Ah Vampire the Masquerade. What could arguably be considered one of the most influential games outside of Dungeons and Dragons on the RPG hobby and industry. From helping bring in a flood of fresh blood in during the slump created by the Magic the Gathering explosion to making some think in new directions of how a game could be set up. While a far step away from the story driven games of today it still set a ball rolling in that direction.
Around here gaming was at a super low. Most groups had dried up and vanished, a local game shop was about ready to give up RPGs all together. Only a few die hard Dungeons and Dragon fans really kept it flowing. Vampire changed all that. People I never thought would be interested in gaming were suddenly buying up the books and giving it a try. It become a common connection between groups besides dungeon crawling. Plus it was published by a smaller company and made people look towards other small companies to see what they were producing.
It was a win for everyone at that time.
Anyways the latest version of the classic is the 20th Anniversary Edition from Onyx Path. Today it's the Deal of the Day over on DrivethruRPG and well worth picking up. Nine bucks for a massive pdf and even the print costs are pretty decent.
PICK IT UP HERE at DrivethruRPG.
or
PICK IT UP HERE at RPGNow.
Also be sure to check out those POD costs for a dead tree edition or some of the other 20th Anniversary Edition material they have released.
I remember reading my brother's copy of the first book. Me, being me, read it saying over and over, "No, they got that wrong... Okay, that's alright, but... Well, they're wrong about that, but..."
ReplyDeleteI ended up impressed with [as you say] the new life and and new direction. Oh, and yes, I stole from it liberally.