Pyramid Review
Vampire: The Requiem (for the World of Darkness Storytelling System)
Published by White Wolf Game Studio
Written by Ari Marmell, Dean Shomshak, & C.A. Suleiman with Justin Achilli, Carl Bowen, John Chambers, & Matthew McFarland
Illustrated by Sam Araya, Daren Bader, Tim Bradstreet, Brom, Avery Butterworth, Pauline Benney, Shane Coppage, Marko Djurdjevic, Fred Hooper, Travis Ingram, Alex Maleev, Ken Meyer JR, Mark A. Nelson, Michael Phillippi, Jeff Rebner, Jean-Sebastien Rossbach, Mattias Snygg, Rich Thomas, Josh Gabriel Timbrook, Andy Trabbold, Conan Venus, & Cathy Wilkins
Cover by matt milberger
306-Page Black & White Hardback; $35
Considering how big Vampire: the Masquerade has been since 1991, it is no surprise that White Wolf launched the all-new World of Darkness with a new version of its flagship title. Vampire: The Requiem is as an attractive shiny red hardback, its cover given a pleasingly tactile matte-gloss cover. The good looks continue inside, with finely executed red tones. The writing, like that of The World of Darkness Storytelling System Rulebook, shows every effort of being made conceptually both accessible and lucid. And in the reading, it is clear that the "hipper than thou" attitude of previous games is also gone.
From the title onwards, this appears to be a changed game. Not "Masquerade," but "Requiem," referring to the change in the nature of vampiric existence. While also a Mass or Dirge for the dead, the Kindred describe their un-existence as the . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 19, 2005
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