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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Brettwick G. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 02/27/2014 15:24:45

Like many of the reviewers I have been a long time follower of Vampire: the Masquerade, originally in its Table Top form, and eventually into its Live Action Role Play iterations. I’m a big fan, but have never felt the LARP rules were anything more but a bottle-neck to actual role playing. Thus, with previous versions of the LARP’s rule-set being both clunky and time consuming I had hoped that I would see any number of changes from Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade.

…and I did.

I’m a big believer one should reveal where they sit, before telling you where they stand on any issue. I’m a social player, am drawn to Vampire for the politicking and back-room manipulations, and enjoy the game as both a role playing opportunity as well as a social event. I am not a rules lawyer, I am not a combat player, and I’m always more interested in things that help me create plot and story than I am in ways to “win.”

In summary, I believe Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade took a great deal of steps in bringing the game more in my direction.

First off, the book is huge. HUGE. Get it in your head now that this book should have been accompanied with a holster, shoulder bag, or personal Sherpa. More importantly, it’s not just fluff! Every Clan, Bloodline, Discipline, or character option as it pertains to playing a Vampire is all conveniently located in one single book. I am a big fan of one stop shopping, and having every single rule you’ll need to run your Vampire game in a single location is huge for me.

Second, having the entire history of Vampires and their Sects was impressive. I thought I had known the majority of the history, but this book clearly showed me numerous evolutions I wasn’t aware of, as well as having filled in the gaps in history that I had apparently missed along the way. However, it is long, it is big, and it would be a great deal to ask any new player to read and assimilate before jumping into a game.

Now as for the Disciplines (which have been the meat and potatoes of the Vampire LARP scene up to this point), those got a few tweaks, some simplified, some clarified, and some greatly improved. In the end though, I didn’t feel that any of the Discipline changes dramatically impacted the kind of Discipline effects you might otherwise have been accustomed to.

However, Character Creation and the impact of Merits and Flaws have on your character has seen dome dramatic improvements. I truly believe that you could sit down and make a half a dozen characters of the same Clan and have each of them be dramatically different – well beyond just which Attributes you chose to be Primary for your character (which, by the way, gets a cool makeover in forcing the Player to select a specific Physical, Mental, and Social focus for their character). Your 7 points of Merits and Flaws can so dramatically impact the kind of character you’re creating that Players will have to carefully consider just what kind of character it is they’re trying to make right from the get go.

The Challenge System is streamlined, the equipment rules are a beautifully designed A la carte system that allows players to customize their characters inventories, and the Influence rules are far more simplistic and yet somehow more useful and versatile than they have ever been. But, the real kicker here are the new rules for Status. What I believe to be an integral part of any Vampire game has bees Status, and Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade really delivers a unique and innovative way to put meaning to Vampire’s social hierarchy. This was by far one of the most “grin causing” reads in the entirety of the book – so I won’t spoil it for you.

So in giving any RPG book a rating one has to ask themselves, what am I rating? Is it the quality of the writing? Is it the changes to the rules? Am I just comparing it to other versions of the game?

I love this book. I love the rules changes and improvements, but it is beefy. You’ll have a load of rules to remember, and as always it’ll take a great deal of hand-holding to get your new players comfortable with the system (let alone the world). I’m a believer of less is more, and sadly Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade falls handedly in the more category.

I would argue that Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade was a concerted effort to build a Live Action system that truly represents the essence of Vampire the Masquerade – and in my mind it was the most successful reimagining of the system since its inception.

Thus! 4 of 5 stars. A great book, a tremendous value, and a solid system.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Nick V. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 01/21/2014 15:22:58

I've been a longtime fan of LARPing in a Vampire: The Masquerade setting for the longest. I got introduced to LARPing through Laws of the Night so the entire story of Caine, the 13 major Clans, and the depth of all the metaplot is what hooked me on this setting. For the longest time Vampire: The Requiem was just a cheap shadow of the glory days of LARPing that I had so I was ecstatic when I heard there was gonna be a new LARP book for V:TM coming out! I'll start off this review with the good...

The majority of the rules have been GREATLY improved and streamlined since Laws of the Night. The updated Influence rules are so much more versatile and simple yet elegantly effective for anyone planning to play an Influence Whore, working the mortal scene and moving your chess pieces about by making a few phone calls.

Retainers as well have been simplified yet made MUCH more useful as well as easy for ST's to judge their strength and know what their limitations are rather then having to ask the player to whip out a sheet for said retainer and comb over it for any game breaking stuff you might try to sneak past someone (especially in a crowded game who have the ST's checking tons of character sheets.)

The same can also be said about the equipment rules, the challenge system, and even merits and flaws (I especially love the enforcement of characters only being able to have 7 points worth of merits EVER, thus making each character unique rather then characters blurring together and having very little uniqueness after they hit a certain amount of XP.)

Now, as for the bad points of the book...

We'll start off with a personal gripe, why have the Giovanni and the Followers of Set allied themselves? If anything, the Nosferatu should have been in bed or been pulling for the Giovanni to come into the Camarilla since those 2 clans combined would corner the market on Information Gathering via Wraiths and Shrek.net! This just feels like written metaplot because one of the authors felt it would be cool rather then what would work from a practical and business standpoint for clan survival. I think I could gloss over this if the metaplot didn't have the friggin Assamites coming into the Camarilla's fold... Their entire clan's exterior novelty was that they were Mercenaries! How is that good business for the Clan if your lot is now tied down to the Ivory Tower?! I mean the reason why I favor Vampire the Masquerade over Vampire the Requiem is metaplot... So this definitely effects the rating I'd give it since it's a big part of why others will play this Vampire LARP setting over the other.

As for combat... I'm guessing there's a lot of people play testing and reviewing this with rose colored nostalgia glasses, and I really can't blame them. It's been 15+ years since the last LARP book for V:TM came out, and while it is true that they did streamline combat, they've also made it logistically abstract. You can tell between the Mass Combat rules and limiting the number of attackers on a player, that they had the ST's in mind to make their life easier, but at the same time you've now created a new subconscious metagaming notion to let players take way more risks then they would before. Only having 2 physical attacks hit you a turn is great for players who don't like getting jumped, ambushed, or stomped on by a character dumping XP into a Retainer firing squad... But this is gonna give players reason to be much more brazen and daring then they should be.

The system (possibly unintentionally) gives players every benefit of the doubt to come out of combat alive and well. If you do try to have multiple attackers jump someone, Mass Combat rules come into play and somehow manage to deal less damage then if 2 people were individually attacking a target. This could have been easily fixed if there was an option in the mass combat rules stating each extra attacker adds 1 health level of damage to the main attack but the most you can hope for is just a +1 bonus per assisted attacker sooooo ummm, yeah, some how Mass Combat makes your attacks nerfed. To top that off, there are now Techniques that let you regenerate health levels without even spending blood, and if you really wanna stand their and laugh at the ST's NPC's, the 5th dot of Fortitude makes you all but immune to anyone NOT getting an Exceptional Success or using Potence 5. Which means without any min-maxing or the ST having to drop the hammer on you, it's quite easy for characters to quite frankly act bigger then their britches and not having to worry physical repercussions... Also, I just find it bizarre that Firearms now do more damage to an undead body then Melee weapons (without Potence)

The Willpower system would be GREAT since retesting would mean far more if you had a finite amount of Willpower to draw from, but with the added rule of being able to get Willpower back if someone votes for you adding a lot to a scene or are impressed with your role playing, this inadvertently creates an opportunity for metagamers to start doing the whole "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" unspoken rule where "back scratching" are votes for Willpower points.

The power balance between Techniques and Elder powers is totally backwards. While Techniques (Or back in the previous iterations, combo disciplines) were suppose to be useful and clever applications of Disciplines being combined to form useful new powers, Elder level Disciplines were suppose to be the purview of dark and ancient beings who were too powerful to pay any attention to the Neonates and Ancillae, now you have Techniques outclassing most of the Elder level powers in the book. The Second Wind Technique makes Elder Fortitude look like a joke, it costs less, does more, and only costs a Standard Action as opposed to Elder Fortitudes requiring no action and doing less.

