Brucato, Phil - Books - Magic Bean Dip

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Vampire : The Masquerade (Revised Edition)

Justin Achilli, Andrew Bates, Phil Brucato, Richard E. Dansky, Ed Hall, Robert Hatch, Michael B. Lee

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE MIDNIGHT DANCE CONTINUES...
They stalk in the shadows, moving gracefully and unseen among their prey. They are the blood-drinking fiends of whispered legends Kindred, Cainites, the Damned. Above all, they are vampires. Their eternal struggle, waged sicne the nights of Jericho and Babylon, plays itself out among the vampires' grand Masquerade is imperiled, and the night of Gehenna draws ever closer.
UNTIL THE END OF ALL THINGS
This new edition of Vampire: The Masquerade is an updated, revised version of the popular classic. In this mammoth volume can be found all 13 Clans, all major Disciplines, and a host of brand-new infomation on both the Kindred and the...things...that hunt them. This book compiles everything that a Vampire player or Storyteller needs to know about the Kindred and the World of Darkness for the new millenium. Plus, the new edition provides all-new information on the changes that affect the Clans, and on the beginning of the end of the Camarilla. Finally, the first of the Storyteller rulebooks is the best again!

*OP Mage: The Ascension 2nd Ed (Mage)

Kevin Murphy, Phil Brucato, Brian Campbell, Chris Hind

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

My Favorite WoD Game, Hands Down. 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Let's face it, in the World of Darkness, hope is all too rare. Vampires are abberations of the natural order whose agelessness serves only to illustrate the beauty of death. Werewolves are fighting a losing battle against the Wyrm, the spirit of active destruction. Wraiths are dead souls wishing for Oblivion. Hunters are angsty mortals with nary a clue about their benefactors' identities ... but they kill the Outsiders anyway. (Changelings I don't know, sorry.)
And among all this chaos ... the Mage stands tall, looking to Ascend.
Oh, it's not all fuzzy bunnies, being a Mage. There's pain, and death, and the rest of the World of Darkness to contend with. But Mages have something to fight for other than survival. They have ideals. (Perhaps morbid ideals, but nobody ever said morbid is wrong ...) They have dreams. And, in the World of Darkness as in our own world, the perception of reality shapes reality itself. (Okay, I play too many Malkavians in Vampire. So sue me.) This is what it means to be a Mage.
It would take far more space than I have here to explain the worldview behind Mage. Suffice it to say that Mage (at least Second Edition) is positive in outlook, with a scope that encourages the imagination. This setting focuses on wonder, pain, and Ascension to a higher state. The group Storyteller will either love this game or hate it: love because of the openness of a magic system that's actually -realistic- (okay, you Christians are probably laughing at me now - oh well), or hatred because you've just spent twenty hours of preparation on Umbral Lords and now your players just want to use the spirit world to break into a Technocracy stronghold.
When I read this book for the first time, it was almost a spiritual experience. This is what a magical RPG is supposed to be like, in my view. However, hack-n-slashers can wreak havock on the system, mainly through over-use of Forces. I find that taking Forces away entirely is the best way to deal with this nuisance ... although with a group of powermongers, perhaps Werewolf would be a better game for you.
Warning: Revised Mage takes all the wonder and hope out of the setting and leaves you with the same old gloom and croon of the rest of the World of Darkness. The developers certainly did a wonderful job of making sure that the backstory fit the rest of the WoD, but I'm rather sorry to see hope go. (Life is painful enough without vicarously living through a rotting pile of bones, IMHO.) So, I proudly recommend Mage: The Ascension Second Edition to the Real Roleplayers and Loonies out there, Revised Mage to the Real Men among you (heaven help us all), and Harvard to the Munchkins that exist like worms at the heart of every gaming group...

