Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Preview
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Since When is Discipline a Luxury We All Desire? Forget what you know about Vampires thus far. The following are known as Disciplines, they are the unnatural powers that truly separate the vampires of the World of Darkness from the rest of the humanoids that inhabit the game's environment. Those that state the requirement of the expenditure of blood may or may not require the usage of blood in the game, but they do require it in the pen and paper version and they have thus been listed here as such.
Animalism Too bad the man in the yellow hat didn't have this. Animalism is the ability to converse with and befriend animals. Think summoning.
Auspex The best damned rainbow blood can buy. The ability to decipher the emotions of those around you, dictated through auras of different colors that emanate from the observed individual(s).
Celerity Makes Nightcrawler look like a slug. Celerity grants you the capability to move at ludicrous speed. Think haste. This is expected to require the expenditure of blood for each additional action requested of the protagonist.
Dementation American psycho in a World of Darkness. Native to the Malkavian clan, this discipline allows them to bestow a crippling portion of their insanity unto the recipient of their choosing. Don't worry, I'm sure that most of you have more than enough to share.
Dominate Who's your daddy? Typically Ventrue oriented, allows you to command others to do your will, and with Troika behind the wheel, I'm willing to bet we can expect some lovely Dom and Sub situations to arise out of this, heheh!
Fortitude Can you say threshold for pain? Fortitude is the masochist's dream. It is the ability to endure a phenomenal sum of damage; even from fire or phosphorus ammunition which would normally cause (mortal) wounds to vampires.
Obfuscate Like hide and seek? It makes you a winner every time, put on a new face or meld with the dark of night.
Potence Wanna make the Hulk look like a pansy? Tear telephone poles from the concrete, throw cars, punch through 10 inch thick steel doors. If you can't crack a rib with this behind you, then turn in your teeth now. This is expected to require the expenditure of blood.
Presence Don Juan de la Morte. The Rico Suave of the undead utilize this to snag all the hottest meals in town. Make yourself more appealing, approachable, and seemingly beautiful to whomever you choose.
Protean Ever want to run with the wolves? You can now, typically enables you to see in the dark, sprout claws for use as potentially fatal weapons, and transform into a bat, wolf, or could of mist. Native to the Gangrel, typically requires the expenditure of blood.
Thaumaturgy Ever had a best friend that turned out to be your worst enemy? Such is the practice of Thaumaturgy, the wielder commands blood. Players may suck it from their enemies or set their enemies' blood ablaze within them and watch them roast. It is typically proprietary to the Tremere as they are the dark mages of the kindred family of the World of Darkness.
Dependent upon the usage and accessibility of the above capabilities, V: tM - Bloodlines has the potential to redefine the ideals of non-linear gaming on the whole throughout both first person shooter and role playing genres. Honestly, I cannot fathom a better company than Troika to produce a game in such a world. They are not squeamish in the least, and in typical fashion may end up offending some, but they will hold true to the doctrines set forth by role playing games. Those doctrines that allow you to do anything you damned well please, and worry about the repercussions or benefits later. I'm not expecting the blatantly repulsive autonomy based tactics inherent in Running With Scissors' most recent release of Postal 2, (using a diseased cow head as a weapon and backwoods antics akin to those found in the climax of the film Deliverance) but I am expecting the ability to have MY way with the environment, NPCs, and non-linear storyline. Hopefully those repercussions will manifest themselves in the form of a compelling story driven epic in which I will turn the tides of urban zombie warfare to whichever side(s) I choose.
Until then, In Troika we trust.
