Editing
World of Darkness
(section)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== New World of Darkness == Shortened as "'''nWoD'''", also known as '''Chronicles of Darkness''' (itself shortened to "'''CoD'''"). === Core Rulebooks === [[Image:WODcover.jpg|thumb|nWoD cover]] * '''The Storytelling System Rulebook''' :The core rulebook unifies the rule systems of the other game lines, as well as provides a basic system with which to play as mortal humans, and some barebones ghosts rules that are added onto in nearly every publication where ghosts are relevant. [http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/114078 The second edition update] is available as a free pdf online and it replaces the old "Victorian" morality system with one that's more modern, and also includes most of the improvements from the ''God Machine Chronicle'' (see below). :* '''God Machine Chronicle:''' Essentially the second edition of the core rulebook. Brings in a new morality system, "Integrity", with breaking points instead of the hierarchy of sins. Along with systems of conditions and "beats". If you don't mind the notion of God being a celestial laptop or the increased micro-management of the system, it's worth looking at as it's a big update over the old version. For better or worse depends on how you look at it. Expanding on the core rules, White Wolf decided to release a bunch of books expanding on the core rules to make the basic NWoD/CoD system a viable game in its own right. These books are, in order of release: * '''Antagonists:''' A whole slew of antagonists for the core game, but could also theoretically be used in the main games (especially Hunter). Includes a whole bunch of zombies including the regular kind, the primitive Prometheans called the Imbued (no relation to Hunter: The Reckoning) and those ghosts who have reentered their bodies and became Revenants in order to enact revenge. Others include a basic version of Hunters (best used as antagonists), cults of all kind and a variety of other monsters. * '''Armory:''' Guns, a whole lot of them. Also armor, vehicles and of course swords and such. A good book to have when playing any NWoD game that relies heavily on equipment. The book takes a very responsible and mature look at weaponry without disrespecting the player's intelligence. * '''Second Sight:''' Psychic powers, Low Magic and magical monsters for those games where using Mage: The Awakening is too high power. * '''Skinchangers:''' Yep, skinwalkers. Not all as evil as you'd think, just... don't piss them off. * '''Book of Spirits:''' Geist of those of you who don't want to use Geist. A good book for those who fall victim to the realm of spirits as well as those who try to conquer it. * '''Asylum:''' Horror stories set in insane asylums are very common, so it's logical that the World of Darkness jumps that bandwagon. Also includes an in-depth look at an example asylum: Bishopgate. * '''Reliquary:''' Everybody knows that magical items are the Good Shit, even if they're cursed. There's a ton of premade items here as well as easy rules to make your own. * '''Changing Breeds:''' You know how Forsaken removed all the bad things from Apocalypse? Now imagine if you take all those bad things, slap them together, double, triple and quadruple down on them and have "Satyros" [[Phil Brucato]] write it. One of the worst core WoD books. * '''Innocents:''' An add-on for the core book, you're just a kid who has to deal with the realities of the world revealing themselves to you. If you survive you'll most likely either be institutionalized, a Hunter, or a serial killer. Or more than one. Or a monster, that works too. The book you'll want if you want to play a Stranger Things game. * '''Dogs of War:''' The stories of black ops military units dealing with the supernatural. Perfect for those times you want to go all Delta Green, including how normal soldiers deal with the supernatural, how armies work as well as the more... irregular units. * '''Inferno:''' Rules for old-fashioned demons (or angels) almost completely different from the fallen angels of both God himself and the God Machine. As it was one of the earlier supplements, it is horribly incompatible with the GMC rules update, being focused on one half of the old morality system. Contains rules for both demons themselves and the Possessed, those unfortunates possessed by a demon and now have to deal with the perverse being living inside their head. * '''Slasher:''' Despite being a Hunter book in all but name, Slasher can still be used on its own to create a whole bunch of serial killers to use as antagonists in a core WoD game. Also contains rules for their use in Hunter games, including a gentleman's club for serial killers and those who hunt them: the FBI's Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit (VASCU) and