Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
World of Darkness Rulebook
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RisTigger" data-source="post: 6523065" data-attributes="member: 6777327"><p><strong>5 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook</strong></p><p></p><p>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!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RisTigger, post: 6523065, member: 6777327"] [b]5 out of 5 rating for World of Darkness Rulebook[/b] 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! [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
World of Darkness Rulebook
Top