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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat $24.99
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by adam a. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/23/2023 07:55:26

a huge improvement over the original Sabbat book released for V5



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review!
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Dimosthenis L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/30/2022 02:29:34

I wanted to have a few more options on powers, merits, flaws and predatory types. Especially predatory types cause there are mandatory. A little clarification for ritae as touchstones could help cause it's confusing a lot. It is a good book but I think it needs an update.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for your review! We've updated the book a few times since launch but it's in its final form atm. With 20 new Discipline Powers, 22 new Loresheets, 12 new Pack Types and 8 new predator types we really thought we were giving a lot of value for almost 150 pgs without getting too bloated with 'crunch'. iirc there are only about 10 predator types in the corebook, so we thought almost doubling the number to 18 would be a good metric - also technically Sabbat can take any predator type, though the 8 presented in the TBH:PtS are certainly best aligned with the Sabbat Humanity/'Path mechanics presented in the book. We'll keep putting out books to support TBH:PtS ( ike Our graves are empty and Lost in the Garden) so we hope those will address your desires and concerns! https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/408235/The-Black-Hand-Scenario-Set-1-BUNDLE
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Kat S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/15/2022 18:14:24

Another great sourcebook to assist me in my chronicle writing and planning out any one-shots. This is a must have book, the writing style is beautifully smooth and concise.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for your review! It means a lot to us !
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Barry F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/27/2022 03:58:33

The Black Hand playing the Sabbat is a fantastic sourcebook and an essential add-on to the main Sabbat book for players who wish to play (or include) the sword of Caine. It's well written by authors who clearly love the topic, the easy to use and informative layout is punctuated with stunning artwork which makes it a breeze to read. As a massive Sabbat fan this was just what I needed for V5. 100% recommend.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the excellent review! We tried our best to adhere to the high standards expected from official products. It was also my first time laying out and art directing a book on my own, so I'm glad it came out so well.
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Michael D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/26/2022 08:55:33

From a long time Sabbat player let me say that this book was exactly what I was hoping to see in a player's guide. First, the detail in the book is excellent, from text to art. Each part of life within the Sabbat is broken down in a digestable fashion. For newcomers playing Sabbat this is critical. I especially enjoyed the undersatnding the writers had when giving Storytellers multiple approaches for packs, but moreover, the concentration they place on the role of Pack Priest. Can the Sabbat feel and act as a bloody mob hungry to devour other Kindred and Kine on their way to Gehenna? Certainly. Are you forced to run them like that? Not that all. It's this nuance that is key to running the sect as the pack mentality and perspective would be far more likely for player groups. Sabbat vampires could be very calculating and smart, and willing to invest for long term gain in their struggle. That's exactly what this book reminds buyers of.

I also enjoyed the systematic differences in disciplines when it comes to the Sabbat. They should have developed their Kindred blood to do different things, even if only to show further separation from their Camarilla cousins and the knowledge built up by the Sabbat over centuries. The Loresheets within give a wide variety of choices, but again, clear credit to the writers to creating sheets that are Clan, Path, and Pack specific. The reminder of safety tools and how they would be best employed is another good opportunity to show that playing a monster and being one are two different things.

All told, a very well put together product for my investment of time and money.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the excellent review! Very high praise!
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Faraz Q. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/12/2022 18:41:40

A wonderful adaptation of playable Sabbat, which shows just how flexible the 'Humanity' system can be in V5 with the right Convictions and Touchstones. This basically sets a new gold standard on what quality level we should expect at that $20+ price point.

