Authors:
Release Date: 2007-08-15
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 978-1-58846-491-0
Product Type: Core Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count:
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Review by: Sterling Jenson
Rating: 9/10
An excellent product of somewhat limited usefulness.
In some ways, World of Darkness: Asylum could be renamed Mysterious Places II: Bishopsgate Asylum, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Since Mysterious Places was such a good book and Asylum keeps up that tradition. The reason why I compare the two books is because so much of Asylum is about the fictional asylum, Bishopsgate.
The book starts out with the requisite short story, which is called “Diamonds,” and introduction. The short story does a good job of setting the tone and the mood for the book. I was rather surprised that when I went back to reread the story, I discovered that setting for this story is not Bishopsgate since so much of the book is dedicated to that particular setting. As well as giving the overview of the book, the introduction provides three lists which help break down some of the more common medical jargon which would be helpful for any storyteller or player running a character whose profession is in the medical field.
The first two chapters of the book focus on the medical world and the history of asylums and comprise the section of the book which is not about Bishopsgate. The first chapter gives a history of asylums and care for the mentally ill seemed a bit short, but I did not see any gaping holes in this section that needed filling. Perhaps a comparison between how different cultures handled the insane beyond Europe and the United States would have been useful. One detail that I liked in the introduction to the second chapter is the inclusion of the authors' admitting that while they tried to get all of the details of the medical world correct, they acknowledged that they might have shaded of them in interests of creating a better role playing supplement. The second chapter goes into detail about the medical profession in general and describes other professions within the medical world beyond the standbys of doctor or nurse. Which would be immensely helpful for creating both player characters and non-player characters. Also I liked how the new derangement section included a few printed in Ghouls as well as a couple of new ones. Not everyone has access to Ghouls and so reprinting material which was found in one of the line specific supplements, e.g. vampire, werewolf, etc., that could be used in every game line allows more players to have access to the information.
The second section of the book deals with the fictional asylum of Bishopsgate itself. What I like about this setting is that the authors have included so many potential plot hooks and places to hang plot hooks that whole chronicles could be run just at this setting. The history section is so filled with potential plot hooks, that a game set in an abandoned version of Bishopsgate would not be too hard to run. While parts of the history seem a bit clichéd, other parts are not. My hat is off to who ever wrote the case study chapter because not only does the author provide multiple explanations for each case study, but at least one of the explanations given is completely mundane. Another detail I like about the section is that while all of the case studies are supposed to reside in Bishopsgate, the back story presented does not tie them to this particular asylum. Therefore, running a story about a particular case file from this chapter in a different location would be easy and the only details that would change is that the patient is now at another asylum. The last chapter deals with some of the various archetypes players might encounter at an asylum, and some of these would be easily incorporated into any chronicle that dealt with the medical field. The inclusion of some patients who are not a part of one of the case studies is a great idea because it helps the storyteller to portray other patients and thus helps make the setting more colorful.
The appendix deals with insanity and the supernatural lines in the World of Darkness, including Promethean and Changeling. The side bar as when a character should roll for Morality when he or she commits a sin while under mind control or emotion manipulating powers is quite useful.
Overall, I thought that the book was well written and presented. One of the little details that I liked about this book is the authors included some line specific explanations, for example one of the case studies mentions the Beshilu as a possibility, and then proceeded to give a short description of the explanation for those who do not have access to the line in question. I thought this detail was a nice touch. Based on the content, writing, and overall usefulness of the book, I am going to give this book a nine out of ten. I would like to give it a perfect score, but since the book is geared much more towards storytellers than players and is rather corner case I feel that a perfect score is not appropriate.
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Authors: Justin Achilli, Joseph Carriker, Jess Hartley, Wood Ingham, Matthew McFarland, Peter Schaefer, John Snead, Travis Stout, Chuck Wendig, Peter Woodworth
Release Date: 2007-08-16
On Sale: Yes
Price: 34.95
ISBN: 978-1-58846-527-6
Product Type: Core Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 210
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Review by: Christopher Lee Simmons
Rating: 10/10
An amazing game. What Changeling should have been all along.
I always wanted to be a fan of the original Changeling: The Dreaming. I fought tooth and nail to love that game, and to some extent even fooled myself into thinking I did. But the thing is, I loved the potential of Changeling, the idealized version that lived in my head, not the imperfect and jumbled game that actually stood before me. That's not to say there weren't brilliant spots, shining through the "whimsy" of the game line that Dreams and Nightmares told us we mustn't ever forget. Rich Dansky's work on Kithbook: Redcap was excellent, for example. But for every book like that, there was enough half-assed pasteboard anachronism to make Renaissance Faire geeks everywhere yell "Huzzah!"
See, here's the thing. The game that lived in my head? The game that I so desperately wanted Changeling to be, like Dorian Gray lusting after his Sybil Vane, only to discover that he was more attracted to the part, than the player? That game is Changeling: The Lost.
Banality is nowhere to be found. Technology is only mentioned insofar as it helps the changelings connect to one another, or to the extent that it doesn't exist in the Hedge. Science is not a bogeyman, and may even be a hobby of certain True Fae.
The book itself is beautiful. The cover looks even better in person than it did when White Wolf released the preview months ago. The art is, with a few exceptions, spectacular. But even the art that didn't quite grab me did the work it needed to. Unlike Scion, which had a dissonantly hip and ironic tone that felt out of place with the epic nature of the subject matter, the writing is tight, and hits on all cylinders throughout the book.
Changeling: The Lost starts out with What Alec Bourbon Said, the mandatory opening fiction. The author did a good job building the story without either giving away too much or becoming an info-dump to introduce the world. It's not necessarily easy to pick up what's going on if you aren't familiar with the original concept of changelings, but it's intriguing enough to make you say "please sir, may I have some more?"
The Introduction does what it's supposed to. It sets the mood, it... Well, it introduces the game. If you haven't read the books mentioned in Sources and Inspiration, you should. The same with the movies, actually. I would add The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke to the mix, as well, and pretty much anything by Caitlín R. Kiernan, particularly her run on The Dreaming, the followup to Neil Gaiman's Sandman, a large part of which can be found in Graphic Novel form, titled Through the Gates of Bone and Ivory.
Chapter One: The World Behind the Mask is all about the bits of changeling society you need to know to immerse yourself in their world. This includes the fae (note the lowercase "f." Only the True Fae get the proper noun capitalization) Courts, no longer the Seelie and Unseelie, now more aligned with the setting of Dark Ages: Fae. Each court is built largely around your character's reaction to the trauma she endured at the hands of the Fae. The Spring Court caters to those who want to live life to the fullest, and their ruling emotion is Desire. The summer court are those who burn with Wrath over what has been done to them. The Autumn court is full of fae that were terrorized by their Keepers, and know Fear (both their own and others') as well as they know magic. Finally, Winter is a court of Sorrowful changelings trying their best to step out of the flow, to hide and praying that the Fae don't notice them again. There's an interesting bit that links UFO abductees to the stolen victims of the Fae, that we'll get back to in a bit.
The next section is Chapter Two: Character Creation. Generally, the actual character creation section is about what you'd expect from a White Wolf game. There's nothing utterly remarkable in the first bit. The kiths are all interesting, and every seeming (which is kind of like an optional subsplat) has potential for characters. Generally, I only find one or two splats I'm really interested in, but every one gave me ideas. I've heard a few people complain that they'd prefer to be able to choose two kiths to expand their customization option. I don't really think that's necessary, but whatever floats your boat. One thing I found interesting is that the Chirurgeon kith of the Wizened seeming is described as looking like the prototypical Grays of UFO abduction fame, because what are alien abduction stories if not a modern fairy tale, and what are the victims of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers if not a modernized version of a changeling?
Moving on, we get to Contracts, the powers of the changelings. Contracts are literally that: pacts made with spirits by the Fae which the changelings can invoke by dint of the changes wrought on them in Faerie. In the earlier sections it mentions that the way things work in each Keeper's realm only mirrors our reality to the extent the Fae has forged agreements with the spirits that it would. Fire only harms because the Fae lord has given it license to do so. An interesting thing about Contracts and their Clauses... Every one has a catch, something that can be done to activate the power without expending Glamour. Some of them are kind of a pain, like "the changeling must commission the creation of an object she wishes to mimic," and some of them are fairly simple, e.g., "the changeling gives the target animal a new name." The contracts are almost all useful, though my gaming group did house-rule the level five Fang and Talon so that a skitterskulk might become a swarm of cockroaches, rather than just one. There are also Goblin Contracts, which are easy to learn, cheap, and come with significant drawbacks.
And on, to Chapter Four: Special Rules and Systems. This chapter includes fairly exhaustive rules for crafting Pledges, including a number of sample ones, including both elaborate, ceremonial wording and in-the-street casual phrases. One, in particular "Pledge of Horn and Bone," brings up a good point. The gates of Horn are, according to myth (and mentioned by Homer, Virgil, Lovecraft and others), the portals through which True dreams may pass, and the gates of Ivory (or Bone), are the portals through which False dreams may pass. After pledges, we look at the changelings' ability to pass through these gates, walk through, control and even bring things out of the dreams of others (Oneiromancy), as well as the ability to do battle in these dreams (Oneiromachy). I'm not a rules person. I usually skip over the really crunchy rules (and boy, pledges can be complex) and let Oni play rules lawyer, but in this case, the author kept it interesting and I made it all the way through. (Note: I found out after writing this section that Joe Carriker, someone who goes WAY back with ELN, is responsible for the sections on Pledges, Oneiromancy and Oneiromachy, and I think he should get due credit. Great job!)
