The World of Darkness

Imagine a world wholly like our own with all the politics and emotions, history and (most of the) natural laws of this world. Now take all the legends, conspiracies, paranoia, and irrational fear and turn those startling nightmares into realities. The World of Darkness breaks new ground in roleplaying. A simple roleplaying system with room to invent upon puts the Storyteller and her players in the spotlight. Unlike White Wolf's previous products which, while good in their own right, were more geared to the whims of the designers themselves. Do not think of World of Darkness as the basis for the new, dumbed-down Vampire of Werewolf game. WoD is a complete system. Add whatever creatures you want. Bring the storyline of Masquerade in if you so desire. It is inconsequential. This book is all you really need. The further books simply add material and stimulate ideas. The rules do not overwhelm as further material is completely optional. There are of course, negatives, but an RPG is what its players make it. The Storyteller system is so basic it is nearly impossible to screw up. The dice are merely an afterthought. But if you like buckets of dice ala Shadowrun, their are options for you, too. The flavor text, short stories that inject the mood of WoD into your thoughts, are well-written, if a bit abrupt. They are not stand-alone pieces, of course; they merely serve as atmosphere, food for your creative beast. A certain contradiction exists in that some actions are far more complex concerning dice than their real world counterparts. But the complexities can always be thrown out. Another peeve are the seemingly redundant attributes of Resolve and Composure. These comprise Willpower which, I feel, is a rather underused trait. The Crafts skill is also dramatically broad. This skill, supposedly, serves as a pre-requisite for any creation and repair feats. Computer repair technicians don't necessarily know how to fix a car engine. The solution for this skill and other similarly vague ones is the use of specializations. Only 3 specializations are allowed at character creation, however, and skills like this one seem to require a specialization to be useful. Two of the skills are Computer and Drive which create problems when setting a game out of the modern era. Personally, I substitute the skills "Technology" and "Travel." The open-ended nature of the book is also a problem. While it does not overwhelm with information, more material on supernatural entities would be helpful. The solution to this predicament is a long list of sourcebooks. Antagonists provides information on enemy supernaturals. Some books, such as Ordo Dracul and Ghost Stories, add flavor but little depth to gameplay. Others, like Coteries (which is actually a Vampire sourcebook), are flavorful additions that are useful but not necessary. The merits and flaws available in this edition are anemic. Only two fighting styles are available: boxing and kung fu. Instructions for user-created fighting styles and other merits are absent. White Wolf's combat systems have always been slow and cumbersome. The revisions alleviate the crunching, but the experience is still a little rough. The system as it is, however, is nearly flawless. It achieves this through dedication to simplicity. What you can truly do with World of Darkness is only limited by your imagination. Have fun in the shadows.

Ive been playing the wold of darkness for almost four years now and its an amazing game with real depth and meaning. Imagine what it would be like if suddenly you found out that monsters were real and that they were all around us? Thats what this game is about, an everyday mortal learning that they are not alone in the world and even worse, they arent at the top of the food chain. At first it can be a confusing system, espcially if you're used to d20 or some other dice system but its likely the easiest to learn and the easiest to master of any system I've ever played. Character creation is quick as long as you have a steady idea in your head and there are no classes or other elements to pigeon hole you into a single role. Character development is slow but not so slow to make it meaningless. If you're looking for a realistic horror style game you should definately pick this book up and if you dont have someone to play with in your area then feel free to join our World of darkness site at [...] we would love to have you

I never played the original WoD, so I'm not going to try to compare it to the older line. Having read this, I can safely say that this is a phenomenal product. The book is attractive, with good art, fonts, and amazing use of space. The running themes of horror, mystery and the unknown are prevalent throughout. The "fluff" content (background information, storylines, how-to's, etc.) is amazing, and the "crunch" aspect (rules, numbers, hard data, etc.) is good as well. Some books like this leave you in the dark about how the rules work, or how you can implement and integrate everything in the book. The World of Darkness book is nothing like that, and there are examples of everything inside. It's very beginner friendly but urges use of your imagination, to come up with story lines and themes that you and your friends will like, rather than using what is considered "stock." Overall I was very impressed. I highly recommend this to anyone who is sick and tired of "roll" playing and would rather do some "role" playing. Let the kids have their umpteenth edition of D&D. This is so far ahead of any of that, it's ridiculous.

I found this system a few years back and it has become my favorite RPG. This book serves as the core rules for all of the expansions (i.e. Vampire: the Requiem and Werewolf: the Forsaken)with lost of companion books, so combining pretty much any supernatural elements is seamless. While I have never been a huge fan of D&D I have played lots of D20 systems. The D10 system here is easy to learn and it has exploding dice (10 again), which I always prefer. World of darkness is the best system that I've seen for modern day settings. Also, it is the only one that I've come across that allows for a normal human character to stand a chance in a fantasy encounter. I recommend this game for anyone that's a fan of Buffy, Supernatural, Zombies, Vampires, Ghosts or pretty much any sort of horror genre.

Well, I can't say much. I had been desiring this book for quite a long time but it's too expensive in my country, so I decided to purchase it here and it's wonderful. The packaging was flawless and the book was obviously treated with superb care. Thank you very much for the diligence. This game presents a very fascinating insight on themes we've all been attracted to in some measure. The World of Darkness is just like our own, but as the creators themselves put it, "Shadows are deeper, nights are darker and fog is thicker". You can literally take advantage of any mystery you've ever heard or read about in your existence, from military and political complots, to enigmatic, esoteric and supernatural events in the history of the world. As the narrator or part of the group of players, you can either expand on this themes to create a thrilling atmosphere of dread and foreboding, or you can create your own plots from scratch just as if you were directing your own film with the help of the rest of the team. Sit down, read the magnificent flavour texts and stories within the rulebook and begin planning environments, characters and twists that would have you filled with edge-of-your-seat anticipation and emotion. D.R.

In the WoD series this book is the meat. All others are flavor. I love this book. The concept that everything I need to run any WoD game regardless of the flavor text used, I can refer to one core book. Combat, actions, reactions, flaws, merits, it's all here. Biggest Con - Too much fluff. For a core book that deals primarily with mechanics, it is not easy to find any particular piece of information. The organization of the book could be better, but for running any WoD game, or playing one, this is a must buy.

always loved this system. improvements over the original all around, even if people dont like the changes to vampire/werewolf/whatever. Core system is easy to use and well balanced enough.

This was my first purchase in this game system, and I haven't played it yet, but thought it was very well done. I don't have any previous WoD system to compare it to, but it seems there are a lot of older gamers who want to relive the glory days of previous editions. I thought this gave a lot of great example stories, and a lot of guidelines for creating a character, while still allowing for the flexibility of a storytelling genre. Like I said, I haven't played any WoD game yet, but this was a fun read, and I'm interested.

The book is in better condition then expected

Good quality for something that is no longer in print!

Lire

Thank you so much - it arrived lighting fast in Germany and in perfect condition ♥️ Sadly I ordered the wrong book (my bad) and had to order the correct one (CHRONICLES of darkness 🫣) in a rush as soon as I realized my mistake. But you did good! Thank you so much

This book is full of inspiration for many awesome and creepy adventures for intrepid table top gamers, also a possible asset for anyone looking to craft stories in the realm of horror and the occult.