Trattasi di una espensione ufficiale WW per Vampiri, ambientata in oriete. Commenti unanimi sono che si tratti una cosa mooooolllllllto Power Play, hanno dei poteri devastanti.
I miei informatori mi hanno passato quanto segue:
KotE e' quasi un gioco a se piuttosto che un'espansione semplice al WoD....
sostanzialmente dovrebbe trattare la parte estremo orientale del mondo e se
non erro il termine kindred del titolo e' piuttosto forviante...
cerchero' di spiegarmi meglio....
con termine kindred solitamente si descrivono i cainiti... bhe', sembra che
piu' che cainiti i cugini orientali siano una sorta di demoni...
per quanto riguarda le preferenze... IMHO no problem... se risultano
bilanciati con noi poveri vampirelli indifesi sono tutti bene accetti...
e se posso dare un piccolo consiglio... Mummy: redemprion.... oltre alla
veste grafica decisamente "affascinante" potrebbero aggiungere un altro tocco esoterico a WoD.
Ad uso e consumo di chi e' interessato propongo la recensione che ne fa
www.rpg.net:
Are you Kindred? Are you going to the Far East? You're screwed.
All of that I learned in the flavor text prior prefacing the first chapter.
The undead of the East are not Kindred. They are not the lost childer of
Caine, but rather disgraced servants of the August Personage. They refer to
themselves collectively as "Kuei-jin", though regional terms persist.
(Kindred, by contrast, are called "Kin-jin", though many don't dignify them
so. Many prefer "gaijin", "gweilo" or whatever the local equivalent is.) The
differences don't stop there, and if I go into detail I'll spoil it for you.
With this in mind, I'll present an overview of the most glaring differences.
The first is that there is no Embrace. Every Kuei-jin truly earned his
undead damnation, and they know it. This also means that there is no
Generation stat, and there is no Clan or Bloodline either. Replacing these
(and more) is a Dharmic path of Enlightment, which is a queer hybrid of
Arete and Humanity. The second is that there is no Blood Pool. Instead,
Kuei-jin feed off Chi. Most of the time this means blood drinking, but it
can involve cannibalism or breath stealing. Third, Kuei-jin are actively
involved with the spirit world. They frequently deal with the Shadowlands
and the Umbra. This makes them players in the high-stakes game of "Seize the
Node!", as they value sites with high Chi (Quintessance), and gets them in
trouble with others who need those sites.
On top of this, they blame the Kindred for all of their problems. Oh yes,
they HATE the Kindred with a passion usually seen in Garou. They are one of
the few supernaturals in the World of Darkness who have the power and the
numbers to take on and beat the Kindred (Camarilla, Anarch and Sabbat alike)
at their own game. The preliminary stages are already underway, and the
designers did a great job in playing up this conflict. If they follow
through, it's be the best thing for Vampire since _Under a Blood Red Moon_.
Now, as I said above, the Kuei-jin are quite different from the Kindred. The
book does a meticulous job of telling you just what they are, then they tell
you how to play them. (If you're tired of angst-ridden whining, bitching and
moaning then you want to pick up this book.) They include all of the game
mechanics needed to play these facisnating vampires, ranging from the P'o
(Their Beast, which is much more like a wraith's Shadow.) to Chi imbalance
(It is now possible to have those half-vampire characters, due to
Yang-imbalanced vampires.) and a slew of new Disciplines that nicely compile
all of Asia's vampire myths into one book. There's more meat in this book
than in all of the Clanbooks combined, and it easily equals the Vampire
rulebook for dollar-to-data value.
For your $25 (US), you get a brilliant red hardcover rulebook with a lot of
great B&W artwork. The art serves the text loyally and competantly, which
makes understanding some of the esoteric concepts a lot easier. It includes
a one-page sheet on the final page, an index that's worthy of the name and
none of the infamous White Wolf posing and pretensiousness. These folks did
their homework. I'd recommend this book, and not just for World of Darkness
fans. Any game with a historical or contemporary setting in the Far East
would get something out of this, such as _Feng Shui_ or _Hong Kong Action
Theater_. As the first of White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus", it's an
auspicious omen. Let's hope the rest of the series exceeds this book's
quality.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
Ave,
Elwood
" Nunc per ludum, dorsum nudum, Fero tui sceleris "