World of Darkness Rulebook
TrippyHippy
Hero
5 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook
This was the product of some very serious game design, based on ideas from a decade of very successful lines (including the seminal Vampire; The Masquerade). The idea was to eschew canon of the ‘old World of Darkness’ (to avoid fan backlash, primarily) and use the opportunity to create a much more integrated series of games that would all be based on one very polished set of core rules. And this is what you get. It’s operates with a d10 dice pool system with set targets - roll 8 or higher on each for a ‘success’ on a scale of success level. Dice pools are based on 9 Attributes and a limited number of broad skills. The combat is fast (and pretty deadly) and all other systems well explained; personality traits are based upon sins and virtues (seven each to choose from) and roleplaying is rewarded with Willpower points and Morality. There is lots of atmospheric art and writing fluff and it operates as a gateway to all other ‘New World of Darkness’ lines - Vampires, Werewolves, etc, while still being a complete enough game to be able to play in modern ghost stories mainly (like The Shining or The Ring). In all, this was as slick as you could get in a game book - although some of the distinctive flavour and themes of the ‘Old Wold of Darkness’ were lost, arguably in the process.
This was the product of some very serious game design, based on ideas from a decade of very successful lines (including the seminal Vampire; The Masquerade). The idea was to eschew canon of the ‘old World of Darkness’ (to avoid fan backlash, primarily) and use the opportunity to create a much more integrated series of games that would all be based on one very polished set of core rules. And this is what you get. It’s operates with a d10 dice pool system with set targets - roll 8 or higher on each for a ‘success’ on a scale of success level. Dice pools are based on 9 Attributes and a limited number of broad skills. The combat is fast (and pretty deadly) and all other systems well explained; personality traits are based upon sins and virtues (seven each to choose from) and roleplaying is rewarded with Willpower points and Morality. There is lots of atmospheric art and writing fluff and it operates as a gateway to all other ‘New World of Darkness’ lines - Vampires, Werewolves, etc, while still being a complete enough game to be able to play in modern ghost stories mainly (like The Shining or The Ring). In all, this was as slick as you could get in a game book - although some of the distinctive flavour and themes of the ‘Old Wold of Darkness’ were lost, arguably in the process.
2 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook
The whole 'World of Darkness' has become increasingly stale and this book really shows its age. This is combined with a statistically dubious 'bucket of dice' system, and no appreciation at all that people might want to find things in a rule-book in a hurry.
The whole 'World of Darkness' has become increasingly stale and this book really shows its age. This is combined with a statistically dubious 'bucket of dice' system, and no appreciation at all that people might want to find things in a rule-book in a hurry.
5 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook
The New World of Darkness has been the subject of discussion and a bit of fan backlash since its creation. It overhauled the entire line of Old World of Darkness books and started fresh with updated rules and the absence of an overarching meta-plot. So what is the World of Darkness? If you don't know, it's a game world that uses the Storytellers system and is best used for telling brutal and macab stories. PC's die quickly and easily, they also don't have very many means of defending themselves. There's no cleric in back healing your wounds, you need to spend time mending them. If you like a more mortal system where you're just a guy, but a guy with something unique that will help you survive, this is a pretty good system. Being entirely honest, looking at this book for the first time can be overwhelming to newer players and game masters. There are a lot of little rules and bits that you worry about forgetting. This is a system where you absolutely need to know who you're playing with. I've seen players get extremely frustrated at this game and some that love it. If you do manage to convince a group to play this game, let me give you some quick advice. This game is meant to be a toolbox. You can use however much or however little of the system you like. For your first few sessions, go rules lite mainly focusing on the surface stuff. Focus on drawing the players in with a good story or a tantalizing mystery. Later sessions you can go crazy with some of the other stuff like car chases and drug trips. If you have players that like looking at all the little cracks in the system, might want to spend more time reading those little rules, otherwise just keep it simple stupid (I'm not calling you stupid I promise). My next suggestion is getting a lot of d10's. This system runs entirely on d10's and you use a lot of them if you've got enterprising players. If you want to make things simple, just use a laptop or smartphone and go to the DnD dice roller. "Okay that's all well and good, but I'm a player! What do I do?" The system is filled with lots of options for players. Though it seems strange, the character creation system runs on dots. You've got a certain number of dots you can spread throughout your attributes, skills, and merits. Merits are your feats. They're inherent bonuses that your character has, such as Common Sense or Giant. Character creation is actually really simple and doesn't take that long if you know what your doing. The core book offers