Vampire: The Masquerade — Parliament of Knives

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.

With Parliament of Knives, I’m wrapping up all the available CoG VtM games so far (in 2026)! Whoohoo!

Turns out I picked the perfect game to end on. Dean’s work is the dark, marvelous Vampire: the Masquerade that I know and love. As someone who prefers to play ancilla in the tabletop setting, I was surprised and pleased to play an older neonate in Parliament. The strength of my relief surprised me. Yes, I know what the Camarilla is, thank you! Dean includes a handy, thorough codex if you are new to the World of Darkness, but overall I recommend Parliament after you’ve a few VtM notches in your belt.

Another reason to wait to play is Dean goes straight for the meaty jugular of the setting: politics. It’s what really kills ya. When Dean says your choices matter, they truly do matter in this game. Who you talk to in Chapter 4 affects Chapter 6, 8, and 9. Chapter 2 alliances will color entire endings. Ottawa is home to multiple conspiracies, and one playthrough’s choices will reveal a limited scope of them—one version of the truth. Every character and faction is Up To Something. As a game dev, I’m in awe of the amount of work Dean must have done to make all the plot weaving so friction-less. I didn’t realize until about Chapter 3 how much my choices locked and unlocked paths for my PC. I re-started the game with a walkthrough on hand and returned to where I was with little trouble. If you’re a very goal-oriented player like me, the main Steam community walkthrough has minimal spoilers.

I must write a paragraph about the characters. The characters!!! Among the seamless mixing of multiple plots, Dean gives characters a depth I more usually see with otome visual novels. Everyone’s got nuance to them, and backstory abounds (though sometimes backstory is shared rather abruptly). Ottawa feels peopled. I am eyeballing Jeffrey Dean’s prequel novel as we speak.

The base game has two romance options, and they’re both stellar. Sheriff Qui is a favorite in the fan space I hang out in. The long-haired, chronic pain-suffering girldad blood knight can cut a very attractive figure. He’s a cop with a dead wife sequence. He’s got way too much loyalty and not enough honesty and he cries over his car. He growls mid-sentence sometimes. Jordan was engineered in lab for me. My beautiful gender-flippable wife circles the drain of the hero’s journey. She protested the Vietnam War, fled to Canada to dodge the draft, and transitioned after (!!!) the Embrace. Crowds inflict her with catastrophic, nonsensically narrow visions. She owns one (1) sofa and offers free hugs. I love her.

Vampire: the Masquerade – Parliament of Knives is a fantastic Vampire game, and a brilliant Choice of Game. If you’re interested in either, I consider it a must-play.