Start to finish this is absolutely top quality. Content, art, layout and writting qulaity are all superb.

When I buy pre written adventures, it's because i don't trust myself to write a good story and good NPCs, and events I cannot have without a lot of thinking. A good chronicle book will save me a lot of time and thinking. In this book none of the stories gave me surprising or inspiring ideas. Exemple: the "monster in the field" story is just a poor Call of Cthulhu adventure without any surprise, there is even a baaad ritual at the end!! The other chronicles are just not inspiring or compelling either. Trails of Ash and Bone is a lot better, if you really want a good chronicle book for Vampire or the WOD.

Four really good adventures for Vampire! I didn't like at all the poor ideas of other recent chronicle books (Chicago Folios, Let the streets run red) but this one is stellar. Each adventure offer something new or surprising for your players. A weird cult, a necromantic murder investigation in Florence, a mysterious vampire who performs true or false miracles and a modern thriller. Lots of detailled NPCs, even ready-made characters to play immediatly!

I bought this just to leave this review. I was disappointed in this book, though not as bad as I thought it was.
V5 Hunter's Hunted (or the 2nd Inquisition) was a complete disappointment, though THIS book helps a bit.

You can re-build your old smite & cleave Avenger from the orange books. But they aren't as great as they used to be. So 3 stars, because I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would have been, though still plenty of room to improve.

Dangerous and mysterious cults - a Mephisto review

Forbidden Religions is a sourcebook that complements themes and topics introduced in Cults of the Blood Gods in Vampire V5. The book focuses on vampiric cults and, in this respect, contributes additional game material that adds to the Kindred groups from Cults of the Blood Gods. These cults are dealt with in different thematic chapters, such as paths to power, the dream of Golconda, or even the end of the world. As usual, the cults are presented with their ideology, traditions, and beliefs, as well as some new discipline powers. On the one hand, some groups tie in with old metaplot elements, like the Shepherds of Ur-Shulgi or the Withered Ones, who worship the mysterious Nictuku. Therefore, some clan secrets left out in the streamlined main clan descriptions make their way back through these cults. On the other hand, new cults are established with e.g. the Children of the Devourer or the Penny Dining Club. While most cults appear to be local, many of them have far-reaching goals.

Forbidden Religions brings quite interesting cults into play, some of which have extreme views and rituals. In addition, there are always several story hooks to incorporate each cult directly into the game.

The book also concludes with several loresheets and some advantages and disadvantages for characters that complement the game. However, the rating of the book does not come easily. Indeed, the presented cults are exciting and a great addition for Vampire. But on the other hand, the book primarily presents 15 more cults that add up to the already large arsenal from Cults of the Blood Gods, definitely providing more material than a single gaming group can use.

Ultimately, this means that gaming groups will use only a fraction of the book practically, although they may find various tailored themes for their campaign here. The loresheets are also a nice addition, bringing the Gehenna theme back into play as well. However, even they alone do not carry the book.

In some ways, Forbidden Religions feels like a collection of material that did not fit into Cult of the Blood Gods because the book would have been too long. Game masters who want to know all the details from the world of Vampire will get a good supplement with Forbidden Religions. But how much of it they can use in the game practically is questionable - especially if they already own the primary sourcebook Cult of the Blood Gods. So, you get a fascinating and well-written sourcebook here that seems limited in terms of its practical usability.

(Björn Lippold)

Cults of Blood and Death - a Mephisto review

With an ominous cover and a title that does not bode well, Cults of the Blood Gods, this thick sourcebook for Vampire V5 is dedicated to both vampiric cults and a clan that was once many: the Hecata.

After the introductory story surrounding a family dinner of the various families and clans that became the Hecata, the book first gives orientation to the focus of this sourcebook. One central theme of the book is the cults and religions of Kindred; the other is the Clan of Death, the Hecata, which evolved out of Giovanni, Harbingers of Skulls, Samedi and other necromancer clans. An adventure rounds out the book.

