These Bloodlines 2 Anarchs Fill Me With DREAD

[@TheLordWinter]

Hello! Seattle resident here, and we have a large number of parks, some big and some small. Probably the largest is Discovery Park, which is 534 acres. Parts of it are left completely wild, and as someone who has gotten lost their by night, I could absolutely imagine groups of hungry Gangrel dirt napping by day and hunting by night.

[@LoreByNightVtM]

That's good to know!

[@RTristanBanks]

@@LoreByNightVtM I'm down in Portland and same down here. The Gangrel would do well in most of the Pacific Northwest

[@mnk9073]

How studios keep f-ing up the literally easiest to adapt franchise there is is beyond me. It's all f-ing there, literal libraries worth of lore, established classes and factions, dozenss of beloved characters, tons of stories you just have to turn into a narrative. Stop being artsy "oh we're so unique? f-ers and ADAPT.

[@redrum47]

I feel like they think they might only get one chance to put their stamp on a franchise so they try hard to be unique, which worsens the product and often ironically CONFIRMS they'll only get that one chance Narcissism and incompetence, every time

[@K_30]

Its a society thing rn even in movies nobody seem to understand that ppl want you to adapt the product as is and not put your own spin on it

[@ShardDeVir]

Do you think those clowns read lore? Never.

[@porkmilk8984]

I wonder how much lawyers and who has rights to what have an impact on what is going on with so many franchises. Are all the authors of legacy star wars books possibly owed money to use characters they madeup in their stories? I'd be surprised Lucasfilm doesn't own everything. But I do wonder if some of the weird choices are more from legal advice and trying to min max expenses instead of spreading the wealth and letting everyone eat.

[@margisama]

[@vancefellini9147]

You are much, much too kind to TCR's rambling nonsense. V5 is already a major departure from V1-V3 lore, but TCR's take is next fucking level in how far removed it is from any other VTM material. This is a group of writers who are so intent on delivering their own unique twist, that they're outright changing the rules of the setting. We've gotten: * Brujah without passion for the fight * Sires submissive to their Childer * Neonates joining the Camarilla like it's a fucking Rotary Club and not a feudal primogeniture * Ghouls who are a significant threat instead of dysfunctional vampire crack addicts * Camarilla Elders who are branding other vampires with massive Masquerade-breaching spotlights Yeah, I don't think these writers actually care about delivering on the setting we know and love. This is a passionless 9-to-5 corporate hack job, with "but wait, there's a twist!" in the stead of narrative focus and attention to the detail of what makes VTM what it is.

[@enriquejoseantequerasanche6180]

Neonates have done that in the past, just like they join the Sabbat or the anarchs (running away from what they know is bad into what they believe will be better), and ghouls can be dangerous under the right conditions (ghouls can learn disciplines on their own, plus they can be active during the day). The rest, I agree with you, is absolutely ridiculous.

[@enfissione8297]

To be fair free ghouls were a problem before. Neonate joining camarilla is not impossible.

[@NutsNBolts-fv9kx]

The Brujah one is especially strange - a conflicted Brujah who tries to keep their cool but loses themselves to rage is a cool concept, but I doubt that's what they're aiming for... The one about submissive sires could be an interesting twist - perhaps it was a bloodbond?

[@spiritwatcher]

I like the idea that in the end that Phyre is not being possessed by a thin-blood, but instead it turns out that he is Malkavian that thinks he is a part of another clan. And the guy in his head is his true self or unconscious.

[@rickc-arelsii6276]

"....they (Gangrel) have nothing going for them beyond that...." *raises one eyebrow* What makes you think that isn't by design? 😏🐺🤘

[@Gabriel199016]

As for the branding and why it does not heal, in revised/v20 there is a lvl 1 Thaumaturgy ritual that allows you to make permanent markings in a kindred flesh. It's supposed to look like a tattoo not a scar tho

[@zacharyhawley1693]

Honestly. The biggest red flag is the lack of gameplay. They know it's bad.

[@christophercolasurdo919]

They’re probably going to show gameplay in October. Thats World of Darkness’ biggest promo month.

[@chekitatheanimatedskeptic6314]

I hope they have more fleshed out characters besides Cam's to have propper factions you can choose and change outcomes, otherwise they learned nothing from past mistakes in making RPGs. This seems to be one more sign their going on the action RPG route fore sure, which is usually slang for "not really an RPG".

