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Vampire: the Masquerade
*OP Nights of Prophecy
For Every Secrets Answer...
Who killede Baba Yaga? How has the Succubus Club fared after the war with the Chicago Lupines? What have the hunters wrought on Kindred society? How goes the Kuei-jin invasion of the American West Coast? These Mysteries and others await you.
... Another Riddle Arises
A compendium of stories, Nights of Prophecy updates teh numerous plotlines currently running through Vampire's World of Darkness. Whether the Storyteller chooses to integrate one of these five tales into his troupe's chronicle or simply use the book as a timeline update is up to him. In the end, every troupe affects the Final Nights.
Nights of Prophecy includes:
* Hidden secrets of the World of Darkness, including five stories and a fully explicated timeline of modern Kindred, history
* Stories suitable for any troupe, from neonates to elders
* A chance for your characters to shape the future of the Worldof Darkness
Who killede Baba Yaga? How has the Succubus Club fared after the war with the Chicago Lupines? What have the hunters wrought on Kindred society? How goes the Kuei-jin invasion of the American West Coast? These Mysteries and others await you.
... Another Riddle Arises
A compendium of stories, Nights of Prophecy updates teh numerous plotlines currently running through Vampire's World of Darkness. Whether the Storyteller chooses to integrate one of these five tales into his troupe's chronicle or simply use the book as a timeline update is up to him. In the end, every troupe affects the Final Nights.
Nights of Prophecy includes:
* Hidden secrets of the World of Darkness, including five stories and a fully explicated timeline of modern Kindred, history
* Stories suitable for any troupe, from neonates to elders
* A chance for your characters to shape the future of the Worldof Darkness
159 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2000
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 5, 2018
Unlike a lot of RPG players, I don't really have a big problem with metaplot. As I mentioned in my review of Time of Thin Blood, I used the metaplot of Vampire--the Sabbat invasion of the East Coast, the Week of Nightmares, etc.--to great effect in the Vampire chronicle I ran. When I first read Nights of Prophecy back in high school, I thought it was fantastic, but I didn't remember most of the details. And now that I reread it...it's not bad.
The whole book is a metaplot update on all the things happening to vampires that just happens to allow PC participation in some of them. The first chapter is a series of small updates, like the retaking of New York by the Camarilla and the reveal that [Tzimisce] has transcended its vampiric nature and become an enormous flesh monster, the exodus of Assamites fleeing Ur-Shulgi's purging of the Clan, Sabbat being attacked in South America, and the Tremere trying to use the Mormon Genealogical Records to discover the True Name of humanity as a whole so they can use it in their rituals. There's also a note that the characters in the book have no stats so STs can tailor them to their chronicles, but then every character from a previous book has a note referring you to look them up there. Hmm...
Return of the Succubus Club
I never played or read Vampire 1e, so my only exposure to the Succubus Club is the Music from the Succubus Club CD I bought in high school that introduced me to goth music. Apparently lupines destroyed it as part of some kind of long-term conflict between two vampires who are obviously supposed to be Meneleus and Helen of Troy? Okay.
The new version is a travelling show run by a Ravnos in memory of the old one, and this scenario is just the club coming to Atlanta and what happens there. The PCs can get involved in an art auction and an attempt to steal a painting, an argument between the Sabbat and the Giovanni over who controls the drug trade, and another attempt by Menele to poke Helena in the eye through the medium of a performance by the Daughters of Cacophony. The PCs can engage with all of this, or some of it, or deal with the aftermath, or any combination they want. No one is ordering the PCs around, though maybe some of their pre-existing contacts can be worked in and ask them to do things. It's definitely not something that will inspire PC enmity and thus will actually encourage them to engage with the setting.
Plus the implied soundtrack is great. This is probably my favorite of the scenarios in Nights of Prophecy because it's so open and is a great guide to scenario design.
Walking After Midnight
So, Kindred of the East is a great and yet hugely problematic game. The Great Leap Outward doubles down on those problems, being basically the Yellow Peril in vampiric form. "Walking After Midnight" has some of that cringe still there, like the conflict between the "Righteous Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders" and "Harmonious Menders of Broken Fences," but it at least admits that being Asian vampires who know kung-fu doesn't automatically mean they're better than those filthy gweilo. The invasion has stalled, there are problems at home, and the Cathayans in California have come to an accord with the shattered remnants of the Anarch Free State and the local Camarilla to create the New Promise Mandarinate. Now the mandarins and representatives of the local Camarilla Princes are meeting to seal peace between the Mandarinate and the Camarilla, and other Princes want them assassinated and hire disaffected anarchs to do it.
