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Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks
Clanbook: Ventrue Revised
Noblesse Oblige
Capitalists, aristocrats, crusaders and criminals: the Ventrue have assumed the prestigious but demanding role of leaders. Forever in the line of fire, they have sacrificed their own comfort for the good of all Kindred. Or is this all an empty ruse that excuses their excess and greed? the proud history and black secrets of the clan reveal the truth.
Clanbook: Ventrue includes:
* The history and practice of the Kindred's most august clan
* Hints and tips for making each Ventrue a unique and influential member of vampiric society
* New Discipline powers, scandals and luminaries of the Clan of Leadership
Capitalists, aristocrats, crusaders and criminals: the Ventrue have assumed the prestigious but demanding role of leaders. Forever in the line of fire, they have sacrificed their own comfort for the good of all Kindred. Or is this all an empty ruse that excuses their excess and greed? the proud history and black secrets of the clan reveal the truth.
Clanbook: Ventrue includes:
* The history and practice of the Kindred's most august clan
* Hints and tips for making each Ventrue a unique and influential member of vampiric society
* New Discipline powers, scandals and luminaries of the Clan of Leadership
104 pages, Paperback
First published August 16, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 6, 2016
The Ventrue. The Clan that most embodies the stereotype of vampire manipulator. Pillars of the Camarilla, they lurk in the shadows of mortal institutions, accumulating temporal power and using their influence with the police, the media, and city hall to uphold the Masquerade. Their Disciplines give them power over the minds and emotions of mortals, making them peerless masters of control. There is no one who embodies what it means to be a vampire so much as the Ventrue.
And you already know all this because it's in the corebook, so there's no point in reading Clanbook: Ventrue Revised.
The point of a Clanbook should be to further expand the Clan beyond the range of simple stereotypes provided in the main Vampire book while also providing further information on the "base" members of the Clan that led to that stereotype, and this book utterly fails at the first task. Did you know that Ventrue are traditionalist? That they spend time after their Embrace making a bunch of money? That they seek to control mortal institutions? You did? Huh. Because from the thousands of words spent on those characteristics here, you'd think they were new concepts.
Also, if White Wolf wants players to think of vampires as being individuals first, sect members second, and Clan members third, then there need to be fewer Clans who have elaborate formal hierarchies. There's a good portion of this book devoted to explaining that Ventrue always provide aid to each other when asked, how they have a series of intra-Clan ranks and tend to use those when around each other, or how they form groups and assign offices when they're together in a city. It's that last one that gets me, because there just aren't that many vampires. It makes sense to have a "peerage" and a half-dozen offices when you're in a group of a couple dozen, but going by the 1-to-100,000 rule, there are only a few cities where that's true. In the average city with maybe 30 vampires, there's going to be probably 5-6 Ventrue, if that, so there's just not enough in one place to have an elaborate Clan hierarchy. It's the same problem that afflicts the Tremere, though on a smaller scale.
There is a slightly interesting section about the Ventrue's obsession with the concept of dignitas, a concept borrowed from the Romans. However, if you were to guess that the Ventrue accumulate dignitas by having a level head in the face of adversity, gaining power in mortal institutions, and being of service to the Clan, you would be right. Let's move on.
There were two parts I did like. The first is that the Ventrue Clan weakness doesn't develop until after the Embrace, and comes about when the Ventrue has the first taste of blood that they consider truly exquisite. Forever after, that kind of blood forms their feeding restriction--unless it becomes utterly unobtainable, in which case it's possible for the vampire to change to a new blood type. The book gives the example of a Ventrue who could only feed from Carthaginians and who went into torpor after the Punic Wars, but awoke centuries later with a new limitation on his blood-drinking.
The second is the note that Ventrue prefer not to Embrace people who are already in positions of temporal power, partially because it's harder to hide from mortals, but mostly because those who are used to giving commands do not make good neonates. It's hard to go from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, and especially when in the new pyramid no one ever dies, no one ever retires, and the only way to get promoted is over the body of your old boss.
