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

[Storyfag]

I'm predicting the release of the male model to be peak ragebait.

Is that the prophetic blood of Malkav speaking?

 

[Roguey]

Speaking of, are any of the VtM branded CYOAs or visual novels worth the time? I only attempted Night Road and to be honest, it was quite bad.

Night Road is considered the best, so forget it.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

Speaking of, are any of the VtM branded CYOAs or visual novels worth the time? I only attempted Night Road and to be honest, it was quite bad.

Yes, there's three, but Night Road was 1/3 and you didn't like it, so who knows. I think you should try Blood Frontier as its the closest to Bloodlines in terms of feeling. I recommend it to Storyfag too because there's some good szlachta content.

Night Road: Lots of stats and powers, poor plot.

Parliament of Knives: Meaningless powers, some stats, great political plot.

Blood Frontier: Mediocre writing with typos, unfiltered VtM edge.
https://dsnee.itch.io/vampire-the-masquerade-blood-frontier

Night Road is considered the best, so forget it.

I disagree, I liked Parliament more. Blood Frontier, being unofficial, has some very gruesome and unsanitized scenes that could never be present in Night Road.

 

[Roguey]

I disagree, I liked Parliament more. Blood Frontier, being unofficial, has some very gruesome and unsanitized scenes that could never be present in Night Road.

I went through all the demos, didn't like it.

I went through the demos of these on the Choice of Games website.

Night Road - This was fine enough, but then the experience soured when, multiple chapters in, it reveals your character diablerized an elder in the past. You want to put a whammy like this as part of a character's background, you introduce it near the beginning. It's an action completely at odds with what my idea of my character was. I will nevertheless give it a chance and go through it fully when it's on sale.

Parliament of Knives - Too many words, inappropriate twitter-brained dialogue. Doesn't surprise me that Steam users who disliked Night Road like this one better and vice versa (stereotypical VtM players would rather engage fully with vampire politics than be an errand runner caught up in political situations). Pass.

Out for Blood - This one shouldn't even be a Vampire the Masquerade game. It's a "returning to your home town to run a store you just inherited" social sim that apparently turns into a Hunter game after the demo portion. Also too many words. Pass.

Sins of the Sires - Got brickwalled when a character asked me for my pronouns and I had to give an affirming response to continue. Pass.

Night Road is indeed the best of this sorry bunch.

But yeah, you fit my observations.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

But yeah, you fit my observations.

I liked Night Road well enough, the reason why I liked Parliament of Knives more is because the central characters in Night Road were Julian, a Malaysian lady boy special snowflake who is a quirky genius that btfos everyone like a Death Note character. And Lettow, who is an elder with a heart of gold who is hella gay.

Parliament also had *plenty* of trash characters, but you could also just backstab all of them or even side with the Sabbat. Something you can't do in Night Road, where you're railroaded into working with either Julian or Lettow, or the SI which is somehow even more retarded.

 

[Tyranicon]

But yeah, you fit my observations.

I liked Night Road well enough, the reason why I liked Parliament of Knives more is because the central characters in Night Road were Julian, a Malaysian lady boy special snowflake who is a quirky genius that btfos everyone like a Death Note character. And Lettow, who is an elder with a heart of gold who is hella gay.

Parliament also had *plenty* of trash characters, but you could also just backstab all of them or even side with the Sabbat. Something you can't do in Night Road, where you're railroaded into working with either Julian or Lettow, or the SI which is somehow even more retarded.

Julian was what made me drop Night Road. He's an anime character with some clear author favoritism.

I don't want to generalize, but it seems like most of the creators behind VtM products are twitter millennials and write that way.

That appeals to V5's current audience, but not to me.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Parliament of Knives is superb. One of the best IF novels I have ever played and I've played a lot of them. The game abounds with choices and the DLC content blew me away too, it adds Malkavians and Lasombra as playable clans, each with their own unique twist to the story.

You can also completely miss out on the central mystery of the plot, as I did in my first playthrough, because my character just didn't give a fuck and had his loyalties elsewhere.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

 

[Tyranicon]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

You already had me at backstab. Downloading the demo now.

Spectral Pontifex New siggy unlocked I see. I couldn't have chosen better words to live on in posterity.

Well, besides "years later, Tyranicon did in fact, manage to buttfuck the industry."

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

You already had me at backstab. Downloading the demo now.

Yeah, you can backstab just about any "ally" in this game. Throwback to when my character suddenly abandoned his girlfriend and the entire plot to fight in a holy war.

Spectral Pontifex New siggy unlocked I see. I couldn't have chosen better words to live on in posterity.

Well, besides "years later, Tyranicon did in fact, manage to buttfuck the industry."

It's a spell and a prophecy. Game devs beware.

 

[Fedora Master]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

Yea but how many people were diverse BIPOCs?

 

[Roguey]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

Unfortunately this has little appeal to the kind of person who doesn't like lying or duplicity and only wants to fulfill tasks with honesty and integrity (me and other spergs).