The actual scenario is a long running gun battle around Coit Tower and through the streets of San Francisco, which sounds fun but doesn't have much to recommend it other than jumping from roof to roof dual-wielding Desert Eagles, but I like this chapter because it shows that the Cathayans and Cainites have actual disadvantages and advantages compared to each other. Cathayans can utilize the Yin and Yang worlds and Cainites have better influence-based powers and the ability to create others at will instead of waiting for spontaneous generation. Plus, it's nice to see actual cooperation between two World of Darkness supernatural factions instead of the usual Grim World of Darkness where there is Only War.
To Grandmother's House
By far the worst scenario in the book, this is the death of Baba Yaga at the hands of the Nictuku. There's basically no input the PCs have. Early on, they run into a young girl named Vasilisa who is sweet and pure and poses no threat and is actually a Nictuku who is supernaturally manipulating them, and end up escorting her to Baba Yaga's hideout in the Urals. Then it kills Baba Yaga, kills any Nosferatu PCs and then leaves. There's also some stuff with the Zmei and the White Nights and Durga Syn, but the whole thing is a long railroad just so the PCs have the privilege of being around while Methuselahs throw down. I suspect this was done to get rid of Baba Yaga and the enormous crossover she represented--she had werewolves and mages directly working for her, and probably wraiths in there as well--but there's no need for the PCs to participate. Skip this.
The Hunters Hunted
You might remember Hunter: The Reckoning, the book about ordinary people who are suddenly thrust into the world of the supernatural and have to balance their mortal lives with trying to do something about the atrocities they can no longer ignore, but with art direction that showed grizzled Trenchcoat McKatana shotgunning and molotoving bad guys by the score.
That weird dissonance is evident in this scenario too. The hunters here are a bunch of ordinary people drawn together in Las Vegas, but also have enough money to open a new casino on the southern end of the Strip. They don't have any particular combat powers but they manage to kill a bunch of vampires in Vegas's outskirts and suburbs. They manage to remain hidden from any attempts to find them out and the mob's attempts to buy in to the casino while still showing up around town and creepily staring at any vampires they see while having a bizarre vibrant golden glow in their auras.
Maybe this is within the scope of hunter powers. I don't know, I don't own Hunter: the Reckoning, and like I said Nights of Prophecy doesn't give anyone stats. As such, this comes off as another railroad because I don't know how powerful the hunters are, what their supernatural abilities are, or how they manage to do what they do other than plot fiat. Not as bad as "To Grandmother's House," but not worth your time.
House of Lies
Noted Noddist Beckett has found a fragment of the Book of Nod and sends it to Montreal in the hands of a D'habi revenant so the Librarian pack there can analyze it. His mentor, Aristotle de Laurent, steals it and sends on an (inadvertent) copy, and the Librarian who receives the copy goes mad on reading it, forges a copy of the copy, and steals that. Meanwhile there's a Sabbat Inquisitor who's eager to root out any infernalism in the city, an archbishop desperate to save his lover, and a Harbinger of Skulls who's also interested in the fragment. Enter the PCs.
There's a lot of leeway given for PCs from different backgrounds, including Camarilla PCs, since Archbishop Benezri declares an amnesty in the city for three days so Noddists of all kinds can study the fragment. Maybe the PCs are Noddists, maybe they're sent by Jan Pieterzoon to destroy the fragment, maybe they're Giovanni sent by Ambrogino Giovanni to look into the Sargon Fragment and if the Noddist fragment relates to it, maybe they're independents just looking out for themselves. There's a trial scene, conflicting motivations among the various plays, the madness of the keeper of the fragments, the D'habi trying to escape, the PCs having to survive in a Sabbat city...there's a lot you can do with this scenario. It's not quite as freeform as "The Return of the Succubus Club," but the direction it has provides a lot of leeway for the PCs. Second-best in the book.
Nights of Prophecy would be less bothersome if it were a straight-forward account of the events happening in the World of Darkness leading up to Gehenna, but it would be less useful, so they threw in some adventures. Unfortunately, adventures where certain events have to occur aren't usually worth anything--while some players will be happy to participate in events and meet famous people, quite a few will be annoyed by the lack of agency and mostly feel like they're wasting their time. The book tries to thread the needle between interesting adventure and events that must happen, and mostly it fails, but the times when it succeeds aren't bad at all. Run "The Return of the Succubus Club" or "House of Lies," run "Walking After Midnight" if your group is full of combat-capable PCs, and just read the others.
