Looking at the WoD after a LONG absence

[Chup@Cabra]

I've been away from the World of Darkness for a long time (even
before D&D 3.0 came out). When Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and the others
came out so long ago I and my group were gung ho for the setting; and
some of the best gaming experiences in my life were in that setting (I
personally ran a year long plus Werewolf campaign).

However, the ihnerent darkness of the setting (Vampires and
Gehenna, Werewolves and the Apocalypse, Mages and the Technocracy; hell,
Wraiths started out dead and it just got worse!) began to grind down on
us. By the time the somewhat laughable Changeling came out were were
all tired of WoD, and switched to Champions (a super hero role playing
game), because we just wanted to play Heroes who WON more often than
not.

I just recently, however, decided to check out WoD 2.0. I must
admit, I do find it interesting how they ended the Vampire portion of
WoD 1.0 (by making all the vamps slowly become human). Part of me can't
help but wonder if this was intentional, to help slowly bring players
who were WAY too much into being a vampire (and you know they exist ^_^)
back into the real world.

I don't know if I will ever play in the WoD again, but it does look
interesting. There seem, at first glance, to be major changes from 1.0
(names, how powers work, etc). At the same time, some supplements seem
to be made to be used in a more generic manner, particularly the books
not related to Vamp/Were/Mage. With just a little work, the scenarios
in 'Ghost Stories', for example, could be ported to almost any game
system (and it is the only WoD 2 book I have bought; I plan on using it
with d20 Modern). If any other member of my group ever decided to run a
game, though, I might be interested in playing at least one session (off
hand, it looks like Werewolf might be the simplest to understand).

I also see that, this time around, they have included the last
'classic movie monster' in the bunch, with Promethean. As I understand
it, these are essentially rules for creating 'Frankenstein Monsters',
right? Funny thing is, I just 'listened' to the book 'Frankenstein' by
Dean Koontz, so I can see how this could fit in the WoD.

Maybe I will get full blown back into the WoD when they come out
with the next setting:
Abbot and Costello: Who's on First?
^_^

[Christopher Adams]

Post by ***@Cabra
I also see that, this time around, they have included the last
'classic movie monster' in the bunch, with Promethean. As I understand
it, these are essentially rules for creating 'Frankenstein Monsters',
right?

Prometheans are inspired by the Frankenstein story, among others. The Golem of
Jewish legend, for instance, Pygmalion and Galatea, and Osiris.

The "default" Promethean purpose is to become human - similar to how the
"default" purpose of vampires could be said to be *remaining* human.

You have beings created from human corpses and animated by Divine Fire, seeking
a meaningful existence of one description or another through alchemical Great
Works.

I think it's very cool.

[MagsTheAxe]

Post by ***@Cabra
I don't know if I will ever play in the WoD again, but it does look
interesting. There seem, at first glance, to be major changes from 1.0
(names, how powers work, etc). At the same time, some supplements seem
to be made to be used in a more generic manner, particularly the books
not related to Vamp/Were/Mage.

This is deliberate. WW wanted to bring the World of Darkness back to
its original focus on personal horror, and one of the ways they chose
to do so was to allow for humans as a more central player option than
they were in the oWoD.

Thus, some of the supplements are specific to the individual games
(Vamp/Were/Mage) and the others can be played using the char-gen rules
in the core rule book. The idea is, you start out human in the nWoD,
and if you so desire you can continue to play human in that setting.
Playing humans was sort of an afterthought in the oWoD, since the focus
was really on playing the monster.

Post by ***@Cabra
With just a little work, the scenarios
in 'Ghost Stories', for example, could be ported to almost any game
system (and it is the only WoD 2 book I have bought; I plan on using it
with d20 Modern).

I highly recommend looking at the new World of Darkness system.
Streamlined, quick, really captures the best of the old system while
addressing the flaws of the past. I know one gamer who's making plans
to run a Call of Cthuhlu adventure using the nWoD rules.

Post by ***@Cabra
I also see that, this time around, they have included the last
'classic movie monster' in the bunch, with Promethean. As I understand
it, these are essentially rules for creating 'Frankenstein Monsters',
right?

That's one way to look at it. You can learn more here:

http://www.white-wolf.com/promethean/index.php


M.

[Brandon Quina]

I held on a lot longer than you did, I will freely admit, but none the less
I was in basically the same kind of situation when the New World of Darkness
first came out. I'd not really run a game for anyone in quite some time,
and nobody was really all that hugely interested in running one. We ended
up going really heavily into Exalted, for many of the same reasons that you
mentioned for Champions, with a heaping dash of "everyone loves fantasy".

With the NWoD, though, I've somewhat come back to the fold. I don't buy the
books like I used to -- but I've got all the main rulebooks except
Promethean, and I will eventually get it, once I get the right mixture of
both money and opportunity. But what I have, I've really enjoyed a lot.
Another thing worth mentioning is the increased focus of mortals in the
game, both as potential characters for the players and just as interesting
antagonists who are worth putting in the game.

The games are still very much horror games, though. Even Mage got a nice
heaping of horror, which I was very happy to see.


Brandon,


On 7/25/06 10:57 AM, in article

Post by ***@Cabra
I don't know if I will ever play in the WoD again, but it does look
interesting. There seem, at first glance, to be major changes from 1.0
(names, how powers work, etc). At the same time, some supplements seem
to be made to be used in a more generic manner, particularly the books
not related to Vamp/Were/Mage. With just a little work, the scenarios
in 'Ghost Stories', for example, could be ported to almost any game
system (and it is the only WoD 2 book I have bought; I plan on using it
with d20 Modern). If any other member of my group ever decided to run a
game, though, I might be interested in playing at least one session (off
hand, it looks like Werewolf might be the simplest to understand).
I also see that, this time around, they have included the last
'classic movie monster' in the bunch, with Promethean. As I understand
it, these are essentially rules for creating 'Frankenstein Monsters',
right? Funny thing is, I just 'listened' to the book 'Frankenstein' by
Dean Koontz, so I can see how this could fit in the WoD.
Maybe I will get full blown back into the WoD when they come out
Abbot and Costello: Who's on First?
^_^