Customer Reviews

Guide to the Camarilla (Vampire, the Masquerade)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, if you were wondering where the high level disciplines were when you read Vampire:TM Revised ed., here they are. Old ones updated, and some you have not seen before. There is highly detailed information on how the Camarilla's deadly politics work, information on how to conduct a conclave, updates on all of the member clans, and a few surprises as well! New merits and flaws as well as some beautiful artwork make this a must have for the serious storyteller who needs the most up to date info, or just enjoys reading White Wolf's excellent books.

This is an excellent book as a resource for most Vampire storytellers. It's not as essential as the Guide to the Sabbat in that the Camarilla is covered almost entirely in the main rulebook. Still, it's information is valuable. I think that the reason I rated this book a 4 is that it focuses too much on information you can find elsewhere. For any hardcore player or storyteller, this is information we already have. Entire sections of the book are devoted to advanced Discipline powers, almost all of which come out of the Dark Ages Companion (in fact, this is stated in the book). There is also a noticable amount of filler, things which are included that could be done without (like examples for each Discipline level). More still is devoted to the Caitiff, a group of vampires overexplained already, as well as the Lasombra antitribu and the Gargoyles, neither of which have any new information. Why do I still rate it a 4? If you buy this book on Amazon.com, you're not overpaying for it... It *does* have some useful information, and it does contain good expansions on existing systems. And despite my ravings above, the book does manage to present some new information. What new information? The cecession of the Gangrel from the Camarilla. Still, I would have been happier if it also included the Assamites who joined the Camarilla because this wasn't published long before that "happened" and it still lists the Assamites in the negative light that the Revised Camarilla viewed them in. All in all, this book is worth buying if you like having a lot of information. Otherwise, you might just stick to the core rulebook.

To any fan of White Wolf products and avid player of Vampire, Guide to the Camerilla is essential for any GM. Saying one can run a Cammerilla campaign without it like saying you can get an understanding of Les Misérables by reading cliffnotes. I hope that thought can highlight the fact that understanding and appreciation are mutually exclusive concepts.

With the final nights close at hand this book highlights the signifigance of the Gangrels departure from the Camerilla and the problems that have arisen since Xaviar of Clan Gangrel left the Inner Council. In fact, in GttC all of the clans are signifigantly fleshed out to improve any chronicle.

Other additions include tips on playing Independants with the Camerilla (confusing until now), new paths and rituals for the Tremere, advanced Disciplines for elders and methusulas, and suggestions on how to run a Conclave. Everything from boons to warfare is covered within. The artwork is on par with some of White Wolf's best and might even lend itself to your imagination.

I reccomend this book to all GMs running Camarilla campaigns. If you use the ideas within you will make the Final Nights quite memorable for your players.

It has been my experience over the past several years of buying and reading White Wolf's various World of Darkness books, that the core rulebooks get most of the talent that White Wolf possesses on its staff. They have by far the best artwork, and more importantly, best editing. They are finely balanced and intricate, as well as always thought-provoking. They are written as stand alones, which brings me to the White Wolf supplement books like Guide to the Camarilla. The supplement books from White Wolf are usually not even close to the quality standard of the core books. This is true in the case of Guide to the Camarilla. This book is essentially a catch-all for much of the miscellaneous material from earlier editions of Vampire the Masquerade that failed to make it into the Revised core rulebook. I do not find that the material in this Guide adds much of anything to the Camarilla material in the core book, which is very well presented. In fact, it undoes much of what the Revised rules tried to do to re-make the game as a more streamlined and elegant roleplayer. More is not necessarily better, and that maxim is certainly true of this supplement.

I liked Guide to the Sabbat, the core Vampire book covers the Camarilla well enough but it leaves the Sabbat out their. So I've always liked that. Suprisingly though, Guide to the Camarilla was good also. Even though alot about these guys is covered they at first seemed weak when compared to the Sabbat but then you see how these guys get stuff done.

The Guide to the Camarilla is like the polar opposite of Guide to the Sabbat. The opening fictions in both books synch up and you wonder who really wins. The first chapter goes into more detail about the Camarilla traditions and laws. The next chapters cover other important information like the Gangrel leaving the Camarilla. It also details the Caitiff, Gargoyles(which are Vampires) and Lasombra Antitribu.

The rules chapter is very long. It details not only Vampire powers but has a long list of merits and flaws, abilities and backgrounds. It is very useful, especially considering it gives quite a few thaumaturgy paths.

The book ends with Character templates and a few bits on the Anarchs, Elders and Innocu, but not much on the Innocu.

All in all, the book is well worth the price for anyone who wants to run a strong Camarilla game but I'd still recommend Guide to the Sabbat first.

Great book for storytellers and players alike. If you are starting a new cronical this book gives great info on building citys from top to bottom. And for the players there are all the advanced disciplines and two page spreads on the lasombra antis, gargoyles, and Catiff.

"Trivial" would be the best way to sum up the Guide to the Camarilla. While White Wolf employs some skillful writers and paints some lavishly detailed portraits of the World of Darkness and its inhabitants, as seems to be the case with a good number of its supplement books, the Guide to the Camarilla does little more than shuffle around things that were already said. Unlike the Guide to the Sabbat (an organization left much more mysterious in the core rulebook), the Guide to the Camarilla takes everything already said about the Camarilla in the main book and repeats it. It seems as though entire sections of pages are devoted to reiterating the exact same point. Were some of the redundancy cut down, this would amount to little more than a handbook. The added clans seem completely inexplicable, as well as equally redundant (ANOTHER Appearance 0 clan? Ohh, and ANOTHER one? Boy, the Nosferatu must be jealous by now). Only the references to the Salubri and the gargoyles are at all new or relevant, and the latter is somewhat ill explained. The only conceivable useful portions cover Camarilla politics, which again have already been gone over fairly effectively in the main book, and the points that the Guide expands upon could already be inferred by anyone with a healthy amount of common sense.
All in all, this guide is like the excess stuffing that manages to make your pillow lumpy and uncomfortably instead of additionally soft. At worst, the whole piece smacks of wallet-gouging.

The Guide to the Camarilla provides many information on the sect and the kindred as a whole. Facts about the clans, the structure, the ways to fight the Sabbat, Anarchs and other foes. It contains high level disciplines, Merits&Flaws, rules for conclaves and more. However, various stuff is well known from other publications or nothing new to common sense. If you skip those long-winded parts, you still get many useful information. I wonder about one detail: if nobody knows the Inner Circle, how do they spread their decisions?

This book is one of the best supplements for V:tM, and maybe one of the best supplements so far published by White Wolf. It is loaded with facts, explains a lot of previously foggy questions about the Camarilla. Definitely well worth the money.

Most Vampire players are aligned with the Camarilla. This book helps the storyteller and players understand their world a whole lot better.