Month Of Darkness 2026

#MonthOfDarkness 2026 prompts

Vampire: The Masquerade - Dark Alleys

Vampire: The Masquerade. Four new players, one not new. So, modern setting. Camarilla nobodies, a mystery to solve...

Thanks to Juan Ordonez on Unsplash

1. Lineage

11/10

A city somewhere in America, maybe even a real one.

A Gangrel vagabond

A Hecata medical student

A Toreador who never lived to be a star

A Tremere researcher

A Ventrue thug

Someone that one of the older vampires cares about is missing. She would like him found, ideally without learning about the Kindred.

--

Vampire: The Masquerade V6 alpha

If that's what it comes out like then it will be okay after we houserule out about half the new ideas.

Lore from a certain point of view

One of the great joys of running a Vampire chronicle for people who have never played Vampire before is tossing them into a stew of contradictory conspiracies. Vampires love to present themselves as erudite and sophisticated, but they have very little evidence about their own supernatural world.

So far my group has heard...

* Three different creation myths about vampires

* Two different theoretical ways out of the curse

* About the existence of bloodlines, but not specifics

* About the existence of the Sabbat, with some (useless) history

* About werewolves and ghosts

They also heard about wizards ("they died out in the Middle Ages") shortly before meeting a mage, and about unaligned clans ("mostly weirdos who have very limited power") before running afoul of a Follower of Set/Ministry vampire.

They met a vampire who can survive sunlight at dawn

They met a mortal who can just see through Obfuscate. No idea why

They ran away from mortal hunters wearing FBI jackets, who were obviously not real agents

They have failed several gambits to get blood, and are coming to grips with the fact that they will have to do some questionable things

They discovered that animal blood is not very satisfying, then met a Kindred who feeds on animals exclusively

They heard that the Prince is Malkavian, then met her and the coterie's Malkavian immediately clocked that she is not

The Malkavian learned to aura read and has no idea how to interpret it

Everyone seems to be having a great time. It's a World of Darkness where there is lore, there is history, there are societies, but a rule is only a rule until it's broken. Supernatural things work the way they do because of magic, and symbols, and metaphors, not because of science.

Soon they'll get introduced to Gehenna, the End Times, Gehenna cults, and the mythology of the turning of the age. Probably hand-in-hand with crossing paths with actual Sabbat, an Anarch Revolt in their city, and thin-bloods looking for a place to survive.

The huge, sprawling metaplot of the World of Darkness causes some players to pursue setting mastery, to have full fundamental knowledge of the "truth" of the world, so I've made it pretty clear through events that "truth" is highly subjective and context-driven.

Everyone's got goals and agendas, but at the end of the night, it really comes down to, what will you do to survive? How are you going to make it happen? Where are you going to get blood? And who's going to pay the price for your sins?

Jesse Heinig

1-2-3-4-5-6-6-6

When you want the team to win but you're also wholly supportive of the sermons of Caine and smashing the corruption of the antediluvians (art by Emma Beatrez)

Justin Achilli on Bluesky

Well it took 35 years but I finally have a Sabbat character idea

Me

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG coming soon from Renegade Game Studios

Interesting. Especially coming from the main recent licensed publishers for World Of Darkness.

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows animated series? Maybe.

Designs by Abigail Larson? YES NOW PLEASE

The Hunger by Annie Wu

Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock, by Annie Wu

Gig guide: The Vampire Lestat, Death Valley

Like a lot of people, I was really looking forward to The Vampire Lestat's first live appearance, and I have to say I was severely disappointed.

The crowd was a good one (and while star-spotting I think I saw the lead from Type O Negative there, as well as Paul McGann!) although with all the walking around I missed the support band completely. I don't know who they even were.

But anyway, it started great with the man (ahem, "vampire") himself flying down from the rafters (nice bit of wireflying) and launching into Slept So Long, but then after like forty seconds of the second song, a bunch of other "vampires" flew up to the stage and there was a big wire-fu stunt scene. Cleverly done, granted - unseen wires, probably some back projection, and having the band run off in a panic was a clever touch - but then some half-naked chick bursts out of the stage and pulls Lestat to her and they fly off.

