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There is role-playing in general, with a number of subforms, such as tabletop role-playing and live-action role-playing. Larping is roleplaying, but not all role-playing is larping, and VtM is intended for tabletop-use.
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'''''Vampire: The Masquerade''''' is a live action [[role-playing game]] (LARP) 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.<ref name="HG">{{Cite book
'''''Vampire: The Masquerade''''' is a [[role-playing game]] (RP) 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.<ref name="HG">{{Cite book
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Revision as of 11:04, 17 August 2014

Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) cover
DesignersMark Rein·Hagen
PublishersWhite Wolf Publishing
Publication1991 (1st edition)
1992 (2nd edition)
1998 (Revised edition)
2011 (20th Anniversary)
GenresPersonal horror
SystemsStoryteller System

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game (RP) 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.[1] It is an RPG set in a Gothic-Punk, fictionalized version of the modern world, where players assume the roles of vampires (a.k.a. Kindred), and deal with their night-to-night struggles against their own bestial natures, hunters, and each other.[2]

Several associated products were produced based on Vampire: the Masquerade, including dice, collectible card games (Vampire: the Eternal Struggle), video games (Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines & Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption), and numerous novels. In 1996, a short-lived but successful television show loosely based on the game, Kindred: the Embraced, was produced by Aaron Spelling for the Fox Television Network.

In 1992, Vampire: The Masquerade won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1991.[3] The game line was discontinued in 2004 followed by a revision of the setting in Vampire: The Requiem. The game received its 20th Anniversary Edition in 2011 and was officially revived as part of White Wolf Publishing's shift to a print on demand business model,[4] and multiple new Masquerade products have been announced.[5]

Concept

The game uses the cursed and immortal 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. 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.

Game system

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 on film, such as turning into animals or mist, sleeping in the ground or having unnatural charisma and powers of hypnotic suggestion.

Close to the central theme of the game is the Humanity mechanic. Each vampire has a Humanity score, measuring how closely in touch with his human nature the vampire is; as it decreases, the vampire becomes more susceptible to his Beast, the feral side of the vampiric soul that is driven entirely by rage and hunger. 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 corresepond 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 die 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).

Vampires in World of Darkness

A diagram of the genealogy of the Assamites

"Kindred" is the term most vampires in the game use to refer to themselves and their race. Some vampires, namely those of the Sabbat, refer to themselves as "Cainites", (from the Book of Genesis) as the curse that transforms them into vampires is said to have originated from the blood of Caine, which flows in the veins of all vampires and is the source of their strength. The term "Kine" (an archaic term for cattle) is the opposite of this, and refers to humans.

In general, vampiric societies consist of two levels: sects and clans. Characters within the Vampire setting are members of one of the clans or minor bloodlines offered, and usually belong to factions associated with these or that reflect a general ideological stance the characters happen to share. For example, a Brujah may belong to the Camarilla, the Sabbat, or the Anarchs, but very few Tremere would be found among the Sabbat and even more rarely among the Anarchs.

Some clans and most of the minor bloodlines declare themselves independent from any sects. A vampire who rejects all associations with any sect and clan is known as Autarkis. In addition, the Laibon, known as Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom by Western Kindred, are not so much a sect as a cultural group bound together loosely by a powerful spiritual bond to the land and the people of Africa. The Kindred of the East, while sharing some superficial similarity to the western Kindred, are actually an entirely different variety of supernatural being.

The 14 Clans and Known Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade introduces the use of 14 clans (or major bloodlines) in the game:

  • Assamite: A clan of Islamic assassins. Their Discipline of Quietus allows them to move soundlessly and gives them power over the blood of other vampires.
  • Ventrue: A clan of aristocrats and bureaucrats. Most princes come from this clan. Their Disciplines of Dominate and Fortitude allows them to control the minds of mortals and vampires alike and grants them supernatural resilience respectively.
  • Followers of Set: A clan of cultists who worship their Antediluvian progenitor, the Egyptian snake god Set.
  • Malkavian: A clan of lunatics whose madness grants them strange insight. Their Discipline of Dementation allows them to spread their insanity like a plague.
  • Ravnos: A clan of gypsies and charlatans who hail from India. Their Discipline of Chimerstry allows them to alter perceptions to create illusions.
  • Nosferatu: A clan of deformed vampires who often dwell in the shadows of the sewers. Their Discipline of Obfuscate allow them to hide in the shadows.
  • Lasombra: A clan with the power to control shadows. Their Discipline of Obtenebration allows them to command darkness and shadows.
  • Giovanni: A clan of mostly Italian-American gangsters who Embrace within their own human family. Their Disciplines specialize in Necromancy. They were originally a bloodline of Clan Cappadocian.
  • Brujah: A clan of hot-headed malcontents, rebels, rogues and anti-authoritarians who strive for freedom from societal restraints. Their Disciplines of Potence and Presence grants them superhuman strength and supernatural charisma respectively.
  • Toreador: A clan of sensualists and artists. Their Discipline of Celerity gives them superhuman speed.
  • Gangrel: A clan of animalistic vampires highly in-tune with their Beasts. Their Disciplines of Animalism and Protean allow communion with animals and the power of shape-shifting respectively.
  • Baali: A clan of devil-worshipers. Their Discipline of Daimoinon allows them to commune with demons.
  • Tzimisce: A clan of scholars and flesh-shapers. Their Discipline of Vicissitude allows them to reshape the flesh and bone of themselves and other creatures.
  • Tremere: A clan of blood sorcerers. They were originally a bloodline of Clan Tzimisce until their founder, a mage named Tremere, diablerized the Antediluvian of Clan Salubri, Saulot, solidifying the Tremere's status as a clan. Their Discipline of Thaumaturgy allow them to use the power of their blood to cast spells.

