Basic Mechanics, Sheet Design, etc.
World of darkness is a turn-based role playing game set in modern day earth with fantasy and sci-fi elements. With the right skills and powers there is technically no limit to what you can do, the mechanics only exist to somewhat quantify what you can do(and to keep newborn vampire from trying to say they can tear apart buildings with their mind.)
Each player will pick a starting creature, a nature/demeaner, and select their powers from 21 starting points.
All actions are determined via dice roles(10 sided only) and as such some effects will be unpredictable and spectacular
To all the friends I invited to this forum, this is the forum you ask questions on. If you put them anywhere else, delete them immediately.
In world of darkness each character has a number of mechanics that determine whether or not they're going to die.
All of these abilities are measured on a scale of 1-5 exempt in some cases players and NPC's that can exeed this scale up to ten.
All abilities in world of darkness are classed into three types
All of these abilities are measured on a scale of 1-5 exempt in some cases players and NPC's that can exeed this scale up to ten.
All abilities in world of darkness are classed into three types
All attributes require at least one dot each as its impossible to have zero in any thing(this first dot is automatic and doesn't need to be bought) and these attributes are classed into different types depending on use.(for reference, having five in any ability means your a master of that ability. Example 5 dots in computers means your a world class programmer and having 5 dots in appearance means you have the looks of a supermodel. conversely have a one in anything means your a dud, a one in appearance means your kind of ugly, a zero means people would have trouble even looking at you.
Wits-Your ability and speed to process information.
Awareness- your ability to use your senses and understand your surroundings
intelligence- your ability to understand and store knowledge.
Awareness- your ability to use your senses and understand your surroundings
intelligence- your ability to understand and store knowledge.
Appearance- your looks
Charisma- your ability to draw others into your way of thinking.
Manipulation- your ability to manipulate people.
Charisma- your ability to draw others into your way of thinking.
Manipulation- your ability to manipulate people.
Strength- your strength
Stamina- your health
Dexterity- your speed and hand-eye coordination.
Stamina- your health
Dexterity- your speed and hand-eye coordination.
willpower- your ability to resist control and manipulation. it's the only trait the anyone can raise to ten normally and it equals how many willpower "points" you can store, which can be spent on various things like temporary immunity to mind control to superhuman feats of strength.
power points- whether it's blood for vampires or mana for mages the number of these you have stored determines how often you can use your powers, no points no magic.
Health levels- how much damage you can take until you die, your health levels are equal to 0 plus your stamina. If your health hits zero you don't die, your just bruised up a bit, but any further damage will limit your ability to fight until it hits -5, at which point you're knocked unconscious. when your health hits -6 you die.
All classes also can suffer one of three types of damage
Bashing damage- punching, kicking, blunt weapons, etc. damage from these weapons can be ignored with a stamina role.(example: if the player is hit with 1 point of bashing damage and they make a stamina role that makes one success, then the damage is "soaked" and they don't take damage.
lethal damage- knives, guns, claws, etc. this damage living thinks can only soak this damage magically. undead being (vampire, zombies, etc.) can soak this like basing damage.
aggravated damage- fire, radiation, magic, etc. extreme/magical damage that can only be soaked with magic and cannot be healed naturally.(basically if you don't have any healing magic and you'r hit by this, you're screwed)
power points- whether it's blood for vampires or mana for mages the number of these you have stored determines how often you can use your powers, no points no magic.
Health levels- how much damage you can take until you die, your health levels are equal to 0 plus your stamina. If your health hits zero you don't die, your just bruised up a bit, but any further damage will limit your ability to fight until it hits -5, at which point you're knocked unconscious. when your health hits -6 you die.
All classes also can suffer one of three types of damage
Bashing damage- punching, kicking, blunt weapons, etc. damage from these weapons can be ignored with a stamina role.(example: if the player is hit with 1 point of bashing damage and they make a stamina role that makes one success, then the damage is "soaked" and they don't take damage.
lethal damage- knives, guns, claws, etc. this damage living thinks can only soak this damage magically. undead being (vampire, zombies, etc.) can soak this like basing damage.
aggravated damage- fire, radiation, magic, etc. extreme/magical damage that can only be soaked with magic and cannot be healed naturally.(basically if you don't have any healing magic and you'r hit by this, you're screwed)
Abilities are sub divided into categories like attributes, but unlike attributes you don't need to have at least one dot in any or all of them (but you want to have some a least.)
