So really, the question comes up: how would one go about making the whole thing playable?
System:
Ugh. Variable TNs on a d10 were bad, the current combat system is usually even worse. I would think that you'd want to fold in something a lot more like Shadowrun 4th edition.
Obvious concessions have to be made for things like the lack of a Cracking group and the fact that everyone is a Vampire and noone is a cyborg. Essence goes out the window, and people drain Blood Traits from each other instead.
But static TNs, piles of d6s, Edge instead of Willpower, no Appearance stat - these are all solid benefits. Separate to-hit and damage rolls. Unified electrical and physical damage rules, etc. these are benefits as well.
Setting
nWoD has some solid improvements thrown in with so much stupid shit that it makes me cry.
Organizations
Removing the Camarilla and Sabbat was a requirement, because having organizations that were fought to the death like Jedi and Sith made the game unplayable. Even more so, having a series of rigid organizations of neutrals who never worked with the other groups for long made the creation of a lasting party impossible.
But for all that, the new organizations have their own problems. The Invictus and the Carthians are fine, and the Circle of the Crone is at least somewhat interesting (even if their magic is underpowered). But the Ordo Dracul exists for no reason except to enact /godmode. That's their actual goal, so the fact that "The Inifinite Ammo Code" is a third tier coil isn't even out of character. They have to go. And the Lancea Sanctum is just plain inappropriate. They have to go too.
So what does that leave us with?
- Invictus are a political group who believe that they have things pretty good as they are, what withthem being immortal vampires and all. They espouse Conservative viewpoints and resist change.
Motto: "Don't kick over the apple cart! Those are my fvcking apples!" - Carthians are a political group ho believe that things can and should be done better than they are now. Their views on what should be done differ greatly, but they are united by a desire to change the current world order.
Motto: "Human society has advanced and become something vampires can no longer control. We must advance our society as well." - The Order of the Crone is a magical group who seek to use ancient magics. Highly ritualistic, they believe the best magics are the old ones, and they value traditionalism.
Motto: "The ancient powers sustain us." - Room for two or even four more covenants honestly.
Both the Lancea Sanctum and the Ordo Dracul have the problem where they are essentially "this dude said we should do things like this!" - making them impractical as a global society of loosely connected vampires. How impressed with the World Communist Conspiracy would you be if it was all "The Fabian Society"? So they are out. To get more World of Darkness compatible covenants, one would have to kick over some old WoD groups. Here are some:
- Order Tremere - an organization of sorceror scientists who uncover new magics and perform research. They believe in a unified magical theory that will allow them to bring the entire world toits knees. But the important part is that they are a magical organization that values modernization.
Motto: "By changing the paradigm of how we see magic, we can accomplish things once thought impossible." - Pentex Corporation - An organization that believes that vampirs should take an active role in human society and artifice. An explicitly capitalist edifice, the Pentex Corporation values human money and power in the world of humans primarily and provides employment to vampires rather than membership.
Motto: "What is the bottom line?" - The Sabbat - this is an unfortunately loaded term because the old WoD authors could never decide what the hell this organization mant or did. For these purposes, it is an explicitly religious organization that believes in the primacy of vampires and believes that vampires should cut themselves away from human society entirely and make a parallel and superior one.
Motto: "We are the divine beings, they are our food."
And shit, you could throw in any of a number of minor groups or upgrade minor factions to full covenant status:
Madness NEtwork: Hive minds!
Followers of Set: Secrets, Shadows, and Corruption.
San Giovani: Incest and Necromancy.
Assamite: Killing and eating the weak is a vampire's duty.
Baali: More evil? More Power? Where do I sign?!
Or whatever. The point is: Ordo Dracul have to go and so do the Lancea Sanctum. And there's a shit tonne of extra groups from oWoD who have write ups that are a lot cooler than either.
The History
There are problems both oWoD and nWoD. Perhaps the biggest problem in oWoD was the entire Cain -> Antedeluvian ->Your punk ass thing that it had going on. Blood Potency is a much better schtick than Generations ever were. The universe just can't support Antedeluvians having ever existed, let alone having them run around doing shit like Giovani was supposed to.
So boom, all the vampires start off at BP 1 and the blood of elders is more awesome because high Blood Potency means that they can do stuff with just a drop of blood instead of needing 30 cubic centimeters - and not because it lmade them start with a silver stick up their ass. Also, the original vampires can be legendary or dead and not ALL POWERFUL ROXXORZ!
Clans and Bloodlines
The World of Darkness is inherently subject to feature bloat. The "Clans" methodology however caused the addition of every single dude with a unique power to come as part of a lineage of vampires with a bushy family tree and hundreds of currently living canibals who preyed upon humanity. The Bloodline method is much superior, because it works like at all.
Even so, a huge number of bloodlines have to be trimmed. Between oWoD and nWoD there is a metric crap tonne of stuff that's just stupid and unworkable. I don't give a crap about the Gulikan (vampires who have the magic power to make enticing scents - I'm not even kidding). I don't give a crap about the Children of Osiris and their fvcking Bardo discipline.
The five clans presented in Vampire: The Requiem suffer from one core problem: the mechanics are bad, Physical Disciplines are worthless, and Nightmare sucks my ass. So let's revue:
- Daeva: Their disadvantage is a storytelling one, which may or may not do anything depending upon how you interpret the shitty "vices" that the nWoD tries to use. It's workabble actually. Charisma + Willpower (3) to avoid caving in to temptation as outlined for oyur character. The real deal here is that Majesty (Presence) is fvcking awesome - and... that's it. Vigor and Celerity? What th hell, man? What the hell?
- Gangrel: The Gangrel clan drawback is inane, and always has been. Protean is a really good discipline in theory, but it suffers from the fact that all the good shape changing has been given to Vissisitude for some reason. The first half doesn't really do anything as written. That can be fixed, but it's annoying. Animalism is a powerhouse, and of course Resilience sucks ass through a straw.
- Mekhet: Auspex is quality, and it used to come free with your cheerios in oWoD. Having it be a clan exclusive is a major departure and a huge ace in the hole. Obfuscate is tremendous, and Celerity is shit. Their weakness is at least very easy to comprehend and adjudicate.
- Nosferatu: I don't think this is salvageable. Seriously, Nightmare is crap. Other than that, they get Obfuscate and Animalism which are both very good. All in all, very odd. Their weakness is poorly defined and the rules are crap. Probably doesn't even need mechanics once you get rid of the appearance stat. Having characters look really distinctive in any fashion is enough of a drawback in any game where they commit crime.
- Ventrue: Dominate is the Win. Seriously, it's crazy crazy good. Animalism is also quality, and I wouldn't wipe my ass with Fortitude. Their weakness is problematic from a game design standpoint, because it doesn't actually do anything to a character unless something is already boning them. That means that if you play a normal character and don't diablerize anyone or anything, they don't even have a disadvantage. The oWoD drawback wasn't any help either, because it was dumb.
So ugh. We've got a grand total of zero clans that have a list of disciplines that we are genuinely happy with, three clans where we can even attempt to fix their clan drawback, and that's still better than oWoD simply because there are less clans to worry about fixing.
Very problematically, if you don't have Majesty or Dominate it isn't even possible for you to feed. Seriously, it's not. Vampires in Requiem don't have any special abilty to overpower people so if you can't get "willing" victims you can't survive. Both of those disciplines are single clan disciplines.
One possibility is to simply embrace that fact: only Daeva and Ventrue exist (give the Ventrue the clan disad of the Mekhet). Another is to go in entirely the other direction: make physical disciplines good. If Celerity was three levels long and counted as a level of SR4 Wired Reflexes for each level it would go a long way towards making other people able to feed. Regardless of how you do it - having people with no mind control and normal human levels of physical prowess breaks the game because they can't get blood out of victims.
More Later -
-Username17