Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game (tabletop RPG) created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing as the first of several Storyteller System games for its World of Darkness setting line.[3][4] It is set in a fictionalized "gothic-punk" version of the modern world where players assume the role of vampires, who are referred to as "Kindred." and deal with their night-to-night struggles against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters, and each other.[5]
Vampire was inspired by role-playing games (RPGs) such as Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and Nightlife, as well as the writings of Joseph Campbell and vampire films such as The Lost Boys.[6][7] Rein-Hagen felt that hunting vampires, as a game premise, would get boring, so he came up with the idea of a game wherein the players played vampires instead of hunting them.[6][7] Rein-Hagen stated that he purposefully did not read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles until "very late" in the development process but admitted she was probably an influence on the vampire films that inspired the game.[6] He wanted to go beyond what Anne Rice had done by creating individual vampires, with a whole secret vampire society and culture.[6][7]
Vampire The Masquerade
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Some of Vampire's central themes of the power of belief developed out of Rein-Hagen's religious upbringing. Inspired by a comic book given to him by White Wolf business partner Stewart Wieck, Rein-Hagen developed the idea that the cursed character of the Biblical Cain was the original vampire. In an "Ask Me Anything" interview on Reddit Rein-Hagen referred to the idea of Cain as the progenitor of all vampires as a "big turning point."[6] He commented further: "I was trying to shy away from religion. After that... I went all in. The game and the world became about religion and belief. My father was a Lutheran minister, and I think that played a huge role in not only Vampire but the whole WoD series. I was always fascinated by what made people believe so strongly when I didn't seem to believe at all. Talking about that theme, the power of belief, fueled the second half of Vampire game design."[6]
Vampire was notably new in many respects. It was conceived as a dark, moody, urban fantasy game with a unique gothic feel that harkened back to TSR's Ravenloft.[8] It would also be the first of a series of linked games sharing the same game world.[8] Its simple cover photo of a rose on green marble set the tone for the game and differentiated it from other games on the market. Its content was also novel, as the game focused on plots, intrigue, and story as opposed to more straightforward dungeon scenarios. While the RPG industry in general had been trending towards a more narrative approach, Vampire was one of the first games of its kind to center on these things.[8]
The vampires were given an extensive list of broad supernatural powers called disciplines, which included superior strength, speed, and toughness, as well as other powers such as mystic senses, mind control, and blood magic. The 13 clans added late in the development process provided a much-needed character class-like system based on vampiric archetypes. This system proved very popular with players.[8]
For the game's mechanical elements, Rein-Hagen turned to Tom Dowd, co-designer of Shadowrun (1989). Vampire's system of "comparative" dice pools drew on the mechanics innovated by Shadowrun, changing only the type of dice rolled from six-sided to ten-sided. Skill values that determined the number of dice rolled had been used in games like Champions, but rather than add the result of the dice in total, Vampire compared the result of the dice with a fixed value to determine the degree of success or failure. Skill levels were relatively low, ranging usually from one to five, and were represented with dots rather than numbers, which was the standard of its contemporaries. Players could easily figure their dice pool and roll against the assigned difficulty rating. This system was a boon for the narrative style of play that emphasized story over mechanics, as it was easy for new players to quickly grasp,[8] but it often provided unexpected results, such as a highly skilled character being more likely to fumble.
