doing a D&D game with whtiewolf rules

[Zennis]

im doing a D&D game with the white wolf system, OWOD to be specific.

I have never played D&D , I literally started with vampire and never strayed far. I have done TONS of mage the ascension. like literally 20 years of playing and STing mage. I've also done a ton of stuff with my own rules hacks, like starwars, rifts, wheel of time; all with home-brew rules based on the spheres or disciplines (I ran Star Wars using the psi powers and paths from the mage revised sourcebook "Sorcerer" with some major rules changes)
\.
Now im doing DnD. I played Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, also Icewind dale. I know the setting, I know the basic gist of it all: rangers, paladins, gods of this or that, chromatic dragon; all the basic shit. I can whip up a class for each player on the fly, that's not the problem. its just that I'm seeking advice from those that know.

I'd like to hear what OTHERS HAVE TO SAY. is there any advice out there for me from those who have don it before and know they way? lol

anything like words of wisdom, caution and anecdotes of experience would help.

[Heavy Arms]

It might help to be a big more specific. D&D is a lot of things to a lot of people, and has seen lots of editions (calling it 5 is a bit underselling things in actuality) over a very long period of time.

If you just want to do high fantasy medieval European style stuff? Grab the Dark Ages books. DA:V20 is solid, though the Revised DA line was built better than most for handling the whole WoD's cast of critters (and lots of gear for the D&D item questing). Inquisitor is a great book for inspiration for mining material in ways I don't think a lot of us saw coming. It takes a bunch of things from Hunter the Reckoning and remixes them into something else to make something a lot more mechanically interesting and varied than transporting the modern day Society of Leopold rules back in time.

If you want to try to do a real dungeon crawl kind of game... the WoD base systems are going to take a lot of work to get something fun. Just the way the games track time is a problem because "scenes" doesn't really mean anything in a series of rooms in a dungeon. Part of the tactical fun of a dungeon crawl beyond each encounter is resource management. Everything in D&D is a limited resource once you get into a dungeon and the WoD systems are not designed for that mentality. Very seriously consider finding a copy of D&D 4e and looking at it for the kind of mechanical framework you need to push the WoD systems towards to make it work (if you find yourself adverse for some reason, the Lancer RPG about mechs is actually a very good place to look for the same design mentality around multiple combats in a row). One of the biggest problems is that the lack of passive defenses, and low amounts of health, is that the WoD system makes swarms of weak opponents absolutely vicious well outside of what you'd expect in D&D.

I hesitate to bring it up but the beginning of Goblin Slayer (manga or anime) is pretty much what's going to happen to starting level WoD rules based characters in a dungeon crawl. Like it's NSFW in the extreme, and it's not safe for most people's homes (the series tones it back a little after the opening... but the whole point is how utterly bleak and horrifying a world where young people form adventuring parties to take quest to kill dangerous monsters really would be), because it is emotionally brutal to experience.

I know this probably isn't the best answer, but the amount of work I have seen people try towards to make the WoD rules work for this and still fail makes me think it's really best to get away from it. Not far, but take something like Exalted (2e Enlightend Heroic Mortals or Godblooded let you skip the massive Charm sink but still have some meat to the character's tactical abilities), or the Storypath systems (probably Trinity 2e since it's the easiest to incorporate WoD inspired powers to) and a lot of the work is already done for you.

[Zennis]

Thanks heavy arms. I appreciate your reply. let me get back to you in sequence here.

It might help to be a big more specific. D&D is a lot of things to a lot of people, and has seen lots of editions (calling it 5 is a bit underselling things in actuality) over a very long period of time.

I and my players want to run a high adventure game in the DnD setting, specifically Faerun.

If you just want to do high fantasy medieval European style stuff? Grab the Dark Ages books. DA:V20 is solid, though the Revised DA line was built better than most for handling the whole WoD's cast of critters (and lots of gear for the D&D item questing). Inquisitor is a great book for inspiration for mining material in ways I don't think a lot of us saw coming. It takes a bunch of things from Hunter the Reckoning and remixes them into something else to make something a lot more mechanically interesting and varied than transporting the modern day Society of Leopold rules back in time.

Thank you. I do this often and do mage the ascension primarily in entirely fantastic settings (not historical ones)

If you want to try to do a real dungeon crawl kind of game... the WoD base systems are going to take a lot of work to get something fun. Just the way the games track time is a problem because "scenes" doesn't really mean anything in a series of rooms in a dungeon. Part of the tactical fun of a dungeon crawl beyond each encounter is resource management. Everything in D&D is a limited resource once you get into a dungeon and the WoD systems are not designed for that mentality. Very seriously consider finding a copy of D&D 4e and looking at it for the kind of mechanical framework you need to push the WoD systems towards to make it work (if you find yourself adverse for some reason, the Lancer RPG about mechs is actually a very good place to look for the same design mentality around multiple combats in a row). One of the biggest problems is that the lack of passive defenses, and low amounts of health, is that the WoD system makes swarms of weak opponents absolutely vicious well outside of what you'd expect in D&D.

this game will be more dramatically focused and not a game where we will need to have the mechanical systems behind DnD.

