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Storytelling System Part I: Character Creation
Some of you joining us may have limited or no knowledge of the Storytelling system used by World of Darkness. This post is directed at you, or anyone who simply needs a refresher in just how the game is played. This guide will explain the basics of filling out your character sheet, which will also help to familiarize you with how gameplay will eventually work. Do feel free to contact a storyteller if you have questions!

Character Creation
The Storytelling system is nice compared to other role playing games because once you finish creating a character, you'll already have a working concept of just how the rest of the game is played. The key focus to this is your character sheet, which outlines almost everything you need to know about the character in question. What follows is a link to a mortal character sheet, and a guide on filling it out. It's advised that you go ahead and download the sheet to follow along as you read the guide, if this is your first time.

Mortal Character Sheet: http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/NWOD/NWoD1-Page.pdf

Step One: Consider Your Character
The most important part of the character creation process is to understand just what kind of character you're looking to create. Is he a police officer with a drinking problem? A wealthy CEO with a dark past? A homeless man with problems controlling his gas, but somehow knows kung fu? Know exactly what you want to accomplish BEFORE you pick up a sheet, and it will come out much more accurate.

Step Two: Attributes
Attributes can be found near the top of the sheet. Though it's not clearly labeled as such, these are organized into three vertical categories: Mental (Intelligence, Wits, Resolve), Physical (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution), and Social (Presence, Manipulation, Composure). Each of these nine attributes is rated by a number of dots, from one to five, determining how developed your stats are for your character. To fill this section out, you'll need to organize the three categories (Mental, Physical, and Social) into ranks that represent your character. For example, a scientist will likely pick the Mental category as his primary, but his social awkwardness would have him pick Physical as his secondary, and Social as his final. Once this is done, you'll be given five points to spend in your Primary category, four to spend in your Secondary, and three to spend in the leftover category. Meaning the scientist mentioned above would have five points to spend in Mental, four to spend in Physical, and three to spend in Social. Note that these points are in ADDITION to the ones already marked on your sheet.

Step Three: Skills
While attributes are representation of your characters innate characteristics, your skills represent the things they have learned. You'll find the SKills section on your character sheet along the left side, and should notice they are divided into the same Mental, Physical, and Social categories as before. As a result, this filling this section out is a very similar process as with attributes. Rate the categories into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. Note that these ratings do NOT need to be the same as with your attributes, as this section represents your learned abilities. Once rated, you are given 11 points to spend in your Primary category, 7 points to spend in your Secondary category, and 4 to spend in your leftover category. Note this time that these ratings start a zero, so it is possible to be completely untrained in any skill.

Step Four: Skill Specialties
Just because your character might have a high skill in Drive doesn't mean they are great at driving everything. This is where skill specialties come in. At creation, you are given three of these to use between all of your skills. For example, common Firearms specialties could include Pistol, Shotgun, Rifle, Heavy Weapons, ect. If that skill becomes used and the specialty comes into play, you'll receive a +1 bonus to your roll. There's no great place on your sheet to note these, so keep them in mind on the side.

Step Five: Merits
This is where things get fun. Merits are perks that your character possess that has a real benefit beyond simple dice rolls. They represent a fighting style that your character knows, represent the amount of income your character has, and much more. At creation, you have seven points to spend on merits. There are entirely too many merits to list on this page, so here's a good resource for all available merits: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Merits Note that this resource does not detail specific bonus' for the character. For that, you'll need to reference the rulebook which is listed next to it.

Step Six: Derived Stats
Now that you've picked the exciting stuff, the rest just sort of falls into place.

Health - This shows how much damage you can take before bad stuff happens. Your maximum starting health is your Stamina + Size (More on Size in a moment). Use the dots to fill this stat out. The squares below represent your current damage taken (More on that later). Willpower - This shows how well your character is holding it together. Willpower points can be spent on enhanced dice rolls and powerful spells, at the cost of mental health. Your starting willpower is your Resolve + Composure. Again, use the dots to note this. The squares represent your current willpower points. Morality - This shows how moral your character is, and can reduce or increase through the game depending on how lawful your character's actions are. Your starting Morality is 7. Note that this can be reduced at character creation to gain experience. Ask your storyteller for information on this. Size - This is a number to represent how large your character is physically. Average humans always start at five. There is a merit called Giant that can be taken at creation that increases this to six. Speed - This notates how far your character can move, in meters, per turn. Your speed is your Strength + Dexterity + 5. Defense - Represents your ability to dodge attacks in melee combat. Your defense rating is directly subtracted from your attackers dice pool, with a couple of exceptions. Your Defense is either your Wits or Dexterity attribute, whichever is LOWER. Initiative - This shows your ability to get the drop on your enemies in combat. When combat begins, an Initiative roll shows in what order everyone acts. This stat helps you win that roll. Your Initiative is your Dexterity + Composure.

