Pdx to publish Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 in 2020

[jimmy olsen]

The new developers are The Chinese Room, makers of Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

https://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/games

This is potentially disappointing news. I hope they don't go too far down the horror game path.

You may not be aware of this, but the game is about vampires and is very likely to also involve werewolves and ghosts.

[Josquius]

The new developers are The Chinese Room, makers of Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

https://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/games

This is potentially disappointing news. I hope they don't go too far down the horror game path.

You may not be aware of this, but the game is about vampires and is very likely to also involve werewolves and ghosts.

You don't say.

These aspects can be handled without going down a horror game path.

[Caliga]

Meaning you want a game with vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, but you don't want it to be scary?

If so that makes sense, I'm just trying to understand what you want.

[HVC]

Josq likes his vampires glittery?

[Jacob]

Meaning you want a game with vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, but you don't want it to be scary?

If so that makes sense, I'm just trying to understand what you want.

Are you (and Timmy) familiar with Vampire: the Masquerade the table top RPG that originated the IP? While it uses standard horror trappings it's not really much of a horror game.

[Josquius]

Meaning you want a game with vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, but you don't want it to be scary?

If so that makes sense, I'm just trying to understand what you want.

Like most media with vampires and werewolves.

Ghosts... Tend towards the scary though still plenty that isn't. Definitely plenty that doesn't rely on jump scares.

[Sophie Scholl]

I took it to mean the newer "jump scare" style horror game that has become popular the past few years as opposed to a more traditional rpg like Bloodlines 1 and the ttrpg. I could be totally wrong though. I love the World of Darkness IP. Especially the Dark Ages material.

[Josquius]

Aside from the hotel I wouldn't say the original was horror at all. The p&p rpg certainly isn't.
When you're the powerful supernatural being operating from the inside it removes the scare factor.
As said with modern vampires for certain they're just not horror anymore. The vampires are always protagonists rather than an incomprehensible other.

[Caliga]

Are you (and Timmy) familiar with Vampire: the Masquerade the table top RPG that originated the IP? While it uses standard horror trappings it's not really much of a horror game.

I am indeed.  I played the shit out of it, both tabletop and LARP, when I was in college.  I had a longstanding LARP character who was a Setite in disguise as a Southern Pentecostal preacher.

[Jacob]

I am indeed.  I played the shit out of it, both tabletop and LARP, when I was in college.  I had a longstanding LARP character who was a Setite in disguise as a Southern Pentecostal preacher.

Would you consider the TRPG and LARP games to be horror games?

[jimmy olsen]

I'm familiar with it. It's horror. Sometimes you're the monster, sometimes you're the victim. Sometimes you're the villain, sometimes you're the hero. Sometimes the horror is more existential and abstract, but it's definitely a horror game.

[The Minsky Moment]

The Little Mermaid has an evil witch and killer eels but I wouldn't exactly call it horror.

I take Jake's point to be that there a are a lot of ways to represent the source material.  I'm not an expert on it, but my recollection is that there was as much emphasis on political intrigue as traditional horror elements. And it is legitimate to express a preference on what aspects one prefers to see in an adaptation.

[Josquius]

Yeah. It's post post horror. It takes these elements that originated in folklore and horror novels but have long since moved into the domain of being standards for different takes.
There's no reason you couldn't do a WOD horror campaign. But then you can do that with any setting. WOD I would say is less suited to it than most as the horror originated elements are so normalised there.

[Caliga]

I am indeed.  I played the shit out of it, both tabletop and LARP, when I was in college.  I had a longstanding LARP character who was a Setite in disguise as a Southern Pentecostal preacher.

Would you consider the TRPG and LARP games to be horror games?

Yes, for sure.

[Sophie Scholl]

An art and gaming store near me is doing a "Month of Darkness" thing where they're going to be a lot of V:TM events and I'm super excited. I've always wanted to play, but never had a group to play with. I've loved reading the books for years now, so it will be fun to see how the fun lore translates to an actual ttrpg experience. I'm thinking of going for a Salubri or a Banu Haqim character.