Dice
The first step of learning Pen and Paper is to create a character sheet.
I've spent a great deal of time on that, hope it makes it easier. It has a guide built-in, but read below anyway.
The most thorough and accurate lesson would be in the WoD Core Book, but I'll try to give a brief description here.
Character sheets are used to assure balanced play. Without character sheets, players could simply say;
"My character is really strong, and really fast too. Oh, and really tough. Oh and also really good with guns, and swords, and driving, and explosives. And he can speak 3 languages. Oh, and he can summon shadows to kill people. And he's 7 feet tall, with glowing red eyes, and can throw cars at people. Cause he's 100,000,0 years old."
With VtM:R players could just host their own games, boost their stats to max, get a flaming broadsword and "Roleplay" away. By using character sheets you not only ensure a balanced and equal character creation, but the characters are not godly, and the storyteller can keep a copy of everyone's character sheets to assure no one fibs on their stats.
1) Pick your character's name. Don't rule out typical boring names like Nick and Steve, your character's name won't define him/her. If you want a memorable character you have to do it through roleplay. Some of the characters of past games who I still remember as being amazing: "Jonathan", "Sebastion", "Seth", "Peter", "Loren", etc. I can't remember any of the characters who had really "unique" names. An option is to have a nickname. For example, you're character's name is Joe Smith, but he's a big buff muscley vampire that bullies people around, you could name him Joe "The Bruiser" Smith. Just don't get carried away, a chronicle where everyone has nicknames gets pretty corny.
2) Decide what your character is. Human, Ghoul, Vampire... if Vampire, then is he/she fresh from the grave? Been around a few centuries?
Mortal: Just like you and me.
Ghoul: The blood-bound servants of vampires
Fledgling: Brand new vampire
Neonate: Several years experience
Ancillae: Lived a few lifetimes, knows the ropes
Elder: Old as dirt, lived for centuries
3) Pick your clan. See the Clans sections that Isador was kind enough to put up:
4) Pick your primary, secondary, and tertiary attributes of Physical, Social, and Mental. This is deciding what kind of character you are making. Does your character spend most of their time in social circles, talking his way out of situations and charming his/her way to the top? Maybe you would pick Social for your primary, mental for your secondary, and physical as tertiary. Depending on how you prioritized, you get an amount of points to spend.
The points are listed as: 1st/2nd/3rd
The standard creation points for a Neonate vampire is 7/5/3, meaning you have 7 points to distribute to your primary attribute, 5 to your secondary, and 3 to your tertiary. (See the form I linked for other ages of vampire and other "races")
All attributes start with 1 point in them already.
Below is a guide to give you an idea of what your character is like:
O: Poor, lower than most
OO: Average for mortals
OOO: Above average, best in a hundred miles
OOOO: Great, one of the best of your country
OOOOO: One of the best in the world, absolute peak of human potential.
For an example character:
I have chosen Physical as my primary, so I have 7 points to distribute.
Strength: O(OOO)
Dexterity: O(OO)
Stamina: O(OO)
I have chosen Mental as my tertiary, so I have 3 points to distribute.
Perception: O(O)
Intelligence: O
Wits: O(OO)
I have chosen Social as my secondary, so I have 5 points to distribute.
Charisma: O(OOO)
Manipulation: O(OO)
Appearance: O
With brackets around the points that I added to show you how each already has one point in it.
This mock character is exceptionally strong, 4 strength is the equivalent of a professional body-builder and can lift 400 lbs, they are also very agile and tough. Top professional fighters or body-built Marines may have these kinds of Physical stats.
This character has average perception, and above average wits, but poor intelligence. "Not the sharpest knife in the drawer" IQ 80.
The character's charisma is very high, meaning the character has significant personal magnetism. They may not be bright, but they sure are irresistible. An appearance of 1 means you are noticeably ugly, and people notice. But at least we're charming!
5) Next, you have to do the same for your "Abilities", which are Talents, Skills, and Knowledges. Pick your primary, secondary, and tertiary. This time, the standard Neonate vampire has 13/9/5 to distribute.
No points means you know nothing of that particular skills or ability. 1 point means you have a basic understanding. 2 points is a solid understanding. 3 points is exceptional, and 4 points is near mastery. A University professor with a Doctorate in physics would have 4 points in Science. 5 points means you are one of the best in the world.
NOTE: No Talent, Skill or Knowledge can be raised higher than 3 in this stage, you can raise them further with "freebies" (explained later).
NOTE: Abilities start with zero points in them.
6) Rate your "Background" traits. This time, instead of doing any prioritizing, you just have X amount of points to spend. Standard Neonate vampires have 5 points to spend.
NOTE: Backgrounds start with zero points in them.
