World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong - narrative RPG from The Council devs - now on Steam

[DY050503]

Is it the second sequel of Vampire the Masquerade which had mass stuff changes?

 

[Harthwain]

Their promises sound like a better Bloodlines sequel than that HardSuit fiasco. But will they deliver?

We shall see, but it is refreshing to hear someone who actually understands what he's working on, including the social aspect of The Masquerade.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I used to like his older VtM-related YT stuff, so it comes as a big surprise to me that he's the one behind that atrocious character. Oh well.

 

[Storyfag]

I used to like his older VtM-related YT stuff, so it comes as a big surprise to me that he's the one behind that atrocious character. Oh well.

The Decline is real and also affects individuals.

 

[Rahdulan]

Let's tell a Vampire story, but where do we start? With the hugely popular TTRPG, Vampire: The Masquerade as a base, how do you go about turning the rules and systems into a video game.

Join us as Eliott Hipeau, lead quest designer, walks us through the pillars that Swansong is built on and how important they are when developing our Narrative RPG.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC on May 19th, and later to Nintendo Switch.

It's interesting that despite their decision for NPCs to have character sheets of their own so you're essentially engaging in contested rolls they went with straight up percentile success chances rather than d20 rolls.

 

[Harthwain]

It's interesting that despite their decision for NPCs to have character sheets of their own so you're essentially engaging in contested rolls they went with straight up percentile success chances rather than d20 rolls.

Does it make any practical difference? As far as I am aware you can convert d20 rolls into %.

 

[Storyfag]

Let's tell a Vampire story, but where do we start? With the hugely popular TTRPG, Vampire: The Masquerade as a base, how do you go about turning the rules and systems into a video game.

Join us as Eliott Hipeau, lead quest designer, walks us through the pillars that Swansong is built on and how important they are when developing our Narrative RPG.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC on May 19th, and later to Nintendo Switch.

It's interesting that despite their decision for NPCs to have character sheets of their own so you're essentially engaging in contested rolls they went with straight up percentile success chances rather than d20 rolls.

SchwartzeSkinnedUnterPersonn, bitte. The Storyteller system does not use the D20. Not all of PnP derives mechanically from DnD.

 

[Rahdulan]

I meant d10, my mistake.

Does it make any practical difference? As far as I am aware you can convert d20 rolls into %.

I don't know, but seeing 49% success rate is going to be hell.

 

[V_K]

TBH, I'm sad to see rolled checks in general. I'd rather they kept The Council mechanic where the success of the check was strictly defined by the amount of stamina you spent on it.

 

[Harthwain]

TBH, I'm sad to see rolled checks in general. I'd rather they kept The Council mechanic where the success of the check was strictly defined by the amount of stamina you spent on it.

They are bound the rules of The Masquerade...

 

[V_K]

TBH, I'm sad to see rolled checks in general. I'd rather they kept The Council mechanic where the success of the check was strictly defined by the amount of stamina you spent on it.

They are bound the rules of The Masquerade...

Since when are video game adaptations required to be faithful to PnP rules? Neither of the previous VtM games cared too much about that.
The video above already shows quite a few deviations, like the reduction of the number of attributes to just 3 or the aforemention success percentages instead of rolls.

 

[Harthwain]

Since when are video game adaptations required to be faithful to PnP rules? Neither of the previous VtM games cared too much about that.

Really? I thought that Redemption and Bloodlines were sticking really close to the rules of PnP.

The video above already shows quite a few deviations, like the reduction of the number of attributes to just 3 [...]

...?

There were always 3 groups of Attributes (Physical, Social and Mental), so if anything the game is being faithful to PnP rules here.

or the aforemention success percentages instead of rolls.

What does this really change though, except the presentation?

 

[V_K]

Really? I thought that Redemption and Bloodlines were sticking really close to the rules of PnP.

Redemption had attributes range 1-100 instead of 1-5 like in PnP and dropped skills altogether.
Bloodlines did disciplines very differently from PnP and IIRC had deterministic checks and action combat.

There were always 3 groups of Attributes (Physical, Social and Mental), so if anything the game is being faithful to PnP rules here.

There were 9 attiributes split into 3 groups. Swansong, going by that video above, has only 3 attributes in total (plus skills).

or the aforemention success percentages instead of rolls.

What does this really change though, except the presentation?

You can't have percentages like 46% with traditional dice rolls. Meaning the rolling mechanics was changed.

