Has anyone done a VtM conversion?


#1

Pretty much what the title says. I have a few players that are really into the Vampire the Masquerade lore and setting, but, tbh, I can’t stand the system. It’s… clunky I guess. Feels like you have to fight the system to run an interesting game.

I was going to try to tackle a basic conversion but don’t really know where to start and figured I’d ask if anyone has blazed that trail before?

Thanks!


#2

I think it is possible to convert VtM, but few questions, and thoughts.

What Generation?

Has anyone reached 5+ dots in anything?

Most Merits would be Milestone rewards, some might be starting abilities, especially the clan-specific abilities.
Each clan would be its own Bio-Form/Type.

If any stat/skill is at 5+ dots then the skill can not be failed.

Stat-wise
I think each dot beyond the first in Attributes is worth 1 point for similar stats. The only stats I see being a problem are Manipulation, Composure, & Resolve the first of which are kind of part of Charisma, while Resolve is related to and part of one’s Willpower.

Skills (Tags and Easy/Hard)
Skills that do damage Brawl (BASIC), Firearms (GUNS), Melee (WEAPON), and Occult (MAGIC) convert to .5 - 1 point of effort per dot.
Skills that have at least 1 dot are never hard, think of them as TAGS for the character, maybe combine a few.
skills that have 3+ dots become easy.
Skills that have no dots are Hard.

Recovery would come from feeding

Health
1 HEART would be the equivalent of a blood pool, as I recall some merits and and disciplines may also require blood points so in this case HP.

Humanity & Willpower I think are the hardest to convert as there is no direct equivalent. But these mechanics could likely remain as they are just with what sets and increases them changing to similar abilities and such.


#3

Great thoughts and a great starting point. A fantastic summary as well, thank you for that :slight_smile: It would be a brand new campaign so no need to convert existing characters.


#4

The only other mechanic that should not come up for a while is Diablerie, but really that just opens up a new tier of merits and abilities similar to Tiered Milestone paths, but the characters generation is what locks them out from those abilities.

I dont think you can get past 5 dots in anything until a specific generation like 8 or lower.

So starting attribute stats would cap at +4 (because we would be treating +0 as the first “free” dot)

Most challenges should start at 12, because they are vampires and likely have better starting stats than normal character creation. The Room Target would then increase based on the difference between the character’s generation and the lowest generation in social conflicts. so a 13th gen is in talks with a 10th gen the room target would start at 15. Making any social encounters with a 8th gen a 18, tough as heck, but not unbeatable.

The real test will be maintaining the Masquerade as usual, and maybe avoiding Paradox when a Mage comes to wreck them or a Hunter to stake them.


#5

The Halls of the Undead hack has vampire stuff in it.

If you want to go ham with Disciplines the various spell types in ICRPG Magic (and Khan’s Spells and Feats) should offer you plenty to work with.


#6

could use it with ezd6 and use the dots as dice you roll


#7

I think the easiest way might be to just count the dots up as the bonus to your d20 roll. Swap those all right over. Then just change up the effort types: Mundane D4, Bashing D6, Lethal D8, Aggravated D10, Ultimate D12. Or something like that.
Good luck! :metal:


#8

Personally I would try to keep things as simple as possible. No reason to start converting dots and stats as such. Just use normal character creation stats for ICrpg.

Use Clans & Bloodlines as biomodes and do the same with Ghouls & Revenants if you want to play them.

Convert Disciplines as easily as possible, either pretty directly or if you wish take their thematics and you could reimagine them as superpowers from the Vigilante City rules. For the sake of ease let’s not take the superpower path now.

Physical Disciplines convert into bonuses in their respective stats, Potence adds bonus to strength, Celerity adds to Dexterity & movement speed and Fortitude to Constitution & give some protection from aggravated damage.

Other Disciplines you can convert on a case by case basis. If you want to keep the dot system that makes it simpler or you can just take the themes and make them into superpowers or magic. Simple conversion would be to just use them mostly as is.

