Vampire: Victorian Age?

[Darkness]

Anyone here got this yet?

If so, how do you like it? And how does it compare to Dark Ages? And how to modern-day Vampire? (Style- and mood-wise, that is.)

I know that it's a supplement rather than a stand-alone game, and that it's pretty rules-light. In fact, I've even heard that it has suggestions for making the entire game pretty rules-light or even rules-free. I think I even heard someone mention something about using only 1d10...?

 

[Darkness]

Heh. Okay, I've got the book now. Looks damn cool, too...

Feel free to use this thread to discuss the book, or any part of it; I'll chime in as soon as I've read it a little.

 

[Kamard]

*Blows the dust off this thread*

I just bought Dark Ages: Mage the other day. I'd like to hear what you think of Victorian Vampire.

 

[Nightstorm]

(crakes fingers and leans back drawing a deep breath)
Welll since you asked,
First let me tell you that my opinion is tainted by being a 10 year player of ww games.In short I have this to say:
It sucks.
Why? you ask? well to tell you I have to talk about two other ww games to get my point across.
Vampire the Dark Ages and Werewolf the wild West (VDA/wwww respecitvly)

VDA was a BIG departure from the Masqurade setting and needed a whole new book . There were different clans, rules, diciplines etc. VDA Rocked!!!

WWWW on the other hand had only the setting to be different. ALL the same Tribes,Gifts etc. NOTHING different in game machanics etc. What the WWWW gave you you could have made up by spending an hour on the net doing research.

WHICH gets us to Vampire the Victorian Age(VVA). This book is all talk and no mechanics. No surprises are in it. Same clans, disiplines, rules etc.
And the reason I rag on it the most is that VVA should have been for WW's game CHANGELING which was dumped and not given a chance to become the game it should have been. The Victorian era is THE time period for changeling and that is what belongs there.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Edit: Nevermind. Thought better of it. It's not my place to comment, since I was a primary writer on the book.

But I will let others speak for me.

http://www.nocturnis.net/reviews/vampire/2002/October/203.html

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_7336.html

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_7318.html

 

[Nightstorm]

So what are you trying to say? It's well written? I never disputed the writing, Just the justifcation of it. In fact, if you directed people over to the white wolf boards and looked for comments on this book you would find only a handful( I only found one to be honest) and in that one someone made my same point by commenting that if you had The Masqurade and London by Night there was no need for the "core book". My point is that I've read the reviews and still have not change my mind. And while I'm only one person, Im still one person ( a person that has bought white wolf since the beginning) that will not buy the book. Is that an attack on you? Not at all. You did a good job writing it( I did read it by the way) .

 

[Mouseferatu]

Didn't mean to imply that I thought you were attacking me, my cowriters, or our writing.

If you're looking for new mechanics, you're right, you won't find what you want in this book. But a lot of people have wanted a setting book for the Victorian Age for a long time, and that's what this book was written to be. WW made it very clear from the beginning that this was a setting book, and wouldn't have much in the way of new mechanics.

When the book first came out, BTW, there were a lot of comments on the WW forums, and about 95% of them were positive.

Now, just for clarity... I'm not arguing with you, and I'm not trying to change your mind. If you don't plan to buy it, that's fine. It's not what you were looking for, and I have no problem with that. At all. Just so you don't think I'm trying to start an argument or a flame war.

I just think that it's a bit harsh to say a book "sucks" when it accomplished everything it set out to accomplish. If you think it's well written, it doesn't "suck". It's just not what you were hoping it would be.

 

[Nightstorm]

I'm done with this. Good luck.

 

[redwing]

how is the storyteller system different than d20? I've never played any ww games but the settings have all seemed interesting to me, especially changeling. (OT-are there any good websites on changeling, ive been searching but haven't found much.---sorry to hyjack the thread)

 

[Mouseferatu]

how is the storyteller system different than d20? I've never played any ww games but the settings have all seemed interesting to me, especially changeling. (OT-are there any good websites on changeling, ive been searching but haven't found much.---sorry to hyjack the thread)

Actually, they're quite different, mechanically. The Storyteller system works on a dice pool system, where the objective is to beat a target number.

Here's an example. Let's say my character has an Intelligence of 3 (most Traits operate on a 1 to 5 scale) and a Computer Knowledge of 2. Suppose I'm tying to break an encrypted password on a computer system. My total dice pool for the attempt is 5 dice (Int + Computers).

Now, "average" difficulty is 6. In this case, though, let's say the Storyteller decides that the encryption system is tougher than normal, and raises the difficulty to 7.

I roll my 5 dice. Every die that's 7 or higher is a success. One success is only just barely a success (and may not be sufficient for some tasks). The more successes you get, the better your attempt was.

The ST system has no classes, although certain choices you make (such as which Vampire clan or Werewolf tribe you belong to) may influece how easy it is to pick up certain abilities. Mostly, it's a trait-based system (that is, you spend XP to increase your Wits, or Firearms, or Willpower, or Obfuscate, or what-have-you.)

Obviously, there's more to it than that, but that's the basic gist of it.

As far as websites on Changeline, that I can't help you with. It's not one of the games I'm all that familiar with. If you got to the White Wolf site, though, I believe one of the menu links takes you to the "Dark Spiral," a ring of fan-created WW web sites. You might find something there.