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White Wolf's World of Darkness
Moridan
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Registered User regular
The world is not what you think. Beneath skyscrapers' leering gargoyles, factories belching smoke and streets packed with the human throng lurk things we are not meant to see. Creatures dwell in the shadows and hidden places.They watch you, stalk you and prey upon your body and soul. The life you lead is a lie. Your darkest fears aren't make-believe.
They're real.
What Is The World Of Darkness?
We can’t know when humans first started telling stories, or why. But it’s a safe bet that the first tale tellers used their craft to explain the mysteries going on around them. Indeed, some of the most ancient stories that are still told today grapple with the biggest mysteries of all — life, death, creation, redemption and the ongoing struggle of good versus evil. The World Of Darkness is a Storytelling game, because it’s an opportunity for you to participate in the deeply human endeavor of telling stories.
The stories told in this game are set in the World of Darkness. It’s a place very much like our world, sharing the same history, culture and geography. Superficially, most people in this fictional world live the same lives we do. They eat the same food, wear the same clothes, and waste time watching the same stupid TV shows. And yet, in the World of Darkness, shadows are deeper, nights are darker, fog is thicker. If, in our world, a neighborhood has a rundown house that gives people the creeps, in the World of Darkness, that house emits strange sighs on certain nights of the year, and seems to have a human face when seen from the corner of one’s eye. Or so some neighbors say. In our world, there are urban legends. In the World of Darkness, there are urban legends whispered into the ears of autistic children by invisible spiders.
The Elements of Stylish Horror
The World of Darkness book presents rules for playing a type of roleplaying game called Storytelling. In this type of game, the traditional elements of a story — theme, mood, plot and character — are more important than the rules themselves. The rules serve to help you tell stories about your characters in an interactive experience. They help prevent arguments and provide a solid basis for handling elements of chance, but they don’t overshadow the story itself. The triumphs and tragedies of your characters as they try to survive and even thrive in the World of Darkness are the main focus, not dice rolls or lists of traits.
Storytelling games involve at least two, although preferably four or more players. Everybody involved in the game participates in telling a group story — the players create and act out the roles of their characters, and the Storyteller creates and reveals the plot, introducing allies and antagonists with which the players’ characters interact. The players’ choices throughout the course of the Storytelling experience alter the plot. The Storyteller’s job isn’t to defend his story from any attempt to change it, but to help create the story as events unfold, reacting to the players’ choices and weaving them into a greater whole, introducing secondary characters and exotic settings. In order to play the supernatural creatures that inhabit The World of Darkness, you must purchase a companion book such as...
Vampires: blood-drinking creatures of the night. Horrors born of darkness, whose sole purpose in life - unlife, actually - is to slake their unholy thirst on the blood of the living. Without doubt, vampires are monsters.
Monsters, though, need not always be unthinking, unfeeling terrors empty of remorse, or even compassion or other human traits. Indeed, vampires can exceed their deathless curse, themselves becoming antiheroes or even heroes.
Then again, some vampires truly remain monsters.
This is the purpose of Vampire: The Requiem. It is a Modern Gothic Storytelling game, a roleplaying game that allows you to build chronicles that explore morality through the metaphor of vampirism. In Vampire, you “play the monster,†and what you do as that monster both makes for an interesting story and might even teach you a little about your own values and those of your fellows.
In Werewolf: The Forsaken, the second Storytelling game set in the World of Darkness, you and your friends tell the story of some of these monsters, namely those abandoned men and women who inherit the legacy of the werewolf.
Neither wholly spirit nor flesh, the Uratha (as werewolves call themselves in their ancient language) are creatures of two worlds. Since the beginning of time, they have tended the Shadow Realm while staking out territory in the physical world and ruling it as the ultimate apex predators. Yet for the sacrifice of their ailing forebear, the Uratha have been forsaken by their former spirit allies and consigned to a physical world that knows only fear. Now they can rely only on each other, their mother Luna, and what few spirit allies they've managed to wrestle back into submission. They must stand on the threshold between two worlds swarming with enemies.
Despite their outcast state, the werewolves are not helpless prey. They can assume any of five natural forms, each with its own special advantages. They can heal even the most grievous injuries in seconds. The allies they have regained in the Shadow Realm have given them special Gifts and taught them special rites, each with profound magical effects. Their fickle mother Luna has graced them with her love and divided their slain father's legacy between them, each portion corresponding to one of the moon's five phases. And when their spirit prey tries to escape into the Shadow Realm, they can even pursue it across the Gauntlet that stands between the sundered worlds. As long as the Uratha can keep the disparate urges of their divided souls in harmony (balancing spirit and flesh while also balancing beast and man), they stand to inherit the mantle to which they were born.
