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There tends to be a belief between players of World of Darkness that the systems do not mix. Ironically, they tend to mix very well.
When you are trying to make a balanced game as a storyteller, you have to keep in mind that World of Darkness isn’t just a game of character strengths, it’s a game driven by the flaws built into those characters. Vampires and Werewolves frenzy. Mages have paradox events. Wraiths are overtaken by their shadows. Changelings, the Fae, can be overtaken by various states that can temporarily render them helpless or insane. A mixed party is like a large group of hand grenades with their pins that may or may not be pulled trying to get along.
Narratively, that’s the tip of the Iceberg, because the other part of the game started by Mark Rein-Hagen was politics. Characters in this kind of game aren’t just dealing with the politics of their supernatural family group and their greater organizations, they are dealing with everything the world of darkness can throw at them.
The stories can write themselves. Conflict between even the relatively good groups will happen. Outright evil can ironically be more organized due to other factors like Werewolf the Apocalypse’s PENTEX.
Your core issue is going to be how to balance this. Don’t worry, you can do this by what not only defines good Tabletop, but good gaming. You will need caps on what will be integrated into your game. By simply creating this, you’ll get away from overcompensating, power creep numbers. This moves your game to what makes both your player characters and the nonplayer characters they interact with more unique and memorable.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us start with the base organizations of the world of darkness and start some rulesets into a game you may have thought impossible. It can be a game you will never forget…
First let's start with system. I will pick 2nd edition, before the revisions as the gold standard for the various systems. I lost faith in the 20th anniversary edition with Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th, as much of the book was just a copy paste of the original 2nd edition print. It was so much so, that many of the pages referenced skills that were not presented in WTA20.
The reason I'll pick prerevision is that White Wolf made a series of business decisions that I believe were behind their self nerf and relaunch phase that destroyed their company. They constantly replaced their writers and game designers with random hires at that point, removed key developers and proceeded to destroy themselves doing everything on the cheap.
Also, if you've seen my other homebrew, you will know I favor player character's being something something Mythic rather than something nerfed. I do not believe you make characters better by making them as milk toast as possible.
So, let's start with organizations and greater supernatural groups, through the games themselves. You would only need the core rulebook for each system you wish to use, but I'll include extras that you may have on hand or can get cheaply from DTRPG. I'll even link DTRPG for easy use...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game (tabletop RPG) created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing as the first of several Storyteller System games for its World of Darkness setting line.[3][4] It is set in a fictionalized "gothic-punk" version of the modern world where players assume the role of vampires, who are referred to as "Kindred." and deal with their night-to-night struggles against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters, and each other.[5]
Several associated products were produced based on Vampire: The Masquerade, including live-action role-playing games (Mind's Eye Theatre), dice, collectible card games (The Eternal Struggle), video games (Redemption, Bloodlines, Swansong and Bloodlines 2, Bloodhunt), and numerous novels. In 1996, a short-lived television show loosely based on the game, Kindred: The Embraced, was produced by Aaron Spelling for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
White Wolf Wiki:
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade
For those players and Storyteller's that are interested, you can get the books through DrivethruRPG:
The core examples:
Base book:
Player's Handbook:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2307/Vampire-Players-Guide--2nd-Edition?src=also_purchased
Player's guide to the Sabbat (if playing Sabbat)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2296/Players-Guide-to-the-Sabbat?src=also_purchased
Clan book is optional
Storyteller's Only:
Storyteller's Book:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2299/Storytellers-Handbook-WW2222?src=also_purchased
Guide to the Camarilla
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/703/Guide-to-the-Camarilla?src=also_purchased
Storyteller's Only:
Guide to the Sabbat
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/702/Guide-to-the-Sabbat
Ghouls: Fatal Addiction
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/135/Ghouls-Fatal-Addiction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse
Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a role-playing game of the Classic World of Darkness video game series by White Wolf Publishing. Other related products include the collectible card games named Rage and several novels (including one series). In the game, players take the role of werewolves known as "Garou". These werewolves are locked in a two-front war against both the spiritual desolation of urban civilization and supernatural forces of corruption that seek to bring the Apocalypse. Game supplements detail the other shape-shifters.
Along with the other titles in the World of Darkness, Werewolf was discontinued in 2004. Its successor title within the Chronicles of Darkness line, Werewolf: The Forsaken was released on March 14, 2005. The fifth edition of the game is in development.
The books have been reprinted since 2011 as part of the "Classic World of Darkness" line. A series of 48-page comic books was published quarterly beginning in November 2001 by Moonstone Books.[2]
Premise[edit]
The basic premise of the game is that the player characters are Garou, or werewolves, who have undergone some training and succeeded in a rite of passage. After this, they advance in rank by working together to gain fame.
The game takes place in a fictional world where werewolves, vampires, and other legendary creatures secretly live beside humans. This setting is a dark reflection of the real world filled with corruption, apathy, violence, and hopelessness. The setting is also described as "Gothic-Punk."
The Garou battle to maintain this world before all the negativity leads to a total collapse, the titular "apocalypse". They hide it from the public eye and live in secret from humanity in general. In their war, the Garou often hunt down and kill humans and supernatural creatures that either actively pursue the apocalypse or unwittingly contribute to it, due to their parasitic nature. This includes fallen Garou, vampires, evil spirits, mages, and humans (and other creatures) possessed by demons. In doing so, the Garou regard themselves as the immune system of the planet.
Other themes of the game include the inability of the Garou to live as humans, although they were born in human form due to "the curse"; and interaction with spirits that are separated from the physical world in a realm that the Garou can enter. This is part of an ornate game mythology.
White Wolf Wiki:
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse
For those players and Storyteller's that are interested, you can get the books through DrivethruRPG:
The core examples:
Base book:
Player's Handbook:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61535/Werewolf-Players-Guide-2e?src=also_purchased
Tribe books are optional.
Storytellers Only:
Storyteller's Companion:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3371/Werewolf-Storytellers-Companion?src=also_purchased
Umbra: The Velvet Shadow
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61534/Umbra-The-Velvet-Shadow
Storytellers Only:
Axis Mundi: The Book of Spirits
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28/Axis-Mundi-The-Book-of-Spirits?src=also_purchased
Book of the Wyrm (2nd Edition)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2390/Book-of-the-Wyrm-2nd-Edition?src=also_purchased
Storytellers Only:
Subsidiaries: A Guide To Pentex
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2447/Subsidiaries-A-Guide-To-Pentex?src=also_purchased
