V:tM vs. V:tR

[Elondor]

As the title suggests, which system is better, Vampire: the Masquerade or Vampire: the Requiem? What are the pros and cons of each? I'm leaning more toward V:tM, as I played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines on pc.

[Selrahc]

As the title suggests, which system is better, Vampire: the Masquerade or Vampire: the Requiem? What are the pros and cons of each? I'm leaning more toward V:tM, as I played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines on pc.

If you're talking systems, then the system behind V:tR is a *lot* better. OWoD is kind of a mess, honestly.

The setting is more debatable. I find V:tR pretty dull compared to other NWoD games, and honestly I've not played that much of either of them. V:tR was an attempt to get away from the crazy high power levels of V:tM, where on the macro level everything was an elder plot and there was literally nothing your characters could do that was significant.

Vampire: The Masquerade has a lot of character behind it though. If you don't push the setting too far, the street level goings on are probably more fun. Although really, it all just depends on the ST. They can both basically run the same types of game unless going for really high power stuff. But NWoD will run much easier than trying to clunk through the OWoD systems.

[TheCountAlucard]

As the title suggests, which system is better, Vampire: the Masquerade or Vampire: the Requiem?Better system? V:tR, by far. Better fluff? Now that's debatable.


I'm leaning more toward V:tM, as I played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines on pc.That's not really the best example, as just like V:tM, that game was mechanically a trainwreck. :smallsigh:

[Morty]

It's a loaded question. From what I know, the edition wars between oWoD and nWoD were no worse than 3.5 vs 4e D&D. I don't have much experience with Masquerade, but I'll try to give you a rundown on their traits. Hopefully it helps.

Mechanics. nWoD mechanics are significantly streamlined in comparison to oWoD. Personally, I think it's for the best, but YMMV.
Power level. It's lower in nWoD for a variety of reasons.
Clans work differently. In V:tR there are only few canonical clans and they each encompass one facet of the vampire myth. Local variations and purely political clans are covered by sects, covenants and bloodlines.
Global vs. Local. There's no global Jyhad and world-spanning conspiracies in Requiem. Everything is more focused on local politics and affairs. There are also more than two major factions.
Fewer Ancients. Due to the way vampires work in Requiem, there are fewer active ancient vampires in that game and truly old vampires might not be all that powerful, since they have to spend lots of time in torpor, which reduces their power.
No unified creation myth. In Requiem, the origin of vampires is shrouded in history for a variety of reasons, so various Kindred factions have their own ideas about it.

That would be it, I suppose. Unless there's something I've missed.

[Elondor]

Regardless, it was a very fun game. I looked over the clans and setting for requiem, and I have to say that it is very boring compared to masquerade. How viable is it to use the requiem rules in a masquerade setting?

[Elondor]

I'm planning on focusing on local politics only regardless of the system I use. Also, I feel that elder vampires getting weaker due to torpor is silly.

[Morty]

It prevents the setting from being dominated by centuries-old ancients with immense power. Whether or not it's good or bad is up to you.

[Friv]

Regardless, it was a very fun game. I looked over the clans and setting for requiem, and I have to say that it is very boring compared to masquerade. How viable is it to use the requiem rules in a masquerade setting?

It's pretty viable.

You will run into a few problems. The biggest is the shift from Generation to Blood Potency, which you'll have to figure out how to deal with; in V:tM, vampires higher up the creation tree get benefits off the bat, while in V:tR every vampire grows into their power equally.

You'll also have to recreate all of the old clan disciplines, many of which don't have functional equivalents in V:tR.

Other than that, though, it's pretty easy to make the shift. Just decide on clan weaknesses and drop out rules aspects that you don't like, such as torpor weakening people and being automatic.

[Morty]

You might want to check out The Vampire Translation Guide (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86202) if you want to use Masquerade stuff in Requiem and vice versa.

[Chen]

I found the Covenants in VtR a tad too much compared to the sects in VtM. Its extremely rare you'd have a city shared by the Camarilla and Sabbat so you really focused on your clans as your cliques. With covenants you need to deal with both your covenant AND your clan which can get a bit out of hand. There are still going to be elders around but now you need to answer to the clan elders and the covenant elders. The system seems more balanced in VtR, but I liked the idea of extremely deadly combat in VtM. It made the game more political and about gaining power that way rather than just killing your way to the top.

[Selrahc]

I found the Covenants in VtR a tad too much compared to the sects in VtM. Its extremely rare you'd have a city shared by the Camarilla and Sabbat so you really focused on your clans as your cliques. With covenants you need to deal with both your covenant AND your clan which can get a bit out of hand.

I would say most of the time it's the covenants you really worry about. In V:tR you can almost forget about your clan. Clans in V:tM defined you, from your outlook on unlife to what you were going to do each night. Each clan acted as a group, with a generally cohesive attitude. In V:tR the clans are a lot less binding. Of course the thing is that in Requiem the clans are by necessity a lot less characterful. Almost blank slates.