Game News Vampire: The Masquerade narrative RPG in development by The Council creators Big Bad Wolf

[Infinitron]

Tags: Big Bad Wolf; Nacon; Vampire: the Masquerade - Swansong

All the attention is focused on Bloodlines 2 these days, but some of you might remember that Paradox originally intended to license the World of Darkness IPs to other publishers. For example, the Cyanide-developed Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood action-RPG announced back in 2017. The publishing rights for that game were acquired by up-and-coming French publisher Bigben Interactive back in November, six months after they acquired Cyanide itself. I mention this because today Bigben announced that they were expanding their World of Darkness portfolio further by publishing a Vampire: The Masquerade RPG of their own. The developers are Big Bad Wolf, the French studio responsible for the underrated episodic historical adventure The Council, and I assume their Vampire "narrative RPG" will be a similar sort of game. Here's the relevant excerpt from Bigben's press release:

After a first foray into the World of Darkness universe with Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood, BIGBEN is proud to announce that its partnership with Paradox will be extended and that a game under the Vampire: The Masquerade licence is in development. Developed by Big Bad Wolf, creators of the episodic adventure game The Council, the game aims to define a new genre: the narrative RPG, inspired by the rules of the tabletop RPG. The studio will share more information at Gamescom in August.​

A representative from the website Wccftech appears to have attended Bigben's event and got a bit more information about the game:

If one thing could ever come as a surprise is when you realise that what’s already a huge IP is now getting expanded further than you thought it was. This is the case with the World of Darkness / Vampire: The Masquerade IP.

Not only are Paradox Interactive developing and releasing, in March 2020, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, the sequel to one of the best RPGs ever made, there’s another game in the works.

At the Bigben Interactive event today in Paris it was announced that Big Bad Wolf, the developers of The Council, have been working on a new narrative-driven RPG set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. This isn’t linked to the aforementioned Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, though it is set in the same world and will feature the things you would expect it to.

The information revealed so far is very limited and understandably so as the game has only been in production for three to four months. What has been said is that unlike The Council, Vampire: The Masquerade will not be an episodic game. It will be a full, large, RPG featuring a large narrative, with branching dialogues and everything you could expect from a Vampire: The Masquerade. All of the clans, the disciplines, they’ll all make their way in and work within the rules of the traditional tabletop RPG.

The only other thing that was said is that we won’t see this Vampire: The Masquerade for at least two years. All we can hope is that it will be the grand sort of RPG that really suits the license. I would say, following The Council, Big Bad Wolf should at least deliver on the dialogue options and variety. As for the rest, let’s wait and see.

All I know is I’m more than a little excited about the potential of more than one RPG in the setting. More information on the project will be divulged at Gamescom in August; stay tuned for more.
​

And that's basically all we know right now. We'll be seeing more of Bigben's other two RPGs - Werewolf and Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory - as soon as E3 next month, but for this we'll have to wait a bit longer.

 

[V_K]

The Council was pretty damn good, and a very fresh take on RPG/Adventure - and VTM setting, for all my reservations about it, seems like a perfect fit for the kind of gameplay and storytelling BBW aimed for.

 

[Abu Antar]

I had forgotten all about this. I hope one of these games turns out to be good.

 

[Roguey]

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Walking Sim

Though most people do seem to like the walking sim elements of Bloodlines the most. Tides of Numenera failed because of all the words, perhaps this will succeed with brevity.

 

[V_K]

The Council was the opposite of a walking sim. There were actually quite a few failure states and bad endings.

 

[harhar!]

Calling it now: This game will be the better VTMB 2.

 

[HeroMarine]

Looks 5,000 times better than Bloodlines 2.

 

[HeroMarine]

Going by "The Council" trailer, Infinitron. Damn, you're fast.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Looks 5,000 times better than Bloodlines 2.

Looks like a rocket-fueled jump to hasty conclusions.

 

[Urthor]

This, this is incline.

