Polski opis

Wampir: Maskarada (ang. Vampire: The Masquerade) to jedna z gier fabularnych wydanych przez firmę White Wolf, której akcja osadzona jest w Świecie Mroku.

Gracze wcielają się w postaci Kainitów - wampirów, które istnieją w cieniu społeczeństwa śmiertelników. Z żądzy krwi polują na ludzi walcząc jednocześnie o zachowanie człowieczeństwa, bowiem częścią ich natury jest Bestia, która wciąż pragnie krwi i próbuje wymknąć się spod kontroli.

Gra Wampir: Maskarada została wydana w Polsce przez wydawnictwo ISA. Istnieją również dwie powiązane z nią gry, osadzone w przeszłości: Wampir: Mroczne Wieki i Victorian Age: Vampire. Obecnie nie jest już wydawana, zastąpiona została w nowym Świecie Mroku przez grę Vampire: The Requiem.

Wampiry ze Świata Mroku różnią się znacznie od ich pierwowzorów znanych z folkloru, literatury czy filmów. Wprawdzie tak jak klasyczne wampiry odżywiają się krwią, są martwe, wrażliwe na światło słoneczne, ogień i kołki w sercu a także posiadają tajemne moce, ale wszystkie ich słabości zostały zmodyfikowane:

* światło słoneczne nie zabija ich od razu ani nie wybuchają ogniem pod jego działaniem. Raczej dość szybko spala ich ciało, co wygląda jakby byli objęci niewidocznymi dla innych płomieniami.
* ogień jest śmiertelnym zagrożeniem dla wampira ale nie zajmuje się on płomieniami jak papier tylko płonie jak każde inne zwłoki.
* kołek w sercu nie zabija tylko unieruchamia wampira
* zupełnie nie działają na wampira inne tradycyjne remedia: srebro, czosnek ani bieżąca woda.

W odróżnieniu od wampirów z legend Kainita nie jest demonem ani sługą Szatana. Owszem, w obliczu doświadczenia własnej śmierci oraz konieczności odżywiania się krwią ludzi zmienia się psychika, co czasem prowadzi do skrzywienia w kierunku otaczania się symbolami Szatana, potępienia czy śmierci, ale nie oznacza to automatycznego wejścia w domenę złych mocy. Trzeba jednak nadmienić, że niektóre wampiry, poszukując coraz większej mocy, wkraczają na ścieżkę służenia demonom.

Inaczej niż w przypadku tradycyjnych wampirów, których jedno ugryzienie powodowało śmierć i powstanie z martwych jako wampir, w grze tworzenie potomstwa jest świadomym działaniem: śmiertelnik musi być wyssany z krwi a następnie trzeba mu podać krew wampira. Nowo stworzony wampir wpada przy tym zwykle w wywołany głodem krwi szał, który jest pierwszym zetknięciem z Bestią. Wampir, który nie przeciwstawi się jej zwierzęcym instynktom traci człowieczeństwo i staje się dbającym tylko o zaspokojenie głodu bezrozumnym szaleńcem. W końcu ginie on zabity przez inne wampiry obawiające się, że za jego sprawą ich istnienie stanie się jawne.

Zgodnie z legendarną Księgą Nod, ojcem wszystkich wampirów jest Kain. Jego przekleństwo wampiryzmu przenosi się na każdego nowego wampira, jednak im dalej od Kaina, tym słabszy jest wampir. W świecie gry istnieje trzynaście klanów oraz kilkanaście linii krwi.

Potomkowie wampirów stworzonych przez Kaina (3-cie pokolenie, Kain jest 1-wszego pokolenia) stali się założycielami klanów. Wampir staje się członkiem danego klanu w wyniku przeistoczenia śmiertelnego człowieka w wampira, przez członka tego klanu. Wampiry różnych klanów posiadają specyficzne dla danego niego moce i mają własny system doboru nowych wampirów. Każdy z klanów prowadzi własną politykę i stara się zdobyć przewagę nad innymi.

Kainici – jak sami siebie nazywają – są zorganizowani w dwie najważniejsze sekty: Camarillę i Sabat. Pierwsza z nich stawia sobie za cel ukrycie istnienia wampirów przed ludźmi. Ustanowionych jest sześć Tradycji, które regulują stosunki między wampirami oraz wampirów ze śmiertelnikami. Wampiry Camarilli są zorganizowane w dużych miastach w określoną hierarchię, na czele której stoi Książę. Natomiast Sabat to organizacja, która powstała w opozycji do Camarilli, działa w podziemiu i atakuje z ukrycia. Odrzuca człowieczeństwo, głosząc że kainici powinni rządzić światem. Obok walki wewnętrznej, toczy się odwieczna wojna pomiędzy starymi wampirami, przeistoczonymi przed potopem, nazywana Jyhad.
(www.wikipedia.pl)

 English description

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. The game's title is a metaphor for the way vampires within the game view their life. This is an alteration which has not met with the approval of all of the game's original fans, seeing the "reboot" of the game to be a final solution to the greed that drove White Wolf to publish numerous, ill-advised supplements of their games. The in-game mythology became so convoluted over time (and due to poor editing and attention to continuity) that the entire Storyteller system in general and Vampire: The Masquerade game collapsed under its own weight. The reboot has been seen by many purists as yet another marketing ploy to reintroduce the game to a new generation of gullible consumers and sell the same books all over again. However, the re-boot does in fact correct a number of the issues that eventually led to the collapse of the original game, and adopts a footing that allows the Storyteller to adapt the game to a history of his or her choosing.

