Chicago by Night

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Chicago by Night
ISBN
1-56504-000-7 (ed. 1)
(ed. 3)

Chicago by Night is a tabletop role-playing game supplement originally released by White Wolf Publishing in 1991 for use with the first edition of their game Vampire: The Masquerade, and released in updated versions for the game's second and fifth editions in 1993 and 2020. As a sandbox-style setting sourcebook for storytellers[a] to use in campaigns, Chicago by Night describes the city of Chicago as it is portrayed within the game's setting, reinterpreted as having a large population of vampires.

The supplement was originally developed by Andrew Greenberg and Mark Rein-Hagen; Greenberg returned to develop the second edition, and Matthew Dawkins developed the third, which was released by Onyx Path Publishing. Chicago by Night was well received by players and critics, who considered it among the best Vampire: The Masquerade books, and among the best role-playing game settings. Its style and format were influential on later role-playing games and supplements, and it was followed by a series of By Night books for other cities.

Overview

Chicago by Night is a setting sourcebook for the

adventure module Ashes to Ashes.[7] Chicago by Night has a sandbox-style design,[8] with encounters, intrigues, local urban legends and story hooks for storytellers to use.[5][6][8][9]

The setting is updated between editions to account for the passage of time and for events that have occurred in the overarching narrative in Vampire: The Masquerade: for example, the character Lodin is killed in a werewolf attack on the Chicago vampire community in the 1993 book Under a Blood Red Moon, which is reflected in the second edition of Chicago by Night, which depicts the local vampire community trying to recover.[2][10] The third edition advances the setting further to account for the time that has passed since the previous editions,[6][8] and covers the vampire clan Lasombra's entry into the Camarilla sect in the Vampire: The Masquerade continuity.[11] It also adds Lasombra vampires as playable characters to Vampire: The Masquerade's fifth edition (abbreviated V5),[6] with rules for their game mechanics, including their Oblivion discipline.[11]

Production

First and second editions

2015 photograph of Mark Rein-Hagen
Mark Rein-Hagen (pictured, 2015) and Andrew Greenberg developed the first edition.

The first edition of Chicago by Night was developed by Mark Rein-Hagen, the designer of Vampire: The Masquerade, and Andrew Greenberg, the Vampire: The Masquerade line developer at the time.[2][12] Rein-Hagen also wrote the introduction for the supplement; Greenberg wrote the history chapter, and co-wrote the chapter on the characters with Stewart Wieck, and the chapter on encounters with Josh Timbrook, Travis Lamar Williams, and Chris McDonough. The geography chapter was written by Steve Crow,[12] with maps by McDonough, Rob Dixon, and Margaux Schaffer; other artists include Tim Bradstreet, Josh Timbrook, Richard Thomas, Ron Spencer, and Craig Cartwright, and cover artist Clark Mitchell.[7] Several of the vampire characters appearing in the first edition were based on characters from Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906).[13]

Greenberg returned as developer and writer for the second edition, Crow again handled the geography, and McDonough, Dixon and Schaffer returned to make the maps. They were joined by René Lilly, who worked as a consultant for the Chicago setting. The art team again included Thomas, who this time served as art director, and Bradstreet and Timbrook, but also Steve Casper, Jesper Myrfors, and Robert McNeil; the cover art was created by Doug Gregory.[14]

Third edition

A modified photograph of buildings in Chicago from an aerial view
Tomas Arfert's cover segues into the third edition's take on the V5 visual format.

The third edition was developed by Matthew Dawkins, with art direction by Mike Chaney,[15] and was Onyx Path Publishing's third time pitching a Chicago by Night book: they had previously pitched one for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, and one for the canceled Onyx Path Publishing-made Vampire: The Masquerade 4th Edition.[16] Dawkins aimed to make the book a useful tool, and, taking influence from the book's first edition, included a section dedicated to story hooks, something that Onyx Path Publishing would continue with the V5 books they produced after that; Dawkins liked how it made it possible to start playing more quickly.[17][18] He also aimed to create a book that evoked particulars of Chicago, reflecting its diverse range of culture, politics, people, and not just make a generic By Night book.[18] At the same time, a goal was to create a book that was universal and could be used by storytellers to construct other city settings for their own Vampire: The Masquerade campaigns.[19] The book was also written to be a good context for clan Lasombra's introduction in V5.[20]

The characters contributed in large part to the book's length, nearly doubling it from its originally planned 100,000 words: this was in part as the staff felt a need to portray more characters from each vampire clan in a setting as large as Chicago, and in part because V5 focuses more on vampires' former mortal lives than previous Vampire: The Masquerade editions, necessitating expansion of each vampire character's biography.

white-collar criminal, based on the archetype of "a politician who donates to the right charities".[22]

Klara Horskjær Herbøl, one of the writers on the book, took inspiration from Grigori Rasputin for the Lasombra vampire Aleksandr Malenkov, portraying him as a charismatic but "filthy" and unlikable person. She also wrote him as a counterpoint to Sierra Van Burrace, another Lasombra vampire, having Malenkov represent the argument for why Lasombra should not join the Camarilla, while Sierra represents why they should.[23] Eddy Webb, another writer, wrote the Lasombra character Michalis Basaras as a rabbi: the clan had often been portrayed as linked to faith in previous Vampire: The Masquerade books, but almost always Catholicism, and so he wanted to portray it as more spiritually diverse.[24]

