Clanbook: Toreador

Rating:
Summary: Weaker than its predcessor and other Clanbooks
Review: I have to admit, this is the first of the new Clanbooks that genuinely disappointed me. I pored over Tzimisce, Ventrue, and Lasombra, and was delighted with what I found in Tremere and the others I've seen. In contrast to the non-Revised edition, I found Clanbook: Toreador to be a pale imitation. As other reviewers have stated, gone are the additional Merits and Flaws of the first edition. Similarly, the guidelines for creative expression in the game, which provided an interesting framework to see if artistic pieces met with the standards of their creator, have similarly been removed. I'm sure an argument could be made that they were overly mechanical in their treatment of art, but it's nice to have a framework to examine, even if individual Storytellers or players disagreed with the system.

There's been a recent move in the Revised Edition Vampire books to make ancient history more nebulous, which is probably a good decision. Not every Clanbook has to reveal the ultimate secrets of the Antedilluvians, but the Revised Toreador book heads too far in this direction, I believe. The history insinuates that famous figures from Greece and Rome were Toreador, seeming to fly in the face of the Revised Edition's move *away* from making every celebrity a Vampire.

The medieval elder who narrates the clan's ancient history spins a yarn that I'm sure was designed to shake up our conceptions of what Noddist history is all about... but just ends up falling a little flat. There isn't enough there to make me think we have the story wrong... only enough discrepancies to make me believe our first-person narrator is misinformed. Similarly, the focus on moving away from Eurocentric conceptions of Toreador is overdone. What was handled elegantly in Clanbook: Tzimisce Revised (with its treatment of Indian and African methusalehs), now reads like a sophomoric attempt to apologize for previous editions by overly focusing on Africa. There's little to no treatment of Toreador in the Middle East, ignoring a fascinating period of the Toreador's development that the Dark Ages books are expanding almost monthly.

In the end, Clanbook Toreador Revised failed disastrously for me. It's the first of the Revised Clanbooks that I wouldn't recommend to anyone, and would instead direct you to its predecessor.

Rating:
Summary: Toreador Perspective
Review: I've been an avid player of V:tM for a few years now and I think that in contrast to the first clanbook, I think this one has a little more to it. I own both books and was extremely happy to see the added features to the new book. Although I was a tad bit upset over the lack of certain elements. I think that if you indeed, decide to purchase this book, also get the older version.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring view on the Beautiful Clan
Review: The best thing about the revised clanbooks is that they are mainly focused on improving the game's setting and literature.

Clanbook: Toreador is not an exception. Compared to the previous clanbook, this one almost brings no mechanics and game systems. I think this is OK, since in the main Storyteller rulebooks we already have more rules than we might be able to explore in a lifetime.

As a storyteller, what I really expect from a clanbook is to give me a deeper view on the clan, and this book does it very well.

The text is mature and intelligent, and avoids wasting much time with silly statements such as "the Toreador divide themselves into two groups, the Artists and the Poseurs", and things like that.

The reading is also interesting and fun. This Clanbook tells us a lot and still keeps many things mysterious, as it should be.

Read the original clanbook too, if you like. You will find some useful rules and system that are completely absent here.

But, if roleplaying is the most important part of the game for you, and if you like to have a good time reading, this one is the book for you.

It's an inspiring and charming view on the most passionate of clans.

Rating:
Summary: Toreador Perspective
Review: This is a good book with some problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't have all the features usually included in the new CLANBOOK series. There are discipline variations and noteworthy Toreador but no merits and flaws. By contrast, the original CLANBOOK: TOREADOR stood out in terms of features offered including an impressive merits and flaws list. (Some resurface in the DARK AGES Toreador material in LIBELLUS SANGUINEUS II.) The original also included the often referenced legend of Toreador and Nosferatu (new CLANBOOK: NOSFERATU and DRAGON ASCENDANT). If this new CLANBOOK series is intended to replace the original, it should have been here. The new CLANBOOK: NOSFERATU, for example reused much important material from its original but, for some reason, the new TOREADOR resists that.

The book offers two perspectives on Toreador history- one from a recently awakened Medieval elder (ignorant of modern BOOK OF NOD scholarship) and another from a young, African Toreador. Other Toreador give insiders' perspectives. These various voices are differentiated but often not starkly enough (despite intriguing multicultural names) to add interest.

The text is, however, generally well written and engaging. Between post-modern aesthetic theory (yes, really) and political ruminations, there is interesting discussion of African Toreador, the Toreador strategy of encouraging others to underestimate their clan and welcome development of the Toreadors' relationship with the mortal world. Apparently, Toreador can use their absorption in beauty and involvement with mortals to prevent degeneration of their own humanity. Involvement in the mortal world even gives them a different, more human, more urgent time sense.

There is relatively little about Toreador antitribu beyond a player character template for a follower of the Path of Cathari (apparently- they misspelled "Cathari" and listed incorrect virtues). Unfortunately, this antitribu character is a rather generic Sabbat. (See MONTREAL BY NIGHT for better Cathari characters.)

Rating:
Summary: The Beautiful People Re-examined
Review: This is a good book with some problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't have all the features usually included in the new CLANBOOK series. There are discipline variations and noteworthy Toreador but no merits and flaws. By contrast, the original CLANBOOK: TOREADOR stood out in terms of features offered including an impressive merits and flaws list. (Some resurface in the DARK AGES Toreador material in LIBELLUS SANGUINEUS II.) The original also included the often referenced legend of Toreador and Nosferatu (new CLANBOOK: NOSFERATU and DRAGON ASCENDANT). If this new CLANBOOK series is intended to replace the original, it should have been here. The new CLANBOOK: NOSFERATU, for example reused much important material from its original but, for some reason, the new TOREADOR resists that.

The book offers two perspectives on Toreador history- one from a recently awakened Medieval elder (ignorant of modern BOOK OF NOD scholarship) and another from a young, African Toreador. Other Toreador give insiders' perspectives. These various voices are differentiated but often not starkly enough (despite intriguing multicultural names) to add interest.

The text is, however, generally well written and engaging. Between post-modern aesthetic theory (yes, really) and political ruminations, there is interesting discussion of African Toreador, the Toreador strategy of encouraging others to underestimate their clan and welcome development of the Toreadors' relationship with the mortal world. Apparently, Toreador can use their absorption in beauty and involvement with mortals to prevent degeneration of their own humanity. Involvement in the mortal world even gives them a different, more human, more urgent time sense.

There is relatively little about Toreador antitribu beyond a player character template for a follower of the Path of Cathari (apparently- they misspelled "Cathari" and listed incorrect virtues). Unfortunately, this antitribu character is a rather generic Sabbat. (See MONTREAL BY NIGHT for better Cathari characters.)