Compare oWoD w/ nWoD

[Crothian]

The new system I like better. There are fewer exceptions and it is a bit better organized. The horror aspects of the game is more personal horror then monster secretly rule the earth horror. Mage did under go the biggest change and judging by traffic on the WoD boards is very popular. It also gets more threads on RPGnet then all the other games nWoD games combined it seems. The books have been pretty good all across the board.

 

[Stone Dog]

There at least used to be the option of not being part of a big, lifestyle-defining supernatural club (Orphans!); now choices like that are as necessary and rigid of character class and race . . . with no multiclassing or templates allowed.

The options are still there. Every branch has an outcast group as well as a loose association of iconoclasts as well as plenty of room to make your own groups to fit in various places. Social groups are not nearly as monolithic as they used to be and even from city to city the same general subculture can vary to the point where they hate each other.

 

[Mercule]

The main difference between oWoD and nWoD that I've noticed is that the first is more immediately sexy than the second. The first is a pumping nightclub that is exciting the moment you walk in the door and the second is a discrete social club that the more you stay the more you find out is a strange and interesting world to carve a niche into. I didn't care for the nWoD much at first, but the more it rolled around in my head and got comfortable the more I found that the whispers were appealing and inspiring.

I like that description. Being married, 35, with four kids is a lot different perspective than being 20, single, and in college. I want less punk and paint-on leather these days and more... I don't know... discrete social club, I guess.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I like that description. Being married, 35, with four kids is a lot different perspective than being 20, single, and in college. I want less punk and paint-on leather these days and more... I don't know... discrete social club, I guess.

Married, 31, four kids...I still prefer the punk and leather. My page throughs of the new stuff just haven't given me good feelings about any of it. Initially I was excited because all of the new stuff was touted as working off the same set of rules (the Core World of Darkness book) and the old WoD was hodge-podged together in many cases and the games didn't play nice rules-wise. But after giving it an admittedly cursory look, I have to say that I prefer the feel of the old stuff.

 

[GreatLemur]

The options are still there. Every branch has an outcast group as well as a loose association of iconoclasts as well as plenty of room to make your own groups to fit in various places.

That's another example of what I'm talking about, really. In the World of Darkness, even the outcasts have groups. Pre-existing groups defined as part of their excessively-symmetrical "five-by-five" framework, at that. I've never been able to figure out why White Wolf needs to fill every game they produce with loads of big organizations which the PCs are generally supposed to be part of. It was worse in oWod, definitely, but they're still at it...

Anyway, your point about the possibility of additional Watchtowers is definitely a heartening one. I still think real magic is a lot less interesting than the reality-defined-by-believe bit, but I guess it at least opens up the possibility for flavors of magic other than the five bland achetypes the core book offers.

Hey, has anyone got any observations on the differences in the systems? I've heard the Storytelling system improves upon the Storyteller system--and anyone would expect--but I haven't heard many details.

 

[Stone Dog]

That's another example of what I'm talking about, really. In the World of Darkness, even the outcasts have groups. Pre-existing groups defined as part of their excessively-symmetrical "five-by-five" framework, at that.

No, they only have a group because they are all outcasts. They are explicitly outside the 5x5 model. Unbound, Ghost Wolves, etc are all generic names for individual people who don't have a social group to belong to. and even the iconoclast cultures (carthians, iron... masters? and the Free Council) have splintering factions that disagree and oppose each other.

I'm at work, so I can't get into this, but I'll delve into it more when I get home. Sorry if I sound short!

 

[Random Axe]

In Vampire particular, the intricate, well documented origin and history of the Kindred is no more. The concept of a vampire's "generation" is no more. These have been replaced by some very interesting dynamics in Kindred culture that opens up alot of new roleplaying opportunities.

Personally I am horrified by the loss of generation and the origin & history of the Kindred. That was the very essence of VtM in MHO.

 

[Mercule]

Personally I am horrified by the loss of generation and the origin & history of the Kindred. That was the very essence of VtM in MHO.

I was intrigued by Generation for a long time, but I'm very much ready to ditch it. Caine was a great origin and I'm less inclined to drop it, but willing to see what they've come up with.

 

[Crothian]

Personally I am horrified by the loss of generation and the origin & history of the Kindred. That was the very essence of VtM in MHO.

It was and one of the reasons why the new game is Requim.

 

[ivocaliban]

Well, I know it was mentioned in the original post that the differences are pretty clear in the new Werewolf, but I'm still curious about the changes made in that line. W:TA was the only White Wolf game I could really wrap my brain around and find people interested in playing it. I owned hundreds of White Wolf books at one time, but I eventually sold them all with the exception of the Werewolf books (okay and Vampire: The Dark Ages), because I still have story ideas for the garou.

So, I'm interested in any opinions on the current WoD Werewolf material.