420 episodes listed below
World of Darkness books, argued at table depth.
25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade reviews World of Darkness releases with a focus on how the books actually read at the table. Recent episodes move through Werewolf: The Apocalypse material, weighing tribes, lore, politics, villains, and whether a sourcebook deserves a place in play.
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25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade is a long-running review show for World of Darkness sourcebooks. Its recent episodes focus heavily on Werewolf: The Apocalypse. The format is practical at heart: open the book, argue through the premise, and decide what value it brings to play. That practical core does not make the show dry. A Shadow Lords review becomes a meditation on power, pride, coercion, and the difference between brute confidence and social control. A Red Talons episode pushes into ecology, predation, human exceptionalism, and the discomfort built into playing wolves who do not treat humanity as sacred. The show treats that discomfort as part of the material, not an accident to be sanded away. It is at its strongest when the speaker connects a rulebook’s fictional politics to the emotional pressure of a campaign table. The pace is loose. Digressions about fandom, Patreon, personal history, social pressure, and community arguments often sit beside close readings of game text. That looseness is part of the identity. It can feel like listening to someone work through decades of attachment to a line while still asking whether a specific book earns its space. Recent updates also place the show inside a changing hobby. Edition shifts, revised portrayals of tribes, and disputes over inclusion or canon are treated as live questions rather than abstract lore trivia. The Sambrano and Savage Age discussion brings in Gogo for a more conversational exchange, with Mike also present as another voice in the room. The Pentex material turns corporate horror into campaign fuel, especially through subsidiaries, oil, corruption, and the Wyrm’s influence. The show is not polished in a studio-documentary sense. It is dense, candid, and comfortable with strong opinions. It suits listeners who already care about White Wolf games or want help separating usable sourcebooks from shelf-filler. It also rewards people who enjoy hearing a setting’s moral contradictions handled out loud. The result is less a buyer’s guide than an extended tabletop argument about why these books still provoke reactions.
Made for: Best for World of Darkness fans, Werewolf: The Apocalypse readers, storytellers, collectors, and players deciding which older books deserve attention. It suits listeners who like candid tabletop criticism with lore, playability, and fandom politics in the same conversation.
What sets it apart: The show pairs sourcebook coverage with deeply personal, sometimes confrontational interpretation of themes like power, ecology, corporate horror, and edition change. It judges books as living campaign material rather than treating them as nostalgia objects.
Join us in our weekly reviews of White Wolf releases over the last 25 years. Bob, Brennan, Chris and Mike review the Classic World of Darkness books for White Wolf Publishing's games, Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and Wraith: the Oblivion, in chronological order. They combine their passion for the game with a dose of in-depth knowledge to help you decide which books to buy and which books to skip. VTM25 is the premiere White Wolf podcast!
One Werewolf tribe book becomes an ethical argument before you have even opened your character sheet.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tribe-book review about power, pressure, hunger, and the reasons people give themselves.
Shadowlords Revised frames power less as a corrupting force than as a test of what people are prepared to do, then justify. Bob sets the Shadowlords against the Geta Fenris by drawing out a contrast between blunt strength and a more angled approach to influence.
A sharper look at the Red Talons as wolves first, grounded in the ecology behind their severe worldview.
Tribebook Red Talon Revised centers on a tribe framed here as one of the setting's most contentious. The review pushes past the older gag version of Lupus characters as smart dogs wrestling with doors, cars, arcade screens, Pac-Man, and pizza.
GoGo gives a loose Vampire: The Masquerade discussion its spark with a strongly argued take on a storyteller vote book.
A Vampire: The Masquerade episode makes space for GoGo, a Discord supporter known for arguing the other side, as discussion turns to a storyteller vote book she had recommended after Bob ran into trouble with a different one.
A candid schedule update gives way to lively, speculative talk about the Get, the Black Furies, and the debates that keep the hobby active.
Brennan frames the update around a change in the show's working rhythm: 25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade is moving to one episode a month while the team develops another project.
Old-school GM craft, talked through plainly.
Shadowrun actual play with community signal.
Tabletop creators, systems, and stories in conversation.
Tabletop design, talked through slowly.
Horror RPG craft from the shadowed classroom.
Host Brennan announces that the podcast will reduce to one episode per month due to a new project, shifting focus from Vampire: The Requiem.
A review of the Pentex subsidiaries guidebook for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, focusing on the Enron subsidiary.
The hosts of 25 Years of VTM, Bob and Mike, are joined by guest GoGo to discuss James Sombrano's open letter about his experience as a contractor for Werewolf 5th Edition.
Bob presents Shadow Lords Revised as a Werewolf: The Apocalypse tribe book built around the line "power doesn't corrupt" and the idea that power reveals.
The Red Talons treat humans as an invasive species, not a political metaphor.
25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade reviews V5 Tattered Facade, which Mike describes as a toolkit with seven chapters, lore sheets, and additional powers for players and Storytellers.
25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade reviews the revised Children of Gaia tribe book for Werewolf: The Apocalypse through the conflict between pacifism, Rage, and the Litany's command to destroy the Worm.
Bob and DJ review Wormtide, a Werewolf 5th Edition book discussed on 25 Years of Vampire: The Masquerade, with particular attention to its departure from the earlier Apocalypse timeline.