The chapter Rise of the Methuselah Cult highlights the current development of the rise of vampiric cults and religions with various documents, comments, conversations, etc. from the in-game perspective. Here you get a first impression of the multifaceted cults that are no longer hidden fringe phenomena but are more or less openly gaining importance within the Camarilla. The chapter Kindred Religions supports this introduction with background information and game material by presenting a wide range of influential cults in detail on more than ten pages each. Here you will find old acquaintances as well as new movements. For example, the Ashfinders appear as a new influencer-driven Bacchanalia cult. On the other hand, the Bahari, who worship Lilith, are old acquaintances, just like the Church of Caine – even if they were not previously rooted in the Camarilla. On almost 100 pages, cult after cult is presented – with background, origins, philosophies, selected characters, and sometimes new disciplinary forces. In doing so, the book – unlike the core sourcebooks – ties in strongly with the extensive background of Vampire. For example, the Nephilim base themselves on the Toreador Michael, the Mithraic Mysteries continue to focus on the former Prince of London, the Church of Caine rescues a worldview of the Sabbat over to the Camarilla, or the Church of Set provides the perspective that the new clan version of the Ministry lacks. While the approaches are often exciting, in my view, they are too much of a good thing due to the sheer mass: seven major and ten minor cults are definitely more than one or more chronicles need. Newcomers to the game are left too much alone here, in my view. While experienced players might be able to understand the details of terms like Bahari or Lilin, beginners lack the glossary here. Furthermore, concepts like the Abyss, which is introduced with the Cult of Shalim, may be as mysterious as Latin phrases that do not get a translation. Perhaps even more severe here is the fact that the complex concepts and ancient mysteries that Vampire V5 left behind in the rulebook creep back in. For example, the Church of Set brings back large parts of the former philosophies of the Followers of Set, but turns it into a religion that spreads across multiple clans. This approach of creating a complex web of backgrounds shows up in details that mention relationships with other game characters, you can only know them if you own the corresponding sourcebook.

Here, the Mortal Cults, which the book presents in a separate chapter, are more accessible. In these cults, whose core followers are humans, the reader will find a mix of typical cults that exploit their members, groups that superimpose a philosophy on their goals and methods, and some surprising variants. A cult that has developed a dangerous momentum of its own as an experiment of the Second Inquisition is among the original ideas.

If the sheer amount of presented cults is not enough for the inclined game master, a whole chapter is still dedicated to the approach how to compose own cults for the game round – including a name construction kit and description fragments, which only lack random tables...

Several chapters are also devoted to the second central theme of the book. The Cult of Death and Undeath, which is placed between the Cult chapters, focuses on the changes that the Giovanni and other Clans of Death have undergone: in the so-called Family Reunion, the Hecata have come into being, uniting Giovanni, Harbingers of Skull, Cappadocians, Samedi, Nagaraja, Lamia under the guidance of the Capuchin to form the last independent clan. Even if these reorganizations cost many Elders their lives and the once hostile clans have not yet found complete peace, a powerful player has emerged outside Camarilla and Sabbat. What is also special here is that the Elders of the Hecata are not affected by the Beckoning, which gives them another unique role.

The Hecata are also the focus of another chapter as a playable clan. The formerly disparate clans have been merged and unified (which is explained as a change resulting from the Family Reunion), so that, for example, the Samedi are no longer rotting corpses. Gamemasters may, however, allow discipline variations for these branches of the family and use loresheets to differentiate bloodlines. The Hecata share the Oblivion discipline with the Lasombra, but have a distinct approach, their own powers, and new ceremonies that replicate the earlier Necromancy powers.

The numerous lore sheets thematize the smaller families and bloodlines, such as the Dunsirn, Samedi, Nagaraja, Gorgons, but can also be used in part for the cults.

In the end, the Styx and Bones adventure lets the player characters participate in the reunification of the family and its pitfalls alongside the Hecata in Munich – and again picks up on old secrets in the form of a former signature character. Unfortunately, the adventure describes hard challenges for the players, but remains very vague about the solutions.

I have a hard time rating Cults of the Blood Gods. The book offers extremely extensive material, tying back into the complex background of times past while attempting to continue the simplifications of V5. It also introduces the Hecata, an essential clan that probably experienced gamers will not miss – and it does so in epic breadth with an additional 25 pages of background, bloodlines, and their own discipline (which they only formally share with the Lasombra). This comprehensiveness seems almost unfair compared to the other simplified clans like Ministry or Banu Haqim, which were much more streamlined. On the other hand, from my point of view, the book falls back into the earlier approach of overwhelming game masters with too much material. The cults overwhelm the reader with philosophies and their details, although many of the cults will probably never appear within a chronicle. The fact that three additional books (Forbidden Religions, Trails of Ash and Bone, Children of the Blood) published as part of the Kickstarter offer further cults, characters, and adventures makes the topic even more complex. In other words, the material is provided here could make Vampire all about the topic of cults.

