Vampire: The Masquerade
Second Edition

Review


Title: Vampire: The Masquerade second edition
Company: White Wolf Studios
Category: RPG System
Reviewer: Ben Strother

A Storytelling Game of Personal Horror...That is the self description that graces the back cover of this tome and it sums up Vampire: The Masquerade very well. In my decade of gaming I have never played a game that was so innovative and completely captivating. The subtle undercurrents and rich atmosphere of the Gothic-Punk setting are further enhanced by the breaking of stereotypes, an indicator of free-thinking game design. The portrayal of women and ethic groups in positions of power as NPCs is evidence of that. This game enjoys a wide appeal because of the effort made by White Wolf and its designers to fairly present their work without the bias found in many RPGs.

The premise for character generation is "you've been turned into a vampire. While you explore the intricacies of vampiric society, you struggle to hold onto your humanity." From there the emphasis is not placed on stats and combat, but on role-playing and storytelling. Numbers are largely absent from the character sheet; being replaced by more abstract dots. The character is determined by player point assignments, with almost no randomness. To further flesh-out your vampire, specialties are given to all traits of four dots and above (normal traits range from 1-5 dots). Equipment and combat are sparsely dealt with and can be virtually ignored in character design, if desired. Many times your character will be facing foes too powerful to face in direct conflict and must resort to diplomacy, tactics, duplicity, and heavy cooperation of many allies.

The Kindred (as vampires call themselves) have a rich and detailed history leading back to their legendary progenitor, Caine, who was Damned (turned into a vampire) for slaying his brother Abel. This is built on all through the book, including a detailed accounting of Kindred society in the introduction. Atmosphere is further developed by quotes at the beginning of most headings. The quotes come from a varied amount of sources ranging from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, to modern rock bands like Metallica. The artwork tops off this attention to atmosphere by providing the dark imagery needed for the life-style of the vampire. The monsters of the game are not the two dimensional villains commonly portrayed in the past, but deep and sophisticated individuals. This style leans heavily on the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice and the films like The Lost Boys and Near Dark. Over a period of time Vampire: The Masquerade becomes more interesting as layer after layer of subtitles is revealed.

The game vampire is not what you would call "technical" most of the book revolves around storytelling, plot development and character histories out of the 272 pages, game mechanics takes up maybe 20 of them. While this will not please everyone, it suits my gaming group very well. The Storyteller is left to arrange and fill to their own taste the level of rules and detail. A common attitude in the text is that rules are made to be broken and that imagination is supreme. This means that if you feel you can come up with something better than you are being invited to use it. Although some of this makes it difficult for new people in the campaign to grasp the basic rules of play, the lack of hard edged rules creates a totally free-flowing style that I particularly enjoy.

As if all this wasn't enough, live role-playing is an additional option for Vampire. With some basic ground rules (common sense) and a little preparation time on the Storyteller's part, you can enjoy an entirely different level of play. This adds to the system by making you even more involved in the campaign, soon making it very easy to slip into character. All of this builds a complete role playing experience.

For my money, I'd say that White Wolf and their Storyteller games are well worth buying (or at least playing with someone else who did) and will offer you a different view of the word monster. Vampire: The Masquerade is a definite A-/B+ on the grading scale. If all the great material that is inside of this book was presented in an easier-to-access-information format instead of having important information spread throughout the text, then this would be the best game I've ever played or run.

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