This chapter also includes Tokens, the treasures of the fae, which also include catches. The real catch here, that makes them interesting even for games rooted solely in the mortal portion of the World of Darkness is that anyone can activate them using the catch: mortal, vampire, werewolf, mage or promethean, it doesn't matter. If, for example, a mortal (or supernatural) were to pour a pint of their blood into the gas tank of a car with Driver's Little Helpers hanging from the rearview, they would gain the effects (2/3 travel time, no need for fuel, and +1 to Drive rolls) for an hour, just like a changeling who activated it by succeeding on their Wyrd roll. The rest of the chapter covers the Hedge, entering it, exiting it, shaping it, and even the strange fruits that grow there.
Chapter Four: Storytelling is interesting for a few reasons, but first I have to include a quote that finally makes up for that stupid "whimsy" quote from Dreams and Nightmares that I've been ranting about for years:
"Certain elements of fairy tales have always suggested some degree of horror, particularly in the original stories of the Brothers Grimm, and in the real-world legends observed since time immemorial by regional cultures. Indeed, what we often think of today as fairy tales are watered-down versions of their original incarnations, softened a bit to keep children in line without terrorizing them.
Well, the hell with that. Let's bring back the terrorizing."
Thank you, whoever wrote those paragraphs. Really. from the bottom of my heart.
The rest of the storytelling chapter covers the theme, mood and aspects that you should keep in mind when running a Changeling game. It also includes Fetch creation, and a nice smattering of antagonists, from loyalist changelings to exiled Fae, to hobgoblins and psychopaths. The chapter ends with a look at the Goblin Markets (watch Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or Stardust for a nice visual look at a Goblin Market, or read some of the Courtney Crumrin graphic novels by Ted Naifeh.
After all that, there are still two appendices: Appendix One: Entitlements brings us to a sort of Bloodline analog, "noble" orders a character can join during the course of gameplay. The Scarecrow Ministry appears to be a favorite, and for good reason. They're nifty. But I'm also interested in the Bishopric of Blackbirds and the College of Worms. The end of the appendix includes a bit on creating your own Entitlements, for your own games... Or publication on ELN...
Finally, Appendix Two: The Freehold of Miami gives us the sample setting of Changeling, the Trident, the Freehold of Endless Summer. Miami is a perfect example of how changeling society is not supposed to work, which is nice, because it has the effect of breaking down assumptions that the way changeling society is described is the way it is. Just because it's the norm doesn't mean your chronicle can't deviate, like a septum. ;P
Really, I can't say much of anything bad about Changeling: The Lost. I'm kind of glad that it came out after Scion, because I'm not sure when we would have gotten around to playing our Scion game, if it hadn't. It really is good enough to deserve a 10 out of 10... Hell, I'd be a Ruthless Person and rate it 11 if I could.
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Authors:
Release Date: 2007-06-08
On Sale: Yes
Price: 24.99
ISBN: 978-1-58846-268-8
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 128
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Review by: Charles Phipps
Rating: 10/10
A book for exploring what it means to be a vampire.
The Blood: The Players Guide to the Requiem is probably the best vampire book released in years. Indeed, off the top of my head, I can think of no book that's better in either the OWOD or NWOD. It is the quintessential guide for undeath and my only regret is that the work wasn't longer. If you are looking for anything other than glowing praise, than this review may not be for you. Suffice to say, in short, you should buy this book. Buy this book as soon as you can.
One warning, though, for those whose tastes differ from my own. The Blood is nearly crunch-less. The only way that the book could have less rules information would be to make the entire thing into in-character fiction. It's a fluff book that focuses on almost exclusively the psychology of being Kindred. There are no new Bloodlines, Disciplines, Merits, Flaws, or Thaumaturgy rituals. The only new rules system information is an optional system for humanity and some suggestions on how to handle torpor. This may turn you off the book.
Now that’s out of the way, onto the discussion of what the Blood is really about. Specifically, it is the book that discusses the night to night horrors of being undead. This is a book for Players as much as Storytellers. What is it really like to have your first Frenzy? What does vitae REALLY taste like? Do you ever wonder if other Kindred go around randomly abusing Dominate as much as my players' characters seem to do? All those answers are the basis of The Blood.
The Opening Fiction is a portrayal of an neonate and ancilla's night to night existence. It's a surprisingly effective mood piece because we get a sense of how mind numbingly tedious life as one of the Damned can be. It's an excellent mood setter to help one appreciate how natural that a Kindred's life can become jaded and filled with ennui. Indeed, it provides a reason why some vampires (read PCs) might seek out danger as much as they do. There has to be more to life than the blood. Doesn't there? The title of the book should indicate that the answer that most Kindred find is....no, there really isn't. However, you can deny it for a time.
Chapter One: Kindred Characters is built around the principle of establishing the rationale behind most of a player character's stats. It talks about justifying initial expenditures at character creation, the origins for high blood potency, choosing Virtues and Vice, running the idea of Vices as representative of the Beast while the Virtue is a representation of the man, and issues like how a character's age at Embrace might affect their mind set.
What's noteworthy about this chapter is that it talks a great deal about establishing what a character wants from the Kindred world and unlife. Any player that's worried about not being diverse enough from other characters in his party will find a host of ideas that will allow him to expand on his initial concept. Storytellers could also benefit from the simple advice presented in this chapter that if he allows players to buy Merits then they should be allowed to be used by characters. Taking them away randomly should not be done but only for the benefit of a much larger story.
Chapter Two: The Blood talks all about the nature of Kindred vitae and its properties. This is the real meat of the chapter for me and covers what I think every vampire should have a reference book for. It talks about the following topics at length: Feeding, Spending Vitae, Waking Up, Counterfeiting Life, Physical Augmentation, Healing Wounds, Activating Disciplines, Blood Addiction, Diablerie, The Vinculum, Blood Ties, Blood Sympathy, Feeding, The Kiss, Blood Supplies, Ghouls, Territories, The Predator's Taint, The Masquerade, Progeny, the types of damage that Kindred take, Torpor, the types of Frenzy, and a discussion of Kindred Humanity degeneration.
All of the "crunch" information about these topics is in the main book of Vampire: The Requiem. What this book is provide a testament on what all these activities feel like and mean to most vampires. It's a guide for helping make things like Feeding and creating a Ghoul to be interesting character actions. Ironically, my biggest problem with the Ghouls book was satisfied here as it gave the missing article on why player characters feel the need to create blood slaves. All of this information can be exploited by a Storyteller in order to make one's nightly unlife into a fascinating and adventurous experience. We also get the answer that most Neonates and Ancilla are Humanity 5 while most Elders are Humanity 4. Given I'd had most vampires at Humanity 6 and Humanity 5 in my games, that changes a great deal of how I run games.
Chapter Three: Kindred Psychology is the chapter that summarizes what all the effects of the Blood chapter have on most Neonates, Ancilla, and Elders. Unsurprisingly, my longstanding campaign rule that most Kindred either commit suicide or get themselves killed out of stupidity before they reach their tenth year is made canon here. Life as one of the Damned is a nightmarishly difficult one and its amusing to see that most vampires lives are described in the same manner as a player character. Like it or not, all of them get wrapped up in schemes and adventures that weed down their numbers.
This chapter takes a good long look at the nature of the various disciplines, and how the power of a vampire can warp a character's minds. There's a thousand or more little character bits about how young vampires can be warped and dehumanized by even benign seeming disciplines. Really, how DOES one think the average person would react when they can use Majesty to become the sexiest person in the room? All the time no less? The book says 'quite badly.'
The Epilogue Fiction is a nice little coda that follows our point of view character into his status as an elder. He's broken up with most of his old friends, become immersed in the affairs of the Ordo Dracul, and justified his inhuman treatment of the Kine with scholarly detachment. We see the usual justifications of an elder for the naked self interest and pathetic defense against one's own monster that they really are. Tragically, this proves to be a love story as well. I say tragically because we understand what it means when he and his lover create a blood bond between themselves. They will, eventually, learn to hate one another.
The Blood is a necessary book and one that should have been printed for the old Masquerade line. At heart, it's a work that helps make the daily unlife an adventure to itself. For me, I think one of the main problems of the last line was that it started taking war ghouls, gargoyles, and Sabbat to keep things interesting. We moved away from Chicago by Night style politics and became focused on Antedeluvians out to kill us all. This book is a major step towards rectifying this problem.
I give this supplement ten drops of blood out of ten.
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Authors: Darcy Ann Anastasia, Carl Bowen, Rick Chillot, Ray Fawkes, Ian Price and Chuck Wendig
Release Date: 2005-04-28
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-256-0
Product Type: Splat Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 144
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Review by: Charles Phipps
Rating: 5/10
So, just so we're clear. Ghouls are utter freaks.
The opening fiction summarizes it pretty well. Ghouls are messed up, arguably more than the Kindred they serve. Junkies for blood, suffering all those human needs for various types of stimulus, possessed of the Beast, and living with creatures that dine on the living. Ghouls are all a little bit round the bend. Frankly, your mileage may vary on this book since it's a very specific type of horror that they try to invoke. Anne Rice is less emphasized than House of 1000 Corpses.
Vampire: The Masquerade's Ghouls: Fatal Addiction was towards the end of Revised and it's fairly close to what White Wolf was going for when they created Requiem. Ghouls had been a long neglected portion of the game and the book went all out in describing what a miserable and loathsome state it was. Vampire: The Requiem's Ghouls is very similar in a number of ways. Most of the information is identical. Thus, before we go any further, if you already own Ghouls: Fatal Addiction then this book won't add very much. The Thralls' adaptation to the New World of Darkness is almost seamless. Almost.
If there's one thing that bugs me about this depiction, it’s the fact that its significantly more hardcore than it really has to be. Requiem Kindred tend to be creatures that are a lot more subtle than the 'tear into humans like a rotten banana in a blender' Cainites. This book repeatedly drives home that ghouls are mostly psychotic nutcases, irregardless of whether their Kindred abuses them or not. The very act of being servant to a blood sucking horror, their hidden knowledge about the world, the act of drinking blood, the stresses of night to night life, and their reaction to the Vinculum is enough to drive them insane (Author's note: I wish they'd just kept calling it the Blood Bond, Vinculum always makes me think of the old use of the term).
