Me vs. The World of Darkness

[theron]

As previously mentioned, it looks like the next game for my Saturday group (the one on hiatus from Champions) will be something set in the World of Darkness.  The popular sentiment right now is for a mixed group of supernaturals charged with policing others of their kind.  So far, so good.

The catch is, I've never played any version of WoD, even though I own a bunch of stuff for it.  Vampire, I'm most familiar with, as it's the oldest and the one that gets most of the attention.  So I've got an idea what one does with a Vamp.  Werewolf should be a no-brainer for me, but the rules go off in weird shamanic tangents that are fairly off-putting to tell the truth.  And Mage?  Mage melts my brain.  Seriously.  The only game that ever made me feel more like an idiot than any flavor of Mage is Nobilis.  Maybe it's due to all the drugs I didn't take in college or my 20s, but I just can't wrap my feeble mundane brain around it in the least.

So, I really don't know what I'm doing, which makes me worry I'm going to be less than competent at this, and for me, competence as a player very definitely translates to enjoyment at the table.  Fortunately, I found a copy of V:tR for Dummies at Half-Price Books a while back.  It seems to hit the high points, so I'm hoping I'll get through this OK, just as long as I play a bloodsucker.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Just curious, but what do you consider "competence as a player"?

I actually enjoy not knowing everything about the rules/world when I'm playing these days. I get a real sense of exploration as I'm learning a new system / setting, so I try not to spoil things for myself by reading too much about it.

Does it frustrate you in our Champions game that I try and keep myself from learning all the little nitty gritty things?

-Jeff

[theron]

Knowing enough to not have to fumble around and slow down the game. I don't mind having the sense of exploration, so long as I can see the fruits of it in gameplay and I'm not hindering everyone else's good time.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about this at length on LJ. I think I'll put it into a post here. It should be up shortly.

So... how'd it play out

[(Anonymous)]

I came across your link on RPG.net. And scrolling through your posts, found this one. Now as a GM who's also in the (almost) exact same boat as you, I'm curious how did this play out. What did y'all decide to play? Are you doing V:tR or a combination of all of them?

Good luck with it and keep us posted

Re: So... how'd it play out

[theron]

It looks like we'll be doing the supernatural combo. Sort of a "Suicide Squad" game for monsters.

At this point, I think I'm going to make a Gangrel former Russian Mafiya enforcer.

Re: So... how'd it play out

[(Anonymous)]

Cool. Like the concept. Just seems interesting mix-mashing the whole WoD trope.

-jhilahd
aka Bobby