VAMPIRE MASQUERADE D&D 5TH ED ANARCH SOURCEBOOK HC

Vampire:The Masquerade is a great role playing system if you like:(1) role playing as vampires (obviously)—all types and flavors of vampires (each has its own clan, its own powers, its own history, etc)(2) story telling over mechanics. This isn’t a min-max game. You gain xp just for playing, not killing things or solving mysteries, and you gain it slowly. It’s about the ride, not the destination.(3) not much math. The mechanics aren’t as simple as super-simple RPGs and the character sheet has a ton of stuff on it. But that is mainly to add richness to story telling. The basic mechanics are easy: roll a number of 10 sided dice and count your successes (6+). If you get equal to or more than the difficulty level the Storyteller (GM) set, such as 4, you pass; otherwise you fail. People say 60-80% of your rolls will be successes. There isn’t a huge amount of die rolling, just enough.(4) The social element of role playing: politics, intrigue, personal goals. This is where V:TM shines. You get to create a real fleshed out undead vampire, with enemies, ambition, and all sorts of relational ties. This is very different to D&D or Call of Cthulhu, because the mechanics and theme support social play way more. Everybody wants something, including the NPCs, but you never really know exactly why. It’s hard to kill or incapacitate another Kindred (and it’s against the code of conduct) so you have to get what you want by other means.(5) the fight to survive: you are on a constant struggle to survive. You need to eat, so you need fo hunt (generally) which is dangerous. There are many threats (rival sects, like the Sabbat; human vampire hunters like the Second Inquisition; rival Kindred who might have a grudge against you; werewolves, who will tear you to shreds). You also must maintain the Masquerade. Survival largely means not being discovered.(6) your inner struggle: you wrestle with the Beast, the animal and demonic nature in you struggling to break free and rid you of your last shreds of Humanity once and for all. Let it win for good and you’re done for. Morality is a thing. There is a much stronger focus on the inner life and personal demons of a character than in any other popular system I’ve come across.With the right players and Storyteller this can be a blast. It does require experience and skill on the part of the Storyteller, and openness and willingness on the part of the players. In terms of the books, the Core Rulebook is the best and most essential. Other books are helpful for additional clans (Core comes only with info for 7), but are otherwise not as necessary as they are 80% lore. A lot of lore can be found on the White Wolf Fandom Wiki, which is great for searching for stuff.The book reads like short stories or sections of a novella—very well written—and these snippets could even be brought into your game on occasion. It is replete with illustrations and evocative photos, making it physically and aesthetically beautiful. My main complaint is that the fonts are very thin and hard for me to read, especially when the text is white against a dark background (almost unreadable for me). I hope the publisher will avoid this in future.I would also like some campaign/chronicle books similar to Call of Cthulhu, to aid Storytellers, that focus not just on lore but how to actually run a campaign in a more traditional / less open-ended way. RP’ing V:TM doesn’t have as linear a structure as Call of Cthulhu or D&D, so an inexperienced Storyteller might be wondering what to do. I also find the way the books are made to be a bit confusing: it’s not clear which books to get, in which order, and who they are for.All in all the core book is a 10/10 and the game itself is a 10/10.

Package arrived fast and was very enjoyable