#VTM Bloodlines - War Games

[mz-elysium]

OVERVIEW

>Genre: urban fantasy, personal horror, political intrigue

>Origin: Vampire the Masquerade, World of Darkness, VtM: Bloodlines

>Tropes: vampires in 101 flavours, doomsday prophecy, everyone is a villain, hopepunk

>Themes: It is never too late to start being a good person.  Rebellion is in a constant state, to guard against injustice. Compassion builds the best future.

PREMISE

The undead lie and scheme for power, in the skyscrapers, grottos, and wastelands of their cities. Humanity, within and without, is their victim. Within them, lives the Beast of humanity’s darkest nature as the vampire’s instinct. Boredom breeds cruelty. Generations of domination and brutality become law, from the noblest clan to the lowest. Love corrodes into betrayal. Power corrupts. Whispers speak of the Final Nights, as something more than vampires stirs in the night.

In these, the longest nights of Wormwood, light can only exist in darkness.

SETTING

Young vampires rose against the corrupt rule of their sires — it is a story as old as time. In 1944, California, America, the rebels won. The streets ran red with elder blood. They called their new land the Anarch Free State. Paradise. Rebels established their new status quo. They had to create their own justice, their own laws of the jungle, their own rulers. 

A new generation of vampires has been sired into the California Free State. They’ve never known a Camarilla prince. Yet, the violent and unpredictable life of an Anarch lick feels a lot like oppression. Their barons can’t protect them from what hunts the hunter. 

In desperation, one by one, cities begin to fall into the hands of the Camarilla. The revolution is over. It failed. Some few remain to rebuild the dream under the blinking light of the Red Star.

Charlie, a fledgling Malkavian, wrestles with her humanity and the realisation that maybe the curse liberated her from the daylit world, its rules and problems. Kindred, of course, have their own, but you can’t win them all. Some of their problems are also pleasures.

Jack, a neonate Gangrel, has drifted through unlife with a thin claim to what little he owns. A curiosity and affinity to the natural world leads him to believe in its power and the harmony of all ecosystems. Including vampires. They should all just get along.

Monroe, an ancilla Ventrue, retains hope that their lives can be better and the Camarilla can be changed to foster this. The schemes and intrigue can end. The weapons can be set down. They can be neighbours, family, friends, and reclaim their lives in an honourable world.

Wormwood is the story of how these three kindred, their friends, enemies, and lovers, find themselves in the Final Nights.

WORKS

Noble Lies of Clan Ventrue (1873-2000) [44k] Monroe’s origin story, from his last sunlit days in the American military to the moment he fled from the Camarilla.

City of Fallen Angels trilogy (2003-2004) [133k, 288k, 173k] The honourable outcast Monroe takes charge of a newly abandoned fledgling, Charlie, as an LA ruled by rebels is challenged by the Camarilla courts. War is on the horizon.

Unmastered (2004) [36k] An old ghoul is entrusted with a month of autonomy in San Francisco, with the promise of more freedom threatening the chains that hold his life together.

City of Gold and Iron (2004-???) The San Francisco Bay Area chafes under the second generation of Camarilla prince, as their beloved rebel is dead and gone. Neonates find their place in the bloody yoke. Ancilla attempt to reform or hold onto power. Elders play their own games, hidden in the shadows.

Links

AO3 // tumblr tag: vtm: wormwood // Google Site

#vtm: wormwood #vtm #fanfiction #when does fanfiction stop and original writing start? #new new new pinned post bc HEY I HAVE A WEBSITE ITS PRETTY #wip intro #vampire the masquerade

[melonbear51]

can you tell us about your own vtm characters? :3

Ooh, this is an exciting opportunity! So I only recently started playing as a PC. My past experiences with VTM had been as a storyteller for V20 (my friend thought we should start with that instead of V5 with…mixed results 😅) and of course playing the video game and choose-you-own-adventure games. I actually thought I’d never get to play as a PC and kinda resigned myself to just having ideas, but thanks to a friend I now can tell you about my first character!

So my first character happens to be one of the concepts I wrote in my very first VTM post. His name is Ben Thatchwood, and he’s a Lasombra antiquarian book dealer in Chicago specializing in occult volumes. He’s earned a bit of a reputation as “the book guy” in Camarilla circles, as if you want it, he probably has it. As such he’s on relatively good terms with the Tremere, though price negotiations can be tough and he often questions the competency of some of the clan’s younger members. He also fucking HATES the Tzimisce based on the fact that the only interactions he’s had with them are Sabbat-aligned assholes leaving effed-up ghoul creatures running amok near his coterie’s territory. Speaking of coterie, his consisted of a Ventrue and a Hecata. I say “consisted of” because the Ventrue PC murdered the Hecata last session while Ben was recovering from a nasty werewolf attack, but that’s another story 😅.

So Ben is…troubled. Not Malkavian-level troubled, but he’s got some issues. Despite being a pretty calm dude, his beast likes to come out quite a bit, leading to some awkward moments. Luckily nothing TOO bad, though a Tremere ghoul’s nose was broken and a hiker MIGHT have suffered from an “animal attack” if you know what I mean. He’s also got quite a bit of trauma. As the younger, less-favored sibling out of a set of fraternal twins, Ben always felt he had to be useful and prove himself. He always wished he would be the one the family picked, at least once. Well, years down the line, after starting a successful business and finally beginning to get over his self-worth issues, a family member did pick him. Just not in the way he wanted.

See, part of the reason Ben’s family treated him coldly was (unconsciously) Ben reminded them of another family member. A long-dead one who popped in every now and then to see if anyone in his bloodline was “worth the investment.”