Revelations of the Dark Mother

Phil Brucato, Rachelle Udell

List Price: ~~$10.95~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The best reference to the dark mother on vampire. 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

It is a great book in a Book of Nod fashion, deatiling all the references to the dark mother Lilith, I really loved this book, beatifully illustrated, and magnificently writed. It is one of the best sources for every vampire in the misterious world of darkness in Vampire: The mascarade.

Not very good... 2 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This book is beautifully illustrated with a frequent subject being lilith's naked form which is a theme of the book really. Sleeping with Adam, Eve, Caine, Lucifer, God (yes, God), Animals, and probably a dozen or so more folk that I've forgotten. The Book is best for a Sabbat book because it's appeal to such base sexual things instead of any divine mystery or questioning doesn't provide much. The narrator is also far less interesting than Aristole DeLaurent and Beckett.

Best book in the WoD theme 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book! The words--the visualizations they produce--it's pure poetry, something not usually seen in a source book for a roleplaying world. I could put myself in Lilith's shoes, and understand her pain, her joy. I mined this book for information, and got a teasure. If you deal with Lilith in your game, this is the perfect book for you.

*OP Kindred of the East (For Vampire, the Masquerade)

Justin Achilli, Phil Brucato, Jackie Cassada, Mark Cenczyk

List Price: ~~$25.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great book! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love this book even though I'm more of a Mage type player. I have played and ST'ed all but Wraith and this BUT! it would definately be my next choice.
I think the KotE are some of the most defined characters a player can make. That said, the KotE are also some of the more complicated to play because the book KotE is not a stand alone game. It was produced to add more flair and versatility to VtM.
There were only a few questions I had. Agravated damage was never covered.. or not that I saw. I read about them being able to do it with several of their powers but I could only find 2 ways that they could soak it. the lvl 2 or 3 bone shentai and the demon shentai with the armor. ohh well something else to e-mail WW about.
Definatly a game for intermediant to advanced players. I'm not sure if I would suggest it as a starter though.

Strangers in strange lands 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Gorgeous artwork. Fantastic new world. Great reinterpretations of things. Wonderful use of mixing history with the World of Darkness. They promised to deliver a vampire alien to the kindred of Caine, and they succeeded; the setting is exotic, interesting, and definitely recommended. I especially liked their take on lycanthropes. I didn't like the lack of information on India, which would have been a great setting and prime conflict ground with British vampires. The Russia/Mongolia/China boundaries could have been interesting as well. It's impossible to play without the original Vampire book, which irks me; a completely new setting could use a reexplanation, I think. Lastly, the nature/demeanor/dharma split isn't quite clear. It's obvious that some traits are connected to and sympathetic with others, but what this sympathy does in terms of the game is never well-explained.

Bastet (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)

Phil Brucato

List Price: ~~$18.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Keepers of the secrets! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Without repeating the material from the players guide, "Bastet" brought together an entire race of werecreatures who's, in my opinion, society and class even surpasses that of the mokole`! (and garou for that matter..) My players enjoyed the ability to play unique characters, because of our small groups, and for me, not having to orgnize too many NPC's. Tha ajaba(hyena) were a really cool idea, too. Its a shame they turned to Cahlash. Well, me and my ST group(and LARP group) Give bastet a big thumbs up! Definatly a must-have for any true werewolf: the apocolypse ST or player!

An excellent resource! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must have for anyone who wishes to run one of the feline changing-breeds. This book adds all the items that the tiny section in the players guide missed, such as inter-tribal relations, opinion on the other "races" from other changers to vampires, as well as new gifts and expanded abilities and backgrounds.

What Bastet Is 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Bastet is an expansion of Werewolf the apocalypse. This book contains everything you need to play a were-cat and were-hyena. The werecats include: Jaguars, leapords, lions, tigers, cheetahs, lynx, puma, egyptian cats, and faerie cats. This book contains Much more on the cats than the player's guide does, however, there is still no information on any other kind of cat... like ANY of the little cats. Oh well... This book is still great and does contain new fetishes, rites, and totems (called jamak) that are unique to the werecats.