The book was produced to match the visual format of previous V5 books, something new for Onyx Path Publishing, who did not have a photography or costuming department; they ended up using illustrations, with a modified photograph as the cover art used as a segue into their take on the visual format, created by the art director Tomas Arfert at series owner Paradox Interactive. Arfert also gave Onyx Path Publishing advice on the interior art, to make it fit into the format.[25]

Release

Chicago by Night was originally published by

e-books,[7][26] as have the Chicago Chronicles compilations.[31][32] The first edition was released in French by Hexagonal in September 1993[33] and in Italian by Das Production in 1994,[34] and the second edition was released in Spanish by La Factoria de Ideas in 1996.[10]

The third edition of Chicago by Night was announced at the

print-on-demand version.[37] The third edition was released in Italian by Need Games on April 3, 2020, at the Modena Play 2020 trade show,[11] and is planned to be released in French by Arkhane Asylum Publishing in 2022.[38]

White Wolf Publishing followed Chicago by Night with a series of By Night setting sourcebooks describing various cities, such as Milwaukee by Night (1992) and Los Angeles by Night (1994).[5] The third edition of Chicago by Night was followed by the book The Chicago Folios, which was released by Onyx Path Publishing on April 1, 2020, and contains mysteries, story hooks, character biographies, and blood sorcery rituals.[39]

Reception and legacy

Reception
Review scores
SourceRating
Arcane9/10 (ed. 1)[3]
Dosdediez (ed. 2)[40]
Dragon (ed. 1)[41]

Chicago by Night is the most popular setting book for Vampire: The Masquerade,[42] and was described by Tom's Hardware as a beloved and historical sourcebook;[11] Arcane called it a classic, and among the best and most complete settings for any role-playing game system, recommending it "unreservedly".[3] In 1996, Casus Belli called the first and second editions the best books in the By Night series,[5] in 1997, Backstab called Chicago by Night one of the three most essential Vampire: The Masquerade supplements, along with The Players Guide and Ashes to Ashes;[43] and in 1998, Backstab called it the standard that other Vampire: The Masquerade books should be compared to.[44] By 1999, Casus Belli still considered Chicago by Night the most important Vampire: The Masquerade supplement, and recommended new players to begin with it.[45] In 2000, Dosdediez called it a "must-have", considering it an exemplary book reminding one of the flavor of early Vampire: The Masquerade books.[40] ICv2 and Tom's Hardware considered it an iconic and influential sourcebook, that established a format, style and look that later supplements and role-playing games followed.[4][46]

Arcane found the cast of characters strong, and enjoyed how their complex relations together with the political intrigue opened possibilities for stories to tell and mysteries for players to explore; they wished that the Chicago Chronicles reprint would have corrected the errors in it and updated it for Vampire: The Masquerade's second edition, considering the supplement otherwise "perfect".[3] Saga called it a "brilliant" book, finding its cast, setting and encounters intriguing.[47] The Games Machine found the first edition "very interesting";[34] Computer + Videogiochi called it a masterful work that continues to surprise, with well crafted stories and situations in a detailed setting.[9] Casus Belli called it a model work, praising the detail of the characters, plots, and maps, and particularly recommended it to French players due to how most Vampire: The Masquerade materials published in French at the time were set around the Chicago region; they thought it would be particularly useful together with the supplements The Succubus Club and Ashes to Ashes.[5][28] They liked the second edition as well, and wished that it, too, would have received a French translation.[48] Dragon was more critical, considering the first edition's visuals to look "borderline amateur" in retrospect, compared to later supplements like Constantinople by Night (1996), but still found the writing highly imaginative. They also thought that the second edition was slightly "bloated".[41] Lider liked the second edition, appreciating its characters and descriptions of the geography and the vampire history, and thought that it worked particularly well together with Under a Blood Red Moon,[10] and Dragón thought the scenario it presents of a power vacuum left behind after Lodin's death was interesting.[49]

DriveThruRPG,[51] one of the largest online stores for tabletop role-playing games.[52]

Notes

  1. ^
    dungeon master" in other role-playing games.[1]

