Reviewing The Vampire: The Masquerade Rule Books: Part 1 — Fifth Edition
Introduction
If you stumbled onto this blog thinking that this is a review about some weird mod for ‘Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines’ (VtMB), then I am afraid you will be a tad disappointed. Yes, V5 is connected (sort of) to VtMB but not in that way. You can find a blog I wrote for VtMB below.
VtMB is based on the tabletop live-action role-playing (LARP) game ‘Vampire: The Masquerade’ (VtM). It was created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing as the first of several games for its World of Darkness (WoD) setting. Other WoD stories include ‘Mage: The Ascension’ and ‘Werewolf: The Apocalypse’. Each of these games has large books for players to learn the rules, mechanic, setting and character creation.
There are many variations of VtM, such as ‘Victorian Age: Vampire’ and ‘Vampire: The Dark Ages’, but this blog will focus on ‘Vampire: The Masquerade-5th Edition’ (V5), which is the most recent release at the time of typing.
In this blog, I will explore the snippets of the lore, mechanics, rules etc., as well as the overall presentation of the book, doing my best to keep things as simple as possible for those who have next to no knowledge of the game.
Note: VtM is a mature game for adults. By mature, I mean that can, and often explores drugs, murder etc. Some of the imagery found in the blog may be considered disturbing. Consider this your warning folks!
The Blog Proper
Presentation
The first thing one may notice when obtaining a physical copy is how heavy it is. It is a hardback book, filled with just over 400 nice thick glossy pages, filled with coloured, fonts and tables of everything you need to know to play V5 for your first time. The covers are thin but hard, constructed to easily open up on any page on any hard surface. That may seem like a redundant thing to say, but not all hard books will stay open on the page you leave it. Gravity likes to take over sometimes.
On the immediate inside of the back and front covers, you are presented 50 victims (25 per inside cover). The book itself never explains who and what these are for, but I am 90% certain these are meant to be inspirations for you if you are struggling to come up with your vampire (or Kindred, which is the VtM word for it). The 10% uncertainty comes from the inclusion of ‘resonance’, which is the emotion their blood gives off when they are drained, which grants a boost to certain vampiric disciplines, or powers. To my knowledge, this is a V5 only mechanic, and are further explained in the book proper.
As well as the rules, mechanics etc., V5 also includes various fake letters and messages that are scattered throughout the book (mostly in the first half of the book) that provide a different outlook on a clan or sect (faction), each one brilliantly written that add to the general world-building. These sort of documents do a wonderful job of exciting a newer player into VtM who may be raring to go and explore the world as their new Kindred.
I speak from experience here.
It’s not just letters too, but many Kindreds now use mobile/cell phones (just like the humans/Kine do), so some of these lore building messages are text messages and emails.
The photorealism doesn’t stop there. Whereas previous version blends between gorgeous illustrations (taken straight from the revised clan books) and photos (from the ‘Mind’s Eye Theatre’ version), V5 is filled with new artwork and photos, depicting the dark gothic-punk inspirations/settings, vampiric clans and potential enemies, some of which I will explore later. Below are a couple of examples of artwork I like.
Whilst many I’ve spoken to don’t like the presentation, I personally love the variety of photos, even the ones that made me feel a tad uncomfortable (such as page 200). They are off-putting in nature, for you are murderous vampires, who must feed on blood to survive, and I admire the WoD and White Wolf Publishing teams for wanting to engage the conversation and notion that there are evil scumbags within our society, blending into the shadows as ‘normal’ people.
At the back of the book, you will find your character sheet, and a special code to get a free downloadable PDF version of the rulebook, should you wish to obtain those legally, as I know not everyone would be keen on having a physical book with them in every session.
Mechanics
In the world of VtM, there are a variety of vampire clans you can play as, each one essentially a different breed with their own powers. There are (currently) 13 main clans, with a whole host of minor, smaller ones called ‘Bloodlines’. In V5, 9 of these clans are playable.
The clans are:
- Brujah, who have a reputation as fierce warriors; their affinity for war is carried in their blood, causing them to frenzy (lose control basically) more frequently.
- Gangrel are similar to the Brujah but, their ferocity stems from their animalistic instinct and rage, rather than anarchic anger, with one of their powers being able to turn into a wolf, bats, or whatever animal species the player chooses (within reason).
