3 posts tagged “wod”
After five months away from the table, I finally made it back to my group's Werewolf game. Fortunately, the internet can provide even RPG characters with an explanation for long-term uninvolvement in daily affairs. But! Back to the action. Oddly enough, the session only covered one evening's in-game action-- practically real-time. That sounds brief compared to the days we usually cover, but our gamemaster still packed in the action. Lessons from this week's game:
- Spirits have their price, and don't care who pays it. Like NSO dames at a WWII hall, they'll dance with anybody.
- Spirits that hit your Essence are scarier than spirits who just hit your Health.
- If you fail your Stealth check, you may as well make a racket and draw attention away from more successful packmates.
With every turn in Monopoly, a player's bank account goes up or down. The game is about wealth, and it's measured in money. Pretty obvious, right?
In Dungeons & Dragons, every encounter causes a character's supply of hit points and other combat-related resources to go up and down. The game is about combat, and it's measured (along several different axis) in how long a character can stay in the fight.
So what is a White Wolf game about? Well, they track both Health and Harmony (or Humanity, or Wisdom, or Clarity, depending on the game). But it's the Health and Essence (or Glamor, or Blood Pool) that are the most likely to change in every scene. Those "moral issue" measurements can move, but since they don't move as often, they are vulnerable to being forgotten. And that's when what the game is "obviously about" becomes less obvious.
Players of any game are like cats: movement draws their attention. When an rpg is intended to focus on a particular theme or idea, that idea has got to move something. A fluctuating pool of points, a slider on a scale, some dynamic measurement. By the same token, the designer should also consider cutting out those tangential elements whose twitching will distract the players.
I picked up Changeling: The Lost and Monte Cook's World of Darkness today (don't ask how). I'll offer more in-depth reviews later, but to sum up my first impressions:
Changeling: Fantastic art, intriguing revision, as tantalizing as it shood be.
MC's WoD: Excellent Lovecraftian attitude, horrible layout, why did it have to be d20?
Further reading may alter my opinion, but it's going to take a lot to ruin my impression of Changeling, and it's going to take a lot to improve my impression of Cook's alternate WoD.
