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Message: <blockquote data-quote="andrew_kenrick" data-source="post: 2011328" data-attributes="member: 6870">Lords of the Night: Vampires is the first book from Bottled Imp Games and the first in their Darkness Rising series. Written by Stuart Renton, Vampires is a 128 page softcover and retails at $19.95.The cover art – and some of the interior art – is provided by Ralph Horsley and depicts a group of vampires surrounding a woman. The cover is for the most part great, although several of the vampires look a little odd. There isn’t a huge amount of art within the book, and the quality is variable, ranging from the average to the exceptional. In parts the layout is a little busy, and the section headings could be clearer. But, by and large these are small niggles and the design of the book is nice to look at.Lords of the Night: Vampires is a sourcebook for all things vampiric, taking the often tired monster and imbuing it with new (un)life. The focus here is primarily aimed at playing vampiric characters, rather than as using them as foes. Inside you will find 10 new types of vampires, new classes, new spells, new monsters and many many ideas for using them in your game. Ok, so we’ve seen several books recently that do just that, so why check out Lords of the Night?Simply put, the execution of these new rules and new concepts is faultless, and really quite enthralling. The default setting for the book is not a setting per se, but an overarching concept or story arc that can be plugged into any campaign – to keep it short, the Void, a primal force of hunger and darkness, is consuming reality and creation. Serving the Void is the god Vangual, who’s Children are the new vampires found in this book. Everything within the book is set against this backdrop of shadow and despair, although it can all be used without it – but why would you want to?The new vampire types are one of the highlights here, for they are not primarily intended for use as monsters, but as fully playable characters. There are 10 new types of vampires, ranging from the masters of entropy, the Ash vampires, to the downtrodden ooze-kin, the Mocked. In addition to the new types are the Dark Gifts – special powers akin to feats taken by vampires as they grow in power, including such treats as Heartless (the vampire becomes immune to staking), Reverse Turning (attempts at turning are reflected back at the cleric causing damage) and Shadow Dancing (the vampire sets loose his shadow against his opponents).But by far the best bits of the book are the pages of advice and ideas as to what to do with it all – this includes details on vampiric society (including the vampire city of Avystervan), ideas for roleplaying a vampire (including innovations such as the Katharein quest, where a vampire tries to stall his descent to evil and save his soul) and countless adventure ideas, characters and societies.In short – this is a unique and original book, taking a somewhat overused monster and putting a fresh new spin on it. I can’t get across quite how jam packed this book is with new stuff, whether new rules or resource material. No matter what your tastes, or whether you are player or DM, there will be something for everyone in here.</blockquote>

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