Vampire 5th edition pdf free download

So much so that the 20th anniversary edition of Vampire: The Masquerade 4th Edition by my count actively removed all references to it. However, while the metaplot was overdone, I think it's one of the chief reasons to upgrade to a new edition. Seeing how old favorites and characters you had an attachment to growing up is something worthwhile. I've already heard they have plans for a 5th Edition of Chicago by Night and I'd enjoy discovering what the characters within have been up to for twenty years.

Gameplay-wise, the biggest change is the focus of the game is shifted. Previous editions were a power fantasy where the majority of focus was on your disciplines. Many characters were built like Connor Macleod with a trench coat, a katana hidden underneath it, and a bunch of awesome superpowers. Now, the game greatly broadens the focus on hunger and feeding. Many pages are spent discussing how a vampire feeds, what they feed on, and how they feel about who or what they eat.

There's also a change to Humanity in order to make what a character cares about and how they stay sane more varied. Fans of all thirteen clans may be disappointed to discover the book contains descriptions of only the original seven clans, Caitiff, and Thin Bloods. There's some light revisions to them like the fact the Gangrel's flaws are no longer as severe and the Malkavian's insanity is not related to any "real" mental illness as they had previously been depicted as tricksters and doomsaying prophets--not really things you want to associate with the mentally ill.

We also get updates to Disciplines vampire powers , which are much more versatile. Perhaps the best rules revision is that its much harder to feed on animal blood or blood bags if you're a vampire of power. Vampires also become more powerful as they age in terms of Blood Potency. Also, why there was no focus on the Paths of Enlightenment that serve as alternatives to Humanity. While I imagine part of this is a space issue, I think it's actually a thematic issue.

The above clans are the most inhuman of Kindred and they're really beating the drum of V:TM as a game about coping with the horror of one's condition. Besides, they have to get you to buy the supplements somehow. That's good business and I'm not just saying that because I leave cliffhangers in my books for the exact same reason bwhahahaha! The book has beautiful artwork spread throughout, using photos and touch-ups to give impressions of how the gameworld looks.

Some of the artwork isn't great, like the Nosferatu look like poor college students and runaways than horrifying monsters in their Clan write-up, but most of it is incredible. The game is clearly intended for an older, more mature audience. This is a good thing as we finally get straight answers on everything from whether Kindred can have sex High Humanity vampires can to how to make a Herd of mortals.

The general tone of the book is dark and edgy in a deliberately overdone style that implies Kindred are selfish monstrous creatures at every turn. One of my favorite pieces of art is a Ventrue debutante with her slave sitting underneath her as she wears a slit dress while posing over the city. Beside her, she has a little speech about how being rich made her life a party but being undead has made the world her bitch. There's some questionable choices but the general sense is the game is trying to be politically aware in a time when punk is feeling out of fashion but never so relevant.

Whereas the original books were Gothic Punk written for sixteen-year-olds, this feels more like it was written for people who watch HBO and FX. There's some bad decisions in the book, I think. It's an attempt to refute the "vampires behind everything" of previous editions but I don't think anyone really needed a story about in the first place. I'm also not sure how Thin Bloods, a bunch of almost human vampires in the modern age, ended up making their own path of alchemy. I also think making rules about how nice a vampire has to be to have sex is a bad decision.

Gameplay mechanics-wise, I think 5th Edition suffers a bit in design. The Predator types, basically how and what you feed on, are a major part of the new game. However, they aren't very well described and sometimes the mechanics doesn't make sense for what you're eating. For example, one kind of vampire only feeds from other vampires but it doesn't explain how you do that--especially with the Blood Bond being a thing.

Some players will also object to the changes to favored clans like the Tremere who have gone from the Clan which everyone is Blood Bonded in to the Clan which can't do Blood Bonds period. The absence of Paths and Sabbat clans feels wrong, especially as they have a role as both antagonists as well as players.

Given the Lasombra have supposedly joined the Camarilla, their presence is sorely missed. Still, I think the game is fantastic. Vampire's 20th Anniversary Edition was great but it didn't feel sufficiently distinct from Revised.

