White Wolf

[Aedh]

I'm new to white wolf and the World of Darkness, and I was wondering which of their games (WoD) is best to buy first. I'm looking for fun/interesting themes and generally goodness. Me and my group are experienced in a variety a games, so difficultly is not an issue.

Any help would be good.

Yours,

Aedh

*edit* Specifically WoD.

 

[Crothian]

I love White Wolf and their games and wish I could play more.

Are you wanting the current in print games? Of those you basically have two: Ealted and World of Darkness. Now, Exalted has its off shoot Scion, and Whorld of Darkness has its off shots of Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, Promethian, Hunter, and Geist.

Are you looking for some thing high fantasy anime derivitive that would be Exalted. If you want modern day horror then that's World of Darkness. Both hhave great themes and great books. I would start with one of those and just look at the core book to determine if that is right for you. There are plenty of other books you can buy if you like it.

 

[maddman75]

I'm a new convert to White Wolf as well, having just started a Hunter: The Vigil game. Hunter is wonderful, its really a toolbox game. The game is split into three tiers - I'm running Tier 1. This is pretty much early Supernatural. Some guys that know about the supernatural being and a trunk full of shotguns. Tier two you have more organization, and tier 3 gets weird superpowers. So you can do Supernatural, X-Files, Constantine, or Men in Black, as your tastes dictate.

The theme of Hunter is the candle in the darkness. Being a hunter is hard. You don't get paid to stake vamps and exorcise ghosts, you have to balance it with real life. You end up with all kinds of nasty things on your tail. That vamp you drug into the sunlight might have had a mate, and she'll stalk you back home. And there's the mental toll - the constant violence a Hunter partakes in can have a serious mental toll. Beware hunting monsters, lest you become a monster yourself. A fair number of serial killers in World of Darkness started out as Hunters.

There's a lot of 'blue books' that work great with Hunter as well. The Armory gives you all kinds of guns, weapons and gear to work with. Books like Mysterious Places, Urban Legends, and Midnight Roads are meant for any game, but work great with Hunter.

I also have Vampire and Geist, though I've not read/played either one. Having played oWoD the new one seems to fix a lot of the mechanical problems. The theme of vampire is desperation - what will you do to survive? You get to live forever, you get superpowers, but you have to drink people's blood to do it. And if you ever stop hating yourself you will become a total monster.

Geist is a little more cheery. You're a person who had a near-death experience. Actually, it would have been just a death experience, but a powerful spirit made you an offer you couldn't refuse. It returned you to life, but you had to take it with you. Now this spirit is fused with you. It is obsessed with the way it died and urges you to do things in that vein - the geist of a burn victim might urge you to start fires. But you get power over the dead and death, and are nearly immortal yourself. So long as you aren't too out of tune with it, if you do die the geist will just bring you back again. Having had a near death experience and being constantly reminded of death, most Sin-Eaters enjoy life as much as possible.

And then there's Exalted, the fantasy game. Best way I've heard it is to think about the Lord of the Rings movies. Aragorn, Gimli, and the Hobbits were playing D&D. Legolas was playing Exalted.

The other lines are Werewolf, Changeling, Mage, and Promethean. There are quick-starts available free for all these games.

 

[Nifft]

I personally like Exalted 2e.

I've heard great things about Changeling.

Mage is quite fun. We played that and Vampire in the previous edition.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Umbran]

I'm new to white wolf, and I was wondering which of their games is best to buy first.

As others have already said, it depends very much what you are looking for.

There is one, and only one, of their games where I'd say "difficulty" might be an issue - the *old* WoD Mage: the Ascension. In my personal opinion, it is one of the best, and the worst, games ever written, and even very experienced players and GM can have troubles getting it to work well. However, when it does work well, it is phenomenal.

The nWoD Mage: the Awakening does not have the problems of the older game, but in the process of removing weaknesses, they also removed strengths. It is probably not a bad game, but I find it pales in comparison.

 

[DMfromdimensionX]

I would say to start with the basic WOD book and then after you have all the mechanics worked out with a first campaign move into something else. IMO vampire and werewolf are the most accessible and focus around very familiar gothic monsters so you dont have to strain too hard to make a consistent plot like i did with some of the other games.

 

[Mark Hope]

Hi Aedh!

I'd agree with DMfromdimensionX - check out the "mortals" line and explore some of the super-creepy adventure and setting ideas from that line. Urban Legends, Mysterious Places and similar books are full of great material.

maddman75 has a good point with Hunter as well. It's a great game that pits (relatively) mortal characters against a host of cool elements. And its tier system allows you to customise the game-world as you see fit.

As you know, I'm a big fan of Mage: the Ascension. But like Umbran points out, it has a fairly hefty buy-in and is more than a little sprawling. Mage: the Awakening is a little tighter but heavier on the rules. Of course, you can find a good and relatively simple magic system in Second Sight that wil allow you to play mage-esque games without too much trouble.

 

[Jhaelen]

There is one, and only one, of their games where I'd say "difficulty" might be an issue - the *old* WoD Mage: the Ascension. In my personal opinion, it is one of the best, and the worst, games ever written, and even very experienced players and GM can have troubles getting it to work well. However, when it does work well, it is phenomenal.

The nWoD Mage: the Awakening does not have the problems of the older game, but in the process of removing weaknesses, they also removed strengths. It is probably not a bad game, but I find it pales in comparison.

QFT. The old Mage rpg was one of my favorite systems. My other favorite was Wraith - though I've never been able to actually play it.

If you're looking for one of the NWoD systems, I'd recommend Changeling. Imho, it's the only one that is actually a lot better than its oWoD version.

 

[The_Fan]

Hunter feels like more an expansion of the blue book than anything else. It is the game to go to for newbies who don't want to deal with a lot of supernatural power, or want to have it doled out in small increments. Also, most of the characters are still fundamentally human so it's not a big shift from what you know to add "...and fights monsters" to your job description.

On the other end of the ease of play scale is Promethean. It's kinda weird in that they aren't even human, but want to be. It's really fun, but really hard for newbies because it's hard to wrap your psychology around something merely pretending to be human with no prior experience at it. Also, disquiet and the wasteland effect really make life hard for you.