Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Pre-Alpha Playtest Kit Released

This announcement on the official White Wolf website might not have a direct connection to a CRPG yet, but I’m willing to bet that the forthcoming Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition will be the basis for any such hypothetical titles that the publisher may be working on. So if you’re as confident as I am that a Bloodlines II or an entirely new V:tM title will eventually make it to our hard drives, you may want to download the kit and read up on the game’s latest evolution:

It’s Time!

Put aside the guesswork and feverish speculation: the V5 pre-alpha playtest is here!

Today we are sharing with you the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (V5) pre-alpha playtest kit, which includes the V5 pre-alpha rules and a special V5 pre-alpha scenario, The Night After. We invite you to download the kit and try it out: invite a few friends to play through the scenario together, talk about it, and then share your opinions with us through the online survey. We appreciate your feedback and value your input.

The Links:

Playtest Kit – https://whitewolf.box.com/v/v5prealphaplaytest

Playtest Survey – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/v5prealphasurvey

V5 Presentation from WoD Berlin (video) – https://youtu.be/43VXwCS42O0

Please Note:

We will close the survey on 1 August in preparation for the alpha playtest.

We recommend strongly that you play the scenario and not just read the rules document. Actual play is the best way to experience and understand new rules concepts. In fact we suggest that you play it more than once, making different decisions each time to experience the full scope of the rules.

This version of the rules is pre-alpha. That means it’s not feature complete, and the designers have not made final decisions about what rules and features will be included. It was created specifically to test the new Hunger Dice mechanics for a live playtest at the World of Darkness Berlin fan convention in May. Much will change between this version and the Alpha, Beta, and final release versions.

We understand that you may be tempted to use this material to test the rules in ways that aren’t intended (such as trying to reverse-engineer the rules into your own scenarios, or published scenarios). We don’t recommend this: the pre-alpha rules were created specifically for The Night After scenario, and aren’t even close to final. We strongly recommend using them only to play The Night After scenario.

The Night After is a scenario that was designed specifically for these pre-alpha rules. It provides a glimpse into the tumultuous and destructive events that occurred in Berlin in May 2017, as told in Enlightenment in Blood, a VTM LARP event at the WoD Berlin convention. The scenario takes place on the evening immediately after Enlightenment in Blood, but no knowledge of that LARP or its events is necessary to enjoy the playtest.