Latest news with #VampireTheMasquerade
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Latest World Of Darkness Books Delve Into Your Character's Past
In Memoriam is one of two new books for World of Darkness that flesh out character histories. Back story is an important part of any role playing game character. Done well, it can provide story ideas, links to the campaign world and themes for the Storyteller to introduce into the story. Part of the fun in playing in a setting like World of Darkness is mixing in real world events and history to a fictional character. The latest sourcebook releases for World of Darkness gives players a chance to dive into their character histories. In Memoriam, for Vampire: The Masquerade looks at the oldest playable vampires, the ancillae and how to integrate their centuries of unlife into a chronicle. Hunter: The Reckoning's latest, Apostates, looks at the bigger hunter organizations and how they help, hinder and otherwise influence the actions of hunter cells around the world. In addition to the direct influences on character, these books start to fill in some of the long promised state of the World of Darkness that was reborn seven years ago in 2018. These books bring back old favorites, reveal the fates of hated rivals and introduce some new allies and rivals for your game. Renegade Game Studios provided review copies for this article. Vampire: The Masquerade In Memoriam For much of the original run of Vampire: The Masquerade, the ancillae were the middle children of the Kindred. They were not old enough to have the staggering power and influence of elder blood but not young enough to remember what life as a mortal was like. In Memoriam looks at these vampires and how they've been thrust into the limelight due to the Gehenna War. The book also functions as a mini historical guide featuring times and places these centuries old vampires might have been created. There are some nods to older settings like Victorian Age Vampire as well as some newer information and inspiration, such as getting involved with a certain Bram Stoker and his vampire novel. Acknowledging the history of the game gives me hope that we'll see an official Vampire: The Dark Ages Fifth Edition sooner rather than later. The title of the book is also a nod to the Memoriam mechanics first introduced in the Vampire: The Masquerade Core book. Player can use Memoriam to flashback to an earlier point in their lives and play out a scene or two that reflects a current problem their character is experiencing. If the scene is successful, the player gets a bonus on rolls looking to resolve the issue based on what they learned in the flashback. The information here expands this idea beyond a scene or two. I'm excited to run some full flashback sessions in a different era with other players taking on different roles in the flashback. With a little more work and research, this book could inspire a full chonicle set in an earlier era. This is one of my favorite additions to Vampire: The Masquerade as it adapts one of my favorite tropes of modern vampire fiction to the game. You can see it in everything from Highlander to Forever Knight to the modern adaptation of Interview With The Vampire. Playing out the scene gives character history to discover and can break up the tension in a story by jumping back to a new time and place with many of the same characters. I like how In Memoriam plays with history in the World of Darkness. Rather than a set viewpoint, it gives groups the tools to make their encounters with big events personal. This player-first perspective is one of the biggest strengths of the current edition of Vampire. Hunter The Reckoning Apostates The newest version of Hunter: The Reckoning reframes the struggle of regular people fighting back against the monster of the World of Darkness. They might have a strange power or two, maybe a gadget in hand or just a van full of guns. It also makes it clear that they are small fish in a dangerous pond and the latest book details some of the mortal organizations they might run afoul of during their hunted. The Apostates book deals with the hunter orgs which have been cast as prickly rivals to the cells of hunters in the dark. At best, these organizations might use the players as canaries in a coal mine to suss out a big threat and then mop up after the big battle. At worst, they're big problems just as bad as the monsters doing their best to make the world a nastier place. The book gives some looks at some classic organizations such as the mortal watchers of the Arcanum and the werewolf hunters of Project Twilight. There's also more information on Monster-X, the corporate monster hunters who may or may not believe in monsters but know there are people who believe that are willing to spend money. It includes some information on the Special Affairs Division and their government vampire hunting, though anyone interested in this organization should check out Second Inquisition for Vampire. The information included in the books are a fantastic resource for players to use as part of their backstories. Now they can play members of these organizations that quit, or fired, or faked their death to get away from their former masters. Or maybe they were innocent and protected by one of these groups only to discover they are just as guilty of awful things as the creatures that drink blood or howl at the moon. This book fleshes out the mortal antagonists of Hunter. There's plenty of room for old rivals, uneasy alliances and unexpected conseuqnces of the latest hunt. Much like the other antagonist books like Sabbat and Second Inquisition, there's enough information here for an enterprising Storyteller to run a campaign centered around the other side if they want to put a little work into things. It was also nice to see what some of the old organizations are up to these days. While I appreciate the clean break from decades of metaplot, I'm enjoying the approach White Wolf is taking here. It's not too different from how Marvel handles its backstory for the MCU; keep what works, change what doesn;t and don't be afraid to give an old idea a new spin. In Memoriam and Apostates are available directly from World of Darkness and Renegade Game Studios, through online vendors and from Friendly Local Game Stories.
