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[Nzyme32]

I haven't followed the series in a long time so I have no idea what is going on - but Paradox did buy White Wolf not to long ago, and these seem like the prelude to much more from their "World of Darkness" universe - which includes Vampire the Masquerade, Mage: The Ascension and more. All of these just released now
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On Steam, a double pack:

World of Darkness Preludes: Vampire and Mage

The classic roleplaying games Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension enter the digital present with a dual-pack of interactive fiction by a few of today's most interesting fantasy writers.

Vampire: The Masquerade: We Eat Blood And All Our Friends Are Dead is a chilling story written and illustrated by award- winning authors Zak Smith and Sarah Horrocks.

Told entirely from a mobile messaging perspective, We Eat Blood is a sharp, mature and often terrifying story about your first nights as unwilling predator and prey. Hunted by unknown enemies and driven by an alien hunger, will you sever your ties with the mortal world or try to cling to your former life? Will you join ancient conspiracies, or turn the tables on forces older than the written word? Terrible power lies within your grasp, but there is always a price to pay.

— The temptation is real.

Set in modern-day Sweden, Mage: The Ascension: Refuge by critically-acclaimed author Karin Tidbeck, lets you experience today's social and political upheavals while awakening to the power of True Magick - the ability to shape reality itself through your force of belief. Many will try to recruit you into a secret war where human consensus itself is the battlefield. Your actions and choices will have profound consequences on the world and people around you... assuming madness and paradox doesn't claim you first.

— Safety or sacrifice - the choice is yours.

Even more from White Wolf today is on Steam via Video:

Judas Goat

A Judas Goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a slaughterhouse while its own life is spared. Mike's (Guy Evans) life was shattered to pieces when he was enslaved by a creature of nightmares. Now he's forced to lure people to their deaths to provide sustenance for the monster. Trapped in a cycle of abuse and ever-deepening guilt, his sanity's pushed to breaking point when he clashes with Lisa (Susanne Wuest). The woman seems to know about his condition and even offers a possible way out – at a price. But can she be trusted at all? Can anyone? Judas Goat is a multi award-winning story of emotional dependence and violent desperation. It delves into the murky recesses of modern horror - a world of monsters through the eyes of their servants.

On mobile iOS and Android:

Vampire the Masquerade: We Eat Blood

The classic roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade enters the age of smartphone texting with We Eat Blood: an interactive fiction written and illustrated by award- winning author Zak Sabbath and Sarah Horrocks.

Told entirely from a mobile messaging perspective, Vampire: We Eat Blood is a sharp, mature and often terrifying story about your first nights as unwilling predator and prey. Hunted by unknown enemies and driven by an alien hunger, will you sever your ties with the mortal world or try to cling to your former life? Will you join ancient conspiracies, or turn the tables on forces older than the written word? Terrible power lies within your grasp, but there is always a price to pay.

 

[Karak]

I cant seem to get my head around...exactly what it is gamewise.

 

[Trigger]

So these are like VNs? Text only stories can be cool.

 

[Nzyme32]

I cant seem to get my head around...exactly what it is gamewise.

Mostly text based adventure stuff, in this case told through mobile texts you interact with. It is a literal "prelude" to more for the respective "World of Darkness" properties from what I can tell - Vampire: The Masquerade and The Ascension. It's a game as much as any text based adventure is a game.

Obviously the film / video is something different, no idea how they all connect though

So these are like VNs? Text only stories can be cool.

I believe so, leading up to the next big game(s) that they have been working on with Paradox

 

[Karak]

Mostly text based adventure stuff, in this case told through mobile texts you interact with. It is a literal "prelude" to more for the respective "World of Darkness" properties from what I can tell - Vampire: The Masquerade and The Ascension. It's a game as much as any text based adventure is a game.

Obviously the film / video is something different, no idea how they all connect though

I see

 

[Prime crotch]

Is this a build up for a P&P or some upcming video game?

 

[Nzyme32]

Is this a build up for a P&P or some upcming video game?

Upcoming big game, or so people have been told

 

[wwm0nkey]

Well it was about time I played one of those mobile texting games I guess

 

[Schlorgan]

I literally just finished Bloodlines today and was thinking about how I wanted more in that universe. Maybe I'll check this out.

 

[dude]

Is this a build up for a P&P or some upcming video game?

I hope that a P&P game. As far as I know, we heard basically nothing about 4e ever since it was taken from Onyx Path back to White Wolf.

 

[ChemicalCutthroat]

So I've run through both of them. The Mage one took about an hour, while the Vampire one took around two and a half to three hours, but I tend to read rather fast.

Both of them are basically 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Novels, where you make decisions after reading through descriptions. You can die from your actions, though it will checkpoint you back to a recent 'checkpoint' to modify your decisions if you hit Try Again.

Between the two, the Vampire one is much better. The entire game takes place via cell phone text messages, and the layout is fun and colorful. I played it on my cellphone, as I figured that was the 'authentic' way to play it, and other than nuking my battery it was good times.