In Mage: The Awakening, the third World of Darkness Storytelling game, you and your friends tell stories set in this world, in which you reveal these secrets and unravel the Mysteries of Creation. Those who do so successfully Awaken to the greatest mystery of all-that the rules of reality are not as hard and fast as everyone thinks.
By forging mystical paths to realms beyond the material world, the Awakened (known as wizards, sorcerers, and mages) can impose the laws of those higher realms on this world. Doing so, they can shed light on what hides in the World of Darkness and work great wonders tempered only by their wisdom. Yet for all their power and insight, the Awakened are still human, subject to the same failings and shortsightedness all humanity suffers. They must temper their wonders with wisdom, lest the friction between opposing laws of disparate realities cause an uncontrollable Paradox. Nor can they cavalierly expose the secrets their Awakenings reveal to them. Some secrets are hidden from Sleeping humanity for good reasons, and it is only the proud, foolish mage who casts into the light those things best exiled to shadow.
What's more, a mage does well to keep his pride in check, as pride goeth before a fall. There's always another mage out there with just a bit more power or who knows just a little more about what's hidden in the darkness...
A few years ago, White Wolf revised its game entire line, rebuilding the ruleset, and the settings themselves, into something more workable. Personally, I feel the changes were both needed and very welcome, especially since the WoD now supports play as a normal human, discovering the terrible truths about the monsters around him. This thread is in appreciation to these awesome RPGs.
Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Moridan on
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I will warn you in advance. There are quite a few of us here who LIKED the old WoD.
While the restructuring of the rulebooks made sense (one central hub with the different types of games being spokes off of it), I just plain could not get into the new world they crafted.
And the new mage is a travesty, IMO.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
And also quite many who also like new one.
I'm of mixed emotions with the new Mage. Some parts of it I love, and some parts I liked better the way they were. And worse yet, I often can't say which parts are which. The book seems to have been written by multiple authors who didn't all agree what the setting was supposed to be. It is often very self contradictory, and to me, that is it's biggest fault.
I thought Vampire was improved for the better. The fewer clans was nice, and the game has a more claustrophobic feel, if that makes any sense. I didn't like how the metaplot worked in VtM.
Werewolf...well... I HATED the old Werewolf. The new one, in my opinion, was VASTLY improved.
I'd love to hear what it is about the new stuff you don't like.
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Why?
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Yeah, and it didn't help also that most players played game with "superheroes with fangs" attitude. New game is indeed more local, claustrophobic and tighter package, with lots of stupid stuff removed out.
While they might say it a bit much, that's really what it is if you play the game as they intend you to. I've played a few vampire games that had me questioning a few things about myself.... :oops:
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Heh, 1st edition of V:TM really had that problem. Writing was really, really pretentious.
But then again, I've only ever played the new Vampire and Mage, and I feel they're both better and easier to wrap my head around.
Yes. I could not have been happier to see Malkavians go the way of the dodo, even if they were resurrected as a bloodline. They had potential when played correctly, but too many people used that clan as an excuse to act like an idiot and be disruptive.
They did a pretty good job with them in the last revision of VtM, but the damage was already done.
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
edit: wow, beaten.
Mechanics specific to the settings, or combat mechanics?
Personally, I think the mechanics revision is the new WoD's strongest point.
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
Malkavians were stupid. Or not stupid, but they turned too easily to be jokes.
When my gaming group gets a WoD hankering, its the revised oldstyle books that hit the table.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
If you played a corax, you played Werewolf, which has changed A LOT! For one thing, the changing breeds (corax, bastet, etc.) are all gone. The only playable "race" are werewolves, and it is much more focused on horror, survival, and the pack. No more tree hugging doggies.
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
I miss the deep history stuff myself.
I don't miss all the clans and bloodlines. But, the way bloodlines work now, you can create anything you like.
I still mourn the loss of my beloved Tzimisce though...
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
If someone went the "whee, I'm a Malkavian" route, ie psychotic, delusional, or anything else boring, then yeah. They're stupid, they hurt the game, and it stopped being fun. Of course, those same people were really good at ruining the game in the first place.
Once you got done exploring other routes in the game, it got fun to be a little unpredictable. I apologize for once playing the "weird little jackass" Malk, but we retconned it into him being crafty or some shit.
I recommend checking it out. It's pretty solid, but it is a lot different now. A lot of people want it to be closer to Ascension. If you don't care, you may like it.
opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.
- Robert A. Heinlein
History crap was getting annoying in the end because of some really bad decisions. Avatar storm, nuking of the underworld, Saulot / Tremere crap, decimation of Ravnos, Time of Thin Blood, Rogue Council, etc, etc. In addition that metaplot was starting to get dumb, it also started to make books inaccessible for beginners. For example, to use Mexico City by Night to its fullest extent, it was assumed that you would have Guide to Sabbat, Blood Sacrifice and Nights of Prophecy. Little too much to ask in my opinion.
oh I see, thats a shame, my favorite part was the other chaging breeds, but I see the books and rules more like a base from which you can build your own universe and story, thats the good thing about pen & paper rpgs, its absolutely free, if you and the people you are playing with don't like a particular thing then you just ignore it or change it.
