This month's Storytellers Vault Roundup takes a look at a pair of setting sourcebooks for Vampire: The Masquerade, but we start with a quick follow-up product to last month's announcement regarding Werewolf: The Apocalypse being opened up for development.
The Storytellers Vault Style Guide is an 18-page PDF covering every iteration of the Werewolf line so far (1st and 2nd edition, Revised, both Dark Ages editions, Wild West, and the three 20th Anniversary lines), with "advice on tailoring your writing to the different editions of Werewolf, explaining rule variations, and the different historical eras of Werewolf."
Some content creators are already teasing their forthcoming Werewolf products over on the Storytellers Vault Facebook page—hopefully we'll have enough to devote a whole column to soon!
Back in January, we covered High Level Games' Dark New England: Five Chronicle Jumpstarts. Now HLG is back with not one but two products covering their "Dark New England" setting and expanding it significantly from the Chronicle Jumpstarts material.
The Dark New England Regional Sourcebook is the cornerstone of the setting. Written by Joshua Heath, Lisa J. Ellwood, and J.C. Stearns, this is an absolutely massive setting sourcebook weighing in at 252 pages, making it well worth its $16.99 price tag.
The book aims to bring New England in the World of Darkness into the 21st century, as the area has been largely ignored since the publication of the 1st-edition supplement Dark Colony. The Introduction notes that the book expands and updates some of the information from Dark Colony but also adds plenty of brand-new material, including information on the Sabbat and Giovanni in New England, as well as taking an in-depth look at the "impact of colonization and genocide on Native American nations in New England" with regard to Kindred in particular.
The first seven chapters cover the individual states of New England, presenting information for both players and Storytellers; Boston, appropriately, gets a sub-chapter all to itself. Chapter Eight introduces the Descendants of the Three Sisters, Native Kindred who also get their own sourcebook (covered below). Further chapters go over character creation, detail over three dozen important NPCs, and advice for running chronicles in Dark New England. The book concludes with three One-Page Chronicle Jumpstarts.
"Descendants of the Three Sisters" begins with a simple question: "Why are there no Native American vampires?" There are, of course, individual Native American vampires that crop up in the World of Darkness canon, but the book's Introduction points out that at no point have we seen wholly Indigenous bloodlines. Descendants aims to correct this over the course of its 78 pages. Credited to Lisa J. Ellwood and Joshua Heath, Descendants goes into great detail on Native Kindred in New England, providing details on the Indigenous clans and their structures (and new Merits and alternate Discipline powers for each), Native elders, starter characters (six in all), and Storytelling advice, as well as a helpful appendix full of links on tropes to avoid when playing Native chronicles.
Of special note with both of these books are the contributions from co-author Lisa J. Ellwood of the Lenape Indian Tribe & Nanticoke Indian Tribe, Delaware. Ms. Ellwood, in addition to being a Native author herself, gives special thanks to Vince and Delores Schilling of the Akwesane Mohawk for support and advice. No doubt these perspectives went a long way towards infusing the Dark New England setting with a diverse viewpoint and deeper exploration of the region's Native American history and folkloric heritage than we would have otherwise gotten.
Note: all product links in this article include the article author's Affiliate Program code.
contributed by David Larkins
The Storytellers Vault Style Guide is an 18-page PDF covering every iteration of the Werewolf line so far (1st and 2nd edition, Revised, both Dark Ages editions, Wild West, and the three 20th Anniversary lines), with "advice on tailoring your writing to the different editions of Werewolf, explaining rule variations, and the different historical eras of Werewolf."
Some content creators are already teasing their forthcoming Werewolf products over on the Storytellers Vault Facebook page—hopefully we'll have enough to devote a whole column to soon!
Back in January, we covered High Level Games' Dark New England: Five Chronicle Jumpstarts. Now HLG is back with not one but two products covering their "Dark New England" setting and expanding it significantly from the Chronicle Jumpstarts material.
The Dark New England Regional Sourcebook is the cornerstone of the setting. Written by Joshua Heath, Lisa J. Ellwood, and J.C. Stearns, this is an absolutely massive setting sourcebook weighing in at 252 pages, making it well worth its $16.99 price tag.
The book aims to bring New England in the World of Darkness into the 21st century, as the area has been largely ignored since the publication of the 1st-edition supplement Dark Colony. The Introduction notes that the book expands and updates some of the information from Dark Colony but also adds plenty of brand-new material, including information on the Sabbat and Giovanni in New England, as well as taking an in-depth look at the "impact of colonization and genocide on Native American nations in New England" with regard to Kindred in particular.
The first seven chapters cover the individual states of New England, presenting information for both players and Storytellers; Boston, appropriately, gets a sub-chapter all to itself. Chapter Eight introduces the Descendants of the Three Sisters, Native Kindred who also get their own sourcebook (covered below). Further chapters go over character creation, detail over three dozen important NPCs, and advice for running chronicles in Dark New England. The book concludes with three One-Page Chronicle Jumpstarts.
"Descendants of the Three Sisters" begins with a simple question: "Why are there no Native American vampires?" There are, of course, individual Native American vampires that crop up in the World of Darkness canon, but the book's Introduction points out that at no point have we seen wholly Indigenous bloodlines. Descendants aims to correct this over the course of its 78 pages. Credited to Lisa J. Ellwood and Joshua Heath, Descendants goes into great detail on Native Kindred in New England, providing details on the Indigenous clans and their structures (and new Merits and alternate Discipline powers for each), Native elders, starter characters (six in all), and Storytelling advice, as well as a helpful appendix full of links on tropes to avoid when playing Native chronicles.
Of special note with both of these books are the contributions from co-author Lisa J. Ellwood of the Lenape Indian Tribe & Nanticoke Indian Tribe, Delaware. Ms. Ellwood, in addition to being a Native author herself, gives special thanks to Vince and Delores Schilling of the Akwesane Mohawk for support and advice. No doubt these perspectives went a long way towards infusing the Dark New England setting with a diverse viewpoint and deeper exploration of the region's Native American history and folkloric heritage than we would have otherwise gotten.
Note: all product links in this article include the article author's Affiliate Program code.
contributed by David Larkins
