UPDATED: The narrative will be a sprawling saga of bloody violence and societal politics in Montreal. Players can choose between one of the eight main Camarilla and Anarchs vampire clans, with the option for more characters with Kickstarter exclusives and add-ons. Over 40 scenarios provide hours of tabletop roleplaying, and more than one hundred NPC characters ensure that players will experience a far-reaching narrative over the course of their game. With detailed miniatures and exclusive content, the world of Vampire: The Masquerade is going to come alive more than ever before. New characters and quests will also enrich the existing content if stretch goals are reached during the Kickstarter campaign.

Continue reading below for the revised and updated GameTyrant review of the Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters game based on the Gangrel and Ventrue prologues.

The next project by Flyos Games, the designers of Until Daylight, is an expansive roleplaying game set in Montreal. Based in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, Chapters promises to be an incredible narrative experience with dozens of scenarios and a world of possibility.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters launches on Kickstarter starting February 4th. Gamers interested in exploring the world of Chapters can already play through two of the prologues on TableTopia.

GameTyrant has played through the prologues multiple times, and it’s an heart-pounding adventure.

Gameplay

The mechanics for Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters are quite robust, but each prologue introduces and explains the gameplay that players will encounter throughout the scenarios. The Gangrel prologue breaks down the combat system in the game through one character’s flashback. And the Ventrue prologue demonstrates the intricate dialogue choices that affect character reactions and narrative progression.

Any scene or encounter begins with a narrative background and text that provides context for the events about to unfold. In the Gangrel prologue, Aren Kenway discovers her brother’s dead body in the hands of a brutish combatant. In the second prologue, Samuel Armstrong must act as an arbiter between other vampires in Montreal. Each scenario shares a glimpse of the possibilities in Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters.

For Aren, a fight ensues. For Samuel, a tense confrontation must be controlled and redirected.

Character actions, whether in combat or in other player interactions, hinges on two important mechanics—Attributes and Skills. Attributes are character strengths that provide dice when rolling for actions, and Skills are the specific talents of the character that lend automatic successes to those attempts.

That balance is central to the mechanics of the game, but the gameplay is varied and nuanced due to different Attributes and Skills that characters favor.

With one to four players in a game, character actions can be very different. Which means the scenarios will play out differently.

That means Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters should have excellent replay value.

The Gangrel and Ventrue prologues are just a small taste of what conflicts await players in Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters, but it’s a thrilling preview of what lies ahead.

Expectation

Chapters is an “RPG in a box” that gamers will enjoy, especially if they are a fan of Vampire: The Masquerade and other horror roleplaying adventures.

The Gangrel prologue is a short introduction to the world and mechanics of the game, but the Kickstarter launch for Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters will reveal the full potential of the game and the remarkable depth that Flyos Games has engineered in this haunting story.

A Kickstarter campaign also faces a challenge, but Chapters has a compelling narrative, an engaging world, and an intricate system of combat, dialogue, and player interaction. That alone is enough to propel a game toward success, even without the appeal of Vampire: The Masquerade or the steady guiding hand of Flyos Games.

Conclusion

We’ve only been offered a glimpse of the game so far, but Vampire: The Masquerade - Chapters looks exceptional.

It’s an engaging board game with modern tabletop conventions that simplify and enhance a traditional RPG experience into a smaller package.

For board gamers who love Gloomhaven, Dead of Winter, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, and other expansive tabletop adventures, this is definitely one to check out.