Talents amplify the attributes you already have, making them stronger in some situations.(example: you have awareness 3 and your looking for someone in a crowd, so you would role 3, 10-sided dice with difficulty 9(meaning you have to role a 9 of higher) and one success finds them. If you had alertness 3 on the other hand, then you would role awareness 3 + plus alertness 3 which would equal 6 dice to role, making things easier.
Alertness- mastery over your senses, strengthens the awareness attribute.
Athletics- increases strength and dexterity out of combat (running, swimming, etc.)
Brawl- increases strength in combat (hitting in the right spot, kicking his legs from under him, etc)
Dodge- increases dexterity in combat (Dooodge!)
Empathy- increases manipulation
Expression- increases charisma
Intimidation- increases appearance when scaring people.
Leadership- increases charisma
Streetwise- increases intelligence outside of social gatherings and business.
Subterfuge- AKA the ability to lie convincingly, increases manipulation
Alertness- mastery over your senses, strengthens the awareness attribute.
Athletics- increases strength and dexterity out of combat (running, swimming, etc.)
Brawl- increases strength in combat (hitting in the right spot, kicking his legs from under him, etc)
Dodge- increases dexterity in combat (Dooodge!)
Empathy- increases manipulation
Expression- increases charisma
Intimidation- increases appearance when scaring people.
Leadership- increases charisma
Streetwise- increases intelligence outside of social gatherings and business.
Subterfuge- AKA the ability to lie convincingly, increases manipulation
Skills is your ability to do stuff like use melee weapons or drive a truck, and the effects of having 1 to 5 dots in a skill varies for getting better a using melee weapons in melee to learning how to diffuse bombs in security.
As the number of skills you can have is technically infinite, I'll list a few basic ones. I also won't hold it against you if you want to make up your own, just ask me first.
Melee- the ability to use melee weapons
Drive- the ability to operate vehicles. each dot not ony determines how good you are at driving, but also the "level" of vehicle you can drive.(you're not piloting a jet at drive 2)
Crafts- ability to make basic constructs and art.
Firearms- ability to operate guns, works similar to drive in levels.
stealth- your ability to hide out of sight.
security- your ability to create(or break into) secured area's.
As the number of skills you can have is technically infinite, I'll list a few basic ones. I also won't hold it against you if you want to make up your own, just ask me first.
Melee- the ability to use melee weapons
Drive- the ability to operate vehicles. each dot not ony determines how good you are at driving, but also the "level" of vehicle you can drive.(you're not piloting a jet at drive 2)
Crafts- ability to make basic constructs and art.
Firearms- ability to operate guns, works similar to drive in levels.
stealth- your ability to hide out of sight.
security- your ability to create(or break into) secured area's.
Knowledges is a bit more ambiguous. I'ts basically what you know, like for instance a hacker would have computers 4 as a knowledge, but a man with computers 1 could just about operate widows without breaking it.
With knowledges your character character can create artifacts, hack computers, or tear apart one of his enemies carefully laid out plans. Further more knowledges can be specialized, for example if the previous hacker specialized in Apple computers, he could hack into any Apple computer, phone, or tablet at 6 difficulty, while the same hacker with just computers 4 would have to role against 8 difficulty.
Unfortunately specialized knowledges are limited, that hacker with Apple computer 4 won't be hacking into any microsoft windows computers.
Feel free to make up any specialized or unspecialized knowledges as you see fit.
With knowledges your character character can create artifacts, hack computers, or tear apart one of his enemies carefully laid out plans. Further more knowledges can be specialized, for example if the previous hacker specialized in Apple computers, he could hack into any Apple computer, phone, or tablet at 6 difficulty, while the same hacker with just computers 4 would have to role against 8 difficulty.
Unfortunately specialized knowledges are limited, that hacker with Apple computer 4 won't be hacking into any microsoft windows computers.
Feel free to make up any specialized or unspecialized knowledges as you see fit.
Powers are the supernatural abilities specialized to each class and have completely different mechanics for each one. so below I'll put a basic description for each class below.
Mages are the most powerful among supernaturals. Their powers are based on sphere of influence that grow stronger the more dots you put into them. unfortunately they have the weak constitution of normal mortals and are easily killed at earlier stages.
