The Inside Scoop on Gaming

In March, White Wolf unveiled the "clan novel" series with a horrifically embarrassing Clan Novel: Toreador. They followed it with a more mature but still largely disappointing book, Clan Novel: Tzimisce. Then, surprise of surprises, they rolled out Clan Novel: Gangrel, a well-written and fascinating book (if a bit of a downer, even for a World of Darkness publication). Fourth in the line comes the book which is best of them all, Clan Novel: Setite. Suffice it to say, after having my hopes dashed against the crags of gaping plots and teeny-bopper characterization at the outset of the series, I was pleasantly surprised by CN:Setite, and found myself glowing with respect for Kathleen Ryan by the time it was done.

Setites are, in White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade setting, the corruptors. They practice something called the Path of Typhon, which instructs them to lead others down the spiraling road of temptation until their morals, ethics -- eventually, their souls -- are tattered remnants of what they once were. In all honesty, previous treatments of the Setites have left me with the overwhelming feeling that they were just horribly lame. They were a clan centered in Africa and worshipful of an ancient Egyptian god (and their Antedeluvial founder), Set, or Sutekh, but they ran around the world turning into snakes and dying their hair red? Their initial discussion, a brief spot of coverage in the 2nd Edition Vampire Player's Guide, summed them up as much-hated lovers of darkness. Their clan quote, to paraphrase, went something along the lines of "we know everything you're afraid to know."

Oooooh. I'm so...unimpressed. Drug-dealing, prostitution-mongering vampires who do naughty stuff? How terribly original.

Their on-going display, approached from varying angles by a fistful of authors in further supplements, including Clanbook: Setite, left them a clashing collage of images, most of which failed to suggest anything worse than gossip-pushing smack dealers who wore too much black and had a thing for snakes (perhaps in their corruptive impotence, they turned to a phallic overcompensation in pets). They were painted as religious zealots, manufacturers of temptation, stealers of truths, sellers of half-lies, and a variety of other stereotypes which failed to go together very well. Their specialty Discipline, the terribly-named Serpentis, has been mocked as the most pointless power ever conceived in almost every game or discussion I've been a part of. They were dull, the one thing an undead, blood-drinking creature of the night should never be. I have long hated Setites, not because they're evil, but because they've been portrayed as just plain stupid.

Until now.

Kathleen Ryan, as is noted at the back of the novel, is a writer much loved by fans of White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension. She's written short fiction pieces and chapter introductions and a variety of other spot-appearances in almost every major Mage supplement, all revolving around the near-signature character of Amanda, a young Euthanatos mage. That work has been fascinating. Seeing that the introductory tale has involved Amanda has caused me to purchase more than one Mage supplement I might otherwise have ignored. So it was that they handed their past work on Setites to this incredibly talented writer, like so many ransom notes made of cut-out magazine letters, and said, "Give us a Setite we'll remember." Kathleen Ryan, as I had fully hoped, delivers.

I'm going to be approaching the novel as I have the others in the series, focusing on three main points:

tone,
characterization, and
plot.

I'll also discuss briefly this novel's impact on the rest of the series.

As I've said more than once, the series early-on felt like the Sweet Valley High of the undead. It was childish, annoying, over-dressed in simplicities and lackluster portrayals of angst. CN: Setite, however, starts us off with a quick glimpse -- barely more than a page -- at a mortal woman who's been fed upon, handcuffed through a chair and around a cement pillar in her home, and left there. She's taking in her surroundings, having tired from her struggles, and we see the room portrayed as a city unto itself, different articles of furniture and collections of simple stuff described in terms of "the better side of town," skyscrapers, factories, industrial centers full of the still-frame hustle-and-bustle of abandoned work. It's gorgeously done. We seamlessly slide into the flashback which makes up all but three or four pages of the novel, and that process is centered on an old, cherry-wood desk, once beautiful, then mistreated, abandoned and left for the junk-heap, then taken into someone's care, re-shaped and re-polished and made suitable for use again -- but not finished, still imperfect -- and then left by its caretaker and restorer for other interests. It's an apt metaphor for the story of the novel itself, and it alone guaranteed that this novel was going to be everything I hoped: a slow, careful examination of the equally slow and careful reshaping of someone, by their corrupting caretaker, into a less-than-perfect reassemblage, all flaws glossed over or reshaped as advantages. The entire novel does, in fact, live up to this; rather than a lot of "kewl corruption stuff," the flavor of this book is the meticulously orchestrated slide into the depths of the human (and inhuman) souls surrounding a Setite. Lovely.

