white wolfs new Vampire: The Requiem

[TheAuldGrump]

I took a look at it this weekend. As with all things there were things that I liked and things that I did not like.

Likes:
The appearance of the books is gorgeous!

Using mortals as the base for the creature templates to be added to. I liked this a lot. A whole lot.

The new takes on clan and bloodline - cool. (Hey, what can I say, I am a Nos at heart!)

The societies that the vamps belong to - cool.

The way tuned down Celerity discipline - much more balanced.

The new wounds system - basing the number of health levels off of your stats brings them much more into play.

The new skill resolution system - the only thing I liked about it was that it is a lot less likely that you will succeed at everything you try. (The old system made it very hard for an uncontested roll to fail, around 75% chance of success with onl a 2 pip stat and no talent or skill.).)

The less powerful (in general) starting characters. Combining merits with what used to be backgrounds brings it more into line.

The new World of Darkness - seems much creepier. I like it.

Dislikes:
The new skill resolution I did not like one bit. Way too easy to have all the dice cancel out leaving you rolling 1 die looking for 10s. (Wow, both sides are rolling 1d10 looking for 10s because their pools were equal. Yay.)

The fixed difficulty I was moderately against. Not a whole lot, just a bit, I liked being able to play with the difficulties as a GM.

The 'hey, let's change the spelling on some of these things, it'll be kewl!' aspect -Yuck, either get rid of it or keep the spelling.

The new wounds system - I dislike the bashing/lethal/aggravated system, and liked the 'Death spiral' much more - I want combat to be lethal! Even a basic human can take an average of fourteen health levels of 'lethal' damage.

All in all, I will have to think about it.

The Auld Grump

 

[swrushing]

5 dice, 70% fail per die, one success needed...

~16% chance of failure or roughly 1 in 6.

7 dice ~ 8% chance

Now, in old days, pools of 5 dice or more were common. So, unless modifiers reduce dice pools below 5 dice or so, success will be fairly common.

My group ran a quick VtR session on Thursday, and I've got a couple of concerns about the system.

My main complaint is that it seems pretty hard to actually fail at anything. I'm talking about starting characters with 5 or 6 dice in their pools. Everyone hit what they were aiming at, every social roll worked, etc.

The phenomenon was even more striking once the social Disciplines came into play (dominate and nightmare---which is quite potent). Only 1 failed roll all night.

Don't get me wrong, I likje the core nWoD rulebook and I wish the game-line success. I just wonder if I was doing something wrong.

 

[shadoe]

I just finished reading the nWoD Core book on Sunday, and I must say I was very impressed. I like a lot of the things that they did with the system. I look forward to reading the VtR book(which is slated for after I finish Paranoia XP). Now, I am going to have to dig up some players for this near me.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I just finished reading the nWoD Core book on Sunday, and I must say I was very impressed. I like a lot of the things that they did with the system. I look forward to reading the VtR book(which is slated for after I finish Paranoia XP). Now, I am going to have to dig up some players for this near me.

My game's starting Friday, but we're playing online.

 

[Nisarg]

The problem is not that I dont like the storyteller system. I have never tried it.

If you've never tried, you can't say you don't like.

Personally I feel you have lost nothing by not playing it. However, to really know how to dislike it you have to have tried it at least a couple of times.

Also, non-d20 should not be a barrier to play.. but given that it is, I would say your best bet is d20 modern.

Nisarg

 

[shadoe]

My game's starting Friday, but we're playing online.

And I have been giving serious thought about contacting you about that. Hmm, I haven't played an online game in nine years, maybe it would be fun to try one again.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

And I have been giving serious thought about contacting you about that. Hmm, I haven't played an online game in nine years, maybe it would be fun to try one again.

Feel free (prince_nightchilde@sbcglobal.net). I've got one open slot left.

Edit: changed email address. Nightchilde.net is in the middle of a server change, so I don't want to lose email.

 

[WayneLigon]

Now, in old days, pools of 5 dice or more were common. So, unless modifiers reduce dice pools below 5 dice or so, success will be fairly common.

Defense reduces the dice pool in combat (usually by 2, since Def is the lowest of Dex or Wits (I think I have that right)), plus some situational modifiers can as well. I'll have to actually play (soon, I hope) to see how things are generally going to work. I suspect that most dice pools are going to average in the 2-4 range, after modifiers.

 

[Mapleaxe]

All right, I've been hearing a lot about the rules changes here, but frankly I never bought a single WoD book purely for the rules--I ooved the rich treasure trove of ideas that many of those books contained. How does the new background for Vampire stack up? I understand that they've minimized metaplot, but there are still clans and factions and antagonists. What can you tell us about them?

 

[jollyninja]

There is no reason a d20 game need use the skyrocketing hit points of D&D.

point conceeded