Looking for Advice on starting new with New World of Darkness

[pwvogt]

A little intro, my group started role playing about two years ago, and before this time none of us had any real tabletop experience. Star Wars Saga Edition was our first game and we added 4th ed. D&D once that was released, and we play both on some kind of regular basis (so basically we're real familiar with current D20 products).

I've really been looking at running a nWoD game for a while now and have been making my way through the core book. I just picked up Antagonists as well, but haven't had a chance to check it out really yet.

I pitched my nWoD game idea to my group friday night and after a little time, they all got into the spirit of things because an ongoing horror, modern game is something we haven't done yet (we have played several games of the jenga-Dread game, but those were all one-shots).

I'm still really new to the nWoD game line and universe in general. My idea for my chronicle is a sandbox game in a fictional city (Parson City, Colorado) that's been cut off from the rest of the world but is quite large on its own and is starting to adapt to a system of limited resources. I'm going to run a mortals game at least to begin with so we can all learn the system and gain a healthy fear of the bad things that are starting to get to the city and leave their mark more and more.

With all that in mind, what other books would be a good place to start with other than the core book and antagonists? None of my characters are cops or military personnel, so I don't think those source books would be helpful. I want to give my guys a really developed, large city with lots of options and tons of hooks all over the place to make them feel like they really are taking the lead and I'm not railroading them even the tiniest bit (which can happen quite often in combat-focused systems like d20 stuff). I've read a little bit about the Vampire book Damnation City, would it be worthwhile and helpful for helping me develop my Mortals city? I'm not necessarily going to have a "Prince" (not sure exactly what that all entails at this point), but it seems like a good book to build NPC's with regardless, is this true?

Should I look at trying to get Armory or Armory Reloaded? Those seem to be neat books from what I've read, but are they really useful or pertinent at this point?

Last thing: I'm looking at eventually having all the characters upgrade themselves to Hunters using the Hunter: The Vigil system on after a little bit of the characters getting to know the newly changed city and giving them a chance to learn that things aren't quite right not just in the bar or park next door, but all over town. In your experiences, is this kind of transition to normal mortal to a super something that's easily doable, or will I have to have my players start brand new characters?

Ok, last question for real: any books in general, across any nWoD line, that has a big or particularly awesome list of antagonists outside of the Antagonists book I should look at?

Thanks for reading my long-ass post! Any general nWoD advice is also welcomed!

[clockworkjoe]

When in doubt, steal from Silent Hill.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Damnation City is tooled for Vampire but it works with any city building system.

Moving from mortal to supernatural is completely possible. Moving from Mortal to Hunter is easier than most other templates because there's much less to add in.

Armory and Armory Reloaded offer vasty different options. Armory is mostly a line up of specific weaponry that expands upon the list from the core book. Reloaded has a massive section about combat styles, martial arts in particular, which is fun and very complex. It also features abnormal weaponry. If you want a book with alot of guns, Armory. Want a book with laser rules and Krav Maga, Reloaded.

I suggest source books based on what you want to do. For a city based sandbox game, Damnation City. Tales of the 13th Precinct, the cop source book, would be a good choice as well.

[pwvogt]

Thanks for the suggestion, and a follow-up question:

Since I'm the only one with books (in fact I just ebayed a second copy for the group), can anyone suggest a 1-2 page quick reference guide for players with things like basic rules (luck roll, how to do an unarmed melee attack, structure rules for objects, etc) that they've found that I could print out and give to my players so they don't have to keep asking me a rules question here or there?

By the way, we haven't started yet, but I'm thinking of posting some kind of record of the game here for kicks and may be to help me pick up on some plot hooks I didn't see in the middle of play.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Make a photocopy of the back side of the GM screen.

The official character sheet has all the calculations for making a character listed at the bottom of the sheet.

[wrotenbe]

Thanks for the suggestion, and a follow-up question:

Since I'm the only one with books (in fact I just ebayed a second copy for the group), can anyone suggest a 1-2 page quick reference guide for players with things like basic rules (luck roll, how to do an unarmed melee attack, structure rules for objects, etc) that they've found that I could print out and give to my players so they don't have to keep asking me a rules question here or there?

By the way, we haven't started yet, but I'm thinking of posting some kind of record of the game here for kicks and may be to help me pick up on some plot hooks I didn't see in the middle of play.

Print out pages 32-33 from the WoD Core which describe, in a nutshell, how the STS is played. Then, print out or photocopy pages 38-39, which have lists of all the relevant dice pools, for yourself and the players.