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Gehenna
is the Vampire: the Masquerade's Time of Judgment hardcover book, detailing
four scenarios to end the world. At least, the world of vampires. Gehenna
has been the End Times hinted at from the beginning of the series, and
now it has come to your chronicle, should you decide to use it.
Gehenna
is a scenario tool for your chronicle, presenting four tales on how
to end your chronicles of Vampire. These four scenarios are of varying
styles, which is good for those whose storytelling styles don't match
one tale or another. Though, they try to capture the personal horror
that is Vampire, some of these scenarios don't come across as the best
way to present the end, but then I guess my personal style doesn't match
those tales.
Also included
are chapters covering the effects of Gehenna on vampires, called the
Withering--as the vampire start to lose their abilities as Gehenna continues,
as well as chapters of supporting characters and Caine. The storytelling
chapter comes across as an ill-fit epilogue to the four possible endings,
and doesn't carry the umph of the other chapters--basically retelling
some of the notes from the earlier chapters.
The story
"Wormwood" presents the ending of the vampiric world by God's
fiat, a "second flood" that wipes away the vampiric strain
without taking away from his covenant with Noah. The story hinges on
the chronicle's coterie to survive a trial of humanity under God's watchful
eye while away from the harshness of the Withering (mostly). Strong
on the personal side of the Vampire equation, light on fisticuffs or
the firefights some coteries would have been involved with.
"Fair
is Foul" showcases the struggles of Lilith against Caine in a match
for supremacy of the supernatural world, ending with an odd feeling
of abandonment (of the world of creation as coteries stay within the
second garden with the Mother of Monsters, lapsing away from the real
world). Not a bad story, but it feels choppy, as it's broken down into
little vignettes, which the characters participate in.
"Nightshade"
is another tale broken down into playable scenarios, with world redemption
placed in the hands of a soulless human clone that hosts the soul of
Saulot--in most scenarios, the one "saving" grace of the vampire
world. The tale is about witnessing the world of the Masquerade unravels
itself, thanks to 24-hour cable news. The chronicle's coterie ends up
playing escort to most major narrator characters, but ends up with either
helping the world end or helping with its salvation.
"The
Crucible of God" scenario plays out like a lengthy B-quality horror
film, with every major player in the Jyhad coming out to hang out or
just hang the chronicle's coterie, the surviving Antediluvians wreck
the world, ending up with the Tzimisce network--that is, all-Tzimisce,
all the time. The characters can pray to make the world a better place,
but the odds are definitely against them.
Gehenna
is a hard product to sit down and judge, as it's a book of endings.
Four endings, in fact, but not neccessarily to one chronicle or another.
The strength of the book, to me, lies in the personal ending of the
Vampire mythos, with God's eye beset upon the coterie, for others the
Tzimisce should inherit (or is that bury) the earth.
Overall,
the book is a solid display of scenario selection, and as such, some
usefullnes will vary by owner. The ending of the Vampire world is a
stasifying one, the added chapters on supporting characters was decent,
but not that inspiring (Gehenna is about the end of the world, not the
number of dots one has in Presence, afterall). The Caine chapter didn't
carry the weight that it might have, if they kept the "use sparingly"
warning down to once or twice. If a storyteller is looking to end the
world for his Vampire chronicle, he or she would do well to give Gehenna
a once over.
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