Minireview: Ordo Dracul (Vampire: the Requiem)

The new Vampire (Vampire: the Requiem) gets rid of the old clan-based approach; there still are clans, but they no longer dictate your behavior to the old extent. More important are the groups the vampire belongs to… and here the Covenants step in. The Ordo Dracul book describes one of them, the insular and secretive Ordo Dracul.

When I read the Vampire core book I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Ordo. They seemed a weird mix of the old Tremere and a random secret society (and/or the Freemasons), which claims to be founded by Dracula himself. This book describes what they really are and what they want to do – and it’s good stuff. The Ordo is actually a quite fascinating group.

At the core, it’s a vampiric transcendentalist group, with heavy influences from Freemasonism and suchlike. It has a strict hierarchy and chain of command (like the old Tremere), and the lowest-level applicants are actually called “Slaves”. However, it actually does strive for great things: the Ordo concentrates on rising above the vampiric condition, instead of trying to deny it they try to control it and reduce the negative effects. Most shockingly… they seem to be succeeding, at least to a point. A mental/body-control regimen called “The Coils” lets some of them bypass some very fundamental vampiric flaws. They can ignore (very limited amounts of) sunlight. They can control their frenzy reflex. They can stay awake during the day. Naturally enough, many other groups want to know how the hell they do it, but the Dragons (as they call themselves) aren’t talking.

The influences from Freemasonism are all over the place, though the scientific method largely replaces the reliance on mysticism. The Ordo consists of scholars and scientists, first and foremost. They have an elaborate system of coded names, with a certain scholar perhaps having the title “Invisible Philosopher of the Subtle Terror”. To another Dragon, this title tells a lot of important information. To an outsider, it’s nonsense. To add to the deliberate confusion, some titles are only used to mark spies and spread misinformation; using some certain code words in your title tells elder Dragons that “I’m a spy, and cannot be trusted”.

At the core, the Ordo is a group of transcendentalist (or “transhumanist”) amoral vampiric scientists, searching for a (semi) scientific solution to vampirism. Not to cure it, but to use it as the stepping stone in the next step of evolution. They use any and all means available. They do mass murder just because they want to see how the survivors react. They save random people from death, and then observe the cause-and-effect ripples that causes. They observe everything (especially themselves), endlessly. They are far from being “good guys” – but like the Tremere of old, they are quite fascinating.

The book is extremely well written and readable, and really brings a very weird group to life. This is an especially noteworthy feat since the Ordo and its goals are so very… strange. They have a method to their madness, and their layers upon layers of secrecy are mostly there for functional purposes. Yes, they are hard on the applicants who want to join, but they also offer (in their own mind) power that nobody else can offer. Once (and if) you’re accepted into the Ordo proper, you’re on the path to becoming a superbeing.

Or so they claim. […]

Minireview: Chicago (World of Darkness)

World of Darkness: Chicago is a huge setting/crossover book for the (new) World of Darkness. And I do mean huge… at 400+ pages, you could use this as a melee weapon. Fortunately, it’s both a good book and a (surprisingly) good read, so that page count isn’t a bad thing. Even though it’s titled as a general “World of Darkness” book, it’s really not. It’s a crossover book for Vampire, Werewolf and Mage; while a “normals” WoD campaign can get some mileage out of this, the bulk of the book is for the three main game lines.

After some initial chapters detailing the general history of Chicago, the book splits into three parts: unsurprisingly, Vampire, Werewolf & Mage. The Vampire section is easily the best, it’s a showcase of how to create an interesting (vampiric) political situation for a city without leaning much on stereotypes. The NPCs are interesting and the given political situation is full of options and dangers, without being too much of an instant powder keg. Too many vampire games start off with the good old “the old Price has just been deposed” trope. Well, here that has happened…. but it was some time ago, and the new Price is already entrenched, but not too entrenched. There are tons of PC options both for supporting the current regime and opposing it (and also lots of “don’t care” groups). This book is worth the cover price on the strength of the NPCs in the Vampire section alone, they are quite excellent.

The Werewolf section isn’t quite as strong, but does contain some very cool touches. I especially liked some of the Pure packs lurking in the suburbs, some quite creepy stuff going on there. Also, many of the totem spirits used here are interesting and not at all “nice” (I say that as a good thing). The fact that Chicago has a long and bloody history, both in human terms and in terms of the meat packing and slaughter industry, makes for lots of very nice spirit-world options.