The surgical precision of Ryan's examination of this process is laid bare before us just often enough, as we occasionally get glimpses of the inner workings of Hesha Ruhadze, the new signature character for Clan Setite, to see what he thinks when he's carefully maintaining some exterior mask of caring for the people in his employ. As I said, just enough of that is shown that we know it's happening. On the other hand, there are enough times that the narrator's omniscience is ignored for us to be, on some level, lulled into hoping (surprisingly) that Hesha is actually finding some form of redemption in his human toy, Liz. Kathleen Ryan weaves a story that makes itself interesting, and carefully gives us the full Setite experience, as it should be, by encouraging hope and then dissecting it before us just when we're ready to put some faith in it.

All of this is tied into the characterization, wedded with some convincing personas that make up a cast we can actually enjoy. Hesha is as charismatic as a Setite elder with no small measure of success under his belt should be. His lieutenant is endearing with his retired-cop mannerisms and attitudes. Liz's co-workers are easy to imagine, and their interactions are believable. The Asp even makes for an interesting study in personalities, and the ways in which subtle characterstics of two people can write large the differences between them. But more importantly, the ways in which they are portrayed are just....believable. It's easy to imagine Kettridge behaving as he does, once we know his full story. It's easy to believe Liz's reactions to the events which sweep her up and carry her into the story. It's easy to believe the machinations which we see Hesha mull over as the plot goes on. It's easy to believe Ron's ultimate decision regarding a promotion. The characters behave the way people do behave, and have motivations with which it's not at all difficult to sympathize.

The most sparklingly pleasant part of the book, however, is the plot. Like the characterization, it, too, is believable. Liz's reactions to various influences make sense. The reasons Hesha has for various actions he takes are all perfectly understandable (if not logical -- like CN: Gangrel, this book often deals with emotional, not logical, motivations). Now, admittedly, as with Clan Novel: Gangrel, there are supernatural plot elements which simply seem to defy logical explanation. But, there is enough explanation of the mysticism and occult elements involed, a shadowy roadmap of some of the supernatural factors which guide these events, that it's not difficult to keep from questioning. Whereas CN:Tzimisce suffered from glaring "reality points," things that simply would not happen as they're portrayed, the day-to-day interactions and motivations, the plot twists that lead the story this way and that, don't require a parcel of disbelief. Taken in bite-size fragments, as they're presented, they're perfectly acceptable. We may wonder why in hell the statue's power lies in Calcutta, but that's not because Calcutta is any less likely a place, so less likely that we simply can't buy it. In previous works, we have been left wondering why in hell a few dozen war-ghoul vozhd can walk around a city street without attracting a single iota of attention from the dozens of guards and mundane authorities with which Atlanta would, presumably, be packed.

Another high point of the plot are the brief but poignant "clean-up" points of the story. Comments made in conversations here and there go a long way to soothe the mental wounds inflicted by previous books. Hesha's comment, for example, that riots across the southeast have been "on-going," rather than one-night affairs as the Sabbat victories are described in Clan Novel: Tzimisce, serve nicely to patch up that storyline long enough for us to wait and see a return to balance, as they suggest the Camarilla might actually have bothered to fight back. These minor points leave the door to future novels wide open, thankfully, so the story can move in some direction other than "the Sabbat's really cool and Leopold's become one bad mofo." I won't ruin how the plot intersects with Leopold, or Victoria's attempt at escaping to Hesha, as these are perhaps two of the most enjoyable side-forays of the book. A side-effect of these spot-mentions of outside plot elements is the rather refreshing fact that this novel focuses, purely and utterly, on a Setite. This is a clan novel. It is about a Setite. It doesn't dilly-dally with other clans and people in situations which are more or less irrelevant, in the short-term view, to what's happening in the rest of the novel.

