The Inside Scoop on Gaming

This is a book that I have been anxiously waiting for ever since I heard that White Wolf intended to put it out. I wanted the information on all of the bloodlines and disciplines and sects that had been ignored in Revised books until now, and I got it, and in a nice leather-bound edition too. There is just something about that simple black cover and nifty bookmark that drives me wild.

Anyway, the book is finally here, and I'm sure many fans have also purchased it and raced through it already. It was what kept me entertained over much of my Christmas visit with my family, although I must admit that it was at times very slow going.

picture-perfect

My limited edition copy looks like damn fine piece of workmanship, although I must say that I detest the cover for the unlimited version. It's just not me. As I said, it comes with a nice green cloth bookmark to keep your place, and I have to say that each time I read a book with one, I am reminded of just how useful they are. When I moved on to The Erciyes Fragments, I kept reaching for it.

The limited also comes in the same rather annoying slipcase that the limited copies of the basic book and the Guide to the Camarilla and the Guide to the Sabbat came in. I might be the only one who has this problem, but I find it more trouble that it is worth to deal with the slipcases, so I just ditch them and put the raw books on my shelf.

One welcome surprise with the limited edition is one of the best Storyteller's Screens I have ever seen. Nice, simple and black, it is built from really sturdy backing and has all of the information what was in the screen that came with the Storyteller's Companion. Truly a beautiful screen, this is something that could stand up to the toughest of projectiles that players might throw at you during a game.

The art, on the whole, was adequate. Guy Davis and Vince Locke both contributed excellent pieces, as did others like Joshua Timbrook and Mike Danza. However, the book also has some of the worst art I've seen in a Vampire book, barring James Cobb. I was amazed that the pieces like those on page 135 or 175 made it to print. I would have preferred more text, myself.

The layout seems odd at times as well. In my opinion, several of the chapters should have been re-arranged and shifted around as they often seemed to cross over and then forget to take everything with them. The writing is, like the art and layout, not up to par with earlier works, on the whole. Some sections were excellent, but others were quite dry and failed to keep me awake late at night (something the previously mentioned Guides or The Erciyes Fragments had no trouble doing).

but what about the content?

The book has a reasonable amount of information in it. It starts off with a discussion about how Vampire is intended to be played (a subject revisited again and again later on) and then moves onto a nice (if not staggeringly comprehensive) FAQ. It has some very nice questions that have been hotly debated until now (such as "What happens when a vampire's limb is cut off?" or "Does a ghoul lose all Disciplines upon the Embrace?") and it was written well, being both informative and not terribly restricting, but it just seems short.

Following that is a short look at how each of the clans operates, which serves mainly to emphasize how stereotypes about a clan are only so accurate, and relying on them is a sure way to Final Death. The acknowledgement that most of the Kindred politics that races through the setting has more to do with personal feelings that clan relationships was a welcome addition as well. The Baali, Nagaraja and True Brujah all get Revised write-ups and discussions. Both the Nagaraja and the True Brujah are much improved over their previous printings, with the Nagaraja actually being horrific now and the True Brujah actually seeming like they might be lying about everything.

The chapter continues with new traits, including new Backgrounds like Arcane (which is like the Background from Mage, but a bit less powerful), Age and Military Force. The revised versions of the Disciplines of Daimoinon, Nihilistics (now the Vitreous Path of Necromancy) and Temporis are all covered nicely. The only real change in Daimoinon is that the old level 6 power is just an example of what kinds of Infernal Gifts a Baali might receive. The new Vitreous Path is interesting, although very problematic in many ways. The level 1 and level 2 powers are a bit too similar for my tastes. They could have been made more distinct with more detail. In addition, the level 3 and 4 powers should have their rules re-worked a bit, making them slightly more powerful. The level 5 power, on the other hand, Soul Feasting, is great, it reminds me strongly of the Kuei-jin, and blurring the lines is a good thing. I kind of miss the old power of Black Blood, where you could Blood Bond a wraith, however. Temporis is also radically different, and I have to give praise to the author that managed to salvage it. I thought that it had promise in the old Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book, but that it suffered in implementation like everything else in it. The power is now both useful, powerful and balanced - everything you would want in such a Discipline, although I do miss powers like Cowalker.