 

[EvilWolf]

TBH, I'm sad to see rolled checks in general. I'd rather they kept The Council mechanic where the success of the check was strictly defined by the amount of stamina you spent on it.

They are bound the rules of The Masquerade...

Since when are video game adaptations required to be faithful to PnP rules? Neither of the previous VtM games cared too much about that.
The video above already shows quite a few deviations, like the reduction of the number of attributes to just 3 or the aforemention success percentages instead of rolls.

Did you even play Redemption and Bloodlines? Redemption is practically 1:1 and Bloodlines is so close that a pnp mod was one of the first mods made for the game.

 

[V_K]

TBH, I'm sad to see rolled checks in general. I'd rather they kept The Council mechanic where the success of the check was strictly defined by the amount of stamina you spent on it.

They are bound the rules of The Masquerade...

Since when are video game adaptations required to be faithful to PnP rules? Neither of the previous VtM games cared too much about that.
The video above already shows quite a few deviations, like the reduction of the number of attributes to just 3 or the aforemention success percentages instead of rolls.

Did you even play Redemption and Bloodlines?

Did you? Or read the post that's just right above yours?

 

[ColaWerewolf]

Redemption is practically 1:1

That's a spicy take fellow Canis.

Each individual power (such as 'Quell the Beast', 'Heightened Senses', etc) was further divided into 5 levels that affected duration, damage, and success rate, your generation went down as you levelled up, you had segments of daywalking in the sun, no rotschreck, you could learn any discipline by reading their "Idiot's Guide to", some Attributes like Perception, Intelligence, and Appearance only mattered in the context of Discipline prerequisites, you had magic scrolls capable of enacting myriad Discipline powers, you had teleportation portals that teleported you to your haven and back, your coterie could trade body fluids aggressively with no blood bonding, on top of the other things mentioned by V_K and other, other things left unmentioned.

 

[Semiurge]

Main character avoided uncanny valley with his cartoonish face proportions, but for the others devs went with realistic face structures and it looked unnerving as fuck.

There's nothing realistic about powdered wig guy's facial geometry, yet they aimed towards it with the textures. He looks like those Margaret Keane paintings.

 

[Tao]

Epic Store for now?

And here i was thinking about giving them a chance and buy it on release to see more Vampire Masquerade games.

 

[EvilWolf]

Epic Store for now?

And here i was thinking about giving them a chance and buy it on release to see more Vampire Masquerade games.

Who is Epic Games' audience? Who actually downloads EGS just to play a game ahead of time? I'm sure the EGS release vs. Steam release sales are astronomicaly abysmal. How does EGS net this exclusivity, how do the publishers/developers afford to take those losses? Epic doesn't have enough money to afford to buy the exclusivity, is the CCP literally bankrolling exclusivity on games like this that literally no one in China will play? Why?

 

[bertram_tung]

Epic Store for now?

And here i was thinking about giving them a chance and buy it on release to see more Vampire Masquerade games.

Who is Epic Games' audience? Who actually downloads EGS just to play a game ahead of time? I'm sure the EGS release vs. Steam release sales are astronomicaly abysmal. How does EGS net this exclusivity, how do the publishers/developers afford to take those losses? Epic doesn't have enough money to afford to buy the exclusivity, is the CCP literally bankrolling exclusivity on games like this that literally no one in China will play? Why?

Dont under estimate the average consoomer's desire to consoom new product in the quickest way possible

 

[StrongBelwas]

Who is Epic Games' audience? Who actually downloads EGS just to play a game ahead of time? I'm sure the EGS release vs. Steam release sales are astronomicaly abysmal. How does EGS net this exclusivity, how do the publishers/developers afford to take those losses? Epic doesn't have enough money to afford to buy the exclusivity, is the CCP literally bankrolling exclusivity on games like this that literally no one in China will play? Why?

Might want to double check how much Fortnite is making them

 

[EvilWolf]

Who is Epic Games' audience? Who actually downloads EGS just to play a game ahead of time? I'm sure the EGS release vs. Steam release sales are astronomicaly abysmal. How does EGS net this exclusivity, how do the publishers/developers afford to take those losses? Epic doesn't have enough money to afford to buy the exclusivity, is the CCP literally bankrolling exclusivity on games like this that literally no one in China will play? Why?

Might want to double check how much Fortnite is making them

Sometimes I'm able to wake up and be blissfully ignorant of the depths to which the modern consoomer will sink for their dopamine hits.

