An excellent generic set of rules for modern horror games. The core rulebook for the other White Wolf products. Well produced and beautifully illustrated. I highly reccomend it.
Re: [RPG]: The World Of Darkness, reviewed by Travire (4/4)
Nice review Neil. It's interesting to see a setting as venerable as the WoD seen through fresh eyes.
One thing I'm curious about, is how much of the background touches on the various gamelines. Are Vampires, Werewolves and Magi mentioned in the background at all, or is it more 'generic'?
Re: [RPG]: The World Of Darkness, reviewed by Travire (4/4)
The Whitewolf games and the whole genre seem so detailed it is an intimidating game to get started with, but I hope my review provides the viewpoint of someone fairly new to the line.
Oddly enough the World of Darkness book seems to deliberately avoid mentioning Vampires, Werewolves and Mages. There are no descriptions of how they fit in, or any statistics for them as NPC's. Instead the concentration is on other supernatural horrors with a fairly detailed look at ghosts and spirits. A few of the example stories seem to hint at the involvement of vampires and werewolves but it seems these creatures are now an optional part of the game. Kudos to Whitewolf for doing this as it means you don't have to buy the whole set of books to have a complete game, you can run campaigns with just the World of Darkness rulebook.
Re: [RPG]: The World Of Darkness, reviewed by Travire (4/4)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Travire
The Whitewolf games and the whole genre seem so detailed it is an intimidating game to get started with, but I hope my review provides the viewpoint of someone fairly new to the line.
Oddly enough the World of Darkness book seems to deliberately avoid mentioning Vampires, Werewolves and Mages. There are no descriptions of how they fit in, or any statistics for them as NPC's. Instead the concentration is on other supernatural horrors with a fairly detailed look at ghosts and spirits. A few of the example stories seem to hint at the involvement of vampires and werewolves but it seems these creatures are now an optional part of the game. Kudos to Whitewolf for doing this as it means you don't have to buy the whole set of books to have a complete game, you can run campaigns with just the World of Darkness rulebook.
What Travire is saying is right on mark with all of the above.
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Re: [RPG]: The World Of Darkness, reviewed by Travire (4/4)
I agree with the layout criticisms. I don't mind now since I'm quite familiar with the nWoD core.
I don't like that they frontloaded all of the fiction. When I buy a rulebook, I want to get to the rules right away. Frontloading all that fiction is like the movie they make you watch at a timeshare convention before they get into actual numbers. A simple short story would have been enough to intro the book and put the rest in the Appendix.
I've said this before, but the glossary needs to be in the back or closer to the front; it's currently buried in the middle.
In general, the layout just doesn't feel very intuitive or conducive to first-time gamers--which is a shame b/c it's actually a fairly intuitive system to learn and to play. It has just enough rules and mechanics to propel a player and encourage roleplaying but enough abstractness to keep the game from becoming overly crunchy. It's a very nice balance. It also avoids the "too much math" trap (where "too much math" = any math, no matter how simple or difficult, that slows the game down).
__________________ "...the critics are wrong. Michael Bay used a squillion dollars and a hundred supercomputers' worth of CG for a brilliant art movie about the illusory nature of plot.--io9 review of Transformers:RotF "I could watch people fed to animals pretty much twenty-four hours a day. Someone ought to start a channel with that!" --David Milch, creator of Deadwood "Some spectres have been known to long for physical contact with the living in ways most unhealthy or inappropriate."-- Mage: The Awakening, p. 138 "...I have also written heartwarming books where people return from the dead. Usually to eat the living, it's true, but surely that is a quibble — a miracle is a miracle."-- Stephen King, "A History of Violence"
Re: [RPG]: The World Of Darkness, reviewed by Travire (4/4)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Travire
The Whitewolf games and the whole genre seem so detailed it is an intimidating game to get started with, but I hope my review provides the viewpoint of someone fairly new to the line.
Oddly enough the World of Darkness book seems to deliberately avoid mentioning Vampires, Werewolves and Mages. There are no descriptions of how they fit in, or any statistics for them as NPC's.
Part of this is because the Vampire, Werewolf and Mage games were still under construction after the core book was finished, so it wouldn't have been wise to include rules for those critters and then introduce something completely different later.
I sold off my original edition Vampire books a while back, but when I saw that the WoD was re-released as a core book without having to buy into the bloodsucking, lycanthropy, or wizardry right off the bat, I checked it out. And I'm glad, because I agree that this is a wonderfully useful ssytem for making your own type of suspenseful games of the supernatural bent, which is all I was looking for.
I like the new system so much, I'm considering buying the Requiem to satisfy my original vampire interest, but I'm really just very impressed with the core book.
Nice review!
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