The descriptions of ghoul psychology are a bit out there but basically boil down to human beings need to cope with the craziness of their life in whatever way makes sense. A couple of new things that I liked were the fact that it acknowledges that ghouls need sleep. Serving masters in the day and then expected to do the same at night is one of the major contributing factors to their insanity. The whole scatter brained nature of ghouls is partially because they never get to rest. Plus, its nice to see an acknowledgment of the fact that ghouls actually have each other as a social circle. Did you ever imagine the Mekhet's ghoul might go out drinking with the local Ventrue ghouls? No, I never did and their vampires probably have no idea either.
The Clans section of Ghouls doesn't bring much that couldn't be figured out on one's own. The Gangrel choose independent loners, the Ventrue choose servile types, the Mekhet choose exactly the same type of people the Tremere chose, the Daeva choose people they can vicariously live through until they're degenerate burnouts, and the Nosferatu choose people that can handle their social business. Wow, that really took a lot of effort on the part of the authors *sarcasm*. There's no Bloodline information amongst these descriptions and its unlikely they would have been more than stereotypes, either.
The Covenants section is a bit more interesting. The Carthians are troubled by the fact they preach of equality and reformation to Kindred society yet they need their slaves just like everyone else. Thus, they struggle between giving them too much freedom and not enough. The Invictus act like Ventrue, you obey like a dog in exchange for immortality. Weirdly, that's the second nicest Covenant you can serve. The Circle of the Crone seems to delight in screwing over their human cultists. They lure them in with promises of hidden knowledge, drive them crazy with blood rites, then abandon them when they're of no more use. The Lancea Sanctum, true to its Sabbat roots, has the view that ghouls are human beings and thus deserve all the scorn that a Kindred might give them.
Weirdly, out of the Covenants, it’s the Ordo Dracul that comes off as the most humane to their ghouls. Which is odd since the description of their lifestyle is based on the Old Clan Tzimisce. The Ordo Dracul treats their ghouls as servants and beneath their notice but don't sexually or mentally abuse them. At least on purpose. The ghouls do enough of that on their own to each other. Also nicely done is the fact that a frequent aspect of my own campaigns, mentoring ghouls for the Embrace, is included as an act of the Order. There's an interesting inverse of V:TM's themes with V:TR as the least human groups seem to be the ones that are the least malevolent versus the opposite in the previous game.
Ghoul Physiology talks about what disciplines its difficult and easy to learn. Mostly, ghouls have a very hard time learning disciplines because their bodies aren't made for it. There's some hint about how ghouls can use these abilities to benefit themselves but not nearly enough. Still, some of the comments echoed those of my players. Why would a ghoul want to learn Nightmare? Becoming ungodly hideous does not rank very high in character's fantasies.
Ghoul Families are given their own section. I don't think I need to mention its still the depiction of them as the freaks amongst the freaks. This makes less sense than it did in V:TM because the Tzimisce are no longer the only family that can create Ghoul Families. Instead, any Kindred that does the Blade thing to get a woman pregnant while she's a ghoul is enough to potentially create a new ghoul family. It's just 99/100 that its a miscarriage. In one of the few kind things I have to say about the book, its nice to see them tone down the incest angle. Not everyone is immediately hoping their daughters or siblings. The ghouls need to breed within their line due to decreased fertility with regular humans and the difficulties of interacting with regular humans.
The example ghoul families are fairly typical H.P. Lovecraft 'evil families' for the most part. The Alley Men are a bunch of homeless and fundamentalists that hunt vampires for their vitae since their patron was killed. They're also cannibals. The Angustri break all sorts of laws of good taste by being products of the Nazi Final Solution. The Crassus are actually tolerable as a Ventrue bloodline of the world's finest families. The Gravenor were the villains in Deliverance. The fact that a single vampire can create a ghoul family is something that changes a lot of the feel of ghoul families but they're all straight out of Dunwich, it seems. The exception of the Children of Nirriti, a big huge blood cult that will satisfy your inner Follower of Set.
Ghoul Psychology is another part that seemed like it could have been done better. Basically, it keeps drilling home that it’s the Vinculum and the addiction to vitae that drives a ghoul. This makes sense but it makes them terribly one note. With a vampire, he's driven by Blood and the Beast but that doesn't mean he's a creature that has nothing else in his life. It's just two of the most important things here. I would have felt some variance in the depiction would have helped. More about ghouls that want to become vampires themselves or whom somehow have high enough wills to work with their masters as equals. There were a nice few bits here and there but they seemed overshadowed.
One thing that really bugs me in this book is the blatant V:TM creation of Mandragora. It's something that's a leftover from the Old World of Darkness that has no place with the more low-key Kindred of Requiem. It's cannibalistic vampire plants. Yes, your Kindred too can have Audrey Junior growing in his haven for disposing of the inconvenient body or two. Now, I too have occasionally wondered what the effect of vampire blood on plants would be but this is something out of the developer's private stash of wacky weed.
The book also gives a bunch of sample pathetic wretches and the rules for player characters creating their own ghoul families. The first worked very well in showing ghouls with personality beyond their addiction, more so than the entire rest of the book. The rules for creating ghoul families makes it certainly possible for Kindred player characters. However, the deed is a Humanity sucking activity and one that reaps the dubious reward of creating a degenerate family of slaves that they won't benefit from save in a generational game.
The big problem with Ghouls is the fact that this book is primarily geared towards Storytellers. Unless every Kindred in their campaign is a Humanity 3 or 2 utter monster, I don't they're going to be that interested in treating ghouls in the way that most of these are described as enduring. The books seems to reflect the perspective that the old Werewolf supplements had on Formori. Utterly irredeemable wastes of humanity that have been eaten away by the Wyrm. While that might fly with the Old V:TM Cainites, the Requiem Kindred are much more bound by their humanities. Can I imagine players treating their ghouls like disposable henchmen and furniture? Hell yes, I've seen it in game. Do I see them ghouling their parents then having sex with them? Not so much (Author's note: Yes, that was in this book).
Overall, the book depends on shock value over substance. There's no real information about player characters relationships with ghouls or why they might choose to create one. Given the disgusting depiction here, you think the book's purpose would be to convince Player Characters to use Dominate instead. Taking away a subject's free will by mesmerism seems positively tame by comparison. Plus, there's less information in this book about Ghoul consorts than there was in Fatal Addiction. This, despite the fact that Vampires can have sex and enjoy it in Requiem. I can't say I'm not disappointed in this book even if it was, barely, worth the cover price.
5 Blood Drops out of Ten
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Authors: Ari Marmell, Dean Shomshak and C.A. Suleiman
Release Date: 2004-08-01
On Sale: Yes
Price: 34.99
ISBN: 1-58846-247-1
Product Type: Core Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 304
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Review by: Charles Phipps
Rating: 8/10
Vampire: The Requiem is an impressive work....
Vampire: The Requiem is a remake of Vampire: The Masquerade. Given that V:TM was the most popular game that White Wolf had, it should be unsurprising that they didn't try to re-invent the wheel. Remakes are always a dicey affair since you need to keep them recognizably the same story while adding your own spin on things. Dracula has been remade on a dozen occasions, each version adding something of its own slant. On the other hand, gamers might fear something like the Psycho remake. Something where everything is the same but somehow worse. Thankfully, Vampire: The Requiem is the former rather than the later.
The first and most important thing to understand about V:TR is the fact that its Gothic Horror rather than Gothic Punk. This pervades the entire book. The old gameline was one that constantly reinforced a 'fight the man mentality.' This was the basis for the Anarch movement, much of the Brujah mentality, and the Sabbat. Hell, you could argue that Gehenna was fundamentally about the 'old vs. new' mentality that was the chief theme of V:TM. When you remove the Punk elements from the setting, that causes a drastic change in tone. Gone are the vampires out to overthrow the elders with dragonsbreath rounds and katanas. Instead, the world of vampires is motivated by Kindred trying to live a day to day existence.
It's still the same old World of Darkness. According to V:TR, the entire world is crap and things are not getting any better. The cities are mostly slums, all the teenagers are Goths, and the rich are isolated in their own little world. In other words, two out of three things are identical to our world. The difference is that vampires wield tremendously less influence in this reality. Due to a quirk in the rules, gone are the Queen of the Damned demigods and nuclear bomb immune Ravnos founders. Vampires are no longer able to dominate humanity with their vast mental powers. Indeed, all the vampires that are awake were embraced in the last thousand years or so.
These changes leave me with mixed feelings. It eliminates the chief impetuous of much Munchkinism. The player characters could track down a 2000 year old Aztec god of death in his tomb to diablerize him but it's unlikely they couldn't take him in a fight anyway. With disciplines 'capped off' at 5 if torpor ever happens, vampires are powerful but encouraged to diversify their abilities. On the other hand, it also removes a lot of the ready made plots that spring to mind when running Vampire. My players were always gung ho about fighting alien elders but the truly twisted nature of them is very downplayed in this version. They're callous bastards but more Enron than Lex Luthor.
Next, sect warfare is also eliminated. The Camarilla existed in V:TR but it was a Roman institution and collapsed over a thousand years ago. Instead of a Camarilla, every city that vampires live in is an independent feudal territory. A nation unto itself in vampiredom. The closest thing to the old sect is the Invictus. The Invictus are the Camarilla without Justicars, Archons, the Sabbat to scare people, or the Anarch threat to unit the Kindred. In other words, it’s a network of arrogant elders that like to pretend they're the rulers of the vampire world.
