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Review of The Red Sign


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Red Sign cover

Disclaimer I: I have seen in reviews that the content had "spoiler" ascribed to it. I feel that if you are reading a review, you invite that upon yourself. If you don't want "spoilers," why would you read a review of a product you do not own? I will not use the phrase of "Contains Spoilers" in my reviews, if you want a non-biased review that doesn't reveal content-look elsewhere.

Disclaimer II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment of this product should vary accordingly.


"... The most likely solution is that the initiate is merely mortal again, able to resolve his life (at least biologically) where it left off. Attaining more successes on the ritual may have even greater effects. This last section adds one more complication to the chronicle: What happens if the Redeemed is actually more than human..."
(from Mortals and the Redeemed, p. 71)

WARNING SHOT:

Into every chronicle, an end must occur or else the stories will run-on like a few extra seasons of a bad television show. That is, past its prime. The Red Sign takes a small segment of the Vampire and Mage chronicles and lets them run their course...

together.


The Red Sign is a Vampire: the Masquerade and Mage: the Ascension crossover product set during the Time of Judgment. The Red Sign deals with some unstable and driven coteries (and cabals) trying to unhinge the binding curse of Caine. With the World of Darkness facing the end times, several are hoping that the beneficiary of the Ritual of the Red Sign will usher in a new era for the survivors of Gehenna.

The Ritual of the Red Sign changes one vampiric creature into a mortal (or more than mortal, think options folks) that may or may not be herald to the unraveling of God's world (in a Vampire viewpoint) or the harbinger of mankind's new state (a Mage's Ascension). Nothing is certain in the book, as the storyteller is rife to change what is being presented.

More a toolkit of ideas than a how-to guide for redeeming vampires, The Red Sign manages to present some nice ideas for bringing the two World of Darkness powerhouses together. The book features the machinations of several characters trying to circumvent the Curse of Caine (a Giovanni working closely with Camarilla and Sabbat vampires, a rogue technomancer and the well-meaning Verbena).

Thanks to the books nature as a resource of ideas, no real answer can be pulled out of the text that will make the Ritual work more than another (though a wise storyteller may just allow everything in the book to work). The Red Sign calls itself a Lovecraftian themed work, owing largely to the fact that occult tomes and unworldly evil acts need to be performed for the Ritual to work.

The book itself is a lovely example of how a chronicle's end should be set up, with Vampire's Curse of Caine and solid end would be to have player characters wittingly (or unwittingly) end the world by circumventing the order that God established, rushing Gehenna to come and the little vampires to become chow for the bigger ones. A mage may view the redemption of a lost and very wayward soul (or recovering their Avatar from the Avatar Storm) as a path to the ultimate in events, Ascension. A person willing to make sacrifices of their old identity (this case, vampiric) makes for a hero of enlightenment.

Overall, The Red Sign is a fun read into what could change chronicles--the redemption of ages-long cursed vampires. Red Sign has several characters to support both Mage and Vampire played games, along with multiple discussions using those game lines archetypes (using various Clan and Tradition mood pieces). This book is best put into a crafty storyteller's chronicle, as the ideas presented here may or may not be functional for those with dice happy gamers.

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