The Kernel Of A Game: The World of Darkness
The World of Darkness is a darkened version of our own, a horrific counterpart where corruption lurks in every department, vampires rule the night, and all your worst fears are animate.
Genre: Horror. The World of Darkness is wholly focused upon horror --- all types of it, although it tends to the personal and the psychological, instead of the gory. Different supernatural groups within the World of Darkness (see below) emphasize different types of horror.
Rules: The ruleset that is used for the World of Darkness is called the Storytelling System. It's relatively rules-light, uses one type of die (10-sided, or d10s), and emphasizes story, thematics, and character over anything else. The one problem that some players may have is that character design is based off of personal history and a strong concept, as opposed to a collection of rules options and stereotypes --- not a bad thing at all, but difficult for some players.
The Options: The World of Darkness roleplaying game comes in a few different flavours.
The World of Darkness Line: The core World of Darkness line (all sourcebooks with World of Darkness in their titles) focuses on humans discovering and dealing with the supernatural. In this line, vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers are inhumane horrors to be survived, not known figures to be dealt with. This is the closest to the archetypal view of popular horror, and can be stretched to survival horror and slasher flicks.
Vampire: The Requiem: Vampire: The Requiem focuses on the personal horror of characters turned into vampires (colloquially, Kindred) and their unlives that follow (Requiems, colloquially). Humans are prey and tools; other vampires are uneasy allies and worse enemies; werewolves and sorcerers are the unknown. This is the best option for personally exploring the horror of becoming a monster.
Mage: The Awakening: Mage: The Awakening depicts normal humans who have Awakened to the magical potential within themselves. The horror of Mage comes from setting elements, such as the life-draining Tremere liches, and by using the concept of the Awakening to examine the horrors of the human condition as a whole. Mage has a much higher fantasy quotient then the other lines; it's still horror, but with an arcane twist. It also has the best magic system of any roleplaying game, ever. Play Mage if you're interested in exploring the magic of the modern day and life as a whole.
Werewolf: The Forsaken & Promethean: The Created: These are two other supernatural lines that are available (or will soon be available, in Promethean's case.) I don't have much familiarity with them, and as such don't feel comfortable recommending them.
What You Need: Each player needs ten ten-sided dice. White Wolf sells sets customized for each game line; these are worth their premium price for the thematic effects and highlighted success numbers, which make rolling a breeze. Next, pick up these five rulebooks for whichever line you decide to go with; pick them up in order, as some refer to ones before them. Total cost is about $250 CAD; if need be, you can get by with the dice, and the first one or two rulebooks on the list.
The World of Darkness:
- The World of Darkness Rulebook (Reread pages 32-39 and Chapters 6, 7, and 8.)
- World of Darkness Armory (Reread Chapters 1 and 2.)
- World of Darkness Second Sight (Reread Chapter 1.)
- World of Darkness Tales From The 13th Precinct (Reread Chapter 2. Note: If you're outside of North America, replace this with World of Darkness Mysterious Places.)
- World of Darkness Antagonists
- The World of Darkness Rulebook (Reread pages 32-39 and Chapters 6, 7, and 8.)
- Vampire: The Requiem (Reread pages 99-100 and Chapter 3.)
- Requiem Chronicler's Guide
- Mythologies
- World of Darkness Armory (Reread Chapters 1 and 2.)
- The World of Darkness Rulebook (Reread pages 32-39 and Chapters 6, 7, and 8.)
- Mage: The Awakening (Reread pages 75-80, 110-132, and 268-291.)
- Sanctum And Sigil
- Tome of the Watchtowers
- Secrets of the Ruined Temple (Note: By the time you read this, Tome of the Mysteries may be out, which you should pick up instead.)
posted by Arivia @ 12:40 p.m.
1 comments
1 Comments:
There are three major things that stick out between the old World of Darkness as opposed to the new one.
1) The metaplot is gone. Previous supplements were chained to the metaplot and that setting; there's a lot more room for creative freedom in this one.
2) There's a renewed emphasis on the horror in the World of Darkness, as opposed to some of the almost superhero-like excesses of the old World of Darkness.
3) There's really more emphasis on Storytelling, as opposed to playing a World of Darkness game taking place in an existing setting.
As such, to use an example, a supplement on a secret vampire cult that would have before been about one idea of the cult that fit into the metaplot, instead now offers different versions of the cult, all designed with an eye towards the use in telling stories and differing horrific ideas. A lot of the sourcebooks are toolboxes, so to speak, where they give you many options to use, often conflicting with each other.
The rules have been cleaned up (all rolls use the same target numbers now, for example), and everything starts off a bit less powerful than it used to. Supernatural creatures have to depend upon their supernatural abilities as advantages over mortals, for example, as opposed to the stronger abilities they had in general previously.
Ultimately, I find it to be a much better game, from the viewpoint of someone interested in the idea of using it as a storytelling medium. Those looking for a consistent setting to enter the fandom for and get into fights about the canonicity of something will be disappointed.
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