COG's Vampire the Masquerade Games Overall Discussion Thread

I liked most of the games. I feel like they each game got something out of WoD that were missing from the other games.
Sins of the Sires probably is what I mostly feel got what it was like for me and the people I played with 15 years ago when we dived into WoD. The struggle of trying to balance your humanity and your vampire existance.

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~whistles innocently ~

Me too :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I can neither confirm nor deny that both of you will be happy with this DLC :sweat_smile:

Cool.

Not sure when I can say, but it should be soon! They’re two of the most asked for clans. I will say that it’s not Hecata, though, sorry. That should narrow it down some. One is a traditional Camarilla clan, the other is not. :zipper_mouth_face:

I understand, and thank you for the feedback! On my next game, I will try to make the character creation process a bit more straightforward so everyone can enjoy it. :grinning:

There’s an automated tool that we use to test games called Randomtest. It gives us the word count for randomized playthroughs. The average word count for a single playthrough of Parliament comes in at around 90 thousand words.

EDIT: Uggh, look at me playing coy over here when the info was leaked in the other thread. Well that’s egg on my face :upside_down_face:

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I believe Lasombra would suit Corliss and our real sire who was rumored to be a sabbat spy even better. Plus, Lasombra is a Camarilla clan in v5 and there were Lasombra antitribu who were in positions of power in the Camarilla so it makes sense for Corliss to be one of them.

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It’s either : Tremere or Assamite for Camarilla

While the non traditional : Ministry or Ravnos or Tzimisce

Nah, 99% chance it’ll be Lasombra and one of the seven traditional Camarilla clans. Malkavian, Gangrel, Tremere or Brujah since Ventrue, Toreador and Nosferatu are already in it.

It’s extremely unlikely to be the Tremere because the Tremere being exiled from Ottawa is an important plot point. Likewise, Corliss’ hatred for the Assamites wouldn’t make sense if she was one herself.

So, Malkavian, Gangrel or Brujah. And then most likely Lasombra.
And since it’d be unlikely for either a Gangrel or a Brujah, clans who have left the Camarilla, to be the Seneschal of Canada’s capital, my money is on Malkavian.

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Can you explain what fell apart in the last chapter? That sounds more like a bug than a flaw in the game.

Feel free to email me if you prefer.

One thing I noticed as I got to the last one was that it was beginning to feel a bit repetitive. This might be me not being familiar with the VtM world, and thus seeing the games as an outsider.

Imo where the first one was a breath of fresh air, I eventually got a bit weary of the whole “are you pro or anti-Camarilla?” by the last game. Essentially I started to ask myself “okay, how many times do I have to revovlutionize the Camarilla?”. It was like like watching Batman’s parents’ die every new movie. After a few times of this repeating, I started to care less about the vampire society as a whole, and more about my character and their personal life. Can I just chill in a corner and focus on living my unlife, haha?

That said I really did enjoy these games and the different moods and styles they each brought to the stories. Obviously there’ll be similarities, but the characters and stories were otherwise more or less unique, and my biggest regret is the lack of a true Nosferatu romance option. You don’t have to be attractive to be an RO haha.

So kudos to the authors, overall! It was enjoyable, pretty well made and fun to read. Most the criticism I would have comes down to subjective preference more than anything else.

Wanted to add: my biggest qualm. again, I get that the whole point of this universe is that it’s built up by factions and politics and so on, but that does prove limiting in the usual freedom of choice games. The MC doesn’t feel like they’re driving the plot forward, and the way they’re manipulated by fate or vampires isn’t always that satisfying.

(Granted, if I could choose, my ZESH character would ride off with Reilly on the back of their motorcycle, so that might just be a preference that goes too much against the core of the gameplay, haha.)

