System
Wraith: The Oblivion uses White Wolf's Storyteller System, a d10-based system in which player characters are rated in various categories (general Attributes, particular Skills, and special Advantages); these ratings are used to calculate a dice pool which the player uses to roll for success or failure against a difficulty rating for the task at hand. The difficulty, and the number of dice that must be rolled above that difficulty, are set by the Storyteller according to certain broad criteria.
As in all Storyteller System games, there are several special rules and systems that support the theme of the game. The most notable are:
- Pathos and Corpus
- Characters have variable scales to represent their Pathos, the wraith's emotional energy and ability to resist his Shadow, and their Corpus, the wraith's physical integrity or "health". When Corpus falls to zero, a wraith may undergo a Harrowing; Pathos can be spent to restore Corpus or to power various Arcanoi.
- The Shadowguide
- The game includes several systems for roleplaying a wraith's Shadow. The default arrangement is for each player in the troupe to play another player's Shadow; this creates a very confrontational style of play, as each player pursues a Shadow's goals to the detriment of another character.
- Character death
- As wraiths, player characters obviously cannot die; thus there is no system to handle character death (ie., a conventional hit points system). Wraiths, however, can be destroyed in several ways: by permanent loss of Pathos, Corpus, or by removing/resolving a wraith's Passions. Most wraiths who face destructive trauma have a last chance to escape Oblivion via a nightmarish psychodrama known as a Harrowing, which takes place in the Tempest and directly pits the wraith against his/her Shadow. Shadows can also initiate lesser Harrowings to damage wraiths' Passions or Fetters, bringing them closer to Oblivion. A few weapons and hazards of the Underworld, notably Stygian steel, inflict "aggravated" damage that can destroy wraiths directly without the possibility of a Harrowing.
Read more about this topic: Wraith: The Oblivion
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“Some rough political choices lie ahead. Should affirmative action be retained? Should preference be given to people on the basis of income rather than race? Should the system be—and can it be—scrapped altogether?”
—David K. Shipler (b. 1942)
“When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice? Let us rather call it injustice, but of a sly effective order, based entirely on cruel knowledge of the resistance of the weak, their capacity for pain, humiliation and misery. Injustice sustained at the exact degree of necessary tension to turn the cogs of the huge machine-for- the-making-of-rich-men, without bursting the boiler.”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)