World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Vincente]

Wait, you can't choose your gender in this?

Yes you can? Have you watched the video?

 

[Grunker]

There is probably zero hope that whatever character system this will have will offer anything beyond the usual action tripe of one or two unique moves per combat style and then a whole bunch of +5% damage shit, right?

Given that its developed by a walking simulator studio, I'd rather they just made a bigger, better Swansong
For people who missed it, its basically a visual novel, except it has WASD movement.

Every reliable source I've seen comment on that game said it was utterly terrible both in writing and gameplay

 

[whydoibother]

Every reliable source I've seen comment on that game said it was utterly terrible both in writing and gameplay

Thus the "but better".
Point being, if they aren't going to make a good action game ala GTA, and they aren't going to make good character customization ala the tabletop system, might as well just do the dialogues in a form that emphasizes them and drop the rest.

 

[Semiurge]

Wait, you can't choose your gender in this?

Yes you can? Have you watched the video?

Watched, yes. Listened? No.

 

[Vincente]

Wait, you can't choose your gender in this?

Yes you can? Have you watched the video?

Watched, yes. Listened? No.

They showed male versions of your character wearing two different clothings in the concept art so yeah you can be a male.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Femphyre looks very... regal.

Manphyre will prolly be some neckbeard hipster.

 

[cyborgboy95]

My impression of the narrative & rpg stream, wouldn't be surprised if the clan choice in Bloodlines 2 turns out to be more like life path in Cyberpunk 2077 too (aka having not much real impact on the main story)

 

[NecroLord]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Greedy fucks just had to go with the DLC bullshit.

 

[normie]

the voice in PHYRE's head better be female when you choose the masculine body type
otherwise you're forcing GAYNESss on the player and I ain't with that

 

[Storyfag]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Greedy fucks just had to go with the DLC bullshit.

It's Paradox.

 

[Vincente]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Greedy fucks just had to go with the DLC bullshit.

Surely this will mean that they will work extra hard on those DLCs and make unique gameplay with reactivity.

 

[NecroLord]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Greedy fucks just had to go with the DLC bullshit.

Surely this will mean that they will work extra hard on those DLCs and make unique gameplay with reactivity.

Yeah, most certainly...

 

[Delterius]

assamite and lasombra as the 'surprises' would have been my first bets given that many of them joined the cam while gangrel and brujah largely left.

Gangrel and Brujah left the cam in V5?

I'm still a bit out of date with V5,

Yes, but as discussed earlier these aren't absolutes. V5 is mostly about the fragmentation of the sects in the wake of the surveillance state and gehenna. So allegiance in a given city is mostly down to the individual vampire.

 

[NecroLord]

So allegiance in a given city is mostly down to the individual vampire.

Allegiances must be chosen wisely.
No Kindred makes it out on its own, unless he's someone like Beckett, and even he has connections and acquaintances.

 

[sosmoflux]

I think I've figured it out

You know how most people can't visualize objects in their head?

And how most people don't have internal dialogues?

Essentially you can't leave most people alone with their thoughts because they literally just go stir crazy, like robot vacuum cleaners cut off from the wifi

This is why we can't have games anymore without nagging side characters and main characters that talk to themselves

It's why we can't have games where WE are the character, and not playing AS a character

Because most people literally have no character

 

[NecroLord]

I think I've figured it out

You know how most people can't visualize objects in their head?

And how most people don't have internal dialogues?

Essentially you can't leave most people alone with their thoughts because they literally just go stir crazy, like robot vacuum cleaners cut off from the wifi

This is why we can't have games anymore without nagging side characters and main characters that talk to themselves

It's why we can't have games where WE are the character, and not playing AS a character

Because most people literally have no character

They could've made Auspex work as intended and allow you to detect emotions and thoughts as per pnp rules.
Though it does not always work as you want it to, and there is also the issue of using it in Elysium (no disciplines allowed).

 

[Vincente]

assamite and lasombra as the 'surprises' would have been my first bets given that many of them joined the cam while gangrel and brujah largely left.

Gangrel and Brujah left the cam in V5?

I'm still a bit out of date with V5,

Yes, but as discussed earlier these aren't absolutes. V5 is mostly about the fragmentation of the sects in the wake of the surveillance state and gehenna. So allegiance in a given city is mostly down to the individual vampire.

More or less. For example, there's a Camarilla Brujah in Milan Uprising.

 

[Storyfag]

They could've made Auspex work as intended and allow you to detect emotions and thoughts as per pnp rules.
Though it does not always work as you want it to, and there is also the issue of using it in Elysium (no disciplines allowed).

