Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness. Although it is an entirely new game, rather than a continuation of the previous editions, it uses many elements from the old game in its construction, including some of the clans and their powers. The game's title is a metaphor for the way vampires within the game view their life.

Although it can be considered a full game in itself, Vampire: The Requiem requires the World of Darkness corebook for use.

The game takes place in modern-day earth where vampires form complex societies hidden from human awareness. Vampires that share common physical powers and qualities group themselves into "clans", but they also join "covenants" along religious, political or philosophical lines (a player's covenant is generally more important to his character than his clan). These groups differ radically in purpose and outlook and are often in conflict, though one principle they agree upon is that they must hide their existence from humans.

Vampires are unliving humans created when a vampire drains a human dry of blood and then feeds the corpse a few drops of its own vampiric blood. This process is deliberate and draining for the sire, so vampires do not procreate often.

Vampires generally dwell in large cities, where they can find plenty of prey and easily remain inconspicuous. Vampires do not need to kill humans to steal blood; humans go into a trance when a vampire feeds on them and do not remember the moment, and a vampire can erase the bite marks it made by licking them. Every evening, their bodies consume a portion of their stored blood in order to rise from their daytime slumber - a vampire will enter an extended period of torpor if it does not have any blood.

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Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness live-action and role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world.

The game uses the cursed and immortal Vampiric condition as a backdrop to explore themes of morality, depravity, the human condition (or appreciation of the human condition in its absence), salvation, and personal horror. The gloomy version of the real world that the Vampires inhabit, called "The World of Darkness", forms an already bleak canvas against which the stories and struggles of characters are painted. The themes that the game seeks to address include retaining the character's sense of self, humanity, and sanity, as well as simply keeping from being crushed by the grim opposition of mortal and supernatural antagonists and, more poignantly, surviving the politics, treachery and often violent ambitions of their own kind.

Each Vampire belongs to a distinct clan or bloodline. These groupings share distinct characteristics, powers and curses. The Nosferatu, for example, all share the disciplines of Animalism, Obfuscate and Potence and the curse of disfiguring appearance. A bloodline is a distinct split from the main clans, as the curse of Caine is changed over time, representing new expressions of vampirism. Some bloodlines, such as the Gargoyles, are artificially created through applications of Thaumaturgy. The Caitiff are an exception to the rule, as they are considered clanless sharing no disciplines and curse, they are viewed as a disquieting sign of the coming armageddon.

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The Dresden Files RPG

The Dresden Files are a series of novels written by Jim Butcher, following the cases of Harry Dresden, modern-day Chicago’s only openly practicing wizard (and private eye). Harry spends much of his time strapped for cash, surrounded by friends and foes both fierce and dangerous, and does what he can to carve out a little corner of sanity in the world. Occasionally this has meant saving the world. But more often it’s just meant surviving long enough to get the check cashed at the bank.

Harry’s world is a dark place, shot through with silvery veins of hope. Mankind is prey here to all manner of nasty creatures from beyond the world, out of the other-place called the Nevernever. But mortal humans also hold that most precious right of all — the ability to choose their fates, truly and fully. And thankfully for all of us, some of them choose to fight back the darkness.

Would that it were so for the rest of humanity. Man, as a whole, is blind to the supernatural. It’s not because of some strange and profound magic. Worse. It’s because man uses that power of choice to its most insidious end: man chooses to ignore what he cannot understand. And so the dark forces of the Nevernever work their ways upon us all — and few, if any, will admit to themselves that it’s happening.

It’s not just the wizards of the White Council who have chosen to face down the worst the Nevernever has to offer. You’ll find them in all corners of Chicago, from all walks of life. The cops in Chicago P.D.’s Special Investigations may get the shaft on their beat, but they’re some of the few who carry a badge and know what to do when a demon tosses a dumpster at their heads. In the criminal underworld, Mafia don Gentleman Johnny Marcone walks the middle line — sometimes he’ll strike a deal with the forces of darkness, and other times he’ll empty an automatic rifle into it, depending on what’s good for business. And three Knights of the Cross take up the armor of faith to free the innocent from evil.

And it’s not just normal people who fight on the side of light. A pack of werewolves split time between attending their classes at the university and keeping their neck of the woods clear of supernatural vermin. Half-faerie allies guard their own and draw the line against both Summer and Winter Courts. And not everyone in the vampire courts is purely a monster — though trusting one of them is another matter entirely.

Characters in the world of the Dresden Files will face only the limits of your imagination. Players will be able to pick up the series characters and run games with them, or create their own characters — wizards, vampires, werewolves, faeries, holy knights, mafia dons, occult cops, ninja librarians, and more.

Buy it from the Official Site: The Dresden Files RPG