Each Clan can trace its origins to one of 13 elder vampires known as an Antediluvian, for they survived God's biblical flood. Each Antediluvian is a “grandchilde” of Caine, who killed Abel and was cursed by God into becoming the first vampire. Through the back story of the game, Antediluvians started a war among themselves, called the Jyhad, and use their clansmen to fight this war for them.

Bloodlines, on the other hand, either cannot trace their lineage to an Antediluvian founder or are too little in number to be considered a major player in the Jyhad. Some Bloodlines are considered to be off-shoots of existing clans. All Bloodlines are treated as exceptionally rare in the game, leaving most of the interactions and story lines centered around the Clans.

Each Clan and Bloodline has a unique set of powers called Disciplines, and their own set of weaknesses, also unique to that particular branch of vampire.

The Different Sects and the Game of Politics

The game offers the players the opportunity to play in a politically structured world, in which Sects (large factions)rule over all of vampire society. The primary sect is the Camarilla. The Camarilla (a.k.a. the Ivory Tower) was the first attempt for control over the entire vampire population. Through their use of the Six Traditions, Camarilla Kindred survive the night, hiding their existence from humans. The secondary sect is the Sabbat. The Sabbat (a.k.a. the Sword of Caine) is the archenemy of the Camarilla, and their goal is rule over humans, which they see as their birthright. The third major sect is the Anarchs, who oppose the rule of the Elders and wish to manage their own lives. Independents are those who take no sides with any of the factions but have their own goals and agendas. Other factions and sub-sects exist in the game (The Black Hand and Inconnu), but the main focus is between the Camarilla, the Sabbat and the Anarchs.

Tie-ins and adaptations

Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, Changeling: The Dreaming, Hunter: The Reckoning, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the East, and Demon: The Fallen are other RPG titles set in the Old World of Darkness.

In August 2004, the now-defunct game set in the original World of Darkness was replaced by Vampire: The Requiem. Although it is an entirely new game, rather than a continuation of the old, it uses many elements of the old game, including certain clans and disciplines.

At the White Wolf Camarilla meeting in October 2009 it was decided to re-support this game system both in the official Camarilla fan club and outside to Table Top players. [1]

20th Anniversary Edition

On March 17, 2011, White Wolf announced the 20th Anniversary Edition, which was published during the Grand Masquerade event in New Orleans on September 15–17, 2011, released to the attendees. Customers not attending The Grand Masquerade were offered a limited time preorder option. The 20th Anniversary Edition contains revisions of rules and is a compendium of most information provided in supplemental material in the game's earlier life.

As of fall 2011 White Wolf and online role playing game store DriveThruRPG.com began offering the new and classic World of Darkness source books in a print on demand format 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 have indicated that eventually all World of Darkness material will be available in this way.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Vasilakos, George (2007). "Vampire: The Masquerade". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 348–351. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  2. ^ Melton, Gordon (1994). The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (1st ed.). Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 852. ISBN 0-8103-2295-1.
  3. ^ "Origins Award Winners (1991)". Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
  4. ^ "At GenCon we announced our partnership with DriveThruRPG in their Now in Print program, offering out-of-print and PDF-exclusive products as physical books through print-on-demand technology". White Wolf Publishing. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
  5. ^ "White Wolf Release Schedule 2011-2012". White Wolf Publishing. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
  6. ^ DriveThruRPG's List of Moonstone Comics with World of Darkness Theme

References

  • Achilli, Justin. Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition. White Wolf Game Studio, 1998. ISBN 1-56504-249-2.
  • Justin Achilli et al., Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom, White Wolf Game Studio, 2003, ISBN 1-58846-239-0
  • Robert Hatch et al., A World of Darkness (Second Edition), White Wolf Game Studio, 1996, ISBN 1-56504-207-7
  • Dean Shomshak & Ari Marmell, Blood Sacrifice: The Thaumatrugy Companion, (White Wolf Game Studio, 2002, ISBN 1-58846-222-6
  • James A. Moore et al., Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, White Wolf Game Studio, 2000, ISBN 1-56504-246-8
  • Justin Achilli et al., Guide to the Sabbat, White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-263-8
  • White Wolf Publishing Children of the Night, White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-244-1
  • Justin Achilli, Clanbook: Cappadocian, White Wolf Game Studio, 1997, ISBN 1-56504-280-8
  • Justin Achilli, Clanbook: Giovanni by White Wolf Game Studio) (1997) ISBN 1-56504-218-2
  • White Wolf Publishing et al., Vampire Storytellers Handbook, White Wolf Game Studio, 2000, ISBN 1-56504-264-6
  • Sven Skoog & Lucien Soulban, Clanbook: Baali, White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-213-1
  • White Wolf Games Studio et al., Vampire Storytellers Companion White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-259-X
  • Andrew Greenberg, Vampire Players Guide, White Wolf Game Studio, 1993, ISBN 1-56504-053-8
  • Lucien Soulban & James Stewart et al., Clanbook: Tzimisce, White Wolf Game Studio, 2001, ISBN 1-58846-202-1
  • Justin Achilli et al., Guide to the Sabbat, White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-263-8
  • Justin Achilli al., Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition, White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2
  • Steven C. Brown & Ken Meyer, The Storytellers Handbook to the Sabbat, White Wolf Game Studio, 1995, ISBN 1-56504-042-2
  • Steven C. Brown & Jeff Starling, A Players Guide to the Sabbat, White Wolf Game Studio, 1995, ISBN 1-56504-042-2
  • http://www.white-wolf.com
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