NOTE: For each point in the "Generation" background trait, your generation gets 1 point lower from 13.
NOTE: Many chronicles have gen restrictions as having a low generation can make your character vastly overpowered.
7) Disciplines, are vampiric blood powers. These depend on what clan you picked. See step 3 for the link to a list of clans and the Disciplines they have. For a list of the disciplines and basic descriptions, click here
NOTE: Disciplines start with zero points in them.
8) Virtues are the morals and psychology of your character. The three normal Virtues are Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage. If you are a Follower of a Path of Enlightenment, you use alternative Virtues.
For the purpose of this guide, you are a normal "Humanity" follower. Each virtue begins with 1 point in it. Neonate vampires have 7 points to distribute. For example:
Conscience: O
Self-Control: O(OOO)
Courage: O(OOOO)
Our mock character is incredibly courageous, running from nothing and never backing down. Our character also has a firm control of his anger and urges. No "hulk smash!" for this one.
Consequently, our Conscience is very low. This means when our character sees a particularly brutal act, or commits one himself, he will most likely not care and his "Humanity" rating will suffer, making him fall further away from his human side and closer to the beast. Characters who have lost much of their humanity begin to stand out in crowds, looking sick, dead, or just creepy. Once the character loses all humanity, he is just a wild blood-thirsty creature and the player loses all control. Basically, dead. Following a Path of Enlightenment allows an alternative to Humanity, giving your character a different set of rules to follow and a higher purpose. Volumes could be written on each individual path, so I won't cover it in this guide.
9) Now, speaking of Humanity, you will now record your Humanity rating. It is simply your Conscience + Self-Control. So in the case of our mock character from step 8, we would have a Humanity rating of 5 (1 conscience + 4 self-control).
Willpower is equal to your courage. In the case of our mock character from step 8, we would have Willpower 5 (courage 5).
Then determine your generation. Generation is equal to 13 minus the # of points in your "Generation" background trait. So if you spent 2 points on the "Generation" background, your gen would be 11 (13 - 2).
Your max Bloodpool is determined by your generation. The easiest way is to look at my Character Sheet "Form" that I linked earlier in this tutorial, click here for a link that shows you an example of this form.
10) Merits & Flaws and Freebies are the final touches.
Merits & Flaws are ways to take characteristics of your character and translate them into in-game points. They are NOT ways to squeeze extra points out.
Two examples:
Good:
My character is always sick. Skinny, malnourished looking, and puking, but he is exceptionally smart and strong-willed. I looked at the Merits & Flaws list and picked a few to help represent that idea.
Bad:
My character wasn't quite strong enough; I really wanted an extra point in Potence so I took a bunch of flaws so I could afford the extra point.
Good:
I decided not to take any Merits or Flaws, I just want to roleplay all the particulars of my character.
Bad:
I have no idea what character I want to play, but picking a bunch of Merits and Flaws made an interesting one. My character is a blind, deaf, daredevil with photographic memory and a dark secret!
Did I mention that's bad? It's bad.
You cannot take more than 7 points worth of flaws total. Taking merits does not counter-act this limit. Flaws add freebies according to their point value and Merits cost freebies.
FREEBIES: Neonates have 15 freebies. Freebies are a way to personalize your character beyond what the standard creation rules allow.
For example, you noticed for Abilities (Talents, Skills, and Knowledges) you could not raise any above 3. Well now is your chance to really specialize if you want to.
Below are the freebie costs:
Disciplines: 7
Attributes: 5
Abilities: 2
Virtues: 2
Humanity: 1
Willpower: 1
As you can see, you can raise your Humanity and Willpower very cheaply, while Disciplines and Attributes are quite expensive. This is because of the drastic jump in power Attributes and Disciplines have. Disciplines more so because you get entirely new powers every rank for most disciplines.
That's it!
Feel free to contact me with questions via MSN or e-mail:
shadowde@yahoo.com
Now on to dice...
Pen and Paper can seem clunky and slow at first, it is turn-based and there's really nothing pretty to look at on the screen. If there isn't some degree of description going on it can get really dull. The benefits however are well worth it.
-Fairness: PnP is a "turn-based" system, and entirely based on stats. So you don't have to click on the enemy over and over to be "good".
-Dynamics: In PnP you aren't running up to each other and clicking, you can do anything you can imagine. Want to kick off the wall, spin, pull a gun out, do a flip then shoot the baddy in the head? Go for it.
-Roleplay: PnP and Roleplay go hand in hand. Your character walks into a room, and the storyteller asks you to roll Perception+Alertness, you succeed and notice an assassin hiding behind the sofa.