[@EvanPowers-b3i]

The Tremere ritual "Seal the Brand" Comes to mind for not healing the brand. Perhaps some variant of that?

[@enzymezero]

Today we're gonna be gonna be getting into it *SLAPS THE TOP OF VTM*

[@coldnight66]

How does a dev studio keep killing the hype with literally every single word is basically an art form at this point. I already had basically non existant expectations for this game... Now they are even lower...

[@zetos3301]

A city with two sheriffs is nothing new on the vampire lore, London had two sheriffs in the Victorian Ages, Miss Juliet Parr and General Sir Arthur Halesworth. As for why they don't heal the brand, vampire can heal aggravated damage but it can leave scars, and brands with fire often do leave scars, as a recent example of this you have Hilda MacAndrews who uses a scarf to hide the branding of The Six Knights on her neck, Lodin is also another example of this, his face is more scar than face, from the old books there is a lot more examples of this with is not hard to find.

[@LoreByNightVtM]

All very true 🧐

[@shafulyn]

Damsel, Elif Parmak and the creepy murderer guy were fairly centered in terms of marketing and literally none of them have been talked about. I guess they scrapped them all or made them into irrelevant characters which is sad because the marketing was kinda saving this game back then.

[@themastigosqueen3280]

Actually in v5 there's a specific ritual that allows you to brand a Kindred and it sticks

[@WhitneyAllisonGG]

It's kinda like Vampires getting tattoos and my guess Branding involves blood magic some how. Max Bedden is like a Gangrel sire and not the Brujah and the former is notorious let the childe go off and do their things. Anyways she seems like a Triole Brujah than mainstream Seattle is surrounded by the woods and the Puget Sound is heavily urbanized but the rest of Washington State is tends to be rural and national Forests. So Seattle may not have parks but it's close to National Parks are nearby. It's more setting for Garou than Gangrel To be honest I am curious about Max Bedden much more than other Brujah. As for the enemies and I am guessing having the Garou as such even though logical might be too much for the player. However, the Ghouls are lack luster enemies. It's almost like the VTM didn't know what to do with clan Gangrel and Brujah other than regulated them to be a sect. My personal opinion is that both Ravnos and Gangrel are better served being Independent than being any sect. As for the Anarchs I do believe they should be subset of Camirilla and bring back the Sabbat as main rivals.

[@JenniferFuss]

I didn't like the fact that they couldn't be assed to present more than like 3 Anarchs, one of them who is explicetly not Anarchs (Prince sire), one who doesn't want to be Anarch at all (Boss gal) and one whos main description is being able to be turned to the Camarilla. Just to round it off with the note that Anarchs are actually mob enemies, but those who won't possess any danger ... because they are to humane to fight effectively, easily manipulated and to stupid to notice traitors. Which is like presenting Elden Ring and then being like,... ..., these enemies are to stupid to attack you more than one after each other, they got a vision cone of you have to be in front of them to react and if you wear a green cap they won't notice you. Like, enemies that you feel sorry for even punching. And just because others sucked at presenting Anarchs isn't really an excuse for TCR to only present one faction as playable / somewhat fleshed out, imho >.>

[@christophercolasurdo919]

Bear in mind, they aren’t showing us everything. BL1’s Damsel has been confirmed to be in the game by TCR staff in the discord, so there are clearly more anarch characters they’re keeping close to the vest.

[@JenniferFuss]

@@christophercolasurdo919 Yes, but they aren't showing a whole lot of the faction. That is 3 and actually more like 2 Anarchs, both who don't have any enthusiasm for the movement or positive portrayal, compared to 8 competent Camarilla vampires. Which to me communicates that it isn't either a viable or fleshed out faction. I would be really happy to if it was, because I prefer playing Anarch over Camarilla any day, yet that write up for the Anarch (and "unbound") faction doesn't instill any hope. Well, and if Damsel features to any notable extent, why not put her in?

[@christophercolasurdo919]

@@JenniferFuss My thinking on Damsel not appearing here is that this is how things are “at the start of the game” as they say in the diary. My bet is Damsel shows up after act 1 alongside anarch reinforcements and the heavier firepower. Also, just a side note, it wasn’t 8 Camarilla kindred, it was 12 actually lol. We’ve met an additional 4 in different dev blogs for the various clans.

[@JenniferFuss]

​@@christophercolasurdo919 When presenting a faction as a faction I still expect more and not having even 3 full Anarch characters but mentions of Anarchs as the most disposable, easy to fight mob enemies does speak volume about the faction design. I did as well, as you might have notice, only count the characters from their faction presentation. As those are there to represent what you can expect when interacting with the Camarilla and when interacting with the Anarch/Unbound. Where interacting with the Anarch/Unbound doesn't offer anything of note with a reluctant, despondent leader, a Gangrel who is all out of fucks to give and character and a Brujah who is basically a untitled cammy. Plus masses of unnamed cannon fodder. Maybe Damsel comes in after act 1, maybe she has Anarch reinforcements with her. By the description of the Anarch faction those would be just upping the Anarch canon fodder from utterly brainless (to humane, easily manipulated to blind to spot infiltrators) to mildly annoying. Like it is almost an art to highlight that Anarchs have clubs and stuff, and then not have a single Anarch club character present and not even one f* Anarch character who is written up like they would go to a club.

[@smuggrog9821]

Nah Lore you are dead wrong when it comes to clan Gangrel. They actually have two things going on for them, they can shapeshift AND they are pretty, damn, cool. I dare you to name a Gangrel that isn't cool, you wont, cause any vamp that can turn into a bat automatically achieves goat status, facts.

[@LoreByNightVtM]

You're right, you got me

[@GuttedWrenStudios]

I think Benny may just want to be the boot and siding with the Camarilla makes sense. How he got to be Sheriff is going to be very interesting and I'm hoping we get to see or hear how it happened.

[@hampusgranberg6382]

I like it that you are both very knowledgeable about VTM, but also stick to your guns when it comes to your own opinions around new entrances. Good integrity, good stuff, as always!

[@mussardlucien6355]

I also have a bad feeling about this... I won't pre-order, that's for sure. note : they didn't talk about Damsel on this page. Why? I wonder x)

[@christophercolasurdo919]

She’s been confirmed to be in the game by devs on discord. My thinking is she isn’t around at the very beginning of the game, probably arrives with the anarch reinforcements and heavy weapons after act 1.

[@Luccasneo]

I never thought I'd hate V5 and VTMB2 so much

[@p1ssedoffchristof48]

He claims to be a Nosferatu but looks like Erik the Gangrel from VTM: Redemption

[@LoreByNightVtM]

Lmfao 😂👌

[@p1ssedoffchristof48]

@@LoreByNightVtM I love your videos. I binge them on occasion as I am doing now. P.s. Please don't turn me into a ghoul.

[@FallenL0rd]

was under the impression that city gangrel had celerity instead on animalism such as country was { Protean Fortitude Animalism} and City was {Protean Obfuscate Celerity} ---- i just checked the wiki apparently obfuscate also

[@LeflairZone]

Having just played through Bloodlines again I must say Fortitude + Obfuscate alone can carry a run. Celerity or Protean would just be the cherry on top.

[@christophercolasurdo919]

Re your concerns over enemies just being lots of ghouls, there are definitely hunters / inquisition. If you go back and watch the re-reveal trailer from summer 2023 the tactical guys clearly have IAO marked on their outfits. IAO being the Information Awareness Office, a covert branch of the DOD that makes up a military arm of the second inquisition.

[@millasboo]

I want to love the new upcoming game. As I love the novel i just got into

[@gildarius]

What novel would that be? Wanna know, wanna read. Now.

[@millasboo]

@@gildarius it’s a interactive visual novel from an app called choice of games that are designed as a pov oc fan/ partly connected to wod story. I was playing one called vampire the masquerade night road where you play as a vampire courier and can do favors for the Camarilla or side with your maker to be closer to a revolutionary anarchic. Also you can romance certain characters. They also just recently i think made a werewolf the apocalypse one

[@millasboo]

@@gildarius it’s mostly text based but you get some surprisingly beautiful art for certain characters u meet

[@Drakon_Minaka]

@@millasboo Speaking of Night Road, you play it with DLC? I heard someone say the DLC clans are worth it but I wanna hear your thoughts if you've played any of them.

