Under The Black Cross is a campaign book for Vampire: The Dark Ages that acts as a bridge to the new edition.  It is not engaging in either function.

            Under The Black Cross centers on the exploits of the Ventrue Lord Jurgen versus the Tzimisce Rustovitch, with the coterie working for Jurgen’s side of this fight.  In a bigger sense Under the Black Cross is a device to bring players from the last edition of Vampire: The Dark Ages in the new edition Dark Ages: Vampire.   In scope the writing is an interesting take on linking a multi-year saga into one story arch, but even in tiume frames that are documented there are some serious holes that a GM will either have to fill or make serious jumps in intuition and plot to reach.  For more creative groups none of this may be a problem.  

The more serious plotting problem with Under The Black Cross is that the coterie (PC’s) have little to do with the shape and scope of the campaign, assuming that they play all the acts in the book.  While the coterie could in fact boof every act the overall plot would likely happen regardless of what they do.  Assuming the coterie does not fare well, it could very well be that there would be new PC’s in every act.  Also each act is fairly distant time wise from each other, and it would be odd to play Under The Black Cross straight through, since the coterie would have lag time over the course of several years between acts.  

Overall Under The Black Cross does a good job documenting any game mechanic aspects within the plot descriptions (i.e. to spot a nervous person at an event).  This was a good addition to keep the plot flowing and giving the players something resembling involvement.  Also I did like the rules for holy ground being covered again with values for various locals in the crusade section of the campaign.

            From a layout and design perspective Under The Black Cross is the standard effort put forth by White Wolf: well laid out, big fonts, art.  The art in the book ranges from fair to good, but the cover is terrible. 

            Aside from shaky uninvolved plotting, Under The Black Cross has a much bigger underlying weakness and that is the shape Vampire: The Dark Ages.  It looks like the scheme of the game is going from a novel concept (especially considering it is wholly derivative of their flagship Vampire: The Masquerade) and turning it into everything I hate about White Wolf games.  What is it I hate?  I suppose the overtly theatrical nature and grandiose plotting.  Why have I liked Vampire: The Dark Ages, it has been the gritty insular nature of the setting and its challenges.

            Under The Black Cross really left me depressed about the end of a game I really liked and what it seems to be turning into.  The fact that the plot is not a very engaging, just  puts another nail into the coffin of my support for this game line.