I got my copy as a Black & White Softcover (bring back this option!) and it's held up for many years, despite heavy use and frequent abuse.

I missed out on the Kickstarter, but I grabbed my print-on-demand as soon as I learned of it and I couldn't be happier. The rules have been updated, the setting adjusted to account for geograpical borders shifting, major world events, technology, and minor tweaks have been made to clarify wording that more squeamish and sensitive payers (why are you playing a horror game, btw?) uncomfortable. It's not preachy of full of itself like Fifth Edition, the layout is straight-forward and it provides everything you need to run a game without relying on hard-baked setting and plot like the latest vers- bastardization of the game nearly forces you to do.

Old players and new will see a mixture of artwork that encompasses the whole of the franchise history scattered throughout the pages, providing a sense of nostalgia and inspiring ideas for various characters, story seeds, dramatic elements, and styles of gameplay, all of which are highly encouraged by the book itself. Examples of rules and systems are placed within the proper sections, along with quick-reference "cheat sheets" that are easy to scan and print to avoid excessive page-turning, while the thoroughness and detail ensures that you can (and will) find exactly what you're looking for, as well as an example that will not only say "this is what it does" but "this is how to adust as needed." Guesswork is kept to a minimum and rules that feel unwieldy or convoluted are easily altered or omitted. Unlike Fifth Edition, this is even encouraged in order to make sure the game flows as intended. Where Fith Edition feels like a "rulebook," this feels more like a traveler's guide of suggested sights and activities.

The font size is perfect for extended reading in most situations, though it does make the book a bit large and clunky. However, what they manage to pack into this single tome is more than enough to expand greatly upon the average game. Using the only basic Camarilla Clans and the standard tropes referenced throughout the book, one doesn't even need to worry about playing other Clans or Bloodlines for quite a while, but all of the information for doing so is easily available. There's even information on long-dead groups of vampires that seems to merely bulk the page count until you realize the potential for flashbacks and historical settings that previously required whole other source books. When you take that into consideration, you have to wonder how they managed to get it all in the book without using fine print and magnifying glasses.

There are references to characters and settings from the older books but the lore isn't as firmly-entrenched in the writing as it used to be. There's no sense of "well, the Final Nights are here, so I guess the game's gonna be short." There's no pressure to inclue the likes of Theo Bell, Sascha Vikos, Lucita, or Jan Pieterzoon because they appear in every chapter. In fact, most of the Kindred that older fans know and love is given a loving nod in a love letter to long nights in the past with good friends (and better rivals!) around a table where the sunrise came too soon and the intrigues never ceased. You won't find the encouragement and pressure to use a version of Atlanta that has been ransacked by the Sabbat, or to include a shotgun-toting Brujah Archon in a ball cap for any of your stories... but the writers leave it wholly open to do so.

Where older versions and the abomination of Fifth Edition have plotlines hammered into many facets of the game, "V20" is a set of tools and a traveler's guide that flashes you a fanged smile and bids you to explore the World of Darkness as you choose.

It doesn't ask you to subscribe to it's ways, but merely Embraces you and welcomes you the extended family.

Due to some issues with scheduling and one of our players not bothering to put together a character for Werewolf: the Apocalypse, I decided to run a session of Howl to give a player who is 100% new to tabletop RPGs ad idea of what she'd be getting into once her own werewolf is more developed and powerful... without getting into all the really dirty details and the finer points of the rules system.

The rules are super-easy and the overall gameplay is incredibly smooth and fast, letting everyone at the table enjoy a minimalist roleplaying experience with all the flavor of the World of Darkness. I gave my group an extra 20hp to start just to let them feel a little "beefier" and to allow them a chance to make mistakes without instantly dire consequences.

They LOVED it!

We played a 2-hour session after spending about a half-hour making characters (only had one laptop and no printed copies so sharing was a challenge) but everyone was super-excited to carry on with the one-shot story I fabricated only hours prior, so it might be a plot hook for the full game. The player who was dragging their feet also decided to roll up a brand new character, inspired by their largely randomized character in Howl, and we're all super-excited to see it come to life with the full rules of W:tA.

My only gripes concern the layout and how the (ONLY) seven pages all run together with little to no formatting to denote breaks in segments and rules interjected between character creation segments. In PDF format, you can very easily scroll right past the exact thing you're looking to find. We have yet to print copies, but copy/pasting text to a word processor would allow all the edits we could ask for. Switch a few things around and it's even a perfect handout for a gaming group to enjoy a session at the table when a player is running late or unable to make game night.

Overall, it was an amazing experience in less than 3 hours of total time. We are now actually looking forward to days when the group cannot all be present, instead of just cancelling!

4.5/5

By Crom, this is a great deal! At first, I was a little skeptical and left a request for more information after reader what others had posted on this collection. Within just a day or two, the publisher got right back to me and had confirmed everything was in working order, so I jumped in on the purchase as a surprise for my players. The wealth information at my fingertips makes me feel as though I've stumbled upon an ancient library of forgotten lore, buried for millenia beneath the jungles of The Black Coast. The quality of every page is marvelous and I have yet to encounter any trouble with the files themselves. Aside from a few of the grammatical and spelling errors one would expect of scribes being pressured under pain of flogging, the charts, tables, and various informative sections are expertly constructed while the new mechanics, creature encounters, items, and sorcerous abilities seem perfectly balanced with the game and its many new archetypes. I have yet to delve into the ancient texts pre-dating the 2d20 system, but a conversion guide is available for those bold historians who wish to take their learning a step further without the need to first become masters of the old ways of the d20 era. The fact that these manuscripts and guides remain at all is a marvel on its own, but their inclusion in this bundle makes for an amazing deal that is more tempting than the fabled Heart of the Elephant. With all that I own now, thinking that there will be future additions at no cost has me thrilled to face down the horrors of the Hyborian Age with a band of dog brothers and sisters, eager to bloody the sands at our feet. Do not pass up this wonderful opportunity!