Personally, I liked the tie-in to the old complex backgrounds of Vampire. However, the approach of making V5 more accessible to newcomers is wholly left behind here. Cults can add a facet to the intrigue within the cities, but the amount of material in the book almost seems to make this a dominant game theme. The Hecata approach is also ambivalent – the Family Reunion as a metaplot is an exciting theme and cleaning up the chaos of the death clans makes sense, yet the approach seems a bit forced and then comes up with surprises like the return of the Lamia. The fact that Necromancy is now the other side of the Oblivion discipline is done coherently. On the other hand, it may also blur the lines between Lasombra and Hecata (if players should not mix discipline powers from both clans, Oblivion could have been left as two separate disciplines). Unfortunately, for the complete picture of Oblivion, you also need to know Chicago by Night, which you will notice in the adventure at the latest, where Oblivion powers appear that are not found here.

Those who love a complex variant of Vampire, know the storylines that extend into the Dark Ages, and need the Hecata in the game will not be able to avoid Cult of the Blood Gods. However, beginner players risk being overwhelmed with a sourcebook on a particular topic that is 2/3 the length of the basic rulebook.

In the end, I enjoyed reading it despite some overly detailed aspects, though I, too, will only be able to actually use a fraction in my game.

(Björn Lippold)

Great lore and flavour, but all of it is laid out incredibly poorly.

As a Storyteller, I need setting supplements to be easy to parse and reference. If I look at a character entry, I should be able to quickly tell the basics - what other Kindred know about them, what is their current position, whether they're a Neonate/Ancilla/Elder or whatever, where they can be found etc.

I don't think you can actually use this book as reference material when running, but rather you need to read through it, and make your own notes. This largely defeats the purpose of buying a premade setting supplement.

Also, it's 2022 - why would you not include an easily downloadble version of the Chicago map included for VTT play?

The actual writing is solid, and the mechanical additions (e.g. the Spirit of the City) are largely very good. Probably still worth buying if you have your heart set on playing in Chicago, or if you just don't want to make your own city from scratch - as I write this review, there aren't really any other V5 alternatives to this book.

My copy, which was purchased back when it was Onyx Path Publishing that printed this and not Renegade Game Studios, came with some damage along the spine and rear cover of the book. The adventures inside themselves are pretty interesting and fleshed-out, but it's not my favorite book out of the line. It's also really weird to write a review for a book produced by one company and now distributed by another, but to be fair, this is at least one failure with V5 overall that I can't lay at Renegade's feet.

i honestly dont normally bother to post reviews but this is just SO disappointing a product.

Yes the page count is low and the price is high, but I could overlook those faults were the content not so vapid and uninspired. This book is simply... lazy. Given the evolution of the setting I was genuinely excited about this book as it seemed to me that a Sabbat verging somewhere between extremism (even for the Sabbat) and collapse was ripe for some amazing storytelling fodder. The content of the book comes nowhere even close to meeting this potential and reads with all the thought of a 6th grade book report hastily thrown together the night before the assignment was due based on fast forwarding through a B movie knock-off.

Dont waste your money. Any idea you come up with yourself is going to be better. Invest the money in some good coffee and snacks to fuel a few good hours to sketch out your own vision of the Sabbat.

Honestly, unless you're completely new to Vampire: the Masquerade, and only then if you're wanting to be a Storyteller, and only then if you really feel the urge to include the Sabbat directly, there's no reason that anyone should buy this book over any of the other previously published Vampire: The Masquerade Sabbat books instead and just operate under the knowledge that "Gehenna War is going on, lots of Sabbat went to that" because that's more or less what this book amounts to in around 140 pages. The PDF has a disturbingly high number of misspellings and grammatical errors, and while I realize this book isn't intended to present any of the antitribu as PCs, it does a piss-poor job of presenting any real SPCs involved with the sect whatsoever, save for in brief passing. If this is the quality that we can expect from Renegade, which I'd been leery of when they took over for Modiphius, maybe Paradox should just give the license to Onyx Path instead, because they've had the best handle on the material thus far in the whole line's run. This was a waste of cash and probably the last of the V5 titles I buy, and I've bought all the hardbacks. How disappointing.

