The book still does maintain mystery about powerful figures like Caine (of course) or the Regent of the Sabbat (no more information about her or her predecessor either, apparently) but they have some really well detailed Sabbat cardinals as well as the current crop of Camarilla justicars and their archons. Some of these are characters who have been mentioned in past source books but never detailed. (The Gangrel Xaviar, for example, or Cardinal Strathcona.) There is also an independents section with examples of the Inconnu monitors for various cities. They assume that you can fiddle with these as needed and provide a basic formula for calculating the typical level of abilities for ancient vampires so that storytellers can make their own.

My main nit to pick with this book is the fact that the selection of the characters listed seems arbitrary. Some are favorites culled existing source books and fleshed out or updated here. Others seem to have been made up just for this book, perhaps because there are future plans for them in or because they would seem to make interesting story hooks or because they are examples of a bloodline or character type. There seems to be a disproportionate number of Assamites- even a Methusalah whose stats are supposed to be mere suggestions of what it can do. (I guess they have plans....) Omissions are curious, too. Theo Bell is here, for example, (he's an archon) but Jan Pieterzoon is not. There are Setites but not Hesha. Or how about this- three of the four figures on the cover are Anatole, Lucita and Beckett. Their stats are NOT GIVEN in the book (? ) but those for Lucita's friend Fatima are given (she's an Assamite, right?) And these are just examples.

So go figure. But don't worry. You'll find lots of uses for what's here.


A Warning   June 10, 2000
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is an excellent resource, but, as stated in the book itself, if your players characters are powerful veterans, these archtypes don't have a chance against a PC with a Shotgun and Level 7 Celerity, but if you're players are mature, which they should be if they've played long enough to achieve Level 7 Anything, its wonderful to roleplay politics within the World of Darkness and this book helps a lot with the key NPC's.


Great for Storytellers   August 5, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

The way that Vampire: The Masquerade works gives a storyteller a lot of freedom to create. But sometimes it is good to have the help of a few pre-created characters too, especially lower gen ones. A very helpful section of this book gives guidelines for designing low-gen characters which I wished I'd had sooner. The book is divided into three sections: Sabbat, Camarilla, and Independent important/powerful figures. But it could really use an index so you can find clans or roles more easily. I'm intergrating into our game this summer in fact.


INVALUABLE Source Material for Storytellers!   May 7, 1999
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a WONDERFUL book for storytellers who need powerful NPC's or antagonists! When combined with the [nearly impossible to find] "Who's Who Among Vampires: Children of the Inquisition," you can get information about the REAL power in Kindred society.

(This is a bad book for players to have, though.)