Despite the majority of these complaints, the book is still a vast improvement over Laws of the Night, I just get the feeling during the playtesting of this product, a lot of players weren't able to be objective in their feedback on what to fix or balance since they were just happy to be getting a new product from their beloved Masquerade line of books in over 15 years.

Still, I recommend it since it's great for introducing new people to the world of Vampire the Masquerade and making things easy and simple to understand, just beware if you were hoping for things to have remained similar to what the old metaplot had established.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Sean M. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 01/10/2014 11:02:43

Overall the quality of the book is very high. It is a very good adaptation of the rules for a LARP setting.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par kenneth f. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 01/02/2014 18:24:30

i'm the new game master to Vampire The Masquerade and this book have given me and my players what we need to have some good Friday nights. so all i can say it is great



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Daniel T. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/28/2013 06:00:42

An amazing rewrite of a classic ruleset. Every issue the game has ever had is fixed, neatly and precisely. Character creation is smooth yet involves genuine choices that both assist and limit the character. Game-breaking power combinations have vanished, yet all character concepts remain viable. Everything Vampire should ever have been. Get it.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par vernon d. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/27/2013 16:22:19

Great update to the original classic, fixes all the balance issues and updates the setting.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Kay S. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/27/2013 12:07:34

5 Stars - Super excited about this revision of the classic game. The new setting is dynamic and breaks away from the same thing that I am played with for the last 20 years. I love the incorporation of bloodlines as well as the streamlined character creation process. I can wait to get friends together and play this game.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Beau G. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/25/2013 18:28:14

Holy cow this is amazing! I played revised MET OWOD for years and loved the old systems and theme. They kept the core ideals of the theme, created a great system for power balancing and R&U clans in Genres and really made a fast and quick system for chops that does not take away from classic rock paper scissors. Its lengthy but for good reason and love the new bloodlines techniques and focus features!



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Marshall O. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/22/2013 23:05:28

I am a grandmaster griper and complainer, and I have no serious, or even moderate, complaints to make. Excellent work from cover to cover.

The new ruleset fixes the problems of the old systems. Gone are endless retests. Gone are 'the bomb' and 'win on ties' powers. Gone are absurd situations, such as a strong mortal caught in Shroud of Night suddenly suffocating because he lost two firearms challenges, and dropping under the 'choke to death' threshold. Willpower is not tied to Generation, superpowers disguised as merits are gone. The metaplot has been advanced and brought to a state that fosters cloak-and-dagger politicking and small-scale aggressions rather than all out warfare.

The rules are tight, streamlined, and force you to build your character according to concept. No longer can players afford to become invincible nightmares, capable of doing everything themselves, racking up all the physical disciplines, then developing one-shot-kills. No one character can do everything. I converted a large PC I have in a networked game, and had to make some hard choices. The result was a focused sheet that backed up the concept from top to bottom without any basketweaving or powers that did not suit the concept.

One thing that I've seen that always gets people when they hear it is that you can only ever have 7points in merits total ever. Keep in mind that Merits are hugely powerful, especially the Clan-specific ones that can only be taken at Creation. If you consider Merits to be big benefits, rather than little enhancements, you'll see that it's a good thing that they're capped.

The clarity and intent of all rules is clear and spelled out. They didn't take the old cop-out of 'up to ST discretion' for everything the previous books lazily left up to the ST.

This is the set of rules I wish I'd had to play with for the last 13 years that I've been playing live-action vampire.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Mark C. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/19/2013 11:41:22

Simply Brilliant, this is the perfect VtM LARP book. Balanced, fun, and full of inspiration for STs and Players alike. In the past every LARP book had been an adaptation of the Table Top books, leaving a gulf in rules and overall quality. MET: VtM is a leap forward in LARP first thinking. You don't need anything else but this book to run the game, this book has it all, setting, rules, and beautiful art. While mechanically it blows it's predecessors out of the water, they also went the extra mile to rewrite and clarify the Metaplot (including filling in the missing years from 2004-present) with the same LARP first mentality. I'll even be using their setting updates for my Table Top games in the future, it's that good. I can't offer enough praise to BNS for this amazing book.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Paul H. D. B. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/19/2013 09:13:05

A very informative, in-depth and informative book. Of all the releases to date of Vampire the Masquerade, this one explains everything with the most complete clarity of them all. What was missing in the 20th Anniversary edition of the genre is covered here, in much broader terms. The explanations of title, their duties, the examples of the various figureheads of all the clans, the sections on history are the book's best highlights. Many of the the disciplines are concise, but very much to the point and easy to understand.

