Dimension 20 Launches Exciting New Vampire: The Masquerade Campaign!
Dimension 20’s actual-play series has explored various tabletop RPG systems throughout its 27 campaigns. While Dungeons & Dragons (5th edition) is the most frequently used system, the show has also dabbled in Kids on Bikes, Kids on Brooms, its own Never Stop Blowing Up homebrew system, and Good Society. These were primarily for shorter side quests that didn’t involve the main cast. The only instance where the main cast—GM Brennan Lee Mulligan and players Emily Axford, Ally Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson, collectively known as the “intrepid heroes”—ventured outside of Dungeons & Dragons was during the sixth main campaign, 2022’s A Starstruck Odyssey, which utilized SW5E, an unofficial Star Wars system based on D&D 5E. So, it’s a significant moment that Dimension 20’s upcoming main campaign, City Council of Darkness, is taking a bold step into new territory: our intrepid heroes are finally diving into Vampire: The Masquerade.
I say “finally” not because fans have been eagerly anticipating this moment—many in the Dimension 20 subreddit seemed unfamiliar with Vampire: The Masquerade when City Council of Darkness was announced—but because I’m genuinely thrilled for this season.
I’ve enjoyed numerous Vampire: The Masquerade games over the years, including Coteries Of New York, Shadows Of New York, Night Road, and Parliament Of Knives. (And no, I’m not discussing Bloodlines 2.) However, there’s a catch: all the Vampire: The Masquerade experiences I’ve had have been through visual novels or interactive fiction, which are offshoots of the original tabletop RPG. I’ve never actually played a tabletop version of Vampire: The Masquerade.
This largely stems from the challenge of branching out from D&D it’s tough enough to gather a group willing to commit to several hours of tabletop gaming on a regular basis. When you finally manage to do so, it’s often simpler to stick with a system that most people are already familiar with—and that’s always Dungeons & Dragons. When I manage to rally friends for a magical roleplaying adventure, am I really going to risk it all by trying to teach them a completely new system that we might all end up disliking? No way. I’m going to opt for the familiar route that’s less likely to derail our fun. So, despite my investment in the lore of Vampire: The Masquerade and the broader World of Darkness series (which includes titles like Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse), I’ve never had the classic VTM tabletop RPG experience.
That’s why I’m so eager for City Council of Darkness: I’ll finally get a taste of what it’s like to play Vampire: The Masquerade as a tabletop game, even if it’s just through the show. Sure, there are other VTM actual play shows out there (like L.A. By Night and New York By Night, which seem to have a solid following), but Dimension 20 stands out because it’s fully edited, produced, and presented in roughly 2-hour episodes. It’s not an endless livestream that I struggle to finish, like many other actual plays. Dimension 20 hits the sweet spot for me in a way that others don’t. Now that I’ll have a clearer idea of what playing the tabletop version of Vampire: The Masquerade is like thanks to City Council of Darkness, I might feel more confident about inviting my friends to join me in a game. Or maybe I’ll end up disliking it and never want to play at all. Either way, I’ll finally know.
City Council of Darkness premieres April 8. I can’t say why they didn’t wait for the more thematically fitting month of October, but I’m not complaining if it means we get to see what our intrepid heroes do when they embrace the night a little sooner.