Last and unfortunately also least is the Mage section. While not strictly bad, it’s nowhere are tight and interesting as the previous two chapters. There are some interesting NPCs here, but a lot of the main elements seemed quite off to me. Real names are supposed to be a big deal in this game… but here we have a major faction leader openly using his real name and also being the head of a big corporation. The bad guys, supposed to be shadowy puppeteers who may not even exist, suddenly have a headquarters in some highrise building, and the Pentacle mages actually seem to know who and where they are. It’s quite inconsistent with the game, as originally written. At times it shows quite badly that this book was written quite a while ago, back when Mage was still trying to figure itself out. I’ve been told Mage has improved over time, but here it’s a bit of a mess. Still, there are quite a few nice NPCs here who could be used in pretty much any game.

There is some interconnect between the three main parts of the book, but it’s a bit rough – the Mage section has a nightclub/pub which is portrayed as a major meeting point for supernaturals, but this isn’t mentioned in the Vampire or Werewolf parts. Still, the book does try to provide for crossover use, and succeeds to a point. Overall, it’s a very solid city sourcebook with coverage for the three main supernatural splats. Even if your campaign isn’t set in Chicago, there is lot here you could steal for many other WoD games. […]

Minireview: Alchemicals (Exalted)

With Alchemicals, Exalted’s 2nd edition now has a full lineup of the Exalts defined in the first edition, with the addition of the Infernals which are 2nd edition -only. I haven’t read the 1st ed Alchemicals book so I cannot compare to that, but read on its own this is a good (if somewhat obscure) addition to the game.

The so-called “Alchemical Exalts” are weird in many ways. While generally classed as “Celestial Exalts”, that’s more to do with power level than actual origin. Properly, the Alchemicals would be classed as “Primordial Exalts” due to their origin, but that general category doesn’t exist as such. They are on the low end of the “Celestial” power scale; which they have tremendous flexibility, they are far below the raw power level of Solars. A large part of the weirdness comes from their origin: they were created by Autochthon as caretakers of his realm, which in actuality is his own vast body after his retreat into Elsewhere. Creation has no idea they exist, and they have only vague legends of Creation.

Since they are artificially created beings (much more so than, say, Solars), they are unusual in many ways. Grown in vats, they immediately inherit the personality and (most) memories of their predecessor – they step into the world as full adults, lacking most of the chance and uncertainty of the Celestial Exalts. Their creation is always planned, and their capabilities are also planned and designed. Instead of Charms that directly manipulate Essence, their bodies contain extensions and artifacts which allow them to manipulate Essence. Each plug-in artifact does only one thing, so they are limited by what “hardware” they have installed – resulting in a much smaller set of “Charms” than typical Exalts. The flipside is that they can visit a friendly neighborhood vat technician and reconfigure their bodies as they wish, from a huge pool of available implants. As a result, they are very dangerous if they have time to prepare, but more limited in their ability to react to surprises.

In an interesting twist, as they grow in power (Essence-wise) they grow physically larger. At the end of this path, they actually become cities – it’s expected that all Alchemicals eventually “settle down” and provide more living space for the “Populat”… but not all want to do this. Alchemicals do not have a Great Curse (since they were not involved in the Primordial War), but they do have a stat named Clarity – the higher it is, the more “machine-like” they become. As a counterbalance, high Clarity opens up options in the Charm tree and elsewhere. Alchemicals stay at low Clarity by interacting with normal humans, a nice mechanical tweak which gives motivation for the “heroes of the people” to mingle.

As noted, Alchemicals live outside Creation (and also Fate, as a side result). Their world is a strange steampunk-ish underground realm, though it’s not strictly underground: it’s inside the body of an ancient sleeping Primordial. The whole thing is a strange mix of transhumanism, steampunk and “normal” Exalted, and the world has a lot of old Soviet Union echoes via the “planned society” and “limited resources” theme. It’s far from the dystopia that the Soviet Union generally was, though. The Alchemicals really do try to protect the people, and the rulers generally are honest. They’ve been made to be that, and have limited options to rebel even if they wanted to.

