The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I must admit that I didn't have a whole lot of faith going into this book. I was never a fan of the True Black Hand or the bloodlines and disciplines associated with such. However, I won the book so I had to read it. It turned out I was pleasantly surprised.

Before I get into it in too much detail, let me point out the major flaw: the price. This book is just not worth $26. While I found the content interesting and useful, I still wouldn't buy it out of my own pocket. Maybe it just needed to not be hardcover. It also puts me in mind of another overpriced book: The Storytellers Companion. In all, honesty, these two books would have been better served in the same volume, making it the single reference for strange, obscure bloodlines and adding the secondary abilities to the character creation options section, to fill it out. But, that was not to be, so here is what you do get.

The Introduction is not only a summary of what is in the rest of the book and how to use it, but also a surprisingly unpretentious discussion of the mood and themes central to the game and how the designers intend for it to be played. This is the sort of thing that rankles a lot of people, but I like the honesty and the earnestness with which the themes of the game are argued to be worth exploring.

Chapter One is basically an expanded, cleaned up version of the FAQ that's been on the White Wolf site for ages, minus most of Justin Achilli's irritable attitude. It is refreshing in that it gives very clear answers to a lot of questions, many of them practical considerations that really need addressing. The only down side is that this was mostly available before on the web.

Chapter Two is full of useful information. It starts out with a discussion of clans and why they aren't homogenous collections of stereotypes, as well as some information on how the clans are looking during the Final Nights. Following this are the revised versions of three bloodlines: the Baali, the Nagaraja, and the True Brujah. All of them are presented in decline, but the general treatment is slim. The latter two get some fleshing out in the Black Hand chapter, but they are still left as skeletons of a concept, for the most part.

Further in, there are a few new Backgrounds (Arcane, Age and Military Force) and the disciplines of the three bloodlines. Nihilistics has been converted into a much more useful Necromantic path called Vitreous Necromancy which is more compatible with Wraith, Daimoinon is polished up a bit, and Temporis is weakened enough to make it less unbalancing. Next, there is a discussion of bloodlines in a general sense. What they are, how they are created, and some guidelines for making new ones. Finally, there is a section on Storyteller characters followed by quite a bit of material on elder campaigns. The latter essentially makes this book a replacement for the out of print Elysium, without the gratuitous merits and flaws. One last bit tacked on the end is a couple pages on downtime systems, with the introduction of Maturation Points to supplement xp.

Chapter Three is the heart of the book and details storytelling. Mood, setting, and theme get a great deal of treatment, including the handling of difficult issues and damage control for out of control plotlines. There is also some very valuable information on how to keep things realistic and believeable and a nice treatment of vampire society. Further on, there are hints on how to run certain types of campaigns (long term, short term, simple, detailed, etc) and how to effectively use storytelling devices. Most of this has been said before, but it is nice to have it collected all in one place and applied so skillfully to Vampire games specifically.

Chapter Four deals with character creation and has a lot of difference options, from modifying point totals to removing the Primary/Secondary/Tertiary limitations. Frankly, most of this didn't really need to be said. It isn't going to be a revelation to anyone that they could just change the cost of skills or the number of initial background points.

Next, experience points are dealt with in much the same matter. After this, there is a section on dealing with problem players. This is good stuff and suffers only slightly from the insults built into some of the problem player types ('Quoting is a vile habit and encourages inbred thinking' isn't really a productive attitude when one is trying to deal with someone disrupting the game with quotes). After this, we learn how to storytell personal issues, like degeneration and personal philosophy in the form of Paths of Enlightenment. this is all good stuff and needed a little more clarification.

Chapter Five deals with alternate settings. This here is my absolute favorite part of the book. Not only because of the setting ideas, but becasue it gives a cohesive, clear, and well-organized account of vampiric history during each period in human history. This really needed to be in the main book, in my opinion, and even if you don't approve of some of it, it is nice to have some consistancy so that you can work around it. From cavemen and Enoch to the World Wars, we are presented with plot hooks and campaign settings within every major period in history. Supernatural involvement in history is done quite tastefully and conservatively, something which I heartily approve of, with options for more involvement as the storyteller desires.

After the setting material, it moves on to variations in the game from a setting standpoint. Removal of a sect (or all sects), removal of clans, and variations on the Final Nights metaplot are all discussed, as well as a number of alternative vampire mythologies. All of it allows the storyteller to tune their campaign to fit the themes they want to explore and helps to beat the reader over the head with the Golden Rule, just in case they missed it before.

