Quote from: Snowman0147;1094961When it was being developed I was texting to MachineIV about it on a weekly bases at Wanton Wicked chat during the 4.0 period.  We often talk about the books and what improvements they needed.  During this time Olivia (David at the time) assured me that CoD would be sleeker, streamlined, and less bulk.  It was told to me to be a much lighter system that gets to the point instead of wasting time.

Which as we can see in CoD that was never to be true.  Instead of one xp to track there are beats and xp to track.  Merits been some what fix, but the bulk hasn't been cut down.  This is adding tilts and conditions into the mix which demands a rules heavy system which makes more bulk.  Even the spirits got a flow chart which shows how much things got more complicated.  Worst of all it isn't needed at all.  In fact it detracts from the game.  I was promise one thing and got another thing in reality.

I never played the old games but I guess they changed their design goals during production. The spirit rules are a bit bloated but the experiance/beat, condition/tilts mechanics are the parts I really like. Probably cause my group is more into spotlighting each players scenes than into team work, which I know is not the usual for most. I think most people play as a team where their character are almost attatched to the hip.

Don't like it. The rules are a mess and the setting is arbitrarily restrictive.

If you like the conditions rules, then you're better off playing Strands of Fate with the Strands of Power supplement. It has detailed guidelines for urban fantasy like spirits, vampire bloodlines, etc. Unlike CoD, it's a genuine toolkit that gives you complete control over how all the magic and stuff works.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1095006Don't like it. The rules are a mess and the setting is arbitrarily restrictive.

If you like the conditions rules, then you're better off playing Strands of Fate with the Strands of Power supplement. It has detailed guidelines for urban fantasy like spirits, vampire bloodlines, etc. Unlike CoD, it's a genuine toolkit that gives you complete control over how all the magic and stuff works.

I have strands of fate and power. It provides a lot of customation and flexibility but I still prefer the detail and clarity of rules in chronicles. In cases I dont like I find it easier to change things in chronicles rather than add detailed customized rules in strands. Im actually running a game in strands right now. I have altered the system so much its almost a new game. So I guess on the front we disagree but Im curious about what you dont like about the setting?

From what I understand the setting is a list of assumetions and guidlines that answers any implications and questions while being vauge enough to easily alter.

Again I don't play with strangers so that may be why it works so well for us. We can just change stuff, and we wont have to worry about a new player comming in with prior assumptions so I guess we have that advantage.

Quote from: K9ine;1095012I have strands of fate and power. It provides a lot of customation and flexibility but I still prefer the detail and clarity of rules in chronicles. In cases I dont like I find it easier to change things in chronicles rather than add detailed customized rules in strands. Im actually running a game in strands right now. I have altered the system so much its almost a new game. So I guess on the front we disagree but Im curious about what you dont like about the setting?

From what I understand the setting is a list of assumetions and guidlines that answers any implications and questions while being vauge enough to easily alter.

Again I don't play with strangers so that may be why it works so well for us. We can just change stuff, and we wont have to worry about a new player comming in with prior assumptions so I guess we have that advantage.

It advertises itself as a toolkit when it really isn't. If I'm not already invested in their particular campaign setting, then the books are useless to me. The basic rules are convoluted enough, and playing a monster mash is a headache because everyone has to reinvent the wheel when it comes to superpowers.

I'm better off playing something like Monsterhearts or Urban Shadows. The only downside is that I have to write the setting myself, since unlike D&D there aren't a bazillion urban fantasy campaign settings or modules on the market.

World of Darkness was a janky mess, but fun as long as you could get enjoyment hamming up pretentious gothy stuff.  The combat was painful though, since it required multiple rolls to resolve any given attack (roll to hit, roll to dodge, roll to soak), even a little skirmish would devour time.  New World of Darkness greatly fixed the system and helped a lot with the jank and power imbalances for cross-play, but the settings were largely less interesting, with the exception of Changeling which was a vast improvement over the original.  Then Chronicles of Darkness played around with the system for no better reason than selling the same books a second time, as far as I could tell.  Demon is a pretty cool concept, I like that book, but the rest of the stuff that's come out has been entirely ignorable as far as I'm concerned.

