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A very strong source book both on the actual city of San Francisco but also as a snap shot of the Kuei-jin vs Kindred cold war along the West Coast of North America. The book is well written and while it is trying to cram a lot of information into a single book it does a great job of giving story tellers and players enough information to explore and expand on the setting in their own games.
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This is one of the best stand alone books for Word of Darkness. Few WoD supplements can stand on their own but Demon Hunter X does an excellent job of telling you everything you need to start playing as Shih or Agent of Strike Force Zero in Japan, if you already know the story teller system really almost no other books needed (though Kindred of the East will probably be very helpful for Storytellers).
This books strikes an excellent balance between giving you RP flavor of Demon Hunter X, mechanical information like new powers and abilities and storyline ideas for the series. Further the book is extremely well written and with rules and concepts being clear and easy to understand even for those not familiar with the WoD:East material. Demon Hunter X certainly has a different flavor than most Word of Darkness lines being more anime influence, but it comes off as refreshing and still in line with the spirit of World of Darkness as whole. Finally Demon Hunter X does a good job establishing Japan, an area rarely explored in most other WoD material and bringing it to life in spite of a limited page count. DHX is one of my favorite World of Darkness supplements.
*Note: WoD: Tokyo does also explore Japan but is a Wraith Supplement so while it touched on all WoD lines it isn't tightly focused, not necessary but like Kindred of the East can be a good supplement to DHX to help round out the DHX setting and expand on some WoD:East concepts.
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A much less informative than other WoD books. It spends a lot of time telling you how to role play "you are angry at vampires so you kill them blarg!" and very little time giving you the history of the hunters, their place in the WoD and game rules. This was clearly an early book and not even close to the quality of Demon Hunter's X or Project Twilight and was very disappointing. Most later books go out of there way to point out some of the material here is out of date and provide much more clear rules for rules and concepts of this volume. There are some good ideas here, but they are not given enough detail in favor of hitting you over the head with "Why Hunter's Hunt" and those sections feels padded, repetitive and underwhelming. If you can get this one for $4.00 or less I'd say it would be worth picking up as it does have a few good moment but most material in this book is better covered in other books. Project Twilight and Ascension's Right Hand between them have most the material in this book and are both better written. Over all I'd say skip it unless you really want the handful of new perks and flaws for human hunters in this book which is the only material I haven't found updated elsewhere.
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I got this book strictly for the Numia material to expand on the poorly written rules in Hunter's Hunted. I'm not sure how this reads as a Mage Book but as a WoD supplement to the mortal material I liked it a lot. The Numia rules are much better explained here, more clearly written and in the case of the Hedge Magic, expanded on nicely. If you are looking for Numia rules for your mortal characters I recommend Ascension's Right Hand over Hunter's Hunted. Still, if you are not playing mage I'd wait for it to on sale the Numia rules only cover a single chapter and are not worth 9 dollars. If you are not looking to play mage you can get decent Numia powers out of Project Twilight and the material is more relevant to the World of Darkness as a whole instead of just mage so I'd pick that up first and wait for a sale.
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I'll get right down to it, WoD is too much for one book. This book gives an alternate setting for WoD with new themes and feelings and it is simply way to much for the limited page count here. While Monte Cook does his best, and what you have in this book is good I don't think it is nearly enough. This product seems to me will really only will appeal to people who already know WoD given how obscure it is, but since this is the ONLY book on this setting I think most WoD will want more depth and rich RP material that Monte Cook was able to compress into this volume. This might be good as a stepping stone to try and introduce a D&D group to the WoD but otherwise I can't see playing D20 WoD over normal WoD.
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If you think WoD needs to run a bit more like D&D this is your book. While the combat options are decent, they are a bit clunky so expect to spend a fair bit of time, characters points and effort in combat if you want to include this module. WoD:Combat is well written dropping the RP fluff and getting right down to combat details to give you most you can get out of an RPG book but it mostly feels unnecessary for WoD so I'm not sure you will get your money's worth out of it as I can't see using these combat rules with very many stories.
Exalted or D&D are much better suited to more battle heavy games with volumes of combat oriented material written for them. While WoD:Combat does add a bit of spice with new combat abilities and more detailed mechanics it still pales in comparison to games built around combat. I think for most people added extra combat rules to the World of Darkness will feel unnecessary as that isn't really what WoD is all about it. I'd wait for this one to go on sale if you really want the extra combat options with the exception if you are planning on playing Demon Hunter X which I feel will benefit most from WoD:Combat.
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A solid book for people looking to run a character as part of the government in the World of Darkness. Usually the government is only brought up as being manipulated by the Kindred so these are a lot of good insight into human affairs in this book. The book focus on the USA and is sufficiently different Japan's from Strike Force Zero in Demon Hunter X that it stands on its own even if you already own that book. While most will prefer to play vampires, this book is a must for people looking to play a more average human fighting the good fight rather than a SFO cyber spy, Chi powered martial artist or a Supernatural style rogue hunter driving across the USA in an Impala with the Imbued power. The one downside to this book is it occasionally directs you to get more information from "Hunters Hunted" for a handful of paragraphs in that book which touched the FBI.
