White Wolf Ends The World Of Darkness 94
KrinnDNZ writes "So White Wolf has been providing us geeks with angsty roleplaying pleasure as vampires, werewolves, and various other beasties, ever since the early 90s. Guess what - it's over. I'll have to admit that it takes guts to have your RPGs' 'big story' include the end of their world, but they're doing it, and they've got a date, 171 days from now." This seems to mean that well-known pen-and-paper RPG titles like Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Hunter: The Reckoning are genuinely being retired.
hmmmm heck of a way to lay-off workers (Score:5, Funny)
End of an era (Score:5, Interesting)
I was never huge into these games. But, it sure influenced a whole genre of RPG, impacted the themes of a whole lot of MUSHes, and was certainly the chief theme of LARPs, if not the originator of the style.
So much for being immortal. Now I feel really old--I've seen a class of gaming come and go.
Re:End of an era (Score:1)
I spent much of my Uni years on cajun-nights. But the last time I logged in was a few years ago, and I don't know how many MU*s are still around at all, any more. But try "cajun nights mush" google to see what you get.
Re:OT on MUSHes (Score:1)
Re:End of an era (Score:1)
WW gets far too much credit in the LARP world, and this is another case in point.
1. Ask ten different LARPers what LARP means and you'll get twelve or thirteen different answers. WW and WoD is just one of the many answers, but not, by far, the most common.
2. LARPs have been around for a lot longer than WW and the WoD. There are many LARPers currently active who've been LARPing since the mid-80s, well before WW and the WoD. (Myself included.)
3. If you're interested in the actual diversity of LARPs, check
Re:End of an era (Score:2)
I remember my stepfather's college roommate hosting LARPs on the beaches of Sandy Hook, based on the AD&D system, when I was ten. That was fifteen years ago, well before any WoD LARP.
Oh yeah? (Score:5, Informative)
> Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Hunter: The Reckoning are genuinely being retired.
I think you didn't read *all* of the press release:
> An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004.
Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?
Chris Mattern
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:3, Informative)
I am saddened though to hear of this, its like hearing that my favorite uncle has cancer and only a short time to live.
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:5, Informative)
Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?"
Only the modern-day World of Darkness games are getting cancelled and/or rebooted. Games set in the past won't be effected.
White Wolf has a number of other product lines that won't touched even if the World of Darkness was completely dropped. Aberrant, Exalted, Ravenloft 3E (licensed from Wizards of the Coast), Sword & Sorcery, Warcraft, Everquest and others will keep White Wolf in business for a little while longer.
I'm hoping that the "new" WoD is similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's [laurellkhamilton.org] Anita Blake stories, where the general public knows about monsters, and has to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. No Paradox, no Masquerade, no Veil -- almost everything is out in the open.
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:2)
LKH's books are closer to Call of Cthulhu games than Shadowrun.
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:1)
But yeah, your point was spot-on, White Wolf has plenty of other money-makers. From what I hear, Exalted is selling just as many copies at my local game store as Vampire or W
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh yeah? (Score:1)
Thank goodness (Score:5, Funny)
It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that I'm tired of kicking their asses.
And i would want to play this why? (Score:4, Funny)
*grin*
Re:And i would want to play this why? (Score:1)
Aaah, I see you've played Paranoia before then.
Re:And i would want to play this why? (Score:1)
None of this pathetic idolizing of undead bottom-feeders (I mean, honestly, looking up to vampires is like looking up to slum landlords).
Re:And i would want to play this why? (Score:1)
I must admit its just hilariously astute of Marilyn Manson to have switched allusions from vampirism to Weimar Republic-era Germany. The excusing of all manner of violent, offensive and generally distateful ideas behind a veneer of "but they look really stylish while they exploit people" is a neat parallel.
err, what was the subject again?
Re:And i would want to play this why? (Score:2)
WW's done this before... (Score:5, Interesting)
I sit here looking at the Mage poster on my wall: "The Traditions stand in ruins... The Technocracy has won. Join the last stand in the war for reality." (Revised Edition -- March 2000)
Just an excuse for a new edition of everything. It's sad when a once-creative company runs out of ideas. "Let's do the whole thing over again," is a sad excuse for an original concept. But "Demon," "Mummy," and "Engel" just aren't selling like "Vampire" and "Werewolf." Heck, they aren't even selling like "Mage" and "Changling."
But they are selling like "Wraith."
Re:WW's done this before... (Score:2, Funny)
I always said if WW came out with a good new game the world would end, but I didn't really mean it this literaly
Re:WW's done this before... (Score:2)
The setting of Mage is one in which the Technocracy has indeed won, and mages are forced to band together in small groups and struggle to survive while the Technocracy controls the world at large. People as a whole don't believe in magic anymore. The Technocracy has won the culture war.
So the poster does make sense, fitting in the overall storyline of Mage. This is something far bigger: WW is ending the world entirely (Armaggedon), not merely
Re:WW's done this before... (Score:2)
Actually, the Technocracy lost the Ascention War, as did the Traditions.
Who won, you ask? The Masses. As they point out, your computer crashes more often, the space program ground to a smoking halt, and people just don't care about progress anymore; they just want their satellite TV and Big Macs. The Technocracy is hurting, too.
In Vampire, they slaughtered off an entire Vampire clan (admittedly, a second tier one, but still) and in Werewolf, they shook a few things up as well. Wraith, they already e
No, I'm serious... (Score:2)
Each game had some cataclysmic event tailored for it. In "Mage" it was the victory of the Technocracy over the Traditions. I agree with your assessment that this was not much of a departure from what went before. I
I swear this is not a troll. (Score:3, Interesting)
That's not to say that WW hasn't dropped a few great games; Mage (in its various forms) has always been a great game regardless of being set in the WoD, Exalted continues to amaze me, and the Sword and Sorcery series simply rock. I could go on.
But the whole World of Darkness itself... I've never found it appealing. Sorta grated on the nerves, if you will. Never really understood the point, I suppose. I guess I need more angst in my life, who knows? I'll certainly lose no sleep knowing it's gone, though. Maybe now WW can do more of the "different" stuff.
The End of the World? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The End of the World? (Score:1, Insightful)
Are you implying that Spock died? He lived on, you know, and was even in ST VI. Live long and misinform, my friend.
Re:The End of the World? (Score:3, Informative)
And then there's the Alien series...the scriptwriters keep trying to end the series in a dramatic fashion, and the suits keep bringing it back.
End the world? Again?!? (Score:1)
Good enough? Nope. The studio wanted another. The crew didn't really want to do a second movie because the first was hard enough. Charlton Heston didn't want to do the second one either. The film crew managed to convince him to do the second one by s
Re:The End of the World? (Score:2)
Re:The End of the World? (Score:2)
But for every Calvin and Hobbes or Far Side, there's a hundred artistic endeavors that have gone over to the dark side. Just in the area of comic strips, I can't count the ones that I used to th
Good luck (Score:4, Interesting)
It will be interesting to see how they handle that, obviously 4th edition will still have vampires and werewolves and such around, but it seems like the Technocracy winning the Ascension would pretty much put an end to all the other supernatural stuff. Once the Technocs have complete control of both the mundane and magical human worlds and don't have to worry about the Traditions anymore, i expect it wouldn't take much time for their focused attention to deal with all the other elements they wish to eliminate.
It'll be interesting to hear about (i'm still catching up with the changes to 3rd edition) but i'm not sure if i'll be interested in buying the new sourcebooks and playing in that world.
Re:YOU ARE THE BIGGEST LOOSER EVER. (Score:2)
Time o' Judgment (Score:4, Informative)
Anyhoo, yes, the World of Darkness game lines are indeed ending. For sure. Overwith.
But they're bringing in a "new World of Darkness" in August 2004. Maybe it'll be like Marvel's Ulitmates: a reimagining of the same concepts. Maybe there'll be compeltely different critters. Maybe it's something no one else has thought of. Who knows?
White Wolf has more than enough to keep them busy in the guise of Exalted, Dark Ages, and their massive Sword & Sorcery line (incl. Scarred Lands, Necromancer Games, Malhavoc Press, Ravenloft, Gamma World, Everquest RPG, Warcraft RPG, et al). Plus they're going to be doing something with Adventure [white-wolf.com] again, I hear.
But the World of Darkness is indeed their biggest moneymaker overall. It's a ballsy move to actually usher in the End Times, but they're not stupid. It'll be back in some way.
Re:Time o' Judgment (Score:2)
Yeah, but whatever they release, it's going to have copy that reads like this (verbatim from the WW website for Hunter)
Re:Time o' Judgment (Score:1)
Re:Time o' Judgment (Score:2)
I must simply contact your Canadian arse again. But you are not online at present.
And when are you comming down to par-tay with us at Dragon*Con, fool! We's been waiting on ya for three years!
Thursdæ
Hrm, so what's going to happen to the new VtM PC game?
Re:Time o' Judgment (Score:1)
I'm online fairly often these days. Just watch for me, I'll be around.
I'll go down to Dragon*Con much sooner if someone pays my fare, and that of my girlfriend.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (the new PC game) will have a storyline which ties in directly to the Time of Judgment.
Re:Time o' Judgment (Score:1)
What's the big deal? (Score:4, Insightful)
From reading the press release I did not get the impression that all existing source-, rule- and other books are suddenly going spontaneously self-destruct, once the "Time of Judgement" comes around. I really liked playing Vampire, because it was completely different than any RPG I had encountered before. The way we played it the average session required about five die rolls all in all, but explicitly rewarded good role-playing.
I find White Wolf's decision commendable. Naturally they are trying to sell as many books related to "The End" as possible, but following through with all the hints and promises of the last years still is a gutsy thing to do. They are trying to pull an "Enter the Matrix" in the process, though. The next Vampire game by Activision is supposed to offer an unique view at the impending apocalypse and gamers who want to get the whole picture are strongly encouraged to get the game.
A new world of Darkness, based in 2004, rather than 1992 might be exciting--you never know. I just have a hunch that the rules concerning computers are going to be a lot more detailed, than they were in the old books I know. I don't know if that is a good thing.
No Problem for V:tES (Score:1)
"White Wolf will release a special addition to its popular Vampire: The Eternal Struggle trading-card game based on the Time of Judgment. 'The Gehenna expansion allows VTES to partake in this exciting storyline,' said Steve Wieck, White Wolf's Director of Card Projects. "We're committed to continued support of VTES, and this set of boosters is only the first part of that."
Even if WW dropped support for V:tES after ToJ it'd still go. We kept the game going when Wizards of the Coast dro
Re:No Problem for V:tES (Score:2)
Hell, some of us don't play V:tES, we play Jyhad.
Guts. Feh. (Score:5, Insightful)
It would take guts for them to have created an RPG that leaves the stories in the hands of the people playing the game...I hate their mania for "novelizing" their worlds and dictating what happens to everyone and everything.
Crap like this is exactly why mainstream RPGs have failed to deliver--what are groups supposed to do, sit around and READ these damn things out loud?
If you want to write fiction, write it. If you want to create an environment for RPGs, create it and then let the players and GMs sit in the driver seat.
Re:Guts. Feh. (Score:1)
Re:Guts. Feh. (Score:1)
Each of the Judgment books contains a variety of of options for the End. IT can be as bad as you want it. Or not at all.
The White Wolf Game Gestapo are not going to barge down your door if you fail to play up the Apocalypse. If you want to keep playing the games as they're currently published, go for it.
Re:Guts. Feh. (Score:2)
I did, in fact...and a variety of options in no way disguises the fact that this is thinly-veiled fiction. It's no different than what they've been doing for years, and hardly surprising.
Not gutsy... (Score:2)
The dirty little secret of role-playing games is that most of the money is made off of supplements. While the games themselves offer players the chance for truly creative gameplay, many gamemasters (and many players) want to be led by the hand.
Perhaps this is true of freedom in general: We all want to be free, but many of us end up gravitating towards some cultural status quo.
White Wolf has always recognized this and tailored their games towards players who want hand-holding and lots of
Re:Not gutsy... (Score:2)
This is the exact conundrum most game companies find themselves in. Players run the gamut from "tell me everything about the setting" to "only give me a bare bones framework to build on" and so a game designer must walk a line between filling in detail
Re:Guts. Feh. (Score:2)
TORG was an absolutely horrific mess that solicited opinions because they had no internal direction. But it was nice that they didn't bundle it in...even if the atrocious first trilogy of "novels" did a lot of that for people.
Leaving games in the hands of the people means laying off metaplot...and most game companies smoke metaplot like crack.
Told ya so. (Score:1)
I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always believed that the lifespan of WoD was directly tied to the goth craze of the 90's: when there were no new goths kidz, WoD would dissappear.
With seemingly every other publisher in the RPG industry joining the d20 lemming parade, lining WoTC's pockets while slitting their own throats (including WW, in their other product lines), I hope WW has the foresight to not base the second generation of their flagship products on d20. A lot of people don't like d20 (myself included), and I keep hearing that number is increasing. D&D 3.5 won't help matters... enough people are annoyed with having to buy all the books again that I think 3.5E sales will stabilize about twice as fast as 3E (which took about 6 months).
