Art: Once again, the art in this book falls short. Unlike the art of DA:V’s corebook, it isn’t cartoonish or bad, its just simple. The exception is the chapter illustrations, which are very good, better then those of the corebook. I hope the art gets better as we get new supplements. Not a huge problem, but slightly irritating.
Chapter One: The Bloodlines. Here we get new information on the Baali, the Gargoyles, the Lamia, the Lhiannan and the Salubri. The writer here is defiantly not for bloodline PCs. The first page of the chapter explains in detail why bloodlines are not the best PCs. Personally, I enjoy the bloodlines as PCs, but that’s opinion. Each bloodline splat has a text box that gives suggestions on how to use the bloodline as an NPC or a PC, and how they work either way. With the exception of the Laibon, the “As Characters for Players” paragraph starts out by telling us that these lines are not suited to being PCs.
I don’t have much to say about the Baali, no systematic changes and they are presented very well, being much more the infernal masters then infernal servants and bogeymen.
The Gargoyles are at this point in time, very much the servants of the Tremere. This line is most defiantly non-PC. Their disciplines have been handled in a most interesting manner (more on that later), but their weakness is still the same.
Laibon, despite the upcoming Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom, are still a specific bloodline and still have Abombwe. Their weakness hasn’t changed, still being the blood-tithe to their Beast. They are presented as very territorial hunters and storytellers. The wandering of the line is confined the newly created childer and bored elders.
The Lamia have changed a good deal. Instead of half their splat being taken up by the Embrace of the first Lamia, we have useful information. As warrior-priestesses charged with the protection of the Cappadocians by their Dark Mother, the Lamia are driven fanatics. Instead of being “low-blooded”, the Lamia have a sort of middle-class status among Cainites. Interesting considering their low numbers and agenda. Deimos has become the Path of the Four Humours, and Fortitude replaces it as their clan discipline.
The Lhiannan have gotten some massive revising. Their creation myth is that the Crone somehow merged a potent nature spirit and a powerful vampire, creating the Lhiannan bloodline. The spirit is broken into pieces held inside each member of the line. They are loathe to Embrace, for they weaken the spirit inside them by giving part of it to their childe. To me, this creates the impression that Lhiannan might actually be something like the Cathayans, a separate vampiric species. In addition to the Lhiannan’s old weakness (being easy to detect as vampires), they suffer something similar to the Tzimisce flaw. Whenever they leave their territory, they become uncomfortable and their dice pools are reduced over time until they return. This especially makes a Lhiannan PC difficult to work into a non-stationary chronicle. Their old practice of forming ‘sabats’ is gone, now they are fierce loners, siring childer for company and then booting them out when they become bored with them.
Our three-eyed friends the Salubri have changed very, very little. Their weakness has gotten worse, with their penalty for breaking the caste ban being a 2 die reduction instead of 1.
Chapter Two: Minor Roads. What most of us have been waiting for. Here we see in all their Dark Ages-y splendor, the Roads of Blood, Bone, Metamorphosis, Night, Paradox and the Serpent. With the exception of the Road of Bones having the Aura of Silence, the Aura mechanic is very nice for all the Roads. Why poor death-scholars are loud, I dunno. Whispers of the grave maybe? The Road of Blood has Resolve (helps on willpower), the Road of Metamorphosis has Inhumanity (helps scare people), Via Noctis has Guilt and Remorse (inspire remorse or learn dirty secrets), the Road of Paradox has Confidence (helps when you’re leading others), and the Road of the Serpent has Devotion (helps win converts to their ways and resist other faiths). All the Minor Roads have been very well done. The splats for them are very moody, fitting in perfectly to the DA environment. The Road of Night is my favorite, it defiantly has a lot of potential in the right hands. Anyone who’s read Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind will notice that Nicci is probably a good example of someone on this Road. The followers of Via Sanguinis, the Road of Blood, are explained as enforcers of certain standards to which all vampires should be held. To the Sentinels, vampirism is a privilege that not all deserve. The Road of Paradox is infinantly better then its original Dark Ages incarnation, though its name has always confused me. The Roads of Bones and Metamorphosis haven’t changed much, if any. The Road of the Serpent is the most religious of the Roads, actually being one instead of just resembling one. Instead of corrupting people for the sake of being EEEVIILL, they corrupt people to free them from the chains of society. Self interest is, to the Tempters, the only interest.
Chapter Three: Disciplines. Abombwe, Daimoinon, Mortis’s Path of the Four Humours, Ogham, Valeren (both paths) and the Gargoyle “disciplines” are all here. Each discipline now has an In-character paragraph or two before it, giving an example of its use. I find this to be a nice touch, but some might be unhappy at “wasted space”. We are also strongly encouraged to use the optional “Clan Secrets” rule from the corebook when dealing with these rare powers.
