Vampire: The Masquerade

"Monsters we are, less monsters we become."

- Anonymous vampire

Vampire: The Masquerade was a horror-based roleplaying game developed by Mark Rein·Hagen and White Wolf Game Studio's in 1991. It was the first of White Wolf's live-action roleplaying games and utilized the Storyteller System. A second edition of the game was produced, which allowed for more traditional table-top roleplay using a traditional dice system. A third edition or, Revised Edition, was published in 1998, which expanded on the gameplay mechanics as well as updated many of the original rules. Vampire: The Masquerade used as gothic-punk setting where players had the ability to play vampire characters, as well as human hunters or revenants. The system was later incorporated into White Wolf's larger "World of Darkness" setting, which included other roleplaying systems such as Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming and Wraith: The Oblivion. The title of the series comes from "The Masquerade", referring to vampires' attempts to hide the truth of their nature from humans and their governments, but is also a double entendre referring to vampires' efforts to convince themselves that they are not truly monsters. In 1992, Vampire: The Masquerade won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1991. The game line was discontinued in 2004 but was followed by a revision of the setting in Vampire: The Requiem.

Description
The game uses the cursed and immortal Vampiric condition as a backdrop to explore themes of morality, depravity, the human condition (or appreciation of the human condition in its absence), salvation, and personal horror. The gloomy version of the real world that the Vampires inhabit, called "The World of Darkness", forms an already bleak canvas against which the stories and struggles of characters are painted. The themes that the game seeks to address include retaining the character's sense of self, humanity, and sanity, as well as simply keeping from being crushed by the grim opposition of mortal and supernatural antagonists and, more poignantly, surviving the politics, treachery and often violent ambitions of their own kind.

Game system
Vampire is based on the Storyteller System. In addition to the general Storyteller rules, it uses a number of specific mechanics aimed towards simulating the vampiric existence. A vampire has 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. These tricks simulate many of those portrayed on film, such as turning into animals or mist, sleeping in the ground or having unnatural charisma and powers of suggestion.

Close to the central theme of the game is the Humanity mechanic. Each vampire has a Humanity score, measuring how closely in touch with his human nature the vampire is; as it decreases, the vampire becomes more susceptible to his Beast, the feral side of the vampiric soul that is driven entirely by rage and hunger. Brutal, immoral actions risk lowering a vampire's Humanity score. If the individual's Humanity drops to zero, the Beast takes over and the vampire is in a state of constant frenzy known as Wassail.

Notes & Trivia

 * Vampire: The Masquerade was the basis for the short-lived 1996 television series Kindred: The Embraced.