Oddly, the Sabbat seem to have two analogues. The Lancea Santcum takes all the crazy Catholic titles of the Sabbat, the weird religious rituals, their faith of being better than humans, and makes it into a genuine vampire religion. I rather like them even if I miss the old Sabbat Paths of Enlightenment. The psychotic rabble role seems filled by Belial's Brood that are Satanist vampires. I can't say that I liked this last bit. The Sabbat are greater than the sum of its parts when it's a loopy religion over a bunch of psychotics. Nevertheless, maybe I'll be more impressed when I get the Covenant books.
The Anarch's analogues in the Carthians are almost unrecognizable. Basically, recently embraced or ancilla Kindred that want to use their 'modern' ideals (like Democracy, civil rights, appeals, etc) to update the vampire world. It's like all the Anarchs died in a horrible fire only to be replaced by the Brujah idealists. I must confess, even knowing the Punk element is gone, it annoys me that the violent rebel is no longer a mainstay of this setting.
The Tremere and Tzimisce clan have been merged into their own sect as opposed to bloodline. The Ordo Dracul runs the risk of being somewhat silly since their founder is supposedly Dracula. Nevertheless, a sect devoted to improving the vampire form without fleshcrafting's freaky elements and crossed with the Tremere's occultism is something that appeals to me. I imagine that this group will recieve a lot more treatment as 'just this close to world domination' in people's games than ever was intended by the authors.
Finally, there's the Circle of the Crone that seems to be yet another attempt to insert Bahari style Lilithism into the setting. I hated the Secrets of the Dark Mother when it came out and loathed Lilith whenever she was alluded to in the game. Thankfully, the Circle of the Crone seems to be more a type of vampiric Verbena. Given the Traditions no longer exist over in Mage and everything is from Atlantis, this uncluttered paganism might be quite appealing for players berift of their wizards.
There's also the VII that seems to be a mysterious Black Hand/2nd edition Assamite substitute. Nothing is revealed about them in this book save they really hate other vampires. It was rather disappointing. According to this, any VII appearance will consist of them trying to kill my players for no reason before revealing nothing. Good work there White Wolf, not. I can make my own mysterious assassins with no past if necessary.
The Clans are drastically shortened as well. Having removed the Tzimisce and Tremere, they also eliminated all the clans that were too similar to other clans, and they also combined what was left in most cases. Despite the similarity in names, no clan is remotely resembling to what it used to be. The Gangrel are now Brujah/Gangrel hyrbids, filling the role of the violent outlaw Kindred. The Daeva are Ravnos/Toreador hybrids with tremendous addictions but also the sexiness. The Mekhet are a kind of Lasombra/Cappadochian hybrid with the role of being the Damned's resident nerds. The Nosferatu are well.....still the Nosferatu. The Nosferatu aren't automatically the creature from the Black Lagoon though, just unlikeable by nature. Finally, the Ventrue clan is the Ventrue and Malkavians being fused together.
The result is surprisingly effective. It takes some getting used to since so much of one's identity in V:TM was tied to your clan. The Embraces here are much more widespread and no one can really control the nature of the Damned. So, no one would really bat an eyelash at a Wrath suffering Daeva that was an utter badass in the same way they would a Toreador. However, none of this would work if not for the Bloodlines that apparently exist by the hundreds in the vampire world. At least some of the ones mentioned in the clans are direct analogues of the ones 'lost' between Editions. For example, a Mekhet bloodline is the Sangiovanni that is a bunch of inbred Venetian necromancers.
Disciplines are changed drastically. The physical disciplines are toned down to the point that vampires are very powerful but don't have the comic book levels of invulnerability that they used to have. I have a few complaints like the Ordo Dracul not having their own version of Thaumaturgy and the fact that Obfuscate no longer has the Mask of a 1000 Faces. However, I like that Protean 4 is no longer limited to just a Bat or a Wolf. Overall, I'm very pleased with this and think that the system has been much improved for Kindred abilities.
The end of the book gives a couple of ‘adaptation’ clans along with some new bloodlines. The Bruja, Toreador, and Malkovian bloodlines are a joke on the reader that isn’t particularly funny. Instead of the nuanced portrayals before, they took the stereotypical way that gamers played them to the extreme. The Bruja are just a bunch of biker punks, the Toreador are idiotic social butterflies, and the Malkovians are the Uncle Festers that the Ventrue lock up when it’s tea time. Really, White Wolf, can’t you be a bit more mature about this sort of thing?
A couple of other random comments. I like that diablerie now provides you a permanent increase in disciplines and a skill point. We've known it should for a long time to justify all the fuss that Kindred show over it. Also, Blood Potency is an excellent substitute for Generation since it provides most of the benefits from it but also rewards a Kindred that survives a very long time. Sadly, the concept also precludes Thinblooded unless there's a gross accident in Embrace. Sacrificing a permanent point of willpower to create a vampire means that there's no more 'shovel heads' either.
Overall, Vampire: The Requiem is a very satisfying read but it is heavily skewed towards games involving Lost Humanity and inter-Kindred politics. There's no "evil" clans here for the players to fight and violence is no longer the solution to everything. Thus, its a good deal more difficult for me to come up with plots off the cuff of my head. That is a negative since ease of play is something that I would have preffered. Plus, the fact that the book is not self-contained but a supplement to World of Darkness bugs me. The old style books were much preferred. Still, Vampire: The Requiem is an impressive work that gives all the necessary information for creating a complex political structure amongst the damned. I think it's fully the equal of its predecessor.
Score: Eight out of Ten Drops of Blood
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Authors:
Release Date: 2007-04-18
On Sale: Yes
Price: 34.95
ISBN: 978-1-58846-468-2
Product Type: Core Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 336
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Review by: Eloy Lasanta
Rating: 8/10
Buy it if you have the money. If you don't, get the money, cause it's worth it.
Here again with another review. This time for the new White Wolf game, Scion, where you play the sons and daughters of gods. Now this is the concept that I've done over and over again in various format and game systems, but this if the first time that I've seen it implemented this well. This is the perfect game mix between World of Darkness, Exalted, and Aberrant. However, while the rules are really awesome, some of its presentation is lacking, which i will explain shortly.
I'm going to skip the introduction fiction, as i really wasn't impressed by it. But to each their own, I was more interested in getting into the meat of it anyway.
Chapter One: Pantheon went into detail on the 6 "most active" pantheons in the world, the Greek, Aztec, Egyptian, Japanese, Voodoo,and Norse. The write-ups for each of these pantheons is well thought out and gives you their myth, their members, their purpose, their weaknesses and what they are doing now in the modern day. Very nice.
The poorest part of this chapter would be... the sample characters. I'm trying to figure out how such cheesy writing really got through to the book itself. As an example, let me paraphrase the egyptian sample character: Horace (Scion of Horus), grew up in Thebes, Illinois, with his dad Cyrus, mother Isola, and his uncle's name is Seth. In an altercation with his uncle, his left eye got shot out. For those of you not following, Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and his uncle was Set. Thebes is a city in Egypt. Horus lost his left eye. Yeah, i know. Now, maybe the writers thought it to be ironic or clever, but it came off just lame. Let me repeat again though that every thing else about the chapter was awesome.
Chapter Two: Hero and Chapter Three: Traits take you through the basics of coming up with a concept and making a character. For those of you that did not like the Virtue/Vice thing, you'll be happy to know that they put Nature back in here. As well as adding a fun mix of Virtues, similar to that of Exalted games of old that we all love.
Chapter Four: Epic Attributes and Knacks is a large part where I link this game to Aberrant. Not only do you have regular attributes, but you then can get Epic Attributes (akin to Mega-Attributes) which come with Knacks (Enhancements) for each one. I really wish they would have kept the name Enhancements, hoenstly, 'cause I was never a fan of the term Knack. Always makes me think of "Give a dog a bone".
Chapter Five: Boons and Birthgrights is where the real meat of the game is. This is the god-like powers, followers, guides, and mythical creatures section. the coolest part about it is that it gives a lot of creativity in the making of a character, as well as their relics and equipment they have. It is comprehensive and expansive. Some players, I've found, have found that the shear amount of choices is a little daunting to people new to the game, but with the right guidance, the process can be made much easier.
Chapter Six: Rules and Chapter Seven: Combat give you a rundown on how dice rolling works, weapons charts, vehicle info, and how the tick combat system works. I have, after this game, become a fan of the tick system and i hope they utilize it in future titles as well.
Chapter Eight: Advancement is not really a chapter. It's two pages with a few notes on spending experience points. The chart's the most important thing.
Chapter Nine: Epic Storytelling is probably one of the best chapters there is in the book. It gives a very good rundown of the basics needed to run a Scion chronicle. It gives great do's and don'ts on NPCs, adventure types, how to get everyone involved, etc. I really liked it it a lot.
Chapter Ten: Fate describes the effects of Fate on the world of Scion. In short, it effects it a lot. I really like the concept of Fatebinding, which links people, places and things to the legend of the Scion and they will continuously show up in their lives and effect them. Really cool stuff.
Chapter Eleven: The Heroic Saga is a collection of adventures created for the pre-generated characters in the book. They were ok, but would take a lot of work to use for your own purposes. With the amount of book space taken up for thei chapter, it hardly seemed worth it.
Chapter Twelve: Antagonists is the best chapter in the book. They explain the allies and antagonists for the characters and they do it in a cool way. The art is pretty good as well, except that the picture of the Horsemen was SOOOO wrong.
But overall, despite a few hiccups here and there, Scion is a great game and i give it 8 out of 10. I'd say, buy it if you have the money. If you don't, get the money, cause it's worth it.
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Authors:
Release Date: 2007-02-07
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-608-6
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 144
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Review by: Sterling Jenson
Rating: 9/10
Magnum Opus might not be destined to become the most used book in the line, it does allow for more options and contains ideas that can be the focus of an entire chronicle.
