Back when I started writing games and fiction for the World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness, I was deeply hooked on Vampire: The Masquerade. I loved some of the existential questions that Vampire introduces: You are a monster. So what the f@*? do you do with your immortal, damned unlife? Knowing that you must feed to survive or welcome torpor?
Of course, every Storyteller and player knows that all vampires lie. Sometimes, even to themselves. To pass away the long nights, Kindred plots and schemes take decades–not days or weeks–to enact regardless of the zeitgeist. Within this schema, so many vampires don masks–whether they’re part of the Masquerade or not–to participate in their society, but also to comfortably secure the Beast within from night to night…until they can’t any longer.
This dichotomy creates a push-pull relationship between what was (vampiric lore and history), what is (modern nights), and the Noddist threat of what will be (Gehenna). Combined, this creates a deep and broad worldbuilding methodology where vampires, regardless of clan or sect, are embedded among mortals so deeply that their enmeshed existence is believable and actionable.
The trick, during any chronicle, is to balance that worldbuilding against a coterie’s activities from night to night. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition is less about feeding, and more about controlling your Beast to maintain your Humanity. During a V20 chronicle, the act of feeding quickly dulls and becomes repetitive after a while–unless you are starving, trapped, or desperate. In the gaps of ennui, the deep lore and ritualistic protocols create intrigue, mystery, and a reason for you and your coterie to “live”… Not just to survive.
Vampire has always interested me, because its nature accommodates different styles of play. When I was working on V20: Dread Names, Red List, I devised the Council of Scales, because it makes sense that Kindred history would be as messy, if not mysterious, as human history is. Critias was the perfect choice to champion this group, too. The endless bickering over what the Traditions mean or don’t mean; the roles of the Justicar and the Alastor; the question of how to keep other monsters in line… There are so many thematic questions in a Red List chronicle to explore–without getting bogged down in philosophy, politics, or lore. Any chronicle that involves the Red List, from any vantage point, is bound to be more active, more thrilling, and a lot more deadly than what players might be used to.
The Masquerade does create the illusion of “human” decency, but that doesn’t mean that vampires can or do “pass” in modern nights without help. This is the reason why V20: Ghouls & Revenants was designed as a toolkit regardless of your preferred sect. Historically, it’s proved easier to play a monster than interact with or play a character who is monster-adjacent. Both ghouls and the revenant families are tools or possessions to a vampire–mystically claimed by the Blood–and are crucial to their survival. Despite this, there is lore within this subculture as well–through the revenant families.
The idea that humans can peer into the dark is partly what formed World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters. This supplement, however, isn’t about being a monster–it’s about a group of mortals hunting for the supernatural, never knowing what (if anything) they’ll find–which includes vampires! If V20 is told from a monster’s perspective, then WoD: Ghost Hunters is a chronicle narrated from a mortal’s point-of-view. Now, with the script flipped, mortals can be terrified, hurt, murdered–even Embraced.
I’ve thought about revisiting the World of Darkness 20th Anniversary Edition many times because I have no shortage of ideas to create a comprehensive experience that balances action and investigation with clan-and-sect politics, lore, and intrigue. Who knows what’s in store for my long, winter nights?
In the meantime, you’ve got plenty of options to explore the World of Darkness, too, well beyond the trio of titles I mentioned!
What about you? What do you love about the World of Darkness?
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