Yeah, I wanted to play it when it came out, never was able to get it. A few years ago I was tempted to get a pirated .iso and thought better of it because I wanted the experience to be as pristine as possible and Ihad no idea what the patching state of the .iso was and it felt funky doing overall (it's a testament to how much I want to play it more than anything), and ever since have been holding out hopes that it would show up here (I'm a patient man.)

No worries, I don't know a single damned thing about the game (except the generalities) and have avoided spoilers or anything else about it for a long time. I hear you're not supposed to play a Malkavian (sp?) on your first playthrough because of spoilers, but that kind of seems non-logical to me. I'm curious to find out more of why this view is held, but I refrain from doing so so I don't get spoiled. I figure whenever I play I'll just go at it blank-slate without that tidbit of viewpoint to influence me and, if the Malkavian is the type Iwant to play first, then I will.

I don't agree with that at all, even though I hear people repeating it all the time. I've never seen anyone who had a Malkavian for his first character complain about the experience. It's always people who didn't play a Malkavian for the first time telling other people not to do it.

When you create a character in Bloodlines, there are two ways to do it. One way is the traditional "roll-up a character you want" way, where you pick the stats and skills. The other way is the quiz method, where you answer a series of personality questions and get a character based on your answers. For your first game, I recommend taking the quiz and just playing with whatever you get. That's what I did, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I got a Nosferatu, incidentally, which is another type people will tell you not to pick for your first game.

oooooo, I like this! I'll probably go the quiz method unless I roll something entirely unappealing, but with it tailored like a personality test, I imagine I won't get anything that turns me off (which in RPGs just tend to be bow-users and non-dialogue heavy types.)

Is dialogue tied to stats at all in Bloodlines?

Great to hear that about the malkavian, when I first saw the "don't play this your first time through" I thought it was utterly stupid, then saw it repeated a bunch and while I still found it stupid, couldn't help but wonder if there was something to it. I'm of the opinion that if it was detrimental to the experience potential, the creator/designer wouldn't have allowed it.

Also, as one who rarely replays games but will replay any RPG that has significant things to see/understand/experience in multiple playthroughs, Malkavian could be more rewarding for me.

*salivates at yummy rpgs*

Some of it is, yes. It's also tied to your score in something called "Humanity" which is essentially how evil you are (because even "good" vampires aren't really good), and it's influenced by certain kinds of mind control powers that some vampires possess. The argument stems from Malkavians having completely different dialogue from any other clan. The defining characteristic of the Malkavian bloodline is insanity, but also a sort of sixth-sense and an ability to read minds and know things normal people can't know. They know things even other vampires don't know. If you play a Malkavian your character will say some pretty bizarre things, but you'll also get subtle clues along the way because you literally hear voices in your head, among other things. I won't mention more because it would spoil the fun.

Some people say you'll get more fun out of a Malkavian if you've already played the game once or twice because you'll catch on to the clues and understand them better. Like I said though, I've never seen anyone who actually played a Malkavian for his first game say he regretted it. The warning always comes from people who didn't do that, which seems fairly presumptuous to me.

I think you'll have fun no matter what kind of character you start with, which is why I recommend the quiz.