Vampire: The Masquerade - Best Edition for a Noob?

[Mr Blobby]

V20 (20th anniversary) seems like the most "complete" edition of the game. Like anything you want to do or play it has the tools to play it...

V20 [also called '4th Edition'] is a lineal descendant of the games since 1st Edition in 1991. Same for the three big others [Werewolf/Mage/Changeling], a player familiar with the older versions can get up to speed very quickly - I'm actually right now playing a Mage game with an ST who's using mainly 2nd materials while I'm using 4th and the main arguements we get into is that the Abilities are a little bit different. You can't do that with 5th.

Requiem (the 2000s reboot) 2e is, IMO, the absolute best by a country mile. No metaplot, a streamlined system that V5 tried to copy, fewer but more archetypal Clans*, political affiliation as a character option (with mixed covenant coteries actually working), and a shuffling of 'special' disciplines off to bloodlines rather than major clans. It's also much nicer towards non-kindred PCs, not just other full splats but also mortals, ghouls, and dhamphirs.

*dingdingding*

Which was the key problem. If you wanted to play a more 'localised' and less 'ideological' vampire game where the Deus Ex Elder was much less prevalant and with much more mystery [a lot of Requiem was splats full of 'wierd and wonderful creatures' that an ST may or may not have in their world], you can play Requiem. Vampire 5th tried to ape this while ditching some of the unique selling points which made Masquerade, well Masquerade [as well as ditching backwards compatability] - for example, the 5th Camarilla was quite clearly morphing into the Invinctus. In my opinion, it would have simply have been easier to produce a 'Masquerade/Requiem Conversion splat' where it lays out how Requiem setting/mechanics system can be grafted into a Masquerade game and vice-versa.

V5 has issues with a very narrow definition of 'street level', and V20 suffers from the book being 600ish pages long (being made as a 'one and done' tome for existing fans). Which is an issue with all the 20th anniversary editions, M20 is half as long again.

Yes. Masquerade [as well as Mage/Werewolf] really needs a player 'quickstart' book for players only. I think they exist online, but I've not checked quality of. A player doesn't need the 600-page doorstopper, esp if the ST is handling all the rolls etc.

AFAICT the core combat math is just stupidly broken, and there are a few decisions, like the lack of a perception stat, that make running it a giant PITA.

Masquerade [and the games off it] isn't much better. Odd 'compartmentalisation' of knowledge [wot, I can only roll Academics or Occult?], Firearms with no perception requirement, a situation where being more skilled equals worse results [all about Secondaries] the odd Awareness/Alertness situation, slightly different Ability sheets for different games etc. Every ST I've seen over 15 years has had to do a little bit of homebrewing to get it to work less stupidly.

The problem was combining it with skills.

I can't count the number of times I said something like "Roll Perception + Investigation" only to remember there was no such thing anymore and I needed to find another stat to replace it, and none of the other stats really fit.

You get this if you've 'played around with different WoD games too. This was me recently.

Me: 'Roll Intelligence/Finance; is any of the gear here valuable [and so worth stealing?]
ST: 'What's Finance?'
Me: *looks at sheet* 'Crap, this is Mage, not Vampire!'

[Cue five mins argument to where Finance now lies in a MtA sheet]