[V:tM] Storytellers' Vault & Style Guide

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The Butcher

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Interesting developments over at White Wolf

In the past few days, they have announced the D&D Beyond-like World of Darkness site and the DM's Guild-like Storytellers' Vault program for fan-written material.

Today they released a "style manual" for the latter that provides some interesting contrast between the mindsets behind each edition. I found it a particularly interesting read vis-a-vis some discussions we've had about Masquerade and/or Requiem (paging Doc Sammy... Doc Sammy to this thread stat ;)).

Thoughts, anyone? Be it on the business model, or the compared history of V:tM editions?
 
Very interesting, useful, and pretentious. :p

I'll have to comment on this more later when I have time.
 
Wow that document is like liquid nostalgia. Havent started reading it yet, but it was like a shot of 90s straight to the brain
 
I'm definitely checking this out and I will post my thoughts on it as soon as I look over it.

I just read the Style Guide, and I actually kind of like it. Especially the materials for 1e and 2e. I might actually submit some Storyteller's Vault material for First Edition, who knows?
 
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Wow, that guide was actually useful. :eek: Do you know how many years it's been since I've read a current useful WoD product? o_O

:p All jokes aside, it is a good summation of tone, theme, time/culture/place, and influences. I'm still very much of a V20 global outlook (e.g. available clans/disc) with 1e tones, themes, setting, and influence. Because fuck yeah! The Hunger an Bauhaus kicks ass. :cool:
 
Wow, that guide was actually useful. :eek: Do you know how many years it's been since I've read a current useful WoD product?

I'm just as surprised as you are. All in all, though, the Style Guide is pretty good. Glad to see 1e and 2e get some love as well.
 
Requiem 1e tried in many ways to emulate Masquerade 1e, but because Justin Achilli was the head developer for VtR 1e as well as VtM 3e, there were some unfortunate hangups that were held over from Revised, such as the whole "Vampires are emotionally dead" garbage (which was quietly dropped from Requiem after Achilli stopped being a full-time White Wolf employee) along with the whole mantra of thematic purism (despite being a toolkit, there were undertones of "If you're not playing the game as angsty misery tourism like we tell you, then you're playing the game wrong!" in early Requiem, just like Revised)

In essence, Requiem tried to recapture the feel of Masquerade 1e but was too afraid to let go of certain quirks from Revised Edition (the global metaplot may have been gone, but the pointless nihilism and One True Way-ism remained), which made Requiem feel weird to a lot of people, almost as if it didn't know what it wanted to be. The fact it came out just a few months after Masquerade officially ended also made things sort of jarring.

Now, I started with Requiem before switching to Masquerade, and I like Masquerade 1e because in many ways, it has a lot of the stuff I liked about Requiem with little if any of the stuff I didn't like. It's basically Vampire as it was before Justin Achilli came and fucked everything up. Had Achilli not been the head developer for Requiem (or had he mellowed out in 2004 like he did when he worked on V20), a lot of the Revised-era hangups, blandness, and other weirdness associated with early Requiem probably would not have happened, or they would have been less severe if they did.

Unfortunately, Requiem 2e seemed to over-correct with its shitty reworked mechanics and setting changes, including the god-awful Strix pseudo-metaplot (to say nothing of other things in 2e CofD, like the God-Machine, the Idigam, and Beast: The Primordial!). If 1e Requiem was too close to Masquerade, then 2e Requiem was not close enough.
 
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I am inferring from your phrasing that you feel V:tR came short of this goal. Why?

I wouldn't say it came short exactly, just that it started with 'back to 1e' and ended up someplace different and interesting, but not impactful enough to diablerize VTM. That's really the main thing I hold against Requiem, its inability to decisively convert a large enough chunk of the existing fanbase to effectively supplant its predecessor and simplify the scene. As you might recall from my posting on the other site, I'm a big believer (for better and worse) in the importance and value of network effects in gaming, and Requiem is sadly the myspace to Masquerade's facebook. What should be the go-to vampire game is stuck in that awkward zone between the 'New Coke' of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons and the precious unifying clarity of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
 
I apologize for the double-post, but apparently the Storyteller's Vault will officially launch at GenCon this year, which is less than a week away. I'm excited for this.
 
I apologize for the double-post, but apparently the Storyteller's Vault will officially launch at GenCon this year, which is less than a week away. I'm excited for this.

Time to find out where the fandom stands. I'm putting my money on V20 being the dominant ruleset in actual play and a whole lot of palpable skepticism over the new edition of Masquerade.
 
Time to find out where the fandom stands. I'm putting my money on V20 being the dominant ruleset in actual play and a whole lot of palpable skepticism over the new edition of Masquerade.

That would only surprise me because its not readily available on store shelves. It would be nice if that changed.
 
Time to find out where the fandom stands. I'm putting my money on V20 being the dominant ruleset in actual play and a whole lot of palpable skepticism over the new edition of Masquerade.

No kidding. V20 is to VtM almost as the D&D Rules Cyclopedia was to BECMI/RC. And "palpable skepticism" is kindly put.
 
No kidding. V20 is to VtM almost as the D&D Rules Cyclopedia was to BECMI/RC. And "palpable skepticism" is kindly put.

This is true on both accounts. In all honesty, the Storyteller's Vault is the first thing White Wolf has got right in a long time, especially given their poor track record following the CCP merger and the Paradox Interactive buyout.
 
I do very much like the Storyteller's Vault.
Currently I do check upon it in semi-regularity for new books that spark my interest.
 
I wouldn't say it came short exactly, just that it started with 'back to 1e' and ended up someplace different and interesting, but not impactful enough to diablerize VTM. That's really the main thing I hold against Requiem, its inability to decisively convert a large enough chunk of the existing fanbase to effectively supplant its predecessor and simplify the scene.

I think that was it's main issue. It wasn't different enough to feel like a different game (same clan names etc.) but it was different enough to annoy people.

It's notable that the NWoD game that seems most liked is Changeling the Lost, which was an entirely different setting than Changeling the Dreaming.
 
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