Announcement

**Nicolas Milioni** · 01-17-2019, 08:53 PM

This is going to be w ride

**CTPhipps** · 01-17-2019, 09:08 PM

Four Trips to the Second City

Type: Fiction.

Preview Links:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Synopsis: The Wolf Pack, a group of Gangrel Archons based out of Chicago, get in a confrontation with Maldavis. They involve themselves in a necromantic ritual. They meet with a Lasombra representative from the Sabbat. They are then told to leave Chicago by Prince Jackson in order to accompany another Kindred on his way to Seattle.

Review: The opening fiction of Chicago By Night 5E is a series of short mini-adventures had by the Wolf Pack. It's entertaining but mostly exists to plant seeds about the current status quo of the city.

Re: The Wolf Pack

The Wolf Pack have always been a group of heavy hitters that have been somewhat out of place in Chicago. As Archons rather than Hounds, they're a step above Sheriff and the rest of the Prince's goons in the city. However, they don't necessarily answer to the Prince. They're also a bunch of Gangrel, bikers, and free spirits who seem like they would have been more at home among the Anarchs than among the Camarilla's goons. In short, they're actually closer to prototypes for Theo Bell before Theo Bell defects.

I've always felt the Wolf Pack wasn't a very good thing to have in the city because they kind of make the city a little too "safe." The Wolf Pack should be dealing with things like Lupines, Sabbat, and other major league problems you want to have the player characters deal with. They also strengthen Lodin (or Kevin Jackson's position) considerably when you might want a much less stable city as an Anarch (or someone opposed to the Anarchs).

Really, this fiction just gets the Wolf Pack out of the city and shows how deeply out of touch the group is in the V5 era. The Gangrel have left the Camarilla, the Anarchs have formed their own 2nd sect, the Lasombra are leaving the Sabbat, and Kevin Jackson is a significantly subtler more dangerous Prince than Lodin was. Every little bit of fiction highlights these are 1st and 2nd Edition player characters in a setting that has left them behind.

The implications of the prophecy is an "eagle" will hunt the Wolf Pack if they leave the city. I'm not sure who that is referring to but the implications are, at least, they're not going to be coming back to the city any time soon. I personally think the Wolf Pack is interesting because they've been used here to illustrate what it is like NOT to change with the times and be vampires stuck in earlier editions.

They didn't change or develop so they became irrelevant.

Re: The Lasombra defecting

The first hints of them doing so and this is, obviously, a major change from the game. What little we get is the Camarilla (via the Wolf Pack) is incredulous and wonders why the Sabbat's chief clan would leave the sect they'd built and whether it's because they're running from something. The ambassador flat out says that may be the case.

Re: Kevin Jackson

This is obviously where we discover that Kevin Jackson is Prince of the City in 2018. Our first introduction to him is that he's a man who has spies among the Anarchs, is working to get the Lasombra to defect, and that he doesn't want the Wolf Pack in the City. This is notable because it really does dramatically reduce his power base. I think the reason he wants the Wolf Pack gone, though, is partially the reasons he states ("they make things unsafe.") I also think it may be because the Wolf Pack is all composed of vampires exponentially older than himself.

If Tyrus or Ramrod wanted to become Prince of Chicago, then they probably could make a healthy run for it. Certainly, they also wield more authority than Kevin Jackson in the Camarilla even if he is the Prince of their American Crown Jewel. They also don't answer to him, they answer to the Justicar above him. So, Kevin Jackson wanting them gone while he does questionable things like negotiates with the Lasombra or works to eliminate the Anarchs is sensible. It also is an ego thing. Kevin Jackson is an Ancilla Prince (which is being generous as he's a Neonate) and the wave of the future.

Kevin Jackson was a candidate for Prince in Chicago by Night 2nd Edition but was something of a Dark Horse candidate with Ballard, Capone, Dusable, Maxwell, and others being all ahead of him in the running. It'll be interesting to see how the writers develop him as the Prince of the 21st century. What little we see indicates he has things well in hand and isn't the gangbanger stereotype that some Storytellers have treated him as.

I assume the black man they're accompanying to a new city is one of Kevin Jackson's brothers and he's planning on expanding his power base in other cities....notably, one with Anarch ties.

**CTPhipps** · 01-17-2019, 09:34 PM

Red No. 5

Type: Fiction

Preview:

Red No. 5

Synopsis: Two vapid twenty something white women go to Red No. 5 with their dates and immediately attract the attention of a black male Kindred named Benett. Their dates object to the fact he's mesmerized them to serve as his meal for the night. So, he ends up feeding on them instead. The women forget almost everything and are later refused entry into the club later in the year.

Review: The juxtaposition of horror and comedy is something I've always been amused by. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Return of the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, and plenty of other sources work really well when the absurd is contrasted with the nightmarish. At a basis, this is about the murder of two young men after a vampire frenzies with everyone forgetting they existed. It's also done from the perspective of the kind of club goers we see in "Selfie" by the Chainsmokers.

The purpose of this piece of fiction is to introduce the "new" nightclub for the player characters to explore as vampires. Previously, there was just the Blue Velvet and the Succubus Club with the latter actually getting shut down for decades in-universe. There was also the Cave but that was a 1st Edition location which more or less got forgotten in 2nd Edition. This despite the fact Harry Houdini would often perform there for his Kindred friends.

I like Red No. 5 because the club is clearly designed to be a more hip hop and R&B orientated club than the Succubus Club. Which, not to put too fine a point on it, means that it's probably got a bit more color to the clientele than the lily white Goth crowd as portrayed in previous editions. More Drake and Rhianna than the, well, Chainsmokers and Coldplay. The fiction is clearly aware of this with the two white girls depicted in the book engaging in fairly constant non-stop race fetishism.

Erzulie is also present in the fiction, though we don't get her named in the story yet.

Honestly, I don't have much to say about this fiction other than its well-written and does do a good job of reminding player characters that this is a horror game. Bennett and company are far from the worst vampires in this book but even they are perfectly willing to cover up a "accidental" murder which happens because of a brief club altercation. I think, frankly, it's far more effective as an illustration of what "Hunger Dice" and frenzies are going to be like than the actual main book.

You don't need to have to go overboard to illustrate "vampires are dangerous and kill innocent people sometimes before their friends sweep up after them." You can just do something like this and the fact (un)life goes on for everyone involved makes it all the more effective.

Accompanying Art:

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 06:32 AM

PREVIEW UPDATE

Occasionally, you get one of those brain fart moments where you realize you could make things a lot easier for your readers in a project like this but completely forget about it until mid-way into the project. Specifically, that a decent chunk of the book is available for free to read online without having actually backed the Kickstarter.

Yes, the sample chapters and previews include such awesome characters as Edward Neally, Anita Wainwright, Annabelle, and "Flyboy". This is in addition to the two works of fiction which I have already posted reviews of.

I have added all of the free previews up to the original documentation and suggest anyone who hasn't checked them out do so. I'll also be linking them in the original posts so people will be able to check them out and know what I'm talking about without having to possess a preview copy of CHICAGO BY NIGHT 5E.

Hopefully, that will broaden the appeal of this work a bit.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 06:51 AM

The World of Chicago

Type: Fiction

Synopsis: A collection of in-universe documents that give a rough approximation of the history of Chicago. We have Annabelle explain the feud between Helena and Menele, Olaf One-Eye talk about how he was overthrown, the Great Chicago Fire, Gengis discussing an antifa protest to force the Kindred yacht club to heel, a discussion of Modius' defeat at the hands of Lodin, a threatening letter by Prince Jackson, a discussion of a meeting between Rudi and Rose, a meeting between Son and Alexa, fortune cookies, Olaf discussing Maldavis' war, a suicide note from Mayor Washington's assistant, Maldavis chastizing Gengis, Bret Stryker talking with Aluc, Critias freaking the hell out, Jackson claiming to have murdered Capone, a discussion by the Nosferatu, Erzulie discussing Liith, and finally Damien discussing the city with Kevin Jackson followed by Critias talking about the Lasombra defection

