Berlin by Night (Vampire)

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad, but not great either
Review: Berlin by night sets up a lot of good potential story ideas. The political conflicts and the struggle between the princes is presented in an interesting fashion. The kindred are all fascinating. A few of them are even historical figures. The description of the city could have used more work as well as the general culture. Based on the descriptions it could have been any generic city. It really didn't provide a feel for the area. The sample story was a bit silly but entertaining. It did introduce a fascinating Setite character and her awesome plans. Storytellers should do some research on their own to supplement this book if they plan to use Berlin for their games.

Rating:
Summary: Sad Story
Review: It is interessting to read how a modern city like Berlin is undermined and controlled by vampires. Unfortunately it has some mistakes according Berlin's history. For example after WW2 till 1961 people could almost freely cross the border between east and west, and even after the erection of the Berlin Wall cainites could have gone to the other side. The diverse struggles for power between two princes of the city and the clans, the sects and who ever is fighting are pictured tensing. The idea of powerful elders controlling the city from torpor sounds rather strange.
The book contents a history of the city through the ages, descriptions of all districts, a couple of special quarters and several places of interest. It includes long and detailed portrays of most of the kindred in Berlin. However, if you don't know anything about Berlin and Germany, it might be difficult to role-play only by this book. It provides no hints which Clans control the places of power (Police, Government, Mafia, etc.) Many things changed over the past decade but others are still up to date.
The second part of the book contains a weird story. Some details seem to indicate that the authors never visited Berlin themselves. The old Gedaechtniskirche (Memorial Church) where the meetings are held is almost tiny inside. Not a quarter of space you need to gather Berlin's Kindred society. The Kurfuerstendamm is never, never free of mortals, even during heavy rainstorms. The story itself neither elaborated nor intriguing. A sad story!

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