Can the Players Kill Luke Skywalker? Or The Evils of Metaplot

           

Tap for pain!

Metaplot.  Does any word draw more condemnation and frustration from the players of World of Darkness games than “metaplot?”  The mere mention of some of the metaplot from the Classic World of Darkness game line draws bile laced gagging from even the most fanatical of fans.  Decreed from on high by the almighty writers and developers of the system, metaplot is the unchangeable grand plot that infiltrates every book, every argument, and every game.  It is immutable, it is sacrosanct, and it is despised.  But why?  Both Star Wars and The Forgotten Realms campaign setting have an existing metaplot that does not bedevil gamers like the metaplot of Vampire:  The Masquerade or Werewolf:  The Apocalypse.  Is there something to be learned from those worlds, where metaplot is known as canon which can be applied to the World of Darkness?  More importantly, is having a metaplot anathema to a good game?  Is the metaplot only a hindrance to Storytellers and players or can it be used to add more depth to a game? 

            What is Metaplot?  A working definition of metaplot might be “the ongoing story in the published materials of a role playing game that creates and moves forward a story that changes elements of the setting and system or explains changes in the mechanics of the game.”  On its face, that definition is neutral, but the first issue of metaplot is that it lacks player agency.  The changes occur regardless of the efforts of the players and perhaps even happen despite the players’ efforts to change those events.  The metaplot is the “Word of God” demanding changes that may or may not be asked for by the players.  The metaplot explains changes to the setting, the inclusion of new options, the removal of other options, changes to well-known and loved character types and updates to the game system.  

            Critics and fans of Vampire:  The Masquerade often regard it as the biggest offender in terms of metaplot interference.  When Vampire:  The Masquerade changed from Second Edition to Revised Edition, a number of changes occurred.  Most notably an Assamite Methuselah, Ur-Shulgi, awakened from Topor and removed the curse that Tremere had afflicted upon the Children of Haqim.  Ur-Shulgi also decreed that Assamites must give up their devotion to other gods and worship only Haqim.  Long associated with the Middle East and Islam, Ur-Shulgi’s decree shocked many Assamites and created a rift in the clan.  Those loyal to Haqim and Ur-Shulgi killed those who refused to set aside their religious beliefs whether Islamic, Christian, or other.  Those who survived the purge fled to Europe and the Americas.  As Gehenna approached, the fleeing Assamites attempted to make peace with Camarilla and join its ranks.         

Tremere-antitribu

            The Tremere are at the heart of another metaplot change.  Tremere-antitribu, who had left behind their clan to join the Sabbat, were all inexplicably destroyed one evening.  During a ritual in which nearly every member of the Sabbat Tremere were in attendance, some force destroyed them all.  No one is sure exactly what happened, only that no more Tremere-antitribu exist.  That event must have been a shock to Tremere-antitribu players at the time.  Suddenly, their characters were gone and nothing could be done about it. 

            The most egregious metaplot changes came from Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand which described another faction of vampires known as the Tal’mahe’Ra or True Hand.  Suddenly the Tzimisce discipline Vicissitude was an extraplanar disease that infected the entire clan and slowly took over the bodies of the Tzimisice and other users of Vicissitude.  The True Hand was dedicated to defeating this other worldly menace and save the world.  Vicissitude no longer worked like other Disciplines and now had special rules that changed not only the cost for learning the Discipline but threatened players with the loss of their characters if they progressed in the Discipline. 

            Metaplot in and of itself is not a bad thing.  Many of the best RPGs have a metaplot to some degree.  Star Wars undoubtedly has the strictest metaplot.  Better known as the canon and released in a series of RPG supplements, books, movies, and TV shows, the Star Wars canon (or Extended Universe) sought to fill in every space of that distant galaxy.  West End Games, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics and dozens of writers have sought to define every aspect of Star Wars for good and ill.  Simple mistakes in the wording of a script have turned into entire novels, such as when Han states that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.  Rather than letting a simple screw up slip by, writers defined the Kessel Run as a trip near a group of black holes known as the Maw Cluster.  Traveling closer to the Maw Cluster would decrease the travel time of a ship from Kessel to its destination but with the added risk of the starship becoming trapped in the gravitational pull of the black holes and being destroyed.  Later readers would learn that the Maw Cluster hid an Imperial Research installation where the engineers built and tested a prototype of the Death Star.  Later, some of these elements were retconned by the Prequels.  Role playing supplements had to offer stats and information on these regions or create new regions themselves such as the Corporate Sector which started as an element of a novel, “Han Solo at Star’s End,” which led to a West End Games supplement entitled “Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook” that built on the information from the novel. 

