World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Roguey]

Please, remind me again why were you cheering for a Dead State flop on release?

I really don't recall much about how I felt about Dead State five years ago. A vague sense that it was going to be incredibly repetitive and then I turned out right?

 

[Ismaul]

It's a good question tbh. There were no World of Darkness video games made during the CCP period. Is it because nobody asked? It's worth looking into.

I expect it's because CCP didn't want competition with its inhouse WoD MMO. They thought they would take the whole market, and move the Bloodlines crowd online.

I always thought it was the most popular PnP after D&D (I am talking about VtM). Or at least it is (was?) pretty popular here.

VtM/WoD was for a long time if not the #2 PnP RPG at least in the Top 5, until about 10 years ago. But that was before CCP took control and put everything into the MMO; before the D&D market split with 4E and Pathfinder emerged as 2nd. And now Pathfinder is not even in the Top 5 (which is most likely due to its 2nd edition being in development). Still, D&D is most of the market, the difference in market share between D&D and whoever's 2nd is huge.

If you want to know more, ICv2 has been doing quarterly Top 5s for a long time. Vampire is now back to #5. There's a retrospective at ENWorld outlining the Top 5 RPGs during 2008-2013, showing how Vampire fell from #3 around the beggining of 2009, how Pathfinder entered the market at #2 in the middle of 2009, and how Warhammer/WH40K games were consistently in #3 for 2-3 years, later replaced by Star Wars (the new movies' influence I bet). Pathfinder and Star Wars eventually took over D&D when 4E was done and 5th edition was announced.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Not to mention vampires in WoD don't have a sexuality.

Christof - Anezka? Dream of Constantinople? Lily - E?

Sexuality =/= love. I'm referring to the canon lore that vampire lose interest in sex altogether, but can simulate it if they want to. Meaning either no sexuality (which I prefer) or pansexuality (which I don't) as terminology. This really hasn't stuck around, though, but I think of it as a perversion of the lore.

In canon lore vampires can also have periods, and thinbloods can apparently genderswap. There comes a time when we must do away with canon and make our own way.

Not to mention vampires in WoD don't have a sexuality.

ahem

Anyway, whatever nonsense White Wolf put it into V5 is irrelevant because this is the Mitsoda show.

Except that female faggot wasn't a vampire yet and any seduction on our part was due to agenda we've had, there was no romance there, the only thing we cared was the objective, once we've reached it we moved on.

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

 

[Cael]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

 

[Orma]

https://wccftech.com/paradox-hints-more-world-of-darkness/

Paradox Hints Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Could Pave the Way for More World of Darkness
By Alessio Palumbo


When Paradox Interactive purchased White Wolf in October 2015, World of Darkness fans immediately began to hope in a Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 game. After all, from a videogamer’s point of view, things were largely stuck under CCP’s ownership of White Wolf, especially after the World of Darkness MMO was canceled in April 2014 after nine long years of development.

As it turns out, creating a sequel to the cult 2004 RPG developed by Troika Games was something Paradox already had in mind when they acquired White Wolf. They were also lucky to quickly find a developer with the right pitch, Hardsuit Labs, which began working on the project soon after the acquisition.

RELATED Bloodlines 2 Devs Talk About Making Sure the World Has Lots to Do and Is Spruced with Supernatural Bits

Interestingly, in an interview with GamesBeat conducted at the Game Developers Conference 2019, Christian Schlütter (RPG Segment Lead Producer at Paradox) hinted that Bloodlines 2 will also be a way for the publisher to reignite interest in the whole World of Darkness setting and open up ‘for a lot more opportunities’.

Mitsoda: We cannot be specific about what else you might encounter right now, but I will say that it is the World of Darkness, and not just Vampire the Masquerade.

Kipling: One of the great things about the World of Darkness is how rich it is in terms of the ability to speak to today, and then weaving that darkness through it. Not just vampires.

Mitsoda: Sometimes people can be just as bad as vampires, too.

Schlütter: It’s also fair to say for us that one goal for Bloodlines II is to bring the IP back, to show people how cool this universe is, and then open up for a lot more opportunities.

Truth to be told, there already is another game in development in the World of Darkness setting. It’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, an action RPG due next year on PC and consoles, developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Bigben (who acquired the rights from Focus Home Interactive). Werewolves are also pretty much confirmed to be in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, with the ‘Season of the Wolf’ pass that sounds basically focused on them.

Of course, there are other IPs in World of Darkness such as Mage, Hunter, Wraith, Changeling, Demon, Mummy, Beast. Perhaps we’ll see some of that in videogames if Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 are successful when they launch in 2020.

 

[Malpercio]

So I guess this will be another game that will be impossible to discuss here without putting half of the forum on ignore. This forum really got pretty sad.

 

[Cael]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

 

[Zombra]

WoD works best if set in the 1990s. Once you hit a world where everyone has a camcorder in their pocket the Masquerade needs to be abandoned. It would either be constantly violated and a sizable portion of the internet would know vampires are real, or some very hard to believe magic needs to be introduced that makes it nigh-impossible to violate it unintentionally.

Either that, or you need to recognize that you're telling a story that isn't about 100% realism ....

 

[ColonelTeacup]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

You don't consider flirting to be romance?

 

[Wunderbar]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

You don't consider flirting to be romance?

That's not romancing.
"Romancing" is when you're constantly checking npc after every major event only to hear "i need to do some calibrations" or something like that

 

[ColonelTeacup]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

You don't consider flirting to be romance?