My only want still left unsatisfied from this is the lack of development of the Path of the Sun, which is one of the more interesting paths in V5 since we now have daywalking Thinbloods. Still, a great read, and if you're even slightly interested in running a Sabbat campaign, this is a must buy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the excellent review! Very high praise! I know a lot of people loved the Path of the Sun. I also love it and Thin-Bloods too. Here is a note on our design decision on Path of the Sun and I hope it also gives you future story ideas for your games. **Path of the Sun:** Since we built the book using V5’s *Sabbat: The Black Hand*, we felt that granting Path of the Sun mechanical benefits would go against its presentation as a non-Path. Knowing the original author’s intent with Path of the Sun, changing it into a “real path” seemed disrespectful of their work. We discuss how to play or adapt other Paths in a sidebar and Path of the Sun could be categorized as a sub-Path of Cathari or even Lilith if a ST allowed and the Seraphim Jack Dolores hints at this possibility in his flavor text.
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Jason H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/08/2022 06:40:16

I am long time fan of the Sabbat. I really like that it's a complement to the official V5 Sabbat book, not a replacement. The book focuses on the important stuff, a fully fleshed out character creation process, a bunch of Sabbat specific predator types, a good look at the main Paths of Enlightenment and some new discipline powers and a bunch of new loresheets, including 2 Revenant family ones. It also looks at different types of sabbat packs, ritae and some pointers on how to run Sabbat games.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the review!. You don't need the V5 Sabbat book to use The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat, but we wanted it to fit seamlessly into V5 and build upon the concepts in that book. Also thank you for mentioning the Character Creation guide! We wanted to make something quick and easy that also captured all of the options presented in V5 and The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat.
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Niall M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/03/2022 07:13:43

Picked this up as I was running Sabbat as some antagonists in my chronicle; this helped me take the NPCs to a whole other level but also provided some fantastic setting material, tools and V5 relevant hooks to let my players not only dip their toes in, but dive in to the Sword of Caine in the modern nights. The disciplines are excellent new powers for players to play with and the loresheets and relics have done mroe than enough to get my players excited for more.

Great job by all involved!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
I'm very glad it has something for every type of game and thanks for the review! Also I hope you show them Talbot's Chainsaw!
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Jose B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2022 18:55:00

Just picked this up being its written by one of the authors of the Renegade Sabbat book. Though Im still firmly on the camp that the Sabbat are preferred as antagonists in my chronicles, I like that this book portrays them with rules to make them playable; the section on adapting paths to morality and humanity is a real highlight of the book. Absolutely like the disciplines section and how it highlights the mind-set of the Sabbat. Overall beautiful layout, art is top notch and really great ideas for me as a storyteller to tell stories featuring the Sabbat, though the ideas I am formulating as more as one-shots or short-running campaigns.

I really cant say much more than what other reviewers have already said here. Definitely highly recommended for die-hard fans of VtM who want to introduce them as playable in V5.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
That's great! I'm glad it has something for every type of game. Thanks for the review!
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Oliver D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2022 16:27:47

This is one of the best Sabbat books I've read. Written by authors that have had major hands in official WoD and V5 products, this is a smartly written, fantastic supplement with many exciting tools and themes for players to explore. For those who are a fan of V5 or the Sect,both, or just felt that the official Sabbat book for V5 was missing something, I cannot recommend it enough.

The contents take the radically decentralized state of the Sect as presented in V5 and push it into exciting gameplay directions, mechanically and lorewise. Smartly riffing on domain, humanity, and Coterie mechanics in V5, as well as adding new mechanics such as Pack wide merits and loresheets, this book offers an accessible and dramatically different vampire experience than those of the Camarilla or the Anarchs. One that expores the deep spirituality, savagery, community, and perverse sense of hope that a Sect full of post-human vampires offers its members. No Sect makes it quite as fun or meaningful to play the devil as this book does.

For those who remember or have played the older editions or have aversions to playing a Sabbat there are many things here for you as well. Antitribu are given a great write up, there are MANY lore references to the Sabbat's history that are tailored to V5's world state, and the loresheets in particular are offered flexibly, not all of them require a character to be of the Sabbat. Furthermore the book also offers insight on how to play Paths even if a character is not of the Sabbat Sect.

This all being said, my chief criticism is that as a Thin-Blood fan it is a bummer that there is not a write up for the Path of the Sun, V5's most intriguing gift to the Sect. There is SO much potential for a future-oriented perspective that the Path could offer, one that takes the mysticism of Caine in a new direction and not having them chiefly present feels like a missed opportunity. That being said there are Loresheets for major Thin-Blood characters within the sect, which is nice to see.

