Fire's starting up a World of Darkness section

Soon as I can get Quix's attention I'll try to make something a bit more official. Like a section similar to the Warcraft section, except World of Darkness.

Those of you unfamiliar with the World of Darkness setting, do not worry, I will be gentle.

Those of you who are familiar with World of Darkness, just a heads up, I use the new material. I enjoy Classic, but I prefer New overall. Suck it.

Why? Simply put I have too many of their damn books and not enough time to run a normal game session. I do, however, have time to run something online.

---

So what is World of Darkness (WoD)?

WoD is a modern day roleplaying setting in the aptly named World of Darkness. Think normal Earth, except there is a distinct possibility that every ghost story, conspiracy theory, and crack pot urban legend you've ever heard of is real. The theme of the setting is horror, mystery, and intrigue. The rules are set up such that it is easier to fall than it is to rise, but cheer up, because everyone likes an underdog.

A good game will fluctuate between Silent Hill and Resident Evil in tone depending on the group and the story. There are not classes per se, but there are supernatural races that the players get to play that come with their own lore to fall back on. For the sake of simplicity I will list a general summary of each now.

Mortal
These are the standard humans. All the supernaturals, excluding Prometheans, start out as Human and then become something more (or less, depending on perspective).
So essentially everything else works as a template that gets applied to an otherwise normal human character, you will become familiar with these guys whether you want to or not.

Vampire
A popular choice among WoD veterans, vampires are the undead denizens of the night who twirl to the danse macabre. Traditionally a highly political game, playable options are divided amongst five clans and five factions each with their own personalities and agendas. Story lines are very versatile and can range from the night to night politics of a seedy city to grandiose story archs involving the end of the world. Vampire games tend to have a distinctly more gothic tone in addtion to horror.

Werewolf
My personal favorite, though not by a sizable margin, werewolves are the children of Mother Moon and Father Wolf who wear the skins of man. Charged with maintaining the balance between flesh and spirit, werewolves patrol the Shadow realm and enforce the ancient laws of the Spirits. Unlike popular new age stories spun by hippies, spirits are inherently selfish entities with no sense of balance or harmony beyond their own survival. Players take up the role of an Auspice and join a tribe with stories ranging from the day to day maintenance of one's territory to all out war with the Pure traitors or demonic hordes lurking in the shadows. Werewolf is a game of savage fury with a slight emphasis on combat and the horrors of a life of duty and sacrifice.

Mage
Mortals who have Awakened to the Truth are called Mages. They have seen the Supernal and touched its glory, bringing back with them the secrets of humanity's misbegotten inheritance. Filling the role of an ancient city of mages who fell to hubris is the city of Atlantis, which fell into the sea (or exploded across reality, depending on translation) when man took to the heavens upon a celestial ladder that shattered and left both adrift in a great Abyss. The ancient atlantean orders survived, albeit in shambles, and now magic is a rare gift bestowed by the light of the Watchtowers to an increasingly rare lot. Magic is secret and the Abyss has grown hungry, it is up to you to try and reignite magic in the Fallen world. Stories range from the political machinations of a local consilium of mages to literally cosmic battlefields of ideology and power. In addition to horror, Mage has a distinct flavor of mystery.

Promethean
I love promethean, it is essentially the love child of the Frankenstein monster and Pinocchio in all the right ways. Animated from corpses, you are a monster that resembles a man. Given the crude facsimile of a soul it is up to the Promethean to learn just what secret alchemy it is that can turn lead into gold, or more precisely an Azothic flame into a human Soul. One of the few games with a real "goal", Prometheans seek to become human and end their somewhat horrific existence, the game focuses on the power of alchemy and the properties of the human condition. If you do well enough, your character might just become a real person. There's a strange cosmic angle to the whole thing, nobody knows just where prometheans actually come from or how they work. Even Mages, who are often too curious for their own good, turn up genuinely stumped when they dissect one of these wayward pilgrims. In addition to horror, Promethean is a story of stolen lives and the discovery of the best and worst aspects of humanity.

Hunter
Alright I'll be honest, I'm not well versed on Hunter. To my knowledge these are humans who have dedicated their lives to fighting against the supernatural things that lurk in the darkness. Sometimes to fight monsters you have to become a bit of a monster yourself. Hunter is a game of conspiracy and paranoia. Think Van Helsing, MIB, or

Changeling
You know those stories of kids being stolen away by goblins and sold to fairy kings, leaving behind monsters for the parent's to raise? Crazy part is, it's not all that inaccurate. In Changeling you play one of the Lost, a human who was abducted by the strange and whimsical denizens of Arcadia to be the plaything and servant of a monstrous entity called a Fae. Eventually you escaped, or were released (it's not always clear which is which), and returned to the real world changed. No longer human, but not quite Fae, Changelings struggle with their unworldly nature and band together in Courts to combat the machinations of their former Masters. Think Hellboy 2, except more lovecraftian. Changeling is a story of beautiful madness.

Geist
At death's door you were saved by a truly alien spirit risen from the underworld. In exchange for your life, this Geist latches onto the nearly-departed's soul. Empowered by the Underworld, you become a Sin-Eater and must deal with this new second chance at life. Living with a Geist is no easy feat, but it probably beats the alternative. From helping ghosts move on to exploring the Underworld and all of its cthonian denizens, Geist is a story about second chances and death in its most distilled form.

---

It should be noted that I have, on hand, the books for Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, and Promethean. I didn't mention mortal because that's the core book, you can't play without it really. I have copies of Changeling, Hunter, and Geist, but I only have passing familiarity with them. If things go well I might pick up a physical copy of them and dig into those as well.

Just throwing this out there to see if there's any interest and where it lies. I'd prefer the first chronicle to be fairly uniform with only one or two supernatural races if at all possible. I'm pretty rusty and could do without the headache of maintaining story elements of four or five different creatures all at once thank you very much. If this goes well, I'll probably become more open to variety in the future.

Sound good?

SOUNDS GOOD.

Man oh man, after hearing so much about this setting, I'm highly intrigued to see somebody take a jab at it for forum roleplaying. I'm definitely interested, and wholeheartedly up for any related threads. If there's anything I can do to help set up, you've got my support.

As for the issue of starting supernatural races, while I would prefer Geist, Vampire and/or Werewolf seem like our best bets, as they're the most readily available and recognizable. I'd totally be down with Mage or Promethean as well.

Hell, all of the races sound pretty cool in their own ways. It's pretty hard to pick just one or two.

I've decided with near certainty that I'm going to utilize a revolving episodic method to the roleplay.

Each episode will be fairly short, usually with the conclusion of a story arch, and start out as a single supernatural type for all players. The next episode will be using a different supernatural and conclude after a story arch, and so on. After we've gone through several of these introductory short story RP's we can start playing longer games with more cross-overs.

My hope is that this will keep things fresh and interesting long enough for people to become familiar with the game both in terms of its settings as well as its mechanics. It'll also make it easier on the ST, probably me for a while, to set up a local environment that the players can get invested in.

Because it's such a simple game to get into, as well as popular, the first chronicle will most likely be Vampire: the Requiem.

I am way interested!

Changeling was the one that caught my eye, but they all sound really interesting. I'm kind of hopeless with rolls and rules and math and things, but I'd love to try the setting and stuff!

After reading the post and some of the source material, I can say that I'm looking forward to this greatly. We should try to get it on its feet before the end of the summer, by which time I also suspect that the Calmargur section will be ready for community use.