I know that the Ventrue are the epitome of what the Camarilla are about, but I think this book would have been hugely enhanced by talking about the Ventrue antitribu. I have a friend who loved them ever since he read about them in the Guide to the Sabbat. Undead knights, ancient warriors who look with scorn on the modern Ventrue as merchants who have forgotten the nobility of their Clan. That would have been a good counterpoint to the perspective in most of the book, provided another option for people to take their Ventrue characters down rather than buying a selection of matching business suits, and frankly been a lot more interesting for me to read. But it's only a few sentences and it's not expanded on at all.
I've always thought the Ventrue were kind of boring and never wanted to play one, and this book didn't do anything to change my opinion.
And you already know all this because it's in the corebook, so there's no point in reading Clanbook: Ventrue Revised.
The point of a Clanbook should be to further expand the Clan beyond the range of simple stereotypes provided in the main Vampire book while also providing further information on the "base" members of the Clan that led to that stereotype, and this book utterly fails at the first task. Did you know that Ventrue are traditionalist? That they spend time after their Embrace making a bunch of money? That they seek to control mortal institutions? You did? Huh. Because from the thousands of words spent on those characteristics here, you'd think they were new concepts.
Also, if White Wolf wants players to think of vampires as being individuals first, sect members second, and Clan members third, then there need to be fewer Clans who have elaborate formal hierarchies. There's a good portion of this book devoted to explaining that Ventrue always provide aid to each other when asked, how they have a series of intra-Clan ranks and tend to use those when around each other, or how they form groups and assign offices when they're together in a city. It's that last one that gets me, because there just aren't that many vampires. It makes sense to have a "peerage" and a half-dozen offices when you're in a group of a couple dozen, but going by the 1-to-100,000 rule, there are only a few cities where that's true. In the average city with maybe 30 vampires, there's going to be probably 5-6 Ventrue, if that, so there's just not enough in one place to have an elaborate Clan hierarchy. It's the same problem that afflicts the Tremere, though on a smaller scale.
There is a slightly interesting section about the Ventrue's obsession with the concept of dignitas, a concept borrowed from the Romans. However, if you were to guess that the Ventrue accumulate dignitas by having a level head in the face of adversity, gaining power in mortal institutions, and being of service to the Clan, you would be right. Let's move on.
There were two parts I did like. The first is that the Ventrue Clan weakness doesn't develop until after the Embrace, and comes about when the Ventrue has the first taste of blood that they consider truly exquisite. Forever after, that kind of blood forms their feeding restriction--unless it becomes utterly unobtainable, in which case it's possible for the vampire to change to a new blood type. The book gives the example of a Ventrue who could only feed from Carthaginians and who went into torpor after the Punic Wars, but awoke centuries later with a new limitation on his blood-drinking.
The second is the note that Ventrue prefer not to Embrace people who are already in positions of temporal power, partially because it's harder to hide from mortals, but mostly because those who are used to giving commands do not make good neonates. It's hard to go from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, and especially when in the new pyramid no one ever dies, no one ever retires, and the only way to get promoted is over the body of your old boss.
I know that the Ventrue are the epitome of what the Camarilla are about, but I think this book would have been hugely enhanced by talking about the Ventrue antitribu. I have a friend who loved them ever since he read about them in the Guide to the Sabbat. Undead knights, ancient warriors who look with scorn on the modern Ventrue as merchants who have forgotten the nobility of their Clan. That would have been a good counterpoint to the perspective in most of the book, provided another option for people to take their Ventrue characters down rather than buying a selection of matching business suits, and frankly been a lot more interesting for me to read. But it's only a few sentences and it's not expanded on at all.
I've always thought the Ventrue were kind of boring and never wanted to play one, and this book didn't do anything to change my opinion.
May 21, 2019
Intro is fantastic. Really sets the scene and wished if there were other similar stories in the book.
The detail given in the book is very good but can at times be overwhelming. A more reason to go through the book again.
I found the artwork for the character concepts at the end of the book a bit lacking but not enoughto drop down the 5th star.
A must read for all Ventrue lovers.
The detail given in the book is very good but can at times be overwhelming. A more reason to go through the book again.
I found the artwork for the character concepts at the end of the book a bit lacking but not enoughto drop down the 5th star.
A must read for all Ventrue lovers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews