The classic tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade has spawned many properties, but for those interested in the TTRPG source material, there may be some confusion as to why both that and sister franchise Vampire: The Requiem exist. Vampire: The Masquerade has lately come back into prominence with visual novels like Coteries of New York, the battle royale title Bloodhunt, and the upcoming RPGs Swansong and Bloodlines 2, yet both the RPG versions of both Masquerade and Requiem are still available for purchase as PDFs through storefronts like DriveThru RPG. Both were originally from White Wolf Publishing and deal with similar subject matter, but the two RPGs are part of different game lines, in different worlds, and feature their own rule systems. Requiem was originally intended to be the successor to Masquerade, but now both games are supported concurrently.
White Wolf originally launched the World of Darkness horror RPG setting in 1991 with the release of Vampire: the Masquerade. Vampire was joined by Werewolf, Mage, and Wraith initially, and later additions included Hunter, Demon, and Orpheus. These games took place within the same shared world and used a d10 dice-pool based system called the Storyteller System, also used for Street Fighter: the Storytelling Game, Trinity, Aberrant, and others. The World of Darkness setting emphasized its metaplot, and while Storytellers were free to take their own liberties with the setting in home games, canon story events were advanced through novels, supplemental books, and revised editions of the core books.
In 2004, White Wolf brought the original World of Darkness setting to an end with the Time of Judgment RPG supplements and novels. The same year the company launched its “new” World of Darkness with a core book for playing humans in a world of supernatural evil and monsters. The new setting showcased a different rule set from Vampire: the Masquerade, shifting from the Storyteller System to the Storytelling System, which kept the core notion of dice pools of d10 dice, but simplified and streamlined many rules, with several changes to make combat flow faster. New versions of the flagship titles were launched as well, as Vampire: The Masquerade was replaced by Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Apocalypse was replaced with Werewolf: The Forsaken, and Mage: The Ascension was replaced by Mage: The Awakening.
Vampire: The Requiem Is Now Part Of Chronicles Of Darkness
Masquerade and Requiem had a great deal of common ground, as they each cast players as vampires who come from a clan of vampires with similar characteristics. Both had systems for blood, hunger and feeding, and supernatural Disciplines emulating a variety of iconic vampire abilities. There were some in-fiction changes, as a few of the older clans from Vampire: the Masquerade were removed and new clans and bloodlines were introduced. The mechanics of the game were arguably the biggest improvement, as the streamlined and consistent rules allowed players to learn a game like Vampire: the Requiem and then comfortably adapt to Mage or Werewolf.
Later World of Darkness titles created by new license holder (and successor to White Wolf) Onyx Path would clarify the naming issue by leaving the original setting as the World of Darkness and renaming the new setting Chronicles of Darkness. Vampire: The Requiem received a revised second edition, and the original Vampire: the Masquerade was revisited with a 20th anniversary core book that also served as a new edition. Confusing matters further, Modiphius Publishing has released a fifth edition of Vampire: the Masquerade which advances the setting and uses a different system from either the original Storyteller System or the revised Storytelling System used with Chronicles of Darkness.
The original World of Darkness setting has clearly outlived its purported end with the Time of Judgment line, as it continues to be supported with tabletop RPGs and numerous video game projects. For video game fans, things are a bit simpler, as all of the game adaptations to date have been of the original World of Darkness properties, like Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood. There have not been any video games based on the Chronicles of Darkness versions of the games, as of yet, so if gamers are curious to learn more about the lore of the video game worlds, they can look to the original World of Darkness books, and Vampire: The Masquerade, not Requiem.