I very much enjoy the current edition of Vampire: the Masquerade. V5 has been a real hit with me and the groups with whom I have played. It’s been cool to watch the edition grow, not only with official releases, but with fan ones, too. I really liked a fan-made edition of Changeling that came out in the early days of V5, for example.
Recently, I was sent a copy of another interesting book. This is a Clanbook for the Gangrel, created by Sky Bradley and Henry Langdon. I was asked to take a look and to share any thoughts I might have. Well, let’s take a look…
Now, it’s no secret that Gangrel is far from being my favourite clan. Of the 13 clans, I have previously ranked these guys 11th. The thing is, there’s not a bad clan. They’re all utterly fascinating and eminently cool. Maybe this is a chance to educate myself, and perhaps change my mind about the bestial Clan Gangrel.
Let’s start with the surface-level details. The formatting of this book is spot-on. It looks like an official book. That’s something that’s quite basic, I suppose, but also something that’s easy to overlook. These things matter. The loresheets look particularly good:
Now, since we’re starting with design and visuals, you can see that the artwork in the extract above is utterly fantastic. You can see the same can definitely be said for the book cover, which is excellent. My understanding is that much of the artwork was produced by the authors. Excellent. We love that, here! There is a slight problem with consistency. None of the artwork in this book is bad. Some of it is definitely better than other bits, and there are some quite different styles at play here. I do appreciate the prevalence of traditional art, though. One of my few complaints with V5 is the presence of all of the slightly fetishy photo-art throughout the books. That stuff is not in here.
The book is broken into a number of different sections and is dense with content. Let’s start with the rules before we go onto the background. I enjoyed reading the Advantages, and I really like the idea of the Tension rules. That said, I’m going to focus on my favourite things in the book; namely the Discipline changes, Predator Types, and Loresheets.
Let’s dive into Disciplines. Starting with Animalism, I like the new powers that the authors have added to this existing discipline. Pack Mentality is a powerful level 1 utility power that will make you a popular member of the party, whilst Living Menagerie is a fun, interesting level 5 ability that gives very significant bonuses to the dice pool, as well as access to other creatures’ disciplines. Celerity, Fortitude, Presence, Potence, and others are all disciplines that have been similarly expanded, getting additional powers that theme them more closely to the Gangrel. The most iconic of the Gangrel’s disciplines is Protean. It’s very much the archetypical disciple of the Gangrel. This is the discipline that sees the user take on the animalistic traits for which the gangrel are well known. Predator’s Maw gives you bestial fangs, Skin Taker lets you take on the shape of an animal, Draught of Change empowers your blood to share your power with others, and Self-Made Throne transforms you into a swarm of lesser creatures. Fantastic stuff!
The new predator types are a lot of fun as well, with two really jumping out at me. The Cannibal is a brutal one, requiring not just the blood of fellow Kindred, but their flesh as as well. This is a brutal, difficult way to play, but it is very much in character. The other is a bit lighter in tone. The Civilisation Destroyer rewards players for harming the infrastructure of modern human society. Killing a vagrant isn’t enough here, and you’ll find yourself having to kill someone who is important in some way in the routine lives of others. The local doctor who would treat patients, the bus driver who would get people to work, or the railway engineer who would maintain those all-important lines. I just think there’s some fun storytelling to be done here, and a good opportunity for some chaos theory on the part of the Storyteller. Oh, also, Suliformes are gross; delightfully so.
Loresheets are something that I really like about V5, and it’s great to see so many in this book. There are 21 of them here, with 8 being Bloodlines that are kept in a different section of the book. The Casimir loresheet immediately jumped out at me as being really cool. I like these iconic character loresheets, like the Carna loresheet from the core rulebook. Casimir being a former member Sabbat who has essentially struck out on his own is something really appealing. The Feral Child loresheet is also really interesting, with a Gangrel sire shaping you into the perfect expression of what a Gangrel should be. It’s dark. It’s compelling. It’s fantastic. There’s something delightfully romantic about the loresheet, The World-Anew Movement. It speaks against the industrial revolution and its impact on Kindred society, and it has the stated goal of returning the world to a pre-industrial state. Is this possible? No. There’s something noble about a lost cause though, isn’t there? The Wolves of Wall Street also put a really cool, corporate spin on the Gangrel. It’s really compelling and offers a cool, well-justified alternative way to play the clan. All in all, the loresheets are one of the best bits of this book. I love them!
Looking at the background laid out in this book, I appreciate the internal consistency of it. The character of Casimir is introduced in the Loresheets and then further developed in the lore. Pop-quotes in the text also make reference to him, or at least to his followers. This is well thought-through. The writing is quite good, and there are some interesting takes on the clan. I like that, in addition to the usual Gangrel tropes, the book emphasises that the clan is no stranger to politics and political manoeuvres. Something really positive throughout this book is that it actively avoids painting the Gangrel as one-note. This is something that White Wolf didn’t always manage, and it maybe part of why the clan was never among my favourites. I like how the clan is presented in this book. My only slight complain is that whilst the lore is broad and well-written, I’d like to see it make up a slightly bigger proportion of the book. These are story-driven games, and I like to see stories take up more room against the rules content. Again, this isn’t much of a gripe, as I’m essentially just asking for more!
I really enjoyed this book. That’s particularly high praise given that the Gangrel are far from one of my favourite clans. I like how the clan is presented in this book, though. It explicitly lays out that they can engage well in politics, suggests and supports some cool ways to play, and introduces compelling characters that can inform a plotline. I am really interested in running a Wolf of Wall Street in a future campaign. I think that would be fantastic. Couple it with the Civilisation Destroyer or Suliforme predator type, and there’s some real potential here. I can’t help but recommend this book, and say that I am very much looking forward to seeing the next title from Sky Bradley and Henry Langdon; Clanbook Toreador.
You can click here to visit the catalog page on DriveThruRPG.
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