Malin Freeborn / ww · GitLab
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Storyteller system rules, but in LaTeX.

I always thought WoD combat took too long, and for a game about Machiavellian politics, it had very little in the way of support for non-combat actions. So I made some house rules!

Stage 1: Making a Template

I started with a Wod Template for LaTeX, so if you want to make a book/ module/ diary in the WoD style, you can stick that in a file, and everything will get the page borders, fonts, et c.

(side note: the fonts have been modified to let you use a number of diacritics, for some Slavic languages)

Stage 2: Rule Modifications

The project started as a copy of the free Dark Ages pdf released by White Wolf.

At this point I removed the combat rules (yuck!) and replaced them with a generic system for Extended and Resisted rolls.

Link

The Arena System

  1. The antagonist (who starts the Contest) selects an Ability.
  2. The defender selects an Attribute.
  3. Both roll the same Attribute + Ability.
  4. If someone achieves more successes than their opponent, they spend those extra successes on Consequences.

Characters can become embroiled in many different Contests at the same time.

Consequences

  • Give opponent a -1 penalty
    • In a fight, this represents Damage.
    • In a war of finances, it represents destroying resources.
    • In a battle of Wits in Elysium, it represents reputation lost.
  • Give an opponent +1 difficulty.
    • In a fight, this represents backing someone into a corner, or grappling them into a vulnerable spot.
    • In a war of finances, this might represent tying up someone’s resources in legal issues.
    • In a battle of wits, this might represent changing the conversation to a potentially embarrassing area.
  • Remove all difficulty penalties (e.g. stand up, or change subject)
  • Change either an Attribute or Skill
    • Change Melee to Athletics: you’re suddenly fleeing, rather than fighting.
    • Change Finances to Investigation: you’re now looking for or hiding small clues.
    • Change Etiquette to Empathy: you’re now looking to understand the crowd’s mood, rather than playing by formal rules.

The repository still contains the original rules if anyone wants to modify those rules, instead of using mine.

Stage 3: Adding Dark Ages and Vampire Toggles

LaTeX lets you stick in if-statements. So if you set darkAges = false, then you get rules for the modern era (Driving instead of riding, et c.).

Link

And if you set vampire = true, then it adds rules for vampires (Roads, Disciplines, Clans, et c.).

Link