Clanbook Ravnos (Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks) [Paperback]

Starting around 1999, White Wolf began revising their World of Darkness gamelines and pushing towards the Final Nights. Unfortunately, one of the first casualties were the Ravnos, when their Antediluvian woke up in Bangladesh, ran amok and was eventually destroyed, cursing his childer with his dying breath. We learned that the Ravnos were not merely wandering Gypsies, but a clan of demon-princes of India and the Near East, the rakshasa, ghul and djinn who created deadly illusions and fought with the Kuei-jin for control of Asia.

Unfortunately, the Clan's Indian heritage was never fully explored. Still, Clanbook: Ravnos revised was a definate (and much needed) improvement on behalf of the Clan. Beginning with a short fiction that showed Ravnos as tomb robbers, we are presented with some views that are very different from the stereotypes. As the book points out several times, the Ravnos are predators even more so than other vampires; their primal Beast urges them to commit crimes repeatedly. They aren't happy-go-lucky tricksters and kelptomaniacs... no, they are thugs, murderers, terrorists, car jackers... the most vile and decadent of criminals, becuase their very soul tempts them to sin.

The book also explores what is left of the Ravnos' history in India, explaining the story of Zapathasura (the Ravnos antediluvian) and his childer, their war with the Kuei-jin, Ravnos dominance of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, the different castes of Ravnos (Chandala, Sudra, Vaisya, Kshatriya and Brahmin), other Kindred in India, the Ravnos in the west, the British raj, current goings on in India (and the rest of Asia) and the Week of Nightmares. But the book is versitle enough for all Ravnos, mentioning the Clan's history in the west as well (particularly Africa and the Mediterranean, but also the Gypsies, whom the clan followed out of India centuries ago).

Other useful sidebars explore their relationship with the Gypsies (which aren't too good, considering most Rroma rightly consider them to be blood sucking parasites), how to avoid contact with Lupines, the Path of Paradox (Mayaparisatya as it's called in India), new applications of Chimerstry and Animalism, the Ravnos relations with their Beast, the war with the Kuei-jin, membership in the Anarchs and Sabbat, reasons for their hatred of the Gangrel, and so forth. A good chunk of the information is meant for the post-Week of Nightmares era. Thats not a bad thing, but this book REALLY pushes metaplot.

Thats probably my biggest problem with the book, actually. Don't get me wrong, the Week of Nightmares is a big thing, but at times it seems the book really tried to push the idea that western Ravnos fared better than their kin in India. To be honest, I found the material about the Ravnos activities in India to be somewhat more interesting. But thats easy enough to ignore. Also, I'm a little uncomfortable with using Bhopal as a backdrop to supernatural events. Over 15,000 people died in the real life Bhopal incident (and Union Carbide has never paid the survivors reparations).... that'd be on par with using 9-11 as a backdrop for supernatural conflicts. It's just bad taste imho. But all in all, this is a pretty good book, barring a few minor details.

The Ravnos clan has been decimated. The survivors are trying to lift themselves from the ashes of the Week of Nightmares. This is their story.

This clanbook does a great job of actually recreating a clan. One of its key points is showing how the stereotypical Ravnos, a thieving gypsy, is all but extinct. The survivors are plagued with the same curse, but they break the mold. This book looks at the past history and culture of the clan but it also looks at the current culture which is much different. The Ravnos that seemed a little different from the stereotype are now the minority of the clan.

I loved how this book took a clan that has long been portrayed in a fairly two dimensional light and added depth and variety to it.

The flaws, in my opinion, are that the book focuses almost exclusively on culture and role-playing, its a little light on rules and new powers. Dont get me wrong, I loved the powers that are included, I just wanted more. Call me greedy.

If you ever liked the Ravnos before you will love them now.

My number one favorite clan...

This book gives great details on the destruction of the Ravnos antediluvian, the subsequent Week of Nightmares and the restructuring of the clan.

I highly recommend this book to any fans of this clan and anyone interested in the Week of Nightmares meta-plot.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars