It's a well known fact that the Vampire: The Masquerade series of video games are based on the popular Tabletop RPG game of the same name. The various video games have strayed from the rules of the tabletop version to varying degrees in the past, though, although they're broadly similar, which has lead to questions about how faithful the upcoming Bloodlines 2 will be to the tabletop version.

We've now learned more thanks to the latest dev diary entry on the Bloodlines 2 official blog. The game's lead UX desginer, Rachel Leiker, explained that the new game will draw on the rules of the fifth edition of the tabletop game, released in 2018, but will differ in some places.

One example given was the four emotional 'resonances', which affect different abilities when drunk, which has been upped to five in the game. Delirium, Desire, Fear, Pain, and Rage are all emotions that can be discovered and devoured in the game and act as a secondary XP to unlock and activate Resonance-specific buffs, or Merits. The Resonance and Merits in Bloodlines 2 are more rigid in their implementation, but they allow players to quickly hunt for and manage the resource throughout the game. The changes focus on making the rules fit the game narative. 

As the player starts out as a 'Thinblood' without any of the usual clan abilities or disciplines, the developers have tweaked some of the rules surrounding abilities available to the player at the start of the game. 

The three Thinblood Disciplines – Chiropteran (Affinity to Bats), Nebulation (Mist Form), and Mentalism (Telekinesis) have mostly traversal and defensive applications. Thinblood Alchemy in V5 is much the same way – Thinbloods are at the very very bottom of the food chain, so survival is the number one priority. We maintain the core feeling of what it means to be a Thinblood and use those powers but make it more video game friendly by expressing it in familiar ways. Who doesn’t want to glide across the Seattle skyline, travel as mist with the wind, and move objects without touching them?

There's a lot more detail in the developer diary about the various differences to the tabletop rulebook, and the reasons behind this, but it seems that the developers are looking to maintain player's choice much like the tabletop RPG through it's ruleset, which is good to see.

You can read the full dev diary over here.