- Toreador, whose clan has long been associated with art and socializing, which is incorporated into their weakness. They are the weakest fighters but the best talkers.
- Tremere are essentially blood mages. Lore wise, they are not liked very much by others, as they horde their secrets very tightly
- Ventrue are a class associated with nobility, aristocracy, company CEOs, wealthy individuals, politicians. They ruled as mortals, and rule as immortals and have powers that dictate such motives.
- Malkavian vampires, in the most stereotypical sense, are referred to as lunatics, for they are either a little bit strange or bat-shit crazy. They can be good shamans too, with the abilities to see into the future.
- Nosferatu are horribly disfigured and have a frightening appearance, thus looking like monsters. This means that they can only use sewers to traverse and can’t be seen by humans for reasons I will cover shortly. Playing as a Nosferatu means you will be playing stealthily throughout…if you choose to play by the rules that is…
- Caitiff are essentially Kindred mongrels. They don’t belong to one specific clan and thus can purchase any combination of disciplines, but for one additional experience point. They also suffer a social stigma from not being a part of an accepted clan and have handicapped social checks against other Kindred.
When the V5 expansion, ‘Chicago By Night’ is released, players will have the opportunity to play as one of my favourite clans, the Lasombra, who have recently joined the Camarilla (previously led the Sabbat). The Lasombra are social Darwinists who can manipulate shadows and darkness to their advantage. They have no reflection, and cannot be picked up on various pieces of technology either.
Vampires are one of 16 generations, each one further away from Caine (some would say Lilith), who is said to be the original vampire. The lower their generation, the more powerful that kindred is. Generation 14–16 are known as Thin-Bloods, who are playable for the first time in VtM. Their blood is incredibly dilute, and cannot embrace mortals. They cannot learn Disciplines the same way other Kindred can, but do possess ‘Thin-Blood Alchemy’, which I won’t go into. They do have some perks, but I won’t go into those now. You’ll have to read the book to find out…
Each clan has a very informative description of the ethos their respective clan as well as archetypes for the player to use as an inspiration for their own character. Each clan is written brilliantly, with each of their disciplines and bane (a clans’ weakness) explained how said clan would typically use them (as some clans share disciplines). All of the writing as a whole is fantastic and easy to comprehend.
Once you’ve decided on the clan, the immediate chapter sets the rules and foundations to enjoy V5 with other players. These include (but not limited to):
- How combat works
- How to spend experience points (on a 13th generation vampire)
- Predator types, which is the preferred way your Kindred can perform ‘The Kiss’ as it’s called (eg: ‘Baggers’ would prefer drink from blood bags, whilst a ‘Sandman’ will feed on sleeping victims). This feature is new to V5.
- The types of coterie you and the other players may want to form.
Many actions are determined by the result of rolled 10-sided dice (d10). Successes and failures operate differently to other versions of VtM, where players would have to have so many successes above a certain score to have it a success. For example, if you rolled 5 die with the scores of 4, 3, 5, 6, 8 for a task with a difficulty of 6, you would have 2 successes. 2 10s are a critical success, which equates to additional success. Using the above example, if 4, 3 were two tens, you would have 4 successes. Getting a critical success means you excel at a task, whilst 1 is seriously bad luck if you role a lot of them.
V5 simplifies this process greatly, using the following metric if you decide to use your own d10s:
- 1–5=Failure
- 6–9=Sucess
- A pair of 10s=4 successes.
If you are not happy with a roll, you can spend a point of Willpower, to roll up to three, not including Hunger die, which I will now explain.
V5 has replaced the regular ‘Blood Point’ system (which is essentially your mana/magic bar in VtM) with the ‘Hunger’ system. Within each vampire is a Beast that wants to break free and feed on everything around them. Hunger 0 is sated and satisfied, whilst 5 is ravenous, on the verge of going into Frenzy, which is when the player momentarily loses control of their character.
When a player rolls, they substitute some of their standard die, for some die of an alternate colour scheme, to represent the hunger.
