Vampire the Masquerade - 5th edition or V20

[Raduin711]

I think V5 has made some pretty necessary changes to the lore and how the world of Vampire works, and I feel like it brings it a bit closer to what Vampire has always supposed to have been about. The books spent so much time talking the talk of personal horror, but when they walked the walk with lore and mechanics, I feel like V20 kind of got away from that.

Moving the conflict away from Camarilla vs. Sabbat makes a lot of sense. It's kind of hard to have a secret vampire shadow war with cell phone cameras everywhere. Anarchs vs. Camarilla makes a lot more sense from a personal horror perspective.

Hunger and Feeding get mechanics in V5 at least in theory look a lot better. Hunger in V20 is a gas-tank of blood, and managing it seems pretty easy because you always know how much you have to spend. V5 hunger is harder to pin down (how much food do you have in your stomach right now?) because you never know which way a rouse check will swing. The idea that you are always a little hungry unless you take a life is a new idea, but makes sense in the setting IMO, but I understand how people might react negatively to a change like that to the lore. The extra focus on hunting styles I think is also welcome.

I get how people will be turned off by not every clan being in the core book, and the changes made to the disciplines, and other changes (I will certainly miss the Count Orlok-looking Nosferatu) but I think the changes are for the better on the whole. But I am not a diehard fan (Mage was always my jam)

 

[Mark Hope]

Yeah, Mage is my favourite WoD game by far. There's a similarity there, though - like Mage, VtM grew in scope so rapidly to encompass other styles of play other than personal horror that the narrower focus of V5 is difficult for some players to stomach. My impression is that upcoming V5 releases will broaden that scope a bit, but I wonder if it's too late to win over fans of earlier iterations of the game. Edition wars are tiresome.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

If you're looking to recreate the mood and setting of the Vampire computer games, you want V20 instead of V5. The mechanics of both are clunky - neither is a particularly smooth game - so it's like @Diehl says: it depends on the kind of game you're looking to play. V5 will support and reinforce a personal horror game, but doesn't have as much support for other types of play (although it has some). V20 will scale to whatever type of game you want, from personal horror to global epic, but you have to be willing to put in the work to make it run in the way that you want (either by tweaking rules as desired or by making sure that you and the players approach the game in the desired fashion). V20 has considerably more (and richer) lore, which can be overwhelming, but is rewarding if you take the time to invest in it.

If you're looking for an easy on-ramp game for personal horror, V5 is a good choice. If you want more options and are willing to put in the time to make it work, V20 is the better choice.

Thank you for these explanations. I'm slowly leaning towards V20. I work as a Game Designer myself and the prospect of maybe tweaking a few rules to make it easier to run doesn't displease me.

Yeah, Mage is my favourite WoD game by far. There's a similarity there, though - like Mage, VtM grew in scope so rapidly to encompass other styles of play other than personal horror that the narrower focus of V5 is difficult for some players to stomach. My impression is that upcoming V5 releases will broaden that scope a bit, but I wonder if it's too late to win over fans of earlier iterations of the game. Edition wars are tiresome.

Yeah, I hate Edition Wars. Like many people, I started my journey with D&D. Unlike many people, I greatly enjoyed the 4th edition. I recognize its flaws but I often debated that people didn't praise it for the things it did right. It had many great design ideas that 5th edition should have borrowed in my opinion. So when I dive into a new tabletop game, it's not so much about finding which edition is better but which one strikes the right balance between authenticity and quality of design/mechanics.