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## Anatomy of Failed Design: (old) World of Darkness System

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angelfromanotherpin
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### Anatomy of Failed Design: (old) World of Darkness System

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Post by angelfromanotherpin » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:54 pm

There were a lot of games under the oWoD banner, and they failed in a number of different ways according to their individual setting and system conceits, but they all shared the same chassis, and that chassis has the following flaws which are necessarily in all the games that use it.
• Assymetric Values
Dexterity attacks and defends. Strength only attacks (and not well). Stamina only defends (and not well). This is only one of many cases where one choice is clearly optimal over other things that cost the same.
• Chargen/XP Differential*
We all know this one. If you want your physical stats to be 3/5/3, it is cheaper to get there if you start at 1/5/1 than if you start at 2/3/2, but both those starts cost the damn same. In that respect, it's just another aspect of assymetric value. However, it combines with the other assymetric values in the system (because you buy the better stuff for cheaper) to produce...
• The Result
An enormous newby trap where viable build variety is really small compared to possible build variety.
I'm sure the original die-mechanic rates an honorable mention, but I'm not enough of a number-cruncher to do that one justice.
*This set-up is not necessarily bad by itself, as long as 1) it is explained to reduce the newby trap effect, and 2) the effect it rewards, which is super-specialists who gradually round themselves out, is the desired result, and players are not abused for behaving as rewarded.
Interestingly, if costs were weighted the other way, with chargen costs being scaled and xp costs being flat, you'd get something closer to what the company claimed they wanted character arcs to look like, i.e. well-rounded low-number characters at the beginning who get specialized and badass later.
There is a genre modeled pretty well by the original oWoD chargen/xp setup, which is Star Trek. In that setting, most characters show up knowing how to do a very few things super-well, and then gradually get low-level secondary focuses.
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Username17
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###

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Post by Username17 » Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:04 am

There is a place in hell reserved for whoever made the original WoD dice mechanics for first edition. Holy shit, what the fuck?!
Here's how it works:

- You get a variable number of d10s. More powerful and skilled characters get more d10s.
- Depending on the difficulty of your task, the number you need to get a success varies between 6 and 10.
- Every 1 you roll counts as negative one success.
- If you get positive successes, you succeed. If you get negative successes, you get critical failure. If you get a net of zero, you just normally fail.
- Sometimes your roll is also opposed by an opponent's roll. Hijinks ensue.

So as you might immediately notice, when the target number is ten, your chances of critical failure are equal to your chances of success regardless of the number of dice you roll! This is totally unacceptable. Some versions even allowed the Target Number to rise above 10, where a success required you to roll a 10 and then roll another result on a bonus die. But a 1 is still a negative success so even the most trivial mathematical analysis will show that these super difficult attempts become more likely to succeed if you roll less dice. When attempting the impossible, it actually makes sense to blindfold yourself before you start.
Now I think it should be pointed out that you had a stat called "Willpower" that was a lot like Shadowrun Edge. So as you might guess, it was the best thing ever, and PCs usually started with a 9 or 10. However, mind control powers generally had a target number not of your Willpower stat, but of your unspent Willpower - which meant that n any long running campaign, domination powers often were rolling 10+ dice literally looking for 2s on a d10 to see if they turn you into a brain bitch.
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Last edited by Username17 on Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin » Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:13 am

It is worth remembering that the oWoD system sucked on purpose. Mark Rein•Hagen specifically wanted a system that would not produce play that resembled the written fluff, so that people would be encouraged to go off and play free-form in the settings he wrote. Like he did.
I don't know if that philosophy continues at White Wolf to this day, or if the current crop just don't recognize the sabotage inherent in the system.
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