| 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 |
