havocthecat: faith lehane is totally setting a bad example (btvs faith bad example)
Anyone else ever played an Elder, either in an Elder game, or just get enough points accumulated into your character that, no matter young your character was chronologically, you were an Elder?

Theoretically, they are of greater maturity than their Ancilla or Neonate counterparts, but let's face it. We're playing for fun, not to be boring and mature.

Anyone want to share a story of things you should never do in Elders games? I mean, I've got a whole boatload of them, and I'll kick it off with some terrible decisions I have made IC for my favorite character.
propergoffick: an elegant little cup full of blood (vampire tea)
So! As we wind our merry way toward 2019, what's everyone bringing to their table or their tablet or their tireless writing engine next year?

What do you want to see from the newly announced developers and distributors of V5? What's the content you'd pay good money to see on the Storytellers' Vault?

For that matter, what do you lovely people want this community to do? I haven't run anything like this for years, and I have only a few ideas and poor tag discipline on my side. Monthly "Tell Us About Your..." discussion posts, maybe a play by post game, fic recs, but what else?
propergoffick: an elegant little cup full of blood (vampire tea)
Vampire is a table top role playing game, a live action role playing game, and at least three video games about pretending to be a vampire. And some card games and a board game which involve a bit less pretending.

It exists as two settings/product lines - Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Requiem - which use a lot of the same words and were worked on by a lot of the same people and essentially do the same thing in similar-but-different ways.

It was definitely created in 1991. By the turn of the millennium, things got a bit complicated, intellectual properties changed hands, licencing was involved, at least one attempt at an MMO was made, and most of the actual people involved had moved on in some way or another. The current shape of things is a bit like this:

Vampire: the Masquerade

TTRPG

First, second, third (Revised) and fourth (V20) editions are all licensed by Onyx Path Publishing. Books for second, Revised and V20 are all available via DriveThruRPG (where, just to confuse everyone, they're still under White Wolf's publisher imprint). If the cover has green marble, it's one of these.

Second, Revised and V20 also have a historical setting - Vampire: the Dark Ages, or occasionally Dark Ages Vampire (because Revised just had to be different). Both of these are, again, licensed by Onyx Path Publishing and available via DriveThruRPG (links are attached to the names 'cause it's a tiny bit clearer that way). If the cover has black marble, it's one of these.

Revised edition has another historical setting - Victorian Age Vampire. Yellowing covers with wrought iron bits on them.

There are also two localised settings. Kindred of the East is a compatible sister game for second and Revised edition which details the very different kinds of vampire found across China, Japan and associated territories. Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom is a localisation of Revised edition, which reskins and reinterprets the core clans, storyline and themes of Vampire for games set in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fifth edition (V5) is overseen by White Wolf Entertainment, a division of Paradox Interactive, who currently own the Vampire IP (and the greater World of Darkness IP of which it's part). Digital products are available from the World of Darkness webstore, physical books/dice/screens etcetera are available from Your Friendly Local Gaming Store or direct from distributor Modiphius. Onyx Path Publishing also releases supplementary material for V5, via Kickstarter. If the cover has white marble, it's one of these.

Hopelessly confused? No worries.

  • For V20 (omnibus edition, plot-driven gameplay where your characters happen to be vampires), start here.

  • For V5 (newest edition, character-driven gameplay that's very much about the experience of Being A Vampire), start here.

LARP

Live action rules are the purview of By Night Studios and again, books are available via DriveThruRPG.

Video games

2000's Vampire: the Masquerade - Redemption (available via Steam and GOG) and 2004's Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines (again, via Steam and GOG). Both are published by Activision.

  • Note: Redemption has the capacity to create and run multiplayer environments. How well this works eighteen years after release and several compatibility redesigns later I've no idea.
  • Note: Bloodlines is barely playable without the Unofficial Patch mod by Wesp5. The GOG version comes with the latest Basic version of this mod by default. There's also a Plus option which makes changes to the game, adding subsystems and restoring cut content, some of which was better left cut if you ask me but never mind.

There's also Vampire: the Masquerade: We Eat Blood And All Our Friends Are Dead, one of two storylines included in World of Darkness Preludes. This mobile game with a PC port was intended to set the scene for V5 and establish the game's aesthetic. It's available on Steam.
2020 update: after the baggage surrounding Preludes writer, known asshole and accused rapist Zak Smith became too significant to ignore, Preludes was pulled from sale.

While it's not an official and licensed Vampire product, Dontnod's Vampyr (for PC, XONE and PS4) is a transparently obvious spiritual successor to the Vampire: the Masquerade titles. I'm not saying they went through Activision's bins and nicked off with everything that wouldn't get them sued, but everything from "aggravated damage" to "the Embrace" says this game's wearing its influences on its sleeve.

There's also the Princes of Darkness mod for Crusader Kings II, which is an unlicensed but popular simulator for the continent-spanning War of Princes that defines Vampire's Dark Ages setting. Personally, I can't stand it, but if you're into super-granular grand strategy games it's apparently brilliant.

Other stuff

Onyx Path also has an official Redbubble store, and has produced a card game about Vampire politics called Prince's Gambit.

A legacy board game, Vampire: the Masquerade - Heritage by Nice Game Publishing, was released in 2020.


A narrative board game, Vampire: the Masquerade – Chapters by Flyos Games, funded on Kickstarter in early 2020. Your moderator will be leaping on the late backer train as soon as it reaches the station...


There was a Living Card Game, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle, which Black Chantry Productions are bringing back into print... soon.

And, Caine preserve us, there was Kindred: the Embraced, a short-lived telly series which did the best it could under difficult circumstances.

Vampire: the Requiem

TTRPG

Vampire: the Requiem has had a relatively modest two editions. Both are produced by Onyx Path Publishing, under license, and both are available through DriveThruRPG. Red cover? It's Requiem.

First edition Requiem was based on the "New World of Darkness" core game. It's a toolbox for playing archetypal vampires - the least developer-driven of the Vampire games, and the most open to individual interpretation and creativity. You'll need the New World of Darkness rulebook and the Vampire: the Requiem rulebook to play.

Second edition Requiem introduces more complexity to the mechanics and adds backstory and metaplot, making it more of a traditional "we give you canon" RPG. It's compatible with the Chronicles of Darkness material (the new name for the New World of Darkness) but doesn't need it. Start with the core rulebook here.

LARP

Rules for live-action Requiem are published under the Mind's Eye Theatre imprint. Start here.


The Storytellers' Vault

The Storytellers' Vault is a DriveThruRPG spinoff site, curated by White Wolf Entertainment, for fans to create and sell content. Mostly game supplements, but there's demand for art packs, novels and resources. Sky's the limit, really. Guidelines and resources for Storyteller's Vault creators are here. The house particularly recommends the Style Guides for each of the product lines as well as Bite Me by Rose Bailey, the Vampire line's longest-serving developer.


I bet that's cleared up precisely nothing.
propergoffick: Stylised silver skull with no lower jaw and prominent canines. Vampire noggin! (vtr)
www.storytellersvault.com/product/261142/BITE-ME-How-to-Write-Vampire

Rose Bailey managed and oversaw Vampire: the Requiem's second edition, Vampire: the Masquerade's twentieth anniversary edition, and God, tons of other stuff. She's the longest serving Vampire developer by a good year or so, the one I always forget about because I wasn't paying attention to the development circumstances at the time, and - now that I've read her developer guidelines and the notes she's added five years down the line - she might actually be one of my favourites.

Basically: read this book. Read this book if you have the slightest insecurity about how you run your Vampire game, the slightest inclination toward writing something for the Storyteller's Vault. It is very much a Requiem product, but a lot of the style guidance and the specific cautions against key acts of shittiness can and should apply to Masquerade as well.

Rose's point of view isn't definitive. But it is good to know. After all, if you know exactly what the line was trying to do, you know what it is you're trying to change, and that's always useful. And for me, as a scholar of the line, it's borderline essential.

 
Vampire is a game of personal horror. Personal means grounded stories we can identify with, as I’ve been saying a lot. But horror? Horror is that, when put in those situations that we understand, our characters do very bad things. A lot of the time, this means violence. Vampires rip out people’s throats or beat them ‘til they cry. But it also means manipulation. It means convincing your old best friend to hide that gun for you, even though you know he’s going to get caught.

Vampires exploit people. Viewing the world from their perspective means facing the consequences of that exploitation.

But you know what, maybe they don’t. That gun? Why are you planting it? The cops can’t hurt you, why not keep it in your own backpack? Just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you’re a relentless asshole. Plenty of Darkness to go ‘round this parts. Won’t be easy, but you can choose to be the light. And if you don’t have that chance, if players aren’t offered it, then the game is saying absolutely nothing meaningful or fun. Might as well play Galaga and pretend the enemy ships have crews or something.
propergoffick: an elegant little cup full of blood (vampire tea)
Forget about the pages of rules and the handfuls of dice. Close the book, turn out the lights, and tell me a story about dark desires and relentless hunger. Tell me about a vampire: about her talents and her weaknesses, and you tell me what kind of challenges she faces, what rewards or perils come her way.
-- Vampire: the Masquerade (Revised)
 

Since we're all new here: let's do what used to be not the done thing at all, when I was a lad. Tell me about your characters! Open your hatch and disgorge that nourishing vampire tea.
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