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Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned
The first of the 5 clan books for requiem
- GenresRole Playing Games
125 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2008
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18 people want to read
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Will Hindmarch
57 books19 followersWill is a writer, game designer, graphic designer, producer, and mooncalf aiming to write one of everything. He's got a lot of work to do.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 10, 2013
This book was good, really good. If you want to know how to make your vampires a scary and paranoid clusterfuck of rulers and not some … whatever the Volturi in Twilight or the Originals in The Vampire Diaries were supposed to be, go to this book.
Its vampires do not sit around expecting to "rule" over everything, they think it's in their blood to rule and they take what they want to, and what they can. Sure they have rules but their paranoia prevents them from obeying them. The stories on their origins, which are really just that, stories, they could just as well have been made-up (this is the nature of this game line), reflect this believe of theirs. Of course their powers reflect that also (their basic powers all have to do with lording over others and endurance), as well as their flaws and derangements (they have a lot).
I would say these vampires are a twisted take on the ruling classes of old Europe, down to their "god-given" right to rule, their paranoia, their schemes and their diseases (which doesn't just affect them but other clans as well).
But make no mistake, if you think their name "Lords" means they are constantly well dressed and sit in ivory towers, then you are wrong, you get all sorts of rulers in this book and some are simply mysterious, others hideous and others downright scary. And I am not ashamed to admit that, would I be with some of them in one room I would be scared as hell. That is a trait of a good horror book: to make you scared of a character in less than half a page. And they did. This is good literature.
Now, if I like it so much, why didn't I give it 5 stars instead of 4? Well it does have its drawbacks. Sadly some stuff in the latter quarter of the book kind of ruins the mysticism and horror of it, simply because things get explained and sometimes an explanation kills horror. Also this book is clearly a supplement book and as such there are certain phrases and elements that a new reader would not understand, or at least be confused about, but where a person familiar with the game line would be able to guess what is going on.
But still of all the 5 clan-books for this game line, this one is my second favorite. The number one is still Gangrel: Savage and Macabre
But that is purely subjective of me because I am a bit fed up with these lordly vampires, so from an objective point of view I would say that the books are equally good, but they clearly cater to different tastes.
Its vampires do not sit around expecting to "rule" over everything, they think it's in their blood to rule and they take what they want to, and what they can. Sure they have rules but their paranoia prevents them from obeying them. The stories on their origins, which are really just that, stories, they could just as well have been made-up (this is the nature of this game line), reflect this believe of theirs. Of course their powers reflect that also (their basic powers all have to do with lording over others and endurance), as well as their flaws and derangements (they have a lot).
I would say these vampires are a twisted take on the ruling classes of old Europe, down to their "god-given" right to rule, their paranoia, their schemes and their diseases (which doesn't just affect them but other clans as well).
But make no mistake, if you think their name "Lords" means they are constantly well dressed and sit in ivory towers, then you are wrong, you get all sorts of rulers in this book and some are simply mysterious, others hideous and others downright scary. And I am not ashamed to admit that, would I be with some of them in one room I would be scared as hell. That is a trait of a good horror book: to make you scared of a character in less than half a page. And they did. This is good literature.
Now, if I like it so much, why didn't I give it 5 stars instead of 4? Well it does have its drawbacks. Sadly some stuff in the latter quarter of the book kind of ruins the mysticism and horror of it, simply because things get explained and sometimes an explanation kills horror. Also this book is clearly a supplement book and as such there are certain phrases and elements that a new reader would not understand, or at least be confused about, but where a person familiar with the game line would be able to guess what is going on.
But still of all the 5 clan-books for this game line, this one is my second favorite. The number one is still Gangrel: Savage and Macabre
But that is purely subjective of me because I am a bit fed up with these lordly vampires, so from an objective point of view I would say that the books are equally good, but they clearly cater to different tastes.
November 9, 2020
Like others have said, I've always found the Ventrue boring. The "lordly" vampires focused on dominating others, but like many so-called nobles they never look at themselves in the (metaphoric) mirror. A few things I liked from the book was a few vignettes on less-than-perfect Ventrue like one whose domain is a trailer park and who spends his undeath more or less like he did his life - drinking cheap beer (kinda, sorta, he has a spit-bucket) and hanging out with his buddies.
I loved the treatments of Malkavians and found them vast more interesting than their VtM counterparts. (Overall, though, I just find the Chronicles of Darkness line as a whole better thought-out, better written and more internally consistent than the "Old" World of Darkness.)
One thing I'll note about the book, though. I typically bounce between reading different books and can take quite a while to read even fairly short books, like this, but compared to the other clan books I simply found this one boring and while, yes, the character are literal monsters I simply couldn't care enough about them to want to stick to it which resulted in taking nearly a year to read it. (For comparison, the Daeva book took about two months and the Mekhat is on-track for taking only a couple days.)
I loved the treatments of Malkavians and found them vast more interesting than their VtM counterparts. (Overall, though, I just find the Chronicles of Darkness line as a whole better thought-out, better written and more internally consistent than the "Old" World of Darkness.)
One thing I'll note about the book, though. I typically bounce between reading different books and can take quite a while to read even fairly short books, like this, but compared to the other clan books I simply found this one boring and while, yes, the character are literal monsters I simply couldn't care enough about them to want to stick to it which resulted in taking nearly a year to read it. (For comparison, the Daeva book took about two months and the Mekhat is on-track for taking only a couple days.)
April 5, 2020
I've always found Ventrue to be rather boring as a vampire clan. The desire for mastery is a theme across all the clans, although one that manifests differently. The most interesting piece was always the feeding restriction, which is downplayed a lot in V5.
However, folding the Malkavian lines into Ventrue was inspired, and the Malkavia portions were excellently written. After reading it, I really want to run a Ventrue with Malkavia, which manifests as a form of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, leading to the creation and neglect/abuse of ghouls. This book makes me want to run a Ventrue now. So that's got to be worth something.
However, folding the Malkavian lines into Ventrue was inspired, and the Malkavia portions were excellently written. After reading it, I really want to run a Ventrue with Malkavia, which manifests as a form of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, leading to the creation and neglect/abuse of ghouls. This book makes me want to run a Ventrue now. So that's got to be worth something.
October 23, 2014
I don't care for the Ventrue much myself. However I am infatuated by the Malkovian Curse, and the Macellarious bloodline. That being said, this particular supplement really sparkled in that. Most VtR games I've been involved in always prominently featured a Macellarious character, but having the interview with a "matriarch" of the bloodline really added a new pulse to them. As for the Malkovians, love it absolutely love it. The 1.0 core treats them as an optional bloodline alongside two others from VtM but this expansion to it being more of a blood curse and template to all the clans is a wonderful direction. Need a plot hook? Big bad Malkov is in your city and everyones breaking down, sort it out player characters. There were quite a few other remarkable potential plot hooks and characters but I'll leave that for other readers to discover. Enjoy!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews