Vampire - The Masquerade

I was disappointed. I thought someone was talking about the LARP version for Halloween or something. Though this thread was a good reminder - I missed this game the first time through due to the suckiness of my hardware. Maybe I'll give it a stab now.

Playing it as Ventrue the first time through was really tough. Dominate and the suicide and possession commands made some parts easy, but killing the Kui-Jin Brothers and every combat after that was pretty difficult and I had Fortitude up to lvl 4 by that point.

Tremere= easy combat

So is this a Halloween special only? Too many games at the moment but I have felt the absence of a more old-school RPG (that looks decent) a bit.

I can't see buying this down the road if the price jumps back up.

Shawnosaurus wrote:

How are you enjoying that new covert Steam marketing job, armedbushido They should give you your copy for free considering how many $10 copies of a long retired game you just sold.

I sure hope Steam is getting a lot of positive feedback from these sales. They are great and they are definately getting my money for games I would not have otherwise picked up. I sure hope they continue the trend, and clean up the game listings/display while they're at it.

Since this uses the Source engine, does it get all the cool upgrades it has had?

Since this uses the Source engine, does it get all the cool upgrades it has had?

Unfortunately not. Technical problems are one of Bloodline's biggest downsides. It doesn't even support widescreen without a user made patch. I think using the Source engine was probably a mistake. Not that it would have guaranteed a better game but I wonder if the developers wouldn't have been better off using a more established engine (like Unreal) rather than an engine from a game that wasn't even out yet and was actually finished after Bloodlines was.

Cramps wrote:

Tremere= easy combat

I've never liked the Tremere in the tabletop game, so I just have a hard time playing one. I'm definitely trying out Malk, but I think I'll also roll with the Gangrel.

Never saw an answer to the following question and I'd really like to know:

Is there an easy way to tell if your unofficial patch was installed correctly? Like a version number in a game menu or some obvious bug that would have been fixed?

There was a lot that I really liked about this game. It was attempting to be the kind of RPG that I like best. Unfortunately, can't patch the sophomoric perspective. I like that they included sex in the character interactions, I just wish they had written it from a point of view other than pre-teen boy.

Oso wrote:

There was a lot that I really liked about this game. It was attempting to be the kind of RPG that I like best. Unfortunately, can't patch the sophomoric perspective. I like that they included sex in the character interactions, I just wish they had written it from a point of view other than pre-teen boy.

Are you talking about the fact that Male characters can seduce female characters, and female characters can seduce everyone?

Is there an easy way to tell if your unofficial patch was installed correctly? Like a version number in a game menu or some obvious bug that would have been fixed?

I don't know if there is... I don't have the game installed at the moment but I know one of the patches restored some history bonuses or something that you could select during character creation. I know they could occasionally cause problems so I'm not sure if they're still in there but if they are, and somebody with the latest patch can confirm they are in there then you could just get to see if you have them available at character creation.

Cramps wrote:
Oso wrote:

There was a lot that I really liked about this game. It was attempting to be the kind of RPG that I like best. Unfortunately, can't patch the sophomoric perspective. I like that they included sex in the character interactions, I just wish they had written it from a point of view other than pre-teen boy.

Are you talking about the fact that Male characters can seduce female characters, and female characters can seduce everyone?

That's not all of my complaint, but it is as good an example as I can come up with. It isn't that I want to role-play Mark Foley or Larry Craig, but a universe where all women are pan-sexual freaks (& I mean that in a good way) and all guys are hetero straight arrows is a bit constrained. A role of Vampire myth seem to be to bend lines, pursue androgynies, and play with roles. VTM:B's sex roles play out like the Morrowind mod that made all of the female character stacked and topless while all of the male characters wore y-fronts. If someone wants to play a Toreador character, why not let them role-play a Bowie, a Mick Jagger, or a Tom Cruise?

VTM:B was a good game, even for all of its bugs and flaws. I probably shouldn't complain at all, since most games aren't adventurous enough for this kind of criticism to even apply. This is a step beyond tipping the strippers in Duke Nukem. Still, I occasionally regret that most video games either appeal to 14 year old boys or to the part of folks that longs to be a 14 year old boy in order to be successful. (The rest of the time I'm happily blowing things up and ogling oogaba.)

For anyone looking for a widescreen patch:

This worked for me.

