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Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks
Clanbook: Toreador Revised
Cold Passions Inflame
More than just a simple clan of artists, the Toreador helped found the Camarilla and have extensive dealings with the mortal world. More than any other Kindred, they feel the damnation of the Embrace, as it extinguishes the flame of creativity for which they long. But what passions inspire the Toreador after they receive the Embrace?
The Undead Find Their Muse
As part of the revised lineup of clanbooks, Toreador takes one of the classic sourcebooks for the game and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies a re-examination of earlier concepts, allowing you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each 32 pages longer than the first-edition series) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
More than just a simple clan of artists, the Toreador helped found the Camarilla and have extensive dealings with the mortal world. More than any other Kindred, they feel the damnation of the Embrace, as it extinguishes the flame of creativity for which they long. But what passions inspire the Toreador after they receive the Embrace?
The Undead Find Their Muse
As part of the revised lineup of clanbooks, Toreador takes one of the classic sourcebooks for the game and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies a re-examination of earlier concepts, allowing you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each 32 pages longer than the first-edition series) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
104 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2018
It's hard to write much that's interesting about the Toreador, because Anne Rice already did so pretty effectively.
I kid. But the Toreador were never a Clan that saw much play in the tabletop games I ran and participated in because of that stigma. Who wanted to play a sensitive artiste who listened to the music of the night and sighed over moonflowers? No one I played with, that was for sure. It wasn't until I joined a LARP that I really saw the appeal of the Toreador. Superpowers are great in the tabletop when everything is in the mind, but in a LARP, when powers are all verbal description but you can dress up pretty/flashily/elegantly/sexily [choose as appropriate] and show everyone present that you are the nobility of the night, well.
I played a barefoot Gangrel in ripped shirt and jeans, though. I was still not the target audience.
The history section of Clanbook: Toreador Revised treads the same information again but has a few interesting tidbits. The first half is framed as a dialogue between a newly-awakened elder and the Noddist who discovered her, and the elder reveals that Toreador is a modern appellation based on the old name, "The Clan of the Bull-Dancers," which the descendants of Ishtar, as the Antediluvian is called here, have been known as since Minoan times. She claims a pair of lovers was Embraced by Caine before the three known members of the Second Generation, that the First City was named "Ubar" originally, and that the Toreador are the only Clan who weren't cursed by Caine. How much any of this is true is seriously in question, but more Clanbooks need these kind of perspectives. Ancient history is more interesting in a game when there's room for discovery.
The second half of the history comes up to the modern nights, and while it's from an African vampire whose ancestors lived in Sungbo's Eredo, I didn't feel like that much was done with this after the storyteller talked about the slave trade and colonialism. There was interesting opening fiction out of it, but that's about it.
The main part of the book lays out the behavior of Clan Toreador and while it doesn't break stereotypes, it does a lot to expand them beyond the emo poseurs that the popular opinion of the Clan was when I was paying attention back in the 90s. The Toreador are the closest Clan to the mortal world, we are told, because they stay abreast of trends in the art world and that requires them to associate with mortals. Vampires lose some vital spark, and while they can keep creating, often they can't expand into new areas. That requires a constant give-and-take with mortal artists to prevent their art from going completely stale and insular, and some Toreador even maintain mortal families to keep the connection strong. While this creates a large number of small Masquerade breaches, it means the Toreador are well-placed to preserve the Masquerade as well. Knowing mortal society lets them influence it.
The stereotypes of other Clans are interesting, broken down as they are where the Clan falls on the division between mortality and death. The two most interesting stereotypes were the Gangrel, who are cast as dangerously close to death by how much leeway they give to their beasts, and the the Followers of Set, who are entirely on the mortal side. After all, all those vices they peddle--sex, drugs, temptation--are vices of mortality. Elder vampires are almost never interested in any of those things. And sure, the Setites have their own ways of offering temptation to elder vampires, but it's hard to build a business on that.
There's several notes about how it's easier for Toreador to manipulate than to be in command, and so they don't actually like formal positions like Prince and Keeper of Elysium. The administrative tasks and power-grasping take away from time that could be used to preserve art or artists (another philosophical divide that grips the Clan), and dealing too much with vampire politics is time way from the mortal world.
Sadly, as has been the trend of Clanbooks until now, there's no real counter-perspective of the antitribu provided. The Toreador here are so focused on mortal relationships, upholding the Masquerade, and being pillars of the Camarilla that I would have really preferred an alternate perspective that I know already exists in the World of Darkness.
There's no surprises here, but it's a good take on a Clan that looks pretty boring on the surface.
I kid. But the Toreador were never a Clan that saw much play in the tabletop games I ran and participated in because of that stigma. Who wanted to play a sensitive artiste who listened to the music of the night and sighed over moonflowers? No one I played with, that was for sure. It wasn't until I joined a LARP that I really saw the appeal of the Toreador. Superpowers are great in the tabletop when everything is in the mind, but in a LARP, when powers are all verbal description but you can dress up pretty/flashily/elegantly/sexily [choose as appropriate] and show everyone present that you are the nobility of the night, well.
