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.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I've read it, but not played it. It uses the normal GURPS 3e combat system. It has not been revised for 4e, or released as PDF because there was a falling-out between SJ Games and the old White Wolf company.

Ah. Probably very hard to find then. You'd have to find an old print copy somewhere.

Welp, in that case I'd say SWADE. Works pretty well in my limited experience. Tactical and flexible. The only thing that may be an issue is - I don't know if the SWADE rules have powers that map nicely to the powers in VtM. But certainly something could be cobbled together. Just have all powers run on Power Points, like spell casting, but of course the "power" is blood and the only way to get it back is to drink.

The other option, as always, is HERO!

Build any powers you want, but make them all run on ENDurance from an ENDurance Pool (that is, a blood pool) that only recovers from drinking blood. Non-powers, like a vamp's regular strength and running, should all be bought as 0 END. They don't drain the blood pool. Add in disadvantages like Berserk when the END Pool reaches a low point, say 1/4 of full, and torpor when it reaches 0.

Just some thoughts.