New Vampire: The Masquerade “Narrative RPG” Announced

I mean, I will absolutely take this. Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 was announced just a little while ago, and I had figured that it would be the only Masquerade game for a while yet, sorta test the waters to see if gamers were really invested in the franchise (or if the cult status of the original Bloodlines was just that and not enough to support a new franchise on), but apparently no! BIGBEN Interactive and Big Bad Wolf (the studio behind The Council) has announced a new “narrative RPG” based on the V.5 version of the Vampire: The Masquerade pen and paper game. From their site:

In partnership with WHITE WOLF and PARADOX Interactive, BIGBEN Interactive is proud to announce that we are working hard on our next NARRATIVE RPG on the license “VAMPIRE: The Masquerade” V.5 It will bleed!…

Clever tagline. Presumably, this will fall in line with The Council and be more of a choice system adventure game (think a more robust TellTale game), where you interact with the world and talk to people rather than action. This sounds like a perfect fit for the world of The Masquerade, especially as the “narrative RPG” side of the original Bloodlines was easily the thing people loved the most, not the (horribly aged) combat. Sinking neck-deep into the dark and bloody world of The Masquerade sounds like a real treat, although there is zero information outside of the game being in production. It may or may not be tied to Bloodlines 2, it may or may not be set in modern day (although the attachment to V.5 would suggest as much). Admittedly, it’s probably pretty early in production, and they probably don’t want to take attention away from Bloodlines 2 before that releases, but it’s still awesome to know that more is coming even after that! I simply can’t wait.

Does make me feel pretty bad for the indie studio behind Nighthawks, a text adventure RPG that was built to fill the gaping void that had been left by Vampire: The Masquerade‘s absence from video games. All this VTM news is probably pretty… “well, shit” timing for them, as Nighthawks still isn’t set to release until May of next year, where it will more than likely be going head-to-head with Bloodlines 2. Well, shit.

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