References

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    ISBN 978-1-613170-84-7
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  4. ^ a b c Dohm-Sanchez, Jeffrey (2019-10-15). "'Chicago by Night' Resurrected for 'Vampire: The Masquerade' 5E". ICv2. GCO. Archived from the original on 2020-10-15. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  5. ^ a b c d e Colin, Fabrice; Lhomme, Tristan (April 1996). "Vampire : La gamme aux dents longues" [Vampire: A thirsty and ambitious line-up of games]. Casus Belli (in French). No. 93. Excelsior Publications. pp. 36–38.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bunge, Nicole (2018-10-31). "'Chicago by Night' Joins 'Vampire: The Masquereade' 5E". ICv2. GCO. Archived from the original on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
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  10. ^ a b c "Chicago Nocturno" [Chicago by Night]. Lider (in Spanish). No. 55. Joc Internacional. September 1996. p. 14.
  11. ^ a b c d Vincenzi, Davide (2020-02-25). "Need Games! annuncia le uscite per Modena Play 2020" [Need Games! announces their releases for Modena Play 2020]. Tom's Hardware (in Italian). Future plc. Archived from the original on 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
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  19. ^ "Episode 93: V5 Chicago by Night Deep Dish Dive". Onyx Pathcast (Podcast). Onyx Path Publishing. 2020-02-28. Event occurs at 00:24:30. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  20. ^ "Episode 93: V5 Chicago by Night Deep Dish Dive". Onyx Pathcast (Podcast). Onyx Path Publishing. 2020-02-28. Event occurs at 00:52:00. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  21. ^ Burke, John; Dawkins, Matthew; de Vaan, Steffie; Horskjær Herbøl, Klara (2021-07-05). [OnyxPathCon] Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Onyx Path Publishing. Event occurs at 00:21:00. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  22. ^ "Episode 93: V5 Chicago by Night Deep Dish Dive". Onyx Pathcast (Podcast). Onyx Path Publishing. 2020-02-28. Event occurs at 00:41:00. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  23. ^ Burke, John; Dawkins, Matthew; de Vaan, Steffie; Horskjær Herbøl, Klara (2021-07-05). [OnyxPathCon] Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Onyx Path Publishing. Event occurs at 00:26:00. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  24. ^ "Episode 93: V5 Chicago by Night Deep Dish Dive". Onyx Pathcast (Podcast). Onyx Path Publishing. 2020-02-28. Event occurs at 00:44:00. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  25. ^ "Episode 93: V5 Chicago by Night Deep Dish Dive". Onyx Pathcast (Podcast). Onyx Path Publishing. 2020-02-28. Event occurs at 00:30:30. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
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  28. ^ a b Vétillard, Anne (July–August 1992). "Chicago by Night, Milwaukee by Night, The Succubus Club". Casus Belli (in French). No. 70. Excelsior Publications. p. 17.
  29. ^ "Succubus Club (The)". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). Association du Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2009-05-08. Archived from the original on 2020-01-18. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
  30. ^ "White Wolf". Casus Belli (in French). No. 97. Excelsior Publications. September 1996. p. 11.
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  32. ^ "Chicago Chronicles - Volume 2". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). Association du Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2009-05-08. Archived from the original on 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  33. ^ "Chicago". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). Association du Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2009-05-08. Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  34. ^ a b "Novita in breve" [News in short]. The Games Machine (in Italian). No. 60. Xenia Edizioni. January 1994. p. 133.
  35. ^ Watson, Ian A. A. (2018-08-01). "Onyx Path Publishing To Publish Chicago By Night – Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition". Onyx Path Publishing. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  36. ^ "Onyx Path". Casus Belli (in French). No. 28. Black Book Éditions. December 2018. p. 31.
  37. ^ a b Watson, Ian A. A. (2020-02-19). "Now Available: Chicago by Night for Vampire 5th Edition!". Onyx Path Publishing. Archived from the original on 2020-04-16. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  38. ^ Clément, Julien (2021-10-22). "Un plan remis au carré". Di6dent (in French). Plansix. Archived from the original on 2021-10-22. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  39. ^ Watson, Ian A. A. (2020-04-01). "Now Available: Chicago Folios, DB fiction, and Wreck-Em Rich!". Onyx Path Publishing. Archived from the original on 2020-04-16. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  40. ^ a b Pérez P., Eliseo (June 2000). "Chicago Nocturno" [Chicago by Night]. Dosdediez (in Spanish). No. 14. La Factoria. p. 20.
  41. ^ a b Swan, Rick (October 1997). "Role-Playing Reviews". Dragon. No. 240. TSR, Inc. pp. 110–112.
  42. ^ Lemon, Marshall (2015-02-06). "Rise, Kindred! Vampire: The Masquerade Arrives on Bundle of Holding". The Escapist. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  43. ^ "Vampire: The Masquerade". Backstab (in French). No. 1. FC Publications. January–February 1997. pp. 69–70.
  44. ^ Jouane, Christophe (January–February 1998). "Liber Constantinopolis". Backstab (in French). No. 7. FC Publications. p. 36.
  45. ^ Rosenthal, Pierre (May 1999). "Choisir son premier supplément" [Choosing your first supplement]. Casus Belli Hors Série (in French). No. 25, Manuel Pratique du Jeu de Rôle. Excelsior Publications. p. 9.
  46. ^ Colombini, Silvio (2019-10-18). "Vampire: The Masquerade 5E: annunciata una nuova espansione" [Vampire: The Masquerade 5E: A new expansion is announced]. Tom's Hardware (in Italian). Future plc. Archived from the original on 2020-10-11. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  47. ^ Demidoff, Nicholas (September 1992). "Vampire: The Masquerade". Saga (in Danish). No. 16. Fafner Spil. pp. 16–20.
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  49. ^ Miquel, Alex (November 1996). "Chicago nocturno" [Chicago by Night]. Dragón (in Spanish). No. 26. Ediciones Zinco. p. 61.
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External links

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