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The Good: Once I started reading I couldn’t put this one down. The writers do an excellent job of bringing science fiction into the World of Darkness and many of their ideas are just plain cool. The writers are willing to break rules not normally broken in World of Darkness products, such as by including rules for Vampire Prometheans and other hybrids. The mechanics changes are very simple, allowing Storytellers to easily integrate these character concepts without upsetting game balance or causing additional work.
The Bad: Some readers will be disappointed that the product largely makes use of the existing powers and abilities of the core Promethean Lineages instead of introducing many new ones. The large number of NPCs takes away from the discussion. The included adventure is far from inspiring and probably will be ignored by most readers.
The Physical Thing
This 152 page black and white hardcover showcases excellent production values for its $26.99 price tag. The editing is very good, the formatting makes the book easy to read, and the artwork evokes the same desolate and otherworldly feel common to the Promethean product line. NPC examples perfectly illustrate concepts and the writing is excellent all the way through, but the book does have an annoying flaw – it can be difficult to navigate. While the page color differences make it easy to spot the nuclear Prometheans section, some other information can require a bit of page flipping. While the product is a little short for an index, it would have benefited greatly from a simple way to signal when different information is being presented. I had a difficult time finding the information on the supernatural/Promethean hybrids later when prepping for a game, for instance.The Ideas
As presented in the core book, Prometheans are created through corpses and powerful obsession on the part of the demiurge. Some are stitched together, others are whole bodies, but all of them were once living. Saturnine Night focuses on the idea that other things can be used to create Prometheans and that the dark side of modern science is full of such methods. Vats of chemical goo, robots, clockwork gears, and perhaps stranger things still are all potential candidates. It pushes the envelope for the game, even exploring Prometheans made from the bodies of other supernatural creatures and what such a hybrid would be like. It radically expands on the options available to Promethean groups.Under the Cover
Chapter One Demiurges in the Modern Age 30 pages.Demiurges, the people who originally created Prometheans, aren’t normally relevant. After all most died hundreds or thousands of years ago, and the Prometheans of today are the product of other Prometheans. When we consider entirely new Prometheans, however, who their demiurges are is suddenly very important. Prometheans created from robotics or cloning vats aren’t taking memories are experiences from a mix of body parts, but they may absorb their creator’s memories or her mumblings and rantings during the creation process.
A variety of interesting theories on what gives the demiurge the power to create new life, or at least a mockery of life, are presented. The most prominent one found in other Promethean products is that desperation drives the demiurge and provides all the power necessary. The demiurge just needs to do this so badly that it happens, but afterwards attempts to replicate the experiment are sure to fail – the same desperation just isn’t there once the demiurge knows it’s possible. Other theories, such as demiurges being given some sort of design inspiration or circumstances completely apart from the demiurge leading to the creation, are also provided and give the Storyteller a bunch of interesting ideas. A new demiurge could be a powerful and interesting character in any Promethean game, and knowing what the demiurge was like may give us insight into their creation.
Promethean demiurges, demiurges creating Pandorans, and a variety of other topics all receive some attention here. More than this, though, the chapter goes on to walk the reader through the creation of a new Promethean Lineage. Considerations ranging from themes to humours to disfigurements and everything else are included. While some of the advice is just to reinterpret and re-use existing Promethean concepts, a lot of it is really clever and shows off how many other concepts are out there. For example, under Humours a suggestion is a Promethean created by the sole survivor of a Himalayan plane crash who has a “north wind” humour – cold and blustery. This is great stuff and it’s sure to fill you with ideas for creating new types of Prometheans.
This chapter also breaks all the rules of the World of Darkness by providing discussion of the supernatural demiurge. A vampire, werewolf, or mage may attempt to create a Promethean – or their bodies may be used to make a Promethean – and this chapter discusses the potential ramifications of that. Simple rules tweaks and interesting, detailed example NPCs makes this more than just a rough idea but something you can easily bring into your own game. I liked this section so much that I immediately seized on a variety of the ideas and will be incorporating a Vampire/Promethean hybrid in an upcoming Chronicle.
The chapter wraps up with Clones and Hybrids (think “Isle of Dr. Moreau”). By clones the author is actually talking about engineered fully grown humans more than anything else, so the idea is once again ‘constructed’ people that largely start with a blank slate. Hybrids are in the same position, but have animal, insect, or some other DNA mixed in to create something completely alien. The downside here is that the authors don’t have much to say on these topics, instead providing several NPCs. The NPCs are good, however, and provide several ideas on ways to approach these concepts.
Chapter Two Flesh and Metal 22 pages.