Step Seven: Details
This basically involves filling out the top section of your sheet. Picking your characters name and age should already have been done. Chronicle is the name of the particular story your character is involved in, for book keeping purposes (In this case, it's Atlanta By Night). Concept is a short 3-5 word phrase to describe your character (Such as misanthropic drug-addicted doctor, socially awkward scientist, and so-on). Faction and Group name would detail if your character is involved with a group such as a gang, and would likely be detailed during play. Virtue and Vice are a little different. Picking these basically allows you to play into your characters moral strengths and weaknesses for a chance to win back Willpower points. Playing these accurately can add a lot of depth to your character.

Virtues: Charity, Faith, Fortitude, Hope, Justice, Prudence, Temperance. Vices: Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath.

And that's it! Figuring out your armor and starting equipment is a discussion you'll need to have with your storytellers, but at this point, you have a working knowledge of just what kind of person your character is. As always, feel free to ask any questions you may have regarding these systems.

Storytelling System Part II: Gameplay
Now that you've successfully tried you hand at creating a character, it's time to learn how to put all of those fancy stats to use. As with other games using dice systems, try not to let the rules overcome the fun associated with role playing. Rolling a dice every time you want to start a car or feed your dog will get old after very quickly. Also, while this post details most of what you need to know, the best resource will always be the core rulebook, so get your hands on one if it's at all possible!

Dice and Furcadia
World of Darkness uses a d10 system, meaning the only dice you'll ever be rolling are ten sided dice. Furcadia has dice rolling actions built right into the interface, though many people might be unaware how to use this functionality in a way that benefits this particular game.

The command to roll dice in Furcadia is:

roll XdY

...Where X is the number of dice you'd like to roll, and Y is the number of sides each dice has. Here's an example:

I'll type: roll 5d10 Game will produce: Rio De Dagama rolls 5d10 & gets 27.

This means that I've rolled five dice, each with ten sides on it. Adding up all the numbers shown by the dice, I got 27. In World of Darkness, however, we don't care about the total made by the dice (more on that soon). Rather, we care about the numbers on each individual dice. Therefore, this rolling command does us no good.

Do not fret, however! By typing the 'roll' command in all capital letters, the game will show us the results of all the dice. Here's an example:

I'll type: ROLL 5d10 Game will produce: Rio De Dagama rolls 5d10: (3) (4) (4) (9) (7) = 27.

As you can see, the game showed me the result of every individual dice, which is exactly what I want. There are very, very few times in the game where the dice total actually means anything, but in case this is one of those times, that total is added up for you at the end. Neat!

Actions and Dice Pools
A storyteller or another player will generally ask you to make an action (that is, some event that requires dice to be rolled) if your intended action will have some lasting effect on another player or the world around you. Fixing a car, researching a cult, shooting another player, and bribing a cop are all good examples of when rolls come into question. While there are potentially an enormous number of rolls you can make, the storytelling system thankfully condenses this down in a way that anyone can understand.

When called upon to make a roll, a storyteller will typically tell you exactly what stats on your character sheet you need to reference. This will almost always have you add either an Attribute and another Attribute, or an Attribute and a relevant Skill. By adding up the dots you have in the stats used by your action, you will have the base number of ten-sided dice you will be rolling. Here's an example:

Storyteller asks you to roll your Resolve + Composure You have a 3 in Resolve and 2 in Composure Adding the two, your base dice pool is 5.

Given this example, you'll be rolling five ten-sided dice. There are many other things that change this number further, but we'll discuss that later. For now, you'll be rolling five.

After you roll, what you're looking for are the number of 8's, 9's, and 10's that you rolled. Each one of these is considered one success. Most simple actions only require one success to be completed. Additionally, every 10 that you roll not only counts as a success, but you may also roll that die again for an attempt at yet another success. If you roll a 10 yet again, you may roll it yet again, once more counting the success, and keep on rolling it until it's something other than another 10. Here's some examples of rolling:

My dice pool is seven dice. Rio De Dagama rolls 7d10: (2) (9) (5) (5) (1) (8) (8) I have two 8's and one 9. Therefore, I have made three successes.

