Any Vampire: The Masquerade fans here?

[C.T. Phipps]

It's been a crazy week.

White Wolf Entertainment gets folded into Paradox Interactive, effectively dissolving it.

The Chechen government calling out the company and threatening to sue it for their portrayal in a game book.

OH and a fifth edition of Chicago by Night is in its last week of Kickstarting.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/chicago-by-night-for-vampire-the-masquerade-5th-ed/description

Meaning, the world's greatest game supplement is getting updated something like 27 years later.

I mean, 5E has been plagued with a lot of controversy but they have some real potential here, especially if Onyx Path Publishing is taking over again.

I loved Beckett's Jyhad Diary.

[Guy Kilmore]

You might find that this topic will get better traction in entertainment. 

[C.T. Phipps]

IT'S NOT ENTERTAINMENT, ITS A LIFESTYLE!

*sips from goblet*

My dark princess compels me to acknowledge no fault!

 

[.H.]

I used to be a fan.  I still have my old 3rd edition books with some 2nd edition stuff mixed in.  I had the Vampire books, another friend had the Werewolf ones, another the Mage books back when we were in high school.  Although, over time, I got some of those books too.  I also have a bunch of Wraith: the Oblivion books.

I don't know what any of this "new" stuff is now though.  The old lore was pretty neat, being so obscure, arcane and esoteric.  I think they dropped most of that when they "rebranded" it as Requiem, although I only gave it a passing glance at that point.  It isn't as if I am apt to play any of it any more, but I still like having the old books (much to my wife's objection to how much space they all take up).

[DanteGabriel]

I loved Vampire back in the day, lost interest when they rebooted the WoD with Requiem. Is the in-game fiction still that Baba Yaga runs Russia through a mid-level KGB guy she elevated? Would explain a lot if Putin is Baba Yaga's proxy.

[C.T. Phipps]

6 hours ago, .H. said:

I used to be a fan.  I still have my old 3rd edition books with some 2nd edition stuff mixed in.  I had the Vampire books, another friend had the Werewolf ones, another the Mage books back when we were in high school.  Although, over time, I got some of those books too.  I also have a bunch of Wraith: the Oblivion books.

I don't know what any of this "new" stuff is now though.  The old lore was pretty neat, being so obscure, arcane and esoteric.  I think they dropped most of that when they "rebranded" it as Requiem, although I only gave it a passing glance at that point.  It isn't as if I am apt to play any of it any more, but I still like having the old books (much to my wife's objection to how much space they all take up).

Oh. you missed something.

It's no longer Requiem. Requiem was retired and it's back to the original World of Darkness.

Chicago by Night 5E is a sequel to 1st and 2nd edition Chicago by Night.

Theo Bell, Lucita, Dracula, Modius, the whole bunch.

They "unbooted" the reboot.

[C.T. Phipps]

5 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

I loved Vampire back in the day, lost interest when they rebooted the WoD with Requiem. Is the in-game fiction still that Baba Yaga runs Russia through a mid-level KGB guy she elevated? Would explain a lot if Putin is Baba Yaga's proxy.

Alas, Baba Yaga met the Final Death in 2004.

A bunch of Brujah communists are now in charge of Putin.

Which makes no sense as Putin is obviously a Ventrue with a feeding restriction of dissenting freedom lovers.

[DanteGabriel]

8 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Alas, Baba Yaga met the Final Death in 2004.

A bunch of Brujah communists are now in charge of Putin.

Which makes no sense as Putin is obviously a Ventrue with a feeding restriction of dissenting freedom lovers.

They put that shit back on the Brujah? Shameless.

Justice for Carthage!

(I can kinda see why WW's bosses decided to take them out of interpreting recent history and current events through the Vampire filter)

But your previous post that they brought it back to the 2nd edition lore is pretty interesting. I suppose I'll have to go look up what happened to the Anarch Free State.

[C.T. Phipps]

43 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

They put that shit back on the Brujah? Shameless.

Justice for Carthage!

(I can kinda see why WW's bosses decided to take them out of interpreting recent history and current events through the Vampire filter)

But your previous post that they brought it back to the 2nd edition lore is pretty interesting. I suppose I'll have to go look up what happened to the Anarch Free State.

It goes like this:

* 1st Edition
* Second Edition
* Revised (Now 3rd Edition)

The release of a 20th anniversary Vampire: The Masquerade one-shot rulebook which sold so much that it was expanded to a whole gameline alongside Requiem. It also inspired Paradox Interactive to buy White Wolf Entertainment and then say, "Okay, let's just do Masquerade again." That became 4th Edition and it was Metaplot free until a book called Beckett's Jyhad Diary that retconned away Gehenna, the Kuei-Jin invasion of the Anarch Free States (except a small group in Bloodlines), canonized Bloodlines, and laid the groundwork for 5th Edition.