All in all, I'm very happy this book was released, it was definitely, for me, the missing piece of the official V5 Sabbat book.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the excellent review! It is much appreciated. I know a lot of people loved the Path of the Sun. I also love it and Thin-Bloods too. Here is a note on our design decision on Path of the Sun and I hope it also gives you future story ideas for your games. **Path of the Sun:** Since we built the book using V5’s *Sabbat: The Black Hand*, we felt that granting Path of the Sun mechanical benefits would go against its presentation as a non-Path. Knowing the author’s intent with Path of the Sun, changing it into a “real path” seemed disrespectful of their work. We discuss how to play or adapt other Paths in a sidebar and Path of the Sun could be categorized as a sub-Path of Cathari or even Lilith if a ST allowed and the Seraphim Jack Dolores hints at this possibility in his flavor text.
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Johnathan F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2022 15:58:30

I loved this so much I can't even!

Where to start...

I had a feeling I was going to enjoy this title, because I like the Sabbat as a whole.

I didn't know I was going to absolutely LOVE this title as much as I did!!

This particular title was written by some of the same folks who worked on Sabbat: The Black Hand for the VtM 5th Edition line, an antagonist supplement that I absolutely loved for how they modernized the Sabbat and turned it into a lethal and highly maneuverable sect. I've always been a huge fan of the Sabbat, so they had a high bar to clear with me and knocked it absolutely out of the park on that one. The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat took everything I already fell in love with regarding the Sabbat's evolution in V5, and then amped it all the way up to 11 with making this amazing interpretation of my favorite sect into something playable, with intuitive rules for how Paths work for player characters, great suggestions and guides, expanded sections on packs, Sabbat culture as a whole, new Predator Types - the works! It also did something that I think we genuinely really needed, which was elaborate on the complicated relationship between the Black Hand and the Bahari faith as the two have been brought into an uneasy, oil-and-water mix that can make for volatile (and hella fulfilling!) roleplay and complex subjects to tackle in roleplay.

I absolutely love the introductions of new Ritae, the structure of the Sabbat, how Pack builds proper work - I genuinely couldn't be happier!

It also doesn't hurt at all that it's a very pretty book, and that the writers chose to make their text extremely approachable in a way that I think all modern RPG supplement books should strive for. I actually sat down and binged the entire book in one go, without feeling fatigued or like I had too much information to parse, because it was just so dang engrossing and readable!

I also really appreciate the inclusion of calibration mechanics, veils, the X card, etc. I'm of the mindset that calibration allows people to go more safely into the dark together because they know that they can press pause or avoid things that are needlessly harmful for their enjoyment, and that the inclusion of such mechanics often enables people to go harder and darker than they usually would because they feel much safer at the table. It was really great to see their use outlined in this supplement!

I highly recommend this book and it's going to make an amazing addition to my games moving forward! Pick it up!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
I'm so glad you loved it Johnathan! I hope you get a lot of use out of it in your future games!
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The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat
Publisher: White Wolf
by Ethan C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2022 13:14:03

Review Summary — A Messy, Brilliant Walk on the Wild Side: The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat presents the Sabbat as a leaderless, anarchic hoard of inhuman killers, united around cults of personality and in desperate search of a way to survive the coming apocalypse. The book is at its strongest when it leans into this vision, presenting a flavorful exploration of the sect that drips with plot hooks for players to take advantage of. At its weakest, the book is held back by poor editing, vague and questionable mechanics, and a small handful of design decisions that undercut the supplement's own themes.

If you're looking for a retread of Revised Edition's Guide to the Sabbat, if you're not a fan of what V5 did with the sect, or if you're primarily looking to mine the book for merits, mechanics, and discipline powers without making use of the fluff, there won't be much in this for you. If you liked Sabbat: the Black Hand and want to play as members of the most infamous sect known to vampirekind, if you're a fan of the Sabbat who wants to see a creative exploration of the sect that puts forward fresh ideas building on the themes V5 established, if you're the kind of person who likes slasher movies and splatterpunk and wants to bring that energy to your games, or if you read this Twitter thread by one of the book's authors and find yourself nodding along, then I strongly recommend this as the best fan supplement on the market that delivers that. Its authors, Rachel E. Judd, Khaldoun Khelil, and Saskia Liddick should be very proud of delivering one of the best fan supplements I've read.

