One thing you start to notice here is that the whole book is punctuated with quotes from poems, authors, and, most commonly, song lyrics. It’s changed surprisingly little throughout the editions, actually, down to the wording itself.
![vampire masquerade core book vampire masquerade core book](https://teylen.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/v5_core_luxus1.jpg)
The first chapter is an intro, talking about what a tabletop roleplaying game is and about the very basics of the setting. I know Werewolf had something similar, but I wish they’d carried it through to more books than they did. It’s a bit inconsistent with later lore (most notably in that it ends with the childe finding a way to undo the Embrace), but it’s a cool concept and makes reading through the rules sections more interesting. everythingĪ lot of the art,including this bit, is part of a mini-comic that gets sprinkled, one panel at a time, through the course of the book, following the unlives of a methusala and her childe. The rest of the art ranges from basic but passable (the pictures accompanying the clan writeups, the NPCs at the end of the book) to laughably bad
![vampire masquerade core book vampire masquerade core book](https://ludiworld.com/newshop/27024-thickbox_default/vampire-the-masquerade-5th-edition-storyteller-screen.jpg)
The spreads leading into the major sections are rich and atmospheric and the Tim Bradstreet pages at the beginning of every chapter look great, too. This is a good time to talk about the art in first edition. This is followed by a much shorter (maybe half a page of text over a double-page spread of art), more literary piece that’s more about establishing mood before we jump into the first major section of the book. It’s a bit of an infodump, but it sums up pretty well what you’re in for. It opens, as most WW books do, with some fiction, in this case an in-character description of vampires, by a vampire. But I was fortunate enough to find one for a good price a few months ago, and I’m extremely glad I bought it. But most of the newer players I’ve talked to have never actually picked up a copy, much less read it all the way through. The first edition of Vampire: The Masquerade was basically the beginning of everything World of Darkness.
![vampire masquerade core book vampire masquerade core book](https://www.kultgames.pt/16560-thickbox_default/vampire-the-masquerade-5th-edition-core-rulebook.jpg)
I've taken it on myself to review every single WoD book I can get my hands on, in chronological order.