A not-so-indepth overview of 3 fairly popular Chronicles of Darkness fanbooks, Chapter 1: Ocean Man...
Leviathan!
This game started as a joke, riffing on the idea of a “Creature of the Black Lagoon” TTRPG, much like Promethean is a Frankenstein game. You’ll notice this is a bit of a pattern: jokes being taken too far. Frankly, I’d be surprised if some official World of Darkness stuff weren’t jokes taken too far, too; how else can you explain Insert gameline you don’t like here?
The game cold opens with its backstory, which has been mentioned above, and the core themes of the game. Mainly that of Puberty (fitting for a Shadows over Innsmouth-inspired book, I suppose) and Stagnation, the idea that the Leviathan tribes are stuck retreading the same old ground over and over again. Then there’s a big glossary; I’ll skip it for now and talk about these terms when they come up, but I’ll keep the page open while writing, just in case.
The Leviathans have, say it with me now: A long, extended ancient history that dates back to ancient biblical times. Specifically, the very start of the universe! The idea is that the Leviathans are each the descendants of Tiamat, the formless chaos that existed before the universe. They are beings of Not, fundamentally incompatible with our current world, creatures from an ancient aborted phase of creation, driven to destruction and suffering by a drive that they can’t describe. Some can suppress it, becoming stagnant and repeating the same destructive cycles again and again, never improving. This gives the Leviathan a compelling dilemma: they can suppress their chaotic nature and retread the same harmful cycles over and over, or they can give in to chaos and become Typhons, creatures of pure destruction. The game makes it pretty clear that the creation myth of the Leviathans may be entirely untrue. And reading it, it feels like a very idealized version of events. The Leviathans were once kings and demigods of a primordial world ruled by Tiamat, and everything was fine and PEACHY, y’know, except that humans felt oppressed and non-progenitors lived mostly pointless lives. Hence, the humans rebelled and overthrew the Leviathans, creating a new world in an event known as The Tempest. Y’know, other than that, everything was fine. To quote the book itself, “The sundering of the world might be another of the convenient, self-forgiving myths that the Tribe use to justify their behaviour and the way they treat humanity. “
Anyways, the game uses the term “miscegenated” to refer to the Leviathans after this. So that’s real cool. For the record, I imagine it's just talking about Shadows over Innsmouth here, but it does lead into the game having some kinda uncomfy themes. The game goes more into each of the “Progenitors”, the demigods that each of the Leviathans descend from, each being named after a mythological figure representing the Ocean in some way. We’ll get to them later in a rapid-fire rundown, but for now, all you need to know is that each had some role in the primordial world. The game then talks about random mythological bits and pieces of the Tribe, mostly fluff and cautionary tales meant to tie into the gameplay. The game then goes on to detail the various Schools of Thought that each of the Leviathans has; again, we’ll come back to them, but they serve as your secondary clan affiliation, like Orders in M- can’t say mainline WoD games here- like Callings in Princess!, and represent the Leviathan’s stance on their own existence, and what they want to do with their monstrous life. It also details the effects of “The Wake”, a subconscious psychic imprint that causes mortals to fear, submit, or become enraged at the Leviathan; servants of a Leviathan’s cult are known as Beloved, rivals are known as Ahabs, and those immune are known as Atolls. Oh also, the game mentions the player’s party is known as a Cohort, and they’re known for being temporary and quickly imploding from drama.
Ok, time for the rapid-fire Clan/School roundup!
Starting with the strains:
Bahamut: Bahamutans are Big. Very big. Every Progenitor is massive, but Bahamutans in particular are proud of their size and strength. They’re also, very notably, pretty relaxed in their fish-puberty? They’re defined by a feeling of belonging, like they’re finally doing something right in their life, and also they get fucking JACKED. Frankly, they feel more like a superhero than a true fish horror freak; when fully transformed, they appear as massive, nearly incomprehensible beings. They get access to the Vitality, Awareness, Fecundity, and Might vestiges. More on those later
Dagon: Dagonites are cunning, manipulative, and obsessed with experimentation. Their fish puberty has random animals following them around; some even spawn from their blood. They’re defined by confusion: are the animals part of them? Or are they a part of the animals? They have a natural conquering instinct and often travel to take over larger and larger areas; when fully transformed, they appear as stereotypical Shadows over Innsmouth deep ones, with large, bulging eyes and gaping mouths. They get access to the vestiges of Fecundity, Elements, Predation, and Sanctity
Lahmu: Lahamin are sneaky bastards; their tribe has deadly spines and poisons, which they utilize to take down anyone who opposes them. They’re great at reading people, and when their puberty comes, they often become angered and corrupted by being able to, for the first time, truly see what others think of them, which is worsened by the fact that now people are being affected by the Wake, intensifying emotions felt about them. Their true form appears as sea-floor freaks; softened bodies of sea worms or the exoskeletons of trilobites, snails, and shellfish are common. They get access to the vestiges of Awareness, Fecundity, Predation, and Sanctity
