Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love Review – Dark Desires

Vampire romances are everywhere in fiction. From Bram Stoker's Dracula to Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire to many supernatural YA series, there's a certain allure that comes with these creatures of the night. Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love explores this part of Kindred society, and how such attraction can greatly complicate things. It is also a bold attempt for a modern TTRPG book to facilitate scenes of intimacy and romantic connection at gaming tables.

What is Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love?

Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love is a 154-page sourcebook. It contains storytelling prompts, tools, and systems for incorporating romantic or lustful subplots into a chronicle of Vampire: The Masquerade. In addition, the book contains multiple NPCs that can be potentially romanced as well as outlines for several romance-themed chronicles.

How does Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love Address Romance in Roleplaying?

Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love didn't make a stellar first impression. As mentioned before, vampire romance is a ubiquitous storytelling trope, and addressing romance in a TTRPG is very difficult. The act of getting several close friends around a table and making them comfortable enough to vividly pretend and act out fantastic scenes is difficult enough. Pushing that trust even further to include something as deeply vulnerable or as emotionally raw as romance or even lust is harder.

And across its 30+ year history, World of Darkness has had an uneven track record when it comes to tackling touchy subject matter with tact.

That attitude came to mind as I flipped through the opening pages addressing Bleed. The term describes the phenomenon where a player is so emotionally aligned with their character's struggles and tensions, that emotional state “bleeds” into their real emotional and mental state. Overall, it is a neutral term, one that veteran players are aware of if they are running roleplay-centric stories at their table.

Since the recent edition of Vampire: The Masquerade emphasizes itself as a game of personal and political horror, the fact this book addresses Bleed is good. The problem is the first few pages then cited ways to maximize the effect of character bleed, citing elements from Nordic LARP, while framing the practice as exciting as well as potentially dangerous.

Overall, the research presented is cursory at best, and the word choice is a bit reckless. There's already an uphill battle with the subject matter in question, and the way Bleed is framed as something taboo but tempting rather than just another tool wasn't a good look.

Thankfully, as I read further into Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love it began introducing means of calibrating romance-oriented sessions and chronicles, as well as establishing healthy boundaries between the players and storyteller. Not only are these a means to ensure different player comfort levels but it also allows for some emotional guardrails when it comes to playing out more intense scenes.

Given the fact this book delves into elements of kink and physical intimacy, adjusting scenes for players' comfort levels shows a level of mindfulness on the developers' part.

What New Storytelling Material Is In Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love?

When Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love introduces ways romance can complicate a vampire chronicle, it provides the kind of drama storytellers love.

Some of these prompts do fall into familiar tropes and cliches like Love Triangles and Enemies To Lovers, which can be trite depending on your tastes. But when the book proposes various rules or beliefs of Kindred in charge regarding romantic relationships, that is where the material becomes delightfully thorny.

Imagine a setting where the local Prince dictates that you must turn any mortal lover you have into a vampire. That can have many unforeseen consequences. What if that relationship was a one-night stand? What if the relationship falls apart after they are turned? What if your feelings wane but theirs don't?

Then there are even messier potential hooks. Your vampire romances a mortal, but that mortal is an agent of The Second Inquisition. Vampire romances are allowed but they must make a Blood Bond with each other, effectively giving them untold control over one another. You can pursue a romance with another vampire, but you must gain the approval of the Prince, expressing your feelings in a public venue primed for ridicule and rejection.

All of these prompts make my inner Toreador grin from ear to ear due to how much drama they can yield. That is a sign that the writers of Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love know what they are doing. While the book does discuss adult themes and various forms of bedroom politics, the main focus is on how such desires can lead to more complex problems in vampire society..

These kinds of complications are given even more dimension with the book's NPCs and chronicle prompts. The characters featured cover a diverse range of personality types, domains, ages, clans, romantic tastes, as well as potential conclusions for players pursuing a relationship.

When it comes to chronicles, they are treated more like optional subplots rather than full stories. As the book states, romance is one element of the setting, so having it be the center of an entire chronicle would lose some of its impact.

In that context, these stories are great ways to incorporate elements of lust and desire into the table. A group of elder vampires takes an interest in the players, and they have to figure out if this attraction is genuine, a fling, or a means to curry favor with another benefactor. An organization that is all about investigating and potentially punishing Kindred infidelity. The list goes on.

If you are picking up Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love for some new player options, you may be disappointed. The vast majority of content in this book is primarily storyteller tools, charts, and roleplaying prompts. While there are some new Merits, Flaws, and Disciplines available, they barely cover three pages and are greatly tied to the book's more intimate themes. If you want to use them, go ahead. Just don't be surprised if they seem limited in utility.

Should I Pick Up Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love?

If you want to introduce messy, tragic, elements of love and romance into your vampire stories, Vampire: The Masquerade Blood-Stained Love is a sourcebook you should seek out. The prompts, ideas, and characters introduced are solid starting points and the various rules and calibrations for comfort and safety, while rudimentary in spots, do allow for mindful play at tables.
Have a mature conversation with your table, set up some boundaries, then feel free to explore the carnal side of your Kindred.

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