VtM Bloodlines references

[guistman]

One of the things I love most about this game (and there is a lot to love here!) are its subtle nods to the legendary Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

My two favorites so far:

- The Dove meeting you at Café Cavoletti, a nod to the Cavoletti Café whose reputation you have to ruin for LaCroix in a minor side mission in Bloodlines.

- Even more subtle: if you manage to get the old computers in the research center running again, a few email adresses are mentioned that you find within the system; one of them is agrout@ucla - a *very* subtle allusion to Alistair Grout, the Malkavian Primogen of LA who indeed was a professor for psychology at the University of Los Angeles!

What other nods to Bloodlines have you guys discovered and which are your favorites?

[Mad_Rat]

Nissan Frontier from initialy available cars description:

"There's plenty of room in here; if you ever need to transport something bigger than a manila envelope, like a cursed sarcophagus, this Nissan is perfect."

Lots of subtle in-jokes ands hints like this, yes.

[Amygdala]

Lettow also mentions the protagonist IIRC as someone he knew from L.A

[SteveTheTurret]

Tremere can buy on auction a Black Apollo artifact, made by Maximillian Straus. It increases car stats.

Chiara can offer as reward Ming-Xiao Pearl.

[ryttu3k]

Originally posted by SteveTheTurret:

Tremere can buy on auction a Black Apollo artifact, made by Maximillian Straus. It increases car stats.

Chiara can offer as reward Ming-Xiao Pearl.

You can buy the Black Apollo with any clan, not just Tremere. I've got it with Banu Haqim and Toreador. If you don't know Blood Sorcery, like my Toreador, you can at least make a guess that it requires a smear of blood, and she was able to use it that way.

And if you help Chiara out and get the Pearl, and ask her about it, you get a direct reference to the Ankaran Sarcophagus incident.

[SteveTheTurret]

Originally posted by ryttu3k:

You can buy the Black Apollo with any clan, not just Tremere.

OK, but there is definately some kind of requirement, because my Toreador and Gangrel do not recognize it in any way.

[ryttu3k]

Originally posted by SteveTheTurret:

Originally posted by ryttu3k:

You can buy the Black Apollo with any clan, not just Tremere.

OK, but there is definately some kind of requirement, because my Toreador and Gangrel do not recognize it in any way.

They might have too low an Academic score. It does require some speculation on how to get it to work - try levelling Academic (and maybe Intelligence) and see if that helps?

[Kelibath]

Originally posted by ryttu3k:

Originally posted by SteveTheTurret:

OK, but there is definately some kind of requirement, because my Toreador and Gangrel do not recognize it in any way.

They might have too low an Academic score. It does require some speculation on how to get it to work - try levelling Academic (and maybe Intelligence) and see if that helps?

Just to add to the evidence thread, I've been able to learn about and bid on the Black Apollo (although unsuccessfully, strapped for cash unfortunately after buying a castle!) with an Academic-2 Blood Sorcery-2 Nosferatu.

[Dimitri Cosmos]

During the Auction mission from the new DLC "Secrets and Shadows" (you need to pick up the payphone after exiting one of the stores in the second part of the game to trigger this mission):

"And after an hour of digging around in indices, you find the information you're looking for in an advance copy of a Llewellyn paperback that was pulped before it went to the printers: the Black Apollo Charm, also called the Conquering Wheel Charm, the False Mithra, or the Black Sun Chariot. Created by a "scholar of Wicca" and given to a "warlock" named Maximillian Strauss in 1853.

You remember Max You did some jobs for the Tremere maybe ten years ago, and he mentioned the "False Mithra" as a minor artifact of Blood Sorcery. It's said to bless vehicles. You could actually use something like that. And the starting bid is only—you flip back to the Blythe-Sanderson catalog—a thousand dollars.

You buy the Llewellyn paperback for ten dollars, because just having Max's name in a book isn't good for the Masquerade, and return to your estate. You know a little bit, but you need to know more. You consider what to do before tomorrow night, when the auction starts."

[Dimitri Cosmos]

Another item that can be obtained, if the feather of a wraith is obtained for Hecata + Ministry during the Auction mission:

''Though if you want something more proactive, I recommend the Pearl of Ming-Xiao."

"Who's Ming-Xiao?" you ask.

"Someone who did not create or use the Pearl," Chiara says, "but she brought it with her to California during the Ankaran Event a few years back. You probably weren't involved in that. Anyway, the Pearl is an assassin's weapon. Touch it to the hilt of sword—or, apparently, a gun—and it will adhere there. I don't do my own killing—that's what I have a shadow for—but if you're the sort of vampire who needs to stab or shoot people, it will help."''

[Sentry]

Caitiff intro mentions you came from LA Santa Monica, if I remember correctly.

[SpyderpalantirLUNAticDICE]

Cab Driver character may be reference on movie Central Park Drifter 1987 where main antagonist vampire 🦇 taxi 🚖🚕 driver