Heroes of the Realms

            The Forgotten Realms has undergone a variety of changes as Dungeons & Dragons has changed editions.  Unlike Vampire:  The Masquerade, the change in edition created a change in the setting.  When Dungeons & Dragons transitioned from 3.5 to 4^th Edition, the developers changed the magic system and included both Dragonborn and Tieflings as player races in the Player’s Handbook.   Although Forgotten Realms was not the core campaign setting of 4^th Edition, it was the campaign setting for Organized Play requiring the developers to explain how the magic system changed and the introduction of two new races into the setting.  Dragonborn were an incredibly popular race from the Eberron campaign setting, and due to their popularity and the popularity of Eberron, they were included in the Player’s Handbook (Update:  Dragonborn orignally appeared in Race of the Dragon and later were included in Eberron  I need to learn more about Eberron).  Introducing them into the Forgotten Realms required a bit more work though, The Spell Plague.   The Spell Plague and the death of Mystra reshaped the Weave, the source of magic in the Realms, and the merging of Abeir, Toril’s twin planet and Toril (Toril is the name of the planet on which Faerun is located.  Fareurn is the continent which is the primary setting for the Forgotten Realms.) brought with it the Dragonborn.  The Spell Plague changed entire regions, made magic items non functional, and brought the Dragonborn whose kingdom replaced the kingdom of Unther. 

            When Dungeons & Dragons changed editions once again, once more the Realms changed.  This event known as The Sundering explained how the magic system changed once again and of course, kept the popular Dragonborn in the setting.  A series of novels about the Realms explained the events of The Sundering in detail, much like previous shifts in editions, such as the Time of Troubles. 

            Another example of the developers pushed forward a metaplot can be found in D&D 3.0 and the novel series, The War of the Spider Queen and its accompanying adventure.  In this series of novels, Lolth, Goddess of the Drow, has effectively disappeared and her clerics, the leaders of the chaotic and evil Drow society, no longer receive spells from her.  Seeking answers to this dilemma and hoping to solve it before an uprising overthrows the priestess who lead the city, a group of Drow travel the Underdark, to the surface world, and eventually to the Demon Web Pits hoping to uncover the mystery behind Lolth’s disappearance.  Lolth has attained enough power finally to create her own realm separate from the Abyss, and she has cocooned herself at the center of the Demon Web Pits to complete her transformation not caring that her worshippers and priestesses suffer in her absence.  In the end, Lolth completes her transformation and creates her own plane which changes the cosmology of the Forgotten Realms.  

Cover to Dissolution from the War of the Spider Queen novel series

            If that whirl of information has left any readers confused, then the biggest problem with metaplot has become apparent:  information overload.  Only the most dedicated fans of a setting would be able to track the minutiae of those changes.  These game lines and settings have been growing and expanding for decades.  Star Wars released in 1977, for example, and novels began pouring out soon after and the damn finally broke in the 1990s with the release of “Heir to the Empire.”  Systems and universes soon bloated with all this material.  And when Vampire:  The Masquerade 20^th Anniversary Edition released, the developers promised a metaplot neutral game, meaning that players could pick and choose which elements of the metaplot they wanted to use and could ignore the rest. 

            Most experienced roleplayers already realize that the best way to deal with elements of a system or supplement that they don’t like is to modify it or ignore it.  That’s the solution that the developers of Vampire:  The Masquerade concluded as they revamped the game for its new release.  Of course, ignoring the metaplot was a pre-requisite for publishing the new edition as White Wolf had decreed that the entire Classic World of Darkness game line had ended with the publication of their end of the world books, Gehenna, the Apocalypse, etc.   