I hesitate to bring it up but the beginning of Goblin Slayer (manga or anime) is pretty much what's going to happen to starting level WoD rules based characters in a dungeon crawl. Like it's NSFW in the extreme, and it's not safe for most people's homes (the series tones it back a little after the opening... but the whole point is how utterly bleak and horrifying a world where young people form adventuring parties to take quest to kill dangerous monsters really would be), because it is emotionally brutal to experience.

I appreciate the thought. I've done a lot of high fantasy games with WOD definitely get where you're coming from. I guess what I need is help to dramatically envision this game.

I know this probably isn't the best answer, but the amount of work I have seen people try towards to make the WoD rules work for this and still fail makes me think it's really best to get away from it. Not far, but take something like Exalted (2e Enlightend Heroic Mortals or Godblooded let you skip the massive Charm sink but still have some meat to the character's tactical abilities), or the Storypath systems (probably Trinity 2e since it's the easiest to incorporate WoD inspired powers to) and a lot of the work is already done for you.

could be a fair point.

I'll be giving it a try anyway, wish me luck!

PS if you have any other advice please don't forget to pass its along.

I could use any hints on the ideas around dramatically envisioning DnD setting stories in the world of darkness storytelling style... with a dash of high adventure.

[Zennis]

It might help to be a big more specific. D&D is a lot of things to a lot of people, and has seen lots of editions (calling it 5 is a bit underselling things in actuality) over a very long period of time.

If you just want to do high fantasy medieval European style stuff? Grab the Dark Ages books. DA:V20 is solid, though the Revised DA line was built better than most for handling the whole WoD's cast of critters (and lots of gear for the D&D item questing). Inquisitor is a great book for inspiration for mining material in ways I don't think a lot of us saw coming. It takes a bunch of things from Hunter the Reckoning and remixes them into something else to make something a lot more mechanically interesting and varied than transporting the modern day Society of Leopold rules back in time.

If you want to try to do a real dungeon crawl kind of game... the WoD base systems are going to take a lot of work to get something fun. Just the way the games track time is a problem because "scenes" doesn't really mean anything in a series of rooms in a dungeon. Part of the tactical fun of a dungeon crawl beyond each encounter is resource management. Everything in D&D is a limited resource once you get into a dungeon and the WoD systems are not designed for that mentality. Very seriously consider finding a copy of D&D 4e and looking at it for the kind of mechanical framework you need to push the WoD systems towards to make it work (if you find yourself adverse for some reason, the Lancer RPG about mechs is actually a very good place to look for the same design mentality around multiple combats in a row). One of the biggest problems is that the lack of passive defenses, and low amounts of health, is that the WoD system makes swarms of weak opponents absolutely vicious well outside of what you'd expect in D&D.

I hesitate to bring it up but the beginning of Goblin Slayer (manga or anime) is pretty much what's going to happen to starting level WoD rules based characters in a dungeon crawl. Like it's NSFW in the extreme, and it's not safe for most people's homes (the series tones it back a little after the opening... but the whole point is how utterly bleak and horrifying a world where young people form adventuring parties to take quest to kill dangerous monsters really would be), because it is emotionally brutal to experience.

I know this probably isn't the best answer, but the amount of work I have seen people try towards to make the WoD rules work for this and still fail makes me think it's really best to get away from it. Not far, but take something like Exalted (2e Enlightend Heroic Mortals or Godblooded let you skip the massive Charm sink but still have some meat to the character's tactical abilities), or the Storypath systems (probably Trinity 2e since it's the easiest to incorporate WoD inspired powers to) and a lot of the work is already done for you.

whoa HA. that goblin slayer is some sick shit...

that first episode kind of blew me away

[Heavy Arms]

I did try to warn you...

But yeah, that's a huge problem with the WoD action economy and forced active defenses: mobs of even relatively weak enemies are going to mess you up bad. And it gets worse if they actually behave like intelligent horrific monsters instead of stat-blocks to kill.

[baakyocalder]

Has the OP looked at the game Godbound? Godbound is OSR fantasy by Sine Nomine Publishing, which has made a variety of OSR games. Godbound is popular on RPG.net and is essentially a way to play Exalted in a D&D framework. Below is a link to the free version of the game.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...s-Free-Edition

[Heavy Arms]

I'm... pretty sure that's the opposite of what the OP is looking for. The request is for high fantasy using the WoD mechanics, so Godbound's using the d20 mechanics for epic fantasy isn't really going to help much as I understand it.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

If you're looking for the kind of tactical positioning and minutiae of combat that D&D often has, there's also WoD: Combat to sift through. This may possibly include WW's Street Fighter RPG, which was built with similar rules, and by default, elides the to-hit roll to make combat go faster. But WoD: Combat is easily had, while copies of the long since OOP latter title are typically scalped for more money than you would want to pay for even an intriguing campaign premise. But, if by chance you find it for around the cover price or less, it might be worth looking into, even if you might not be able to use all of the material as-is (Most Focus attacks are pretty easily made into D&D attack spells or psionic effects, but you might not find Zangief's Double Lariat, Spinning Piledriver or Siberian Suplex to be in-genre).

[Eldagusto]

I once almost did this back in the early days because one of my players had a Diablo DnD supplement and I figured Numina could work for the early levels.