Quote from: Snowman0147;1094961... It was told to me to be a much lighter system that gets to the point instead of wasting time.

Which as we can see in CoD that was never to be true.  Instead of one xp to track there are beats and xp to track.  Merits been some what fix, but the bulk hasn't been cut down.  This is adding tilts and conditions into the mix which demands a rules heavy system which makes more bulk.  Even the spirits got a flow chart which shows how much things got more complicated.  Worst of all it isn't needed at all.  In fact it detracts from the game.  I was promise one thing and got another thing in reality.

Yup, too much legacy rules carry over.

My current starwars campaign, is a homebrew system based on current CoD system. When you look at the system from the point of design - it has a lot of clutter.

I really simplified the combat modifiers - and basically tossed out all the Merits/Flaws, and replaced them with my own version of Character traits.

Nothing wrong with the underlying diepool mechanic - it's all the stuff they've piled on top, for reasons. I think a cleaned up version of the new CoD rules, with some kind of an SRD, would work really well for cinematic action-adventure games.

Quote from: Jaeger;1095020Yup, too much legacy rules carry over.

My current starwars campaign, is a homebrew system based on current CoD system. When you look at the system from the point of design - it has a lot of clutter.

I really simplified the combat modifiers - and basically tossed out all the Merits/Flaws, and replaced them with my own version of Character traits.

Nothing wrong with the underlying diepool mechanic - it's all the stuff they've piled on top, for reasons. I think a cleaned up version of the new CoD rules, with some kind of an SRD, would work really well for cinematic action-adventure games.

They seem to be working on something more action based right now with thr Trinity Continuum. It is done with their Story Path system but slightly different.

"Opening the Dark" is a retroclone of the ST system released under the OGL. If you wanted, you could use it to invent your own dark urban fantasy game.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1095026"Opening the Dark" is a retroclone of the ST system released under the OGL. If you wanted, you could use it to invent your own dark urban fantasy game.

Currently trying to make my own system as we speak.  It is similar to D&D hacks that simplify D&D.  Basically think Black Hack for something similar to nWoD, but leans more on the adventuring with barely any personal horror bullshit.  There is also a generic pool of powers that all supernaturals to use so that I don't need to reinvent the wheel unless I REALLY have to.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1095026"Opening the Dark" is a retroclone of the ST system released under the OGL. If you wanted, you could use it to invent your own dark urban fantasy game.

Very cool. Thanks for the info. I'll check it out.

Quote from: Snowman0147;1095029Currently trying to make my own system as we speak.  It is similar to D&D hacks that simplify D&D.  Basically think Black Hack for something similar to nWoD, but leans more on the adventuring with barely any personal horror bullshit.  There is also a generic pool of powers that all supernaturals to use so that I don't need to reinvent the wheel unless I REALLY have to.

Neat sounds pretty interesting.

The game seems to have died out here locally just as I was starting to take an interest.
I inherited a large stack of WoD/NWoD books and it's risen up the ranks of games I'd like to play... though I'm feeling quite choosy over who I'd play it with. Random draw of murderhobos won't do.

Quote from: Simlasa;1095034The game seems to have died out here locally just as I was starting to take an interest.
I inherited a large stack of WoD/NWoD books and it's risen up the ranks of games I'd like to play... though I'm feeling quite choosy over who I'd play it with. Random draw of murderhobos won't do.

 The best way is to form your own group out of newbies in my experiance. Although this means you would need to be the storyteller.

Welcome to the forums K9ine!

I played a lot of OWOD back in the 90's, and a bit of NWOD when it first came out (mid 2000's) but by that time I was burned out on dice pools.

Changeling the Lost seemed like it had potential. The new Hunter would probably be my first pick to run, but I'd just Gurps it.

Quote from: Aglondir;1095056Welcome to the forums K9ine!

I played a lot of OWOD back in the 90's, and a bit of NWOD when it first came out (mid 2000's) but by that time I was burned out on dice pools.

Changeling the Lost seemed like it had potential. The new Hunter would probably be my first pick to run, but I'd just Gurps it.

Im really looking forward to the new hunter. It seems like my dream game. They have new rules for "nest". Monster lairs that go along with expanded dread horrors and other monster building kits.