It s been a strange and invigorating experience watching Vain.

pire: The Masquerade, a project to which I ve devoted the last

three years of my life, become JyhadTM, Of course, every garnet

who uses a Vampire product makes changes and adjustments, but

JyhadrM became an especially odd mix of old and new.

The game took alot of the most exciting elements of Vampire--

the fascinating characters, inspiring powers and deadly situations --

and made them even more exciting. One of my favorite parts of

working on Vampire has been thinking about the characters we ve

created, but the ones for JyhadTM are at least as intriguing and even

more enigmatic. Why is Sheldon the "Lord of the Clog? What

makes Igo so hungry? Did Duck get his name because of his nose, his

feet, his voice or his habit of constantly bobbing and weaving?

When Richard GarfieH first began telling me about his plans

for the game, I saw it much as I saw MagicTM -- a strategy game

with some storytelling potential. The more he told me about

JghadTM, however, the more 1 began to realize just what a wonder-

ful storytelling vehicle it could be.

Playing the game only confirmed this. Almc6t no one just plays

this game to win. Gamcrs turn each session into its own tale, in

their own heads if not aloud. When a Methuselah gives Basilia a

laptop computer, and Dasilia then sneaks into the enemy s camp

via the backways, the player has no problem iinagining her vam-

pire skulking through alleys, finding the secured modem line and

then wreaking havoc on the other Methuselah s camfnlly devel-

oped plans.

This feature of JyhadTM took center stage during the design d

this book. It was a pleasant realization that Richard Garfield,

Pete Adkison, Matt Burke and the rest of the crew at Wiz-

ards of the CoastTM shared this idea. It was a pleasure to work

with designers equally as imaginative as they were adept at

game design. We all hope that this book will help make your

games of JyhadTM both enjoyable and memorable.