VtR Rules Mods

During our first session using the Blood and Smoke rules mods for VtR we noticed a lot of things didn't work well. As we find more, we can track them here and present our suggested solutions.

Combat

One of the biggest issues was in combat dice pools. When they increased the average defense, it made having a reasonable dice pool difficult to manage, which also necessitated the increased usage of willpower and other abilities. This is related to hand to hand combat.

Suggested Fix

If your combat dice pool is less than the defense of the opponent, roll 2 dice. If your combat dice pool is equal to the opponent, roll 3 dice. If your combat dice pool is greater than your opponent, roll 4 dice. If your combat dice pool is double your opponent, roll 5 dice. For each further multiple of the opponents dice pool, add one die.

Willpower

The Blood and Smoke version of VtR introduced the concepts of mask and dirge, as your inner and outer self. The initial virtue and vice system from VtR (carried over from Masquerade) is related. In the virtue and vice system, by indulging your vice, you recover one willpower. By following your virtue, you regain all lost willpower. One issue is, this could conceivably rend the party asunder as different characters are dragged in conflicting directions. With masks and dirges, it works in a similar way. Taken directly from the Blood and Smoke book:

Any time a vampire overcomes a small hurdle in defense of his Mask, he gains a point of Willpower. When committing atrocious or existentially risky acts in defense of his Mask, he regains all his spent Willpower points.

Any time a vampire withdraws from his outside life in defense of his truer self, he gains a point of Willpower. When committing terrible, damning acts in defense of his personal identity, he regains all his spent Willpower points.

But what really are masks and dirges? Mask is the bearing Kindred present to the world. It’s the façade, the pretty lie. It’s the excuse for why he can’t stay for breakfast in the morning. The Dirge is the truth behind the lies. It’s the vampire’s secret self; it’s who he is when the lights are off and nobody is present to witness his dirtiest moments. It’s his dark indulgence.

Sounds ok when you read it, but how the hell do we implement that in game? Hold that thought.

Each character also has anchors, which remind them of their former life. These can also be used to recover willpower. They were serious about willpower recovery, they made so many different mechanisms to do it that it became confusing. Each, when read individually, is digestible and understandable. Yet with so many options, it becomes an exercise in resource management that often feels overly gamey.

Proposed Solution

Every character recovers one willpower per session. In addition, each character can choose a "theme" related to their concept. Once per session the player may declare that the previous set of actions or accomplishments advanced their theme in some way, and immediately recover 3 willpower. Obviously, this should actually advance your theme, but I will allow players 100% control to police this. In other words, I have no authority to overrule this, and will not question it in any way. You want three willpower? Fine, take them. We are all adults trying to have fun, if gaining those willpower at that moment helps you enjoy the game more, by all means do it.

What are themes? Well, a virtue or vice could be a theme. So could a mask or dirge. Ditto with anchors. Pick some underlying idea you want to explore with your character and use that as your willpower refresh mechanism. I should be made aware of these, so I can sprinkle some opportunities in the game, but you are not obliged to tell the other players if you choose not to do so.

Experience

BnS also introduced the idea of beats. Each beat is 1/3 of an experience point. You can earn beats in many ways, from resolving conditions, to fulfilling short and long term goals. Its a great idea in theory, but it leads to a lot of gaminess which could get in the way of good roleplaying.

I love the beats and want to find a way to incorporate them, however I am shelving that for now. What I do want to use, however, is the concept of the goal. Each character will be able to have three of these at any time, and can change them at will after sessions. There are three types of goals, short term, long term and recurring.

Short term goal: Something important to the character that can be accomplished in a couple of sessions. Some examples could be track down whoever has been vandalizing your haven, or find out who my sire is. When you complete a short term goal, take two experience points.

Long term goal: Long term goals involve the characters greater vision of the world. They take entire arcs, or multiple arcs, to complete and significantly advance the goals or desires of the character. When you complete a long term goal, take 7 experience points.

Recurring goal: These goals are the kind that can be completed over and over, such as advancing the cause of your covenant, or helping your chosen faction in a power struggle achieve a milestone. When you reach a recurring goal, take an experience point.

Any goal that is a 'party goal' also grants a number of experience points equal to the number of other characters who share that goal. For example, if Petra and Lucas had a short term party goal of 'determine who is behind the illegal embraces', then when it is complete each may take 4 experience points.

Each character will also earn one experience point per session.

Suggested Fix

The system is detailed above, but here is how you spend those points you worked so hard to accrue.

A new skill or merit costs a number of experience points equal to the new level.

A point of willpower costs a number of experience points equal to double the new level.

A point of blood potency costs 7 experience points times the new level (14 to go from 1 to 2).

Raising an attribute costs 5x(new level) experience points.

Raising a discipline costs 7x(new level) experience points.

In all cases, clan favored attributes and disciplines cost one fewer point to purchase. Skills and merits that were attempted during the session previous to the purchase can be acquired at a discount of 1, to a minimum of 1.

Rewrite

Initially, we have played our Vampire games using the Blood and Smoke rules. However, there are some significant challenges we have encountered with these rules as written. The VtR second edition rules have a supplement called Danse Macabre, which introduces many of the ideas that were integrated into the main game in BnS. A new project is underway to go back to the VtR 2nd edition, and incorporate some of those changes from Danse Macabre, while also introducing some new ideas I have been kicking around for a while. The is located here: Crimson Dusk.