Quote from: JDCorley;494764Hey, so one thing that occurred to me is, if you're not using the nWoD in a story-oriented way, are you still organizing the game by scenes and chapters? How do you handle the duration of powers that are scene-length, or XP awards that are per-chapter?

Even if you are not playing in story-oriented manner (whatever that is), you can use the scene as a basic unit for measuring the duration of powers and all that. Regarding XP awards, I give players a flat 3 XP rate / session, and maybe an additional XP if they go through a really significant learning experience.

Well, normally the organization of experiences into scenes is associated with stories - people don't experience "scenes" in their ordinary lives.

Quote from: JDCorley;494778Well, normally the organization of experiences into scenes is associated with stories - people don't experience "scenes" in their ordinary lives.

The "scenes" in WoD aren't really that different from the "encounters" in D&D, though. And in Changeling they also exist in-character: that's how the Fae instinctively measure time.

Quote from: JDCorley;494764Hey, so one thing that occurred to me is, if you're not using the nWoD in a story-oriented way, are you still organizing the game by scenes and chapters? How do you handle the duration of powers that are scene-length, or XP awards that are per-chapter?

But you know what the funniest thing about France is? It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it's just...it's just there it's a little different. You know what they call "story" in France ? They got the Fench New Wave they wouldn't know what "story" is. They call it Mise-en-scène. You know what they put in their games instead of "plot" ? Verisimilitude. I've seen 'em do it, man. They fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.

Just kidding, Ben. You know, I consider you one of the more interesting cats around here

Anyways back on topic. Some of the ideas I'm throwing around is the whole idea of counter myth. It was Oliver Stone's fancy pants way of saying that JFK was riddled with untruths and inconsistencies much like the Warren Report. So what I'm aiming for is a strong conspiracy theory vibe in the game. I know that the city was the final expression of the friendship between a Cryptic (Demon) and Ulgan (Created).

I know that because of English, French and Dutch historical presence in the region, Kindred from those cultures have a waning influence. Just as in real life the influx of the African diaspora is beginning to be felt in this part of the world, so too will the Laibon (African Kindred) play an important role. Of course this being my WoD game there will be a a clan of Garou under the thrall of a Kurtz-like Wraith. Just throwing around some ideas. Reading Ben's campaign write ups has given me some interesting avenues to explore.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: JDCorley;494764Hey, so one thing that occurred to me is, if you're not using the nWoD in a story-oriented way, are you still organizing the game by scenes and chapters? How do you handle the duration of powers that are scene-length, or XP awards that are per-chapter?

I have never run WOD, just been a player. I started back when Vampire came out and we had a lot of campaigns in the 90s. Had just a few with NWOD. In every game we played it was very freeform, what I would call character driven. So there was no story structure that I could detect. We just interpreted scenes as encounterd and handled xp after each session.

I'm pretty sure the old world of darkness didn't have the chapter distinction...maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

Quote from: JDCorley;494931I'm pretty sure the old world of darkness didn't have the chapter distinction...maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

Both the old and new games measure time in the same terms: turn, scene, chapter, story, chronicle.

"Chapter -- One independent part of a story, almost always played in one game session, made up of scenes connected by periods of downtime." (Mage: The Ascension, 2e, page 79.)

Cool, thanks. I didn't have it close to hand.

Quote from: JDCorley;494931I'm pretty sure the old world of darkness didn't have the chapter distinction...maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

I wouldn't know. I never GM'd really so only used the books as a reference when making a character.

Old WoD did indeed already use the terms of Chapters and Scenes from the start. See awarding experience in any of the first editions WoD games, for instance.

The comparison with units of action, like an encounter in d20 games, is appropriate, in the sense that you can use these units as 'live' pacing elements instead of narrative elements. Just like you could leave your office in real life to go home and close a 'chapter' of your day to go to the one about 'relaxing at home, or whatever happens when I get there.'

By using these terms, you have allowed story-ness to  infect your game forever, please kill yourself to protect the purity of the hobby, swine.

Quote from: JDCorley;495032By using these terms, you have allowed story-ness to  infect your game forever, please kill yourself to protect the purity of the hobby, swine.

LOL. Swine, yes! Story? No.
That's the hilarity of the WW Swine, they want to pretend they're "radical" but they're not. They aren't "storygamers" they're just roleplayers who use the word "chapter" instead of "session", or "scene" instead of "encounter".

RPGPundit

But surely using even the slightest amount of story-related terminology will open the doors for....infection.  Like "plot", above! Benoist thoroughly explained this, go back and read it.

Quote from: JDCorley;495352But surely using even the slightest amount of story-related terminology will open the doors for....infection.  Like "plot", above! Benoist thoroughly explained this, go back and read it.

I thought you guys patched this up with a beer summit.

Quote from: JDCorley;495352But surely using even the slightest amount of story-related terminology will open the doors for....infection.  Like "plot", above! Benoist thoroughly explained this, go back and read it.

Wasn't that, in fact, the whole origin of the Forge?  

A bunch of morons (in particular, Uncle Ron) read the Vampire book, assumed it meant something other than it did because it used literature-like words, and decided to try and ruin the hobby by introducing storygames (which wouldn't have been so bad if every "story" they want to portray wasn't something out of the Marquis de Sade's library).