Requiem for Rome: Vampire - The Requiem

by Russell Bailey

"A gameplay expansion and setting book, Do battle with barbarian vampires, uncover the secrets of mystery cults, rule a family of the Roman aristocracy and change the course of Kindred history in the Necropolis beneath Rome"

Genres: Role Playing Games, Vampires

249 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2007

Reviews

[Broodingferret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly creative and well researched, Requiem for Rome is an excellent take on what ancient Rome could've been like with the addition of a society of blood-drinking nightmares influencing policy from the shadows. I particularly liked the amount of historical detail that was included in the book. The writers obviously relied heavily on the works of Seneca, Plutarch, Shakespeare, and others to gain insight into their subject and the depth of this research really comes out in the classic feel of the writing and setting. Also, the Latin that is used for the periodic phrases is, as far as I can tell, grammatically accurate, which made me happy, as getting stuff like that wrong is kind of a pet peeve of mine (now if they can only work on their English editing). Very entertaining.

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't play Vampire: The Requiem (or World of Darkness) but I have owned a decent chunk of the books and have been afraid to review them because I have been unable to find anyone to play with. In spite of that, I can't shake myself from Vampire. I love the world and even if I can't play, I will be buying the books just to read them for fun and to give me my fix.

So the question for this review is, does this book me want to play and was it fun to read? The answer is a resounding yes. Vampires fit into Rome so perfectly because it was a time of vice in the nobility and lots of bloodshed. Having vampires and more specifically, the Camarilla, mirror many parts of the mortal empire is really compelling if you like Roman history at all. There are some really cool location and antagonist ideas as well as specific Vampire clans that fit the Roman era. If you know much about Roman history, there are so many different periods you could place a chronicle in and this book gives you quite a few little seeds of potential for you to flesh out. While this book is black and white, the artwork is mostly very good with a couple spectacular images. Finally, I loved the fiction in between chapters of the book and thought it told a compelling story of a vampire who survived the fall of Rome and still lives to this day. Overall, every part of this book was very enjoyable and if I do play Vampire, I'm sure I will try to set it in ancient Rome thanks to Requiem For Rome.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A REALLY cool idea - a sourcebook for running Vampire: The Requiem set in the waning days of the Roman Empire. In the new WoD, the "Camarilla" was the attempt at a unified vampiric society in Ancient Rome (rather than, as in the old WoD, the new society spawned in the ashes of the inquisition). Vampire: the Requiem backstory makes it clear that the "Camarilla" was ultimately a failed experiment, but this setting allows you to play in its glory days . . . and fall. Pretty cool. And, for a change, they tried to get the Latin in an RPG right! No one ever gets RPG Latin right!