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While Iâm remaking the World of Darkness Combat system[a], Iâm starting to feel that Character Creation could stand to be a lot more balanced.
But itâs more of a Storytelling system. This isnât about killing trolls for gold pieces - itâs adult story-crafting.
âŠthatâs what I hear the books echo back to me.
And okay, âstory craftingâ sounds great, but why do players receive Experience Points for certain behaviours?
Itâs to encourage that behaviour. Players want Experience Points to build their character.
Right, so they can raise stats, and achieve more successes on rolls, because players want to succeed.
Not necessarily, could be down to the character and the story theyâre craftingâŠ
Okay, so sometimes players donât want Experience Points?
Players should always want Experience Points, because on average they want better successes.
Okay, so they want Experience Points so they can roll more successes on average?
Naturally, Socrates.
But this only applies after character creation, and not during?
Yes. At the time of character creation, players want to apply dots to make the character they envision, but after that the character grows - again, according to the playerâs vision of the character.
Okay, so Iâm making a Harvard-educated scholar, who ended up training to be a lawyer. Iâve given him Academics 2, Law 3, and I have 2 Freebie Points left. Adding a dot of Academics would be worth 6 Experience Points, while the dot in Law is worth 8. The character concept doesnât really pin me down either way, so obviously I should go for the Law, as thatâs the Min-Maxed, optimal result.
Ha! âMinmaxâ! I got you now, you Munchkin.
Learning Maths is not a crime. Also, I canât unsee what Iâve seen. Hang on, how do you make characters without being painfully aware of wanting Experience Points, directly after character creation?
â Lifts Scooby-Doo mask â
WAIT A MINUTE! Youâre actually just
⊠Mathematically illiterate. Honestly, I canât even work Excel.
Well that explains everything!
Or maybe it doesnât. The rest of the system is genius - multiplication of stats to increase costs, higher starting costs, et c. The real reason has to be an attempt to speed up character creation, but I donât see how the tiny speed-increase is worth the cost.
Right, Iâm going to get to work fixing that Character Creation system, with Experience Points.
But youâll make it more complicated! New players will have to spend points dot-per-dot, one by one.
Removing a subsystem cannot make something more complicated. Iâm simplifying by any measure.
And while Iâm here, if you want this not to be a âcombat focussed gameâ, you should have more Combat Abilities, not fewer. If you want to be good at social rolls, you need to buy Empathy, Intimidation, Subterfuge, Etiquette, Expression, and Leadership: 6 Abilities.
For combat, you need Brawl, Dodge, and MĂȘlĂ©e; but not Dodge as itâs useless, so just Brawl and MĂȘlĂ©e. Actually, if you have Claws of the Beast, you can just use Brawl all the time, and otherwise, just carry a weapon and use MĂȘlĂ©e at all times: 1 Ability.
Getting your character good at Social interaction requires six times the Experience Points - the system aggressively punishes players who want to roll social abilities. Reversing the trend seems simple - remove some Social Abilities and add some Combat Abilities.
That leaves us with 4 Social Abilities, and 4 Combat Abilities (or 5 if you include Archery/ Firearms).