Vampire The Masquerade 5th Edition Core Book
Anastacia Iacono
Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game in the World of Darkness series, in which players take the roles of vampires. It was originally released by White Wolf Publishing in 1991, and with new editions released in 1992 (second edition), 1998 (Revised Edition), 2011 (20th Anniversary Edition), and 2018 (fifth edition),[1] each of which updated the game rules.[2] These have been supported with supplementary game books, expanding the game mechanics and setting.[2][3]
The supplements include the By Night series, each covering a city as portrayed in the setting; the Clanbook series, covering the vampire clans; guides to the game; sourcebooks for sects and factions; and various other books.[3] The supplements often introduce gradual change to the game's setting, advancing the overarching narrative.[2] Adventure modules have been released, but only rarely, as White Wolf Publishing has preferred to let storytellers[a] construct their own adventures, an uncommon choice in tabletop role-playing games that they could afford due to the World of Darkness series' success and longevity.[7] In the mid-1990s, new World of Darkness books were often top sellers,[2] and by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade was the second best selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons.[8]
Originally released in 1991, Vampire: The Masquerade became one of the few challengers to the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons during the 1990s. The game spun off into an entire World of Darkness with game lines featuring werewolves, wizards, ghosts and more. A new edition aimed at revitalizing the setting released in 2018.
Players must also fight against losing their characters losing Humanity for doing the terrible things vampires need to do to survive. Striking a balance between these two sides of the vampire coin is key to many stories in the game. Complicating matters is the condition of Frenzy, where vampires lose control from hunger or fear and tear apart their carefully assembled lives sometimes literally
Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition updates the setting to the modern nights. It reshuffles clan alliances, changes some clans to better fit their original concepts and strives to make the game a better entry point for new players. Many elder vampires have disappeared to answer a mysterious Beckoning, leaving control of many cities up in the air for the first time in decades.
This book goes deeper into the Clans commonly allied with the Camarilla: the Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador, Nosferatu and Malkavian. It also details the Banu Hakim, a former clan of assassins that now serves as the enforcers of the Camarilla. There are additional game mechanics for tables who want to ally with hidden power.
The Anarch cause struggles against those who claim to rule. The Elders are disappearing so why should vampires hold to tradition? These vampires are ready to explore new ideas on everything like leadership and morality.
This book details the alliance vampires call Second Inquisition between government agencies and Vatican secret socities ready to burn any vampires that step out from behind The Masquerade. This book is built as a book of enemies but it includes several excellent tools and techniques vampires can use in their struggles. Most people expect vampire hunters to use stakes and crosses, but what about gentification?
Sabbat illuminates the most radically changed sect in the most recent edition of the game. Once a dark mirror to the Camarilla, these vampires have given up politics with a renewed religious fervor to terrorize human and mortal alike until Caine returns. As such, they are framed as antagonists in the book, though an enterprising Storyteller might yet tell the tale of a Sabbat pack tonight.
There are more sourcebooks and accessories available such as specialty dice that speed up game play and PDF sourcebooks that include deeper setting info and additional stories but this is a good start. Vampire also thrives in the realm of actual play. New York By Night currently tells the tale of two different groups of vampires, one Camarilla and one Anarch in the City That Never Sleeps.
You are a vampire, struggling for survival, supremacy, and your own fading humanity -afraid of what you are capable of, and fearful of the inhuman conspiracies that surround you. As a vampire, you suffer the pangs of the Hunger, the relentless and terrible thirst for human blood. If you refuse to deal with it, it will overcome your mind and drive you to terrible acts to slake it. You walk this razor's edge every night. This is the original and ultimate roleplaying game of personal and political horror.
Fifth Edition is a return to Vampire's original vision, moving boldly into the 21st century. While the rules have been redesigned, this new edition honors the deep story of the original, advancing the metaplot from where it left off and detailing exactly what has happened in the world of the Kindred up until tonight.