Every game is going to carry a heavy bias on "how you should play it. View all 8 comments. Would you like to play one of a half-dozen different kinds of Hipster Millennial self-inserts? Would you like to see the original Camarilla Clans made the only playable ones for some reason that doesn't even make sense in the new continuity, yet altered sufficiently that you wonder why they even decided to keep the Camarilla intact? If so, then this is the book for you!

I'll just crank out whatever! Twilight 's still cool, right? Enjoy, I guess, or whatever? Jan 18, Anton rated it really liked it Shelves: rpg. Fabulously looking rulebook. So it is quite faithful to old VTM we remember and love. Good fine-tuning of the rules we saw before, not something radically different.

Still, great reincarnation of the cult game. When it comes to this edition of Vampire, I had a number of psychological shifts. When it was announced, also involving some of the original designers, I was excited. When I first laid eyes on it, I was disappointed and somewhat worried. When I finally got my hands on it and started reading it, I got a really bad feeling from the get go When it comes to this edition of Vampire, I had a number of psychological shifts.

When I finally got my hands on it and started reading it, I got a really bad feeling from the get go, but I did not have the time to study it thoroughly, so I discussed with others, read online reviews etc. One thing started emerging as a pattern: this was Vampire for hipsters. Also, it was a Vampire game that wanted to please everyone and not offend anyone in this all-pervasive political correct trend; at the same time, it wanted to seem and sound "more adult and edgy".

I am sorry, you cannot have both. At the end of the day, however, only reading the whole damn thing could justify any judgment. Or rather, playing it. Hence, the 2 stars instead of 1, since I have not played it yet and I hold on to some vague hope that I might be somewhat wrong.

I cannot and will not try to review it cover to cover, since I have found such reviews boring myself. Rather, I will tell you what I find wrong with it. Not to mention it forgets or retcons its own history. For instance, there is an "immersion piece" that is a letter from Mina Harker to a Fledgling, where she talks about Dracula.

Mina comes across as quite empathetic and even talks about her sire mildly, when in fact Dracula was a terrible Tzimisce Elder and therefore, she would have been of 7th Generation, therefore, per the new rules, akin to a maddened monster that in any case would have succumbed to the Beckoning.

This is just an easy example. Other than that, while the 2nd Inquisition is an interesting idea, what caused it it laughable. To put it simply, half the options of the previous vanilla Vampire the Masquerade. If they plan on a later book, it is shameless milking. If not, they just trashed half the fun. Oh, and the Sabbat is basically destroyed because of, guess what, The Beckoning.

Forget the interesting effects of yore. They just copied the powers from Vampire: Bloodlines right down to the symbols and added Thin-blooded Alchemy. You basically risk frenzy if you do anything interesting that goes beyond human abilities. Also, now Blood has Resonance and gives different benefits if you feed from people of different psychologies, etc.

The book has the standard hefty size of White Wolf tradition, but with so many things missing, you would wonder what's in there. Well, more micromanagement, from pointlessly complex Discipline allocation oh, did I mention, there is no more Dementation - it is now half-assed as a Discipline Combination Effect , to Chronicle Tenets the things that will cause you to lose Humanity, pre-agreed, on a Chronicle to Chronicle basis , to Relationship Diagrams, Coterie Styles blah-blah-blah.

Basically, they created micromanagement for roleplaying. The example given is that, for instance, you could lose Humanity for healing yourself, because, you know, that's not something humans do.

There is more, but to me, that is enough. I can only imagine a very skilled Storyteller making use of this mess and creating an interesting story, but here is the thing: a skilled Storyteller does not need all this mess. As I read in another review, this game is made for those who did NOT and would not play Vampire before. This sums it up better than all my ranting. For extra annoyance points: ugliness is not allowed.

All the Vampires shown are basically models and in the rare instance of actual artwork, they ALL look like the dress-up doll style used in the old Zynga Vampire Wars game - or put simply, clothes-designer sketches.

View all 5 comments. Sep 02, Jorge Villarruel rated it did not like it. The game's target is not the people who play or played Vampire the Masquerade, 20th or earlier, but people who don't play Vampire the Masquerade, instead.

Or for people who like Zack Znyder's over-production and pseudo-substance, Marvel movies' shiny colors and teenage jokes. This game is not mature, this game is for younger millennials who like to? The book even contains an apology for it's delicate content, something a mature audience would not need.

I mean, I played Vampire first in '95 or '96, when I was 15, and not even once I though the game was an invitations to murder, rape and cannibalism, it was just a fucking game about being monsters, like when you played cops and robbers and you were the robber and it didn't mean you would grow up to become a politician or an illegal criminal.

This game is the portrayal of modern politics, but not of its dark side, not the corrupt corporate power and wild capitalism and modern slavery, no, but about being politically correct and asking for permission to be a fiction monster for a couple hours a week.

Then there's the artwok. It's photographs of real peplpe cosplaying like vampires. If you wanted to protect the Masquerade, it just went to hell. Like a fashion magazine. Like Paris Hilton with fangs. There are illustrations, but these reflect the same style. The rules? Well, who cares about the rules after that? It's a solid system, it's based on the original with some new ideas that seem good.

I would have liked to use them even when Vampire is a game about ignoring the rules completely and focusing on the story and psychodrama--something that the new creative team must somehow be ignorant of--there are many rules, then lore, then more rules, then more rules , these make sense and not over complicated, but the game lore and setting is garbage.

I expected the lore to advance, I even wanted that it was about the consequences of Gehenna and what the few vampires remaining alive were doing, but it ignored all that, it is a sequel of a game that doesn't exist! Who wrote this? Vampire 5 is a bad bland game. View all 3 comments. Feb 18, Al rated it did not like it. The only thing I like about the new edition is the Modiphus Dice Set.

I'll stick to playing the 20th Anniversary Edition. I love this update. It stream lines play to be faster and more efficient. I did struggle with some of the advanced tactics. I still don't think I grasped it. That being said I like the emphasis on story rather then rules. The sections and tools on consent are becoming standard in RPG books and I couldn't be happier.

Nov 09, Shadowdenizen rated it really liked it Shelves: whitewolf-rpg. After a long hiatus from the World of Darkness, I'm pleased to dive back in with the flagship title. In reading this, I found much that was familar, but also much that was streamlined, changed or updated.

There's been some adjusting of the clans and the hi 4. There's been some adjusting of the clans and the hierarchial institutes, but the bones remain solid and familiar. Camarilla and Sabbat are still there, but there's a newfound focus on Anarchs and Indepenedents. This is a dense, information and rules-packed book, with some evocative art especially the cover to draw people in. I'm not sure if this will necessarily attract NEW players, but it should certainly bring back some lapsed players like me.

Oct 17, Benjamin added it Shelves: horror , library-borrowed , urban-fantasy , roleplaying. Perhaps I have passed some notional line where now I find myself asking "why does this need to exist? Though is this new? Vampire has existed for 30 years, and it was ground-breaking and community-building in the '90s -- like Neil Gaiman's comment on Sandman being a sexually transmitted comic book because it was popular with both men and women so if comic book nerd A dates person B and introduces them to Sandman, then after the breakup, B can introduce Sandman to Perhaps I have passed some notional line where now I find myself asking "why does this need to exist?

It was, like many games in the 90s, interested in edgy transgression and angst: the central dynamic of Vampire isn't "kill monsters and take their stuff" but "how can I keep my monster self in control just enough to get what I want. So the "maybe the PCs aren't heroes" angle gets reworked into Greg Costikyan's Violence , where the PCs are dungeon-crawling, killing and looting, only its in a modern apartment building, and you're a moral monster for not recognizing the players are murder hobos.

Heck, even TSR has a few notes in their books about the relative morality of killing on sight any species that you think is "evil. Then the company that made it went through a few hands, resulting in some newer versions with slightly different takes, a revision and reprint of the original as the 20th anniversary, and now this, billing itself as the 5th edition. There was also maybe a problem a few years ago with Nazis and some over-the-line content. And I just don't know why this exists?

Sure, the world is updated including Ken Hite's love of spies vs. But, like, is this very popular right now? Was bringing this back and updating it someone's passion project? Are people buying this to play, to read, to incorporate in their other Vampire editions?

I just don't know. I read the core book, the Camarilla and the Anarch sourcebooks which are almost entirely in-world documents, e. Oh, and one thing that is almost certainly a product of the difference between reading the original in the 90s and reading this now: the art here involves a lot more photographs, but feels more glossy than the gritty photos in the original.