The final high point of this novel's story is its nature. This isn't a butt-kicking romp through ultra-violence, Sabbat-style. It's not a tragically angsty romp through ultra-violence through the misty eyes of a few Toreador. It's not a knuckle-biting romp through ultra-violence with a massive pack of Gangrel. It's a slow-paced story about deception, corruption, and how one powerful personality ensnares, cripples, reshapes and then uses the other people around him. It's a psychological tale of tragedy, at last, something the game was originally intended to be all along. I would have been the last to guess that a story about a Setite would deliver it.

And finally, how this impacts the series. The side-mentioning of other plot elements from the meta-story of the series, and the way in which it subtly suggests things aren't going as presented before at all, this door throws wide the gate to the other books, as I said. It frees us from one overbearing storyline and lets us remember that, in the World of Darkness, there are more than one side to every story, and there's always someone else, doing something else, who couldn't care less what's happening to you during it. It's my sincere hope that this novel will set an example for following books, in that instead of chugging along with the dead-weight story of Leopold and his precious, mucous-spewing "eye," there can be other ways of presenting the clans. We can get a snapshot of a typical member of each clan, not just how each clan views and interacts with one whining Toreador neonate and his Evil Relic(tm). Rather than a series of stories about the same story, we can get thirteen individual stories.

What a nice idea.

Clan Novel: Setite presents us with the first effective display of a corruptor and temptor that we've yet had. It makes me like a Setite. And, best of all, it makes the rest of the series better by its simple inclusion. As Kathleen Ryan's first full-length work of fiction, it's a success.

We'd better see more.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Clan Novel: Setite
Author: Kathleen Ryan Category: Novel Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Vampire: the Masquerade Cost: $5.99 Page count: 278 ISBN: 1-56504-804-0 SKU: WW11103 Playtest Review by Michael G. Williams on 08/23/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Horror Espionage Conspiracy Vampire Gothic Asian/Far_East Diceless	In March, White Wolf unveiled the "clan novel" series with a horrifically embarrassing Clan Novel: Toreador. They followed it with a more mature but still largely disappointing book, Clan Novel: Tzimisce. Then, surprise of surprises, they rolled out Clan Novel: Gangrel, a well-written and fascinating book (if a bit of a downer, even for a World of Darkness publication). Fourth in the line comes the book which is best of them all, Clan Novel: Setite. Suffice it to say, after having my hopes dashed against the crags of gaping plots and teeny-bopper characterization at the outset of the series, I was pleasantly surprised by CN:Setite, and found myself glowing with respect for Kathleen Ryan by the time it was done. Setites are, in White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade setting, the corruptors. They practice something called the Path of Typhon, which instructs them to lead others down the spiraling road of temptation until their morals, ethics -- eventually, their souls -- are tattered remnants of what they once were. In all honesty, previous treatments of the Setites have left me with the overwhelming feeling that they were just horribly lame. They were a clan centered in Africa and worshipful of an ancient Egyptian god (and their Antedeluvial founder), Set, or Sutekh, but they ran around the world turning into snakes and dying their hair red? Their initial discussion, a brief spot of coverage in the 2nd Edition Vampire Player's Guide, summed them up as much-hated lovers of darkness. Their clan quote, to paraphrase, went something along the lines of "we know everything you're afraid to know." Oooooh. I'm so...unimpressed. Drug-dealing, prostitution-mongering vampires who do naughty stuff? How terribly original. Their on-going display, approached from varying angles by a fistful of authors in further supplements, including Clanbook: Setite, left them a clashing collage of images, most of which failed to suggest anything worse than gossip-pushing smack dealers who wore too much black and had a thing for snakes (perhaps in their corruptive impotence, they turned to a phallic overcompensation in pets). They were painted as religious zealots, manufacturers of temptation, stealers of truths, sellers of half-lies, and a variety of other stereotypes which failed to go together very well. Their specialty Discipline, the terribly-named Serpentis, has been mocked as the most pointless power ever conceived in almost every game or discussion I've been a part of. They were dull, the one thing an undead, blood-drinking creature of the night should never be. I have long hated Setites, not because they're evil, but because they've been portrayed as just plain stupid. Until now. Kathleen Ryan, as is noted at the back of the novel, is a writer much loved by fans of White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension. She's written short fiction pieces and chapter introductions and a variety of other spot-appearances in almost every major Mage supplement, all revolving around the near-signature character of Amanda, a young Euthanatos mage. That work has been fascinating. Seeing that the introductory tale has involved Amanda has caused me to purchase more than one Mage supplement I might otherwise have ignored. So it was that they handed their past work on Setites to this incredibly talented writer, like so many ransom notes made of cut-out magazine letters, and said, "Give us a Setite we'll remember." Kathleen Ryan, as I had fully hoped, delivers. I'm going to be approaching the novel as I have the others in the series, focusing on three main points: tone, characterization, and plot. I'll also discuss briefly this novel's impact on the rest of the series. As I've said more than once, the series early-on felt like the Sweet Valley High of the undead. It was childish, annoying, over-dressed in simplicities and lackluster portrayals of angst. CN: Setite, however, starts us off with a quick glimpse -- barely more than a page -- at a mortal woman who's been fed upon, handcuffed through a chair and around a cement pillar in her home, and left there. She's taking in her surroundings, having tired from her struggles, and we see the room portrayed as a city unto itself, different articles of furniture and collections of simple stuff described in terms of "the better side of town," skyscrapers, factories, industrial centers full of the still-frame hustle-and-bustle of abandoned work. It's gorgeously done. We seamlessly slide into the flashback which makes up all but three or four pages of the novel, and that process is centered on an old, cherry-wood desk, once beautiful, then mistreated, abandoned and left for the junk-heap, then taken into someone's care, re-shaped and re-polished and made suitable for use again -- but not finished, still imperfect -- and then left by its caretaker and restorer for other interests. It's an apt metaphor for the story of the novel itself, and it alone guaranteed that this novel was going to be everything I hoped: a slow, careful examination of the equally slow and careful reshaping of someone, by their corrupting caretaker, into a less-than-perfect reassemblage, all flaws glossed over or reshaped as advantages. The entire novel does, in fact, live up to this; rather than a lot of "kewl corruption stuff," the flavor of this book is the meticulously orchestrated slide into the depths of the human (and inhuman) souls surrounding a Setite. Lovely. The surgical precision of Ryan's examination of this process is laid bare before us just often enough, as we occasionally get glimpses of the inner workings of Hesha Ruhadze, the new signature character for Clan Setite, to see what he thinks when he's carefully maintaining some exterior mask of caring for the people in his employ. As I said, just enough of that is shown that we know it's happening. On the