Vampire The Masquerade Review

This Vampire the Masquerade review is part of my “Best Tabletop RPGs of All Time” article. If you want to check out more TTRPGs and see how other top-tier tabletop RPGs are ranked, visit that page.

My Review – 75 / 100

If you didn’t know, Werewolf: the Apocalypse is also created by the same family of game designers and producers, as Vampire: The Masquerade. I mention this because both are great games with many followers, and rich worlds of lore. You’ll notice that Werewolf didn’t make the top list of best RPGs tabletop because of the two games, I simply believe Vampire to be the better.

Uniqueness of Vampire the Masquerade: (8/10)

Many play Vampire: The Masquerade (oftentimes, and henceforward in this post titled simply: Vampire) as a LARP (live-action roleplay game), instead of just as a tabletop RPG. The rules of the game fit both quite well. One of the most unique things about Vampire, and one of the things I love most about the game and culture is how much its audience has pushed the game forward in terms of both TTRPG mechanics and the roleplaying genre. I also love how diehard people who play Vampire can be about roleplaying their characters.

Vampire encourages players to roleplay at the deepest meaning of the word, and indeed, the Vampire crowd (on the whole) is one of roleplaying games’ most hardcore roleplaying groups.

Another unrelated aspect of Vampire gaming that I think is very unique is that character Experience in the game (Exp to gain level ups) basically just relates to your vampire’s age, experience, and maturity. It’s a nice idea, as it takes power away from simply killing enemies or completing quests. It makes sense that an immortal would gain power via their extending age, from immortality.

There are other LARP-style RPGs out there, and there are of course other Vampire-style games, but this one is pretty much the original, and probably does both better than most.

Ease of Learning the Game: (6/10)

There is a page in the Vampire rulebook that shows an overview for how to build a character. All the information you need in one place. Great, right? Well, not quite… The problem is that character creation requires more in-depth information than what is covered on the one character building page, and that information literally takes you all over the book.

I’ll be honest, you need to read at least parts of the entire 500+ page core rulebook to really create a fully-built character, in Vampire. Not good. That’s intimidating, even for me.

What I do like is that character creation in this game is more about roleplaying than stats, so you could possibly skip portions of character creation and still be fine. If you’re just gaming to roleplay, while largely ignoring stats, etc. I’d give this a high score. But to really play the game, in-full, getting started is just not an easy proposition.

Not that depth is bad. I actually think Vampire’s immense depth is part of what makes the game great, and part of what makes the roleplaying experience so rich. It’s just that the depth of the game hasn’t been tempered so well with an easy-to-learn process for new players.

Vampire the Masquerade Presentation: (7/10)

Vampire’s overall presentation is absolutely stellar. I love it. It’s dark, creepy, edgy, a little erotic, and everything you want and love about vampires. It certainly fits the mood, taking you to the game’s world. The game is inviting, and presented with great tact.

So, why doesn’t this section get a full 10/10? The main problem with Vampire, for me, comes back to the fact that the book is over 500 pages. I know. That may not seem like a great reason. But I just can’t bring myself to give a perfect score on presentation when I get bored going through another section that’s interesting to read, but doesn’t help me play the game now.

I’d describe Vampire the Masquerade in a way similar to other RPGs that almost got higher scores on this top TTRPGs of all time list in that the rulebook basically doubles as a novel. Or, at least a series of short stories. I like that there’s so much lore to the world (below), but I do think the game almost would’ve been better if 90% of the lore was moved to a separate “lore expansion,” or something similar. That way, the great information is still available to players, but in a way that’s not as distracting from the game’s core mechanics.

Vampire the Masquerade Lore: (10/10)

Ok, here’s the part that’s absolutely best about Vampire. This is the real reason you play this game.

In Vampire’s lore, becoming a vampire is a big deal for the entire vampire family, as it leads existing vampires to have more competition for food. So, someone must truly “fit” to be embraced into the fold. Every part of the game’s lore is then derived from that basic idea, which leads to rivalries, wars, espionage, and political maneuvering.

Characters’ overall view of life comes not only from the unliving eyes of a vampires, but the situation of immortals vying for power is made more dramatic because sometimes events are viewed primarily through a perspective of scarcity. There can be only so many vampires since there are only so many humans, and so much ability to remain undetected from the mortal population, at-large.

Vampire’s lore is goth-punk. It’s incredibly detailed and unique, even among the endless tomes of other vampire books, movies, and stories out there in the world. Vampire: The Masquerade does an excellent job of providing nearly limitless sources of inspiration for your LARP and tabletop games.

