Chicago by Night

Overview

Chicago by Night is a sourcebook for the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, in which players assume the roles of vampires. It presents a version of Chicago reimagined as a city with one of the highest vampire populations and some of the most powerful Kindred, offering storytellers the material to build campaigns there. The book details the city’s history and geography through a vampiric lens, and it outlines the local undead society, including its politics, hierarchies, and the relationships among vampires and other supernatural beings. These are provided as non-player characters for storytellers, with some drawn from the story "Forged in Steel" in the first-edition rulebook and the adventure module Ashes to Ashes. The design is sandbox-style, featuring encounters, intrigues, urban legends, and story hooks. Real Chicago landmarks such as Meigs Field, the Biograph Theater, and the UIC campus are woven into the narrative, showing how the Kindred have shaped the city’s history and geography. Each edition updates the setting to reflect the passage of time and events in the larger Vampire: The Masquerade storyline. For instance, the second edition shows the local vampire community recovering after the character Lodin is killed in a werewolf attack described in the 1993 book Under a Blood Red Moon. The third edition moves the timeline forward further, covering the Lasombra clan’s entry into the Camarilla sect. It also introduces Lasombra vampires as playable characters in Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition, including rules for their Oblivion discipline and associated game mechanics.

Production

The initial version of Chicago by Night was created by Mark Rein-Hagen, who designed Vampire: The Masquerade, and Andrew Greenberg, who was the line developer for that game at the time. Rein-Hagen provided the supplement's introduction, while Greenberg authored the history section. Greenberg also co-wrote the characters chapter with Stewart Wieck, and the encounters chapter with Josh Timbrook, Travis Lamar Williams, and Chris McDonough. Steve Crow handled the geography chapter, with maps contributed by McDonough, Rob Dixon, and Margaux Schaffer. The art team included Tim Bradstreet, Josh Timbrook, Richard Thomas, Ron Spencer, and Craig Cartwright, with cover art by Clark Mitchell. Crow described Mitchell's uncredited cover as a "Watchman-like shot" showing a vampire falling to his death from a skyscraper window. Several vampire characters in this edition were inspired by figures from Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle.

For the second edition, Greenberg returned as developer and writer. Crow again wrote the geography, and McDonough, Dixon, and Schaffer once more created the maps. They were joined by Rene Lilly, who served as a consultant on the Chicago setting. The art team included Thomas, now acting as art director, along with Bradstreet and Timbrook, plus Steve Casper, Jesper Myrfors, and Robert McNeil. Doug Gregory produced the cover art.

The third edition was developed by Matthew Dawkins, with art direction by Mike Chaney. This was Onyx Path Publishing's third attempt at a Chicago by Night book; earlier pitches had been made for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade and for a canceled Onyx Path-produced fourth edition. Dawkins wanted the book to be a practical resource. Inspired by the first edition, he included a section of story hooks, a feature Onyx Path would continue in their later V5 books, as he felt it allowed players to start games more quickly. He also sought to create a book that captured Chicago's specific character, reflecting its varied culture, politics, and people, rather than being a generic city supplement. At the same time, he intended the book to be universal enough for storytellers to adapt it for other city settings in their own campaigns. The book was also designed to provide a suitable context for introducing the Lasombra clan in the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade.

Release

The first edition of Chicago by Night, a 192-page hardcover for the original Vampire: The Masquerade rules, hit shelves in 1991 from White Wolf Publishing. A second edition followed in July 1993, this time a 200-page softcover designed for the game’s second edition. Also in 1991, the supplement The Succubus Club arrived, offering scenarios tied closely to the Chicago setting. Both early editions saw reprints in 1996 as part of the Chicago Chronicles line, which bundled them with other material: volume one paired the first edition with The Succubus Club, while volume two combined the second edition with Under a Blood Red Moon. Digital versions of the first two editions, along with the Chicago Chronicles compilations, have since been released as e-books. Translations appeared for the first edition in French (Hexagonal, September 1993) and Italian (Das Production, 1994), and for the second edition in Spanish (La Factoria de Ideas, 1996).

A third edition was unveiled at Gen Con in August 2018, marking Onyx Path Publishing’s first book for Vampire: The Masquerade’s fifth edition. Funding for its production and retail print run came from a Kickstarter campaign that hit its $40,000 goal in under a day, ultimately raising over $119,000 by November 29, 2018. The finished product, a full-color hardcover, released on February 19, 2020, alongside e-book and print-on-demand versions. An Italian edition from Need Games debuted at the Modena Play 2020 trade show on April 3, 2020, and a French edition from Arkhane Asylum Publishing is scheduled for 2022.

The original Chicago by Night inspired White Wolf to produce other city-focused sourcebooks, including Milwaukee by Night (1992) and Los Angeles by Night (1994). Onyx Path followed the third edition with The Chicago Folios on April 1, 2020, a book packed with mysteries, story hooks, character biographies, and blood sorcery rituals.

Reception

Chicago by Night is widely regarded as the most popular setting book for Vampire: The Masquerade. Tom's Hardware described it as a beloved and historical sourcebook, while Arcane called it a classic and one of the best and most complete settings for any role-playing game system, recommending it without reservation. In 1996, Casus Belli judged the first and second editions the finest in the By Night series. The following year, Backstab listed it among the three most essential Vampire: The Masquerade supplements, alongside The Players Guide and Ashes to Ashes, and in 1998 declared it the standard by which other Vampire: The Masquerade books should be measured. By 1999, Casus Belli still considered it the most important supplement for the game, advising new players to start with it. In 2000, Dosdediez called it a must-have, praising it as an exemplary book that recalled the flavor of early Vampire: The Masquerade releases. ICv2 and Tom's Hardware regarded it as an iconic and influential sourcebook that set a format, style, and look later supplements and role-playing games would follow.

Arcane praised the strong cast of characters and enjoyed how their complex relationships and political intrigue opened up story possibilities and mysteries for players. They wished the Chicago Chronicles reprint had corrected errors and updated the material for second edition, calling the supplement otherwise perfect. Saga described it as a brilliant book, with intriguing characters, setting, and encounters. The Games Machine found the first edition very interesting, and Computer + Videogiochi called it a masterful work that continues to surprise, with well-crafted stories and situations in a detailed setting. Casus Belli called it a model work, highlighting the detail of characters, plots, and maps, and especially recommended it to French players because most French-language Vampire: The Masquerade materials at the time were set around Chicago. They thought it worked particularly well with The Succubus Club and Ashes to Ashes. Casus Belli also liked the second edition and wished it had received a French translation.

Dragon was more critical, noting that the first edition's visuals looked borderline amateur compared to later supplements like Constantinople by Night from 1996, but still found the writing highly imaginative. They also felt the second edition was slightly bloated.