We Really Underestimate The Effect of Guns in World/Chronicles of Darkness Games

The thing reared out of the darkness, fangs bared, and red eyes shining with an infernal light. It held vaguely to the shape of a man, but it stank of untold centuries, and the sight of it made you feel as if a thousand insectile legs were scrabbling at the inside of your brain, trying to escape. It took one step, then another, already thirsty for the hot, wet blood it could smell pounding through the human's veins.

Lisa was half-numb with terror, but her finger still tightened on the trigger. The Mossberg bucked in her hands, roaring as fire erupted from the barrel of her gun. The dragonsbreath round tore into the creature, and it shrieked with outrage, and pain. Lisa racked the weapon on instinct, and squeezed the trigger again. The second round blew off the creature's head, leaving nothing behind but a scorched neck stump, as the kindred who had seen centuries turn from the dark shadows of the world fell away to nothing but a cloud of burning ashes.

"No weapon forged by mortal hand, huh?" she said, her voice shaky as she racked a fresh round into her weapon, and slipped a few fresh shells into her gun.

Wait... they're packing what!? No, get me the hell out of here.

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High Caliber Strategy (Guns Are Lethal in This Game)

If you've played any of the games set in the World or Chronicles of Darkness, then you already know the sheer variety of nonsense these games have when it comes to the supernatural. From rampaging werewolves, to centuries-old bloodsuckers, to death-defying sin eaters, and iron-allergic creatures from another dimension, there's magic and monsters aplenty lurking in the dark corners of these modern games. However, we often get so caught up in the power plays between reality-bending mages and primordial creatures of darkness that we tend to forget the sheer, killing power of a modern firearm.

And I'm not just talking about vehicle-mounted military ordnance, here... regular, everyday guns can spell game over for even potent supernatural creatures who roll the dice and come out on the wrong end of a bet.

I talked about this a while back on Discussions of Darkness on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, but I feel like this really bears repeating here. In all versions of these games, firearms deal lethal damage as a rule. For those not familiar, there's bashing damage caused by punches and blunt force trauma that heals relatively quickly, lethal damage caused by guns, blades, and so on that is far more difficult to heal, and aggravated damage which is like using silver on a werewolf... aggravated damage usually makes a character dead in very short order. In the Chronicles of Darkness when you make an attack with a firearm you roll your Dexterity + Firearms dice pool, and add your successes to the weapon's damage rating to determine damage dealt. So if you're firing a rifle (4 extra damage) or a shotgun (3 extra damage), and you end up with a decent number of successes (say 3-4 of them) that's enough to drop someone into unconscious and bleeding out... and that level of damage can also cripple or kill a supernatural creature if they don't have proper protections against what's being fired at them.

The other thing that makes firearms so deadly is that they ignore a character's Defense (as long as the firearm isn't being used in melee distance). If you're being attacked in melee, or someone is throwing something at you, you have the ability to apply your Defense against that action, representing your ability to duck, bob, weave, etc. out of the way to slip punches, dodge blades, and so on. Firearms don't care about your Defense... the only thing that can save you from being shot is armor, cover, and some pretty powerful supernatural abilities.

I say this not because I want folks to think that firearms are a completely overpowered aspect of this game... but instead to realize that guns are a massive equalizer in a modern fantasy/horror game. And if your game is set in America, the land of Smith and Wesson, this is going to be something people run into quite a lot when they end up playing hardball.

A Literal Arms Race

Now, all of this is not to say that guns are an automatic win. For one thing, armor and shields rated for ballistic encounters (the sort of stuff you see a SWAT team roll up in) can allow characters to wade through a battlefield without substantial harm if they have a bit of luck. Secondly, you still have to be able to actually hit a target, and when it comes to distance, lighting, cover, dodging, etc., firefights can quickly become choking, nasty affairs... especially because so many of these games take place in cities and not in open, empty fields on bright days with clear sight lines.

