Star Trek RPG writer to head up team behind fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade

With the upcoming fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade due out at the beginning of 2018, publisher White Wolf has revealed the talent behind the latest blood-sucking RPG.

Leading the team will be author and lead designer Kenneth Hite, a veteran of the roleplaying genre who has previously worked on both the Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Original Series spin-offs, as well as Steve Jackson’s GURPS and Dresden Files RPG, which won multiple Origins awards.

Hite also picked up two ENnie awards for his GUMSHOE-based RPG Trail of Cthulhu, one of many Lovecraftian titles created by the writer.

Joining Hite will be art director Mary Lee, playtest designer and editor-in-chief Karim Muammar, lead storyteller Martin Ericsson and producer Jason Carl.

Vampire: The Masquerade’s fifth edition is billed as an overhaul for the long-running universe, revising multiple elements of the wider lore and introducing mechanics inspired by the ‘you are what you eat’ philosophy, as well as a driving predatory nature referred to as ‘The Beast’.

The game takes place before the in-universe armageddon Gehenna, with White Wolf suggesting that the story and narrative may be explored in third-party works created with guidance from a ‘bible’ to maintain consistency and relevance inside the canon.

White Wolf has also announced that it will revisit the Werewolf roleplaying universe once Vampire: The Masquerade is released during Q1 next year.