VtM - WhiteWolf: Genealogy

VtM - Review: Guide to the Sabbat
isn't just a re-hashing and re-vamping of old material either, new secrets and changes are mentioned in
nearly every faction. A resource for both new and old players alike.
The next chapter, Around the Fires, is perhaps where the book shines the strongest. It is here that each
Clan and bloodline in the Sabbat is given the standard two-page spread as a showcase. Done in the
wodnerful vein of the Vampire Revised spreads, this chapter changes many of the glaring holes in the old
Sabbat books. The Assamite antitribu are explained much better. The Serpents of the Light have a life
now. The Ventrue antitribu are more than just Brujah-wannabes. Malkavian and Toreador antitribu are
truly dangerous and depraved. The Gangrel antitribu are animalistic and dangerous. The Blood Brothers
are interesting. The Kiasyd are now reasonable actually frightening, like a vampire should be. I could go
on and on.
What thrills everyone though, are the write-ups for the new bloodines. The Harbingers of Skulls and the
Salubri antitribu are both enticing and mysterious. Both harken to major shake-ups within the undead
society of the World of Darkness, and if the books continue as they are now, it will be an exciting ride
indeed.
Following that is the character creation section, which is a good as really any other. There are some new
merits and flaws and other traits (personality archtypes, backgrounds, etc), but the chapter is more solid
and work-horse than amazing.
The Discipline chapter is nicely done. The higher-level Disciplines are nice, if somewhat underpowered
in some cases. There is a new Necromancy path for the Harbingers. Sanguinus is redone with rules (they
work too, but it's nice to just have rules for them at all) instead of the nasty work in the Storyteller's
Guide. Valeren (specifically the warrior variety) is reintroduced at the hands of the Salubri antitribu,
although it's not fixed from the Dark Ages write-up. New Thaumaturgy Paths and rituals are also
included, both of which are much better than the old Sabbat books (although I do miss the Path of
Morpheus) The best thing in the chapter from my point of view, however, is the reworking of
Mytherceria into something recognizable as a coherent Discipline. Kiasyd fans everywhere should be
happy. The Vicissitude-as-a-disease issue is also dealt with. The "Souleaters!" idea seems to have been
scrapped. Instead, the land to which the Tzimisce are so closely tied has been corrupted, twisting their
Discpiline as well. While I don't have the Transylvania Chronicles myself, I'm told that such a turn of
events is implies in there.
The next chapter is the Path section, and it is here that the book again shines through the old material. A
new Path, the Path of Lillith, is included, and all the old Paths are redone in usable formats. No longer
are they the Paths of What I Was Going to Do Anyway, but actual moral codes. The section also remarks
at how most Sabbat are on the Path of Humanity, if low on it. Merely become Sabbat doesn't put you
upon a monstrous moral code, you have to be taught it. A superb, superb section all around.
Also in this chapter are the auctoritas ritae and ignoblis ritae, and they help turn the "fratboy Sabbat" into
the "religious zealot Sabbat". These ritae are the unifying factor among the Sabbat, and they are written
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