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 Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:50 pm
Whether you've played Vampire before or not, you may be wondering exactly how I'm going to be incorporating it into Gaia's forums system. Here I'll explain how the mechanics of this game are going to work.
Table of Contents
1. Posting Your Character's Actions
2. Rolling Dice
3. Taking Secret Actions
4. Chapters
5. Rules of Conduct
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 10:34 pm
1. Posting Your Character's ActionsYou may be as wordy and eloquent or succinct and simple as you wish when writing your character's actions. No one will be penalized for not writing well; however, I may award an experience point here and there for good writing, not necessarily in mechanics, but in description and drama. There will be two parts to every post: The In Character description (IC) and the Out of Character description (OOC). The IC will be where you flex your writing muscles, using only descriptive words. It will come first, at the top of your post, because the main purpose of Storytelling games is to tell stories, is it not? After you write out your character's actions IC, the OOC comes at the bottom of the post in ((double parentheses)). The purpose of the OOC is to let me and the other players know exactly what your character is doing so there is no doubt in terms of what action needs to be taken and what dice need to be rolled. Example Post #1 Jennifer slammed the parchment down on her desk and stood, glaring over her thin silver-rimmed glasses at Antonio. "You dare," she hissed, "to waltz in here and hand me these papers? To call one of your Blood Hunts on my childe? The Camarilla have no power here. Your precious Prince can shove these papers up his a**, if there's any room for them with his head so far up it already." In the corners of the room, the shadows began to quiver with movement. ((She's attempting to use Arms of the Abyss to restrain him.)) Example Post #2 Andy ducked to the left and down, twisting his torso slightly to avoid the punch. ((Dodging.)) Example Post #3 Snarling, Veronica slid her handgun out of its holster and, biting her lip, with one eye closed, took aim at her rival and pulled the trigger. ((Aiming for her head, want to try to get two shots off if she can.)) Even if it seems redundant, like in the second example, always post your specific actions in OOC. The fewer misunderstandings we have about character actions, the smoother the game will progress. When in a group setting, everyone at the scene at the time must post their actions before the next turn is started. Even if it's a conversation between three characters and an NPC and your character is just standing there, you have to write "Norman idly scratches his ear," or "Amy nods sympathetically," or something. This is so that I know you're paying attention and to make sure I don't skip anyone who might want to take an action. If your character isn't taking any action for a turn, write ((No action)) or something to that effect in the OOC. If three characters are in a warehouse and two characters are off hunting together, the two groups will act separately. Only those three in the warehouse have to post for the next turn in the warehouse to begin. However, chronologically we don't want one group to get too far ahead of the other, so at some point I will put the warehouse on hold if the hunters need to finish up their scene before the entire chapter continues.
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Naleri rolled 5 10-sided dice:
6, 2, 7, 6, 10
Total: 31 (5-50)
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:03 pm
2. Rolling Dice
Usually the players roll the dice after the Storyteller tells them what to roll, but for the sake of moving things along, I'll be rolling the dice using Gaia's built-in dice rolling system. In each post that involves rolling dice I will state, in OOC, what the roll is for, which stats I'm rolling, and what the difficulty is, so you inexperienced players can get a feel for how the real game works. To that end, I will explain briefly how the dice work in Vampire.
Ten-sided dice are used. Every roll is made up of an Attribute rating plus an Ability rating (Strength + Intimidation, Charisma + Performance, Wits + Computers). You add the number of dots in each trait together, then roll that number of dice. For example, Strength 3 + Intimidation 2 means you get to roll 5 dice. The more dots you have in those traits, the bigger your dice pool. The bigger your dice pool, the more chances you have at succeeding.
Success is determined by the number of dice you rolled that landed on or above the Difficulty rating of the task. Difficulty ratings are anywhere from 4 to 10 (Anything from 1-3 is too easy to even require a roll, like tying your shoes) but usually fall within the 6-8 range. Six is considered standard difficulty, seven is challenging, eight is difficult, nine is extremely difficult, and ten is next to impossible. Four and five are for easy tasks which you might still fail with some bad luck.
Speaking of bad luck, a roll of 1 is called a botch. Each botch cancels out one successful roll. If you have no successes, but you have a botch, you are considered to have botched the entire roll and something very bad happens, like your gun jamming or slipping on some ice and accidentally stabbing yourself in the stomach.
Some example rolls:
1. You're miles from your haven, and the sun will be up soon. Wits (3) + Survival (1), Difficulty 7. You roll 4 dice: 2, 5, 8, 6. Only one roll was 7 or above: one Success. You barely find shelter for the day at the last minute.
2. Suddenly a man pushes a crate out of the van you've been chasing. Wits (3) + Drive (2), Difficulty 6, to swerve out of the way. You roll 5 dice: 4, 6, 7, 9, 9. Four Successes. With a flick of your wrist, you expertly swerve around the crate without losing any distance.
3. Can you read the German translation of the Book of Nod without losing anything in the translation? Intelligence (3) + Linguistics (1), Difficulty 8. You roll 4 dice: 5, 6, 4, 1. No successes and a botch means you've botched the roll. You think you've translated the book properly, but actually you're horribly mistaken. You become convinced you've discovered some amazing new revelation in the Book of Nod, when really it's a grievous error in your translation.
After the die roll, I will explain the results of the dice in descriptive IC, then add any necessary explanations or prompts in OOC below.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:11 pm
3. Taking Secret Actions
In a world as full of secrets and treachery as the World of Darkness, you won't always want your actions known. If at any time you want your character to perform a secret action without the players knowing, talk to me privately on MSN, AIM, or in PM on Gaia. I'll roll the dice secretly and let only you know the outcome.
For example, if you're a Malkavian and you want to read someone's mind without the rest of the pack knowing, talk to me and we'll work it out. But be warned; if you fail or botch certain things, your secrecy will be blown and your failure may become known to everyone.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:19 pm
4. Chapters
Because we won't be meeting in person and having regular game sessions, I will be dividing this game up into various chapters. Sometimes an action can only be performed once per game session, so I'm doing it for the sake of that and for organizational purposes. Each chapter will be based around a particular task the characters have to complete, and they'll be anywhere from one night to a week long (in game time). This isn't counting downtime -- if the characters are told to do something, wait a week, then do something else, the week in between will be downtime and only the first and last night will be played out.
Each chapter will have a unique title and its own thread, where all the action will take place. When that chapter is closed, I will make a final post declaring it such, then lock the thread so no more posts can be made in it. Experience point rewards will be PMed to you. There'll be a break between chapters while I prepare the next one, and once the next chapter thread is posted, you're welcome to start posting in it.
When it comes to the chapter threads, please keep them nice and neat. Only post your character's actions. I'm not going to be a nazi about it, but try to keep extra chat about the game or otherwise in The Haven (Random Chat).
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