Introducing…Benedict Thatchwood, Ben’s sire and 4x great grandfather (approximately)! Benedict, much like Ben, was an occult book nerd who developed a reputation in interested circles. He was happily married and had just had his first child with his wife Clara. Then WWI hit, Benedict went to war, and was presumed killed in action. In reality, he was embraced by a Lasombra and spent a good amount of time doing Sabbat stuff before jumping ship and joining the Cam. As he saw generations of his family come and go, he cared less and less about them. That is, until he saw Ben (who resembles his grandad quite a bit in more ways than one) and took an interest. Following the tradition of the Lasombra, he then proceeded to fucking ruin his future childe’s life by:

1. Making it seem like Ben was selling faked versions of 1st-edition books, tanking his credibility.

2. Letting word get back to Ben’s “old fashioned” family about his bisexuality, which did nothing to help the relationship.

3. Drowning Ben’s friend and romantic interest Layla while the two were drinking by the beach, leaving him with survivor’s guilt and making his friends turn against him as they believed his negligence led to her death.

And 4. Setting the bookstore on fire with Ben in it, resulting in Ben badly burning his hands while saving incredibly rare tomes. Still, in spite of these challenges and the toll they took on him, Ben persisted. And then started doubting his sanity because he kept seeing a guy who looked just like him out of the corner if his eye, or hiding in the shadows. got bit. Things culminated one night with Ben going to the bathroom to wash his face, only to turn on the light and find Benedict standing in front of the mirror with a distorted reflection flickering behind. The last words Ben heard were “You have Clara’s eyes,” before the darkness claimed him.

So yeah. Ben’s been through a lot, and having just been given independence from his sire rather recently, he’s been trying to navigate what it means to be a Lasombra in the modern nights, as well as rebuild and reclaim his own identity after all that’s happened. I know this was long, but I couldn’t resist gushing about my boy! I hope you enjoy him as much as I do!

TL;DR: My only PC character I’ve played and have been playing so far is Ben Thatchwood , a Lasombra antiquarian book dealer with MAJOR trauma and grandpa issues 😂

#vampire the masquerade #ttrpgs #world of darkness #vtm #character concept #vtm v5 #vampire the masquerade v20 #vampires #fang formulas #my pc #my pcs #thank you for the ask! #lasombra

[scarfacemarston]

It all sort of happened quietly but the lead writer for rdr left rockstar Kojima-style bc of the similar direction the company is taking. Afterward nothing new ever came about, no dlc, no continued online content, and no attempt to even look like they were trying. It’s really sad but we’ll probably never have any official rdr game content come out again. The closest we could probably get is the writer making a new western series, since with all the grace they gave it after he left I doubt rockstar would be kind enough to let him take the IP and characters with him even once it’s completely dead.

Tbh it sort of feels like the entire gaming industry is in a dark age? I’m having a hard time thinking of one major company that hasn’t heel turned towards pay-to-win mechanics and child gambling. It’s such bullshit

Ah, that makes sense. What a damn shame. As I've said before, I was surprised their corporate minds didn't think that there is SO much money that could be made out of the series. I am still finding lost files for rdr 2, but nothing that says anything about a DLC. Just cut content. It’s obnoxious that they couldn’t even finish the story for us. Even if it would be one final set of missions

Red dead online ONE as in Red Dead Online from the FIRST Red dead game is actually still up and running and pretty active. I have the game on ps3 and I THINK those who stream it can access it as it is. You can play as ANY character from the game. IF you have access to it, I highly recommend you play it. It’s not the same as rdr 2 online, but it has a lot of good going for it. Today was the funeral, I think I heard?  I didn’t get to attend. I’m out of town for work.  Poor OC Alex and poor Abigail Marston don’t get to have their days in the sun anymore. (Actually, you can play as Abigail in red dead online 1, but still.) I have to agree with you. Gaming culture needs a revamp and it starts with the creators. People are like, "Why do you focus on so many older games/fandoms." Games are broken upon release . There are too many transactions as you said. Finally, they are too damn expensive and we can't even get the tech right. Except for Lego Star Wars which I waited for reviews, I haven't bought any "new" games. I always wait at least a year or two. Which apparently makes content "Too old". To be fair, RDR 1 was from 2010 and the 2nd one was 4ish years ago. And then fandoms can also make or break the experience. RDO has brought a lot of people together and a lot of people have made friends. I have. But the friends I have now agree with me that it's so expensive to buy games and have the time/energy to play them. It takes more effort. RDR woke something up in people. I think there are other games like that, but as things break down, that's becoming less and less. Vampire the Masquerade is my other huge favorite game series. Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines from 2004ish was a disaster but it still had a lot going for it. The community of developers still came together and VTM Bloodlines is STILL beloved and thriving. I personally am not interested in anything. Bloodlines 2 had a little promise years ago, but again, the writers were LET GO after they did a ton of the writing and they basically wanted to steal a lot of the work (FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND). A new publisher has picked it up. but I don't trust it either. It's just going to fail ad games like VTM Swansong just doesn't have the same magic, and horror. Same with the so called visual novels or IPs like Werewolf the Apocalypse. Game IPs that have been around for decades. Hell, even animal crossing and other nintendo games are going for some seriously shady practices.  It is what it is and it's so unfortunate. It really is.

#rdr 2 #rdo #rip rdo #rip red dead online #sean macguire #dutch van der linde #sadie adler #flaco hernandez #Josiah Trelawny

[thewhizzyhead]

Psychonauts is fun and weird, stardew valley is calming and my time at Portia is the same vein but like 3d and not sprite based. You might also like older more story focused rpgs like star wars knight of the old republic, vampire the masquerade bloodlines (think they mightve just released a free to play game based on thst world) and that type. Also maybe 999 but if you've watched that scratch that. That's it for now but I have more

oooh yea i've heard very good things about psychonauts and it seems right up my alley! I've also heard good things about stardew valley but ngl I'm not really that into like community-focused simulators (it still looks good though!) Also YES I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO PLAY THE STAR WARS RPGS AAAAAA and I've been wanting to check out vtm stuff for a while. I didn't know they released a free game so ooh I'll check that out! And yep I already watched a playthrough of all 3 zero escape games but that also reminds me of the Nirvana Initiative game with Mizuki so yay! Thanks for the suggestions dude!