That's not romancing.
"Romancing" is when you're constantly checking npc after every major event only to hear "i need to do some calibrations" or something like that

Please do not lewd the garrus. Garrus is for bromance, not romance.

 

[Cael]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

You don't consider flirting to be romance?

Part but not all of it. Are you seriously trying to tell me you have no idea what romance is???

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

The Therese vs Janette showdown should have taken place in front of a mirror. They did a terrific job with camera angles to showcase the battle of two personalities locked in a single body, but the whole thing with pointing a gun looked very awkward and glitchy. I would guess that at some point this cutscene was meant to take place in front of a mirror, with Therese pointing a gun at Janette in the reflection, but they couldn't figure out how to implement reflections, so they dropped the idea.

 

[Wunderbar]

The Therese vs Janette showdown should have taken place in front of a mirror. They did a terrific job with camera angles to showcase the battle of two personalities locked in a single body, but the whole thing with pointing a gun looked very awkward and glitchy. I would guess that at some point this cutscene was meant to take place in front of a mirror, with Therese pointing a gun at Janette in the reflection, but they couldn't figure out how to implement reflections, so they dropped the idea.

vampires cast no reflection in a mirror

 

[Ismaul]

imagine the horror of never knowing if you applied your makeup perfectly

i bet many women would reconsider wishing to be a vampire

 

[Fedora Master]

imagine the horror of never knowing if you applied your makeup perfectly

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

The Therese vs Janette showdown should have taken place in front of a mirror. They did a terrific job with camera angles to showcase the battle of two personalities locked in a single body, but the whole thing with pointing a gun looked very awkward and glitchy. I would guess that at some point this cutscene was meant to take place in front of a mirror, with Therese pointing a gun at Janette in the reflection, but they couldn't figure out how to implement reflections, so they dropped the idea.

vampires cast no reflection in a mirror

Only Lasombra have no reflection in the WoD universe.

 

[The Bishop]

This is an indirect indication that WoD works best if set in the 1990s. Once you hit a world where everyone has a camcorder in their pocket the Masquerade needs to be abandoned. It would either be constantly violated and a sizable portion of the internet would know vampires are real, or some very hard to believe magic needs to be introduced that makes it nigh-impossible to violate it unintentionally.

It's really a non issue. A sizable portion of the internet knows that UFOs are real. Just fill youtube with endless stream of fakes, let some crazies talk about them for a while, and in a short while almost nobody will take another claim about vampires seriously, no matter how compelling the evidence is. I'd say modern time is more fitting for Masquerade than any time before.

 

[Latro]

i don't actually remember, can you really have intercourse with janette? I know she's supposed to be crazy, but I would have liked it more if the player just gets ripped apart during a "sex scene" screen black-out.

 

[Fedora Master]

i don't actually remember, can you really have intercourse with janette? I know she's supposed to be crazy, but I would have liked it more if the player just gets ripped apart during a "sex scene" screen black-out.

You can and your character even asks "Wait, can I even still do it?"

 

[Latro]

i don't actually remember, can you really have intercourse with janette? I know she's supposed to be crazy, but I would have liked it more if the player just gets ripped apart during a "sex scene" screen black-out.

You can and your character even asks "Wait, can I even still do it?"

eh, would have preferred a true death game over for lulz and flavor

 

[ColonelTeacup]

What about when you get to bang jeanette?

Jeanette was less about romance and more about fun and pleasure, which, of course, vampires are not supposed to do because they are above it all, apparently.

For you, perhaps.

You don't romance her type. Or rather, you generally don't get the chance to before the boots knocking happens. VtMB definitely didn't go down the romance path. A bit of flirting and bang. Same thing with Morrigan in DAO.

You don't consider flirting to be romance?

Part but not all of it. Are you seriously trying to tell me you have no idea what romance is???

Two can play that game Cael. Are you seriously telling me flirting continously with someone then having sex isn't romance???

 

[Swigen]

This is an indirect indication that WoD works best if set in the 1990s. Once you hit a world where everyone has a camcorder in their pocket the Masquerade needs to be abandoned. It would either be constantly violated and a sizable portion of the internet would know vampires are real, or some very hard to believe magic needs to be introduced that makes it nigh-impossible to violate it unintentionally.

It's really a non issue. A sizable portion of the internet knows that UFOs are real. Just fill youtube with endless stream of fakes, let some crazies talk about them for a while, and in a short while almost nobody will take another claim about vampires seriously, no matter how compelling the evidence is. I'd say modern time is more fitting for Masquerade than any time before.

Smartphones and body cams haven’t stopped the police from shooting blacks and tazing retards to death, I’d imagine vampires would give even less of a fuck.

 

[Herumor]

Only Lasombra have no reflection in the WoD universe.

That has changed in V5. The following blurb is from the alpha version of Chicago By Night.

While all vampires lose something profound at their Embrace, the Lasombra exhibit the most telling signs of this spiritual deficiency. When viewed in a reflective surface or a recording medium, their image appears distorted, sometimes almost invisible. Whether flickering, twisted on transparent, their reflection betrays their undead state and lineage. Similarly, modern technology relying on touch or other form of direct interaction tends to glitch or simple act unresponsive to Magisters, and electronic detection systems easily pick up the tell-tale signs of their passing.

Anyone seeing the reflection or recording (live and otherwise) of a Lasombra vampire can instantly recognize them for what they are, provided they know what they’re looking for. People with no prior knowledge will know something is wrong, but likely attribute the distortion to irregularities in the reflecting surface or recording errors. Note that this will not hide the identity of the vampire with any certainty, and the Lasombra are no less likely to be caught on surveillance than any other vampire.