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Sorry, I'm just trying to get clarification on something, as I've not had much luck at all in looking!

With Vampire Masquerade 5e, in terms of other additions in the franchise, does anyone know if it's supposed to be compatible with the "old" wold of darkness games or the "new" ones?

For example/clarification of what I mean: if werewolves were to be included, or even mentioned in regards to lore, would they be those of "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" or those of "Werewolf: the Forsaken"?

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2 Answers 2

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Vampire the Masquerade, including 5e is part of what is variously referred to as "World of Darkness", "Old World of Darkness", and "Classic World of Darkness". It is compatible (though I use the term somewhat loosely) with Werewolf: the Apocalypse. It is not meant to be used with Werewolf: The Forsaken.

"New World of Darkness", which includes Werewolf: The Forsaken is now primarily referred to as "Chronicles of Darkness" in an attempt to make the distinction more clear and vampires in Chronicles of Darkness come from Vampire: The Requiem.

With all of that said, a storyteller willing to put in some work can force a degree of compatibility.

While it required a lot of rules adaptations I have used the lore from Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition for NPCs that appeared in a Mage: The Awakening Game and it worked quite well. (We were all more familiar with Masquerade than Requiem).

Based on that and general familiarity with the lines, I think it wouldn't be too hard to use Werewolf: The Forsaken lore with Vampire: The Masquerade if you and your players wanted to for NPCs.

Also, as VLAZ properly emphasized, it takes some... careful rules interpretation and storyteller work to make Vampire: The Masquerade work with Werewolf the Apocalypse. This is part of why I mentioned that I used the term compatible somewhat loosely, though they were at least officially meant to take place in the same setting.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "With all of that said, a storyteller willing to put in some work can force a degree of compatibility." mechanically cWoD games are not too compatible. They share the same basic rules but each game represents different things. So if you just wanted to use, say, a VtM and a WtA book together, there are going to be stuff that has to be houseruled. Or only use one set of rules to represent the other. nWoD improved these and you can easily run any mashup with the same rules. Lore is very compatible, though, and you can easily take stuff from any game any edition and put them in another. \$\endgroup\$
    – VLAZ
    Commented Mar 7, 2019 at 8:19
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Ostensibly, old World. In practice, neither, really.

The fifth edition of Vampire: the Masquerade, otherwise known as V5, follows in continuity from the 20th Anniversary edition using the book Beckett's Jyhad Diary as a bridge. The fifth edition of Werewolf: the Apocalypse is a reimagining of the game line that, although it doesn't follow directly on from the 20th Anniversary edition continuity, uses its background as inspiration. (More on that to come when the book Shattered Nation releases in 2024.) The fifth edition of Hunter: the Reckoning shares really only a name with its forerunner game — the Imbued are not a part of the story, centering on cells of independent monster hunters fighting the darkness in small groups.

These new games are not connected to the Chronicles of Darkness games — Requiem, Forsaken, Vigil, so on — at all. Any mentions of werewolves in V5 will be about the Garou, not the Uratha, even though they'll most likely be seen as mysterious "Lupines" anyway.

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