Vampire: The Masquerade V5 - War of Ages is the game's first official LARP book
Live-action roleplaying with the living dead.
Experience the World of Darkness in a new way with Vampire: The Masquerade V5 - War of Ages, the first LARP book released for the game.
Vampire: The Masquerade - War of Ages is an upcoming roleplaying book that’s designed to be used alongside the 5th Edition of the RPG but with a unique twist. War of Ages is the first official LARP - or live-action roleplaying - book to be released for Vampire: The Masquerade V5 - which follows several other LARP books created for the series, such as the Mind's Eye Theatre in 1993 - and will provide the players with the tools they need to act out their own LARP sessions for Vampire: The Masquerade. Featured within War of Ages is a collection of “in-game” and designer voices that are meant to inspire and guide the players, offering both explanations on what a LARP is and how to best experience one.
Live-action roleplaying is a form of tabletop roleplaying that encourages players to further immerse themselves in the game by dressing as their characters and physically behaving as them. There is no traditional games master in a LARP, instead players collaborate to tell the story together as a kind of performance, with the players pursuing their characters’ goals within their chosen fictional setting and interacting with other players in character.
Vampire: The Masquerade is a horror RPG that is part of the World of Darkness universe - which also features the games Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Mage: The Ascension - and has players becoming members of the undead living in a modern-day LA. As vampires, the players will be a member of one of several rival clans, each with their own unique histories and abilities - from the magically inclined Tremere to the instinctual Nosferatu - and must do everything in their power to protect the secret of the vampiric world from the mortal one.
Despite recent steps made to improve the RPG’s representation of minority groups, such as the North African inspired Banu Haqim clan being reworked in a recent companion book, Vampire: The Masquerade has been criticised for leaning into negative stereotypes when depicting certain racial groups, as well as its problematic approach to issues such as mental health and addiction.
War of the Ages is from By Night Studios, with the principal writer behind the book being Juhana Petterson, who created the LARP scenario End of the Line and the book Vampire: The Masquerade - Anarch, alongside writers Gaia Fiorenza, Min Kreiner and Dr Kevin Kreiner.
The Kickstarter campaign for Vampire: The Masquerade - War of Ages is live until November 5th, with a pledge of $50 getting backers a copy of the physical book in November 2022. Alternatively, a digital PDF version of the book is available for a pledge of $25 (£19).
Edit: An earlier version of this article stated that War of Ages was the first LARP book for the Vampire: The Masquerade series. It is the first LARP book for Vampire: The Masquerade V5, not the series as a whole. This has been updated.