its psychic operatives. * '''Armory Reloaded:''' How do you stop a grisly tentacled horror from tearing you apart? [[Team Fortress 2|Use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun.]] Contains rules for fighting styles, high-tech weapons, blessed and cursed weapons and alternate rules for combat. Infamous for allowing the creation of some of the most powerful mortals the World of Darkness has ever seen. * '''Immortals:''' A supplement that was released for immortal characters that follow different ideas of immortality. Except out of the 3 Immortals in the book, the first jumps off the karma meter so fast its unplayable, primarily because its Immortality is powered by bathing in a '''LOT''' of blood, preferably virgin but any human will do. The second, the Body Thief, is almost playable but again the karma meter gets in the way of anything involving the whole body swapping thing, resulting in the character becoming unplayable again. The third Immortal lives off some sort of mystic Chi/Kai stuff and is basically powered by Feng Shui. It's the only one that could be considered playable, and the authors must have realized this because its much better worked then the others which seem to have been intended as pure NPCs initially and then left as they are now. * '''Book of the Dead:''' Think the Book of Spirits mixed with Geist and the result is poured into a sourcebook. Good for Geist games (and also its ONLY sourcebook), but if you want to use this for a core WoD game you might as well play Geist instead. * The '''Mirrors''' supplements and '''Translation Guides:''' Modifications for the Storytelling System itself as well as hints on adapting it for different genres (the former) while the latter guides allowed mix-and-match rules from the three main game-lines of ''oWoD'' and ''nWoD''. It's notable that the Guides not only go through the crunch but also have chapters with suggestions of how you might fluffwise justify having one nWoD Mage order here or an cWoD tribe of Werewolves there for both New and Classic World of Darkness games. So if you for example really miss Clan [[Tzimisce]] in Vampire: The Requiem or think Requiem did the [[Nosferatu]] better but you still wanna run Vampire: The Masquerade, have a look in the Vampire Translation Guide and you'll get separate chapters covering both the fluff and the crunch for porting them over from Masquerade into Requiem or vice versa. * '''''Dudes of Legend: How To Be Fucking Awesome:''''' A joke supplement released on April 1st 2010, Dudes of Legend relentlessly pokes fun at both itself, White Wolf and the conventions of the RPG genre as a whole. Expect lesbian stripper ninjas, katanas and trenchcoats, magical gays, a more traditional XP system and loot drops from everyone you kill. It's a good laugh and might make for the ideal supplement if you're into that sort of game. Unfortunately White Wolf started to take itself way too seriously since and we'll never see a supplement like this one again. Since the advent of Chronicles of Darkness only a few core books have been released specifically for that ruleset: * '''Dark Eras:''' A 600 page behemoth of a tome detailing a variety of historical settings in which you can play Chronicles of Darkness. From the advent of the world where you play werewolves babysitting humanity so that it won't get eaten by the monsters of the wild, all the way up to to werewolves in the New York of the 70s. Contains settings for every gameline out there, but they are rather fixed: so if you want to play a Hunter during the Great War or a Mage during the fall of Constantinople you're out of luck. Also infamous for being very expensive: the standard hardcover book is $65 while the deluxe hardcover clocks in at $100, which many people feel is way too fucking expensive for a single book that you won't even use all the content of. :* '''Dark Eras Companion:''' The same as Dark Eras but more. A Kickstarter goal turned into a 300 page book ($40 regular hardcover $60 premium hardcore) that does the same but more and for a higher price. :* '''Dark Eras 2''': The same as Dark Eras but EVEN MORE. Just as big and expensive as the first. Has settings ranging from wandering around The Seven Wonders of the Hellenistic era to Arabian Nights-inspired Persia to the French Revolution to The Wild West to WWI trench warfare to 1950's MAD SCIENCE!!! Has more blurbs for splats outside the main ones an Era focuses on. * '''Hurt Locker:''' A book on pain and violence, as well as a half-dozen templates to make normal mortals a bit more attuned to violence. It takes a rather mature take on violence and injury... until you reach the Plain template; normal people who deal with violence by using radical pacifism. Yes, that's right: you can defuse a violent situation by getting punched in the face and not fighting back. * '''The Contagion Chronicle:''' Formerly referred to as The Crossover Chronicle, this series will add a new set of chronicle hooks, potential settings, and cross-template factions geared specifically around allowing parties composed of multiple types of supernatural beings to cooperate without killing each other. The metaplot concerns The Contagion, a metaphysical sickness in The God-Machine that causes reality to break down even more than the G-M makes it do already. Supernatural creatures (and Hunters, for some unexplained reason) are the only ones who can tell when The Contagion has struck an area -- normal humans ignore a Contagion outbreak, which means you get things like nobody thinking it's weird people don't die anymore or just accepting people can walk up walls or randomly explode or whatever fucked-up thing is happening now. There are 5 Sworn splats (generally where the PCs will wind up, mostly concerned about watching, containing, or curing a Contagion Outbreak) and 3 False factions (who are either Blow It All Up zealots, using The Contagion to fuel their own schemes, or flatout working to spread it so they can rule over the ashes when everything else collapses). As with most of the CoD, there's no set canon reason of what's causing the Contagion, just a bunch of things it ''could'' be...up to and including The God-Machine being ''dead'' but not realizing it yet. === Principal Games === * '''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]:''' 13 Clans with fleshed out, restricting histories become 5 clans with vague, open-ended histories and multiple Bloodlines (sub-clans). The Camarilla becomes 5 Covenants with mutually exclusive goals. The Sabbat becomes VII, the Infernalists become the more sporadic, less-organized Belial's Brood. Arguably the biggest difference is that you can't just make someone a Vampire by draining them and feeding them your blood, now you have to permanently spend a dot of Humanity to do it. An alternate setting in ancient Rome also exists, which contains a history of the Carmarilla (and how it collapsed with the rest of the Roman Empire). Additionally, a new set of antagonists in the form of the Strix, which are demonic owl-like creatures bent on purging every last trace of Humanity from vampire society (to the point where even a Humanity 0 vampire is ''too human'' for them) and can possess corpses and vampires to lash out at mortals and undead alike. * '''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]:''' A slightly more "balanced" version of Werewolf. You can't run around in 8-foot tall invincible war-form all the time, and you see humans as a flock of idiotic sheep that you have to protect from malicious spirits due to a vow sworn by your ancient ancestors as punishment for divine patricide. The "adjustments" resulted, possibly intentionally, in the average werewolf no longer being a match for the average vampire, a criticism invariably met with statements regarding the relative level of coordination between werewolf packs and vampire coteries. An example of a well run Werewolf: the Forsaken game is [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?446663-Werewolf-The-Forsaken-quot-Detroit-Rock-City-quot Detroit Rock City]. It is written in novel format for ease of reading, played over Skype. * '''[[Mage: The Awakening]]:''' Mechanically simplified and involving more magic usage than [[Mage: The Ascension|M:tAsc]], M:tA's biggest criticism is that it doesn't have as compelling a plot β specifically, the revised political landscape is the most frequent target of attack. Its second edition fixed most of that though, and it bears repeating that its rules for magic allow for a lot more freedom than what Ascension let you do. === Limited Release Games === * '''[[Promethean: The Created]]:''' Frankenstein: The RPG. You're a scorned mockery of humanity, most likely abandoned by your creator, left to fend for yourself in a world that wants you dead. You're perpetually dazed and confused, always trying to pick up the ways of humans, but you can never make real friends and have to live as a nomad because the very thing that keeps you alive also makes people hate you and poisons the land around you. Only five books, but it pretty much covers all the bases. Surprisingly, it's actually rather optimistic since in theory you can make like Pinocchio and become a true human under the right circumstances. * '''[[Changeling: The Lost]]:''' No longer are the Changelings faeries, but humans kidnapped by the True Fae and twisted into something not quite mortal. Managed to do the exact opposite of its predecessor and sell enough copies that they extended the series instead of cutting it short. It completed its run with nine books and a long-awaited web enhancement. * '''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]:''' Hunter, without the ridiculously overpowered gifts. You're just an average Joe with more information than other people, and on occasion ties to people with some special toys that let you use powers that can border on the supernatural themselves. For instance, you might channel the power of your demonic heritage to smite people with hellfire, you might have bullets that are extra-effective against vampires, or you might have access to religious rites that bless your weapons with the power to hurt ghosts. That, and you can break every conceivable human moral code without going insane, provided you can justify it in light of your "Vigil." Though, of course, this slowly makes you inhuman. Well-known for its antagonists - Slashers - who are the World of Darkness take on serial killers. Once again had "lite" versions of all the other supernaturals, which tended to be more singularly powerful than the real thing, but not as versatile (or player-character-friendly). See what happens when Hunter: The Vigil meets Harry Potter [[M-COM|here]]. * '''[[Geist: The Sin-Eaters]]:''' People who die and have ghosts decide to resurrect them, getting stuck with said ghost riding shotgun to said person's body and giving them all manner of powers depending on the way the first party died, all to accomplish the ghost's goals. Instead of humanity, you have "synergy" which is how in sync you are with your spirit. When you die, someone else is forced to die in your place and you lose 1/5 of your maximum possible synergy, stunting your abilities permanently and ultimately making you a slave to your spirit "partner", who often has some rather unusual ideas about what to do with its new body. The Underworld is finally fleshed out, but somehow far more foreboding than expected. * '''[[Mummy: The Curse]]:''' You're a slave of Irem of the Pillars (Yes, the one in the Rub-Al Khali). But the city is dead and gone, and the Sorcerers who made you into what you are now live in the lands of the dead and tell you what to do. A reversal of normal "You're young and weak, they're old and powerful", Mummies wake up with a power trait of *10*...and lose it quickly, because it drops over time as the magic animating your undying body begins to fade. Most Arisen remain active for about four months, at best. And then they have to come back to life and do it all over again. * '''[[Demon: The Descent]]:''' Remember the God Machine? From the ''God Machine Chronicle'', and the start of the core book? Yeah, turns out it has robo-angels. Sometimes, one of them decides it doesn't particularly enjoy its function. Or it fails to perform. Or ends up getting saddled with an order it can't actually carry out. Instead of returning they go on the lam, becoming 'demons'. The God Machine sends its angels looking. You don't want to go back, so you become a robot secret agent, pretending as hard as you can to be human while ruining the occult plans of the Divine Calculator; luckily, you retain the ability to hack reality thanks to your former connection to the God Machine. The angels are still Cthulhu-robots in service to the...thing that is in total control of the World of Darkness, and they would really like you to come back so they can strip you for parts. Fortunately Demons are very good at hiding their true identities- so good that even supernatural beings (and other demons, at that matter) can't see through their disguises if they don't want to reveal themselves. If anyone finds out however they will instinctually want you dead either for [[Void_Engineers|being an insult to reality]] or more commonly the [[rage| collective hatred]] all living and unliving beings have against the crimes your [[cultist-chan|moronic cultists]] the infernalists have committed every single one is blamed on you and the accusations are most probably true [[grimdark|you are at fault you are evil incarnate]]. * '''[[Beast: The Primordial]]:''' Another game with absolutely no tie to the Old World of Darkness. You play as a Beast, a living embodiment of primal fear running around in a meat-suit, and driven by the need to feed on fear, either passively by hanging out with your "kinfolk" (most every other monster in the WoD) or actively by going out and terrorizing folks. Pretty strongly panned, many consider it the absolute worst gameline in the New World of Darkness because it combines CtD's otherkin "appeal" with some rather hazy moral trappings that reek of schoolyard revenge fantasies. The discovery that its author was a sex offender did '''not''' help matters, especially due to how this cast a much different light on some of the attempts to justify the Beasts' actions. * '''[[Deviant: The Renegades]]:''' The next announced gameline, which uses a "body horror" theme. You play as a Deviant, some poor soul caught by a mad scientist, a black ops bio-corp, a fucked up cult or some other kind of conspiracy and twisted into something not entirely human. Your soul is broken and your body will inevitably collapse under the strain of your continued changes, but sheer stubbornness allows you to cling to what's left of your humanity long enough to get revenge on each and every one of the sonsof***es who did this to you. You can decide how strong you want your starting powers to be but stronger powers come with stronger drawbacks and cause the Conspiracy that made you to become more aggressive in trying to recapture you. === Fan Games === Due to the lack of a Metaplot in NWOD, and the bigger focus on keeping things vague in-universe, Fan Games are FAR more common for NWOD than for it's older counterpart. * '''[[Dragon: The Embers]]:''' A long, long time ago, the Dragons ruled. And then humans fought back. Now, you are one of the last of your kind, what do you do? * '''[[Genius: The Transgression]]:''' A fan-built WoD set, Genius allows players to gorge themselves on Venture Brothers level superscience while drinking deep from the cup of mundane failure. While Inspiration allows a mad scientist to channel Mania into impossible inventions, their Obligation to humanity gradually gives way to that alien brilliance. If a scientist falls too far off the straight and narrow, they become Unmada, unable or unwilling to accept that they are crazy, that their ideas are true regardless of Mania. Without help or restraint, they become Illuminated. Think Hannibal Lecter in a lab coat and a fascination with altering the DNA of pregnant women. (Also don't even think of trying to get rich off your mad science; your inventions basically break the laws of physics through sheer force of will on your part and tend to malfunction explosively if the mundanes get their grubby hands on them.) * '''[[Giant: The Perfidious]]:''' Another fan-made WoD gameline, in which you are a Giant. * '''[[Hunchback: The Lurching]]:''' Even Quasimodo gets a game based on his poor ass. You're a Hunchback, and your goal in life is to find a nice master, pick up a hot chick, and die happily(?) from your horrible disfigurement. (So basically a WoD version of [[wikipedia:My_Life_with_Master|My Life with Master]]?) * '''[[Leviathan: The Tempest]]:''' OOOOOCEAN MAN. In which you play as the WOD version of a Deep One/the Creature from the Black Lagoon. You're a descendent of an unknowable and powerful monster from the beginning of the planet, now you're turning into an undersea monster with your own personal cult. Yay! * '''[[Mutant: The Aberration]]:''' A [[mutant]] is you. * '''[[Princess: The Hopeful]]:''' Sailor Moon? ha ha no, try Sailor Nothing, or late-season Madoka Magica. Pretty dresses won't help you fight despair, but sometimes that's all you got. Began as a joke, but turned out to work surprisingly well played straight. Has two versions (Dream and Vocation) thanks to creative differences between the writers about tone and mechanics. * '''[[Sovereign: The Autonomy]]:''' An AI is you. Do you try to go full [[Reign of Steel]], manipulate humans into making you a physical body, or just fuck with people on the Internet? * '''[[Wraith: The Arising]]:''' Was the NWOD version of Wraith before Geist happened and filled that spot. You're dead, and unlife is not much better, can you make it in the politics of the afterlife? * '''[[Alien: The Stranded]]:''' You're marooned on earth with your fellow aliens, with one of two long term goals - getting off this primitive rock full of savages you can barely call sapient, or saying "fuck it" and trying to go native. But right now, your business is simply surviving the various horrors of this world and figuring out just who you can trust. * '''[[Janus: The Persona]]:''' Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde: WOD Edition. Not only do you have to deal with the usual supernatural shenanigans, but you also have to consider your Id that somehow became sentient and eggs you on to do terrible life choices. But hey, you get a few nifty powers in return, so it can't be *that* bad, right? * '''[[Siren: The Drowning]]:''' [[Mermaids]]. You're a person who reached a point in your life where it seemed like you were about to give into despair, only to come out the other side and gain a Diluvian form--and knowledge that an apocalyptic disaster known as the Deluge is coming, and that only you can stop it. * '''[[Psychic: The Gifted]]:''' Psychics, obviously. You're a person who received "the Gift" and now has to figure out whether it's really a gift, or a curse.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to 2d4chan may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
2d4chan:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Page
Discussion
English
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Special pages
Page information