Rio De Dagama rolls 5d10: (9) (10) (1) (1) (3) I have one 9 and one 10. Therefore, I have two successes. I re-roll my 10. Rio De Dagama rolls 1d10: (8) This re-roll gave me one more success. Total, I now have three successes.

And there you have it. As you could likely tell, the general goal is to have as many dice in your pool as possible to increase the chances you will get successes. As mentioned before, on most simple, instant actions, only one success is needed to carry out your task. Of course, the world is rarely that simple...

Bonuses and Penalties
Different factors in the environment as well as the specific actions in question can alter your dice pool in any number of ways. These changes are called bonuses (if they help you) and penalties (if they aren't that helpful). These affect your actions by adding or taking away dice from your base dice pool.

The most common type type of bonuses and penalties are ones that come from difficulty, as set by your storyteller. If an action is very easy, such as cooking a grilled cheese sandwich, you may have dice added to your pool. If things are difficult, such as performing brain surgery with a slice of bacon, then dice may be removed from your pool. As mentioned before, even one success on most instant actions is enough to make it successful,

What follows are some common examples of bonuses and penalties, you may run into:

Common Bonuses

Equipment: Having the right equipment for the right task will add bonuses to your roll. For example, a lockpicking set might add +1 while picking a lock, but won't help much for fixing a wound. Weapons: A type of equipment, but used specifically in combat. Weapons have a Damage rating, which is directly added onto your dice pool as a bonus. Skill Specialties: By using a skill in which you have a relevant specialty in, you gain a +1 bonus. For example, if you have a pistol specialty under Firearms, you'll get a +1 bonus while using a pistol, but not while using shotguns.

Common Penalties

Defense: In melee combat, each character as some limited ability to dodge incoming attacks. When you make such an attack, your target's Defense rating is treated as a penalty, removing that number of dice from your pool. Armor: The equivalent as above, but with ranged combat. Certain armor treats certain attacks like a penalty, removing dice. Unskilled: By attempting to use a skill you have zero points in, you take a -1 penalty if it's physical or social (Hey, you tried), and a -3 penalty if it's a mental skill (The square root of pi is CHERRY).

Of course, there are nearly limitless types of dice pool modifications, but for now, it should be clear just how dice will work in general. Finishing up, we'll talk about a few other rules with dice rolling to keep in mind, as well as different kinds of actions.

Dramatic Success
If you managed to get more than five successes in a single roll, then you've achieved what's called a dramatic success. Depending on the action in question, your storyteller may reward this with some enhanced version of the action you're attempting to do. For example, a dramatic success while shooting a pistol at a target might result in a headshot, doing increased damage. A dramatic success while seducing a guard might let you do so without even exposing skin, keeping your dignity in tact and returning a point of willpower for your troubles. The exact nature of a dramatic success is completely dependent on your storyteller and the action/situation in question, so be warned.

The Chance Roll and Dramatic Failure
If any number of penalties or other bad stuff reduces your dice pool to zero or less, the roll will now be done with a chance die. This is a single ten-sided dice, and represents a last ditch effort of faking your way through whatever it is you're trying to do. On a chance die, only a 10 will count as a success (And as a bonus, you get to re-roll it as usual).

However, rolling a 1 on this roll will count as a dramatic failure, and will generally mess up your day. Simply not rolling a 10 while trying to fix a car on a chance dice, for example, would be treated like a normal failure, and the car will likely simply not start. However, in a dramatic failure, the battery might explode when you try to start it, damaging the car, and probably your face. The storyteller is the final judge of just how severe a dramatic failure will be, but given the circumstances of just how unlikely it is to get one, they are generally just that bad.

Extended and Contested Actions
Until now, we've discussed only instant actions, ones that take a single turn to pull off, and will either pass or fail accordingly. However, things aren't always quite that simple.

Extended actions are ones that will generally take a long time to complete, and usually require more than one success to finish. The storyteller will usually decide the number of successes required (usually determined by the difficulty or sheer time-consuming nature of the action), the length of time between each roll (sometimes seconds, sometimes years), and applicable dice pool to be used. Once decided, the player will begin rolling, the successes of each roll adding into their success pool, and the agreed time passing between each roll. The action is considered to be complete when they have enough successes, or if the player simply gives up.

