I remember clearly that Player's Handbook for Vampire: the Masquerade introduced an alternative way of resolving combat without extensive bookkeeping. In 2nd edition it was a major drawback, somewhat mitigated in Revised. The other books in the setting followed. The idea was to replace manoeuvres with ST-judged increase/decrease in difficulty, as well as the tables of combat modifiers.
However, I did not find anything like it in VtM 20th Anniversary.
Could you please advise me whether it has been removed, or should I look for another book from Onyx? Or maybe the book that cover Simple Combat is still in writing?
Best Answer
I don't think those rules are rewritten for V20 edition, unless published in a W20 supplement, which I think not.
Anyway don't forget that WoD basic rules are extremely easy. The rest of the rules are simply suggestions about how to manage situations.
I don't think Storytellers are expected to remember every dramatic system and every manoeuvres, much less stop the game to search for it. They are expected to understand the spirit of the system and to make up appropriate roll for each situation.
Back in the 90s, when I was on my last teens, and my early twenties, we hadn't a lot of money to buy books. So, I read a borrowed copy of Vampire, returned it, and we had to play with the basic rules and with a downloaded list of disciplines. We played that way for two years. Even when we had money to buy a book, we bought supplements instead of the core book.
Still today, owning the core book and others, in most game sessions we don't open them at all. So I don't think Vampire requires extensive bookkeeping. A skilled ST should not have a lot of problems to improvising manoeuvres (add dices for accuracy, increase or decrease difficulties according to situations, increase or decrease damage,... and use common sense).