Magnum Opus is the latest and second to last supplement in the Promethean: the Created series. The signature character who this book focuses around is the Ulgan, Zo Malak. For some reason I fell that she is one of the Promethean signature characters that we know the least about. The introductory story and corresponding opening fiction for each of the chapters is fairly good. I like how each of the books in the Promethean line focuses on a different signature character. After the introductory story, the book has an introduction section describing the purpose and what is inside the book.
Chapter One is focus on the “what ifs” of the Promethean game, such as can a Promethean be made out of other materials besides human bodies. In this section, the book has additional progenitor stories for each of the Lineages that do not have a traditional basis as being created out of inanimate objects, namely the Ulgan and the Nepri along with a discussion about how Shelly could have misunderstood the act of creation. I do not like the idea of these stories as being the Truth since if these stories were true, than being made out of cadavers should be the rarity and not the norm in Promethean. Though, these stories might make sense for constructs of the various lineages to believe. Other sections in this chapter deal with Created that arose after a catastrophe, an idea called the Prodigal Demiurge, the living children of Prometheans, Prometheans who were created in a dream, and Prometheans who were created out of parts of animals. All of these sections were well written adding depth to a game and more elements of mystery. Any one of the sections could be the basis of a whole campaign so I find it unlikely that characters will meet all of these possibilities in a course of a typical chronicle. The last section of this chapter is about finding shrines that were left by a Promethean who walked all the major Refinements and created shrines where ever he found inspiration. The only thing that I wished that the writers had included in this section is what would happen if player characters, however unlikely, stumble across such shrines.
Chapter Two discusses other Refinements than those found in the core book. Each of these new Refinements get a new Transmutation list associated with them in addition to a Transmutation list found in the core book. Each of these transmutation lists adds another element to the game and most of them are a bit more abstract than those found in the core book. Out of the new Refinements I liked the Refinement of Aes the least, but I still could see playing a character who followed this Refinement. The Transmutation lists that compose the rest of the chapter look rather solid. I wish that the side bar on pg. 90 that listed Other Bestowments that can be enhanced with the Transmutation Refine Bestowment included Dreamsharing, which is found within Magnum Opus. Other than that the list seems fairly complete otherwise, save for the Zeky Bestowments, but since the Zeky were not released until the last book, Saturine Night, that omission is understandable. Transmutations in the list have several variants depending on what type of supernatural creature the character is studying.
Chapter Three is mainly geared towards Storytellers, giving them ideas on how to deal with characters going to the wastes, how to create Milestones, how to deal with Milestones in short games, and ideas for how to deal with crossover games. Each of these sections are good though I felt that the section on Milestones called “A Stone’s Weight” will probably get the most use out of this chapter since it gives Storytellers ideas on creating Milestones. The section on going to the Wastes is also fairly useful if a character in a campaign has to or wants to purify his Azoth. I felt that parts of this section were fairly common sense, such as bringing a new character in as a temporary player character to replace a character that has left for the wastes. The parts on how to prevent players from using this temporary character to derail the game could be useful though.
Chapter Four is the latest installment of the “Waters of Life.” This installment looks interesting, but I have not kept up with the series so I feel that I cannot offer many useful criticisms.
Overall, I liked this book as with all of the Promethean line. I thought the writing was well done and felt that I could simply sit down and read most of the book cover to cover which does not happen with many RPG books. The art work, save for a couple of pieces, is generally either good or great. I especially like the artist who does the chapter openings, but that might be due to the fact that I like line work. Based on usefulness, writing, content, and art, I’m going to give this book a 9 out of 10. Magnum Opus might not be destined to become the most used book in the line, it does allow for more options and contains ideas that can be the focus of an entire chronicle.
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Authors: Greg Stolze
Release Date: 2004-12-04
On Sale: Yes
Price: 6.99
ISBN: 1-58846-862-3
Product Type: Fiction
Product Style: Softcover
Page Count: 288
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Review by: Christopher Lee Simmons
Rating: 9/10
A highly entertaining look at the nightly politics of Vampiric Chicago.
A Hunger Like Fire is the first in a series of novels based on the Vampire: The Requiem setting. More specifically, it is set in the darkened streets of Chicago, and features the signature characters shown in the Requiem core book: Solomon Birch, Daeva and Bishop of the Lancea Sanctum, Persephone Moore, the accidental childe of Prince Maxwell, and more. It was written by Greg Stolze, a veteran White Wolf writer who has written novels like The Wreckage of Paradise, as well as working on games as varied as Aberrant and Wraith: The Great War.
I'll be honest, get my biases out in front right here. I like Vampire: The Requiem a lot. I think I even prefer it to the Masquerade. I also tend to dislike gaming fiction. I wasn't a big fan of the Clan Novels back in the day, simply because they tended to screw things up more than they got right. (Sascha Vykos isn't a she, thanks. Vykos is an it, and it wouldn't leave a scar shaped like the Tzimisce clan logo on Victoria Ash's bitchy cheek for all the blood in China.) Not to say there weren't good points: Kathleen Ryan's Clan Novel: Setite was nicely done. I'm digressing badly. It's been a long time since I actually had time to write a review, so I'll get back to the subject: I wanted to see the new World of Darkness in action, so I picked this up.
I was extremely pleasantly surprised. Stolze's writing style is deft, and he has a good handle on the characters. Persephone could so easily fall into the Victoria Ash annoyance, but she is likeable, even cool, without catering to the slobbery fanboy stereotypes, like the lesbian ninja assassins of the old World of Darkness. (Hey, I liked Lucita, but really.) Anyway... Stolze's dialogue, in particular, is very strong. He slides back and forth between the realistic, clipped and stumbling speech of characters like Bruise, and the seemingly rehearsed, stylized "prose" speech of characters like Prince Maxwell and Solomon Birch, both skilled orators.
So here's the scene:
Alcoholic Bruce Miner stumbles off the wagon, and into the Long Night. He wakes up as a Nosferatu, and promptly breaks the Masquerade. Persephone Moore is trying to find a place for herself, despite Solomon Birch's interference. Bruce (now called Bruise by his new Unbound friends) worked in a hardware store as a mortal, and Persephone was a Real Estate Lawyer. Never the twain shall meet, eh? Not so in the world of the Kindred. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and you don't really get stranger than some of the characters in this novel.
Norris, the Prince's Spymaster, is a wonderfully written, creepy character, a la the Post-Corrective Advisor, P.R. Deltoid, from A Clockwork Orange. Solomon Birch is a nicely detailed villain who seems oddly grandfatherly around the Brigmans, his experiment in Eugenics, while at the same time being a blustery psychotic fundamentalist reminiscent somehow of Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church. Prince Maxwell is the Prince. He is worthy or respect, fear and admiration, by turns. I'd love to read a book focusing a bit more on him.
To properly rate this book, we need to accept what it isn't. It's not Literature, with a capital "L," nor is it intended to be. If you're looking for that, go get a copy of Mark Z. Danielewski's A House of Leaves. What this does, or should, aim to be, is nothing more than a highly entertaining story. And at that, it succeeds. I'm giving it a 9 out of 10.
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Authors: White Wolf
Release Date: 2006-01-30
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-332-X
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count:
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Review by: Prax
Rating: 7/10
Heresy. Spirit Cults. Bale Hounds. If any of those appeal to you, you will not be disappointed with this book. Those who want a safe little world of neatly packaged truths should look elsewhere.
Blasphemies by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Wayne Peacock and Chuck Wendig is about a number of things, but in general it can all fall under the heading of heresies and uncomfortable truths. The book opens with a piece of fiction titled Down Among the Dead, which I found somewhat disappointing. As could be expected for a book of this sort it features a Bale Hound, but the plot and depiction of the Bale Hound felt more then a little lacking. It felt more like a showcase of what other information was to come rather then a proper piece of fiction. Luckily the book only improves after that.
After the usual Introduction we move on to Chapter 1: Heresies, which discusses alternate creation myths for the Uratha. The chapter discusses some of the purposes heresies can serve in a Chronicle as well as the consequences and rewards of casting doubt upon the core creation myth. Also discussed are the basic structure of creation myths and the major components of the accepted story of Father Wolf. The Chapter closes out with a look at four quite varied alternate creation myths and how they change the outlook of the Uratha who put stock in them. Of the four my favorite was probably the myth titled “Curse of the Werewolf,” but then I’ve always had a thing for the myth of Arkadia and King Lykaon.
Chapter 2: Brotherhoods is more expansive and concerns cults as the specifically pertain to the Forsaken and their antagonists. Appropriately enough spirits are covered in quite a bit of depth from exactly what a spirit gains from a cult of mortal followers to how it can gather these hypothetical followers. Several new Numina are introduced specifically for that purpose. Cults centering around the Urged, Claimed and even the Spirit-Thieves are also covered along with short descriptions of several example cults of all sorts. Blasphemies does not merely stick with spirits though, cults centered around the Hosts, Pure, Forsaken and even Zi’ir are also discussed. The chapter ends with two more developed example cults one centered around the remaining servants of a fallen idigam and one centered around a nest of Beshilu. A full trait write-up is provided for each cult’s “leader.”
Chapter 3: Hidden Lodges provides full write-ups for seven new Lodges exactly as you would find them written up in Lodges: The Faithful. The Lodge of Arkadia is based around the Curse of the Werewolf creation myth presented in Chapter 1, while the Lodge of Mania believes that madness is one of Luna’s gifts to the Forsaken. The Lodge of Fevered Light is a Fire-Touched lodge based around a human cult. The Lodge of the Crossroads is probably my favorite. It is based not around heresy so much as pursuing the truths behind American folklore, charting and controlling the way things like urban legends and rumors affect America’s spiritual landscape. The Brotherhood of Crossed Swords and the Lodge of Quetzal are two South American based lodges that are linked by mutual antagonism. Also introduced with them are a new type of shape-shifting jaguar monster known as the Balam-Colop whose image the Lodge of Quetzal attempts to capitalize on in its war against the Brotherhood of Crossed Swords. The chapter ends out with a new type of lodge culture known as Mots. Their myths and folklore draw heavily from Teutonic mythology and they place a lot of stock in the swearing of oaths, to the point that two new rites are introduced specifically for swearing oaths between individuals and between packs. The two example Mots are the Valkyrja Mot, an all female lodge that purports to be responsible for the human myths of the Valkyries and the Eiwaz Mot a tight knit and dangerous group of werewolves out for power who empower their members with the belief in the innate superiority of werewolves over all others.
Chapter 4: The Bale Hounds ends out the book. Within this chapter you will not so much find answers as all the tools necessary to use Bale Hounds as antagonists within your own chronicle. Methodologies are suggested and explanations for their existence are provided. If you want them to simply be a bunch of individuals working at their own twisted goals, so be it. If you want them to be some twisted religious faith centered around the Maeljin Incarna, that’s covered as well. If you want them to be a formal, secretive and cancerous lodge nestled amongst the Pure and Forsaken; that is covered as well. You will even find the tools necessary to make the Bale Hounds the hidden ninth Tribe of werewolves with their own dark Firstborn totem. Three new Gift Lists, one new Merit, three new Rites and a new Talen and Fetish are also introduced to give your Bale Hound antagonists a unique and disturbing edge.
Blasphemies is at its most useful as a Storyteller resource. There is very little within it that I personally consider useful to your average player. However, for Storytellers it is the perfect book for twisting your own Chronicles up to 180 degrees away from your average Forsaken chronicle. If you want to make your characters question their beliefs, tear the setting apart revealing dark and disturbing truths that your players never even suspected or simply work in a quirky group of cultists who kill in the name of Abraham Lincoln, well this is the book for you. As typical for a well written, but primarily storyteller resource I give this book a 7 out of 10. Be forewarned though someone in the editing department was lazier then usual with this book.
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Authors: Various Artists
Release Date: 2000-02-22
On Sale: Yes
Price: 13.99
ISBN: B-00004-RCZ-1
Product Type: Merchandise
Product Style: N/A
Page Count:
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Review by: Thais Munk
Rating: 7/10
Gets a seven from me, but the CD would work better in a Larp.
While playing a member of clan Toreador at a Vampire larp one of the other players brought a copy of the official Vampire: the Masquerade CD and somehow I got caught up with the music. Naturally I ordered a copy later and after having heard the CD through a lot of times, I'm ready to share my thought with the rest of the ELN community.
Music from the Succubus Club was released by Dancing Ferret Discs in 1999 and features music from the Crüxshadows, Seraphim Shock, Paralysen Age, Wench, Sunshine Blind, Bella Morte, Carfax Abbey, Beborn Beton, Mission UK, Kristeen Young, Nosferatu, Diary of Dreams and Neuroactive, all property of Dancing Ferret Discs.
First thing: You can pretty mich forget about using Music from the Succubus Club as a mood CD. The mood within is very much the mood given by the writing and the artwork within Vampire 1st and 2nd edition, one that feels very like it was taking place in the eighties (even if 1st edition was published in 1991 and the CD was released in 1999 ). The lyrics for each one of the 13 tracks are meant to symbolize the idea and theme of every one of the 13 clans...which doesn't work. Putting the word “deception” in one the tracks doesn't make me think of the Ravnos clan for example. Therefore, I wouldn't use it CD to set the mood for a gaming session.
Second, the music there is not going to be something for everyone. It's electronic gothic dance music, a genre only appricated by a few. Still, I happen to like this kind of music and as such I like Music from the Succubus Club. Personally, I think the CD would work better in a Larp, as music in the background (as you don't have the pay attention to what the ST is saying ).
Therefore, on a scale of 1 to 10 Music from the Succubus Club gets a seven from me.
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Authors: White Wolf
Release Date: 2005-11-25
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-330-3
Product Type: Splat Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 144
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Review by: Prax
Rating: 7/10
If you want a big collection of lodges of every size and shape this is the book for you. If you want something else, then I’d purchase something else.
Lodges: The Faithful written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Matt McFarland, Adam Tinworth and Ethan Skemp is pretty much just what it sounds like: a big book of lodges. The book begins with a short piece of fiction titled Blooding that I rather enjoyed. In a nutshell it’s about the end of a dysfunctional pack. Following that is a short introduction before Chapter 1: Foundations goes into the whys, wherefores and hows of lodges. While it is a fairly basic chapter it is also fairly dense and it does its job well, by the end of it you’ll have a pretty good idea how to create your own unique lodges or how to work the creation of a lodge into your ongoing Chronicle.
Chapter 2: Tribal Lodges and Chapter 3: Other Paths are basically just write-ups of various lodges ranging from fairly straightforward to the truly twisted. Each lodge gets an explanation of its philosophy, practices, how it came to be, patron spirit, how you join, benefits of joining and an example member with full trait write-ups. And that is the entirety of the book, so I’ll spend the remainder of this review on some highlights and reasons to consider purchasing this book.
Let’s start off with what I got out of the book. I gained a greater understanding of the sheer diversity that’s possible within the same tribe and among werewolves as a whole. If you ever considered all werewolves of a particular tribe, auspice or even nationality to be exactly the same then you might want to give this book at least a casual read through. To illustrate let’s look at my top six Lodges from this book in alphabetical order.
The Cult of Bones is actually a lodge of the Pure Tribes and can be found in Chapter 3: Other Paths. Before anyone gets too excited I’ll point out this is the only Pure lodge in the book, but it is a neat one. The Cult of Bones concerns itself with gathering the relics of Father Wolf. That is actual pieces of his body. They hope that by gathering enough of these pieces as well as enough of Father Wolf’s essence (contained within his descendents,) they can eventually resurrect him and stand by his side when he exacts his vengeance upon the Forsaken. Overall the philosophy just really speaks to me as a neat outlook for some of the Pure.
The Lodge of Arms is an Iron Master lodge and can be found in Chapter 2: Tribal Lodges. The lodge concerns itself with armed combat. Each member focuses upon mastering one specific weapon which they actually craft themselves with help from their fellow lodge members prior to initiation into the lodge. The weapon itself is both a fetish as well as an awakened item that is then soul bound through a special ritual to its creator. The intensity of these guys is creepy when it comes to their weapon, which they may have a closer bond to than their packmates, but their elite combat skills are undeniable.
The Lodge of Ashes is a Hunter in Darkness lodge and probably my favorite lodge in the entire book. You will find it in Chapter 2: Tribal Lodges. The Lodge of Ashes believes that no spirit should ever be bound and that to do so is a violation of everything that Father Wolf stood for. They follow a number of additional tenets known as the Ashen Way that prohibits the enslavement of spirits or harming spirits simply for the sake of personal glory or power. Those who join this lodge are always dedicated to these beliefs going so far as to destroy any fetishes they come across no matter whose possession the objects might be in. That said, they do not force their beliefs on others knowing that most werewolves will not agree with their beliefs. However, while others may not believe in the Ashen Way it does not give those werewolves the right to enslave another entity against its will. Muktar Al-Ahsan the example character for the Lodge of Ashes is a great example of what could prompt a werewolf to taking on this extreme view of the world and is a also just a neat character all on his own.
The Lodge of Doors is another lodge you can find in Chapter 2. Its members hail from the Bone Shadows and they endeavor to uncover secrets, but not only that, they hold to the tenet that any knowledge not earned by the seeker is dangerous. The patron spirit of this lodge, the Lurker in Doorways is probably my favorite lodge patron in the whole book. The spirit is a small, ugly little thing that constantly creeps and crawls and peers and lurks. It is a spirit of discovery and freedom. The idea of a lodge devoted to the discovery of the unknown combined with their unique patron spirit makes this a very appealing group to me and probably one of the few I’d consider making a player character to specifically join rather then just using as an NPC organization.
The Lodge of Ruin is another Hunter in Darkness lodge found in Chapter 2 and they follow Coyote-Who-Howls a spirit that believes the world is ending. The simplest way to describe the Lodge of Ruin is that its members are nihilists. Everything comes to an end eventually and this end is present in every moment of a thing’s existence. Its members have to bleed, break and truly suffer before they can even join the lodge. It probably has the most brutal initiation of any lodge contained within the book. Each Rust-Walker, as the members call themselves, lives in the moment. If something is not of immediate benefit it is typically ignored. If something is simply a waste of space it is disposed of. That brutality, that focus and the bittersweet outlook held by its members is what appeals to me. There is definitely something to be said for the satisfaction and catharsis reached at the end of the road.
And to end this review I share with you the Lodge of the Grotto, which can be found in Chapter 3: Other Paths. Not truly a lodge its members are rather more of a disturbing sub-culture, werewolves who grow up beneath the surface of the earth with no love or need of the surface world. I like this group because under-dwelling cultures always have a certain appeal to me. I also enjoy the weird, the freaky and the odd and that’s definitely what the Lodge of the Grotto is. It’s unique, slightly twisted and not overly antagonistic. I also enjoy the new Grotto Gift List its members have access too.
So, yeah that’s a small taste of what you’ll get out of Lodges: The Faithful. If you’re truly interested in lodges, how they work and what sorts of possibilities they have, by all means purchase this book. However, it is by no means a necessary book and if you’re strapped for cash there are plenty of other Werewolf: the Forsaken books you should purchase first such as Blood of the Wolf, Predators and Lore of the Forsaken. So in conclusion I’ll give Lodges: The Faithful a 7 out of 10, it does what it does well and exceeded my expectations.
Discuss this review in the forums!
Authors: Matthew McFarland, Peter Schaefer
Release Date: 2005-09-25
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-329-X
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 144
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Review by: Prax
Rating: 10/10
A dense and comprehensive look at what it’s like to be a werewolf.