Combat in Vampire: (5/10)

One thing I really like about Vampire: The Masquerade is the use of small numbers both in character-building and combat. Character attribute scores, for example, are rated 1-5.

Simple enough.

Character attribute scores also line up with the vast amount of spells available in the game, making for very simple calculations when it comes to using special powers.

Similarly, each character level comes with a description of what a character of that level can be expected to be capable of doing. Ability scores also work the same way, along with knowledge scores, character backgrounds, virtues, willpower, etc.

Though the simplicity of numbers and descriptions in Vampire is great, I actually don’t enjoy the simplicity of the overall combat system, on the whole.

I like simple games, where things make sense rather intuitively, but Vampire is too simple for me. Combat is so simple that I wouldn’t enjoy doing it very often, which is a problem. You roll to hit, determine damage, and add in perhaps one of a few available combat maneuvers.

Vampire: The Masquerade is really not “about” combat, as a game. Combat is really just another means to tell the story of your vampire’s life, powers, and cunning. So, even though combat is too simple for my tastes, it still has a useful function in the game, and should not be a deterrent from anyone playing Vampire if you aren’t too into power gaming.

Vampire: The Masquerade Game “Flow”: (10/10)

Vampire the Masquerade actually states in the rulebook that players should limit dice rolling because it disrupts game flow. I wish more TTRPGs worked this way. Why roll for something that’s clearly critical to the story progressing? Unless there’s conflict involved, Vampire recommends for players to keep the story moving through roleplay alone, and either less, or no dice rolling.

I also like that when it comes to resolving conflicts of all kinds, if roleplaying alone is not sufficient for the situation, players simply roll one dice per point in their character’s associated attribute. This means that players never roll dozens of dice all at once (which can be fun, I’ll admit), and then have to spend time adding up their values (never fun for anyone).

To summarize, I would say that the flow of the game in Vampire is so great because the entire game is about roleplaying. There aren’t too many rules in Vampire to disrupt the flow of roleplaying. And even when there are mechanics and dice that come about during gameplay, as a necessity, they are kept to a minimum.

Vampire’s Artwork: (8/10)

Some of the artwork in the rulebook is incredible, and the images pop out. On the whole, the game comes with lots of very high-quality art. Furthermore, the art brings you into the game world very well. I’m a big fan.

I will say, however, that not all artwork in the book is equally engaging, and there are many lower-quality images further into the book than what you see at the very beginning.

It appears to me that perhaps there have been many artists who’ve contributed to the game over the years and Vampire’s many editions, which itself isn’t a bad thing. My main thought though it that the art does not have truly holistic or connected ideas, throughout. Instead, there are many ideas, themes, color schemes, etc. that though still good, are not entirely cohesive.

Ease of Purchase: (6/10)

Vampire can be found on Amazon, but if you don’t know anything about the game, it’s not really clear which book you should buy. The game can also be found on the World of Darkness website though, and can be purchased as a PDF.

Basically, it just takes a little more work with Vampire than with most games to find and purchase the right book for your gaming group.

Price & How Many Books Do You Need to Play: (10/10)

The PDF rulebook of Vampire is only $25. The price you pay for the value you get is insane.

I will say also that Vampire is just the type of game that if you’re going to play, you need to get the hardcover version. I don’t know why I say that, but it’s just how it is. There’s something about the game itself that requires a special place on your shelf between games, and a special place at the table, while playing.

Fame & Availability of Supplemental Material: (5/10)

Vampire is not super famous, surprisingly. The game and lore is really more of a cult following. If you’re at a large gaming convention such as GenCon, you’ll see Vampire. Otherwise, you may never hear about the game, as there aren’t a ton of tabletop groups playing this game.

If you decide that Vampire is for you though, there is some supplemental material for use in games. Of course, you can always additionally use any source of vampire inspiration out there, of which there is no end.

But overall, this may be a harder one to get people into since it’s not as well-known, and the rulebook isn’t exactly new person friendly.

