Quote from: daniel_ream;786969I can't be arsed to look it up, but I'm pretty sure VtM1 had a rule that any social skill dice pool was capped at your Humanity score.

That and capping dice pool size during the day.

Quote from: daniel_ream;786969I can't be arsed to look it up, but I'm pretty sure VtM1 had a rule that any social skill dice pool was capped at your Humanity score.

Quote from: smiorgan;786997That and capping dice pool size during the day.

That also applies in VtR.

JG

Quote from: daniel_ream;786969I can't be arsed to look it up, but I'm pretty sure VtM1 had a rule that any social skill dice pool was capped at your Humanity score.

You are right. Same as in Requiem. Maybe they should do more with that and drop the derangements.

Quote from: jibbajibba;786985We just switiched out the Humanity Path for others that are available online and in the rules for Sabat and stuff. Effectively treating your Path like an alignment and if you take actions against it penalties come.
Not so very tricky.

There aren't any Paths in new WoD. I think they didn't want players to play an evil as fuck character with an alternative morality that lets him get away with everything.

Again I don't like morality rules. It's a stick for punishing players. But that's one of the main problems of the OP. I don't really care about it. I just scrapped it. I scrapped Predators Taint and the virtue/vice system as well. My problems with the wod are more with the ambiguous nature of the setting material. But that's another story.

I made a summary about the points the OP wants change from the WoD.


Setting:

1. No conspiracies
2. All monsters in one setting
3. No specific monster backgrounds


Rules:

1. No restrictive powers
2. No laundry lists of powers
3. No morality system that punishes the player

Someone mentioned GURPS Cabal. There was a guy on a forum who was ranting for a long time that GURPS was way more toolkit than the new WoD. He called nWoD a toolkit with ten different hammers and he sometimes needed a screwdriver or a saw. Did he have a point?

Let me elaborate. Both GURPS Cabal and Witchcraft don't have anything in mind how you should play your game. WoD games always have a certain type of gameplay in mind. Werewolf is all about hunting on spirits in packs. Vampire is all about covenant politics. Both Unisystem and GURPS ask you how you want your game. And then tell you how you can achieve that.

Gritty: less xp with char creation. Epic: more xp with char creation. You can easily do covenant politics with Witchcraft or use only one covenant or use one playable and one as the bad guys. You can do that in the WoD, but it somehow always feels a little wrong. Just a voice in the back of your head.

Cabal and Witchcraft are broader. That's it. You can do politics with Witchcraft, but you can also do one faction fighting a zombie plague if that's what you want. That's also why I like Fading Suns. You could do politics with that game, but you could also isolate your party on an abonded mining station with a few symbiotes and you have "Alien". Or go demon hunting with the Avesti or go relic hunting with the Ascetonic Order. Those games are so broad, it has something for everyone. The only new wod game that has that is Requiem for Rome.

I've always been partial to After Sundown for my WoD substitute. It has at least some of what the OP wants with no morality system and mixed supernatural type parties being the default.

Quote from: gamerGoyf;787362I've always been partial to After Sundown for my WoD substitute. It has at least some of what the OP wants with no morality system and mixed supernatural type parties being the default.

I find Trollman's writing style quite repellent. Even if you ignore all the condescension, his fluff writing is questionable at best. He includes the "world crime league" as a faction. Yes, the same guys from the Buckaroo Banzai movie. Virtually all his fluff quotes were taken from other, better works such as the cult children's show Invader Zim (the quote "I hope you like nightmare worlds" is from the episode "Game Slave 2"). No seriousness, no originality, no creativity, no appeal.

The worst part is that he sometimes make genuinely good observations that end up being horribly marred by the rest of his writing.

Alternatives to World of Darkness?

Well, I guess there's radical lobotomy...

Quote from: RPGPundit;789158Alternatives to World of Darkness?

Well, I guess there's radical lobotomy...

According to Ron Edwards there's no real difference.

Quote from: Skywalker;785756For shits and giggles, there's also Everlasting, which is a WoD heartbreaker RPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=46

What makes it a heartbreaker? I can get into a good (?) heartbreaker.

Quote from: RPGPundit;789158Alternatives to World of Darkness?

Well, I guess there's radical lobotomy...

Is it mostly the Metaplot you are against? Because the new games don't have that. If not the Metaplot, then what else?


My $0,02. I don't like the bad layout and the fact they need twice as many words as necessary. I don't mind the Metaplot. You can always ignore that. For the new WoD in particular I don't like the vagueness of the setting material. Just give me one good explanation instead of five unfinished ones, thank you WW.

Anyway, I do like city games and I like dark urban fantasy/gothic horror where monsters and magic are real. So I am stuck with the WoD.

Btw, what does the OP think of the newer settings? Still the same problems as the old ones?

Or is it the still somewhat narrow game design? Instead of opening the game up to what the players want to do, they focus the games on the themes. Is that it? Can you please answer it. I am really curious.

Quote from: RPGPundit;789158Alternatives to World of Darkness?

Well, I guess there's radical lobotomy...

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

JG

Quote from: Tetsubo;789187What makes it a heartbreaker? I can get into a good (?) heartbreaker.

As in a fantasy heartbreaker is for D&D (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/9/). Effectively, an RPG designed by a person with one or two innovations from an existing RPG without drawing on wider RPG developments outside of that RPG for the rest of the design.

Quote from: Skywalker;789482As in a fantasy heartbreaker is for D&D (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/9/). Effectively, an RPG designed by a person with one or two innovations from an existing RPG without drawing on wider RPG developments outside of that RPG for the rest of the design.

I know the definition of a 'heartbreaker'. I am curious what makes *this game* a heartbreaker.