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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Streamlined, 16 Jan 2005
Vampire: The Requiem is an addon to the World of Darkness Storyteling system newly published by White Wolf. Many might be familiar with the previous Vampire game, The Masquerade (especially after the 2 PC games) and would be pardoned for thinking this was the same thing.I was skeptical at first about this and it's Core Rule book. Rarely are games of this nature any good from a first edition - Vampire: The Masquerade had several incarnations over the years, and even the most well known pen and paper game, Dungeons & Dragons has gone through at least 5 since it's inception oh so long ago. However, even though White Wolf have touted this as a brand new game, it isn't - at least in substance. Most of the rules and ideas have come from the final version of Vampire: The Masquerade (which as a series ended when White Wolf published Gehenna and the other apocalyptical books to allow people to put the game to bed without feeling left out). However much has been streamiled (which would ultimately be explained in the World of Darkness book). What this book contains is the histories, traits, politics and anything else you might wanna know to play as a Vampire in the World of Darkness. The clans have been reduced to 5 which are amalgamations, or new breeds from the old game's 13. However don't let that put you off, because the new Story Teller system lets you creat bloodlines for each of the clans, so you could have potentially limitless amounts of clans. Also, political factions are no longer imposed upon you, and rather an eternal struggle for dominance taking place nightly, there is relative peace (the Storyteller's decision really) between factions. They also got rid of what WW call Metaplot, whereby every book they added to the series forwarded time a little, with clans joining or leaving political factions, siding with or making new enemies. The new system alows the StoryTeller to be in control, allowing true flexibility in the world s/he creates. New books will only flesh out the existing world, not impose a kind of time frame, mood or setting. So any similarity between Player Characters is really due to a lack of imagination in the player's. And really the game can take on any mood you want, be it Gothic-Punk, punk, gothic... or a comedy, if you're a little twisted ;) For those who like nice presentation, the new books are all in hardback form for durability, and the drawings and story snippets are ideal for the setting, and quite original (a few times the plots caught be by suprise). I bought it for it's price alone (along with World of Darkness) - It's very cheap for an addon to a game, whcih in turn is cheaper. I remember paying £25 a piece for each D&D game book. Finaly, if you want a good story, get this... It's less combat oriented than some other RPG's (like D&D, and even The Masquerade), but that's the point of the game really - and even if you miss the technicality of combat (who's where, the penetration of a bullet through a 5inch think wooden board, and similar nitty gritty) then the gameplay can be altered. Die hard Vampire the Masquerade player's may take a bit more convincing, but most bad things about the new system are really misconceptions and can be explained at the www.white-wolf.com forums (which is where I went before purchasing - cleared up a lot of rubbish). Both thumbs, and fangs up
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by Bill Bridges
by Ethan Skemp
by White Wolf
by Changeling
