Vampire: Bloodlines

Nosferatu: You can't see me be glad you cant

Thinbloods are probably a Self-Imposed Challenge.

I like how the minut gameplay I've seen makes this feel like Cyberpunk 2077 but with vampires.

Dark Urban Fantasy and Cyberpunk Dystopia are fraternal twins, really.

Vampire: The Masquerade was conceived as an alternative to cyberpunk actually.

"Gothic Punk."

The idea being it was about the vampires on the street against the vampires in theri Ivory Tower.

Then people forgot the Anarchs were the protagonists.

That's why I never played as a Ventrue, actually, the story of Bloodlines has a very "stick it to the Man, man!" vibe, and "sticking it to the Man!" while being part of "The Man!" just isn't as fun.

I gotta admit, what I see of Thin-Blooded makes me feel like they're actually going to be really fun to play. The three Disciplines they gave them all are pretty cool, and I am glad we'll be able to keep them even after joining a Clan. I especially like the idea of Chiroptera allowing you to jump around between buildings^^

Edited by Theokal3 on May 29th 2019 at 4:27:14 PM

I love the idea of playing as the corporate vampire.

Its always fun to play as the Man.

You mean Corporates aren't figurative Vampires already?

But yeah, Ventrue are a fun to play because of the Corporate Schmo angle.

So something I’m not clear on. Can you have all of the Thinblood/Clan powers or do you have to choose between them?

You get Thinblood powers (all of them I think), plus the two disciplines from your clan once you join.

See, you’re unsure of the thing I’m actually asking about.

Like, just in terms of Thinblood powers, can you turn into a bat, AND turn into mist, AND use telekinesis, or do you have to pick one?

Fair enough. I did at least clarify you get both clan powers.

You choose one Thinblood discipline at the end of the tutorial.

So you can have Nebulation, or Chiropteran, or Mentalism.

But can't we buy the other later with experience?

No, you can't.

You make the choice and it carries over into your Clan.

Giving the player more than three disciplines would clash with their design goals.

And so the Malkavian stream ends. It was a little rough; they had Brian Mitsoda on, but the internet on his end was very laggy. (If you don't recognise the name off-hand: narrative lead, wears fingerless gloves, distinctive voice.)

• The developers wait until most of the game is done, then they design the Malkavian around that. Like Bloodlines their dialogue is different: they might have an impression of a character before they've met them. Or see things that other people don't see.
• Malkavians aren't common in Seattle, so there's a difference in politics compared to LA; expect more prejudice against them. The insanity is portrayed a little different; there's maybe a more paranoid flavour to it.
• Their weakness, as it was in Bloodlines, is the difficulty of making out what exactly their dialogue options mean, and what reactions they'll cause.
• Dementate has dialogue checks.
• Paula Thelin, event manager: 'Maybe you should save the Malkavian for the second, or the third, playthrough [...] but for me, I want to dive into the deep end of the pool.'
• Mitsoda may, once again, have some acting credits in this game.
• Gameplay will be shown 10 June. They noted they couldn't actually answer a lot of questions about gameplay beyond that date; I bring this up partly because at some point the chat brought up a lot of questions about stealth, which was never directly referred to in the stream.

To my knowledge, and keep in mind the game is pre-alpha: according to one stream you get to try all disciplines maybe in the tutorial, but as far as I can tell you only get permanent access to one. You cannot buy the rest with XP. In interviews, developers repeatedly mention the choice between each one, but no mention of synergising or mixing them.

You then, in addition, get access to the two disciplines your clan affords you, for a total of three disciplines. Generally speaking, if you upgraded all your disciplines, that'd give you six vampiric abilities, though you can refrain from upgrading disciplines in favour of putting your stats/XP elsewhere.

Oh, well, still nice. Makes for more customization of your powers and characters^^

Edited by Theokal3 on May 29th 2019 at 7:27:40 PM

Indeed.

We get to choose Background, Thinblood discipline, and Clan.

That could allow for some excellent replayability

Your decisions and actions determine which factions are willing to work with you too, don’t they?

Oh, the Bloodlines 2 website finally got updated with the Malkavians. So here are their two unique powers:

“Use of Dementation, while thoroughly unsettling, is not a Masquerade violation”

That’s great. Love it.

Edited by BadWolf21 on May 29th 2019 at 2:04:45 PM

That sounds OP and unbalanced

pardox plz nerf

You mean more than in the original game? :p

malks r 2 stong plz buff Toreador