The first file I found did not work and I didn't want to bother with fileplanet. Note you have to put it in the BIN folder then execute it. Otherwise it's simple.

Oso wrote:

If someone wants to play a Toreador character, why not let them role-play a Bowie, a Mick Jagger, or a Tom Cruise?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the best/most horrifying Vampire game ever. I mean, he already did Interview..., but if I could be a vampire version of crazy Scientologist Tom Cruise, that'd just be wonderful. Would that make Katie Holmes my Ghoul? Would I stalk Brooke Shields in the night with orange juice and fitness catalogues trying to cure her? Would I try to kill Matt Laurer? I see limitless potential here.

I thought all Toreadors were David Bowie a la Jarrett from Labrynth. Unless they were Joan Jett. At least that's how they all kept coming out in tabletop version in my group anyways.

Oso wrote:

There was a lot that I really liked about this game. It was attempting to be the kind of RPG that I like best. Unfortunately, can't patch the sophomoric perspective. I like that they included sex in the character interactions, I just wish they had written it from a point of view other than pre-teen boy.

This has always bugged me about the IP. These vampires have lived for hundreds of years but still act immature by mortal standards. I'd like to think it is a nice tip of the hat to the pettiness of gods in many polytheist mythologies, but I usually end up seeing it as a result of immaturity in the players and (perhaps/hopefully to a lesser extent) the designers.

After a couple hundred years I expect anyone to be much more calm, collected, and calculating -- and certainly less distracted by shiny objects (with the exception of Toreadors, of course).

wordsmythe wrote:
Oso wrote:

There was a lot that I really liked about this game. It was attempting to be the kind of RPG that I like best. Unfortunately, can't patch the sophomoric perspective. I like that they included sex in the character interactions, I just wish they had written it from a point of view other than pre-teen boy.

This has always bugged me about the IP. These vampires have lived for hundreds of years but still act immature by mortal standards. I'd like to think it is a nice tip of the hat to the pettiness of gods in many polytheist mythologies, but I usually end up seeing it as a result of immaturity in the players and (perhaps/hopefully to a lesser extent) the designers.

After a couple hundred years I expect anyone to be much more calm, collected, and calculating -- and certainly less distracted by shiny objects (with the exception of Toreadors, of course).

The irony here is so thick you'd think it were a fog bank in San Francisco. The 'stereotypical' V:TM players are usually thought of as being 'Goths' whom shun societal norms about beauty and possessions and yet, there's this underlying current within V:TM that has been brought up by you and Oso. Huh.

After a couple hundred years I expect anyone to be much more calm, collected, and calculating -- and certainly less distracted by shiny objects (with the exception of Toreadors, of course).

Wouldn't their unique life status and deviant culture foster this sort of immaturity? Living outside societies boundaries certainly doesn't boost the IQ or social skills. Too bad living within those boundaries doesn't either. I agree though that you would think time should refine these people, however I think they are tainted by their unique situation and power.

Shawnosaurus wrote:
After a couple hundred years I expect anyone to be much more calm, collected, and calculating -- and certainly less distracted by shiny objects (with the exception of Toreadors, of course).

Wouldn't their unique life status and deviant culture foster this sort of immaturity? Living outside societies boundaries certainly doesn't boost the IQ or social skills. Too bad living within those boundaries doesn't either. I agree though that you would think time should refine these people, however I think they are tainted by their unique situation and power.

Once upon a time there was a notion that vampires could be cultured nobility (see, for example, the 1931 Dracula). You see in all sorts of stories involving immortal and otherwise long-lived characters that with time comes patience and wisdom. The stoicism that comes with age is so normal as to be cliché. You have a game world where vampires regularly control the backroom deals of mortal politics, economics, and culture. There is ostensibly a strong cultural bias against vulgar displays of power.

So why on earth doesn't this translate into games of cautious intrigue and political backstabbing? Why is it so often an action movie? Why is everyone merely intimidated by the power of a man who has lived since the days of Charlemagne and so seldom intimidated by his obvious wisdom and far-reaching connections?

Mind you I'm railing mostly against the way LARPers play and my limited experience of OWBN. I hear reasonably good things about the computer game.

wordsmythe wrote:

So why on earth doesn't this translate into games of cautious intrigue and political backstabbing? Why is it so often an action movie? Why is everyone merely intimidated by the power of a man who has lived since the days of Charlemagne and so seldom intimidated by his obvious wisdom and far-reaching connections?

