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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)

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Average Rating:3.6 / 5
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Nicholas K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/31/2017 23:41:35
This is a direction that, frankly, is not good for Masquerade and the adjoining World of Darkness game lines. I initially hoped the new version would be a refinement on the 20th anniversary edition released a few years back, that for me revitalized my interest in the game. This iteration comes across as a shallow parody of the previous system with far too many gimmicks that remove player agency while being mechanically less robust.

In particular, I have three distinct point of contention that struck me concerning the rules. The first is the elimination of Attributes as we know them in every other presentation of the Storyteller system. The tripartite division cuts out too much depth and complexity that existed before. In this iteration, I cannot have a character who is gifted in intelligence but flawed in terms of wits, the archetypal absent-minded professor. In making the specializations purely additive it takes away from the richness of characters who have mechanically backed up flaws and make the proficiency of characters far to one note.

The second, and perhaps most important, issue is the inclusion of the gimmick mechanic of hunger dice. Instead of facilitating player agency by giving them the tools of resource management with the blood pool. the dice leave this aspect to chance. This is not fun, engaging, or rewarding in any sense of the term. Moreover, this mechanic defeats the design goal of creating a system that is simple to learn and utilize. A resource management system that utilized integered units that is found throughout World of Darkness game lines is profoundly simple to teach and keep track of in midst of play. The hunger dice fail in this as they necessitate consulting a table, always a no-no for fast paced and approachable mechanics, and make the use of blood more of a gamble than a true cost, which defeats the core concepts of Masquerade. The third is the spliting of Willpower into "willpower" and "composure". There is no reason for this other than finding a way to make a trait that goes to 10 go to 5 twice instead. It adds nothing of substance to the game system and the narrative of heroic exertion that the mechanic is meant to model. A further problem is how the lower value of trait or pool is rolled for resisting powers. The sample disciplines that were shown that tested against willpower had players rolling pools that could potentially get to 10, easily get to 7, and often start at 4 or 5 dice against a pool that would max out at 5 if the opponent had never spent willpower. This strongly favors the initiator of the power and gives little chance to defend. Much like the attributes issues above this depicts characters who have strengths but few weaknesses, success without much fear of failure. This is bad for drama and bad for gaming.

There are myriad other issues. The unbalanced allotment of skills across categories and the profoundly confusing decisions on grouping (Firearms are Mental?!?). The compulsion table tearing away the player agency in an unsatisfactory way, like the hunger dice making what could be strong conscious choice into a gamble. The lack luster physical disciplines that make me think this is a third edition of Requiem. The basic mechanics that make this a third edition of Requiem. The replacement of Nature and Demeanor with Virtue and Vice from Requiem. Both Requiem and Masquerade are great games and neither deserves this butchering of mechanics in such a slip shod manner.

Finally, the tieing of clan flaws to compulsion is baffling as what should be a core part of a vampire's curse is instead far into the compulsion track. Additionally, the implementation of Generation as an afterthought in the rules is not a good sign. The weight of generation is a key part of the politics and power in Masquerade and a core system should be designed with it in mind and not as an afterthought. Yet another instance where the hunger dice and compulsion mechanic show their design flaws. Now for the scenario presented alongside the rules. It is not good. In fact, I honestly have to say that I found it horrible. Firstly, it utilizes the blood bond as a means to shanghi players into a stupid plot. This stupid plot involves going up against the German Police's equivalent to S.W.A.T. alongside other assorted factions such as a Second Inquisition. The Second Inquisition is not what bothers me but rather the conflict with the police, as it is basically the last thing that you would ever want to do in MASQUERADE. Throughout all the previous iterations of the game line it was hammered in that mortal authorities are the biggest threat to the vampire community, not the hunters, not the factionalism of vampire politics, just the authorities having undeniable proof of their existence and responding as one would against blood stealing monsters. That this scenario so flagrantly invites players to slap that in the face, in what is supposed to be a Camarilla game, is galling. Additionally, I noticed that in giving the ST "advice" on encouraging role play it specifically mentioned to "let the player discussion play out like a small larp scene". Why? Why assume that the players and ST of a digitally distributed product that mainly caters to TABLETOP players have any experience with larp? Why privilege larp by making it a presupposed common ground when it is not? It almost leads me to think that the oversimplifications and inclusion of gimmick mechanics was made to appeal (somehow) to larp players, except I don't think they would appreciate the loss of characterization from butchered Attribute and the intrusion of gimmick dice would be even more time consuming during larp than at the table. As a final note, I am galled that the authors of this pre-alpha thought this would be easy to teach and run. I taught my group the basic rules to the 20th anniversary edition in maybe 5 minutes, scaling difficulties and all, and it was not hard for anyone to pick up. My players felt the pressure of expending blood far more acutely as they watched the boxes ticking down, each time knowing that they were choosing to push themselves closer the thirst and frenzy without needing gimmick dice to create drama. As a fan of both the Old/World of Darkness and the New/Chronicles of Darkness settings and systems I can honestly say that this is a highly disappointing and unnecessary overhaul of a system that has been doing well for over two decades. I honestly believe that an implementation of the 20th anniversary rules with some of the expansion for the dramatic systems that were seen in Werewolf 20 and Mage 20 would be the best way to go for this edition. Particularly with how the interest in gimmick dice could effect those game lines The direction of this pre-alpha rule set only alienates old fans with its gimmicks and removal of meaningful complexity and does nothing that would be appealing to draw a new audience in and renew interest in the brand in the wider gaming community. I have spent several years practically evangelizing these games in my local gaming community, with many people not realizing that these games and White Wolf are still around. This pre-alpha rule set feels like a slap in the face to both the rules and setting as well as to me as a fan who has made other fans of the brand.

Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/23/2017 13:09:37

I like the overall direction the game is taking. However! I have to agree with others, that replacing Nature and Demeanour with Virtue/Vice feels like a step backwards. Even Requiem replaced Virtue and Vice with Mask and Dirge, reminiscent of VtM's system.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Charles E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/08/2017 09:13:31

The system makes some interesting changes as well as some fairly unnecessary ones. I like the abstraction of Hunger but not the constant rolling for it every scene. The adventure is hot garbage. It's railroady, fairly regularly insults decisions players make, pushes people in specific directions and is about punishing the characters for things they did before the adventure began which they had no agency over. Even then, it's fairly veiled about this being just a beatdown of some characters. Then there's the edginess, oh dear got the edginess. This is deep and edgy in a way which makes me imagine it responding to criticism by stomping to its room, blasting some Linkin Park and drawing images of Shadow the Hedgehog being more awesome than Sonic to post on their DeviantArt page.

Download literally any other Vampire demo.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Marie N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/07/2017 13:26:59

The play test shows many good things.

The hunger is a good system but I wonder why refund once again a system that was finally well balanced with the 20th edition.

I follow this closely



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Greyson H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/04/2017 09:10:56

I'm not a fan of the simplification of Attributes. It doesn't make the characters more custimizable it makes them less so. Splitting Willpower into 2 traits with 1-5 ratings just so you can add Willpower to dice pools seems silly. The Skill choices need work, Physique AND Athletics? Alertness AND Awareness? Dodge is a skill unto itself instead of just being rolled into another Skill? I like the Hunger mechanic but it needs a limit on use that isn't just Frenzy. Players WILL abuse the current mechanic. The Taking Half means you never need to actually roll Hunger Dice...

Overall I feel like you guys simplified the wrong things and left others, like Skill selections, too convoluted but again I like Hunger and I like the Compulsions table even though the rules make it entirely avoidable.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Alan S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/30/2017 13:37:06

I loved it. It was a great rule set, and a great story. Full of corruption, retribution, and lots of Vampiric Flavor. The Compulsions and Hunger system were Really nice. I think I would like the mechanics altered a bit in later versions. Mostly that the only way to reduce your last hunger die is by killing to be reserved for low humanity or some other similar location. I feel like the possibility of being a benign vampire, is what creates the most potential for corruption. Otherwise I thought it was fantastic. Hunger dice are different colored dice to create complications, Compulsions help you act like a vampire when you roll ones on Hunger dice. And there are 3 compulsions specific to the clans instead of the usual clan flaws, Really nice. Makes every clan prone to acting more like their clan should. Really Really worth a try. Be warened this is a PVP module, One of the PCs is opposed to the others in secret, but the blood bond helps keep that player from being too oppositional to the group, creating a more subtile effect. A great version of the game, HUGE Improvement. And a good fun scenario.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Lothar T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/27/2017 18:51:37

While I understand this is only a pre-alpha set, and much has yet to be developed, I love the direction White-Wolf is going with this.

I started playing Vampire back in 1991, in my early 20s, and played it as a very harsh horror game (with politics).

By about 1993-1994, it seemed that most people were playing it as Vampires are superheroes and the horror aspect became much less pronounced.

Both the rules, and the adventure, bring things back to that horror core. The Hunger mechanic, and the implications of this, force the players to face their beast in a way that hasn't been in the forefront since 1st edition (or at least some of our interpretations of that).

The adventure is filled with very hard choices which balance the political 'horror' (of hard choices that might destroy your standing... or strengthen it at a cost) with the personal horror of being a damned predator.

If you think that such horror is 'immature' (which in my opinion ignores the corpus of vampire literature and folklore in exchange for emo power fantasies) then you may not like this.

If you want a vampire game that is firmly entrenched in a harsher realm of horror, while also feeling very much like early Vampire: The Masquerade, then give this a try, give White-Wolf good feedback on the rest of the devlopment and enjoy!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Adam D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2017 16:23:30

i like the hunger dice, i can even deal with additional successes opposed to having a higher number then six that you need to get. as i have read it it seems like the whole world would not exist though. the original game is based on low generation older vamps having all the power with this new system, i feel , that a group would just take out the prince and take over, or just go on living normal lives. there is no individual need to try to lower your gen to get more powerful, you just need to be patient and role play a bunch of boring things to gain enough experience to challenge the prince. i am also against the attributes being reduced to three. one of the greatest aspects of this game is that you can literally make you as a vampire, and there are to many people who are intelligent, but nether witty or perceptive, extremely atractive but not manipulative. but dropping to just three sure you can take a specialty but you lose some customization On your character. bottom line it still needs work and i would pick the older versions over the new.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by kenneth h. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2017 15:26:44

I have not played it yet,but I like the direction of the new system.It seems like a much cleanier system. Hopefuly it will mesh up good with the other WOD games.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Vampire: the Masquerade (V5 pre-alpha playtest)
Publisher: White Wolf
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2017 13:10:00

This is a dumbed down version of the Vampire: the Masquerade that has reduced resolution and has been touch inappropritely by a By Night Studios fan boy.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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