Contested actions usually come up if two players are, you guessed it, competing against each other at a common goal, such as running a race or winning an arm wrestling match. These can be handled in a number of ways, but most typically, both players will make a roll, and the one with the most successes wins. Cool!

Actions can also be both contested and extended, which can be just as confusing as it sounds. This usually happens when both players are working at different goals, such as a criminal escaping the police on foot. In this example, both the criminal and the police officer would begin making extended rolls as described before. The criminal's goal might be to get at least five more overall successes than the cop to lose him, while the cop would need to achieve the same number of successes to catch up to him. The exact way this is handled comes down to the scene in question, but suffice it to say, the system can be pretty flexible.

Storytelling System Part III: The Dramatic Systems
Now that the groundwork is there to create and play a character, it's time to go into certain systems with a little more detail. As always, the core rulebook is the best reference for any information, but hopefully this guide will get you going if you're unable to get your hands on a copy.

Time
Time is an important concept to understand in any role playing game, dictating something as detailed as combat as well as overall periods of time in game. The storytelling system uses some different terminology than some games may, so here's an overview of the units of time. Instant - As the name implies, this is an action or idea that takes no time to process or carry out. This is most common with defensive based rolls, such as resisting attempts at interrogation or magical effects. Turn - This is the unit that you will hear most often, as it details the flow of combat, as well as most dice rolls. While this can vary from action to action, in general, a turn is considered to be about three seconds of real time. Scene - This is where things start to differ from other games. A scene could be thought of in terms of a movie or a play; a grouping of interesting events. In movies, the time between scenes are generally not shown, as they contain no interesting or relevant information. For example, one scene may depict a group of bank robbers preparing for a heist and getting into their car. The next scene would be their arrival and the heist itself. The space between the two (the drive to the bank) probably isn't that exciting, so it's not detailed. Scenes can be as short as a few turns or as long as a few years in real time. Story - Going back to the movie analogy, a story could be the entire movie itself. This is a grouping of scenes that, together, make a complete narrative with a beginning and a conclusion where a goal or goals are met. Many things happen at the end of stories in World of Darkness, such as replenishing willpower and bonus experience, so it is relevant to keep in mind. Chronicle - In gaming or comic books, this could be considered a Universe, the overall setting that a number of stories will take place in. Chronicles rarely end, as even if an entire cast of main characters move on or die, others may rise within that same universe to take their place. In the case of this community, our Chronicle would be Atlanta By Night, which describes the setting and theme of our tale.

Combat
Things rarely stay safe for long in the World of Darkness, combat representing the most tense of these moments in which life itself is reward. The systems used during combat do not differ much from the rest of the game, but they are much more regimented. What follows is an overview of exactly what to expect in combat.

Stage One: Initiative
When combat begins, the storyteller will make note of every character to be participating, both friend and foe. Everyone will then make an initiative roll to determine the order in which the characters act. To do this, you will roll a single d10 and add your initiative mod (Dexterity + Composure) onto the result of that roll. The storyteller will then compose a list of participating characters from highest to lowest. Characters will then take their turns in an order based on that list, returning to the top when needed.

Stage Two: Turns
Each turn, your character may take a movement and an action once their turn in the initiative comes up. These may be done in either order, but each can only be done once per turn. When taking your movement, you may move up to your Move trait in meters and still perform an action. If you choose to do so, you may also execute a sprint, which allows you to move twice, but perform no action.

Taking an action in combat is usually an attack, but not always (trying to hack in the computer in the middle of a gunfight, for example). There are a number of different attacks you can make depending on your chosen weapon, each with a different roll. Here's some of the more common examples:

Unarmed close combat: Strength + Brawl, minus the target's Defense and armor. Armed close combat: Strength + Weaponry, minus the target's Defense and armor. Ranged combat (guns and bows): Dexterity + Firearms, minus targets armor (and defense, if in melee range). Ranged combat (thrown weapons): Dexterity + Athletics, minus target's Defense (with exception) and armor.

When attacking, formulate your dice pool given the above information, taking into consideration bonus' and penalties that apply, and roll. Each success deals one point of a type of damage (more on that later) to your opponent.

