Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade
Second edition cover
DesignersMark Rein-Hagen, Graeme Davis, Tom Dowd, Lisa Stevens, Stewart Wieck
Publishers
Publication
  • 1991 (first edition)
  • 1992 (second edition)
  • 1998 (Revised Edition)
  • 2011 (20th Anniversary Edition)
  • 2018 (Fifth Edition)
GenresPersonal horror
SystemsStoryteller System
SeriesWorld of Darkness

Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game (tabletop RPG), created by Mark Rein-Hagen and released in 1991 by White Wolf Publishing, as the first of several Storyteller System games for its World of Darkness setting line. It is set in a fictionalized "gothic-punk" version of the modern world, where players assume the role of vampires, referred to as Kindred or Cainites, who struggle against their own bestial natures, vampire hunters, and each other.

Several associated products were produced based on Vampire: The Masquerade, including live-action role-playing games (Mind's Eye Theatre), dice, collectible card games (The Eternal Struggle), video games (Redemption, Bloodlines, Swansong and Bloodlines 2, Bloodhunt), and numerous novels. In 1996, a short-lived television show loosely based on the game, Kindred: The Embraced, was produced by Aaron Spelling for the Fox Broadcasting Company.