Also must be very careful of how they use their powers a warping reality to your will isn't without consequences. If a mage bends reality enough that he breaks the laws of physics(turning off gravity, flying, shooting fire from his hands), he causes whats called paradox. For every point of paradox a mage gains, his maximum mana is lowered by 1(so if a mage has the normal max of 20 and he gets 1 paradox, its lowered to 19). If his paradox exceeds 20(maximum mana) he's wiped from existence(automatic death, no restarts, no resurrections, non-supernaturals forget he ever existed, etc). Also by blatantly using magic in the open, your letting a lot of unwanted attention know exactly where you are and that your a mage(enemies ranging from minor annoyances to ancient gods, many of which thinking a mage would make a fun toy or a light snack.)
Paradox can be "absorbed" at a rate of one point per "scene"(whenever we pick up where we left off), but in return for the lost paradox point they will have to face a story-based punishment (getting the worst diarrhea of their life, one of the companies they have stocks in going out of buisness, getting run over by a car, or having all their bones brake for no reason to start off). You can also get a Familiar that will happily eat paradox at a rate depending on it's strength ( a 1 dot familiar will eat 1 paradox an in game month, while a 5 dot familiar will eat one paradox an in game day), but the stronger the familiar the more mana it will need to maintain it's form( a 1 dot familiar would need one mana a week, while a 5 dot familiar would need 5 paradox a week).
Mages can only ever store 20 points of mana at any given time, and they don't regenerate this naturally. Mages can only refill their mana byeither stealing it from a node(a fountain of magical power, all of which are scattered randomly across the world and of varying usefulness.also probably guarded by other supernaturals), stealing the power directly from another supernatural(which they won't be very happy about), or absorbing it from the environment if you have prime 5.(this won't get you much mana back and risks paradox)
Their "spheres" are:
Correspondence- power over space and distance.
Entropy- power over probability and chaos
Forces- power over the forces of nature
Life- Power over life and mutation.(P.S. this is where healing spells come from.)
Matter- Power over the properties and reactions of matter
Mind- power over thoughts and will
Prime- Power over the flow of magic (P.S. this is your only way to block enemy spells and magic)
Spirit- power over magical realms and beings
Time- power over time itself
Also must be very careful of how they use their powers a warping reality to your will isn't without consequences. If a mage bends reality enough that he breaks the laws of physics(turning off gravity, flying, shooting fire from his hands), he causes whats called paradox. For every point of paradox a mage gains, his maximum mana is lowered by 1(so if a mage has the normal max of 20 and he gets 1 paradox, its lowered to 19). If his paradox exceeds 20(maximum mana) he's wiped from existence(automatic death, no restarts, no resurrections, non-supernaturals forget he ever existed, etc). Also by blatantly using magic in the open, your letting a lot of unwanted attention know exactly where you are and that your a mage(enemies ranging from minor annoyances to ancient gods, many of which thinking a mage would make a fun toy or a light snack.)
Paradox can be "absorbed" at a rate of one point per "scene"(whenever we pick up where we left off), but in return for the lost paradox point they will have to face a story-based punishment (getting the worst diarrhea of their life, one of the companies they have stocks in going out of buisness, getting run over by a car, or having all their bones brake for no reason to start off). You can also get a Familiar that will happily eat paradox at a rate depending on it's strength ( a 1 dot familiar will eat 1 paradox an in game month, while a 5 dot familiar will eat one paradox an in game day), but the stronger the familiar the more mana it will need to maintain it's form( a 1 dot familiar would need one mana a week, while a 5 dot familiar would need 5 paradox a week).
Mages can only ever store 20 points of mana at any given time, and they don't regenerate this naturally. Mages can only refill their mana byeither stealing it from a node(a fountain of magical power, all of which are scattered randomly across the world and of varying usefulness.also probably guarded by other supernaturals), stealing the power directly from another supernatural(which they won't be very happy about), or absorbing it from the environment if you have prime 5.(this won't get you much mana back and risks paradox)
Their "spheres" are:
Correspondence- power over space and distance.
Entropy- power over probability and chaos
Forces- power over the forces of nature
Life- Power over life and mutation.(P.S. this is where healing spells come from.)
Matter- Power over the properties and reactions of matter
Mind- power over thoughts and will
Prime- Power over the flow of magic (P.S. this is your only way to block enemy spells and magic)
Spirit- power over magical realms and beings
Time- power over time itself
Werewolves not be as powerful as mages, but they are by far more brutal.
Werewolves naturally heal 1 point of non aggravated damage each turn, all damage from their claws and fangs is aggravated, they're able to shape-shift at will between five forms(wolf, dire-wolf, werewolf form, partial wolf form, and human form), and in all forms except human they gain increased strength stamina and senses.
Their powers are based on gnosis(pronounced like genesis without the first e) and rage. These act similarly to willpower in that they have a 1-10 dot rating that determines how many gnosis or rage "points" the werewolf can store at any time. gnosis is used to power a werewolves various gifts, magical spells tought to them by other werewolves and spirits. Rage on the other hand is used to perform superhuman feats and even resist death itself.
A werewolf's gnosis doesn't regenerated except at caerns(yes this is the same thing as a node, so a mage looking to drain magic from a caern my find a very unhappy werewolf waiting for him and vice versa), or by devouring spirits(which doesn't gives his friends a good reason not to teach you that new gift you wanted). A werewolf's rage on the other hand can regenerate from looking at the moon, being in stressful situation, or a the start of combat. Be careful though as whenever a werewolf regenerates rage it has to roll it's current number of rage dots, and if it gets enough successes, will go into a frenzy(note that this is not a good thing). A frenzied werewolf will immediately shift into werewolf form and attack anyone or anything in sight. While frenzied a werewolf doesn't need to role strength when attacking, it's an automatic success, meaning that a werewolf with 3 strength in human form will do 3+2(because he's stronger in werewolf form)+1(because he has claws in werewolf form) for a total of 6 aggravated damage to whatever poor fool was with him that day.
The number of werewolf gifts is theoretically infinite, and like vampires, the only way for a werewolves to learn new gifts is in game from NPCs, not bought with experience points.
All Werewolves have an inherent weakness to silver, and as such take aggravated damage from it.
The first three gifts a werewolf gets are determined at creation by the following:
breed- whether your werewolf was born from a wolf and a werewolf parent, a human and a werewolf parent, or two werewolves
auspice- the phase of the moon your wolf was born under
clan- the clan of werewolf your werewolf was born from.
Werewolves naturally heal 1 point of non aggravated damage each turn, all damage from their claws and fangs is aggravated, they're able to shape-shift at will between five forms(wolf, dire-wolf, werewolf form, partial wolf form, and human form), and in all forms except human they gain increased strength stamina and senses.
Their powers are based on gnosis(pronounced like genesis without the first e) and rage. These act similarly to willpower in that they have a 1-10 dot rating that determines how many gnosis or rage "points" the werewolf can store at any time. gnosis is used to power a werewolves various gifts, magical spells tought to them by other werewolves and spirits. Rage on the other hand is used to perform superhuman feats and even resist death itself.
A werewolf's gnosis doesn't regenerated except at caerns(yes this is the same thing as a node, so a mage looking to drain magic from a caern my find a very unhappy werewolf waiting for him and vice versa), or by devouring spirits(which doesn't gives his friends a good reason not to teach you that new gift you wanted). A werewolf's rage on the other hand can regenerate from looking at the moon, being in stressful situation, or a the start of combat. Be careful though as whenever a werewolf regenerates rage it has to roll it's current number of rage dots, and if it gets enough successes, will go into a frenzy(note that this is not a good thing). A frenzied werewolf will immediately shift into werewolf form and attack anyone or anything in sight. While frenzied a werewolf doesn't need to role strength when attacking, it's an automatic success, meaning that a werewolf with 3 strength in human form will do 3+2(because he's stronger in werewolf form)+1(because he has claws in werewolf form) for a total of 6 aggravated damage to whatever poor fool was with him that day.
The number of werewolf gifts is theoretically infinite, and like vampires, the only way for a werewolves to learn new gifts is in game from NPCs, not bought with experience points.
All Werewolves have an inherent weakness to silver, and as such take aggravated damage from it.
The first three gifts a werewolf gets are determined at creation by the following:
breed- whether your werewolf was born from a wolf and a werewolf parent, a human and a werewolf parent, or two werewolves
auspice- the phase of the moon your wolf was born under
clan- the clan of werewolf your werewolf was born from.