Blood of the Wolf written by Matthew McFarland, Wayne Peacock and Peter Schaefer is more or less the handbook for being a werewolf. This has nothing to do with Tribes or Auspices, just the physical and psychological aspects of being spirit, flesh, human and wolf all rolled up into a single disturbing amalgamation.
The book opens with Like God, a strange piece of fiction written by Matthew McFarland. I’m still not quite sure what exactly is going on in this story, but it definitely feels like a very werewolf story and gets across the feeling of otherness a werewolf can inspire in normal humans without even changing shape. Following that is a short introduction about how werewolves are defined in the World of Darkness and then a chapter breakdown.
Chapter 1: Flesh and Blood is a comprehensive look at werewolf physiology. It begins with another look at the First Change and then goes on to discuss the intricacies of regeneration. Included is a discussion of systems for delaying the effects of regeneration when it might be better to not have your wounds miraculously heal in front of potential witnesses. Silver wounds are also discussed including what it feels like to be hit by silver and what kind of wounds and scarring silver weapons inflict. If you have questions about the kinds of effects various drugs have on werewolf physiology the next section covers that. The following section covers the myriad aspects of werewolf pregnancy, including the conception of a Ghost Child. Ageing is then discussed as well as a massive section about shape shifting with a closer look at each of the five forms. The chapter ends with a fairly thorough discussion of partial transformations. All in all this is a very dense chapter that offers an extremely close look at the werewolf condition. It’s sure to prove insightful and interesting to both storytellers, casual and hard-core werewolf players alike.
Chapter 2: Sheep’s Clothing is about living with normal people. How do werewolves get on in the world? How do you describe that creepy feeling that people get whenever a werewolf is around without using the same descriptions over and over again? What kind of jobs are available for anti-social bastards with anger management issues? All these questions and more are answered in this chapter. The book also takes a look at urban, rural and suburban settings as well as taking a closer look at the Tribal Vows and the Oaths of the Moon. Again this is a fairly dense chapter packed with useful information for both players and storytellers.
Chapter 3: The Wild Hunt is concerned with the wilderness. What does it take to survive in the wild and how much of an advantage do werewolves really have when attempting to live off the land? Included are tips and tricks for running stories in the wilderness, several new animal templates, though sadly no elk, deer or hare template is included. There is also a new Gift List called Halcyon for easing weather conditions and several new Rites specifically made to make wilderness survival easier. Ultimately this is the weakest chapter in the book, but it’s still pretty useful. You also have to consider the high quality of the other chapters in comparison.
Chapter 4: The Wolf-Blooded is just that a discussion of those who carry the blood of the wolf, but who are not werewolves themselves. This is another packed chapter and introduces a new scalable version of the Wolf-Blooded merit for mortals. More importantly though, it offers a detailed look at exactly what Wolf-Blooded are and what sets them apart from the rest of humanity. Also provided are everything you need to make fully fleshed out Wolf-Blooded NPCs and PCs. Three Wolf-Blooded families are also introduced either for easy inclusion in your own chronicles or as an example of just what its like to grow up in a family where numerous members of the family are werewolves. Also introduced are the strange variety of Ridden exclusive to Wolf-Blooded known as Moon-Puppets. The Chapter ends with a collection of three Wolf-Blooded NPCs with full trait write-ups and an extensive look at Wolf-Blooded from a Storytelling perspective.
I highly recommend this book for any player of Werewolf: The Forsaken. Whether you are a player or a storyteller there is something in this book that you can benefit from. The Wolf-Blooded chapter alone is almost worth the cost of the book to me and that’s only one quarter of the information contained within it. Bottom-line you cannot read this book and not come away with a greater understanding about werewolves in the World of Darkness. To put this in numerical terms I give this book a 10 out of 10. I guarantee you will not be disappointed with your purchase of this book at least if you’re a fan of Werewolf: The Forsaken. Unfortunately I can’t vouch for the value that the book will hold for Vampire fans, Mage fans or Werewolf-haters.
Authors: Ari Marmell, Dean Shomshak and C.A. Suleiman
Release Date: 2004-08-01
On Sale: Yes
Price: 34.99
ISBN: 1-58846-247-1
Product Type: Core Book
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count: 304
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Review by: Eloy Lasanta
Rating: 8/10
Vampire comes back, bigger, better and with more bite.
The tackling of Vampire: the Requiem was a grand undertaking. How do you take the most acclaimed and loved game line, strip it down to nothing and build it back up? Well, this is exactly how you do it. The boys (and girls, we don’t want to be sexist) have taken the game we love and made it the game we have fallen in love with.
Chapter One: Society of the Damned covers many of the most essential things you need to know about the new World of Darkness for the Kindred. It covers the Danse Macabre (the existence of the vampire), the Clans (their blood), the Traditions, and essential concepts for domains, hunting, and roles in the city. Hounds are my favorite addition.
Perhaps the most debated addition, however, has been the Fog of Eternity. This addition make perfect sense to me, but many don’t like the fact that they can’t play a thousand year old vampire with perfect knowledge of every moment in their life. I mean, we’re just regular people… I can barely remember what I did last night.
Then this chapter covers and breaks down the Covenants, the secret societies that the Kindred participate in. These have become the thing that separates them, not clan. This makes a lot of sense, though. The guy standing next to you may be of the same clan, but you could hate his guts. But the guy across the hall believes all the same things as you. Wouldn’t you rather be with the one that shares your views on life (or unlife)?
Chapter Two: Character lays out exactly what you need to do to make a Kindred character in the new World of Darkness, supplying the templates and their mechanical effects. I enjoy the concept of Blood Potency much more than that of Generation. Who here agrees with me? I thought so.
Also, the 5 new clans are outlined in this chapter. I believe that the streamlining of the clans into just the five (instead of the outrageous 13 from the old World of Darkness) is one of the best changes this game will ever see. The Daeva, the Gangrel, the Mekhet, the Nosferatu, and the Ventrue. These are the best collection of clans around. Each with their own disciplines and weaknesses.
The disciplines have been rewritten for the new system, but also are much more balanced than before. The Coils of the Dragon have been the big hit among players, as it lets the characters evolve out of their cursed states. At the same time, the Lancea Sanctum use their Theban Sorcery to exalted their curse into a blessing.
Chapter Three: Special Rules and Systyems gives new rules for pumping attributes, waking during the day, healing, Diablerie, feeding, Ghouling, staking, frenzy and Humanity. We’ve seen most of this before, but it is as fresh as ever with the new rules backing it up.
Chapter Four: Storytelling and Antogonists gives tips on how to start a campaign and keep it going, as well as a few sample stories, hooks, and themes. I found the explanations to be very helpful, actually. In a game like this, as open as it is, it is sometimes helpful to have a starting point.
The second part focuses on possible antagonists for the Kindred, from animals to clubgoers. The thing that made me the happiest is the lack of Gargoyles as Vampire Bloodlines. I didn’t like the idea from the old World of Darkness and I am glad that they did not recreate that mistake.
Appendix One: Bloodlines and Unique Disciplines is, I think, the chapter that most of us turned right to. I know I did. It gave 5 new bloodlines (one for each of the Clans) and gave descriptions of their unique disciplines. Yeah, pretty much what the chapter promised. But it also gave detailed information on bloodlines, how they work, and how to make your own. Yay!
Appendix Two: New Orleans then gives a brief overview of the city that later got it’s own book. It gives a timeline of World of Darkness and Kindred events that effected the city, as well as a cast of major players for your characters to interact with.
Overall, I was very happy with Vampire: The Requiem and couldn’t have hoped for a supplement this good. Of course, nothings perfect, but I’d have to give this book 8 out of 10 (It would be 8.5 is halves were available). Go buy it, if you haven’t already.
Authors: White Wolf
Release Date: 2005-08-11
On Sale: Yes
Price: 26.99
ISBN: 1-58846-327-3
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count:
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Review by: Prax
Rating: 7/10
A useful supplement for the spiritual side of Uratha culture.
Lore of the Forsaken written by James Comer, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Wayne Peacock and Stewart Wilson is basically the Forsaken primer for animism in the World of Darkness as it pertains to the Uratha. Answers and overviews are provided for such things as the Firstborn, the nature of Gifts and Rites, Loci, Fetishes and even the Maeljin.
The book opens as always with a piece of fiction, though this one is rather unique. Instead of an entire story The Tarot of Eight Packs provides us with eight rather short vignettes that offer a glimpse into life as a werewolf from a number of different angles. I can’t say I was particularly impressed with the format, but it was an interesting change. After that we get the typical introduction explaining what the book is about as well as a short discussion on animism in the World of Darkness in general.
Chapter 1: Lords of the Hidden World is where things truly begin. This chapter discusses the bonds between werewolves and spirits, specifically the bonds of pack, tribe and moon. Answers are provided for questions about why a spirit would bond itself to a group of werewolves, what it gets out of that bond and what it takes to convince a spirit to agree to such a bond. After this there is a discussion of Luna, her aspects and the nature of her bond to werewolves. There is very little concrete about this discussion, but there is definitely a lot more information provided about the Uratha’s spiritual mother then you will find in the corebook. The following section discussing the Firstborn is one of my favorite parts of the book. It discusses each of the Firstborn, the legend of that totem’s binding and what it means to be accepted into one of their Tribes. Also discussed are the various rites of initiation as well as what kind of relationship an individual member of the Tribe can expect to have with her Tribal Totem. Information is even provided for Rabid Wolf, Silver Wolf and Dire Wolf. However, their write-ups are framed more in terms of what kind of way these dark gods can serve as antagonists to the Forsaken.
The chapter ends with a discussion of the Maeljin. Each of the nine is given a short write-up, but the majority of this section is devoted to their servants the Maeltinet, avatars of the dark spirits they serve and the most likely form in which the Uratha will encounter opposition from the Maeljin. In total nine example Maeltinet are provided with full trait write-ups and suggested bans. At the very end expanded rules for Wounds, spiritually blighted areas of the Shadow, are provided. Overall a sound chapter filled with lots of useful details to enhance any chronicle either as a player or a storyteller.