And no matter how much we clapped, they wouldn't play an encore.

My advice: wait for the Unplugged video.

The Vampire Lestat Live

The Vampire Lestat Live

Better show than last time in Death Valley when he only got through two songs before he flew off to avoid a stage invasion.

(Reviving this gig review from Queen Of The Damned)

J: They were a good two songs though

Me: Yeah, but getting our parking validated after, yeesh

Reuel: You got your parking validated? #NotARealFan

Me: 8O

Vampire: The Masquerade V?

Vampire: The Masquerade 5.5 or maybe 6 on the way, depending how playtests go.

Panel video, wobbly camera, timestamped at The Question

Cue the fandom panic!

J: I really liked V5, but I'm sure it'll go the way of Requiem

The WOD MMO looks like a game I'd have loved some of

Justin Achilli on social conflict in the WOD MMO

Ha ha ha, out of nowhere this reminded me of the WoD MMO. Early prototyping had the combat system in place (of course) and an source of endless disagreement was how the game would systemically model social conflict, which always just defaulted to combat but with reskinned actions (BOO TO THAT).

At one point we were having an off-site and each little teambuilding group had to do a skit in front of the other groups. The skit with the Programming Director was a mission with a quest-giver requesting the PC, "I need you to kill OR SEDUCE 20 victims."

That version of the game eventually gave way to better iterations, but the thing that got me was the fungible nature of the quest; hey, player, go inflict yourself on 20 different interactibles, and it's not really important how.

We had some UI problems during preproduction as well. Total Wild West situation, just stick whatever feedbacks or hotbars you needed wherever; it’s all good. One of the engineers doodled up this sticky by way of comment and I still have it, 15+ years later.

Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt was a great looking fun game that I played on and off and never came close to winning a match. Sad that it shut down, but a free game that ran for four years is pretty impressive.

Funny VTM AP?

Funny VTM AP? Eh.

16/4

Have now seen the first minute. That was plenty.

Buffy

Hulu turned down the Buffy revival series.

Hurts.

Bloodlines 2

There are some NPCs I'd like to initiate combat on during some of our conversations, but I guess the story needs them alive or undead for later.

And done as of a couple days ago!

Looked great, sounded great, happy with it as a story.

Very much appreciated adjustable difficulty.

Good to have more enemies later, though could still do with more.

I see proper saves are in upcoming patch notes.

Alas, no Spooky House level.

Felt Bloodlines-y to me, so happy there.

Bloodlines 2

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

It's real. It's happening.

I've been playing Bloodlines 2 for a couple hours now and I like the flip from starting as a nobody. I got to punch a guy across a room, wrench a padlock off a door instead of the bit where you have to pick locks, make other vampires nervous just by existing (while also being kind if I want) and the writing and options let me feel like I'm going along with quests and plots for my own reasons instead of having to. Now if I can dance without looking like Kermit the Frog...

Month Of Darkness 2025

#MonthOfDarkness 2025 prompts just in time.

Very Vampire coded so some Tanith IC but mostly went OOC

1. When I Changed

It was agony, but afterwards it seemed so wonderful... at first.

Vampire: Lonely City

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition

Lonely City

New York, and the Camarilla cracking down on Anarchs

0: New Players

0 part 2

28/9

Alice, Thin-blood runaway

Marla, Gangrel street defender

Steven, Brujah student activist

Swan, Ravnos courier

1: Fall

28/9

At a raucous meeting of the anarchs of Brooklyn, the borough's elder Stirling confirms that Callihan, the Baron of the Bronx and liaison with the Queen of Manhattan, is dead. Nobody knows how or why, yet, but he had a long list of enemies across the city.

Chronicles Of Darkness

Happy 21st anniversary to Chronicles Of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem!

We may not see more for them but they gave us a lot and more fun can still be had with them.

MarkK: VtR gave me Requiem for Rome, my favourite vampire rpg thing in the ever of ever. I still go back and re-read it.