Vampire: The Requiem

New World of Darkness

by Ari Marmell, Dean Shomshak, C.A. Suleiman

Strange Bedfellows The Kindred are solitary predators, yet something within compels them to seek out others of their kind. Whether formed as a social faction, a cult of heretics, a consortium of conspirators or as an exercise in safety in numbers, a coterie of Kindred is no strange thing to see after sunset. How, then, do its members reconcile their bestial urges with the demands of nightly unlife? Trust Doesn't Come Easily Coteries examines the "family unit" of Kindred society. Broken down by sect and clan relations, this book sheds light on how groups of disparate vampires set aside their differences (or nurse grudges) to protect themselves against the hostile world in which they exist. Sometimes, only your fellow Kindred can protect you from the darkness, but trusting them to do so is a dangerous proposition in itself. Hardcover.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Horror, Fantasy, World Of Darkness, Vampires, Reference

294 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

When Ari Marmell has free time left over between feeding cats and posting on social media, he writes a little bit. His work includes novels, short stories, role-playing games, and video games, all of which he enjoyed in lieu of school work when growing up. He’s the author of the Mick Oberon gangland/urban fantasy series, the Widdershins YA fantasy series, and many others, with publishers such as Del Rey, Titan Books, Pyr Books, Wizards of the Coast, and now Omnium Gatherum.

Ari currently resides in Austin, Texas. He lives in a clutter that has a moderate amount of apartment in it, along with George—his wife—and the aforementioned cats, who probably want something.

Reviews

[Courtney Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid, rabid fan of Vampire: the Masquerade when I was in high school, I had more than a few misgivings about the "New" World of Darkness and how much of a money-grubbing gimmick re-releasing tweaked version of everything was going to turn out to be.

So wrong. Serve my words up and I'll eat them with or without a fork.

Basically, Vampire: the Requiem nailed personal horror while making these vampires stunning predators who are caught between mourning their humanity and reveling in damnation. As before, these vampires have characteristics, powers and weakness that fuel all the familiar myths but - true to White Wolf - that's never the full story.

I personally love all the tweaks and twists added to this incarnation of vampire - it sounds like a bitch to get by as a vampire with facets of the existence invoking a true feel of unease imagining how you would function if you became one.

It's basically like White Wolf kept everything that worked wonders for VtM, streamlined it, and brought in some vicious, bitter stuff to make sure players can't help but get a little messed up. It really emphasizes what a supernatural cesspool Chicago is with vampires running the show and characters are almost certain to be victimized time and again if they hope to thrive - or just survive.

[Alexis Hall]

Okay this is mine.

*scuff toes*.

It was a present from H who is entertained by my adolescent fondness for Vampire: The Masquerade.

What can I say about this? It's a White Wolf game so its systems are built around the assumption that your players are dickheads who want to derail, interfere with and generally disrespect your storytelling genioos. As such, when it's fun, it's fun in spite of itself.

Combat is slightly more streamlined than Masquerade but you still get the feeling you are somehow Letting the Side Down by engaging in it. Because this is a STORYTELLING game, not a game for, y'know, enjoying.

It's also still got that thing where your vampire powers are dependent on semi-arbitrary stats and skills so in order to be even semi-competent at anything you basically have to choose your skills to fit your disciplines rather than, say, your character.

And most sessions are spent going "sorry, what's my second obfuscate power again, and what do I roll?" and then flicking frantically going the the book "I think it allows you conceal small objects about your person, oh no, wait, that's the one that lets you be invisible and you need to roll dexterity plus ... horse riding."

But, hey, that's tabletop gaming for you. Ten minutes of fun crammed into four hours of play.

Also it has the on-going Vampire problem of critical failures being hilariously difficult to articulate.

Here is a sample of actual play:

W: Okay, so ... I have this power that lets me talk to animals, I think? I think?
Me: *thumbing frantically through rule book* Uh, yes. Feral Whispers: You can communicate with and control animals, individually or in groups.
W: Great, so there's bound to be animals around. We can ask if they know anything about this murder.
D: Sounds like a plan.
W: Uh, how do I do that?
Me: *thumbing frantically through rule book* Manipulation plus animal ken plus animalism.
W: Manipulation? I don't have any manipulation. Why the fuck would I take manipulation? I'm supposed to be this bestial monster savager guy.
Me: Just ... like ... roll what you have?
W: Okay, what animals are around?
Me: Um, in Oxford at night? I guess there's pigeons maybe?
W: I'm not talking to pigeons. That's undignified.
Me: Beetles?
W: No.
Me: Squirrels?
W: Fine, squirrels. I'll try to talk to the squirrels about the murder. *rolls* Okay, I've critically failed.
Me: Right, so the squirrels won't talk to you.
W: I've been snubbed by squirrels.
H: Wasn't that a botch though?
Me: You mean, it has to be worse than that? Look, I honestly have no idea what a spectacular failure to talk to squirrels would look like. I guess they're pissed off. Your name is black-listed among the Oxfordshire squirrel population. Whenever they see you coming they throw nuts at you.

