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I bought and played Vampire: The Masquerade that summer in 1991 or so, the date wasn’t as important to me as meeting Mark Rein-Hagen and listening to him talk about his RPG. Already a horror movie fan and a lover of vampires, Anne Rice, and dark stuff in general… I ate it up. Didn’t go as far as the whole LARP thing, but I was either a player or a Storyteller for years afterward.
Candle light illuminating the gaming table, Joy Division droning in the background, black ten-sided dice tumbling towards an aesthetic of hungry nihilism. Running around in leather jackets, drinking people’s blood, hiding from humanity while dominating them by cover of darkness. These are the things that haven’t changed, although I stopped playing Vampire altogether after the Requiem came out. Something about the new rules… it seemed too similar and at the same time too different. Whatever the reason, it was my loss. Before coming to my ill-fated decision, I bought the World of Darkness core rulebook and Vampire: The Requiem at the midnight release party back in 2003 (?)… doesn’t matter, specific details like little numbers are arbitrary and, at the end of the day, meaningless. That’s the point of this review; V:tR has a unique niche in the roleplaying industry… a coveted one.
If you are aware of the three “types” of RPGs, then you know there’s Gamist RPGs which focus on the game elements, Simulationist RPGs which focus on simulating a particular setting and genre, and Narrativist RPGs which focus on creating compelling stories and developing characters. Now, there’s a lot of cross-pollination between games, but usually a particular RPG caters to one of the three types. Going by popularity alone, I would put D&D into the Gamist camp, Call of Cthulhu into the Simulationist camp, and World of Darkness into the Narrativist camp.
I make no judgments whether one type is ultimately better than another, but I should let you know upfront that I am biased in favor of the Narrativist style, with a slight nod to Simulationist. After all, one of my favorite games is Call of Cthulhu, although that has more to do with the setting than the game mechanics. Having said that, those indie one-shot games go above and beyond trying to let the players guide the story, but indie RPGs leave me feeling unsatisfied. Whenever I run D&D (and this is especially true with 4th edition), I’ve tried to include some roleplaying opportunities, but have always been hard pressed to run a D&D game where the players truly feel like they are living in medieval Europe with elves and dragons; likewise, the game never revolved around character personalities, passions, and the non-combat interactions between hero and villain.
Anyways, this last Saturday was my third session as Storyteller for a World of Darkness chronicle. You’ll already notice that White Wolf changes traditional RPG words around to suit its particular agenda. Dungeon or Game Master is a Storyteller and a campaign, which sounds at home to wargamers, is called a chronicle (a record of events). These prominent examples should give you a taste of the difference between V:tR and various other games. This is a welcome agenda where you will seldom here cries of, “Video game!” when used to describe it.
Regarding the WoD core rulebook, I’ll just say this… you need it. Without that book, you can’t play Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, Mage, Hunter, and everything else. It’s a solid book, as well as, a requirement.
This review is about Vampire: the Requiem specifically, so now I’ll get to the heart of it. It’s an impressive book. The cover art looks great; the interior is white, red, and shades of grey. Have to be honest, I don’t like the interior art nearly as much as the original Masquerade book. For a giant in the RPG industry like White Wolf, I have to say that I’m disappointed overall. There are a few images that really capture my eye and the game’s feel, but not nearly as much the V:tM editions.
A few other differences for those wondering how Requiem compares to Masquerade... Generation is pitched in favor of Blood Potency. I think this change is wonderful. Generation was such an artificial regulator of how powerful a character was. Blood Potency ensures that every new vampire starts out in the same league and evens out the playing field (unless there’s a thematic reason for starting with an ancient, powerful Kindred). It also provides a great reason for really old vamps to require downtime. The older and stronger a bloodsucker gets, the higher his Blood Potency. After awhile, he can only slake his undying thirst on other vampires; human blood no longer gets the job done. So, he sleeps for a couple hundred years (adjust for humanity) and then he’s back from Torpor. Also, Generation was intrinsically tied to the backstory origins of V:tM. All vampires were descended from Cain… which leads me to the next difference.
No one knows who the first vampire was or how vampirism began. I think this is a good idea. However, it seems a little odd for ancient Kindred not to know their family history. But it does allow the Storyteller to come up with his own interpretation. Also, the following horde of supplements aren’t railroaded by metaplots based on a particular origin.
There are five major clans, some are familiar like Gangrel and some new like Daeva. A few clans from V:tM are made into sub-clans called Bloodlines. I really disliked this whole concept after purchasing Requiem and it was probably one of the main reasons that I didn’t run it until a few weeks ago. I liked the nice and simple delineations between the dozen (and eventually dozens) of vampire types. Eventually, Masquerade got a bit silly with the third eye vampires, but there were some cool concepts like the Set worshiping vampires, the ones that were all about shadows, and the infernal Kindred. V:tR already has something that I would never throw into my own chronicle – withered Asian vampire sorcerers. I love Big Trouble in Little China as much as the next guy, but yeah… no thanks.
Personally, I might go back to the Masquerade clans the next time I start a new chronicle. I have all the books, after all. It seems to me that World of Darkness encourages such drastic changes. Each Storyteller’s world is separate from another’s. When the narrative is most important, supported by the system naturally, everything else pales by comparison.
Anyways, those are some differences. Beyond a few mechanical improvements, almost everything else is the same. The book is chock full of skills, merits, disciplines, the political/religious/social groups known as covenants (more reasons to dislike your fellow Kindred), equipment, specific vampire info like blood starvation and predatory taint, and a mini chronicle set in New Orleans. Notice I didn’t say introductory adventure because instead of a place, motivation, and objective like most RPGs, World of Darkness provides you with a history, character backgrounds, and recent events. It creates a completely open-ended potential for playing a role. This gaming style reminds me a bit of Amber: Diceless Roleplaying, actually.
Interacting with non-player characters is more than just rolling dice and saying, “Ok, you got two successes, you convinced your enemy’s sire to accompany you to the mausoleum, roll again… and she’s dead. Nice job.” That would be the gamist way of negotiating the system. See how I can get the best bonus which means the greatest mathematical potential for doing X. Invariably, X is about maximizing firepower and resistance to enemy firepower. All I’m saying is that World of Darkness games are a completely different way of roleplaying. Character matters. Setting matters. History, mood, and events all matter. WoD games encourage dialog between players and non-player characters, and sometimes no dice are rolled during an entire scene!
It was strange running the last three sessions because my storytelling skills had atrophied from years of playing non-narrativist games. Not only D&D, but Call of Cthulhu kept me at arm’s length from what I can only call true roleplaying. (Activate nerd rage now!!!)
Briefly, the characters current lives revolved around The Golden Lotus, a Chinese restaurant in Chicago's China Town. The first session was the prelude, which means we roleplayed the events leading up to their embrace. There was one 15 minute fight at the end. Subsequent sessions were full of character interactions, discovering motives, and finding out more about Chicago. Preparation for each story is more involved, but it's totally worth it from my perspective.
This probably wasn’t the best, most informative, or even somewhat objective review of Vampire: The Requiem, but I wanted to express my opinions about a game that had been so obvious that a fellow gamer (like myself) might have forgotten about it, or maybe discounted it because of one reason or another.
Venger Satanis
Cult of Cthulhu High Priest
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