I'm looking for a good replacement for the World of Darkness games because certain things about the lore and setting urk me.  I love the different factions like the Camarilla and Sabbat in Vampire and the different Clans in Vampire as well.  I'm seeking a game/system that can encompass the whole of the entire WoD setting including Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Mummy, Wraith, Geist, Hunter, etc. meaning that all these kinds of characters can be explored/played as and encountered as NPCs.  It always bothered me that WoD was so compartmentalized where vampires would never team up with werewolves or mages, etc., even if the story could allow for it due to narrative reasons.

For me hands down its one of two.

Nights Edge for CP2020: allows you to run a supernatural cyberpunk setting with the cyber toned down or up as desire.

Nightlife: Pretty much the precursor to WoD.

Runners up would be games like Nightbane from Palladium.

The closest I can think of are CJ Carella's Witchcraft, and Dresden Files. I was going to say Dark Streets & Darker Secrets, but out of the box it really only supports mortals & sorcerers. Still worth looking at, IMO. It just won't support all the splats you mention without some work. My own choice would be Witchcraft. Dresden is likely too "pulpy" for the sort of thing you're after.

Monsterhearts has a different premise, being about teen monsters on the same school (think Vampire Diaries), but it's very good at what it does.

Here are the game archetypes, for a quick peak: http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/reference-sheets-and-core-skins1.pdf

Liminal seems very popular now.
The Dresden Files Fate Accelerated.

BtW chronicles of darkness is now aggressively encouraging crossovers with its new Contagion Chronicles product line. However the downside is Chronicles 2e is very crunchy, and you'd have to master the subsystems / rules of each of the splats your players are playing.

Use D6 Adventure.

I'd say NightLife, though I might use the D6 System (Mini Six or D6 Adventure) for the crunch. Someone mentioned NightLife yesterday and a swift google turned up a pdf that looks legal AFAICT. I foolishly got rid of my hardcopy in the early '90s.

Do what I do.

Play an older edition of WoD and explicitly invoke Rule Zero to axe the metaplot entirely.

Make sure your players know this when you all sit down to play the game.

Monsterhearts is all just one big metaphor for underaged fucking, so if you're looking for the horror aspect of WoD I probably wouldn't recommend that one.  I'd honestly lean most towards Doc Sammy's suggestion here; if your beef with WoD is the partitioning between the groups, you can just houserule it away easily enough.  And to be honest, a lot of the WoD books allude to unofficial alliances and crossovers already.  Yeah, a Red Talon's probably not gonna just chill with the local vampire group, but each faction has somewhat more flexibly-minded members.  A vampire could conceivably talk more urban werewolves like Glass Walkers or Bone Gnawers into not eviscerating them on sight, so long as they could demonstrate good behavior like not drinking the werewolves' kin.  Similar setups for other groups like mages.  Every faction has some reasons to not welcome outsiders with open arms, so it'd take some decent roleplaying to work out the differences enough to make a crossover work, but I definitely feel it's doable.

Quote from: S'mon;1136758I'd say NightLife, though I might use the D6 System (Mini Six or D6 Adventure) for the crunch. Someone mentioned NightLife yesterday and a swift google turned up a pdf that looks legal AFAICT. I foolishly got rid of my hardcopy in the early '90s.

How well does Nightlife play? I was told by some on another forum that shall not be named forum that it is "creaky." Does it play relatively well? Is it crunchy? Is it easy to grok and teach?

Quote from: Batjon;1136774How well does Nightlife play? I was told by some on another forum that shall not be named forum that it is "creaky." Does it play relatively well? Is it crunchy? Is it easy to grok and teach?

I only ever used the fluff (with basically AD&D rules) not the crunch, sorry!

I highly recommend Palladium's Nightbane.

The chargen alone is worth the ride. You can be a were-motorcycle.

Not kidding.

Quote from: Batjon;1136697I'm looking for a good replacement for the World of Darkness games because certain things about the lore and setting urk me.  I love the different factions like the Camarilla and Sabbat in Vampire and the different Clans in Vampire as well.  I'm seeking a game/system that can encompass the whole of the entire WoD setting including Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Mummy, Wraith, Geist, Hunter, etc. meaning that all these kinds of characters can be explored/played as and encountered as NPCs.  It always bothered me that WoD was so compartmentalized where vampires would never team up with werewolves or mages, etc., even if the story could allow for it due to narrative reasons.

So my *real* observation about this - as I've had with this very question that has come up many times recently: You seem to know what you don't want (WoD metaplot), but you like all the high-level elements within the WoD.

These elements exist in literally dozens of settings with entirely different backgrounds to those elements - so are you wanting to stick with the WoD system?

Because otherwise just pick a gaming system you *really* like - and make it all up. As posted upthread, Chronicles of Darkness's system (NWoD) and it's 1e books were pretty metaplot free and ALL those elements are obviously in play and it's designed for them to work together as you see fit. So a lot of the heavy lifting is done for you.

If you're looking for a new system that also has those elements... that's a pretty broad question. Everyone here will post their favorite system to use, but without knowing if you're trying to emulate WoD directly, different systems will weight a different emphasis to these elements. And it also depends on how much customization and work you're willing to do to pull it off.

If you're willing to go full-on scratch-build I'd suggest a universal system: GURPS, Savage Worlds, d6 etc. If you're wanting to go with something thematically designed for Horror(ish) games - Cthulhu, Nightbane(Palladium), Nightlife.

If you want to  repurpose an established system: I'd suggest as others here have: Cyberpunk2020 (Interlock), Marvel Super Heroes (FASERIP), or anything else that you're passionate about personally.

Otherwise- I'd fall back to Chronicles of Darkness.

I notice some new bloods are making games to compete against WoD without being woke.  If you cannot wait for them I suggest you get Chronicles of Darkness, but only first edition books.  Back when it was called New World of Darkness.