I played a barefoot Gangrel in ripped shirt and jeans, though. I was still not the target audience.
The history section of Clanbook: Toreador Revised treads the same information again but has a few interesting tidbits. The first half is framed as a dialogue between a newly-awakened elder and the Noddist who discovered her, and the elder reveals that Toreador is a modern appellation based on the old name, "The Clan of the Bull-Dancers," which the descendants of Ishtar, as the Antediluvian is called here, have been known as since Minoan times. She claims a pair of lovers was Embraced by Caine before the three known members of the Second Generation, that the First City was named "Ubar" originally, and that the Toreador are the only Clan who weren't cursed by Caine. How much any of this is true is seriously in question, but more Clanbooks need these kind of perspectives. Ancient history is more interesting in a game when there's room for discovery.
The second half of the history comes up to the modern nights, and while it's from an African vampire whose ancestors lived in Sungbo's Eredo, I didn't feel like that much was done with this after the storyteller talked about the slave trade and colonialism. There was interesting opening fiction out of it, but that's about it.
The main part of the book lays out the behavior of Clan Toreador and while it doesn't break stereotypes, it does a lot to expand them beyond the emo poseurs that the popular opinion of the Clan was when I was paying attention back in the 90s. The Toreador are the closest Clan to the mortal world, we are told, because they stay abreast of trends in the art world and that requires them to associate with mortals. Vampires lose some vital spark, and while they can keep creating, often they can't expand into new areas. That requires a constant give-and-take with mortal artists to prevent their art from going completely stale and insular, and some Toreador even maintain mortal families to keep the connection strong. While this creates a large number of small Masquerade breaches, it means the Toreador are well-placed to preserve the Masquerade as well. Knowing mortal society lets them influence it.
The stereotypes of other Clans are interesting, broken down as they are where the Clan falls on the division between mortality and death. The two most interesting stereotypes were the Gangrel, who are cast as dangerously close to death by how much leeway they give to their beasts, and the the Followers of Set, who are entirely on the mortal side. After all, all those vices they peddle--sex, drugs, temptation--are vices of mortality. Elder vampires are almost never interested in any of those things. And sure, the Setites have their own ways of offering temptation to elder vampires, but it's hard to build a business on that.
There's several notes about how it's easier for Toreador to manipulate than to be in command, and so they don't actually like formal positions like Prince and Keeper of Elysium. The administrative tasks and power-grasping take away from time that could be used to preserve art or artists (another philosophical divide that grips the Clan), and dealing too much with vampire politics is time way from the mortal world.
Sadly, as has been the trend of Clanbooks until now, there's no real counter-perspective of the antitribu provided. The Toreador here are so focused on mortal relationships, upholding the Masquerade, and being pillars of the Camarilla that I would have really preferred an alternate perspective that I know already exists in the World of Darkness.
There's no surprises here, but it's a good take on a Clan that looks pretty boring on the surface.
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November 5, 2023"The Beast is our thwarted death, lashing out by seeking the destruction of everything worthwhile. What, then, can we say of this strange urge that holds us transfixed by the most common of sights? What is it that shows us the beauty that was hidden before? ...
Every moment we spend engaged in the stuff of life — making something that lasts, learning something unknown, opening ourselves to the touch of another’s art — makes our human element stronger."
I found this to be pretty insightful not just about the toreador but life in general, suprisingly deep.
It really comes together half way through, 'aesthetic unveiled '. Where it talks about the embrace and the internal logic of toreador culture. One of the stronger clan novels.
"It can be difficult, when faced with such pleasures, to remember that staying in touch with humanity means staying in touch with its pains as well as its pleasures."
Every moment we spend engaged in the stuff of life — making something that lasts, learning something unknown, opening ourselves to the touch of another’s art — makes our human element stronger."
I found this to be pretty insightful not just about the toreador but life in general, suprisingly deep.
It really comes together half way through, 'aesthetic unveiled '. Where it talks about the embrace and the internal logic of toreador culture. One of the stronger clan novels.
"It can be difficult, when faced with such pleasures, to remember that staying in touch with humanity means staying in touch with its pains as well as its pleasures."
August 30, 2020
This book could be named Wayne.
It's that boring.
Some of the characters in the back are pretty interesting, but the rest of the book? Bland, uninspired and uninspiring.
In short: everything Toreador are viewed as and should not be.
And the history chapter, which I tend to enjoy as parts of the world-building, was a chore to slog through, as it tried to "vague up" everything to the point that I asked myself, why even delve into a "history" if absolutely everything is hearsay and contradicts previous books.
It's that boring.
Some of the characters in the back are pretty interesting, but the rest of the book? Bland, uninspired and uninspiring.
In short: everything Toreador are viewed as and should not be.
And the history chapter, which I tend to enjoy as parts of the world-building, was a chore to slog through, as it tried to "vague up" everything to the point that I asked myself, why even delve into a "history" if absolutely everything is hearsay and contradicts previous books.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews