User:Alexandra IDV/VTM Companion

Vampire: The Masquerade Companion is a tabletop role-playing game supplement published by Paradox Interactive on December 16, 2020 for use with the fifth edition of their game Vampire: The Masquerade, and is part of the larger World of Darkness series. It adds new playable character types, including the vampire clans Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce, and ghouls and mortal humans.

Overview
Vampire: The Masquerade Companion is a supplement for the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, a horror tabletop role-playing game where players take the roles of vampires in a gothic-punk interpretation of the real world. It introduces the three vampire clans Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce, and ghouls and mortal humans, as playable characters, expands the mechanics for coteries – groups of vampires working together – and updates mechanics from the Vampire: The Masquerade core rulebook.

Production
Companion was developed by Justin Achilli, the World of Darkness creative lead at series owner Paradox Interactive, with art direction by Tomas Arfert, and editing and diversity reading by Stephanie Cohen. It was written by Achilli together with Alison Cybe, Erykah Fassett, and Karim Muammar, and features interior art by Arfert, Peter Bergting, Krzysztof Bieniawski, Mark Kelly, and Martyna Zych; Kelly additionally created the cover art.

The book was revealed by Paradox Interactive in November 2020 as part of the announcement that they were bringing World of Darkness production in-house after having licensed Vampire: The Masquerade to Modiphius Entertainment since 2018, and that they would include sensitivity reviews in all World of Darkness book production from then on, working together with diversity consultants and diversity readers. Paradox Interactive published Companion on December 16, 2020 as a free e-book through the series' website; they asked players to not re-upload it to other websites, so that they would be able to use download statistics to gauge interest in books like it and in the game more broadly. Although initially only released digitally, Zych said that there could potentially be a print edition later.

Released in French by Arkhane Asylum Publishing.

Reception
According to Paradox Interactive, over 10,000 people downloaded the book within the first twelve hours of its release.

Improves coterie play

Very good start for the new era of World of Darkness