After the nice work on the old Disciplines, there is a frank discussion on just how bloodlines come to be, and what happens to them in the World of Darkness. While I welcomed the section and valued most of it, I was sorely disappointed at the offhand dismissal of the Ahrimane in the Revised edition of Vampire. While not an important bloodline, nor much of a popular one, it was actually pretty close to my heart for some reason, and I even put some work into fleshing the line out (you can see it here if you want, and I also encourage you to check out Mant's work, he's done more than I have). There is also some more information about the Teremere antitribu, but not much. I know that it is supposed to be revealed in Transylvania Chronicles IV, but I'm impatient.

Oddly enough, the next bit (in the same chapter) is the first example of bizarre organization. There is a lengthy discussion of Storyteller Characters and then information on playing an Elder game. The latter should have been in the next chapter, The Storyteller's Craft, and the latter should have been in a later chapter about the gaming group and characters. The sections themselves work well enough. The information on storyteller characters was serviceable enough, although of limited use to me. The section on Elder characters was better though, mainly for the chronicle and story ideas, and especially the mention of "Elder devices" like Elysium and Salons.

The next chapter is all about how to handle running the game, from play balance to theme and mood to how to run long or short games. This is also, sadly, one of the more dry sections of the book. While there is some useful information here, much of it is in broad strokes, or talking about how a storyteller must be brave and resolute when running a game. That is of only so much use to me. While it is important to note that you should be concerned about offending people with your games, and how to get around it, much of the mention of disturbing players or hurting people deeply was of very limited use, partly because I've never been in a game where everyone involved couldn't separate the game from reality. Instead of that, and instead of the typically vague theme and mood information in White Wolf books, I would have preferred something like what Dream Pod 9 does in their "Weaver's Section." They take the elements of the setting that they have talked about in the book and give some very solid and concrete guidelines as to how they were intended to be use. You are not limited by them, but it helps immensely when running a game to get some very clear ideas on how to use Clan Brujah or the Inconnu. That's not to say that the chapter was entirely worthless, just that it was not as useful as I had hoped. Some of the advanced storytelling techniques were pretty useful.

The section on Control was another example of an oddly placed bit of text, because it dealt not with controlling the characters, but with how the Kindred control each other and the Kine - a purely setting look at it. This is the kind of thing I would have thought better served to go into the chapter with the other setting information, namely the chapter with the information on bloodlines.

Chapter four is all about the gaming group, providing new and alternate rules for character creation, as well as a discussion of the problems that can arise both in creation and with players themselves. There is a long discussion about different types of problem players and different ways to deal with them. This was another dry section, and sometimes and almost offensive one (but I think that was mainly because I saw myself and all my friends in many of the problem types) and in the end, it all boiled down to "talk to your players if there is a problem, and don't feel bad if you have to ask someone to leave."

The chapter finishes with a very nice look at Humanity and Paths, on both how to use them and how to bend them to a character concept. Definitely useful and important reading for someone running a game centering on the Beast and degeneration.

The alternate settings chapter was very interesting, mainly because most of it was a rather clear and concise history of the World of Darkness (or at least the Vampire section of it). It is surprisingly helpful to have a nice and reasonably detailed timeline to refer to, it's more of a help than I would have thought. The chapter also has a few pages that mention some ideas about radically altering the setting (from no clans to totally different kinds of vampires) and some things that you should keep in mind when developing such a setting. While it was good, I would have liked more, with more mention of some specific repercussions of the ideas.

The next chapter looks at the rest of the World of Darknesss, providing crossover rules for the other games. For the most part, the rules are reasonable and they are pretty consistent, but from just a read-through I can't tell if they are really any better than older rules. I do get the feeling that Mages are screwed by these conversions, but that seems to be a general trend lately anyway. For some reason, the Revised rules for Kindred of the East are also here, instead of in the Kindred of the East Companion, where they should have been (and where they were, incidentally - these apparently supercede those ones). Some of the rules here are really essential to Kindred of the East (like how you must know Demon Shintai to learn Chu'iu Muh) and really have no place in a "western vampire" book. I cannot see any excuse as to why they were not included in the Kindred of the East Companion. Aside from their ill-placement, they are really nicely done. Detailed and seemingly comprehensive and well-thought out (with a few exceptions, like giving the Demon form the Delerium), they are definitely very useful to a Kindred of the East game - almost essential.

