Customer Reviews

Half-Damned: Dhampyr

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

 

 

The Kindred of the East companion roughly outlined Dhampyr for us and this book gives you all the details. They are the living children of Kuei jin(The asian vampires detailed in Kindred of the East, a sub-setting of Vampire: The Masquerade). They differ considerably from the same pronunciation different spelling Dhampir of the main Vampire: The Masquerade line, and probably should have been named something different, they don't get called Dhampyr in my game because I think using an old world European word for an old world Asian phenomenon is silly but others opinions may vary. Being the pretty rare children of animated blood sucking corpses and humans(usually the mother), they have a lot of advantages(outrageous luck, access to very low levels of the powers possessed by their inhuman parents, and a lifetime about four times that of a normal human), these of course come with some downsides(They have a wide mean/violent streak and are more prone to antisocial behavior, their luck sometimes helps them at the expense of others, they may become addicted to canabilism as a means of "cheaply" fueling their supernatural abilities, and they watch everyone else grow old and die well before they do.) The greatest problem, and the one that makes so viable for roleplaying, is that their undead parents view them as resources to be exploited at best, tools to be used and discarded at worst. They have almost no chance of living out a "normal" life because even if their bizzare luck didn't get them involved in dire situations, they would still find themselves mired in the politics of the undead. Not a book that is extremely important, it is still an entertaining and well written source of information on Half-Damned and made me want to play one or include them in my game. Four stars, 5 for being that good, minus one for just not being all that important.

The Kindred of the East line, unlike most of White Wolf's recent work, is still putting out a good percentage of interesting and useful supplements. Dhampyr is the next of those, detailing the mortal sons and daughters of the Kuei-jin. The book is a pretty nice combination of cultural information, spiffy powers, and the requisite Secret History.

I was happy that the authors avoided making this just a sort of Ghouls of the East. Instead of having only bits of Disciplines scrounged from their betters, the dhampyr have a powerful little tool of their own--joss, the incredible luck that surrounds them. Not that they're going to be winning one-on-one fights with the Cathayans, but it gives them a different flavor than the wholly pathetic Western blood-slaves.

The cultural stuff is nothing too surprising, but I didn't notice any big holes in it, either. Half-Damned also gives some history that the ancestors don't want leaked out, and of course character creation rules. The book is nothing to shake my view of the game, but it's a good supplement for an important subset of Kuei-jin society.

Okay, as I saw in another review, this is NOT for Vampire: the Masquerade. It's for Kindred of the East, a supplement for Vampire, but don't misunderstand, the Kuei-jin (what the Oriental "vampires" call themselves) aren't Cainites, they are a whole 'nother type of Immortals. And as a consqeuence their children (this isn't a new thing for them, like it is for the Cainites) are in a realm all their own. While they could be used to power-play, it also open a whole new realm of options for players. Half-Damned? More like Half Blessed.

Ok the V:tM book Time of the Thin Blood had Dhampirs in it. They are the living offspring of a 15th generation vampire and a mortal and had some unusual powers. They seemed interesting but there was barely enough information to use them as an NPC so I eagerly ordered this book off amazon when it first popped up back in March. I got it today and well I'm sending it back because it isn't for Vampire the Masquerade at all. It is for Kindred of the East. Apparently, Kindred of the East (which is a seperate game made by the same company) can have offspring with a mortal and are also called Dhampirs and well these are the Dhampirs that this book is about. I searched the book high and low to find something that purtains to V:tM and I didn't find a thing. It says it is a sourcebook for V:tM and KotE but it is for KotE all the way. Just thought I would tell you.