 

[Gahbreeil]

Is Swansong worth it?

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

Yea but how many people were diverse BIPOCs?

if it's a "choice of" joint, it's faggotry
all choice of games mandate faggotry and inclusion, it's non-negotiable to be platformed
you can't even hold it against the authors wholly, they might've had an original vision that included none and then had to do swaps to be greenlit

Well, there might be a few niggers, but it's a text game so you don't have to stare at them unlike in modern RPGs. Besides, you can kill off most of the non-white characters. Romance is also very unobtrusive. So much so that I barely knew of its existence until I decided to seek it out after several playthroughs.

It's a good game and thoughts about modern politics never entered my mind while playing.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

Is Swansong worth it?

Not unless you're really obsessed with the IP. It doesn't do anything remarkable, large sections of it are forgettable, and the game feels sluggish. The main villain is the best part of the game, but he doesn't have enough screen time and the consequences to his actions aren't felt.

 

[jackofshadows]

Is Swansong worth it?

One of the shittiest games I've played in recent years. Possibly the shittiest.

 

[Storyfag]

the kind of person who doesn't like lying or duplicity

Bro, do you even VtM?

 

[Roguey]

the kind of person who doesn't like lying or duplicity

Bro, do you even VtM?

I played Bloodlines, a game made by role playing gamers who didn't really care all that much about Vampire the Masquerade and just made a regular RPG in the setting.

 

[Storyfag]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

That is the best sales pitch ever.

 

[The President]

Isn’t V5 the shittiest version of the setting? Why be so adamant to faithfully represent it is my question.

 

[ColaWerewolf]

I played Bloodlines, a game made by role playing gamers who didn't really care all that much about Vampire the Masquerade and just made a regular RPG in the setting.

To be fair, Bloodlines also features a lot of vtm subterfuge and manipulation. It's just that, since you play a fledgling, they're ok with just commanding you to do something directly without the smoke and mirrors. But even then,

Knox tries to manipulate you into dealing with the asian vampire.
Jeanette tries to manipulate you into failing Therese's quest, and pissing Therese off in general.
VV tries to use you to solve her shit, constantly.
You can ally with Strauss for the gargoyle amulet and then betray his secret to Isaac.
LaCroix and Ming Xiao have a secret conspiracy and they both end up backstabbing eachother.
Ming Xiao/LaCroix try to set up Nines.
Jack sets up the whole sarcophagus event in motion and blatantly lies to you when you ask questions about the sarcophagus.

Edit: In fact, if you side with the anarchs from the start, they straight up force you to be a double-agent and feed them intel from the inside.

 

[ChildInTime]

I would still say that Night Road is better overall in the 'game' department - your stats actually matter and all that, but Parliament is more in line with what people want from VtM - somewhat linear intrigue and backstabbing among dickheaded and immature immortals in a big city, also there is no Julian-type character.
Try Out for Blood as well, if you want to play Buffy, avoid Sins of the Sires.

 

[Spectral Pontifex]

I would still say that Night Road is better overall in the 'game' department - your stats actually matter and all that, but Parliament is more in line with what people want from VtM - somewhat linear intrigue and backstabbing among dickheaded and immature immortals in a big city, also there is no Julian-type character.

If you liked Night Road, you may be happy to know that the author is working on another WoD IF novel: Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names.

On that note, ten new IF titles from the WoD universe are scheduled to be released by the year 2027.

 

[True Ukrainian]

In Parliament of Knives I...

Backstabbed my sire with a new ally.
Got backstabbed by my sire.
Agreed to help assassinate my sire.
Backstabbed the assassin in the middle of their assassination.
Allied back up with my sire.
Got backstabbed by my ally.
Sire backstabs me again.
Ally backstabs my sire, reverting their backstab of me.
I backstab my sire to her temporary ally, who is in the process of backstabbing her.
I backstab my ally in her moment of triumph.
Backstab the Prince, too, when they're staked and helpless.
My sire backstabs her conspiracy ally, triggering a city vs city domain war.

And then I turn up to my sire and we both pretend like we've always been the bestest chums, having discovered no secrets about eachother and having comitted no unknowable crimes or treasons, it was all simply a misunderstanding.

If you play as malkavian you can also backstab your imaginary friend.

 

[Roguey]

Isn’t V5 the shittiest version of the setting? Why be so adamant to faithfully represent it is my question.

V5 is Paradox's. They were the ones who approved of every decision. That's their vision.

To be fair, Bloodlines also features a lot of vtm subterfuge and manipulation. It's just that, since you play a fledgling, they're ok with just commanding you to do something directly without the smoke and mirrors. But even then,

The difference is that it's other people doing those things to you. You're a gofer, not a player.

In fact, if you side with the anarchs from the start, they straight up force you to be a double-agent and feed them intel from the inside.

It's not like you have any truly confidential information of value.