            Can a metaplot be completely ignored?  Or more specifically, can the players kill Luke Skywalker?  It’s an evocative question, and the kneejerk reaction of most players is going to be “No, absolutely not!”  Luke Skywalker is the lynchpin of Star Wars canon.  He destroyed the Death Star.  He redeemed Darth Vader and brought about the downfall of the Empire.  He brought back the Jedi Order. Luke Skywalker is Star Wars.   He has plot armor that no player character should be able to penetrate; yet, by acknowledging Luke Skywalker’s importance in the events of the original trilogy and the Extended Universe, the game master has decided that a metaplot exists and that players lack any agency in interacting with that storyline. 

Father/son elevator rides don't get more awkward!

            Luke Skywalker and his exploits are the reason why most Star Wars roleplaying games take place in distant corners of the galaxy.  The game master pushes the events of the original trilogy into the background and lays out new storylines that run tangentially to canonical events.  Player characters may interact with important figures like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, or Leia Organa.  They are much more likely to be given their orders by secondary figures like Mon Mothma and Admiral Piett.  Nevertheless, the players are hamstrung from the outset of the campaign because they are not the most important figures in the greater plot of Star Wars.  Luke Skywalker and his father Anakin are. 

            With that in mind, can players kill Drizzit Do’Urden?  Elminster Chosen of Mystra?  Can players stop the Spell Plague?  Do Dragonborn exist in Forgotten Realms?  Are the Assamites knocking at the doors of the Ivory Tower begging admittance to the Camarilla?   Each of these questions carries the same weight of metaplot as “Can the players kill Luke Skywalker?”  How many times have game masters, dungeon masters, and storytellers defended the metaplot from the brilliant and cunning plans of players? 

            My own experiences are entirely anecdotal, and I cannot speak for all roleplayers.  I have found that players enjoy re-writing the metaplot, making their own mark on a story considered inviolate.  It was a hard learned lesson and left many players completely disenchanted with me as game master.   I heard their criticism, but wasn’t preserving the story of Luke Skywalker more important?  I started roleplaying by running West End Games Star Wars Revised system and immediately railroaded players through events during the Battle of Hoth.  I couldn’t imagine a scenario where the players could actually affect the outcome of that momentous battle.  Just taking part in the battle should be exciting enough for the players, right? 

Who wouldn't want Leia in Cmdr. Shepherd's armor?

            Fast forward over a decade and I’m still running Star Wars although at this point it’s Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Saga Edition.   I finally learned my lesson in the last session of the campaign.  The players had been chasing after a rogue Jedi named Kensa Starwind who had become a kind of Old Republic Colonel Kurtz and saw through the false veneer of the Clone War.  She had realized that everything was the doings of Chancellor Palaptine, but the Jedi Council had sent the players to stop her.   My original idea was that the player characters would confront Kensa Starwind and stop her from murdering the “innocent” Chancellor only to be double-crossed by him.  Of course, that meant the players would have to put aside all out of character knowledge.  Instead of fighting Kensa, the player characters talked to her and believed her!  Together with Kensa, the players defeated Palpatine and Anakin/Darth Vader in an epic battle in the Chancellor’s office forever changing galactic history.  I don’t think that I have ever seen players happier or feeling more triumphant than when they thought they had saved the galaxy from the evils of the Empire.

            As the session ended, I added a quick epilogue for each character that showed how they had changed the universe.  It was altogether bleak.  Rather than transforming into the Empire, the Old Republic fractured into a myriad of small and warring states.  The remaining Jedi fought to maintain peace and bring the parts back together.  One of the players whose character had fallen to the Dark Side became a warlord of a region only to be double crossed by his apprentice.   Others had equally dark or heroic outcomes depending on their individual characters.  And this epilogue should have become the prologue for the next campaign that I ran! 

            The lesson that I learned from this campaign was not that I should allow players to do whatever they wanted.  Instead, I finally understood the purpose of metaplot.  Metaplot is not something that must be adhered to with the religious fervor of an extremist or ignored and discarded like an empty soda can.  Metaplot is a river that once the game begins players redirect its course by adding and subtracting elements.   The players’ influence can be subtle or dramatic depending on how their actions in the course of a campaign.  The challenge to storytellers is not to allow players to alter the course of the story to create a utopian state.  Change requires sacrifice and not all change is positive.  Those with the best intentions, such as the group that killed the Palpatine and stopped the rise of the Empire, may not create the best outcomes.  The unforeseen consequences of the players’ changes should lead to new opportunities for adventures and new stories.   Players, as well, must keep out of character knowledge separate and distinct otherwise roleplaying games can devolve into an endless series of killing off the key figures of a setting or random acts for the sake of being random. 