Review:

One of the big changes from Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition to Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition was a major refocusing on in-universe documents over out-of-universe information. Having purchased The Anarch and The Camarilla, I can say both books are effectively nothing but in-universe flavor text for better or worse. A bit liek Hunter: The Reckoning did with their books in order to make the books more flavorful.

Honestly, I'm not necessarily a huge fan of this as I couldn't help but think the 40 pages of flavor text in V5's main book could have been shortened considerably. Would it have been such a bad idea to replace the discussiob of the Sabbat and 9/11 with, you know, actual write-ups of the Sabbat clans like the Lasombra and Tzimisce? Remove a few Predator Types and you could have had the benefit of including the Independent Clans in the book as well.

I'm not going to fault the writers of this book, though, because they managed to convey a huge amount of information in a comparatively short amount of space while also giving a lot of insight into how various characters work, how the politics of Chicago is currently being run, and what certain characters think of the new status quo. We also get presentations of characters who were previously jokes in a more interesting manner.

The in-universe fiction also teases the existence of a lot of the new characters: Alex, Erzulie, "Olaf" (for some value of new), and how the dynamics regarding other characters have changed. In short, the in-universe fiction does a great deal of giving "snapshots" of the city and wetting the whistle of the reader in order to want more.

So, what did I think?

Well, since this is more or less a stream of consciousness set of documents, here are my "stream of consciousness" thoughts:

* It's interesting that Annabelle now knows that Helena and Menele feuded over the city for a century but doesn't know Helena (her grandsire's) name.

* I'm not sure about the change to remove Menele from the city but I suppose having a 3000 year old Humanity 10 vampire warped the dark narrative a bit. Besides, someone had to be Beckoned and he was as good a candidate as any.

* The resurrection of Lodin after his death in "Under a Blood Red Moon" was something I was grateful for but I'm not sure I like "Olaf One Eye." The insane King of the Homeless isn't really what I'd hoped for from one of V:TM's most iconic villains.

* Nice nod to Maureen O'Leary burning all of Maxwell's supporters even though she's been killed herself.

* FYI - I bought Maxwell's Fate. No, I'm not going to say anything about it.

* Gengis was a huge joke in previous editions but now he's being portrayed as a cunning and dangerous thinker. Also, one who doens't care about actual mortal reform movements save how they help in anti-Kindred plots.

* Modius gets no respect from this anonymous Kindred author. Can you say which Ventrue was this? Kevin Jackson? Peterson? Apparently, Lodin made him an enemy solely to alleviate his boredom and test the claws of his subordinates, which seems a real dig at a guy who once should have been a major Anarch leader.

* Jackson claims credit for the death of Al Capone and I'm not sure I'm really onboard with this. Not the least because while Jackson may be hiding behind the Masquerade, killing a respected Ventrue Elder is not something I think you should go on about. Also, would Al Capone be a threat to the Masquerade?

I ask because Kindred don't necessarily look identical to their mortal selves. They gradually start looking more and more inhuman as their Humanity dips and the blood also changes you in other ways. I can't imagine he'd actually look identical to his old self so much as pale Al Capone impersonator.

* Speaking of Al Capone, I know he's always been a controversial character and I hope he's not dead-dead (his fate is up to whoever bought his fate--not me). I think he needed a revisioning, not Final Death.

* I'm pleased they incorporated Rudi from THE ANARCH guidebook because I feel like he is a potentially very interesting character as a sort of Modern Day Salvador figure. I felt he was RIDICULOUS in The Anarch guidebook but here came off as a very interesting contrast to Rose's die-hard Camarilla loyalty.