other hand, there are enough times that the narrator's omniscience is ignored for us to be, on some level, lulled into hoping (surprisingly) that Hesha is actually finding some form of redemption in his human toy, Liz. Kathleen Ryan weaves a story that makes itself interesting, and carefully gives us the full Setite experience, as it should be, by encouraging hope and then dissecting it before us just when we're ready to put some faith in it. All of this is tied into the characterization, wedded with some convincing personas that make up a cast we can actually enjoy. Hesha is as charismatic as a Setite elder with no small measure of success under his belt should be. His lieutenant is endearing with his retired-cop mannerisms and attitudes. Liz's co-workers are easy to imagine, and their interactions are believable. The Asp even makes for an interesting study in personalities, and the ways in which subtle characterstics of two people can write large the differences between them. But more importantly, the ways in which they are portrayed are just....believable. It's easy to imagine Kettridge behaving as he does, once we know his full story. It's easy to believe Liz's reactions to the events which sweep her up and carry her into the story. It's easy to believe the machinations which we see Hesha mull over as the plot goes on. It's easy to believe Ron's ultimate decision regarding a promotion. The characters behave the way people do behave, and have motivations with which it's not at all difficult to sympathize. The most sparklingly pleasant part of the book, however, is the plot. Like the characterization, it, too, is believable. Liz's reactions to various influences make sense. The reasons Hesha has for various actions he takes are all perfectly understandable (if not logical -- like CN: Gangrel, this book often deals with emotional, not logical, motivations). Now, admittedly, as with Clan Novel: Gangrel, there are supernatural plot elements which simply seem to defy logical explanation. But, there is enough explanation of the mysticism and occult elements involed, a shadowy roadmap of some of the supernatural factors which guide these events, that it's not difficult to keep from questioning. Whereas CN:Tzimisce suffered from glaring "reality points," things that simply would not happen as they're portrayed, the day-to-day interactions and motivations, the plot twists that lead the story this way and that, don't require a parcel of disbelief. Taken in bite-size fragments, as they're presented, they're perfectly acceptable. We may wonder why in hell the statue's power lies in Calcutta, but that's not because Calcutta is any less likely a place, so less likely that we simply can't buy it. In previous works, we have been left wondering why in hell a few dozen war-ghoul vozhd can walk around a city street without attracting a single iota of attention from the dozens of guards and mundane authorities with which Atlanta would, presumably, be packed. Another high point of the plot are the brief but poignant "clean-up" points of the story. Comments made in conversations here and there go a long way to soothe the mental wounds inflicted by previous books. Hesha's comment, for example, that riots across the southeast have been "on-going," rather than one-night affairs as the Sabbat victories are described in Clan Novel: Tzimisce, serve nicely to patch up that storyline long enough for us to wait and see a return to balance, as they suggest the Camarilla might actually have bothered to fight back. These minor points leave the door to future novels wide open, thankfully, so the story can move in some direction other than "the Sabbat's really cool and Leopold's become one bad mofo." I won't ruin how the plot intersects with Leopold, or Victoria's attempt at escaping to Hesha, as these are perhaps two of the most enjoyable side-forays of the book. A side-effect of these spot-mentions of outside plot elements is the rather refreshing fact that this novel focuses, purely and utterly, on a Setite. This is a clan novel. It is about a Setite. It doesn't dilly-dally with other clans and people in situations which are more or less irrelevant, in the short-term view, to what's happening in the rest of the novel. The final high point of this novel's story is its nature. This isn't a butt-kicking romp through ultra-violence, Sabbat-style. It's not a tragically angsty romp through ultra-violence through the misty eyes of a few Toreador. It's not a knuckle-biting romp through ultra-violence with a massive pack of Gangrel. It's a slow-paced story about deception, corruption, and how one powerful personality ensnares, cripples, reshapes and then uses the other people around him. It's a psychological tale of tragedy, at last, something the game was originally intended to be all along. I would have been the last to guess that a story about a Setite would deliver it. And finally, how this impacts the series. The side-mentioning of other plot elements from the meta-story of the series, and the way in which it subtly suggests things aren't going as presented before at all, this door throws wide the gate to the other books, as I said. It frees us from one overbearing storyline and lets us remember that, in the World of Darkness, there are more than one side to every story, and there's always someone else, doing something else, who couldn't care less what's happening to you during it. It's my sincere hope that this novel will set an example for following books, in that instead of chugging along with the dead-weight story of Leopold and his precious, mucous-spewing "eye," there can be other ways of presenting the clans. We can get a snapshot of a typical member of each clan, not just how each clan views and interacts with one whining Toreador neonate and his Evil Relic(tm). Rather than a series of stories about the same story, we can get thirteen individual stories. What a nice idea. Clan Novel: Setite presents us with the first effective display of a corruptor and temptor that we've yet had. It makes me like a Setite. And, best of all, it makes the rest of the series better by its simple inclusion. As Kathleen Ryan's first full-length work of fiction, it's a success. We'd better see more. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)