ZK

Yup. If I'm going to be looking at a character because I'm playing it, I tend to make it a female character to make it worth looking at.

I played through the game as a Gangrel chick, and now I'm playing through it as a Malkavian chick. I suppose I should stop for a second and explain what I'm talking about.

In Vampire the Masquerade, there are 13 clans of vampires. This video game lets you pick from 7 of them. Each clan has its own curses. The video game and the paper/pencil game differ on some of these. Each clan also has its own trademark powers, called "disciplines".

The clans you have access to:
Brujah: think vampire gangbangers. Always ready and willing to fight, and they have short tempers. Their clan disciplines are Potence (Supernatural strength), Presence (in the video game, it's the ability to scare the heck out of people - in the paper/pencil game it's a bit more than that...think the ability to awe a crowd...), and Celerity (supernatural speed)

Gangrel: shapeshifting vampires (my favorite). Their curse (in the paper/pencil game) is that when they frenzy (I'll explain that a little later), they take on animal characteristics...in the video game, they are just more prone to frenzy than some of the other clans. My Gangrel never frenzied.

I like Gangrels because they can shapeshift (grow claws etc.) and have the Fortitude discipline (supernatural ability to say "Did you hit me? Is that the best you can do? Go ahead, try that again. It tickled.") In the paper/pencil game, I had a Gangrel named Frank who took a shotgun blast to the head, point blank, and it didn't faze him. I had fun with that character. He had a handgun, but used it as a club against gangbangers, because it just didn't seem fair for him to use a gun against a mere mortal.

Malkavian: I haven't played these guys in the paper/pencil game, but I'm having fun with her in the video game. The curse of the Malkavians? They're insane. Every single one of them is insane in some form. They might have two personalities, they might hear voices, but something in that head of theirs just don't work quite right. This insanity, however, gives them a benefit. They have the gift of insight. The problem, is - how do you tell the insight from the madness? They also like to pull pranks. One of them has claimed to have had quite an effect on the world with one of his pranks - a bit of graverobbing about 2,000 years ago. Of course, he's insane, so there's no way to know if he really did it, or if he's just feeding you a line. Reactions from other vampires: "If you see one, hide. If you see two, run.", "If you meet a Malkavian, God help thee. If you need the help of a Malkavian, God cannot help thee."...

Malkavians have the disciplines of Obfuscate (the ability to not be seen - and in the paper/pencil version, to take on the appearances of others), Dementation (projecting their madness into others), and Auspex (heightened senses, seeing auras...and even astral projection, but not in the video game...)

Nosferatu: These guys survive by being information brokers. Their curse is that they are hideous. Forget the ugly stick, they got hit with the whole tree. Fortunately, they do get Obfuscate. They also have access to Animalism and Potence.

Toreador: These are artsy fartsy vampires. They're the most likely to have relationships with mortals. In the pencil/paper game, their flaw is that they are easily captivated by beautful things. Imagine being in a fight, and your buddy stopping in the middle of the fight because a beautiful woman walked by. You might have to hit your buddy to get him yourself to get his attention back to the people you're fighting. This doesn't translate too well into a video game, so they changed the flaw. Can't say I blame them.

Tremere: Vampiric wizards. They were wizards in life, but chose to become vampires so they could live forever to study magic. Their claim to fame is something called Thaumaturgy. It's blood magic. It's much cooler in the paper/pencil game than it is in the video game. Besides Thaumaturgy, they have the disciplines Dominate and Auspex. Their flaw in the video game is a restriction on how high their physical stats can be, due to them being bookworms. The flaw in the paper/pencil game is geared more toward roleplaying, so it didn't translate well into a video game.

Ventrue: These guys are the Corporate Suits. They are usually the ones running the show. They are master manipulators, and they're the ones that the Brujah love to rebel against. Their disciplines are Fortitude, Dominate, and Presence. I glossed over Dominate, but real quick - it's pretty much what it sounds like. It's vampiric mind control. It's a lot like the Jedi Mind Tricks in Star Wars. For some reason, the Ventrue are the only ones who can use this discipline in conversations in the video game. I did play a Ventrue chick a little bit, and it allowed me to use it on a pawn shop owner to get him to sell me weapons, and to make a demented blood bank operator forget that I freed the vampire he was draining to fill blood bags.

They were going to have it be multiplayer, but decided not to. It's a first person/third person shooter/RPG

Yeah, it's based on Vampire The Masquerade. It's in the name, in fact: Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

Personally, while I find it interesting, one thing I don't care for too much is the mythology behind it. If I was a vampire, I wouldn't be bemoaning my fate and talking about curses. Ok, I might do that at the beginning, but there's only so much of that you can stand, and then you either accept what you are (a predator that drinks the blood of the living), and go with it - or you walk out into the next sunrise.