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Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7495082" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p><strong>3 out of 5 rating for Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"><em>Vampire Fifth Edition</em> is better than I thought. My expectations were low and I was regularly pleasantly surprised. The mechanics are good, the custom dice are a nice option, Hunger has a contest presence without interfering with the game, and the system retains Humanity as a sliding moral scale that separates feral vampires from those that manage to retain their compassion. Throughout my reading of the book I had to fight the urge to start planning a campaign and stifle a desire to run another game in my already stretched free time. And if I do return to the World of Darkness, I might very well pull much of the rules and mechanics from this volume.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Additionally, while there were concerns that the game might be pro-fascist and made use of “Nazi dog whistles” and iconography/ symbolism of hatred, the game doesn’t seem to represent that as a whole. There’s some inelegant passages, but in general the game just seems to be clumsily trying to be edgy and topical rather than openly pro-fascism or pro-hate. Which, frankly, is probably pretty standard for the game: I doubt Second Edition Revised would hold up well upon rereading and will likely have similar instances of forced maturity and R-rated scenes for the sake of being “adult”.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Furthermore,<em> Vampire the Masquerade</em> has always had some uncomfortable sexual violence themes and aspects of assault, domination, and power fantasies. This game addresses these pretty plainly, while offering tools to make the game comfortable without glossing over those aspects, pretending they don’t exist, or just shifting the responsibility to the gamemaster.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">But…</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">This is not a book for the uninitiated. This is not a book for someone who played a couple games of <em>Vampire </em>in college a decade ago, heard about a new edition, and wants to start again. This is a foundation to update the mechanics found in an existing library of <em>Vampire the Masquerade</em> books. If you’ve never played Vampire before, this book will likely confuse you and give you a fraction of the tools you need to actually run the game. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Despite being a hefty 400+ pages, this book feels woefully incomplete. Accessories and expansions are not only expected and a bonus, but required. Clans are absent, disciplines are missing, NPCs are limited, and lore is not present. Especially compared with earlier editions, this book seems lacking and detail-anemic. Somehow, this book is less comprehensive than 2nd Edition Revised, despite having over a hundred additional pages! This is annoying at the best of times, but is much more problematic when said past editions are easily available online. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Unless you’re just starting a new game building upon lore you already know, you’re much better off grabbing a Print on Demand copy of <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/94815/Vampire-The-Masquerade-20th-Anniversary-Edition" target="_blank"><em>Vampire 20th Anniversary</em></a> from Drive-Thru RPG. Or hunting down used copies of <em>World of Darkness</em> and <em>Vampire the Requiem</em> from <a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1312.R1.TR0.TRC0.A0.H0.TRS1&_nkw=vampire+the+requiem&_sacat=0" target="_blank">eBay</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Requiem-Modern-Gothic-Storytelling/dp/1588462471" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, or <a href="https://www.nobleknight.com/Search?text=Vampire+the+Requiem" target="_blank">NobleKnight.com</a>. While mechanics might be less tight and the world less contemporary, the book will at least seem moderately complete and the lore more accessible. </span></span></p><p></p><p>Read my full review <a href="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/5010" target="_blank">here</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7495082, member: 37579"] [b]3 out of 5 rating for Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition[/b] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma][I]Vampire Fifth Edition[/I] is better than I thought. My expectations were low and I was regularly pleasantly surprised. The mechanics are good, the custom dice are a nice option, Hunger has a contest presence without interfering with the game, and the system retains Humanity as a sliding moral scale that separates feral vampires from those that manage to retain their compassion. Throughout my reading of the book I had to fight the urge to start planning a campaign and stifle a desire to run another game in my already stretched free time. And if I do return to the World of Darkness, I might very well pull much of the rules and mechanics from this volume.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]Additionally, while there were concerns that the game might be pro-fascist and made use of “Nazi dog whistles” and iconography/ symbolism of hatred, the game doesn’t seem to represent that as a whole. There’s some inelegant passages, but in general the game just seems to be clumsily trying to be edgy and topical rather than openly pro-fascism or pro-hate. Which, frankly, is probably pretty standard for the game: I doubt Second Edition Revised would hold up well upon rereading and will likely have similar instances of forced maturity and R-rated scenes for the sake of being “adult”.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]Furthermore,[I] Vampire the Masquerade[/I] has always had some uncomfortable sexual violence themes and aspects of assault, domination, and power fantasies. This game addresses these pretty plainly, while offering tools to make the game comfortable without glossing over those aspects, pretending they don’t exist, or just shifting the responsibility to the gamemaster.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]But…[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]This is not a book for the uninitiated. This is not a book for someone who played a couple games of [I]Vampire [/I]in college a decade ago, heard about a new edition, and wants to start again. This is a foundation to update the mechanics found in an existing library of [I]Vampire the Masquerade[/I] books. If you’ve never played Vampire before, this book will likely confuse you and give you a fraction of the tools you need to actually run the game. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]Despite being a hefty 400+ pages, this book feels woefully incomplete. Accessories and expansions are not only expected and a bonus, but required. Clans are absent, disciplines are missing, NPCs are limited, and lore is not present. Especially compared with earlier editions, this book seems lacking and detail-anemic. Somehow, this book is less comprehensive than 2nd Edition Revised, despite having over a hundred additional pages! This is annoying at the best of times, but is much more problematic when said past editions are easily available online. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]Unless you’re just starting a new game building upon lore you already know, you’re much better off grabbing a Print on Demand copy of [URL="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/94815/Vampire-The-Masquerade-20th-Anniversary-Edition"][I]Vampire 20th Anniversary[/I][/URL] from Drive-Thru RPG. Or hunting down used copies of [I]World of Darkness[/I] and [I]Vampire the Requiem[/I] from [URL="https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1312.R1.TR0.TRC0.A0.H0.TRS1&_nkw=vampire+the+requiem&_sacat=0"]eBay[/URL], [URL="https://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Requiem-Modern-Gothic-Storytelling/dp/1588462471"]Amazon[/URL], or [URL="https://www.nobleknight.com/Search?text=Vampire+the+Requiem"]NobleKnight.com[/URL]. While mechanics might be less tight and the world less contemporary, the book will at least seem moderately complete and the lore more accessible. [/FONT][/COLOR] Read my full review [URL="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/5010"]here[/URL]. [/QUOTE]
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