Action Trip has followed the recent suit of Armchair Empire and posted a preview of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I didn't link to that one, though, because it contained nothing I didn't already know, and therefore everyone else knew it as well...didn't you? Oh yeah, here's the <a href="http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/vampirethemasqueradebloodlines.phtml">link</a>, and here's a taste: <blockquote>Your decisions greatly influence the course of the plotline. Events will unfold according to your actions and dialogue. By the way, conversing with NPC’s is an integral part of the gameplay and it often allows alternate paths and solutions to problems. If you wish you can sometimes take a break from the main story and take part in additional side-quests that are going to vary in line with the clan you’ve chosen to support. As you progress through the game, you’ll be able join up with one of the seven available vampire clans – Malkavians, Brujah, Nosferatu, Gangrel, Toreador, Tremere, or Ventrue. Each of the clans features distinctive special abilities, unique skills, and various disciplines (or, rather, magical abilities). You can easily tell the clans apart thanks to their distinctive culture and appearance. Yeah, so there’s plenty of different clans to opt for.</blockquote> Variety is good.
Didn't they make this into a card game way back in the day of Magic: The Gathering?? If memory serves me rightly, the only people who really got into it were Goths and mutant offshoots of the hardcore table top roleplaying community. It will be interesting to see what Troika does with the concept as it wasn't really a poor one, just a poorly marketed one. Not to mention that Magic was totally dominating the card game market at the time and it was all that other companies could do to fight for the scraps. I wonder what Troika's connection is to the rights of this gaming system/setting are??
