VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE: PLAYERS GUIDE
Even more Children of the Night, to help haunt your play sessions
Designer: Kevin Schluter & team | Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Vampire the Masquerade is an interesting beast. Relatively light in mechanics, but very heavy on interpersonal conflict, morale choices and lore. In that respect, it is almost the opposite of Eat the Reich (see our review on page 70); since it’s very hard to convince yourself that you are playing “the good guys” in a game of Vampire. Instead, you are hidden horrors in a World of Darkness, forced to do terrible things, as you unstoppably prey on humanity just to continue your unlife.
This latest Players Handbook is an expansion which very much requires the core book. That could be better explained; it took me until page 18 to realise this isn’t a slimmed down quick start! Unlike many RPG sourcebooks, this one is designed for Storytellers and Players alike, adding many ideas for background and setting that all players can draw upon. This is the strength, and potential weakness, of the World of Darkness gamesthe depth and intricacy of the world history and politics are voluminous.