World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Semiurge]

The pierced one must be a neonate, right?

Nah, it's probably an elder but it's using some kind of V5 magic that allows some wounds to heal impartially, allowing body mods. How else can the modern audience identify with them?

 

[Alienman]

The one with a mark on the face reminds me of horror comic Crossed.

Spoiler

 

[Jaesun]

I actually am OK with Katsumi it's kinda dark and fucked up. I like it.

The other 2? .... whatever. I at first thought Nicola was a drag queen.

 

[Tyranicon]

So they branded all the thin-bloods?

Many view thin-bloods as a risk to the Masquerade due to their close ties with the mortal world, often leading to their being hunted and destroyed without a second thought. Overlooked and downtrodden, they band together in a form of resistance. Seattle acts as a haven of a sort. In this city, the weak-blooded are not destroyed out of hand. Instead, by order of Prince Campbell, they must be branded to set them apart from true vampires; only then will he allow them to remain.

Um. Aren't people going to ask why there's a bunch of weirdos with burnt faces walking around? Or are they sewer creatures or something?

Also, a Brujah Anarch leader getting branded on order of a Prince, despite not being thin-blood. I'm not familiar with VtM lore but I feel like something is off here...

 

[Twiglard]

Velvet Velour

You people keep mentioning Velvet once in a while and it's triggering me all the time.

How the hell can you like her? She looks like a total focus-tested corporate Product. They took 3 suits and had them run A/B tests for weeks and come up with that character design.

It's perhaps worse than that real-life super-cliche American blonde. In the blonde's case, at least people tend to dislike it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Velvet Velour

You people keep mentioning Velvet once in a while and it's triggering me all the time.

How the hell can you like her? She looks like a total focus-tested corporate Product. They took 3 suits and had them run A/B tests for weeks and come up with that character design.

It's perhaps worse than that real-life super-cliche American blonde. In the blonde's case, at least people tend to dislike it.

 

[Bad Sector]

In 1999 (the year 2000 is supposed to be an ominous date for the fate of the world, for obvious reasons) you're technically an elder but the situation is flipped: you know nothing about the modern world and as such it made sense to have younger vampires to accompany you in your search.

Yeah i had exactly that in mind (tried to avoid mentioning what happens in case someone hasn't played the game - VtMB is way more popular than VtMR after all).

Brujah used to be cool:

While i don't disagree that this looks cool, the problem is that if the game is meant to be set in modern times, any group of vampires that look like that would fail the masquerade by looking as if they just thawed from being frozen for 5 decades :-P.

How the hell can you like her?

She looks, talks and sounds hot as fuck.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

How the hell can you like her? She looks like a total focus-tested corporate Product. They took 3 suits and had them run A/B tests for weeks and come up with that character design.

You're answering your own question)) Popular design is popular.

 

[Twiglard]

Popular design is popular.

But if it's too inoffensive then it's bad.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Popular design is popular.

But if it's too inoffensive then it's bad.

Personally I prefer Damsel anyway. I can see why VV has much broader appeal tho.

 

[Twiglard]

Personally I prefer Damsel anyway.

It's really nice that you can insult Damsel a little. Maybe in VtMB 3,

[Persuasion 9] Submit your self-criticism now!

I can fix her!

 

[ChildInTime]

Like sure, this is no hero shooter but NPCs are still suppose to look visually appealing. Even nosferatu should look intriguing, interesting. This is just a freak show, corporates will never learn, won't they.

No player wants too look at these

I'm not one to defend this shit, but these are supposed to be the local dirty anarchs - bottom of the barrel, seems appropriate that they are all a fuckin' freakshow consisting of ugly niggers, old grannies and other rejects.

 

[Roguey]

Anarchists/far-left people are ugly, that's just reality. Check out Portland's mugshots of arrested activists.

All the babes are on the Cammy side, I know who I'm going with. Though yeah the face-branding is really stupid and edgy.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Brujah used to be cool:

That's just a low-effort Tank Girl ripoff.

Art in RPG manuals is almost always a rip-off, but what about art isn't? The most important thing is to have good sources. I know that modern street fashion is uninteresting and that the catwalk fashion only suits pretentious Tik-tok girls, but you can always find something interesting. Look on this gangsters brujah

She appear for 200%. Ony question is - in what form.

It would be very stupid and inappropriate to just use her model without the character, so either she appears as Damsel or not at all. Unless of course TCR are that stupid.

We live in a strange world where something that fifteen years ago I would have considered impossible to say in good company has become the new norm. We'll see.

The one with a mark on the face reminds me of horror comic Crossed.

Spoiler

I don't particularly like this comic, nor do I particularly like its edge-lord writer, but God, I'd really rather have Ennis working on this game than anyone on the current team.