#I'm good either way with nirvana because even i don't play it a johneawesome and nicob playthrough is definitely gonna be up on yt #still wanna give it a try though since i haven't yet played a detectivey mystery thingy on my own #(by that i mean i usually just get my fix from youtube playthroughs) #so if the nirvana initiative thing is available on pc and if I can afford it #i'm definitely buying it woo #thanks for the suggestions dude! #ask me stuff

[auctionpolh]

Vampire the masquerade 5th edition alpha pdf download

VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 5TH EDITION ALPHA PDF DOWNLOAD PDF

WHY IS A GAME BOOK PREACHING TO ITS READERS?! I can't even find the core elements of gameplay without rooting through the Index and you're wanting to talk about Gender Identity?!ĭID A BLOODY MALKAVIAN PUT THIS THING TOGETHER?! "This is not a fascist-friendly game" and immediate condemnation and scolding. Are we really going to-? I couldn't help the morbid curiosity and read the first paragraph. "Fascism" jumps off the page at me, in bold, black letters, front-and-center. I require some comforting and there must be some sort of tip to get over this trauma. right before 30 pages of fluff prior to anything about the game. Let me check the Appendix that the first page mentioned. PUNCH me! I seriously must be having a bad dream. they're not here? Nor are the Giovanni and Ravnos? They've gutted three of my favorite clans! I need someone to hold my hand. What a mess.ĭISCIPLINES! Yes, let's check those! Dementation is now a power from combining two disciplines? Wait, what? Okay, well, let's see how they set up the character creation and. Okay, let's just see if they give more history on the next page. No real mention of warrior scholars, shots fired at the political right, gender studies. "Molotov-wielding protesters." Uh-oh! I think I see where this is going. Okay, weird, since I've literally never played with people who couldn't tell me "this makes me uncomfortable" like an adult, even when I played these games as a teenager. They open the book with a full-page warning label that directs you to an appendix about handling sensitive subject matter with your troupe. I made the costly mistake of purchasing a physical copy, in hopes that they shed some light on changes between V20 and V5E.

VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 5TH EDITION ALPHA PDF DOWNLOAD PDF

I didn't buy this as a PDF someplace else. That's as close to "classic" as you're gonna get. You know the ones, in the nightclub, with the blonde hair. The best it does is pay lip service to established characters in Bloodlines that have become pop culture figureheads. If you're hoping for a continuation or some kind of expansion, run away. This is NOT the Classic World of Darkness. See more arguing on a public forum about a game you love, and presumably want more players to find and join.Ĭouldn't review because I didn't buy it online, so I hope this helps somebody. Just something to bear in mind when you're. If you went to a con and walked up to a table you were gonna play at and all the people were yelling at each other, you'd probably just keep right on walking. Everyone is so worried about being right that they miss the fact that they're essentially chasing people away. That said, if I had never played VTM and was here thinking about grabbing a PDF to see what it was all about, the comment section here would likely have me deciding to go try something else and avoid the community in general. Our GM is awesome, the players in our group are awesome, and if the GM says we're going to V5, well, we're going to V5. For me, all the good and bad points really don't mean a thing. I barely have time to play, let alone get into the drama involved in version infighting. I'm only here because we're playing V20 and the GM is talking about going to V5 at some point, and I figured maybe I'd pick up a copy and get a head start on it. Mature Warning: Contains graphic and written content of a mature nature, including violence,sexual themes, and strong language. The terror of the Second Inquisition, the conspiracies behind the Gehenna War, and the rekindling of the War of Ages: these are the building blocks of the modern V5 chronicle. While the rules have been redesigned, this new edition honors the deep story of the original, advancing the metaplot from where it left off and detailing exactly what has happened in the world of the Kindred up until tonight. V5 is a return to Vampire's original vision, moving boldly into the 21st century. Powered by the innovative Hunger cycle, the game also includes rules for creating system supported character coteries, Loresheets to directly involve players with their favorite parts of the setting and The Memoriam, a new way to bring the character's detailed backgrounds and expand on them in-session. The classic that changed roleplaying games forever returns! This fifth edition features a streamlined and modern rules design, beautiful new full-color art, and a rich story experience for players. You are a vampire, struggling for survival, supremacy, and your own fading humanity - afraid of what you are capable of, and fearful of the inhuman conspiracies that surround you. Vampire: The Masquerade is the original and ultimate roleplaying game of personal and political horror.

#Vampire the masquerade 5th edition alpha pdf download

[missn11]

Beth the Brawling and Dominating Ventrue

So I've recently finished my first playthrough of the Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines Mod War Games while streaming for some pals on the discord server https://www.moddb.com/mods/vampire-bloodlines-war-games/downloads/vampire-bloodlines-war-games  it's own story game mod taking place in 1943 Europe during WW2 and I really do like it even with it's flaws, bugs, crashing, broken order of some side quests and text to speech voice acting at times, and oh, my biggest foe, very dark hallways! XD But I really liked how they used normal VTMB assets and homemade assets to bring us into 1943 wartime Europe and I really enjoyed the story to this mod a ton and some of the side quests were really neat too! :3   So I played as a Ventrue who was very good at punching her enemies, Dominate and persuasion and decryption and man was it a fun time, when I wasn't struggling with the bugs! XD I know that in VTM ttrpg you can't dominate someone into killing themselves unless you have Dominate 6 or higher but I've decided that it's a special talent of Beth's that allows her to do that with just five dots in Dominate! :D And well everyone who was at the streams thought I should do a picture of Beth and I had also gotten some lovely new waterproof pens from my lovely girlfriend, @devil-latte I was itching to try out too. I used some ref https://www.dreamstime.com/woman-angry-shouting-pointing-finger-hand-forward-emotiona-asian-business-emotional-portrait-background-image127235767 and I think this painting has turned out rather well.

