Two of my favourite spin-offs from Vampire: The Masquerade in recent years have been Vampire: The Dark Ages, the book that took the World of Darkness setting back to medieval Europe, and Kindred of the East, the largest of the expansions that took it to exotic shadows of Asia. Blood & Silk is the intersection of these, a stealthy peek into the dark courts of the Wan Kuei (later known as the Kuei-jin) in the year 1197 as the European barbarians reckon such things.

This isn't just a matter of politics, of the old giving way to the young. The Wan Kuei themselves are closer to their origins as the fallen immortals of the Third Age, their courts and culture more structured, their place in the Middle Kingdom still one of living myth and legend. The vampires of the East are far more dependent than the vampires of the West on the mystical atmosphere of the world and as time slips toward the modern era, their very nature changes. Sprinkled throughout Blood & Silk are notations that certain rituals cease working by the seventeenth century, that certain abilities still relate to pure elements rather than the corrupted variations of later years, or that absorbing the Chi of humans by osmosis becomes more difficult over time, reducing even graceful older Wan Kuei to feeding on blood.

Blood & Silk is divided into seven sections. The first is described as the "meat of the book from a source material standpoint." It chronicles the history of the Middle Kingdom and the nature of the Wan Kuei and their world through a series of documents and reports ostensibly written and commented upon by various Wan Kuei. The second and third sections look at characters, first within the context of their world by examining the Dharmas of the Wan Kuei at the end of the Age of Beautiful Sadness (loosely analogous to discussing the Clans and Via of the Kindred in the Dark Ages), then within the context of game mechanics by documenting the process of creating a Wan Kuei character. The fourth section gathers together more specific game mechanics that are altered by the historical setting, while the fifth offers pointers to Storytellers on running a Blood & Silk chronicle and includes some brief details of life in Asian society at the time. The sixth addresses the matter of barbarians and the Middle Kingdom (that would be the crossover with Vampire: The Dark Ages) and also the state of the other shen, or Asian supernaturals, of the time: Hengeyokai, Changeling-like Hsien, demon-hunting shih, and other creatures that were detailed as part of White Wolf's Year of the Lotus releases. The seventh section, an appendix, details some of the cities in which Wan Kuei might find themselves.

Blood & Silk is an extremely ambitious project and one which dedicated players of Kindred of the East may find interesting. Players looking at Blood & Silk for its crossover potential with Vampire: The Dark Ages may be disappointed, however - as the book points out, there was very little contact between Asia and Europe in 1197 and the information given for crossover stories is correspondingly brief. By contrast, there is, I think, an over-emphasis on the parade of history. The flow of dynasties and invasions rolls on while most of the playable details about the average activities of the time are hidden between the lines. Less history, more culture would have been nice, but the seeds are there. Players who want to tell their World of Darkness stories in this time and setting, and who are willing to put in that little extra bit of creativity and research, will be rewarded by Blood & Silk.

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Product Update:

White Wolf is currently (Fall 2002) revamping its Dark Ages line. Vampire: The Dark Ages has become Dark Ages: Vampire and been joined by Dark Ages: Mages. Could a revision to the classic Werewolf: The Dark Ages supplement be around the corner?

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