I think I am the perfect person to review Forsaken Chronicler’s Guide because while I have access to the book and I have checked out what it is about this is the first Forsaken book I have read; which is strange because the first White Wolf book I ever purchased was Werewolf: the Apocalypse Second Edition back in 1994. I give Forsaken proper respect for washing away the Gaia mythology and putting the Wolf back in the bloody center of Werewolf with packs and territory being central.

The Forsaken Chronicler’s Guide continues White Wolf’s dedication since Mirrors to providing toolkits for players and storytellers to craft exactly the kind of game they want rather than expansion of a metaplot of the “official” way to play the game. Volume 1 is dedicated to isolation of the werewolf concept, ways to extract the essential nature of the beast so to speak.

The first section capitalizes on the recent trend of young adult supernatural themed fiction, werewolves in High School. Authors did a fine job of explaining why this is a good idea as the werewolf concept shares quite a bit with adolescence: strange new hair growth, raging hormones, emotional rollercoaster and uncontrolled urges. The werewolf is a strong sexual metaphor after all, and any coming of age story has to address sexual development. Ha, here’s an excuse to use my favorite German vocabulary word, “Bildungsroman”. I enjoyed the story ideas and the plot themes were well elucidated. I particularly liked a “True Stages of Puberty” section, puberty starts much earlier than most think and for Uratha changes deviating from mundane humans starts at age 7 with craving for meat leading to violent dreams and more. Nice touch. There are some crunch options for playing teenagers as well simulating the abilities and drawbacks. A character could choose to have a bonus on Athletics if they are playing the star basketball player, for instance but shyness leads to a penalty in Socialize rolls. In short, provided is a set of tools for creating a great Ginger Snaps-like adolescent themed chronicle.

Now section two is the one that really primes my engines and gets me to want to play Forsaken for the first time. You see White Wolf has been playing a con for the last nineteen years when it comes to their Werewolf lines. They are not Lycanthropes, they are Shape Shifters. If you want a true werewolf tale in accordance to myth, the classic Lon Chaney Jr. Universal Monster it should be a curse. An unpleasant curse wherein you can’t control your shapeshifting, it is painful, you shift according to the Moon. Finally White Wolf gives us tools to play That kind of werewolf. They are nicknamed The Cursed and not really true Uratha. They are nearly immortal and change on their Lunar phase or when they take enough Lethal Damage. They are susceptible to certain substances like silver or wolfsbane but only under certain conditions like the New Moon. The book offers all you need to roll up one of these characters, including several origin mythologies, their lifestyle, how they differ from Uratha, storytelling advice and even a sample Cursed NPC. It would be a fine template for PCs or antagonists alike, particularly a player character in a mixed game.

Finally cue up the sad Incredible Hulk walking away with a duffel bag to a new town music because the final section speaks of the plight of the Lone Wolf. The pack is such an important element to a Forsaken game that a little consideration for the Pack of One is needed, since it is entirely different to bond with a totem spirit by your lonesome. It’s you against the world. You set your agenda and territory. Maybe you wander the earth like Caine from Kung Fu. There are suggestions as to how the Auspice roles change for the lone wolf, and as mentioned the process of merging with a personal totem spirit is rather horrific. There is also storytelling advice on lonesome plot elements and chronicles, how to attain Loci and other considerations really that provide a lot of efficacy.

Like Mage Noir I recommend this product because it made me want to play the game for the first time.

This is the second time White Wolf has attempted a roleplaying supplement centered around a time period within living memory for the New World of Darkness. Like with New Wave Requiem I was excited to check it out even though I didn't actively play the game it was based on. I own the Mage: the Awakening book but haven't read it all the way through, which may show in my review.

Mage Noir isn't just about setting your Mage game within the genre of the noir post-war film genre, it is very concerned with capturing the theme and mood of the time period. Before I read this book I had no idea noir film and that era of crime fiction in general was so thoroughly shaped by America's experiences with World War II, but Noir mentions the war so often you would think it was White Wolf's guide to that war. There is a lot of psychosocial dwellings on the scars left from war, it very much reminded me of watching Shutter Island a few weeks back. The other surprising aspect of Mage Noir was how little it was concerned with educating the gamer about noir movies. Usually there is a pretty good "recommended viewing/reading" in a White Wolf book but that was very brief here. Strange since the cinematic experience wrapped the book so tightly. But if you want to run a serious, dramatic Mage Noir game I guess the writer's figured you would do that research on your own, and check out criticism of the film genre to find out that The Third Man and The Naked City are really worth checking out. It was just surprising, considering the title.

