Vampire: The Masquerade is a
role-playing gameA role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. Created by
Mark Rein·HagenMark Rein·Hagen is a role-playing, card, video and board game designer, best known as the creator of Vampire: The Masquerade and its associated World of Darkness games...
, it was the first of
White Wolf Game Studio'sWhite Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...
World of Darkness"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...
role-playing gameA role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s, based on the Storyteller System and centered around
vampireVampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
s in a modern
gothicThe goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
-
punkPunk ideologies are a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the punk subculture. In its original incarnation, the punk subculture was primarily concerned with concepts such as rebellion, anti-authoritarianism, individualism, free thought and discontent...
world.
The title of the series comes from "The Masquerade", referring to the Camarilla's attempts to hide vampirism from humans and their governments, but is also a
double entendreA double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
referring to vampires' efforts to convince themselves that they are not truly monsters.
In 1992,
Vampire: The Masquerade won the
Origins AwardThe Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for
Best Roleplaying Rules of 1991. The game line was discontinued in 2004 followed by a revision of the setting in
Vampire: The RequiemVampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness...
. 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, and multiple new Masquerade products have been announced.
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 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 SystemThe Storytelling System, formerly Storyteller System, is a role-playing game system created by White Wolf, Inc. in 1991 that premiered in Vampire: The Masquerade, a part of the World of Darkness series.-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 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 natureHuman nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
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 diffrent skills that together represent the player's ability. To land a punch for example the character's dexterity and brawl skill are combined. The resulting number is the number of die rolled to perfom 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
"Kindred" is the term many vampires in this game use to refer to themselves. Some vampires, namely those of the Sabbat, refer to themselves as "Cainites", as (according to the traditional Abrahamic creation myth) the curse that transforms them into vampires originated from the blood of Caine, which flows in the veins of all vampires. The term "kine" (an archaic term for
cattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
) is the opposite of this, and refers to humans.
In general, vampiric societies consist of two levels:
sectIn the role-playing games and books based on the World of Darkness setting, by White Wolf Game Studio, a sect is a large organization of vampires with a leadership, rules and goals, that trascend clan divisions....
s and
clanIn White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games about vampires, a clan is a group of vampires joined by blood relations...
s. 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
BrujahThe Brujah are a clan of vampires in White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness books and role-playing settings. Their name is derived from Bruja, the Spanish word for witch....
may belong to the Camarilla, the Sabbat, or the Anarchs, but very few
TremereThe Tremere are a clan of vampires in the Classic World of Darkness setting.The Tremere backstory is heavily based on Ars Magica, and the original House Tremere appeared as a Hermetic house in that game system. As the World of Darkness progressively diverged from Ars Magica's medieval Europe,...
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 KingdomKindred of the Ebony Kingdom is a source-book, alternative setting, and stand-alone pen-and-paper RPG designed for Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, and other games set in the Old World of Darkness developed by White Wolf Game Studios...
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 EastKindred of the East is a role-playing supplement by White Wolf Game Studio to their Vampire: The Masquerade line. The vanguard of White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" theme , this rich sourcebook is a stand-alone setting, requiring only secondary rules to be fully playable...
, while sharing some superficial similarity to the western Kindred, are actually an entirely different variety of supernatural being.
Clans and bloodlines
Each Vampire belongs to a distinct clan or bloodline. These groupings share distinct characteristics, powers and curses. The
NosferatuThe Nosferatu are a clan of vampires from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages books and role-playing games....
, for example, all share the disciplines of Animalism, Obfuscate and Potence and the curse of disfiguring appearance. A bloodline is a distinct split from the main clans, as the curse of Caine is changed over time, representing new expressions of vampirism. Some bloodlines, such as the Gargoyles, are artificially created through applications of Thaumaturgy. The
CaitiffCaitiff are a group of clanless vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade, a role-playing game by White Wolf, Inc.Lacking patrons or allies, holding no real power as a group, Caitiff are held in contempt by the Camarilla...
are an exception to the rule, as they are considered clanless sharing no disciplines and curse, they are viewed as a disquieting sign of the coming
armageddonIn the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf, Inc., Gehenna is the vampires' prophesied armageddon.Gehenna is the time when the Antediluvians will rise to consume the blood of all the younger vampires and construct a city in which they will rule for one thousand years...
.
Tie-ins and adaptations
- Under the title Mind's Eye Theatre: The Masquerade White Wolf also provides a live action role-playing game
A live action role-playing game is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may...
in the same setting, using their Mind's Eye TheatreMind's Eye Theatre is a live action role-playing game based on the White Wolf World of Darkness universe, sharing a theme and setting originally with the table-top role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade and now with its revision, Vampire: The Requiem...
system.
- Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, published as Jyhad in the first or "Limited" edition and often abbreviated as VTES, V:TES or V:tES, is a multiplayer collectible card game set in the World of Darkness. It is published by White Wolf, Inc....
, a collectible card gamethumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
based on "Vampire", was produced by Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
and later by White Wolf.
- Kindred: The Embraced
Kindred: The Embraced is an American television series produced by John Leekley Productions and Spelling Television. Loosely based on the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, the series premiered on Fox on April 2, 1996, and ran for eight episodes before it was canceled on May 9, 1996. The...
, a televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series based on Vampire, was produced by Aaron SpellingAaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
.
- A video game based upon the Vampire milieu is Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption is a PC role-playing game released on June 7, 2000 by Activision. The game follows the adventures of a French crusader, Christof Romuald, through Prague and Vienna in the Dark Ages and modern-day London and New York City. The game is based on the pen-and-paper...
, developed by Nihilistic Software-History:Nihilistic was founded in March 1998 by Ray Gresko, Robert Huebner, and Steve Tietze. Gresko and Huebner had formerly worked at LucasArts, and Tietze had worked at Rogue Entertainment...
and published in 2000 by ActivisionActivision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
.
- Another game followed in 2004: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, abbreviated as Bloodlines or VTMB, is a computer role-playing game for Windows developed by Troika Games in 2004...
. Developed by Troika GamesTroika Games was a video game developer created by the key people behind the first of the critically acclaimed Fallout series of games. The company was focused on role-playing video games between 1998 and 2005, best known for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire: The Masquerade –...
and published by ActivisionActivision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
, it uses Half-Life 2Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
's Source engineSource is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
.
- A compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, called Music from the Succubus ClubMusic from the Succubus Club is a music CD released as an accompaniment to the White Wolf, Inc. roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade. Its name is derived from the "Succubus Club", a fictional location in the World of Darkness, the setting for the game and others like it.The executive producer...
, was released by Dancing Ferret Discs to serve as a soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for the Vampire RPGA role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
.
- Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
published a series of comic book adaptations of Vampire: The Masquerade which are now hard to find.
- Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
published an adaptation of Vampire: The Masquerade using their popular GURPSThe Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
generic table-top roleplaying system. They followed this book up with a supplement called GURPS: Vampire Companion. Both books were produced for use with the Third Edition of the GURPS rules and are no longer in print. The Steve Jackson company also produced GURPS conversions of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension.
Werewolf: The ApocalypseWerewolf: The Apocalypse is a role-playing game and series of novels from the now defunct World of Darkness line by White Wolf. In the game, players take the role of werewolves known as Garou , as well as other lycanthropes: warriors who are locked in a two-front war against both the spiritual...
,
Mage: The AscensionMage: The Ascension is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic...
,
Wraith: The OblivionWraith: The Oblivion is a role-playing game set in the afterlife of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness. In the game, players take on characters who are recently dead and are now ghosts...
,
Changeling: The DreamingChangeling: The Dreaming was part of White Wolf Game Studio's original "World of Darkness" role playing game line. Player characters are changelings, fae souls reborn into human bodies, a practice begun by the fae to protect themselves as magic vanished from the world...
,
Hunter: The ReckoningHunter: The Reckoning is a role-playing game based in White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness. Compared to the other game in the franchise, Hunter does not explore the secret society of supernatural creatures founded over centuries, preferring to throw the player in a world of danger and mysteries...
,
Mummy: The ResurrectionMummy: The Resurrection is a role-playing game released by White Wolf Game Studios, where the players assume the role of resurrected mummies living in the modern world.-Setting:...
,
Kindred of the EastKindred of the East is a role-playing supplement by White Wolf Game Studio to their Vampire: The Masquerade line. The vanguard of White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" theme , this rich sourcebook is a stand-alone setting, requiring only secondary rules to be fully playable...
and
Demon: The FallenDemon: The Fallen is a role-playing game and a fictional setting from the World of Darkness line by White Wolf Game Studio. The player characters in the game are fallen angels, who were cast out of paradise after a thousand year war with God.- History :...
are other
RPGA role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
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 RequiemVampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness...
. 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
CamarillaCamarilla may refer to:*Camarilla, an unofficial group of courtiers or favorites surrounding and influencing a king or ruler, specifically the two such groups prominent in German history....
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.
http://www.white-wolf.com
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 games earlier life.
See also
- Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, published as Jyhad in the first or "Limited" edition and often abbreviated as VTES, V:TES or V:tES, is a multiplayer collectible card game set in the World of Darkness. It is published by White Wolf, Inc....
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption
External links
Chronicles