Vampires are the immortal undead and the hidden puppet masters of the world of darkness.
vampires powers stem from blood, and thus they can refill their "blood pool" by drinking from any of the squishy mortals around them(including mages and werewolves).
Vampiric powers are also measured in "disciplines", 1-5 level powers that give you new abilities at every level(example the 1 dot power of presence "awe" allows them to hold the attention of everyone around them, and at the level 2 the character also gains "dread gaze" the ability to scare the s*** out of anyone they're looking at and keeps the power "awe" to use whenever he wants).
Vampires Also don't need to make strength rolls, they're automatic successes. This means a vampire with 2 strength doesn't have to roll two 10-sided dice to determine damage (most likely only getting 1 or 0 successes and doing 1 or no damage.), they just do the full 2 damage(+1 if your vampire has claws, and vampire claws do aggravated damage.)
the amount of blood they can hold is determined by their generation. All vampires stem from the first vampire, caine, as such the more generations between you and caine the less powerful you are as a vampire. This is called a vampires generation. The higher your generation the less blood you can hold/spend, the less you can increase your attributes, and the lower the maximum power of your disciplines
All vampires are weak to fire and sunlight and will take aggravated damage from them or run on sight. Vampires must also make frenzy rolls the same way werewolves do, but instead a vampire rolls willpower with a difficulty of 10 - their humanity score.
Vampire's also have inherent clan weaknesses based on what clan the vampire that turned you was. A vampire's clan also determines your first three disciplines, while these disciplines can be trained with experience points new disciplines can only be learned from other vampires.
vampires powers stem from blood, and thus they can refill their "blood pool" by drinking from any of the squishy mortals around them(including mages and werewolves).
Vampiric powers are also measured in "disciplines", 1-5 level powers that give you new abilities at every level(example the 1 dot power of presence "awe" allows them to hold the attention of everyone around them, and at the level 2 the character also gains "dread gaze" the ability to scare the s*** out of anyone they're looking at and keeps the power "awe" to use whenever he wants).
Vampires Also don't need to make strength rolls, they're automatic successes. This means a vampire with 2 strength doesn't have to roll two 10-sided dice to determine damage (most likely only getting 1 or 0 successes and doing 1 or no damage.), they just do the full 2 damage(+1 if your vampire has claws, and vampire claws do aggravated damage.)
the amount of blood they can hold is determined by their generation. All vampires stem from the first vampire, caine, as such the more generations between you and caine the less powerful you are as a vampire. This is called a vampires generation. The higher your generation the less blood you can hold/spend, the less you can increase your attributes, and the lower the maximum power of your disciplines
All vampires are weak to fire and sunlight and will take aggravated damage from them or run on sight. Vampires must also make frenzy rolls the same way werewolves do, but instead a vampire rolls willpower with a difficulty of 10 - their humanity score.
Vampire's also have inherent clan weaknesses based on what clan the vampire that turned you was. A vampire's clan also determines your first three disciplines, while these disciplines can be trained with experience points new disciplines can only be learned from other vampires.
Name: John Doe
Nature: survivor
Demeanor:Conformist
Willpower: 4
Health: 2
"Power points":"?"
Attributes:
Strength 3 Stamina 2 Dexterity 1
Appearance 2 Manipulation 1 Charisma 2
Intelligence 3 Wits 2 Awareness 3
Traits:
Skill: Brawl 1 Drive 2
Knowledges: computers 1
Talents: N/A
Powers:
"current powers"
Nature: survivor
Demeanor:Conformist
Willpower: 4
Health: 2
"Power points":"?"
Attributes:
Strength 3 Stamina 2 Dexterity 1
Appearance 2 Manipulation 1 Charisma 2
Intelligence 3 Wits 2 Awareness 3
Traits:
Skill: Brawl 1 Drive 2
Knowledges: computers 1
Talents: N/A
Powers:
"current powers"
Everyone has a humanity score that acts as a measure of the characters morals. Everyone's scor starts out at 10 and will decrease by 1 whenever they do something that's not morally sound(like murder). If it hits 0 Then your character becomes an NPC and you'll have to make a new one. Humanity can be increased by doing good deeds(saving the world) or with experience points.