And there you have it. A storytelling game of personal horror.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

A terribly written and organized rulebook that took me forever to wade through.

First, it is written in a verbose, flowery style that gets old quick. I'm trying to look up a rule and have to wade through pages and pages of the book talking to me like I'm a real vampire instead of just clearly stating the rule. This is what a vampire rpg would be like if written by Gary Gygax.

As for the actual rules, they are scattered everywhere without much rhyme or reason. Worst of all, the book is seemingly obsessed with referencing rules that it hasn't gone over yet, making it even more confusing.

This is probably a fun game but with the way the book is written I could barely make heads or tails of how to play it.

[Carmen Taxer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started my RP journey with Requiem, and it has been awesome sauce.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

White Wolf's attempt to reboot their popular "Vampire" line of roleplaying games proved something of a blunder. While full of potentially-interesting ideas and reimaginings of older concepts, as well as several new takes on the vampire genre, they chose to strip away much of the mythology which had made the original "Vampire" line so fantastically popular. Players/readers are given vague, sparse descriptions of the underlying concepts and new mythos with little-to-no "flavor-text" to provide a sense of atmosphere or purpose; the overwhelming majority of the book is given over to statistics, charts and descriptions of the dry (largely mathematical) mechanics of playing the game itself. White Wolf chose to call the people who run their games "Storytellers" (instead of "Game Masters" or "Dungeon Masters") because originally their games were intended to be more like group story-telling sessions, with the rules providing necessary limitations to allow for challenges and a genuine sense of accomplishment -- they chose to emphasize the storytelling and role-playing aspects of the game to differentiate themselves from other role-playing games. They evidently went in the opposite direction with this reboot of "Vampire", either hoping to mimic the maths-based Dungeons & Dragons or to sell more books by saving all the flavor, atmosphere & context for future supplements (the latter being the more likely explanation since, unlike the original "Vampire" line, this line requires a separate core rulebook in addition to the "Vampire" core book to actually play the game).

[Krzysztof · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Finally* got through this book. It took me forever to finish it, as I found the style to be rather difficult and I found pieces of the book which were supposed to be interesting to be VERY boring. And I still don't really know what to think of it. Surely, this is a much poorer setting than Masquerade, but at the same time it's more deep in a way. I can't help to think it doesn't really know what it wants to do, however - it has pretty much set a scene in which every Kindred hates every other Kindred, and by putting a big focus on power struggles between the Covenants, I think it kind of limits the Storyteller's options. I like how "full" this setting tries to be, but I can't say I like the clan choices much, the new bloodline mechanics, or the new powers. They did a good job of making them less powerful but I think that it takes a bit of the fun away. Especially the Morbus and Burakumin special Disciplines seem very limiting in use.

I have to finally play this to have an opinion, but after a readthrough this doesn't top Masquerade on any ground.

[Darkerling the Necromancer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good roleplaying book/system

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampire has always been the flagship game for the World of Darkness. This is the new version, which replaced Vampire the Masquerade in 2004. There are endless debates on which is better. I seem to be one of the few who like both, but I will not be reviewing Masquerade here. Requiem is a role-playing game of Gothic horror. Welcome to the Danse Macabre. This game's strength is political intrigue with Vampires. There are 5 different clans, which is technically your species of vampire and there are 5 covenants, which is pretty much your political party. This leads to some very fun role-playing sessions with so many different types of characters. While that is the game's strength the combat can be pretty lethal, each clan has different vampire "disciplines", which are the vampire's supernatural powers. The appendix of the book also has a teaser for New Orleans, which is where they placed the first source book for the game, but it also shows how a campaign should be set up and good examples of characters. Overall, a great game.

[Deadwish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente manual de juego basado en el Nuevo Mundo de Tinieblas. Esto no es una continuación o expansión de Vampiro: La Mascarada. Esto es una reinvención del juego. Diferentes clanes (con sus respectivas Lineas de Sangre) y una nueva diversidad de Alianzas que coexisten bajo la Mascarada agregan mucho más dinamismo al juego en comparación con su antecesor.
El arte también ha mejorado muchísimo y es un libro muy bello.
La única crítica que puedo hacerle es la falta de algunos de los clanes del viejo juego que eran un clásico para todos.

[Richard Vince · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those playing this system, an excellent resource book and reference tome. Reading cover to cover harder as a touch over-written. Like most adult vampire fiction in that, I suppose....

[Radu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third best of the series. My personal list: 1st - Dark Ages, 2nd - Masquerade, 3rd - Requiem and then the rest.

[Sarah O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampire puts political maneuvering and classic horror in one tidy, bloody package.

