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Encard · 03-03-2004, 07:10 PM

I've played it, yes.

Now, as with any P&P RPG, the quality of our game is going to depend greatly on the GM. If you have a bad GM, you're not going to have a fun game no matter what system you use.

Nevertheless, I've found myself liking the White Wolf games quite a bit. The Storyteller system is at once very simple and very effective; the dice pool mechanics work well for resolving tasks. Depending on the type of game, combat will have a varying prevalance and difficulty, but I'd say that on the whole it's much more lethal (and thus, for me, more interesting) than combat in high-HP games such as D&D (VtM lets you take a much lower amount of damage and has wound penalties, among other things). Parts of combat also seem more logical to me than in D&D, such as armor soaking damage, dodge being an actual action, and so on. The only problem I've personally noticed is that, with the dice pool system, you'll often end up rolling a large number of dice for many things. I RP online, so this wasn't a big problem for me (dice rollers are quick), but I've heard some table-top players complain about it. Still, I think it's a small tradeoff, unless there's likely to be a lot of combat sequences between many skilled characters. Then it could get nasty.

The setting is a nice change from the standard D&D setting; it's definitely a lot grimmer, for one. The fatc that VtM has a setting that's largely based on the modern world also changes the tone quite a bit, and the greater chance of death in combat (along with the fact that killing people is illegal in most places) has a good chance of making the game more dialog based than many D&D campaigns.

As a side note... You probably already know that White Wolf publishes a number of other games. Depending on what sort of game you're looking for, it might be worth it to consider one of those instead (for example, Werewolf is probably the most combat-focused of the bunch, Vampire is often more about planning and diplomacy with some combat, etc). The core system is essentially the same for them, as is the setting, while the details (some skills, special qualities and powers, some traits, character's point of view and knowledge about aspects of the setting, etc) vary.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the system... If you'd like, I can give you a quick overview of how it works. *shrug* Anyways, have fun with it.

[ 03-03-2004, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]

03-03-2004, 07:10 PM	#8
Encard Quintesson Join Date: June 13, 2001 Location: Darkness Age: 38 Posts: 1,033	I've played it, yes. Now, as with any P&P RPG, the quality of our game is going to depend greatly on the GM. If you have a bad GM, you're not going to have a fun game no matter what system you use. Nevertheless, I've found myself liking the White Wolf games quite a bit. The Storyteller system is at once very simple and very effective; the dice pool mechanics work well for resolving tasks. Depending on the type of game, combat will have a varying prevalance and difficulty, but I'd say that on the whole it's much more lethal (and thus, for me, more interesting) than combat in high-HP games such as D&D (VtM lets you take a much lower amount of damage and has wound penalties, among other things). Parts of combat also seem more logical to me than in D&D, such as armor soaking damage, dodge being an actual action, and so on. The only problem I've personally noticed is that, with the dice pool system, you'll often end up rolling a large number of dice for many things. I RP online, so this wasn't a big problem for me (dice rollers are quick), but I've heard some table-top players complain about it. Still, I think it's a small tradeoff, unless there's likely to be a lot of combat sequences between many skilled characters. Then it could get nasty. The setting is a nice change from the standard D&D setting; it's definitely a lot grimmer, for one. The fatc that VtM has a setting that's largely based on the modern world also changes the tone quite a bit, and the greater chance of death in combat (along with the fact that killing people is illegal in most places) has a good chance of making the game more dialog based than many D&D campaigns. As a side note... You probably already know that White Wolf publishes a number of other games. Depending on what sort of game you're looking for, it might be worth it to consider one of those instead (for example, Werewolf is probably the most combat-focused of the bunch, Vampire is often more about planning and diplomacy with some combat, etc). The core system is essentially the same for them, as is the setting, while the details (some skills, special qualities and powers, some traits, character's point of view and knowledge about aspects of the setting, etc) vary. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the system... If you'd like, I can give you a quick overview of how it works. shrug Anyways, have fun with it. [ 03-03-2004, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]