I heard rumors of some product by White Wolf that was to cover the oceans of the World of Darkness a long time ago and to be honest I was skeptical, not sure whether to believe that such a work would ever be released and not sure whether it would be any good. When the book first appeared here at totem's doorstep, I was surprised. It was true after all, there really was a book all dealing with the seafolk and oceanic depths. Hmmm, but would it be any good.

Well, I will give you details as to why here in a second, if you can just hold on a bit, but let me start by saying that Blood-Dimmed Tides is exactly the sort of sourcebook I wish that White Wolf would produce all of the time. It is packed with lots of little tidbits and details to start the wheels turning as to how you could include the majesty and horror of stories from ancient mariners to ghost ships to modern sci-fi underwater explorations in any or all of the White Wolf World of Darkness games. Yet, it is not so precise or definitive as to crowd out your own creativity--no, it stirs ideas without freezing them into some sort of crystalline "This is how it is." I was also happy to discover that it didn't seem to suffer from any of the occasional tendency for interproduct inconsistencies and contradictions. Blood-Dimmed Tides maintains, if you will pardon the pun, a tight ship with regard to the spirit of the rest of the World of Darkness.

So what does the book actually include? Well, it takes a shotgun approach with something to offer no matter what your favorite World of Darkness game. 

For vampire, we are given a section that discusses the Gangrel Mariners, or aquarii. Obviously, these rare loners are from a line that develops the animal characteristics of water born creatures.  They also use their own strange form of Protean. We are also granted an insight into the odd attraction to the sea born by the Lasombra clan. This strange behavior is supported with roleplaying information about the Sabbat and Lasombra antitribu pirate ships and new merits and flaws to allow the rules to represent the extent of the dark connection between the shadow clan and the dark depths. Most vampires aren't exactly enamored of the sea, and a few minor rules are included to explain why for those who might need them.

The section on Werewolf would normally have been consumed with details of the Rokea, but as White Wolf intends to release an entire sourcebook on the changing sharks they had to do something different. Drawing from ages of horror stories about the sea, they introduce us to new clammy hearted Banes and some terrors so old that no one knows their true origins. The fear of the unknown preached by Lovecraft comes bubbling to the surface in this section of the book. Some of Pentex's little plots to destroy the lifeblood of the world, our seas, take a shape nebulous and dangerous enough that the storyteller should have no problem inventing stories to make his player wolves go for a swim.

I was kind of disappointed in the Mage portion of the book. Basically all it does is point out every little pet project that the writers seem to think that the different Traditions and Technocracy conventions would have and not much else. There are very good little pieces of suggestions on how to relax the vulgarity of magic in the sea to reflect the unconquered  nature of our mother and given the very dynamic nature of Mage these suggestions will likely be enough for many storytellers. Still, I somehow expected a little more in the way of undersea magic--there is after all a very marine theme in their Mage Tarot deck for many of the Primordial imagery. 

Since ghost ships are such a popular part of the legendry of the sea anyway, it came as no surprise to me that the Wraith portion of the book spent a great deal of time discussing popular stories and how to incorporate your own ectoplasmic vessels in your campaign. Major factions are discussed a little and some special rules to reflect wraith interaction with the sea are introduced. If you want ghost ships, this section will help you, but don't expect there to be enough material that  you won't have to and want to create a lot more.

The Changeling portion of the book introduces two new fae races, both alternate types of mer-creatures. The history of the two races is intertwined and does a good job of reflecting the nature of the Seelie and Unseelie ways in a culture where the physical reflection of one's nature is enforced by the dreams of the sea. The merfolk are seductresses and oceanic sorcerers, while their horrific counterparts are the source of many tales of disappearances and monstrous sightings. I was most impressed by the point that was well made--when the merfolk lose their fae nature, banality kills them by drowning or crushing them under the ocean's pressure. The tales of their Sundering make one think that the land fae had it easy.

The final section of Blood-Dimmed Tides (no it does not focus on hunters and indeed the book has only a couple of paragraphs for those hoping to glean some sort of mortal conspiracy from the work)  expands on rules unique to the environment of the sea that are universal to the World of Darkness games. More detailed treatments of swimming and combat beneath the waves is given. A few new weapons and a number of new flaws and merits make their appearance. 

Blood-Dimmed Tides gives you lots of food for thought on how to introduce the largest part of the surface of our earth into the World of Darkness setting. It will bring you a net full of wriggling ideas, begging to be cast into your stories, yet it will not spell out everything for you. I think that you will find this new release inspires you to try some new stories, yet changes the landscape of the earthbound World of Darkness so little that it will not disrupt your game any more than perhaps a few faint ripples unless you wish to dive into the setting full force.