Still, though, many choices feel like they’re either “do this, or die” or “do this, or everyone will be mad at you and you’ll lose options and alliances in the future”. Every choice comes across as an ultimatum, which it usually is. It’s hard to find character agency in that. Moreover, there’s never a side I feel any allegiance with, so choosing between them just comes down to who I’m more willing to deal with and who’s more annoying than the other. That’s probably why the politics fall flat to me at times, because there’s little emotional investment and no real goals that the MC appears to have or set at the start. (not to mention, the allegiance the MC has usually happens off-screen, before the actual events of the game, so catching up with that as a reader is hard).

At times it feels like I should be reading a novel. But even then, reading someone always acting according or disaccording to someone else’s orders can eventuelly tire you. The MC might as well be a side character. Which I think is a difficulty with the universe melding into choice games, and not a failure on any author. Pulling it off without throwing out all VtM lore looks to me like a real tough one.

So basically, to me the main issue is that you’re expected to know who to side with, when no sides are at all particularly investing or with any sense of allegiance on the reader’s part. The other characters often seem to have it down pat, they know where they are, but the MC doesn’t and the presentation of the factions leads it so that at the culmination of every game I’m left kind of shrugging about who to choose. Which is awkward, when you’ll have multiple vampires trying to buy your allegiance or begging for your help. Like, Idk, flip a coin?
Moreover, the MC and their Sires impedes enough of my character agency that my MC ends up kinda just going with the flow and trying not to die, because you either kill this guy or someone else does anyway so bad things are gonna happen no matter.

Apologies for the ramble, my phone screen is cracked and formatting is difficult lmao.

What? How, I couldn’t figure that out in-game :0

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You cam romance Dove in Night Road.

I will say that I was not at all pleased with Qui being a special magically attractive Nosferatu. It’s the one thing that stands out as a negative in PoK to me.

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My reaction to seeing Qui for the first time was “That is not a Nosferatu”. I know Qui has the curse in another part of his body but still, he looked very different compared to Corliss and Bouchard

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He got Vicissituded by a Tzimisce hence why he’s different

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It’s been one of the more controversial elements of PoK, that’s for certain. There’s a lot to dissect with Qui. Most of it you find out through his romance arc. Here are a few things to consider:

  1. V:tM is full of ‘unreliable narrators.’ Just because someone tells you something, doesn’t make it the truth.
  2. As noted in chapter 3, nobody in the city seems to know the truth about Qui. Some believe he turned in a favor owed by an ancient fleshcrafter, while others suggest he benefits from powerful Blood Sorcery. Some think he’s not Nosferatu at all.
  3. Qui never really knew his sire, because he was destroyed almost immediately after Qui was embraced.
  4. Qui knows the Dominate discipline, which he says he learned from a Tremere when he was a fledgling.
  5. Qui is very unusually devoted to Arundel, one of the most powerful mind manipulators in North America.

What does all this mean? There are a few very interesting conclusions that can be drawn from it. For a little more food for thought, I present this passage from the Qui romance track which most readers probably haven’t seen before where he discusses his early nights, over a century ago:

“They brought me back to their pack leader, a Tzimisce who called himself Amodose, and I knew from the moment he laid eyes on me that I’d never be getting out of there. I have no idea how long I spent in the cave he used for his experiments. There were dozens of others, Kindred and kine alike who I saw come in and expire on his table. Somehow I always survived, even though I often wished I didn’t. One night, he told me that I should thank him. He said he was going to accomplish a miracle and prove that he was an artist superior to those Tzimisce he left behind in the old European world. He would free me from the Nosferatu curse and make me walk among men again—an exhibit of his genius. I can’t tell you what he did, but I can say that it was night after night of pure agony. I could feel my skin twisting, bones popping…but not just my body. It was like my soul was being eaten away and altered on a fundamental level. Then I woke up and he was gone. The Tremere had routed the Sabbat pack and Amodose had been destroyed, just like that. I never got any answers. I don’t know how he did what he did.”

He brings your hand to the scar on his neck. It’s hot to the touch. “This is what was left,” Qui says. “As if he somehow drew all my deformities into one place and bound them together—stitched into a wound down my neck and back.” He nods permission and you run your hand over his back between the shoulder blades. You can feel the scar through his shirt, pulsing with a dull heat.