Chapter Six is all about crossovers, both from a rules and a theme perspective. It makes the very good point that each game's theme is generally hurt by the inclusion of themes from other games. If you introduce full-fledged Garou and their struggle towards Apocolypse, it draws attention away from the struggle of the vampire against his Beast. The solution presented is to only supplement vampire with the other games, ignoring their greater complexity in order to keep the focus on the primary themes. Not a bad plan, all things considered.

The crossover rules are mostly old hat. The same stuff has been put into a number of books now and there is only some clarification and revision to make it worth the money. However, the specific vampiric examples are very useful and some old crossover questions get well handled (like whether or not you can ghoul a werewolf and can a Mage bring a vampire back to life). Abominations are covered here, with little emission, and the whole thing is followed by Revised rules for Kindred of the East. The last bit is a frank discussion of the need (or lack of need) for crossovers which basically boils down to 'Does the inclusion of the other supernatural add something to the game?'. It is a damn fine approach to the whole matter and a nicely objective one from the folks at WWGS.

Chapter Seven is the update of the Black Hand. Now this, I definitely wasn't expecting much out of. All in all, though, it really pleased me and I think I can actually use some of it. However, the reason I like it is precisely the reason that it is likely to get under the skin of many fans of the sect. Namely, they are presented as wholly impotent Gehenna cultists blinded by their own paranoia and conspiracy theorizing. Me, I like that. I've always been one to say that just because a person lives five thousand years doesn't mean they aren't full of shit. This chapter proves it. Covering the history of the Black Hand, it points out just how easy it is to make (and keep making) mistakes when you make a lot of assumptions based on an inflated sense of your own importance. It is tactfully done and, I think at least, doesn't make the sect look foolish as much as it makes them look believeable. The chapter closes up with a discussion of the current state of the sect after the destruction of Enoch and the Week of Nightmares, which is to say that it is utterly scattered. Lots of interesting plot elements are given, though, based on this and I particularly like dealing with how the families which served the Hand are dealing with their sudden lack of vitae and patronage.

All in all, not a bad bit of material. It would probably even been worth the price softcover and ten dollars cheaper. As it is, though, its a lot to ask someone to pay for something which is almost half collected and collated material published elsewhere (and general enough not to need revision).