Possible Actions and Modifiers
Here is a quick reference of other actions and modifiers that may come up in combat. This is coming from a reference table in the core rule book, so the entries are rather short, as the section in the book is rather long, so consult the book or myself with questions:


 * Aiming: +1 per turn spent aiming to a +3 maximum.
 * All-Out Attack: +2 with Brawl or Weaponry attack; lose Defense for turn.
 * Armor Piercing: Ignore an amount of armor equal to items AP rating.
 * Autofire (Long burst): 20 or so bullets at as many targets as you'd like (with ST approval). +3 bonus to each attack roll, -1 to each attack roll for each target fired upon.
 * Autofire (Medium burst): 10 or so bullets to up to three targets. +2 to each attack roll, -1 to each attack roll per target (if more than one).
 * Autofire (Short burst): Three bullets at a single target. +1 to attack roll.
 * Concealment/Cover: Barely -1; Substantially -2; Fully -3
 * Dodge: Double target's defense.
 * Drawing a Weapon: Requires one action (without Quick Draw merit), possible loss of defense.
 * Firing from Cover: Shooter's own concealment quality (-1, -2, or -3) reduced by one as a penalty to fire back (so, no modifier, -1 or -2).
 * Offhand Attack: -2 penalty (without merit).
 * Prone Target: -2 penalty to hit in ranged combat, +2 bonus to hit within close-quarters.
 * Rage: -2 for medium range, -2 for long range (Per weapon's Range stat)
 * Shooting into Close Combat: -2 per target avoided (Does not apply to Autofire).
 * Specified Target: Torso -1, leg or arm -2, head -3, hand -4, eye -5.
 * Surprised or Immobilized Target: Defense does not apply.
 * Touching a Target: Dexterity + Brawl/Weaponry - Defense. Armor may apply depending on action.
 * Willpower: Add three dice to a roll or +2 to a resistance trait (Stamina, Resolve, Composure, Defense).

Health
Being attacked in combat will reduce your health in one of three ways; bashing, lethal, and aggravated. The type of weapon being used will determine what type of damage is being applied, but excessive attacks can make old wounds worse. Looking at the health trait on your sheet, you'll see a row of dots (which determines your maximum health, filled from left to right) and a row of squares (which determines your current health, filled from left to right).

Different types of wounds fill these boxes using different symbols. Bashing damage is shown with a "/", lethal is shown with a "X", and aggravated is shown with a "*". The actual consequences of these types of damage depend on what type of wound is in the final box of your health. If it is filled with Bashing damage, your character goes unconscious. If lethal damage fills it, your character is said to be in "critical condition", needing medical attention quickly depending on the wounds suffered. Aggravated damage filling the final spot is generally instant death. These levels are not set in stone, however, and vary widely depending on exactly what the hell happened. This part can be somewhat complicated, so here's some examples to help:

Starting off in combat, let's say you're completely unharmed. Your health would look like this:

• • • • • • • o o o o o

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

This would show that your maximum health is 7. The boxes below are unmarked, so you have sustained no damage. Next thing you know, some crazy hobo knocks you upside the head with a lead pipe, dealing three bashing damage.

• • • • • • • o o o o o

[/][/][/][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

What a jerk. Of course, you tell him so, but he didn't like hearing that one bit. Next thing you know, he's got a knife and he's stabbing you with it, dealing three points of lethal damage. Any new wounds are added on the left of your health, pushing less severe wounds to the right. Thus, your sheet would now look like this:

• • • • • • • o o o o o

[X][X][X][/][/][/][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

That showed you. But just in case it didn't he kicks you, dealing one point of bashing damage. Though this is new damage, it does not move the lethal damage, as it is a less severe wound. Thus, your sheet would look like this.

• • • • • • • o o o o o

[X][X][X][/][/][/][/][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

As the last box of your health has been filled with bashing damage, you get knocked the hell out. Perfect time to keep stabbing, right? Five points of lethal damage. This new lethal damage will now overwrite the less severe wounds and, when out of space, will upgrade the leftmost health with aggravated damage.

• • • • • • • o o o o o

[*][X][X][X][X][X][X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

At this point, as lethal damage has been added to your final health square, you're in critical condition and need treatment.

One final thing to mention regarding health. If one of the final three boxes in your health pull become filled with any kind of wound, you start to take injury penalties on any and all dice rolls. So if the third from the right gets filled, there's a -1 penalty to all rolls. Second from the left gets filled, -2 on all rolls. And if the final box is filled, if you're still alive/awake, then there's a -3 to all rolls.

Again, the exact results of taking damage is not set in stone, and varies widely from scene to seen. In general, your storyteller will help describe what's playing out, so don't worry too much if it's still complicated.