Favourite Clan Book?

With the release of the final Clan Book I have to ask; what’s your favourite clan book and why?

First I have to say that I love all five of them - the stories in all of them are quite amazing.

Second I have to say that I can't choose a favorite - there is a tie.

Ventrue: The introduction of Malkavia and Dementation brought something to the game that Masquerade had, and I did not realize I missed until seeing it revamped in this book

and

Mekhet: Adding in Post Mortem embrace gave me a lot of inspiration to start implementing subtle differences in places I hadn't before, including areas other than the embrace, that have led to me create elements of my setting that seperate the clans as different species even more than is already evident in the setting.

Also, the Hollow Mekhet and their Reflection. It is the only non-bloodline weakness that I feel actually adds something meaningful to the game.

Mekhet is the only one I was convinced to get.  (Gangrel and Nosferatu tempted me, but not enough).

My favourite would be the Ventrue book. With the additional material as free pdfs and the introducton of Malkavians I really like (something I didn't in the times of Masquerade), this book outshines the other ones. IMHO, that is. I also appreciate how interesting the Ventrue have become with their mysterious history, and how different they finally feel when compared to Masquerade's Ventrue.

The second place is Gangrel, it's the most gorgeous one and a great read. Nothing in the series made me laugh like The Count did.

Third is Nosferatu, which is nearly as good as Gangrel.

Fourth is Daeva, because it's great except Black Blood, which was a chore to read for me and didn't really add anything. Sine Black Blood is nearly a sixth of the book, it pulled Daeva down, as far as I'm concerned.

Last is the Mekhet book, because of how much it is about all the new stuff I don't like: the Hollow Mekhet and the Shadow Cults. What it lacks IMO is content about how the Mekhet are portrayed in every other book. I'm dissatisfied how much it is not about the normal clan weakness, which is still quite lame and should have been addressed in a way other than just "here's something entirely else to replace it".

Think my favorite is Mekhet; the stories as well as Shadow cults and porst-mortem embrace are all just awesome and gives me a lot of new stuff to toy around with.

Ventrue…

If ever a writer could go out on a high this is an extraordinary example of exactly how to do such a thing, a tremendous kudos to Will Hindmarch for a job so incredibly well done. Certain aspects that particularly enamoured myself to this work above all others are; 1) the incredible cover design, 2) The Noble Crime of Tyranny - p.44, 3) The Mogul - p.50, 4) Houston Letters - p.55. A wondrous insight into post-Katrina New Orleans with a hint of the Striges, 5) Unorthodox Ventrue - p.68-84. The pages pertaining to King Rat have to be a particular favourite of mine. Indeed, I personally feel that this Clan Book benefited the most from exemplars of “unorthodox clan-mates”. 6) Malkavia - p.95.

Any whilst not officially a part of Lords Over the Damned I have to provide further kudos to Will Hindmarch for the 3 downloadable pieces of work that didn’t make the final cut for the book. Of these pieces of work my personal favourite was The Sharp, perhaps another somewhat less than orthodox Ventrue in his own right. Furthermore, thanks to the Author’s Notes I shall never forget the immortally vital words pertaining to the Ven; …some Ventrue might just be lords of trailer parks, but they’re always lords of something.

Ventrue, having played RfR and coming to grips with some of the origins of them as well as reading through the books i gotta say that the fluff in the ventrue book is the best.

Vosoros:

Ventrue…

If ever a writer could go out on a high this is an extraordinary example of exactly how to do such a thing, a tremendous kudos to Will Hindmarch for a job so incredibly well done. Certain aspects that particularly enamoured myself to this work above all others are; 1) the incredible cover design, 2) The Noble Crime of Tyranny - p.44, 3) The Mogul - p.50, 4) Houston Letters - p.55. A wondrous insight into post-Katrina New Orleans with a hint of the Striges, 5) Unorthodox Ventrue - p.68-84. The pages pertaining to King Rat have to be a particular favourite of mine. Indeed, I personally feel that this Clan Book benefited the most from exemplars of “unorthodox clan-mates”. 6) Malkavia - p.95.

Any whilst not officially a part of Lords Over the Damned I have to provide further kudos to Will Hindmarch for the 3 downloadable pieces of work that didn’t make the final cut for the book. Of these pieces of work my personal favourite was The Sharp, perhaps another somewhat less than orthodox Ventrue in his own right. Furthermore, thanks to the Author’s Notes I shall never forget the immortally vital words pertaining to the Ven; …some Ventrue might just be lords of trailer parks, but they’re always lords of something.

Hindmarch is the Ventrue clanbook, make no mistake of that.

That being said, I'll just throw out a note here that I contributed a not-insubstantial amount of word count for that book as a "backup" author.

Just putting it out there.

Hmmm...  Tough.  I rather adore all five of them, they're without a doubt some of the best material for the Requiem line.  And I like each for their own reasons.

