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The latest of the Revised Clanbooks series deals with the Ventrue, leading lineage of the Camarilla and self-proclaimed kings of the vampire race.

Inevitably, comparisons must be drawn to the original Clanbook written by Andrew Greenberg, in which the Ventrue were presented as the selfless champions of the vampiric Kindred against the "Secret Masters", a paranoid fear amalgamating all the villains in the World of Darkness. In the new book, the Secret Masters are gone. So, unfortunately, are the selfless champions.

The Ventrue have changed in Richard Dakan's book more than any other clan except the Malkavians. The best way to encapsulate the change is with this quote from page 37: "While they still speak of their roles as stewards and noble leaders, the fact is that, when it comes down to it, most Ventrue could not possibly care less about the fate of any given individuals apart from themselves."

This, to me, is the main problem with the new book. While this attitude succeeds in making the Ventrue more suitable vampires, and certainly more suitable antagonists, it makes them less suitable player characters. The typical Ventrue becomes everything the anarchs (the traditional player characters' groups) claimed them to be.

Another concern is that the book installs a more complete and formal structure to the clan, which has previously been hinted at and here is covered at great length, contradicting previous coverage of the subject as well as adding new levels of complexity to the game (and also new terms to learn and figure out how to pronounce).

Naturally, these problem are addressed, with a section on those Ventrue who choose to work outside the system rather than buying into it, but the fact remains that the structure instated by this book jars somewhat with the previous background and the Ventrue as presented here have become distinctly unpleasant.

Most of the book's page count is taken up with the history of the clan (twenty pages, where I counted only one discrepancy with previous canon) and a primer on how they work socially (forty-four pages). This is solid material which will serve to flesh out a Ventrue prince and his progeny for the player characters to oppose, but offers little to encourage someone to play a clan member.

The clan weakness (an inability to drink from any victim but a certain kind) is dealt with anecdotally, with examples of Kindred who could only drink from residents of a particular city or who could only feed from a certain caste. It does not, however, provide hard and fast rules on how restrictive the weakness should be, something I would want as a player. I would personally have included merits and flaws or some similar system to deal with restrictions of varying severity. This is an oversight (at least in my opinion) which the new book shares with the old.

Apart from this, the essentials of a Clanbook are all present and correct: new abilities and Discipline powers (none of them remarkable, although the ability to resist Presence is a reminder that the third level power cannot normally be resisted, making it more powerful than the fourth and fifth levels), new templates (again unremarkable, and containing some I cannot imagine being played for any length of time), profiles of noted clan members (two of them largely lifted from the previous edition) and a sample coterie of characters based on a clever idea.

Stylistically, the old Clanbook largely used portraiture of the Renaissance instead of specially created pieces. The new book contains no such tricks, instead using art by White Wolf regulars including Steve Ellis, Vince Locke (currently at work illustrating the first issue of the Vampire: The Masquerade comics series) and Leif Jones. Ellis's rough comic style art does not fit the Ventrue as well as it does Aberrant or Trinity, Jones's is not to my taste, and several of Locke's pieces seem rushed.

In all, then, the new Clanbook Ventrue changes the clan again. It makes them less likeable and, I suspect, less playable. After this, I wouldn't be surprised if a new Ventrue player character was less welcome in a game, or needs to explain "I'm not like that".

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Clanbook: Ventrue
Author: Richard Dakan Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Vampire Cost: $14.95 US Page count: 104 ISBN: 1-56504-255-7 SKU: WW2358 Capsule Review by Craig Oxbrow on 10/10/00. Genre tags: Modern day Horror Conspiracy Vampire Gothic Live-action	The latest of the Revised Clanbooks series deals with the Ventrue, leading lineage of the Camarilla and self-proclaimed kings of the vampire race. Inevitably, comparisons must be drawn to the original Clanbook written by Andrew Greenberg, in which the Ventrue were presented as the selfless champions of the vampiric Kindred against the "Secret Masters", a paranoid fear amalgamating all the villains in the World of Darkness. In the new book, the Secret Masters are gone. So, unfortunately, are the selfless champions. The Ventrue have changed in Richard Dakan's book more than any other clan except the Malkavians. The best way to encapsulate the change is with this quote from page 37: "While they still speak of their roles as stewards and noble leaders, the fact is that, when it comes down to it, most Ventrue could not possibly care less about the fate of any given individuals apart from themselves." This, to me, is the main problem with the new book. While this attitude succeeds in making the Ventrue more suitable vampires, and certainly more suitable antagonists, it makes them less suitable player characters. The typical Ventrue becomes everything the anarchs (the traditional player characters' groups) claimed them to be. Another concern is that the book installs a more complete and formal structure to the clan, which has previously been hinted at and here is covered at great length, contradicting previous coverage of the subject as well as adding new levels of complexity to the game (and also new terms to learn and figure out how to pronounce). Naturally, these problem are addressed, with a section on those Ventrue who choose to work outside the system rather than buying into it, but the fact remains that the structure instated by this book jars somewhat with the previous background and the Ventrue as presented here have become distinctly unpleasant. Most of the book's page count is taken up with the history of the clan (twenty pages, where I counted only one discrepancy with previous canon) and a primer on how they work socially (forty-four pages). This is solid material which will serve to flesh out a Ventrue prince and his progeny for the player characters to oppose, but offers little to encourage someone to play a clan member. The clan weakness (an inability to drink from any victim but a certain kind) is dealt with anecdotally, with examples of Kindred who could only drink from residents of a particular city or who could only feed from a certain caste. It does not, however, provide hard and fast rules on how restrictive the weakness should be, something I would want as a player. I would personally have included merits and flaws or some similar system to deal with restrictions of varying severity. This is an oversight (at least in my opinion) which the new book shares with the old. Apart from this, the essentials of a Clanbook are all present and correct: new abilities and Discipline powers (none of them remarkable, although the ability to resist Presence is a reminder that the third level power cannot normally be resisted, making it more powerful than the fourth and fifth levels), new templates (again unremarkable, and containing some I cannot imagine being played for any length of time), profiles of noted clan members (two of them largely lifted from the previous edition) and a sample coterie of characters based on a clever idea. Stylistically, the old Clanbook largely used portraiture of the Renaissance instead of specially created pieces. The new book contains no such tricks, instead using art by White Wolf regulars including Steve Ellis, Vince Locke (currently at work illustrating the first issue of the Vampire: The Masquerade comics series) and Leif Jones. Ellis's rough comic style art does not fit the Ventrue as well as it does Aberrant or Trinity, Jones's is not to my taste, and several of Locke's pieces seem rushed. In all, then, the new Clanbook Ventrue changes the clan again. It makes them less likeable and, I suspect, less playable. After this, I wouldn't be surprised if a new Ventrue player character was less welcome in a game, or needs to explain "I'm not like that". Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Clanbook: Ventrue