The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Give the somewhat scattered nature of the material, I am going to dispense with my usual chapter by chapter analysis and look at things by game and by concept. Honestly, this is probably how things should have been done in the book, for ease of reference, and since little effort was made to integrate them (with the exception of Project Deepwater).

First off, there is a bunch of good general information. Starting with descriptions of various bodies of water in the World of Darkness and ending with the appendices giving rules for drowning, 'depth sweat' (a vampire's loss of vitae at extreme depths), and decompression, among other things. This is all very good. I particularly liked the darker, more sinister versions of some well-known bodied of water. The writers consistantly point out that, real world proof or disproof aside, in the World of Darkness, places like the Sargasso Sea and Bermuda Triangle are just as dangerous as the legends would have us believe.

For Vampire, the book primarily focuses on the Mariners, Gangrel with a variant of Protean more suited to the watery environment which they prefer. Instead of nightvision, they get sonar. Instead of claws, razor sharp webbed appendages. And so forth. They are an interesting concept, but not really much to base a game around. More like material for an enigmatic NPC, as they aren't really suited to a land-based game or the usual politics and mechanitions. There is also a few mentions of Nosferatu with an affinity to water, but no real details. The same goes for mention of the Lasombra antitribu and a rumored undersea Tremere chantry. Very little information is given.

For Werewolf, there isn't a whole lot. I guess they want you to buy the Rokea and Mokole books, instead. The most interesting portions relevant to Werewolf are the Roqual (see below) and a sidebar on how undersea denizens see the Triat. The unfortunate part about this latter bit is that it again attempts to spread Werewolf cosmology to the other games by explaining that the merfolk worship these aspects, only under different names. Another in the 'the Garou are right about everything' trend. There /are/, however, aquatic fomori, which are quite creepy and very well done (with new Powers and some sample types). And the Chulorviah (see below) are also a useful plot device for Werewolf.

For Mage we are given Project Deepwater and a few short mentions of floating chantries and undersea Nephandi. The Project Deepwater stuff was mostly very disappointing. Rather than focus on the problems intrinsic to a Technocracy presence on the ocean floor -- such as the tendency to 'map away' mythical realms and raising the Gauntlet, thus cutting off the deeply spiritual ocean dwellers from the spirit world -- they decided instead to make the project a toy of Pentex infiltration and the influence of the wyrm Chulorviah, thus giving us more 'look how evil the Technocracy is' bullshit. Also, I think that the 'wave of Banality' this is supposed to have caused, killing two-thirds of the merfolk and destroying one of their cities, is unnecessarily harsh and would have been much better done subtly, as a gradual trend. Seriously, one ocean floor settlement killing all merfolk in the Pacific practically overnight? Please.

One thing which is applicable to both Werewolf and Mage is the bit on the Gauntlet. It is pointed out that the depths of the ocean have almost no barrier, and it is possible to slip back and forth easily. This is why many Nephandi (and their lords) are attracted to the dark depths of the ocean (no, Virginia, it isn't just an aesthetic preference). I think it would have been interesting to go into this more, but unfortunately it is only barely mentioned and the implications (such as Lords from Beyond the Horizon coming through) barely explored.

For Wraith, we get some of the best material, though it is still a bit scarce. Rules for wraiths dealing with the water are given (with the odd twist that water is as solid as anything else in the Shadowlands) and details on how ghost ships occur, who claims them, and what they can do and how they operate are given. The Necropolis of Port Royal is given a mention, as a base for Renegade pirates and a vacation spot for naval Hierarchy officers. There is also a bit on the navy of the Jade Empire, including Heike crabs, a very disturbing creation of these lands in a similar vein as Stygian bhargests. Also, as per the preceding bit on the Gauntlet, we are told that Shroud levels at sea are very low so that in some place (like the Bermuda Triangle) stuff can go back and forth without trying, unexpectedly. I like this. It makes the sea even scarier in the World of Darkness and allows for sightings of ghost ships and dead shipmates in the dead of night on the open sea. Good imagery.

For Changeling, we are given the merfolk, probably the most complete of the sections since it offers a distinct society rather than a collection of interesting information relating to the water and held together only by the common supernatural element. All in all, I think that the merfolk are very well done. They are more arrogant than the sidhe, seeing themselves as the rulers of the world (or the only 70% that counts) but are being hit hard by Project Deepwater and need to seek aid from the land-based kith. If you prefer to toss Deepwater, you can just have increased banality from definition of the sea and the accompanying removal of its mystery hurting them, as they are much less able to deal with it, since they've removed themselves from humanity almost entirely. They are actually very close to true fae, in many respects, who have merely hidden away in the part of the world untouched (until now) by humanity's disbelief. A very compelling setting, it could have used a book in itself.

My one gripe is the Thallain murdhuacha. Actually, my gripe is with Thallain in general, but the murdhuacha bring up an entirely different set of issues, too. You see, it is made very clear by the earlier treatment of the Triat that bony fish are of the Wyld, while crusteceans are Weavery and unboned fish are Wyrmy. Thus, the merfolk are split into those who have the visage of bony fish, and those who have the visage of unboned fish, who are called the murdhuacha, and are Thallain and, by the previous rundown, of the Wyrm. This irritates me in that it equates Unseelie with Wyrm taint, that it applies Werewolf reasoning to Changeling, and that it perpetuates the pretty = good, ugly = bad stereotype. I would much prefer to see the split be more like Seelie versus Unseelie, since the murdhuacha, despite it all, are really cool. I have no problem with the nightmarish murdhuacha being the Unseelie merfolk. No need for them to be Thallain or wyrmy. It's just stupid.

Also, I was disappointed that no mention was made of the Bright Fiefs. Given the other material on vampire and wraith pirates, it was a bit of a letdown not to have fae pirates dealt with at all. Still, this was probably an oversight based on space constraints. See my summary below for that gripe.

Lastly, we have a couple new concepts introduced. The first of which is the Rorqual, which are half-spirit, half-flesh whales and dolphins whose job is to wander the seas, collecting Glamour/Quint/Gnosis from grottos (undersea nodes/caerns/freeholds) and distribute it to the nice denizens of the sea. It is an interesting idea, on the surface, but no game mechanics or explanation is given for how or why this works. How often do they visit them? Do they seek out individuals or are only those in packs or cities visited? How much power do they get from them? Also, I see no particular reason to have creatures being nodes in the sea. Grottos suit me just fine. Oh, and I've never liked making glamour and quintessence/gnosis the same thing.

The Chulorviah are the other concept introduced. They are basically Deep Ones (of Lovecraft fame) for the World of Darkness and we are paradoxically told that no details are given, to allow the Storyteller to tailor them to his or her campaign, and then given all sorts of rules and descriptions of what they are (they seem to be utterly indistinguishable from fomori: a wyrmy spiritual infection that alters the host). Still, I like them. I think they should have just bitten the bullet and confirmed that they were fomori and integrated them with the preceding section on them.

One last gripe before I finish up the review: Atlantis. They stick it in a sidebar and then say they aren't going to do anything with it because it would destroy the mystery. Well, damn. Thanks, next time I just won't buy the book and save you the trouble of telling me why you aren't going to tell me anything in it.