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Vampire Storytellers Handbook
Author: Bruce Baugh, Anne Braidwood, Deird're Brooks, Geoffrey Grabowski, Clayton Oliver, Sven Skoog Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Vampire: The Masquerade Cost: $25.95 Page count: 204 ISBN: 1-56504-264-6 SKU: WW2304 Capsule Review by Eric Christian Berg on 12/23/99. Genre tags: Modern_day Horror Vampire Gothic	I must admit that I didn't have a whole lot of faith going into this book. I was never a fan of the True Black Hand or the bloodlines and disciplines associated with such. However, I won the book so I had to read it. It turned out I was pleasantly surprised. Before I get into it in too much detail, let me point out the major flaw: the price. This book is just not worth $26. While I found the content interesting and useful, I still wouldn't buy it out of my own pocket. Maybe it just needed to not be hardcover. It also puts me in mind of another overpriced book: The Storytellers Companion. In all, honesty, these two books would have been better served in the same volume, making it the single reference for strange, obscure bloodlines and adding the secondary abilities to the character creation options section, to fill it out. But, that was not to be, so here is what you do get. The Introduction is not only a summary of what is in the rest of the book and how to use it, but also a surprisingly unpretentious discussion of the mood and themes central to the game and how the designers intend for it to be played. This is the sort of thing that rankles a lot of people, but I like the honesty and the earnestness with which the themes of the game are argued to be worth exploring. Chapter One is basically an expanded, cleaned up version of the FAQ that's been on the White Wolf site for ages, minus most of Justin Achilli's irritable attitude. It is refreshing in that it gives very clear answers to a lot of questions, many of them practical considerations that really need addressing. The only down side is that this was mostly available before on the web. Chapter Two is full of useful information. It starts out with a discussion of clans and why they aren't homogenous collections of stereotypes, as well as some information on how the clans are looking during the Final Nights. Following this are the revised versions of three bloodlines: the Baali, the Nagaraja, and the True Brujah. All of them are presented in decline, but the general treatment is slim. The latter two get some fleshing out in the Black Hand chapter, but they are still left as skeletons of a concept, for the most part. Further in, there are a few new Backgrounds (Arcane, Age and Military Force) and the disciplines of the three bloodlines. Nihilistics has been converted into a much more useful Necromantic path called Vitreous Necromancy which is more compatible with Wraith, Daimoinon is polished up a bit, and Temporis is weakened enough to make it less unbalancing. Next, there is a discussion of bloodlines in a general sense. What they are, how they are created, and some guidelines for making new ones. Finally, there is a section on Storyteller characters followed by quite a bit of material on elder campaigns. The latter essentially makes this book a replacement for the out of print Elysium, without the gratuitous merits and flaws. One last bit tacked on the end is a couple pages on downtime systems, with the introduction of Maturation Points to supplement xp. Chapter Three is the heart of the book and details storytelling. Mood, setting, and theme get a great deal of treatment, including the handling of difficult issues and damage control for out of control plotlines. There is also some very valuable information on how to keep things realistic and believeable and a nice treatment of vampire society. Further on, there are hints on how to run certain types of campaigns (long term, short term, simple, detailed, etc) and how to effectively use storytelling devices. Most of this has been said before, but it is nice to have it collected all in one place and applied so skillfully to Vampire games specifically. Chapter Four deals with character creation and has a lot of difference options, from modifying point totals to removing the Primary/Secondary/Tertiary limitations. Frankly, most of this didn't really need to be said. It isn't going to be a revelation to anyone that they could just change the cost of skills or the number of initial background points. Next, experience points are dealt with in much the same matter. After this, there is a section on dealing with problem players. This is good stuff and suffers only slightly from the insults built into some of the problem player types ('Quoting is a vile habit and encourages inbred thinking' isn't really a productive attitude when one is trying to deal with someone disrupting the game with quotes). After this, we learn how to storytell personal issues, like degeneration and personal philosophy in the form of Paths of Enlightenment. this is all good stuff and needed a little more clarification. Chapter Five deals with alternate settings. This here is my absolute favorite part of the book. Not only because of the setting ideas, but becasue it gives a cohesive, clear, and well-organized account of vampiric history during each period in human history. This really needed to be in the main book, in my opinion, and even if you don't approve of some of it, it is nice to have some consistancy so that you can work around it. From cavemen and Enoch to the World Wars, we are presented with plot hooks and campaign settings within every major period in history. Supernatural involvement in history is done quite tastefully and conservatively, something which I heartily approve of, with options for more involvement as the storyteller desires. After the setting material, it moves on to variations in the game from a setting standpoint. Removal of a sect (or all sects), removal of clans, and variations on the Final Nights metaplot are all discussed, as well as a number of alternative vampire mythologies. All of it allows the storyteller to tune their campaign to fit the themes they want to explore and helps to beat the reader over the head with the Golden Rule, just in case they missed it before. Chapter Six is all about crossovers, both from a rules and a theme perspective. It makes the very good point that each game's theme is generally hurt by the inclusion of themes from other games. If you introduce full-fledged Garou and their struggle towards Apocolypse, it draws attention away from the struggle of the vampire against his Beast. The solution presented is to only supplement vampire with the other games, ignoring their greater complexity in order to keep the focus on the primary themes. Not a bad plan, all things considered. The crossover rules are mostly old hat. The same stuff has been put into a number of books now and there is only some clarification and revision to make it worth the money. However, the specific vampiric examples are very useful and some old crossover questions get well handled (like whether or not you can ghoul a werewolf and can a Mage bring a vampire back to life). Abominations are covered here, with little emission, and the whole thing is followed by Revised rules for Kindred of the East. The last bit is a frank discussion of the need (or lack of need) for crossovers which basically boils down to 'Does the inclusion of the other supernatural add something to the game?'. It is a damn fine approach to the whole matter and a nicely objective one from the folks at WWGS. Chapter Seven is the update of the Black Hand. Now this, I definitely wasn't expecting much out of. All in all, though, it really pleased me and I think I can actually use some of it. However, the reason I like it is precisely the reason that it is likely to get under the skin of many fans of the sect. Namely, they are presented as wholly impotent Gehenna cultists blinded by their own paranoia and conspiracy theorizing. Me, I like that. I've always been one to say that just because a person lives five thousand years doesn't mean they aren't full of shit. This chapter proves it. Covering the history of the Black Hand, it points out just how easy it is to make (and keep making) mistakes when you make a lot of assumptions based on an inflated sense of your own importance. It is tactfully done and, I think at least, doesn't make the sect look foolish as much as it makes them look believeable. The chapter closes up with a discussion of the current state of the sect after the destruction of Enoch and the Week of Nightmares, which is to say that it is utterly scattered. Lots of interesting plot elements are given, though, based on this and I particularly like dealing with how the families which served the Hand are dealing with their sudden lack of vitae and patronage. All in all, not a bad bit of material. It would probably even been worth the price softcover and ten dollars cheaper. As it is, though, its a lot to ask someone to pay for something which is almost half collected and collated material published elsewhere (and general enough not to need revision). Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)

Vampire Storytellers Handbook