As to “what do Alchemicals do?”… well, for one their world is dying. Autochthon is sleeping, and cannot be woken due to ancient edicts. His planned society has developed flaws over the milennia, and inertia is creeping into everything. “The Void” is a major enemy, though the inhabitants of the world are unsure of what the Void actually is. It’s most often seen as the “hostile realm outside Autochthon”, though that’s not strictly true. Nevertheless, it’s a malign force which the Alchemicals can try to push back.

Also, Autochtonia (as the realm is called) contains a multitude of nations, with different views. Warfare is common, despite (or maybe because of) the dwindling resources. Alchemicals can represent “state heroes”, and act as vanguards of their nation. This ties in nicely with their role in society, since they are much more like “respected and well-known superheroes” than most Exalts in Creation.

Also, there is the whole “our world is dying” thing. One option is for a desperate (or brave) nation to break the seal that separates Authchtonia from the mythical Creation, opening up a vast new realm to strip-mine and exploit. Sure, the natives may raise a fuss, but there are lots of Alchemicals. Before the Realm and the other powers realize it, they may be facing a new enemy, one which just appears overnight “from nowhere” and has a lot of firepower.

It’s quite an interesting book. The Alchemicals themselves are a fun semi-cybernetic twist on the “Exalt” theme, and Autochtonia has lots of story possibilities. Of course, the complete separation of Autochthonia from Creations means the GM cannot just add this material to a normal Exalted game. There are basically two options: one is to run a game completely withing Autochtonia, and the other is to run an “Autochthonia Invades Creation” scenario. Both can work, but unfortunately only skimpy internal detail on Autochthonia is provided, the bulk of the book goes towards providing mechanics for the Alchemical Exalts… so a GM wishing to run an Autochthonia-based game needs to do quite a bit of extra work in populating the world. I get the feeling that the “Invasion of the Cyber-Exalted!” scenario is the most common use here. And why not, it provides a new enemy (or potential ally). Not that Creation was exatly lacking in forces trying to destroy it… but hey, the more the merrier.

In sum, a fairly interesting book which is also quite a ways removed from “stock Exalted”. Can be useful, but isn’t required reading in any way. […]

Minireview: Scroll of Exalts (Exalted)

Scroll of Exalts has a very cool cover picture, a tribute to the old 1st edition AD&D Player’s Handbook. Nitpickers will note that all those Exalted signature characters being gathered into one place would be highly unlikely, and their gathering without bloody mayhem ensuing is even more unlikely (apparently someone’s offed whatshername, the lizard lady Lunar, perhaps as a prelude). Nitpickers will also be totally ignored – it’s a brilliant cover.

Fortunately, the cover isn’t the only good thing here. This book is quite straightforward: it’s a collection of Exalts of different types and power levels. Some are “signature characters” we’ve seen before (without full stats, though), some are new to this book. Each is given a full page spread, with a picture, some back story, and full game stats. Included are (among others) the new Infernals, and even the new Alchemicals get a section even though that sourcebook is a later release.

Oh, and we finally get full stats for Chejop Kejak (affectionately also known as “Ketchup Carjack”). Yes, he’s scary. No big surprise.

Since statting up Exalted NPCs has always been a major chore (and one of the problems with the system, imho), I really like this book. It gives you a bunch of ready-made NPCs to play with, and it also illustrates designer intent in what various sorts of characters might be capable of. Oh, and the character writeups are also very cool, some old fairly “meh” characters have been given a new makeover, generally making them rock. Meticulous Owl, for instance, is very interesting now.

Good book. I wish more NPC writeups like this were available, it would lighten up some parts of Exalted GMing considerably. […]

Minireview: Saturnine Night (Promethean)

Saturnine Night is the last supplement to White Wolf’s Promethean: the Created game, and it’s also that game’s “science fiction supplement”, in a way. While Promethean is pretty weird to begin with, this book explores some “way out there” concepts for the game: machine creatures, artificial radioactive life forms, stuff like that. I like Promethean as a game; it’s possibly the most “indie” World of Darkness game so far, and this book is a great way to finish off the line.

