From: bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SJG licenses White Wolf's Vampire
Keywords: Vampire, SJG
Date: 17 Nov 92 17:19:13 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <Bxtorp.6x5@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> durrant@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (unknown) writes:
>
>	I'll admit, as you can probably tell from my previous posts, I'm
>pretty much opposed to the idea of GURPS Vampire.  But having read a few of
>the other posts on the topic, I'm finding the idea harder and harder to
>believe for three reasons.

	Too bad it's going to really happen.  And why should you
care?  White Wolf fans will get to keep the same crummy mechanics.
GURPS fans will get to play a nice game minus the nasty mechanics.
Is GURPS going to "pollute" Vampire?  Give evidence.

>	There was a great post earlier about the logistics problems in converting Vampire to GURPS (sorry I couldn't remember the number of the article, or I
>would have quoted it).  I just don't see how feasible converting the system
>would be--who's products would be canon for the game, would every NPC have
>two sets of stats, in short, how could this be done?

	Very simple  GURPS offers a single translation method.
That's all.  White WOlf doesn't need to print GURPS material, GURPS
doesn't need to print more WW material.  Just use the conversion
rules given in GURPS Vampire.  My god, the world's going to end...

>	Secondly, if I remember correctly, and I asked at a gaming store 
>yesterday to confirm this, Steve Jackson Games almost went bankrupt last year.
>Their sales are way down, and I don't know if they would have the money or
>credit after their past problems to pull this off.

	Pity they recovered, eh?  They've been steadily putting out
new books for GURPS ever since they "nearly went bankrupt."

>	Thirdly, having met Mark Rein-Hegan, Andrew Greenberg, and Tom Dowd
>(of Shadowrun fame, but he did have a significant role in designing the 
>Storyteller system and I'm sure he still owns a piece of it) I don't feel they
>would give their baby up.  If White Wolf would license to *anyone* it would
>be FASA--a company they are actually on good terms with.

	Eh?  They're not giving their "baby" up.  They're allowing
another company to write up alternate rules for a fairly popular
gaming system.  End result?  Both sides get more money, Vampire
becomes more popular.  White Wolf is hardly killing Vampire in any
way, shape, or form.
	As I said before, you might as well complain that all the
conversion techniques that people have been using over the years
(AD&D to Hero, AD&D to GURPS, Shadowrun to whatever, etc) have been
ruining all the other systems out there as well.  Lordy...every RPG
must be corrupted by now...

>	I'm taking GURPS Vampire with a wait and see attitude--I really hate  
>the idea, but I won't believe it until I see the books on the shelves.

	I'm more than willing to believe Loyd, considering his tie
to Steve Jackson Games.

>Christine
>		Until you've played Vampire the Masquerade,
>		all you've been doing is rolling the dice.

	Vampire is one of those games that simply begs to use
someone else's rules or none at all.  It suffers from a variety of
problems, the first being a horribly restrictive class system (the
"be a vampire, nothing at all, or buy more books" technique), the
second being the game's mechanics themselves.  The need to purchase
new books for the game just to play new "classes" is ridiculous.
GURPS clears this all up very nicely.  Play a vampire or not.  Use
GURPS rules for werewolves...whatever.  You want Cybervampire (ick)?
No problem.  Fantasy Vampire?  AnythingVampire?  Real easy.
	The DownFall of Vampire isn't going to come from GURPS.  If
anything, GURPS will make White Wolf much happier.  It will increase
sales for many of their supplements, increase the number of gamers
who play Vampire, and make them a lot more money.  Not bad, not bad
at all.
	(And why should they license out to FASA?  FASA doesn't have
anything to offer them.  And I never heard that White Wolf and SJG
was unfriendly to begin with.  Judging from Loyd's announcement, in
fact, quite the opposite.)
	What with the CP2020 -> GURPS conversion last year, we
should be seeing the death of that game shortly according to your
logic...shock...

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