* Speaking of Rose, she was an enormous joke in previous editions. The PETA terrorist is the least interesting possible Gangrel you could do to me. However, remaking her as a guilt-stricken Primogen who represents almost no one? That's fascinating.

* Maldavis and her revolt gets a decent amount of attention and I feel like books like ANARCHS UNBOUND really should have had it as a seminal event in the Eastern Anarch War. It came within inches of overthrowing Lodin but failed because of the Primogen's betrayal, which certainly should at least be a lesson of, "Don't trust even Elders who pretend to favor your cause."

* Maldavis herself just says that Gengis' plan could get people KILLED and should be aborted. I suppose we're to assume that is essentially Maldavis' role for the past five decades--being a Anarch conservative and Neville Chamberlain.

Not a good look for her.

* We find out the Succubus Club is back in business! YES!

*We discover Critias is running a "school for Kindred" and he apparently freaks the hell out if you say anything nice about his sire Menele.

* Finally, we get the revelation that Damien is now working as Sheriff for Kevin Jackson. This was a huge deal for me, far more than Kevin Jackson is negotiating with the Lasombra, because Damien was always a fun-loving pro-Anarch NPC I used as backup for my PCs. His "betrayal" will hit my PCs hard.

**Grumpy RPG Reviews** · 01-19-2019, 03:52 PM

When will we learn the fates of Maxwell, Capone, etc.?

And please keep it up with the WIR.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 04:53 PM

Originally posted by Grumpy RPG Reviews View Post

When will we learn the fates of Maxwell, Capone, etc.?

And please keep it up with the WIR.

Well, Capone, Maxwell, and Eletria (who is sadly the super-hot Zoidberg of this trio).

I am assuming that their fates will be detailed in THE CHICAGO FOLIO and LET THE STREETS RUN RED.

Obviously, The Gentleman Gamer will know more about this than I do.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I'll be sharing it with the RPG.net and Facebook Group crowd as it continues. I appreciate any and all comments or thoughts too.

**The Gentleman Gamer** · 01-19-2019, 05:04 PM

Originally posted by Grumpy RPG Reviews View Post

When will we learn the fates of Maxwell, Capone, etc.?

And please keep it up with the WIR.

When they get written up into a couple of the forthcoming books! They'll be split between Chicago Folios and Let the Streets Run Red.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by The Gentleman Gamer View Post

When they get written up into a couple of the forthcoming books! They'll be split between Chicago Folios and Let the Streets Run Red.

I can't wait to see where Maxwell will be.

While I chose his Fate, I'm sure you guys will be adding your own spin to him from 2nd Edition to now.

*pause*

Are they don't yet? Are they don't yet? Are they done yet?

**Muad'Dib** · 01-19-2019, 05:33 PM

Thank you for starting this excellent review of V5 Chicago by Night, and for providing the links to the preview parts of it

.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 05:48 PM

Welcome to the Night part 1
A.K.A Clan Book: Lasombra 5E's Intro

Preview:

The Deal

Synopsis: I'll let this bit do all the explaining for me:

We thought we’d killed the greatest monsters of our clan in time immemorial, but they’re just waking up. Fighting them isn’t going to help. We need to hide, make the shadows our own, and wait for the Inquisition to purge them for us. With our influence among the organized religions of the world, maybe we can give the Inquisition a push.

You know, I was told in the Sabbat that “We march to eliminate the Methuselahs and Antediluvians! We march to liberate ourselves from the Jyhad!”

It’s all bullshit, my faithful congregation. He was calling us there to feed him. The Crusade’s strings don’t run to some Regent or a bunch of Cardinals; they run straight into the hungry dark.