5th Edition came out this year.

It's changes being summarized as:

1. An alliance of intelligence agencies and the Society of Leopold have formed "The Second Inquisition" (they call themselves Project: Daylight) and have begun a massive purge of vampires globally, eliminating all the vampires of London and even somehow taking out the Tremere Council of Seven (possibly with help) before realizing just how HUGE a job it is. The Masquerade is now much more important since like a Grand Theft Auto game, the more you violate it, the more likely SEAL Team 6 will kill you.
2. The Methuselahs of every clan are being summoned to the Middle East--probably by the Antediluvians. This frees up a lot of power in the various groups. A small number resist but are greatly weakened in the process.
3. The Sabbat has collapsed as a huge chunk of them go to fight in "Gehenna" and are killed there
4. The Anarchs break away formally with the Brujah and Gangrel with the help of the Followers of Set as the Camarilla tries to dissuade the hunters by sending them after the Anarchs. The Anarchs control Berlin, Cuba, Australia, California, and Las Vegas now. Lots of South American and Central American cities are contested.
5. The Assamites join the Camarilla because the Tremere are greatly weakened and it amuses them to do so.
6. The Lasombra who didn't go to the Middle East are debating joining the Camarilla. They will have whether they do detailed in Chicago by Night.

So it's back to Anarchs vs. Cammies and city-based chronicles until the new Sabbat return from the Middle East crazier and more occult-obsessed than ever (and having been purged of all the weakest members).

[DanteGabriel]

1 hour ago, C.T. Phipps said:

It goes like this:

* 1st Edition
* Second Edition
* Revised (Now 3rd Edition)

The release of a 20th anniversary Vampire: The Masquerade one-shot rulebook which sold so much that it was expanded to a whole gameline alongside Requiem. It also inspired Paradox Interactive to buy White Wolf Entertainment and then say, "Okay, let's just do Masquerade again." That became 4th Edition and it was Metaplot free until a book called Beckett's Jyhad Diary that retconned away Gehenna, the Kuei-Jin invasion of the Anarch Free States (except a small group in Bloodlines), canonized Bloodlines, and laid the groundwork for 5th Edition.

5th Edition came out this year.

It's changes being summarized as:

1. An alliance of intelligence agencies and the Society of Leopold have formed "The Second Inquisition" (they call themselves Project: Daylight) and have begun a massive purge of vampires globally, eliminating all the vampires of London and even somehow taking out the Tremere Council of Seven (possibly with help) before realizing just how HUGE a job it is. The Masquerade is now much more important since like a Grand Theft Auto game, the more you violate it, the more likely SEAL Team 6 will kill you.
2. The Methuselahs of every clan are being summoned to the Middle East--probably by the Antediluvians. This frees up a lot of power in the various groups. A small number resist but are greatly weakened in the process.
3. The Sabbat has collapsed as a huge chunk of them go to fight in "Gehenna" and are killed there
4. The Anarchs break away formally with the Brujah and Gangrel with the help of the Followers of Set as the Camarilla tries to dissuade the hunters by sending them after the Anarchs. The Anarchs control Berlin, Cuba, Australia, California, and Las Vegas now. Lots of South American and Central American cities are contested.
5. The Assamites join the Camarilla because the Tremere are greatly weakened and it amuses them to do so.
6. The Lasombra who didn't go to the Middle East are debating joining the Camarilla. They will have whether they do detailed in Chicago by Night.

So it's back to Anarchs vs. Cammies and city-based chronicles until the new Sabbat return from the Middle East crazier and more occult-obsessed than ever (and having been purged of all the weakest members).

Wow, thanks for the authoritative writeup. I love the metaplot stuff in general so this is like catnip for me. This may send me down a rabbit hole of getting sourcebooks and catching up.

Are the other lines, like Mage and Werewolf, getting carried along in these reset-reboots?

[Werthead]

It's also pretty certain at this point that Bloodlines is either getting a remake or a sequel from Paradox's video game division.

[C.T. Phipps]

10 minutes ago, Werthead said:

It's also pretty certain at this point that Bloodlines is either getting a remake or a sequel from Paradox's video game division.

They're kind of an amazingly easy group of people to talk to.

I e-mailed them and ended up talking with their CEO who is perhaps freerer with info than he should be.