[@millasboo]

@@Drakon_Minaka i haven’t yet but i played as a Banu, that was extremely fun. Nobody got killed that didn’t need to be & for a while i was in good standing with both sides & had my own ghoul that my character romanced. I think i got the dlc so i might replay it.

[@SaucyJack88]

I wish people would read and learn more about history beyond the 20th century. The Camarilla is not modelled after the Italian and German badguys of the 20th century (I don't wanna use their actual labels because KZbin can be rather strict with hiding comments that use "bad words"). The Camarilla is modelled after Feudalism, in particular their style of government is very similar to that of the Catholic feudal monarchies of the 15th and 16th centuries, and has a lot of overlap with the historical Holy Roman Empire and in particular the Spanish Empire under King Philip II. Anarchs, in turn, are obviously very similar to communist revolutionaries in the current day, but historically have overlap with Protestantism and Republicanism. I doubt the writers of VTM deliberately modelled the historical Anarchs after the Dutch Revolt (I don't think White Wolf knows a lot about history either) but there are some clear similarities between the historical Anarchs and the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire. While the Anarchs have clearly modernized and have taken inspiration from modern and post-modern ideologies, the Camarilla has not; that's the entire point of the Camarilla, the Camarilla is ruled by dusty old elders stuck in their old medieval ways.

[@bramborovygulas1049]

I thought Brujah liked punching things. It's like their whole...shabang.

[@LeflairZone]

Would it really be a true Bloodlines sequel without the end game being 6+ hours of just fighting goons with 100+ HP?

[@KingOfLesbia]

I just want this game to be good but sadly there seems to be so many red flags here ive never been able to play the ttrpg for vtm so these games are my only way to experince this world bloodlines 1 is goated and tbh the first concept for bloodlines 2 sounded so much better! being a thin blood who does diablerie to gain some of your abilities sounded way more interesting this seems very rpg lite so far hope its good though

[@GothikSamurai1]

As an anarch fan in general, I was pretty disappointed with this dev diary. I only really found one character mildly interesting (Max Webber being an atypical brujah and the sire of the previous Sheriff whome I guess maybe dies at some point so we can become the Sheriff) and even he wasn't interesting enough that I wasn't disappointed to see the overall roster. Maybe they're hiding the interesting bits because of spoilers but it feels odd that there is so little interesting information about the anarchs they've chosen to highlight.

[@Shaijn815]

Being a good at adaption is about restraint and respecting what you are adapting and lets face it alot of AAA adaptions aren't good cause they start with wanting to update for the modern 2024 age and improve on the source material which has stood a test of times of decades. We see this in loads of AAA adaptions in games, movies and books sadly.

[@josephine2512]

A lot of these face models look very very similar to the ones from bloodhunt….. I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet, but I used to play it quite a lot and i swear some of the faces are exactly the same, and some just look like they’re using the same base/library of stuff

[@nathaniel3867]

Hello there fellow kindred I’ve been wondering how much damage have these Anarchs done in the World of Darkness. I’m curious to see what they will be like in this game 👀🧐

[@mahamudha9003]

very cool knitting btw

[@LoreByNightVtM]

It's crotchet! Momma Lore By Night will be pleased

[@wearegeekoclock]

Bloodlines 2 is a disaster in the making, it's insane

[@grimsbeast]

You know, as someone who prefers to play Anarch games over Cammy games, this is just dissappointing. It makes me yearn for how it was going to be before with you, much like the first Bloodlines, being new to this world and having to figure out what the hell is going, and where you fit into that. It makes for some good storytelling to have that tension for the player...well the Camarilla looks relatively secure...maybe I will go there...but they might stab me in the back or be some fall person for a scheme....maybe I will hang my hat with the Anarchs. I can understand why they may not want to retread that road but it gives better and more narrative choices. Right now, Bloodlines 2 seems to be interested in telling a particular narrative and story, which is fine, you can do that with VTM quite well but I just wish it wasn't a famed sequel to an RPG that was very much about finding yourself and who you want to be in a world you didn't know existed. I don't know, maybe I am just upset that the Anarchs become generic villain where there may or may not be a twist down the line....at least I hope there is a twist because this sounds boring and unispired. Also, not really thrilled to see Blood Resonance come to this game. I absolutely hate that mechanic rules as written and I have a complete homebrew where Resonance just boosts associated Disciplines than being a part of Discipline progression and the other things they tried to do with it. I can, as you say, see what they were going for but man did they fail in execution. Maybe they will do better in this game. VTM Blood Hunt actually had a very nice take on Blood Resonance where they also used it as a bonus that you got to boost certain abilities.

