Vampire the Masquerade

[JacktheRabbit]

Has anyone ever tried to use this system to run as a group of human hunters fighting vampires?

Having read through the rules I quickly came to the conclusion that you could never build a strong enough group of normal human hunters to take on anything but the youngest blood on his face vampire punk.

The vampire powers were just too over the top.

Which leads to another question. Talking to some friends who played Vampire quite a bit they once told me that straight per the rules Vampire hands down was the most munchkinable of all the major games.

Would you consider this accurate?

 

[Sejs]

Yes, I used to play a good ammount of white wolf games back in the day, including playing as a group of human vampire hunters. It was actually quite fun, all in. What we learned was that once we got the beasts sussed out; ie figured out what was real and what was hollywood myth, basics about how their powers and limitations worked, etc.. once we had that known it was pretty easy.


It all boils down to 6 men with assault rifles. 90% of the vampire population doesn't stand a chance in a Single Vampire-to-Group of Skags with Guns scenario. The vampire may have all the Celerity in the world, but that just means you get 1 action before each of the hunters goes once.

Avg Hunter. Dex 3, Firearms 3. Assault Rifle (8 dice damage). Full Auto (+10 dice). I roll 16 dice against a target number of 8 (if I recall.. it's been a while). Each success adds another damage dice. Say on average 4-5 successes. I then roll 12-13 dice to damage, target number 6. Each success is a wound level. Say 5 successes. The vampire can try to soak with Stamina + Fortitude (if they have it). And if Mister Johnny-Goes-First bloodsucker didn't split his dice pool 8 ways from sunday to be able to roll dodge dice.. he doesn't get to dodge. Say maybe 2 points of damage gets thru. Peachy.

Now repeat this 5 more times.

the vampire may get one of the hunters (body armor helps a bit there), but after each man has unloaded with their rifle, it's more of less over. It's either in torpor, or so wounded it can't walk. Take a few steps back and repeat as necessary. Cart out the wounded, stake the corpse, holy wafers in the mouth, or whatever rituals you feel are required.







As for the second question. I disagree. Mage is far far far more abusable.

 

[Umbran]

Having read through the rules I quickly came to the conclusion that you could never build a strong enough group of normal human hunters to take on anything but the youngest blood on his face vampire punk.

Well, to a degree, this is correct. This is why White Wolf produced a different game - Hunter: The Reckoning for these folks. They aren't as powerful as most other supernatural critters, but they aren't certified public accountants, either

 

[Tsyr]

I'm with Sejs... It's quite possible, I've done it. As long as you aren't facing more than two vamps at once, it's not even THAT hard.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The problem lies in getting your Vampire into this position. I remember seeing enough powers and abilities available to vamps to allow them to hit and run your group to pieces time and time again.

Yes, I used to play a good ammount of white wolf games back in the day, including playing as a group of human vampire hunters. It was actually quite fun, all in. What we learned was that once we got the beasts sussed out; ie figured out what was real and what was hollywood myth, basics about how their powers and limitations worked, etc.. once we had that known it was pretty easy.


It all boils down to 6 men with assault rifles. 90% of the vampire population doesn't stand a chance in a Single Vampire-to-Group of Skags with Guns scenario. The vampire may have all the Celerity in the world, but that just means you get 1 action before each of the hunters goes once.

Avg Hunter. Dex 3, Firearms 3. Assault Rifle (8 dice damage). Full Auto (+10 dice). I roll 16 dice against a target number of 8 (if I recall.. it's been a while). Each success adds another damage dice. Say on average 4-5 successes. I then roll 12-13 dice to damage, target number 6. Each success is a wound level. Say 5 successes. The vampire can try to soak with Stamina + Fortitude (if they have it). And if Mister Johnny-Goes-First bloodsucker didn't split his dice pool 8 ways from sunday to be able to roll dodge dice.. he doesn't get to dodge. Say maybe 2 points of damage gets thru. Peachy.

Now repeat this 5 more times.

the vampire may get one of the hunters (body armor helps a bit there), but after each man has unloaded with their rifle, it's more of less over. It's either in torpor, or so wounded it can't walk. Take a few steps back and repeat as necessary. Cart out the wounded, stake the corpse, holy wafers in the mouth, or whatever rituals you feel are required.







As for the second question. I disagree. Mage is far far far more abusable.

 

[GravyFingerz]

No, Dragonball Z is the most munchkin game out there. Where else can you blow up a moon?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Blowing up a moon is a part of the game there.

When I say munchkin I mean rules written in such a way to allow extreme min/maxing to create characters well outside the power range the game was intending.

No, Dragonball Z is the most munchkin game out there. Where else can you blow up a moon?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

As a side question.

How popular is Vampire and the other such games by White Wolf since goth is no longer the craze it was in the early and mid 90's.

Talking to Craig at good old Games Plus in Mt Prospect he says the stuff barely moves off the shelf nowadays.

 

[GravyFingerz]

Blowing up a moon is a part of the game there.

When I say munchkin I mean rules written in such a way to allow extreme min/maxing to create characters well outside the power range the game was intending.

Oh ...

World of Synnibar?

 

[Tsyr]

Hmmm...

Well, it is possible to min-max your character, yes... but not really any worse than other skill-and-experience type systems. And I've found a lot of ST's ignore the "Anything at rank 5 (and 4 in some things) must be approved by DM rule"... it's there for a reason folks. I've had a number of people present their character for approval only to point out that they had never cleared having a 5 in something from the start with me.