The whole book is a metaplot update on all the things happening to vampires that just happens to allow PC participation in some of them. The first chapter is a series of small updates, like the retaking of New York by the Camarilla and the reveal that [Tzimisce] has transcended its vampiric nature and become an enormous flesh monster, the exodus of Assamites fleeing Ur-Shulgi's purging of the Clan, Sabbat being attacked in South America, and the Tremere trying to use the Mormon Genealogical Records to discover the True Name of humanity as a whole so they can use it in their rituals. There's also a note that the characters in the book have no stats so STs can tailor them to their chronicles, but then every character from a previous book has a note referring you to look them up there. Hmm...
Return of the Succubus Club
I never played or read Vampire 1e, so my only exposure to the Succubus Club is the Music from the Succubus Club CD I bought in high school that introduced me to goth music. Apparently lupines destroyed it as part of some kind of long-term conflict between two vampires who are obviously supposed to be Meneleus and Helen of Troy? Okay.
The new version is a travelling show run by a Ravnos in memory of the old one, and this scenario is just the club coming to Atlanta and what happens there. The PCs can get involved in an art auction and an attempt to steal a painting, an argument between the Sabbat and the Giovanni over who controls the drug trade, and another attempt by Menele to poke Helena in the eye through the medium of a performance by the Daughters of Cacophony. The PCs can engage with all of this, or some of it, or deal with the aftermath, or any combination they want. No one is ordering the PCs around, though maybe some of their pre-existing contacts can be worked in and ask them to do things. It's definitely not something that will inspire PC enmity and thus will actually encourage them to engage with the setting.
Plus the implied soundtrack is great. This is probably my favorite of the scenarios in Nights of Prophecy because it's so open and is a great guide to scenario design.
Walking After Midnight
So, Kindred of the East is a great and yet hugely problematic game. The Great Leap Outward doubles down on those problems, being basically the Yellow Peril in vampiric form. "Walking After Midnight" has some of that cringe still there, like the conflict between the "Righteous Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders" and "Harmonious Menders of Broken Fences," but it at least admits that being Asian vampires who know kung-fu doesn't automatically mean they're better than those filthy gweilo. The invasion has stalled, there are problems at home, and the Cathayans in California have come to an accord with the shattered remnants of the Anarch Free State and the local Camarilla to create the New Promise Mandarinate. Now the mandarins and representatives of the local Camarilla Princes are meeting to seal peace between the Mandarinate and the Camarilla, and other Princes want them assassinated and hire disaffected anarchs to do it.
The actual scenario is a long running gun battle around Coit Tower and through the streets of San Francisco, which sounds fun but doesn't have much to recommend it other than jumping from roof to roof dual-wielding Desert Eagles, but I like this chapter because it shows that the Cathayans and Cainites have actual disadvantages and advantages compared to each other. Cathayans can utilize the Yin and Yang worlds and Cainites have better influence-based powers and the ability to create others at will instead of waiting for spontaneous generation. Plus, it's nice to see actual cooperation between two World of Darkness supernatural factions instead of the usual Grim World of Darkness where there is Only War.
To Grandmother's House
By far the worst scenario in the book, this is the death of Baba Yaga at the hands of the Nictuku. There's basically no input the PCs have. Early on, they run into a young girl named Vasilisa who is sweet and pure and poses no threat and is actually a Nictuku who is supernaturally manipulating them, and end up escorting her to Baba Yaga's hideout in the Urals. Then it kills Baba Yaga, kills any Nosferatu PCs and then leaves. There's also some stuff with the Zmei and the White Nights and Durga Syn, but the whole thing is a long railroad just so the PCs have the privilege of being around while Methuselahs throw down. I suspect this was done to get rid of Baba Yaga and the enormous crossover she represented--she had werewolves and mages directly working for her, and probably wraiths in there as well--but there's no need for the PCs to participate. Skip this.
The Hunters Hunted
You might remember Hunter: The Reckoning, the book about ordinary people who are suddenly thrust into the world of the supernatural and have to balance their mortal lives with trying to do something about the atrocities they can no longer ignore, but with art direction that showed grizzled Trenchcoat McKatana shotgunning and molotoving bad guys by the score.
That weird dissonance is evident in this scenario too. The hunters here are a bunch of ordinary people drawn together in Las Vegas, but also have enough money to open a new casino on the southern end of the Strip. They don't have any particular combat powers but they manage to kill a bunch of vampires in Vegas's outskirts and suburbs. They manage to remain hidden from any attempts to find them out and the mob's attempts to buy in to the casino while still showing up around town and creepily staring at any vampires they see while having a bizarre vibrant golden glow in their auras.
Maybe this is within the scope of hunter powers. I don't know, I don't own Hunter: the Reckoning, and like I said Nights of Prophecy doesn't give anyone stats. As such, this comes off as another railroad because I don't know how powerful the hunters are, what their supernatural abilities are, or how they manage to do what they do other than plot fiat. Not as bad as "To Grandmother's House," but not worth your time.