I can’t help but think of all the blood shed in Africa and the Middle East for this Gehenna Crusade, all the Cainite lives lost, of how we celebrated the one in twenty vampires who returned from conflict with a Methuselah, bloated like a tick on new power. We just forgot the nineteen fallen and where their vitae went. Who it fed. Who or what the ashes of Methuselahs summoned to the surface

Love this work. I think the last part is easily one of the best lines of Vampire: The Masquerade, not just this book or even 5E.

Review: Arguably, the most important part of Chicago by Night 5E doesn't have anything to do with Chicago itself. For a lot of purchasers, Chicago was incidental and they weren't going to be buying it for NPCs or nostalgia for a city. They set their games in Paris, New York, LA, or Bumfuck, WA (a.k.a my hometown). For them, a city book held no appeal. Which is perhaps why the developers at White Wolf/Onyx Path decided they would give an incentive for other gamers to pick it up. They would include a write-up of the most popular of the 13 outside of the "Original Seven." Yes, the Lasombra.

This move was more than a little controversial because it involved a change to the status quo which was as fundamental as any in the history of the line. The Ravnos being destroyed was terrible but they were a clan of loners and not very popular anyway. The Gangrel leaving the Camarilla? Well, they were a bunch of nomadic loners as well. The Brujah leaving? Much bigger deal but they were always enemies of the Camarilla when not defending it? The Assamites joining the Camarilla? Set up in Revised. The Ministry joining the Anarchs? That came from nowhere but guess what? They'll be running the place inside of two weeks.

But the Lasombra leaving the Sabbat?

Madness!

I'm not exaggerating it here, previous editions HATED the Lasombra Antitribu. They weren't quite as hard on them as Tremere Antitribu (who the developers felt the need to kill with the same fury as the Ravnos but less pomp and ceremony) but it was close. I think the Lasombra Clan Books more or less summarized them as, "They exist but they're hunted constantly and the Sabbat consider it a personal mark of pride if you exterminate them. One actually lives in a submarine because he can't live on land." They're basically the equivalent of Good Drow for the game in a lot of people wanted to play them and the game seemed somewhat embarrassed by this despite "Hot Spanish and Italian people with shadow powers" is an inherently awesome concept.

I'm going to also digress further by saying I think as Lucita's second biggest fan (her biggest fan runs a podcast), that her character was badly mangled by the desire to make her a more traditional Sabbat. Bruce Baugh is awesome but I'll never forgive him for taking the character and have her murder a bunch of children for ENLIGHTENMENT. It's one of my favorite bits from the Gehenna novel where Beckett just goes, "What the fuck is wrong with you? Is this a midlife crisis?" Making her the Regent of the Sabbat (or at least a strong contender) didn't help matters either.

Obviously, despite the set up in Beckett's Jyhad Diary, Lucita didn't become Regent of the Sabbat. The Gehenna Crusade was Cardinal Polonia's baby and stupid on every conceivable level. There's no way Lucita would have been down with that if she was Regent. Though she might have been involved in the Amis Noctis deciding to bring the Lasombra back from the Sabbat and plays that role in my games. Basically, if anyone is badass and intelligent enough to "redeem" an entire clan then it's her.

But what do I THINK of the Lasombra's defection? Well, I'll get to that in part 2.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 07:25 PM

Welcome to the Night part 2

So, do I think it was a good idea to have the Lasombra join the Camarilla? That's a complicated question and needs an in-universe and out-of-universe response.

First of all, I think it's a good thing to get rid of "Clan Segregation." If people want to play a Tremere in the Anarchs, Sabbat, and Camarilla then they're not having Bad Wrong FunTM. They should be allowed to do whatever they feel works for their character and not have to go to elaborate lengths to justify it. Yes, you'll get some Special Snowflake Concepts ("The True Faith wielding Gargoyle Prince of Santa Monica!") but it's actually barriers that make things like an Anarch Giovanni sound worse than it is.

