VtM - WhiteWolf: Genealogy

VtM - Review: Clanbook Revised: Nosferatu
resembling "horrific" (and then I'm not sure they're still ugly enough), the rest limit their deformities to
things like pointy ears and big foreheads, earning the book the nickname "Clanbook: Space Elf" among
my group of friends. Some even whisper that it might be the fable "Clanbook: Elfpants." In the end, the
art is both pleasing on one page and then a terrible let down when you turn the page again. The writing
itself is good and entertaining on the whole, although it sinks into an annoying tone at times and also
takes a lot longer to discuss something than it needs to. The author does have a knack for entertaining
section headings, however.
The book opens up with the standard White Wolf fictional piece, and it's written well enough to be
entertaining. However, it also harbors one of the most interesting ideas in the book - yet does nothing
with it. The neonate in the story admits that she has to create an entirely new "self" upon seeing her face
fall off - lest she go insane, but that is not brought up again later on, and in the story she ends up full
circle, the creature she was in the beginning.
There is none of the usual White Wolf introduction, and the book jumps immediately into the history of
the clan, beginning with its ancient legends. There is the standard tale of Zillah and Nosferatu, except
that he Embraced when he fails to destroy her after stalking her. Unfortunately the legend uses the fiat of
"impressed by his courage" and Zillah brings him into the night. There is also talk of the Nictuku and a
really nice section that voices the doubts that much of the clan has about these legends - but
unfortunately that isn't used again either. I would have really liked more attention paid to just how absurd
an idea as the Nictuku is. The author mentions is, but doesn't really present much information on how the
Nictuku might not actually be real, just the paranoid projections of a paranoid clan. Every Nosferatu has
a natural talent for Obfuscate, after all. Few of them ever learn Auspex. The section also one of my
increasing problems with the game - the lack of other legends and tales in a world where everyone is
supposed to be awash in lies and half-truths. The rest of the history section is taken up with more factual
content, first talking about Europe and the Camarilla and then about the other places, like South America
and Africa, which is a nice break. While I really liked the strong assertion that not all Nosferatu crawl in
the sewers, that many of them live like the hunter their founder was supposed to be, there isn't much of a
frame of reference for all the information here. Sure there were Nosferatu in Africa and the Americas for
quite a while before the Europeans "discovered" those lands, but the names of kingdoms and deeds
doesn't carry the same weight as the traditional Western ones, due to my own almost complete lack of
knowledge of African history. Aside from that flaw, the section also suffers from a taste of "nicety" in
that a lot of effort is spent talking about how these "barbarian" Nosferatu didn't spend all their time
controlling humanity, they were noble and pure and helped the heroes. Sure, it can be dismissed as incharacter
bias, but that excuse gets old really, really fast.
The second chapter is divided into two broad sections: the clan from the inside out and the new rules
(which is amusingly and a bit appropriately called "A Festering Heap of Game Mechanics"). The first
spends a great deal of time to say surprisingly little and the latter has some interesting (and some great)
ideas but is also bogged down in Mind's Eye Theatre rules. While I'm all for the MET information, I
think it should be solidly differentiated, as it was with the dharmabooks for Kindred of the East. The
look at the clan talks about everything from various types of Nosferatu to how the clan organizes itself to
how it builds its underground fortresses. There are some really good ideas in here, but they are often
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