The writing is excellent, at times intense or hilarious, sometimes at the same time. And I really enjoyed it. The Vampire game has a nice end to things, and the completion feels good. But there is a lot of text blocks that are there to get you used to the ideas in the main tabletop game, and as someone who has played almost all of them, they do a pretty good job of it.

The Mage game is much much shorter. I never died on my initial playthrough, despite every decision I made making me feel like I had messed something up. But that was good, the tension is important. It does hold true to how WEIRD Mage can be, so that is nice, but the presentation isn't nearly as fun as the Vampire game. I played the Mage one first, which was good, because if I had gone the other way around I think I would have been a little more disappointed. As it stands, it was a fun, but short journey, but I was not as happy with how the Mage game ended, as it just sort of leaves you hanging, with none of the punch and tension you get from the Vampire game. It might have just been the paths I chose, but until another replay I'm not so sure.

If you're a fan of White Wolf's stuff, I'd say go for it. They both have good writing, and I think it's well worth giving them your five or ten bucks to support their stuff. If you're only gonna pick up one though, I say go for the Vampire one.

"we eat blood and all our friends are dead"

 

[Rembrandt]

I'll pick up vampire later on today. Sounds interesting.

 

[AColdDay]

Going to continue providing my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ to the heavens and hope that this somehow is a prelude to an Obsidian developed Bloodlines successor.

 

[ChemicalCutthroat]

Going to continue providing my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ to the heavens and hope that this somehow is a prelude to an Obsidian developed Bloodlines successor.

It might be, if you also provided money with your energy.

 

[Chance Hale]

Any other impressions? I don't read fantasy novels generally so I'm not familiar with the writers and my only interaction with the universe is Bloodlines but that is one of my favorite games of all time.

 

[ChemicalCutthroat]

Any other impressions? I don't read fantasy novels generally so I'm not familiar with the writers and my only interaction with the universe is Bloodlines but that is one of my favorite games of all time.

I'd say if you liked Bloodlines you will enjoy the Vampire one. But it isn't anywhere nearly as deep as that game. I had fun with it, and I let a couple friends tool around on it, and they enjoyed it. I want to give it a rave review, but really it's just a flashy choose your own adventure book, but it's one that made me laugh a lot, so that is saying something.

 

[Nzyme32]

I'd say if you liked Bloodlines you will enjoy the Vampire one. But it isn't anywhere nearly as deep as that game. I had fun with it, and I let a couple friends tool around on it, and they enjoyed it. I want to give it a rave review, but really it's just a flashy choose your own adventure book, but it's one that made me laugh a lot, so that is saying something.

It is a "prelude" to more World of Darkness under Paradox ownership. I highly doubt it is meant to be something substantial, but simply leading into the large get that has been in development for a long while

 

[Nishastra]

I just finished the Vampire one on my phone and I liked it a lot. It's nice to see a Vampire story not essentially stuck in the year 2000. Smartphone and social media vampires make a lot of sense, actually

The game gets a little weird in a few spots where it doesn't mark the passage of time well, partially because all action takes place off-screen since the entire game is emulating a messaging app. Either you just don't see it at all or your character has to describe it to someone else and then retroactively dies if you describe the wrong thing

Also, the very end can be frustrating, as it has a long sequence where you don't know whether or not you've failed until the end, and you have to redo the whole thing if you did.

I'm going to play it through at least once more, as there's some choices that should change a few things, but I'm sure the ending is the same regardless.

 

[water_wendi]

Interesting. Some aspects of the WoD seem more apt to fit into visual novel/adventure game type format.. especially for something like Mage where a normal rpg video game would be an impossible medium to make it work.

Going to continue providing my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ to the heavens and hope that this somehow is a prelude to an Obsidian developed Bloodlines
successor.

That would be very welcome.

 

[wittengstein]

Finished Vampire on my phone,really enjoyed the little nods to Prince Lacroix and VV and the clever writing in general.
There's some optional depth here,like

Spoiler

Anise going Nos

and the

Spoiler

missing children

storyline and i particularly liked how the

Spoiler

children in the plane in LA route and the Katherine and the rest of the children in Seattle route

connected but depth also comes with a price as most of the main storyline is constructed in same texts.Like why does

Spoiler

Anise

chases you down with the same lines,why does Case say '

Spoiler

all our friends are dead

' in

Spoiler

Seattle

route when no one they know dies up to that point?None of the optional storylines has a conclusion,which makes sense in some ways as we are playing as fledgling but the same fledgling by the end manages to

Spoiler

kill a Tremere Sacred

? Worldbuilding in general could've been so much better with a little more effort,at the very least they should have put in a few different game over screens putting the same screen over and over again is just lazy.And protag could've been a bit more smart,like how many times can you possibly be ambushed by

Spoiler

Madison's

schemes?

Despite it's faults this convinced me that whatever Paradox is working on better be full choose your own adventure,very similar to King of Dragon Pass.I enjoyed the systems they created in CK2 and with White Wolf's staff contributing to create a full blown adventure in which there are no wrong choices,that could be really special game.