a lot of merits so that's what you're going to be mulling over most. There's also a special stat called Willpower. It's a limited resource you can use to increase your rolls and gain other advantages. When you use Willpower up, you need to regain more by following your virtue or vice. These follow the Christian 7 deadly sins and heavenly virtues (though you should feel free to think up your own if you don't like the ones the book provides). Following your vice is easier than your virtue but it only gives you 1 Willpower, while your virtue gives you all your willpower back. This gives players a reason to rollplay, though it all depends on the group and the game master. If you don't want to use that system, Willpower can be raised in more mundane ways. This is a tollbox remember? So what about combat? The meat a system! Well it's brutal. Really brutal. A gun can wreck a character and health isn't easy to regain. You also get weaker the more damage you take and it's harder to fight back. Combat shouldn't be taken lightly...unless your a supernatural creature that can survive a few buckshot to the face. The combat system is really free flowing and doesn't have many hard and fast rules like other systems, but I see that as a strength. Even if you make a combat heavy character you will come face to face with the games next system, derangement. Every character has a morality stat. This measures your mental fortitude as a person. When you do something that would increase your characters stress or deeply disturb you (think Call of Cthulhu) then you make a morality roll. If you fail, you can get a derangement which are psychological issues that your character develops that deeply hinders her. She can develop anything from depression to schizophrenia. This is a great system and a very...not great system. It's vastly improved in the update to the storyteller system called The God-Machine Chronicles, but here it kind of equates mental instability to how good of a person you are which is not true. If you think of this not as a holy measure of your self worth and more of your characters stress and how they react to that stress, this system can be a lot of fun and terrifying. Game masters, called storytellers in World of Darkness, have a heavy task set before them. There's no set game world to latch onto or even a set genre. The world is your to mold as you will. This means long nights of thinking up the perfect story. Like I said before, keep it simple. The book does provide some stories to inspire you but they vary in usefulness. Try presenting the players with a mystery to keep them wondering and make them want to play another session. One thing that is unique is that this system really focuses on the setting. It provides numerous setting books and the book really says you should know your setting. Don't get too focused on this because those are mostly for sandbox games. Keep the story small and tight. After that...well there's not much else to talk about. I really love the system, others do not. If you've never tried this system and are looking for something new that's not a DnD style game or a hack and slash, this is a good place to start. The system has a huge library of resources and unique game lines that are each fun in their own ways. Give it a try!
The New World of Darkness has been the subject of discussion and a bit of fan backlash since its creation. It overhauled the entire line of Old World of Darkness books and started fresh with updated rules and the absence of an overarching meta-plot. So what is the World of Darkness? If you don't know, it's a game world that uses the Storytellers system and is best used for telling brutal and macab stories. PC's die quickly and easily, they also don't have very many means of defending themselves. There's no cleric in back healing your wounds, you need to spend time mending them. If you like a more mortal system where you're just a guy, but a guy with something unique that will help you survive, this is a pretty good system. Being entirely honest, looking at this book for the first time can be overwhelming to newer players and game masters. There are a lot of little rules and bits that you worry about forgetting. This is a system where you absolutely need to know who you're playing with. I've seen players get extremely frustrated at this game and some that love it. If you do manage to convince a group to play this game, let me give you some quick advice. This game is meant to be a toolbox. You can use however much or however little of the system you like. For your first few sessions, go rules lite mainly focusing on the surface stuff. Focus on drawing the players in with a good story or a tantalizing mystery. Later sessions you can go crazy with some of the other stuff like car chases and drug trips. If you have players that like looking at all the little cracks in the system, might want to spend more time reading those little rules, otherwise just keep it simple stupid (I'm not calling you stupid I promise). My next suggestion is getting a lot of d10's. This system runs entirely on d10's and you use a lot of them if you've got enterprising players. If you want to make things simple, just use a laptop or smartphone and go to the DnD dice roller. "Okay that's all well and good, but I'm a player! What do I do?" The system is filled with lots of options for players. Though it seems strange, the character creation system runs on dots. You've got a certain number of dots you can spread throughout your attributes, skills, and merits. Merits are your feats. They're inherent bonuses that your character has, such as Common Sense or Giant. Character creation is actually really simple and doesn't take that long if you know what your doing. The core book offers a lot of merits so that's