The Red Sign (Vampire: The Masquerade And Mage: The Ascension) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Book by Campbell, Brian, Hubbard, Conrad, Klunder, Jacob, Lewis, Carrie
Series: Vampire
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (October 20, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1588462455
ISBN-13: 978-1588462459
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 0.4 x 11 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,183,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #18 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > World of Darkness > Mage #73 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > World of Darkness > Vampire #184 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > World of Darkness > General
For those who'd rather not read in detail; To put it simply, you can learn almost as much by reading the back of this book as you can by reading the book itself. The abstract idea (a conspiratorial cooperation between mages and vampires to attempt to restore one of the latter to humanity) is an immensely interesting one to me, and I thought it would serve as an absolutely great leadup to the cataclysmic events of scenarios like those given in "Gehenna". However, redundancies bog this book down to a crawl. No single point is made only once; Had this been ensured, I think the book might be simply pamphlet-sized.Essentially, the entire volume seems more or less devoted to 1: Filling Vampire players in on the basics of how Mages work (and vice versa. Unneccessary if you've read even just each core book), and 2: Offering polite little suggestions about how to go about doing what's given on the back. A few concrete nifty ideas are given, such as systems for tomes and a few examples of such. However, these are nearly buried under layer upon layer of information that you had probably already decided the minute you started turning the plot over in your head. This is an important, earth-shaking event, the book reminds us incessantly. "No kidding. That's why I wanted to play it." we say. "You'll need to figure out whether you want to work this part out as pure roleplay, dice roll centered, or a combination of the two." Gee, really? In other words, we get to do it however we want. Why bother even writing that, then?All in all, the only really useful section was that which provided a huge armload of potential conspirators, operatives, and other NPCs. This was admittedly quite helpful, as it saves one the trouble of thinking out characters, and they're a fairly interesting selection as well. Designing large casts can be a pain for any ST, so this does help. However, do you really need to buy a book to give you an idea that's entirely available in summary on its back cover, and then page upon page of reminders that you can do it however you want, as well as lists of information that should be common sense to anyone with a grasp of the backstories of Mage and/or Vampire? Even a detailed, well-described list (not even a single explanation, just a list of possible ones) of possible forms the ritual of the Red Sign itself could take is witheld from the reader.As fun an idea as this is, save yourself some money. Take the time to write up your own NPCs and do it yourself. You probably don't need to be reminded to.
A lot of good material here, whether you want to use this as a solo adventure or a run-up to Gehenna.
The Red Sign (Vampire: the Masquerade and Mage: the Ascension) Dreamspeakers: Walkers in the Spirit World (Tradition Book Seven for Mage: The Ascension) The Orphan's Survival Guide (Mage: The Ascension) Technocracy: Progenitors (Mage - the Ascension) Mage The Free Council (Mage: the Awakening) Mage Seers of the Throne (Mage the Awakening) Mage Legacies the Ancient (Mage the Awakening) Mage Intruders Encounters With the Abyss (Mage the Awakening) Teach Your Baby to Sign, Revised and Updated 2nd Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Simple Sign Language for Babies and Toddlers - Includes 30 New Pages of Signs and Illustrations! Guide to the Camarilla (Vampire, the Masquerade) Kindred of the East (For Vampire, the Masquerade) *OP Clanbook Giovanni (Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks) Guide to the Sabbat: A Sourcebook for Vampire the Masquerade Storytellers Handbook to the Sabbat (Sourcebook for Vampire : the Masquerade) Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy (Vampire: The Masquerade) Clanbook: Ventrue, Revised Edition (Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks) The Hunters Hunted: The Battle is Joined (Vampire The Masquerade) The Vampire Next Door: True Story of the Vampire Rapist and Serial Killer The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published A Shade Of Vampire (Shade of Vampire; Book One)