#vampire the masquerade #Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines #VTMB #VTMB War Games #Beth vtm #My art #Fanart #nazi mention tw

[boghermit]

Saw @missveils​ doing this and I thought I would join! Took me forever because I love too many characters. The middle is dedicated to childhood favorites who I still love. Y’all tag me if you do this so I can see your characters! 

1: Polly (Peaky Blinders), Sera (Dragon Age), Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders), Cait (Fallout 4), Shosanna Dreyfus (Inglourious Basterds) 

2: Senua (Hellblade), Merrill (Dragon Age), Alfie Solomons (Peaky Blinders), Prince LaCroix (VTM: Bloodlines), Preston Garvey (Fallout 4) 

3: Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings), Marik Ishtar (Yu-Gi-Oh!), Salem Saberhagen (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Yugi Muto (Yu-Gi-Oh!), Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) 

4: Peter Banning / Peter Pan (Hook), Ivar the Boneless (Vikings), Dodge (Locke & Key), Cole (Dragon Age), Will Graham (Hannibal) 

5: Kitten Braden (Breakfast on Pluto), Integra Hellsing (Hellsing), Floki (Vikings), Vanessa Ives (Penny Dreadful), Gandalf (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) 

I had to limit a few franchises (especially Dragon Age) or they would have been over half the page. Literally. I wanted to put Blackwall, Fenris, Leliana, Josie, Zevran, Cassadra, Morrigan, and Solas up here. There’s just not enough space! I excluded superheroes (best ones are Spidey and Batman, fight me). I also excluded Far Cry characters entirely because AGAIN I love too many of them and I couldn’t pick just one. Same with Star Wars. VERY honorable mention to Katniss from the Hunger Games books, who I haven’t drawn yet but I would love to after I finish the final book.

#about me

[digital-magus]

god of war sequel got delayed till 2022 because of covid (duh) and now one of the recently hired writers Alanah Pearce is getting rape and death threats, people accusing her of causing the delay. why are gamers like this? games get delayed its not a big deal

Because these gamers (Hashtag NotAllGamers), like many before them, have devoted themselves to the products of labor without any respect for or understanding of the labor itself.

And they're predominantly cishet white guys, so what they lack in empathy or rationality they make up for in entitlement and volume.

I mean, when VtM:Bloodlines 2 got delayed, yet again, I didn't raise a fuss and as far as I know neither did anyone else (though don't quote me on that). Disappointed? Sure. But I've been in the gamer game long enough to know it's better to wait for a game to be ready than to shove it out untested, unpolished, unfinished, as we've seen over and over and over. CP2077 for instance. Or the original VtM: Bloodlines, though that wasn't the devs' fault.

So, short answer, cishet white guys are whiny entitled little babies with no respect for those on who's labor they rely and who don't know what's good for them. Same as it has been for the last 300+ years.

[badass-at-fandoming]

Okay so: I have researched Werewolf the Apocalypse and Hunter the Reckoning far more than Vampire the Masquerade. But as far as I can tell, the three main problems in Kindred society are as follows: 1. Vampires are conditioned to see humans as food, rather than people. 2. Ruled by ancient immortals who are mired in ancient mindsets. 3. Vampires who betray other vampires are well rewarded with power and potentially moving up a Generation based on how hard they betray them.

Friend, this is such a broad question, oh my

So, like, on a meta-level, Kindred society has problems because the writers/game developers/producers/executives made it that way. The Vampire: the Masquerade setting is supposed to be a Gothic-punk setting. The creators leaned into the Gothic part hard, like to the point that I personally find it distasteful and semi-unrecognizable as Gothic. Bleak is a good word: their basic premise is that humans are, at their core, evil, self-serving creatures. Give them immortality and magic powers, and corruption is inescapable.

The fifth edition of the VTM angles more into personal horror. It’s not so much that the world is shitty and leans towards destruction; it’s about how individuals compromise their morals when it’s convenient, which, in turn, makes the world shitty.

From the Vampire: the Masquerade, 5th Edition Corebook:

(I’ll add Image IDs in another post because this is getting long). EDIT: Image IDs here!

On a textual level, you’ve hit a lot of the broad strokes. Different fans have different opinions on what exactly are the problems of Kindred Society. As Kindred lose touch with their human origins, their view of humans dims. In fact, the ~proper fantasy term~ for humans is “kine” aka cattle. Scorning humans often translates to scorning the good parts of humans, like love, empathy, and compassion.

As for your second point, the stereotype of Elders is indeed someone woefully out of touch with modern thought. Since Elders are so old (like 200+ years old), they also have a fuckton of magic powers (aka vampiric disciplines) and can force those around them to conform to their antiquated ways of thought, on pain of death. They insist they’re in charge, and so they are, (especially in Camarilla and Sabbat circles), and everyone must do things like them. The general arc of history bends towards justice, so this can be a huge ass problem, especially since Elders tend to have little morals. Right now, technology is a big talking point. Elders fear it; young ones can’t live without it. Elder sees a Neonate with a cell phone. Elder murders the Neonate, and no one can stop them.

There can be some perks. Kindred who lived through the World Wars are not going to tolerate neo-fascism. Elders who used to be slaves are going to tear modern day slavery apart with their bare hands. Generally, homophobia isn’t a thing in Kindred society, because Elders remember when it was the norm for Spartan Greeks to attend Bottom Academy™, for monks to marry to one another, and for Victorian sexologists to host demonstrations of queer desire. And that’s just Western European stuff. The Elders who lived pre-colonization or avoided colonization altogether carry their queer-positive traditions to the modern day.