It’s a fun mix of serious stuff and not. I mean… this book contains radioactive zombies! And it has those without going all zany about things. In fact, those radioactive zombies are actually quite creepy and not much at all “pulp”. Still, if you want to inject some more over the top elements into a Promethean game, or any WoD game as a crossover, this book has you covered. Artificial machine hive minds, rogue A.I.s and such are slotted into the Promethean paradigm, so they are in some weird borderland between straight scifi and supernatural weirdness. Very nice, especially if you wan to to throw some real curveballs at your players.

The treatment of radiation and its effects is fairly realistic (i.e. nasty) here. No Fallout/Gamma World “fun mutants” here, radiation usually just kills you (fast or slow) in various bad ways. Except when it gives birth to something else. And yes, you can play a radioactive artificial being, if you want. Good luck finding other PCs you can interact with, though…

The book also contains some ideas about running Promethean games in general, including some crossover ideas.

All in all, a great book. Even if you’re not interested in running Promethean, this book will give you lots of fun NPC/antagonists ideas for pretty much any (new) WoD game – assuming you want some really strange NPCs. […]

Minireview: Spirit Slayers (Hunter: the Vigil)

Spirit Slayers is the last of the support books for Hunter: the Vigil. Despite the somewhat confusing name, this is (mostly) a book about werewolves, and mostly as antagonists. The title comes form the fact that in the new Werewolf game, werewolves and spirits have a very symbiotic and also somewhat antagonistic relationship. This book attempts to present both werewolves and spirits, and the role of hunters as “spirit slayers”. This duality, while an understandable design decision, somewhat dilutes the book.

It’s not a bad book by any means; the material on werewolves is quite solid and presents them as primal beasts who also have a very human side, and therefore have the potential to also be allies… or at least neutrals. The book follows the same format as the others; we’re given some historical explanations for what werewolves are, so the GM can tailor his/her werewolves as “something a bit different”. Then there are some new Compacts and a new Conspiracy. None of those are really brilliant, but all are quite ok. The Conspiracy, “Les Mysteres”, is perhaps the most interesting, as it presents a disparate group of people who have a tight bond with spirits (much in the Voodoo/Loa direction but not limited to that).

The rest of the book contains simplified rules for werewolves and spirits… and here the fact that the book tries to cover two aspects becomes a small problem. The werewolf rules seem ok, though they are very compact… but that leaves precious little room for rules on spirits. Since spirits in the new WoD can be quite complex entities, this makes the ultra-simplified rules here not worth much. In practice, a GM will probably need at least The Book of Spirits to make sense of things.

The end has the usual GM advice on how to these critters in a game.

While perhaps the weakest of the Hunter support books, that’s purely because it tries to cover a bit too much ground. The writing here is excellent and the ideas presented mostly interesting.

As a whole, the new Hunter game like is very good. It does what most people expected the first Hunter to do, and it does it well and with style. If you’re looking for a monster-hunting game, you’ll want to take a good long look at this one. I can’t find much to criticize in it as a game line (other than it’s a bit short, a book or two extra would not have hurt). […]

Minireview: Night Stalkers (Hunter: the Vigil)

Night Stalkers is the second expansion book to White Wolf’s “Hunter: the Vigil”, and it deals with vampires – or more exactly, vampires as antagonists for vampire hunters. If you want to play vampires, you’ll want the full Vampire: the Requiem game. Just judging by this book it’s a bit unclear whether “Night Stalkers” refers to vampires or the the people who hunt them, but judging by the other books in the line (Witch Finders, Spirit Slayers) it’s clear that the reference is to the hunters themselves.

What I’ve read of Hunter so far has been very good, and this book does not disappoint either. While here the “targets” are much more clearly “hostiles” than in the mage book (Witch Finders), there is still some room given to scenarios where the hunters might cooperate with a blood-sucker (at least for a while) before they go all Buffy on them. This is presented as a very risky option, of course, and so it should be – these are not Twilight-style glow-in-the-dark angsty animal-eating teenagers. These are monsters, usually in the classic sense of the word. It’s not that they’ll just kill you if you threaten them; they’ll also often have the capability (and lack of human morals) to also kill your family and other loved ones, while (potentially) leaving you alive with a ruined life. With ages-old power networks at their disposal, they can make sure that you’re suddenly out of a job, branded a pedophile, homeless, and/or lots of other fun stuff. It’s like fighting entrenched organized crime (and often, in the WoD, there is heavy overlap anyway)… the leaders won’t fight you directly. They’ll just send endless disposable minions after you and everyone you care about, while using their contacts to make your life hell. That’s the real danger of hunting vampires, and the book goes to great lengths to make sure that you use a vampire antagonist in a smart way. Only very young or foolish vampires will look for a head-on fight with a gang of hunters.