Reviewer Background: I've been a fan of Vampire: the Masquerade since starting college (five long years and a lifetime ago), and the most fun I've always had has been playing the Sabbat. Whether it's been attending LARP events like Jackalope's excellent The Night in Question or playing in a chronicle where neonates abused by the Camarilla band together to drink the souls of the elders who crush them, the most fun I've had in Vampire: the Masquerade has always been when I've been playing the Sabbat.

In interest of full disclosure, I am working on my own Sabbat homebrew which may be released to the STV in the future. It's slow going and right now and its existence is a pure hypothetical, but it's technically a conflict of interest (if I ever finish the damn thing, anyways), so ethics demands I come clean.

What I Liked

  • The Gehenna Warriors: The Gehenna War, the apocalyptic struggle of the Sabbat to overthrow the founders of vampirekind, takes center stage in this book. Rather than a nebulous ideological goal in the future, every bit of lore and writing in the book serves as a reminder that the Sabbat are on a permanent war footing to strike out against the elders and destroy them. The mechanics reinforce this notion of the Sabbat as crusaders first and foremost: instead of Domain, measuring authority over a specific territory, the Sabbat use the background Arena to measure their pack's collective authority over a matter of importance to the Sword, whether it's infiltrating other sects or gathering information on prophecy. The book doesn't just pay lip service to the War, but encourages you to create chronicles centered around taking part in it.

  • A Many-Headed Beast: The Sabbat of The Black Hand are decentralized. Instead of a single Book of Nod, they follow "The Word," a corpus of fragments and lore passed on by word of mouth which includes that text and many others. Rather than the sect being lead from the top down by a Regent, the Black Throne of Caine is empty and charismatic warlords called Seraphim gather "Hosts," their ideologies primarily centering on how to best prosecute the Gehenna War. These Seraphim fulfill a role extremely similar to that of Cardinals in the V5 Sabbat antagonist guide, but have adopted a new name to distance themselves from the old orthodoxy. Players are encouraged to associate themselves with one of these Hosts in some form or another by way of various loresheets presenting advantages affiliated with a given Seraphim.

  • The Numinous Sabbat: The Sabbat are mystics in this book, much more in the vein of the old Montreal by Night presentation of the Sword as spiritual explorers into the depths of vampirekind rather than Mexico City by Night's portrayal of the sect as a rotten political edifice. Severed heads of vampiric saints give testimonies after their decapitation, treaties are established with other members of the supernatural world, and discipline powers can be used to bring a mortal's nightmares to life to serve as a shock trooper. The mystical relics from the 2nd edition player's guide makes a return, and special ritae called Numinous Ritae are used to invoke special effects and "pierce the armor of aeons" in order to overthrow the vampiric founders.

  • The Ashirra: While they receive only a paragraph's worth of detail, it's worth mentioning that the Ashirra - the ancestor-worshipping vampiric lineages of the Middle East - make an appearance, and the information provided is enough to offer plenty of plot hooks for a creative storyteller to make use of.

  • The Dark Mother: Lilith takaes center stage in this interpretation of the Sabbat, with the Path of Lilith receiving detail and the possibility of a "Dark Union" between Caine and Lilith being theologically espoused by certain Sabbat. This is an interesting plot hook, and one that I'd be very happy to explore.