The final chapter of the book is one of the most interesting, I have to say. Detailing the Revised version of the Black Hand (post Ends of Empire), this chapter is very well done indeed. It manages to use the old and flawed material as a jumping board into an excellent look at one of the most secretive, paranoid and powerful Gehenna cults ever. I was surprised by how well-thought out and executed this new material was, it was better than I had hoped it would be. There is clear and detailed information on the history of the sect, as well as how the remains are now dealing with their recent battering. The many spin-off cults and smaller groups that formed make for great story ideas (as do the numerous sidebars with such ideas), so much so that I actually felt a desire to use the Black Hand extensively - which is quite and accomplishment indeed. Information on the 3 ghouls families in the Black Hand are also included, but it is missing any real mention of whether they should be considered revenants or not, and what their family Disciplines and weaknesses are. Plenty of cultural information is given, but if this is meant to completely supplant Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, rules would have been welcome, and if the Enrathi, Marijava and Rafastio are no longer counted among the ranks of revenants (which I wouldn't like), such should be very clearly stated.

so now Revised dips down….

… a bit in quality. The Vampire Storytellers Handbook was useful and had some very nicely done information in it, but it did not live up to the promise of the recent material for Vampire. I can really only recommend it for people who haven't read lots of other White Wolf books about how to run a game or manage players, or for those who really want information on the Black Hand and the bloodlines included in the book (which were really done pretty well). The actual guidelines for Storytelling, while numerous, are not as helpful as they could be. They are more though-provoking than anything else, leaving you to deal with trying to fix whatever problems they make you think about.