House of Lies
Noted Noddist Beckett has found a fragment of the Book of Nod and sends it to Montreal in the hands of a D'habi revenant so the Librarian pack there can analyze it. His mentor, Aristotle de Laurent, steals it and sends on an (inadvertent) copy, and the Librarian who receives the copy goes mad on reading it, forges a copy of the copy, and steals that. Meanwhile there's a Sabbat Inquisitor who's eager to root out any infernalism in the city, an archbishop desperate to save his lover, and a Harbinger of Skulls who's also interested in the fragment. Enter the PCs.
There's a lot of leeway given for PCs from different backgrounds, including Camarilla PCs, since Archbishop Benezri declares an amnesty in the city for three days so Noddists of all kinds can study the fragment. Maybe the PCs are Noddists, maybe they're sent by Jan Pieterzoon to destroy the fragment, maybe they're Giovanni sent by Ambrogino Giovanni to look into the Sargon Fragment and if the Noddist fragment relates to it, maybe they're independents just looking out for themselves. There's a trial scene, conflicting motivations among the various plays, the madness of the keeper of the fragments, the D'habi trying to escape, the PCs having to survive in a Sabbat city...there's a lot you can do with this scenario. It's not quite as freeform as "The Return of the Succubus Club," but the direction it has provides a lot of leeway for the PCs. Second-best in the book.
Nights of Prophecy would be less bothersome if it were a straight-forward account of the events happening in the World of Darkness leading up to Gehenna, but it would be less useful, so they threw in some adventures. Unfortunately, adventures where certain events have to occur aren't usually worth anything--while some players will be happy to participate in events and meet famous people, quite a few will be annoyed by the lack of agency and mostly feel like they're wasting their time. The book tries to thread the needle between interesting adventure and events that must happen, and mostly it fails, but the times when it succeeds aren't bad at all. Run "The Return of the Succubus Club" or "House of Lies," run "Walking After Midnight" if your group is full of combat-capable PCs, and just read the others.
July 7, 2022
In my continuing quest to devour all things Cuthbert Beckett, I picked up Vampire: the Masquerade – Nights of Prophecy. And what can I say except the boys are fightinggggg.
Nights of Prophecy is a tabletop sourcebook with five distinct adventures for Storytellers and players alike to enjoy. The first chapter details several shenanigans players can meddle with when the Succubus Club, under the jurisdiction of Ravnos Sennuwy, comes to town. The second chapter is racist drivel and a battle among the Kuei-jin, Camarilla, and Anarchs. The best section, in my opinion, is the following chapter on ending Baba Yaga’s reign of terror in Russia. The fourth chapter has a distinct red-haired middle child vibe—the writing is dense, the Las Vegas antics genuinely funny, and the hunters shockingly clever. Finally, we end with Beckett’s adopted sire Aristotle stirring shit in Montreal to distract from the fact he has literally zero character motivation to do so.
On a gaming level, what this sourcebook really needed was a better copyeditor. Spelling and grammar are fine, but the organization is atrocious. Likely reflective of their different authors, each chapter is organized differently. Some sections carefully explain the mood of the adventure, diagram out relationship charts, provide maps, and end with helpful Dramatis Personae character profiles. The action is neatly divided into Acts and Scenes. In contrast, other chapters are a sluggish, rote listing of events. Who appears in the Dramatis Personae is a dice toss. A better copyeditor would have standardized the chapters’ organization. Similar, background information is sometimes there; sometimes not. I know little about the Sabbat, and the Montreal chapter caught me up enough that I feel I could run a Chronicle there. At the other extreme, the Kuei-jin chapter gave zero explanation on Kuei-jin society and people, beyond the current political situation. If you haven’t memorized Kindred of the East, you’re fucked.
Speaking of Kindred of the East, let’s talk about the reading experience. At 162 pages, Nights of Prophecy should be a quick read. At times, I, riveted, flew through. The poor organization and disregard for minorities were like thick, brick walls I had to attack with a wrecking ball. The Succubus Club chapter was all fun and good until the bewildering transphobia against Celeste. Combined with the lack of background information, the Sinophobia made the Kuei-jin chapter basically unreadable. I recognize that not expecting racism/transphobia in these old tabletop books is like swimming in shark-infested waters and being surprised there’s sharks. But WOW, am I glad that Paradox Interactive took over Vampire. Modern Vampire has problems, but they’re not this egregious.
