What game line to start complete rpg noobs on?

Hi,
Im trying to put together a game set in the nwod. Problem is the players have never played or some have played one or two games.

I expect them to be hesitant to ROLEplay as they ease into the game structure and will definately not be proactive players and generate plots on their own by following their characters motivations.

And i doubt any player will read any books (at least to start with)

So where to start?

Vampire: To political for the group i believe. In my mind a large part of playing vamp is going around gathering power and favours and manipulating others to your benefit. This requires in part alot of players with agendas and the skill to pursue them

Werewolf: Could be the "ONE". I can slowly introduce them to the setting and rules while having them patrol the local area for spirits gone bad. Eventually introducing bigger threats that may well have them forging alliances between local packs. But im not a huge fan of WtF

Mage: Personally i dont like the setting and getting their heads around awakened magic would be an uphill battle.

Promthean: I find this a very deep game suited to experienced and good roleplayers who wish to really explore their characters and the games various themes. I dont think this is a good intro to rpging

Changeling: My fave NWOD game by miles. Theres potential here. I can have them assigned tasks by the local freeholds till they get their sealegs. Eventually i would like them to get involved in the freeholds politics and other aspects of changeling, but i doubt any players will read the core let alone supplements. And that can lead to a hollow game if the players dont know the options available to them. I would like to play this the most

Hunter: Dont have it and not that interested. I could get it and run a number of those "Collections of Horrors" on drivethrurpg.com. How much setting info and rules knowledge is required to play this?

Exalted 2nd: Once again a game where i want the players to dictate what happens, i dont want to turn exalted into an epic dungeon crawl. Also the hassle of all the charms, balancing encounters ect

So posters, what are your thoughts?

Jivewookiee

A Mortal or Hunter game would be my suggestion. As a concept it is frequently encountered in other media so the players will have something to relate to. After you get them settled into the mechanics of the game and the mood/theme of the World of Darkness branch out into the rest of the toolbox as you see fit.

Depends. Ask or try to discover what is that drags them more into RPGs. Depending on how it goes, you could figure out the best game for it.

I'd say Mortal/Hunters aren't as cool for beginners in WoD because it is the same old things from most video-games or movies: humans versus monsters. The games are cool but playing the actual "villains" of the game is what makes WoD unique, so I'd pick one from those. If they can be very open minded and have fun with RP most than everything, Changeling the Lost is a great bet; if they're more into intrigue with some action, Vampire the Requiem would do it. If they're more into raw action with some mysticism to back it up, Werewolf, probably.

In fact you could put any of these elements into any of the games, just that these seem more oriented to those themes.

Good luck.

I'd start with the core rulebook in hand and run a "prelude" for about 6 sessions and let them (and you) get used to the game and the group.
Hold back the XP for about 6 sessions, or at least half of it.
After 6 sessions, they will likely understand enough to be able to decide where to go from there and the nice thing is the characters are already prepped by several sessions of play and there is all those sessions worth of XP to offer to get them started in whichever direction they choose to go.
Just don't fall in to the same old trap everyone else seems to fall for where the base PC option of the core rulebook is ignored in favor of all the KEWL POWERZ offered by the different supernatural agents in each sub-line!

@ Jivewookiee, how big is your group?

From the sounds of it, it should be Forsaken or The Lost based on your interest.

3 players. I was just looking through my bookshelf and was pondering my collection. I really like Starwars Saga, but the whole mini thing and battlemap annoy me, i want to start them off on something more fluid and freeform. I was considering Orpheus (got it all) as the learning curve is pretty gentle.

But then i glimpsed all that purple :) I would love to run a Mage: Ascension game, im a big fan of the traditions but the technocracy just plain rock and i love using them as antagonists. But i wouldnt want to go back to OWOD rules. I started a thread about conversion between M:tA and M:tAsc but i didnt get much help. Anyone know of a good site for conversions between the two?

Anyway thanks for the help guys,
Jivewookiee

I would suggest Changeling. Not because it is better suited, but because it is your favorite. (Mine, too, by the way.)
It is the one you would put the greatest passion into, and that passion would hopefully rub off on the players. If you are excited, it will be easier to get them excited as well.

Brian

Well my group we are all new to rpg and werewolf has always ran smooth and they love it.

Vampire doesn't necessarily have to be overly political. If using newly embraced its far likely that they won't have any respect and would be desperately in need of staying away from older vampires (predators taint) The prince might assign them tasks to see if they may be of any use. In general the political workings are geared towards the older vampires, the younger ones are just trying to maybe get a good secure haven and stay outta the limelight for a while until they don't have to worry about some older ghoul killing them in a stand up fight. Then there are nomads and others that just don't want to deal with politics or have a disdain for them. I usually play an Ordu Dracul Mekhet that spends more time researching and looking into things than dealing with politics (even though these things can get you ahead in the sect.) All of the games can easily be tailored to whatever interrests the players have.

A lot of players cut their teeth on Vampire. The game doesn't include a whole lot of really high concept stuff, it has a relatively small amount of stuff to memorize, it's probably the simplest game mechanically, and it transitions easily from ST driven ("Elders say go here and do this") to Player driven ("I decide I want to take over the city's club scene").

As I said before - why dont you ask the players themselves? Check what is their interest in this or that theme, and why. As said above, yeah, you might end up trying to run a game for its ambience and setting, while having players interested on KEWL POWERZ, or vice versa. You might first want to make sure everyone is can play a game somewhat on the same vibe, or else it wont matte really what setting, it will just bore everyone.

And just don't start them off with Mage. I know nothing about the new version, but the old one is definetely a no-no. For starters, there will be lots of discussion about what could and could not be considered Coincidential, the limits to each sphere level may seem pretty arbritary, and it's a game that puts together pagan witchcraft, Terminator, Illuminati, The Matrix and ties it together with (awful misconceptions of) philosophy. You might want less trouble for everyone at start.

Lipe82:

And just don't start them off with Mage. I know nothing about the new version, but the old one is definetely a no-no. For starters, there will be lots of discussion about what could and could not be considered Coincidential, the limits to each sphere level may seem pretty arbritary, and it's a game that puts together pagan witchcraft, Terminator, Illuminati, The Matrix and ties it together with (awful misconceptions of) philosophy. You might want less trouble for everyone at start.

The new Mage discarded all of that and thus discarded everything that interested me about the old Mage.

All that interested you about the first Mage was coincidental magic? Try reading the rest of the book. There is a lot of good stuff in there.

Storyteller:

All that interested you about the first Mage was coincidental magic? Try reading the rest of the book. There is a lot of good stuff in there.

You missed the second bolded segment.
I liked the HITmarks and the Paradigms and the SoE of course as well.
I just really liked everything that was excised and almost nothing that was retained.

And you missed my sarcasm.

Oh well, shuck it up to forum translation.