            Turning back to Vampire:  The Masquerade, many roleplayers have lamented the plots and setting updates that players cannot change.  The events happen in distant lands and involve powerful beings that the average player character just cannot fight against.  What can a Neonate in Atlanta do to stop Ur-Shulgi?  What can a San Francisco Anarch do to stop the destruction of the Tremere-antitribu?  Yet, the rise of Ur-Shulgi and the Assamite schism offers players a chance to affect the metaplot in new and vital ways.  Camarilla players can offer their voices in support of the Assamites joining the Camarilla or turn away the dangerous assassins.  Anarchs and Sabbat players can offer other options to those Assamite fleeing Ur-Shulgi.   Certainly, the Assamite-antitribu will be happy to welcome their old brothers into the Sabbat.  And who is to say that Ur-Shulgi actually speaks for Haqim or that this Methuselah cannot be killed?  

Paint a target on that guy's head!

            As for the Tremere-antitribu, why should the metaplot stand in the way of a player’s fun?  A surviving Tremere-antitribu is no less farfetched than surviving Salubri or Cappodoccians and offers many more story opportunities for both the player and storyteller.  As the last remaining member of his or her clan, the Tremere-antitribu would be desperate to hide from whatever power destroyed their clan and simultaneously seek to re-establish that clan by Embracing new members.  The Tremere-antitribu survivor is now the leader of that clan with new and potentially overwhelming responsibilities. 

            Both of these hypothetical scenarios assume that the storyteller and players agree to use the metaplot as written.  That doesn’t have to be the case either.  Ur-Shulgi does not have to rise from Torpor.  The Tremere-antitribu don’t have to be destroyed.   And none of the material in Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand needs to show up in anyone’s campaign. 

            Metaplot should not be the driving force of anyone’s campaign.  Rather, it is one more tool in a storyteller’s toolbox and in the players’ toolboxes to help them create the stories that they want to tell together.  And that book with the terrible metaplot about Tzimisce diseases and vampires traveling to the Deep Umbra is not the final arbiter of whether or not that information should appear in your campaign.  It is your book!  And like John Wick says, you can tear out pages and take a black sharpie to the pages and passages you hate and delete them forever.  It’s your book.   You bought it.  Use it how you like!             

            So, can your player characters kill Luke Skywalker?

Late Review: V20 Companion

V20 Companion

By Justin Achilli and Eddy Webb

2012, 79 pages

            As the first supplement for Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, the V20 Companion offers expanded information on the World of Darkness Setting including titles for various sects, Prestation rules (trading favors) for each sect, how vampires exploit technology, and finally a selection of locations for use in any Vampire the Masquerade Game.  Those topics have been covered in a variety of other books; so for long time Vampire the Masquerade players, this book may not seem a necessary purchase.  However, because V20 left out the rules for running a Caitiff, players and Storyteller must have access to this book just for those two pages.  Besides those two pages, the rest of the book offers some useful information and ideas for games. 

            Chapter One covers the various titles available for all of the major sects:  Camarilla, Sabbat, Anarchs, Tal’mahe’ra (True Hand), and Inconnu.  The Camarilla and Sabbat titles should be familiar to anyone who already owns V20.  Prince, Sheriff, Ductus, or Priest are all titles that are familiar to anyone who has a copy of V20 or has played Vampire the Masquerade in the past.  Some additional titles have been added like the “Chancellor,” who is responsible for keeping track of the favors owed and who owes them.  If the Storyteller is emphasizing Prestation, favor trading, then this new position in the Prince’s court will be a great help.  The Sabbat has the usual series of titles, including the title “Shovelhead,” which is for just Embraced Sabbat who have yet to prove themselves and earn the title “True Sabbat.”   The Anarchs have several titles but essentially operate the same as the Camarilla titles.  A “Baron” runs the Domain, a “Reeve” keeps order for the “Baron,” and so on. 

