Speaking of kewl powerz, the book has those as well, providing examples of high level Chimerstry powers, as well as some neat multidiscipline powers (though I don’t quite get how Animalism and Chimerstry combine to allow a Ravnos to appear like a Cathayan…). Sure, I admit it, I’m a goob for strange bloodlines and offshoots of a clan, even if they don’t actually have any specialty kewl powerz. Beyond just giving run-downs of Ravnos activity and hints of elders that survived the Week of Nightmares, it also did an excellent job of showing how much the clan differs from one region to another and it provides enough hints and allusions to imagine one or two unique bloodlines of the clan surviving in remote locations. Moving along, the tour of Ravnos around the world again contained a number of gems.

That concern for family and stratified organization was an addition to the clan I really liked, although it seems less overt in the modern day, making for a noticeable difference between the modern clan and its predecessors. The castes provide a concern for lineage and “proper place” that loosely mirrors the clan’s obsession with bloodline, lineage and family in Vampire: the Dark Ages (the clanbook for which was also written by the same author, incidentally). In the culture sections, we get a look at castes of Ravnos in India, which are almost a carbon copy of those within India itself. I’m not entirely sold on it, however, and I wonder if just retconning and ignoring the pervious stereotypes wouldn’t have been better. There is also something of an explanation as to why Ravnos have been assumed to by “Gypsy vampires,” despite being a clan that predates that culture by untold millennia. It even admits how silly it is, and driven more by competition over food than any real righteous war. Plus it loosely ties in with other legends scattered around the World of Darkness, including that of the Kuei-jin and the rivalry with the Gangrel. The history chapter includes an alternate tale for the creation of the clan, containing no mention of Caine at all, something that is always welcome. All of that has become pretty standard, but it’s of much better quality here. There’s a big chapter on history followed by some culture and a quick tour of Ravnos around the world, along with a bunch of new powers and templates (complete with more excellent Leif Jones artwork).

We get all the standard stuff that we’ve come to expect from White Wolf splatbooks. Of the revised clanbooks I’ve read, only Dean Shomshak’s Clanbook: Followers of Set is better. I was eagerly awaiting the clanbook, hoping for a real look at the Ravnos, and finally I have it. The clan has gone from one unimaginative, two-dimensional stereotype to another and then, just when they were getting interesting and being fleshed out properly, they were largely axed from the setting. The Ravnos are among the three most butchered clans in Vampire, the other two being the Assamites and Followers of Set.

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