Brujah used to be cool:

While i don't disagree that this looks cool, the problem is that if the game is meant to be set in modern times, any group of vampires that look like that would fail the masquerade by looking as if they just thawed from being frozen for 5 decades :-P.

Of course. I just wanted to express a certain idea - a cool rebel. Like the Tremere are sophisticated and mysterious, the Malkavians are funny, demented and disturbing, the Venture are aristocratic, and the Tizimisce have cool seats (the body horror of Bloodlines was one of my favorite elements of this game).

How the hell can you like her?

She looks, talks and sounds hot as fuck.

She is very sexy goth girl and write for you kitschy poetry. What more could anybody want from a video game girl?

Anarchists/far-left people are ugly, that's just reality. Check out Portland's mugshots of arrested activists.

All the babes are on the Cammy side, I know who I'm going with. Though yeah the face-branding is really stupid and edgy.

Damsel embodies the stereotype of a girl with whom every sex is revenge sex. It's not about her views themselves, they are ridiculous, there are just spice. In real life, some of them are pretty and worth fucking (although they may accuse you of rape after 30 years).

 

[Semiurge]

Velvet Velour

You people keep mentioning Velvet once in a while and it's triggering me all the time.

How the hell can you like her? She looks like a total focus-tested corporate Product. They took 3 suits and had them run A/B tests for weeks and come up with that character design.

It's perhaps worse than that real-life super-cliche American blonde. In the blonde's case, at least people tend to dislike it.

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette. All important NPCs should have 100% unique models. Even that goddamn plague carrying Toreador Jezebel Locke has a more unique-looking face.

Anarchists/far-left people are ugly, that's just reality. Check out Portland's mugshots of arrested activists.

All the babes are on the Cammy side, I know who I'm going with. Though yeah the face-branding is really stupid and edgy.

The branding is intensely stupid, for many reasons. In no particular order -

• The masquerade considerations
• The branded are thinbloods who are wavering between kindred and kine, who may more easily turn against kindred if treated as trash and endanger the masquerade even further. The better solution would be to just kill them on sight.
• Vampires are supposed to sense thinbloods through their auras, and this could've been easily implemented into the game, without having to resort to crude marks on their faces that might as well be floating arrows, pointing at them and screaming "Thinblood here!".

 

[Skinwalker]

How can you permanently mark thinbloods when vampires regenerate all their wounds and always revert to their original appearance, sooner or later?

Is there a designated Camarilla brander who regularly checks up on all the thinbloods to see if they need to be rebranded?

 

[Wesp5]

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette.

You are probably aware that Jeanette was in the Vesuvisu during the alpha version of Bloodlines. Troika moved her into the Asylum and probably did a quick remodel to create VV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YRGnk0uazk&t=1s

 

[Harthwain]

Like sure, this is no hero shooter but NPCs are still suppose to look visually appealing. Even nosferatu should look intriguing, interesting. This is just a freak show, corporates will never learn, won't they.

No player wants too look at these

I'm not one to defend this shit, but these are supposed to be the local dirty anarchs - bottom of the barrel, seems appropriate that they are all a fuckin' freakshow consisting of ugly niggers, old grannies and other rejects.

I actually find it funny that you won't find any "traps" amongst videogame trannies. Or at least I didn't yet see a tranny who could be mistaken for a woman. I once saw an article about some miss and only after reading the headline I realized the woman on the picture was actually trans. Look up "trans miss america" or "trans miss international". But videogame examples of trannies are either androgynous or closer to a man than a woman. "Rejects" indeed. I guess that's why some try to promote "them/they" category: when you can't pass for a woman you look for any kind of shelter you can find.

 

[Semiurge]

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette.

You are probably aware that Jeanette was in the Vesuvisu during the alpha version of Bloodlines. Troika moved her into the Asylum and probably did a quick remodel to create VV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YRGnk0uazk&t=1s

Now I remember the screenshots of her with Velvet's room as a backdrop. That's one low quality video btw.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette.

You are probably aware that Jeanette was in the Vesuvisu during the alpha version of Bloodlines. Troika moved her into the Asylum and probably did a quick remodel to create VV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YRGnk0uazk&t=1s

So the female Malkavian was based on an early version of Jeanette. Too bad they didn't keep the old head. It's a pity that her dialogues were clicked/not heard, because I think they are VV animations (according to Mitsoda, Jeanette's model is just a placeholder at this point) and probably her voice.

It's also a pity that the facial animations of these sewer monsters didn't make it into the full game.

 

[Roguey]

How can you permanently mark thinbloods when vampires regenerate all their wounds and always revert to their original appearance, sooner or later?

Is there a designated Camarilla brander who regularly checks up on all the thinbloods to see if they need to be rebranded?

Anti-vampire magic, the same way the hunters branded those crosses into Ash Rivers' face in Bloodlines.

