50 Fun Facts About Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines

Which Bloodlines clan gets a dialogue script all of its own, written last by an exhausted, sleep-starved lead writer?

Malkavian characters speak in a script distinct from that of the other six clans, reflecting the clan's inherent insanity. Fellow writer Chad Moore suggested the idea.

A contract barred Bloodlines from reaching shops before which blockbuster shooter, built on the very same engine?

Half-Life 2 took priority under the engine licence, and Bloodlines ended up launching on the very same day. It sold 72,000 copies at first; its rival had sold 6.5 million by 2008.

Which prince of L.A.'s vampires orders the execution of the Bloodlines fledgling's sire in the opening scene?

Sebastian LaCroix has the sire put to death for creating a vampire without permission, then takes the spared fledgling into his own service. Andy Milder voices him.

Which small studio made Bloodlines as its final release, shutting down just three months after the launch?

Troika Games had a staff of 32 and let most of them go soon after release. Its name is a Russian word for a set of three, chosen because three developers founded it.

Which monstrously deformed Bloodlines clan must keep to the sewers and shadows so that ordinary people never see them?

Nosferatu characters trade looks for brains: they gain bonuses to intelligence and computer skills, which opens up information other clans never find.

Which Bloodlines score drops when the fledgling kills innocents, and turns the vampire into a mindless beast at zero?

Humanity also shapes conversation, because a low score makes the dialogue choices on offer more aggressive. Losing every point ends the game.

Which haunted Bloodlines location, named GameSpy's Level of the Year, did PC Gamer liken to Ravenholm?

Ocean House Hotel is a ghost-story quest that PC Gamer called a high point of unexpected horror. The magazine also set it beside the Shalebridge Cradle from Thief: Deadly Shadows.

The Kuei-Jin, vampires who need no blood and look down on the rest, control which Bloodlines district?

Chinatown is one of four hubs the player can roam, and its Kuei-Jin later turn up guarding the stolen sarcophagus inside a rival clan's mansion.

Which mysterious figure carries the Bloodlines fledgling between districts and speaks the cryptic farewell at the end?

A taxi driver does the ferrying, and his closing words invoke Caine, the Biblical figure whom the tabletop game casts as the original vampire.

Which actor, famous as the voice of Bender in Futurama, plays the anarch Smiling Jack in Bloodlines?

John DiMaggio voices a character older than the video game, since Smiling Jack was carried over from the tabletop books.

All seven playable Bloodlines clans belong to which sect, the vampire government that enforces secrecy?

The Camarilla is in the middle of taking over Los Angeles when the story opens, which is why the writers limited players to its L.A.-based clans.

Which publisher forced Bloodlines out unfinished after three years, having set its developer a strict final deadline?

Activision demanded a finished build by 15 September 2004, and some of the team worked unpaid to complete what they could before release.

Bloodlines was the first game from an outside studio built on which engine, chosen for its facial animation?

Source was unfinished when work began, so the team had to write its own lighting, particle and cloth systems on top of unfamiliar code.

Which lead writer of Bloodlines penned most of its characters, quests and even the in-game emails?

Brian Mitsoda joined less than a year into development and wrote with no restrictions on language or content. He was later hired to write the sequel, then dismissed from that project in 2020.

The Bloodlines fledgling's first assignment is in which district, helping a ghoul destroy a Sabbat warehouse?

Santa Monica is where the prince tests his new recruit, and success there earns the fledgling a trip to downtown Los Angeles.

In Bloodlines lore, the opening of the Ankaran Sarcophagus is feared to herald which end-of-days for all vampires?

Gehenna is the doom the Sabbat hope to prevent, which is why they try to steal the sarcophagus and destroy it before anyone can open it.

What name does Bloodlines give the safe areas where vampires can use neither Disciplines nor weapons?

Elysium zones shut off every power and firearm, so a character built purely for combat has to rely on conversation while inside one.

Which anarch steps in to save the Bloodlines fledgling from execution, and is later framed for a chief's murder?

Nines Rodriguez is undone by a disguise: a rival leader takes his shape at the dead chief's mansion so that the prince will order his execution.

Bloodlines is an indirect sequel to which earlier Vampire: The Masquerade game from Nihilistic Software?

Redemption had sold well enough that the publisher proposed the same vampire licence when the Bloodlines team pitched a first-person role-playing game.

Besides people and blood banks, the Bloodlines fledgling can top up on blood by drinking from which animals?

Rats carry no moral risk, whereas drinking from an innocent person for too long can kill them.

Which Kuei-Jin leader offers the Bloodlines fledgling an alliance while secretly holding the key to the sarcophagus?

Ming-Xiao plays every side, and in the ending where the fledgling backs her she chains them to the sarcophagus and sinks it in the sea.

The Bloodlines fledgling is sent to search which docked ship for news of the Ankaran Sarcophagus?

Elizabeth Dane is where the mystery deepens, because the fledgling finds signs that the sarcophagus was opened from the inside.

Which vampire scholar tells the Bloodlines fledgling that only one abducted person can open the sarcophagus?

Beckett's tip sends the fledgling after the vampire hunter behind the kidnapping, who staged it to lure the prince into the open.

Which vampire hunter does the Bloodlines fledgling find beside a dead chief's remains, denying any part in the killing?

Grünfeld Bach is telling the truth about that death, but he later dies at the fledgling's hands after taking a hostage as bait.

