#1 Review of Night's Dark Masters (WFRP)
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 11:28 pm
I got my hands on Night's Dark Masters yesterday, a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game supplement on vampires and the cursed land of Sylvania.
Cover: Not to my taste, although the art is decent enough. Goth type snarling female vampire. She isn't pretty, and definitely not angsty, so its in the spirit of the game.
Format: The usual for a WFRP book. Mostly "man on the street" and "learned scholar" type fluff for players and then the meat for the game master. Game mechanics and statistics are mostly in the last third, although relevant sections for game mechanic sidebars. Good index at the back makes finding things easy.
Content: Lots of background material on all five major vampire bloodlines and some details on independents. History, background, and map of Sylvania, which is separated ethnically and culturally from the rest of the Empire. They don't love the vampires, they just hate most Imperial nobles more and not without reason.
Lots of material on vampiric powers and weaknesses as well as in depth on making your vampire NPCs and using them as campaign long antagonsits. Vampires are powerful and most of them having minions, all but the greatest adventurers are going to get cut to small pieces by them. They recommend against allowing vampire PCs, and with good reason, but include suggestions for handling and all vampire PC game.
Notable vampires are detailed in the section dealing with their various bloodlines, including Mannfred von Carstein and Genevieve Dieudonne. Genny and her adventures are canon, an offshot of a rogue Lamian bloodline. Vampires aren't necessarily evil, but they tend to be selfish power hungry bastards.
There is also a chapter on vampire hunters and the tools of the trade as well as new careers that involve vampires in one way or the other. A new necromancy spell list is added The Lore of Nagash and there are new Lesser Magic spells and ritual spells. Using necromancy to animate unusual critters, such as zombie dragons, is also covered. There are several pages of new magical items that vampires and their hunters might have or employ. The Carstein ring is included.
There is a modest list of new creatures, mostly vampire or Sylvania related.
Art: Quite a bit of art, some of it old, most of it nice.
Presentation: Good. Quotes and accounts attributed to various characters help keep the feel. Sly humour is injected, especially notable in several vampire only careers. The pages have the typical layout of previous WFRP books, including borders on the pages. It looks good and reads well.
Overall: Very good at what it covers. Any campaign wanting to use vampires or Sylvania will find it a gold mine. The new careers, magic, and goodies are useful to nonvampiric campaigns but represent a minority of the content.
Cover: Not to my taste, although the art is decent enough. Goth type snarling female vampire. She isn't pretty, and definitely not angsty, so its in the spirit of the game.
Format: The usual for a WFRP book. Mostly "man on the street" and "learned scholar" type fluff for players and then the meat for the game master. Game mechanics and statistics are mostly in the last third, although relevant sections for game mechanic sidebars. Good index at the back makes finding things easy.
Content: Lots of background material on all five major vampire bloodlines and some details on independents. History, background, and map of Sylvania, which is separated ethnically and culturally from the rest of the Empire. They don't love the vampires, they just hate most Imperial nobles more and not without reason.
Lots of material on vampiric powers and weaknesses as well as in depth on making your vampire NPCs and using them as campaign long antagonsits. Vampires are powerful and most of them having minions, all but the greatest adventurers are going to get cut to small pieces by them. They recommend against allowing vampire PCs, and with good reason, but include suggestions for handling and all vampire PC game.
Notable vampires are detailed in the section dealing with their various bloodlines, including Mannfred von Carstein and Genevieve Dieudonne. Genny and her adventures are canon, an offshot of a rogue Lamian bloodline. Vampires aren't necessarily evil, but they tend to be selfish power hungry bastards.
There is also a chapter on vampire hunters and the tools of the trade as well as new careers that involve vampires in one way or the other. A new necromancy spell list is added The Lore of Nagash and there are new Lesser Magic spells and ritual spells. Using necromancy to animate unusual critters, such as zombie dragons, is also covered. There are several pages of new magical items that vampires and their hunters might have or employ. The Carstein ring is included.
There is a modest list of new creatures, mostly vampire or Sylvania related.
Art: Quite a bit of art, some of it old, most of it nice.
Presentation: Good. Quotes and accounts attributed to various characters help keep the feel. Sly humour is injected, especially notable in several vampire only careers. The pages have the typical layout of previous WFRP books, including borders on the pages. It looks good and reads well.
Overall: Very good at what it covers. Any campaign wanting to use vampires or Sylvania will find it a gold mine. The new careers, magic, and goodies are useful to nonvampiric campaigns but represent a minority of the content.