Vampire: The Masquerade is Produced By

World of Darkness

Play Sparks of Eternity: Emanation Online

By Jacob Tegtman • October 23, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrUgzvlYE0 Transcription Welcome back to Eternity TT RPG YouTube channel, where I talk about different happenings in the tabletop role-playing universe from D&D to the game that my husband and I have been creating. Um, if you follow the channel, you know that we did come out with a card game combat tabletop role-playing game, and it's awesome. I'm super happy with it. I think we all are. Um, but as great as the physical game is, right, we wanted to expand. So we have it online now. And in this video, I'm just gonna walk you through how to get there, um, what you see, and a quick rundown of how to play. Um, so please, uh, take the time to check out the game and we'll jump right in. So to get to the website, um, that holds the online version of [00:01:00] Emanation, you're gonna go to play.sparksofeternity.com and from there it is gonna open up with a screen asking for your email and if there's any name that you want, like, the game to call you, um, your username, and that's it. You don't need a password. You don't need a credit card. You don't need anything. It is just good to go. And then this is the screen that you get. Um, I am just gonna go ahead and run you through everything that you see, and I may start a game as well. So everybody's, um, system is gonna open up with the assassin, um, the first character alphabetically. And you'll notice at the top that you're gonna have a few different other classes: berserker, druid, judge, oracle, and summoner. Um, at this point in time, players, you and I can only play the assassin, berserker, druid, and summoner. We are currently having just the computers play as the judge and oracle. Um, at some point, we are [00:02:00] going to open those up. We're just not there yet. So on this screen, it gives you a rundown of, like, who the assassin is, um, and how many life sparks they start with, your hit points, if they're more of a tactic player, a magic player, or a mix, um, how many of the cards take a D20 roll for that tabletop role-playing feel. And not to mention you have the amazing art for it, um, that tries to depict more of what the class is Um, other thing that you're gonna end up seeing is that it tells you, like, the cards that you get as you go. So you're always gonna start with your attack, defend, no action. And then for assassin specifically, you do have lethality. But then you can scroll over and you can see all of the abilities for each class so you kind of know what you're getting into before you play, which is really neat if you ask me to get a better feel for it before [00:03:00] you even jump into a game. Um, as far as jumping into a game, there's two different ways to do it right now. You can, um, play against computers or you can share the website with a friend, start a new room, and it's gonna give you a code like this. So you would send that code off to your friend, they would input the code and then they would choose, like, their character and off you go. Um, whatever character you have up here selected is the character you're gonna end up playing. Um, for the sake of just showing you guys, I am gonna do the assassin. Um, and then let's say you don't have any friends to play with, which, you know, I don't always have friends, but that's okay. You can add computer players. So I'm gonna add like three players and then I can pick what they are. So I'm okay with the judge, oracle and [00:04:00] berserker. That all sounds good. And then this last spot here is gonna be how long you want everyone to have to choose their ability or like their action for each turn. Um, when you're just getting started and learning the game, I do recommend more towards like the two or three minutes. Of course, if you don't take that long, the game will just continue anyway. Like if everybody's selected it'll just move on. But if you need that time to read and understand, then please take more time. Um, for, you know, my sake and knowing the game, I'm gonna go with 60 seconds and then we just start the match with four players So now we're on turn one. I do have a countdown timer up in this corner telling me how much time I have left. It does do a turn counter for me. This turn will always be turn zero because you are like a level zero character in the world. You're level zero with combat, you have no actions, you're not a fully fledged whatever class you [00:05:00] are, right? So this turn I am gonna go with defend. It shows me a little bit better and I hit play it. So now everybody's thing is gonna show and they're just gonna run through everything that happens. I am not clicking anything right now, it's just doing its thing. So they all attacked each other. I'm defending. It gives me a quick rundown down here of what happens, what abilities they're gaining, and then it tells you like what happened with health as well, which I think is really cool. Now I am level one. I now have access to assassinate and it also shows me what my other opponents are gaining down below. And now I can choose stuff to play. I'm gonna go ahead and do the assassinate one, which includes rolling a D20. We're gonna play it And now healing will always take priority. So that is what ha- is happening there. And then they decided to attack. They have a passive going on, so that [00:06:00] just got rolled. And now I'm gonna roll to assassinate. I didn't hit, so I won't select a target And now they're just finishing up anything that needs to resolve and onto the next round. So as you can see, it runs really quickly, um, which is just... I think it's great, you know? I think getting to have a feel for the game and see what's going on is just really neat. Um, other thing to note as you get further in the game, you're gonna notice, like, this person now has dual wield. If I scroll over that, I see what it is. It is a passive for them. Um, and that means that it gets rolled every turn and, um, we just gotta see if they hit every turn unless somebody dispels it. Um, or in this case, this one is immune to greater dispel. You can see that at the very bottom. You'll also notice that these little cards at the top right appeared, meaning that my opponents have already picked their cards and they're waiting on me. [00:07:00] Um, I think we're just gonna try to assassinate again 'cause, you know, I'm an assassin. I think that's great. So healing takes place first again. Healing takes place first and now they're doing the rest of their actions. They're rolling their passives And then I'll try to assassinate. Man, the rolls are bad. Um, and then everything else resolves. It goes over what people are gaining, and we go on to the next round. So this goes on for 10 rounds as far as like gaining different abilities, but the game ends at round 20. Um, by round 20, you're looking for, you know, um, being the last man standing or having the most life sparks at the end of the whole game. So that is a quick rundown on how the online game works. I think it's really neat that we do [00:08:00] have the, you know, physical version of it, and now we have an online version. It's crazy to see how quick it's all coming together. Um, I'll drop the link to this down below, so hopefully you guys, uh, decide to check it out. Let us know any questions, comments, concerns. Like and subscribe, and we will catch y'all next time. Thank you