For your third point, I wouldn’t say betrayal is automatically richly rewarded, but betrayals, competing agendas, court intrigue, and jockeying for power are generally seen as the norm. This norm is called “Jyhad” because VTM hasn’t found a dictionary or figured out how to hire Muslim writers or diversity readers. This “everyone out for themself” attitude ties back into VTM’s “humans are basically self-serving and evil” premise. However, there are winners and losers in the game of thrones, just like in any other fiction. Whether a character plays Jyhad well and the betrayal reaps huge rewards depends on the character.

From Beckett’s Jyhad Diary:

The Generation mechanic you’re referring isn’t necessarily connected to betrayal. The lower generation a Kindred is, the closer they are related to Caine, who is the source of all Kindred power. What exactly the upsides are for being lower generation depends on what lore the Storyteller uses. In my tabletop game, the lower the generation, the higher the health and the faster one can heal. In the Bloodlines video game, the lower the generation, the more powerful the disciplines and the more blood the player can consume at a time.

Regardless, there is only one way to lower a character’s generation: diablerie. By which I mean cannibalism. When a Kindred sucks the blood (or “vitae” for the Proper Fantasy Term) of another Kindred, the blood tastes like SUPER GOOD OMG. A reason for this is a Kindred’s soul/essence/whatever-makes-them-them is in their blood. If a Kindred drinks another dry, they absorb the whole soul. What happens next again depends on exact game mechanics, but, generally, when that happens the Kindred gains one or more of the soul’s disciplines. If the soul was of a lower generation than them, there is a chance their generation lowers by one. They get closer to Caine. If you want to hear a super ridiculous story about that one time my tabletop party diablerized two allies and then burned down our own haven on accident, there’s a video here.

also if two vampires exchange blood it counts as vampire sex and forms a minor blood bond and if the couple does it three times in the same moon cycle it forms a permanent blood bond aka they’re vampire married

So like, lowering a generation doesn’t necessarily involve betrayal. A Kindred can cannibalize a rando. In Bloodlines, Sebastian LaCroix intended to cannibalize some Assyrian King he didn’t know from Adam.

This post is depressing af, so let’s end on a lighter note, with a word from Beckett:

A little later:

The World of Darkness is what you make of it. Characters don’t have to be evil. Characters don’t have to be good. Kindred are monsters, sure, but that only means they live in a society apart.

#readasaur #ask #text post #vampire the masquerade #vtm #vtmb #diablerie #vtm beckett #beckett's jyhad diary #V5

[goregirl420]

Top 5 fav games, no order 💙

Call of Duty (Modern Warfare), Apex, Star Wars Battlefront, Ico, & Fortnite (kiddish I know, but it’s fun lol) I can’t wait for VtM Bloodlines 2!

[leadflowers]

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines - War Games 

I’ve played VTM Bloodlines many, many times. But I’ve never played any of the major overhaul mods, partly because they used to be pretty unstable and tricky to install, partly because I wasn’t very confident in them. Not anymore! The Mod Loader makes it easy to play them side by side without conflicts.

For the past couple of years or so, I’ve been keeping an eye on the development of a mod unlike all the others, that doesn’t just change things about the vanilla story, it creates a completely new one from scratch, along with a new world, set in...1943:

VTM Bloodlines - War Games

Yes, that’s right; argikt and team have done something extremely ambitious by attempting to transplant an early 2000s American game into World War II Europe and actually make it believable...but they did it! New hubs, many, many new period-appropriate statics, sound effects and skills (such as encryption instead of hacking) and a sprawling new questline with the attendant side quests, of course.

Is it perfect? No, of course not. Considering new animated models are nigh impossible to add, the NPCs make heavy use of retextures (often in creative new ways) but here and there there will be an anachronistic touch. The odd bug too, but so far only very minor things. 

Anyway, these gifs showcase the intro; you go to watch a movie (Murnau’s Nosferatu...ha ha!) and are later ambushed in a dark alley and Embraced. 

Why? Well... 

#vampire the masquerade #vampire the masquerade bloodlines #vtmb war games #gifset #my gifs

[the-bloody-masquerade]

How I got into Vampire: The Masquerade

Oh man, you guys, you don’t know how much Vampire: The Masquerade means to me. I’ve known about it for about 7 years now, but I only just picked up Bloodlines for the first time this past season (which has snowballed into an appreciation for all associated media.) Everyone is absolutely right about this game. It is something special.

I started out by watching youtuber Little Kuriboh (of YuGiOh Abridged fame) making “Marik Plays Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines” videos when I was in high school. I was in it mostly for my love of Little Kuriboh and that the let’s play was basically an extended skit with my favorite of his characters (”Toreador” Marik and Bakura). But even back then, there was just something about the game itself that stuck out in my mind. The atmosphere. That’s all I could really say at that point. It was unique and there was something about it I really liked.

”Marik plays Bloodlines” eventually became my “happy place” playlist. A series I revisit again and again whenever I was bored or just wanted some “comfort food” type of thing to watch. I’m a 90′s kid who had a full blown emo phase (which I may or may not still be in...) Bloodlines absolutely dwelled in that dingy, dark, neon bloom urban aesthetic that was married to the emo scene back then. And the soundtrack. God the soundtrack. Anthem of my teenage years. Vampire media was also very important to me in my formative years. I was into Hellsing and Vampire Knight and had read Dracula and Carmilla back then. The Twilight Wars were happening at the time, so vampires were all the rage, but I rejected Twilight wholeheartedly until very recently. 

