[The End of the World of Darkness] What's White Wolf got up its sleeve?

[Darkness]

I have not played much in the way of White Wolf games, but I have a weird idea from having played Mage: The Ascension.

If large numbers of people ascend, and the world is destroyed, would sufficiently large numbers of mages have the ability to recreate the world. If this is not the case for the official setting, you can always do it in your own setting.

(If magic is belief made manifest, than perhaps all things are possible.)

Interesting idea.

From a story telling standpoint, I can see why they need to bring the inevitable conflict to a boiling point.

Oh yeah. After about 13 years of "the end is coming soon!", it might be a good idea to finally, well, let the end come. Still:

However, this may truly annoy WW fans. At worst, it could be Gehenna for WW if enough people are angry.

Oh yes. What they're doing is very audacious, to say the least. I guess now that they can still rely on Exalted and their d20 stuff, they are in a position to take this risk; I'm not at all sure they could have done that a few short years ago (though they might have wanted to).

This would be an irony of epic proportions.

This reminds me of (I think it was) John Wick remarking on the irony that WW's official fan club's administration was as ripe with intrigue and drama as the World of Darkness itself. (Which, in a nutshell, is why WW eliminated the fan club leadership and took matters in its own hands.)

 

[William Ronald]

I should give credit where credit is due, Darkness. A similar thing happened in Edena-of_Neith's 3rd IR. Also, there is the saying that with faith, all things are possible.

So, it might be possible for those who really LOVE the WW games passionately to recreate the world if they wish. (If WW actually discontinues the game lines, they may find fans ready to go to other game systems. This could potentially be a big boon to any publisher who takes advantage of any angst from the WW players. The question is can WW continue their games after Gehenna?)

 

[Darkness]

I think WW wouldn't do this unless they were absolutely sure that they could continue the WoD somehow.

Whether any given WoD fan will like whatever they'll come up with remains to be seen, of course. But WW seem to be sure that a majority will.
Hm. Maybe the "new thing" will also have more appeal to people who don't like the WoD in its current form? That would be a smart move on WW's part, at least...

- Fingers crossed for August 2004 Darkness

 

[TalonComics]

Wow... That's it?

First off, I'm not angry about this decision in the slightest, however, this announcement means pretty much nothing to me as a gamer. We never followed White Wolf's storylines so this announcement just doesn't hold a lot of punch for me. What if you held an end of the world event and nobody showed up?

As a retailer all I can say is "What's next?" Obviously something is going to come after this and I am much more interested in that.

Maybe they should have announced Vampire d20 as well.

~D

 

[Nifft]

Sounds very cool to me.

The other thing I'd like is an "Integrated WoD" hardcover, which explains how to do cross-genre stuff. For example, if you want to put Magi, Vampires and Werewolves in the same world, how many of each are likely to be around in different cities, rural locales, various kinds of suburbs? What sort of politics could evolve? That sort of stuff.

-- Nifft

 

[Welverin]

I kinda don't get it.

Why are people dreading this so?

It seems exciting to ME - a fantastic, pretty unique opportunity to resolve the titanic storythreads they've developed for over a decade. When has this happened in the history of gaming?

But then again, I'm not addicted to canon, and view it as a a no-lose situation : If what they present is good stuff, it's incredibly exciting and satisfying from a reader-of-stories aspect, whereas if it sucks, than you just ignore it and keep playing happily in WoD as you have.

I'm with you. Baffled by the fact most comments here so far are opposed to the idea and one I think is a pretty interesting idea, one I questioned whether White Wolf would have the guts to go through with.

I just have a casual interest in WoD games, which likely has a strong effect on my reaction to the news.

 

[Darkness]

I kinda don't get it.

Why are people dreading this so?

Because they are discontinuing all support for several game lines we love and aren't going to reprint any of the current supplements.

'sides, while Vampire may have more than enough supplements to run it 'til forever, the same isn't quite as true for Mage or Werewolf.

I don't mind a Gehenna/Apocalypse/whatever book - or even several. But I do mind their ending the games. And I do mind even more that they won't reprint any of the books. ('course, I have most everything I might ever need already, at least for Vampire - but there are a lot of people out there who don't.)

And until I learn what they have in store and whether I like it, I'm skeptical. And it's going to be 13 months 'til the release of the "new thing."

Now, I'm looking forward to finally seeing the "this is the End!!!" books. (I'd normally be thrilled, but I'm not yet sure whether the price isn't a bit too high.)

Peace, bro...

 

[Radiant]

for some reason white wolf hits my moods exactly. In my prime vampire excitment time they released the thrid edition and i could get a new book every month. They slowed down then my interest weakened and now that I got realy bored with the whole theme they end it with a bang. I never felt more important as a customer

 

[Aulayan]

Okay, once again I have a bad feeling about this. Again, loving the end of the world. It takes guts to end such a huge game line.

But, the past few releases from White Wolf have underwhelmed me extremely. Demon and Especially the new edition of Dark Ages: Vampire. If the new WoD underwhelms me as well...I'd hate to find a new system to play. (Yes I play d20, but I like to at least do multiple settings. And no one else I know gets into In Nomine :\ )

 

[Tsyr]

Because they are discontinuing all support for several game lines we love and aren't going to reprint any of the current supplements.

'sides, while Vampire may have more than enough supplements to run it 'til forever, the same isn't quite as true for Mage or Werewolf.

Exactly.

And while you might just say "Oh, well, just continue to play with what you have... Ok. That will work for a couple years. But, IMHO, whitewolf is even more dependent than DnD on the slow trickle of new blood... Dnd will always exist as "That game", and you will always have people playing it, and wanting to learn it, even if they stopped making it. If they stop making World of Darkness stuff... That's it. No new blood. It will wither slowly over a few years, then essentialy die, as enough of the old blood move out of the scene, but aren't replaced by new blood.