The book organization mimics Witch Finders. First we have a ton of historical vampire myths, with different sorts of vampires. While you can use the Vampire: the Requiem model for what a vampire is like, you don’t have to. Having your vampires be something quite unexpected will be a fun and nasty curveball for your players. Lots of suggestions and ideas are presented here; some of them creepy, some a bit silly, and some just weird.

Next up is a overview of how the various Compacts and Conspiracies regard and hunt vampires. Nothing too surprising here, though some of the detail is fun. Then we get some new Compacts and a new Conspiracy; the Compacts aren’t anything all that special, really (one is clandestine political group, one is a college sorority of sorts, and one a street gang)… but the Conspiracy is very cool. It’s the “Cainite Heresy”, and it consists of fanatical vampire hunters who hunt vampires using supernatural methods which they learn from… someone. Or something. It’s quite creepy, and has lots of story possibilities.

The last sections of the book contain some new Tactics, a bunch of “Dread Powers” for Vampires to use if you don’t want to use or don’t have Vampire: the Requiem, and a storyteller section with tips and ideas for running vampires as antagonists in a chronicle.

It’s a very solid book. Sure, the Compacts are a bit mundane, but they’re not bad by any means. The Cainite Heresy rocks, and the rest of the book is crammed full of useful ideas. Like with the other Hunter books I’ve read, the writing style here is relaxed and fun to read. […]

Minireview: Geist: the Sin-Eaters

Geist: the Sin-Eaters is White Wolf’s latest game in the World of Darkness line. It’s a bit of a mixed bag.

This is a game about death and ghosts, and in the design stage the writers decided to not redo Wraith (or Orpheus). Quite understandable, though I would have loved to see a reincarnation of either of those fantastic games. The path they chose is quite interesting. Here the PCs are people who have died, but have subsequently been brought back to life by a “geist” – which may be a very powerful ghost or spirit, or something else entirely (it’s never 100% made clear). In any case, the result is a hybrid of sorts. The person really is alive (again), this is no revenant or walking corpse. On the other hand, it’s not quite the same person now, there is a supernatural entity (the Geist) entwined with him or her. As a result she’s now a lot tougher, has multiple supernatural abilities, and is somewhat influenced by her Geist’s views.

So far, so good. The idea is fun, and the outlook here is actually quite positive when compared to many death-themed games. The PCs have been given a new lease on life, what do they want to do with it? There are a lot of links to the Mexican Día de los Muertos and carnivals in general – party and enjoy life as long as you can, since one day you’ll die. In fact, the basic PC group is here called a “Krewe”, which is a Mardi Gras carnival word.The subtitle of the game, “the Sin-Eaters”, is a bit of a stretch, but refers to the newfound abilities of the PCs to communicate with the dead and possibly right some wrongs, atone for possible sins of the deceased (or their killer, as may be).

As typical for White Wolf, the PCs are separated into various “splats”, here based on the way they died. I do have to admit it seems pretty pointless here, and even more artificial that usual. As a positive point, the mechanics of “Keys” given here is interesting (if a bit confusing). Each character gets two “keys”, which are mental constructs and have to do with the nature of their Geist. The base Geist powers are altered by these keys, so the same base power will do various different things depending on the Key used on it. It’s a fun mechanic, and provides a lot of variability in the Geist powers while keeping the themes and base power types constant. And talking about those powers… low-power these things are not. In fact, Geists seem to be at the top end of the nWoD power scale; some powers (Boneyards, especially) let the character control areas that can be miles in diameter. These guys can be scary antagonists, added to by the fact that they are damn hard to kill. They’ve already died once, and if they die again they’ll just return – within limits, there is a cost to rebirth. It’s somewhat like the old Mummy game in that regard, having one of these creatures as a enemy can be very bad news. Especially since they normally operate as a group.

So, interesting base premise, some nice new mechanics. What’s the problem?