Earlier this year, I got back into a different youtuber, Cryaotic, AKA Cry. While scrubbing through his catelog of Let’s Plays, I found his own playthrough of Bloodlines, and unlike Little Kuriboh, he’d actually finished his. Remembering how much I enjoyed of what I saw with LK, I was like “absolutely, I’m watching this.” Cry played a Malkavian female named “Hopsfy,” and thus I had a crash course on how actually hilarious Bloodlines is on its own merits. Cry is a Let’s Player who will be quiet during cutscenes, so I was finally able to absorb all the dialogue and story. I absolutely devoured it. Everything about it. I finished his playthrough, bombastic independent ending and all. 

I happen to have just purchased a new computer, a desktop, a unit powerful enough to finally run PC games. Two guesses as to what the first game I purchased was. 

I’m currently on my own first playthrough of the Bloodlines, playing a Ventrue male named Elric. He started out as Lacroix’s dog (with a dead sire, he just kind of gravitated towards the first authority figure he saw,) but will be growing his own spine very soon here. I’ve got the Unofficial Patch and mods out the wazoo (aesthetic mods, mainly, re textures and alternate outfits). Blessing upon the amazing modding community, 15 years after the game’s (bug-ridden) release we can now play a finished and (mostly) polished version of the game, and with passionate modders still creating aesthetic upgrades, the game is absolutely gorgeous in 2019.  

I’ve been taking my time with my own playthrough, drinking in all the details. In the meantime I’ve been scrolling through TVTropes and the Unofficial White Wolf wiki just wanting to learn more about THIS WORLD. The World of Darkness and the Vampire the Masquerade setting as a whole is so fascinating and so detailed. So much care and love has gone into it. 

This of course eventually let to my discovery of L.A. by Night. (Not sure if we have a word for this genre of content yet, but its a web series by Geek and Sundry where some folks actually play the Vampire the Masquerade tabletop RPG. TLDR; Its literally Critical Roll but with VTM instead of D&D) Loving that too, the characters and the storyline. 

So yeah, that’s my deal. In such a short amount of time, this game and family of content has become very special to me. You don’t have to read this to appreciate this blog, I’m literally just going to vomit up all the vampire content I like onto this page. But just in case you were curious I felt like throwing this out there. I would love to hear other people’s experiences with this amazing world. 

#vampire the masquerade #vampire the masquerade bloodlines #vtmb #vtm #blog #the-bloody-masquerade

[self-loving-vampire]

Politics in Fiction

Often, I see various arguments about politics in fiction (this most often happens specifically around video games for some reason). These arguments are rarely satisfying to me because I feel like I both agree and disagree with both sides at once.

One side says that some fiction has always been political, which is true but also not really what the other side is complaining about.

The other side is also prone to making many claims I do not agree with, like that including minority characters is always political pandering.

So there are actually many points I want to address on this topic and I hope I can separate them into readable chunks properly.

It is fine for fiction to be political

I do not dispute that many fictional works have political messages and themes. I also don’t think that this is inherently a bad thing.

The better Fallout games are political, for example. They often focus on the affairs of various societies and how they are (or should be) managed or governed, and their world is richer and more interesting for it. 

The central choice in Fallout New Vegas is basically about which faction should control the city and its nearby dam, which results in various different policies and consequences.

Political fiction can be good, it can help develop a setting or provide meaningful and memorable decisions.

However, as with all fiction, it has to be smart and nuanced about it. I will explain more below.

Sometimes things are not actually that political

One claim I have heard is that Star Wars is about “resisting fascism”. I don’t entirely see that in the movies as I remember them (though it might be more apparent in expanded universe stuff).

The bad guys in Star Wars are an authoritarian empire, yes, but at least in the movies themselves there doesn’t seem to be anything uniquely fascist about them, and not much is said about their ideology or policies in the movies either. They feel like a generic evil empire.

I know it has been long since I watched the movies, but I never really understood what the emperor’s motivations were beyond just personal power. Why did he want personal power? I don’t know. He barely feels like a real character.

And on top of that, Star Wars does not actually discuss or criticize fascism or even authoritarianism as an idea all that much. It’s just bad guys to fight in a way that feels superficial to me.

While on this topic, not all deep themes are political in nature. I know some people believe the personal is political, I don’t (for reasons I may explain in a different post). Sometimes I see works that deal with personal issues but that are treated as dealing with political ones, they are not the same thing to me.

I feel like people on both sides do this, too.

For example, there was a recent controversy about how Bloodlines 2 will let players choose their pronouns and how this was "too political” or “pandering to SJWs”.

Some people seem to just treat the very existence of LGBT characters in fiction as a political move, but to me they are just characters. 

Everyone in my Dungeons and Dragons settings (except the player characters, if they wish) is either bisexual or asexual, not because I am trying to make any kind of statement but because those are the states that are easiest for me to imagine and work with.

Sometimes the politics are not what you think they are

Because everyone has different views and experiences, people can look at the same story from a different perspective and take an entirely different message from it.

It is fine if your interpretation is uncommon, it is even fine if your interpretation is different from what the author intended.

But you should keep in mind that your reading is not the only valid one.

I most often see people on the left do this. They will claim that a piece of media is leftist, and often there may be some valid argument for why it may be, but then treat their interpretation as fact and try to shame and attack others for thinking differently without ever considering why they might have read the story differently.

For example, during the backlash to the backlash surrounding Bloodlines 2, I saw people asserting as fact that vampires are an allegory for the upper classes being parasites and therefore the people complaining are not welcome.

That did not seem right to me. All kinds of people write vampire stories and intend different meanings for them, there isn’t a universal to work with (not even when it comes to the physical powers and traits the vampires have).

Sometimes vampires are meant to represent corrupting yet irresistible sexual predators.

Sometimes they are meant to represent disease.

Sometimes they are just hot but troubled supernatural boyfriends.

Bram Stoker himself was a monarchist, and the vampires in the VTM setting are not all wealthy either. Some of them even live in the sewers and look too monstrous to be around humans. Not everyone is a Ventrue and not all Ventrue are bad, especially by the standards of the setting.

