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Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives

by Jeffrey Dean

Horror
2021

Web Site

(based on 6 ratings)
1 review

About the Story

Dominate undead politics through cunning and violence! Will a missing Prince give you the opening to betray your sire and seize power? Or will you remain loyal?

Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives is a 600,000-word interactive horror novel by Jeffrey Dean, based on "Vampire: The Masquerade" and set in the World of Darkness shared story universe. Your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The undead Prince of Canada's capital city has disappeared, and his second-in-command, Eden Corliss, wants you to find out why. You've been loyal to Corliss since she Embraced you and made you a vampire, but this could be your chance to take her place. Will you defend your sire from the accusations flying, or join forces with her rivals to bring her down?

Ottawa's court of immortals is tight-knit and merciless, with tensions between clans that go back centuries. The Prince has been missing for four days, and old alliances are starting to crumble. How will you leverage the political chaos to your advantage? The authorities are already on high alert against a new group of Anarchs in the city, who have been breaching the Masquerade by revealing their true nature. You'll have to gather evidence to demonstrate which suspects deserve punishment, and you can't afford to guess wrong. One careless word could get you stabbed in the back—staked through the heart, and left to burn in the sun.

•Choose from three clans, each with different gifts.
•Flaunt your coercive dominance as a Ventrue, your dark stealth as a Nosferatu, or your heightened senses as a Toreador.
•Master the social scene and ensnare the weak in your thrall.
•Command your own manservant and ghoul.
•Attack the Anarchs in the city, or help them take over.
•Uncover the lies at the heart of Ottawa's immortal court.
•Romance a sheriff or a seer.
•Feast on the blood dolls of your charismatic ally.
•Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, or bi.

Who will you save when the knives are out?


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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Fighting, politics, romance, mystery solving as a vampire, November 7, 2021
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 2-10 hours

I've enjoyed all of the Vampire the Masquerade titles from Choice of Games.

The first game in the (loosely-connected) series, Night Road, won an XYZZY Best Game award and a had a very out-of-this-world style with cray labs, magicians, ancient vampires, and a CRPG-style quest structure you could pursue in multiple orders.

The next game, Out for Blood, featured a human protagonist in a small town and focused on running a shop, developing abilities like intuition or gaining weapons, and handling a small-town vampire clash. It was lower-powered and a smaller focus.

This game sits nicely between the two. You play as a powerful but out-of-shape vampire in Ottawa whose Prince has gone missing at the same time that Anarchs are raiding the city. You have to rediscover your old strength while solving multiple mysteries.

The number of stats is heavily decreased in this game compared to the other VtM games (and Choice of the Vampire). Now there are only 9 or so main stats. Disciplines can be used, which is my favorite part of VtM games, but you either have access to a discipline or not, no growing it. The disciplines basically operate like a 'be awesome' button that is later penalized by high hunger, which can take away your freedom to choose as your are forced to feed. I played as Toreador, and enjoyed using Auspex and Celerity the most.

Focusing on a big mystery is a bit of a gamble in a big Choicescript game, since the player always knows the truth after one playthrough. This game deals with the issue by having many endings depending on what you do with that information and how you resolve the issue. In the end, there are several factions you can unite with. Also, there are many sub-mysteries to solve.

There are two romances for now, but each is fairly well-developed. The one I went with seemed much better integrated into the game than most romances, probably because the author was able to focus more deeply on each romance rather than fitting in a ton of different ones.

On an individual line-by-line basis, the writing is entertaining and flows well, and the pacing in scenes is well-done, with few slow spots, making this a page-turner.

I've written for CoG before and previously received a lot of review copies of CoG games for free, but this is one I bought myself for fun.

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