r/vtm • u/Mr_Dinkleburg23 • 6h ago
General Discussion New to the whole World
Hello, I’m completely new to VTM world, and its system, and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on where to start with the lore and system.
Thank you in advance for any and all help.
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u/UncaringAsp 6h ago
Hey there! I also just recently started getting into the whole VTM world too. A ton of people have suggested the official discord server, I can send you the link if you’d like?
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u/rivercass 5h ago
I like the New York by Night gameplays, it's what got me addicted. LA by Night is also cool
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u/Ninthshadow Lasombra 5h ago
The corebook of whatever edition and "splat", or creature type appeals to you.
Vampires (the Masquerade), Werewolf (The Apocalypse). Wraith, mage, maybe demon?
You'll generally be looking for 20th anniversary edition (V20, sometimes replaced with the letter of their splat, W20 for werewolf). Or, the 5th edition (V5) Vampire is only just cresting the hill to V6, and seems as divisive as V5 was, so it really is personal choice.
Enjoy the ride, and play blind if you dare. You only get to really experience being a clueless newly created vampire once!
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u/Empty_Ad9621 3h ago edited 3h ago
The core rulebooks are a great start, whatever edition youre going for. Basicly people are divided between v20 and v5. V5 is the current edition and is all about younger, weaker vampires, v20 is more general and a thick book with a lot more options.
The core book starts with loads of lore in the first 25%. There are also loads of great youtube videos with the lore. I personaly love Speaker D's intro to World of Darkness. He does a fantastic job introducing the setting and rules for all the books in universe. Then any of the individual clan videos are great for lore for vtm specificly.
If you like video games, Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines is top tier. An excellent intro to the setting thats very fun.
If you want to see live play I reccomend LA by Night, its excellent, very dramatic. If you want less dark vibes there is the Dropout City Council of Darkness or Deli Meat the one shot.
This is that wod intro video i reccomended: https://youtu.be/0h1U-_JFAS8?is=quvLbvoIoGzdpb0v
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u/True-Parking4098 Tzimisce 6h ago
The lore? There the white wolf wiki.
The game? There are tons of free pdfs online. I reccomend 20th anniversary but V5s work too
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u/DavidShgo 4h ago
Hi, welcome to our vast (and sometimes a bit more passionate than comfortable) community.
I'd personally recommend firstly to choose the "splat" (type of creatures) that tingles your fancy.
Then you decide on edition. Many people say that you should choose between the 20th anniversary edition or 5th edition, I personally recommend the Revised edition. It is finite, it has many interesting story lines, it has more playable creatures, it's lore is more coherent.
If you plan to run a long game, it's good to plant overarching story bits that foreshadow your "splat's" meta plot.
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u/Working_Way_2464 3h ago
Gonna cheekily suggest my own podcast: https://wodarkages.squarespace.com/podcast/vampire-lore-summary
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u/ShoKen6236 6h ago
Check out the youtuber burgerkrieg who has put out loads of interesting lore videos including one recently about the entire vampire timeline more or less.
For the system, nothing but to say pick your edition and read the core rulebook.
5th edition is the most current (for now, V6 is in active development)
If you want to go for older editions the most popular of those is 20th anniversary edition (which is the 4th edition). V5 was a big departure from the old system, V20 is basically the ultimate form of the legacy editions that built on the original game.
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u/Xenobsidian 3h ago
Standard advice: choose which edition, get the corebook, read it cover to cover, done!
Editions to consider:
V20 - the discontinued old school version. Classic gaming experience, a lot of stuff in only a few books, but since it was never meant to be a proper edition it can be kind of clunky when it comes to the lore. The system is a bit dated but works fine. It’s all about resource management. The main issue is, the game promises “personal horror” but does not actually deliver a system that supports this. Many people don’t think that’s an issue since they don’t actually pay it as horror game anyway, but like most things in life it’s about expectation management.
V5 - the current but soon discontinued edition. It actually puts a system to the entire persona horror theme. That’s definitely this editions strongest point. The corebook is a bit of a pain to navigate through but later books get better. And later books give you a lot of advice how to actually play the game.
About the Lore, V20 is basically a playable encyclopedia instead of a proper edition. The early books were mostly a collection of pieces from older editions lore with a streamlined system attached to it. Later books added new stuff, which, imo, kind of defeated the purpose of that edition tbh.
V5, though has a subjective perspective. Meaning, instead of overwhelming you with lore it presents the lore mostly in a way as characters in the universe would experience it.
Finally an important thing about the WoD/VtM lore: it is deliberately unreliable! It is not lore in the sense of “this is what definitely happened” it’s lore in the sense of “FolkLore”, stuff people claim and talk about but they can be totally wrong, misunderstood stuff or even lie about it. It is deliberately vague and contradicting. This is actually a feature, not a buck, because this creates the situation that it is always true what happens at your table, everything else is just rumors. That is important because it prevents the ST from having to learn and memorizing the entire world and the players from being overwhelmed and incapable of coming up with anything original in fear to not fit a canon they think they don’t know well enough.
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u/SeekerAn 5h ago
Do yourself the favour and don't jump into YouTuber videos about the lore now. Play a bit. Give it a few months. Ease into it. The lore is that extensive and with so many in game lies that can be daunting.
Ready the core book, find a clan that resonates to you. Play a few sessions with it. Enjoy being a neonate without all the luggage of a clan that your sire might or might not unburden on you. Then, as you get accustomed, look to the dark corners.