It is possible to do politics so badly that it ruins everything

I think there may be another reason why certain people may not notice that their favorite media deals with social issues and politics: That sort of thing is much more noticeable when it is done very poorly, which further convinces those people that adding politics to media is bad.

At some point social issues can stop being interesting worldbuilding or philosophical dilemmas and just become a ham-fisted allegory for a current real world issue that just hits one side on the face with an opinion they may not agree with.

For example, remember when Deus Ex: Mankind Divided pissed absolutely everyone off with that “Augs Live Matters” sign?

This has been said before, but good political stuff is vague and timeless: It deals with general principles that can be applied in multiple contexts. For example, 1984 was about extreme authoritarianism but not any one authoritarian group.

When fiction follows current issues/movements/political labels too closely, it risks being reduced to being about that specific issue instead of the things that lie underneath it.

On top of this, a lot of fiction that is deliberately aimed at being political is just badly written in that it tries to tell you how to think instead of letting you think. It is like those political cartoons that label everything and that have messages that can be summarized as “my side is correct and my enemies are dumb and evil” but do not actually tell you why that is.

I don’t like political cartoons even when I agree with them. They do not inspire deep consideration or persuade people, they just give the groups that already agreed with the message some short-term pleasure at how much better than their opponents they are.

People want interesting fiction that allows them to explore issues and come to their own conclusions. They don’t want propaganda that treats them with contempt and won’t change their minds.

If you want to see what extremely bad political fiction looks like, just check out that dying TERF webcomic known as Sinfest. In the webcomic, transgender people are portrayed as literal misogyny zombies and children are sent to “gender camps” to be forced to take hormones and re-educated.

The social metaphors in Sinfest are detached from reality yet so heavy-handed that they probably need cranes to lift their hands high enough to masturbate, and masturbate is all the author does in the comic.

If your primary aim is to make propaganda rather than to make interesting, thoughtful, and heartfelt stories then you will most likely make very bad fiction. We can see that happening here.

In my opinion, the best stories are personal or deal with timeless questions or core principles rather than just repeating current talking points or moralizing.

#long post

[secretsofthemasquerade]

what you should get in the September Sale

Drive thru is having a Sale until September 21st!

Vampire: the Masquerade titles

Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary edition

Despite all the shit I gave White Wolf (CCP version) for the bad art choices, V20 is a must have. It contains almost everything you’ll need to understand what VTM is, especially if you only know about it from VTMB. Very much a great compendium :)

V20 Dread Names, Red List

Just because I’m on the cover. This is a compilation of overpowered antagonists and enemies of the Camarilla, a list of over the top NPCs, but they’re interesting enough, and the Art is Good :)

V20 Lore of the Clans

Overall this replaces the Clanbooks, it’s quite short but it’s more than an interesting read to see the new takes on the clan. Unlike V20 which takes content from Revised, this is mostly new content. Lore of the bloodlines feels a little unnecessary to me but that’s just my opinion and you may very much enjoy it ;)

V20 Hunters Hunted 2

This is a good book to play hunters that are not Hunters (aka with so many fancy powers and just people who know the supernatural exists and are willing to -do something about it-)

Vampire the Dark Ages 20th Anniversary edition

Honestly I was very skeptical about Dark Ages, but VDA20 was written with thoughtfulness in mind and I’m honestly quite pleased with the results, even if I am just not drawn to that kind of setting. I’m not a fan of the saturated colors by Mark Kelly for the full page art but it’s overall much more beautiful than V20 is. for 6 bucks it’s worth a grab :D

Undead Blood Magic Bundle

This bundle contains Blood Magic secrets of thaumaturgy, Blood Treachery, House of Tremere and V20 Rites of blood. Lots of rites, rituals and fun stuff. Rites of Blood is actually the one of best value, but might as well grab the bundle imo (I’ll let you do the math tho).  I think each book individually is less expensive than the bundle! But I won’t link them all (too much work), just click on the bundle link and you’ll be able to click on each title individually.

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary

I made a post a long time ago saying why I wouldn’t back it and why this book did not interest me as it’s basically a big fic about Beckett meeting a bunch of other NPCs and witnessing a bunch of canon events, but I do understand its interest and it is valuable Lore and fluff content for those of you who enjoy it. So I’m putting it here because it is a good book, it’s just not for me. This serves as a bridge between old Canon and the canon of V5, for what it’s worth :)

Clanbooks 1st Edition

The PDF quality is bad because it’s old-school-scans (and some pages aren’t really straight), but if you want to feel where I came from, this bundle links back to each clanbook. I think each clanbook individually is less expensive than the bundle! But I won’t link them all (too much work), just click on the bundle link and you’ll be able to click on each clanbook individually ;)

Elysium the Elder Wars

Oldie but Goodie. I have a very fond liking of this book which explains well what Elder games can be ;)

State of Grace

A book about all kinds of faiths and how to reconcile them (or not) with vampirism. Serves as a great starting point for your own research. I wouldn’t take it on its own, however.

MET VTM

You might also want to grab anything from the LARP books (the corebook being obviously first), they’re a great read and the mechanics are honestly interesting, even if you don’t LARP. I still frown at some of the art choices because lots of the costumes look like bad halloween costumes and not something vampires would actually wear but those are very personal tastes.

And now some Vault titles!

Obviously I can’t do this without plugging my own titles ;)

My Guide to Playable Characters (which the reviews say is good to help players get into playing RPGs overall, with specifics for VtM), my Guide to Siring and my One Shot scenario (which gives that 1st edition horror premise, it seems?) are all on sale.