            The Tal’mahe’Ra also have series of titles, but it is in this section of Chapter One where the V20 Companion offers its first real revision to the World of Darkness.  While the core principles and history of the Tal’mahe’Ra remain the same as in Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, the V20 Companion updates the tone of this sect, making it darker and more fitting for the World of Darkness.  Just the update to the tone of the True Hand makes this chapter worth reading.  The V20 Companion emphasizing the sect as a death cult that kidnaps mortals and tries to further its goal of vampiric supremacy. 

There is no way these characters are going to get along! 

            As the least worldly and most secretive sect, the Inconnu are given only two titles.  Beyond those titles the mystery of the Inconnu is still intact which stays in line with past works on the Inconnu.  On the whole this chapter reinforces the information already available in V20, but if you are interested in running games involving Anarchs or the Tal’Mahe’Ra, you’ll find this book helpful in fleshing out the domains.  Beyond just a short description of the title, each entry offers some advice on how the title fits into the sect’s goals and world view. 

Finally, there are several clan-specific titles that are written broadly enough to fit just about any clan.  Titles such as Mystic can be modified to fit either the Tremere or their hated enemies, the Assamites.  My favorite title out of this entire chapter is “Consul” which is a diplomat between Sects, clans or any other groups.  This title offers opportunities for designing cities with visiting clan members that may not normally be there without them necessarily being antagonists.  Now an Assamite or a Giovanni could be in a Camarilla city and be protected by this title, and not just hiding out in the city hoping the Sheriff doesn’t notice them. 

Chapter 2 explains the rules for Prestation for Kindred.  Prestation, of course, is the practice of trading favors or boons.  This represents the other currency for vampires, the first being blood.  This material has already been covered in a variety of other source books, but this is the first time it’s been put in print since the release of V20.  The interesting part of this Chapter is that the Prestation system has expanded beyond the Camarilla.  Every sect has its own approach to trading favors and even trading favors with vampires of different sects; so, even sects that are spilling each others’ blood are meeting and talking and trading favors regardless of animosity.  Of course, if a Sabbat member is caught trading boons with a Camarilla member then things might get unpleasant for both of them.  Storytellers will love having updated and expanded rules for Prestation for their games. 

Technology in the World of Darkness is the focus of Chapter 3.  According to the V20 Companion, vampires can become stuck in the era in which they were Embraced.  Because of the rapid pace of change in technology in the modern nights, vampires can be quickly overwhelmed or lost as technology overtakes them.  Older vampires who were Embraced hundreds of years ago may struggle to understand modern technology such as computers and smart phones.  Newly Embraced vampires, however, can understand modern technology quickly because they’ve been surrounded by it for their entire lives.  Technology becomes a weapon that smart Neonates can use against their Elders.  Elders, on the other hand, are not wholly defenseless against techno-savvy Neonates; they ghoul mortals who are capable of managing that facet of the modern world.  Even scarier, the Elders make a point to stay up to date with technology. 

Technology allows vampires to conduct attacks from distant domains.  Anarchs can lead rebellions from the safety of the Anarch Free States.  Sabbat can give orders to distant packs with just a tweet.  Technology can be used in a variety of ways in the World of Darkness.  Not to mention that maintaining the Masquerade in the modern world with ubiquitous use of smart phones with video cameras is becoming more and more difficult.  Stories can be built around stopping the spread of a viral video or tracking down its source.  This chapter offers many hints at story ideas that Storytellers can build upon for their campaign, but none of the topics are explored in depth. 

The new art is beautiful!  All the V20 art has been awesome!

Chapter Four offers a variety of locations for adventures in the World of Darkness.  These locations range from an up to date Succubus Club, that travels between cities putting on various shows for the Kindred residents of those towns, to the Cathedral of Flesh, a Tzimisce created building made from the flesh of hundreds of mortals that may still exist in the modern nights.   Twenty-five locations are described, and each location has about three paragraphs dedicated to it.  The location, itself, is explained along with some NPCs who might be present, and a story hook is hinted at.  Although each location description is little more than a tease for the potential of an adventure set there, the variety of locations that games can explore is awe-inspiring.  Whether the game’s tone is gritty and street level about the perils of being neonates or a pulp adventure with a group of vampires seeking lost artifacts, there is a good location in this chapter.