-Strategy: Many realistic strategies apply in PnP. If you can quickly blind your enemy, you have almost assured your victory. Damage his legs enough and then pick him off from a distance. Slam a door in his face then disappear around the corner, only to be waiting with a knife. Anything is possible.
To the basics!
Lets take a pair of combatants, and to make things simple, both of them have 2 in every stat (2 strength, 2 stamina, 2 intelligence, 2 brawl, 2 politics, etc etc etc)
Character A: Swings a right hook punch at Character B
Rolls: Dexterity+Brawl (2 dexterity+2 Brawl=4 dice)
In game, you would type %4
I will simulate the dice roll:
2, 9, 10, 5
Standard "difficulty" is 6, meaning only numbers at or above 6 count as "successes".
Hence, only the 9 and the 10 count as successes, so 2 successes total.
In short, Character A scored 2 successes on his to-hit roll.
Character B: Tries to duck.
Rolls: Dexterity+Dodge (2 dexterity+2 dodge=4 dice)
%4
4, 3, 4, 2
No successes, Character B fails to dodge
Character A hits!
Now Character A rolls to see how much damage he did with his punch.
He rolls Strength (2)
%2
6, 8
Two succeses, since both numbers are at or above 6.
That translates to 2 damage.
Character B can now soak with his stamina+any armor he is wearing. In this case, he's not, so he rolls only his stamina (2)
%2
4, 7
One success, meaning Character B absorbed 1 point of damage, and takes 1.
So to recap: 1st roll to see if you hit the other person, 2nd (if you hit) roll damage, and 3rd the target that got hit rolls soak.
1) See if you hit
2) See how much force you hit with
3) See how much that hurt the opponent.
Now, the first step of combat, since this is a turn-based system, is "Init". Init determines the order in which the characters act.
To figure out Init, you roll one die.
So type %1
Then you add your dexterity and wits to that number, and type it in OOC chat.
The character with the lowest number has to declare what his action is, allowing all the "faster reacting" characters to see what he will do and react accordingly. Once everyone has declared their actions from lowest init to highest, the actions begin from highest init to lowest. Meaning the fastest reacting characters act first.
It is a combination of luck (the 1 die), muscle reaction time (dex), and mental reaction time (wits)
Below is a mock transcript of a combat round using 2 for every stat again:
Bob says, "You have insulted my Mother for the last time!"
Bob draws his sword.
Storyteller says, "((Inits))"
Bob rolls: 5
Joe rolls: 8
Bob says, "((7))
Joe says, "((12))
Bob will stab Joe with his sword.
Joe will kick Bob in the nuts
Storyteller says, "((Dex+brawl difficulty 8))"
Joe rolls 5, 9, 2, 4
Joe says, "((1 success))"
Storyteller says, "((Roll strength+2))"
Joe rolls 4, 9, 6, 8
Joe says, "3 successes"
Storyteller says, "((Bob, roll soak for 3 bashing))"
Bob rolls 2, 6, 3, 5
Bob says, "1 soak"
Storyteller says, "((Bob takes 2 bashing damage to the groin))"
Bob falls down in agony, never getting a chance to stab Joe.
Joe says, "Yo momma"
There are many nuances to the rolling system, such as damage and difficulty modifiers for various weapons, hit-locations, etc. If you're an over-achiever you can learn all of these. Otherwise, the storyteller should be able to tell you what to roll. In the end, it's his decision anyway. If he says a groin is a particularly small target and is difficulty 10 to hit, then that's what it is.
If you feel you're being cheated or otherwise treated unfairly from other players, whisper the storyteller ASAP. Usually it's just a misunderstanding but some STs do get little power trips.
Disciplines work in very similar ways, but they aren't as logical as rolling dexterity + melee to hit someone with a sword. Many disciplines use somewhat odd stat combinations like Manipulation + Occult or Perception + Medicine. Often they are at odd difficulties too (not the standard diff 6).
Also, many disciplines have unique resistance rolls, such as a straight willpower roll, a courage roll, a charisma+empathy roll, etc etc. The difficulties can vary wildly on resistance rolls as well.
The easiest way to know all of these is to have the WoD book in front of you and open to the Disciplines page.
When I ST I do that so that I can help the other players and tell them what they need to roll for the discipline they are attempting.
If you do take the overachiever route and learn all of this, be sure to announce what you're rolling, don't just roll and proclaim yourself the winner.
Ie:
Bob says, "((Rolling Man+Occult diff 7 for Arms of the Abyss))"
Bob rolls 5, 6, 2, 7
Bob says, "((One tendril))
This saves the storyteller time as opposed to frustrating the hell out of them when they don't know what the hell you're rolling.
I may add more to this page later. For questions, MSN or e-mail me at:
shadowde@yahoo.com
