Since the VTM thread seems to have fallen apart, I thought I'd make a new thread for all the other games in the same genre. WOD pretty much owns the market with some marginal competition from Fate and Apocalypse et al in the form of Dresden Files, Strands of Fate, Urban Shadows, Monsterhearts, Monster of the Week, Feed, Vampire City, Undying, etc (those last three are vampire-specific). Also, the buyable PDF museums of OOP games like Nephilim, Witchcraft and Everlasting.
Any experiences to share or discussions you want to have?
(My current obsession is with Feed since it's a toolkit for vampires or anything loosely vampiric like flesh eating ghouls or emotion eating succubi. Yeah, VTR advertised itself as a toolkit and V20 is trying to cast doubt on Noddism but let's not kid ourselves.)
Kult... multiple editions, now OOP... but another one coming, infused with the new hotness.
Nightbane is my go-to for personal horror / urban fantasy.
I prefer to run Nightbane in my houseruled Palladium system (house hammered), but I've run in it Savage Worlds or Tri-Stat if that works best for the group. For me, its all about grimdark on the surface setting, damned superhero redemption story underneath (think Clive Barker's Night Breed infused with McFarlane's Spawn).
You've already got mentions for Nightbane and Kult (both excellent for entries into the genre). I'd like to also drop in two I've run over the years. There's NightLife, which was an 80s game. The rules were sometimes a little clunky, but it basically populated the underground music scene of cities like New York with supernatural horrors. It had a fun feel and certainly introduced some obscure horrors as possible player characters. More recently there's Whispering Vault. It's kind of like a supernatural superheroes, but there's room to explore personal horror in there as well. I think both of these are fairly easy to find in PDF format.
I've been eyeing Urban Shadows with some interest.
Also, if you have a favorite supers system, consider using it. Just make sure the players create thematically appropriate PCs, i.e. trenchcoat-wearing skulkers insted of spandex-clad do-gooders. (I swear I'll do this with Savage Worlds some day)
Quote from: Spinachcat;933811Nightbane is my go-to for personal horror / urban fantasy.
I prefer to run Nightbane in my houseruled Palladium system (house hammered), but I've run in it Savage Worlds or Tri-Stat if that works best for the group. For me, its all about grimdark on the surface setting, damned superhero redemption story underneath (think Clive Barker's Night Breed infused with McFarlane's Spawn).
Ooh, Nightbane, good call.
BTW, that's the second recent thread where you've mentioned your Palladium houserules. Have you posted them anywhere we can read?
If you can find it. Check out the "Nights Edge" line for Cyberpunk 2020. Its a techno urban horror setting with all sorts of oddities.
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;933825More recently there's Whispering Vault. It's kind of like a supernatural superheroes, but there's room to explore personal horror in there as well. I think both of these are fairly easy to find in PDF format.
Hmmm... yeah, I can see TWV working if you dropped the interplanar time-travel aspects and ran a Watchers campaign. High-powered, super weird version of Buffy. Maybe have each player take on a mortal PC who lives in the area, as well as a Stalker/Watcher, so you can change focus sometimes.
There's one or two Savage Worlds settings, iirc. I know one is Marchlands, but I can't recall the other one at the moment. Human(ish) is based on FASERIP
One Dice Urban Fantasy
For more Monster Hunting there is East Texas University for Savage Worlds and 4Saken, which is based on the 4C iteration of FASERIP
oh yeah and Apocalypse Prevention Inc, which uses it's own system and has a Savage Worlds version
Quote from: The Butcher;933827BTW, that's the second recent thread where you've mentioned your Palladium houserules. Have you posted them anywhere we can read?
Never!! Muhahaha!!
Actually, I should put them together into some kind of coherent Ur-document, especially as I've kitbashed Mechanoids for my Space Viking Rifts game. I may have talked about it in some ancient post, but I need to put it together into a coherent form. The TL;DR version is I reduce number of actions, number of skills, broaden skills, rework boxing and other "uber skills" and use an initiative system that is more round robin.
Quote from: urbwar;933850One Dice Urban Fantasy
I was about to mention this.
Not because I used it but because I wanted to ask about experiences, APs, after action reports.
I'd love to see a
One Dice Nephilim hack...
Quote from: Omega;933832If you can find it. Check out the "Nights Edge" line for Cyberpunk 2020. Its a techno urban horror setting with all sorts of oddities.
I LOVED that book, I've used variations of the Knights Solar for years in various campaigns.
Kult and Unknown Armies.
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;933871I'd love to see a One Dice Nephilim hack...
That reminds me... Chaosium is still selling copies of
After the Vampire Wars... which uses a version of the magic from Nephilim. An occult noir setting where most of the monsters have come out of the closet, a bit like Shadowrun without the futuristic/cyberpunk elements.
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;933825You've already got mentions for Nightbane and Kult (both excellent for entries into the genre). I'd like to also drop in two I've run over the years. There's NightLife, which was an 80s game. The rules were sometimes a little clunky, but it basically populated the underground music scene of cities like New York with supernatural horrors. It had a fun feel and certainly introduced some obscure horrors as possible player characters. More recently there's Whispering Vault. It's kind of like a supernatural superheroes, but there's room to explore personal horror in there as well. I think both of these are fairly easy to find in PDF format.