They have a similar scoring system to standard die, but with a twist. A score of 1 is a called ‘Bestial Failure’, and should the role fail, they must act out their clan ‘Compulsion’ (for example, a Nosferatu must discover a secret and are penalised for not doing so). A critical success with your Hunger die is called a ‘Messy Critical’. You succeed, but with ‘help’ from the beast (for example, you unlocked the door, but tore it off its hinges.).
Some are not a fan of this new hunger system, which I can understand. Once safe disciplines now have a dangerous risk factor to them. I like it for that reason, for it adds to the element of surprise that dice-based games bring.
If you don’t wish to use d10, there are exclusive V5 d10 that have their own symbols and colours for players to use (see left/above, depending on how you’re reading this blog). Both die systems are easier enough to understand, so don’t feel that one system is better than the other.
That being said, unless you wish to have your own made, I would personally avoid the official V5 d10s. There are many reviews and sources that have complained about the poor quality of the die, with people complaining they are chipped upon arrival. You may as well purchase some d10, as they are cheap (and durable!), and allow you to play all previous version of VtM, and over LARPs. The YouTube/Twitch series ‘LA By Night’ are the only sources I have found that regularly use these die.
Lore
In modern times, the 13 clans have aligned themselves to one of three factions. There are some individuals who don’t wish to align with any of them, and the term Autarkis is used to describe such Kindred.
The stories you play in will feature at least two of these sects:
- The Camarilla began as a means as preserving the Masquerade, a veil Kindred pull over the eyes of mortals to make them believe vampires aren’t real. Nowadays, they preserve the power of Elder Vampires through secret societies to control businesses and politicians. It is the closest thing Kindred have to a government, and this one is more akin to The United Nations. A domain ruled the Camarilla is controlled by a Prince.
- The Anarchs have revolted against the Camarilla since the sect has existed. Their numbers multiply as more and more Kindred fail to see why they should have to listen to their sires/Elders. It is not as stroppy as I’ve made it sound, as there have been many instances of one group of people wanting to overthrow the monarchy. A domain ruled by The Anarchs is controlled by a Baron.
- The third sect, The Sabbat, is not mentioned in great detail. Whilst the Anarchs & Camarilla honour the Masquerade, The Sabbat is a loose organization of Cainites who reject the Traditions. Unlike the Camarilla, the Sabbat believes in the Antediluvians (super-vampires basically) and Caine. The Sabbat believe they believe they will be the army Caine will use to destroy the Antediluvians once Gehenna arrives.
Gehenna is the ‘Vampire End Times’, signalled by the rise of Thin-Bloods and Caitiff, amongst other things. A Gehenna War is described in V5, pulling the Sabbat members to the middle-east, which is why The Sabbat clans (Lasombra and Tzimisce) are not playable. On a mechanical level, this makes sense, as the Sabbat do not cling to their Humanity (which is an in the game system to prevents your character from becoming a feral beast), but follow a Path of Enlightenment, which is not particularly easy to follow. Given that V5 was designed with beginners in mind, this makes sense.
The Giovanni and Ravno’ clans are almost extinct as well.
I am not a fan of these changes. I understand that the excluded clans are a lot more difficult to play, but Nosferatu and Tremere aren’t cakewalks either. Their disciplines have been streamlined, with Tremere undergoing changes to their source of power due to The Second Inquisition destroyed the Prime Chantry in 2008 (in VtM lore), which is almost a source of their blood magic.
The Second Inquisition are modern vampire hunters, the first one almost wiping out vampires during The Dark Ages. V5 does (another) great job introducing this element for players to include in their stories, as well as an extensive backstory to their origins. What I don’t think is explained all that well, is the Loresheet, towards the very end of the book, which I feel is similar to The Paths and having a Mentor on your Background character sheet the previous rulebooks offered.
Coda
Many people, such as myself, were enticed to ‘Vampire: The Masquerade’ through Bloodlines and/or ‘LA By Night’ (which uses V5), and making the leap from the video game (or watching others play it on YouTube/Twitch) to LARP is quite the distance to leap.
If you are one of these people, V5 is a great starting place for you to learn about VtM and the game. It doesn’t throw too much at new players for them to be overwhelmed, but not too little to feel cheated, for the physical copies of the book are rather expensive!
What do you think of V5? Love it or hate it? What’s your favourite new feature? What do you think of the V5 d10 dice?
Let’s start a conversation, people!