The clanbooks and the other volumes of Havens of the Damned, Children of the Night, Counsel of Primogen, Thaumatergy, Archons and Templars, Ghouls, the Black Hand and the Inquisition hold original data, but others such as the guides to the sect, the core rulebooks of today and yesterday, all lack the exhaustive details that Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade offers. All together, they have the information, not one of them has it on their own. They are like pieces of the overall puzzle and only once they are all in place, would you find the facts and figures contained in the subject of my review.

Buy this book if you want to dominate the world of darkness, only needing the clanbooks and the situational and political volumes to complement it. Don't purchase it if you are more of a historian, or a collector on the subject of Vampire the Masqeurade and wish to put all the pieces together over time. Either embrace this book as a vampire would his or her victim, or let others seize it and buy the ones that came before. What's contained within the pages of Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade is heinously well-written and enlightening.

A savior and slayer of the sects and bibles of the Vampire of the World of Darkness. A Goliath that can crush all of them underfoot.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Marcus W. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/18/2013 18:34:02

They have fixed all the holes is the setting and the rules are perfect. I was really worried that this was going to be just another product, but it is by far the most solid product in the World of Darkness I have ever seen.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/18/2013 18:18:28

The sales pitch is basically true. This book really provides everything. Compared to most other role-playing systems, it's like core books and half a dozen most popular supplements rolled into one book. The basic mechanics are simple (e.g. challenge and fight mechanic fits on two pages). The character sheet has been streamlined - having less stuff on it than the tabletop version, simplifying character creation which is really streamlined (and there are hints about it on the character sheet) and consists of simply following the steps. The system seems more differentiated from tabletop than in nWoD books (and in a good way), while also being more tabletop-like than the original system (again in a good way, as it avoids trait tracking). The basic mechanic involves both rock-paper-scissors (in limited numbers) and a test pool. This is compared to tabletop's handful of d10s, original rules' rock-paper-scissors (it looks like it from a distance, but the bomb symbol is not there anymore, and trait bidding and tracking system is replaced by a simple number), and nWoD MET's card draw system.

In Croatia, we tested the rules in three games and they work very well for their intended purposes and playstyle - just don't try running the combat with a lot of unprepared people... without using the mass combat rules. We'll be running them regularly starting January 2014 as part of the Camarilla Agram chronicle in Zagreb, so if you're around you can try it with us.

Apart from the rules, the rest of the book's content is pretty much stunning. The number of mechanically different characters is astounding. Different clans and bloodlines not only provide what is similar to "classes" in some other games, but they also provide some hints on role-playing that character. And in a way, lot of things do. Hints and suggestions on role-play and character goals are pretty much all over the place. The clan and bloodline characterization, tons of available lore (both general, for your faction of vampires, and for your clan), the political system that's included, the boon economy, how XP system works and some very high-quality storyteller advice (which is if you ask me one of the best parts of this book, covering starting from scratch, how to organize stuff, how to write scenarios and plot, impact on players, tips, pitfalls, dealing with problem players, better involving other players, set dressing... an awesome section). If you simply run it by the book, you'll provide a lot of hooks for both players and characters to keep them engaged.

Art-wise, the book is impressive. The layout is awesome. The full-page photos are fine, though I liked those in V20 more. However, there will also be the Deluxe version featuring art by Tim Bradstreet - that should solve the problem. The print version will be in a leatherette cover, with sewn bookmarks and silver edged pages - it's a limited collector's edition, and the price is such. It's still available on the preorder page at the time of writing. But even the standard version feels rich and professional due to its' art - a huge step up from Laws of the Night.

