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Stranger Magicks: A System of Quirky Magick Merits
by Richard B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/29/2023 09:55:37

This supplement provides us with Esoteric Experience and Mysterial Merits, both of which are great additions to both the setting and game system. If used sparing, it can help make the game slightly stranger, with rare anomalous characters that can add more flavour, mystery, and possibility, without needing to upstat the character. These mechanics also make keeping a character diary even more useful. Helpfully, Terry ends the book with some variants, designed to be even simpler. Whilst not an essential book, I’d highly recommend it for anyone wanting to add extra layers to their games.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Stranger Magicks: A System of Quirky Magick Merits
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Baali Apostates for V5
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2023 19:44:26

A Joy To Read and Creative Approach to the Infernalists

There are a handful of books in the Storyteller's Vault designed to bring back the Baali as their own, distinct clan, steeped in their occultism and dark rituals. This book, however, takes an interesting and unique approach in making the Clan more parasitic and corruptive in nature. Rather than definitively making you a Baali, this book focuses on corrupting what you were by offering a variety of Amalgams to build upon the Disciplines that you had from your original embrace. This allows for an incredible level of freedom in creating characters and the drama of wrestling with your former identity and the new one that you've been forced into. While it's less of an overhaul than other options offer: I believe that this book is far better for slotting into any given chronicle and story while still offering inspiring options and fitting the base game's intent and design. While 'Pay What You Want' will let you get the book for free, the suggested price is more than fair for the effort and content provided.

Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Baali Apostates for V5
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for the review! I'm glad to hear that you appreciate the supplement, but also really appreciate the clear effort and understanding of the intent of this, where my focus was very much on finding a reasonable way to allow STs and players to "port" them into their own games with as minimal headaches or system changes as possible. I took the themes that felt most true to my own readings of the Baali and tried to adapt them very much from there.
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Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2023 19:22:51

You’re Not Just Getting a Clan out of This: You’re Getting Hooks and Inspiration Enough for a Full Chronicle of Content!

Simply put, the fact that the book itself creeped me out multiple times is a testament to it nailing exactly what I wanted from Clanbook: Baali. While most clans are on some spectrum between "Tragic" and "Frightening", the Baali here are perfectly portrayed as Insidious. Each one of the powers feels suitably cruel and malevolent, adding a new level of horror to already twisted powers (however, they do have a level of dependency/prerequisites that makes it difficult to dabble in other appealing options from those Disciplines).

The addition of mechanics revolving around sin, the Outer Dark (which is unfortunately not elaborated on in detail), and the denizens of the Outer Dark add a whole new level of threat to play, making them fun threats and concepts to invite into your game. Thanks to the variety of loresheets representing different paths of the cult, there's also plenty of potential to have the Baali be a threat across multiple chronicles (or even multiple groups in the same chronicle!) and to be fresh each time.

Altogether, I highly recommend Clanbook: Baali. While Pay What You Want will give it to you for free, I'd say paying less than $5-$7 for as much quality and content as you getis even more evil than the Infernalists themselves.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
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Clan Morbus: Agents of Contagion
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2023 18:20:12

Fits right into Fifth Edition, like a clan that was intended all along and just didn't make the cut.

Some books that try to add-in new clans or reintroduce old ones feel a need to add dozens of pages of lore and systems to them, wheres Clan Morbus fits in perfectly as a fun, and distinct clan that fits-in amongst its peers. As someone who always enjoyed Vampires' origins as folktales around disease, this book was able to scratch that itch.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Clan Morbus: Agents of Contagion
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Necromancy Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2023 05:28:20

Befriend or Subjugate Ghosts, Turn Corpses to Companions, or Walk Across the Shadowlands Like You Belong There

In so many words, you get exactly what you want from your purchase: Everything you could want to be a necromancer. Which kind of corpse-botherer is up to you, as whether you deal in ouija boards and flickering candles or in shuddering coffins and rasping groans is up to you, unless you'd rather be the wrathful dead yourself: also an option. Ghosts are put on an even level of threat and relevance to Lupines or even some other Kindred thanks to a quality set of rules to expand their mechanics and place within your campaign, while the bodies they left behind and the home they now inhabit are also - ironically - fleshed-out to both provide meaningful focuses of study or points of mystery within a story.

