"Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives"—Spy for your sire to save an undead Prince!

If you like dark themes, political machinations, and exploring mysteries - or if you just want to enjoy a well-written story with memorable characters, tough choices, and a strong sense of place - I definitely recommend it. It probably wouldn’t be my first choice among CoG games for someone new to the VtM universe, but it includes an elaborate glossary and was written to be enjoyable for newcomers as well as longtime fans.

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I wrote this elsewhere but if that’s your starting point, I recommend playing them in this order:

VtM: Out for Blood - you start as a human discovering this world and replaying making different choices lets you see different aspects. Good introduction to the setting and how vampires exist within the world.

VtM: Sins of the Sires - you play as a troubleshooter for your patron. It features the vampire specific skills but once you’ve established yours it doesn’t do much building with them so in this way it’s a soft introduction to thinking about what kind of character you want to play.

VtM: Night Road - you play as a courier for the Prince of the city. Robust introduction to the fuller scale and depth of the setting.

VtM: Parliament of Knives - You are close to the center of authority in a very classic VtM tale of intrigue and ambition. This one is best enjoyed with a reasonable understanding of the setting.

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Here’s something I wrote last month on the same subject, based on my own experiences as a newcomer who became a fan. (I agree with @phimseto on the order of play.)

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There is a good chance they’ll do these novels for all of the World of Darkness creatures. When Werewolf: The Apocalypse comes around, I hope they bring back Jeffrey Dean! His werewolf series is also great!

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Where did you hear that? There have been no further WoD games announced at this point. Also, I believe you misunderstand how the collaboration worked in the first place: “they” didn’t plan out games they wanted to make and assign authors to write them. Authors were invited to pitch ideas for games they’d be interested in writing. What creatures were written about, or would be written about in any future collaboration, was/will be determined by which pitches the authors and their editor(s) chose to move forward with.

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Sorry, I just followed what was going on lately - VTM already have some titles based on V5 both before and after the release of the core book. Werewolf The Apocalypse will be out somewhere in August 2023 and has already a visual novel and an action game. A core book for Wraith: The Oblivion is not even announced by Paradox/White Wolf but there is already a VR game for it.

I might have used wrong phrasing in my statement (a very common thing for me, english language is really not my forte), I was trying to say that there is no reason Paradox will NOT follow the steps of VTM for the other WoD creatures in order to hype their core books, since it was really successful for VTM itself.

Edit: I really misunderstood how the collabs worked. I thought that Paradox would open a kind of request saying “we need a novel for x cenario” and then the authors/publishers would apply for it.

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I’m currently working on the third book in my Werewolves trilogy, Evolution’s End, although I’d certainly be open to more licensed work in the future.

Aletheia is correct about the process. I was invited by my CoG editor to write up a few V:tM pitches. He showed them to Paradox (the owners of V:tM) and they liked the one for Parliament of Knives so they had me flesh out the details and when everyone was happy, we signed the contract. The scenario was designed and written by yours truly.

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Hello!

I posted this notice on the ‘What Stares Back’ forum in January 2023 - but no one has posted on it since then - and hardly anyone has checked out the story hyperlink I provided. No reviews, either! So, here is my post again, as the author expressed interest in seeing my fanfiction story. Hopefully, other people will like it too.

"I’ve placed my not-for-profit fanfiction story on the fanfiction dot com website! It should be available soon to anyone who is interested. :tada: Please read and review (be nice)! :grinning:

Here’s the link, if that’s allowed:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14185767/1/Parliament-Of-Knives-Lucca-s-Story

A thank you to Mr Dean, for giving his permission."

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I’ll totally take a look at it! Are there spoilers on the fic?

I admit I had not the time to play the DLC as a whole yet, I only did the Malkavian run I MUST PLAY LASOMBRA SO HARD ;-;

Sorry again for the misunderstandings. I wish success for the Werewolves series! I’ve read Haven Rising and I absolutely adored it! The characters are all very deep and loveable (except Lapu, that treacherous coward) Easily one of the best werewolf media I’ve read in a long time. I have to take my time to read Werewolves 2 yet :frowning:

Hi Mimetoist! Thanks for your message and support.

Yes - there’s some spoilers in my story adaption of the ‘Parliament Of Knives: What Stares Back’ extension of the game. Most of the spoilers relate to the original game version - but you might find it better to play the game extension as a Lasombra before reading my fanfic, as the MC is a Lasombra in it. And that makes his shared journey with Lucca more interesting, as Lucca (the POV character) is in the dark about something important that directly concerns her…

In my opinion, the best way to play the Lasombra aspect of ‘What Stares Back’ is to romance Lucca. You’ll discover more content that way!

Oh I read it and I enjoyed it . It was so real that I had no doubt that this how Lucca thinks and sees her world . Have you thought about writing about other characters or some of your MC’s … I kinda want to know more about Qui … Anyway it was a beautiful experience and I wish you luck .

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Thanks for reading and feeding back to me, Rachel!

I’ve also written two fanfiction stories for ‘Donor’, which can be found via the Choice Of Games forums and via my fanfiction profile page. Both stories centre on Lenore, the MC of that game/book.

I won’t be able to focus on any other characters in Parliament Of Knives, though. Lucca is my favourite - and I’m currently writing a Sherlock Holmes fanfiction story, which will keep me busy for a while yet.

Jeffrey Dean fleshed out Qui quite well in the Parliament Of Knives game. You could try looking on the Archive Of Our Own website, to see if anyone has written more on the Sherrif!

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Qui is a fan favorite, that’s a fact. 8/10 PoK fanfics in AO3 are about him, it’s a paradise if you don’t mind some smut (or is actively looking for it). The best fanfic I’ve read in that site was about Eden Corliss, tho: good writing and exellent depiction of the character! Name is “Garden of Eden”, it’s worth to take a look.

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I love this game: on my first playthrough I think I talked to Ophelia once, this time she’s bit me once and Jedi mind tricked me twice.

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How can i rescue Arundel in his Villa? Never managed to do so, i always get shoo from there by whoever in the black cars.

Did you input the password correctly and get into Arudnel’s underground lab? The solution to the password can be seen in the Arundel entry in the menu. It appears once you’re at that chapter.

Here’s a very detailed guide to the game which includes the answer to your question: Steam Community :: Guide :: Guide and Walkthrough for Parliament of Knives

Edit: The password is: collective lucidity

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It worked out, thanks!

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Who are the RO? The description only mentions a “sheriff” and a “seer” so are Qui and Jordan the only RO or was more added since then?

Qui and Jordan are ROs in the base game. The expansion adds Lucca and Sevinc as ROs as well.