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Vampire: The Masquerade | HearLore
Common questions
Who created Vampire: The Masquerade and when was it released?
Mark Rein-Hagen created Vampire: The Masquerade and released it in 1991. Rein-Hagen developed the game to shift the perspective from hunting monsters to becoming them.
What is the origin of vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade?
The game establishes that the Biblical Cain was the original vampire. This concept became a big turning point in the game's development after Rein-Hagen initially tried to shy away from religion.
How does the blood pool system work in Vampire: The Masquerade?
A vampire's blood pool signifies the amount of human blood or vitae currently in their body. This blood can be spent to power abilities and perform supernatural tricks such as turning into animals or mist.
What is the purpose of the Masquerade in Vampire: The Masquerade?
The Masquerade refers to an organized conspiracy primarily maintained by the Camarilla to convince the general public that vampires do not exist. The Camarilla believes the Masquerade is the cornerstone survival strategy for Kindred to prevent the kine from rising up and exterminating them.
How many clans exist in Vampire: The Masquerade and what are they called?
It is widely accepted that there are 13 clans with 13 founders. The 13 major clans include the Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel, Hecata, Lasombra, Malkavians, Ministry, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Toreador, Tremere, Tzimisce, and Ventrue.
When was Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition released and who published it?
Vampire: The Masquerade
Mark Rein-Hagen did not read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles until the very end of his development process, yet he created a secret society of vampires that would redefine the genre. In 1991, he released Vampire: The Masquerade, a tabletop role-playing game that shifted the perspective from hunting monsters to becoming them. The game was born from a simple realization: hunting vampires would become boring as a game premise, so Rein-Hagen decided players should play the vampires instead. This decision created a gothic-punk version of the modern world where players assumed the role of Kindred, struggling against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters, and each other. The game drew inspiration from role-playing games like Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, as well as films like The Lost Boys, but it introduced a unique religious theme. Rein-Hagen developed the idea that the Biblical Cain was the original vampire, a concept he called a big turning point after initially trying to shy away from religion. This religious upbringing and the influence of a comic book given to him by White Wolf business partner Stewart Wieck shaped the core identity of the game. The visual style was striking for its time, featuring a simple cover with a photo of a rose on green marble, setting a tone that was dark, urban, and focused on plots and intrigue rather than straightforward dungeon scenarios.
The Storyteller System
The mechanical heart of Vampire: The Masquerade was a system designed to prioritize story over complex mathematics. Rein-Hagen turned to Tom Dowd, co-designer of Shadowrun, to create a dice pool system that used ten-sided dice instead of the six-sided dice common in other games. Players rolled a number of dice determined by their skills, and the game counted the number of dice which met or exceeded a target number, usually six, to determine success. This comparative dice pool system allowed for quick calculations and made the game accessible to new players, though it sometimes produced unexpected results where a highly skilled character might fumble. The game introduced a blood pool signifying the amount of human blood or vitae currently in a character's body, which could be spent to power abilities and perform supernatural tricks. A central theme of the game was humanity, measured by a score that decreased as vampires committed inhumane actions. If a vampire's Humanity dropped to zero, the Beast took over, and the vampire became a monstrous, barely sentient creature called a wight. This system of mechanics was designed to simulate the vampiric existence, where players had to balance their supernatural powers with their fading humanity. The game also introduced Disciplines, a list of broad supernatural powers that included superior strength, speed, and toughness, as well as other powers such as mystic senses, mind control, and blood magic. This helped the game appeal to fans of the superhero genre, which was more marketable at the time than horror.
Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition was released in early 2018. It was distributed by Modiphius Entertainment with production of supplements licensed to multiple publishers including Modiphius and Onyx Path.
In the World of Darkness, vampires, known as Kindred or Cainites, are undead beings whose hearts do not beat and who do not age. They are thinking, feeling beings capable of thought, emotion, and empathy, though this capacity may diminish with age or through a desensitization caused by immoral actions. The only sustenance they require is blood, and they have a blood pool signifying the amount of human blood or vitae currently in their body. This blood can be spent to power abilities and perform supernatural tricks, such as turning into animals or mist, surviving and healing from grievous injuries, or having unnatural charisma and powers of hypnotic suggestion. A vampire's vitae can be fed to others to inspire false feelings of love and obsession, creating a dependency called the Blood Bond. In most cases, a victim must drink three times from the same vampire on three separate nights to become bonded to them. Once bonded, the victim feels a twisted sort of love for the vampire and they become the most important person in their life. The victim also becomes more susceptible to mind control by that vampire and are willing to do anything, even risk their own life, to aid them. Mortals, animals, and even other vampires may also be bound. The Sabbat practice a form of group blood bonding called the Vaulderie, which inspires loyalty among the sect. It will also instantly break conventional blood bonds if performed correctly by a trained vampire, typically a Pack Priest. Blood bonds can usually only be negated with time and effort, depending on how strong the bond is and whether the victim can avoid the vampire for long enough.