To me, this art is a little less atmospheric. Jul 01, Jonas Carlsson rated it liked it. I really love this take on vampire mythology and picked up the Core Rulebook so I could run some RPG games in the future. What I loved the most about the book is the worldbuilding aspect. The first 30 pages alone is pure worldbuilding, but it isn't a coherent introduction to the World of Darkness - that comes later.

Instead, it is presented as a collection of documents, starting with a letter from I got into the World of Darkness by playing the video game "Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines".

Instead, it is presented as a collection of documents, starting with a letter from a very iconic character in vampire stories and then moving on to transcriptions, journal entries, obscure passages from books etc. The cool thing about this introduction is that the reader slowly pieces all the information together, getting the picture of what this world is about.

The book also does a really good job at introducing the clans and sects of the hidden world of vampires, and there is lots of gorgeous and atmospheric artwork throughout the book. I can't wait to put these elements to use in an actual game some time. The roleplaying system also has a nice balance of simplicity and complexity - one can run the game very simply with minimal dice rolling if one wants to, or one can run advanced combats or elaborate heists if one wants to.

I also like that social encounters can be played similarly to how one would play a combat encounter. I don't know how much I would use that over just roleplaying and rolling a couple of dice once in a while, but I like that it's an available option. However, the reason I give this book a mediocre score is while the worldbuilding and explanations of vampires and their powers is great, the book itself is a long and sometimes confusing read.

A lot of information is repeated throughout the book. A concept will be introduced, often because it has some relevance to what is being written about at that moment. However, at the point the concept is introduced, the reader has no prerequisite for understanding why it's relevant until much later where the concept is properly elaborated on.

The layout is also somewhat disjointed and confusing, changing rapidly throughout the entire book. There are also a few layout errors and typos throughout, but I really can't blame those who had to proofread this book - it is very dense, and a lot of information is thrown at the reader. While the book serves as an introduction to the World of Darkness, it goes especially into details that are new to the 5th edition - for example the Second Inquisition and their role as a possible antagonist.

However, there are still references to lore and near-extinct clans that veteran players might know of, but new players won't. For example, it is explained that while the Tremere clan used to have a rigid hierarchy, they don't anymore.

However, that hierarchy is stilled referred to as a pretty important part of the clan's backstory, so it would have been nice to have some more information about what the hierarchy used to be about. However, by doing this, the Camarilla exposed the existence of vampires to intelligence agencies across the world, starting a Second Inquisition.

The book also hints that a secret war between the Sabbat and other vampires is happening in the Middle East and that some of this is masqueraded as the War on Terror hide spoiler ]. On one hand, this is a really cool way to place vampires in modern times while also changing some things up for veteran players.

On the other hand, it almost borders on being a bit insensitive, especially since the historical events mentioned in the book has impacted and still impacts a lot of people today, a lot of people even having lost their lives in those events. The good thing about this is that it IS a roleplaying system, not a novel. One can simply choose not to elaborate that much on those aspects when running a game.

Laws of the Hunt 1st Edition Storyteller. Laws of the Hunt Revised Storyteller. Laws of the Night 1st Edition Storyteller.

Laws of the Night Revised Edition Storyteller. Laws of the Reckoning Storyteller. Laws of the Resurrection Storyteller. Laws of the Wild 1st and 2nd Editions Storyteller. Mage: The Ascension Storyteller. The Masquerade 1st Edition Storyteller. The Masquerade 2nd Edition Storyteller. Mind's Eye Theatre Journal. Oblivion White Wolf Storyteller. Orpheus Storyteller.

Paths of Storytelling Systemless Gamebooks. The Shining Host Storyteller. Vampire: The Masquerade Storyteller. Werewolf: The Apocalypse Storyteller.

Wraith: The Oblivion Storyteller. Core Rules min needed to play. Dice Primarily d Dice Pool Roll multiple dice vs target. Point Based allocate points to get skills, powers, etc.

Matthew Dawkins. Kenneth Hite. Tomas Arfert. Martin Ericsson. Michael Gaydos. Mark Kelly. Mike Mignola. Matthew Mitchell. John Van Fleet. Alis Games. Arkhane Asylum Publishing. Modiphius Entertainment. Make your own Vampire: The Masquerade video game in a month and get a chance to win prizes, including Steam release of your game. Looking for a fun way to determine which clan or faction you belong to?

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