Just as importantly, though, one of the major aspects of the World and Chronicles of Darkness is secrecy. While it is perfectly possible to roar up to an encounter dressed for a Texan wedding and ready to leave a few thousand shell casings in your wake, that sort of thing tends to get noticed in a big damn hurry... and that's exactly the opposite of what you want. Especially when you consider that the authorities have more guns, bigger guns, and there's a lot more of them than there are of you, the application of firearms tends to become far more strategic when you're trying to solve plot. Sure, you might keep a sidearm on you for personal protection, or wear a ballistic weave vest under your coat, but you aren't gearing up all the way just to go about your daily life.

This is a lot like how it's frowned upon to stomp around town in a fantasy RPG dressed in full plate and carrying bared steel. People in the modern world tend to get extremely nervous when someone in a full suit of tactical gear shows up to a grocery store with a shotgun over one shoulder, and a brace of flash bangs on their hip.

Move fast. Break stuff. Disappear.

However, it cannot be overstated that this is not a technology V. supernatural dichotomy. Because firearms being this widely available mean they're going to be in the hands of supernatural creatures and their servants, too. Whether it's gang enforcers who've been juiced up on a kindred's vitae, mortals sworn to fight and die in the service of a changeling, or a mage who has turned a gun into one of their ritual implements, the interactions of modern day weaponry with the supernatural can put you on a fast track to seriously bonkers (and deadly) encounters.

With that said, I feel it's important to understand that when the guns come out, that's when things get really serious in this game. Don't breeze into a room full of heavily-armed bruisers thinking you can take them because you're one of the game's main characters... all it takes is a little overconfidence and a few good rolls on the ST's part for your character to die of lead poisoning on the first round of combat, regardless of how long you've been banking your experience points.

Good planning and preparation is worth a lot... but there's a reason the monsters melt into the shadows when humans start tooling up and lighting their torches!

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Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Mortals Plus- A World/Chronicles of Darkness Campaign Concept

The World and Chronicles of Darkness setting is filled with possibilities and potentials. From vampires and werewolves, to mages and changelings, to Prometheans, Sin Eaters, and hunters, you could play through dozens and dozens of chronicles before you ever heard the same note repeated.

However, whether you're an old hand for these games looking for some way to spice things up, or you're a newer player looking for a gentler introduction to this setting for yourself and your table, I'd like to suggest something that I call a Mortals+ Chronicle.

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The Support Staff For The Supernatural

While each of the different spheres of the World or Chronicles of Darkness are unique in their own ways, there are a lot of design similarities between the games so that they can be played together as part of the same setting. And one of the big similarities shared by a majority of these supernatural creatures is that they have a slot reserved for mortals who have been let in on the secret, and who usually have some vestige of power of their own as a result.

Yes, Master... I see.

This tradition goes all the way back to the original edition of Vampire: The Masquerade and the idea of ghouls. These characters are mortals who are blood bound to a vampire, and they act as that vampire's agents in the mortal world, much like we see Renfield act in the classic novel Dracula. This role was carried forward with kinfolk in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, allowing for extended families of these shapechangers to provide backup and support, and to avoid/ignore the madness that viewing a werewolf usually brought on. Other examples include ensorcelled mortals for Changeling: The Lost, familiars in Mage: The Awakening, and so on. While not every game in the setting has these roles, it is uncommon for this kind of character to be absent.

They are the characters that a Mortals+ chronicle revolves around.

Normally these enhanced mortals are just thought of as sidekicks to the supernatural creatures of a given game. They're the aides de camp who help with planning, who open the doors, or who handle tasks that are too mundane for the monsters to whom they are bound to bother with. But the chronicle can take on an interesting twist when you shift that narrative, and see these stories from the perspective of these mortal characters.

