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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but so-so usefulness for the average player., 22 Nov 2002
The Mind's Eye Theatre books are invariably well written. They are clear, descriptive, and excellent reading material. Similarly, beyond the 'Laws of the Night', their usefulness for the average player is somewhat debatable.The Camarilla Guide is essentially split into three main sections - a description of advanced disciplines for Elders, a description and explanation of the hierarchy of the Camarilla - including rules of Court, the Archons and Justicars, Anathema and the Red List, and advice for storytellers. It also includes information on the differences between elders and younger vampires, and a selection of character templates. The average player participating in a Camarilla game is unlikely to be an elder and, considering that IC they will also probably be unaware of any of the advanced disciplines, this section is somewhat superfluous. Of course, if you've just achieved enough prestige points to create your own elder, then it's probably a godsend, but otherwise its a big chunk of the book that seems somewhat redundant. The in depth description of the organisation of the Camarilla system of courts and elysium is very well written. It gives excellent roleplaying ideas for starting characters, and generally gives you a good understanding of most of the things that you SHOULD know IC, as well as a few bits and pieces that you probably wouldn't. To be honest, though, a great deal of the information is what I learnt within a couple of games anyway. Perhaps the more useful information is the description of elder mindsets, and the different ways in which elders, ancillae, and neonates view the world. I especially liked a small section which examined the differences in elder and neonate approaches to influence usage. It can be difficult to get your mind round just HOW different elder vampires are supposed to be, but this is a useful tool to help you understand. Not being a storyteller, I won't comment deeply on the city creation guide, save to say that it looks pretty comprehensive and helpful. I enjoyed reading this guide, but I'm not sure how useful it has been to be in game terms. It's filled in a few gaps in knowledge, but a lot of what I've learnt is stuff I can't use IC anyway (although always good to know). I'm not sure why anyone other than a national level ST is going to need to know information of Methuselah level disciplines! Enjoyable, good, but of limited usefulness in my opinion.
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