As an aside, for people interested in how The Onyx Path and White Wolf Publishing are taking advantage of modern technology in game development, the Introduction and the Appendix of the V20 Companion explains how fans have contributed to what is actually in this book.  The authors explain why certain material was cut, such as a mechanical system for titles, or why certain material was expanded upon, extra clan-specific titles were cut because of lack of space.  It’s exciting to see the publishers are listening to the people who play the games and making changes to the works as they are being written.  So, make your opinions heard on the upcoming books because they are listening.

The V20 Companion reused this art, and so am I!

The V20 Companion is not a book necessary to play or run a Vampire the Masquerade game except for the fact that this is the only book that has the rules for Caitiff.  For Storytellers looking to explore Prestation rules or are looking for new locations, this books has plenty of both.  However, the biggest problem with this book is that it doesn’t go indepth on any of the topics.  Each chapter, aside from the chapter on Prestation, could have been expanded into a book on its own.  Because technology is so pervasive and has changed the world so much in the last 10 years, that any discussion of Technology in the World of Darkness is going to require more than just one chapter.  As with everything else in this book, more space is needed to really explore the topics addressed in this book.  The V20 Companion is useful for Storytellers, and one person in your gaming group should probably have it just for the information on Caitiff.  In truth, I wish the information for playing Caitiffs should be made available in a free format because it should have been in V20. 

The V20 Companion is available at DriveThruRPG.com as either a PDF or Print on Demand formats! 

Late Review: Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand

Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand

By:  Steven C. Brown

1998, 127 pages

Amongst all the books I own and all the books published for Vampire the Masquerade, Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand (DSotBH) has the worst reputation.  Older VtM players hate this book because DSotBH introduces the True Hand or Tal’mahe’Ra (as opposed to the Sabbat’s False Black Hand) as a group of vampires who want to save the world from the worst machinations of the Camarilla and the Sabbat and bring back the Antediluvians who will scour the unworthy vampires from the world.   Beyond just their world saving mission, the True Hand also has the most diverse membership of any sect in the World of Darkness.  They count vampires, mages, wraiths, a mummy and an abomination (a werewolf that has been Embraced) amongst their members.  Finally, this is the book that finally explains what Vicissitude “really” is and the crusade to annihilate this alien invader from the Deep Umbra.

            The issue with DSotBH is that there are two books between its covers:  the book that the author intended and the book that was published.  I’m being generous when I say that because I saw a lot of potential for DSotBH as I read it.  The book is full of plot hooks, story concepts, and chronicle ideas that would be great for either a high level Vampire the Masquerade chronicle or a crossover game.  However, these are not fully developed or explored by author; instead these ideas are buried in the text.  As I have just finished a campaign where the PCs had topped out with over 150 XP spent each, I can say that having high level content for groups that have grown beyond the power level of their initial city would a great resource.  DSotBH should have been that book, but it was not. 

            The most obvious problem with DSotBH is that it ties together too many strands as it tries to build a grand metaplot for White Wolf’s Storyteller Games, Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, Wraith the Oblivion, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Mummy.  The RPG groups that I have played in have always wanted to bring together characters from all these different system into one grand chronicle.  The True Hand offers a way to do that because this sect was founded by Mages and Vampires, it has at least one Mummy as a member, its base of operations, Enoch, is in the Underworld, it has been known to work with some tribes of Werewolves, and members regularly travel to the Deep Umbra.  Except for Changelings, the True Hand offers an in world sect that recruits pretty much anyone and everyone. 

