"They are coming" he said. "Men with claws and fangs. And they will tear the heart out of this city to get what they want."
"Yes, I know," she said, sliding the clip home. "And if they stand against me, they will die, just like all the rest."
A mirror to our own world, the World of Darkness is shrouded in shadows and secrets. Here, the supernatural is more than just a myth. Vampires stalk the night to feed their dark hunger, ruling the day through puppets. Werewolves hunt the wilds and cabals of Mages change reality at a whim. Demons and spirits, fairies and monsters all inhabit the twilight. Yet humanity doesn't know they exist, beyond legends and old wives tales. And they musn't know, for they would be driven mad, and their numbers are more than make up for their lack of power.
New World of Darkness - Old World of Darkness
Launched in August 2004, the new World of Darkness is a complete reset of the original setting and uses the updated Storyteller system. While superficially the same as the original, the setting is themed as a dark mystery, focused on the unknown and events of personal consequence. The details of history are left deliberately vague, with multiple possibilities given, some or none of which may be true (at the storytellers discretion). There is also a lack of a specific 'End of the World' scenario, which were major parts of the old World of Darkness. Also gone are the vastly overpowering npc's that dominated the original. That's not to say that the vampire prince of a city isn't powerful, just that it is possible to defeat him, if more than a little difficult. Unless you have grenades. How the character deals with a world that's far deeper than they had ever imagined is now at least as important as how well they cope with combat or political intrigue.
The Storyteller system is based around a dice pool of d10. For any action, take a number of dice equal to your skill plus your relevant stat, add some dice for equipment or other bonuses and take some away for any penalties, then role them. 8's, 9's and 10's are successes, 10's are rolled again (the explode). Five or more successes is an exceptional success. An exceptional failure is only possible if the dice pool is reduced to zero or less. In this case a single 'chance' dice is rolled. A role of 10 is a success, and explodes, while a role of 1 indicates that something has gone terribly wrong, everything else is a simple failure with no special consequences. Interestingly, the character always knows when they are on a chance dice and may therefore choose not to attempt the action.
A characters personality is represented by a virtue and a vice, the indulgence in which regains spent Willpower points(Willpower is spent to give a bonus to any role). The Morality scale gives an order to various 'crimes', giving an idea as to which acts the character has become accustomed. Committing a crime that is rated at your Morality or less requires a successful degeneration role to avoid the loss of a point of Morality and and the possibility of acquiring a related derangement.
The core rulebook contains the generic Storyteller system and rules for humans and ghosts, leaving the rules for supernatural characters to the game books. None humans are all humans with an applied template, making all aspects of the game fully compatible. Each supernatural character has an additional 'power' stat that indicates how far down that path the character has gone (young vampires can subsist on animals while much older and more powerful kindred require the blood of other vampires to survive). Supernaturals also have access to powers and abilities not available to humans.
Eyelids flutter and open on a new life, a life after death. "Welcome my childe, you are now one of us, the immortal, the powerful, the cursed, the damned. The sweet embrace has saved you from death and doomed you to a life away from the sun, for its rays will now burn like the fires of hell. God has turned from you and even mirrors will no longer bear witness to your passing. The finest food and drink are anathema to you. Blood is your life now. The blood of the innocent, the blood of the weak, the blood of the human herd. They are nothing but cattle to us, for we are stronger, faster, more magnificent than they could ever be. Come, drink, feel the power coursing through your veins. Smell the sweet iron scent of it. Feel the beast within. Embrace your new life and join us in our perpetual games of intrigue and revenge. Dance to the dark refrain of the eternal Requiem".
Sweat mixes with blood as the wolf returns to human form. "Calm yourself young one, your first change is over, you can rest a while now. Who am I? I am like you, a child of Luna, a wolf in sheep clothing. Breath deep now, smell the scent of the prey, feel the beat of your rage. This is the life you were born to, the life of the hunter. What have you become? Heh, you always were a werewolf. Shocked? But makes sense of your life doesn't it? The dreams, the visions. Glimpses of the spirit world, sundered from our own by ancient mistakes. Mistakes for which our kind has been cursed. Beholden to our anger and burned by the touch of silver. A curse passed down the generations, dormant until it finds those who are strong enough to bear it. So here we are. Both wolf and man, ephemeral and flesh. Feared by humans, despised by spirits, yet still we do our duty. We keep the worlds from tearing each other apart. But, for the crimes of our forefathers, we are Forsaken".
A bewildered man turns and walks quickly away, shaking his head. "Excuse me, maybe you should come over here and take a seat, talking to Sleepers about the fairies only upsets them. I'll buy you a coffee. Who am I? Someone who knows you aren't insane. It's unsettling at first, but soon you'll realise that you are just seeing the world as it really is. Take it slowly, you have great power now, perhaps enough to reshape reality to your will. And with that great power comes great responsibility. No! Do not try now. I know you can feel the magic flowing through your veins, but there are too many people here. Normal people, who do not believe in such things, unravel our spells with the force of their disbelief. And the universe herself, she no longer tolerates our intervention as she once did. Care and secrecy must be your watch words. For now, relax, and revel in the beauty of your Awakening".
The smell of ozone in the air, the body rises and opens it's eyes. "My Child, at last you are awake! The fruit of my labours, made by these hands, born at last. No my child, we are not human. But we can be! Made by God they are born to it. But he is not the only one who can create life, and while we must struggle down a long road, we can become as them. Until then, your body is far better than any mortal, for I have made you well. You will not age, you barely need sleep, injury will not trouble you for long and disease cannot touch you at all. We must beware those we aspire to become, for they are troubled by us, though they know not why. Even nature is against us, to stay in one place too long is to invite her displeasure. So we wander, and see, and learn. Not such a bad life. Quickly now, we must leave, for the mob may already be on it's way. Their minds are closed. They would destroy us both, not seeing, for what it is, the wonder I have Created."
Whitewolf are likely to be churning out new core books for years to come. We'll update you as and when they appear.
First released in 1991, the World of Darkness line ran until 2004 with the 'Time of Judgement' line that covered the end of the world. Originally the different settings were supposed to be separate, but each new book interweaved them closer and closer, often introducing discrepancies in the back-stories. Worse still, each setting started off with different rules that were changed again and again to bring them inline with each other. The final result was a set of rules that required some work in order to interpret them consistently if more than one setting was used. Also, the settings tended to contain npcs of god-like power which overshadowed the player characters if the storyteller wasn't careful.
Vampire: The Masquerade
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Mage: The Ascension
Wraith: The Oblivion
Changeling: The Dreaming
Hunter: The Reckoning
Demon: The Fallen
Mummy: The Resurrection
Kindred of the East
Orpheus
There were also a host of related historical settings and other sourcebooks.
