White Wolf is still publishing?

[Storyteller01]

I read what happened for the end of 'Wraith, the Oblivion' (two nukes went off, creating the fifth Great Mealstrom). Anyone know how the stories will change? It seemed to me (PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG!!!) that the story lines were just getting overly combersome. I thought the storylines imploded, or something.

 

[Kesh]

That was part of the complaint. The ongoing metaplot made it difficult for people to get into the games. Too many books, too many characters, just plain too much going on.

The stories are going to be completely different. For instance, with Vampire: the Requiem, we now have five clans. That's it. Also, instead of Camarilla and Sabbat, there are roughly five major organizations for vampires to belong to, all of which disagree on the origin of the vampiric curse (or whether it's even a curse at all). Most of the powers were revamped, the backhistory has been significantly changed, etc.

They're still bloodsucking monsters of the night, the Prince still holds authority in his city, and politics still plays a major part of the game. But the story is quite different.

 

[Von Ether]

That was part of the complaint. The ongoing metaplot made it difficult for people to get into the games. Too many books, too many characters, just plain too much going on.

The stories are going to be completely different. For instance, with Vampire: the Requiem, we now have five clans. That's it. Also, instead of Camarilla and Sabbat, there are roughly five major organizations for vampires to belong to, all of which disagree on the origin of the vampiric curse (or whether it's even a curse at all). Most of the powers were revamped, the backhistory has been significantly changed, etc.

They're still bloodsucking monsters of the night, the Prince still holds authority in his city, and politics still plays a major part of the game. But the story is quite different.

The impression I get is that the metaplot concept is gone with WoD.2.0. One of the changes is that it seem like a lot of different things are now merits, which are rated in dots. Some are already guessing that even supernatural powers will be under the "Merits" ability.

 

[Staffan]

Ian,

Do you know if WW is going to fix the compatibility problems between the various settings (V:tM, W:tA, M:tA, W:tO, C:tD, etc.) for the "reboot"?

I think it will have less compatibility issues, because all the new WoD books will use a common rule system (which is in a separate book). It will be sort of like Exalted, if the core book for Exalted had been about playing Mortals and Solars had been separate.

 

[Henry]

This is as good a place as any: Could someone possibly give me a one-sentence or one-paragraph detail as to how the "end" came for each of these lines? Much as I appreciate the Storyteller aesthetic, I don't play the games, but was curious as to how they handled these apocalypses, and did not fancy buying a $30.00 for each to know the answer.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Achan hiArusa]

The End

Each of the books had several different ways of ending the line ranging from "they go down fighting" to the "you end up in a room talking" kinda of things. You could do any of them, mix and match them, and use them all together (if you were willing to do the work).

Also, as for the accusations that the new WoD is borrowing from d20 (this was in another thread), I ask you to look at how d20 borrowed from the old WoD (books for abstract covers is the one that comes to mind the best). Despite the derogatory comments, the WoD was a revolution in roleplaying games that most successfully pulled RPGs away from their wargaming roots than previous games. It brought in people who liked to roleplay but weren't keen on mechanics, and there were more females playing WoD than D&D. It has become a gateway game for many people into other games and thus stands with D&D as being a great way to bring people in to the hobby. Wargames have suffered because they have become more and more complicated (much of which can be taken care of on computer nowadays) and less and less inviting to the beginner. WoD has a simple mechanics system that doesn't overwhelm the beginner (not as easy as Over the Edge though) and emphasizes roleplaying and interaction over go into the dungeon and kick in the door type gaming (not that there is nothing wrong with the second type, I really love it after a stressful week). I don't know if I will buy into the new WoD (must buy a new eMac and get off the PC train), but it really, really improved my Storytelling skills as a DM, and if I may use some of the rules innovations in a more traditional chronicle.

 

[Storyteller01]

I know that (in the RPG books) wraith the oblivion went down when two ghostly nukes (don't ask...I don't know) went off simultaneously, Creating the next great malstrom. This all but wiped out Stygia. Mostly (like any major tragedy) it caused major changes, but everyone pick-up and moved on.

Turns out the great Malfean enemy was Charon's (the first wraith) Shadow, separated by some advanced castigation ability.

The final book RPG had an adventure that allowed the players to bring Charon back just before the Maelstrom (he was reincarnated, alive and well in the real world under some new identity. You kinda...had to... help him back..ya know?)

 

[MrFilthyIke]

This is as good a place as any: Could someone possibly give me a one-sentence or one-paragraph detail as to how the "end" came for each of these lines? Much as I appreciate the Storyteller aesthetic, I don't play the games, but was curious as to how they handled these apocalypses, and did not fancy buying a $30.00 for each to know the answer.

Thanks in advance!

That was the great gag of the end of the storyline...it never end!! It was like a giant Clue movie...which ending do you want? It was a total STORYTELLING let down...

(eyeing his FIVE bookselves of WW books, never to expand again after the end of WoD)

 

[IanWatson]

That was the great gag of the end of the storyline...it never end!! It was like a giant Clue movie...which ending do you want? It was a total STORYTELLING let down...

(eyeing his FIVE bookselves of WW books, never to expand again after the end of WoD)

It was perfect for a Storytelling game. They want you to tell the story. That's what the final books were about. If you want them to tell you what happens, pick up the fiction books ("Gehenna: The Final Night" by Ari Marmell, "The Last Battle" by Bill Bridges, "Judgment Day" by Bruce Baugh). The World of Darkness is a roleplaying game. If you want to do more than just run your players through the plot of an existing movie or book, you want a book of tools and options that tell you how to run the end of the world for yourself. That's what the Time of Judgment books were for.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I always had mixed feelings about Storyteller/WoD. One one hand I appreciate the contribution they made to gaming: easy mechanics, bringing in people who might not otherwise play, etc. On the other handthey also had this kind of arrogant attitude that unless you were playing one of their games you were just beneath them - and sometimes the kinds of gamers they brought in were ones that maybe the community could do without. Though I was kind of sad to see the WoD end but if they can improve upon it, that would be great.