And, putting a minor version number on something that's not software is just plain stupid IMO.
Microsoft:software::WotC:RPG
Windows:OS::d20:RPG
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:2)
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:2)
So it's an unfortunate trend when a number of games whose systems matched their tones very nicely (most tragically: Call of Cthulhu) are moving to a d20 system, and sacrificing both a good ma
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:1)
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:2)
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:2)
And I've seen other d20/OGL games be quite creative with the d20 mechanic - Mutants & Masterminds [greenronin.com] from Green Ronin Press [greenronin.com] does Superheroes quite well, ignoring some of the horrid legacy rules that AD&D has.
However, the D&D rules suck pretty badly for any tone of game other than Epic-Heroic Sa
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:1)
I see nothing wrong with d20, but the WW system is much cleaner (which is also the reason I still play ShadowRun).
OTOH, I'm not planning on spending the $60+ bucks on DND 3.5 and I'm probably not going to spend it on a "new" version of WoD.
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:1)
If you just use the OGL, you don't need to mention WotC at all, can include stuff the d20 license doesn't let you, but you can't use the d20 logo (or, I believe, refer to it as a d20 product). Most OGL products I've seen call themselves "compatible with 3rd Edition Roleplaying."
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:1)
Re:I hope it's not Wod20 (Score:2)
Ironically, also put out by White Wolf.
Thursdæ
Methuselah
Copyright abuse (Score:1, Insightful)
The worst part about this is not that White Wolf are bringing WoD (modern) to an end. It is that they are abusing their copyright privlidge in order to do so. Yet another creation of humanity will disappear into archives for 84 (more) years, and be completely forgotten, save for those who already have the books.
No copyright holder should have the right to withdraw a work from publication without ceding their copyright. If it doesn't pay to keep it in publication anymore, the benefit offered by copyrigh
Re:Copyright abuse (Score:2)
Re:Copyright abuse (Score:2)
I think you're missing the point. Making a copy is a copyright violation, because the copyright over the work is still valid. Making the work available on (say) gnutella is also a copyright violation. Buying a copy for the library doesn't make the work public domain, it just makes it more accessible. And when that copy is lost or damaged you can't replace it, because it is out of publication, but it is still a copyright violation to duplicate the Library of Congress copy.
Copyright law should have a "
Re:Copyright abuse (Score:2)
Re:Copyright abuse (Score:2)
I'm flattered :)
But if you bothered to read my comments instead of misrepresenting my ideas, you would realise that these are works in publication, and I am referring to works OUT of publication.
And if you're not going to be using your car (Score:4, Interesting)
If you create something, it's yours. You don't owe the world anything.
Re:And if you're not going to be using your car (Score:1)
Re:Copyright abuse (Score:2)
My contention is that they shouldn't be able to withdraw a work from publication. If they made it available from an on-demand publisher, even at a higher price (as would be expected for single copy publication), I would be happy.
I'm feeling ambiguous (Score:2, Interesting)
As a long-time WW player, I have a bit of an ambiguous feeling about The End (tm). On the one hand, it is a good thing to end the WoD as we know it. The VtM setting was complete enough; there wasn't much to say anymore. It is exhausted. As far as I've heard from others, WtA and MtA had the same problem. It is good that the folks at WW finally wrap it up.
OTOH, I sincerely hope that this is not an excuse for *another* revised version of all their WoD games. Furthermore, this whole End of the World bu
What? More Books? (Score:1)
I do appreciate what they are doing. How many times has a TV show had the 'And someone is going to die...' commercial but then it turns out to be Bobby's cousin that is introduced 5 minutes into the show? It's nice to have a continually growing storyline to work with, but at the same time, you can stick with w
Well, duh?!? (Score:2, Funny)
The End Of The World Is Nigh is the only logical place for the story to go, then.
Re:Well, duh?!? (Score:2, Funny)
Coming August 2004 from White Wolf:
Dogs and Cats: The Co-habitation
Oh well.... (Score:2)
And all those months of talking to Justin and trying to butter him up... all for nothing.
Thursdæ
Still partying with WW at Dragon*con, though.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Score:1)
Re:Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Score:1)
Re:Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Score:1)
Bloodlines' storyline concerns the Time of Judgment. They already had this planned. There are some Gehenna-based revelations made in Bloodlines, actually, that you can't find out about any other way.