Well, to start off, there is a strong “well, what do I actually do with this?” problem. Sure, the character has returned from dead, and there are stories around that… but beyond that, what do they do? I didn’t get much inspiration in that regard from the book, especially since the “splats” seem so pointless and artificial. There are no real default antagonists here, it’s a sandbox with a bit too much sand and too few pre-built sandcastles. Also, I did sense some rules mechanics confusion here and there… there were mentions of costs for powers and concepts that later were explained not to have a cost, mention of ghosts sometimes being physical (which seems to contradict stuff in the nWoD core), and small things like that.

In addition, a lot of relevant stuff is just either missing or explained with a stray paragraph. Normally this would not be a problem, you can’t fit everything in a core book and this one already runs long. Here, however, White Wolf has stated that there will only be one expansion book, and that one will detail the Underworld… so apparently a lot of stuff will just stay missing. The most painful omission is the Geists themselves. There is some light discussion on them, but as noted their ultimate nature and origin are left open, and more importantly: they are totally underused. Here we have a supernatural entity fused with a loving human – and that entity is treated mostly like just a source of stats, instead of a separate being with alien motives. Sure, there is some light discussion on the subject, and there is a Synergy score which measures how well the PC and the Geist are “in sync” – but really, there is no solid mechanics for modeling the fact that it’s really a separate being. The GM is just assumed to flesh that part out…. which is damn hard, given the skimpy amount of real info that is given on the Geists, and the very vague nature of their own motivations.

This is a somewhat frustrating game. I can see what they were going for, but as is it’s quite incomplete and more a bunch of missed opportunities. The lack of real mechanics for the Geists themselves is the most galling omission, treating them as just supernatural power batteries is a huge missed opportunity.

That said, this book is worth reading, and these guys would make great NPCs and/or antagonists for pretty much any nWoD game. They are powerful and unusual, which is a nice combo. Also, some of the mechanics are very interesting and somewhat new (for a WoD game). As PCs, though, the GM should be prepared to do quite a bit of work to flesh out the missing stuff. Maybe the upcoming Book of the Dead will fill in some gaps, but I sort of doubt it. […]

Minireview: Bloody Hearts - Diablerie Britain (Vampire)

In the early days of Vampire: the Masquerade White Wolf was still trying to figure out the direction of the game – and nowhere is that more apparent than in the early pre-gen adventure modules. While WW adventures have a well-deserved reputation for sucking, these early “gems” really excel in that arena. So, here’s Bloody Hearts: Diablerie Britain, a sucktastic adventure “module” which continues in the hallowed footsteps of Awakening: Diablerie Mexico.

Well, the good parts first. It’s better than Diablerie: Mexico (though most things are). Instead of just being a high-level vampiric dungeon crawl, this one is only partly a high-level vampiric dungeon crawl. The other part contains some actually quite interesting NPCs, including the “target” Methuselah. The NPCs are mostly good and could easily be used to good effect elsewhere, and the Methuselah backstory is pretty cool and a bit unusual.

Then the bad. Well, first off, the thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The PCs are expected to be Archons in service to a Justicar (an example one is provided here)… and then they are expected to suddenly decide to go to the U.K. and diablerize an ancient vampire, hidden deep underground. Wtf? Sure, a McGuffin is provided to drive this “plot”… but that doesn’t help all that much. In addition, while this is ostensibly set partly in the U.K. (with a geographically-challenged map in good old WW tradition), there is pretty much nothing British about the whole thing. It could be called Frozen Hearts: Diablerie Greenland just as easily, with minimal changes. There is some good in this, of course: this can be relocated to where ever easily, and at least WW doesn’t fuck up non-U.S. locations in their typical fashion since those locations are scarcely even mentioned here.

To top things off, there’s the dungeon crawl. It has a few interesting bits, but mostly consists of stupid “magic traps” and other things that so do not belong in Vampire. And in the end, the PCs get to fight a Methuselah. Whee.

So. Crap. But with some redeeming qualities, namely some nice NPCs that can be repurposed. In addition, it’s fun to spot the characters and items than have since been made into VTES cards. This book gives us Madame Guil, Hafsa the Watcher, and the Sword of Nul (renamed to “Sword of Nuln” in VTES for some weird reason), among others. […]