In mid-2010, White Wolf switched exclusively to a print-on-demand model via online role playing game store DriveThruRPG, offering the new and classic World of Darkness source books through the DriveThruRPG web site starting with a number of formerly out of print Vampire: The Masquerade books and gradually adding more as they were ready for print. DriveThruRPG and White Wolf indicated that, eventually, all World of Darkness material will be available in this way.[citation needed]
In 2015, Paradox Interactive purchased White Wolf and all of its intellectual properties from CCP Games, and it was announced that White Wolf would remain a subsidiary of Paradox Interactive.[17] A 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade (also known as V5) was then released in early 2018.[18][19][20] Development of the new edition was led by game designer Kenneth Hite, and it was distributed by Modiphius Entertainment.[21][22] After the release of the Anarch sourcebook in November 2018, Paradox Interactive announced it would no longer allow White Wolf to develop the series in-house due to references in the sourcebook to the anti-gay purges in Chechnya and other controversies surrounding White Wolf.[23] In December 2018, Paradox Interactive announced that Modiphius Entertainment would continue the development of the series with final approval by Paradox Interactive.[24][25]
In November 2020, Paradox Interactive announced that Renegade Game Studios would become the publishing partner for the entire World of Darkness brand and that they would release Vampire: The Masquerade products.[2][26] The company also announced it would bring IP development back in-house under the World of Darkness team[27][26] and "placed White Wolf veteran Justin Achilli at the helm of that effort as the World of Darkness Creative Lead."[26] ICv2 reported that it was unclear how this would impact the publishing relationship with Onyx Path Publishing and Modiphius Entertainment.[26]
In 2021, Polygon reported that "since the initial launch of the game, the Core Rulebook and other products have been revised and updated to meet new ethical standards enforced by the team at Paradox."[28] V5 was released on Roll20 in June 2021.[28] In July 2021, Renegade Game Studios released retail "reprinted editions of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Roleplaying Game core rulebook and sourcebooks."[29] The online toolset World of Darkness Nexus, which supports Vampire: The Masquerade and other games in the series, is planned to be released in 2022, with a rules and lore compendium, character creation and management tools, matchmaking, and video chat functionality.[30] Early access to Vampire: The Masquerade Nexus was launched in June 2022; this launch includes bundles of both physical and digital game products.[31][32]
The game uses the cursed, vampiric condition as a backdrop to explore themes of morality, depravity, the human condition (or appreciation of the human condition in its absence), salvation, and personal horror. [citation needed] The gloomy and exaggerated version of the real world that the vampires inhabit, called the "World of Darkness", forms an already bleak canvas against which the stories and struggles of characters are painted. The themes that the game seeks to address include retaining the character's sense of self, humanity, and sanity, as well as simply keeping from being crushed by the grim opposition of mortal and supernatural antagonists and, more poignantly, surviving the politics, treachery, and often violent ambitions of their own kind.
Vampire is based on the Storyteller System. In addition to the general Storyteller rules, it uses a number of specific mechanics aimed towards simulating the vampiric existence. A vampire has a blood pool signifying the amount of human blood or vitae currently in their body; this blood can be spent to power abilities and perform supernatural tricks. These tricks simulate many of those portrayed in film, such as turning into animals or mist, surviving and healing from grievous injuries or having unnatural charisma and powers of hypnotic suggestion.
Close to the central theme of the game is Humanity. Vampires each have Humanity scores, measuring how closely in touch with human nature they are; as Humanity decreases, vampires become more susceptible to the Beast, the feral side of the vampiric soul that is driven entirely by rage, hunger, and hatred of God and humanity. Brutal, immoral actions risk lowering a vampire's Humanity score. If the individual's Humanity drops to zero, the Beast takes over and the vampire is in a state of constant frenzy known as Wassail.
The actions taken during gameplay are expressed using ten-sided dice. The number of dice used correspond to the player's current skill level, often based on two different skills that together represent the player's ability. For example, to land a punch, the character's dexterity and brawl skill are combined. The resulting number is the number of dice rolled to perform the task. It is up to the story teller to set how high a dice roll must be to be considered a success (usually 6 for standard actions).
Characters in this world refer to the supernatural blood in their bodies that sustains them as vitae. Vampires gain vitae by drinking blood. In-game, this accumulation of vitae is called a blood pool.[34] This represents the amount of vitae the player has available to expend to fuel supernatural powers, to heal wounds, or to increase their physical strength, agility, or stamina. Characters can replace lost Vitae by drinking more blood. 152ee80cbc
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