Quote from: Willie the Duck;1043920Because folklore and fiction are not competitions with two camps that are supposed to have some kind of parity. Why does Godzilla get some form of atomic breath weapon, while King Kong is just a giant ape? Naturally, once you do make a game where you get to 'play as' one of two options, you tend to care to balance the two choices (and to keep the analogy parallel, you get movies like King Kong vs. Godzilla where they have to give Kong a previously unmentioned ability to absorb energy from electricity so that the two can fight on the same level).

That does not answer my question. If you look at the historical vampire panics involving Arnold Paole, Peter Plogojowitz and Mercy Brown, the vampires do not display any supernatural powers aside from rising from the dead in physical or spectral form to suck the life force out of people. In you look at the inquisition's accounts of werewolf trials, like Peter Stubbe, Ossory or the "hounds of God", werewolves were attributed abilities like astral projection (with physical projections) and descending into hell to fight demons and witches. That last part is really vague, since demons and witches are so diverse you would need a laundry list of superpowers to fight them effectively. If you look through folklore long enough you will notice they are ascribed whatever superpowers make them sufficiently scary.

I suspect that this is because of Universal's Dracula and Wolfman. They became so popular in movies that they overshadowed anything else in the public consciousness. Dracula was depicted with a variety of superpowers, so now vampires typically have all the same powers. The Wolfman had barely anything, so now werewolves typically have only changing shape and usually as a curse.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1043933I suspect that this is because of Universal's Dracula and Wolfman. They became so popular in movies that they overshadowed anything else in the public consciousness. Dracula was depicted with a variety of superpowers, so now vampires typically have all the same powers. The Wolfman had barely anything, so now werewolves typically have only changing shape and usually as a curse.

This doesn't explain why Abbott and Costello are not in The World of Darkness.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;1044200This doesn't explain why Abbott and Costello are not in The World of Darkness.

JG

I am now tempted to run that. :eek: (But I'll have to give the comedians a pretentious Path meter; I'll call it The Path of Mirth-itas, one's Funny meter. Drop below zero and your movie contract is not renewed.)

Quote from: James Gillen;1044200This doesn't explain why Abbott and Costello are not in The World of Darkness.

JG

That would be hilarious just to see the Goths' reactions.

Apparently, this is the most anticipated RPG of 2018... Hmm.

VtM was definitely one of my favorite games back in the day. I played it to death on and off for years. But I only ever enjoyed playing the Sabbat. It was lots of fun kicking the shit out of all those Gothy Ventrue masqueraders. Sending in ghouls armed with flamethrowers.

But I digress... You'd think that I'd be rather excited that 5e is coming out given my love affair with the original game. But I'm not at all for the following reasons.

1) The game is so old now, that we've ironed out all the 'kinks' and tailored it to how we want to play - So it's fine as far as I'm concerned.
2) The morbidly obese metaplot continues in 5th edition I believe. C'mon, everyone knows it was an utter mess and it pretty much destroyed the original Vampire line as we know it.
3) With some of the original creators gone, the game took on some very strange directions that were obviously shunted out from the creators own gaming tables. So we nuked those krud ideas but I suspect that they will be returning in 5th and its whole new line of books.
4) The new artwork... Ugh! The old B&W artwork was very evocative.
5) It's a product of it's time. I still run it in the nineties with the threat of Gehenna around the corner. Incidentally, I'd never use their version of Gehenna that was presented in that splatbook it was atrocious imo.
6) We already have the 5th edition in the form of V20 (some of it's good and some of it is just okay).
7) How politically correct with 5th be? I mean, are they dropping the term Jihad like the did for nWOD? Will all the clans be hemoginised in some way as to avoid 'offense'? Boo! if so...
I know I'm stating the obvious with this one. It's a blatant cash grab from the commercial juggernaut that WW is. The 'killed off' VtM then brought it back to life wholly on the success of V20 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
9) One good point is that Mark R H is back with the project. However, how much say he will have is yet to be seen. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, 'that's it for now.

I have been to many conventions over the decades, and I can't even remember the last time I saw anyone running a pen-and-paper VtM game, or WoD. maybe GenCon like 10 years ago ... I've never seen anyone run Mage or Wraith, etc.

The Midwinter Gaming Convention in Milwaukee does the Vampire Larps, but that has stagnated in recent years, and no one runs the official pen-and-paper stuff. The events amount to people in costume posturing and not engaging in gameplay. Very boring.

I'm not sure why anyone would resurrect this game, or even think it has a future.