The Masquerade and The Jyhad
The Masquerade refers to an organized conspiracy, primarily maintained by the Camarilla, to convince the general public that vampires do not exist. The Camarilla believes the Masquerade is the cornerstone survival strategy for Kindred and fear that without it the kine would rise up and exterminate them. Prohibitions against exposing the existence of Kindred existed prior to the Camarilla's formation, however, in a set of ancient laws known as the Traditions. The First Tradition reads: Thou shall not reveal thy true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing such shall renounce thy claims of Blood. This stricture was not consistently nor as strictly enforced until the Inquisition of the 15th century required it. During this period, Kindred were destroyed in large numbers by vampire hunters, prompting the formation of the Camarilla as a sect whose primary purpose was to promote and enforce the Masquerade. The Masquerade is largely enforced through self-policing, but it is primarily the job of the Prince in Camarilla controlled cities to enforce it. Princes may use any means at their disposal to ensure vampire society stays hidden. Punishments for breaches are usually draconian in nature due to the seriousness of the Masquerade. Final Death, often by means of a ritualized Blood Hunt by other vampires, is not uncommon. When breaches do occur, the Camarilla takes great pains to repair them. This could include anything from erasing a mortal's memories using supernatural powers to manipulating mortal pawns in order to keep events out of the media. The Masquerade is one of the main in-game points of contention between the two major factions of vampires in the World of Darkness. While many vampires see the pragmatism in the Masquerade, some do not agree with it. The Sabbat do not uphold the Tradition that justifies the enforcement of the Masquerade but behind closed doors even they take some steps to contain breaches. In-game, around the early 2000s, after the intelligence agencies of the world discovered the existence of a clandestine computer network known as the SchreckNET, they formed the Second Inquisition. Utilizing the knowledge of the Society of St. Leopold, which had been canonized under the Vatican, they killed thousands of vampires the world over. This forced a secondary level of secrecy in the game world. Vampires now use everything from burner phones and disposable email, to the use of carrier pigeons and information dead drops, sometimes using hypnotized or enslaved humans to pass information.
The Thirteen Clans
A clan is the character's vampire family. All members of a clan allegedly descend from the same founder, known as Antediluvian. It is widely accepted that there are 13 clans with 13 founders, though not all of them predate the biblical Flood. Some clan founders, such as Giovanni or Tremere, usurped their position via diablerie. Clans may have a social or political component to them, but a clan is something a vampire is Embraced into rather than choosing. Those without a clan are known as Caitiff, and are considered outsiders. Each Antediluvian is a grandchilde of Caine. In the back story of the game, the Antediluvians started a war among themselves, called the Jyhad, and use their clansmen to fight this war for them. Each clan has a unique set of powers called Disciplines, and their own set of weaknesses. Two of the original clans, the Salubri and Cappadocians, were usurped by newer bloodlines, the Tremere and Giovanni, respectively. The 13 major clans include the Banu Haqim, formerly known as the Assamites before Fifth Edition, who are undead assassins paid in Vitae for use in a special ritual that bring them closer to their Antediluvian, Haqim. The Brujah were noble philosophers and warrior-poets at the time of Carthage, but have degenerated to a clan of rebels, rogues, and anti-authoritarians. The Gangrel are animalistic shape-shifters who shun the cities for the wilderness beyond. The Hecata formed from the ashes of several, mostly related bloodlines of necromancers, after the leader of the largest faction, Augustus Giovanni, was slain in Fifth Edition. The Lasombra historically associated with religion and rulership, the Lasombra see power over others and themselves as their noblesse oblige. The Malkavians are lunatics whose madness grants them strange insights. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, is a clan of cultists who once worshipped their Antediluvian progenitor, the Egyptian god Set. The Nosferatu turn into hideous monsters at the Embrace, forcing them to dwell in the shadows. The Ravnos are seen as outcasts, vagabonds, and charlatans. The Toreador are sensitive, artistic, and sometimes debauched hedonists fascinated by the mortal world. The Tremere are descended from a house of mortal mages who stole immortality through experiments with Tzimisce Vitae. The Tzimisce are otherworldly and scholarly, ruling over their lands in Eastern Europe for centuries. The Ventrue traditionally play the roles of aristocrats and kings, seeking power and wealth to support their rule over Kindred and Kine.