Mage Chronicles, Vol 1: The Book Of Chantries, Digital Web (Mage The Ascension)

Steven Brown, Phil Brucato, Robert Hatch

List Price: ~~$22.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Good, but only for collectors 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book compiles both "The Book of Chantries" and "Digital Web", older books for Mage: the Ascension, into a single volume. At the time it was released, this book was an excellent deal. Now, it's more for the collector. Digital Web has been revised, and Book of Chantries is good as source material, though you will have to adapt it to the new Revised Edtition ruleset. It's a good book, but you'll have to do some work to make use of it.

2 Good Setting Books In 1 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a compilation of two early Mage supplements. The Book of Chantries is about the guild houses of the Awakened and the Digital Web is about the virtual reality realm of the Virtual Adepts and the Technocrats. Overall, this is a good bundle for players and storytellers interested in exploring and creating settings for their games.
The Book of Chantries was about a handful of Tradition, Technocracy, Nephandi, and miscellaneous strongholds. This was a very old book that still painted the Technocracy as a repressive and antagonistic group. Over looking this, the chantries detailed were very interesting for all of the factions. The section on how to create your own chantry should be especially useful for players and storytellers. The sample story was not bad but didn't really show how life in a guild house was like. The Book of Chantries may be old and outdated, but it's rules can be easily updated for Mage 2nd Edition and Revised.
The Digital Web (1.0) was another setting book like the Book of Chantries but it was about virtual reality. Considering the fact that this book was released in the early/mid-1990s, it's still quite good for modern games. It introduced an entirely new playing field for technomancers and traditionalists alike. There were rules on formatting sectors and how to use magick in virtual reality. The overall feel of the realm was similar to those described by William Gibson in his cyberpunk novels. Instead of the Internet, cable modems, high-speed network connections, the book talked about BBSs and modem dial-ups. This was understandable considering those were the cutting-edge fascinations of computer users at the time. The information on the Spy's Demise and the two sample stories were interesting. Overall, the Digital Web was a fun read with many neat ideas. It must have been revolutionary for Mage the Ascension back in early days of the game. This book has since been revised and released as the Digital Web 2.0.

World of Darkness: Sorcerer

Phil Brucato, James Estes

List Price: ~~$16.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

One of the best 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

WoD: Sorcerer is a great book, detailing a system for"hedge wizards," IE, sorcerers you don't have to break yourneck reading the Mage book to understand. The seven or eight Sorcerer lineages bring all kinds of fresh occult material to a World of Darkness where you thought you'd seen everything (just because you know what vampires, werewolves, and wraiths are). With juicy descriptions and a bunch of "hedge paths," of magic, WoD Sorcerer brings much-needed mystery and diversity to any WoD game. It has rules for awakening or being embraced *after* sorcerous study, too, so if you really want to complicate your Vampire or Mage chronicle from the start, this is your book.

A Decent Mage companion 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Despite the complaints of some of the other reviewers, the Mage system is not complex - it is only slightly more difficult than anything else. However, as far as WoD: Sorcerer goes, not every spellcaster in the WOD can act as a Mage - that is, not everyone can bend reality at a whim. The Sorcerer book discusses the rigid paths of magic studied by mortals. While it does not take into account new canon (see Sorcerer:Revised), it's systems are more simplified than the new Sorcerer book, and in addition, lists a /great/ deal of Rituals. Anyone that wishes to run a game based around dark and gritty magic (something to the effect of Call of Cthulu magic), ought to pick up this book. /Don't/ buy this book just because "Mage hurt my wittle head".

*OP Mage: Sorcerers Crusade (Mage the Sorcerers Crusade)

Phil Brucato, Brian Campbell, Kay Reynolds, Kathleen Ryan

List Price: ~~$28.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

What if magic worked the way it was supposed to? 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Sorcerers' Crusade is a good setting for Mage. A lot of the modern game focuses on how magic doesn't really work the way it's supposed to because people's belief in science is too firmly entrenched in the world's paradigm. In the SC setting, science is a bit less accepted, and magic works a little better. Paradox, which in the modern game is always bad, is called Scourge in this setting, and can occasionally help a Mage. The Technocracy is on more equal footing with the Tradition mages here, as both are struggling to put their paradigm forward as dominant.