The stock NPC creation system is fast, and will allow you to build an appropriate NPC (whatever the manner of creature it is) in a few seconds, saving you the trouble of building a full character. It also features the rules on building the creatures from other World of Darkness settings - hunters, werewolves, mages, fae, wraiths, demons - though they're not mechanically the most faithful renditions from their original systems, as here they're approximated with Vampire rules - but it's a decent approximation for most. The section also includes the rules for building vampires which were not included in the PC section (Methuselahs, Blood Brothers, Lhiannan, Nagaraja).

The lore was moved forward a few years, which brought it to an interesting point - it's familiar to previous Masquerade players, continued the storyline and keeping the richness of the setting in a slightly evolved form while removing the emphasis from the original meta-plot. And it's not just lore, layout or full-page art - the wording itself is often full of adjectives and describes things in such a way that the book oozes atmosphere. Intertwined between lore, mechanics and art are also a total of four short stories, written by Jason Andrew and Ree Soesbee. But that's always been the standard deal with White Wolf books. Plenty of lore and atmosphere. The PDF form has hyperlinked table of contents, index and several other places in text which works well for finding stuff quickly - though there are players who'd appreciate a shorter summary. There's a Quick Start Guide coming early in 2014, but I don't know how it will be organized in content. The page count of the PDF is also increased by sample equipment cards, included character sheet and a substantial listing of all the Kickstarter backers (I'm on page 529 :)).

Final conclusion? Well, a larp can be many things. Many good larps rely on no or minimal mechanical rules - simply on a good plot and setup. I wrote some of them. Larps like this one are simply another type of the event, and they have an appeal of its' own. And Vampire larps can be very influential - not only that they're played in many countries across both Americas and Europe (and perhaps wider - that's the power of distribution), but there were also games like "Helsingin Camarilla", played in Helsinki in 90's (described in the Nordic Larp book), which set quite a few standards.

This book is a new chapter in the Vampire larp tradition. In my opinion, it's made better than any of the core Vampire larp books before it - simpler and more streamlined in way how it works, richer in its' options and better looking, an upgrade in almost every conceivable way. It's clear that a lot of research and effort has been put into it - it's not a "let's get some money quickly" scheme, a lot of stuff has been carefully rewritten for a reason. Additionally, during the development process the folks from the By Night Studios have shown themselves to be communicative, serious about the feedback and supporting their players, and displaying a good sense of humor. A plus in my book, and I hope they continue doing that.

If what I described sounds like a larp you want to play, than get the book. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good - and as advertised, it's all you need to start larping or join an existing game. If you're interested in Vampire, you'll get it anyway. If you're a tabletop RPG player who'd like to try larping, this is a style that you'll find familiar and non-threatening (and you can probably use it for tabletop play as well). For $25 in PDF, it's an excellent value, providing not only mechanics but also plentiful lore, good advice and cool stories in a wholesome, visually attractive package.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Jeff S. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/18/2013 12:23:50

This is VERY quality work. Indexed, tables, very rich graphics. 550 pages of excellence. I was astounded, after my last new V:tM book I bought, how completely and utterly satisfied I am with this product. I could not hope for a more complete guide for running and playing a vampire larp. Well done and seriously deserving of 5 stars.



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Mind's Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade
par Chad H. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/18/2013 11:07:56

I wasn't sure what to expect but I would have been happy with any change or updates to a story that hasn't had an update in over a decade. The authors have done a truly amazing job with this product. Not only are the mechanics changed so that people can play what they want to play without making something seem less of a character concept. They built a game that is built from the ground up to be played as a LARP. They created something that is built as a LARP first rather than a simple conversion of another game.

The modification of how they handled generation is amazing and it makes it suit your play style rather than the often currently used dogma of playing what gives me the most willpower or traits.

The real jewel in their creation is that they seriously updated that background story. The story alone makes this a revitalized epic of one of my personal favorite hobbies. I loved the sections on the Anarchs, Camarilla and Sabbat. They even have unique merits and character creation methods.

I will be honest I was expecting a swimming pool of depth and I got the Marianas Trench. The art is beautiful and inspiring. The Nosferatu art in particular is beautifully tragic.

If you don't own this then you should and you support this product. If you are a LARPer and want something that could revitalize your game then I suggest you look no farther than these amazingly well done rules.



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