Full Version: Vampire: The Masquerade Games
Not up to me, really. Sounds good enough though I think.
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 26 2019, 03:04 PM) 
Not up to me, really. Sounds good enough though I think.
Eh, perhaps I’ll just save the screens for Kings Way and the Warrens!
Oh, joy of joys*
* - sarcasm
* - sarcasm
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 26 2019, 03:27 PM)
Oh, joy of joys*
* - sarcasm
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 24 2019, 03:43 PM)
Ventrue: the silver tongued devils! Khajiit’s first V:TM-B character was a Ventrue because their in game description reminded this one of Imperials from TES.
Please post your story if/when you get it finished!
For sure. Ventrue is like that vampire clan from Cyrodiil; all about secrecy, manipulation, suave . . . and I like their suits!
I'm playing the first game right now and the story is pretty good. I'm glad the writer and composer are back for the second game. Just the interviews alone give me some high hopes. The recent interview sheds light on it.
They have the perfect setting for it:
QUOTE
There’s been a big change in the last 30 years. Seattle is trying to figure out its identity. It’s a mix of the old, where originally it’s known for arts and music and the environment, and now we’re going into the tech space where everything’s being built up. How much do you change before the city kind of loses its identity? It’s something we deal with on a daily basis, to be honest. We encounter it everywhere we go in Seattle.
Kipling: It’s constantly changing.
Obviously vampires are attracted to power and politics. Seattle has a lot of power in that respect, on a global basis. It was really the perfect setting, not just speaking to the city of Seattle as a character, but also the political nuance of vampire society, the dark underground, the noir. It fit.
Kipling: It’s constantly changing.
Obviously vampires are attracted to power and politics. Seattle has a lot of power in that respect, on a global basis. It was really the perfect setting, not just speaking to the city of Seattle as a character, but also the political nuance of vampire society, the dark underground, the noir. It fit.
While Vampyr was a decent game, it did have numerous flaws in story and choices. I think the direction they're going makes lots of sense, especially for a vampire-centric game.
QUOTE
GamesBeat: For people who haven’t played the Masquerade before, what makes a vampire in Vampire: The Masquerade different from other bloodsuckers in media?
Mitsoda: Vampire the Masquerade is generally about the vampires staying secret. Unlike True Blood or even Buffy, I would argue, they are not out in the open. People do not know about them. They cannot know about them. Even now, as Dale [a character from Bloodlines II] says, it’s harder than ever to be a vampire. There are camera phones everywhere. Vampires have to be especially careful. There’s that element of your identity, keeping your identity secret. No one can know about what you are. And yet you’re a social creature. You have to go out there. You have to do business. You have to seduce people. You have to drink blood. You have to walk among mortals, but they cannot know who you are. The other thing that makes the Vampire setting different is, obviously, with the first game as well, it’s a much more mature universe. It’s not just in what we show as far as gore or anything that, but it’s about mature themes. As far as the dialogue goes, we’re exploring characters that are very nuanced and different from your average RPG, where it’s about good and evil. In the world of Vampire, you’re a monster. You’re struggling against the beast inside you. You’re constantly not only struggling to keep your identity secret, but you’re struggling with the thing that you are.
GamesBeat: Thing I’ve always associated with World of Darkness vampires is that they’re social creatures. But they can’t be social in the way we can be social. That paradox, if you’ll forgive me — do you play that up in this game?
Mitsoda: Oh, yeah. A whole lot of the game is just going out in the world and getting involved with the people there. Going to the bar and socializing, making contacts, figuring out how you can play people to your benefit. That’s what you do as a vampire. You’re not just skulking in the sewers. You’re not in a dungeon or something like that. You’re in the world, around people. Mostly you’re around humans. There aren’t nearly as many vampires as there are people.
Schlütter: Also, the idea of starting out as a thin-blood is more like—you’re being thrown into this world. It’s a very sudden experience. You still have a human background. You still need to figure out how to go about in this new world that’s been opened to you, as the character you were in life. You still carry that with you. That includes social connections and social traits as well. That’s something we play with a lot.
Kipling: It also empowers the player’s own agency, too, in terms of how they want to move through the world and interact with the world in terms of being that monstrous vampire, or playing more to the human, social side of it, engaging.
GamesBeat: Dale was talking about bagged blood. I assume he gets it from blood banks or distributors. Can you do that and not actually feed on people, if you want to go that way?
Mitsoda: The thing about bag blood — yes, you can get it. But bag blood just helps you get blood. The big thing for vampires in our game is to get resonance, which comes from feeding on people. It’s getting the emotional rush from feeding on people. Bag blood is like if all your food was Cheetos. You can technically get by on that, but it’s really not what you want to eat.