what you're going to be mulling over most. There's also a special stat called Willpower. It's a limited resource you can use to increase your rolls and gain other advantages. When you use Willpower up, you need to regain more by following your virtue or vice. These follow the Christian 7 deadly sins and heavenly virtues (though you should feel free to think up your own if you don't like the ones the book provides). Following your vice is easier than your virtue but it only gives you 1 Willpower, while your virtue gives you all your willpower back. This gives players a reason to rollplay, though it all depends on the group and the game master. If you don't want to use that system, Willpower can be raised in more mundane ways. This is a tollbox remember? So what about combat? The meat a system! Well it's brutal. Really brutal. A gun can wreck a character and health isn't easy to regain. You also get weaker the more damage you take and it's harder to fight back. Combat shouldn't be taken lightly...unless your a supernatural creature that can survive a few buckshot to the face. The combat system is really free flowing and doesn't have many hard and fast rules like other systems, but I see that as a strength. Even if you make a combat heavy character you will come face to face with the games next system, derangement. Every character has a morality stat. This measures your mental fortitude as a person. When you do something that would increase your characters stress or deeply disturb you (think Call of Cthulhu) then you make a morality roll. If you fail, you can get a derangement which are psychological issues that your character develops that deeply hinders her. She can develop anything from depression to schizophrenia. This is a great system and a very...not great system. It's vastly improved in the update to the storyteller system called The God-Machine Chronicles, but here it kind of equates mental instability to how good of a person you are which is not true. If you think of this not as a holy measure of your self worth and more of your characters stress and how they react to that stress, this system can be a lot of fun and terrifying. Game masters, called storytellers in World of Darkness, have a heavy task set before them. There's no set game world to latch onto or even a set genre. The world is your to mold as you will. This means long nights of thinking up the perfect story. Like I said before, keep it simple. The book does provide some stories to inspire you but they vary in usefulness. Try presenting the players with a mystery to keep them wondering and make them want to play another session. One thing that is unique is that this system really focuses on the setting. It provides numerous setting books and the book really says you should know your setting. Don't get too focused on this because those are mostly for sandbox games. Keep the story small and tight. After that...well there's not much else to talk about. I really love the system, others do not. If you've never tried this system and are looking for something new that's not a DnD style game or a hack and slash, this is a good place to start. The system has a huge library of resources and unique game lines that are each fun in their own ways. Give it a try!
Stormonu
Legend
4 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook
For those who are familiar with the old Wold of Darkness games (Werewolf, Vampire, Changling, etc.), it can seem odd that the core rulebook has been separated from the settings. This isn't really a book that can stand on its own; you really need one of the supplemental settings to go along with this book. It's the main reason I dinged it a star. However, that aside, this is an excellent core system to get you into the various World of Darkness settings. This is not a crunch-heavy system; it is rather loose framework that allows you put story first but have enough mechanics to back up action resolution. Unfortunately, the book is rather poorly laid out and isn't designed for beginners. Though there are story bits all throughout to pique interest, the book seems at times to forget that it is primarily designed for presenting mechanics to supplement a story-based system. Because it is just the generic rules, the story bits can be off-putting. Once you grasp the system, however, the rules make quick and easy sense and a lot of times you can make an on-the-spot ruling without having to worry about referring back to the official rules - you'll more than likely be spot on with an ad-hoc ruling.
For those who are familiar with the old Wold of Darkness games (Werewolf, Vampire, Changling, etc.), it can seem odd that the core rulebook has been separated from the settings. This isn't really a book that can stand on its own; you really need one of the supplemental settings to go along with this book. It's the main reason I dinged it a star. However, that aside, this is an excellent core system to get you into the various World of Darkness settings. This is not a crunch-heavy system; it is rather loose framework that allows you put story first but have enough mechanics to back up action resolution. Unfortunately, the book is rather poorly laid out and isn't designed for beginners. Though there are story bits all throughout to pique interest, the book seems at times to forget that it is primarily designed for presenting mechanics to supplement a story-based system. Because it is just the generic rules, the story bits can be off-putting. Once you grasp the system, however, the rules make quick and easy sense and a lot of times you can make an on-the-spot ruling without having to worry about referring back to the official rules - you'll more than likely be spot on with an ad-hoc ruling.
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