Clanbook: Ravnos Revised is written by the same author as the Ravnos section in Libellus Sanguinus, the Dark Ages mini-Clanbooks. The Ravnos share this distinction with the Assamites, as written by Clayton Oliver. So, much like the Assamites and the Giovanni, whose original Clanbook was written by the new line’s developer, the Ravnos have not been significantly altered in outlook or history. Instead, they have been affected by the advances of the World of Darkness metaplot. However unlike the Giovanni, who have been badly inconvenienced and gained a few new enemies, and the Assamites, who have been thrust into the sectarian conflict between vampires rather than observing neutrally, the Ravnos have been decimated.
A year after Vampire Revised Edition was released came the Year of the Reckoning series of books, which created Hunter: The Reckoning, closed down Wraith: The Oblivion, and promised “a clan will fall.” This clan turned out to be the Ravnos, whose founder was on the receiving end of attacks from ancient Eastern vampires and a magically-powered nuclear warhead. His (Its?) destruction lead to the rest of the clan attacking each other in a frenzy of bloodlust, and many of their eldest members falling down dead. While most clans of Vampire number between 5 000 and 10 000 active members (based on 1 vampire per 50 000 – 100 000 humans, and 13 clans) the Ravnos may now be as few as 100 strong, or still be at half strength. If so, this Clanbook has more detail per clan member than any other, as it contains a quarter of the entire clan…
The book begins with a short fiction piece, here concerning a British character’s introduction to vampirism, with a smattering of uniquely British words that an unfamiliar American reader might be unable to decipher due to the overly decorative font used for the text. “Sod,” for example, a mild insult, looks like 80d.
Following this is a standard unreliable narrator’s in-character history of the clan. Rather than repeat sections covered in depth in the Libellus Sanguinus 4 chapter, the narrator refers to the in-character text of that chapter as if reading it. Therefore, to get a clear view of the clan’s internal mythology, the Dark Ages book is extremely useful. Of course, the history of a clan whose elders have died mysteriously is a minor point, but the LS section is never referred to in the Clanbook, which might make readers unfamiliar with the Dark Ages book wonder at the sparsity of information here. By comparison, the Assamite section of LS 3 is largely reiterated in the new Clanbook. Perhaps space did not allow a more thorough discussion of the clan legendry, but the material is glossed over very lightly, making the LS 4 chapter very useful supplementary reading to a book which should, ideally, stand alone in its coverage of the clan.
This is followed by the best chapter of the book to my mind, concerning the clan’s practices. Their relationship with other supernatural beings, their treatment of and by the gypsy cultures with which they were identified before Ms Brooks reinvented them, and their peculiar abilities and disabilities are covered in depth. A sidebar comments on their supernatural discipline Chimerstry, the power of illusion, its unpopularity with a number of Vampire fans, and suggestions on how to make it adhere more closely to the mood and theme of Vampire rather than making the Ravnos an Illusionist character class. Further pages are devoted to the clan’s weakness, which is somewhat nebulous as generally described – each Ravnos has difficulty resisting committing a certain kind of crime. The advice on how to construct and play such weaknesses is very good, commenting on fairness versus playability and other issues, although it provides fewer examples than the equivalent pages in the Libellus Sanguinus section, by comparison. The lack of concrete examples is addressed by the character templates and noted NPC sections that follow.
Another concern I felt over this chapter is that the section on the clan’s current practices largely dwells on their current status after the cataclysm that befell them, the ‘Week of Nightmares’ in early 2000. While the Revised Clanbooks are chiefly concerned with presenting the clans as they are now are, and there is a note on the possibility of ignoring the Week of Nightmares and having the Ravnos “at full strength and up to whatever they were doing” I feel that there could have been more material on the previous situation to better inform this option, or games set prior to 1999, as to the clan’s previous status. One additional minor note is that Indian elders had been disseminating a religious intolerance for Eastern vampires and even members of other clans before their general destruction before the cataclysm, an idea apparently from Christopher Walker’s first Clanbook, which I am not familiar with, which threatened to turn the clan into another killer fringe cult like the Followers of Set and the pre-Revised Assamites. Curtailing this is one of the positive outcomes of the Week of Nightmares plotline, since the Setites already fill this niche and the Assamites have been moved away from it.
So then to the character templates, which at the most catastrophic estimate could be one tenth of the clan’s population. Fortunately, none are wasted. All the characters presented here have niches in the setting, purposes, and ways to survive without a clan to fall back on. Interestingly, two of them are aligned with the Camarilla, the larger of the main two vampire sects, and another two survive by making themselves useful to that group. Compare Clanbook: Assamite Revised, where roughly one third of the subject clan has joined the Camarilla, but only four templates reflect this. By comparison, only two are members of the Sabbat, the smaller sect, compared to an equal number of Assamites, and only one would count among the anarchs, those vampires actively opposed to both sects. Therefore, when it was announced that a clan would join the Camarilla in 2001, it was declared as the Assamites but could equally have been said to be the Ravnos.
Finally, there is a section on noted clan members, possibly another 15% of the clan. It begins with a sample coterie including the British scholar and the unreliable narrator from the history section. As historians and archaeologists trying to piece together what happened to the clan’s hierarchy, they have a role and purpose directly tied to the new developments in the clan, making them immediately useufl to a Storyteller with an interest on the Week of Nightmares plotline. Other notables include the clan’s signature character from the Clan Novel series (a treacherous cannibal and liar), the in-character author of the Libellus Sanguinus book, a musician based on the Robert Johnson legend, a travelling group based on a real band who played at a White Wolf party at Gen Con 2000 (visit spiritcreek.net for more information), and Mata Hari. As far as I know, this makes the Ravnos the second clan to claim her in this series. It is not as extreme as the Rasputin joke from the original Clanbooks, but I am glad she has not cropped up more often. All of them (even Mata Hari) come complete with story hooks and uses in games.
Stylistically, the book matches the usual Revised Clanbook standards. Occasional Americanisms in the British-set mood piece annoy me (Ms. Brooks incorrectly titles the head of Oxford University ‘Dean’ - he would be Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, a Director or a Head of Department), but otherwise the writing is clear and the sections addressing common concerns about the clan are excellent. Leif Jones’s work varies from elegance to caricature – the Thuggee template has the widest head of any vampire he’s drawn. Christopher Shy’s photo-manipulation character portraits remain a constant pleasure. One noteworthy typo – throughout Chapter Three, the templates section, the page footnotes are from Clanbook: Tzimisce Revised.
In all, Clanbook: Ravnos Revised gives the nearly destroyed clan a variety of new roles in the Vampire setting, making them more playable in Camarilla, anarch or Sabbat games and significantly more diverse than their usual stereotypes, which lead to their unpopularity, which in turn lead to their targeting for destruction. However, it reflects the clan’s loss of their elders by glossing over the history sections, since it refers to Ms. Brooks’s other work on the subject, and more-or-less directs readers to it to avoid overlapping certain sections. The resulting gaps in understanding reflect the current status of the clan, but since the cataclysm was only months ago, more information on the clan beforehand would have been helpful to storytellers without access to the other books.
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