Kipling: Also, Dale as a character, his entire motivation is to remain cooped up in his apartment and not be involved in anything in the World of Darkness. It’s obviously a slightly different motivation than what we want the player to engage with as they progress through the world and try to figure out their place in it.
Mitsoda: It’d be a pretty boring game if you just played like Dale.
GamesBeat: Can you make friends with humans who willingly give you their blood and feed off the emotions of altruism and friendship that way? Or is that just too lovey-dovey for this game?
Mitsoda: I will say, you’ll definitely build some relationships in the game. I can’t go into specifics right now. But I mean, you—part of your core as a vampire is to make connections, to fool people, to get close to them in a way that you can use to get blood from them. Generally, vampires can be romantic, they can be nice, but at the end of the day they’re parasitic. They need blood, and they’ll do whatever it takes.
Kipling: The question itself is somewhat insidious, because it suggests that the motivation to become friends is to be able to drink their blood, which then questions the motivation for that relationship. It’s not the case that you meet somebody, you just happen to like them and become friends, and then consequently you also might be able to get blood from them. There’s definitely a motivation in blood for the player. That drives a lot of their actions and choices.
GameBeat: What’s the hardest thing about writing a vampire character?
Mitsoda: I have some experience now, so it does come a bit naturally. [Laughs]
I will say, the difficult thing in any character is just trying to figure out their voice and who they are, what they want. As far as vampires go, the way that I approach vampires is that, ultimately, they are locked in at death. There’s this idea for them that they can change, that they can become better, that they can retain their humanity, but ultimately, their biggest weakness is that they can’t really change when they’re a vampire. They’re whoever they were when they died. That’s how I approach vampires. But there are so many places that can be taken as far as where characters go. Vampires themselves, and especially in the Masquerade—there are so many different archetypes of vampires. You have the Anne Rice seductive type of inspiration. You have the corporate vampire, the one that latches on to a business and uses money because money is power. You have vampires that are on the street getting involved in organized crime, because they can hide there. No one talks in that world anyway. It’s always just figuring out how vampires would infiltrate various parts of society, and then what is their experience like when they’re there?
So far here are some facts about the game:
-Brian Mitsoda is lead writer (just like the original) alongside Chris Avellone and Cara Ellison
-Rik Schaffer is composing again
-Set in Seattle
-Seamless hub world
-Multiple hubs
-Direct sequel to 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
-Takes place 15 years after Bloodlines
-Game starts off with a Mass Embrace at Pioneer Square where player is among the new vampires born from the event, you're captured and brought upon a court of prominent vampires like the first game to recount the events of the mass embrace before being sentenced to death, court is firebombed and you escape, thrust into Seattle to find out who's responsible
-In the trailer, the curly haired vampire with the blood bag is Dale Talley who is a recluse and is one of the first characters you meet. He is responsible for easing the player character into the World of Darkness.
-Player is a thin-blood at first, later on you can choose a clan.
-No quest markers
-First-person with contextual third-person actions just like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.
-Fan-favourite characters from Bloodlines returning
-You can use telekinesis, turn into mist to go through vents and glide
-You can scale buildings, there's an emphasis on verticality
-Level design is very reminiscent of the original Deus Ex in the sense that you're offered many different pathways to approach a particular scenario
-The protagonist is not voiced
-Way more dialogue than Bloodlines
-Huge emphasis on character creation. You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion
-NPCs can react to you depending on what background you chose for your character in character creation
-Loads of secrets and hidden pathways to find
-Seattle as a hub world is described as "very active", crowds gather outside clubs and muggers prey on victims in side allies, all seamlessly done.
-Main side-questline involves hunting down and finding all the other thin-blood created from the Mass Embrace, each will have their own story about entering into their new life e.g you might find a married thin-blood struggling to deal with their newfound powers
-Blood resonance from the 5th edition will appear in this game. Using your enhanced vampire senses, you can see when NPCs are experiencing an intense emotion like fear, desire, pain, joy and anger. Humans give off a bright aura. Drinking a person with a strong resonance will give you an immediate bonus to things like melee power or seduction. If you drink a particular resonance constantly, you will acquire a taste for it and this will give you permanent buffs called "merits".
-If you continuously suck on people's blood in full view of the public, they'll be more wary of going to those areas and you'll see less citizens wandering the streets
-Emphasis on fluid combat, using vampiric speed to slide in and out of melee range and slash people and execute them with melee weapons. You can get special cinematic finishers in combat when you execute people a la Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Counters are in. Guns exist and are treated as temporary opportunities, you pick em up, use it, then discard it and move on.
-It is not confirmed whether or not you can carry weapons like in the original, pre-order skins for weapons point to being able to do so.
-Game has modding support, available Day 1.
-Sleep ingame. "We do have ways to push you through the story. You can go to sleep…and sometimes things will happen while you’re sleeping. Other times, you’ll need to sleep, vampires need rest too."
