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Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks
Clanbook: Brujah Revised
Brutes and Bravos
The history of Clan Brujah has been one of struggle and passion since its first nights. Whether challenging the tyranny of feudalism or rallying against stagnant institutions, the Brujah take their fight into the modern nights. Whether she is a political dissenter or a common thug, a Brujah wears her emotions on her sleeve, and woe to those who get in her way.
Intellectuals and Idealists
As the second entry in the revised lineup of clanbooks, Brujah takes one of the classic Vampire sourcebooks and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies revised material, inviting you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each with 32 more pages than the first-edition books) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
The history of Clan Brujah has been one of struggle and passion since its first nights. Whether challenging the tyranny of feudalism or rallying against stagnant institutions, the Brujah take their fight into the modern nights. Whether she is a political dissenter or a common thug, a Brujah wears her emotions on her sleeve, and woe to those who get in her way.
Intellectuals and Idealists
As the second entry in the revised lineup of clanbooks, Brujah takes one of the classic Vampire sourcebooks and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies revised material, inviting you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each with 32 more pages than the first-edition books) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
104 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 28, 2016
White Wolf kind of backed themselves into a corner with the way they changed the portrayal of the Clans in Vampire Revised Edition. There's a lot of emphasis in that book about how vampires are individuals, how they're generally members of their sect before their Clan, and how Clan membership doesn't matter that much in night-to-night existence except for Clans with pre-existing formal structures like the Tremere, the Assamite, or the Giovanni. And then they had a slew of Clanbooks to publish, one of which is about a Clan with no real defining characteristics, no formal structure, and no wide-scale organization. How then to write a book about such a disparate group?
Ignore all that and treat them like a power bloc and keep talking about things "the Brujah" do, is the answer.
Reading Clanbook: Brujah Revised gives me the idea that the main ideological component of Brujah philosophy is, "You can't tell me what to do, dad!" Most of it is the notes of a specific Brujah named Horace Kaplan, so this is supposed to reflect his specific prejudices rather than an objective view of the Clan as a whole. And that comes through pretty strongly, since he thinks that the Baali are a bloodline of the Assamites, that the Brujah are better off in the Camarilla because the Camarilla provides the necessary Dad who cannot tell one what to do, that that Brujah are the true vampires of the modern era because they Embrace from a wide selection of society, and that the Brujah are the most human vampires because they rely on their passion for causes to keep the Beast at bay.
Here's the problem. The inspiration for the Brujah is obviously films like Near Dark and Lost Boys, but Revised is trying to move away from one-note stereotypes, so "biker-gang vampires who break things" isn't enough to hang a whole Clan on. But Clanbook: Brujah Revised goes too far in the other direction, so the only real identity I have for the Brujah from it is "people who really believe in something." But that can apply to a lot of vampires. I'm sure the Ventrue Prince really believes that her rule is the best way to maintain power and stability and that the Brujah shouting at her are malcontents who wouldn't know what to do with power if they got it. And based on Kaplan's portrayal, she's probably right. Opposing the power structure because it's the power structure rather than because of any concrete acts comes across as very late-ninties ennui to me, and may date this book even more than the fact that it italicizes "quinoa."
I can't see any reason to play a Brujah, or rather, a vampire for whom descent from the Brujah is an important and fundamental part of their identity. The depiction of the Brujah in this book could be applied to any anarch and probably to a good portion of the Sabbat, for all that Kaplan says that the Sabbat requires that you bow to the party line and therefore isn't as good an organization for Brujah as the Camarilla. And speaking of, that's about all the book has to say about the Sabbat, meaning the prejudices of its author greatly limit its usefulness for players of Brujah, since the Brujah are one of the single largest groups in the Sabbat next to the Lasombra or Tzimisce.
Also, the chapter on history is incredibly dull. Carthage, Carthage, Carthage, and while it does provide a nuanced portrayal where Carthage was a glorious utopia or a blood-soaked hellhole depending on exactly who you ask, I wanted to know more about the Brujah who lived in Transylvania because they were fleeing the oppression of Roman Ventrue and Toreador-
What's that? Clans aren't monolithic blocs who act like political entities? Oops. Tell that to the history section.
I admit I was also put off by the first sample character, "The Confederate." The book presents him as more of a historian interested in rebel culture and the aspect of states' rights and self-determination without ever mentioning slavery. Except the Confederacy wrote slavery into their Constitution and talking about it without mentioning slavery is like talking about Christianity without mentioning Jesus. Slavery is fundamental to the Confederacy and it would never have existed without it.