Boooooring.

Once upon a time there was a notion that vampires could be cultured nobility (see, for example, the 1931 Dracula). You see in all sorts of stories involving immortal and otherwise long-lived characters that with time comes patience and wisdom. The stoicism that comes with age is so normal as to be cliché. You have a game world where vampires regularly control the backroom deals of mortal politics, economics, and culture. There is ostensibly a strong cultural bias against vulgar displays of power.

So why on earth doesn't this translate into games of cautious intrigue and political backstabbing? Why is it so often an action movie? Why is everyone merely intimidated by the power of a man who has lived since the days of Charlemagne and so seldom intimidated by his obvious wisdom and far-reaching connections?

Boob loving deviant vampires of the modern media are the Nascar of the undead. Designed to cater to a less sophisticated and desensitized majority. Let's call it dumbification shall we?

That said, I still have fun chowing down on hookers in VtM:B. There's room out there for both types of experiences. The rich, mature experience of a deeply developed character and the simple indulgent, deviant experience of hooker killing. Tasty juice bags.

When I first read Dracula I was enthralled. There was a vampire with style.

Don't you knock Zombie NASCAR!

Apparently this game will be $10 until Nov. 5, then it will go back up to $20.

Be sure to check out the unofficial patches. They really fix a lot of issues.

Wow. I reinstalled this on Tuesday, installed the "True" unofficial patch mentioned earlier in the thread, suffered through the first 1-2 hours that I've already played three times, and now I am really enjoying this game. I have a bout a dozen nit-picky complaints, but all in all it is absolutley worth the $30 I paid for it 2 years ago. I would definitely recommend it for $10.

So I picked this up a few days ago and have enjoyed the few hours I've put into it so far. It kind of has a Bloodnet feel to it (cyberpunkish vampire RPG from 1993ish).

But I think I may have a problem, I installed the unofficial 4.2 patch before playing and it seems like the save system is a little broken. Besides the autosaves, it's only allowing me one other save game. Is this how it's supposed to be? If not, I want to get it fixed before putting too much more time in.

I used the latest "True" patch and I've only encountered one problem so far and I'm not worried about more moving forward.
I have been paralyzed, however, by the number of choices I have and how many I want to explore. At first I wanted to be a brute and just tear through the game beating the crap out of everyone with my amazing powers. And I still want to do that, but from what I've see so far it looks like exploring the dialogue trees and choices is worthwhile.
With that in mind I've thought about creating a character with a bit more nuance and a bit less brute force. Which means I've rerolled a bunch of times.

I think this is worth mentioning as well: I've read a bit about character progression and it sounds like you gain experience for completing quests, not for each enemy you beat up. So there's no need to go back and "clear an area" to soak up the last bit of XP from whatever stragglers remain. That helps my decision making process a bit.

I often get caught up in character creation and fixate on it, which is usually a good thing. I enjoy this part of a game when it's done well, which it seems to have been here. I've already gotten my $10 worth, although it did take maybe an hour and a half to research and get the various patches running. Depite playing more on the console lately I've still got the PC gamer chops to handle unofficial patching.

georob wrote:

So I picked this up a few days ago and have enjoyed the few hours I've put into it so far. It kind of has a Bloodnet feel to it (cyberpunkish vampire RPG from 1993ish).

But I think I may have a problem, I installed the unofficial 4.2 patch before playing and it seems like the save system is a little broken. Besides the autosaves, it's only allowing me one other save game. Is this how it's supposed to be? If not, I want to get it fixed before putting too much more time in.

Did you get this on Steam, or install from your own disks? If you installed from your own disks, make sure you apply the official v 1.2 patch first, then the unofficial 4.2 patch. I haven't experienced any issues except some out of memory crashes that I'm pretty sure were to blame on the Source engine.

Lex Cayman wrote:

Did you get this on Steam, or install from your own disks? If you installed from your own disks, make sure you apply the official v 1.2 patch first, then the unofficial 4.2 patch. I haven't experienced any issues except some out of memory crashes that I'm pretty sure were to blame on the Source engine.

Steam. I'll probably reinstall and try the 'true' patch instead, one save game in an RPG isn't enough.