- Derek Guder
- Kintaro Oe
- kabael
- kabael's netbook
- the McGuffin Group

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Vampire Storytellers Handbook
Author: Bruce Baugh, Anne Sullivan Braidwood, Dierd're Brooks, Geoffrey Grabowski, Clayton Oliver, Sven Skoog, Justin Achilli and Regina McKinney Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Vampire: the Masquerade Cost: $49.95 for the limited edition Page count: 204 Capsule Review by Derek Guder on 12/27/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Historical Horror Conspiracy Vampire Gothic Asian/Far_East	This is a book that I have been anxiously waiting for ever since I heard that White Wolf intended to put it out. I wanted the information on all of the bloodlines and disciplines and sects that had been ignored in Revised books until now, and I got it, and in a nice leather-bound edition too. There is just something about that simple black cover and nifty bookmark that drives me wild. Anyway, the book is finally here, and I'm sure many fans have also purchased it and raced through it already. It was what kept me entertained over much of my Christmas visit with my family, although I must admit that it was at times very slow going. picture-perfect My limited edition copy looks like damn fine piece of workmanship, although I must say that I detest the cover for the unlimited version. It's just not me. As I said, it comes with a nice green cloth bookmark to keep your place, and I have to say that each time I read a book with one, I am reminded of just how useful they are. When I moved on to The Erciyes Fragments, I kept reaching for it. The limited also comes in the same rather annoying slipcase that the limited copies of the basic book and the Guide to the Camarilla and the Guide to the Sabbat came in. I might be the only one who has this problem, but I find it more trouble that it is worth to deal with the slipcases, so I just ditch them and put the raw books on my shelf. One welcome surprise with the limited edition is one of the best Storyteller's Screens I have ever seen. Nice, simple and black, it is built from really sturdy backing and has all of the information what was in the screen that came with the Storyteller's Companion. Truly a beautiful screen, this is something that could stand up to the toughest of projectiles that players might throw at you during a game. The art, on the whole, was adequate. Guy Davis and Vince Locke both contributed excellent pieces, as did others like Joshua Timbrook and Mike Danza. However, the book also has some of the worst art I've seen in a Vampire book, barring James Cobb. I was amazed that the pieces like those on page 135 or 175 made it to print. I would have preferred more text, myself. The layout seems odd at times as well. In my opinion, several of the chapters should have been re-arranged and shifted around as they often seemed to cross over and then forget to take everything with them. The writing is, like the art and layout, not up to par with earlier works, on the whole. Some sections were excellent, but others were quite dry and failed to keep me awake late at night (something the previously mentioned Guides or The Erciyes Fragments had no trouble doing). but what about the content? The book has a reasonable amount of information in it. It starts off with a discussion about how *Vampire* is intended to be played (a subject revisited again and again later on) and then moves onto a nice (if not staggeringly comprehensive) FAQ. It has some very nice questions that have been hotly debated until now (such as "What happens when a vampire's limb is cut off?" or "Does a ghoul lose all Disciplines upon the Embrace?") and it was written well, being both informative and not terribly restricting, but it just seems short. Following that is a short look at how each of the clans operates, which serves mainly to emphasize how stereotypes about a clan are only so accurate, and relying on them is a sure way to Final Death. The acknowledgement that most of the Kindred politics that races through the setting has more to do with personal feelings that clan relationships was a welcome addition as well. The Baali, Nagaraja and True Brujah all get Revised write-ups and discussions. Both the Nagaraja and the True Brujah are much improved over their previous printings, with the Nagaraja actually being horrific now and the True Brujah actually seeming like they might be lying about everything. The chapter continues with new traits, including new Backgrounds like Arcane (which is like the Background from Mage, but a bit less powerful), Age and Military Force. The revised versions of the Disciplines of Daimoinon, Nihilistics (now the Vitreous Path of Necromancy) and Temporis are all covered nicely. The only real change in Daimoinon is that the old level 6 power is just an example of what kinds of Infernal Gifts a Baali might receive. The new Vitreous Path is interesting, although very problematic in many ways. The level 1 and level 2 powers are a bit too similar for my tastes. They could have been made more distinct with more detail. In addition, the level 3 and 4 powers should have their rules re-worked a bit, making them slightly more powerful. The level 5 power, on the other hand, Soul Feasting, is great, it reminds me strongly of the Kuei-jin, and blurring the lines is a good thing. I kind of miss the old power of Black Blood, where you could Blood Bond a wraith, however. Temporis is also radically different, and I have to give praise to the author that managed to salvage it. I thought that it had promise in the old Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book, but that it suffered in implementation like everything else in it. The power is now both useful, powerful and balanced - everything you would want in such a Discipline, although I do miss powers like Cowalker. After the nice work on the old Disciplines, there is a frank discussion on just how bloodlines come to be, and what happens to them in the World of Darkness. While I welcomed the section and valued most of it, I was sorely disappointed at the offhand dismissal of the Ahrimane in the Revised edition of *Vampire. While not an important bloodline, nor much of a popular one, it was actually pretty close to my heart for some reason, and I even put some work into fleshing the line out (you can see it here if you want, and I also encourage you to check out Mant's work, he's done more than I have). There is also some more information about the Teremere antitribu, but not much. I know that it is supposed to be revealed in Transylvania Chronicles IV, but I'm impatient. Oddly enough, the next bit (in the same chapter) is the first example of bizarre organization. There is a lengthy discussion of Storyteller Characters and then information on playing an Elder game. The latter should have been in the next chapter, The Storyteller's Craft, and the latter should have been in a later chapter about the gaming group and