Vampire
the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
By
Justin Achilli, Russell Bailey, Matthew McFarland, & Eddy Webb
2011,
518 pages
When White Wolf ended the Classic
World of Darkness line in 2004 with the Time of Judgment event (Gehenna, et.
al.) and introduced the New World of Darkness, I was upset. I felt betrayed because my favorite game
system and setting was gone and not returning.
I nerd-raged when I saw how different the setting of the New World of
Darkness was. I hated how they had
removed the wonderful and complex back story.
I didn’t buy the new books, and as much as I loved playing Vampire the
Masquerade, I moved on to other systems.
I played a lot more Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars D20, and Legend of
the Five Rings, but in the back of my mind, I was always thinking about the
World of Darkness and especially Vampire the Masquerade.
When the 20th Anniversary
Edition of Vampire the Masquerade was announced, I had already gotten back into
Vampire the Masquerade, running the Revised Edition for a group of gamers who
had never played VtM. I was so excited
to hear that my favorite game was coming back, and when the Onyx Path announced their plans to begin publishing the Classic World of Darkness game lines (along with New World of Darkness, Exalted, and Trinity), I felt like a Djinni had granted a wish! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to order a copy
of the deluxe edition or to attend the Grand Masquerade in New Orleans, but I
couldn’t have been happier. I ordered a
copy of V20 as soon as I could afford it from DriveThruRPG and the book I
received was beautiful.
V20 is a nearly exhaustive two
volume set (my version is two volumes, the Special Edition version and newest version on DriveThruRPG is a single volume) that displays all of the greatness that was Vampire the Masquerade
back in the 1990s when I started role playing, and it has also lead to a
resurrection of White Wolf products through Onyx Path Publishing and CCP
(makers of Eve Online). However, V20 is
not a perfect product. Because it was
conceived as a single book devoted to fans of the Classic World of Darkness and
Vampire the Masquerade, several issues exist with the presentation of the
material.
The first thing I noticed when
opening the book was the artwork, a mixture of black & white and
color. The artwork chosen for V20 is a
mixture of the old and the new, bringing together the nostalgia of old sessions
sitting with friends I haven’t talked to in a decade and the desire to build
new chronicles and share them with new friends and even strangers. Pulling from the vast amounts of artwork from
previous Vampire the Masquerade books, the authors have chosen some gorgeous
images that capture the essence of the setting, but they have also carefully
avoided artwork that was too ‘90s. The
new color artwork is breathtaking, especially the images of stereotypical
members of each clan that grace the pages opposite the start of a new
chapter. The artwork is vivid and
beautiful and perfectly reflects the tone and atmosphere of Vampire the
Masquerade.
Malkavian's artwork doesn't get better than this |
Every major clan is included in V20
along with their bloodlines and disciplines.
The amount of options presented can be overwhelming, and some of these
clans and bloodlines should have been left out.
While I understand the authors’ need to include an exhaustive list of
every possible clan or bloodline, along with their disciplines, I feel that
perhaps they went too far. Including
clans from Dark Ages Vampire (such as the Cappadocians and Lamia) or minor
bloodlines (such as the Ahrimanes) or even the especially strange Children of
Osiris, was unnecessary except for the sake of completion. I have no particular dislike of any of those
clans or bloodlines but I believe the space spent on these could have been
better used. More on that later.
Aside from some minor changes and
tweaks, the core mechanics are much the same as they were in Second Edition and
Revised. The most important change to
the system is to the Abilities section.
Several new skills have been added, such as Technology (for using
electronics that are not computers), Larcey (for picking non electronic locks)
and Awareness (for identifying supernatural phenomena). Dodge has been incorporated into
Athletics. Secondary skills have been
completely removed, simplifying character creation, although some hobby
abilities remain but only to round out character concepts. The focus however is on the primary
Abilities. Also, the rules for multiple
actions have been tweaked slightly and much improved by simplifying it. I was never a fan of the way dice pools were
split in Revised; in V20 you simply decide on the number of actions, then
determine the smallest dice pool, and finally split the smallest dice pool
amongst those actions. Backgrounds have
gotten a needed boost through a mechanic that allows players to pool their
background points thus binding a coterie together and letting them invest into
a shared resource pool.
