white wolfs new Vampire: The Requiem

[Nightchilde-2]

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?

Definitely.

There is no more worldwide factions of vamires (ala the Camarilla or Sabbat). Each city's Prince is truly his own domain, and he or she makes all the rules. There are certain Traditions that are followed almost universally (The Masquerade, a prohibition against siring and a prohibition against Diablerie), with some other Traditions that may or may not be followed depending on the ruling body.

There are still Clans. There are also Covenants, which are like religious and/or philosophical groups which can encompass members from any of the clans. For example, the Invictus believe in the right of the powerful to rule, while the Carthians seek a more Democratic way of doing things and the Ordo Dracul just wants to be left along to figure out how to transform into something beyond a vampire.

As for antagonists, obviously you see that there's quite a few possibilities to be had from that alone. Then there is Belial's Brood, which are a group of anarchic Satan-worshipping vampires and VII, which is a mysterious covenant of vampires that believes all other vampires should be destroyed.

On top of that, the World of Darkness rulebook has a section on ghosts for antagonists.

Throw into the mix the fact that you have an easier time affecting vampires directly related to you (two "generations" up or down) with certain powres or Disciplines and the new blood potency rules (which replace Generation quite nicely) and the whole socio-political landscape of the Damned is very different than VtM.

That, of course, is aside from all the ghouls, vitae-addicted mortals, gargoyles (slightly detailed in the VtR book..and not vampires this time!) and whatever the Storyteller can dream up.

There are also bloodlines, which sprout from the clans, and some of them could make darned fine antagonists (such as the Bruja, an offshoot of the Gangrel or the Morbus, a Mekhet bloodline).

And since starting vamps are more on par with a mortal, a vampire hunter can really be a thorn in your side, finally.

And they give you enough of a sample city to start with, New Orleans, right in the VtR book.

 

[Kesh]

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?

Nightchilde gave a good summary. Here's some more specific lists:

Clans have been reduced to five: Gangrel (bestial as ever), Ventrue (blue-bloods), Nosferatu (not necessarily ugly anymore, now they dabble in shadow & terror), Mekhet (occultists) and Daeva (succubi). You can read about them here.

The Covenants are organizations your vamp can belong to. They include: The Carthians (young vampires who want to break from medieval tradition), Circle of the Crone (semi-pagan Kindred who believe vampires are a natural part of life), Invictus (elder, landed vampires, the aristocracy), Lancea Sanctum (a Catholic-derivative group who believes the first vampire was Longinius), and the Ordo Dracul (a mystic group who claims their founder was Vlad Tepes). Read more about them here.

 

[Imagicka]

d20 hit points

Greetings...

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

No, there is no reason that a d20 needs to use skyrocketing hitpoints...but I'll say this much... then your going to need a pretty good base of starting hitpoints. After all, we're talking about a system like Storyteller which either as ST.v1 (storyteller version 1) which characters had effectively 10 'hit points'...or wound levels. I don't know what it's like in v2. I suspect it's pretty much the same... But damage received is on average 1, 2, or 3. Taking a 4 in damage, or a 5 makes most players wince and is like telling your 10th level character, "Okay...that's 40 points damage."

 

[eyebeams]

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.

Did you remember to apply Defense and opposing traits, and to use opposed rolls where indicated? If you don't, you will definitely succeed like gangbusters. In playtest, though, we tended to succeed less and had fewer dice, and these in-play tendencies were borne out by spreadsheets and computer simulations.

 

[Malacoda]

No, there is no reason that a d20 needs to use skyrocketing hitpoints...but I'll say this much... then your going to need a pretty good base of starting hitpoints. After all, we're talking about a system like Storyteller which either as ST.v1 (storyteller version 1) which characters had effectively 10 'hit points'...or wound levels. I don't know what it's like in v2. I suspect it's pretty much the same... But damage received is on average 1, 2, or 3. Taking a 4 in damage, or a 5 makes most players wince and is like telling your 10th level character, "Okay...that's 40 points damage."

I am fairly certain someone relatively competent in game design could come up with a system with comparable results, if that was their goal.

 

[shadoe]

D&D's hit points sky rocket so much because damage sky rockets. The "Storytelling" systems equivelent do not sky rocket(but can be raised slowly), becuase damage is caps are pretty consistant. Melee/Unarmed attacks are about the only things that you can raise the damage with out changing the weapon that you use. So in a way it already has been done.

I keep thinking of Synnibarr where you can have a perfectly respectible game if you use the numbers as is, or if you devide damage and life points by 100( as well as most other numbers).

Oh and Nightchilde-2, I sent you an email about your game, I'm interested.

 

[Welverin]

Awesome. See, I love hearing feedback of this sort.

Seriously, I'm glad you're digging it. We all worked pretty hard on it.

--
CAS

So, which parts did you write?

 

[Toll Carom]

So, which parts did you write?

Well, given the scope of the project, it was a lot more collaborative than some of the work I've done (for supplements and the like). At the end of the day, I guess I ended up writing my fair third, but it'd be difficult to parse out, at this point. Here's some stuff I do remember and can specify, though:

Ari and I shared both the Disciplines/Devotions chapter and the New Orleans appendix (and are writing the citybook, too); I also wrote a couple of the clans (the new Gangrel are my favorite); and a fair portion of Chapter Two, including three of the covenants (Circle of the Crone's my favorite there), the Danse Macabre, Kindred history, the Fog of Eternity, the Traditions, Security, Kindred in a World of Darkness, and the Lexicon.

Come to think of it, I guess I do remember most of what I wrote. Heh.

--
CAS

 

[Dextra]

Has anyone checked out the new version of Vampire:The Requiem. It sounds very cool with what they have done with it. How tied in do you think the storyteller rules are to the world would a d20 conversion work? I think it would make one heck of a setting but I do not want to change to a new rules set. I like d20 does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm trying to catch up on the boards, and am having a heckuva time doing so because my husband keeps yelling out rules from the book. He just started it again. So- ask Hellhound what he thinks of it.

Books I wish he never bought (so I could get some peace and quiet around here):
Guardians of Order's Ex Machina and WhiteWolf's Vampire: The Requiem.

 

[Chingerspy]

Ari and I shared both the Disciplines/Devotions chapter and the New Orleans appendix (and are writing the citybook, too);

Would you care to tell us the reasons behind the New Orleans citybook rescheule? From what I gather there are a few fans that would have bought it with glee if it was released this month or even October. May 2005 has now been quoted and that sucks big time. I for one will probably not bother picking up the N.O. book as I've started creating my own city because of the delay. After doing all my own hard work on London I will probably play most, if not all my games in it. It seems according to the V:tR forums many others are basing games elsewhere too. I realise of course that WW have every right to reschedule a product. I just cannot see the logic behind the decision to push it back 9 long months.