World of Darkness, the horror roleplaying franchise that includes Vampire: The Masquerade (reviewed here) and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, has announced that Renegade Game Studios is now the publishing partner for its tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPG).
“Renegade and World of Darkness worked closely together on Vampire: The Masquerade – Rivals and the team proved their passion for our brands and alignment with our values in that collaboration,” said Sean Greaney, brand manager for World of Darkness at Paradox Interactive. “Our joint goal is to ensure that there will be no disruption of service for fans looking to get their hands-on Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition books.”
As part of this, World of Darkness has also revealed it is bringing development of its story universes in-house. Kicking off this change is the Vampire: The Masquerade Companion, a free digital supplement that will be available next month.
Vampire: The Masquerade Companion sees the return of classic vampire clans and gives Storytellers more tools to enhance their narratives. To download, fans will need to visit the World of Darkness website (https://worldofdarkness.com) and log in using a Paradox account.
Key features for the Vampire: The Masquerade Companion include:
– Three vampire clans: Tzimisce, Ravnos, Salubri
– Discipline powers for each of the new clans
– Rules for playing ghouls and mortals
– Details on each clan’s view on vampire coteries
– Additional Merits for player characters
– Updates to Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition core rulebook
World of Darkness is taking over development of its story universes, including Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Led by Justin Achilli, they will create the foundational material – including core RPG books – for all stories set within the World of Darkness, including video games, comics, and other forms of media.
Renegade Game Studios will broaden the offering with additional TTRPG products. Additionally, all World of Darkness books will now include sensitivity reviews as part of the development process to ensure the text remains respectful.
“Bringing IP development in-house is one of the many reasons why the World of Darkness team hired me. I’ll be working with handpicked teams to set the lore, atmosphere, and tone that players have come to expect,” says World of Darkness creative lead Justin Achilli.
While World of Darkness will take over development of its core TTRPG books. Everything that falls outside of the core story setting (as determined by World of Darkness), will be developed and published by Renegade Game Studios.