Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS is a cooperative campaign game for 1 to 4 players based on the popular Vampire: The Masquerade IP. In this story-rich experience, players take on the roles of vampires working to unravel a mystery within an overarching narrative. The game is structured into small chapters, each accompanied by its booklet containing all necessary information. Similar to other RPGs and TTRPGs, players gain experience points to improve their characters and acquire the in-game currency, known as boons, to purchase items. As the story progresses, chapters become more challenging, but characters also grow stronger. Currently, a new edition of this game is on Kickstarter with some improvements that we will discuss.
Before We Start
Before we dive into the review, it’s important to note that prior to CHAPTERS, I had never explored the Vampire theme in any form — be it video games, board games, or movies and TV shows. To better understand this game, I spent some time learning about the original Vampire: The Masquerade lore. It turned out to be much richer than I expected! This background knowledge made playing CHAPTERS much more enjoyable for me. I found these three videos particularly helpful in learning about the history of vampires and the characteristics of each of their clans: 1, 2 & 3.
Gameplay
In CHAPTERS, players have significant control over the story’s direction, more than any other game I’ve played. Decisions made in each chapter not only affect its outcome but also shape the overall narrative. Depending on the items found during a chapter or the NPCs interacted with, the storyline branches out, and certain chapters may be skipped in a playthrough. The game also leverages a deck of cards known as effects, which persist from chapter to chapter, influencing gameplay in either beneficial or detrimental ways based on previous choices.
One of the best features of this game is its bite-sized chapters. Each chapter typically lasts between 30 to 90 minutes, making it easy to get the game to the table for quick gaming sessions. Also, each chapter starts with a single map tile, making setup quick and easy.
The gameplay revolves around three core mechanisms, known as sequences: Dialogue, Investigation, and Combat.
Dialogue
Dialogue sequences involve engaging in conversations with NPCs to move the story forward. Most of these conversations include skill checks, leading to different results and story paths. Making good thematic choices can earn rewards like XP, items, boons (the in-game currency), and clue tokens. However, making poor choices may lead to negative effects or even pose the risk of a masquerade breach. So, these skills checks are not just about picking options you’re good at; they are about making choices that fit the story, making the game more immersive. I find this mechanism incredibly fun and love how it enhances the storytelling experience.
Combat
Combat is my least favourite aspect of this game. I believe having at least one character who is good at combat in the coterie is crucial; otherwise, the game can become quite challenging. While you can have allies who absorb damage and deal damage to enemies, I chose to avoid dealing with them and instead started the campaign with two characters. Combat itself takes some time to get used to, as there are a lot of rules to remember, and keeping track of everything and avoiding mistakes during the sequence can become overwhelming. Apart from that, I find it to be more random than I like. You’re faced with a choice without knowing what NPCs will do: defend and avoid dealing damage or attack and risk taking damage. This unpredictability makes planning challenging, and depending on the order of enemy combat cards, can easily lead to characters getting killed or even the chapter ending in failure. To address these challenges, I ensured my characters had enough movement points to navigate the map quickly and focused on ranged weapons to improve their chances of survival. This led to satisfying combinations of melee and ranged attacks from time to time and an overall better combat experience. It’s also worth noting that the rulebook includes several difficulty modifiers for combat. More challenging combat encounters yield extra XP and boons at the end of chapters.
Investigation
Investigation is another incredibly enjoyable aspect of the game. Moving around the map, exploring various areas, performing skill checks, and making deductions can uncover different elements of the story or yield investigation success tokens. The outcome of the final deduction depends on your investigation and deduction skills and the number of success tokens you have gathered. The choices you make or the order in which you investigate areas can have a significant impact, as some investigation tokens can trigger events or dialogues, that could alter the map. While the booklets provide ample hints and clues to aid in solving these puzzles, there are often unexpected twists in investigation sequences.
Story
The story is the highlight of this game. From the prologues to the campaign introduction and through each chapter, the narrative is captivating and well-written. It’s interesting how different characters can uncover more or different parts of the story. During the first playthrough, you will think about replaying the campaign to explore different choices and interact with NPCs or the map in a different way. Also at certain points in the campaign, you’ll have the option to choose which chapters to play, selecting one while skipping the others. On top of that, with eight characters in the core box, each with their unique abilities and weaknesses, there’s considerable replayability, despite the overarching story being the same.