In summary, this book has a bunch of really interesting concepts with not nearly enough follow through. Each game really needs its own book on the watery world (well, maybe not Vampire) so that these could be adequately explored. As it is, there is stuff to build on here, but not enough details to use any but a couple things (like the Merfolk) without spending time fleshing it out yourself.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Blood-Dimmed Tides
Author: Sean Jaffe, Clayton Oliver, Ethan Skemp, Adam Tinworth, Mike Tinney, Justin Achilli Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: World of Darkness Cost: $17.95 Page count: 72 ISBN: 1565043545 Capsule Review by Eric Christian Berg on 11/17/99. Genre tags: Modern_day Horror	Give the somewhat scattered nature of the material, I am going to dispense with my usual chapter by chapter analysis and look at things by game and by concept. Honestly, this is probably how things should have been done in the book, for ease of reference, and since little effort was made to integrate them (with the exception of Project Deepwater). First off, there is a bunch of good general information. Starting with descriptions of various bodies of water in the World of Darkness and ending with the appendices giving rules for drowning, 'depth sweat' (a vampire's loss of vitae at extreme depths), and decompression, among other things. This is all very good. I particularly liked the darker, more sinister versions of some well-known bodied of water. The writers consistantly point out that, real world proof or disproof aside, in the World of Darkness, places like the Sargasso Sea and Bermuda Triangle are just as dangerous as the legends would have us believe. For Vampire, the book primarily focuses on the Mariners, Gangrel with a variant of Protean more suited to the watery environment which they prefer. Instead of nightvision, they get sonar. Instead of claws, razor sharp webbed appendages. And so forth. They are an interesting concept, but not really much to base a game around. More like material for an enigmatic NPC, as they aren't really suited to a land-based game or the usual politics and mechanitions. There is also a few mentions of Nosferatu with an affinity to water, but no real details. The same goes for mention of the Lasombra antitribu and a rumored undersea Tremere chantry. Very little information is given. For Werewolf, there isn't a whole lot. I guess they want you to buy the Rokea and Mokole books, instead. The most interesting portions relevant to Werewolf are the Roqual (see below) and a sidebar on how undersea denizens see the Triat. The unfortunate part about this latter bit is that it again attempts to spread Werewolf cosmology to the other games by explaining that the merfolk worship these aspects, only under different names. Another in the 'the Garou are right about everything' trend. There /are/, however, aquatic fomori, which are quite creepy and very well done (with new Powers and some sample types). And the Chulorviah (see below) are also a useful plot device for Werewolf. For Mage we are given Project Deepwater and a few short mentions of floating chantries and undersea Nephandi. The Project Deepwater stuff was mostly very disappointing. Rather than focus on the problems intrinsic to a Technocracy presence on the ocean floor -- such as the tendency to 'map away' mythical realms and raising the Gauntlet, thus cutting off the deeply spiritual ocean dwellers from the spirit world -- they decided instead to make the project a toy of Pentex infiltration and the influence of the wyrm Chulorviah, thus giving us more 'look how evil the Technocracy is' bullshit. Also, I think that the 'wave of Banality' this is supposed to have caused, killing two-thirds of the merfolk and destroying one of their cities, is unnecessarily harsh and would have been much better done subtly, as a gradual trend. Seriously, one ocean floor settlement killing all merfolk in the Pacific practically overnight? Please. One thing which is applicable to both Werewolf and Mage is the bit on the Gauntlet. It is pointed out that the depths of the ocean have almost no barrier, and it is possible to slip back and forth easily. This is why many Nephandi (and their lords) are attracted to the dark depths of the ocean (no, Virginia, it isn't just an aesthetic preference). I think it would have been interesting to go into this more, but unfortunately it is only barely mentioned and the implications (such as Lords from Beyond the Horizon coming through) barely explored. For Wraith, we get some of the best material, though it is still a bit scarce. Rules for wraiths dealing with the water are given (with the odd twist that water is as solid as anything else in the Shadowlands) and details on how ghost ships occur, who claims them, and what they can do and how they operate are given. The Necropolis of Port Royal is given a mention, as a base for Renegade pirates and a vacation spot for naval Hierarchy officers. There is also a bit on the navy of the Jade Empire, including Heike crabs, a very disturbing creation of these lands in a similar vein as Stygian bhargests. Also, as per the preceding bit on the Gauntlet, we are told that Shroud levels at sea are very low so that in some place (like the Bermuda Triangle) stuff can go back and forth without trying, unexpectedly. I like this. It makes the sea even scarier in the World of Darkness and allows for sightings of ghost ships and dead shipmates in the dead of night on the open sea. Good imagery. For Changeling, we are given the merfolk, probably the most complete of the sections since it offers a distinct society rather than a collection of interesting information relating to the water and held together only by the common supernatural element. All in all, I think that the merfolk are very well done. They are more arrogant than the sidhe, seeing themselves as the rulers of the world (or the only 70% that counts) but are being hit hard by Project Deepwater and need to seek aid from the land-based kith. If you prefer to toss Deepwater, you can just have increased banality from definition of the sea and the accompanying removal of its mystery hurting them, as they are much less able to deal with it, since they've removed themselves from humanity almost entirely. They are actually very close to true fae, in many respects, who have merely hidden away in the part of the world untouched (until now) by humanity's disbelief. A very compelling setting, it could have used a book in itself. My one gripe is the Thallain murdhuacha. Actually, my gripe is with Thallain in general, but the murdhuacha bring up an entirely different set of issues, too. You see, it is made very clear by the earlier treatment of the Triat that bony fish are of the Wyld, while crusteceans are Weavery and unboned fish are Wyrmy. Thus, the merfolk are split into those who have the visage of bony fish, and those who have the visage of unboned fish, who are called the murdhuacha, and are Thallain and, by the previous rundown, of the Wyrm. This irritates me in that it equates Unseelie with Wyrm taint, that it applies Werewolf reasoning to Changeling, and that it perpetuates the pretty = good, ugly = bad stereotype. I would much prefer to see the split be more like Seelie versus Unseelie, since the murdhuacha, despite it all, are really cool. I have no problem with the nightmarish murdhuacha being the Unseelie merfolk. No need for them to be Thallain or wyrmy. It's just stupid. Also, I was disappointed that no mention was made of the Bright Fiefs. Given the other material on vampire and wraith pirates, it was a bit of a letdown not to have fae pirates dealt with at all. Still, this was probably an oversight based on space constraints. See my summary below for that gripe. Lastly, we have a couple new concepts introduced. The first of which is the Rorqual, which are half-spirit, half-flesh whales and dolphins whose job is to wander the seas, collecting Glamour/Quint/Gnosis from grottos (undersea nodes/caerns/freeholds) and distribute it to the nice denizens of the sea. It is an interesting idea, on the surface, but no game mechanics or explanation is given for how or why this works. How often do they visit them? Do they seek out individuals or are only those in packs or cities visited? How much power do they get from them? Also, I see no particular reason to have creatures being nodes in the sea. Grottos suit me just fine. Oh, and I've never liked making glamour and quintessence/gnosis the same thing. The Chulorviah are the other concept introduced. They are basically Deep Ones (of Lovecraft fame) for the World of Darkness and we are paradoxically told that no details are given, to allow the Storyteller to tailor them to his or her campaign, and then given all sorts of rules and descriptions of what they are (they seem to be utterly indistinguishable from fomori: a wyrmy spiritual infection that alters the host). Still, I like them. I think they should have just bitten the bullet and confirmed that they were fomori and integrated them with the preceding section on them. One last gripe before I finish up the review: Atlantis. They stick it in a sidebar and then say they aren't going to do anything with it because it would destroy the mystery. Well, damn. Thanks, next time I just won't buy the book and save you the trouble of telling me why you aren't going to tell me anything in it. In summary, this book has a bunch of really interesting concepts with not nearly enough follow through. Each game really needs its own book on the watery world (well, maybe not Vampire) so that these could be adequately explored. As it is, there is stuff to build on here, but not enough details to use any but a couple things (like the Merfolk) without spending time fleshing it out yourself. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

Blood-Dimmed Tides