Vampire: The Masquerade - Las Vegas

Vampire: The Masquerade - Las Vegas is a browser-based slot machine game, using the setting of Vampire: The Masquerade. A January 27, 2016 press release announced that Foxium and White Wolf had struck a deal for Foxium to license the Vampire IP for a slot machine game. In November 2017, they released Las Vegas, a 5x3 slot game themed around Vampire, featuring a vampire and his prey in a modern Las Vegas setting.

Gameplay
Play covers three separate modes: the default slots, Free Spins, and a Pick Me bonus.

Basic Slots


Play is on a 5x3 grid with various possible matching sequences, from a straight line to a W- or M-shape, and more. Thus you may win with multiple different matches per spin. Note that matches are read left-to-right: you can have four matching tiles in a line from columns B through E, but if there's no matching tile in column A, then it doesn't register as a match.

There are two basic exceptions to this gameplay: First, if three "Pick Me" bonus tiles appear on the board at once, it triggers the Pick Me bonus game. Second, if the Vampire and Prey images appear adjacent to one another, they randomly contribute one or two points of "Blood" or "Discipline" to the bars flanking the left and right sides of the screen. When either of those bars is full, it triggers the Free Spin game. When either of the two minigames are complete, the player is returned to the basic slot board.

The following payout values are used. The number of matching tiles in a sequence are listed along the top, with the numerical values being a multiplier on the value of the bet. For example: A $4 bet getting a multiplier of 10 means the player wins $40 on that match.



To the left of the board is a Blood gauge, and a Discipline gauge to the right. If the Vampire and Prey tiles both appear (if both appear, it's always in adjacent columns, with the Vampire to the left of the Prey), then the game will randomly assign either one or two points to either the Blood gauge or the Discipline gauge. The Blood gauge measures the number of Free Spins (between 5 and 16), while the Discipline gauge measures the multiplier (between x1 and x6). If either is filled, it fires the Free Spin game, using both those values.

Free Spin
This game closely resembles the basic spin board. The special Vampire and Pick Me tiles do not appear. Prey appears only with a Dominate result.

As the game begins, a spinner appears, randomly selecting one of three Disciplines:

Based on the values of the Blood and Discipline gauges from the basic game, and the Discipline selected, the game will proceed to play itself for the requisite number of spins. The vampire character is shown to the left of the board, "casting" the appropriate Discipline at the beginning of each new spin.

The payout table uses lower values than the basic game, which may or may not be made up for by the value of the score multiplier (Discipline gauge) when starting. Free Spin uses flat values rather than bet multipliers: a result of 1 on the chart below is equivalent to $1.

When all the free spins are complete, play returns back to the basic board.

Pick Me
This bonus game consists of six rounds. Each round contains a segment of story, with the Vampire protagonist seeking out his chosen Prey at a casino, and the player is asked to pick one of five cards. Their pick is revealed when drawn. Four of the cards are the four Aces, while one is a skull.

Each of the cards contributes a dollar value, with the value varying based on the suit drawn. A player may only draw the skull twice before the game ends, with the Prey having escaped. The player receives winnings based directly on the value of the cards drawn. Otherwise, they succeed, and the Vampire's Hunger is sated. The player receives a bonus multiplier of up to x50 on the value of the cards drawn.

The story is shown below.

Plot
The story begins via the Pick Me game above:



"I think I'll have something... fancy tonight."

The Vampire enters the Black Dog hotel.



"Vanity and desperation - two tastes that go great together."

The Vampire spots his Prey, a young woman planning to gamble for the evening.



"Are you going to play, or just stand there and watch?" "Think of me as your lucky charm."

The two flirt with each other while she gambles. The Vampire possibly uses Presence to help build rapport quickly.



"I can't believe my winnings! Here's to my very own rabbit's foot."

After doing quite well for herself, the young woman invites the vampire to share a drink.



"Look at all the lights! We keep this up, we can own the whole city."

The young woman takes the vampire to an upper floor, perhaps to her hotel room, to admire the view on the balcony. While there, they're caught on surveillance camera.



"Not before I cash in my chips!" "Augh, what are you?!"

The Vampire chooses this moment to strike, believing the two of them are alone.



During the Pick Me game, at this point the "Hunger Sated" message is displayed. In the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition rules, Hunger can only be sated if the victim is killed.

The story continues by examining the tiles during the regular slots game. The blood bag tile suggests that, once her body was discovered, she may not have been completely dead, and her would-be rescuers tried to save her life. The crime scene tile shows a tech examining the purse the woman had earlier next to a pool of blood.

The newspaper clipping tile reads "HELL IN HOTEL: City is shocked. A bloody murder in 'Black Dog' Las Vegas hotel, under investigation." This confirms she was killed, but given the clipping is taped to a wall, it also indicates someone (probably outside the police) is interested in the crime (a hunter?). Given that the crime is still reported as "under investigation" it suggests the surveillance footage is either being covered up, or is in the possession of someone who knows what they're looking at. In any event, it's a Masquerade breach, and most likely bad news for the Vampire in question.

The surveillance video tile additionally indicates that the events depicted take place around 11:25:39 pm on March 23, 2017.

Background Information

 * Given the three featured Disciplines used by the Vampire protagonist in the Free Slots game are Dominate, Fortitude, and Presence, odds are that he's a Ventrue, as those are the three in-clan Disciplines for the Ventrue.
 * Only five Clan symbols are featured via the tiles: Giovanni, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tremere, and Ventrue. While Ventrue (the highest-scoring of the Clans in terms of payout) is obvious, the other choices and their relative values are less obvious. It may have simply been a matter of aesthetics on the part of the developers.
 * Although neither the Vampire nor the Prey characters are named in-game, one of the game's image files indicates that the prey's name is "Laura."
 * The Black Dog hotel is a nod to the Black Dog Game Factory and Black Dog imprint.
 * VTMLV_VegasOverview.jpg The overview of Las Vegas seen in the background and on loading screens shows a large hotel at center-screen called the "Masquerade." The Pick Me game indicates that this background is the view seen from the balcony of the Black Dog. Ironically, the Vampire kills Laura while looking out over the Masquerade hotel.
 * Another hotel seen to the right of the image shows a large "WW" at the top, a reference to IP owners White Wolf.