Balancing a mixed game in nWoD

Question

Jadasc raised a great point here.

There are few problems that can challenge a mage that won't completely outclass a vampire, unless the vampires are extraordinarily experienced or well connected and the mages are barely out of apprenticeship.

Add to this changelings and werewolves and who knows what else from the World of Darkness game, and it can lead to a very unbalanced set of characters.

At what point do each of the 'races' become balanced with respect to each others' abilities, if at all?
Is such a group possible?

Edit: An example from a comment I made:

If I am playing a Vampire/Promethean game, should the Vampires start at two blood points? Should they be given some XP to level the playing field? Or should the Promethean players be handi-capped? Is it a case of working the story and challenges within so both 'races' can contribute equally?

How had this changed for new splats/editions?

Answer 1

Jon Chung, a known expert at optimizing for White Wolf games, lays it out this way:

• Tier 0: Mortals
• Tier 1: Minor Templates
• Tier 2: Vampire/Werewolf
• Tier 3: Changeling/Promethean

  Linear vs exponential split

• Tier 4: Geist
• Tier 5: Mage

His suggestion is that mixed games work best when you don't go more than one tier apart or cross the linear/exponential gap. For example, it's his contention that there's no amount that could make vampires and mages equivalent; the sheer scope of the Arcana to which mages have access rapidly dwarfs the capabilities of a vampire. His suggestion would be to use something like the rules from World of Darkness: Second Sight or Hunter: Witch Finders, which give the feel of magic users without the power of awakened mages. A Tier 2/3 game might work, especially if it's one that is, as you describe, more focused on intrigue than on conflict.

In response to your secondary question -- mostly that last idea. The Created are going to be magical and physical powerhouses compared to the vampires... but they have massive problems when dealing with humans and have limited access to certain Merits. Emphasize the different arenas where the types are strongest, and you'll have a balanced game.

Answer 2

As an alternative approach, the Storyteller may balance things out not by boosting certain PCs (with experience etc) but by adjusting the challenge level the individual PCs face.

So, you have a Tier 5 (see the answer by @Jadasc) mage and a Tier 2 vampire? Introduce a villain who's primarily out to get the mage. A rival mage, a nasty spirit, or something straight out of the Abyss - but take care not to unbalance the fun factor / focus of the story: don't make the mage the most important protagonist. Tricky, but it can be done, imo.

An example: in the old SW movies, Luke (the mage) had Vader (another mage) to deal with, whereas Solo and Chewbacca (the... werewolves? ;)) had Jabba and Fett (a nasty spirit and another werewolf, both of their power level) to overcome. Vader could (have) easily take out Solo & Co. (and Jabba and Fett too), but he wasn't that interested in them, whereas Jabba and Fett were clever enough, for a while, at least, not to mess directly with Luke (the mage.)

Answer 3

One of the developers of the new Demon line wrote about how he hates the idea of game balance. I tend to agree. You are never going to equalize the potential of nWoD beings across all situations; their powers are too different and versatile. Forget about balance.

Instead, you can make sure that no character overshadows another. Each template has something that they excel at and something that is a dramatic weakness. Additionally, each character will be good at something. The GM should create situations where each party member can show off their abilities and situations where each party member runs up against their weakness.

This also means you need to prevent players from being better at something than the specialist. Let the werewolf specialize in spirits, the sin-eater specialize in ghosts, and so on.

You'll need to rotate who the focus character is, and give each secondary PC for a scene something to do. For example, if you're fighting a big storm spirit, the werewolf is probably going to get focus. However, you can let the mortal hack a computer to help your allied technology spirits, let the Forces mage protect the group from lightning hits, and have your Promethean run around smashing the little minions while getting constantly healed by the lightning being channeled into him by the mage.

Look at each PC's template and also what they individually specialize in, and tailor the campaign to that. Chances are that this will write the campaign or adventure for you ("Last Dynasty International is using a nightclub to drain mystical energy from the Underworld to summon murderous monsters").

Some basics on each kind of creature:

Mortals

• Strengths: No supernatural weaknesses
• Weaknesses: Few fancy powers, fragile, limited supernatural perception

Vampires

• Strengths: Excellent social manipulators; powers are cheap and direct
• Weaknesses: Fire, sunlight, impulse control, cameras, non-material threats

Mages

• Strengths: Versatile, can specialize in tons of things, excellent supernatural perception
• Weaknesses: Fragile, can't function well in crowds of mortals or on record, can screw themselves over with Paradox

Werewolves

• Strengths: Tremendous physical prowess, Shadow/spirit speciality
• Weaknesses: Little flashy magic, not huge manipulators

Prometheans

• Strengths: Very damage resistant, dramatic abilities
• Weaknesses: Reality hates them, handicapped in socializing with mortals

Changelings

• Strengths: Cool powers, ability to acquire arbitrary stuff through Pledges, exclusive access to the Hedge
• Weaknesses: Cold iron, out of touch with reality

Sin-Eaters

• Strengths: Versatile, great with ghosts, very good with Underworld
• Weaknesses: Hard to get Plasm (their fuel), distracted with ghost stuff

Mummies

• Strengths: Cosmic powers, unkillable, wildly versatile Cult.
• Weaknesses: Don't remember how to be human, hard to subtly use their big guns, slowly losing power over time, long fuzzy history of immortal enemies, things want to eat them

Demons (Unchained)

• Strengths: Sneaky reality-shaping powers, perfect lying and disguises
• Weaknesses: Constantly pursued by the God-Machine

Answer 4

I've been running MtAW for a couple of years now, its the most popular game line in my group. What I normally do to balance mixed genre games is placed in the design of my setting. Most supernats have a form of social hindrance when using their powers such as the masquerade for vampire and the paradox for mage (not to mention "keepers" for changeling and Lunacy for werewolves.) This social challange becomes the key ingredient for me when I run mixed genre NWOD.

Here's an example: A werewolf, a vampire, and a mage go into a crowded night club, all three player's decide to use a power. The vampire seduces a women in order to feed for the night. Since Majesty (or dominate, auspex, and obfuscate, etc.) doesn't gather much attention from mortals without an ability to see mystical powers, there's no real danger to the masquerade. The werewolf at the same time in the club is attacked by a spirit of murder and defends himself with a gift. If this gift is something that even a no exp mortal could notice than lunacy kicks in and the mortal literally makes up a fictitious story as to what he'd just witnessed. Now the mage, the mage opted to teleport into the bar's restroom in order to get passed (insert plot device.) Since teleportation is vulgar even on the best of days a paradox roll is made.

Firstly, and this is where setting design really levels the playing field, establish your paradox dice pool. If mage really isn't your thing than don't run it until you get comfortable with the paradox mechanic because it's what balances the game lines. Its Half gnosis rounded up contested against half the player's wisdom rounded down, + the gauntlet rating of the night club's spirit world + two for any sleeper in the bathroom who noticed anything "strange." I use strange loosely because the more Over Powered the mage in my setting the more observant sleeper's tend to be.

So despite the over powered nature of mage, the consequences of these three supernats go something like this, The weakest in terms of power, the Vampire, has a great night and a full stomach for intelligently using his discipline. The Werewolf, the second place runner in power level, may attract some unwanted attention of supernats in the bar since whatever power they used to cause lunacy typically causes a bit of a scene and the vampire sitting across the room now knows theirs a wolf in his sheep and may chose to tell the prince. The over powered mage however, could be dead, if the bathroom had three sleepers in it (+6), and the night club had state of the art security (which increases the gauntlet rating to about 3 or 4), and the player only rolled one success to stop the paradox with a 3 Gnosis (-1 your dice pool of 11) than your rolling 10 dice, with one out of three odds for success, that's three paradox for using recklessly using an OP power congrats to your player he gets a bedlam (a severe derangement that can't be mystically removed) for as long as you feel is appropriate. That's assuming you don't roll high or low on the roll. Rolling 5 would mean the player takes resistant aggravated damage equal to his total number of accumulated paradox points this scene.

So to sum up, in mixed genre, the socioeconomics of a setting become really important. You've got to plan out your setting's Shadow for both werewolf and mage to determine the spirit gauntlet as well as an vital social aspect of werewolf deciding how much hell the wolves catch learning new gifts and possibly use the shadow as an advantage over vampires, sin-eaters, Promethean, and mortal. Also, what kind of prince, if any, is in charge of what is considered "a breach" in the masquerade. Bear in mind that in addition to paradox, mages also have to deal with the Heirarch of any given city who typically punish reckless mages since invoking paradox damages the spirit world increasing the gauntlet rating in consequent areas.

I hope this was of any value.

Answer 5

The question has already been answered pretty thoroughly, but just as food for thought, I'd like to point out that the new World of Darkness was designed with an eye for game balance in mind. At least in the Mage book, there's a detailed layout of what the designers did to try and balance it against the others. (If you'd like me to look up the page number or post it, let me know.)

As a practical suggestion for a 'fully integrated' game, at the start of the game, calculate the XP cost of the template (on the outside, since players like to min-max), then give players the difference between that cost and how much xp you want them to start with. It's most relevant with mortals, but you might find some minor differences with other templates to. If you find later that the power levels have diverged significantly, discuss with your players what they feel needs to be done (if anything).

Answer 6

One possibility I have always enjoyed was the concept of infamy. If you have characters that are overshadowing others, then accept they are overshadowing them. Thus, adversaries of the party will be more likely to be prepared for them. It's not cheesing the system, it's true strategy.

For every scene where a mage exerts his influence over reality, certain opposed persons might be taking notes, and the mage might find he is contending with people who have prepared against him. This also applies back to lower tiers as well; among a mortal party, a werewolf who shreds enemies finds them bringing silver bullets with them, and a vampire who makes enemies in political intrigue might find certain soirees featuring fire-breathers to throw off the pyrophobic.

Every witness of the party, even innocent bystanders, tend to notice and remember the most dangerous or influential members first; use the strengths of the PCs as their weaknesses as well.