[Michał Przestrzelski · Rating 3 out of 5]

System prezentuje ciekawe pomysły z odejściem od jednej, spójnej kosmologii, a dzięki liniom krwi pozwala zamknąć wampiry z wielu stron świata w pięciu klanach. Tylko po co te klany, skoro są już linie krwi? Może rzeczywiście ułatwia to tworzenie niesztampowych postaci. Całkiem podobają mi się zgromadzenia, bez wątpienia mniej sztampowe niż podział na Camarillę i Sabat. Z drugiej strony mamy tutaj motyw zgłębiania wiedzy w tych zgromadzeniach i traktowanie miast jako prawie całkowicie odseparowanych punktów, trochę się to kłuci. Też słabo do mnie przemawia motyw wampirów spędzających swe nieżycia na badaniach klątwy czy ceremoniach religijnych.

O ile grafika na okładce jest całkiem fajna, to te w środku są moim zdaniem nudne. Modyfikacje czcionki w tekście to spoko sprawa, ale karta postaci powinna być maksymalnie czytelna. Co do polskiego tłumaczenia, to część terminów dotyczących urzędów brzmiała dziwnie, a dodatek o Nowym Orleanie został przełożony wyraźnie słabiej.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend of mine got me into this when we were about 15 years old. The rulebook itself is a giant pain in the ass to find all the weird little specific rules. So we more or less followed the basic guidelines of the book and home-brewed the rest. Try as we might, we never could quite get the game to work as intended. Although, it was a lot better then the Werewolf book. Several good ideas in this, but I wouldn't recommend this book or the WOD system.

[Arthur B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable attempt, hampered by the fact that it can't quite decide whether it is trying to do something distinctly different from Vampire: the Masquerade or merely present a re-imagining of essentially the same game. The second edition does a better job of staking out a distinct identity for requiem, leaving this first edition redundant. Full review here: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[Helmont · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un excelente libro de rol, en el que realmente puedes narrar historias de horror personal. No es un libro sujeto a una metatrama,la libertad de realizar líneas de sangre y el sistema es ágil y dinamico
El único problema que le vi a esta primera edición es que no se salieron de la mascarada por miedo a los cambios...

Altamente recomendable

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Deep, dark and intoxicating; a dive into yet another world of vampires, different from the Old World of Darkness and v5 - The Requiem is almost quieter, darker, more contemplative. Sometimes even more twisted.
I think I still prefer Vampire: The Masquerade (2nd Edition) but this book is well worth a read too. Lovely presentation, if sometimes a little hard to navigate.

[Nick Vossen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review coming up.

[R J Royer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the vampire book for World of Darkness and it is simply amazing.

[Alexander Lenz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good update to the original VtM.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cool setting and system, and I'm looking forward to running it soon. I like a lot of the changes from Masquerade that have been made to make the world of the Kindred more mysterious. The mythology of the Cainites was pretty cool, but it also felt like it could be hard to use as a Storyteller. This game gives me a much greater ability to decide what the world is like, and what secrets are and aren't true. I could still have a sense of impending doom and a fear of the return of powerful vampiric elders, or I can focus on smaller scale politics among Kindred who are sure that they have years and years of unlife left.

Going down to five clans works pretty well for me, especially since there are interesting rules on having specialized bloodlines for those who want more variety in their vampires. What I like even more is the new concept of covenants, which are special religious or political groups the Kindred can join. The pagan Circle of the Crone and mystical Ordo Dracul are particularly interesting to me, and I plan to check out their sourcebooks some time. The Disciplines generally do a good job of emulating vampire powers from fiction, though some of them feel a little underwhelming at times. For example, after you can turn into a wolf, having turning into mist be your ultimate power seems a little disappointing.

The setting as a whole is pretty cool, and a lot of thought has gone into the intricacies of vampire society. I really enjoyed reading all of the details of how vampire politics work and thinking of various plot ideas inspired by these details. The advice for Storytellers was really good, and I'm tempted to use the sample campaign idea they outline, of a revolution against a tyrannical Prince. I also enjoyed the description of New Orleans to an extent. It makes me want to get the book on that city, but I do feel like the brief description didn't do enough to give me an idea of how to actually use New Orleans in a chronicle. Further, I would have liked some details on how they took inspiration from the real world city to create the World of Darkness version.

Over all, though, I really enjoyed reading about this game. Years ago I had no idea why you'd want to roleplay as vampires, but now I understand that there are a lot of interesting opportunities and themes to explore here. I'm definitely looking forward to using these rules and setting.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nice game, I love the NWOD system. It's just that I've Always found vampires so damn hilarious! And the classes depicted in this book are even more stereotyped than usual! I think it's the worst book of the series... Even worst of Werewolves (and that is a very bad setting...). It seems to play Twilight. 'nuff said.

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Take a decent setting with mood and tone done correctly (which would be 2nd and 3rd Editions of Vampire: The Masquerade), then throw it all away by trashing everything for some sort of pseudo-nihilism (Your vampire character only feels shadows of emotions? Seriously? An RPG where the characters are [i]feeling[/i] impaired?) and needlessly complicating the simple mechanics of the Storyteller System.
But all of that could be forgiven on some level if the book were not also so poorly written. Just an all around disaster than no self-respecting gamer should, if they have the misfortune of owning it, ever remove from the shelf.

[Kardamom · Rating 4 out of 5]

vampire maskerade clansroman