The Unfleshed are as you would expect- Prometheans made of something other than flesh. After a discussion of advanced technology in the World of Darkness (which is very well done and emphasizes the horror elements of such technology) we get into the mechanics of creating completely new Prometheans. First, these Prometheans are being created just like any other except the creator is picking and choosing parts of each Promethean type to get something that makes sense to them. An android with an unloving creator might experience Wretched Torment but Tammuz Disquiet, for instance. Electrification might be a natural and obvious Transmutation for that creature too. On top of this mix of abilities there are a few mechanics which set the Unfleshed apart: a new Wasteland effect, new Athanors, and a new sequence of machine-oriented Merits.
The new Merit, Device, deserves some brief discussion. This encompasses five of the most common sorts of abilities a machine Promethean might have, such as internal weapons or communication devices. It’s simple and elegantly handles most things a player might want, but some readers will wish there were more options than this half page.
Unfleshed Milestones, a system for Unfleshed creating more of their kind, and many example NPCs round out this chapter and give the reader a sense of the potential of the Unfleshed. The very first NPC is a clockwork automaton – it’s hard to get any cooler than that. On the whole this is a good chapter, it gives you all the tools you need to create non-corpse based Prometheans, but I do wish there was more stuff here.
Chapter Three The Destroyer of Worlds 30 pages.
The nuclear Prometheans are hinted at from the core book. Here we finally have a detailed, playable version of this idea and it’s actually quite good. First, the writers give us several pages on radiation. It’s not comic book radiation, but it’s not quite real world radiation either. Rather, it’s the closest they can reasonably come to real radiation while preserving the simple mechanics of the game. The effects of different levels of radiation on the human body are discussed, likely sources of such radiation are presented, and on the whole the reader is going to get a crash course in radiation suitable to allow them to use nuclear Prometheans in interesting ways.
Nuclear Prometheans are different. Instead of gaining strength from electricity, they gain it from radiation. Their temperament is chaotic, their disfigurements are disturbing even by Promethean standards, and their very existence puts others in danger. They’re rare – only a few exist and they’re likely an oddity Their Wastelands begin as mutated versions of the real world and end with the land becoming a nuclear winter filled with giant, irradiated insects – a hellish place even by other Wasteland standards. Their Disquiet may be the most interesting part of all. Wherever they go they create a Red scare – people grow extremely paranoid and being accusing one another of all manner of things.
Plenty of mechanical support can be found here as well. Story hooks, Athanors, new Bestoments (including the power to disappear and leave behind nothing but a scorched shadow), and new radiation-based Transmutations are all included. All of this is very flavorful, well written, and fun. My only complaint is that a few of the Transmutations are so weak that I don’t anticipate a player using them in game. Otherwise this is a solid addition to the existing Lineages.
A variety of example nuclear Prometheans and Pandorans are provided to bring these ideas and mechanics together.
Chapter Four Storytelling 51 pages.
This chapter kicks off with some general Storyteller advice, most notably focusing on how to structure a Promethean Chronicle for one shots, short run games, and long term games. For many readers this is going to be pretty intuitive stuff – if you run a shorter game, consider more easily obtainable milestones. If you run a one shot consider mini-milestones for the one-shot. Its still worth reading for the off chance something you hadn’t considered strikes your fancy.
The real meat here is the adventure. “These Mortal Engines” brings the cycle of Promethean adventures to a close. One the one hand, there’s a lot of good stuff here. The detail on Detroit is neat, and I’d be sorely tempted to set a future game in that city based on this. Many of the adventure elements are also very creative, such as a connection between the mysterious Arch-Qashmal and an equally mysterious god-machine. An insane scientist builds clones in his dirty attic, and the people on the streets live in poverty and fear. Clearly there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on here.
As an adventure, however, it’s just alright. Far better than To The Wastes because of its more open and malleable nature, this adventure at least requires less forced action and events on the part of the Storyteller which makes it easier to run. Because of the openness of Detroit as a setting it’s also much easier for the Storyteller to insert side plots or additional adventures should she want to. Finally, attention to other supernaturals living in Detroit makes it a fine mini-setting for other campaigns as well.
My Take
Saturnine Night breaks rules I didn’t think White Wolf authors would break. Mixed supernaturals, science fiction, and other elements combine to create a truly inspired product. This book is the perfect example of how an RPG can expand to cover new ground while still retaining its original focus and direction. The only downside here is how sparse the content is. While the example NPCs are good I would have enjoyed more discussion of the science fiction elements here.If you like Promethean and want to expand it with robots, clones, nuclear Prometheans, supernatural hybrids, and other fantastical things then check out Saturnine Night.
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