While the core Necromantic Paths of Spirits, Bones, and Ashes have enough content that two Kindred could take the same path and come away with very different ability sets and feels: the Paths of Death, Twilight, and Skulls are fare more lacking by comparison, and usually too highly-specific to seem like worthwhile choices to take into a game unless that specific chronicle was designed with your Path in mind to make it relevant more often than once every three or five sessions, though could be - and arguably should have been - rolled into other Paths as fun treats, rather than dissapointing main courses as they are now.

Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Necromancy Remastered
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Fortitude Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/27/2023 02:18:07

Fortitude is a boring Discipline, by design. Windows that don't shatter in a storm are boring, foundations that remain sturdy after an earthquake are boring. That's by design. With that in mind, the only goal of a remastering of the Discipline should be to keep it boring, dependable, and reliable.

To a degree, I think this book failed.

For the positives, I enjoy that there seem to be paths for this Discipline. Some powers are focused on making you a physical tank that can shrug-off anything short of a missile detonated a few feet away. Others make you mentally resilient, shrugging off mind control, terror, and perception like other users of the Discipline could ignore bullets. Finally, there's a sort of metaphysical fortitude, focusing on countering banes and other vampiric weaknesses. This adds a lot of variety and choice to an otherwise dull discipline.

However, some of the math simply doesn't add-up. Due to the fact that so many of these powers are persistent and costless, a boring, safe power that is always active become harder to ignore especially with scaling. Resilience at level 1 removes a level from an opponent's weapon modifier per level of Fortitude, meaning that even at low levels a knife could be reduced to as impactful against you as a fist. Toughness at level 2 will shave off a point of superficial damage from a source per level in fortitude. This means that if someone were able to stick a shotgun to the back of your head and receive eight successes on someone with the minimum points in this discipline necessary to have this power, the four points of superficial damage would be reduced to three. At higher levels, it could be outright halved. However, with that aformentioned Resilience power, that 8 superficial damage reduced to 4 for every other Kindred would instead be a measely 2. Other weapons with a similar number of successes such as pistols and knives may struggle to do even a single point of superficial damage after being filtered, going from making Fortitude a safety net to a titanium shield.

Additionally, tweaks were made to some existing abilities that were previously fine, such as Flesh of Marble. Previously it would save you from the first instance of physical damage each round for a full scene in exchange for a hearty 2 rouse checks. This was a real capstone to the Discipline, and truly added to the fantasy of being an unliving tank. However, it was tweaked in this book to have the same effect, and the same cost . . . but to only last a single attack. With the internal balance considerations that you'd need to have 5 Levels in Fortitude and have Blood Potency 4, you're looking at a buy-in of 130 XP assuming you started as an Ancillae for a power that equates to a successful dodge.

The powers are fun, and I will be enjoying them and would overall still recommend checking them out, but I wish I had Fortitude to counter the headaches I'll get from negotiating new balance for some of these powers or the unintended ways they'll work together to make someone utterly impervious to any harm.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Fortitude Remastered
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Vicissitude Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/27/2023 01:45:48

A Bloody Masterpiece

If you've ever spent time looking at an HR Geiger or Hieronymus Bosch artpiece and wondered what purpose those creatures served, or if wood, metal, and plastic are too impersonal as materials for your creations, then Vicissitude Remastered is the perfect book for getting into the head of a Tzimisce.

Mechanically and flavor-wise, the book does an incredible job at sparking your curiosity and creativity. Seeing the pages of options at your disposal for how to mold yourself and others generates dozens of potential horrible creation to unleash upon the night, to the point that it's almost impossible to narrow them all down to one or two choices. This book is rewarding if you're only looking to take a single dot of Vicissitude, or if you want to take it all the way to the maximum potential of a God of Flesh.

With that being said, there are still a few small issues by way of balance and wording. Some effects are rather powerful for their single rouse check cost. While this could be argued as balancing out some of the less impactful effects that still cost a check . . . a terror radius of super high difficulty AND a bonus dice to all physical rolls AND two other effects for free all for a single rouse check is a too-good deal to let slide in good faith. Similarly, some other powers are just vague enough that they'll cause a headache if they weren't discussed beforehand.

Even with its downsides, there's still so much creativity and innovation on display that I couldn't knock a star on principle. This is a must-have for any Tzimisce player with homebrew-friendly Storytellers, and a worthwhile investment for anybody looking to integrate a Dragon somewhere in their chronicle.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Vicissitude Remastered
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Celerity Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/27/2023 00:13:44

A tricky remaster of a tricky discipline.