5 D&D Tabletop RPG Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes

October 19, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_l3hijcNcI Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, where I go over different things in the tabletop role-playing universe from the game that my husband and I cr- are creating, to D&D, to goodness knows what, right? Um, this go around, I am going to talk about common mistakes you find from new players or longtime players when you're playing D&D. Now, keep in mind, I have only played D&D once or twice. Um, I personally was not a fan of the system. However, these are just common mistakes you can find in just about any tabletop role-playing game when you're just getting started. So I thought they were kind of relevant. Um, so we're just gonna hop right in, and I may rapid-fire these. So common mistake number one is thinking that a nat 20 succeeds at absolutely everything. So this one I find really funny, actually, because you would [00:01:00] think that with the best dice roll, you could do anything, right? Um, turns out you can't. So as far as combat goes, um, a nat 20, it'll always automatically hit. You'll always do damage. There's no question about that when it comes to combat. However, when you're starting to look at, um, ability checks, and you're in these different, um, situations that don't involve combat, a nat 20 does not mean much. So it comes down to your DM and what your DM decides. For example, let's say that you are trying to persuade a king to hand over his whole kingdom, right? And you roll a nat 20, and you're thinking, "Yes, I did it. I have a kingdom now." And DM's like, "Uh, no, you don't." The king may be more likely to put you in a place of power in the kingdom, but he's not gonna hand over everything. [00:02:00] Um , so that just ... It all comes down to the DM regardless of what you're rolling. Um, so that is something to keep in mind, and don't get overexcited about your, uh, rolls. Never get excited about them, honestly, unless it's combat, so keep that in mind. Eternity TTRPG has released a card game battler which emulates combat from the tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities, which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our sales page live now, packed with details Other mistake that I find very interesting that happens a lot is forgetting that [00:03:00] your proficiency in different skills matters. Um, so when I go to build a character, I just build something that's fun and cool, and I don't really care about the stats, and that's probably something that I personally need to change. But I imagine that if I'm like that, I may not be the only one. Um, so whenever you're rolling in D&D combat or ability checks, you do add your proficiency bonuses, right? So it's almost never just the dice roll. Um , so you really should be paying attention to your proficiency, and if you wanna be someone that is really sneaky, for example, then you need to look at your proficiency in stealth because you can't be sneaky without a high proficiency in stealth. So definitely something to think about when you're building a character. Um, another Mistake that's pretty common is trying to maintain two concentration spells. Um, so [00:04:00] the misconception is that you can have one already running and you can cast another and you can maintain both. Um, actual rule in D&D is you can only concentrate one effect at a time. Um, that is very odd to me just because as a normal human being, we are able to multitask. I mean, maybe not well, but we can. Um, so that is one thing that I personally do like about the tabletop role-playing game that my husband and I are creating is that you can have multiple things that you're concentrating, um, as long as you have the proficiency to do so. But anyway, D&D doesn't do that, so don't do it. Um, let's see. Um, let's see. Um, other thing that comes up pretty often is that thinking your turn when you go to do any kind of combat is just for attacking. So this ... We talk about [00:05:00] combat, right? And all you think of is attacking your opponent, but it's really outdoing your opponent, outthinking them, and you can do other things like dodging, dashing, disengaging, hiding, searching, um, and helping others in your party, right? You don't just have to attack the boss. You can do more. So something to think about, right? Um, okay. This is a mistake that I find in every tabletop role-playing game, and maybe it's not even a mistake. Maybe it's just how people are. But I struggled with this extremely. I still struggle with it, is that to play a role-playing game, you think you have to be a professional, like a professional actor. Uh, truth is, you don't. You really don't. You can just use your normal voice. You can, like, have your normal personality. You can just put you on the paper. And that is what I did for multiple campaigns when I first started doing this kind of stuff [00:06:00] with any tabletop role-playing game. So keep that in mind. You don't need to be anything special. You don't even need to know anything. You don't have to know a single thing about the tabletop role-playing universe. Just write stuff down. Just write it down. Try your best. Call it good. You don't have to be perfect. Okay. So with all of that, like I said, rapid fire things, misconceptions, mistakes that we see in D&D and other tabletop role-playing universes. What is something that you thought before you started playing or even as you're playing or even that you see other people do that is a misconception or mistake when in your tabletop role-playing universes? Drop a comment below. Let me know. Also, let us know how we're doing. Like, comment, subscribe, and keep it going.