“How could he have done this?” you ask. “All the research I’ve ever read says it’s impossible!”

Qui shakes his head. “I don’t know. The Warlocks who rescued me believed that Amodose had help from one of their order who fled to join the Sabbat—an antitribu. They suggested it was some unholy combination of flesh-crafting and Blood Sorcery. They poked and prodded at me for weeks, but nothing they did revealed the answers. Eventually, I escaped. I think they would have dissected me just for a chance at discovering the truth.”

Now, is this all truth? Is Qui lying? Does Qui simply think he’s telling the truth? It’s hard to know.

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Makes me wish for a sequel finding more answers to these mysteries…

I will admit, Qui looking the way he does as a Nosferatu disappointed me at first, but finding out all this stuff in his backstory made him interesting. I don’t believe Dove in Night Road was romanceable at the time PoK came out, so it was a little sad that our first Nos love interest was so…un-Nosferatuey. But outside of that, Qui is such a fun character to read, and I like wondering about his connections, the way we don’t really know all that much about him but we have to decide step by step in the romance if we trusted him. I daresay he’s one of my favorite COG romances.

This also reminded me, but one of the things I really liked about the games in the VtM line–and I think all four games do this rather well–is the way that they each build up these mysteries and ambiguity that you can’t solve in your playthrough; or if you can, it requires you to play multiple times. It adds such a phenomenal sense of mystery to the whole thing.

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I’m curious to know what you mean by that.

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I haven’t made any replies to threads for decades and i feel ashamed about it, but for the VtM games, i would love to write something about my overall opinion about the games, since it’s actually the ones that I’ve really liked on Choices Of Games. I don’t think I’ve already seriously finished all of the games, but I’ve played the three of them.

So, I’m not, in fact a good reader at all, and i don’t think I even have the right to say this but throughout the entirety of the games, there were some parts that i was mostly confused, just picking choices that i don’t even have an idea of how it’ll possibly consequent the story, and just standing there like a mannequin and just letting the story goes on, and it did bothered me, but then again, i did say that i don’t have a good reading comprehension, and I’m not even a proficient writer to really understand these things perfectly, but there is indeed things i could quite understand and see clearly and that is is the general creation of the games.

I, without a doubt loves the concepts of each games, the atmosphere, and the characters, their portraits are so cool too! The disciplines, skills, the customization of our characters, and the roles that we could play as, the entire worldbuilding, and the love interests, even though i don’t also understand most of them (or any of the characters at all), i adored them, but I don’t think I’ve engaged to a romantic relationships with the past few RO’s, but in the ‘Sins Of the Sires’ i actually got to romance Persa, and she was just great and i would indeed reread the game just to see her again, and I’ll do reread the other games next for sure, to have a better understanding of them.

In conclusion, i really loved the games and they were all amazing, and I look forward to see more of them, thank you for all the hardworks for making these games, and i wish the developers all the good things in life as they give mine with the making of these games :blush:.

(I’m sorry for any typos or grammatical errors, I was just really excited to write this.)

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Thank you so much for posting, Louis! I’m really glad you did so, it’s lovely to meet you!

Is it okay to ask what parts confused you? Maybe some of us here can help explain them, or if we felt the same way you’ll know you weren’t alone :blue_heart:

I agree about how cool the games are, the worldbuilding and settings are always done so well!

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Hi, it’s so lovely to meet you too! I don’t really remember the parts i were confused of, but i think it’s mostly on my part because of my choices, and how i don’t pay much attention to the story. It’s an interactive game and i must choose wisely that’s what they always tell you but i don’t get to always follow that rule so maybe i was just confused because it didn’t go to a direction on exactly how i planned it on my head to go to. I’m working on these problems so when I get to reread the games, I’ll be able to understand and actually make good choices. Thank you for trying to help me though, i really appreciate it. Have a good day :blush:

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My wording was bad more than likely since I haven’t seen any bugs. I was complaining about the entire fallout of our actions taking place off screen.