The powers detailed in this book are all fun, interesting, and have a good spread between a heavy combat focus, a traversal focus, or an emphasis on utlity, meaning the discipline fits right in with any Kindred and few drastically rock the boat.

However, a few powers are problematic in regards to balance (at level one, throw cheap and theoretically unlimited objects so hard they count as a firearm attack for no rouse check! . . . oof) or wording that will probably lead to a ten-minute back-and-forth between you and your Storyteller about what a specific bit of phrasing meant.

Finally, the "Discipline Bonus" that makes each one of the disciplines stand-out and better define their user is a real let-down. It's dependent on the entire table using an alternate rule for the game just for the sake of one discipline, and offers no alternative if this isn't something everybody's on board with.

Overall, I still enjoyed reading through the book and see some terrific options for designing a character, just make sure to hash it out with the rest of the table, first.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Celerity Remastered
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Animalism Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/26/2023 16:16:34

I view Animalism as the singular weakest and most niche disciplines in the base game, often pigeon-holing anybody who takes it into an exceedingly bad druid who needs to spend dozens of points of experience to get basic functionality from the Discipline. This book fixes that.

The powers are terrific, and the Animalism Remastered works excellently to provide plenty of options that help you build your kindred in the traditional Beast Master way with your trusty furred-or-feathered sidekick, an apex predator that utilizes animals as food and weapons only, or someone who targets the very beast at the heart of other kindred and forces them to act in an bestial nature themselves. These new powers are exciting, varied, and creative. I truly cannot wait to use them at my table!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Animalism Remastered
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Chimerstry Remastered
by Artemis M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/26/2023 15:11:52

The flexibility of Chimerstry and other games' illusion magic have always made it a personal favorite of mine, and a must-have with few exceptions when it was an option. This books shows that there may be such thing as too much freedom, and lacks internal logic.

With the main conceit being layering increased levels of upgrades on a single central power, some of the extra effects start to strain what one could justify as appropriate as a single Rouse Check in effect. Most of these upgrades don't come with an additional cost in that regard, or even with perhaps an extra point in willpower from needing to focus harder to manifest a more complex illusion. This further applies to the ability to conjure a weapon but with no suggested damage modifier, and some questionable powers that either make the majority of this discipline completely free to use, or to substitute the higly effective visual illusions for a sound, smell, or sensation alone.

The out-of-place use of sexual assault to break a rhyme scheme on the very first page was also a . . . choice.

While I still enjoyed this book and its place amongst all the rest of the Shadowfall Collection, this one more than nearly any other in the collection should have had a watermark over every page saying "ASK YOUR STORYTELLER".



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Chimerstry Remastered
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The Broken-Winged Crane
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/24/2023 10:43:49

This book did what I expected of it - and a little more. New charms, Hearth Stones etc for the Infernals - and a new path forward for them. Too bad it came out so late in E2's life cycle as to be almost irrelevant.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Broken-Winged Crane
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Otherworlds Illuminated: A Mage Made Hard Guide to the Umbra
by Richard [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/19/2023 05:22:55

A great supplement providing a useful overview of all things Umbra from a Mage perspective. Especially valuable due to the differences between Mage editions, plus some helpful notes about other World of Darkness gamelines. Whilst the book is mostly summarising information from other books, there is the bonus of new ideas, the consideration of differences, as a quick reference, this supplement can save players from needing to check multiple other books.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Otherworlds Illuminated: A Mage Made Hard Guide to the Umbra
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Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
by Søren A. H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/14/2023 17:43:35
SUMMARY:

Excellent updated version of the Baali, but it's the new ideas that truly makes this a valuable book for V5. It suffers a bit on presentation in the interior, but the creativity easily makes up for that. There are parts that could use some more work to make it shine, but, honestly, it's a great read and a perfect product for the STV

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

A free, 44 Pages book with rad-looking cover about the sort of Vampires that seems to have been slumming it up in Sunnydale? I was instantly hooked. The inside was also great, but suffered a bit from a lack of through editing. Layout is very much like the V5 standard, which is very nice.