QUOTE(Darkness Eternal @ Mar 26 2019, 06:45 PM)
*snip*
Ooh, this is sounding good!!
Khajiit can start posting pics when he's reached the Nosferatu lair
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 27 2019, 12:22 PM)
Khajiit can start posting pics when he's reached the Nosferatu lair
Oh pictures you shall have! Heh heh heh. Oh yes you will!
Yeah, I didn't click the first few links
Forget it, Boss. It's Chinatown.
Heh. Not surprising she doesn't have much Auspex. Pointless if you ask me, except for hacking computers.
So she's unlocked the last hub. It's what we in the trade call "beginning of the end"
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 28 2019, 09:33 AM)
Forget it, Boss. It's Chinatown.
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 28 2019, 09:33 AM)
Heh. Not surprising she doesn't have much Auspex. Pointless if you ask me, except for hacking computers.
So she's unlocked the last hub. It's what we in the trade call "beginning of the end"
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 28 2019, 12:28 PM)
Yeah, I didn't click the first few links
Khajiit figured you wouldn’t
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 28 2019, 12:28 PM)
Heh. Not surprising she doesn't have much Auspex. Pointless if you ask me, except for hacking computers.
So she's unlocked the last hub. It's what we in the trade call "beginning of the end"
Yeah, Khajiit supposes he could have put points in Auspex, but it requires blood for the buff. Investing in “Wits” itself requires no blood. Also, Brigitte is so sneaky that she really doesn’t have to worry much about where guards are.
Yep, last hub. Won’t be long before we’ll need to make a choice...
"There must be a way out of your predicament"
So who is your favorite character?
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 29 2019, 08:47 PM)
So who is your favorite character?
Hard to say as there are quite many good ones, but of course I have to mention Jack. Easily the one who gave me most chuckles
Other than that, Beckett I'd say. Knowledgeable and serious but not without a sense of humor. What about Khajiit?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 29 2019, 02:52 PM)
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 29 2019, 08:47 PM)
So who is your favorite character?
Hard to say as there are quite many good ones, but of course I have to mention Jack. Easily the one who gave me most chuckles
Other than that, Beckett I'd say. Knowledgeable and serious but not without a sense of humor. What about Khajiit?
Khajiit doesn’t think he has a favorite per se. Beckett and Jack are cool. This one respects Max Strauss as he seems to be the only Camarilla vampire who is straight with you. This one isn’t very fond of most of the Anarchs either, but Abrams seems to be a decent sort. Certainly more respectable than that loud mouth Nines. Hate Bach and LaCroix. Gary is ok for the most part but what he did to Imalia was pretty damn wrong, regardless of whether she deserved it or not. So many great characters!
Yeah, Strauss is cool and I like Gary. Loved the introduction when you first get to the Nossie lair
I agree that Strauss is a breath of fresh air; being Camarilla but still keeps enough distance to look at it somewhat critically. When as Tremere I really liked the haven you get from him. Just too bad you get it sooo late in the game
I agree that Strauss is a breath of fresh air; being Camarilla but still keeps enough distance to look at it somewhat critically. When as Tremere I really liked the haven you get from him. Just too bad you get it sooo late in the game
Oh! Ming Xiao! Despite everything that can go on with her, Khajiit could not help but like her.
I kinda did too first but she was too condescending for my liking to last
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 10:36 AM)
I kinda did too first but she was too condescending for my liking to last
The one time Khajiit did the Kuei-Jin ending he chuckled when he saw what happened.
Khajiit sided with them? For shame
I did Anarchs once and Lone Wolf ending for the other playthroughs.
I did Anarchs once and Lone Wolf ending for the other playthroughs.
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 11:03 AM)
Khajiit sided with them? For shame
I did Anarchs once and Lone Wolf ending for the other playthroughs.
It was either on this on this one’s Ventrue character or his Tremere character he kept loading saves before having to make the choice. Khajiit saw the LaCroix ending and the Kuei-Jin ending, that he can remember.
Did Khajiit manage to get that Asian girl hunter to survive the encounter with the Wereshark in Chinatown?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 12:55 PM)
Did Khajiit manage to get that Asian girl hunter to survive the encounter with the Wereshark in Chinatown?
We don’t remember honestly.
I always managed it which was important to me. I liked her 
Kiki though...
Kiki though...
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 01:12 PM)
I always managed it which was important to me. I liked her
Kiki though...
Kiki is the daughter of the guy you have to help to learn where Barabus is right?
Yeah and she's the eqivalent of a spoiled, narcissistic brat from Östermalm in Stockholm
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 01:32 PM)
Yeah and she's the eqivalent of a spoiled, narcissistic brat from Östermalm in Stockholm
Khajiit doesn’t know what this Östermalm is, but he gets the point, lol
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 30 2019, 07:54 PM)
Khajiit doesn’t know what this Östermalm is, but he gets the point, lol
What about the two older guys in Chinatown? Have Khajiit managed to reconsile their differences?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 30 2019, 02:01 PM)
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 30 2019, 07:54 PM)
Khajiit doesn’t know what this Östermalm is, but he gets the point, lol
What about the two older guys in Chinatown? Have Khajiit managed to reconsile their differences?
Don’t remember this either, lol
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 31 2019, 12:52 PM)
Don’t remember this either, lol
Lu Fang no speak English, when he drunk!
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 31 2019, 08:06 AM)
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Mar 31 2019, 12:52 PM)
Don’t remember this either, lol
Lu Fang no speak English, when he drunk!
Lol, the Chinese accents are so bad. One of the guys in Chinatown is a well known voice actor and it’s jarring hearing him try to sound Chinese.
Did Khajiit experience the bug in Ocean Hotel where music would disappear but come back as soon as you save and reload?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Mar 31 2019, 09:42 AM)
Did Khajiit experience the bug in Ocean Hotel where music would disappear but come back as soon as you save and reload?
Er, if he did, Khajiit did not notice it.
Did Khajiit ever dance in clubs to regain Humanity?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 2 2019, 12:55 PM)
Did Khajiit ever dance in clubs to regain Humanity?
Wait what? My characters are always dancing in the clubs but they never gained any humanity for it!
One has to dance for like five, uninterrupted minutes real time.
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 2 2019, 02:29 PM)
One has to dance for like five, uninterrupted minutes real time.
Oh, well that would explain it. Usually we dance for a minute or two then it’s off to be a shadow in the night again.
Brigitte is hot on the trail of the missing Nosferatu spy Barabus.
Brigitte had a killer meeting with the local Tong leader “Johnny”.
Sexy Officer Brigitte always gets her man. Or woman. Or undead fiend.
Brigitte had a killer meeting with the local Tong leader “Johnny”.
Sexy Officer Brigitte always gets her man. Or woman. Or undead fiend.
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Apr 3 2019, 04:46 PM)
-I plead guilty, your Honor. May this officer escort me back to her pla - I mean my cell?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 3 2019, 11:07 AM)
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Apr 3 2019, 04:46 PM)
-I plead guilty, your Honor. May this officer escort me back to her pla - I mean my cell?
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Apr 3 2019, 10:46 AM)
Brigitte is hot on the trail of the missing Nosferatu spy Barabus.
Brigitte had a killer meeting with the local Tong leader “Johnny”.
Sexy Officer Brigitte always gets her man. Or woman. Or undead fiend.
She could take me in any night.
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Apr 3 2019, 03:20 PM)
QUOTE(TheCheshireKhajiit @ Apr 3 2019, 10:46 AM)
Brigitte is hot on the trail of the missing Nosferatu spy Barabus.
Brigitte had a killer meeting with the local Tong leader “Johnny”.
Sexy Officer Brigitte always gets her man. Or woman. Or undead fiend.
She could take me in any night.
Same here, lol
Regarding weapons I always liked the Spas and the flamethrower. Just too bad the latter one comes so late in the game. But that together with Vision of Death was quite good, even on Ming Xiao as the flamethrower stuns her.
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 5 2019, 09:58 AM)
Regarding weapons I always liked the Spas and the flamethrower. Just too bad the latter one comes so late in the game. But that together with Vision of Death was quite good, even on Ming Xiao as the flamethrower stuns her.
Yeah the JaegerSpas is a really nice gun! Khajiit likes how it has both pump and auto firing modes. Brigitte has been using the Brokk pistol to good effect, when she isn’t using her fists or combat knife.
Never did use the pump action, I always switched to autofire. I also never much used the Brokk. Guess I considered it to be too weak or something.
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 5 2019, 12:17 PM)
I also never much used the Brokk. Guess I considered it to be too weak or something.
The Brokk is fairly decent early on. It has good accuracy, so while it’s damage is nothing spectacular, it can hit consistently at decent range. Until Brigitte got the Killmatic it was her go to long range weapon. She preferred her fists and knife for close quarters, although she does carry a JaegerSpas around with her.
This was something I don't remember, the Killmatic. What weapon is that?
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 6 2019, 02:19 AM)
This was something I don't remember, the Killmatic. What weapon is that?
It’s the Lassiter Killmatic. It’s like an uzi. Basically an upgrade to replace the Braddock machine pistol.
Oh, seems like I had just forgotten the names of those guns. Had to look them up on the wiki page
QUOTE(mirocu @ Apr 6 2019, 01:18 PM)
Oh, seems like I had just forgotten the names of those guns. Had to look them up on the wiki page
Tsk tsk
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