Okiedoke, so dissertation, and rant incoming.
Premise; 99% of Everything is SHIT.
Okiedoke, so oWoD at the end was a giant turd, they suffered from the same thing that DnD 2nd edition and DnD 3 5 had, where there were just too many books, and fans were getting sick of it. They were at one point publishing a book or 3 a month. And in the nineties they all sold fairly well, but as the punk movement died, and as MMO's started gaining traction and stealing people away from gaming in the late nineties sales started suffering. Suffering bad, they continued putting out content. A lot of gamers were unsatisfied with how oWoD was going. VtM and the week of nightmares has been refered to the book where everything went bad. It got too epic, too quickly, they didn't fully realize the repercussions of the Wekk of Derpnerss. When you have in one night, an antideluvian/2nd generation member dying, killed by 4 simultaneous nukes, and then a sunstrike from a mage satallite, while surrounded by spontaneous hurricanes, dueling it out in the streets with the highest form of kindred of the east possible. It gets impossibru to cover up. Yet somehow the technocracy, the camarilla did.
This is the universe that was supposed to be about butterflies causing hurricanes in china, not rhinos stomping them into existence. It's supposed to be a game of politics and old masters being your foes, who fought in subtle ways. But nope, the story basically ended up in a state where it was DnD light, and everything that was unique about second edition. All of the mysteries, were thrown out or modified to make them less than desirable. The lack of consequence they wrote into their plot, was rather dumb. Even then, the way they ended it was, worse, but I'm not done rereading the old books yet, so I'm delaying rereading the 3rd edition books. The systems changed to make things less interesting even.
Now on to new world of darkness. The only game in my opinion in new world that isn't better in it's current incarnation than WoD was at the end, is Changeling, and that's because Changeling my was favorite setting of traditional oWoD, Orpheus was the one the competed with it, but that's basically a different game entirely.
It's kinda the difference between the whole Planescape Torment, and Baldurs Gate type games. nWoD focuses less on the universe as a whole and more on giving the story teller the tools to tell a good personal story within the universe. You aren't supposed to have to read 5 books just to play a game in your city. You're supposed to be able to pick up the core, the big book and maybe a villains splat. But beyond that everything you need is in 2 books. And if you can't create your city, or even a fictional one, you might not want to be story telling. The systems are not quite superiour but are simpler and easier to understand.
Werewolf of oWoD, YOU ARE CHILDREN OF GAIA, GO TO WAR MY KIN, YOU ARE KILLING MACHINES DESIGNED BY NATURE TO FIGHT AND KEEP HUMANITY IN LINE. KILL THE POLLUTER, KILL THE CORPORATION, REBEL FIGHT KILL, RIP TEAR GNASH. These are the sagas towards the apocalypse.
Werewolf in nWoD, you are the soul children of Urfarah, a masterful wolf, and luna, you are crazy, you are disregarded, and you are fighting for your freedom, because if you don't, they will kill you. You are Uratha, you are forsaken.
Vampire oWoD, The World is Ours, we exist, and we desire control, vampires aren't what you think of us. Respect your elders or you die. Respect the laws, or you die. You are a cog in the great wheel, try to fight and you die. Your elders will come down upon you and claim your essense as your own. Hide as one would in a masquerade.
Vampire nWoD, We know not where we come from, most care not for that question. Know that you are not human anymore. Independence is death, meet with your fellows, form your bonds, cling to the remains of your humanity and let it guide you. You desire control, yes, control enough to live for eternity? Then organize. Live your Requiem.
oMage, Magic used to be easy you know, the myths just flew from our fingers, now though, disbelief has ruined things. Where once we were mighty, not the rational minds have won, and the forces we wield are ruined for us. We strive to reach the ways and paths of the supernal, so that we may bring back our vision of the past, or bring to be our image of the future. Consensus is to rule. Ascension will enforce consensus.
nMage, imagine if you will, a city of spires, and of caves, stretching to infinity, this was the city of Atlantis, ruled by mage kings, it factionalized, and eventually in it's strive to reach the heavens, and the supernal, it was destroyed, wiped from all time, all space, all force, all fate. It was never to exist again, and we are all that remains, the remnants of that city, those towers, and spires, and caves, stretching to infinity, we use this connection to infinity, to work our wills. This remnant of outside fate, outside space, to force our visions of the world on this world. Come ye will workers, and join in the history as it is made. Open your eyes, and you will see it there, just outside the horizon. Awaken.
In terms of games, in oWoD mainline games, I liked mage before werewolf and werewolf before vampire. In new world, I prefer mage, then vampire then werewolf.
