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. 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...


I'd say Savage Worlds, FATE, or maybe *.World. Have you tried Jenga Dread?*

*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

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.