One thing I never understand as a criticism of anything in WoD is that it's unbalanced. Firstly, if it's that bad as the ST you can just veto it. Secondly, you're the one that decides where the plot goes. Just because your Brujah pumps celerity and potence to annihilate any foe in combat, doesn't mean he's going to get you. Put him in a situation where that doesn't help. Explore the repercussions of him killing the shit out of the wrong person. If your entropy mage starts the chronicle by winning the lottery and buying a jetpack, send round the HIT marks to ask him how he did it. Balance seems like a meaningless concept in a game that exists entirely in your imagination.
Balance really only comes up when you've got multiple types of supernatural thingies in the same game, like if you've got half your players as vampires and the other half werewolves. Which is a much bigger deal in oWoD versus nWoD, but even in nWoD some splats are just better than others (of course, mages are still top tier and almost all the various types of hunters are bottom tier).
Bad rules design is more detrimental to the game than imbalanced rules, because bad design can make things seem much better or worse than they actually are until they actually come up in play. It sucks to find out that you're basically going to have to either rewrite your character's key Discipline from the ground up or else redo half your character sheet to replace your crappy Discipline that looked good on paper with a different Discipline that actually does what it says it does. Granted, that's not as much of an issue in Mage (especially Ascension), where half the Storyteller's job already involves making shit up that the rules couldn't ever possibly cover.
I wish we could arrow Piggy, but I guess since she hasn't logged in, no can do.
If she did, she'd end up comepletely buried in arrows.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
One thing I never understand as a criticism of anything in WoD is that it's unbalanced. Firstly, if it's that bad as the ST you can just veto it. Secondly, you're the one that decides where the plot goes. Just because your Brujah pumps celerity and potence to annihilate any foe in combat, doesn't mean he's going to get you. Put him in a situation where that doesn't help. Explore the repercussions of him killing the shit out of the wrong person. If your entropy mage starts the chronicle by winning the lottery and buying a jetpack, send round the HIT marks to ask him how he did it. Balance seems like a meaningless concept in a game that exists entirely in your imagination.
Balance really only comes up when you've got multiple types of supernatural thingies in the same game, like if you've got half your players as vampires and the other half werewolves. Which is a much bigger deal in oWoD versus nWoD, but even in nWoD some splats are just better than others (of course, mages are still top tier and almost all the various types of hunters are bottom tier).
Bad rules design is more detrimental to the game than imbalanced rules, because bad design can make things seem much better or worse than they actually are until they actually come up in play. It sucks to find out that you're basically going to have to either rewrite your character's key Discipline from the ground up or else redo half your character sheet to replace your crappy Discipline that looked good on paper with a different Discipline that actually does what it says it does. Granted, that's not as much of an issue in Mage (especially Ascension), where half the Storyteller's job already involves making shit up that the rules couldn't ever possibly cover.
I mean, Tube already pointed this out but I really don't get how any half-competent ST doesn't just say "okay, your thing works too well/not well enough, here is a temporary narrative fix and we can discuss how to fix it permanently later."
It is a tabletop game. Just...make it work better if you don't like it. I played in a Requiem game where my character was trying to remain high humanity and the narrative kept throwing combat at us - and I was the only combat-oriented character. The 'one morality fits all' schtick is annoying to begin with, and when I expressed to the ST that constantly losing and rebuying humanity was getting to be something of a chore, especially since the only time I hurt anyone was in self-defense. He agreed and we just reworked the system so that it was better. The flip side of the issue is I had also designed a character that could deal ridiculous amounts of lethal damage with a sword, and he determined that rather than try and buff the enemies he'd simply rewrite one of my combat styles to be less flexible and refund me the points in case I was no longer happy with the merit.
Especially in WoD, where you care almost entirely about the ideas rather than the numbers, I do not understand the frankly ubiquitous complaining about bad mechanical design. Just change the way things work! The only time the system catches people up is if the ST is a hardline "you spent the points so fucking live with it" person (particularly irritating if they change the rules on you midgame) or the ST is just overwhelmed and can't think of solutions. The former person should stick to heavily tested crunchy systems where there's some small chance the rules are balanced. The latter probably shouldn't be STing, or at least not with that group.
I didn't buy many of the nWoD books, but the only I am really glad I did is Changeling. I have no idea how it would fit in with the rest of the games, but it is so fun and interesting on its own.
The concept for the new Changeling is much more horror-tinged and creepy than then original. I liked the different types of changelings in this one and how open-ended the potential concepts were.
The original appealed to the tiny whimsical part of myself that refuses to grow up and wishes that magic was real.