Our First Convention With a TTRPG Product! Sparks of Eternity

October 1, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtIN1OHjTZQ Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG channel, um, where we talk about different happenings in the TTRPG universe as well as what's going on with our game, um, with the Sparks of Eternity universe. So I'm gonna try and keep this one short, sweet, to the point 'cause I have a lot of stuff I gotta get done. Um, so this weekend we are gonna be attending our first convention where we, like, have the official product to sell. Um, we have done conventions in the past. Um, I've been a part of two of those conventions. I know my husband has done a few more than that. And at those conventions, it was all about, like, just trying to keep the tabletop role-playing universe alive and explain what, um, we're trying to bring to the table with it, um, explain more about the world of Eternity and all that kind of stuff. Um, this go around, as I said, it's gonna be the first time [00:01:00] that we actually have a product. Um, and I know I've talked about it before. If you're new here, that's gonna be Sparks of Eternity Emanation, and it is a... We're still figuring out the wording of this, so if you've played it and have a better idea, let me know. But it is a tabletop role-playing combat party card game. Okay? So go ahead and, you know, think of your tabletop role-playing. You're gonna have dice rolls, you're gonna have different classes, and you know your classic stuff like the druid is a shapeshifter, assassin is, you know, assassinating and that kind of stuff, right? Well, now you take that, you put all their abilities into a deck and you start at level zero, you work your way up to level 10 and you just try to take out your opponents or survive the longest. You're... I mean, good luck to you either way, right? Um, [00:02:00] so that is what we're gonna be showing off at the convention this weekend. And with this convention there has been a lot of planning and it's just been like a labor of love trying to get everything ready for it, honestly. Because we have to travel for the weekend, you know, stay in the hotel, pack the car, make sure the dog's taken care of, all that kind of stuff, right? Um, but then we also have to think of the booth itself and, well, what do we want the table to look like? Do we need a tablecloth? What should the tablecloth look like? What about a background banner? And all this different stuff, right? And we didn't know we would be doing this convention until about two months ago. So it's been about a two-month scramble getting everything ready for it, all for this three-day weekend. And over this three-day weekend, we have eight hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday, and another six hours on Sunday. So [00:03:00] that's 26 hours over the weekend that we're gonna be vending, um, and hoping to do our best with it, right? Um, so one thing that I do wanna show you guys that I am very excited about is we went ahead and worked with an artist. Um, it is our new artist for, um, the Sparks of Eternity franchise, and he created our banner artwork, which I really-- I am so excited with what he created, um, for us to show off what the world of Eternity really is, right? Um, so here it is. And with this, you know, banner, we're trying to show, like, basically you as the player reaching out for all these different ideas, all these different sparks, while also giving itself to the lore of Eternity where you have The Stag and, um, Saint Ranroth on the other side, um, and just their storyline. Now, of course, you guys [00:04:00] don't know all the lore and everything behind all of this. We do and we cannot wait to reveal it all in due time, you know? 'Cause we have these plans that we're setting in motion, and this convention is just another part of that plan. So, as I said, I have a lot of stuff to get done leading up to this convention for the weekend, so we're gonna post this, you know, do all the work with that, and then continue getting ready. Um, we will be at the Pittsburgh Gaming Expo this weekend, and that is what we'll be doing. So if you happen to watch the channel and see us there, say hi. Um, if not, definitely keep following along with our journey and make sure you check out our website for the game that we're selling. Um, wish us the best of luck, and as always, like, comment, subscribe. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know what you wanna hear. Thanks, y'all.