NWoD Translation Guide

This is an unofficial guide to how OWoD/CWoD differs from NWoD. Corrections are welcomed.

Attributes

• Mortal and Mortal+ get 6/4/3, supernaturals get 7/5/3
• Mental attributes: Perception instead of Resolve
• Social attributes: Charisma/Appearance instead of Presence/Composure
  • These do not follow a consistent Power/Finesse/Resistance pattern

Abilities

• "Skills" -> "Abilities"
• Mortal and Mortal+ get 11/7/4, supernaturals get 13/9/5
• "Mental skills" -> "Knowledges" (untrained: automatically fail)
• "Physical skills" -> "Skills" (untrained: roll attribute at +1 difficulty)
• "Social skills" -> "Talents" (untrained: roll attribute at normal difficulty)
  • Some abilities are classified differently
• Abilities with different names:
  • "Larceny" -> "Security" (OWoD "Larceny" is narrower in scope)
  • "Weaponry" -> "Melee"
  • "Socialize" -> "Etiquette"
• Primary abilities not in (core) NWoD:
  • Talents: Alertness, Awareness, Dodge, Leadership
  • Skills: Performance, Technology
  • Knowledges: Bureaucracy, Cosmology, Enigmas, Finance, Law Linguistics
  • By game line: Lore
  • Shifters: Primal Urge, Rituals
  • Changelings: Kenning, Gremayre

Ability rolls

• There are no attribute+attribute rolls, just attribute+ability
• "Target number" -> "Difficulty": default 6, but some modifiers affect difficulty instead of dice pool (generally ranges from +3 to -3)
• Each 1 cancels out a success
• There is no 10-again rule (except specialties, which we don't use)
• "Dramatic failure" -> "Botch": occurs when you get one or more 1s and no successes (even before they're canceled by 1s)
• There are no chance rolls: if your dice pool is empty, you automatically fail

Other stats

• There is no automatic Defense modifier, only when you perform a defensive action (e.g. dodge)
• Health normally starts at 7
• Initiative = (Dexterity + Wits + 1 die) and is re-rolled each turn
• "Morality" -> "Humanity" (Path of Enlightenment for some vampires/ghouls)
• There are no dedicated Size and Speed stats
• Willpower is determined differently depending on game line: spend Willpower to gain one automatic success on an action roll
• Instead of Virtue and Vice, there are Nature (what you're really like) and Demeanor (how you act): gain a Willpower for acting in accordance with your Nature
• Mortal and Mortal+ get 21 freebies, supernaturals get 15: similar but not identical to experience points
• Merits are optional, each dot costs 1 freebie
• Flaws are optional, each dot gives 1 freebie (max 7)
• For details by game line, see Character Generation
• Experience point costs are different, see XP Chart

Combat

See Combat