Ancient Bloodlines Lifts the Veil on Vampire History
The negotiations with the Gangrels went about as well as expected.
Vampire: the Requiem exists in a more mysterious World of Darkness than the previous incarnation of the game. Without a sourcebook for every city and clan, there is much still to be discovered about this strange version of reality. Ancient Bloodlines begins to shed some light on the ways vampires have been shaped by the endless decades of history they’ve experienced.
Ancient Bloodlines is something like a collection of prestige classes for Vampire characters, but each new “class” is tied a specific era or event in history. There are twenty bloodlines depicted, each with new disciplines, attributes and weaknesses. Plus, and this probably goes without saying where any White Wolf book is involved, there’s a ton of background information and history about each bloodline. This book actually has a very nice blend of crunch and fluff, but the focus is obviously on history.
You might be surprised at the subtle ways vampires have infiltrated history. This isn’t a “vampires on the grassy knoll” or “King Henry VIII was a vampire” sort of thing. The bloodlines here are more influenced by history than having any direct impact on the history of the world. You’ve got vampires during the crusades, vampires during the Haitian revolution, ancient Egyptian vampires, and my personal favorite, vampires during World War I.
The Brothers of Ypres distinguished themselves in the trenches of the Great War by taking advantage of the horror and chaos and adding to it. Along the way, they developed a taste for blood tainted by the horrendous poison gases and infections that were rampant at the time. Now they consider poisoned blood a delicacy, so they lurk near virulent outbreaks and toxic industrial disasters for tainted victims to drain.
I love how each bloodline features an image of a vampire from the relevant historical period and another image of a modern vampire from the same bloodline. For example, the Caporetti (another bloodline from WWI) developed a fixation with ice and cold by attacking avalanche victims. Their historical depiction shows a vampire in World War I era infantry dress, but the modern version is a snowboarder.
All this is more than just deep backstory. The introduction includes a lot of interesting suggestions for incorporating flashbacks into your game. Because vampires live so long, their memories fade. That gives the Storytellers free reign to jump characters back in their own history, explaining events or exploring themes relevant to the ongoing plotline. This is some pretty advanced storytelling, but if pulled off, could result in a game with the resonance and weight of a particularly well-written episode of a Joss Whedon TV show.
You can purchase a PDF of Ancient Bloodlines through DriveThruRPG, or a hard copy from the Amazon link above.
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May 7th, 2009 1:49 PM
Now we’re talking. I really like these Bloodline books– as I’ve said before, I’m “toolboxy” as a Narrator, so pick up & drop stuff works well. Are there new Disciplines in here? THAT is an important detail!
May 7th, 2009 3:55 PM
Oh, Ed. You are too kind to me, old chap. I was the WWI writer, and you’re the first person to say anything nice about it.
I was quite pleased with the snowboarder, actually.
May 7th, 2009 9:26 PM
[...] Ed Grabianowski added an interesting post today on Robot Viking » Blog Archive » Ancient Bloodlines Lifts the Veil on …Here’s a small readingVampire: the Requiem exists in a more mysterious World of Darkness than the previous incarnation of the game. Without a sourcebook for every city and clan, there is much still to be discovered about this strange version of reality. … [...]
May 8th, 2009 8:40 AM
I really do like the “nWoD” for having plausible deniable built in. “Electrical Frankenstein dudes? Maybe! You never saw one yourself. Sleep Demons made from an evil fortune telling vending machine? Could be! Who can say? Dudes who shape shift into dinosaurs? Well there are rumors about Manhattan’s sewers…”
May 8th, 2009 12:25 PM
Why do games of any sort tend to ignore WWI? It just gets overlooked in favor of That Other War. That having been said, CAVE VAMPIRES! Fear my Neolithic WRATH! I love the historical Vampire Clans. Truly a great touch. Now if the only group I know of that plays this didn’t LARP exclusively. . . I don’t wanna get in biting range of the goth wannabes.
May 20th, 2009 12:17 PM
I just got this; very pleased; this is a heck of a book.