Q1: Actually, system is really important when details crop up. Example- I was running a wasteland, post apocalyptic scenario in D&D 3.5. The bad guys ditched the good guys in the middle of nowhere. They had, after dealing with some bandits, enough food for five people, (Five man party) for five days. Then they found five NPCs. Dramatic tension? No, the cleric used Create Food.
Almost every setting has it’s quirks- D&D assumes resupplies are everywhere so the ranger can get more arrows and the fighter can get a new sword. WoD tends to have some odd assumptions about what you can buy, healing times, the similarity of weapon types, and on the availability of ammo. Every system has a few situations where the rules are just plain made for a different setting. To see how this works, pick one system, create a quest line for it, then try running that quest with another system. Unless you have a pretty generic quest or if you like houseruling, (which hey, who doesn’t?) you hit problems soon.

Q2: You’ve played D&D? Vol I Your Story is like the players handbook and the DM’s handbook. Vol II Our World is like the monster manual, with bits of White Wolf’s precreated world style thrown in. (Though you are playing a game biased on a book.)

Q3: Getting horror and suspense down with a small party is hard. Large party, harder. I’ve only seriously frightened a +5 crowd once, and I had to use hidden speakers and flash paper to pull it off. That kind of effect is impossible if your chat interface is filled with “LFG” and “DPS!!!”

By the way Fred, awesome game. Kudos.