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The artwork in this book is truly compelling. The black and white edition of this book fleshes it out in the most vivid ways possible. I have seen the color edition in my friend's PDF version, but it doesn't compare. The shades and the shadows in grey-scale really bring incredible life to this book. In terms of content, the 20th anniversary edition refines and clarifies much of what was written back in 1991 to perfection. The history, clans and bloodlines are all expertly detailed and plenty of examples for narrators are given. The vampire really comes to life through the descriptions and illustrations.
A cornerstone of the world of darkness, this book will help build the foundation for any story involving any of the Vampiric societies. It cannot be missed.
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Haunting the Dead features four novellas set in White Wolf’s World of Darkness featuring characters from the Orpheus game line. This is a break from the usual format that White Wolf uses when releasing a new game. Usually there is a fiction anthology featuring several short stories. The novellas in Haunting the Dead allow for more character development and (as with any good ghost story) more plot twists. This was a great idea and I hope White Wolf continues his trend.
The first story, The Grass is Always Greener, by Stefan Petrucha, is the best of the bunch. This story introduces the reader to the world of Orpheus without forcing pages of information down our throats. The author takes through the mind of the main character as she deals with her inner demons while hanging out with a band of misfits. The tension continues up to the very end of the tale, keeping the reader hooked and wanting more. A difficult tale to follow, The Grass is Always Greener, starts off Haunting the Dead with a bang.
The other three stories in Haunting the Dead follow the game material a little more closely than The Grass is Always Greener, featuring the adventures of Orpheus Agents (the type of characters you’d play in the RPG). Eurydice, by Seth Lindberg, is a good tale, but it probably would have made a better full-length novel. It does feature a creepy villain that fans are still discussing on the various Orpheus boards on the web. Dia de los Muertos, by Allen Rausch, and Corridors, by Rick Chillot, are good fiction, and fit the world of Orpheus well…they just are not on the same level as The Grass is Always Greener and to a lesser extent Eurydice.
My hat goes off to Becky Jollensten, who did the cover and book design for Haunting the Dead. Most readers don’t notice these little details, but she did a great job with this book. The design adds just a bit of extra style, complimenting the novellas inside.
This book ties in well with the Orpheus game supplements, but is enjoyable by those who have no knowledge of the game. A great collection of talented authors that should set the standard for new material.
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The free rules pdf presents all you need to run mortal games dealing with the supernatural (ghosts, spirits, angels), and presents long awaited updates to the morality system, combat, and introduces new mechanics and systems designed to nudge players to be more proactive in their games, in order to make the storytelling experience more collaborative. Overall the new rules make a big leap out of the shadow of the Classic World of Darkness.
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http://ethericlabs.blogspot.de/2013/05/the-god-machine-chron
icles-review.html
God Machine Chronicles presents an exciting and eerie new default setting for mortal games of New World of Darkness, plus provides sample stories to be used for chronicles, and a revision of the rules, offering some new concepts to aid in the collaborative storytelling experience. This is a must buy for anyone wanting to tell mortal games that touch on cosmic terror.
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I reviewed the GMC rules update for my GM blog, Run a Game, here:
http://runagame.blogspot.com/2013/05/god-machine-chronic
le-system-review.html
Here are some parts of the system I loved:
- Improved combat system: Starts with declaring intent so not every fight is just a kill-or-be-killed battle to the death; killing is hard
- "Integrity" is the new morality stat, and it's more of a sanity stat - finally moving away from the V:tM Humanity model from the 90s!
- The experience point system got a heavy revision. Now XP come mostly from player actions, and the scale is linear (X points, instead of X*[new rating])
The bad...
- The new social maneuvers system is too much system. It doesn't seem to serve any helpful purpose, and can screw the story up with some too-good or too-bad rolls.
- Extended actions are still pretty bad. Easy: Just don't use them.
- Tying experience points to player actions can be rough on wallflower players and puts more demand on the GM to act as a facilitator. Naturally YMMV on this one.
Overall: Great game. See my blog post for more detail on these comments before responding to me here.
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Sometimes we storytellers get out of ideas or we just don't have the time to create a short story out of the blue. And this can be even more difficult if we didn't play Vampire in a while. Thankfully we have Dust to Dust. A short story with interesting characters, a good location and a couple of plot twists that will really get into the characters.
In Dust to Dust we have to visit the decaying city of Gary, Indiana. We will get into an ongoing vendetta between a forsaken Prince and a bored anarch. But things will get really messed up when not one but two tinkerers of the dead come to town. Oh, and a bad ass vampire hunter.
If you need a story to fill up or start your chronicle, or perhaps to play a one shot at a convention, Dust to Dust will be perfect for the job!
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This is an amazing product. All the rules are in one place so that gameplay doesn't have to stop while someone digs out some obscure book, all the clans, sects, bloodlines, and powers are here so that frugal players can grab it and have whatever they need. The only downside is that some of the art leaves a little to be desired, but most of the art is phenomenal. If you like V:tM, cWoD, or just White Wolf, pick this up. If you like vampires in general, pick this up, find a group, and embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I got it to replace a revised Core Rulebook that was stolen from me years ago, and I'm almost glad it was stolen now. I got the B&W softcover from Drive Thru, and the quality is amazing. They say there's a thin white edge on all the pages, but it's not a big deal at all. You barely notice it, and the binding is pretty good too. Buy this book.
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We bought this as a supplement to our game as we only had 2 hard covers. This works great on computer but especially the ipad.
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