World of Darkness Core Rulebook

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World of Darkness Rulebook

Where the Shadows Grow Long

We live our days completely ignorant of the true terrors lurking around us. Only rarely do our experiences draw back the veil of shadows and reveal the horror in our midst. These glimpses into the supernatural can cause us to retreat into comforting lies - 'There are no such things as monsters' - or stir our morbid curiosity. Only a few, however, can overcome their fear and dare to look deeper.

Abandon Hope All Who Enter

The World of Darkness Rulebook introduces a version of our contemporary world where the supernatural is real. Players join to tell tales of mystery and horror, where theme, mood and plot are more important to a character’s experiences than his weapons or equipment. Inside are rules for character creation, task resolution, combat and any activity your character attempts as he delves into the shadows. Hardcover. Page Count: 224

 

[cybertalus]

A D&D Player Steps Into The World of Darkness

Until a few weeks ago my total experience with The World of Darkness consisted of owning (and reading once, but never playing) Mage: The Ascension, and playing in one session of a Vampire: The Masquerade game where the GM had us play versions of ourselves and then proceeded to turn our characters into vampires based on rather shallow readings of our personalities. After the Vampire session I ran screaming back to the safety of D&D and have rarely ventured outside it since.

I don't have a regular gaming group right now, but I am involved in a gaming club that meets for a three hour gaming session each week and runs month-long mini-campaigns. When one of the club members announced she was going to run a game using the new World of Darkness with all mortal PCs-- no werewolves, vampires, or mages-- I was intrigued. I'd heard good things about this new World of Darkness, and here was someone offering me a chance to try it without having to play a monster. If I didn't like it, the game was only five weeks long. So after a little hesitation, I signed up. Boy have I ever been glad that I did.

The first week was getting to know the other players, explaining the rules system, and character creation. I was the least experienced World of Darkness player present, as everyone else had played in at least one game under the old system. Tabitha, the GM, explained the system well, and although I had a few questions, there was nothing so foreign that it took me more than a few minutes to grasp. Tabitha provided a page of setting information, which immediately inspired an idea for a character, and in I'd say less than ninety minutes, Danny Thoreau was conceptualized, fully statted up, and would've been ready to play if I hadn't had to leave a half hour early that first night. Character creation probably would've gone even quicker, but there were only two books to share among six players.

I was surprised that without character classes or even suggested archetypes how many of our characters wound up falling into clear D&D archetypes. Jim's character Kyle was the classic D&D thief: stealthy, smart, patient, and able to easily get past any lock. Sherry's Lee (short for Leandra) was a self-defense expert who demonstrated her prowess in both martial arts and gun play, although Lee was anything but the brainless fighter of D&D stereotype. Except for being a weak combatant, my character Danny was a classic ranger. Kathy's Takumi, Steve's Twitch, and Tommy's Aaron were less obvious fits for D&D stereotypes, although Takumi could be broadly described as a monk. Aaron was the quiet intellectual type who came through with a major answer after taking off to do some research on his own. Then there was Twitch, the somewhat shell-shocked, gun-toting war veteran, who tended to react violently to loud noises and sudden movements.

After I left the first night, the other players did get in some role playing, and Tabitha asked me to arrive a bit early the next week to help finalize some stuff and set the stage as seen from Danny's perspective. Once the session began and the characters began interacting I was immediately struck at the amount of role playing going on. The GM never said that she wanted to run a role playing heavy game, and certainly never set down a table rule of anything said was assumed to be said in character unless stated otherwise, but for the most part that's how we interpreted things. It was great.

Moreover, Tabitha did something I've been trying to get my DMs in D&D to do the entire fifteen years I've been gaming: incorporate elements from my character's background into the story. Now in a short campaign like this, that's no small request, but she did it with my Danny and Sherry's Lee as well. Even better, when I bought a copy of the rulebook, incorporating things from the characters' backgrounds into the story was one of the GMing tips listed right there in the book. If that was ever in the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide I sure missed it, because I'd have loved to have pointed it out to a lot of DMs over the years.

I really enjoyed the game, and when the five weeks were up I was definitely left wanting more. I don't think I'm ready to change my mind about Vampire just yet, and even Werewolf doesn't hold much appeal for me. Mage still intrigues me, but offer me another chance to play World of Darkness with all mortal PCs, and I'll be all over it.

How much of my enjoyment of the game was down to the GM and the other players and how much is down to the system I can't say for sure. I'm inclined to think Tabitha, Jim, Kathy, Sherry, Steve, and Tommy deserve the lion's share of the credit, but I can't deny that the system seems to be consciously designed to attract certain types of gamers to it. As a D&D player I strongly lean toward role-playing rather than combat, and The World of Darkness seems to be designed specifically for that preference.

As to the game system itself, I find it to be simple, yet elegant and flexible. It doesn't get in the way, but it's there when you need it. Aside from the rules, the book is full of flavor text, consisting of brief interludes and longer pieces that I can only describe as short stories, which help GMs and players to get into the mood of the game.

