Paradox Brings Vampire: The Masquerade Tabletop Game Development In-House

Paradox Interactive brings the development of Vampire: the masquerade in-house tabletop role-playing game, the company announced Thursday. The news was accompanied by a video introducing the team. The move follows the tumultuous launch of the game’s 5th edition in 2018, which culminated with the disbandment of the game’s former development team.

Paradox purchased White Wolf Publishing in 2015, and with its rights to Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and other sets from the World of Darkness universe. Several years later, in 2018, Vampire v5 launched. But, even before the game’s release, its development team – which operated as an independent entity outside of the larger Paradox organization – was courting multiple controversies, including ties to neo-Nazism.

The first play test materials for the game contained dog whistles for those who sympathize with a specific brand of virulent white supremacy, and a drafts encouraged players to take on the role of a neo-Nazi parade as part of the self. – saying alt- right. While Vampire is well known for its dark themes, the situation prompted White Wolf to issue a formal video apology.

The final straw came after the launch, when a source book used the imprisonment, torture, and murder of Chechnya’s LGBTQ community as fodder for its world-building. In November 2018, Paradox cleaned the house. Later, Vice President Shams Jorjani admitted to Polygon that “Paradox had no control over the day-to-day operations of White Wolf management.

For a while, Paradox licensed the development of the tabletop game to the knowledgeable team at Modiphius Entertainment (which also works on several licensed titles in worlds such as Star Trek, Conan, The Elder Scrolls, Homeworld, and Dune). Paradox has now made the decision to bring this work back in-house. The company did not mention the name White Wolf in its press release, instead referring to the brand name World of Darkness.

Paradox’s editorial partner will be Renegade Game Studios going forward.

The new team has a lot of experience with the material and even includes original v5 producer Jason Carl. But the video is a clear attempt to distance this group from the one that came before them and reassure fans that there is a firm hand at the helm. The developers also mention that Paradox is working with diversity consultants and diversity readers to verify what has traditionally been very mature content in the game.

Image: Paradox Interactive

Image: Paradox Interactive

The first offering from the new team will be a free supplement that is expected to be released in December. It’s called Vampire: the companion of the masquerade, and the description makes it a significant addition to the base game. It will introduce three new vampire clans: the miser Ravnos, the trickster Tzimisce, and the extremely rare and powerful Salubri – which can be recognized by their third eye. It will also add more meat to the human and ghoul character classes.

This change is not expected to impact the continued development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the role-playing video game that was recently postponed to 2021. The writers tell Polygon that they took inspiration from the world of the table, but their take on it was quite unique.