The Death and The Rebirth
The original 1991 version of Vampire: The Masquerade was superseded by a second edition in 1992 and the Revised Edition in 1998. The Vampire: The Masquerade game line was discontinued in 2004, at which point it was superseded by Vampire: The Requiem. In mid-2010, White Wolf switched exclusively to a print-on-demand model via online role playing game store DriveThruRPG, starting with a number of formerly out of print Vampire: The Masquerade books and gradually making more titles available as they were ready for print. On the 17th of March 2011, White Wolf announced Vampire: The Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition, which was published during the Grand Masquerade event in New Orleans on the 15th of September 17, 2011, and released to the attendees. The 20th Anniversary Edition contains revisions of rules and is a compendium of information previously provided in supplemental material in the game's earlier life. After White Wolf ceased publishing books directly, the licences to its tabletop roleplaying games, including Vampire, were transferred to Onyx Path Publishing, founded by former White Wolf Art Director Rich Thomas. White Wolf's live-action Mind's Eye Theatre products were published by By Night Studios. In August 2015, Onyx Path Publishing announced its intention to create a fourth edition of Vampire. Two months later, Paradox Interactive purchased White Wolf and all of its intellectual properties from CCP Games. It was announced that White Wolf would move ahead with a new edition of the game instead of Onyx Path, and White Wolf would remain a subsidiary of Paradox Interactive. With game designer Kenneth Hite as lead developer, Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition was subsequently released in early 2018. It was distributed by Modiphius Entertainment, with production of supplements licensed to multiple publishers, including Modiphius and Onyx Path. After the release of the Anarch sourcebook in November 2018, Paradox Interactive announced it would no longer allow White Wolf to develop the series in-house due to references in the sourcebook to the anti-gay purges in Chechnya and other controversies surrounding White Wolf. In December 2018, Paradox announced that Modiphius Entertainment would continue the development of the series with final approval by Paradox Interactive. In November 2020, Paradox Interactive announced that Renegade Game Studios would become the publishing partner for the entire World of Darkness brand and they would release all future Vampire: The Masquerade products. The company also announced it would bring IP development back in-house under the World of Darkness team, hiring former lead developer Justin Achilli as the World of Darkness Creative Lead. In 2021, the core rulebook and several other products were revised and updated to meet new ethical standards enforced by the team at Paradox. V5 was released on Roll20 in June 2021. In July 2021, Renegade Game Studios released the updated versions of Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition books for retail distribution. The online toolset World of Darkness Nexus, which supports Vampire: The Masquerade and other games in the series, was launched in June 2022. Nexus includes bundles of both physical and digital game products, and contains a rules and lore compendium, character creation and management tools, matchmaking, and video chat functionality.
The Shadow and The Screen
Several associated products were produced based on Vampire: The Masquerade, including live-action role-playing games, dice, collectible card games, video games, and numerous novels. In 1996, a short-lived television show loosely based on the game, Kindred: The Embraced, was produced by Aaron Spelling for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Vampire: The Masquerade , Redemption, a video game based upon the Vampire milieu, was developed by Nihilistic Software and published in 2000 by Activision. Vampire: The Masquerade , Bloodlines, developed by Troika Games and published by Activision in 2004, uses Valve's Source engine. A sequel, Bloodlines 2, was released in 2025. Vampire: The Masquerade , Coteries of New York is a video game by Draw Distance, released in 2019 for Windows PC, and 2020 for other platforms. A sequel, Shadows of New York, was released in 2020. Vampire: The Masquerade, a line of interactive fiction titles developed by Choice of Games from 2020 to 2022. Vampire: The Masquerade , Bloodhunt, a video game is a free-to-play battle royale game developed and published by Swedish developer Sharkmob. It was published on the 27th of April 2022. Vampire: The Masquerade , Swansong is a role-playing video game developed by Big Bad Wolf, released in 2022 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Vampire: The Masquerade , Justice, a virtual reality game was released on the 2nd of November 2023. Moonstone Books published a series of comic book adaptations of Vampire: The Masquerade beginning in 2001 which are now hard to find, but some of them made it into DriveThruRPG's Print on Demand service. There have been multiple novels published, the most extensive one being the so-called Clan Novels, which came in a current time and a medieval series. Vampire: The Masquerade is an ongoing horror comic book published by Vault Comics