Customer Reviews

Vampire Gehenna (2004)

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

 

 

This book is the final book for Vampire: the Masquerade and covers Gehenna, the end of the world for all intents and purposes. A novel new concept, this book provides multiple scenarios which you can tailor to your needs based on your own needs and likes. No canon, no specifics. Just suggestions, and its a VERY cool concept.

The book starts out with a great piece of fiction using the characters from Cairo by Night, and then gives some general info about Gehenna with stuff like the Red Star, the shattering of the Black Hand and how the sects react. The whereabouts of the Antedilluvians are given (though some are rather disappointing, others are what we've expected all along), though these can be changed to suit your needs. Then the book gives a whole chapter on general setting info for Gehenna. The prophecies and Antedilluvians are examined, including others beyond the 13 "known" ones (though these may or may not just be rumors). Also info on the Inconnu, Jyhad and last daughters of eve, some news clippings from around the world showing how the mortal world is affected and the system for the withering, a new weakness afflicting Cainites in the Final Nights. Info on other supernaturals is largely avoided, but it is mentioned that depending on how it ends it could be a huge spectacle to a quiet bang unnoticed by the mortal world.

The next chapters detail four possible scenarios (which you can adapt for your own use), which I have no intentions of spoiling for you. The first, Wormwood, seems to be the most popular and has God himself taking out his wrath on all vampires. Fair is Foul, probably my favorite, involves Lilith taking her revenge on Caine and his childer amidst the struggles of the Antedilluvians. The next scenario, Nightshade, involves the awakening of the Antedilluvians and may be the "canon" ending to the metaplot from what I've heard on forums. And the final scenario, the Crucible of God, shows what happens when vampires openly take control of human society. And it has a REALLY funny ending if you like ironic justice....

The book closes out with some more stuff, including a Storyteller's guide to running games set in the end times, Stats and profiles for some of the characters presented (which were nice, but some are already presented elsewhere and I guess the space could have been better used in other ways), and finally a last look at Caine himself. Overall, this is a very useful and innovative book. Definately worth running any one of the scenarios presented. The book largely accepts the Caine mythos and Abrahamic religious beliefs (sorry for all those Setites, Laibon, Bahari, Einherjar, etc) BUT makes a big point on how you can change it if you choose. In fact, one of the scenarios includes the Lilith Mythos as I mentioned, which I think is cool. Still, the game is based of the Biblical kinslayer, and it makes sense that the Jewish/Christian/Muslim view of God holds in the game. Overall, just get the book. You and your players will enjoy it.

For those who don't know, this book is the final publication for White Wolf's flagship RPG "Vampire: The Masquerade". "Gehenna" ties together all the last loose ends of the plotline of the previous publications, tying together all the ancient myths and disparate legends regarding Gehenna, the vampiric apocalypse, in which (in short) Caine, father of all vampires, and his Grandchilder will rise up to consume the world. The depth is substancially greater than this, of course, but I would hate to spoil the depths of plot available.

Needless to say, it's difficult to custom-tailor such a story to a group, particularly one with different tastes, roles, histories and religious outlooks (the latter of which can seriously flavor any V:tM storyline). White Wolf has worked this through, providing several possible scenarios for Gehenna, all incorporating different elements of, and angles on, in-game history and metaplot. Possibilities are provided from divine and ultimate redemption in a "secret apocalypse" all the way up to the true and total end of the world. Though somewhat messily organized, even the most rigid of writers would have a difficult time getting a lasso around all this material, and Ari Marmell does a decent job of it. Though not all the plots will be to everyone's taste, and some might not enjoy any of them, all have at least -some- ideas that any Storyteller would be able to wring a great deal of personal horror out of. The amount of metaplot and canon knowledge required was surprisingly minimal, as I haven't shelled out an overwhelming amount of cash on peripheral materials. Whether you want the end to be a battered but optimistic upbeat or the orgiastic, carniverous, final irony of the human and Cainite races, this book should have something for you. Though at times messy, at others a bit tepid, and in most cases a bit unfortunately predictable, I still feel it would have been difficult to do a much better job. With a little Storyteller ingenuity, the end to all things could also become the story to end all stories.

Vampire: the Masquerade was released in 1991 shaking the roleplaying community upside down with it's inovative take on horror gaming and storytelling in general. By putting more emphasis on character and story, and less on die rolling and rules systems WW forever changed the standard of the industry by pressing foward with mature concepts and shifting the resposibility of telling a story beyond that of just the dungeon master into the hands of all those involved; gamemasters and players both. For those well versed in Vampire; there is no further need for an introduction. This past August White Wolf Game Studio shocked the industry and fans alike by announcing that they would be ending the World of Darkness with their "Time of Judgment" campaign. Each WoD gameline has been working towards an individual end for 13 years now. WW has decided to pay up on this build up. The ToJ was recieved with mixed feelings. Fans were either happy or outraged by this turn of events; either way the Time of Judgment was in motion and that was the bottom line. The WoD would come to an end with several sourcebooks[rather, toolkits] to aid the Storyteller and players in telling their own tales of the end. This title, Gehenna, is the final book to be released for the game Vampire: the Masquerade. Gehenna is split up into a few different sections discussing various ways to bring your own Vampire chronicle to an end. There are a number of sections that can be described as "toolkits" for tailoring your own interpretation of Gehenna. There are also four stories[adventures if you will] which detail four possible endings for the gameline. Nothing is written in stone nor is anything claiming itself as canon[the dreaded word metaplot comes to mind; not really any of that here]Simply said Gehenna is a satisfying book that offers numerous possibilities for running a Gehenna themed game. As a fan for the last 11 years; I am happy with the end result; I am confident that many fans will also feel the same.

