How would you hack a VtM lookalike without going anywhere near the storyteller system?

[Ulfgeir]

Well, if you go by the original fluff-text, then the game is all about intrigues between the vampires and you being a monster. So in that sense maybe hacking Good Society: A Jane Austen rpg might work, especially since it doesn't have a combat system. That means you would strip away all the various disciplines and the combat system that turned Vampire the Masquerade into fanged superbeings battling each other...

 

[GMMichael]

. . . overly pretentious and self-important . . .

• I'm not interested in some rando GM's pet project Storyteller remake/hack/"personal re-envisioning" of the system.
• I am not interested in some far out-there, long-tail indie system that a grand total of eight people have ever heard of.
• I have zero interest in Fate or GURPS.
• I might be persuaded to consider HERO or BRP, but you'd better sell me on it.
• I'm very much okay (better than okay) with PbtA/FitD, but I don't want it to just be some reskinned playbooks stacked on top of the AW engine. It needs to be a bit more . . . integrated into a cohesive whole.

Yup. I see the problem.

I think the only suggestion I'm allowed to make is...try D&D?

 

[James Gasik]

Tangent: I have to say I was a member of a group that playtested GURPS:VtM back in the 1990s. And even though it wasn’t my favorite system, I had a freaking blast. Two interwoven things contributed to this.

First, I went into the play test thinking that it was my job to test the game’s limits. Since I was relatively new to GURPS- especially as compared to the group I was in- I decided to go straightforward with my mechanical choices. I designed a Brujah with maxed out Potence (physical strength & toughness) & Celerity (supernatural speed) who had been turned by a VERY old vampire. IOW, mechanically, this PC was a brutal killing machine.

Second, the character concept was absurdist. In life, he had been a private investigator. When he rose from the grave, he went Malkavian-level insane, His broken mind interpreted his newfound supernatural abilities as comic-book super powers. He was a reimagined version of NEC’s The Tick…Major Mosquito. Gear-wise, he added some body armor, a crossbow with wooden bolts, a muscle car with a big trunk (with some dirt in it) and a BMX bike rack. The bike had cards in the spokes to produce a buzz. And he had surgical steel crime straws that he used to feed in miscreants.

Effectively, he was an anti-vampire vampire of sorts, being manipulated by the group’s Toreador. Nothing like having a mad dog on your team…

My point? I don’t know why you’re eliminating GURPS from the start, but I have to admit that the game IS very capable of delivering a satisfactory V:tM experience.

Perhaps it's the Mandela effect, but I remember there being a lot of controversy surrounding these books- White Wolf thought this would be a major coup for the game, and yet the books took 2 years to come out, and when White Wolf complained about it, they were told some very nasty things about their game by the Steve Jackson staff.

When I looked at GURPS VtM, I remember seeing a very high point cost for vampires to be Immune to the Delirium caused by Werewolves which I thought was a bit silly.

However, since I admit I haven't played the game, and have only my general problems with GURPS to call on (all the important rules are in sidebars! points are not points!) I may be being unfair to the product as I was a White Wolf fangboy who had also felt burned by GURPS when it came out, and I didn't wake up from that particular Delirium for a few years.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Yup. I see the problem.

I think the only suggestion I'm allowed to make is...try D&D?

No situation is bad enough to warrant that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, if you go by the original fluff-text, then the game is all about intrigues between the vampires and you being a monster. So in that sense maybe hacking Good Society: A Jane Austen rpg might work, especially since it doesn't have a combat system. That means you would strip away all the various disciplines and the combat system that turned Vampire the Masquerade into fanged superbeings battling each other...

That’s some out of the coffin thinking, right there!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perhaps it's the Mandela effect, but I remember there being a lot of controversy surrounding these books- White Wolf thought this would be a major coup for the game, and yet the books took 2 years to come out, and when White Wolf complained about it, they were told some very nasty things about their game by the Steve Jackson staff.

When I looked at GURPS VtM, I remember seeing a very high point cost for vampires to be Immune to the Delirium caused by Werewolves which I thought was a bit silly.

However, since I admit I haven't played the game, and have only my general problems with GURPS to call on (all the important rules are in sidebars! points are not points!) I may be being unfair to the product as I was a White Wolf fangboy who had also felt burned by GURPS when it came out, and I didn't wake up from that particular Delirium for a few years.

Well, like I said, I’m not a GURPS dude, so my perspective was a bit different from those who regularly played the game.

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, there is GURPS Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf.

I have used GURPS sourcebooks for years...without playing GURPS. I think if you can find these (and there may be ways to find them) then it will give you exactly what you are looking for in terms of moving a lot of the ideas into another framework.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yes, there is GURPS Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf.

I have used GURPS sourcebooks for years...without playing GURPS. I think if you can find these (and there may be ways to find them) then it will give you exactly what you are looking for in terms of moving a lot of the ideas into another framework.

I use a couple GURPS sourcebooks as general RPG resources myself.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Well, like I said, I’m not a GURPS dude, so my perspective was a bit different from those who regularly played the game.

You're a Hero guy, though. In terms of system and ethos, you're maybe two beers away from a GURPS dude.

(I say with love for both systems)

 

[Voadam]

I think it is fairly easy to hack into most settings and systems.

Mostly it is world background with clans and intergenerational conflict and focusing on politics and relationships and the reality of being turned into a monster, that translates into any system fairly easily.

The mechanical specifics of VtM vampires are decently easy to come up with matches.

They can get 10 blood points, expanded by generation.

Blood can be spent on boosting physical stats, healing, 1/day existence cost, and vampire powers. It can also be used to empower and bond living minions, bind other vampires who drink it, and to create new vampires.

Vampires get burned by sunlight; have a tougher time healing fire, sunlight, and supernatural damage; and can be affected by true faith. There can be mechanical importance about rage, fear, hunger, and how much of a moral human they still are.

Clans give a common clan supernatural weakness and some easier access to some clan preferred vampire powers.

Vampire powers give progressive stronger specific track abilities in different themed tracks. Mental control, supernatural physical strength, supernatural stealth, etc.

Generation can expand some vampire limits and options.

You just have to come up with specific mechanics for the specific vampire powers, how PCs get them, and generation.

I have used some VtM concepts to varying degrees in AD&D 2e, 3e d20, and 5e games.