Nu: Nu are most connected to water; they’re described as beautiful in an ethereal sense, like an octopus swimming, and they often struggle to realize where they end and the water starts during puberty. Their true form appears as spineless sea life, such as Octopi, Tadpoles, and squid. They get access to the vestiges of Elements, Awareness, Sanctity and Vitality
Oceanus: Oceanids are your most stereotypical merfolk, selkies, and other such creatures. They’re described as the most “Human” of the Leviathans; some are even FULLY human outside the bottom half of their bodies… but with this beauty, they’re expected to be the most predatory, by nature. Their puberty is described as feeling challenged by the world, like you need to do everything in your life More. Their evolution is mostly human, with hints of the ocean's shallows, invoking tropical fish and marine mammals. They get access to the vestiges of Sanctity, Elements, Might, and Predation
Tannin: the Tannimin control through fear; they see themselves as the tribe's judges, intimidating and masters of their natural weaponry. They’re described as combative and loving to fight. During their puberty, it's described that they’ll completely take over a family, due to both their dominant nature as well as the fact that their evolution manifests as a condition that requires one to immerse themselves in increasingly larger bodies of water. Their evolution is filled with natural weapons, claws, spines, rows of teeth, and just a general air of violence. They get access to the vestiges of Predation, Awareness, Might, and Vitality
Thalassa: The Thalassan are the Rich Kid caste; as of writing this, I don’t know what order these are gonna be released in, but imagine them as the general “Rich Kid” archetype that a lot of WOD games use, including the ones in this series. They LOVE money and are naturally inclined to hoard. Their puberty more resembles a trial; they lose all the strength in their body as if they were constantly swimming against a storm. They can either cling to someone else and get their help to remain human, or gather the strength to swim against the storm to become a Leviathan demigod. Their evolution is focused on creatures of the beach, like crabs! They get the vestiges of Might, Elements, Fecundity, and Vitality
Ok, that's all the lineages, no surprise extra lineages of Even Eviler leviathans or anything; that's all of ’em. Onto the schools!
The School of the Abyss purports that Leviathans are fundamentally incompatible with humanity, and as such they need to find a place where they DO belong. That place could be physical, but most find it mental: an ideology or state of mind where they truly belong. They tend to be isolationist and lonely, and often travel the Deep the most. They evolve to gain parts that help them trawl the deep: bioluminescence, large, wary eyes, and dark forms are common. They gain access to Vitality and Awareness vestiges
The School of the Sun are the overly religious ancestor worshippers, who wish to query their ancestors for answers to most things. They’re stereotyped as often having religious backgrounds as humans, and being really keen on “traditional” roles for their lines. They often take forms that resemble the largest, most grandiose creatures of the sea; whales, Sharks, and Sea Serpent motifs are common. They gain access to the vestiges of Vitality and Sanctity
The School of Clay believe that the gap between Humans and Leviathans CAN be bridged, and wish to create a method where Humans and Leviathans can coexist together. They’re often less traditional than the other schools, rapidly adopting human technology and standards. Their transformations lean toward creatures that live both on land and in the sea, or near the land: crabs, lobsters, and shallow-water reef fish are common motifs. They gain access to the vestiges of Sanctity and Fecundity
The School of the Reef is actively violent; they view the existence of Humans and Leviathans as an ongoing war since the Tempest, and as such they believe it's a Leviathan’s duty to destroy the Tribe’s foes to reach the olden age of Leviathan dominance. Their transformations lean toward predators and warriors; the game says they resemble bunkers and fighter jets more than anything you’d see at sea. They gain access to the vestiges of Might and Predation
The School of the Fog are the knowledge seekers of the Leviathans; they want to know about the ancient history of the Leviathans and apply their solutions to modern-day problems. They’re uncharacteristically friendly toward the other schools, except the Sun, which they see as dogmatic and blinded by faith. Their transformation leans towards the alien and strange, growing extra eyes or entire heads at times. They gain the vestiges of Elements and Fecundity
SO! Here is where I would put my character creation
Small issue: I can’t
I can’t find a character sheet for this game ANYWHERE! Seriously, I looked hard, but I can’t find it.
I’ll leave you with the concept I had, I suppose. He was gonna be a Thalassa/School of Clay guy who kinda sounds like Evrart Claire from Disco Elysium, but like, for the Tribe. Good at physical and brains, but lacking in the social department, being generally unpleasant to be around and sounding overly greedy. His name would have been Eugene Kril; he would have had a lot of wealth merits but not much else.
Overall thoughts: I liked Leviathan! I think this is thematically the most “Consistent” of the games; the game’s allegories about puberty are good, the whole idea of “Puberty doesn’t just make you feel ontologically evil, it actually MAKES you want to be evil, but you can fight it! And you can win!” is great, I love it. The core issue really just is its obsession with genetics and “miscegenation.”, I didn’t bring it up, but there's this whole thing about Hybrids, half-leviathans who are intended to be your Ghoul equivalents in this game; it's at one point actually implied that Hybrids are Inbred, a result of too many generations of Cousins breeding with cousins. The game’s weird eugenics are kinda bad, but don’t let this fool you into thinking this game is bad! Its good!