I blame Joss Whedon. Don't Buffy Vampires basically work like this? Out goes the soul, in goes a demonic spirit. Retain the memories and personality quirks, but get a lot more violent.
Only kinda sorta. Like in Bram Stoker's dracula, or Anne Rice, you add the blood and it changes the person. Buffy has the demon, sure, but it's part of the mythos: vamp someone, they're changed into this new type of creature: the vampire. Even WoD has this, as the struggle inside the character is to retain their humanity rather than give in to "the beast".
Monte has the Vampires as simply normal humans taken over by the ghosts of other normal humans. For some reason these ghosts also like blood. The inner conflict is whether they're themselves or this new, historical identity. Dissociative identity disorder.
That's different from repressed sexual urges, represented by a lust for blood/intimate contact with people's necks. Or from, well, the collection of vampire clans from the original game; y'know, the popular one?
vampires: "Erasmus, what are you doing?" "calling to the children of the night, for I am a vampire! Bloooooood!"
Monte Cook vampires: "Rodney, why are you wearing my skirt and pumps?" "Don't call me Rodney, I'm really Lady Agatha Pettigrew, a 19th century heiress, and I demand blood... and crumpets!"
EPIC FAIL
I really loved Montes take. I am not so sure about the rules, seem too fiddly in gameplay. But the world and especially the "races" are interesting.
And I also like that he's basically turning the d20 system "upside" down - races work like classes, classes work like races.
Yeah, I think I'll have to look over the rules some more. Other than the vamps it doesn't look too bad, conceptually.
Could be fun if the vamps were reconcepted, I guess.