[V:tM] Differences between editions

[Cicciograna]

I'm planning to purchase V:tM, but when I went on Amazon I saw that there are two versions of the Second edition, namely the "vanilla" one and the "Revised edition". What are the differences between the two editions, and which one, in your opinion, offers the best playability or game balance?

Thank you.

[Fax Celestis]

The long and short is that it's the difference between 3.0 and 3.5 D&D: lots of clarifications and fixy little things. I'd go revised, myself, but that's what I'm comfortable with.

[Kurald Galain]

The main thing that comes to mind is a nerf of the Celerity discipline.

However, it is worth noting that Vampire, like many RPGs out there, really isn't about balance, or level-based encounters, or appropriate challenge levels, or even fair treasure parcels. So it's no big deal which edition you pick.

[Aron Times]

Older White Wolf RPG books suffer from poor organization and confusing and/or convoluted rules. The new World of Darkness is as much a crunch reboot as a fluff reboot. I suggest going for the nWoD because the rules are more streamlined and the game is much more balanced in both fluff and crunch.

For example, in Masquerade, the only way to improve your Generation, i.e. lower it, is to diablerize a lower generation vampire. Otherwise, you're stuck at whatever Generation you were Embraced into.

In Requiem, all Kindred start at a low Blood Potency, usually 1, equivalent to a 13th Generation Masquerade vampire, and gain in power at a rate of 1 BP every 50 years. The higher your BP, the more powerful and stricter your diet becomes. At BP 1 and 2, you can feed on animals. At BP 3 to 6, you can feed on humans. At BP 7+, your feeding requirements are so strict that you can only feed on vampire blood, so you have to balance your BP at a reasonable level (BP goes down at 1 per 25 years of torpor).

Basically, there is far more social mobility in Requiem than in Masquerade.

Back on-topic. Revised Edition is also known as Third Edition, and as mentioned above, it's similar to the difference between D&D 3.0 and 3.5. I recommend Revised as it's more streamlined (though not as much as Requiem) and easier to run.

[Worira]

The higher your BP, the more powerful and stricter your diet becomes. At BP 1 and 2, you can feed on animals. At BP 3 to 6, you can feed on humans. At BP 7+, your feeding requirements are so strict that you can only feed on vampire blood, so you have to balance your BP at a reasonable level (BP goes down at 1 per 25 years of torpor).

Vampire: The Hypertension.

[Semidi]

Basically, there is far more social mobility in Requiem than in Masquerade.

You say that like it's a good thing...

That's all I'll say at risk of getting into an edition war (Note, I play both and they both have their good and bad parts. Blood Potency is a bad part).

[Jarveiyan]

Also the difference between V:tm and revised is 1 clan cut out(Salubri), no mention whatsoever in revised. Revised has more streamlined skills and rules, but in some regards(both the addition of Salubri and the behavoir of Assamites) I will always side with the 2nd edition of oWoD.

[Quincunx]

On the other hand, if you LARP, I must recommend the newest and most playtested versions of Masquerade (oWoD). When that was released, we had some grumbling over buying the new books but nearly none about using the new, streamlined, balanced rules; it was nothing like other edition wars.

[Project_Mayhem]

In my subjective opinion (/disclaimer), the quality of writing and background is also notably superior for the revised supplements. I can't, however comment on the mechanics, cause I've only ever actually played revised.

[Petrankov]

The Revised edition also has the complete set of the Clans. 2ed only lists the 7 Camarilla clans so if you wanted to incorporate the other clans you would need the Players Guide to the Sabbat (for Tzimisce and Lasombra) and the Vampire Players Guide Second Edition (for the Assamites, Followers of Set, Giovanni and Ravnos). Bloodlines are usually hit or miss so I would not worry about tracking anything down for them.

Personally I liked the playability of 2ed better (it is what I started with). When revised came out I looked through it and kept what I liked and used 2ed rules for the rest.