Prepare for Seven Hundred Years of Bloodshed and Infighting in Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage

Prepare for Seven Hundred Years of Bloodshed and Infighting in Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage
Board Game: Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage
Non-final cover
White Wolf Publishing released the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG in 1991, then spent years building up an entire world — specifically a World of Darkness — to flesh out that setting.

Modiphius Entertainment is relaunching the RPG in a fifth edition in 2018, but those curious to explore the world in a tabletop setting will have an option of their own come October 2019 thanks to Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage, a legacy game from designer Babis Giannios and publisher Nice Game Publishing, in association with White Wolf. Here's an overview of the setting and scope of the game:

Quote:
In Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage, you play the role of an ancient vampire. You shape seven hundred years of vampiric and human history in pursuit of ancient secrets, while trying to evade the inquisition and attempting to save what's left of your humanity.

Heritage is a quick-playing legacy game. Each game, players gather characters from a common pool for their bloodlines. These characters influence different vampiric "battlegrounds" and help in fulfilling history-based missions. For example, a noble-born warrior might support Joan of Arc in ending the siege of Orleans, while at the same time changing the balance of an internal vampiric power struggle or attracting the unwanted attention of the inquisition. Aside from collecting characters in their bloodline, players can also use the unique intrigue cards of the clan they are playing — changing the rules of the game in ways that fit the character of that particular clan.

After any individual game, the players get to collect their achievements in their timeline, which serves as a chronicle of their actions throughout the seven hundred years of history and also influences the final outcome of the campaign.

Additionally, players may turn some mortals into vampires permanently by taking the cards out of their sleeves and turning them around, revealing their vampiric side and giving them new abilities and a name. These get put back in the common pool and can be additionally enhanced in future games. To allow for surprises when embracing mortals, all character cards come pre-sleeved!

In this fashion, players proceed through history as determined by the progression of historic mission cards, unlocking new challenges, characters, and rewards along the way.

Eventually, the seven hundred years will end with a climactic conclusion as players scramble to unravel ancient mysteries using the clues, allies, and power they have gathered throughout the campaign.
"Quick-playing legacy game" seems like an unusual combination of terms, barring those near-instadeath rounds in Pandemic Legacy, but the publisher gives a playing time per game of 20-40 minutes, with the player count being 2-4. Nice Game Publishing notes on the game's website that it will demo Heritage at SPIEL '18 ahead of a crowdfunding campaign in early 2019 and release of the game at SPIEL '19. (I'll note this is now the second title listed on BGG's SPIEL '19 Preview, Nanty Narking being the first. Never too early to start planning...)

Board Game: Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage

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