There's quite a bit of history and world setting information in this book. Possibly too much, depending on your needs. Relatively little of the book is taken up with game system mechanics. What system rules there are cannot be found all in one place. The organization of the rules is somewhat loose. Like the modern game, the magic system is open-ended, with ability defined in areas of control rather than specific spells. But like most other Mage books, spells (rotes) can be found if one looks hard enough.

If you've played Mage: The Ascension, it will be easier to understand this book. If not, some of the game rules might be confusing. If you like the Mage magic system, but don't care for the dark-goth game world White Wolf sets the games in, this is probably the game for you.

Guide to the Technocracy (Mage: The Ascension)

Phil Brucato

List Price: ~~$25.95~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The real guide to the good guys/gals... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

When I was first introduced to Mage:TA, I wondered why everyone thought the Technocratic Union were the antagonists. After reading a few of the first convention books I could see why. As much as I loved the group from the beginning, I had to admit they weren't suitable for play.
With the release of Guide to the Technocracy, it seemed as though the whole Union had been reorganized. Not only are the Technocrats more human, their goals are geared more towards the protection of humanity from the horrors of the unknown. White Wolf did a really good job with this book. It succeeded in making a former faceless monolith into a living entity with a feel of humanity. The Technocracy tries to be the good-guys, but like with any group, there are always those who are in the gray areas. The Technocracy is not better or worse than the Traditions. They are just another group of mages who believe in science and reason.
The history of the Union was a fascinating read and the art is alright. The book has all the information you need to create a Technocratic agent along with info on a handful of procedures, cybernetics, and devices. The information on the various conventions is detailed enough so that the previous guides are not really needed, though they can still be helpful.
This book is a must for any fan of the Technocracy. It flows smoothly and really improves on the once monolithic and inhuman Union. It is perfect for players who want to play secret agents, cyborgs, deep space explorers, space marines, or any other modern or sci-fi character.

Book of Shadows: Mage Players Guide

Emrey Barnes, Bill Bridges, Phil Brucato, Jim Moore

List Price: ~~$18.00~~
By: White Wolf Publishing
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

More useful than great 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The book of shadows, which was written between the publishing of the 1st and second editions of Mage, is at this point slightly "behind the times," especially what with the release of Mage 3rd edition. Somewhere between irrelevant and necessary. Has some good basic material on the various Mage fringes, as well as a lot of expanded stuff for character creation.

A good oldie showing it's age 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a good book which has a lot of information to make your character richer (merits and flaws, extra skills, more detailed information on each Tradition, the Technocracy and others, etc.). However, most of the sections in this book are beginning to show their age, as the information presented here has been revised and updated to much more practical information in several other Mage books. The section with the parables, though, is still one of my favorite Mage reads.

Disappointment but bright moments 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Though an interesting book I found that much of the facts and historical references were poorly researched if researched at all. It appears that this is a useful playing tool but the facts are all wrong.

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Brucato, Phil Books

Justin Achilli, Andrew Bates, Phil Brucato, Richard E. Dansky, Ed Hall, Robert Hatch, Michael B. Lee

Kevin Murphy, Phil Brucato, Brian Campbell, Chris Hind

Phil Brucato, Rachelle Udell

Justin Achilli, Phil Brucato, Jackie Cassada, Mark Cenczyk

Phil Brucato

Steven Brown, Phil Brucato, Robert Hatch

Phil Brucato, James Estes

Phil Brucato, Brian Campbell, Kay Reynolds, Kathleen Ryan

Phil Brucato

Emrey Barnes, Bill Bridges, Phil Brucato, Jim Moore