World of Darkness on the Gauntlet

#1

Hello all, it is I, the Majestic Mustelid that is known as FERRET!

I have some curiosities as I have seen a bit of OSR and PbtA on the Gauntlet but got my start in the TTRPG scene not with a D20 and friends but a bag full of D10s and grimdark dreams of a gothic world. I’m speaking, of course, of the World of Darkness by White Wolf back in the day. Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, Wraiths, I’ve played every splat even if I don’t care for all of them and I have been having pangs of nostalgia for the old days.

In short I am wondering if it is even possible or desired for WoD games to be hosted on the Gauntlet? If I did so I’d probably stick with the 20th Anniversary Onyx Path material and definitely cleave to safety tools while probably injecting quite a bit of MC prompting to the general ST skills.

Of the 20th Anniversary Games I am most looking to run (in alphabetical order): Changeling: the Dreaming, Vampire: the Masquerade, or Wraith: the Oblivion. I might have ideas for Werewolf down the line but have no interest in Mage.

With that stated I will whittle down what I mean as those in the know either know vast swaths of meta or may be intimidated by options.

V:tM 20th ideas

Orange and Blue: This would be a Sabbat game, hopefully 4-5 sessions, mainly dealing with Paths of Enlightenment and how vampires view the world differently because of them. Very much a talky, narrative style of V:tM more like Interview With a Vampire than Blade.

(Un)Living Europe: Another Sabbat game, more like a “living world” in that I may run a month long 4-5 session game but I would come back to it over and over with new and/or returning players as the schedule allows. I want to set this in Eastern Europe where the Sabbat has a chokehold, maybe Poland or Romania. I’m thinking this would be a mixture of True Blood and Underworld feel in the way that vampires have been in power for a long, long time and feel very entrenched and in control…before shakeups are introduced.

W:tO

Wrong Place, Wrong Time: This is a somewhat experimental game. I would like all the players to have died at the same time, in the same location. This need not be a violent death; perhaps people of different reasons in a hospital or having worked in a building with a gas leak that had no smell for some reason. You are thus thrust together into the Stygian world and have to make your way through the world of the dead with only the tie to your Cadre being that you happen to share a similar time on the end. Should be very friendly to newbies and it would be a Stygian/Hierarchy game focusing on what players wanted.

Hidden Allegiances: In this game you are an older Wraith and your Cadre is brought together because you are all part of a Guild; a long “broken” tie that is a poorly kept secret in the world of the dead. You must keep your allegiances secret, relying honestly on only a few of your fellow dead like your Cadre. Very much a game inspired by Game of Thrones, Dresden Files, and SCUP.

C:tD

Dark Counterculture: Nashville, 1995. Kurt Cobain is dead and Grunge is going back underground if you want that good noise. Rap is brutal and real. Gothic darkwave is experimenting in grand new ways. Rivet heads mosh to industrial power anthems. Riot-grrls paste streets with badass posters. This is Nashville in the heydey of musical clashes, when the choke hold Grunge and Alternative had loosened so Pop could wiggle back inside. You and your Motley are tied together by music; maybe you’re in a band, maybe you’re a music club who gets together to listen to the dreams of those who made the music, maybe something you craft for yourself. The theme of the game would be music not on MTV and how the raw, potent glamour it creates can change the Changeling landscape.

So, those are my ideas for the moment and my question. I hope to get some bites!

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#2

While I am interested in the setting(s) - it came out just as I was getting tired of the whole fantasy stuff - I wouldn’t want to play with the WoD system, because it usually gets in its own way and doesn’t really address the core concept. Especially Vampire went from “a monster I am lest a monster I become” to “hey, I’m a monster and that’s so cool, watch me rip peoples’ heads off for funz”.

Also, I have a lot of uncomfortable memories of Vampire games where players would play character vs. character with no safety tools whatsoever and lots of hard feelings. (Especially in this Vampire LARP, that was just so toxic.)

Wraith and Changeling I feel better about, because characters were never so antagonistic towards each other. Still, the system doesn’t much support what I think is cool about these.

… and if I had time, I would totally finish this C:tD hack for pbta. There is some cool stuff in there, especially with the two-fold identity of the characters as both human and fae that I find rather appealing.

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#3

I might play Wraith, just because I’ve never tried it. My primary interest from oWoD is Demon, though; my angsty younger self adored those books.

#4

I do love World of Darkness in general, though I’m more a Chronicles of Darkness person myself.

The main issue for online play I see with a lot of games like those is it tends to go into one of two directions:

  • The rules start to bog things down with rolls - trad games tend to have a lot more rolls that don’t end up really mattering. I find rolling has a higher time cost online, so a fight that might take a couple dozen rolls to resolve is a bigger hassle than at the table.
    or
  • A lot of Storytellers just flat out ignore the rules and it just becomes the players taking a guided tour through the Storyteller’s plot. I find this deeply unsatisfying at the table, and suspect that it’d feel even worse online.

Anyways, I really love a lot of these games and might be interested but there’s kind of a needle that needs to be threaded y’know? I’d be really curious though to see what kinds of tactics or hacks to make these types of games work in this format could be developed though.

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#5

I like a lot of the concepts of WoD, though my favourite game line is Hunter The Vigil - just full of great monsters. But I’m not drawn to the system. I’d rather play Urban Shadows with WoD flavour. I’ve been intrigued by Lowell’s PBTA Changeling hack.

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#6

i’ve been talking to Tyler about this recently. I’d love to run the 5th ed version of vampire the Masquerade on the Gauntlet, but i’m not sure i’d get enough players to run it

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#7

Despite what I said above, I’ll try almost anything if it’s in a time I can play! One/Two-shots at least.

#8

There’s definitely interest! I occasionally float WoD and there is a definite response, more so actually than other systems I suggest. I think V5 would get a lot of attention and it would be a perfect fit for open table play.

World of Darkness would definitely work on the Gauntlet – I think all you need is to decide on the best way to use the ruleset in an online space, which probably means more of a focus on narrative momentum than mechanical momentum. There’s not a thing wrong with intensive character creation and building dice pools, however. Spire works wonderfully on Gauntlet and you build dice pools in that system!

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#9

About WoD rules: I recently found out about a pbta hack of some WoD games called Powered by the Dark and I thought it could be interesting tosome of you.

Here, a create a new topic for it: Powered by the Dark

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