since 2020. World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw is a limited series comic published by Vault Comics. It contains game material for the fifth edition of the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop, allowing gamers to actually play the events of the series in their own games. It also merges lore with Werewolf: The Apocalypse. A compilation album, called Music from the Succubus Club, was released by Dancing Ferret Discs to serve as a soundtrack for the Vampire RPG. L.A. by Night is an actual play web series using the Fifth Edition of Vampire, led by Jason Carl as the storyteller, which premiered in September 2018. The cast includes regular members B. Dave Walters, Cynthia Marie, Alexander Ward, Erika Ishii, Xander Jeanneret, and Josephine McAdam. The first three seasons were distributed by Geek & Sundry, but the fourth season onwards was hosted on World of Darkness' channels. Seattle by Night is an actual play web series and podcast, distributed by Penny Arcade, using the Fifth Edition of Vampire, led by Jason Carl as the Storyteller, which premiered in November 2019. The first-season cast included Mike Krahulik, Dora Litterell, Jasmine Bhullar, and Jerry Holkins. The second season starred Krahulik, Bhullar, Holkins and Luis Carazo, and is a prequel to Vampire: The Masquerade , Bloodlines 2. Vein Pursuit is an actual play web series, distributed on the official World of Darkness' channels, using the Fifth Edition of Vampire. It premiered in January 2020. Karim Muammar acts as Storyteller and the show features various Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Labs employees who play as a group of incompetent Anarch envoys trying to drive from L.A. to Seattle to back up a courier. The events of the show precede the video game Bloodlines 2. NY by Night is an actual play web series using the Fifth Edition of Vampire, led by Jason Carl as the storyteller, which premiered in July 2022. Before the premiere, World of Darkness announced the planned structure of the first three seasons. The first season focuses on four Anarchs, played by Alexander Ward, Mayanna Beren, Aabria Iyengar, Joey Rassool, who chafe under the Camarilla's rules. Season two focuses on Camarilla Kindred maintaining their power in the city. Season three was described as bringing these parallel storylines together as the two coteries collide, though as of 2025 has yet to manifest. It acts as a sequel to L.A. by Night.
The Legacy of Cain
When released in 1991, Vampire: The Masquerade was one of the top ten best selling tabletop role-playing games of the year in the United States. Martin Wixted reviewed Vampire: The Masquerade in White Wolf #29, rating it 5 out of 5, and said: Vampire: The Masquerade is a game which will leave you thirsting for campaign-style play. Its character development elements are particularly rich and satisfying over a period of extended adventuring. But with pregenerated characters and the possibility for mayhem that the power of a vampire persona offers, don't forget to try a simple night out. In the November 1991 edition of Dragon, Allen Varney said the production values were unprofessional, including amateurish artwork and poor copy-editing. Varney also found the rules lacking in sufficient detail. However, he applauded the wide-ranging campaign advice, saying: There are whole chapters on how to plot stories, maintain suspense, handle players, and so on. He concluded: If you're up for a potent and even passionate role-playing experience, look for this game. Steve Crow reviewed Vampire: The Masquerade in White Wolf #34, rating it 5 out of 5, and said: The layout has been cleaned up, the text is crisp, clear and fully intact from the original, and the MOOD! Yow! In a 1996 reader poll by Arcane magazine, Vampire: The Masquerade was ranked 6th on a list of the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time. Editor Paul Pettengale said that, although it had a tendency to take itself a little too seriously, Vampire's success was due to the continuing appeal of the vampire itself, and to the structure and design of the game. He said that while the game was often hard to get right, it can be an immensely interesting and thought-provoking game, and one of the most effective horror RPGs around with the right group. Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2013 rated Vampire: The Masquerade as #10 in the top ten role-playing games of all time, saying: I don't like vampires, be they shiny or horrific, this game has to be given its props as it propelled White Wolf into a full-fledged gaming company when gaming companies were in the process of dying in droves. In 1992, Vampire: The Masquerade won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1991. In 1993, the second edition of Vampire: The Masquerade won Casus Belli awards for the best role-playing game of 1992, and for the best French translation of a role-playing game of 1992. In 2007, the game was inducted into the Origins Awards Hall of Fame. In 2019, the 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of the Year and won the Origins Fan Favorite Award. It is the second RPG to win Best-Roleplaying Game twice. In 2023, interactive novel Vampire: The Masquerade , Sins of the Sires by Natalia Theodoridou was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing.