I can hardly believe that it’s already been twenty years since Vampire: The Masquerade was introduced to the tabletop and live-action role-play gaming scene. The game has undoubtedly influenced vampire pop culture through the years and CCP and White Wolf are honoring fans by releasing a highly collectible, limited printing of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade.
This 500+ page, definitive edition features the combined material of all thirteen original clans, clan variants and bloodlines with Disciplines updated from the Vampire: The Masquerade Revised tabletop rules, an updated setting to modern nights, rules of character creation and advancement, brand new full-color art by Tim Bradstreet and several other classic Masquerade-era artists, and fan input with open play-testing development process.
I had the great opportunity to interview members of the development team behind the 20th Anniversary edition of Vampire: The Masquerade about this special edition, how open-development with fans has been useful, the exclusive art by Tim Bradstreet and other artists, overall clan structure and inter-domain politics, and whether or not there will be a similar edition released for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Check out my conversation with Shane DeFreest, Eddy Webb, and Rich Thomas below:
SciFi Mafia: This edition sounds like a mammoth undertaking! What do you think makes the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade a must-have for fans?
Shane DeFreest: Vampire: The Masquerade is such a beloved franchise for an entire generation of fans that it’s really a homecoming of sorts. Not only is it the first “Masquerade” book we have done in seven years but it’s also hands down the finest and most ambitious book White Wolf has ever produced in its twenty year history. It literally has everything in it a fan could hope for. All the clans, bloodlines, variant clans, sects etc. It’s meant to be as complete as possible. Essentially we took the best parts of over 20 core rulebooks and gave them a facelift, updated to the modern age and then combined them all into one “Ultimate Edition”.
Additionally this book is beautiful, it’s 500 pages, full color and filled with the most classic “Masquerade” era artists that helped define the franchise. This book is the equivalent of your favorite band getting back together and releasing a triple album! At the end of the day this book which is equal parts game book and art book is really a labor of love for the fans who love and missed Vampire: the Masquerade.
It’s a celebration of its unique and defining place in modern Vampire mythology. Many of our artists, writers, fans and developers have all said that Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition really feels like a homecoming and in truth it is. I’ll say to anyone if you ever only buy one Vampire book, game, or art book in your whole life. This is the one to buy because it’s amazing! But it’s only available for a limited time directly from us at vampirethemasquerade.com. People need to order it before 5:00 PM EST July 8th otherwise they are going to miss out.
SFM: I hear ya. Fans, you’d better not miss out on your chance to get your fangs into this definitive edition!
[Above: Original cover of V:tM]
SFM: In case some of our readers are not familiar with Vampire, how has Vampire: The Masquerade impacted tabletop and the live-action role-playing industry over these last twenty years?
Shane DeFreest: Vampire didn’t just change table-top gaming it re-defined it completely. Tabletop gaming used to just be about moving Elves and Orc’s around a map and getting experience points and treasure. Vampire took the whole paradigm of how and why you play these types of games and turned it upside down. The story was more important and the “Monsters” were what you played. Right and wrong were really more shades of grey than the simple black and white.
Vampire was a game for a different type of creative mind that challenged people in ways that the medium had never seen before. It was about the journey not the destination. It started with tabletop but when we invented Live Action gaming (of which Vampire was the first) it exploded. Vampire was always a franchise that catered to the theater kid in all of us but with the possibility to actually get up and “become” your character in a more three dimensional sense it basically created a parallel industry in and of itself.
You don’t see it quite as much here in the United States, but in Europe Live-Action gaming has become almost as big an industry as video games. I could go on and on about how Vampire changed gaming or effected people’s lives and inspired a generation of romantic/horror fiction writers etc. But of all the trends Vampire pioneered, it has left an indelible mark on the mythology of the modern Vampire. In this day and age Vampire: The Masquerade’s influence is everywhere in movies, books, & TV. Essentially the modern Vampire myth that everyone takes for granted is something we’re very proud to have helped mold and define.
[Above: New artwork for the 20th edition by Ken Meyer, Jr. Sketches and finished art.]
SFM: Vampire: The Masquerade has indeed proven itself a world-wide phenomenon. How has inviting fans from all over the world to play-test improved this edition? What has been the most intriguing or revealing discussion in this open development?
Eddy Webb: The community feedback has been vital to this book. Some Disciplines, for example, got a substantial rewrite, and changing the Tremere clan weakness spawned a multi-week conversation ranging over hundreds of comments. I was genuinely surprised at not only the quantity of feedback, but just how insightful it was – there really wasn’t a lot of passionate clinging to sacred cows, but a deep understanding of the core of the property that really helped me to make solid design choices.
