From: stinerkt@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Kevin T Stiner)
Subject: Vampire
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 00:46:07 GMT


I just wanted to throw out my oppinion on White Wolf's "Vampire" to see  
what others may think as well.

First of all, the rules are a GM's nightmare with so many vague things  
like the disciplines, however, our GM has turned this into his advantage  
throwing out some very good changes.  For instance, he gave Fortitude a  
new meaning by allowing it to stop being staked through the heart.  Once  
the staker has scored the 5 successes needed to stake his opponent, he  
must score at least ONE damage box to penetrate the victim.  Fortitude  
soaks this damage thereby not allowing for the stake to penetrate the  
skin.  Older Vampires with higher fortitudes are now harder to be staked  
(which they should be).

Another change he made was adding 13 more ability dots than the normal  
13/9/5 dots you get.  These 13 new dots can be placed on any ability that  
you have NOT placed your other dots.  Only one dot can be placed in an  
ability.  This gives the character a few more things he can do and shows  
those areas where he is no expert but has some idea of what is going on.   
We all would have these general things and shouldn't have to spend our few  
dots in them just for 1 point (i.e. I can swim very little but I will not  
drown, therefore, I have 1 dot and I can still place my other skill points  
in things I am much better at).  With the amount of abilities there are  
(thanks to the new Player's Guide), those 13 one pointers can really help  
out.

I have found the setting (Chicago) to be very interesting as well.  Our GM  
has forbade us from reading the Chicago By Night book and so we learn  
about the city as we go along.  I play a guy who has worked with the  
Camarilla all his life and went to Baghdad to be prince to bring Camarilla  
control to the Middle East.  Unfortunately, he was overthrown by the  
Assimites and his rival prince of Iran during the Gulf War.  He has an  
Assamite after him so he has fled to Chicago to hide out (since Chicago  
has one of the most concentrated Vampire populations around).  Therefore,  
he really doesn't know much about the city.  He met Lodin many years ago  
at a Camarilla meeting but that was all.  Just think how I felt when I  
found out Al Capone was a Vampire.  Things like that make role-playing  
awesome.  My character is really having a lot of trouble staying out of  
the politics because he wants to lay low until the Assimite thing is over.   
The other characters are more involved in Chicago than I am (working in  
the music business with Baby Chorus).  You might see a book in the future  
about our party sponsored by White Wolf (my character will be named Victor  
von Stauffenberg in the book).

Thanks to my GM, Vampire has been one of the greatest games I have EVER  
played and I am looking forward to trying Werewolf once our GM gets all  
those rules figured out so we won't have to argue about them on the spot  
(giving us plenty more ROLE-playing time).

That's it!
Kevin

PS when the GM talks, people listen.
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