Pyramid Review
Blood Treachery (for Mage: The Ascension/Vampire: The Masquerade)
Published by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
Written by Scott Cohen and Steve Michael DiPesa
$14.95
I don't think I've ever been entirely satisfied with a World of Darkness crossover product. I liked Chaos Factor more than most people, and I still didn't like it too much. Dark Alliance: Vancouver felt like it took a bit too much away from both werewolves & vampires to bring them together.
Blood Treachery is a crossover of sorts, but one that doesn't really forget its source material. It's quite definitely a sourcebook for Mage, with all the oddness and beauty that entails.
The story is as such: with their magic beginning to fade and sputter, the forces of the Order of Hermes begin to panic. In that panic, they decide that a good best course of action is to take back information taken by the Mages of house Tremere, when they became vampires.
The Tremere, of course, aren't in a hurry to let their mortal counterparts abscond with their store of occult materials. Hence, the second Massasa war (Massasa is fancy Mage talk for 'undead'). The book describes the events of the war nicely. The end (it's more a stop than an end) is satisfying, and the aftermath serves to weaken the Hermetics as well as (hopefully) awaken them to their duties.
The book's format is, to say the least, unique; it is written as a Greek tragedy, with the oracles of Mage's nine spheres acting as the chorus. The . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: September 8, 2000
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