Vampire: The Masquerade/YMMV


 * Funny Moments: The narrator's description of the Followers of Set in the revised edition of Clanbook: Ravnos: "This clan must have stepped out of a bad fantasy pulp. "Okay, we're all dead and we worship an evil snake god! 'Cause he has snakes!" At this point, one almost expected the Giovanni entry to start off with "Shut your **** ing face, uncle ***** ..."
 * Quite a bit of the Ravnos clanbook was snarking at the others. Comes of being a clan of jokers to start with and then having little left to lose after the Week of Nightmares.
 * There's a Mental Flaw, "Stereotype", that makes you act as a camp vampire (accent, cape, the works). Stereotype returned in V20, but in addition to the typical Bela Lugosi homage, this flaw can now also cause you to want to cover your skin in body glitter.
 * Uh, will this flaw include an obsession with counting out loud? ie. "One, Two, Three Hunters I kill with a spoon! Hahahahaha!" Seasame Street
 * Evil Is Cool: Supposed to be subverted. However, some writers play it straight, usually with some of the most atrocious Clans.
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Really evil vampire factions usually are fond of this.
 * Two words. Clanbook Baali. So, so much.
 * Just as an example: The prose introduction for the Baali clanbook features a supposedly respectful businessman having sex with a preteen boy. After a few minutes, misshapen maggots begin crawling from inside the boy straight up the man's urethra as the boy, a Baali vampire posing as a mortal, clenches down with his knees to prevent the man from escaping, breaking several ribs in the process as the maggots begin burrowing, feeding, and laying eggs in his abdomen. This is only part of how the Baali choose their new initiates. At this point, you can stop reading now and count yourself lucky.
 * The original Clanbook Tzimisce. The illustrations look like what might happen if H. R. Giger and Salvador Dali had been fused into one person. Which, come to think of it, is something at least one Tzimisce probably thought about doing.
 * Memetic Badass: Smiling Jack, even in the pen-and-paper game. A Brujah ex-Pirate who has no problems getting with the times.
 * True Art Is Angsty: In many ways Vampire Masquerade created all the Grimdark movement of today and the original Gothic Horror of the 90's. Thanks to the nihilism of Generation X, depression, punk literature and bleak mindset of the turning of the Millenium is what gave force and shape to this setting. Just for example, it was so dark and bleak his force at its peak that Castle Falkenstein and many other Tabletop games were created especifically as an escape for roleplayers who didn't want a Dark, souless, brutal game everytime they touched a dice.
 * It and Warhammer Fantasy Battle really started the bleak doomed fantasy setting.