VAMPIRE Gets A 4th MASQUERADE From Onxy Path!

Onyx Path announced a new edition of Vampire: The Masquerade at Gen Con. This will be the game's 4th Edition, 18 years after the previous iteration. The game will feature updated rules, and an advanced metaplot. (thanks to Fabrício for the scoop).

Onyx Path confirms that the V20 planned run will be finished, with V:TM4 coming after. More information will be coming soon, when they get back from Gen Con.

Photo from Bryce Perry
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[ChapolimX]

Honest question, why did they change their name from White Wolf to Onyx Path? It was generally a widely recognized brand name amongst gamers.

It has something to do with White Wolf being owned by CCP and Onyx Path being a new company with a license to publish the tabletop games or something like that.

 

[Morrus]

Honest question, why did they change their name from White Wolf to Onyx Path? It was generally a widely recognized brand name amongst gamers.

As I understand it, CCP (the video game company) bought White Wolf. Onyx Path was a tabletop gaming company founded by some ex-WW folks. They then licensed the WoD stuff from CCP/White Wolf to continue producing tabletop games.

 

[turkeygiant]

As I understand it, CCP (the video game company) bought White Wolf. Onyx Path was a tabletop gaming company founded by some ex-WW folks. They then licensed the WoD stuff from CCP/White Wolf to continue producing tabletop games.

Yep this is about right, CCP absorbed White Wolf and moved/retrained a lot of their staff so they could move onto the development of the WoD video game. Eventually though White Wolf ceased to be its own entity and Richard Thomas a former White Wolf art director started Onyx Path which licensed WoD and Exalted from CCP, outright buying the Scion and Trinity licenses.

 

[turkeygiant]

I don't blame you for beeing confused but this is not right.
They are making a new edition for the old game line (Classic/Old World of Darkness), where they just made a Deluxe Edition, while still developing the New game line(New World of Darkness, Requiem included) which also just got a new Edition.

I sometimes wonder how much cannibalization/confusion these multiple systems create for each other. I have pretty much decided that I am going stick to 2e New WoD to the exclusion of everything else just for my own sanity in having a consistent rule set, as much as I like some elements of Old WoD its too much work bouncing between now 4 editions that are running simultaneously. Like take the craziness of the Dark Ages book they kickstarted, it is going to be one book with two separate editions of content in it because half the source books it references are 1e while the other half are 2e, and then what about the source books like Mage that are going to be updated to the new edition right after Dark Ages comes out, all of the sudden they will be out of sync again.

 

[Jester David]

IIRC V20 was just a reprint of Vampire: the Masquerade Revised. Something for fans of that version of the game who were less happy with the nWoD. It's not so much new as a cleaned-up version. A little like the reprinted D&D books WotC released prior to 5th edition.
And, since it's print-on-demand, I doubt it will be going anywhere. So you get to pick Masquerade 20th or this new version.


This is the first real revision of Vampire since the nWoD launched in 2004. So by the time the game launches (assuming 2016) it will have been 12 years since the previous revision to the game.

 

[TwoSix]

My guess is that they're planning to update the original Vampire:The Masquerade setting with their new Storytelling system that was introduced in the God Machine. That system is already being used in Blood and Smoke (which is Vampire: The Requiem 2nd edition) as well as Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd edition, and is currently also being used to develop Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition and some other lines (Changeling, I think?).

 

[BrockBallingdark]

If Onxy Path does 4th Edition Vampire like WOTC did with 5e for D&D, I'll be onboard. Trimming a lot of the math, making it less intimidating to run and faster combats.

I bought the V20 Dark Ages just for nostalgia, as that was my fav setting, had they announced they were doing a new edition of DA, I would not felt upset about it.

 

[turkeygiant]

If Onxy Path does 4th Edition Vampire like WOTC did with 5e for D&D, I'll be onboard. Trimming a lot of the math, making it less intimidating to run and faster combats.

I bought the V20 Dark Ages just for nostalgia, as that was my fav setting, had they announced they were doing a new edition of DA, I would not felt upset about it.

The 2nd edition of New WoD comes pretty close to being the WoD equivalent of 5e D&D already. But apparently that's not the system they are going to be using for Masquerade 4e, at some point in the past they probably should have bit the bullet and said "Ok we understand that there are fans who like the Old WoD settings and splat mechanics and others who like the New WoD settings and splat mechanics, we will keep those elements intact and separate, but they are all going to be on top of a single unified set of core mechanics"

 

[Von Ether]

As I understand it, CCP (the video game company) bought White Wolf. Onyx Path was a tabletop gaming company founded by some ex-WW folks. They then licensed the WoD stuff from CCP/White Wolf to continue producing tabletop games.

Ah. Sort of like what happened with Catalyst Games Lab, a bunch of former FASA guys who make licenced Battletech stuff.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

IIRC V20 was just a reprint of Vampire: the Masquerade Revised. Something for fans of that version of the game who were less happy with the nWoD. It's not so much new as a cleaned-up version. A little like the reprinted D&D books WotC released prior to 5th edition.
And, since it's print-on-demand, I doubt it will be going anywhere. So you get to pick Masquerade 20th or this new version.


This is the first real revision of Vampire since the nWoD launched in 2004. So by the time the game launches (assuming 2016) it will have been 12 years since the previous revision to the game.

Not quite. V20 was a compilation and mild revision of everything that had come before. It really was sort of a 4th edition in its own right, given that past editions were, by far, more along the lines of revisions and updates than the way D&D treats editions (massive rewrites).

So, I am also in the "Its too soon" camp...ish, given that 2nd Edition came out only a year after the original version.

Edit: Also, Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem are really entirely separate and different games.