For example Protean:

  1. Gain the ability to see in the dark.
  2. Gain claws that boost you unarmed attack effort into a weapon attack effort and makes it into aggravated if you want to keep that difference. Main point of aggravated damage being that healing it takes 5 times the Blood and time to heal and can scar even the undead.
  3. Let’s one meld into the earth to rest during the
  4. Let’s you to change into an animal form.
  5. Mist form.

Keep Blood costs as is, give Vampires a pool of 10 Blood points to use, one point per turn. Unless they are of suffficiently low gen to raise those.

Humanity & Paths (or Roads if your doing Dark Ages) can be handled by the is Insanity mechanics found in the ICrpg. Just change the causes of insanity loss chart to match Humanity/Path restrictions.

The most difficult part would be how to handle Frenzy/Rötchreck. Perhaps a wisdom check depending on the source that causes it. If a minor cause roll at Easy if average roll as such and if greater like being humiliated before your peers or seeing the sun roll as Hard.

When it comes to Disciplines like Celerity you must think if you want to mess with the action economy or not as it can really mess up the combat balance.


#9

I would do the Clans as Bioforms with the bioform advantages being, instead of any Attribute bonuses, the Clan Disciplines. You get the normal 3-4 points to distribute into them.

And naturally with each Bioform/Clan comes a weakness.

Brujah: Frenzy checks are always HARD.

Toreador: Has to make a Wisdom check to not become enthralled when witnessing a thing of beauty, whether art or a natural wonder or something else. GM decides whether to check as EAS, NORMAL or HARD depending on the stimuly.

Ventrue: Must choose a specific feeding preference, must check for Frenzy if accidentally feeds on the wrong Blood.

Malkavian: Must choose a derangement for the character to suffer from, this may cause checks or otherwise compromise the character. GM must agree to your infliction and will occasionally describe things to your character that may or may not be caused by your ailment.

Tremere: Will be fully Bloodbound through only two drinks and has to check any Dominate resists from higher ranking manners at HARD.

Nosferatu: You are one ugly m* f*. Test HARD for any positive social interactions if appearance can be an issue, test EASY for most intimidating actions.

Gangrel: Gain animalistic features from Frenzying. The features will vanish in a session or two but after a particularly brutal or long Frenzy they may gain a permanent feature, generally if humanity/road loss is involved.

Tzimisce: You must sleep in atleast two handfuls of your native soil. If this condition is not met everything is HARD untill you get to sleep on proper soil.

Lasombra: You cast no reflection and appear in no photographs, in fact the only way to see yourself is through paintings which can be really inconvenient if you need to check your hair, or if you have Blood on you face Etc. This may also have profound psychological effects in the long term where you start to forget what you look like and thus erodes your self image. Some are may become downright obsessive about their appearance always having servants around telling them how they look Etc.

Children of Set: Take double damage from sunlight and particularly bright lights may cause things to become HARD for you.

Assamites: Warriors are addicted to Vitae and must test HARD to stop feeding on a Cainite they have tasted the Blood of. ( If playing during the Tremere Curse Warriors take damage from drinking Vitae and cannot commit Diablerie as a result, to lower their generation they must bring a large quantity of Vitae back to Alamut for the Sorcerer cast to use in a ritual )

Sorcerers: Their Auras are bright and always show Magic use in them, reading their aura is EASY.

Viziers: All Viziers are Obsessive-Compulsive towards their current intellectual focus whatever that may be.

Giovanni: Unlike other Cainites their Kiss is not a blissful affair but excruciating one. Their Kiss causes double the damage similar bloodloss would cause. Also their victims may be paralyzed by their pain but silent they are not.

Ravnos: The Beast of the Ravnos are no monsters filled with blind rage but cunning daemons luring them from their Paths. Beast of the Ravnos has a favourite Vice that they try to goad the Cainite to fullfill, if presented with the chosen Vice the Cainite must test Wisdom at a difficulty determined by how enticing the opportunity to indulge in the Vice is.

Baali: Members of the First Tribe take double damage from True Faith based attacks and must always test for Faith induced Rötchreck at HARD.

This is just how I would go about doing this if I wanted to change systems.


#10

So did you end up running VtM in ICrpg?

And if you did how did it go and how did you end up converting things over?