Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:26 pm
As someone who's a big fan of both games, they're quite difficult to compare.
Ravenloft is more about external horror - the world is a dark, nasty place full of things that want to eat you, and the fact that it's so unremittinly hostile is why it's disturbing. Vampire, in contrast, is more about internal horror - you're a bad person, and you do bad things, and the fact that you as a player sympathise with your PC is why it's disturbing (one of my best moments of gaming from the last few years was breaking off mid-rant with my old Tzimisce Ductus character, because the horrible things he said were satrting to sound reasonable). Ravenloft can do internal horror (powers checks, fall-to-the-dark-side stories), and Vampire can do external horror (the Sabbat book has weapon rules for chainsaws and meathooks), but that's not really their core mission.
In terms of stuff to borrow - the Tzimisce make great bad guys in either game, and Azalin's memory-altering I-win power is a good guide for Vampire STs who want to use Dominate-heavy Elders as antagonists. Really, though, they're not the same game, and not trying to do the same thing, and saying one's better than the other will come down to personal taste.
Ravenloft is more about external horror - the world is a dark, nasty place full of things that want to eat you, and the fact that it's so unremittinly hostile is why it's disturbing. Vampire, in contrast, is more about internal horror - you're a bad person, and you do bad things, and the fact that you as a player sympathise with your PC is why it's disturbing (one of my best moments of gaming from the last few years was breaking off mid-rant with my old Tzimisce Ductus character, because the horrible things he said were satrting to sound reasonable). Ravenloft can do internal horror (powers checks, fall-to-the-dark-side stories), and Vampire can do external horror (the Sabbat book has weapon rules for chainsaws and meathooks), but that's not really their core mission.
In terms of stuff to borrow - the Tzimisce make great bad guys in either game, and Azalin's memory-altering I-win power is a good guide for Vampire STs who want to use Dominate-heavy Elders as antagonists. Really, though, they're not the same game, and not trying to do the same thing, and saying one's better than the other will come down to personal taste.