The book is printed in black and white, with art styles ranging from drawings to nearly photo realistic. The typeface used for the rules portions of the text is easy enough to read, but the short stories sometimes deviate into difficult to read fonts that I feel sacrifice a bit too much legibility in favor of ambiance.

I feel the need to alert people who might be sensitive about such things that The World of Darkness is probably not for younger gamers. In the section on Derangements there is artwork depicting a nude woman. Her pose does not strike me as sexual in any way, but seems instead designed to illustrate the general concept of Derangements without depicting a particular one. The flavor text also makes occasional use of words which aren't allowed on American television. Further, many of the themes addressed in the book are of a somewhat mature nature. While it is certainly possible to play the game without touching on such themes, their presence in the book is something to keep in mind.

In my opinion the most broadly useful section in The World of Darkness book is the chapter on Storytelling. Although there are some sample NPCs, the bulk of the chapter is all about creating mood and setting, and most importantly telling stories. The chapter covers the structure of stories, techniques for telling them, and provides useful suggestions for sources to use as inspiration. There is advice on how to manage overly shy players as well as the strongly outgoing ones who sometimes tend to dominate things. In contrast with D&D's rather dryly technical DMing advice about Challenge Ratings, Encounter Levels, and treasure payouts, The World of Darkness book's Storytelling chapter is all about how to tell stories. If someone were creating a Game Mastering 101 course, this chapter would make excellent material to use as a textbook.

Overall I enjoyed my foray into The World of Darkness, and under the right conditions I'll be glad to go there again. Still, I have always thought of myself as a D&D player more than a gamer in general, and that hasn't changed. The things I learn and see in The World of Darkness will be things I bring back to D&D. Things may never be quite the same again in my D&D games, and if they're not, I consider that to be a very good thing indeed.

 

[Gamer Dorcas]

reply and mini review/info on 2 other books

First off, thanks for the review. I had a great time running for the group and having great players and a fun group of PCs definitely pulled things together. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the book and session and were willing to give it a go.

The biggest complain I've heard about the new World of Darkness (WoD) is that it's not the old stuff - meaning a number of people refuse to try it. (Those I've talk to who have tried it say they really enjoy it, even those familiar with the older games.)

I suppose this is always the case with new editions but at least locally people seem very set on judging based on how cool they thought the old books were. I have only played Masquerade once (and thoroughly enjoyed it!) but I have a big number of books I bought just to read and I think it was a good game; that being said, I think the new version is a really good game.

White Wolf has been working hard on the new system/new books and it shows (this is NOT a post-apocalyptic game world picking up from Time of Judgement, it's a whole different take.) There is a lot more balance, which explains why things have been a little slower than originally intended in the release schedule. They've been taking the time to do playtests with other departments so that all the supplements fit together.

The core book is the main rule book and, as cybertalus has stated, offers a lot of background in the way of theme, mood, storytelling tips, etc. Each supplemental main book (I suppose they're considered core as well?) like Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, yet-to-be-announced-new-project, what have you, focuses its pages completely on the topic at hand. Basically you add a template to the mortal rules. This allows great flexibility as you're all based on the same starting system and add accordingly.

The WoD has two supplements that are useful for any game that I'd like to give a brief review on as well: Ghost Stories and Antagonists.

Ghost Stories is essentially a module book, with a bit of an expansion on the ghost information from the back of the WoD book. There are 5 well thought-out scenarios that give a storyteller a number of modules to run and a good feel of what can be done with the system and mood. Personally I took a bit of one (maybe 1/4 - 1/3) and incorporated it into my own setting and plot.

Antagonists is a book that covers a large varity of things the PCs could run into. Chapter one covers zombies, imbued, revenants, intruders and a bit on vampires. Chapter two covers hunters (and their main ability now, in case you're wondering, is a mixture of networking and insanity. But the balance should still be there, so no need to be superhuman to take on the night.) Three is your cults and cultists information, and chapter four, titles "Fear Given Form," has a variety of other vile things to throw your PCs up against.

As with all WoD products, these books take the look and feel of the core book as reviewed above. And likewise, these are meant for mature audiences only.

I have found the WoD book to be a great system to use for the modern-era, supernatural style game, and how much you want to put into it and how dark you want it to be is all relative and in the name of fun for you and your players.

WoD has definitely got my *thumbs-up* and recommendation as a DM and the books released thus far are great for information or idea spring-boards for about anything. They're all hardback and decently priced as well, which names for ease when traveling (or at least I think, since I enjoy not having to worry about a paperback getting crushed or bent.)

 

[Welverin]

Each supplemental main book (I suppose they're considered core as well?) like Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, yet-to-be-announced-new-project, what have you, focuses its pages completely on the topic at hand.

Not sure if it's been ported over but the termed used for the Exalted equivalents is fatsplat.

 

[Gamer Dorcas]

Not sure if it's been ported over but the termed used for the Exalted equivalents is fatsplat.

Thanks Welverin.