True Brujah from V20 Core book

            While the True Hand is dominated by vampires and their desire to build the “Army of Gehenna” to assist the sleeping Antediluvians in destroying unworthy vampires (those not of the True Hand), the True Hand also fights the Shadow Crusade against an alien creature that they accidentally brought back from the Deep Umbra.  Known as Vicissitude, the signature discipline of the Tzimisce, this alien creature infects those who imbibe Tzimisce blood and eventually takes over their bodies and minds.  The Shadow Crusade offers Storytellers a real villain for their campaigns that can’t be overcome by violence or politics.  Vicissitude is a force of nature that can corrupt anyone, and more importantly Storytellers can use this to create a sense of paranoia amongst players. 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand also offers three new clans, the True Brujah, Nagaraja, and Old Clan Tzimisce, as options for players.  Two new Disciplines are included as well, Temporis, the time based Discipline of the True Brujah, and Nagaraja’s Nihilistisc which is based on decay and death and interacting with Wraiths and the Underworld.  Biothaumaturigic Experimentation, a new path of Thaumaturgy, along with some new Thaumaturgical rituals are introduced as well.  Most VtM players are familiar with the game breaking annoyance of the higher levels of Temporis that allows players to manipulate time including summoning the past into the present at Level Nine. 

            In addition to the new clans, DSotBH also has a summarized version of the rules for creating Elder characters.  By reprinting the character creation for Elders, DSotBH becomes a self contained “Epic Level” book for players and Storytellers looking to run high level games.  However, the rules for character creation weren’t proofread.  Otherwise why would the section on “Maturity” be included along with the Elder Background Age without an explanation of how they interact?  It’s confusing and honestly, Maturity shouldn’t have been included since it makes no sense.  Templates are included as well to give players ideas for characters, but none of them standout.  Most of the templates are rather obvious.  True Brujah Antiquarian and Globe Trotting Assassin don’t show the same creativity as found in the Clanbook Series.  The entire template section should have been cut. 

            The concepts and mechanics are flawed, but the artwork in DSotBH is probably the worst part.  Worse than dated, the artwork is full of examples of the worst excesses of 90s comic artwork.  Even the cover looks ridiculous with the woman cutting a man’s neck, but her face is doubled between a smile and licking blood from the man’s neck.  I’m not sure what Discipline that’s supposed to represent.  It just looks awful. 

I will stab the alien Vicissitude thing from outer space 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand is not the worst RPG book that I’ve ever read, but it’s close.  What redeems DSotBH is that it does have some good ideas, but the presentation and implementation are awful.  The History of the Black Hand is a mish mash of ideas that references things from later sections of the book instead of explaining them immediately.  The section on Enoch in the Underworld should have been included in the history of the True Hand to tie everything together rather than separating Enoch’s history from the rest of True Hand’s history.  If anything, a map of Enoch would have been helpful along with a list of locations and rumors about the city itself.

            The major problem with DSotBH is that it included too much material that isn’t fully realized.  Instead of including the section on templates, the author could have included sections on how to integrate the True Hand into the World of Darkness.  An adventure that introduces powerful PCs into the plots of the True Hand would have been helpful.  Finally, the True Hand can’t come across as the “good guys” in the World of Darkness.  There are no “good guys.”  That’s kind of what makes it the World of Darkness.  Powerful beings manipulate mortals and fight over the dwindling resources in overcrowded cities against other manipulators as the end of the world rushes towards them. 

            The World of Darkness needed a book that offers advanced characters options for stories against powerful, new enemies, but this book failed to deliver that.  The World of Darkness also needed a book that allowed various groups, Mages, Vampires, etc., to interact as party members against a common threat, but this book failed to deliver that too.   Probably the biggest mistake of DSotBH is that it tries to tie together all the various White Wolf game lines together with Vampire the Masquerade taking the lead.  Publishing DSotBH as a Vampire the Masquerade book puts all the other creatures as subservient to the needs of vampires.  If the book had been focused on mixing the various game lines and published as World of Darkness book, then I think that it would been received better and been more helpful for game groups since almost every White Wolf gamer I knew wanted to run crossover games.

            Is Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand the worst book published for Vampire the Masquerade?  It could be if only for the fact that it was White Wolf’s attempt to create a book to support crossover games or high level content.  While the ideas are good, the presentation is awful.  I couldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they wanted to complete a collection of VtM or WoD books.  If you really need information on the metaplot, I’d recommend going to whitewolf.wikia.com, because White Wolf nuked the True Hand when they updated to Revised Edition.  Literally Nuked! 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand is available at DriveThruRPG as either as pdf or print on demand or you can find the original available on Amazon.com.