This book's been 13 years in the making. From the first days of Vampire: the Masquerade, Gehenna has loomed over the gaming tables of storytellers, players and characters alike. The fabled apocalypse for the Vampires of the World of Darkness has come to collect.

The book contains "Toolkit" information for Storytellers that would like to tailor their Vampire chronicles for their own type of Gehenna as well as including four scenarios; each one detailing another way of approaching the elements that Gehenna will bring upon the characters.

The overall "Time of Judgment" campaign that White Wolf has brought upon the industry is not for everyone. Bringing the entire WoD to an end was recieved with emotions by fans. For this fan. The end couldn't be any sweeter.

Vampire The Masquerade was White Wolf's baby. It was their first game that started an amazing foray in to "The World of Darkness." Like all of White Wolf's storylines, information of the end has been present since the beginning. Whte Wolf is one of the few companies that followed their word. They said it would end and now it is. Vampire Gehenna is a great book for tying together some of the various plots in Vampire. I have played Vampire, but it is not my specialty. However, this book does what it was intended to do while giving you several options on how to end the story. The book consists of some informative chapters and four scenarios that can be used to bring the beginning to an end. It is well written and very interesting. If you are a White Wolf fan, this book is a must. I plan on buying all of the final books for the World of Darkness storylines.

Vampire is an amazing game, and Gehenna is an amazing book to end it's run with. The authors do not stick with just one, canonical way to end the series, they give you four different options and let you decide which one best suits your campaign. The four scenarios are all very different and fit very different campaign styles and groups. I can't see anyone buying this book and not finding something they could use in it. It's great.

For those less familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness "1.0" settings, let me give you a hint as to why people either love or hate with undying loathing this whole Time of Judgement Series: Gehenna, Apocalypse, Ascention, and Time of Judgement:

For years now the guys at White Wolf have been doling out what they coined "metaplot" book by book (and in fact, in whole series--such as Exalted, which was about nothing so much as the far distant legendary fantasy genesis of the World of Darkness that overlays our modern age.) Piece by painstaking piece the developers would lay down a clue here, a hint there. There were apparently three primal forces in the universe, the Weaver, the Wyld, and the Wyrm--organization and stasis, insane fecundity, and entropic decay respectively. Somehow these powers fell out of alignment. Most scholars blame humanity. Suddenly stasis (the Weaver) was indominable, mankind and science were logging their discoveries in libraries that would last unchanging for generations. Cities were made from concrete and steel. Disease and old age were pushed further and further back. Without the turnover caused by destruction (the Wyrm) there was no outlet for new creative bursts (the Wyld). The fae creatures of the Wyld had to leave creation entirely or be consumed by order into dry, static, unmagical forms. The Wyrm went crazy, needing to undo all the carved in stone order of the world, mutating people into engines of destruction called formori. Werewolves, long those responsible for shepherding the three forces were now set against stagnant humanity on one side and the Wyrm's corruptive minions on the other--but were dying. Mages likewise were fighting their own war, Traditions kicking against the bars of stasis to allow more magic into the world, while the ancient and fascist Technocracy who have promoted order to "protect" and control the average unmagical mortal fought against them.

Set against this were two other stories, much odder and in contrast to the others--Demon and Vampire. Both of these stories suggest a creation centered universe without the three primal powers, but rather a judeo-christian god who created everything, and the Demons and Vampires respectively who rebelled for their own reasons and were cursed. Their games were the crawling back from the brink. They were beautiful tragedies of creatures hated by goodness, but trying to salvage what good was in them.

Every book revealed a sliver more of these great storylines, and what's more, moved ever closer to revealing who was right and who was mistaken--what secret lore had the greatest fragments of truth to them and what the final true picture of the world was to be.

A wonderful story that I was proud to be part of and longed desparately to see fulfilled.

Then tragedy insued. The developers chickened out. After all the interesting, compelling material they'd produced, they feared their audience would be furious if they were to finally know what had really been going on the whole time...so they copped out. They came out with a different book for each supernatural race, taking the end from their point of view. Not only that but the end was a choose your own adventure. No answers were given, just suggestions and gentle prods in certain directions. I was furious. So were others. It'd be like watching your favorite TV show and halfway through the last season they give alternate endings based on whatever you wanted to think happened. It was a mess. The integrity of the setting fell apart.

Then to make things worse, it turns out the whole thing was a ploy to create a new World of Darkness 2.0, with dumbed down mechanics and a mishmash of the same old ideas, but with books that look awfully like D20 books in their layout.

So that's why some people (like me) hate this whole line of books so much. The people who like them largely are the people who never much liked all the metaplot or didn't see the point of all the extra stuff getting in the way of their games.

So you make the call. It's not a 1-star because it's awful. It's a 1-star because it disappointed me, which in some ways may in fact be much worse.

I'd been running my players through my own Gehenna for years now. Imagine games that go on for 6+ hr's and it's counter move vs. counter move.

Imagine my surprise when I heard WW was releasing a Gehenna book. I'll be honest...I thought the book would lack depth, and be callow in it's "deconstruction" of the Final Night's of Cain's children.

So, I bought the book. I wasn't surprised by what I read. Many of the scenario's in the book are disappointing, and a few I found our right offensive because only Biblical lore was accounted for in the end of the world...such as the Wormwood scenario.

What of Kindred that existed outside the Christian timeline, when "God" didn't exist, but Gods' did? I found much of the book insulting and shallow when compared to ANY (especially the WtA book, which was amazing!) of the TOJ books...

In other words, don't buy this pile of steaming crap...