Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils Sourcebook Review - Secrets In The Blood

Throughout its history, the World of Darkness setting has delved into dark subject matter. Sometimes these explorations amount to cheap exploitative shock, other times that boldness can lead to greater potential for interesting adult-focused TTRPG experiences. For example, Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils, explores elements of magic, alchemy, and the seedy underworld of the drug trade in the world of the Kindred.

What is Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils?

Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils is a 182-page sourcebook. It contains new rules, lore, and storytelling tools for telling chronicles involving blood sorcery and Thin-Blood alchemy. In addition, the book contains statblocks for various antagonists and supporting characters as well as a prewritten chronicle.

What New Storytelling Material is in Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils?

When I first read through Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils, I already had some assumptions about the book's contents. To a degree, those assumptions were proven right. Themes of drug use, addiction, power imbalances, and the backstabbing duplicitous nature of the underground drug trade are all present.

However, the sections on blood sorcery were  what really piqued my interest.

In prior editions of Vampire: The Masquerade, blood sorcery was jealously guarded trades by other vampire clans. If you wanted to learn, you needed a teacher, and certain clans had a monopoly when it came to arcane knowledge. But due to The Second Inquisition's coordinated raids on Kindred strongholds, a lot of that arcane knowledge has been scattered to smaller organizations and factions among vampire society.

This opens up the possibilities of blood sorcery being practiced among the different vampire clans and in much greater detail. Naturally, since this is World of Darkness, these arcane secrets are hard to find and come with strings attached for those that wish to learn, but it does lead to very intriguing story possibilities.

This is an area where Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils shines. With such a major change to the status quo, blood sorcery can feasibly pop up in any chronicle. It can be as small as having a Toreador with a magic tome inflicting spiteful curses on those that spurned them. Or it can be as extensive as an entire organization of Malkavian Blood Oracles creating an information network out of infectious diseases.

The book shows the appeal of such power across all of Kindred society as well as different moral and ethical philosophies certain groups adhere to when it comes to the craft. Some don't bother, thinking it's more trouble than it's worth, others have certain edicts to ensure they can practice with impunity.

But the biggest addition is the fleshing out of Thin-Blood society and the different academic groups dedicated to its practice. This new lore takes advantage of Thin-Bloods being able to survive daylight and maintain a presence in mortal society. This means having unfettered access to resources Kindred societies have banned or condemned.

The most compelling of these groups are DOVECOTE and CRONUS, an online collective of Thin-Blood chemists, and mathematicians obsessed with bringing out the greatest potential in their blood. Not only does this give Thin-Blood vampires a more distinct sense of culture among the vampire clans, it conveys a strong theme of scientific obsession.

The closest thing to a critique I do have is the book's prewritten chronicle. It's essentially an outline of a chronicle with a strong theme at its core: the twelve  alchemical gates popularized by philosopher George Ripley, but it is lacking in premade characters and locations. A savvy storyteller can put the work in with the material given, plus it does provide an opportunity to incorporate characters in the players' relationship maps, but don't expect something ready to go at a moment's notice.

What New Player Options Are In Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils?

A fair amount of Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils focuses on the potential benefits, risks, and dangers that come with blood sorcery. The book contains some new sorcery rituals and abilities. In addition, the book contains new rituals, talents, and loresheets for those that want to lean in to this esoteric field of magic.

While blood sorcery is readily supported in the game already, the newest wrinkle in this book comes from alchemy labs. While there are benefits like making Kindred-focused narcotics and easing the process of more in-depth rituals, there are plenty of ways your work can blow up in your face.

Every time you make something a certain number of checks have to be made. You gain or lose additional dice depending on the size of your lab, how clean it is, and how well you've managed to maintain airflow. If you're familiar with certain sequences in shows like Breaking Bad, then you know how badly these oversights can cascade.

Then, there's the matter of unnatural forces that will be drawn to your lab by craft alone. These may be as potentially helpful as aapilu, an incorporeal being with promises of greater arcane knowledge. Or they can be as disastrous as a salamander, a fire elemental that can easily lead to your character's Final Night in a few painful seconds.

But the reward for all of this potential risk may be worth it. If you're a Tzimisce, you can tap into the elemental control of Koldunic sorcery, If you're an info-brokering Nosferatu, sending a coded message through one of your ghouls marked with a blood sigil can make a world of difference. Or perhaps, blood sorcery may help attain the enlightened state of Golconda. Assuming you are willing to make the required sacrifices to do so.

Should I pick up Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils?

Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils opens up plenty of dark storytelling possibilities. It feels like a natural extension of the World of Darkness setting and packed with just enough ambiguity for storytellers to fill in the gaps. If you want to add some mad science or dark magic to your vampire stories, this book contains the knowledge you desire.

The copy of Vampire: The Masquerade Blood Sigils used in this review was provided by the publisher. The author took all screenshots during the process of review.