Need Games recently announced the localization in Italian of the fifth edition of Vampires: La Masquerade. Another very important gem in the world of role-playing board games is therefore added to the glove of the publishing house, now full of interesting titles. Recall that, following a fruitful Kickstarter, the Italian localization of Lex Arcana. Shortly after the announcement, the quickstarter that this review deals with has been released (Free download from place Need Games).
Vampire setting 5th Edition
The World of Darkness (discussed extensively Thu) is a dark version of ours, where night creatures hungry for blood and death walk among us. Vampires, natural hunters of human beings, have decided to conceal their presence with the Masquerade, a fiction to be protected at all costs. In order not to be discovered by humans, the characters will, very often, have to act without being discovered or without their true nature being understood.
Vampire game system 5th Edition
Vampires 5th Edition uses ten-sided dice to determine the success or failure of actions. Each vampire has a pool of dice, obtained by adding statistics and corresponding skills, and rolling them counts successes and failures. A die with a result of six or higher can be considered a success.
The dark and brutal side of the game emerges with the presence of the red dice, called Hunger dice, which replace the "normal" dice based on the character's need for blood. In case of success with at least one critic on a hunger die, the vampire will let the monster out inside him, succeeding in the action but in a violent and inhuman way. Likewise critical failures with a one on the hunger die will result in violent and bloody failure.
Whenever the characters use their powers, wake up from sleep or heal their wounds, there is a risk of increasing Hunger. To lower it they will have to feed. It is interesting that murder is not the solution that the game offers. Although drying up someone is the only way to reach the hunger value of 0, without which it will remain at least one, this goes strongly against the Masquerade. A corpse creates problems, something that should then be resolved.
The advisable approach is to feed on humans, taking advantage of the euphoria induced by the bite in the victims, and then close the holes with the vampire's saliva. Thanks to this small "donation", no one will get hurt and the character will be able to keep the darkness within him at bay.
The Plot of the Vampire Adventure 5th Edition
The adventure of introduction to Vampires 5th Edition, proposed in the Quickstarter, is built on three chapters and allows you to approach the title and its mechanics slowly. Over the course of an evening, players will experience almost all the rules and will be better introduced to the dark world.
In the town where the characters reside, two people were killed. Vampires are summoned by their superior, with the sacred task of enforcing the Masquerade, and they are given the task of investigating these deaths. If he is a vampire, he would most likely be violating the secrecy bond that everyone must respect, otherwise, the attention of the media and the police nobody likes.
The approach to the adventure of Vampires 5th Edition is left to the players to choose most of the time, with some small and excessive intervention of the master in the final part. Although the twist is, in my opinion, something difficult to construct without a party of players experienced in flashback scenes, the plot is very interesting.
Considerations about Vampires 5th Edition
The World of Darkness is not a place for heroes to roll around and the topics covered may impact the sensitivity of some players. Domestic violence, sex, drugs and homicides are only a very small part of the topics covered in the setting. The approach to the title is considered conscious of this thing.
In case you are interested in exploring the vampire factions of Rome, we have reviewed a tasty supplement Thu!