The first benefit is that this allows you to focus on your character as a person, and figuring out who they are. You then need to ask what brought them under the shadow, and into the truth of the setting. Were they a lost kinfolk who was rediscovered when they saw a garou change forms, and didn't freak out? Were they a private eye tracking down a serial killer, only to find a vampire who offered them a choice between servitude or death? Was this person a student of the occult who stumbled onto a cabal of genuine mages who decided they were too useful to do away with? Or did they make a deal with someone that sounded too good to be true, only to find out they now work for a changeling?

But is it the worst bargain you've ever made?

This idea works best for Storytellers and players who want to stay at a boots-on-the-ground level of the game. Additionally, when you play an enhanced mortal, it gives you a taste of power (usually, anyway), and it gives the Storyteller a simple way of dispatching missions to the PCs. You can complicate this somewhat by giving the PCs different sponsors (say you each serve a different vampire, or you're all connected to different werewolf tribes), but that is a choice that's up to you as the ST.

Another aspect of a Mortals+ game is that, much like the Faces of Death Chronicle idea I shared a while back, there's a chance for players to be upgraded to a full supernatural template. Perhaps the ghouls prove themselves through their service, and their masters embrace them (or they betray their masters, and are embraced by another who promised them power for that betrayal). Your kinfolk might have their first change, your familiars might awaken, and it's possible that your ensorcelled mortals might be dragged away to Arcadia, only to have to claw their way back to the real world as a full changeling. Maybe this is something some characters want, maybe it's something they're forced to endure (because the player wants it to happen, even if the character doesn't), but it can provide an interesting way to continue the chronicle even when the PCs are all upgraded to a full, supernatural sheet.

Or, if you opt not to go that route, they can always make for ideal hunters, since they have a working knowledge of at least one supernatural community, how to navigate it, and how to disrupt it!

Recommended Reading on Enhanced Mortals

I've written up a lot of supplements about characters who fit into the Mortals+ mold. I've listed them below for folks who want to check them out for inspiration, or simply to fill your own World/Chronicles of Darkness game with a more organic cast!

- New World Nights: 100 Ghouls For The American Camarilla (Vampire: The Masquerade)

- New World Shadows: 100 American Ghouls For The Sabbat (Vampire: The Masquerade)

- Children of The Night: 100 Animal Ghouls (Vampire: Requiem or Masquerade)

- 100 Garou Kinfolk Bundle (15 Werewolf: The Apocalypse supplements in one bundle!)

- 100 Ensorcelled Mortals (Changeling: The Lost)

For those who want to see me expand this list of 19 supplements to other games, please consider leaving comments below, sharing the supplements around to help them find fresh eyes, and if you do get copies for yourself, leave a rating and a review to help the project maintain momentum!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition... What's The Difference?

While I'm a fairly big fan of the World of Darkness setting, I came to the game a little later than most folks. My first exposure to it was just before I was allowed to legally drink, which just so happened to be shortly after the release of Vampire: The Requiem. I enjoyed the game a lot, but it wasn't until we'd finished the first arc of the campaign that one of the other players told me there was an older edition, and that it was jam-packed with more clans, disciplines, lore, etc. than the newer edition would ever have.

And that was how I started down this dark little rabbit hole.

Curious about what I'd find, I looked through Vampire: The Masquerade, along with a bunch of the other "old world" games. I found a lot to like, but one thing that kept stopping me from falling in with the old world crowd was that the games were mechanically clunky, and putting the different spheres together often required a lot of crunching and translation. They had been made as mechanical islands, and tied together with story ropes, in other words. The new world games, which would come to be known as the Chronicles of Darkness to differentiate them, started with a foundation template for all the characters and creatures. This made it simple to transition from one sphere to the other, ensuring maximum ease of play if you wanted your werewolves to fight vampires, or your changelings to go toe-to-toe with mages, etc..

Call me a sucker, but that standardization of mechanics went a long way toward making me a Chronicles player. Especially when the LARP rules came into the equation.

