Where to get it: Drivethrurpg
First up, an acknowledgement. It takes a hell of a lot of courage to ask a stranger to publicly review your book. This is doubly true when the reviewer in question is a rambling jackass who often uses his reviews as an excuse to talk about metaphysics or international politics before weakly signing off with a "oh, yeah, I guess the book was pretty good too, or whatever."
Which is to say, I have no idea what the folks at Grey Gecko Games were hoping to get out of sending me a review copy of their book, but I hope they get it nonetheless.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it very much. Now, a part of that is on me. Hell, a BIG part of that is on me. I was woefully unqualified for the task in front of me. The most recent Vampire: the Masquerade book I've ever read was Gehenna, and that was more than 20 years ago. The copy of V20 I have on my shelf was a gift. I never got around to actually reading it.
As for 5th edition? Forget about it. I know all of jack and shit.
Which meant I spent a significant portion of my time with this book squinting at the page, asking myself, "is this new?"
Google was able to satisfactorily answer most of my questions, but it could never provide me with a necessary sense of emotional connection to the material. That put Clanbook: Toreador 5th Edition (Deluxe) (Sky Bradley and Henry Langdon) in the unenviable position of not just having to sell me on itself, but of having to sell me on 5th edition as a whole.
Now, I like flatter myself that I'm not a complete asshole. It's entirely unreasonable for me to hold my shortcomings against the book. Nonetheless, I can't pretend I have any sensible plan for how to avoid doing so. There was a lot I liked about this book, but also some stuff that I found a bit too gross or silly. What if I wind up praising the book entirely for things that were present in the core? Or perhaps worse, what if I fault it for things it couldn't avoid inheriting from the core?
In retrospect, I should probably have politely declined the opportunity to write this particular review. I made an open offer to review any rpg book anyone sent me, and that offer was sincere, but I made it because I wanted to help out indie rpg authors. I don't see how anyone is going to be helped by me writing a shitshow of a review.
On the other hand, shitshow reviews are my specialty, and Grey Gecko Games had to have known that when they scrolled through my list of games, thoroughly read my backlog (I'm assuming), saw Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition nowhere in either of those things, and then decided to ask me to do this anyway. I think the least I can do for them is to treat this version of Clanbook: Toreador purely as a book qua book. Anything less would be dishonoring their (reckless) bravery.
Which means I have to go back to what I said at the top of this review ("Unfortunately, I didn't like it very much.") and put that knee-jerk assessment under the microscope. What, exactly, did I mean by that, and does it still hold up now that I'm pretending that this is a supplement for Revised edition and all the mechanics I don't understand make perfect sense.
Note: this book contains a generous helping of new Discipline powers, Merits, and something called Loresheets, which I've gathered through context are a new way of presenting backgrounds. I have no way of knowing whether these are overpowered or dysfunctional or even just redundant with things the rules already say you can do. However, assuming that the mechanics are balanced, they add a lot of value to the book. And if they're not balanced, well, disruptive non-canon character widgets are what fan supplements are for. I particularly liked the Presence technique that (if I'm understanding the rules correctly) tainted a human target's blood with particular emotional contamination, to indirectly influence other vampires who drank from that human.
Just looking at things from the high concept level, this book has a lot of great ideas. It's clear that the authors understood the Toreador and knew which vibes to center. I didn't particularly care for those Toreador who were all "we find exquisite beauty in the unveiled countenance of suffering," but there's no denying that this was an element that was always present in the clan. The worst I can say here is that it is not noticeably better than previous Toreador books at putting these creeps into the dustbin of history, where they belong.
Focusing more on the positive, there are things in this book that they didn't have to do - sections which were never obligatory in any Vampire: the Masquerade clanbook, but which are especially useful for Toreador games. There's four pages worth of sample toxic boyfriends/girlfriends, with roleplaying hints presented as dating-sim-style affection adjustments. To increase Meredith's affection the player "must act with a decisive efficiency and a ruthless approach to dealing with problems." But if you're courting Julian, "failing to provide the constant validation they crave will quickly cause their affection to wane."
Normally, I don't approve of these fucked up relationship dynamics, but this is Vampire: the Masquerade we're talking about. If I'm playing a Toreador, I definitely want to ruin that goth twink's life.
And now, I have to talk about something uncomfortable . . . actually, let me swerve into a couple more things I liked (because the thing I'm going to say after this is really going to make me feel like an ass). There's a sample adventure, titled "Drown" where a melancholic painter, haunted by these terrible spirits of loneliness, "has become obsessed with painting in the dark, using some form of pigment few can even see."
Earlier, in the Bloodlines section, there's a group called, "Il Sangue di Sabella," an 800-year-old order of vampiric knights. They were founded when a devoted husband sought a cure for his wife's illness and attracted the obsession of a Toreador manipulator. Various interesting things happened, leading to a tragic ending where both were changed into vampires and Sabella, being pure of heart, refused to feed on human blood. Before she sealed herself away in a tomb, she made her husband swear an oath to always protect their daughter, and in all the centuries since, the vampire lineage descended from the husband has been secretly protecting the mortal descendants of his mortal family.
Clanbook: Toreador 5th edition (deluxe) can definitively claim its place as a true World of Darkness book, because it's out here casually delivering a flawless dark-romance-procedural tv pilot in the interest of inspiring exactly one character per campaign, maximum. He's a medieval knight-turned vampire, she's a cynical modern woman who doesn't believe in supernatural nonsense. He's supposed to protect her from the shadows, but in the course of rescuing her from ruffians, he accidentally reveals himself. While walking her home, she's reluctantly charmed by his old-fashioned, old-world manners and he finds himself impressed by her big city savoir faire. He was never supposed to get tangled up in her life, but he has roused her curiosity, and if they don't meet on purpose, there's no telling what she'll uncover in her stubborn investigations . . . And also they're both hot, obviously.
You ever read something so inspired that you immediately have to write fanfiction about it? I just did. Remember that at the end of the next paragraph.
Now for the thing I've been dreading since I read the first page of this book - discussing its fatal flaw. From the technical perspective of writing as a craft, Clanbook: Toreador 5th edition (deluxe) is . . . inconsistent. There are sections where the prose is really good - clear and confident, poetic yet restrained, with a voice that captures both the general horror of the world of darkness and the romantic horror of the Toreador, specifically. With just a little more polish, it could easily be professionally published and no one would bat an eye. And then there are other, more common, sections that . . . do not rise to that standard.
Oof. Ordinarily, I wouldn't say anything about this at all, but this is a product you might potentially pay $9.99 for. If it were consistently as good as its best parts, it would be worth it. The book I got, for free? If I weren't reviewing it, I probably would have given up halfway through.
It doesn't feel good to say that, but it's honestly how I feel. If this were a free fan supplement, I'd heap praises on its inventiveness, its generosity, and its obvious care for the source material. It has a ton of potential, and there's something wonderful about getting to experience that. However, as a paid product, it's not ready. It would really benefit from the attention of an editor. The writers are clearly capable of delivering a polished product, but right now, they could use just a little bit of extra help.
Ukss Contribution: Il Sangue di Sabella. It really was amazing work, no caveats or qualifications. I feel privileged to have read it.
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