I’ve started a new campaign game. This is not one for Malts and Meeples, but the same people I played Roll Player Adventures, we have started Vampire the Masquerade Chapters. And, well, the tones of the game are a bit different. And how far we are in Vampire the Masquerade Chapters is a bit different. But I want to talk about the basics of the game, because, at it’s core, Vampire the Masquerade Chapters is a pretty simple system. So let’s dive in and look at how this game works.

How to Play Vampire the Masquerade Chapters

Let’s start by talking about how it works at it’s core. Because I think that’s a logical spot to start and everything builds upon that. But, actually, before we get to that, let’s talk about the prologue system.

Prologues and Learning to Play

The game uses a series of prologues to introduce you to all the vampire factions and how to play the game. Each scenario is going to teach you something new, from combat, investigation, disciplines, dialog, blood lust or more. Plus it is a system that gives you experience points for each character if you play through all of the prologues.

So, I like this type of system. I like that Vampire the Masquerade Chapters says, reference the rulebook to learn, but you don’t need to live in it to learn the game. Now, often times this is going to lead to be a bit of ambiguity in the game or referencing stuff later.

I find it interesting, though, that as a player you play through all of them solo. We, as a group of four, played through all of them as a group. I ran the game and the other players made decisions and rolled dice for the characters. It is also interesting that you get XP for all characters, one each, from playing prologues. So that means you might start with eight XP each, or if you skip doing that, you might start with two or four depending on group size.

Basic Mechanisms

At it’s core, Vampire the Masquerade Chapters is a fairly simple system. All of your checks are rolling a set number of dice against a target to see if you pass. How they do that is pretty simple and RPG like.

Your character is split into three different areas. Social, Physical, and Mental are the three types of attributes. A skill check is going to let you roll one of those attributes and a number of dice based off of those attributes to get your target. But, let’s say, you play a character with two physical. The target is four, you won’t make it, most likely.

The character also has skills. Each skill is under one of the attributes. And a skill is an automatic success. So if you need four brawl and have two physical, it isn’t over. Especially if you already have two in brawl you start with two successes. The dice have a 50% chance of a success. And a 10% chance of a double success.

And that is most of the game right there. I want to talk about the three areas in more detail, physical, mental, and social coming up.

Physical and Combat

So Vampire the Masquerade starts teaching you about physical and combat right out of the gate. I think that most of the chapters, or at least a higher percentage, over 50% will at least allow for some combat. It is up to the decision players make. But let’s talk about combat and how that works.

I think that combat is an interesting part of the game, though, we found with one vampire versus a human, in this case, it was a bit slow or could bog down. Combat is based around that core mechanism for the players or rolling dice to see if you hit.

But there is more to that. Each character is equipped with a deck of cards. And you use the cards in combat. It is moves like punch or dodge or high kick that you have. And a dodge is purely defensive. A high kick might be purely offensive. And a punch might let you do both. So you are trying to guess, almost rock paper scissors with the combatant as to what you are doing. And a punch, you decide what to do after you see what the enemy is doing, so attack or defense.

And the cards, they might modify what you roll. So a high kick, it’s purely an offensive move and it’s a physical brawl. If you have three successes in brawl and four dice in physical it might add one or two dice more. So you might roll six dice to hit, it’s clearly a move that is just for offense. Same with dodge, that might be six dice on defense with three successes.

Social and Mental

I am going to stick these two together because a lot of what is happening with them is similar. Now, not completely similar as in how you interact with things, but the interactions are the same. There are no cards that you add to this. Instead, it is just a die roll.

In the case of mental, you often are interacting with something, You might investigate a computer, so what has been happening at location, look for clues, things like that. And it is going to be a mental roll.

For social, this is when you often break into a conversation with an NPC. That NPC might be another vampire or it might be a human or it might be a ghoul (if ghouls can talk). And sometimes you might not know if you are talking with a vampire or a human. But it’s against rolling your social attribute level and adding in any automatic successes.

Disciplines

Now, where I am at in the prologues we haven’t hit disciplines yet. But I know some about them from watching Bairnt play it on One Stop Co-op Shop/Meet Me At The Table. These are basically modifiers that you have as a vampire.

I think that is an interesting aspect for Vampire the Masquerade Chapters. It let’s you hone what you want to do. And you access some of them right away and can upgrade them or add more to choose from, I believe, as the game goes on. But, like I said, they modify how you attack and what you are doing. So you can start to push further into being a combat character at the right times and pull back at others.

Vampire the Masquerade Chapters Story

I want to talk quickly about the story as well. The prologue is obviously not the main story. But they do a good job of stringing the prologue together to get you ready for the story. Each part is a bit of story leading up to the main story that you play through in chapters.

And I think it’s worth noting that this is an 18+ game. Now, I say that, depending on the person, it might never be good for them. There is a lot of language in the game, at least at times. Also some elements are just intense. There is a psychiatrist and you hear about the type of patients he is working with. For some that might be triggering, for others it might not be, it’ll depend on the person.

But, I also want to say, after that word of warning, I think the writing is solid. There is a ton of writing, and I have noticed some mistakes in it. But generally it is a missing word or a “thee” in stead of “the” situation. So it is not bad, it might end up with more or bigger ones, but they offer an errata and a corrected chapter as I believe that German got mixed into one of the English chapters.

Final Thoughts on Vampire the Masquerade Chapters

Thus far, and it is early, I like the game. It is an RPG in a box which I know will not work for some people. What I mean by that is I think this game is going to have moments where I go, this makes sense or make a judgement call in the moment. Because, like an RPG, Vampire the Masquerade Chapters is looser with the rules.

That said, I am excited for it that way as well. It means that I can be more immersed in the story. For some people that might stop the story. It will take them out as time is spent trying to figure out that rule for sure to make sure they play the game perfectly. For me, it is an RPG like game, so it is about the story. Make the decision and move forward from it to keep in the story and not break that immersion.

And I like how simple it is to get into the game. The prologue really works. And I think that overall the system is simpler enough that it’ll be easy to remember from session to session. And I like it when a game does that. That’s a downside to something like Gloomhaven or Frosthaven or Tainted Grail compared to this. Until you are a number of sessions in for two, you need to remind yourself of the rules.

But those are just some first impressions. If you have played Vampire the Masquerade Chapters, let me know your thoughts. And if it is interesting, let me know what about it is interesting to you.

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