I think the Lasombra are a great idea for the Camarilla and provide a natural rival for the Ventrue, who have always been uncomfortably unchallenged in their leadership. The Tremere could have been the scheming Shadowlord/Littlefinger types but everything has been written with them as the Ventrue's strongest supporters as well as mostly uninterested in temporal power (which is a bad way to do them, IMHO). Having them interested in religious authority and not government authority is also a good twist.

I also don't think the Lasombra are actually "joining" the Camarilla anymore than the Assamites have. Yes, 1/3rd of them joined the Camarilla but another 1/3rd joined the Sabbat and another 1/3rd remained loyal to Ur-Shulgi as well as Haqim. About half of the Lasombra have joined the Camarilla, which means the rest of the clan has stuck with the Sabbat. That means they're still probably the most powerful Clan in the Sabbat--just not quite as powerful as they used to be.

This is one of those things which I think V5 has been doing a bit too much of (but is good marketing strategy) in they announce an amazing, world-altering change to the setting then walk it back a bit. THE BECKONING HAS CALLED ALL ELDERS -- well, a lot of the 1000 year old ones. THE BRUJAH HAVE LEFT THE CAMARILLA -- except the ones who stayed loyal. THE SECOND INQUISITION HAS ALL VAMPIRES ON THE RUN -- except business as usual is the way its going for most cities with less internet access. THE LASOMBRA HAVE JOINED THE CAMARILLA -- but for the Sabbat loyalists.

In-universe, I think it's something they've done a decent job of justifying if not quite completely believable (but only because they beat the "The Lasombra are the Sabbat's true believers!" drum so much). The Lasombra's leadership feels the pressure of the Inquisition, have discovered the Lasombra Antediluvian is still alive (see BJD), casualties for the Gehenna War are HUGE, and they're not really keen on the youngling diablerists.

If I had to add another couple of reasons, my inclination is that I think the Lasombra have been losing control over the Sabbat for awhile now. The Panders, Antitribu, and new groups like the Harbingers, Salubri, and so on are all making it so it's no longer their club. The Lasombra have always been about having "their" secret over having the sect's rules itself. They're a clan of cult leaders but unlike the Followers of Set and Assamites, don't actually want to drink the Kool-Aid too. They're in it for the perks and the Gehenna Crusade is the ultimate, "put up or shut up" moment. The Lasombra didn't actually sign up for Armageddon. They signed up for preaching about Armageddon while YOU go fight for them.

YMMV, of course.

I like how this section also gives us a perspective of Talley the Hound, who is my 2nd or 3rd favorite Lasombra character. He's always been loyal to his masters and been rewarded richly for it but he's now caught in an impossible situation. First, he was forced to serve the traitorous Marcus Vitel who is (at least nominally) the Anarch Baron/Emperor of Washington D.C. Now he's been forced to help negotiate his clan's defection of the Sabbat. It also says, win or lose in the Chronicle, he's going to be hunted by his former clan as an "Elder Sacrifice."

Honor among Keepers? Surely you jest.

I'm interested in hearing about Marcus Vitel's role in this and whether he intends to join the Camarilla or just plans to have his Clan become part of them so he can have a finger on their undead pulse (okay, bad metaphor).

But WHERE IS LUCITA'S PERSPECTIVE?

Her absence is really glaring.

**CTPhipps** · 01-19-2019, 07:33 PM

Originally posted by Muad'Dib View Post

Thank you for starting this excellent review of V5 Chicago by Night, and for providing the links to the preview parts of it

.

I welcome any thoughts and hope you continue to enjoy!

**CTPhipps** · 01-20-2019, 12:27 AM

Episode 35: New Year, New Plan – Onyx Path Publishing

http://theonyxpath.com/episode-35-new-year-new-plan/

They talk about LET THE STREETS RUN RED in this podcast.

20:30

Next time, could you tell us a bit more about the plans for the other Chronicles?

Announcement

[WIR] Chicago by Night 5th Edition

[WIR] Chicago by Night 5th Edition

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