Forbes
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
An Interview With Jason Carl About The Rebirth Of White Wolf
In 1991, White Wolf Game Studio released Vampire: The Masquerade which took the tabletop gaming world by storm. This game, about vampires hidden in a dark reflection of our modern world, eventually grew to be part of the World of Darkness. Now, World of Darkness has announced a return home by rebranding itself White Wolf once again. This interview has been edited for clarity and combines quotes from multiple interview sessions. "Around eight months ago, I think,' said Jason Carl, Brand Marketing Manager at White Wolf, 'when Marco [Behrmann] World of Darkness is a setting much like our own, except supernatural monsters are real. Vampires engage in bloody political battles in the shadows of the cities while werewolves stalk the countryside fighting a losing battle against the end of world. What launched the game into the imaginations of millions was the chance to play those creatures as they fight to control their monstrous side with their human feelings. 'You are the monster,' said Carl. 'That has been at the core of the World of Darkness ever since its inception. It remains a core today. You are playing in a game of very personal struggle and you're the monster. You're not necessarily the antagonist or the bad guy but you are the monster. That was a revolutionary idea when it came out and it stood the role playing games hobby on its ear. Now, it's not as revolutionary of an idea but the way the World of Darkness presents it and the way in which it invites you to engage with that idea is still unique.' As a mirror to the real world, fans want to know what's going on in their neck of the woods and how to experience it. The original games had a sprawling interconnected metaplot that the current edition moved back into shadow not unlike what happened with IP like Star Wars or Marvel. Moving forward, they want to rebuild World of Darkness in a similar manner by taking stuff from the past that works while also not being afraid to explore new ideas that resonate more with modern day players. 'We've reached a point now where the demand for the IP is so strong and so high and where our players, our fans, our partners are expecting consolidation and centralization of that IP development,' said Carl. 'They want to go to one place to learn who is the Prince of Milan tonight, right? What really happened in Minneapolis/St. Paul when that stuff went down in the Winter's Teeth comic book series? Are the events of Night Road canon? Are those characters available to us to put in a video game? How should we stat them for our tabletop games? All that is perfectly valid. I think our fans and partners should expect that from us. But the best way for us to do it, at least with the maximum efficiency, is to bring it all inhouse and have that IP development run centrally.' The tabletop roleplaying games side of the World of Darkness has been handled recently by Renegade Game Studios. They took over publication of Vampire The Masquerade while also bringing two other classic game lines to life: Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. For the time being, the company will still be producing those games with White Wolf as a partner. 'No immediate change,' said Carl. 'There's no reflection on Renegade at all. They've been a fantastic partner with World of Darkness. As a publishing business we need to work more directly with developing tabletop RPGs. The demand for the IP is growing. It's really significant already and it's only growing. We need to do more with it. That means we've got to bring more people on board. We've got to build out our creative team. We have to build out our publishing. We have to build out our distribution. We need to be able to manage that business centrally now top to bottom. What is it the British say? Soup to nuts.' Vampire: The Masquerade: Fifth Edition was released in 2018. Seven years into a gameline is often when publishers consider an undated corebook if not an entirely new edition. As White Wolf settles into its new role as steward of the World of Darkness, there are lots of ways the company could go. 'We're going to bring on more people into the core team inside the White Wolf organization,' said Carl. 'we're going to take a really thorough look at the environment. We're going to pay a lot of attention to what our TTRPG players and storytellers are telling us that they want. I do see the interest in a combined set of V5 or condensed set of V5 books that combine all the recent changes, all the updates that are in the Players Guide, all the new information across a number of source books. It makes sense that we should at least look at consolidating some of that material in a different format. Maybe they're different. Maybe they're prestige versions. Maybe they're softcover versions. Maybe they're PDF and soft cover together with a hardcover omnibus that follows later. I don't think that we've made any decision about that yet. We owe it to our players and our storytellers to listen to what they're telling us about that. And if it's possible and it makes sense for the business, that's exactly what we should give them.' The first game published under the revived banner of White Wolf will be the long awaited Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 video game currently slated for an October 2025 release.
