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[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Mostly I was talking about how flat it all falls for me, which is consistent from LA by Night to BJD. I didn't expect BJD to fix all the setting problems, but I also thought it might make the overall situation interesting. For me it did not.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

By and large I agree with @CTPhillips assessment of both the Anarchs and L.A. by Night – however, he is more forgiving of this chapter than I am. Frankly, I found this chapter and the original L.A. by Night to be fairly dull and home to a lot of missed opportunities.

For one thing, generally more notable here than in the London Chapter, the city possesses no local flavour. There is no sense of L.A. film making, finance, or the local culture. The only “LA” thing present is the harbor and the gang – both of which appear in other cities. Further, the gangs are all pretty uniform...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

This should hardly surprise anyone. The real question is, to what degree were these Sabbat movers and shakers aware of being controlled? Vykos was influenced, if not directly controlled, by the Dracon and the Tzimisce Founder- but Vykos apparently did not become aware of this until some of the events surrounding BJD. Did Gratiano ever become aware of his controll, the way Vykos and Critias, became aware? This probably contributed to some of the Lasombra bolting for the Camarilla....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

It would also explain her father attempting to send her to a convent - she could not be a part of the family and something had to be done with her. Her dark hair probably came from her mother. I can't help with the name....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

This posting is good, and deserves a bump up the page.

Edit: Alfonso didn't marry until 1170, 4 years after Lucita birth. Maybe she was illegitimate.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

The Tzimisce Founder is as alien as Cthulhu, but it can focus on individuals and interact with them at time - based on bits of business in BJD and the revised Tzimisce Clanbook. An interesting question for both Founders is why did they fake their deaths if their clans posed so little threat to them?

I suspect they were trying to be cool, like Saulot.

In anycase, I suspect there will be a number of Sabbats. The survivors of Polonia's Crusade as a Sabbat, some around Lucita (assuming she became Regent) as a Sabbat, and some real disguisting wack-jobs in a Sabbat run by...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

A lot of the problems with V5 Camarilla, and to a greater extent V5 Anarch, is simply bad editing and planning.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Bearing in mind the Sabbat has always been the puppets of the Lasombra and Tzimisce Founder. The Lasombra Leadership finally just twigged to the fact. The status, and awareness, of the Tzimisce leadership remains to be seen....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

(shrugs) Mortimer the 9th generation Brujah walks into the tomb, tries to eat someone, and Aga of Kish walks out in Mortimer's body. Mortimer is, for all intents, is dead and gone....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I suspect the Gehenna Crusade was another Sabbat split. BJD discusses multiple Sabbat splits, such as one being around Mithras-Coven, one around Lucita and so forth. Anyway, I think a split happened around Polonia and his Crusade. He said something to the effect of "Who's with me," a lot of the martial ones ones said "Me" and they all ran off to the Middle East.

And died.

The mutliple Sabbat splits, and the loss of many of its most martial types, weakened it a great deal. And it got hammer by the SI. But it isn't actually gone....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I thought the Settites had asked for Camarilla membership, and been rejected, before they went to the Anarchs. The Camarilla knows the score with the Serpents, no matter what the Snakes call themselves, and even if the Anarch know it as well, they are also willing to take a chance.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

There is a reason they have found a home among the Anarchs - because that "Sect" is often composed of young, naive vampires without the history and experience of the Camarilla to warn them off of dealing with the Snakes....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Yes, both of these, right here. Even now, in the real world, where groups and institutions are not supposed to be racist, sexist, homphobic and so forth, plenty of people manage it is small, passive-agressive ways and micro-agressions. And that is among humans, not a race of damned, blood drinking, sociopaths.



To add to this, Onyx Path probably are not filling out the details on House Carna for now, but they will probably appear in a future supplement. The resulting lack of details leaves space for individual players and Storytellers...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

This is one of the better chapters in the book.

VtM can offer a range of stories, from the local and gritty urban squalor of Gary, to globetrotting terrorist battling. This chapter falls into the latter category, as it moves from Jordan to Paris, and from intra-Clan politics to inter-clan politics.

Tegyrius strikes me as more or a Hannibal Lecter type, as compared to the Lex Luthor (or Anatoly Dyatlov for a real world example) model of vampire elder. That is to say, he probably never rants and raves about stupid people or slaps anyone around just because he can. But...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

When I was a kid my parents had a copy of Whitman's Leave of grass that was bound by ornamental cord. The cord could be untied, the covers removed, and content added, removed, or rearranged. I think the Book of Nod is closer to that than to the Bible. There is apparently no vampire version of the First Council of Nicaea to decide on a definitive version. Which is why there is the book of Nod, the Erciyes Fragments, the Revelations of the Dark Mother and so forth are all in circulation.

All that to say, there are probably multiple versions of the book about, and vampires debate which...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Thanks.

Edit: I may revisit the subject in the future, and add player options. It will depend on my schedule.

From the cutting room floor;

• Mason decides it is time to join his family in the deep, dark waters. He arranges for a soirée on the Emma. At least one member of the Chicago court is present; possibly Annabelle or Critias. A few other movers and shakers are also present, and this may include the PCs. Those in attendance enjoy a night on the boat of few miles off shore – the lights of Chicago twinkle in the distance. Once hungry chulorviah surround the boat

...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Thank you kindly. If you will, could you post a review of it at the Vault?

Being able to insert the material without being too disruptive was the goal - I'm glad I hit that mark. In the first few drafts I included material from CbN V5, but I eventually pulled those out. Gregg is based on a character that appeared in the Dark Ages book, House of Tremere. The other two are entirely new. Chad was shaped by a joke thread on these forums. To my mind, Woodville is a [Londo Mollari] Mr. Mordin [/Londo Mollari] type of figure, going about and offering solutions to powerful men and women....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

We - white people from the West - do not get to make those value judgement. The people whose culture is being used, in this case the Chinese, are the ones who get to make that call....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

This is getting a bit off the subject of the 13 clans appearing in the Players Guide. But basically, unless it is researched, written and edited by people with a thorough knowledge of and appreciation and respect for Chinese culture, it is would purely be a case of cultural appropriation. That is to say, someone from the West taking something from another culture, such as folklore about the Jiangshi, and exploiting it for the sake of entertainment and making a buck.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I found this chapter to be flawed in a few ways.

For one thing, there really aren’t any scenes set in the Tube. Granted, for years the Tube has been lousy with America Werewolves (that are in London for some reason). And lately there has been a drow problem. Even so, there should have been a scene set in the Tube. And the subplot of the True Brujah trying to steal a police box felt like it was from some other game or show entirely.

Less flippantly, for all the sense of age to both Mithras and London, there is no sense of that weight of time in this chapter. Nothing is...