Jerusalem by Night (Vampire: The Dark Ages (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Jerusalem by Night just not worth it.
Review: As an avid player of Vampire, a history major specializing in the ancient near east as an undergraduate, and now as a graduate student studying biblical studies, I was very excited when I got my hands on Jerusalem by Night. Jerusalem certainly is a great place to set a vampire game, and I thought this book would open up the door to a lot of ideas for a campaign.

However, the book is lacking in many key areas. Most specifically, the history section of the book, in which over 2000 years are summed up in a few dozen pages, is some of the most dry and uninspiring writing I have ever read in a white-wolf product. Concepts are sketchy at best, mostly glossed over, and of questionable accuracy. In addition, there is almost no attempt by the author to tie vampires into the history--only some feeble mentioning of vampiric activity that was misinterpreted as acts of God or the introduction of a character only to say that said character came to the city at this time. The vampires do not seem to manipulate Jerusalem as they do other cities.

Another complaint I have is the way in which the author defines the religious groups of mortals who live in the city without going into detail on any of them. We don't know who controls the groups, what they want, how they operate, etc. And some ways in which they are defined is not only incorrect, but offensive to those groups. Take, for example, the name by which the author refers to Jews. He routinely calls them "Followers of Yahweh". While technically that may be correct (as God's name is given as Yahweh in the Torah/Old Testament), Jews are forbidden to use the name of God in speech and would refer to him only as God (in Hebrew: Elohim) or Lord (Hebrew: Adonai). If they were reading God's name, they would say only "The Name" (Hebrew: ha-Shem). When referring to them, you should say Hebrews, Israelites, Children of Israel, or Jews, depending on when in their history you are referring.

My final complaint is that in one of the oldest cities in the world, the author does nothing with the myriad of possibilities tying vampires to the religious world. I am not sure if he was afraid to offend or if he just lacks true vision of what could have been.

All in all, this book takes what could have been a great concept for a campaign and does not do anything with it. It is dry and inaccurate, and doesn't really give you too much to work with. The only value I see in it is that it does give you some non-player characters to steal for your game, but that is not enough to make it worth it. Do yourself a favor, if you want to run a game in medieval Jerusalem, go and by a basic history book on the city and make up your own stuff about the vampires who populate it. Your money will be much better spent.

Rating:
Summary: This book does a good job spicening rp in the Dark Ages.
Review: I must admit a book like this has been needed long ago. I myself prefer to play Vampire, the Dark Ages over Vampire, the Masquerade. The book shows Jerusalem as the center of faith in the dark ages, which is somewhat true since to all of the three main religons in the world, Jerusalem is a city of holy importance. How can a vampire survive with all this faith around? How much of the vampire's faith is twisted for the character to survive? The book gives a decent picture of the past situation of the religons involved with some twists. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: This book does a good job spicening rp in the Dark Ages.
Review: I must admit a book like this has been needed long ago. I myself prefer to play Vampire, the Dark Ages over Vampire, the Masquerade. The book shows Jerusalem as the center of faith in the dark ages, which is somewhat true since to all of the three main religons in the world, Jerusalem is a city of holy importance. How can a vampire survive with all this faith around? How much of the vampire's faith is twisted for the character to survive? The book gives a decent picture of the past situation of the religons involved with some twists. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Guide to the Holy Land
Review: This slightly outdated setting book for Vampire: the Dark Ages covers Jerusalem before the Fourth Crusade. If your following the Dark Ages metaplot (as presented in Dark Ages: Vampire and the Bitter Crusade) then this book might need a bit of an overhaul. If your just using it as a general guide book, then its not as big a deal. Anyway, after an average peice of fiction the book gives the standard introduction. A short list of recommended reading and some common Arabic terms are given as well, but nothing you couldn't find elsewhere.

The bookest strongest point is the first chapter, a very brief history of Jerusalem from the Hebrews onward to the Dark Ages timeframe from a vampire point of view. Brief mention is made of periods of Roman, Muslim and Latin rule, and its chock full of interesting little quotes and sidenotes. However, I really feel like such an ancient city deserved to have a bit more... mystery, exoticism or even more supernatural elements. The next chapter focuses on society and religion, going into overviews of Judaism, Islam and Christianity (including mention of the non-Catholics in the Middle East such as the Nestorians, Greeks and Armenians). The most interesting part was some information on how Cainites follow Islam and Judaism, particularly about getting around the prohibitions about consuming blood.

The next chapter, Geography, was another strong point for the book and detailed the many sites infused by True Faith in the city. It then goes on to give profiles and stats for a variety of Cainites in Jerusalem, sorted by clan. It was interesting to see how the clans are almost all split between Muslims and Christians and some characters (like a dog-like Gangrel methusaleh, an out of place Viking, al-Hakim and the Bashirite Ravnos) were quite interesting. Most however struck me as so-so but thats just me. The book then closes out with some useful advice for running chronicles set in Medieval Jerusalem.

With the writing of the Bitter Crusade, games set in Jerusalem are going to be a little different. Still this is a decent book for running games in Jerusalem before the fourth Crusade. My only comments are that it doesn't cover enough culture, history or religion. Other supplements (like Veil of Night and Libellus Sanguinus III) cover the region even better, or better yet you could even go to your library and do research on the Middle East, Jerusalem and the Crusades and come up with more stuff. But if you come across this book its still worth taking a look.