  • House Goratrix: Goratrix is a Tremere antitribu elder and a former apprentice of the clan's founder - and the rebel faction associated with this elder makes its return. While V5 lore is contradicted, with the House being independent rather than nominally Camarilla-aligned, their write-up as independent saboteurs and Sabbat allies strikes a satisfying balance for anyone who is a fan of the old Tremere antitribu. Goratrix himself is referred to using she/her pronouns without explanation, which is disappointing: as a male former lover of Lord Tremere, Goratrix is one of the oldest and most powerful LGBTQ characters in the World of Darkness metaplot. The decision to retcon this without any mention of why is the only damper on the return of House Goratrix itself, which comes back in a form I am happy and satisfied with, and which aligns with the general thrust of V5's metaplot very well.

  • Safe Play: The Sabbat tackle mature themes, and the book provides safety tools to deal with them (The X Card and Lines and Veils systems are used) as well as examples of how to use them, discussions of troubling themes that could be addressed, and an example sheet of potential topics that could be examined. It doesn't ask players to shy away from the horror, but it does offer tools to address horrific themes in a mature way. It doesn't encourage shying away from the darkness that a game can explore, but rather provides guidance so that it can be done safely. This section is the best-written I've seen in this kind of supplement, useful for anyone looking at running a Sabbat game.

What I Disliked

  • Editing Mistakes: The book has several noticeable spelling mistakes: a Revenant family's name alternates between the spellings of "Bratovich" and "Bratovitch," the capitol of Ukraine is referred to by the outdated colonial spelling "Kiev" instead of "Kyiv" (a mistake I've been guilty of making when I stay up too late writing something), and the Sabbat once policed doctrine but no longer "policies" it. Non-matching text sizes in some loresheets creates a patchwork look. The large unicode black dot is used to represent merit dots rather than the small one, clashing with other Vampire texts' formatting. White text is sometimes overlayed on top of images in a fashion that's visually unpleasant to read. The term "Dominion" from older editions is introduced and used a few times, but never explained. None of this renders the text unusable or unreadable, but it does detract from the reading experience, especially for a book paid for at full price.

  • Mechanics Clashing With Themes: The mechanics tied to following a Path of Enlightenment build on Humanity, rather than replacing the Humanity trait, instead allowing for inhuman Convictions tethered to ritual touchstones in place of mortal companions. It also provides a While this isn't a problem in of itself, this does mean that practices of the Sabbat which automatically inflict stains under the Humanity system, such as diablerie and mass embraces, can quickly cause mechanical penalties to accumulate. This is especially apparent with diablerie, a Sabbat practice which is tied to the Humanity stat in V5: under these rules, it's harder for the sect that practices diablerie the most frequently to derive benefits from it. This is probably the worst mechanical sin of the book: a core practice of the Sabbat is made mechanically punishing.

  • Numinous Ritae Mechanics: The Numinous Ritae are very much hyped up, but their exciting fluff writes a check that the mechanics can't cash. They produce interesting effects in line with what would make good thaumaturgy rituals, but don't do justice to the buildup they receive.

  • Some Vague and Questionable Merits: A merit makes reference to invoking prophetic dreams, but provides no mechanics for doing so; a merit to be a candidate for the leader of the entire Sabbat and an heir to the throne of Caine does so by giving one dot of fame and one dot of status. One merit increases the static difficulty of rolls made by NPCs in a situation where the roll would almost always be made by the player or contested by the player. A merit can be used to raise up to "two or three" zombies per session. Relics are "rumored" to have abilities, with no mechanics provided if these abilities are indeed possessed. While disappointing merits are just that, vague mechanics mean that you'll need to do extra work if you want to implement these pieces of lore.

  • Clan Takes the Spotlight: While the V5 Sabbat spits on clan and exalts itself as antitribu. In Playing the Sabbat, this becomes less of a practice of the sect as a whole and more of an unrealized ideal; vampires are expected to renounce clan as a matter of course and in private make no bones about their lineage. While this contradiction is fine to explore, the fact that there are multiple Seraphim listed where the reader learns their clan but not their Path, as well as the fact that ten pages are spent establishing antitribu clan identities can make it feel like one of the more interesting pieces of Sabbat belief is being left by the wayside - as well as that page space is being wasted.