What is there is a lot of great information for the storyteller and player. As with New Wave Requiem I liked the discussion of how technology and culture differ from the present day. Identity is much more mutable, for instance in the postwar period. A forged driver's license is your talisman allowing the move across the country and fulcrum to remake your identity, provided your fingerprints are not tracked to some past crime. Authors did a great job giving storytellers and players an understanding into the major social and political movements of the time and American's overall psychological philosophical relationship with the war's legacy.

Speaking of that word, the new Legacy in the book is worth the price of admission. Mage Noir succeeded as a book because it made me want to play Mage for the first time, and I don't think I would ever want to shoot for any other Legacy than The Quiescent. Nicknamed The Liars, the founders of this Legacy saw a truth about Magic that The Technocracy grasped in Mage: the Ascension did back in the Thirteenth Century, that technology had surpassed magic; antibiotics could save lives just as effectively without the risk of failure and Paradox and the atomic bomb could destroy with more vulgarity than the strongest Forces spell. They reacted in a much different manner, however. The Quiescent disdain any forms of vulgar magic, their spells are subtle and arcane but rarely can be proved to be an actual supernatural practice. They rely on their wits and mundane abilities more. One of the pre-generated characters is given a great quote that sums up the whole attitude quite well. "Who? Oh, right. He's dead. I shot him in the face while he was waving his arms around and looking like a complete idiot." These hard-boiled guys and femme fatale females have no use for cloaks, daggers and pentacles.

Lastly, I like the sample characters and how the illustrate the intent of the book and reflect the time period and genre of noir. Everything from a former USO entertainer turned nightclub singer to a Nietzsche spouting Thyrsus urban mystic, they all had a 1940s silver screen sparkle on them. Another big plus is the Bauhaus-inspired fonts that so well incorporate the 40's design of the book are the most readable for any Awakening book.

Cyberpunks, high tech and low life; why not incorporate it into your World of Darkness repertoire? The straight World of Darkness protagonist always was a monstrous anti-hero living at the fridge of society just as any Gibson or Stephenson hero. This is one of two science fiction-themed supplements to World of Darkness: Mirrors, material that had to be cut due to space constraints from their chapter entitled “Shards” which offered genre hacks for the World of Darkness system.

Bleeding Edge describes two cyberpunk sub-settings to craft games around. Both feature alienation as a central theme, casting the characters as outsiders. In Tomorrow Country technology is the alienating factor in the form of information technology and virtual reality. Think Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days”. Metalground is the second scenario. Technology hasn’t pushed you out, people did; powerful people, bad people. This setting makes good use of The Man as the ever-present cyberpunk antagonist. Money and power keep the wealthy insulated form an ever growing underclass, but they still need scoundrels to do their dirty work.

There are a lot of interesting hacks in Bleeding Edge for creating a cyberpunk atmosphere. Your World of Darkness campaign might start to feel more like Shadowrun. In fact, the character section includes the Origins and Roles merits that when applied can shape your party into a decent shadowrunning troupe. There is a Plugins merit that does a good job providing simple plug-and-play rules for incorporating cyberware and biotech. In fact, it is not really a set of rules more than it is examples of how to create technologic gadgets for your characters without unbalancing gameplay. “Mirrors” is a toolbox sourcebook, so a typical bloated chapter on different shiny weapons one can buy would have been boring and defeating the point. The controversial morality system (which has seen its share of boosters and detractors over the years) is revisited. You can exchange Morality for Alienation to easily simulate the cynical nature and deadly atmosphere of the cyberpunk genre.

