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Clanbook Brujah (Revised)

Author: Justin Achilli
Category: game
Company/Publisher: White Wolf
Line: Vampire: The Masquerade
Cost: $14.95
Page count: 102
ISBN: 1-56504-267-0
SKU: WW2351
Capsule Review by Prince Nightchilde on 08/15/00. Genre tags: Modern day Horror Conspiracy Vampire

Now this is more like the way I always envisioned the Brujah.

The Brujah, as an organization, are not necessarily about rebellion, they are about change and challenging the status quo. That's one of the major points of the new Clanbook. Yes, there's a subtle difference between rebellion and change, and there are certainly members of the clan that are still of the "kill whitey" mindset, but this book does a good job of expanding the Brujah past the biker leather and chains stereotype.

Chapter one is the history section of the clanbook, called "Millenia of Conflict." It runs the gamut from the beginning of the clan to the modern nights. Lots of information on Carthage is included here, as is information on Troile's diablerie (or maybe not?) of Brujah, presented in an intelligent manner instead of in the form of a rant. A sidebar discusses some of the most important Brujah throughout history, including Robin Leeland, as does a few paragraphs. This is nice and includes some never-before-discussed (at least in the Clanbook) Brujah, such as Iancu the Bloody. All of this adds to a more coherent history of the clan than the original clanbook.

One disappointing thing that you will soon discover is that, despite claims to the contrary, and unlike the excellent revised Clanbook Malkavian, this book is heavily biased towards the Camarilla, though there are a couple of places where the antitribu are mentioned, though it is usually with a "but no sane Brujah would be a member of the Sabbat" comment.

Some very nice, detailed information on the history, government and situations in the Anarch Free State are included. Also included in chapter one is some information on the Brujah Council and what happened to them while Baba Yaga was playing around in Russia.

Chapter Two, Unlife Among the Brujah, discusses the traditions and organizations prevalent among the Brujah. You come away from this with a few things, first, while Brujah may not like the way most of the Traditions are handled, they support them in one way or another (sometimes hypocritically). Second, you get the impression that the Brujah *needs* the Camarilla (or, it could be argued, the Sabbat), for what is a rebel without something to rebel against?

The idealists, iconoclasts and individualists are discussed herein, just like in the original clanbook, but they are discussed in more detail and with better writing. Rants and Raves are here, too, but they have been expanded to explain different types of these gatherings.

Detail about the Brujah's roles within the Camarilla are discussed in detail, including why any Brujah would *want* to be Prince. Also, as one might expect, a discussion of the other Clans and supernaturals plodding about the World of Darkness are given, with a more intelligent, less "kick in the Ventrue's teeth", bent.

Next we come to the kewl powerz section, which, I must admit, is often one of my favorite sections of these kinds of books (and is often the part I read first).

The three multi-discipline powers that were present in the original are still here, but niftier and better explained. There's some new information on using existing the Alternate Identity and Military Force backgrounds as they apply to the Brujah, and 2 new Potence powers and one new Celebrity power (which I'm still not 100% sure I understand completely, even after reading it 3 times). Then we have the new merits and flaws. These aren't really anything to write home about (provided the person who received the letter would even know what the hell you were talking about), and the "Uncontrollable" Flaw is just one I can't see anyone that likes their character at all taking.

Systems for Minds Eye Theater are included for these new abilities. I will reserve opinion on *that* since I hate LARPs.

Chapter Three is titled the Rabble's Ranks. They include several templates, most of which aren't "I'm going to kick your ass" types. This section is kinda interesting in that it includes Leif Jones artwork that doesn't make me want to involuntarily expel the contents of my digestive tract.

There's also a brood described, Hezekial's Revival, who, honestly, I could see working as either Brujah or Malkavians. Just goes to show you that the Kooks don't corner the market on religious zealots.

Wrapping this up is the Brujah-specific character sheet. Whee. :-)

All in all, I loved this Clanbook. It was tons better than the original, though I would have liked to see a much less Camarilla-aligned view, but that's okay, I can live. :-)

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