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A love letter to The World of Darkness.
10 years ago
When I was younger, growing up as a computer-less geek in Daytona Beach, I had a lot of spare time on my hands, an overactive imagination and few, if any outlets for such. I was a self-stylized religious nut-case. Wrapped up in my own little world of altruism and righteous anger at a world that seemed, to me, destined to get the way of my loved ones. Naturally, this worldview was not sustainable, and as I grew up, I started to understand that everything wasn't always in black and white. This tied mainly with my sexuality. The 90s were a tumultuous time filled with a lot of hatred towards homosexual males, and a lot of homophobia towards people, not for being gay, but for the possibility of being gay. I grew up largely sexually repressed and terrified of allowing myself to experience the joys of the world around me.
Yet, even then I tried to find friends who shared similar interests. I had played Dungeons and Dragons once or twice, and my heroic I-can-do-no-wrong attitude clashed easily with other groups. I lacked the maturity necessary to get along with my peers, but I did, somehow, manage to eek out friendships with a group of gamers. These gamers were very, very different from one another, but they were all outcasts from society. Ideologically, they ranged from strongly Christian to Atheist to Wiccan. We largely played Dungeons and Dragons at first, as both myself and my Christian friend were afraid to delve into the darker sides of tabletop gaming.
Yet, I always remained curious. Sure, we halfheartedly made fun of the gothic kids who became wrapped up in this "Corruptive" world, but we didn't really understand it, and didn't try to learn about it or from it. To my benefit, though curiosity became the better of me. A friend of ours, sort of the third element to a group that slowly grew into something larger later on, was well verse in the game. He took stylings of the Vampire and Werewolf elements, dabbled a bit in personal shamanism and generally had more in tune to the primal elements of his emotions, and I admired the audacity and honesty behind it. Looking back, I know that I tended to judge him meanly, but he always took it in stride, and always strove to better himself.
It was this man who convinced us to give the World of Darkness a try. At the time, there were the three of us, plus an occasional gamer or two from the local comic shop. We didn't want to delve into the darker ends of the spectrum, so we picked Werewolf for it's heroic themes and generally acceptable nature to my Christian Friend. It was a blast! We had a ton of fun, and I enjoyed the elements of horror and more emotion and plot-driven storylines. The game was very different from Dungeons and Dragons, with a focus less on the leveling and quest, and more on the quality of interaction and role-play.
So, I became hooked. I researched into a few of the game lines and eventually settled on Mage: the Ascension for my personal favorite. I became enamored with the design of the games and the fusion of theme with mechanics. I branched out, and through it, I also took a look back at myself. Here, in these books, represented individuals of wider breadth than I had experienced in the real world. I realized that I could actually enjoy myself pretending to do bad things from time to time and it was okay. The morality plays provided within helped me to tackle topics for my own self, when I lacked a role model or any form of guidance.
As I grew older, more game lines were added. Eventually, White Wolf reset the game lines for a New World of Darkness, this time with a more cohesive mechanical core. As of a few years ago, they released a new edition of the Newer Line, as well as Anniversary editions of the older lines. White Wolf games themselves are no longer producing these games, rather the torch has been passed to Onyx Path Publishing, created by fans and writers of the games who did not wish to see these lines fade away. And, as a fan, I wanted to provide a bit of insight as to these game lines, here (since I don't know where else to put something like this). I've read all of the books. Every single game. I've not played all of them. Maybe one day I will, but due to the darker themes within, some of the games are more uncomfortable to play than others. I certainly have my favorites, and if you will excuse the spam, I'd like to provide a bit of an introduction on each one in other Journal posts, over time.
Thank you for letting me share this with you all, and if you're interested in knowing more about this game line, hit me up on Skype/Twitter/what have you, or even here. :D They're all very good games and are generally easy to learn and play.
Happy gaming :D
Yet, even then I tried to find friends who shared similar interests. I had played Dungeons and Dragons once or twice, and my heroic I-can-do-no-wrong attitude clashed easily with other groups. I lacked the maturity necessary to get along with my peers, but I did, somehow, manage to eek out friendships with a group of gamers. These gamers were very, very different from one another, but they were all outcasts from society. Ideologically, they ranged from strongly Christian to Atheist to Wiccan. We largely played Dungeons and Dragons at first, as both myself and my Christian friend were afraid to delve into the darker sides of tabletop gaming.