I took a break from the Chronicles of Darkness for a while, especially when I heard they were releasing a new edition. But I finally got my hands on a copy, and gave it a thorough look over. So I figured this week I'd dig into it a bit, and share my thoughts on the differences both good and bad.

And, of course, since this is Crunch week, I'm talking about the mechanical changes made to the Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition. We'll talk about story stuff another day.

General Mechanics: Mostly The Same

If you've played with the Storyteller System in the past, then you know how it goes. You add the dots for an attribute together with the dots of a skill, along with any bonuses or penalties, and then roll a pool of 10-sided dice equal to that number. Every die that comes up over a certain target number (typically an 8) is a success. If it's a 10, it explodes and you keep rolling it.

All of that, still the same.

In fact, a lot of the broad mechanics haven't changed at all. Your Willpower, Defense, Health, Speed, etc. are all calculated in the same way, for example, and combat is generally similar. While the Merits section is heftier, it has faithfully collected a lot of the favorites from the old system, and added a few new ones just because it can. This is including Merits that used to be only in certain spheres, or certain splat books, like Good Time Management, Parkour, and others.

So, if you were worried this edition would be completely different, rest assured that it's still recognizable when it comes to the mechanics.

Major Change: Virtue and Vice

In the first edition of this game, every character chose one of the seven deadly sins as a vice, and one of the seven heavenly virtues as, well, a virtue. These were used to determine when you regained Willpower, and given how much Willpower you can blow for bonuses in game and to activate your higher-tier powers and abilities, you can go through a lot of it.

In the second edition, though, virtue and vice are now mostly up to you, as a player. For instance, you might have the virtue "Patient" showing that your character always takes their time and lets people work through something at their own speed. You could also provide the vice "Competitive" to show that they like to win, and don't play nice when victory is on the line.

The idea is that the game doesn't work on a binary moral system, with some things being good and others bad. Rather, the question is what anchors you in your own skin, and what helps you cope with the world around you? This is further encapsulated by the system no longer being referred to as your Morality, and instead using the word Integrity. Given that this word can mean both how you're holding together, as well as the quality of your character, it's a little more nuanced. The section also gives you a list of questions that players should answer (many of which are similar to what you find on my 10 Questions To Put On Your Character Creation Document), which helps put things in perspective.

This is overall a change that might feel small, but which puts a lot more freedom into your hands as a player, and effects one of your major resources.

Other New Systems I Like: Chases, Doors, and "Alternatives"

There were, of course, some other additions. After all, why come out with a whole new edition if you were just organizing a bunch of stuff you already had?

The first new system I came across that I really liked was the Chase mechanic. Folks who have read If You're A DM, You Should Get Your Hands on a Chase Deck know that this is something I very much advocate when it comes to games. Because the ability to duck and weave, sprint down alleys and hood slide over cars can add a lot of spice to a game, and it prevents both players and storytellers from just slapping down X, Y, or Z power to prevent someone from escaping to fight another day.

Did I mention he has Allies: Military? You should run.

In addition to chases, the game also offers a unique system called Doors. This system is essentially used for those long-term goals that have traditionally been hard to acquire, and take a lot of time and effort. For example, you want to bribe the local district attorney into dropping some charges. The ST decides how many "doors" you would need to walk the attorney through in order to see things your way. Your successes, and your methods, determine how much time it takes, and the potential fallout if you fail... and sometimes even if you succeed. This system is also used for getting information out of people via torture or intimidation, turning it into a process rather than a best-guess, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants scenario.

Both very good things to codify and provide a structure for, in my opinion.

Lastly, the book offers STs some alternative systems for combat. One is Down and Dirty combat, which is typically used when you want to avoid wasting time on encounters that aren't that big of a deal. Because you know your Delta Green hit squad can take out the scum the vampire lord has on the door, so you just make one roll for them. This determines how handily the PCs win, and you can move onto the next scene where the real challenge lies. This is a solid solution for making fights feel like the players' stats and strategies matter, but without wasting a lot of time on mooks and incidentals.

