Post originally by Dan Hemmens at 2004-10-16 04:33:27
Converted from Phorums BB System

"So, I'm fine with the idea that there's no pre-written "truth" about Seven, I'm sure that with a little work any of us could make up a dozen different motivations for them. Or him, who says VII isn't one crazed vamp serial killer preying on other vamps who just tries to make it look like an organization. I merely was surprised that Wood, who's review was so perceptive in so many other ways, missed the, IMNSHO, obvious gaming potential of this great idea."

I can't speak for Wood, because I'm not him, but since I also miss the obvious gaming potential of this great idea I figured I'd have a stab at providing an explaination.

Ideas - IMNSHO - are only useful in one of two stages. They are useful in their very simplest form: "There's a bunch of vampires who hunt other vampires, they may or may not be organised". They are useful if *fully* developed: "There is a bloodline called the Burakumin, they are an offshoot of the nosferatu as a result of certain vagieries of the caste system of feudal japan...". What White Wolf so often does is take the (once again, IMNSHO) completely useless middle road, they get a half-decent idea ("theres a bunch of vampires that hunt other vampires") and then, instead of developing it, just try to tell you how cool and mysterious it is ("and they're called Seven and nobody knows anything about them, and if you try to read their minds, you get only the roman numeral for Seven - how spooky is that")

If the writeup on "Seven" was "there's a groups of vampires, sometimes called 'Seven', that preys on other vampires" then it would have huge roleplaying potential. However as it is, the writeup gives you just enough information to hugely restrict your use of the concept. Your "one lone psycho" idea, for example, falls down, because a single lone psycho isn't going to have the resources to grant eery single "seven" vampire the powers that they - according to the writeup - possess.

Pretty much the entire writeup of the Seven consists of WW telling us, over and over again, how incredibly mysterious they are. It is not, IMNSHO, the job of a core rulebook to create a sense of mystery. That is for GMs to do in their own games.