They could also have a Tzimisce fleshcrafter available.

 

[Semiurge]

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette.

You are probably aware that Jeanette was in the Vesuvisu during the alpha version of Bloodlines. Troika moved her into the Asylum and probably did a quick remodel to create VV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YRGnk0uazk&t=1s

So the female Malkavian was based on an early version of Jeanette. Too bad they didn't keep the old head. It's a pity that her dialogues were clicked/not heard, because I think they are VV animations (according to Mitsoda, Jeanette's model is just a placeholder at this point) and probably her voice.

It's also a pity that the facial animations of these sewer monsters didn't make it into the full game.

The old Jeannette looks exactly like the Jeannette in that poster you can acquire from Gary Golden. The mask-like makeup is even more pronounced than on the new Jeannette. The poster must use their original concept for her.

 

[Vulpes]

How can you permanently mark thinbloods when vampires regenerate all their wounds and always revert to their original appearance, sooner or later?

Is there a designated Camarilla brander who regularly checks up on all the thinbloods to see if they need to be rebranded?

There is no automatic regeneration or regrowth of lost limbs for thin-bloods and something like branding would be treated as an Aggravated injury, which is a lot harder to recover from for both them and normal vampires. There's also no need to constantly re-brand them when there are already dime a dozen level 1 rituals that can permanently alter someone's appearance, such as:
Brand - makes scars, burns, tattoos and any other changes to the flesh permanent (renamed to Seal the Brand in V5)
Beat your Way to Glory - beat the superficial characteristics out of someone and onto you (this is what V20 Anarch Sorcery is like BTW)
Rebirth of Mortal Vanity - lengthens your hair
Purity of Blood - expels foreign materials like piercings, tattoos, hair dye, etc.

And before anyone tries to come back with the "B-B-BUT ONLY TREMERE CAN DO BLOOD MAGIC!!!" cope, that's false as anyone can learn blood sorcery and about a third of the clans already have access to it. What makes the Tremere unique is that they have a much easier time learning the Paths and rituals belonging to other clans.

 

[Storyfag]

How can you permanently mark thinbloods when vampires regenerate all their wounds and always revert to their original appearance, sooner or later?

Is there a designated Camarilla brander who regularly checks up on all the thinbloods to see if they need to be rebranded?

There is no automatic regeneration or regrowth of lost limbs for thin-bloods and something like branding would be treated as an Aggravated injury, which is a lot harder to recover from for both them and normal vampires. There's also no need to constantly re-brand them when there are already dime a dozen level 1 rituals that can permanently alter someone's appearance, such as:
Brand - makes scars, burns, tattoos and any other changes to the flesh permanent (renamed to Seal the Brand in V5)
Beat your Way to Glory - beat the superficial characteristics out of someone and onto you (this is what V20 Anarch Sorcery is like BTW)
Rebirth of Mortal Vanity - lengthens your hair
Purity of Blood - expels foreign materials like piercings, tattoos, hair dye, etc.

And before anyone tries to come back with the "B-B-BUT ONLY TREMERE CAN DO BLOOD MAGIC!!!" cope, that's false as anyone can learn blood sorcery and about a third of the clans already have access to it. What makes the Tremere unique is that they have a much easier time learning the Paths and rituals belonging to other clans.

The original sorcerers were counted amongst the Tzimisce, the Setites, the Assamites. Then there were the Abyss mysticism of some Lasombra, the rituals of the Cappadocians and the peculiar powers of the Salubri (might have been pure Valeren, with no shred of sorcery). Then came the Usurpers.

It is closer to half the Clans, not a third

 

[La vie sexuelle]

The design is serviceable for a Hollywood stripper, but the main offence is the lazy way Troika modelled her. She and Tourette share the same face model which makes VV look like a reskinned Tourette.

You are probably aware that Jeanette was in the Vesuvisu during the alpha version of Bloodlines. Troika moved her into the Asylum and probably did a quick remodel to create VV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YRGnk0uazk&t=1s

So the female Malkavian was based on an early version of Jeanette. Too bad they didn't keep the old head. It's a pity that her dialogues were clicked/not heard, because I think they are VV animations (according to Mitsoda, Jeanette's model is just a placeholder at this point) and probably her voice.

It's also a pity that the facial animations of these sewer monsters didn't make it into the full game.

The old Jeannette looks exactly like the Jeannette in that poster you can acquire from Gary Golden. The mask-like makeup is even more pronounced than on the new Jeannette. The poster must use their original concept for her.

I think it is original concept of herharacter. A very round head, literally smudged makeup and aggression in the eyes. Then they had a more realistic, sad whore style one, and finally they mixed them. The original version of the character was a 1:1 Harley Quinn from the Batman cartoon era.