Vampire the Masquerade: Love the setting but not the system

[Cergorach]

...you picked wrong game.

While I am tempted to say something similar. They say the don't like the game, but they do like the setting. So saying that they chose the wrong game seems redundant...

As you mentioned Monte Cooks WoD, that might be the right path mechanics wise, but it's a different setting, re-imagined by Monte Cook. Certain parts of WoD are combat heavier, Werewolf for example, and I've seen folks running VtM games with combat heavy Anarchs.

 

[Bill Zebub]

And c) if you insist on fighting, sometimes you will meet very swift end because you picked a fight with someone/something that's way above your paygrade.

I'd love to see clever RPG rules (they surely exist somewhere) that makes escaping from combat more interesting/exciting/cinematic than just making a single dice roll. Getting one's @$$ whupped and barely getting away is such a common trope in action movies; would love to replicate that feel. And having that mechanic would change the calculus on "balance". This genre seems very appropriate for it.