Kindred of the East

Kindred of the East

Cover of Kindred of the East
Designer(s)	Rob Hatch
Publisher(s)	White Wolf
Publication date	February 1, 1998
Genre(s)	Personal Horror
System(s)	Storyteller System

Kindred of the East is a role-playing supplement by White Wolf Game Studio to their Vampire: The Masquerade line. The vanguard of White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" theme (which created "Eastern" counterparts to all of their major product lines in the World of Darkness), this rich sourcebook is a stand-alone setting, requiring only secondary rules to be fully playable. The setting spans Asia, allowing players to play the so-called Kindred of the East, vampires of Asia.

The Year of the Lotus was an event from White Wolf Publishing in 1998 which offered Asian counterparts to the existing World of Darkness lines in books like Hengeyokai: Shapeshifters of the East for Werewolf and Land of Eight Million Dreams for Changeling, as well as Vampire's hardcover release, Kindred of the East. Shannon Appelcline comments about the book: "Kindred of the East was a somewhat different sort of supplement for White Wolf. In previous years a book like that would certainly have formed the core of a whole new RPG line. However White Wolf instead used a new model that they had played with when they put out Mummy Second Edition (1997) the previous year. As a single major rulebook – but one that required another World of Darkness rulebook to play – Kindred of the East could attract some of the same attention as a new core RPG but without the need to support a new line. This offered White Wolf an alternative to the yearly churn of new game lines – though a few new lines would still appear in the following years."

Characters in Kindred of the East (or Kuei-jin, as they call themselves) are vampires as depicted in classical Japanese, Chinese, and Indian Hindu, Taoist, Shinto and Buddhist mythology. Unlike the vampires traditionally associated with Dracula or Caine, Kuei-jin were once mortals who died with the burden of unfulfilled Dharma or duties. Tortured in Yomi for their inadequacies in life, their souls successfully escaped and returned to their bodies. Now half-alive and half-dead, Kuei-jin must live by stealing chi from mortal victims to sustain themselves while trying to fulfill their Dharma. The most convenient form of chi that can be stolen is in blood, leading to their vampiric tendencies, but they cannot create new vampires. Practically all Kindred distrust the Kuei-jin. The Kuei-jin are also known to war with the other sects for territory.