There is a "Harpy-to-Be" sample character that does help expand the range of Brujah characters through its existence, though, so it's not all bad.
The problem with Clanbook: Brujah Revised is that it tried too hard to pull away from the idea of Brujah as leather-wearing biker punks that I ended up with no real idea what makes a Brujah or what being a Brujah is like other than rebelling against something. Being the eternal rebel sounded great when I was 19, but now it just seems childish. I want to know what you stand for. What do the Brujah want to accomplish? What do they want to build that's not Carthage 2.0? How to do this without making the whole Clan a stereotype? I don't know, but this book doesn't accomplish it and doesn't make me want to play a Brujah any more than I did before I picked it up.
Ignore all that and treat them like a power bloc and keep talking about things "the Brujah" do, is the answer.
Reading Clanbook: Brujah Revised gives me the idea that the main ideological component of Brujah philosophy is, "You can't tell me what to do, dad!" Most of it is the notes of a specific Brujah named Horace Kaplan, so this is supposed to reflect his specific prejudices rather than an objective view of the Clan as a whole. And that comes through pretty strongly, since he thinks that the Baali are a bloodline of the Assamites, that the Brujah are better off in the Camarilla because the Camarilla provides the necessary Dad who cannot tell one what to do, that that Brujah are the true vampires of the modern era because they Embrace from a wide selection of society, and that the Brujah are the most human vampires because they rely on their passion for causes to keep the Beast at bay.
Here's the problem. The inspiration for the Brujah is obviously films like Near Dark and Lost Boys, but Revised is trying to move away from one-note stereotypes, so "biker-gang vampires who break things" isn't enough to hang a whole Clan on. But Clanbook: Brujah Revised goes too far in the other direction, so the only real identity I have for the Brujah from it is "people who really believe in something." But that can apply to a lot of vampires. I'm sure the Ventrue Prince really believes that her rule is the best way to maintain power and stability and that the Brujah shouting at her are malcontents who wouldn't know what to do with power if they got it. And based on Kaplan's portrayal, she's probably right. Opposing the power structure because it's the power structure rather than because of any concrete acts comes across as very late-ninties ennui to me, and may date this book even more than the fact that it italicizes "quinoa."
I can't see any reason to play a Brujah, or rather, a vampire for whom descent from the Brujah is an important and fundamental part of their identity. The depiction of the Brujah in this book could be applied to any anarch and probably to a good portion of the Sabbat, for all that Kaplan says that the Sabbat requires that you bow to the party line and therefore isn't as good an organization for Brujah as the Camarilla. And speaking of, that's about all the book has to say about the Sabbat, meaning the prejudices of its author greatly limit its usefulness for players of Brujah, since the Brujah are one of the single largest groups in the Sabbat next to the Lasombra or Tzimisce.
Also, the chapter on history is incredibly dull. Carthage, Carthage, Carthage, and while it does provide a nuanced portrayal where Carthage was a glorious utopia or a blood-soaked hellhole depending on exactly who you ask, I wanted to know more about the Brujah who lived in Transylvania because they were fleeing the oppression of Roman Ventrue and Toreador-
What's that? Clans aren't monolithic blocs who act like political entities? Oops. Tell that to the history section.
I admit I was also put off by the first sample character, "The Confederate." The book presents him as more of a historian interested in rebel culture and the aspect of states' rights and self-determination without ever mentioning slavery. Except the Confederacy wrote slavery into their Constitution and talking about it without mentioning slavery is like talking about Christianity without mentioning Jesus. Slavery is fundamental to the Confederacy and it would never have existed without it.
There is a "Harpy-to-Be" sample character that does help expand the range of Brujah characters through its existence, though, so it's not all bad.
The problem with Clanbook: Brujah Revised is that it tried too hard to pull away from the idea of Brujah as leather-wearing biker punks that I ended up with no real idea what makes a Brujah or what being a Brujah is like other than rebelling against something. Being the eternal rebel sounded great when I was 19, but now it just seems childish. I want to know what you stand for. What do the Brujah want to accomplish? What do they want to build that's not Carthage 2.0? How to do this without making the whole Clan a stereotype? I don't know, but this book doesn't accomplish it and doesn't make me want to play a Brujah any more than I did before I picked it up.
May 27, 2022
I enjoyed the bits about the Second City & Carthage, but really there should have been wayyy more dedicated detail on the 'utopian Carthage' than a broad-strokes coverage. The book gave more coverage to Brujah's attitude towards the Tradition of Accounting! Overall a fairly average clanbook IMO.
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