Sometimes I wonder whether Mark Rein*Hagen plagiarized Nightlife, since the premise of monster races feeding secretly and calling themselves "kin" is very close to vampire clans feeding secretly and calling themselves "kindred". I certainly thought the various kin races more creative than taking a pseudo-Ricean vampire template and bolting stuff onto it.
My first read of the Everlasting books was insane. It doesn't just have your standard vampires, werewolves, wizards, faeries and ghosts. It has sin-eating gargoyles, ex-questers for the holy grail, demigods a la Scion, Tolkien-style elves, angels a la Touched by an Angel, and so much other stuff. The various character types were really creative compared to some of the competition. Where Nephilim and Immortal: Invisible War posited a universal origin for paranormal stuff and used a unified powers system as a result, Everlasting had a unified system for inventing powers and losing sanity and then tons of freaks had various origins but all coexisting and interacting. The only games today that really approach that level of diversity are Monsterhearts with its Skins.
Fireborn was pretty neat, since it applied the angsty metaphor formula to dragons. Yes, the firebreathing ones. The mental image of dragons dressing like goths and reciting bad poetry is hilarious too, even if that's nothing like the actual game.
I don't understand why most of the competition went out of business, particularly when the same writers latter wrote for White Wolf and recycled the same ideas. Everlasting and Witchcraft pioneered ideas that informed the WOD during the Year of X era, the COD and even Exalted/Scion. Atlantis was transplanted right from Nephilim.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;933913Sometimes I wonder whether Mark Rein*Hagen plagiarized Nightlife, since the premise of monster races feeding secretly and calling themselves "kin" is very close to vampire clans feeding secretly and calling themselves "kindred". I certainly thought the various kin races more creative than taking a pseudo-Ricean vampire template and bolting stuff onto it.
There's been lots of talk about this over the years, but I see it as akin to the claims made about Tarantino's plagiarism of City of Fire, about the same time. Yes, the premise and plot outline are similar, and there may well have been an influence, but Tarantino's is by far the more affecting and stylised work. Indeed, without the comparison to Reservoir Dogs, nobody would even register the existence of City of Fire. Ditto Vampire and Nightlife.
Human(ish) (http://www.arion-games.com/humanish.html) is urban fantasy using the FASERIP system.
Quote from: Spinachcat;933868Never!! Muhahaha!!
Actually, I should put them together into some kind of coherent Ur-document, especially as I've kitbashed Mechanoids for my Space Viking Rifts game. I may have talked about it in some ancient post, but I need to put it together into a coherent form. The TL;DR version is I reduce number of actions, number of skills, broaden skills, rework boxing and other "uber skills" and use an initiative system that is more round robin.
Sounds similar to my houserules. I'm hoping when Kevin rewrites the Megaversal system he doesn't change it too much. Just a streamlining and keeping the core would be fine.
In brazil we have Trevas/Arkanun (http://www.daemon.com.br/home/trevas/) and Invasão (http://www.daemon.com.br/home/o-que-e-rpg/daemon/invasao/), both use the Daemon System, who basically is BRP with Ars Magica's Magic System.
You can play with lots of things, like Angels, Demons, Aliens, Mediums, Vampires, Werewolf and Magic Girls (no, really). If you understand Portuguese, you can read the core system here (http://www.daemon.com.br/netbooks/da0001.zip), and there lots and lots of fan made (http://www.daemon.com.br/home/netbooks/) material.
Quote from: Simlasa;933875That reminds me... Chaosium is still selling copies of After the Vampire Wars... which uses a version of the magic from Nephilim. An occult noir setting where most of the monsters have come out of the closet, a bit like Shadowrun without the futuristic/cyberpunk elements.
Yup! Eagerly awaiting the pdf version. Sending the book to Europe cost a zillion dollars extra, so I just wait till it's on rpgnow.
Quote from: urbwar;933850There's one or two Savage Worlds settings, iirc. I know one is Marchlands, but I can't recall the other one at the moment. Human(ish) is based on FASERIP
One Dice Urban Fantasy
For more Monster Hunting there is East Texas University for Savage Worlds and 4Saken, which is based on the 4C iteration of FASERIP
oh yeah and Apocalypse Prevention Inc, which uses it's own system and has a Savage Worlds version
I like SW because of it's practicality. The WoD gives way too much irrelevant background information that isn't functional for either playing or setting up a game. Speaking of SW: Rippers is really good. It's just like Hunter, only focused and without all the purple prose. It is victorian though. Another one to keep checking is Fae Nightmares. The pdf is out now, but will drop in price once the backers of the kickstarter are satisfied. I think that will be january. It's like Changeling, just a lot more cut and dry.
How about Bloodshadows? The new 3rd edition is looking good.
Link: Precis Intermedia :: Bloodshadows: Fantasy-Noir RPG (Third Edition) (http://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?cPath=108&products_id=841)
Quote from: 3rik;934585How about Bloodshadows? The new 3rd edition is looking good.
Link: Precis Intermedia :: Bloodshadows: Fantasy-Noir RPG (Third Edition) (http://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?cPath=108&products_id=841)
Thanks, 3rik. It's not modern era, but noir -- it's a different world, but roughly 1940s. There are vampires, ghouls, succubi/incubi, Taxims (demon-possessing corpses), werewolves, and more as PCs. Definitely falls into that category.