 

[Gradenmayer]

Epic Store for now?

And here i was thinking about giving them a chance and buy it on release to see more Vampire Masquerade games.

Who is Epic Games' audience? Who actually downloads EGS just to play a game ahead of time? I'm sure the EGS release vs. Steam release sales are astronomicaly abysmal. How does EGS net this exclusivity, how do the publishers/developers afford to take those losses? Epic doesn't have enough money to afford to buy the exclusivity, is the CCP literally bankrolling exclusivity on games like this that literally no one in China will play? Why?

1. Epic store is carried by Fortnite money.
2. Steam sales are 10x higher than on egs, as reported by one of the game developers whose name I forgot.
3. EGS covers the full development cost of the game if studio agrees to timed exclusivity. If game fails to sell projected amount of copies, Epic Games gives compensation to the dev (assuming game is not complete shit, I suppose).
4. Epic has enough money to bankroll shit ton of exclusivity, just from Fortnite alone. On top of that, they also have the Unreal Engine money.
5. Store itself is so dogshit- it took them 2 years just to add a fucking shopping cart.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

EGS exclusive just means there isn't the "think about the devs!!!!" anti-piracy argument because the development was already paid for.

 

[Vincente]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/03...e-playing-in-vampire-the-masquerade-swansong/

How Narrative Meets Role-playing in Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong
by Eliott Hipeau, Lead Quest Designer, Big Bad Wolf • Mar 9, 2022 @ 10:00am

What if vampires were real? What if these bloodthirsty predators lived hidden among us, meticulously and skillfully hatching plans over the centuries? And what if you became one of them? That’s the world of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, a narrative RPG in which your choices determine the fate of our three main characters, and the entirety of Boston’s vampiric society.

In Swansong, you will play as Emem, Galeb, and Leysha, three century-old vampires investigating on the ashes of a terrible attack that has put your secret organization, the Boston Camarilla, on its knees. Who is after you? How far will your loyalty to the Prince of Boston go when matched against your personal motivations? And how long can you respect the Masquerade, the vampiric law that conceals your existence from mortals?

Each character can be played in the order and the style you choose, intimidation, and stealth are just some of the options on the table. After all, each character is from a different Vampire Clan, a different blood lineage that unlocks specific vampiric powers called Disciplines. For instance, Emem has Celerity which gives members of the Toreador Clan supernatural speed and reflexes. Throughout your journey, you’ll earn experience that can be spent in the character sheet, developing those disciplines further.

Alternatively, you can invest in more generalized Skills and Attributes such as psychology or technology, making it easier to read people or work your way around the latest human tech. That’s not all, your play style and choices you’ve made will also influence your character sheet through the addition of permanent Traits. With the overview out of the way, let’s see how Emem can tackle one of the many situations in Swansong by using either her vampiric powers or her wits.

The Boston Camarilla is the main vampiric sect in Boston, but it’s far from the only one. In one of the missions in the game, Emem is sent by the Prince to try and convince the leader of rival vampiric group to join forces. In Swansong, there are multiple ways of dealing with tricky situations like these. Depending on your play style, your character sheet and previous decisions the options available to you can be vastly different.

For example, those with their ears to the ground can snoop around and listen to what the local vampires have to say. Doing this, you can discover that a certain someone wants to betray his boss and he might be willing to make an agreement with you. You can choose between helping him bring down his boss or reporting his betrayal and possibly winning the trust of said boss, if they’ll believe you.

This time, we’re going to bring down the boss and it’s a classic frame up job. We’re tasked with gaining access to a secure room and placing some compromising documents in a safe that only the boss has access to. The easiest way might be to use your vampiric discipline, Prescence, or the skill, Persuasion to fool the guard to let you enter the room. But it’s important to keep in mind that every character in Swansong also has their character sheet and if your stats aren’t high enough, then you’ll be left in an awkward position.

Alternatively, explorers can find a pathway behind some locked doors and make use of Celerity to gain access to secret passages through the roof or an alternate route through the sewers and make their way into the security room completely unseen. It’s an option that leaves less witnesses if you have the skills for it.

These are just four of the options available to you, but whether you’re tampering with documents, convincing mortals and vampires alike with either your rhetoric or your vampiric charisma, finding secret passages or more, one question will remain. Are you ready to face the consequences of your actions? We’ll see when the game releases on May 19 on Xbox series X|S!

Thanks for reading!

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