Yet, I always remained curious. Sure, we halfheartedly made fun of the gothic kids who became wrapped up in this "Corruptive" world, but we didn't really understand it, and didn't try to learn about it or from it. To my benefit, though curiosity became the better of me. A friend of ours, sort of the third element to a group that slowly grew into something larger later on, was well verse in the game. He took stylings of the Vampire and Werewolf elements, dabbled a bit in personal shamanism and generally had more in tune to the primal elements of his emotions, and I admired the audacity and honesty behind it. Looking back, I know that I tended to judge him meanly, but he always took it in stride, and always strove to better himself.
It was this man who convinced us to give the World of Darkness a try. At the time, there were the three of us, plus an occasional gamer or two from the local comic shop. We didn't want to delve into the darker ends of the spectrum, so we picked Werewolf for it's heroic themes and generally acceptable nature to my Christian Friend. It was a blast! We had a ton of fun, and I enjoyed the elements of horror and more emotion and plot-driven storylines. The game was very different from Dungeons and Dragons, with a focus less on the leveling and quest, and more on the quality of interaction and role-play.
So, I became hooked. I researched into a few of the game lines and eventually settled on Mage: the Ascension for my personal favorite. I became enamored with the design of the games and the fusion of theme with mechanics. I branched out, and through it, I also took a look back at myself. Here, in these books, represented individuals of wider breadth than I had experienced in the real world. I realized that I could actually enjoy myself pretending to do bad things from time to time and it was okay. The morality plays provided within helped me to tackle topics for my own self, when I lacked a role model or any form of guidance.
As I grew older, more game lines were added. Eventually, White Wolf reset the game lines for a New World of Darkness, this time with a more cohesive mechanical core. As of a few years ago, they released a new edition of the Newer Line, as well as Anniversary editions of the older lines. White Wolf games themselves are no longer producing these games, rather the torch has been passed to Onyx Path Publishing, created by fans and writers of the games who did not wish to see these lines fade away. And, as a fan, I wanted to provide a bit of insight as to these game lines, here (since I don't know where else to put something like this). I've read all of the books. Every single game. I've not played all of them. Maybe one day I will, but due to the darker themes within, some of the games are more uncomfortable to play than others. I certainly have my favorites, and if you will excuse the spam, I'd like to provide a bit of an introduction on each one in other Journal posts, over time.
Thank you for letting me share this with you all, and if you're interested in knowing more about this game line, hit me up on Skype/Twitter/what have you, or even here. :D They're all very good games and are generally easy to learn and play.
Happy gaming :D
I've browsed through some of the WoD books and the story certainly does seem interesting and complex, and I wouldn't mind playing it again if I had the materials. It might be a change of pace from Pathfinder, at any rate. I've seen some great stories from Spoony on his Counter Monkey channel where fun things happened during his World of Darkness games, and they sound like a blast.
In WoD, the opposite is true. Direct confrontation is often dangerous, deadly, messy and usually not worth the time, often with long-standing and negative results... but it's not always avoidable. Humans are easy to kill in the World of Darkness, which makes the stories a lot more about 'how long can we survive' 'can we do any good here' 'let's tell a good story' than 'can we win the game'
We fought them instead, to the last man, thinking we not only might stand a chance but might actually win. Didn't take long for the werewolves to rip our "heroic" party to shreds, ending the game in a total wipe (except for the Network Zero guy, he was safely at home watching us die live via webcam).
So yeah, that was how I learned not to play a human in a WoD game, unless perhaps I'm playing a Hunter, which only slightly helps due to their abilities and connections. Even then, you have to be furtive and pick your battles.
Though My favorite game I'll be interested in seeing if you talk about it.
Changeling the Dreaming was my favorite game and where I had the most experience though Reckoning has fond memories for me.... and then there is the much forgotten aeonverse. Resurrection though was strange for what it led to potentially.