The new World of Darkness series

[depravity]

That's right I'm talking about World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening and Promethean: The Created.

I hear there's a new Changeling coming out sometime this year.

So who here plays these games, likes them, etc. I wanna talk about the new systems and the set up and such. I demand creative discussion!

[macirex]

i´ve heard of vampire: the masquerade story and i quite like it... anyway i play magic: the gathering, and i think one hobby is enought... if i went into rol playing games i would lose any free time i´d still have

[depravity]

Ah yes Vampire: The Masquerade, that was the old system of games for World of Darkness. I've got most of those sitting on my shelves. Never really got into Magic: The Gathering though. CCG's just aren't my thing.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Eeeew, Whitewolf.

Given how many absolute friggin' morons dabble into WoD, and my general distaste for Goth, I doubt I'll ever be able to get into these myself. Just can't respect the fluff at all.

Now Unknown Armies, there's a game to make a man of you! Gimme my Avatars and Central Paradoxes, and we'll go to school!

[depravity]

Whitewolf isn't all bad now. Sure it's not everyone's cup of tea there Captain but it had a solid system that was easy to build characters from. I've been a big fan of Whitewolf games for a number of years though I will say I do not "dabble" into it. I go whole hog and make the game my own beast. ^_^

Having said that, this new system retains enough of the original to hold the nostalgia of the older players more familiar wtih it but they've gone and shaken everything up so much it's offering a lot of new things and idea. Heck, just the core rulebook for Mage: The Awakening I've found is miles better than Mage: The Ascension every could hope to be. It's made me a happy RPer overall to see such wonderful books.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

So it stopped being Gotharded self-pity fests (Given, that might be a fair view of it, but it is most of what I saw) with horrible godmoding crazy-immune vampires and insta-regening werewolves and such?

Because that turned me off real quick.

Oh, dice pools still about? Never cared for those. Makes a roll take more time than it's worth.

Edit: Hells, gimme some backstory. Maybe it is better these days, or I just grabbed the bull by the horns from the wrong end.

[depravity]

Hmm...let's see now. Well one of the biggest changes they've made to the games is that clan is no longer the most important thing. Every character has the clan which they are from, of which there are five to choose from. There sits above them the covenants which a character may belong to. There are five of them and then a section for The Unaligned. I haven't finished reading the entire book but it seems to me there is little or no mention at all of Cain. Some of the covenants point to varying means of the beginning of vampires. There seem to be more than one truth in how certain groups got their start.

Also beneath the clans there are bloodlines which are when a particular member of a clan ends up siring a bloodline which has additional benefits and weaknesses above and beyond the normal for the clans. The Camarilla gets a nod being as that was what vampires used to belong to waaaay back in the Roman empire days. When Rome fell, that society fractured into the covenants they have today.

The Sabbat is pretty much gone and in it's place are a couple more interesting covenants. There is still the whole gothic element and feel to the story for vampire at least but it's a lot more subtle a tone rather than a lead pipe to the head.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Are vampires/werewolves/bacon still better than hunams in absolutely every concievable way? I really hated that aspect a lot. =[

[SkyeWelse]

Ah, so they are reviving the WoD series. Some of my favorite all time role-playing experiences came from this series. It's interesting that they are bringing this back. If I had more time I'd definitely like to start up a Changling game again.

So it stopped being Gotharded self-pity fests (Given, that might be a fair view of it, but it is most of what I saw) with horrible godmoding crazy-immune vampires and insta-regening werewolves and such?

I too can relate to how some people sometimes played their various World of Darkness series characters, but ultimately I think that your experience playing the game will depend on who you are playing with, just like any table-top rpg. If you play amongst friends who are not idiots, then you'll have a great time playing it.

Whitewolf isn't all bad now. Sure it's not everyone's cup of tea there Captain but it had a solid system that was easy to build characters from. I've been a big fan of Whitewolf games for a number of years though I will say I do not "dabble" into it. I go whole hog and make the game my own beast.

I used to play the WoD series quite a bit during my high school years with some friends of mine. We'd meet on weekends and play various campaigns. We originally started with Vampire: The Masquerade, then on into the Dark Ages campaigns, but ultimately we shifted heavily into Changeling and Mage. Personally I loved Changeling the most with Mage as a second favorite followup. The worlds were extremely interesting, the characters easy to make and develop and the 10 sided dice system works like a charm. Gotta love when characters botch their rolls to see what the GM has in store for them. : )

-SkyeWelse

[Cyhirae]

I freely admit that while the WoD always had potential to me...the execution of it pretty much ruined it to me. I tried both Vampire and Changeling and..eh. Overpowered nonhumans, under powered humans- there wasn't any balance when you actually got into it.

Won't even go into the werewolves.

[depravity]

Hmm..well Captain I'm not sure if you can say that vampires and werewolves are "better" than humans in this new system. From all I've read, which isn't the entirety of all the books I have but slowly I am devouring them, it seems to me that they've leveled the playing field a fair bit in that regard. The first core rulebook you need is simply called The World of Darkness and it is nothing more than a full introduction into the supernatural realms that are out there and lets you create mortal human characters who then find out about such.