Which Bloodlines clan chief is murdered so that his powerful insight can never expose the prince's plans?

Alistair Grout is already dead when the fledgling reaches his mansion, and an anarch seen leaving the building takes the blame.

Which ghoul, serving the prince, helps the Bloodlines fledgling destroy a warehouse on their first job?

Mercurio is the prince's man in the first hub, and the warehouse he helps to destroy belongs to the Sabbat.

Which woman can the Bloodlines player take on as a ghoul servant who hands over blood, gifts and money?

Heather is a customizable servant, an unusual comfort in a game designed around the isolation of a vampire who can trust no one.

If the Bloodlines fledgling sides with the ruling sect, which Tremere leader replaces the prince of Los Angeles?

Maximillian Strauss takes the throne in that ending, and the unopened sarcophagus is quietly put into storage.

Which clan, outside the seven playable ones, is revealed to have stolen the Bloodlines sarcophagus from the museum?

Giovanni vampires keep the prize at their mansion, which the fledgling has to infiltrate to bring it back.

Model Erin Layne posed as which Bloodlines character for the game's posters and promotional clothing?

Jeanette became the face of the marketing, and the site bit-tech later ranked her second among all non-player characters in video games.

The three founders of the studio behind Bloodlines had earlier been the key developers of which Interplay RPG?

Fallout bound the trio together: they left Interplay after disagreeing over team structure during the sequel's design, then set up on their own in 1998.

Eurogamer's review summed up Bloodlines as which earlier choice-driven classic, only with vampires?

Deus Ex was the comparison Eurogamer reached for, and the site added that Bloodlines had the finest script it had ever seen in a video game.

Which composer wrote the original Bloodlines score, then issued a remastered edition on blood-red vinyl?

Rik Schaffer's remaster came out through Milan Records in 2019 and added eight tracks that had never been released before.

Al Jourgensen and which band composed and performed a song called Bloodlines specially for the vampire game?

Ministry wrote the track to order, while the other licensed songs were picked by the publisher without any input from the developers.

The Bloodlines menu screen used a placeholder song by which group until the rights could not be obtained?

Massive Attack's Angel sat on the menu during development, and the composer was asked to write something similar once the licence fell through.

Which Swedish publisher gained the Bloodlines rights by buying the owner of the tabletop game?

Paradox Interactive's chief executive said after the purchase that a sequel would find its place when the moment was right. One was announced four years later.

The sequel to Bloodlines moves the action from Los Angeles to which snowbound American city?

Seattle is hit by a historic snowstorm as the sequel begins, and its hero is an elder vampire named Phyre instead of a fledgling.

Which studio took over the long-delayed Bloodlines sequel after Hardsuit Labs was removed as its developer?

The Chinese Room changed the story as well, swapping the planned thinblood fledgling for an elder vampire who wakes in the modern city.

Before it closed, the Bloodlines studio built a prototype based on which other tabletop game from the same universe?

Werewolf: The Apocalypse got only a single small test area, pieced together from recycled Bloodlines assets, before the studio shut.

After the blood hunt is lifted, the Bloodlines fledgling tracks a hiding anarch leader to which real L.A. landmark?

Griffith Park turns into a trap, as a huge beast mauls the anarch there and the fledgling has to flee with Smiling Jack.

The Bloodlines amusement arcade was meant to offer playable versions of which classic from its publisher's catalogue?

Pitfall! and other vintage cabinets were cut from the amusement arcade when the schedule ran out, one of many ideas the team had to abandon.

The Ankaran Sarcophagus in Bloodlines is rumoured to hold which kind of ancient, immensely powerful vampire?

Antediluvian vampires are the semi-legendary founders of the clans, which is why the thought of one waking terrifies everyone in the story.

Which tabletop publisher owned the Vampire: The Masquerade licence and had to approve all Bloodlines content?

White Wolf went further than approval and accepted the story as canon, treating the video game as a prequel to its novels about the end of the vampire race.

What does Bloodlines call the uncontrolled killing spree a vampire can fall into when blood runs low?

Frenzy can also be set off by taking a large amount of damage, and vampires who have behaved monstrously slip into it more easily.

Which Bloodlines ability, shared by every clan, temporarily boosts a vampire's physical attributes?

Blood Buff is the one power common to all vampires in the game, since no two clans share the same set of three Disciplines.

Bloodlines takes place in which shared fictional setting, where demons and other creatures also shape human history?

World of Darkness began as a tabletop line created by Mark Rein-Hagen, and Vampire: The Masquerade was the earliest of its games, released in 1991.

Which steampunk fantasy RPG was the debut release of the studio that went on to make Bloodlines?

Arcanum sold 234,000 copies against 72,000 for the first release of Bloodlines, a shortfall that helped to sink the studio.

The Bloodlines fledgling is sent to which district to find Gary, the chief suspected of stealing the sarcophagus?

Hollywood hides Gary well, and he only names the real thieves after the fledgling tracks down one of his captured clanmates.

Which Bloodlines director defended the publisher over the rushed release, while co-founder Jason Anderson blamed it?

Leonard Boyarsky credited the publisher with backing the team as the project overran, though he later wished for three to six more months of polish.

The Bloodlines publisher advanced money so its developer could finish which Dungeons & Dragons game for Atari?

The Temple of Elemental Evil came out in 2003, and paying to wrap it up freed the whole studio to work on the vampire game alone.