When I first heard of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition I was admittedly indifferent. The 20th Anniversary Edition provided everything a veteran Masquerade player like myself would want and I had a preferred toolkit vampire rpg in Requiem already.
After its release I read of controversies over certain content and it put me even more on the fence. But as time went on the problematic elements seemed purged and things got a little cleaned-up, so after playing Bloodlines I thought to myself that I should at least check it out. I was surprised with what I found, arguably the best expression of Vampire: The Masquerade yet.
The story of the Kindred begins with Caine and Abel. Their mythology tells that after killing his brother, Caine was cast into darkness in the land of Nod, where a series of angels offered him redemption. As he rejected each, they cursed him with one of the archetypal vampiric curses.
Over time the Kindred learned to manipulate mortals, but also of the dangers they could pose. After the damage caused by the Inquisition, they vanished into the shadows, realizing it was safer to rule while hidden.
Who your character was in life will affect your choice of Clan. Of the 13 total, only 7 are described in the core rules, the core of the Camarilla and the Anarchs. Others are being introduced in supplements. Clan determines your starting Disciplines, how the Blood Curse manifests specifically in you, and your general role in Kindred society.
Here we come to a few aspects of character creation new to this edition, which I think are brilliant. First is Loresheets. These are Advantages you spend points on which tie your character to events or elements of the setting. Remember I mentioned disliking PCs not being involved in the metaplot/history in other games? This is how you do it well. Loresheets make you allies of important Kindred, members of secret societies, veterans of the Sect Wars between the Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarchs, or tell what happened to you during pivotal events of Kindred history. I loved these ideas when I saw them in Weapons of the Gods and I love them here.
Coteries also get a creation process, which helps codify the decisions made earlier. They grant certain benefits based on the role the Coterie takes in Kindred society and is an excellent addition to the game.
Results derived from total successes or the die pool total allow the players to determine degree of success, achieving success but at cost, conflicts between characters, and even success without rolling (if the pool is high enough).
A lengthy segment on the use of the Second Inquisition in a Chronicle follows the chapter which also unveils more detail about Kindred society and how it has learned to cope with the immensity of this new threat. Sufficient statistics are given for antagonists or side-players in a game.
As a vampire you suffer the pangs of the Hunger, the relentless and terrible thirst for human blood.
If you refuse to deal with it, it will overcome your mind and drive you to terrible acts to slake it.
You walk this razor's edge every night. Dark designs, bitter enemies, and strange allies await you in this World of Darkness.
The classic that changed roleplaying games forever returns!
This fifth edition features a streamlined and modern rules design, beautiful new full-color art, and a rich story experience for players.
Powered by the innovative Hunger cycle, the game also includes rules for creating system supported character coteries, Loresheets to directly involve players with their favorite parts of the setting and The Memoriam, a new way to bring the character's detailed backgrounds and expand on them in-session.
My experience with the vampire saga is limited to only two sessions as a player. Nevertheless I want to try to run a campaign as a DM. But I don't know which version would be a better fit for my dming style. I prefer narrative systems and tend to improvise a lot and my players are allergic to rule-heavy systems.
Please consider the list above as a soft guideline of what kind of information I'm looking for. I understand that the list isn't exhaustive or maybe isn't a good way to differentiate one system from a another. Feel free to respond in the way that you think fits the main question better (The bold one).
V5 also adds a bit of complexity to rolls with "hunger dice," but this is a mechanic that replaces bookkeeping associated with tracking blood points in the other two systems. (All three still have health and willpower scores that will fluctuate during the session.)
All three games represent characters as a combination of attribute scores, skills, disciplines (specialized vampiric powers), and merits (sort of a "miscellaneous" category that includes reputation, unusual personal qualities, unique fighting styles, useful minions, &c).
VTR2 also has slightly deeper non-discipline-based customization options for combat characters, in the form of Combat Style merits drawn from Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition (the relevant excerpts are distributed as a free PDF), Hurt Locker, or Secrets of the Covenants.
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