White Wolf Universe

FlameFlash · July 22, 2002, 12:14

All right, we've now got two games of White Wolf publishing converted from their pen & paper orgins to console or computer.

I'm wondering what everybody thinks of them?

Vampire: the Masquerade
and
Hunter: the Reckoning

have both made great pen & paper games (though I'm a fan of Mage: the Ascension first and foremost), but how well did they do on the conversion to the video screen?

V:tM has been out for a while now, so more opinions are undoubtably available on it, but what of H:tR?

Do the games seem to continue to have the same underlying aspects and themes as White Wolf intended as role-playing games, or have the just become another Doom wannabe.

FlameFlash · July 22, 2002, 12:21

Also, as another thought, looking for White Wolf players (Mage fans preferred) in the Springfield, MO area...

Mage fans are as scattered as the Technocracy seems to like them to be...

SnowFire · July 22, 2002, 12:48

Well, I picked up V:tM Redemption just about a week and a half ago, and beat the last boss 2 days ago. A pretty good game on the whole- not perfect, but its strengths outshine its weaknesses. Gets a B+ from me.

In terms of comparison to the Pen in Paper version, on one hand, the plot was excellent- sounds like it was written by me on a very good day. It makes the WoD make a good bit more sense (which it has started to make less and less of in some recent revisions). On the down side, they did slightly wimp out in the ending. The one big, obvious hole is the dungeon hacking- the vampire populations make sense if every vampire with a name exists, and all/most the other random vamps you hack through you pretend don't exist and are just there to make the dungeons interesting. I also liked how they rebalanced the stats and disciplines to be balanced for a dungeon hack (sorry, stupid purists! It works better this way!).

I've never played Hunter: The Reckoning and don't know the first thing about it. So I just voted for V:tMR.

And Mage fans are rare hopefully because of the utter silliness of the premise. One reason I like mages in many straight-fantasy games is that they're the closest equivalent to battle-scientists you get in those games. The magic vs. science thing set up in Mage:The Ascension is particularlly awfully done (to do it right, see The Longest Journey). The Technocracy- at least the 2nd edition one, and to a lesser degree the 3rd edition one- sound like the good guys, and the Mages hate them just for spite? Not to mention the Mages ridiculous assertion that without magic people grow boring and stagnant (ahem, look at our own "real" society- not much magic, but sure as hell not boring and stagnant). The Technocracy is completely right in trying to regulate magic. And I just don't like the idiotic consensual reality bits.

FlameFlash · July 22, 2002, 13:10

*nods*

I suppose those are interesting points on Mage... but being as it's my favorite you're hitting a little too close to home on me...

I've always been one to think that we partly make our own reality... so, metaplot aside (which you're right, is most certainly lacking) it was just a really cool concept for me.

Also, the freeform use of magic in the game... not having to actually "learn" and "study" but be inborn with it... you want the classic D&D-style wizards in WoD though and all you have to do is find Sorceror (the static mages who have to do everything by study and rote.)

ravagon · July 22, 2002, 20:22

Never tried the computerized versions but VtM, WtA and WtO were very well done PnP IMO (Is that enough abreviations

). Never tried Mage or Mummy though.

Which one is Hunter based on?

FlameFlash · July 23, 2002, 09:27

Hunter is one of their newer games, released in 1999 they're a group of almost humans who have woke up to the fact that there are monsters in the world... the game and role-playing is based on how the humans each react to what has happened to them and what they can now see... plus how to fight creatures that are so much more powerful than they are.

There's a whole lot more depth and human side to the PnP game that the video game for the XBox just seems to forget.

Then of course, they're about to come out with Demon: the Fallen so who knows what the WoD world will look like after that.

Grumbold · July 24, 2002, 11:45

I'm a werewolf fan myself so I'm still waiting for the opportunity to rage. I didn't like V:tM because it was a dungeon hack. It was a better than average dungeon hack if you like that genre.

FlameFlash · July 24, 2002, 11:47

*nods* Personally I just haven't been exposed to werewolf enough to appreciate it yet, I suppose.

I do like the Glasswalkers.

Grumbold · July 24, 2002, 11:55

We ran a great game with a mix of Glasswalkers and Red Talons. Great fun playing off each other with the "you're in my world now" situations.

FlameFlash · July 24, 2002, 11:57

Now there's an idea too!

Any great WoD stories to tell from gaming sessions?

Grumbold · July 24, 2002, 12:01

Its been a few years since we played now, so being a vain RT Alpha male I can only remember little bits where I got to do the heroic stuff.

Hang on, I'm getting a few flashbacks about my first attempts to learn to drive and use a grenade. Nooo, I don't want anyone to know about that

FlameFlash · July 24, 2002, 12:13

I'm just remembering when my newly Awakened Virtual Adept was drug along to some kind of kill Black Spiral Dancers party.

He ran for his life.

Grumbold · July 25, 2002, 08:09

Yeah even the RT knew that there was a time and a place for fighting the BSD if you wanted a hope of victory. Unfortunately the BSD were too darn sneaky to let you get the opportunity to catch them unprepared or away from their home ground that often.

FlameFlash · December 3, 2002, 16:47

Well... given the fact that Demon: The Fallen has arisen recently, I was wondering if anybody had had the chance to get their hands on the sourcebook and offer an opinion on it?

*megabump*

Asher · December 3, 2002, 23:33

Hunter's a good multiplayer game...

ravagon · December 4, 2002, 02:34

Quote:

Originally posted by FlameFlash
Well... given the fact that Demon: The Fallen has arisen recently, I was wondering if anybody had had the chance to get their hands on the sourcebook and offer an opinion on it?

Ditto.
Not that it'll be available here for at least 6 months though.

FlameFlash · December 4, 2002, 12:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher
Hunter's a good multiplayer game...

Does the XBox version actually capture the spirit of the game though?

To me it looks more like just a hack 'n slash game similar the recent Gauntlet games out.

Hunter is about normal people suddenly Imbued with powers from unknown beings who for their own reasons want balance between "monsters" and humanity.