He was not idiotic or psychotic in any way. He had delusions, no doubt... but it only made playing the character that much more fun. I took the presence route with him, and eventually blood-bound a fair number of priests and clergymen in the Raleigh area... convincing them that I had returned.
It was a blast.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
This does not follow.
edit: Your Malkavian was a mortal, so he wasn't a Malkavian. Okay.
So yeah, I miss the old game, if only because of all the different clans and all their interesting stories.
I don't know if I'll ever get into V:TR like I did V:TM.
Malkavians are awesome. Giovanni were fun, too.
My Malkavian was a school teacher with sanguinary animism.
He also brought a cat everywhere with him.
He finally became Primogen, and was killed a week later by a Brujah he gave Dementation to. :? My Giovanni never died until I left Tampa.
Brujah for lyfe.
Which means old-school Vampire.
Which is good.
[spoiler:dedc590c15]Go Jyhad Go[/spoiler:dedc590c15]
Addition, the new combat mechanics are great. It used to be that people would just take enough Firearms, for instance, to hit and then the biggest most dice-throwing weapons they could possibly lay their hands on. Now, some dude with a single dot in Firearms and a huge handcannon does not necessarily beat the man who is a fucking surgeon with that glock.
I also lament not the Soak and the Dodge. Good riddance, you hallmarks of the wanker, you refuges of the uncreative.
Congratulations. You are one of about ten people on the planet who could play a malkavian correctly.
It's awesome because he wasn't playing a Malkavian until the very end of that story.
Which reminds me, I need to nag people about character sheets tonight. This game has been in the planning stages for way too long.
I always felt that the old WoD was too small for both vampires, mages and werewolves. Considering the NEVER BEFORE SEEN POWER LEVELS of some Mage and Vampire stuff (which I've only heard from third party) it felt like they'd start wiping each other out sooner or later.
Yeah, Malkavians and LARP just really don't go together at all.
I was always more of a Gangrel man myself though. I gave the new WoD a shot, playing a Lancea Gangrel, and while I enjoyed the entire interaction between the ideals of Clan and Covenant, I wasn't a big fan at all of the bloodlines. It seems like an excuse for someone to try to be the most "Special" charecter ever. Why try to have a smaller gaming world (good idea), if it just means someone can pull out a bloodline that no one has heard of and play it.
And yeah, I know you can just deny bloodlines if that's not the type of game you want to run, but players being players, its usually an uphill battle.
However, fucking with reality has its downsides. If you alter the rules of existence to say hey, a fireball can come out of my hands, reality snaps back and tells you to follow the fucking rules. That is Paradox. So Mages either need to brave a 'Dox backlash, or do magic subtley so that reality just slides over the effect. Like being shot, and using magic to make sure the bullet hit a part of you that wouldn't be vital.
The counterpoint to Mages are the Technocracy, who believe that technology and order are the balance of the world, not all this magic flim-flam.
Of course, White Wolf fucked that up when they gave Technocrats their own reality altering shit but that is not the point.
Basically old mage was good, but such a jumbled mess. It was the definition of unorganized.
New mage completely throws out the altering of reality. You are doing magic, plain and simple. It has more ties with spirit and typical magical lore than old Mage does -- Along with their backstory involving the city of Atlantis, which a lot of people think is really lame because.. I don't know why, but a lot of people just stop reading once Atlantis is brought up.
There's an abyss that seperates this world (the fallen world) and a spirit realm where two groups of Mages are constantly opposed (the supernal). The.. Well, I forgot most things about the war, but there are five watchtowers constructed in the supernal realm which allow some of the folks in the fallen realm to do magic. Tower + Awakening = Tada! Mage.
And, um. That's the basic of it, I think? There's a whole bunch more to each game but.. Someone else could prolly explain those bits better.
I do not see how that is relevant. Furthermore, try to contribute to the thread instead of just nagging on those who are.
I've played a couple of mage and vampire campains, but I never really cared for their d10 system. The fact that one attack could require like five fistfulls of dice to be cast really slowed the game down at times. I still loved the games for the setting though, even though I continually failed to use it to it's full advantage.
I was the storyteller most of the time, but I just could not properly manage something of that scale, that is the city. I mean, there are potentially thousands of people that could be relevant to the story, not to mention the city itself with its neighbourhoods, stores, and so on. That is alot to take care of, even if you normally improvise as much as I do. In the end I often ended up practically steering the characters by their nose, which lead to some passable stories but without the freedom a RPG should have.