But more importantly, you might want to check.. Dark New England, a sourcebook about New England, which is a MASSIVE labor of love and with incredible content in relation to Native American clans. Authors also put together a lineage book about the native kindred bloodlines, to complete it. It’s Descendants of the Three sisters.

The Gargoyle bloodline-book seem to be worth checking out!

You should also check Sei-ey’s Vampire Drawings, a beautiful artbook which is just amazing (you may know his work from Deviantart)

Some other interesting artpacks (portraits) by Luis Miguez, in pure black and white old school style can be found here, here, and here. Carlos Garcia also did one right here.

You might also want to grab these two color portraits right here.

@andrealeora Did two amazing packs of art, one of scenes and one about portraits, that you should check out. Check her blog to see some previews of the contents ;)

And finally, because I’m French, here’s Mont Saint Michel by night, for Dark Ages.

If you’re curious about other Vault Products, I highly recommend reading It’s More than Just Gaming reviews to see an honest breakdown of some of the titles ;)

All of the links are affiliate links and if you purchase anything after clicking, I’ll make a small commission, which will allow me to buy more art for my upcoming titles and host further giveaways!

#secrets advertizes #storyteller vault #onyx path sales #white wolf sales

[missn11]

Link to download War Games https://www.moddb.com/mods/vampire-bloodlines-war-games

We go into the bank to find out more infomation about the possibly hunter Ghoul/Kindred after us and end up doing a favor for Thommaso Cruz, the Giovanni Baron of Zurich by getting rid of a Tzimisce causing problems for him and the Masquerade and we also learn more about the Nazi lab we need to find. And we also pick up some sidequests and fight one of the Sabbat bounty hunters sent after us.

#vampire the masquerade #Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines #VTMB #VTM Bloodlines - War Games #VTMB War Games #Ventrue #video #my videos

[brightephemera]

ask meme #1 favorite character for star trek #6 media adaptations for star wars/swtor #7 game mechanics for dragon age. :)

1. Analyze your favorite character! Get as in-depth as you want.

Nyota Uhura YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW.

Sigourney Weaver spoofed the “be pretty, repeat what the computer says” role brilliantly in Galaxy Quest, but Uhura’s existence was groundbreaking. In the world of sci-fi, a world I breathed growing up, sci-fi’s Golden Age - the future belonged to smart, educated, bold astronauts of the male persuasion. Those were the heroes. And then Uhura came in, and she was smart, educated (I’ll never forgive that Undiscovered Country can’t-speak-Klingon gag), and bold, and good at her job. That scene in ?? when she was under the desk soldering to reroute some signal or other to its backup, and Spock, instead of doing it for her, told her he couldn’t think of anyone who could do it better, that was a revelation.

Also that one time a petulant space probe wiped her entire brain and she had to relearn language and reality…let’s not forget that. I hope she got her early memories back at some point? Even if not…Uhura is a construct built from the best Starfleet had to offer and she is a brave, musical, resourceful, and majorly pretty Black woman. (I should mention that, even though kid-me didn’t think that part was a big deal.) Uhura was a woman on the bridge who wasn’t serving coffee. Maybe that’s not the greatest distinction in the galaxy, but it was enough for a kid who had grown up thinking that the future was for people who weren’t like her.

6. Are there multiple media adaptions of the fandom? If so, talk about the differences between them— what does the adaption bring to the original material, what does it take away? If there are no adaptions, talk about a fic you love that has a unique or interesting take on canon.

Star Wars belongs to all media. I’m sure there are official Star Wars tweetstorms out there. I like the computer RPGs and movies best. I love that the Extended Universe exists but never sat down to read any of it.

If you’re looking for a distinctive fic, I direct you to my fanfiction gateway, the Doozzer’s inimitable Thursday Morning Wrath. Wacky meta hijinks about a Light Side Sith Warrior and her crew going about their lives. When I found a chapter that advanced plot, commented on NASCAR, and noted the sexual proclivities of everyone on board in under 1200 words, I realized…this is a form of art, and I must learn it.

7. If a video game fandom, how goes the gameplay mechanic contribute to, or detract from the narrative? Is the mechanic a good fit to the narrative, or could the narrative be better explored through a different mechanic?

Wow, so this is very, very different for Origins, 2, and Inquisition.

DA:O was pretty tame with the gameplay mechanics. The slow-mo kill animations added great to the atmosphere. Conversation was on the “see what you’re actually going to say” principle, so that really helped flesh out your character’s voice as yours.

DA2 I’m not going into detail about, but the companion approval as alignment system was fascinating, and in a way played into the “it doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, you’re just trying to get by here” theme. The fact that content unlocked for both approval and disapproval, and the fact that no one party composition would always like what you’re doing, made it…well, desirable to look up ways to optimize affection, of course, but it was also freeing. Do what you want. It’ll be -35 Anders, but whatever, do what you want. No Light Side. No celestial Points. Not even the 0-100 scale of DA:O. There are the hidden Nice/Snarky/Aggressive options but they don’t reliably come out as good or evil. Love it or hate it - do both if you want - but there is no alignment outside the judgment of the people who have known you.

DA:I Trespasser’s use of the hand-mark ability was the best freaking game/plot mechanic I have ever experienced and I don’t care who knows it. *takes a breath* All right. The interplay of main plot with war table progression with companion conversations with your mark was just incredible. So many moving parts, and it reinforced the narrative, all the way down to the changing tarot cards for your different companions based on how you chose to resolve their stories. The only problem was that they made this such a staggeringly huge game, it felt empty in places. Concentrating it more might have broken physics. So many things about that game worked.

None of them had special content for people with the Blood Mage specialization, which I consider a bad oversight. Really, guys? It’s significant. This would be nearly as pervasive an issue as a Malkavian in VtM: Bloodlines, and that was awesome (I’m told).

#long post #bright memes #meta meme #bright likes tv #bright likes gaming #star trek #dragon age #star wars