  • Path of the Sun: The Path of the Sun is one of the most interesting and well-received parts of the Sabbat in V5, a cult of sun-worshipping thin-bloods and vampiric flagellants seeking to atone for the sins of the Antediluvians, touching on the apocalyptic nature of thin-bloods as tied to Gehenna as well as the Sabbat's focus on transhumanism. This Path is specifically excluded from the mechanical benefits of the Paths of Enlightenment, making it mechanically identical to Humanity, and receives no merits or advantages. While it is a nascent Path in the fluff, this nascency is here extrapolated into it being a non-Path that receives negative mechanical support - you are able to use fewer of the book's options if you follow Path of the Sun. This is, of course, very disappointing.

In Conclusion — The Sword of Caine is Back: I have my fair share of nitpicks and was frustrated by a few small things, but I don't regret buying this book. If none of the flaws I mentioned are deal-breakers, then it's worth purchasing. It has exciting and interesting ideas; if I ever run a V5 Sabbat game I would very happily use large pieces of the lore and metaplot this book presents (though I personally would tweak the morality mechanics to reward diablerie more), and if I ever play in a V5 Sabbat game, I would be very happy to find out that the ST running the game was using this book. This usability is the metric by which any game book should ultimately be judged. Revenants, Paths of Enlightenment, the various Seraphim, the Ritae -- all the mechanical essentials of the Sabbat are provided, and they are mostly solid. The book's authors have provided a cohesive and exciting vision of what shape the Sabbat should take in V5 and delivered on all promises made. I recommend reading the preview as well as the other Twitter thread linked above to get an inkling of what you're in for and the vision behind the book, but if you like that, you'll like the rest of it.

