# Vampire: the Masquerade tags: #game/rpg/vampire-the-masquerade ![[Vampire - the Masquerade (cover).jpg|600]] **Vampire: The Masquerade** is the game that let a generation of goths embrace their inner bloodsucker and navigate the treacherous waters of undead politics — because apparently eternal life isn't complicated enough without adding bureaucracy to the mix. Created by Mark Rein•Hagen and published by White Wolf in 1991, it's the flagship of the **[[World of Darkness]]**, the game that kicked off the entire "Storyteller System" line and, for better or worse, defined how the hobby talked about personal horror for the next three decades. It's the one where you play a vampire, the Masquerade is the conspiracy of silence that keeps the mortals from realizing the undead run things, and the whole thing runs on a mix of gothic melodrama and clan-based politicking. ## Setting You play a Kindred — an undead vampire — hiding in plain sight among the mortals of the modern World of Darkness. The **Masquerade** is the iron rule that keeps your existence secret: the Camarilla enforces it, the Sabbat openly rejects it, and the whole Jyhad (the eternal power struggle between ancient vampires) churns underneath. The game's fiction leans hard into gothic urban fantasy — the vampire as tragic, cursed predator struggling against the **Beast** within, balancing the fading shreds of Humanity against the monstrous hunger that defines you. Clans give the setting its texture: the aristocratic Ventrue, the passionate Brujah, the scheming Tremere, the feral Gangrel, and a dozen more, each with its own curse, its own Disciplines, and its own place in the undead hierarchy. It's a world of coteries, princes, elders, and neonates, where a single wrong word in the right ear can be more lethal than a stake. ## Mechanics The game runs on the **Storyteller System**, a d10 dice pool. Roll a number of d10s equal to your **Attribute + Ability**, aiming to meet or exceed a difficulty number (usually 6). Count successes — more successes mean better results, and a roll of 10 counts double in most editions. It's a roll-high-count-successes affair where the Storyteller sets the difficulty and interprets the outcome, and it's almost as if counting your victories is as important as actually achieving them — how very vampiric. The system has gone through several editions since 1991, each with its own wrinkles. The second edition (1992) and Revised (1998) made tweaks; **V20** (2011) consolidated the whole line into a single 20th-anniversary compendium; **V5** (2018) stirred things up with major setting and mechanic changes, including the controversial **Hunger Dice** — because nothing says "vampire" quite like rolling special dice to see if you lose control and eat the mailman. ## Editions **Vampire: The Masquerade** has run through six editions since 1991, plus a live-action adaptation. Only the **V6 Playtest** and **Mind's Eye Theatre** are in the collection — the earlier editions are listed here for completeness even though they aren't on the shelf: - **1st Edition** (1991) — the original, the one that launched the World of Darkness. - **2nd Edition** (1992) — tightened the rules and expanded the setting. - **Revised Edition** (1998) — the "Revised" era, a major cleanup that reset the metaplot. - **V20 / 20th Anniversary Edition** (2011) — the consolidated compendium that brought the whole line back into print. - **V5 / 5th Edition** (2018) — the modern reboot, with the controversial Hunger Dice. - **[[Vampire - The Masquerade V6 Playtest Player Packet|V6 Playtest]]** (2025/26) — the sixth edition, an alpha playtest that drops Hunger Dice for a reworked d10 pool and a Quickening/Drama economy. *In the library.* - **[[Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire the Masquerade|Mind's Eye Theatre]]** — the live-action (LARP) version, resolving challenges with rock-paper-scissors. *In the library.* The 2004 successor line, **[[Vampire the Requiem]]**, rebooted the setting under a new name. ## References - [Vampire: The Masquerade - World of Darkness](https://www.worldofdarkness.com/vampire-the-masquerade) - [Vampire: The Masquerade - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade) - [Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/94815/vampire-the-masquerade-20th-anniversary-edition) - [Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/647/Vampire-The-Masquerade-Revised-Edition)