There are some very good tips for portraying megacorporations and artificial intelligences in your chronicle, and more importantly how to avoid portraying them wrong. Back in Vampire: the Masquerade there was always the assumption ancient and incredibly powerful vampires were out there secretly pulling the strings, everything and everyone were just game pieces in their competition with one another. Megacorps should be portrayed in the same fashion. You can design a modified character sheet for a corp complete with virtue and vice, motivations and strengths. Having stats on a sheet to remind you they are the disembodied meta-characters upon which the plot pivots will keep you from falling into the trap of having them be the corporate Satan doing evil just for evil’s sake. They should have goals and motivations just like the old unseen vampire lords. Like immensely complex beings they careen through the plot destroying characters heedlessly. Some of the same concepts are true for AIs. There in intriguing passages on how to use rules and themes from The Book of Spirits when dealing with an AI.

The one thing I am left missing is an overview of how the change in setting affects all the game lines. A few are touched on, such as the hunter groups Network Zero and Task Force VALKYRE having a renaissance with the ubiquitous information technology infrastructure and data mining capability. But what would a cyberpunk Changeling or Mage campaign look like? How would it fundamentally change these monsters differently than the average human? Of all the game lines that could benefit from a cyberpunk setting it is Promethean: the Created that reaps the most rewards. With artificial intelligence, cloning, simulated humanity as well as reality as a motif you can really give your created characters a lot of Philip K. Dick-inspired psychological angst. In fact, I don’t think I would like to play Promethean without including Bleeding Edge.

While Bleeding Edge focuses on the cyberpunk near future, its sister project Infinite Macabre provides a space opera backdrop. A clever Storyteller could use these two products in tandem, sort of like how White Wolf’s parent company now offers the EVE Online space-faring strategy game as well as the planet-based first person shooter spinoff Dust 514.

The Infinite Macabre accomplishes what a roleplaying supplement should ideally provide. I find myself very giddy and eager to play the game. This is one of two science fiction-themed supplements to World of Darkness: Mirrors, material that had to be cut due to space constraints from their chapter entitled “Shards” which offered genre hacks for the World of Darkness system.

In many ways Mirrors accomplishes a task set forth in the World of Darkness core rulebook, which did away with the orthodox metaplot and then boosted further with Hunter: the Vigil which gave Storytellers a system to create any sort of monster antagonist, unbound to any of the core rulebook mythologies. Mirrors was essentially a toolbox of hacks for tweaking or altering the World of Darkness rules and setting into whatever sort of beast you would like. The Infinite Macabre sets out the framework for you to take your campaign into a far future space opera setting! It is a slim 30 pages long so instead of a fully-fleshed setting it gives you more suggestions, hints, and a few tools. At many points it reminds you of the central tenant of Mirrors, you are assumed to be more creative than the game designers (or at least you know your own tastes better than they do, and should rise to the challenge to create your own masterpiece).

Infinite Macabre starts off with a description of a dark space opera environment, giving many juicy details on how to provide the right mood and themes and locales to paint across your broad new canvas. Next is a simple spacecraft creation and combat section which is Merit-based, familiar to any Vampire player who has crafted a Haven, or Changeling who ever built a Hollow. These rules are simple and dirty, though I can see how they might let down a gamer who is more sci-fi than World of Darkness inclined; in Which Case one can make new rules, or import them from a more crunchy game system. Next is a discussion of Stygian Gates, which is a fine way to make your spacefaring campaign truly galactic. Think of them like the hyperspace gates in many science fiction franchises, but there is the intriguing hint that there is one Gate for every game line (a Vampire gate, a Hunter gate, etc.). This provides a great motivation to explore the Gates and explore their history and how they fit into the mythologies of the game lines. Chuck Wendig does a great job in painting these various space opera elements in a patina of horror, just as the World of Darkness is like our world but more monstrous.

The bulky abdomen of the book considers how the seven character types of the main game lines are changed via translation into a space opera genre. I really liked this section because it allows you to let your imagination run wild taking a concept to its ultimate conclusion. I was worried that this process would be problematic, but really it gives you a way to amplify aspects of the genre. For instance, how would your Mage react if he finds out the Five Watchtowers usually thought of as being metaphorical destinations are real and out there on different star systems situated in a vast pentacle shape? Your Changeling can enter the Hedge and explore a vast mad landscape, but now she can send the crew of a whole spaceship through and there is whole terrible worlds out there in an Arcadia as vast as galaxies. Lastly, there is a short section on creating your own aliens, rather like the monster creation system for use with Hunter (of which Wendig was chief designer). The system is versatile even if it is Spartan, but Wendig reminds us that Mirrors can be used here in case you need more tools or inspiration.

