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.

--

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

RPGaDAY 2026

#RPGaDAY2026

31 prompts for TTRPG writing in August.

Introduction, explanation and prompts from founder David F. Chapman.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City action figures

Mage: The Ascension -  Sunrise City action figures

Sunset City figures

And if we ever figure out a design for fashion dolls those are definitely happening.

Set 1: Arrival

Our heroes meet up for the first time in 1883.

Each comes with a hat, gloved and ungloved hands. Simon comes with an openable umbrella, doctor's bag and book, Michael with his revolvers and Bowie knife, and the ladies with an openable parasol and fan and a reticule purse.

TPO Cara: "Michael's figure gets two guns and a Bowie knife and all we get is a parasol, a fan and a purse?"

ST: "Like you couldn't kill somebody with any of those."

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

The further adventures of a circle of mages in San Francisco

Sunset City 1 (not yet called that)

Sunset City 2

Sunset City 3

Sunset City 4

Cara Lawson, Akashayana

In every generation there is a chosen one

Simon Donovan, Hermetic

May have consulted on the new season of The Librarians

Alissa Kwan, Ecstatic

All the pretty girls and all the pretty boys they get dressed up and go out dancing

Michael Lang, Verbena

Cowboy Druid

And last but definitely least:

Didi Duvall, Hollow One

Wants to be Agatha Harkness when she grows up

4A.01: Into The Portal

26/07

Our heroes (and Didi) have been enjoying relative peace and quiet - cut to Cara kicking a ghoul in the face and Simon casting out a demon - when Martin, the master of Time magic who pressed them into rewriting history to save his wife a while back, approaches them seeming tense.

Someone is planning to launch an attack on the city's Tradition Library, the base of the mages on the west coast.

When it was built.

Over a century ago.

It's been well enough concealed that he just detected it.

We go to try and stop the time warping ritual before it activates.

But it's too late.

Whiteout, hard to look at.

So Martin throws us back in time to stop it.

At least this time he tells us that's all he can do and gives us a moment to nod before he widens the portal and in we go.

Promising a soft landing.

--

Didi wakes to find herself in a nice bed. In a nice room.

With a couple of women in old-fashioned maid uniforms coming to help her get ready for the day.

II's 1883.

Surprise! Mage: The Ascension - Victorian Age

Didi tries not to look too stoked about getting a wardrobe full of Victorian dresses in mourning colours.

Miss Didi Duvall

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.

200 posts in the new blog

And by the power of Photoshop, another present!

So you know that girl

She's new in town

But you better be careful

She'll put you down

She's an evil chick

Said she's a witch

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

My favourite TTRPG classes

My favourite TTRPG classes:

1: Angsty Vampire

2: Princess

3: Protective Hero

4: Spooky

5: Comedy Sidekick

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.

Mage: The Ascension Action Figures! (not really)

Mage: The Ascension group photo led to ST making fake toys with computer... and then spending hours making the packs match and the accessories scale together.

Yes I want the whole set.

And the followup Halloween Formal fashion dolls.

Set 1, based on the photoshoot

Didi comes with different hair and higher heeled boots because I couldn't think of anything.

Didi's mischievous / evil smile fits the group photo but not the figure set, so a variant with a more neutral expression. Still adorably life-ruining but maybe 30% less obvious about it.

--

Set 2: Halloween Formal

And like many real toy lines the accessories aren't 100% episode accurate. Nobody used the weapons included - Cara had to fight wrathful spirits with a hairpin - but we did use the wraps and purses and Simon definitely looked in a book.

Sunset City photoshoot

Mage: The Ascension: Sunset City

The visual references for the player characters from Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City
Michael (Luke Grimes), Didi (Ksenia Solo), Cara (Holland Roden), Alissa (Paris Berelc) and Simon (Rupert Evans)
together by the power of photomanipulation

My background-selecting hand hurts

And the Halloween formal last season. Should have thought "hey, don't have a background that matches somebody's hair"...

And for the Goth gig 4.19

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.

New Bremen

20/4/2000

When I was

a young geek

White Wolf dot com

took me into the city

to see Godzilla fight

Funny VTM AP?

Funny VTM AP? Eh.

16/4

Have now seen the first minute. That was plenty.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City 4

OH YES

Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City 4

Sunset City 1 (not yet called that)

Sunset City 2

Sunset City 3

The further adventures of a circle of mages in San Francisco

Cara Lawson, Akashayana

She is beauty, she is grace, she will stab you in the face

Simon Donovan, Hermetic

The token like a wizard type

Alissa Kwan, Ecstatic

She can dance if she wants to, she can leave your friends behind

Michael Lang, Verbena

Into weird old magic with sticks and stuff

And last but definitely least:

Didi Duvall, Hollow One

Hell-o boys

4.01: Nightmares

2/1

It's been a quiet summer -

Simon banishing a spirit, Cara fighting a pack of ghouls, Michael investigating a spooky old mine, Alissa leading a tai chi class, Didi cheering at a gig

- but now people around the city are having strange dreams...

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...

Didi's Anniversary

October 2018

And on that night a monster was born

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.