Chapter 2: Pull of the Moon answers all the questions either a player or storyteller could have about Auspices. Each Auspice is discussed in depth with regards to tribe, role in the pack, renown and the all important facet of werewolf existence: the hunt. Several potential archetypes for each Auspice are then discussed that serve as a nice starting point for any player or storyteller having difficulty in coming up with a character concept. The chapter ends with five new Auspice specific Gift Lists providing members of every Auspice with a few new tricks to use in performing the duties Mother Luna has ordained for them.
Chapter 3: Spirit Magic is a comprehensive discussion of Gifts and Rites. Have you ever wondered how Gifts are learned or even work from the stand point of the story? What about the true nature of the Rites that Uratha call upon? This chapter answers those questions and a few more in quite a bit of depth. I found this chapter highly informative especially with regards to rites and how best to incorporate them into a Chronicle. The chapter ends out with three new Gift Lists specific to no tribe or auspice and follows up with five new Rites of varying utility. I enjoyed the new Gift lists, but the rites at least to me left something to be desired.
Chapter 4: The Living World begins with a discussion of Loci. I’m not quite sure what I was looking for in a write-up about loci, but I know that despite being nicely written I didn’t find it in this chapter. What I did find was a discussion of the basic composition, suggested resonances and some nice pointers on how to describe loci in game so that each one is unique. Also answered are questions about non-standard Loci such as mobile and living loci. While such options are not recommended the ramifications of making such a choice are discussed sensibly. After the discussion about Loci the chapter moves on to discussing Awakened Spirits. This was one of the most interesting parts of this chapter and quite informative in explaining the differences between an awakened object and a fetish. It is also the only place I’ve seen that discussed the differences between awakened objects, ephemeral reflections, fetishes and spirits in the Shadow.
The chapter then ends with a discussion of Fetishes. A number of new things I learned in this chapter were that each Fetish has a lifespan, what it takes to keep one happy and why it’s a good idea to keep your fetishes happy. There is also a very nice system provided for creating your own unique fetishes that I have since used successfully many times. Finally the book finishes up with a collection of about forty new fetishes ranging from the useful to the strange. Unfortunately a few of the write-ups fell short of providing complete explanations for how the individual fetishes worked mechanically, but if nothing else there are plenty of examples showing off the numerous possibilities for spiritually empowered objects.
Overall Lore of the Forsaken is a very useful supplement for anyone curious about the spiritual side of Uratha culture. I give it a rating of 7 out of 10 since you will find yourself coming back to the book again and again, but mostly for the mechanics on awakened items and the fetish creation system. The rest of the information is nice to go over now and again if you’re a Storyteller, but the average player will probably give it the once over and be done with it.
Authors: White Wolf
Release Date: 2005-06-23
On Sale: Yes
Price: 29.99
ISBN: 1-58846-326-5
Product Type: Resource
Product Style: Hardcover
Page Count:
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Review by: Prax
Rating: 7/10
A very useful antagonist resource for Werewolf: The Forsaken.
Predators, written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Jess Hartley, Forrest B. Marchinton, Deena McKinney and Ethan Skemp, is essentially an antagonist primer for Werewolf: The Forsaken. In this respect it’s a useful book for any Forsaken Storyteller wishing to get a better handle on enemy spirits, the Ridden and the Hosts for use in pretty much any type of Chronicle.
As usual for White-Wolf resources the book opens with a piece of fiction titled “One Vengeance.” It’s a rather disturbing little tale that highlights exactly what sorts of dangers the denizens of the spirit world can pose to the Uratha. The story begins with a child being held hostage in her own body by a vengeful spirit and then ends with violence as these things typically do when you involve werewolves. After that the book moves on to the Introduction, a fairly cut and dry chapter that explains what the book is and isn’t for as well as going over each of the four chapters in brief.
Chapter 1: Denizens of the Shadow discusses the most pervasive of the Uratha’s enemies as well as occasional allies, the spirits. I really enjoyed the opening part of this chapter, which only consists of nine pages, but really does a great job explaining the overall motivations of spirits from certain unique psychological aspects like their inherent immortality, reasons they might have for interacting with werewolves and how they group and interact with one another. I continue to refer to those nine pages as I run my own chronicles even now and each time I do I usually learn something new that I either overlooked or failed to realize the true importance of on my first reading.
After the spirit overview the chapter moves on to the discussion of specific spirits in the form of a bestiary. The bestiary describes over sixty different types of spirits and provides full trait write-ups for each of them. Included among these are the unihar also known as Ghost Children, example of each of the five types of Lunes, Ancestor spirits, magath and many more. However, the bestiary is not and never was meant to be a comprehensive resource. What it does do is provide a myriad of examples of the possibilities inherent in the spirit world. Of these examples my favorites were the Mini-Mart spirits, the magath known as Wise Lost and the Ancestor spirits. Your own tastes may of course vary considerably. The chapter ends with full write-ups for the thirteen new Numina used by various spirits described within the chapter.
Chapter 2: The Spirit-Ridden begins with one of the more disturbing small-fiction introductions I have read in a long time. This chapter takes an in-depth look at the three types of Ridden that the Uratha may encounter during the course of a story. The first part of the chapter goes over a spirit’s motivations for possessing a human host and what motivations a human might have for voluntarily allowing a possession attempt. After that each type of Ridden: Urged, Claimed and Spirit-Thief are explained in their own individual multi-page write-up. Each write-up covers the Fettering or Claiming, the changes that occur to the mount because of the joining, conditions for release and finally all of the mechanics involved in the process from start to finish including the Numina required for the initial claim, maintenance and what the spirit can and cannot do while controlling the mount.
After the bare bones are explained a character creation process for Ridden, specifically Claimed, is provided who receive a new trait known as Synthesis. This represents the degree of change a spirit has wrought upon a mortal form. In addition to Synthesis a system of Aspects is explained and provided. Aspects amount to the physical powers and changes that the possessing spirit imposes on its mortal host body. All of the twenty-five Aspects are fairly straight forward, easy to use and cover pretty much any circumstance or type of spirit possession you could imagine.
After the character creation system is described the book then provides eleven full write-ups of example Claimed. Each one is fairly unique and one of them even describes a non-human Claimed. Further on smaller write-ups are provided that simply describe a number of spirits in brief, focusing on motivations for why they might enter the physical world and possess someone as well as possible results for that possession. The chapter ends with a sample scenario for including Ridden in a Chronicle. The Shadow Syllabus is a short, but well written open-ended scenario about a small cult. Full write-ups for the major dramatis personae are also included, which brings the total number of example Ridden included in this chapter up to fifteen.
The third chapter known as The Swarms Within: The Hosts covers two of the Uratha’s more potent enemies, the Azlu and the Beshilu. Each variety of shartha gets an in-depth look beginning with a legend of their creation, a brief history up to the modern day, their genesis, supernatural biology, the mechanical systems associated with that biology and what modern medicine has to say if you’re brain has been eaten by a flesh-spider or your heart devoured by a demon-rat. Each of the write-ups then ends with a Character Creation system for making your own unique Azlu and Beshilu antagonists. Similar to the Ridden chapter a list of unique Aspects ranging from the practical to creepy is provided for both the Azlu and the Beshilu. However, the system for creating Hosts is far more fluid then the mechanics described in the Ridden chapter and anyone searching for support for player controlled Azlu and Beshilu will likely be disappointed. Also provided are full write-ups for three additional Azlu and three additional Beshilu antagonists, ready made to spring upon unsuspecting players or serve as plot hooks in some player’s background.
The chapter closes out with a discussion of the Hidden Hosts, in which the possible existence of a Third Host is presented. Three potential types of Third Host are then briefly described with one example member with full stats provided at the end of each write-up. Much of the details about these entities is left entirely at the individual Storyteller’s discretion, up to and including even having them exist within the setting. For the curious the Hosts described are the Locust Hosts known as the Srizaku, the Crow Hosts known as the Halaku and the Snake Hosts known as the Razilu. None of them are meant to be enemies on the same scale as either the Azlu or Beshilu, but they are each satisfyingly mysterious and disturbing.
We end the book with Chapter 4: Horrors of an Ancient Age. The title basically says it all, these are things whose time passed long ago, but that have somehow lingered on into the modern age for the ill of all. These are not the idigam. Each of the six Horrors is a unique corporeal entity and not one, but two explanations for its existence are provided within the write-up along with its full listing of traits. Such entities are not things to be lightly tossed into any Chronicle though. Each of them can actually be the focus for an entire Chronicle with a bit of work. They are very powerful, nigh unknowable and each one is perfectly capable of besting a single, if not several packs on its own. None of these creatures particularly sparked my interest and it is probably the least useful chapter in the entire book, but I did enjoy reading about all of them. If mysterious ancient horrors are your thing though, maybe you’ll get a bigger kick out of this chapter then I did. Each one definitely has its place in a Werewolf: The Forsaken or even general World of Darkness story or chronicle.
I personally still hesitate to mark Predators as a completely essential book for anyone’s Werewolf: The Forsaken library. However, it should be noted that a great many satisfied customers heartily disagree with my assessment. That said this is the first book I recommend you purchase if you’re a Storyteller. The insight into the spiritual enemies of the Uratha is invaluable as well as the information provided about the spirit world. If you’re simply a player and fan of Werewolf: The Forsaken I’d recommend picking up Blood of the Wolf and Lore of the Forsaken first. Predators is a nice book and it can be useful to the average player, but in my opinion it is primarily a Storyteller resource. So in closing as a general resource I give this book a 7 out of 10 based on general usefulness for anyone (including players of other World of Darkness games). However, as a Forsaken Storyteller resource I give it a 9 out of 10. It accomplishes what it sets out to do pretty much perfectly.