Space opera World of Darkness adds more to your options. It is like combining Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Firefly. Genetic splicing of Science Fiction and Horror are fairly firmly established so it shouldn’t be too strange to craft a World of Darkness tale off some distant nebulae and still have it feel like a White Wolf game.

There are drawbacks, because now you have to roll up your sleeves and create a whole new universe in a completely wide open sandbox but if you are the sort of gamer I am than that is less of a burden and more of a challenge and most of the fun and point of why we game. There are a few problems that should be addressed. On page 6 there is mentioned of a star chart table on page 10 which is missing. I have to say I am inspired to write a hundred new campaigns and roll up a thousand characters to inhabit them so The Infinite Macabre has accomplished its task!

Scenes of the Embrace is an anthology product put out by White Wolf as part of their Storyteller Adventure System which seeks to reduce prep time needed to pull together a World of Darkness story. Each SAS product is presented in landscape format and contains hyperlinks for ease of browseability with a laptop or eBook reader screen. Besides laying out each scene in the main text there are scene cards in the back giving you the shorthand of what happens, the motivations of the players, and difficulty modifiers to consider as well as room to add your own notes.

I am used to SAS products being standard, yet non-linear adventures segmented into scenes which can easily be shuffled around on the fly depending on what decision your roleplaying table makes but here Monica Valentinelli presents fourteen stand-alone scenes for detailing the vampiric Embrace in your Requiem chronicle. The Embrace is the act of creating a new vampire and it should not be overlooked in either a character backstory or if a character is siring a childe of her own in play. It should be the defining moment in their existence wherein they surrender their mortality, cease to be a human who eats and drinks food and enjoys the summer sun on their faces and becomes an inhuman thing who is burnt by the Sun, lives off of warm blood and has this spiritual bestial drive to struggle against that now defines their nights. There is also a mechanical component to it as well as the sire must sacrifice a Willpower point to create a new vampire, which is one of the most precious character assets. I liked the sidebar with an optional rule to risk Humanity instead. I thought it was a nice touch.

Valentinelli takes the vice in the World of Darkness Virtue/Vice morality system for as inspiration and offers two scenes for portraying the Embrace for each of the Seven Deadly Sins. This is an important moment for both of the characters involved, there is no guarantee the embraced will survive, so it is nice to get a little more attention and suggestions for creating gripping atmosphere. That is something that made Vampire special from the start, the meditations on what it must be like to become one of these monstrous yet still human creatures. It should not be glossed over in the prelude or a lost opportunity for narrative control as part of a storytelling session. Never miss a good opportunity for great storytelling.

The scenes are pretty generalized so you can adapt them to the specifics of your chronicle. I love the idea of an anthology of scenes that you can plug-and-play into your game. They're kind of like plot hooks or "bangs" as they call them in Sorcerer but a bit more detailed and planned out, with situational modifiers pre-planned and consequences for success or failure. Storytellers will still need to think on their feet when running a scene in their chronicle or adjusting to the infuriating inventiveness of their players and the capricious nature of die rolls but it’s nice to have this foundation to work on, and kind of refreshing to have just one scene to run rather than girding your loins for a whole multi-chapter adventure.

Valentinelli has really set her sights upon moral choices being key to a gripping Vampire game and gives these vices center stage. I can almost hear the Greek chorus off to the side predicting doom in each scene. Care is taken to emphasize the relationship between mortal and sire. There are consequences if the neonate is unwilling or unaware of Kindred society or if the Embrace is not sanctioned by the player's Covenant. I like the fact that consequences of a failed Embrace are not simply the death of the mortal (through an unsuccessful Embrace) but a breakdown of the situation entirely such as the mortal fighting his way out and calling the police. The master-servant dynamic is not always cut and dried. Sometimes the mortal is the one seducing the vampire into doing the deed though sex, money, or power. Sometimes she might not fully know the consequences, but merely sensed the danger and chose the wrong person to seduce.