The veil is pulled back, the Antediluvians are revealed, and the throats of the Elders are bared for the taking. The bloody ragnarok of vampirekind beckons. The war and its warriors may not be the same as before, but they're still deeply interesting and compelling. This book offers a clarion rallying call for all fans of the Black Hand — the Sabbat are back!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
This is an excellent review and really what an author is looking for as far as feedback, and I’m not just saying that because you gave us 4/5 stars. I list my responses to your points and dislikes below and please don’t take them as rebuttals, I really just want to point out where we were coming from as far as certain design and mechanical decisions. Also on a personal note, having the book compared to Montreal by Night by Lucien Soulban et al., is really the highest compliment you could have given me, regardless of stars. **Goratrix (she/they):** This was a creative decision that had to do with the ambiguous nature of Goratrix’s gender as presented in the Second Edition of the Sabbat and the First Edition Tremere Clanbook. We took a V5 approach with this book and that meant some lore, especially from Clan Novels and Dark Ages books, were reinterpreted or left in the shadows. In the case of Goratrix, some books presented them as a gay character who was deeply misogynistic and keen on pursuing powerful men or men they had power over. Goratrix is castrated in a ritual, eventually betrays their lovers/friends to the Sabbat, and is ultimately possessed by their old lover/master. This didn’t fit into our vision for the character and we didn’t want to delve into the weeds of those older books. In *The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat* their gender is not disclosed, but the name Goratrix does imply a character that prefers feminine presentation and the rest we leave to the Storyteller. Perhaps the old stories are crude propaganda concocted by the conservative and patriarchal Tremere? **Editing Mistakes:** All good points and we appreciate it. We’ll address these in the next update (which I just pushed thru, so below are implemented as of now). - Typos like Bratovich and policies - The use of Kiev was in a 1st person account and was meant to signify a point in the past when that usage was more common. Using the current spelling doesn’t take away from the text and will change to Kyiv. - Note what a Dominion is at first usage in the elJaguar Loresheet. - darken the 3 images that have overlaid text - decrease the merit dot font size. This was missing from the V5 templates - fix the loresheet font issue **Mechanics Clashing With Themes:** The loss of Humanity making Diablerie “less powerful” issue is an interesting point that we hit upon at first pass. Mechanically we wanted Diablerie to still be punishing, but Sabbat vampires have a lot of ways to ignore the downsides with Path Advantages, Ritae, and Loresheet. Also they’ll almost never go into wassail from Humanity loss if they’re on a Path. As for the benefit of Diablerie, both the Path of Caine and a few Loresheets can increase your die pool for gaining powers/exp when diablerizing. One Path of Caine Advantage even grants bonus exp to the entire Pack. We felt this would encourage players to Diablerize as much as they wanted, but wouldn’t unbalance the table if some players tried “gaming” the system with big Humanity/Diablerie die pools, while others avoided Diablerie for character or player reasons. It’s meant to inflict diminishing returns on Diablerie addicts. As their Humanity trait decreases, they get less out of each Diablerie and have to hunt for ever more potent blood. It also encourages them to follow a Seraphim that can show them the deeper secrets of Diablerie or learn the Path Advantages that can do the same. Lastly, it makes the War Party Ritae a very powerful lure / story element and doesn't make a Diablerie addict the only viable way to play a Sabbat vampire. **Numinous Ritae Mechanics:** A fair point. The NR are presented as unfinished Ritae. The Sabbat are still working on them so we wanted them to be unique but not game changing, and maybe a little dangerous or wonky. That these Ritae can be perfected and improved by a Pack of Sabbat players is a story thread we tried to push whenever they’re mentioned. We didn't want to build a system for what that would look like, so perfecting these Ritae means the ST and players will have to get creative and find solutions that meet their story's needs. **Some Vague and Questionable Merits:** A few merits are very story oriented, so this is a very fair point. The Throne of Caine Loresheet especially and that's somewhat intentional. If you want to be the next Regent, we figured that you'd have to be willing to spend 5 dots. Though being immune to Suspect and Shunned is a rather powerful political advantage, especially if combined with the ability to duck Monomacy with the 4 dot merit from the same Loresheet. The Zombie merit though does reference where the zombies stats are found and states they’re created by performing the Creation Rites on “recently-deceased corpses”. **Clan Takes the Spotlight:** I understand your point given the V5 Sabbat Books presentation of the Antitribu concept. We wanted to address the Antitribu issue head on and show that there was still room to play up your clan in a Sabbat game if you wished. Path is still the defining feature of a Sabbat vampire, but they're not insects devoid of individuality. Almost all of the Seraphim other than the Ouroboros Synod are identified by their Paths as Cathari, Albigensian, Unifiers, Reapers, Noddists, etc. In the case of Jack Dolores and Genevra Giovanni, it’s implied through the text but that mystery is part of their allure. **Path of the Sun:** Since we built the book using V5’s Sabbat: The Black Hand, we felt that granting Path of the Sun mechanical benefits would go against its presentation as a non-Path. Knowing the author’s intent with Path of the Sun, changing it into a “real path” seemed disrespectful of their work. We discuss how to play or adapt other Paths in a sidebar and Path of the Sun could be categorized as a sub-Path of Cathari or even Lilith if a ST allowed and the Seraphim Jack Dolores hints at this possibility in his flavor text.