And, of course, there's a section codifying vehicular combat. Because as I like to say, vehicular combat is always an option.

New Systems I Dislike: Beats, Conditions, and Tilts

For every up there is a down, and if this book was just a bunch of stuff I thought was great then I would have just said so in the beginning. So I'm going to take this section to talk about the things I found that might require some adjustment to your thinking, or which I don't think work all that well.

Not bad... but how's your sprint time?

Firstly, there's a greater emphasis placed on Conditions in this edition than there was in the last one. There's a huge chart of them in the back of the book, but the ST is encouraged to make up their own. Short version is that these conditions are anything that you may need to overcome. For example, getting hit by a dazzling ray can leave you blinded, making it hard for you to achieve certain tasks. If this Condition strikes in combat, then it's referred to as a Tilt, but it might turn back into a Condition if it lasts longer than the fight you're currently in.

The reason Conditions are so common is (at least in part) because of something called the Beat system. The idea is that every story has beats, and when you hit one of those marks you receive a partial XP point. You get a beat for overcoming a Condition, so it's important to spread them around to give everyone a chance to hoover them up. You also get beats for taking extreme amounts of damage, you get beats for achieving Aspirations (character goals), and you get beats for dozens of other things.

I don't like the Beat system for two reasons.

First, it's one more thing to keep track of. If players forget about collecting their beats, it's going to take them longer to gain XP, which means they aren't going to advance at the rate you've set out for them as the ST. And with all the other things you have to juggle, figuring out how many beats you need to spread around is just one more number for you to add to the line of plates you're trying to keep spinning.

Secondly, by granting players XP directly for their actions, it encourages them to do things that will earn them beats since they now know that X actions translate to Y amount of mechanical resources. This could (and probably will) push players who have an eye on getting as much XP as possible to take actions that are more likely to earn them beats, rather than the actions that best fit their character, the story, or even the situation they find themselves in. Much like how in a traditional fantasy RPG players are less likely to sneak past guard patrols, or to try and fast talk their way into an enemy stronghold, because if they don't kill the thing then they don't get XP for it. So murder becomes the only solution, because that's what gets them the mechanical reward.

My two cents is that, as a Storyteller, you're just better off setting a flat XP rate per game. It allows you to keep progression at the level you want, and it encourages your players to be creative and true to their characters rather than constantly collecting brass rings. If you want to reward your players' actions creatively, I'd recommend checking out All That Glitters is Not Gold to get some ideas of how in-game actions can lead to in-game rewards, rather than just tossing bonus XP at someone and putting them ahead of the curve.

Additional Page Space Dedicated To Advice

As a final point, this book dedicated significantly more page space to giving both players and STs advice on how to craft more nuanced characters and stories. From making your Breaking Points unique to your character (a career hitman likely isn't going to have the same reaction to killing someone as a scared fast food worker from the suburbs, for example), to discussing how to avoid binary rolls when it comes to investigations (something I covered in Dungeon Masters, Embrace The Concept of Failing Forward!), the book is overall more concerned with helping players ease into a world of gray areas that lacks the hard morality of other RPGs.

Overall, I think that was definitely a step in the right direction. This edition is more focused on leaving right and wrong up to the individual, and it gives it a much more cosmic horror feeling. Though it should be noted that unless you've got the protection of a supernatural template, things that go bump in the night are never something you're going to get used to.

Speaking of advice and resources for STs, I'd also recommend taking a look at Want To Run Better World of Darkness Games? Then Watch John Wick! before you get your next chronicle started.

Should I Keep This Going?

Normally on Crunch week I talk about Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, but I've been looking more and more into the latest games from the Chronicles of Darkness. Would you like to see me check out the other spheres, and see what's changed? If so, leave a comment below to let me know!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or if you'd like to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well! And if you'd like to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little bit of help can go a long way, trust me on that one.