While this supplement is not essential by any means I do see its utility. It is essentially a toolbox that helps you give a bit more gravitas to the transformation of a human being into a undead monster rather than a meek "Step Five: Apply the Supernatural Template". The only fault I see is that the scenes needed to be very general in order to apply to any situation. I would have liked a bit more color, a bit more horror but I can see where space constraints may have applied. As usual the layout is gorgeous and easy to read and artwork spectacular and up to Requiem standards. I like the fact that they tie in the Vice mechanic as a storytelling technique. From what I can see the Scenes From line are Requiem-only but as a diehard Changeling: the Lost fan I know the act of introducing a mortal to the Hedge and its dangers is one of the few unelaborated areas of the series and I would love to see Ms. Valentinelli or Jess Hartley pen a Scenes of Enchantment.

This is a barbed little sourcebook for Hunter : the Vigil designed as Hunter's answer to the Vampire supplement Damnation City, which instructs Storytellers how to flesh out an urban landscape so that it becomes like another character in your stories. Like Damnation City, Block by Bloody Block gives you sample neighborhoods suitable to drop into any real or fictitious city setting. It weighs in much lighter, though at about a tenth of Damnation City's 400+ page girth. There is a marked difference in tone, as monster hunters seize and hold territories in a much different fashion than vampires, and for vastly different reasons.

Each neighborhood is competently described, with sample locations and descriptions of the feel and tone of the setting and inhabitants. Also included is a "bad guy" who controls things either overtly or behind the scenes that can serve as an antagonist, foil or potential ally in your chronicle. A number of minor Non-Player Characters are included as well. The consequences, assets to be gained and consequences of holding the territory one of the books finest points. My favorite "neighborhood" is the subway system, controlled by a secretive motley of changelings. Astute Changeling : the Lost fans will recognize the group's leader, Nyx, from The Fearmaker's Promise. There are story ideas, political intrigues and plot hooks scattered all over the supplement, enough for quite a few fruitful game sessions.

Although Hunter is designed as a stand-alone line, needing only the World of Darkness core rulebook to play, fans of the other game lines will enjoy little Easter eggs sprinkled through the book. The changelings are clearly Winter Court; the mages of the contested financial district seek to gain control of five buildings they call "the Watchtowers" for some secret and possibly insidious purpose.

The only complaint I have is that there are too many other hunter groups already living in the various districts, if it was played as presented I imagine it would get a little crowded. However, it is clearly stated that the sections are modular and that you should take what you want and change what suits you. Block by Bloody Block works effectively on it's own or in conjunction with Damnation City to create an intricate and immersive urban fantasy chronicle.

This book is a love letter to a certain stereotype of White Wolf gameplay back in the mid Nineties. Trenchcoats, katanas, and sawed-off shotguns abounded (and this was even before The Matrix). While it exists as an April Fool’s Day parody it is indeed full of awesome, offensive ideas which I might actually use at the table. The Beast-Rider Cometh optional rule for instance would be great in a Changeling : the Lost campaign. These rules hacks are short and sweet, if you do use them in jest or not it won’t cause any serious arguments at the table, perhaps because you’re all drunk off a case of Four Loko to best utilize this material. This book is seriously amazing. Chuck Wendig delivers the sarcasm lathered on thick and hot. I really could have used it back when I was running a game that included a werecoytote who knew martial arts and a guy who could transform into a dragon-like creature armed with a handgun that also grew to the size of a Howitzer. It could have actually been enjoyable and ridiculous. Don’t be haughty, you know at some time in your extended adolescence you got silly like this. If not, take off that Burning Wheel hoodie and get DIRTY!

The Rose Bride's Plight is the second Storyteller Adventure System supplement for Changeling: the Lost. I really wanted to love this book more than I did. It has some great points such as new rules systems, a great supporting cast of storyteller characters and a fine narrative flow that offers many variable scenes depending on what decisions and actions your players take. The scene cards and flowchart greatly reduce prep time and help you think on your feet. The stakes are high, as two Courts are on the verge of a war which the characters can either strive to prevent or even exacerbate it if suits their purposes. There's not a lot of bloodshed unless you go looking for it, but there certainly will be if the characters fail to prevent the war between this particular freehold's Spring and Winter Courts. I appreciate the excellent design and flow of information which makes it easy to read and find what you are after on the fly.