I think Gangrel contributed the most to the game as a whole. The Red Surrender and the discussion on Draugr both clicked with me well.

Mekhet's fiction was the most engaging read.

Daeva was exactly what it should have been, it's very cleverly written. Although, it didn't really have an "appendix" section talking about a strong new game element, the way the others did.

Ventrue twisted preconceived notions the most.

Nosferatu I think fit most with the feel of the clan both visually and verbally.

I have to start with saying that all 5 may be some of the most well written books in the V:tR game. But for an order of liking them, I would have to go with:
1) Mekhet: This, I believe, has the most engaging characters. Frances is amazing and Nitokris is the perfect example of the bat-shit crazy elder. I love the Hollow Mekhet and the Post-Mortem Embrace. I also greatly enjoy the Norvegi bloodline and the Shadow Cults, espcially the Moulding Room. Wood did an amazing job with this.
2)Ventrue: This, as machineiv said, twisted preconcieived notions the most, and I also love the presentation of Malkavia and the new Dementation.
3) A tie between Gangrel and Nosferatu: Both were very well done, with the Nos very much flowing with the clan description and theme and the Gangrel expanding on the themes with much greater depth.
5) Daeva: Not that there was anything wrong with the book, but I've just never really liked the Deava.

terribleminds:

Hindmarch is the Ventrue clanbook, make no mistake of that.

That being said, I'll just throw out a note here that I contributed a not-insubstantial amount of word count for that book as a "backup" author.

Just putting it out there.

As such you elicit a most reverent nod of appreciation for your contributions from myself - perhaps you’d care to remind us all as to the specifics of your work, including any parts of the 3 PDF’s made freely available. In the same spirit of appreciation a revenant nod is furthermore extended to Russell Bailey.

I'd have to say the Nosferatu clanbook is my favourite one out of the five. The way that it portrayed different examples of how you could play a Nosferatu, the ability to tailor your clan weakness to include visual impact as well (so you do more than just describe your Nosferatu as hideous or not hideous) - and then there is my favourite thing out of the entire book: the Necropolis. So much potential there for creative thought when it comes to describing what your Nosferatu's pseudo-sewer looks like.

If I had to rank the other clanbooks 2 to 5, well, they are:

2) Gangrel, courtesy of the section on the Draugr, the fiction being top-shelf, and the fact that Gangrel is my second-favourite and most played clan (used to be my most favourite clan until I read the Nosferatu book). Plus, it gives a lot of potential for playing up the monstrous side of the Damned without needing to turn your character into Draugr (although playing too monstrous is bound to lead you down that path quick-smart).

3) Ventrue, which I didn't mind, but the resurrection of the Malkavians wasn't really my favourite part by a long shot. It gives too much leeway for the fishmalks to crash the party in the future. Although the various cultural stuff was fun to read.

4) Mekhet, thanks to the quality of the artwork itself, as well as the Norvegi bloodline and the Moulding Room cult.

5) Daeva, which didn't have all that much which could help expand on the Clan side of any prospective Succubi character I might want to play in the future (sorry, but I can't see myself playing a Cacophany vampire magazine writer. I just can't).

1.  Gangrel - I'm biased toward them, but even accounting for that, I think it was the best written of the bunch.

2.  Mekhet  - I never much cared for the Mekhet, but this shed some light on what they're about and made them a lot more interesting to me.  I like the Hallow and all the cult stuff.  Though, I'm reserving judgement on the Norvegi.  They were supposed to be inbred degenerate thieves, but they turned out as degenerate assassins.

3.  Nosferatu - I'm still reading...  not a lot of crunchy bits in this one, but not bad.

4.  Ventrue - I need to read this one, started it and didn't get far...  I like playing them; I think reading about them is not as interesting.

5.  Daeva - I tried several times to read this one and it couldn't hold my attention, but they've always been my least favorite clan.

1. Gangrel

1.  Mekhet - Number one on my list, clan I fiddle with ideas the most, and heavily biased.  I love the portrayal of their mentality, from seeing connections to succumbing to The Beast.  I also enjoyed the post-mortum Embrace and the Bloodlines in this book. 

2.  Nosferatu - I was never a fan of the Fuglies in oWoD, but wow to this book!  It gave the feel of the Nos in a very noir manner.  I think my favorite is Nicodemus visiting the surgeon and find out about that very special patient! :)

3. Gangrel - Currently working on this one, higher than the other simply because I favor Gangrel over the remaing two.

4.  Ventrue - I have yet to read this one though I did glance.  I liked this Malkavian concept, it really plays up on the more creepier aspects of insanity.

5.  Daeva - I have yet to read this one and saving this for last.  Daeva are the least appealing to me as a whole and after a quick glance at the book, I'm going to guess they will remain so.