Afair there is no way to discern discipline use, beyond the obviously visible effects. So stuff like Auspex or Fortitude could be used in Elysium, because nobody would notice.

 

[Caim]

assamite and lasombra as the 'surprises' would have been my first bets given that many of them joined the cam while gangrel and brujah largely left.

Gangrel and Brujah left the cam in V5?

I'm still a bit out of date with V5,

Gangrel "left" in Revised edition when one of their Elders stood before the Inner Circle and told them he was packing up his clan and leaving, even though he did not have the authority to do so. As such, many Gangrel actually remained with the Camarilla even though the clan is no longer an official part of the sect.

The Brujah are Vampire V version where during the Conclave of Prague, an event where many high-ranking Camarilla were present to formulate an answer to the Anarch question, Theo Bell strutted up to Hardestadt and asked him if his shotgun tasted like cordite, and blew the elder's head off. Nobody knows why he did it, how the fuck he could kill a man as powerful and paranoid as Hardestadt of whether this was all part of Hardestadt's plot. Because of this many Brujah went Anarch, and because of what happened quite a few were more or less kicked out of the Camarilla.

I am getting the impression that the VtM authors just wanted big changes in the V5 setting without bothering about reasonable explanations...

Oh it gets better. The Assamites went through a namechange and shacked up with the Camarilla since their primary fighting clans (Gangrel and Brujah) left, the Setites also rebranded and are now the spiritual councilors of the Anarchs (which if you know anything about the snakes is a REALLY DUMB MOVE), the Giovanni had their patriarch get eaten and were forcibly folded into a new sect with the Cappadocians, Harbingers of Skulls, Samedi and even the Nagaraja, who aren't even a Cappadocian descended bloodline (the authors insist on calling it a clan, but this eclectic bunch would actually be a sect).

And the Lasombra? All the important ones (including the Archbishop of fucking Milan) shacked up with the Camarilla, each offering a staked vampire older than themselves as a token of good faith.

So there's been some major shakeups.

 

[Bulo]

I don't like vampires who look like they've just left the runway. It may be true to the everything-and-nothing culture of today, but it's just so anaemic

 

[ERYFKRAD]

anaemic

I mean, they are vampires

 

[Storyfag]

the Giovanni had their patriarch get eaten and were forcibly folded into a new sect with the Cappadocians, Harbingers of Skulls, Samedi and even the Nagaraja, who aren't even a Cappadocian descended bloodline (the authors insist on calling it a clan, but this eclectic bunch would actually be a sect).

Objection! All mentioned bloodlines, save for the Nagaraja, are Cappadocians, so it indeed is a Clan. Now, there has been precious little detail regarding Nagaraja origins, except for hints that a group of Indian death Mages discovered their own version of the Ritual of Usurpation some time before the Tremere did theirs. The Tremere used Tzimisce vitae in their ritual (making them a Tzimisce bloodline, technically). There is ZERO information what vitae did the Nagaraja use. Given their penchant for death, though, it isn't a far stretch to assume they cooperated with a Cappadocian, making their presence in Clan Hecata very logical.

And the Lasombra? All the important ones (including the Archbishop of fucking Milan) shacked up with the Camarilla

Giangaleazzo was the first to do so, even back in V20.

 

[NecroLord]

the Giovanni had their patriarch get eaten and were forcibly folded into a new sect with the Cappadocians, Harbingers of Skulls, Samedi and even the Nagaraja, who aren't even a Cappadocian descended bloodline (the authors insist on calling it a clan, but this eclectic bunch would actually be a sect).

Objection! All mentioned bloodlines, save for the Nagaraja, are Cappadocians, so it indeed is a Clan. Now, there has been precious little detail regarding Nagaraja origins, except for hints that a group of Indian death Mages discovered their own version of the Ritual of Usurpation some time before the Tremere did theirs. The Tremere used Tzimisce vitae in their ritual (making them a Tzimisce bloodline, technically). There is ZERO information what vitae did the Nagaraja use. Given their penchant for death, though, it isn't a far stretch to assume they cooperated with a Cappadocian, making their presence in Clan Hecata very logical.

And the Lasombra? All the important ones (including the Archbishop of fucking Milan) shacked up with the Camarilla

Giangaleazzo was the first to do so, even back in V20.

Nagaraja flesh eaters did strike me as a Tzimisce ofshoot clan...

 

[Storyfag]

Eaters, not shapers. I'll stick with my Cappadocian theory, if only to make their presence in Clan Hecata unoffensive to logic and Traditions.

 

[Ibn Sina]

already massive RED FLAGs are showing. Butch MC with Millennial haircut who just woke from "100" year sleep. Forcing you to play as a gypsy armenian etc... this game is a massive bomb in the making.