At its height, Vampire: The Masquerade was a serious threat to Dungeons & Dragons. It was contemporary to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. All the cool kids were switching over to VtM and treating D&D as an old fashioned game played by kids, rather than the ‘true roleplaying experience’ that VtM was. The game got its own Collectible Trading Card Game (originally called Jyhad, but changed to Vampire: The Embrace), a couple of computer games and even its own Aaron Spelling produced TV show also called Kindred: The Embrace.
The setting for VtM is one of a dark gothic near future where Vampires live in communities, often fighting over resources and power. Humans are treated with a mixture of contempt, need for control, as food and often with envy. A powerful theme throughout the game is the loss of humanity. The more you act like a Vampire, the less human you will be, and thus, the less control you will have over yourself. In the end the setting is very rich, with the sourcebooks being well written enough to be read cover to cover.
The mechanic is a point buy system, and only uses D10′s for random results. Success vs failures determines how things go after a roll.
There are a large number of character sheets for various versions of the game (including interactive sheets) here.
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