Vampire: The Masquerade is getting a D&D 5.5E crossover product, coming to D&D Beyond this year

White Wolf is the latest publisher to join D&D Beyond's third-party marketplace. Today, D&D Beyond announced its next slate of partner content, coming out later this year. One of the new products is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bound by Blood (5.5e), a new product published by Ghostfire Gaming, presumably under license. Bound by Blood will contain a new Kindred class for 5.5E (a reference to a commonly-used euphemism for vampires in the World of Darkness campaign setting), as well as a new Dark Ages adventure.

Vampire: The Masquerade isn't the first rival game to Dungeons & Dragons to post 5.5E content on D&D Beyond. Chaosium previously released a Call of Cthulhu product on D&D Beyond earlier this year, and Pathfinder released a 5E version of their popular dungeon-crawler adventure Abomination Vaults, which is set in the Pathfinder setting of Golarion. D&D Beyond serves as the largest marketplace for D&D products on the internet, and is possibly the biggest TTRPG marketplace as well, so it's not a surprise that other publishers are partnering with Wizards to get their content on the marketplace.

What's curious is the nature of the relationship between Ghostfire Gaming and White Wolf, which owns the World of Darkness setting. White Wolf has been beefing up its TTRPG studio to bolster production of various World of Darkness games in recent years, notably hiring away Jess Lanzillo from D&D. They have a publishing relationship with Renegade Games, who currently publishes various Vampire: The Masquerade products along with Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Hunter: The Reckoning. What will be interesting is whether Ghostfire Gaming plans to continue publishing Vampire: The Masquerade content for D&D, or if this is a one-off publication.

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[Thierry-Advent]

I felt a tremor in the Force as if a million goths had suddendly died…

 

[Reef]

Let's not make of this more than it is. If I understand correctly, they're releasing a single vampire class (and an adventure). That's not exactly the same level as if they were converting their entire WoD line to 5e. Or even releasing an entire 5e corebook for Vampire.

 

[Scott Christian]

Let's not make of this more than it is. If I understand correctly, they're releasing a single vampire class (and an adventure). That's not exactly the same level as if they were converting their entire WoD line to 5e. Or even releasing an entire 5e corebook for Vampire.

But to be fair, it is a step towards homogenization. Can we at least say that much is true?

 

[Reef]

But to be fair, it is a step towards homogenization. Can we at least say that much is true?

Technically, yes. But again, it's a one-off class, only available on Beyond. Unless they start doing all out conversions of their full line, I'm comfortable is saying this is more in line with cross promotion. Like that fast food adventure...what was it...Wendy's?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What strange bedfellows

The Vampire: The Masquerade brand!

 

[zarionofarabel]

 

[popuman]

I felt a tremor in the Force as if a million goths had suddendly died…

 

[GarrettKP]

But to be fair, it is a step towards homogenization. Can we at least say that much is true?

How is it a step towards homogenization? Did White Wolf say they wouldn’t be making VtM anymore because they are converting it to D&D? No, they didn’t. This is simply White Wolf giving D&D players a taste of the World of Darkness.

If anything, all TTRPG companies should be open to sharing their IPs with other TTRPG systems to give fans of those systems the chance to play in other worlds while still using their preferred system.

This is like a Sony or Microsoft releasing their first party games on rival systems. It’s good for everyone.

 

[MGibster]

What strange bedfellows

A lot of us us had similar thoughts when d20 Call of Cthulhu was released back in 2002. It was a product I certainly never wanted, but it was a fantastic adaptation and I suspect it brought some new people to CoC who might not otherwise have played it. This might bring some people to Vampire who might otherwise have steered clear.

 

[Liongo]

Oh no! Is this another bit of news that makes people think the sky is falling? Chicken Little syndrome is very widespread.