Author Topic: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?  (Read 4122 times)

Offline Dictum Mortuum

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 467
    • View Profile
Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« on: January 02, 2014, 10:01:05 AM »
I've played a fair share of V:tM and I quite like the theme/backstory of the game. However, I don't like the system that much and my party agrees on that, especially on the rolling mechanism with successes and botches. This has led us to play mostly diceless, with the DM enforcing rolls when something is extremely out of the ordinary or he wants to create random effects or it's something critical to the story, like leading to the death of a central character.

Is there any rpg system that fits the 'rules light, story-driven' that V:tM could be converted to in order to fit our needs, but still have some kind of support for backgrounds, morality and disciplines?
Dictum Mortuum's Handbooks: My personal character optimization blog.

Offline veekie

  • Spinner of Fortunes
  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5423
  • Chaos Dice
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2014, 11:07:59 AM »
Rules-light, Story Driven brings FATE to mind. Just need a hunger stress track and a few custom stunts.

Morality is harder to adapt though, since the rules are quite arbitrary there.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Raineh Daze

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 10577
  • hi
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2014, 11:13:09 AM »
Rules-light, Story Driven brings FATE to mind. Just need a hunger stress track and a few custom stunts.

Morality is harder to adapt though, since the rules are quite arbitrary there.

Which part of the rules is arbitrary? The 'this is this bad' part, or the way they work? XD

Offline veekie

  • Spinner of Fortunes
  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5423
  • Chaos Dice
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2014, 12:05:58 PM »
The "this is bad" part. Morality offenses aren't always proportionate.

Could see a way to do it in FATE though, but it'd be a lot more ad hoc. If breaching Morality forced you to take certain stunts and you stopped  being a PC when you run out of  Refresh to pay for them. The Fate Point economy would then mean you'd have fewer FP to spare, which makes you less able to resist aspect compels.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Raineh Daze

  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 10577
  • hi
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2014, 12:11:27 PM »
Ah, that's more of a problem with the specific tiers than the other two systems. Thought you meant it'd be harder to do the degenerating parts.

Offline veekie

  • Spinner of Fortunes
  • Epic Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 5423
  • Chaos Dice
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2014, 01:27:49 PM »
Degeneration is fine, and can be done. It's the points of degeneration that undermines it really.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline phaedrusxy

  • DnD Handbook Writer
  • ****
  • Posts: 10708
  • The iconic spambot
    • View Profile
I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

Offline Unbeliever

  • Legendary Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2288
  • gentleman gamer
    • View Profile
Re: Converting Vampire: the Masquerade to a different system?
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2014, 05:07:18 PM »
Degeneration is fine, and can be done. It's the points of degeneration that undermines it really.
This.  Their notion of morality is insane.  Every soldier is a raving psychopath in White Wolf's universe -- which is a unique take on the Greatest Generation -- and Jean Valjean would likely suffer humanity loss for stealing that loaf of bread. 

FATE is always the suggestion, and from what I hear a good one.  I think Wild Talents would work, too.  That might be a more action-focused system, but I'm not really informed about FATE to make the estimation.  Though looking at the OP, it seems like FATE would be more suitable.

As a side note, I did do a quick rules-lite version of Vampire once upon a time inspired by the old LARP rules.  It's mostly  just stat+skill pool v. other stat+skill pool.  But, disciplines were a big issue, which is what made me kind of drop it.  That, and I sort of hate the White Wolf system, so it didn't seem worth saving.

Finally, for morality, I kind of like Burning Wheel's trait vote system.  The idea being that if someone does something inhuman and immoral, then everyone around the table should have noticed it.