[@rudolphantler6309]

LOL "Everybody is a fascist who I don't agree with."

[@LoreByNightVtM]

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

[@horseradishpower9947]

Nothing is being said to suddenly want to play the game. Just more evidence to hard pass the game.

[@nonofirerose]

I went through the whole AR game when it was announced, didn't win the trip but that's okay, to have this drop? Eeeew. I don't like how they just seem to be wishy washy. Almost like they're taking some of what was previously done already and writing new lore/stories over the top of that.

[@SwankyKitteh82]

Gottamn, lol. That's not a brand, that's facial mutilation. A sensible brand would be a mark on one's hand or maybe the neck. Not one's whole face. At what point does a brand potentially infringe on the Masquerade? This person is out in public amongst the kine, they're going to be raising eyebrows and causing alarm. The police would outright take you aside for questioning if this was gang related, etc. I could maybe understand this if it were something supernatural that only other vampires could see. And blood resonance is just... bleh. It's your character potentially being a picky eater, imo. Is your character really going to turn down a feeding opportunity because the prey isn't their favorite flavor? Really? Are we really going to make the other members of the table troupe wait while you seek out your preferred flavor lol?

[@TheChesher]

Unrelated but is it just me or someone is snoring quite loudly in the background?

[@LoreByNightVtM]

It is my dog Holly

[@Cointelpronoun]

I thought we were playing as a thin blood?

[@greghannibal]

Not anymore, now we're playing as a character they created for us and gracefully allowed us to customize (a little).

[@LoreByNightVtM]

You got a lot of catching up to do. New studio, new ideas

[@WhitneyAllisonGG]

We going play an elder kindred my guess

[@LoreByNightVtM]

Go and check out my Bloodlines 2 reaction videos in the playlist that appears at the end of the video!

[@-Trinite-]

This reminds me when my favorite sex magick author licensed her books to an RPG maker and they took all the sex magic out. Still one of the worst RPGs ever made.

[@EldritchDoggo]

Who is the author because I'm kinda curious?

[@-Trinite-]

@@EldritchDoggo Storm Constantine, RIP :(

[@Barthenn]

THere is also a very visible lack of attracting character... We are very much into the beware the male gaze territory. The game appears to be very set on going the same route as many game that came out these past few years. Pronouns and all that jazz. Androgenus character, beta males, strong stoic female character, with push over male characters. THe whole thing scare me to be honest. I want this game to be good so bad, but I don't really have any hopes at the moment.

[@LoreByNightVtM]

There are plenty of sexy vampire games for soi boy beta cucks to play, go find those instead

[@simoneidson21]

@@LoreByNightVtM I mean, VtM is inherently sexy. Bloodlines was extremely sensual and seductive, but yeah I don't get the weird shit about "beta males" and "strong stoic female characters" this guy was going on about

[@Barthenn]

@@LoreByNightVtM WTF are you even talking about. VTM as always been a mature game, and sexy vampire as always been part of it. It certainly made the first game quite memorable with probably the most popular character of the game being Jeanette, and Velvet was probably quite popular as well. Sex, Violence and drugs have always been very popular in media, from movies, to tv shows to video games, you really can't go wrong. People like to look at beautiful and sexy people. I am sorry that you find sexy vampire or female uninteresting you might be asexual or maybe you're into man. I don't see what soi has to do with it. Quite frankly, if something should be called soi it is all that queerness that the industry has been pushing down everyone throat.

[@Barthenn]

@@LoreByNightVtM But I still wanted to say for whatever its worth that I found your video interesting. I didn't expect or wrote the comment to pick a fight with you. I found your insight interesting. I find myself agreeing with, I think, everything you mentioned in the video. anyways. Good moring, afternoon, evening or night.

[@LoreByNightVtM]

@simoneidson21 it is, yes, but there is more to VtM than sexy vampires. It's an extremely minor point