Abombwe has stayed mostly the same, the level two power has been altered though, turning it into a Beast-powered super-charge.
Daimoinon is, I believe, unchanged from previous rules (I haven’t got any of the previous rules). It still has the level 3 power “Throw Evil Fire”, but its better explained and more in keeping with the theme of the discipline. The level 6 included here is an Infernal Investment. Each time you buy the level 6 power, you get an Investment. Naturally, these should be Investments of moderate to high power.
The Lamia’s old discipline of Deimos has become the Path of the Four Humours (Path of the Dark Mother is a typo), but beyond losing level 6 , it has remained the same. Even its multi-use level 3 ability is still here.
Ogham is, like the Lhiannan, a bit odd now. It’s said to be a primitive form of blood magic that “is neither as flexible or powerful as Tremere Thaumaturgy, nor the other clans’ blood sorcery”. Yet, it has no paths or rituals, so I have to wonder why they bothered to include the comment about it being blood magic when its no different from other disciplines. Its powers too are unchanged.
Valeren’s two paths are in this book. We now have rules for learning the opposite path. The first power costs the normal 10 points, but every power after that costs as if it were a level higher. So level 2 costs like level 3 and level 5 costs like level 6. To make up for having to buy levels 1 and 2 twice, you get extra dice in your pool if you possess both powers. I thank WW for putting that in. Warrior Valeren finally looses the pathetically stupid Ending the Watch, and now has Armor of Caine’s Fury, which allows the Warrior to give himself a mystical armor for the scene that provides variable protection from Rostchrek, bashing and lethal damage.
Gargoyles do not have “disciplines”. Instead, they spend their points to buy Gargoyle Powers. They can learn versions of Potence and Fortitude, but they act like any other Power for experience and freebie costs. More potent Gargoyle Powers take more then one “point” (discipline dots at creation, or 10 XP after that) to buy. Every level in Flight, for example, costs two points. There are also Gargoyle Rituals that Tremere can perform on them which grant them special powers. These have varying costs depending on their level. Other Gargoyle Powers greatly resemble Infernal Investments, like Extra Arms, Foulness, and Horror.
Chapter Four: Storyteller’s Toolkit. Wow. This chapter just flat out rocks. No more having to think up stats for NPCs your players randomly decide to attack! They’re all right here! From Farmer to Knight, we’ve got a wide selection of pre-made NPCs. Even Ghouls and Cainites ready to go. Also, guidelines for quickly creating new templates. The next session explains a bit about surnames in this period, mortal titles, and there’s even two pages full of names sorted out by region. No more Tzimisce named Bob because your player is an uncreative lazy ass.
Personalizing the Roads and Paths has generally been sticky. After all, you don’t want someone saying “My character kills people all the time! It isn’t a sin for her!”. I enjoy this new system, it makes the Roads a lot more personal, since not all people have the same views of right and wrong, even those who walk the same Roads.
The mass-combat section is well done, and I have little to say about it. I don’t see many changes from the rules that were in the old Dark Ages Companion. The addition of a morale mechanic is a nice touch though.
Maturation points have become a rather complex affair. Downtime has been divided into six categories. Active, Research, Practice, Seclusion, Danger and Torpor. The sort of downtime your character goes through has an effect on the maturation points. Active downtime assumes you’re living a normal life and has no extra effect, while Research downtime assumes you are studying, and means points can be spent only on Knowledges (and gives you an extra point to spend per decade). Torpor DOES give points, but only to those with 7 Willpower and 4 Perception and 500 years under their belts. Elder status has many advantages apparently. Backgrounds are probably the stickiest part of downtime and Maturation Points. Raising them requires a roll, modified for each background and takes 50 years or so per dot. Improving multiple backgrounds gets progressively harder. This system takes a bit of reading to get a grasp on. The next-to-last section is Elder Character Creation. This is, of course, only for certain types of chronicles or ST’s seeking NPC guidelines for REALLY old characters. A short section on Methuselah’s Thirst/Thirst of Caine gives a few reasons a character might be afflicted by this trait and how it works. Finally, Advanced Storytelling Techniques are just that. Good advice, and helpful to beginning ST’s or ST’s looking for some hints on making a better game.
Summery: Very little is missing from this book. The only thing I would have enjoyed seeing here is information on mortal society, but its lack does not greatly diminish a very good book. Some of the sections are a bit confusing (Maturation points) or a bit odd (Lhiannan splat), but as a whole the book is well done. The bloodlines and minor Roads are especially good at getting across the mood of the Dark Ages line.
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