I might be better off trying to adapt Changing Breeds rather than buying Past Lives for those two pages. Man if I ever win the lottery I'm just going to hook drivethrurpg up to my veins.
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The concept for the new Changeling is much more horror-tinged and creepy than then original. I liked the different types of changelings in this one and how open-ended the potential concepts were.
The original appealed to the tiny whimsical part of myself that refuses to grow up and wishes that magic was real.
Old Changeling was also a fucking nightmare to run
New Changeling is just a beautiful, beautiful nightmare
I might be better off trying to adapt Changing Breeds rather than buying Past Lives for those two pages. Man if I ever win the lottery I'm just going to hook drivethrurpg up to my veins.
Having re-read those gifts, I think you're probably making the right choice. Although having a level 3 gift that uproots a building would be pretty amusing from a teacup pig.
Teacup pigs generally end up growing into full size pigs of about 200 pounds, unless their magical patron feeds them special being small cakes. Over the next year or so of game time (there are gaps between chronicles for her character to study magic) he'll grow into a normal sized pig, then possibly into a rather large one as per the lupus type rules. Also the latin name for pig and therefore the name of his pig form will be Porcus.
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Balance really only comes up when you've got multiple types of supernatural thingies in the same game, like if you've got half your players as vampires and the other half werewolves. Which is a much bigger deal in oWoD versus nWoD, but even in nWoD some splats are just better than others (of course, mages are still top tier and almost all the various types of hunters are bottom tier).
Bad rules design is more detrimental to the game than imbalanced rules, because bad design can make things seem much better or worse than they actually are until they actually come up in play. It sucks to find out that you're basically going to have to either rewrite your character's key Discipline from the ground up or else redo half your character sheet to replace your crappy Discipline that looked good on paper with a different Discipline that actually does what it says it does. Granted, that's not as much of an issue in Mage (especially Ascension), where half the Storyteller's job already involves making shit up that the rules couldn't ever possibly cover.
If she did, she'd end up comepletely buried in arrows.
Nevermind, as soon as I hit post it updated with a heart and desired.
I mean, Tube already pointed this out but I really don't get how any half-competent ST doesn't just say "okay, your thing works too well/not well enough, here is a temporary narrative fix and we can discuss how to fix it permanently later."
It is a tabletop game. Just...make it work better if you don't like it. I played in a Requiem game where my character was trying to remain high humanity and the narrative kept throwing combat at us - and I was the only combat-oriented character. The 'one morality fits all' schtick is annoying to begin with, and when I expressed to the ST that constantly losing and rebuying humanity was getting to be something of a chore, especially since the only time I hurt anyone was in self-defense. He agreed and we just reworked the system so that it was better. The flip side of the issue is I had also designed a character that could deal ridiculous amounts of lethal damage with a sword, and he determined that rather than try and buff the enemies he'd simply rewrite one of my combat styles to be less flexible and refund me the points in case I was no longer happy with the merit.
Especially in WoD, where you care almost entirely about the ideas rather than the numbers, I do not understand the frankly ubiquitous complaining about bad mechanical design. Just change the way things work! The only time the system catches people up is if the ST is a hardline "you spent the points so fucking live with it" person (particularly irritating if they change the rules on you midgame) or the ST is just overwhelmed and can't think of solutions. The former person should stick to heavily tested crunchy systems where there's some small chance the rules are balanced. The latter probably shouldn't be STing, or at least not with that group.
yes
Named Kochi?
you can be a were shark
and maybe a were bear?
that rules
The original appealed to the tiny whimsical part of myself that refuses to grow up and wishes that magic was real.
Some of their gifts, in Past Lives pages 93-95, because Garou in that chronicle can learn them.
E: Oh, apparently Mokolé and the PG to the Changing Breeds have some info too, but mostly just a paragraph here and there.
Old Changeling was also a fucking nightmare to run
New Changeling is just a beautiful, beautiful nightmare
I love it so
Having re-read those gifts, I think you're probably making the right choice. Although having a level 3 gift that uproots a building would be pretty amusing from a teacup pig.
...would his homid form just be a dwarf?
Yes. He owns a magical shapeshifting pig that can uproot buildings.
Imagine that shit in Crinos
That is a real motherfucking pig bitch
But that is a taxidermed pig with possibly a very tiny lady next to it
I desire photos of massive living pigs
Please no photos of yourself or myself despite how hilarious that might be in my feverstate
I have seen some pigs that are nearly as big as those at the state fair. We grow em big, here in Texas.
I remember when that news story came up there was some hullabuloo about that photo being shot in such a way as to grossly exaggerate the hog's size
but it's still a big-ass hog