Product Description

"Presents a complete chilling mental hospital, from the patients to the doctors to the rumors that surround its haunted and supernatural history. Explores the dramatic potential of medical stories in the horrific World of Darkness, including in-depth storytelling advice, compelling characters and unforgettable mysteries to investigate. Finally looks deeper into the game's controversial Morality and Derangement game systems, providing new insight into their purpose and usage for players and Storytellers alike."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #197268 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Lots of atmospherics--too little crunch
There's some great stuff in this book, no mistake, lots and lots of ideas for stories, some of them more detailed than the usual White Wolf vagaries. But White Wolf, as usual, overdoes it on the atmospherics and underdoes it on the crunch. They just don't seem to get that what we want in a book about asylums is a book that will cut down on the prep time for running a chronicle in an asylum. A good map, for example, is a pretty key, labor-intensive part of running an authoritative chronicle. But this book lacks one.

There's page after page on the fictional Bishopsgate Asylum, for example. And, while a lot of it is great hooks and playing material, some are just ideas for stories, and most would take a decent amount of time to develop. But that's fine--any decent ST will end up customizing a lot, anyhow. I got some really good ideas for my campaign here.

But what's less fine is the lack of a map for Bishopsgate! I mean, you know that in the end it's going to come down to a running gunfight, or fleeing from a Gauru patient undergoing her first change, or a game of cat and mouse with a vamp...then what? I have to scribble out a map in on graph paper? If I pay $27 for the book, I don't want to have to do that stuff myself. I can come up with atomspheric stuff like crazy; it takes me forever to come up with a good map. That's the part good writers ought to do as a matter of course, and good editors ought to insist on.

On the WW forums, the designer says:

"Truth be told, we elected not to include detailed floor plans because asylum floor plans are readily abundant with a Google search."

In other words, sort through all junk on Google: we were too lazy to do it. Sure there's some good stuff on there, but it all needs work, and most of it is unusable, or from 1800s asylum that would need to be updated to modern day, or it only includes the first floor, or it's a completely unreadable scan from an ancient piece of microfilm, etc.

A little less atmospheric fiction and a little more actual useful content, next time, please. The lack of the sort of crunch that actually cuts down on ST prep-time is something consistently lacking in this sort of WW supplement. For me, this lack cuts a whole star off the rating. Too bad, because the rest of the book is quite good.

Asylum Review
Just as Dogs of War does for Soldiers and War, and Tales from the 13th Precinct did for Cops and Law Enforcement, Aslyum delves into the disscussions about Medical characters either as NPCs or characters and on Derangements and Insanities. The book even includes a sample location of Bishopsgate for an Asylum setting to base WOD chronicles in.

It's a Book
It's a book,I kinda liked it. That's why I got it...I would do it again.