The PDF doesn't even include the tables from the GM Screen. The description says: "A full color PDF 32-page Storyteller Source Book containing tools and advice on creating and running a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicles." It includes three tables 100 victims, 100 places and 50 omens (for what ever reason) The advice is very short and to be honest completely useless. The author gives advice to threaten the live of the characters to invoke horror. The other big advice is to use jump scares. Seriously the author gives the advice to use jump scares in a tabletop rpg. This was a description of everything included in the 10$ PDF, that you can't read in the preview. In my opinion this is a scam.

at first I was delighted my book arrived quickly and earlier then expected. only to discover pages with creases wrinkles and folds. I even found a page with a huge chunk ripped out of the page. Looked all over and cannot find a way to report the damages.

There are some things about Oblivion the developers should have paid closer attention to. For example the way Compel is written in V5. If a particular Hecata happens to be the wraith's fetter in order to compel said wraith they must threaten to destroy themselves.... All in all great sourcebook though!!!

While I think the price of the book is too high, I'm giving this book 1 star mainly because its a watermarked PDF. I've been trying to go through the V5 books and consolidate all the necessary information for my table into one file, but because this PDF is watermarked then I'm unable to copy and paste from the document unless I have the password. None of the other PDF's have a password restriction. The cost might be too high, but I enjoy the new powers my group gets to use at the table, the antagonist stat blocks and some of the lore. Unfortunately I'm going to have to commit alot of time to re-typing all the information I need for my table. You can absolutely avoid buying this book: paths can be recreated using convictions, no mechanically different bloodlines are added, storytellers are going to create the stat blocks they need anyway and lore can always be shifted based on the table.

I agree, this book is far better than some of the absolute nonsense published for V5 - looking at you Mr. Sabbat. I like the concept of the book and I love the various different cults detailed within.

However, even on a casual glance, there are some issues. Firstly the usual, poor editing, spelling or grammatical errors. Come on people, use a program and spend an afternoon correcting it all and it's done. Hardly expensive or difficult is it?

Secondly, and this is something that marrs a lot of OPP products. Art is bland. None of it is bad, I mean not to the level of the Exalted core, which contains some terrible choices, but nothing stands out as really memorable. I take it back, the poor sod roasting over an open fire was pretty memorable. But the test of Gaydos' work as usual is love or hate. Examples or bad or just terrible choices of art include for the purity - just looks too computerish, the orphans on p57 is horrible, the golden cic on p47 looks lifted from a poorly animated computer game, and the shepard of Ur-shulgi, well, what a wasted opportunity, when they could have shown the boy himself on a pilgrimage or one of the ancient ancilla he chose.

And so on to the next issue. Because of the beckoning, the elders have had their numbers thinned. Methuselahs are now gods when they wake up, because your average cainite in v5 is a thinblood at best or if your ST hasnt yanked the pages from the book in disgust, a daywalker. And so, on to the Shepards. Ur-Shulgi personally hand picked 12 top men for the job of bringing the naughty muslim Assamites back to the fold, and then laying smacks upon all vampirekind for being weakass morons instead of badass diabolarist, lords of the world, who worship his sire instead of any pathetic mortal false god. When you think about it, he has a point. Why would supreme beings, eternal beings, worship gods of the kine? That's for the weak, and the weak do not deserve the blood. I'm with Shulgi, he'd get my vote. He's a top lad, screw that traitor Al-Ashrad, he's not even a good mage, so ner.

I digress, my issue was this. curious, of Shulgi's choices of "ancilla of considerable age", I took to the wonders of the internet to look them up. Now an ancilla of considerable age... a few hundred years old then? Nah, fuck that noise, Elulu, well over 4,000. Naram-Sin, the same. Now both of these ages assume the cainite was embraced in the era the real historical figure lived. They're both ancient kings of Ur, just like the real shulgi, (though as they were kings before him in real life it all gets messy). So because of the beckoning, authors are now writing about ancient ancilla because they can't use the word "elder". Ancilla are typically 1-2 hundred years old, but these clowns are 20-40 times that and the world didn't shake when they rose up to do their master's bidding? DUMB. Pro-tip. If you are going to be kewl and use real world kings etc as throw away names for your ancilla, don't choose ones so old. Kindred beyond 300 years are ELDERS. Please hire writers that know VAMPIRE lore. I would love to know what took down two Ancients, but the opportunity is lost to us now.

Anyway, all that aside, I've given the book 3 stars. Better art, better art choices (why the terrible orphans or bloodless and not something cool for the Withered for example) and just better research/ writers actually knowing Vamp Lore would have raised this book up to at least a 4. It's a decent read, and will add a little spice to a campaign, but I for one look forward to the day Vampire is not under the direction of Dawkins and OPP hire some talented artists. It can be done, smaller companies manage it.