More or less it amounted to the fact they really bought V:TM and the WOD because they wanted to make/license to make as many World of Darkness games as they could. The tabletop game is more like a story bible to them now.

They just want to ease into it and get their engine, storytelling teams down first as well as gauge interest.

Especially after the failure of the MMO.

[C.T. Phipps]

2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Wow, thanks for the authoritative writeup. I love the metaplot stuff in general so this is like catnip for me. This may send me down a rabbit hole of getting sourcebooks and catching up.

Are the other lines, like Mage and Werewolf, getting carried along in these reset-reboots?

The TV tropes page just got put up if you like that sort of thing. It has a lot more info.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/VampireTheMasqueradeFifthEdition

And sadly, Werewolf5E has been delayed due to being retooled. They were going to do a Second Imperium with an EVIL faction of Garou wanting to exterminate 90% of humanity like Ra's Al Ghul, causing a split in the species.

Which I thought would have been awesome.

Basically, we're more likely to see what it's current state is after the Cyanide game.

[C.T. Phipps]

In any case, for those who might feel inclined to back the Kickstarter, Chicago by Night 5E is really awesome.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/chicago-by-night-for-vampire-the-masquerade-5th-ed/description

* The Lasombra clan getting detailed.
* Their new discipline of Oblivion.
* 40 NPCs  for Chicago and its surrounding areas
* A adventure hook generator with other forty story seeds.
* The new system for detailing NPCs that include current plots and hooks and roleplaying methods.
* A full-chronicle detailing whether the PCs will help the Lasombra join the Camarilla or prevent it from happening.
* A coterie guide
* An actual write-up of Chicago by Chicago natives
* New Loresheets

That's in addition to the two stretch goals which have been met but could always use more padding.

* THE CHICAGO FOLIO - A supplement of in-universe documents, letters, e-mails, and transcripts of the various characters interacting. Plus a whole new collection of NPCs and plot hooks.

* LET THE STREETS RUN RED - Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Chicago's suburbs, and rural Illinois get detailed in 3 (at present) new chronicles showing the rest of the Rust Belt and how it relates to the Windy City.

Fans had the chance to insert their own NPCs into canon (within reason), be used as art models, and determine the fate of certain NPCs.

I bought Prince Maxwell, 3 NPCs (I've okayed it that I can use two to bring back Allicia and Evelyn from FORGED IN STEEL), and a piece of art I'm going to use for myself as an Anarch.

[The BlackBear]

Loved the PC Game (modded to hell of course,) so any movement on that end I'm very interested in.

[C.T. Phipps]

1 hour ago, The BlackBear said:

Loved the PC Game (modded to hell of course,) so any movement on that end I'm very interested in.

The World of Darkness documentary (only available on Fandango and Amazon UK Prime as far as I can tell) shows a lot of screen shots from the game. Basically, they got bogged down in minutia and the ambition of the project.

Like "customizable jackets over finishing the damn game" minutia.

[Jen'ari]

I played the video game, I liked it, but beyond that I don’t know much about it.

[.H.]

On 11/21/2018 at 2:27 PM, C.T. Phipps said:

Oh. you missed something.

It's no longer Requiem. Requiem was retired and it's back to the original World of Darkness.

Chicago by Night 5E is a sequel to 1st and 2nd edition Chicago by Night.

Theo Bell, Lucita, Dracula, Modius, the whole bunch.

They "unbooted" the reboot.

Well, that's neat.  But like I said, I don't actually have time to play and too many other hobbies now to really want to (not to mention, no actual people to play with).

I mean, the lore does interest me somewhat, but I'm not apt to be buying books any more.  Maybe if I see them as ebooks in a humble-bundle, or something, for relatively low cost, I'd be apt to get them just for the "fun" of reading them.

[C.T. Phipps]

https://www.dualshockers.com/werewolf-the-apocalypse-earthblood-publisher-release-window/

Werewolf: The Apocalypse's video game is set for 2020.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Vampire: The Masquerade is something I've never had much involvement in, but like the idea of. I tried the video game, but much as I like the concept, I never really got into the game itself.  The idea of different vampire factions, all with different goals and competing with each other was one of the inspirations for the 'world' my novel Resurrection Men is set in. I love the idea of different characters and creatures feuding for centuries, with allegiances shifting from one era to another.  A faction linked with ancient Rome could be dominant for a few hundred years only to suffer when Rome falls.

I was really looking forward to the World of Darkness MMORPG. Started by CCP, the studio behind EVE Online, it promised to be really good. Unfortunately the studio mishandled its development, and nothing really materialised.  CCP has really struggled with all of its games save for EVE, and even it was a risky venture that's seen its best days pass.