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The Blood: A Player's Guide to a Requiem is a supplement to the Vampire: the Requiem line of Storytelling games, but it's not like other Player's Guidebooks you've read. You'll find no juicy character options here; no optional Disciplines or spell lists or new Clans. (That's what the Bloodlines books are for.) Instead, this book focuses on the Storytelling aspect of being a player in the Vampire game. The conceit of the book is that the drama of personal horror is in the players' hands; the Storyteller is there to take your lead and give you situations and characters against which to play out your story.
This book is laid out into three "essays", each written by a different author. The ground these essays cover is familiar, and it is intended to be. Essentially, each chapter covers a different set of rules from the Vampire: the Requiem core rulebook (character creation, vitae and other mechanics, and the psychology of a Vampire's unlife respectively). The intent is to give the mechanics of the games more emotional depth for a player to work with. If you are going to really play a vampire, how can you start to identify with one?
1) Kindred Characters (25 pages)
This section is probably the most practically useful. It covers each step of character creation, but where the core rulebook covers the "what" of the character's attributes, this chapter digs into the "Why". Why does this character have Social Attributes over Physical? Why does she have a higher Blood Potency than normal? Why did this group of vampires get thrown together?
This section gets past the "dots" on the character sheet. It gives a player a lot more to think about as far as character cohesion and story hooks to give the Storyteller that resonate with the player. Rich stories come from rich backgrounds, and the Kindred Characters chapter gives players plenty of tools to add depth to her character before the first Scene even begins.
2) Properties of the Blood (63 pages)
This section should be called "A Year in the Life of a Vampire". It is a deep analysis of the mechanics of the game that the players would use every night: each rule for vitae is described from a story perspective. What is each stage of the Vinculum (enslavement through a blood bond) like? How do different kinds of vampires choose to use it? What does it feel like to use blood to fuel Disciplines or to heal wounds? What about feeding?
Although this section does not bring any new mechanics to the mix, it definitely gives a level of depth to each player action that adds drama to that player's ability to roleplay the existing mechanics.
This section also covers the non-mechanical aspects of other non-vitae systems like Torpor, Frenzy and Humanity.
More than any other chapter in this book "Properties of the Blood" vividly illustrates how the various rules detailed in the core rulebook can be dramatized in play.
Finally in this chapter is the one real bit of "crunch" the book offers: 5 new Derangements, because there just aren't enough ways for your character to be effed up.
Vampire Psychology: (28 pages)
I was a bit confused by the title of this chapter, since the previous chapter seemed to cover "vampire psychology" quite thoroughly. What this chapter actually covers is "Landmarks in the Requiem" and "Psychology of the Disciplines". In many ways, it simply felt like two more sections of the previous chapter, thoug they were just as useful as any of the previous sections were.
The Landmarks detail all of the significant experiences that all kindred who survive their Requiem share. This section proves very useful as it gives a Storyteller a list of all of the events to weave into each character's chronicle, and for the player it describes what impacts it could have on her psyche.
The experineces are broken out by "age". I've provided only a few examples for each age:
Neonate (0-50 years)
The Embrace, First Feeding, First Frenzy, Learning Disciplines
Ancilla (50-250 years)
Witnessing the Passage of a Generation, Rising Within the Covenants, Eliminating Competition, Losing Humaity
Elder (250 years )
Monstrous Boredom, The Call of Sleep, The Burden of Leadership, Death Wish
The Disciplines section covers the psychological impact of each Discipline, dot by dot, with an emphasis on the related Derangements that could develop with inappropriate use. Again, the intent of this section is to give the players more options to wring every drop of drama from each game mechanic.
SUMMARY
This book is strictly for the "storyteller" and "method actor" gamer types (as opposed to "power gamers" or "action seekers", etc). There is plenty of mental cud to chew when thinking of character development. Since I land firmly in the "storyteller" camp of gamer (clearly the intended audience of the book) I loved it. One of my biggest challenges with any game is dramatizing the game's mechanics in a meaningful and entertaining way. Since the popularity of Vampire: the Requiem relies so heavily on this capability, this is an essential book for the product line.
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