 

[Ismaul]

Though most people do seem to like the walking sim elements of Bloodlines the most.

Bloodlines, a walking sim? Dafuq. How do you even define that concept so it can apply to the game?

The game isn't about exploring vistas, aside from girls in skimpy clothes that is, PC included. The game area is quite small, and the most walking you do, in the sewers, is generally reviled. It is not Morrowind.

 

[Van-d-all]

Calling it now: This game will be the better VTMB 2.

That's a pretty low bar tbh...

 

[hexer]

Tides of Numenera failed because of all the words, perhaps this will succeed with brevity.

Tides of Numenera failed because they made a story with you as the secondary character and everything revolving around the Changing God.
For me, the game would have been much more interesting with you as the Changing God interacting with your Castoffs.
And the interesting setting was severely underused, so much potential wasted.
Colin tried but he's no MCA.

 

[Roguey]

Bloodlines, a walking sim? Dafuq. How do you even define that concept so it can apply to the game?

The game isn't about exploring vistas, aside from girls in skimpy clothes that is, PC included. The game area is quite small, and the most walking you do, in the sewers, is generally reviled. It is not Morrowind.

You're thinking of hiking sims. I'm talking about walking sims, an evolution of the adventure genre where the interactive elements only involve walking and talking.

 

[Infinitron]

The prototypical walking sim is something like Dear Esther which doesn't have much talking either. Not really fair to call a game with a heavy focus on dialogue choices a walking sim IMO. "CYOA game" is a more accurate pejorative.

 

[V_K]

Visual Novel more like If you want to go pejorative, that is. And don't we already have a vampire VN with that Cobbett crap everybody already forgot?

 

[Ismaul]

Bloodlines, a walking sim? Dafuq. How do you even define that concept so it can apply to the game?

The game isn't about exploring vistas, aside from girls in skimpy clothes that is, PC included. The game area is quite small, and the most walking you do, in the sewers, is generally reviled. It is not Morrowind.

You're thinking of hiking sims. I'm talking about walking sims, an evolution of the adventure genre where the interactive elements only involve walking and talking.

1. Since when is CYOA = walking?
2. Wouldn't you define it by the main activity done, i.e. talking, rather than the transportation mode, making it instead a "talking sim"?
   
3. How is it a "sim"?

 

[Ismaul]

"CYOA game" is a more accurate pejorative.

Why would it be a pejorative if it's an accurate description of the main interactive activity in the game?

 

[Roguey]

• Since when is CYOA = walking?

• Wouldn't you define it by the main activity done, i.e. talking, rather than the transportation mode, making it instead a "talking sim"?

• How is it a "sim"?

Walking Simulator is a sometimes-derogatory slang term for a type of video game in which the gameplay consists mostly of a player moving around an area in a first-person perspective while a narrative unfolds based on their actions or ability to complete simple puzzles.

When I think CYOA I think menu-driven gameplay with no ability to actually move your character, though sure, Torment was referred to as a cyoa.

 

[Tao]

Well, consider me hyped. The Council was a pretty gud game and i can see how Vampire can be a good match with that style/genre

 

[Nifft Batuff]

OK. Forget about the other VtM game. This one will be interesting.

 

[V_K]

So what happened that we seem to be hating Bloodlines 2 now?

 

[V_K]

Infinitron, why "edgy"? I'm genuinely curious - it seems like the reception of VtMB2 at announcement was generally optimistic, and now everyone and their mother seems to shit on it. I don't follow the thread so I'm curious what has transpired in between.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron, why "edgy"? I'm genuinely curious - it seems like the reception of VtMB2 at announcement was generally optimistic, and now everyone and their mother seems to shit on it. I don't follow the thread so I'm curious what has transpired in between.

It's what I said, people are being edgy. They seem to not like the look and feel of what we've seen so far (which is very little).

 

[hexer]

It's what I said, people are being edgy.

Everybody's acting strange in the last few months.
I noticed it on Discord too...

::cue X-files theme song::