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[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Like the other poster said, this is a long ways from the story of most games or anything game mechanics is designed to handle. Assuming the character did not burn up - and entry at those velocities destroys nickel-iron asteroids so it should make short work of a vampire - then the force of the impact will not be that impressive.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I suspect this is what happened, that is was supposed to be almost done but was no where near completion and there were no real signs of progress. So Paradox said fuck it, and it trying something - anything - else....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I like all of this - but it might be something best handled by fan supplement....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I like this entire post. And I agree with its conclusion. But I also doubt there is way make a simple (in terms of game mechanics) generic, universal vampire or hungry ghost that is not a Kindred. Or at least not one fans will embrace....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

That matches the tone of the setting; institutions will not save you because they are vain and mediocre....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

The Dude: They abide. These are the ones who have checked out of the jyhad rat race as much as possible. Or they try to check out, but keep getting roped back in....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I'm just pointing to the VtR covenants for the sake of simplicity. There is a lot of non-mechanical info available on them already, so players and ST can just plug in that info. While WW/OP could not have explicitly used the VtR covenants,they should have given the Anarchs more structure and provided coherant internal factions.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Thanks. I didn't know about that KotE bit of business, but it works for me. Part of my thinking was influenced by the HBO series Chernobyl - which is great and harrowing to watch - and thinking about vampires in that situation. To simply say radiation doesn't do anything to them seemed to easy....

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

WIR Epilogue

The Anarch book did not have a singular failure in the same way the Camarilla book did in the form of its entry on The Abrek Blight. But even so over all the Anarchs book is a weaker product than the Camarilla book. The best metaphor I can come up with is if the Camarilla book is a properly ordered (with items separated) buffet or salad bar, then the Anarchs books is a buffet or salad bar with all the contents (still fresh and edible) poured out into a single pile. You can pick out the bits you want, but it quickly becomes tiresome.

One improvement would...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

As other have posted, in the rules as written vampires take no damage from radiation. However, while no specifically a part of established rules, a vampire might become radioactive. My own take is that sufficient levels of radiation should destroy the blood in a vampires system. Such as the radiation stripping the blood of, for lack of a better term, nutritional value for the vampire.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Thanks. I may dive into one of those in the future but for the moment I'm busy with a couple of a personal projects now. I will comment with some specific thoughts on the Anarchs today or tomorrow.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Conclusion

The Anarch book is interesting but it is also impossible to consider it on its own. It can only really be evaluated in comparison to the Camarilla book. In that sense, it is the weaker of the two books.

Simply put, Anarch is too disorganized to provide as much use as the Camarilla book. The various parts of Camarilla society provide a lot of fodder for conflict, drama, bloodshed, hate, death, chaos, misery, murder, and so on. It’s all pretty evident. The same potentials are found among the Anarchs but it is less evident, and harder to exploit simply because...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Response Algorithm and Lore Sheets

This is a kind of section I’ve never had much use for – it’s not bad, but I can handle this kind of thing on the fly and do not need it all written out. Some people may find it helpful, and for them it will be useful. In any case, I am generally indifferent to this portion.

After this are a series of lore sheets for various NPCs (Agata Sterek, Hesha, etc) and different events and situations. These are pretty good.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Traitor Clans

This is a series of sections, each of which briefly explores the role of Anarch members of an otherwise nominally Camarilla Cla; Malkavians, Toreador, Tremere, Nosferatu and Ventrue. The nature of the clans remains the same if they are in the Ivory Tower or among the Rabble. That is, the Toreador are still artists, the Malkavians are still insane and the Nosferatu are still hogging up all the ugly. Perhaps the most interesting in the Ipsissimus Tremere and that is mostly because the Tremere went from a highly homogenous group to a highly heterogeneous group. A reoccurring...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Duskborn

This section is about thin-blood, or vampires of generation 15+, and they are often not easily identified by clan. Many are in fact created by accident and they are not true vampires because they are - as Miracle Max might put it - only "mostly dead, which means partly alive." The oddness of the duskborn means they have no place in the Camarilla and, almost by default, find a place with the Anarchs. In that the Anarchs are everything that is vampiric but is not Camarilla.

The section is a mix of in-character and out of character sections. One of the...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I'm thinking of something that explores the social role of blood magic and blood users more than a list of spells levels 1 - 9. Cults spent more time on the cults than new powers,by way of comparison. I want to know more about the users and creators of blood magic among the Tremere factions, the Fiends, the Banu Haqim, and so on.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I hope there is a new book on blood magic for V5. I imagine something similar to Cults of the Blood Gods, but with a focus on Tzimisce kuldon, Bani Haqim sorcerers, Tremere factions, and so on.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Right. Back to this… (This WIR is not the only way I squander the time on Earth God has given me)

Caitiff

This chapter discusses Caitiff in the vampire society of the unbound. And it is somewhat at odds with the flash fiction which moves the book into a discussion of the clans among the Anarchs. That bit of fluff expressly stated that Anarchs do not place much importance on bloodlines. Here it is expressly stated that even if that is true, that the Caitiff still have trouble fitting in with the Anarchs because of their utter lack of blood ties and easily identified vampire...

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

The book has a good, and fair, review over on ENWorld.