Are there any alternatives to World of Darkness?

Certified · September 09, 2014, 07:49:45 AM

Quote from: Simlasa;785968I thought Nephilim was just licensed to them to print an English translation? There's a whole bunch more for it in French.

You may be thinking of In Nomine

smiorgan · September 09, 2014, 07:50:47 AM

No, he's correct. Nephilim is a French game published by Multisim (per the Wikipedia page). Now in its 3rd edition. Chaosium only published the first edition in English.

Simlasa · September 09, 2014, 07:55:05 AM

Quote from: Certified;786016You may be thinking of In Nomine

Nope. According to wikipedia Nephilim was originally by the French company Multisim... and there have been subsequent editions that were also only Published in French. Chaosium did furnish a bit of original material, but there's a whole lot that has never been in English.

smiorgan · September 09, 2014, 07:59:07 AM

Quote from: Warthur;786001It is a shame that he doesn't explain why he feels the way he does on the subject, though. I mean, it obviously is an odd fit for the concept of Night's Black Agents, but less so for V:tM, so is he just objecting to playing the good vampire in games where that doesn't fit or is he disowning his V:tM/V:tDA work?

Reasons Ken Hite might hate the Good Vampire Trope:

Players are incapable of playing the monstrous sides of their protagonist vampires, leading to just another lot of fanged supers (q.v. an earlier post)
"Good Vampire" characterisation substitutes existential angst and brooding for any real depth of character
Twilight happened between VtM and NBA

Mostly the good vampire trope is used for either bragging rights (oh, so you're a "good vampire"? how about just playing a "good person"? what does the vampire part add apart from a black trenchcoat?) or power gaming. It's not big and it's not clever.

smiorgan · September 09, 2014, 08:03:13 AM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;785749I like the premise of World of Darkness where a paranormal underworld hides vampires, werewolves and other monsters and the players take on the roles of said monsters, but I don't particularly like the background or the restrictive and idiosyncratic rules.

Are there are any alternatives or competitors to that game?

C J Carella's Witchcraft is free in pdf, last time I looked. Better system, lots of cool supplements, compatible with other Unisystem games.

The other ones I would mention have already been mentioned. I like Nephilim a lot.

jan paparazzi · September 09, 2014, 08:11:06 AM

Quote from: smiorgan;786021C J Carella's Witchcraft is free in pdf, last time I looked. Better system, lots of cool supplements, compatible with other Unisystem games.

The other ones I would mention have already been mentioned. I like Nephilim a lot.

Maybe it's just me, but I always felt the covenants in Witchcraft are more true secret societies than the splats in the WoD. I also find it more open and free than the new WoD, which is supposed to be toolkit. Just a shame there are so few books of that setting.

Warthur · September 09, 2014, 08:21:19 AM

Eh, I found Witchcraft kind of bland myself.

smiorgan · September 09, 2014, 08:51:18 AM

I mentioned Witchcraft because it's free.

For paid stuff I really like Ghosts of Albion; it's Victoriana, but it is a complete toolkit for urban fantasy. Rules for Vampires, Ghosts and Faeries as PCs, and not your traditional versions either (lots of varieties of types of vampirism). Good magic system, evolved from the Buffy RPG (Magic Box supplement)

The OOP Angel and Buffy RPGs are also good to pick up s/h. Got my copy of Angel for a song.

Ladybird · September 09, 2014, 08:53:09 AM

Quote from: smiorgan;786020Reasons Ken Hite might hate the Good Vampire Trope:

Reasons Ken might write stuff for Fangy : The Biting (Or Fangye: The Ye Olde Bitinge) despite not liking the "Good Vampire" trope:
* Money

...or he changed his mind on the subject in the years since.

Certified · September 09, 2014, 08:54:34 AM

Quote from: smiorgan;786018No, he's correct. Nephilim is a French game published by Multisim (per the Wikipedia page). Now in its 3rd edition. Chaosium only published the first edition in English.

Oh, I didn't know that Nephilim was also a French game. I find it very interesting that two of my favorite games of a vaguely blasphemous nature both come from France.

Both are solid games, very different feels.

yabaziou · September 09, 2014, 11:49:53 AM

Quote from: Certified;786029Oh, I didn't know that Nephilim was also a French game. I find it very interesting that two of my favorite games of a vaguely blasphemous nature both come from France.

Both are solid games, very different feels.

As a Frenchman, it is quite funny to read about old French RPG on a English/American speaking RPG forum in 2014.

INS/MV is at least 20 years old and its original French version is actual a satytical RPG which lambasts religion and France.

Nephilim is at least 15 years old and the French and the American versions are quite similar, for whar I know about it.

To return to OP question, I will also second the motion that Urban Shadows might be able to fulfill your desire of playing WoD without none of the WW/OPP wankery.

The Buffy RPG is quite interesting and solid, according to what I read in it and it also might be a good way to have fun with the creatures of the night.

jan paparazzi · September 09, 2014, 01:21:37 PM

Quote from: Warthur;786024Eh, I found Witchcraft kind of bland myself.

Yep, that's the biggest flaw of both Witchcraft and Conspiracy X. It's very, very standard. No originality. Very generic. But I like the writing style. It's very matter of fact and to the point. That's easy to ready for me, maybe because English isn't my native language. I really hate the flowerly WW writing style. And I like the absence of politics and morality in the game. It's almost a Mage the Ascension (Wicce = Verbena, Rosicrusians = Order of Hermes) clone setup as Hunter the Vigil with all the groups working on their own and only on occasion working with each other to kill some monster.

Géza Echs · September 09, 2014, 02:22:52 PM

Quote from: JeremyR;785759There's Nightlife

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightlife_%28role-playing_game%29

I came to the thread to mention Nightlife! It was a fun little game with some truly innovative monsters that came out around the same time as V:tM. I only messed with it a little bit, and can't remember anything about the system, but I'd recommend at least checking it out.

LibraryLass · September 09, 2014, 02:53:25 PM

I'm kinda with Hite, personally. Fuck playing the "good" vampire, just play the vampire. If I may paraphrase the recent Fright Night remake (which they totally shot in my hometown!) you're a monster and you're not brooding, or lovesick, or noble. You're the fuckin' shark from Jaws. You kill, you feed, and you don't stop until everybody around you is dead.

The Ent · September 09, 2014, 03:29:11 PM

Quote from: James Gillen;785986Of course, this system was also used to adapt Army of Darkness, in which in order to create Ash, they developed the special Advantage "Really Big Chin."
Also, instead of White Hats, regular-level characters were called "Primitive Screwheads."

JG

Hahaha!:rotfl:

I always wanted to Get my hands on AoD but somehow never did. :-/