WHAT'S IN HERE?:

The Baali in this book are the lovely edgy Vampires we know from the past. with a bit of new sprinkled in. In service to the forces beyond mortal ken, these Vampires are enjoying their decent into the Abyss, both metaphorically and literary. As for Disciplines, the Baali have Presence, Oblivion and Blood Sorcery. Hot, Macabre, Powerful. In short? They're like a study in Ghost lyrics. When reading the Archetypes, I saw most of the usual Satanic villain and antihero stereotypes being pictured here, so mission successful. These Luciferian vampires are then given a Bane that deals with True Faith as Anathema to their unholy skin, and a Compulsion that forces you to give unholy powers from the beyond a chance to shine.

DISCIPLINES:

I have a lot of love for people who decide to become creative with the V5 system, and most of these powers certainly does that. Presence has a bit of a outlier named Duress (putting a penalty of discipline use equal to the user's Willpower) that is far too powerful to be a Lvl 1 power, you still get some interesting Presence powers in the remaining categories, fitting for the Baali. The Baali spread of Oblivion and Blood Sorcery is curious design space, but making both of them synergize as a amalgam power called Daimonion is quite the stroke of genius. While I personally think the bit cartoony Balefire should remain in the past, this book presents an excellent way to use this, and the other Sorcery Powers are also inspired, especially Draught of Power which might be a better way to design the Draught Powers than the Corebook variant. In the Oblivion corner, the powers are suitably creepy, (but the Lvl 5 Summon Demon power could have been a Rite instead) Soul Swap especially is probably one of the best examples of design-space used well. Kudos for that. The Rituals and Ceremonies are working in tandem with disciplines, so I like most of them. The Death Pact Ritual might be a bit more expensive than I see PCs be able to use, but I suppose that was the intent. The Ceremonies are pretty cool as well especially the Bells of Gomorrah, a beautiful ritual that opens up all kinds of plots.

OTHER RULES:

A bit disappointing, displayed The Predator Types are too narrow and seem more like variant on previous PTs, but flavorful nonetheless. Then, we have Optional Advantages that gives you a system for Infernal Pacts, which I think could have used a bit more examples, but what we have here is solid. The Coterie Merit for the Baali? I mean, I don't think I'll ever see anyone use it, but it makes sense.

LORESHEETS:

While a lot of these are interesting as updates to the old material, it sort of delves into my bigger problem with Loresheets among the fan community. V5 is a new edition, and Loresheets are a big part of how to evolve the setting. So, it disappoint me to only see content updated, not innovated. I love to see people take chances, and it feels like, while this is a good section of loresheets about the Baali of yore, we could have seen some newer ideas like the ones talked about in the far too short Modern Nights section.

MODERN NIGHTS, SPCS & SINNERS

Speaking of that? It's awesome. I could have done with more of it. Examining where to place our Satanic Menace in a modern nights game can delve into some uncharted waters. The Baali are an entire vibe of demonic glory, and horror movies love those. The SPC section is prima material for a storyteller who wants to do some more gory, explicit supernatural horror as well as a bunch of poor souls who got in too deep. The table of 20 Sinners is excellent, and being able to use a joke and throw shade at yourself is an artform. (Although, y'all should have gone with Carson instead of Cason, IMHO)

EDITING AND FORMATING:

As one of my only critiques of the book, it could have used some more work, like another Editing Pass and perhaps a few more sacred cows left behind. But this is 44 pages of free, pretty good material. So honestly, I don't mind it much. I was highly entertained and could see myself using this as a resource for a few things. It is very much in the vein of Blood Sigils, and fingers crossed we get more of this stuff.

Now, hail Satan and pass me the skull chalice, I gotta go find me a black goat.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
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Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
by Anselm [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/13/2023 23:23:50

A well written and well formatted addition to V5. I like the idea of them having blood sorcery and oblivion.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Clanbook: BAALI 5th Edition
by Peter V. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/13/2023 18:54:33

I have done a quick read of the book and although I still need to do a deep dive I wanted to leave my thoughts on it while it still appeared in the top 10 section. The book is great and nicely touches on many key aspects of the Baali. While the decision of the discipline spread is something I would have done slightly differently it is by no means a poor choice and shows direction from its writer(s). The artwork is lovely and it's layout easy to use as a supplement. If I ever write my own Baali clanbook I am sure to credit this one as my inspiration. Great work.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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