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Honestly, both Night Road and Parliament are pretty interesting if you decide to play a dumbass so don’t sweat it! My advice is to create a general idea of what your character is like based on the first couple of choices - like, careful or hotheaded, traditionalist or rebel - and then develop them further as you play, flesh them out, based on the choices that will open up to you.

Also, if you’re struggling to pay attention to the story, write down small chapter summaries, character impressions and info, interesting plot points, stuff like that. It’s a really good way to become a better reader and critical thinker.

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While I can’t speak for Geldar, I’ll compare the politics between Parliament and SOTS.

Parliament of Knives

Parliament, everybody has ulterior motives and something wrong with them.

  • Corliss is undoing the policies of the past prince and is obviously hiding something but she’s your sire and the person currently in charge. She can make things very bad for you, do you really want to go against her?
  • The Anarchs are wrecking havoc across the city but they warn you about Corliss, they know something you don’t and they’re trying their best to get you on their side (even if their best is holding you at gunpoint).
  • The prince is absolutely vile and psychotic, he runs experiments on mortals for Christ sake. However, out of everybody I mentioned, he is the one can run Ottawa to prosperity. He is the most capable person here, there is no denying that. Would you let someone regain power if they were the best person for the job? Even someone as monstrous as Arundel?

Everybody has their own pros and cons, it’s like real politics. It is the readers job to piece together who is best for Ottawa. Nobody is perfect, but you need to choose somebody. The rest aren’t going to like who you choose, so you have to tread carefully and think. Parliament does the politics well in who do I choose? Because if you don’t choose right, you’re gonna find yourself staked to the roof of an apartment building and turning to ash next sunrise.

Sins of the Sires

Sins of the sires doesn’t really have politics! At least meaningful ones. The reader doesn’t choose somebody to lead like they do in Parliament or even Night Road. They’re forced into doing things other people tell them like their “sire” or a random lady who knows our sire. Parliament MC was able to go behind their sires back, make alliances, change their position in Ottawa. Sins MC is pretty much screwed cause they have little opportunities to do what they want, go talk to the prince and get on his good side? No. Ally with anybody else? No. It’s, “go dispose of this dead body and then go kill this guy.”. Sure, MC doesn’t have to kill the guy but still, that doesn’t really get them anywhere.

  • The prince is a jackdoodle who nobody likes. He’s a misogynist, nobody knows what he does for Athens cause you only see him twice in the book. He has no power or character to him whatsoever.
  • The sheriff who blackmails you? You don’t see him again in the game. So that was for nothing.
  • Gar? He doesn’t do anything! He’s not going to change anything! I saved him and guess what, he went to god-knows-where and left Athens.
  • Markos? He doesn’t do anything either, sure he tries to get you to kill Gar but for what? I didn’t and off he goes out of Athens too.
  • Anybody else, I can’t remember them. The lady who Markos sides with? I haven’t even met her until three-quarters into the book. Who are you?

Basically, nobody in Sins of the Sires is worth anything. They don’t show you why they’re the best fit for Athens. You can’t even choose who to side with cause MC can’t go ring up the Prince or anyone else and try to gain power, instead they’re told to get rid of a dead body from Markos (And like I said, choosing not to kill Gar doesn’t do much.), some characters just pop into existence and say “I’m here now.” like the sheriff and then disappear for the rest of the game, there is a extreme lack of politics, there is nobody to side with, at all. It’s very hard to explain with my rambling so the simplest I can put it is "You can’t side with anyone, there are no factions or anything and even then, they all have no reasons to show that “Hey, I should be the one you should be helping”.

So essentially, Parliament has factions you actually need to think about siding with, Sins of the Sires has none whatsoever. That is as simple of an explanation as I can make it.

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Also a name change is in order

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