Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned

by Russell Bailey and Will Hindmarch

Lords Over the Damned is a supplement for the World of Darkness game Vampire: The Requiem.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588462730
• ISBN13: 9781588462732
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.4" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

Great read for non-gamers too

I'm part of a strange sub-culture that reads these things but doesn't actually participate in the games (simply have no time). I also read a lot of the old V:tM books and the core material for V:tR, so despite being a non-gamer I'm not a noobcake. This book is eminently readable and highly enjoyable for non-gamers. The reason is it's not about the mechanics. As an engineer I appreciate the mechanics, so I read those too, but here are the real enjoyable aspects: - The stories. These are of course the meat of the book, and they're dark, with the barest of light peaking out often enough to avoid predictability. You see Ventrue cast not just as the stereotypical CEO, but in roles like king of a trailer park. Very creative - The art. Every page or two has a really interesting piece of vampire artwork. It's tough to find "monster art" that isn't cheesy or somehow silly. These guys have done a great job, and the artwork really complements the writing, particularly when you look back and forth between the portrait and the story and correlate the two; it really brings the story to the next level - The production. High quality. Between that and the artwork, that's where your money is going (as opposed to 8 clams for a simple paperback) I'd like to point out for any other horror fiction fans that due to this book's size (8.5 x 11 inches, think a full piece of printer paper in the US), the page count is a little deceiving. It's tough to justify paying a lot for a novel of 120 pages, but these are bigger pages, so it's probably closer to 200+ (not all of it is writing of course). Also, if you're not planning on playing the RPG, you don't really need to read anything before this, though obviously the core Requiem book would help. You can truly enjoy this book as a standalone. At any rate I hope this helps people looking for quality vampire fiction. Due to the fact that Ventrue is part of a larger world, if you like this you can count on more stuff right down your dark alley. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

For Vampires, by Vampires

The White Wolf writers are fond of pointing out the characters haven't read the books. With this, that is no longer true. Apart from the appendix, this is written completely in-game. There is no prologue fiction. There is a brief introduction from the in-game author to the mysterious person who decided to compile it. The first chapter is on the origins of the Ventrue. On the one hand, it gives essentially one, clear explanation for the origin of the Clan, how it differed and separated from Rome and the Julii, and the origin of the name Ventrue. On the other hand, the origin is firmly encased in human mythology. It is an explanation the Ventrue can and do believe, teach their neonates, and use to explain various aspects of the Clan. But gamers that wanted an explanation that can stand without mythology don't get one. The second, much larger chapter is about the culture of the Clan, from a wide variety of angles and without exactly clear and concise descriptions. It is a collection of stories from Ventrue about the Clan, interviews with Ventrue that do, do not and really do not fit the stereotype of Lords. There are a couple of mad conspiracy theories and a contribution from a would-be saboteur dealing with Ventrue that drag the nickname Lord in the mud. There is an excellent essay on how the Ventrue manipulate the mortal world. The arrogance and madness of the Clan really comes through. They claim to have stood behind every successful ruler in Europe. It also explains Malkavia, which takes the idea of a sub-group of Ventrue that are mad but still operational and gives it a unique spin. The technical stuff is covered in a short appendix. It introduces a new Bloodline and provides rules for using the Discipline that Malkavia allows access to. There are also some new merits and Devotions that fit the Ventrue. You don't need any book besides Requiem to understand this, but reading Damnation City's Lexicon and description of the neo-feudal system do come close to being required. There are references to many other Vampire books. Outside Vampire, World of Darkness: Asylum is a great fit with this book. The final technical aspect is the artwork. A White Wolf staffer commented on their forum that the artwork is the same, just in colour. He's wrong. Colour allows things that cannot be done in black and white, and the artists have taken full advantage. From a Storyteller perspective, I think the contents are mostly for roleplaying and character providing. It should provide more depth no matter how well the Ventrue have been played. Also, there are stacks of in-game characters that the PCs now know by reputation. In fact, there are several systems explained in the book for Ventrue being known by various aliases, so the PCs may later learn that their allies or mentors are mentioned or even interviewed in it. Obviously, as an in-game document, there are no plot hook sidebars. Personally the information seems too vague to use as plot hooks without considerabl

Amazing book!

Maybe it's because it's a paperback that I thought this would be some cool text maybe a black and white drawing or two inside, but mostly just something interesting to have. I was totally blown away with the product. The premise is that's a journal of someone trying to put down some history of the Clan Venture. What they get is a lot of interviews from various vampires, including a very, very old one, very young ones, trailer park Ventrue and a dominatrix. Each has a different story to tell and all these stories end up painting a fascinating picture of the clan. And there's a murder mystery wove through the book to keep it feeling fresh, like you're reading something that is happening now. And I can't say enough about the artwork. All full color, beautiful paintings of old and young vampires. My only complaint is that it should be hard cover! I think I'll buy another one, so I use the heck out of this one and keep the other one pristine!

Awesome Production Values!

I just got Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned in the mail. I haven't had time to read it yet, but I have flipped through it and the production values for the book are out of sight. It's very nice. I'm glad I pre-ordered the others in the series.