characters. The sections themselves work well enough. The information on storyteller characters was serviceable enough, although of limited use to me. The section on Elder characters was better though, mainly for the chronicle and story ideas, and especially the mention of "Elder devices" like Elysium and Salons. The next chapter is all about how to handle running the game, from play balance to theme and mood to how to run long or short games. This is also, sadly, one of the more dry sections of the book. While there is some useful information here, much of it is in broad strokes, or talking about how a storyteller must be brave and resolute when running a game. That is of only so much use to me. While it is important to note that you should be concerned about offending people with your games, and how to get around it, much of the mention of disturbing players or hurting people deeply was of very* limited use, partly because I've never been in a game where everyone involved couldn't separate the game from reality. Instead of that, and instead of the typically vague theme and mood information in White Wolf books, I would have preferred something like what Dream Pod 9 does in their "Weaver's Section." They take the elements of the setting that they have talked about in the book and give some very solid and concrete guidelines as to how they were intended to be use. You are not limited by them, but it helps immensely when running a game to get some very clear ideas on how to use Clan Brujah or the Inconnu. That's not to say that the chapter was entirely worthless, just that it was not as useful as I had hoped. Some of the advanced storytelling techniques were pretty useful. The section on Control was another example of an oddly placed bit of text, because it dealt not with controlling the characters, but with how the Kindred control each other and the Kine - a purely setting look at it. This is the kind of thing I would have thought better served to go into the chapter with the other setting information, namely the chapter with the information on bloodlines. Chapter four is all about the gaming group, providing new and alternate rules for character creation, as well as a discussion of the problems that can arise both in creation and with players themselves. There is a long discussion about different types of problem players and different ways to deal with them. This was another dry section, and sometimes and almost offensive one (but I think that was mainly because I saw myself and all my friends in many of the problem types) and in the end, it all boiled down to "talk to your players if there is a problem, and don't feel bad if you have to ask someone to leave." The chapter finishes with a very nice look at Humanity and Paths, on both how to use them and how to bend them to a character concept. Definitely useful and important reading for someone running a game centering on the Beast and degeneration. The alternate settings chapter was very interesting, mainly because most of it was a rather clear and concise history of the World of Darkness (or at least the *Vampire* section of it). It is surprisingly helpful to have a nice and reasonably detailed timeline to refer to, it's more of a help than I would have thought. The chapter also has a few pages that mention some ideas about radically altering the setting (from no clans to totally different kinds of vampires) and some things that you should keep in mind when developing such a setting. While it was good, I would have liked more, with more mention of some specific repercussions of the ideas. The next chapter looks at the rest of the World of Darknesss, providing crossover rules for the other games. For the most part, the rules are reasonable and they are pretty consistent, but from just a read-through I can't tell if they are really any better than older rules. I do get the feeling that Mages are screwed by these conversions, but that seems to be a general trend lately anyway. For some reason, the Revised rules for Kindred of the East are also here, instead of in the Kindred of the East Companion, where they should have been (and where they were, incidentally - these apparently supercede those ones). Some of the rules here are really essential to Kindred of the East (like how you must know Demon Shintai to learn Chu'iu Muh) and really have no place in a "western vampire" book. I cannot see any excuse as to why they were not included in the Kindred of the East Companion. Aside from their ill-placement, they are really nicely done. Detailed and seemingly comprehensive and well-thought out (with a few exceptions, like giving the Demon form the Delerium), they are definitely very useful to a Kindred of the East game - almost essential. The final chapter of the book is one of the most interesting, I have to say. Detailing the Revised version of the Black Hand (post Ends of Empire), this chapter is very well done indeed. It manages to use the old and flawed material as a jumping board into an excellent look at one of the most secretive, paranoid and powerful Gehenna cults ever. I was surprised by how well-thought out and executed this new material was, it was better than I had hoped it would be. There is clear and detailed information on the history of the sect, as well as how the remains are now dealing with their recent battering. The many spin-off cults and smaller groups that formed make for great story ideas (as do the numerous sidebars with such ideas), so much so that I actually felt a desire to use the Black Hand extensively - which is quite and accomplishment indeed. Information on the 3 ghouls families in the Black Hand are also included, but it is missing any real mention of whether they should be considered revenants or not, and what their family Disciplines and weaknesses are. Plenty of cultural information is given, but if this is meant to completely supplant Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, rules would have been welcome, and if the Enrathi, Marijava and Rafastio are no longer counted among the ranks of revenants (which I wouldn't like), such should be very clearly stated. so now Revised dips down…. … a bit in quality. The Vampire Storytellers Handbook was useful and had some very nicely done information in it, but it did not live up to the promise of the recent material for *Vampire*. I can really only recommend it for people who haven't read lots of other White Wolf books about how to run a game or manage players, or for those who really want information on the Black Hand and the bloodlines included in the book (which were really done pretty well). The actual guidelines for Storytelling, while numerous, are not as helpful as they could be. They are more though-provoking than anything else, leaving you to deal with trying to fix whatever problems they make you think about. - Derek Guder - Kintaro Oe - kabael - kabael's netbook - the McGuffin Group Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)