Product Review

Miramoto Takeshi woke up, it was morning and he knew it would be a very long day. He felt creepy. Something inside told him he would die that day, but he didn’t want to. Too much unresolved business. The Akama gang had to pay first. He took a cab to Tokyo’s outskirts, where he was supposed to meet with the mysterious Dragon Paw. This man had promised him some help in his fight. Obviously, the Dragon wanted the Akamas dead too. When Takeshi arrived at the spot where he was supposed to meet this Dragon, the guy was nowhere to be seen. “Damn it!” Takeshi said to himself. He hated people who were late. The point of appointments was being there on time. Takeshi’s blood froze as he noticed the appearance of several Akama gangsters. Not a word was uttered. The bullets started to trace their way through the air in a million different directions. Takeshi took two of the Akamas with him before he finally fell, after taking six gun-shot wounds. It was over. The Akamas looked at the dying man, and carved the body with their knives, so as to totally desecrate it, Miramoto was starting to leave the World of Darkness and enter the Yomi Hells. The body was dumped in a gutter, and in time it was washed away into the sewers.

Two years, three months and twenty-eight days later, something crawled it's way up. Takeshi’s body was restored. He had been given a second chance, and in time, with training, he’d master his devilish new powers. When the Akamas and their leader, Dragon Paw were least expecting it, he’d come like a searing wind of vengeance…

Chow Yun-Fat. John Woo. Michelle Yeoh. Kitano Takeshi. Hong Kong. Japan. Violence. Guns. Death. These are the things I imagine when I think of Asian films. The book I’m about to review is heavily based on this genre, namely Asian action films. I would have also included Jackie Chan, but there is no laughter in the World of Darkness. Kindred of the East deals with the Vampires indigenous to the Far East. Those parasites that live off China, South-east Asia and Japan. Those vampires who are storming US’ West Coast. Who are they? Are they descended from Caine?

The Asian vampires, sometimes referred to as Cathayans by westerners, are a separate kind of licks. They don’t have bloodlines or clans. Each one is created on an individual basis. They are akin to the Wraith: the Oblivion creatures known as “Risen”. Eastern vampires, or Kuei-jin, as they call themselves, suffer a mortal death, and come back from the grave with tremendous hatred and bestial anger. The time-span from death to the rising can be shorter or longer. It depends on the strength and hatred of the soul. This Kuei-jin soul, just like one of the wraiths, is divided in Psyche and Shadow (P’o for Asian wraiths and also for these vampires).

As with the “Risen,” both have come to an “agreement” and fight their way back. In this case, however, there is also a little help from the karmic wheel. Once these creatures rise from their graves, they are trained by a mentor that finds them, and they are given many philosophies to choose from. These philosophies, called Dharmas, mark the Kuei-jin’s attitude towards unlife, and their status in their society. There are five basic Dharmas accepted in Kuei-jin society (others exist, and are detailed in the Kindred of the East Companion, but they’re considered heretical).

Kuei-jin choose among “The Howl of the Devil-Tiger,” which basically tells you to be a demon of cruelty and violence; “The Way of the Resplendent Crane,” which tells you to uphold justice and righteousness; “The Song of the Shadow,” a Dharma that brings you close to your ghost side and communicate with the dead; “The Path of a Thousand Whispers,” which tells you to try and change your personality and way of acting as often as possible; and finally, “The Dance of the Thrashing Dragon,”, that teaches the enjoyment of life and to be as close to it as you possibly can.

When the Kuei-jin’s spiritual growth advances, they also grow in power and ability. Unlike the Cainites, the Cathayans are partially accepted in Eastern society as a fact of life, like a tsunami or an earthquake. There are those who fight them, of course, but most the people just look the other way. Their history depicts them as far older than Cainites, and they also speak of the barbarian Zao-lat (Saulot, founder of the Salubri Clan) that learned their Dharmas but didn’t understand them, disappearing into the west after some time. Probably the whole idea of Golconda in some Cainites’ minds comes from the Kuei-jin’s Dharmas.

So, what does this book cover?

Kindred of the East details the Kuei-jin from top to bottom: their society, their physiology, their differences and similarities to the Western Kindred, their dealings with other supernaturals and, of course, their factions, in this case, philosophies called Dharmas that work in a similar way to the Paths of Enlightenment of the Cainites. It also details their unique disciplines and special powers, and has a short word on some of Asia’s countries.

The system is based on 2nd Edition Vampire rules, but the Kindred of the East Companion and the Vampire the Masquerade Storyteller’s Handbook Revised Edition offer the way to adapt these rules to 3rd Edition (a.k.a. Revised). So, if you played Vampire the Masquerade, you are familiar with this set of rules. There are also some slight changes, but they shouldn’t be too problematic. The only difficulty is that, mechanically, Kuei-jin’s are pretty more complex than Kindred. For example, instead of recording “Blood Points,” you have “Yin Chi” and “Yang Chi,” which are aspected to two different types of being. Yin tends to the passive, depressive and sad side, while Yang is active, euphoric and wild.

One thing I discarded when playing this game, but is actually a part of the system, is that your character’s mood varies when he/she loses this amount of Yin or that amount of Yang. That’s pretty messy, especially given some Disciplines that are fuelled only by one type of Chi. Then you have a million little things to juggle with, (they are very interesting, but when you or your Storyteller have my type of memory it becomes impossible) like the various “auspicious omens and symbols” of each Dharma. The whole Dharma advancement is very interesting, but, with some (we could say immature) players it can seem very arbitrary. Dharma advancement, on the contrary of the vile Amaranth, is very personal, but also very story-wise. Not only must your character uphold his/her Dharma, he/she must have experiences that bring enlightenment (such as some auspicious omens and symbols, noted at each Dharma). So, in my opinion, this is a game best left to a mature group (mature not as in “can stomach a lot of gore”, but as in “can accept that another character advances some stories before”).

As for the edition of the book, I must say some words. I loved the cover and its golden frame (unluckily it has the nasty habit of disappearing over time) and I loved a lot of the pictures. On the other hand, this is one of the very few RPG books I’ve ever read, where the editor got the wrong idea of having the background of the pages not plain but with images of what seems to be bamboo. This is very distracting for the poor reader, and very few people I’ve met (myself included) have made it to the end of the book. This loathsome tendency has spilled into the Kindred of the East Companion. I haven’t read any other Kindred of the East books, so I can’t say if they have this background image in the pages too. Also, I may be too pragmatic, but I didn’t appreciate the space consuming “Yin-Yang” symbol on the Character Sheet or the katana, where a “Combat section” is much more needed. After reading all of this, you might think I don’t like the game. In fact I love it (this sole book made me enter the Vampire the Masquerade realm, after being a rabid Werewolf fan for years). It’s just that I try to give honest criticism, and I want to make sure you read about the bad things as well as about the good. Yin and Yang as you may call it.

Now, I will leave you, but not alone, I will leave with you some words of wisdom from the great Confucius:

When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers.
I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them.

Reviewed by Matías Timm