Nwod 2e vs owod
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I want to play Curseborne, but having seen the final book, I’m not sure if I want to MU it.
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@somasatori said in Nwod 2e vs owod:
Meanwhile, Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf
Also real quick about Werewolf, it is a mix of the two. Your Auspice Gifts do indeed level up 1-5, but the rest of your gifts are pick and choose ignoring the progression. There is no Mother Luna 4… you have Mother Luna (Cunning) or Mother Luna (Honor).
Which would be Hella cool to somehow get mage or vampire to do. But I am lazy. RIP.
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@MisterBoring Any deets you can spill on why not? I admit I’m super intrigued by the system, but wasn’t a backer and haven’t done any real dives into the mechanics or theme.
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@Pyrephox said in Nwod 2e vs owod:
@MisterBoring Any deets you can spill on why not? I admit I’m super intrigued by the system, but wasn’t a backer and haven’t done any real dives into the mechanics or theme.
The bonds mechanic rewards clique building and momentum is a currency shared by all players in the game.
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What do you mean by clique building? So often I see people complaining about what they consider to be cliques, but which I would just consider to be “groups of friends playing together”.
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Curseborne has built-in bonds (can be positive or negative). But characters are limited in the bonds they can have, as far as mechanical ones go. Like any game, families, friends, enemy lists can be as large and varied as desired.
And, bonds can be with NPC’s, such as your job’s boss, or your little sister, too.
It’s like any game with factions. Coteries and mystery cults are also able to be cliques. Ships or businesses can be cliques if they exclude non-members.
Bonds are no more/less a clique than any other reasons players have for their characters to know and/or exclude others. It will come down to game culture, and depend on if the community encourages and supports inclusivity or not - same as any other system.
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Man, Curseborne. Or really, the entire Storypath line. I think Storypath is my favorite incarnation of the overall Storyteller mechanics. While I love the system itself, I dislike almost every single attempt to execute it.
I’ve completely lost faith in Onyx Path at this point. Their insistence on building games around a “You’re a <THIS> who is a member of <THAT>” structure is old and tired, IMO. That’s the first issue. Second, they take what should be a simple and elegant system and muddy it with needlessly complex, ambiguously explained, and confusing abilities.
I find Scion 2E entirely unplayable just from reading the books. Aberrant has great moments but falls apart when you get to Nova tech. The “It Came From…” line is good but a little too cheesy and tongue-in-cheek for me. I hate the implementation of Curse Dice to power mechanics in Curseborne. Again, destroying an elegant system with kitschy mechanics. Aegis should be my absolute favorite game given the setting and its use of Storypath, but I read it and it all just falls flat.
All that said, I think the Storypath system is fantastic, and I’ve put significant work into creating a “New-New World of Darkness” type system with it. I’ve even come up with guidelines for creating Drawbacks to help flesh out characters. The system is very flexible and easy to hack.
For instance, in my custom hack, I’ve done away with Momentum and replaced it with personal pools of power. Willpower for mortals, Blood for vampires, etc. Mechanically, they all function the same (they power abilities and allow you to do things you might otherwise do with Momentum), but they shift the focus to the character rather than the group.
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@Raistlin said in Nwod 2e vs owod:
“You’re a <THIS> who is a member of <THAT>”
This is a core conceit of basically all of RP. Characters are described in terms nearly identical to those even if there’s not a spot for it on the character sheet.
@Raistlin said in Nwod 2e vs owod:
While I love the system itself, I dislike almost every single attempt to execute it.
From reading your post, it looks like you dislike every attempt to execute Storypath, which makes me question whether you love the system or the intent of the system more. You don’t mention Dystopia Rising: Evolution at all, which makes me think that either you do like it, or you have been in the horror show that is the DR LARP, and don’t want to give them any mention at all.
Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance
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@MisterBoring I’m not entirely sure what your post is trying to get across. If you want to have a back-and-forth about Storypath, I’m game, but your reply mostly feels like it’s questioning my motives rather than the points I raised.
On the “You’re a <THIS> who is a member of <THAT>” comment:
- What I was pointing out is that Onyx Path doesn’t just use that as a descriptive shorthand (which, sure, all RPGs do in some way). They make it the mechanical spine of their games; your role and affiliation aren’t just flavor, they dictate what your character can do, how they progress, and even how you interact with the world. For me, that overreliance makes the designs feel narrow and repetitive.
On Dystopia Rising:
- The only reason I didn’t mention it is that I haven’t read it. No hidden motive there.
On Storypath in the context of this thread:
- Since the discussion is about which version of World of Darkness works best, I’ll clarify: I think Storypath’s core mechanics and dice resolution are fantastic. It’s a really solid system, and I love that part of it. What I don’t care for is how Onyx Path tends to implement those mechanics in their published games. That’s why I’m actually looking forward to Storypath Ultra, it seems like a cleaner, more generic take on the system that could really shine outside of those heavy-handed frameworks.
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@MisterBoring I can at least report that the worst of the DR LARP crowd has been purged with fire.
