Crothian said:
I read the new Vampire and Mage (they sit on my shelf merely looking pretty) and I felt that in the end, the changes didn't do much for making anything BETTER, it's just different for difference's sake. I was in the minority in Mage I think tho, I had no problem understanding and adjudicating magic use in the game. The new system looks like they tried to codify too much of it and in so many ways it looks like they tried to d20 the game w/o actually doing d20 if ya know what I mean. There were always conditional modifiers in the game before, but now the lists of them are HUGE. Yes this makes things a bit more standardized from one ST to the next, but looking at the lists of them it just looks ridiculous.
I'll happily stick w/Revised Vampire, 2nd Ed Mage and Aberrant for most of my White Wolf playing. I did get to see the new Changeling tonite in a store tho and the book is certainly pretty. If I had a spare $35 I would have bought it for my wife for our anniversary. I do want Monte's WoD tho b/c I've been really enjoying all the Malhavoc stuff and it sounds like he had an interesting take on the system.
EDIT:Oh yeah, I seem to recall rather widespread claims from the developers about how all the new systems would balance together very nicely for cross system games. Uhmm...not so much. Still just as terrible to blend together as the OWoD. Mages w/a bit extra beyond standard, starting vampires and bastets actually were the usual mix of stuff in crossover campaigns for us heh. Bastet chrinos form wasn't completely ridiculous.
MORE EDITING:Also on the Mage NWoD, I hate the new story. Part of my problem is how they reuse a lot of the old names like Oracles and such, but they mean NOTHING like what they used to. I'm a smart guy, I can handle relearning word usages, but if you're coming from the old editions, it's just more jarring changes for change sake. The old story w/the Technocracy made a sort of faceless enemy to most of the traditions, but in the guide to the technocracy they explained each of the technocracy groups very well and gave an interesting history. It seemed to me, that if you allowed for the possibility of magic in the world as well as super high technology that is verging on being thought of as magical, that the storyline as written made sense. The new storyline about a Celestial Ladder, a few guys battling the head honchos out there on top of the ladders (the aforementioned Oracles), and the ever popular nod to Atlantis....I just don't enjoy it.
The game went from having rotes, explaining what they do and then never showing nearly enough of them to giving a huge number of them, to the point it feels more like you're going thru the 3E PHB. Which is not the fell I associate w/ a WW game.
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