[Above: Tremere Clan weakness discussion flowchart]
Rich Thomas: We had amazingly gratifying responses to posting the entire process of both William O’Connor and Ken Meyer, Jr’s [art] pieces from sketches through finishes. The fan feedback seemed at times to be a bit overwhelming for the artists as it was so rich with imagery and detail, but I think opening up what is usually a relatively intimate back and forth between artist and art director really added elements that wouldn’t have come up otherwise.
[Above: Artwork by William O’Connor in development. This piece depicts Caine in the third panel in O’Connor’s Book of Nod triptych.]
Rich Thomas: For example, the details of the Antedeluvians in the Gehenna prophecy piece Bill created, or the selection of which sketches Ken Meyer, Jr. would ultimately take to finish were very much the results of people from all over the world expressing their thoughts as to what images really inspire them.
[Above: New artwork by Tim Bradstreet. Clan Giovanni for the 20th anniversary edition]
SFM: Speaking of the new art being produced for this edition, what inspires the new artwork from the artists you’ve teamed up to work with again like Tim Bradstreet, Ken Meyer, Jr, and William O’Connor? What informs the visual elements that will be presented in with this edition?
Rich Thomas: Part of that was the Open Dev Blog we were posting to, and also the initial goal of providing an intensely beautiful book that was practically an art book beyond its usefulness as an RPG. We wanted to return to those artists who had defined the look of VtM and have them create illustrations that both touched on those wonderful visual moments and which also showed how their art had developed and grown through the years. The mood is pure VtM; the styles are their own, which is very much in keeping with the way the books were art directed back then, so it’s a nostalgic return even in the process of how we’re creating the illustrations.
[Above: New artwork by Tim Bradstreet. Clan Tzimisce for the 20th anniversary edition]
SFM: Looking at the vampire community as a whole, in the past the idea of travel between domains in Vampire: The Masquerade has always been sort of ambiguous. Chicago By Night and the other By Night books always describe how clans and races existed within a certain geographical area but very little emphasis or detail has been put into the core books telling the player why or if they should and if so how they would travel to another domain. Could the developers expand within the 20th Anniversary edition the Why, the How and the When of inter-domain politics and travel?
Additionally, many of the clan books demonstrated that a national structure existed within the clans and even within sects. While great emphasis was put forth about clan structure and leadership for some clans such as Ventrue, Tremere, Assamite and Giovanni, lesser emphasis was put towards clans such as Toreador, Brujah, Gangrel or Ravnos. If the power behind a sect is its clans and if clans are controlled by some sort of leadership structure, will it be possible for more detail on how each clan can put forward its agenda to its clan members? How do clan mates interact on a intra-domain level or a geographical regional level?
Eddy Webb: Wow, what great and detailed questions! Unfortunately, even with the book weighing in at around 500 pages, we had so much to cover that we couldn’t get into things like inter-domain travel and internal clan structures. We tried to focus on the key elements of Masquerade and then pull back from specific details, allowing people to fill in the gaps as their own games require. This is very much a “less is more” approach, lightly touching on a canon crossing hundreds of books while providing a few switches and dials so that people can get to the best Masquerade experience for them.
SFM: This edition will update the setting to “modern nights.” Can you give us an example of how this is expressed?
Eddy Webb: One example is the prevalence of social media – it impacts how we think of people as “famous,” and as such we rewrote the Fame Background to be more in line with these more modern ideas.
SFM: Of course, the follow-up question to the 20th Anniversary of Vampire would have to be if there will there be one for Werewolf. Is there a Werewolf: The Apocalyse – 20th Anniversary Edition in the works?
Rich Thomas: This is something we’re looking at very closely right now- or at least we will once we all get this giant 500+ page beautiful undead monster off our backs and to press!
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade simply is the ultimate edition for fans of Vampire. This edition will NOT be available in stores. This is a direct print-to-order item, so order your copy today! The cut-off time to order your copy is 5pm EST this Friday, July 8th.
This edition will be released at The Grand Masquerade fan event in New Orleans’ French Quarter that takes place on September 15-18, 2011. Books ordered not in conjunction with the Grand Masquerade event will be delivered in October.
Check out the open-development of the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade here.
Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for an exclusive first look at three never-before-seen Tim Bradstreet’s art in The Vampire: The Masquerade – 20th Anniversary Edition!
A World-of-Darkness-sized thank-you to the development staff at CCP | White Wolf, Shane DeFreest, Rich Thomas, and Eddy Webb, for their time and for letting SFM pick their brains about this wonderful edition to any Vampire fan’s library.
* And a shout out of thanks also goes out to my bud, Ken Reinertson, for his storyteller perspective and input.