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

In many ways, Vampire: The Requiem is very much like its predecessor, The Masquerade, but there are a number of important changes.

The core differences between the games are primarily thematic in nature; in many ways Vampire: The Requiem is closer to Vampire: The Masquerade as it was originally conceived than Vampire: The Masquerade had become over the 13 years since its inception.

The differences can be broadly defined along two lines: physiological alterations designed to make the game more playable, and cultural differences to alter the focus of the game from the action-horror game it had become to the personal-horror game the designers had originally intended.

As far as physiological differences go, the first and most obvious divergence between the games is that the concept of "vampire generation" has been eliminated. A vampire's power is unrelated to that of the vampire who spawned him; instead, he starts off at the lowest level and steadily grows more powerful with age (though he can rise faster by absorbing the power of other vampires).

Vampires now also have a variety of "plot devices" to help them uphold the Masquerade, including a blurred image on video cameras, as well as the previous games' device where a vampire may lick wounds she has inflicted to heal them.

Disciplines have also broadly changed, with a number of subtle alterations in power to make them less helpful in combat, and more helpful in other ways; in addition to this, a number of original clans (some now bloodlines) have changed in theme, and received a change in Disciplines to reflect this (an example might be the Nosferatu, who have gone from being revolting outcasts to actual monsters, with the entirely new Nightmare Discipline to help them maintain this image).

The more obvious and far more far-reaching differences are cultural ones, and this is where old Masquerade gamers will encounter the most fundamental differences.

The first and most noticeable change is in the clans. They have dropped in number from 13 to 5, each broadly representing a classic vampiric archetype from literature. This lack of choice in clan has been instituted to force players to think of ways to make their character unique, rather than rely on playing "the last member of a dying race"; a problem which some felt had become endemic among certain players.

The second significant change is the pronounced drop in the importance of a vampire's clan. In Masquerade, your clan informed most aspects of your social interactions with other clan members. In Requiem, the clan one is "born" into is less important than the political faction ("Covenant") one chooses to belong to. (This varies from game to game; sometimes neither has any bearing on the game) This has caused an overwhelming change to the way the politics of the game work; in Masquerade, almost all politics were inter-clan.

The most important change between games, however, is the shift in emphasis on the sect (now called "Covenant") that a vampire belongs to. In Vampire: The Masquerade, a vampire belonged to either the Camarilla (or their argumentative offshoot, the Anarchs), the Sabbat (and their secret, super-violent arm, The Black Hand), the Inconnu, or was isolated and alone. In the story, maybe 50 vampires were Inconnu, and they were all exceptionally ancient and powerful (and rarely, if ever mentioned in supplements after 1st edition; "Lair of the Hidden" being a notable exception). As a result, most vampires were a member of either the Camarilla or the Sabbat. Given that each sect existed in a state of near-perpetual political, ideological, and physical conflict with the other, this made it nigh-on impossible for any real political gaming between the two.

Requiem does away with this perpetual war, to create a world more in keeping with the themes of ennui and politics (and also to yet again scale down the violent action scenes that war made possible). The Covenants are the replacement for sects, and no Covenant is actually at war with any other. Broad comparisons between previous sects and Covenants may be drawn between the Carthians and Anarchs, the Invictus and the Camarilla. In many ways, the Circle of the Crone, Ordo Dracul, and Belial's Brood represent different faces of the Sabbat: the Ordo Dracul being the Sabbat drive to escape the vampiric state, the Circle of the Crone is what has replaced much of the Sabbat's more openly pagan-styled ceremonies and philosophies, and Belial's Brood is essentially how the openly violent and monstrous Sabbat was conceived back in 1st edition Vampire: The Masquerade, before third edition made it more philosophical. VII (Seven) is clearly the replacement for The Black Hand, now with significantly less story baggage to it.

Furthermore, while members of each Covenant exist on every populated continent and most nations of the new setting, none of them possess the centralized hierarchy of either the Camarilla or the Sabbat from the old setting. Between this change, and the fact that all vampires succumb to long periods of Torpor which damage their memories, human development in the new World of Darkness has not been a result of behind-the-scenes manipulation by vampires (or any other playable supernatural type, for that matter).

A final, and very significant change to the game is the removal of the creation myth involving Caine and the Antediluvians. This story is no longer the only origin story; vampires are uncertain of their origin. Though vampires still conspire against each other, they are no longer puppets of ancient all-fathers, nor do they have a doomsday prophecy looming over them.

In relation to the origin of vampires in the Requiem, White Wolf has this time chosen to leave their beginnings a mystery up to the individual Storyteller to answer--if they choose to answer it at all. Due to Torpor, even the oldest Kindred have no clear memory of their past and are forced to guess at their races' beginnings. None of the Covenants even claim to know the origin of vampires, though the Lancea Sanctum and Ordo Dracul do claim that their founders were both uniquely cursed by God directly, instead of being Embraced.

This is partially tied into the addition of the Lancea Sanctum; in original Vampire: The Masquerade, Christianity was assumed to be the "default" truth behind the World of Darkness. The introduction of Kindred of the East and the Laibon in later books caused huge problems for authors to retcon; making the "Caine" origin "true" essentially created huge problems for writers and storytellers who wished to play with a different belief system than Christianity. Thus, the Christian faith has now been utterly externalised, and is represented by its own notably Western Covenant.
(www.wikipedia.org)