Certain
disciplines have been updated as well.
The biggest changes have been to Celerity and Potence. However, the changes balance these powers
effectively giving both of them a passive ability as well as an activated
ability. Now the player has the option
to choose with Celerity whether to roll more dice on attack or spend blood for
extra actions. (The amount of blood spent for Celerity can exceed the
generational maximum.) Potence has a
similar change. Other Disciplines have
been rebalanced. The first level of
Presence, Awe, now requires the expenditure of a blood point to activate. Disciplines for all the major clans are
present up to their ninth level along with some options for levels six through
nine for some disciplines.
Setites are becoming my favorite clan |
The combat system retains the quirks
of the older editions as well as the simplicity that I always loved. Although it is possible to use grid maps and
plot every movement during a battle, that level of detail is unnecessary. The focus is on fast and loose combat that
doesn’t require anything more than the players’ imaginations and a few dice
rolls. The initiative system did receive
a minor change. Now prior to each round
of combat the players reroll initiative.
This can slow down combat rounds slightly but it can be easily changed
without affecting the system to rolling initiative once per combat.
Overall, V20 preserves the essence
of the Classic World of Darkness while updating it for the future. However, I do have one major gripe with this
book. While I understand that this book
was targeted at existing fans of the system as an anniversary edition, the lack
of an in depth history of Kindred is a big problem especially with the inclusion
of bloodlines like the Ahrimanes and Children of Osiris (are they a bloodline
or a sect?) or clans exclusive to the Dark Ages setting. However, as a book to introduce new players
to Vampire the Masquerade, this book fails to deliver needed back story to put
these clans and especially the bloodlines into perspective. I understand that V20 is supposed to be
metaplot neutral, meaning that events such as Gehenna or the Gangrel leaving
the Camarilla are left to individual storytellers, but the lack of
explanation in V20 means that new players lack knowledge that could have been
included in this tome by cutting extraneous clans like the Ahrimanes. The history of
the Classic World of Darkness setting has always been complex and often contradictory,
but its exclusion from this book is one of two glaring errors on the part of
the authors. The other error is the omission of the Caitiff which was
added in the V20 Companion that was released shortly thereafter.
The 20th Anniversary
Edition of Vampire the Masquerade marks the welcomed rebirth of the Classic
World of Darkness and Vampire the Masquerade.
Vampire has long been missed by its fans, and I look forward to
introducing more new players to this wonderful game. I am looking forward to the next Kickstarter
for The Onyx Path. Werewolf’s 20th
Anniversary Edition has just been made available at DriveThruRPG and Mage is
next up along with plenty of other books representing the rebirth of the
Classic World of Darkness. If you are
fan of the World of Darkness this book is a must buy. However, if you are a new player, you’ll need
to do some reading on the history and mythology of the World of Darkness or
find a veteran to explain some of the minutiae of lore founded in these
pages. In the future I hope that The Onyx Path, CCP and White Wolf publishing publish a book that gives more background information on this very deep setting.
The 20th Anniversary
Edition of Vampire the Masquerade is available at DriveThruRPG as either a PDF
or as a hardback book.
I think the whole point of not including all of the historical backstory and metaplot in this new edition was to make it seem friendlier to new players. Instead of focusing on getting the history right, they have free reign to make up their own. I'm okay with that. I mean, I spent an exhaustive amount of time compiling information on the history of the WoD back in the day, and spent thousands of dollars on books to do so. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story, and I incorporated most of it into my games, but sometimes it could be restricting. If a player really wanted to play some rare bloodline, most of the time I would end up telling them they can't, or the player and I would have to collaborate to come up with a REALLY good reason why that character should exist and be involved in what was going on. Now that they've become a great deal more lax regarding the history though, that is no longer a concern. I think it's actually really awesome, and I look forward to running a game using this book where I don't have to worry about all of the old history if I don't want to. Maybe Augustus Giovanni didn't usurp Cappadocius' clan, for example? Perhaps the Tremere Antitribu weren't destroyed? The possibilities are endless.
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