Disappointing thing is that the plot reveal is a bit too easy, being derived from one of the greatest love stories of all time of which the typical Changeling fan would be expected to have familiarity. Plus the scenes are littered with clues which I would eliminate or put up barriers if running the game. You never can be sure; I have had some pretty thick players who need to be bashed over the head with a plot-by-four. The other letdown is the complete lack of original artwork aside from the cover. All of it is good, but all of it has been published elsewhere. The same was true for the first Changeling SAS, The Fear-Maker's Promise, but there was less of it in a shorter publication so it didn’t seem jarring.

The Rose Bride's Plight is filled with little gems and it remains an interesting story despite its familiar tropes; well worth the purchase if you crave a Changeling game with a lot of political maneuvering, a flashy cast and a love story to boost.

Goblin Markets brings some needed detail to an important setting of Changeling: the Lost. In previous Changeling books goblin markets were described in a handful of pages, enough for a Storyteller to wing it with a little imagination; but here they are given their due diligence and come to the forefront of interesting spaces to visit in the Hedge.

Finally we have rules on becoming market merchant, typical standards of behavior, how (and what) to buy and sell and a host of plot hooks. There are enough colorful market examples that you will find at least two or three you will want to adapt for your chronicle. If there in one quibble it would be that only two sample scenarios are provided, but being preceded with a short chapter on how to run market stories and a few sample storyteller characters it is something I can forgive. Perhaps someday there will be a SAS companion product. It was also very nice to see so much original artwork in such a short ebook-only publication.

The writing and production quality lives up to Changeling's high benchmark.

This is an excellent supplement for any White Wolf and Vampire fan and it signals a trend the CCP-owned company has been taking lately of giving the fans the tools they want to play the game they want, whether the interest lies in the old or new version of the World of Darkness. After all, nearly all Vampire: the Masquerade titles are currently in print if you count the digital versions.

Here you have total freedom to plug-and-play game elements from Masquerade into Requiem, or visa versa to suit your tastes. I prefer the streamlined rules, claustrophobic lack of world-spanning organizations, and more versatile options of Requiem but I really miss playing Tremere. Now I am given enumerated options on how to include them and the discipline of Thaumaturgy using the current rules system in an officially published supplement. Likewise I think Masquerade would be so much more fun to play if I could add in the Meket, the revised version of Nosferatu, and the various political factions of Requiem. I can do that now without any arguments over rules.

If you want the freedom to play the vampire you want to play, or the ghouls who love them this is a wonderful collection for your library at a very fine price point. I hope they produce more of them for the other game lines. For example Geist/Wraith translation document would be a fine way to open up the limited library of the former while attracting a fresh audience to the latter.

The Fear-Maker’s Promise is well-balanced and tightly-paced plot for Changeling. It is part of the Storytelling Adventure System, which seeks to reduce prep time needed to put together a World of Darkness roleplaying campaign and offering non-linear story scenarios. Included are scene cards, for instance, that you can organize on the fly depending on what path your players choose. This is the first of so far two SAS adventures for Changeling and it really delivers the tone and emotional tenor of the game line. Right away the player’s characters are thrust into an arcane magic ritual. Things get complicated and they either have to stay and deal with the political fallout or choose to chase after a kidnapped child and explore an unfamiliar swath of the Hedge with all the horrors it conceals. Both options play to strengths in the game setting. The other strong point is how the players are quickly forced to make moral decisions early in the game, which is great fodder for storytelling. Only dense players would sit back and let events unfold instead of really questioning what your character feels and opinions he or she holds. Are they willing to let an innocent be harmed in order to save scores more? Would they trust a stranger with a relatively unproven arcane method of solving dire problems? Whatever they choose there are great hints at either political maneuverings or a more action-oriented chase and confrontation, all with a colorful cast of supporting characters to interact with. It would serve as a fine one-shot introduction to Changeling: the Lost or the platform to launch a long-running campaign.