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| *OP Guide to the Camarilla (Vampire, the Masquerade) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Dansky
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.88
You Save: $11.07 (43%)
New (6) Used (14) from $12.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 545324
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1565042611
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781565042612
ASIN: 1565042611
Publication Date: January 14, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ships same day some shelf wear no jacket
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| Customer Reviews:
 Something of a Disappointment April 30, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It has been my experience over the past several years of buying and reading White Wolf's various World of Darkness books, that the core rulebooks get most of the talent that White Wolf possesses on its staff. They have by far the best artwork, and more importantly, best editing. They are finely balanced and intricate, as well as always thought-provoking. They are written as stand alones, which brings me to the White Wolf supplement books like Guide to the Camarilla. The supplement books from White Wolf are usually not even close to the quality standard of the core books. This is true in the case of Guide to the Camarilla. This book is essentially a catch-all for much of the miscellaneous material from earlier editions of Vampire the Masquerade that failed to make it into the Revised core rulebook. I do not find that the material in this Guide adds much of anything to the Camarilla material in the core book, which is very well presented. In fact, it undoes much of what the Revised rules tried to do to re-make the game as a more streamlined and elegant roleplayer. More is not necessarily better, and that maxim is certainly true of this supplement.
Useful information, not essential though April 29, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I liked Guide to the Sabbat, the core Vampire book covers the Camarilla well enough but it leaves the Sabbat out their. So I've always liked that. Suprisingly though, Guide to the Camarilla was good also. Even though alot about these guys is covered they at first seemed weak when compared to the Sabbat but then you see how these guys get stuff done.The Guide to the Camarilla is like the polar opposite of Guide to the Sabbat. The opening fictions in both books synch up and you wonder who really wins. The first chapter goes into more detail about the Camarilla traditions and laws. The next chapters cover other important information like the Gangrel leaving the Camarilla. It also details the Caitiff, Gargoyles(which are Vampires) and Lasombra Antitribu. The rules chapter is very long. It details not only Vampire powers but has a long list of merits and flaws, abilities and backgrounds. It is very useful, especially considering it gives quite a few thaumaturgy paths. The book ends with Character templates and a few bits on the Anarchs, Elders and Innocu, but not much on the Innocu. All in all, the book is well worth the price for anyone who wants to run a strong Camarilla game but I'd still recommend Guide to the Sabbat first.
Great but could be better. August 5, 2001
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
There must be a problem with indexing at White Wolf and their various gaming systems. This book is quite good at explaining the Camarilla clans and giving insights to how they really operate. But it is poorly indexed. Also I think that WhiteWolf needs to make a bigger character sheet or have more blank lines for abilities and disciplines since they keep expanding what your character can learn. A guide to how to use these new things with older abilities would be helpful too.
Useful October 24, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Guide to the Camarilla provides many information on the sect and the kindred as a whole. Facts about the clans, the structure, the ways to fight the Sabbat, Anarchs and other foes. It contains high level disciplines, Merits&Flaws, rules for conclaves and more. However, various stuff is well known from other publications or nothing new to common sense. If you skip those long-winded parts, you still get many useful information. I wonder about one detail: if nobody knows the Inner Circle, how do they spread their decisions?
Too much fluff in the pillow January 8, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Trivial" would be the best way to sum up the Guide to the Camarilla. While White Wolf employs some skillful writers and paints some lavishly detailed portraits of the World of Darkness and its inhabitants, as seems to be the case with a good number of its supplement books, the Guide to the Camarilla does little more than shuffle around things that were already said. Unlike the Guide to the Sabbat (an organization left much more mysterious in the core rulebook), the Guide to the Camarilla takes everything already said about the Camarilla in the main book and repeats it. It seems as though entire sections of pages are devoted to reiterating the exact same point. Were some of the redundancy cut down, this would amount to little more than a handbook. The added clans seem completely inexplicable, as well as equally redundant (ANOTHER Appearance 0 clan? Ohh, and ANOTHER one? Boy, the Nosferatu must be jealous by now). Only the references to the Salubri and the gargoyles are at all new or relevant, and the latter is somewhat ill explained. The only conceivable useful portions cover Camarilla politics, which again have already been gone over fairly effectively in the main book, and the points that the Guide expands upon could already be inferred by anyone with a healthy amount of common sense.
All in all, this guide is like the excess stuffing that manages to make your pillow lumpy and uncomfortably instead of additionally soft. At worst, the whole piece smacks of wallet-gouging.
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