening magic, but I think that Disciplines are perfectly possible to be done in ORE.
Yes. Something like ORE or BESM would be very good.
I have both the BESM 2 and 3 e and a bunch of 2e ORE books so I'm ready to help.
FYI, in re Pundit Comments, a lot of the Fate concepts are awesome and I LOVE the threat/front idea from Dungeon World.