Continuing our Chinese based review of the World of Darkness book line!
Blood and Silk
Blood and Silk is the Asian version of Dark Ages: Vampire. All you need to get started running a Medieval Age World of Darkness game in Asia. Blood and Silk is fortunately less repetitive than Dark Ages. It assumes that you have a copy of Kindred of the East and doesn’t repeat rules over dozens of useless pages.
The time period of Blood and Silk is 1197 at the height of China’s division before the Mongol invasion. The setting is broad just like Dark Ages. Probably worse as it spreads across China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, India, and Southeast Asia. There’s a lot of cultural notes but few details for running an actual campaign in a city like Beijing or Kyoto. Most of the book is lore but once again it doesn’t feel very useful for playing the game.
Kuei-jin in Blood and Silk have the opposite moral progression as vampires in Dark Ages. Kuei-jin were nicer in the Medieval Age. The demon Po spirit is selfish instead of manically destructive. The Abilities are changed to reflect the time period just like in Dark Ages. There’s also new disciplines for wuxing stuff. While I like wuxing getting a nod, it feels like an afterthought. The authors needed some new mechanical options for kuei-jin and quickly threw together five Disciplines based on the five elements.
There are a few other changes made in Blood and Silk to reflect the time period. The reduced spread of civilization means there’s more nature chi for kuei-jin to gather. It’s easier for kuei-jin to drain their energy from the environment instead of people’s blood. There’s also rules for mounted combat and period-accurate advanced weapons such as early flamethrowers, rockets, and repeating crossbows.
Blood and Silk still feels like it missed the mark somewhat on usability. Not reprinting all the rules was a smart choice. Altered rules for the technology level and natural chi level of the world are good to include. Unfortunately, there’s not enough to start running a campaign without a massive amount of work from a Storyteller. Just like Dark Ages the setting is too broad. Covering one half of the Earth’s population is fine, but I would’ve appreciated a smaller focus.
If you’re interested in the Blood and Silk book you can check it out on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/33/world-of-darkness-blood-silk
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