My other note is more of a quibble. The inciting incident of the Montreal adventure is the Kaymakli Shroud’s discovery. The trapped Okulos finds and gives it to Beckett, who sends it to Aristotle for translation. The narration states Beckett wants to save Okulos and he thinks the translation might help. The narration states Aristotle wants more time to study the translation before making it public. Beckett doesn’t care about the public—he only wants the translation to save his friend. These desires should not contradict. Aristotle could translate the Shroud and tell Beckett it isn’t relevant to Kaymakli’s curse. Instead, he throws a copy of the Shroud into the Montreal Kindred chaos. Which makes it public. And doesn’t save Okulos. So neither of them are happy. I couldn’t follow this logic leap. I wanted more insight into Aristotle’s reasoning, even if it was a lazy “Malkav told him to.” The way this event was written made it seem like Aristotle got infected with Backstabby Disease. Proper character motivation and internal reasoning would have increased the horror of Aristotle’s betrayal. As is, the betrayal is very random.
Overall, Nights of Prophecy was a middling book. Next up is Gehenna: the Final Night.
Nights of Prophecy is a tabletop sourcebook with five distinct adventures for Storytellers and players alike to enjoy. The first chapter details several shenanigans players can meddle with when the Succubus Club, under the jurisdiction of Ravnos Sennuwy, comes to town. The second chapter is racist drivel and a battle among the Kuei-jin, Camarilla, and Anarchs. The best section, in my opinion, is the following chapter on ending Baba Yaga’s reign of terror in Russia. The fourth chapter has a distinct red-haired middle child vibe—the writing is dense, the Las Vegas antics genuinely funny, and the hunters shockingly clever. Finally, we end with Beckett’s adopted sire Aristotle stirring shit in Montreal to distract from the fact he has literally zero character motivation to do so.
On a gaming level, what this sourcebook really needed was a better copyeditor. Spelling and grammar are fine, but the organization is atrocious. Likely reflective of their different authors, each chapter is organized differently. Some sections carefully explain the mood of the adventure, diagram out relationship charts, provide maps, and end with helpful Dramatis Personae character profiles. The action is neatly divided into Acts and Scenes. In contrast, other chapters are a sluggish, rote listing of events. Who appears in the Dramatis Personae is a dice toss. A better copyeditor would have standardized the chapters’ organization. Similar, background information is sometimes there; sometimes not. I know little about the Sabbat, and the Montreal chapter caught me up enough that I feel I could run a Chronicle there. At the other extreme, the Kuei-jin chapter gave zero explanation on Kuei-jin society and people, beyond the current political situation. If you haven’t memorized Kindred of the East, you’re fucked.
Speaking of Kindred of the East, let’s talk about the reading experience. At 162 pages, Nights of Prophecy should be a quick read. At times, I, riveted, flew through. The poor organization and disregard for minorities were like thick, brick walls I had to attack with a wrecking ball. The Succubus Club chapter was all fun and good until the bewildering transphobia against Celeste. Combined with the lack of background information, the Sinophobia made the Kuei-jin chapter basically unreadable. I recognize that not expecting racism/transphobia in these old tabletop books is like swimming in shark-infested waters and being surprised there’s sharks. But WOW, am I glad that Paradox Interactive took over Vampire. Modern Vampire has problems, but they’re not this egregious.
My other note is more of a quibble. The inciting incident of the Montreal adventure is the Kaymakli Shroud’s discovery. The trapped Okulos finds and gives it to Beckett, who sends it to Aristotle for translation. The narration states Beckett wants to save Okulos and he thinks the translation might help. The narration states Aristotle wants more time to study the translation before making it public. Beckett doesn’t care about the public—he only wants the translation to save his friend. These desires should not contradict. Aristotle could translate the Shroud and tell Beckett it isn’t relevant to Kaymakli’s curse. Instead, he throws a copy of the Shroud into the Montreal Kindred chaos. Which makes it public. And doesn’t save Okulos. So neither of them are happy. I couldn’t follow this logic leap. I wanted more insight into Aristotle’s reasoning, even if it was a lazy “Malkav told him to.” The way this event was written made it seem like Aristotle got infected with Backstabby Disease. Proper character motivation and internal reasoning would have increased the horror of Aristotle’s betrayal. As is, the betrayal is very random.
Overall, Nights of Prophecy was a middling book. Next up is Gehenna: the Final Night.
January 31, 2024
The amount of metaplot awesomeness in this book is just unbelievable. The death of Baba Yaga. War with the Kuei-Jin. The Imbued mistery. The destiny of one of the greatest places in Vampire mythos. The only big problem? And one that is almost unsurmountable: railroading. If you want to enjoy playing these adventures you must accept to be railroaded, and that goes against the spirit of good roleplaying.
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