As such they have to be capable of taking on these supernatural creatures and win, unlike in the old WoD where humans served little purpose beyond pawns, family or food. They've not only made it possible to play human characters they encourage it. Vampires, werewolves, mages and Prometheans have advantages over mortals via their supernatural powers but I would say a well prepared human could take down any of them. ^_^

As SkyeWelse says it really does depend on just WHO you play with that defines your experience. I'm all for a dark and gothic atmosphere in a game especially a WoD game, but like all things one must exercise moderation.

As for my own preferences. I was big into Vampire but I like to think I was the kind of player who did so realistically. Changeling I was a fan of as well but no one else ever wanted to play that one so...I never got the chance. Werewolf never really caught my attention beyond the creation of one or two really interesting characters. Mage I liked but the general set up gnawed at me, I much prefer the new setup and backstory for Mage. Wraith was also a great idea but like Changeling for me no one else was ever interested.

*And poke at Cyhirae.*You never told me you played any Whitewolf stuff. Tsk tsk!

[SkyeWelse]

Overpowered nonhumans, under powered humans- there wasn't any balance when you actually got into it.

Humans!? What a miserable pile of secrets!... ehem, I mean why play a human? Yes, it's true you had some pretty weak humans in the series as a whole, aside from the Demon Hunters faction as I believe they were called. They had skills such as leather for necks and preventive stats that would work against the non-human classes.

Though I think the intitial idea for the series and classes within the series was to play a non-human character living and surviving in a world of npc humans. It was only until later that they added more activities for humans to do. But, a large force of humans could easily sway the outcome for a non-human if the dice rolls were not in favor of the player. For vamps, you have fire that makes them go into a uncontrollable frenzy, for mages, you have the fact that they cannot use magic in the pressence of humans that will blatantly come off as being a 'magic spell' of sorts or the player would gain paradox points that was basically a case of extreme bad karma, for Changelings, just being in the pressence of a human would attribute to banality/mundane points that if enough were gained would rip the very belief that they were even of the changeling/fae folk race from their existence. And well, Werewolves... they were just cheesy... so there really wasn't much of a match for humans in that case.

But seriously, humans could and did pose a serious threat to those living in a world of humans, that is if the GM was playing the world of darkness correctly. But most of the major battles would be against other factions set within the same non-human societal structures. Changelings vs. Changelings, Vamps vs. Vamps vs. Garou Werewolves and Mages against the Technocracy vs everyone else.

Depravity, if you ever get a chance, I think you would really enjoy Changeling and Mage. They are both excellent Rpgs.

-SkyeWelse

[depravity]

Oh I am quite certain I would highly enjoy playing both games as much as I enjoyed Vampire. ^_^ I've even played a very small bit here and there online and I had great fun but in the end it always fell through cause of others. And you are right, humans were a force to be reckoned with for a GM properly working with the World of Darkness, even as only NPC's. However, in the new series they've put out humans have they own playing field against the myriad of supernatural things out there, everything from vampires and werewolves and mages to ghosts and faeries and aliens and things even weirder. It's quite a wonderfully intricate set up they've created!

[gnosis301]

I'm not really fond of the method White Wolf uses for skills, but they tried to keep Ravenloft alive, so they get props from me. Now all I need is a good cyberpunk rule set. Don't say Shadowrun.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

R Taslorian's Cyberpunk 2020

[depravity]

Yes they were called called Hunters. ^_^ As for the game system it has its advantages and disadvantages but generally speaking whenever I've played I've rather...not bothered overly much with it. I'm very much a story-telling oriented game master.

Also something of note for those not familiar with the new series they've done completely away with Generation, for vampires. There no longer is such a thing. Instead you have Blood Potency. The way I'm interpreting it is that it basically says how powerful you are, how potent your vampric blood is. As such the more powerful you get the more powerful the creatures you must feed off of is. So a vamp with a high blood potency has to feed off other vampires or end up slipping into torpor, which after a few centuries in that deep sleep their blood thins out and their blood potency drops. I rather like the check and balance that system offers for vampires. ^_^

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Now if I recall right, doesn't draining another vampire perma-kill them or some such?

As such, does this mean that elder vampires are feared in a manner we'd fear headhunters on a trip to inner Nigeria?

[SkyeWelse]

Interesting new system they are implementing with Vampire. I'll kind of miss the idea of elder vampires and lineage to various groups and such, but it does seem more of a balanced approach to the cheese and strength that some of the older vampires had. Wasn't one of the prophecies in Vampire: The Masquerade that when the elders all woke up, it was basically going to be a doomsday for all other vampires?

-SkyeWelse

[depravity]

Yeah you could interpret that legend that way, many did and many others didn't. ^_^ As for perma-killing vampires by draining them....I think it would just rend them unable to move at all and look like a desecated husk of a being. ^_^ Until blood hit their lips at which case they'd attack the nearest source. I don't think it could KILL them now if you diablerized them drinking all their blood and their soul more or less they'd just turn to dust.