A smart design decision in the game is the use of individual booklets for each chapter, rather than a single storybook with hundreds of pages. These booklets advance the story and contain all of the necessary details about each chapter, including events, dialogues, and investigations. This format streamlines gameplay, as you only need the main storybook during setup and upon completing a chapter. However, given the small size of these booklets and the huge amount of content most of them contain, the font size is very small, which could make reading challenging for some players. In such cases, the upcoming digital version of the booklets could offer a suitable alternative.
Prologues
There are eight optional prologues in the core box designed for solo play. They introduce each of the eight characters in the game and their backstories, act as tutorials by focusing on different game mechanics, and provide starting XP and boons. Playing these prologues before tackling the rulebook (which is 53 pages long) can greatly ease understanding afterwards. Also, these prologues offer insight into each character’s playstyle, making it easier to choose the right characters for your taste. Having played all eight prologues myself, I strongly recommend doing the same, as they are fun and also add more depth to the story.
Artwork and Components
The artwork in this game is outstanding. Everything, from the game box design to the components and the art on cards and map tiles, is beautiful and thematic. While the miniatures are detailed, they are on the lighter and smaller side, which may not be impressive to some, although that wasn’t an issue for me. The insert could be improved, particularly with the addition of removable trays to organize the numerous small tokens used in the game. Another helpful addition would be dividers for the cards, as it can be challenging to find specific ones during gameplay. Also, although the NPC tokens are numbered, searching for them can be challenging if they are punched out. To avoid this issue, I kept them in their punchboards and returned them to the punchboard after each chapter.
The game can also use better reference cards. While there is a single card that includes some of the high-level rules, it is barely sufficient. Having a few cards detailing rules for different aspects of the game would reduce the need to constantly reach out for the rulebook, particularly for new players. Fortunately, there is an excellent rules summary available on BGG that I found very helpful while learning the game.
Despite these minor issues, the overall quality of the components, including cards, map tiles, booklets, and the storybook, is excellent.
Expansion Packs
Currently, there are four expansion packs available for the game. Each of these packs introduces a new character to the game, along with a character board, additional map tiles, a miniature, and all associated cards. Also, each pack includes two solo chapters that revolve around the featured character. While it’s possible to start the campaign with any of these characters, they only become relevant to the story after a certain point. So, it’s a better idea to wait until the storybook introduces these characters and offers the option to play their related chapters.
Errata
It’s important to mention that there is a 4-page errata for the first edition of this game. Based on the comments on BGG, I expected it to be worse than it actually is. Many of the items in the errata file make sense and are easy to identify when encountered, while others provide further clarifications of the rules. However, some errors are necessary to address; otherwise, you may face broken story branches or dead ends in certain chapters. To address these issues, I added small removable stickers next to errors in the rulebook and booklets as a reminder and checked the errata before starting each chapter. This helped minimize the impact of the errors. While this may be a deal-breaker for some, it didn’t significantly impact my enjoyment of the game. Regardless, with the new edition of the game and digital booklets becoming available, this issue should be resolved. Additionally, Flyos Games is offering free errata stickers for owners of the first edition.
Definitive Edition
The game has returned to Kickstarter for a second edition, called the Definitive Edition, which addresses all of the problems found in the first edition. Like the original, this version is all analog and includes booklets for all chapters, which made the first edition’s box quite heavy.
However, in addition to the Definitive Edition, the Kickstarter campaign also offers a new version that mixes physical and digital elements. This version doesn’t come with the physical booklets, making the box smaller and lighter, and the game cheaper. Instead, you will use an app which can be accessed on the web or mobile devices. You can try out a demo of the app here.
While the demo app looks great, I personally enjoy flipping through physical booklets and would prefer the analog version. That said, it’s important to consider that the font size in the booklets is very small, so if you struggle with small text, the digital version might be a better fit.
Furthermore, a new expansion with 8 additional scenarios and 3 new characters is on the horizon. The story of this expansion unfolds after the original campaign’s conclusion.
Final Thoughts
Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS is exceptional! With captivating storytelling and unique mechanics, it delivers an engaging and immersive experience, promising many hours of enjoyment and unexpected twists. While it may not be flawless, the game excels in various ways, earning its spot as one of my favourite campaign games of all time. With an upcoming new edition addressing previous issues and the addition of a digital booklet, it’s worth considering for anyone interested in exploring its unique blend of theme and gameplay.
Disclosure: We received a review copy of this game. Also, there may be an affiliate link in the links included at the end of this article.
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