The latest Dev Diary for Vampire: The Gathering: Bloodlines 2 gets into the nitty-gritty of one of the franchise’s keystone features: dialogue and writing.
This deep dive is likely of interest to the more roleplay-focused fans of VtM, which is likely a lot given the core TTRPG’s reputation for centrifuge, espionage, and all-around moral and ethical degeneracy. This Dev Diary re-emphasizes the importance of the dialogue, especially as “conversations are a test of emotional intelligence,” as it’s described in a gameplay context.
In Bloodlines 2, the writers have opted to offer a “paraphrase” of what’s fully said by the player character, though they emphasize that they want to make it entirely clear what the intent of each line is (which is infamously an issue in other choice-based RPGs).
This time around, quite a few factors go into what these dialogue choices eventually affect, such as Kindred, character relations, and even, to some degree, how you’ve behaved in the past in comparison to (or contrast to) what you say in the moment. For example, if you came off strongly aggressive in the past but choose a “softer” dialogue option, the character may assume sarcasm.
The full Dev Diary contains some light spoilers to demonstrate these outcomes, including a look at some code that demonstrates possible choices and outcomes, and an explanation of how a scene can go.
Still, it’s a great preview into how players will get to more fully play out their plans, devious or not.
