You should read these 54 World of Darkness books for $25 to catch up on the lore ahead of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Willem screaming — (Image credit: Paradox)

Readers, a confession: I am one of a cohort of people the scientific community is calling 'sicko freaks.' That is to say that, from an early age, I've enjoyed the process of hoarding and reading RPG sourcebooks without ever actually, you know, playing them. For this, I blame the many Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd edition books I somehow came to own when I was, like, 12 or something.

I've no idea what the TTRPG of Vampire is like to actually play, but I admit I loved the lore, which got ever more absurd with every new sourcebook. Now, you too can experience this unparalleled joy: the latest Humble book bundle is a collection of 54 World of Darkness ebooks (in PDF form) spanning the Vampire, Werewolf, and Hunter series.

Mathematics tells us that's quite a lot of books, but economics tells us that, fair play, they're not all that expensive. The entire 57-item bundle (that's the 54 books plus three sets of bonus materials) will set you back $25 (£18.54). You can nab a cheaper 27-item bundle—which nixes the core rulebooks and several of the newer sourcebooks—is $15 (£11.12). Meanwhile, a 12-item bundle consisting almost entirely of adventures for you to play through (imagine actually playing; couldn't be me) is $5 (£3.70).

This is good timing, of course. Partially because it's officially October, Halloween month, but mostly because we're just weeks out from the release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 after its long, long journey from its announcement six whole years ago, a journey that saw it reboot pretty much entirely under The Chinese Room after its initial developer, Hardsuit Labs, ran aground with its own version.

Most notable for Vamp fans, I think, are the faction sourcebooks—dedicated to familiar sects like the Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarchs. Unknotting the bizarre politics at the heart of the Vampire setting was always what I loved doing as a kid with too many sourcebooks. Now you, too, can be that kid with too many sourcebooks.

Maybe one of these books explains why you are called Phyre. (Image credit: Paradox)

I'll tell you this: replaying Bloodlines 1 is always guaranteed to have me thumbing through my Vamp sourcebooks to brush up on the lore. It's just fun, filled with absurd factions and multi-layered, multi-century conspiracies that can vacuum up hours of your time, if you let it. The plot of this setting is a many-tendrilled beast that I'm not sure any publisher could make total sense of if it wanted to, and I love it for that.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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