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My initial response got garbled/stripped of it's formating so I'm reposting it below in hopes the formatting stays in place this time: This is an excellent review and really what an author is looking for as far as feedback, and I’m not just saying that because you gave us 4/5 stars. I list my responses to your points and dislikes below and please don’t take them as rebuttals, I really just want to point out where we were coming from as far as certain design and mechanical decisions. Also on a personal note, having the book compared to Montreal by Night by Lucien Soulban et al., is really the highest compliment you could have given me, regardless of stars. **Goratrix (she/they):** This was a creative decision that had to do with the ambiguous nature of Goratrix’s gender as presented in the Second Edition of the Sabbat and the First Edition Tremere Clanbook. We took a V5 approach with this book and that meant some lore, especially from Clan Novels and Dark Ages books, were reinterpreted or left in the shadows. In the case of Goratrix, some books presented them as a gay character who was deeply misogynistic and keen on pursuing powerful men or men they had power over. Goratrix is castrated in a ritual, eventually betrays their lovers/friends to the Sabbat, and is ultimately possessed by their old lover/master. This didn’t fit into our vision for the character and we didn’t want to delve into the weeds of those older books. In *The Black Hand: Playing the Sabbat* their gender is not disclosed, but the name Goratrix does imply a character that prefers feminine presentation and the rest we leave to the Storyteller. Perhaps the old stories are crude propaganda concocted by the conservative and patriarchal Tremere? **Editing Mistakes:** All good points and we appreciate it. We’ll address these in the next update (which I just pushed thru, so below are implemented as of now). - Typos like Bratovich and policies - The use of Kiev was in a 1st person account and was meant to signify a point in the past when that usage was more common. Using the current spelling doesn’t take away from the text and will change to Kyiv. - Note what a Dominion is at first usage in the elJaguar Loresheet. - darken the 3 images that have overlaid text - decrease the merit dot font size. This was missing from the V5 templates - fix the loresheet font issue **Mechanics Clashing With Themes:** The loss of Humanity making Diablerie “less powerful” issue is an interesting point that we hit upon at first pass. Mechanically we wanted Diablerie to still be punishing, but Sabbat vampires have a lot of ways to ignore the downsides with Path Advantages, Ritae, and Loresheet. Also they’ll almost never go into wassail from Humanity loss if they’re on a Path. As for the benefit of Diablerie, both the Path of Caine and a few Loresheets can increase your die pool for gaining powers/exp when diablerizing. One Path of Caine Advantage even grants bonus exp to the entire Pack. We felt this would encourage players to Diablerize as much as they wanted, but wouldn’t unbalance the table if some players tried “gaming” the system with big Humanity/Diablerie die pools, while others avoided Diablerie for character or player reasons. It’s meant to inflict diminishing returns on Diablerie addicts. As their Humanity trait decreases, they get less out of each Diablerie and have to hunt for ever more potent blood. It also encourages them to follow a Seraphim that can show them the deeper secrets of Diablerie or learn the Path Advantages that can do the same. Lastly, it makes the War Party Ritae a very powerful lure / story element and doesn't make a Diablerie addict the only viable way to play a Sabbat vampire. **Numinous Ritae Mechanics:** A fair point. The NR are presented as unfinished Ritae. The Sabbat are still working on them so we wanted them to be unique but not game changing, and maybe a little dangerous or wonky. That these Ritae can be perfected and improved by a Pack of Sabbat players is a story thread we tried to push whenever they’re mentioned. We didn't want to build a system for what that would look like, so perfecting these Ritae means the ST and players will have to get creative and find solutions that meet their story's needs. **Some Vague and Questionable Merits:** A few merits are very story oriented, so this is a very fair point. The Throne of Caine Loresheet especially and that's somewhat intentional. If you want to be the next Regent, we figured that you'd have to be willing to spend 5 dots. Though being immune to Suspect and Shunned is a rather powerful political advantage, especially if combined with the ability to duck Monomacy with the 4 dot merit from the same Loresheet. The Zombie merit though does reference where the zombies stats are found and states they’re created by performing the Creation Rites on “recently-deceased corpses”. **Clan Takes the Spotlight:** I understand your point given the V5 Sabbat Books presentation of the Antitribu concept. We wanted to address the Antitribu issue head on and show that there was still room to play up your clan in a Sabbat game if you wished. Path is still the defining feature of a Sabbat vampire, but they're not insects devoid of individuality. Almost all of the Seraphim other than the Ouroboros Synod are identified by their Paths as Cathari, Albigensian, Unifiers, Reapers, Noddists, etc. In the case of Jack Dolores and Genevra Giovanni, it’s implied through the text but that mystery is part of their allure. **Path of the Sun:** Since we built the book using V5’s Sabbat: The Black Hand, we felt that granting Path of the Sun mechanical benefits would go against its presentation as a non-Path. Knowing the author’s intent with Path of the Sun, changing it into a “real path” seemed disrespectful of their work. We discuss how to play or adapt other Paths in a sidebar and Path of the Sun could be categorized as a sub-Path of Cathari or even Lilith if a ST allowed and the Seraphim Jack Dolores hints at this possibility in his flavor text.
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