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The World of Darkness |  | Author: White Wolf Game Studio
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Seller: sbd-
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 79943
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1588464849
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9781588464842
ASIN: 1588464849
Publication Date: August 21, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Where the Shadows Grow Long
We live our days completely ignorant of the true terrors lurking around us. Only rarely do our experiences draw back the veil of shadows and reveal the horror in our midst. These glimpses into the supernatural can cause us to retreat into comforting lies -- "There are no such things as monsters" -- or stir our morbid curiosity. Only a few, however, can overcome their fear and dare to look deeper.
Abandon Hope All Who Enter
The World of Darkness Rulebook introduces a version of our contemporary world where the supernatural is real. Players join to tell tales of mystery and horror, where theme, mood and plot are more important to a character's experiences than his weapons or equipment. Inside are rules for character creation, task resolution, combat and any activity your character attempts as he delves into the shadows.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
 One of the best PNP RPGs yet January 30, 2010
Brandon (Tillamook, OR United States)
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
World of Darkness January 22, 2010
Ian Williams
At only 222 pages long, this White Wolf sourcebook is the best they have to offer.
It has the basic stats and mechanics, storytelling advice, antagonists, merits, derangements, and enough flavor text to give you great ideas. It's not without it's flaws, however, something that's more relevant to experienced rpers than those just thinking about starting roleplaying.
First, White Wolf's M.O. White Wolf rpgs are famous for letting you play the antagonist/supernatural/demigod. They were first and foremost(at least in the case of World of Darkness) about making supernaturals playable and interesting, and only second if at all about the mundane aspects of the characters lives'. This all changed with this book, one core sourcebook to unite them all, which also emphasizes mortals and low-level storytelling that was missing in the old World of Darkness.
Second, the World of Darkness itself. It is a twisted shadow of our world; think of it as one of the parallel universes on Doctor Who or Sliders, only this world is a dark, twisted place where the Cthulhu would be right at home, in which things we cannot see or deliberately subconsciously ignore prey upon our bodies and souls. Delicious horror tropes indeed, and though the approach is sometimes too formulaic, it's easy to see why World of Darkness is so well-liked with this book. The main supernatural gamelines are Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken and Mage the Awakening, although there are many more limited run series out as well. The cosmology includes multiple reflections of this reflection of our world, such as a spirit realm that reflects hostile or beneficient actions and is policed by the half-spirit Werewolf clans, or the skinlands, a place where all unfulfilled ghosts hang out, or the supernal realms, from which Mages draw their power.
Third, the mechanics. The WoD uses a D10 system, in which you have a target number and a pool of dice and roll to try for a certain number of successes. For example, suppose you are an experienced burglar trying to lockpick a car door without tools. This might net you a difficulty of 7, since experience might translate into a +1, and no tools might be a -1. So, on your dice pool(which is calculated by a relevant attribute plus a relevant skill, say, Larceny plus Dexterity) you roll that many dice and count up your 7's or above. 10's are normally rerolled as a reflection of an exceptional success. You have three basic types of stats and skills, physical mental and social. This is a big improvement for me over having something like say, rifts, where cooking(while not in the same category), is around the same skill level as demolitions. You also have merits to choose from, and possible derangements. The damage types are better explained in another review, so I'll leave it at that, with one exception. The one downside to all these mechanics is the core sourcebook is seriously lacking in equipment. For that you need the two armory books.
The merits are all extremely well-done, and while I wish there were more of them, particularly in the mental category, they should all be useful to your players at one time or another.
Willpower: use this attribute to reroll critical actions, ignore wounds, and othere useful heroic feats.
Downsides to the Mechanics:
The morality system blows. To put it simply, it would have been better served as a sanity system, which is I think what they were aiming for anyway, as you gain derangements as you lose morality. This is a flaw in all WoD books, and can be extremely stifling for experienced roleplayers if you use it as the book intended, especially since you can't commit murder of any kind without dropping to morality two or three on a scale of 10, and you drop from 10 for selfish thoughts. It seems to me designed, along with the virtues and vices, to punish players for playing anything other than benign, mother teresa-esque characters of enlightened charitability. So, what I recommend is, use it as an alignment system ala D&D: your players start their characters at a chosen Morality score and it stays there, unless they drastically change their actions to reflect a new Morality score. For instance, in my campaign the players' hitman with honor stays at 3 since he does murder people, but doesn't have to roll vs a derangement every time he takes a hit job either.
Also, the skillset, while offset by specialties, may be stifling for players of super exhaustive rpgs such as GURPS, as there are only a handful of base skills to specialize from.
Fourth: Summary
While the World of Darkness is by no means an exhaustive, play anything-you-want rpg like GURPS, and has some problems, particularly with the morality system, I heartily recommend it to all those who enjoy the specific genres and settings it represents. Play in our world, only darker, and enjoy a dark mystery campaign as you unravel the secrets of the world of darkness piece by piece, only to feel your hope and sanity slipping away as well.
What this is: A masterfully done take on genres such as Gothic horror, dark mystery, and so on, with a detailed and specific set of settings to enrich your campaigns. The dot system(rolled with D10's) and the limited skillset AND the one-roll combat are all designed to facilitate storytelling first and foremost(if you, like me, like more meat to your combat, contact me and I'll email you what I have for beefing up combat) and only interact with the mechanics of the system second.
What this is not: this is not a "Gamist" system like Dungeons and Dragons, wherein it's all about using the system to defeat difficult monsters and tests and acquire loot, and this is not a universal system like GURPS , wherein all genres and character types are represented.
This is a very specific gameline to supernatural horror and I would heartily recommend it to those who enjoy that genre of gaming.
Really good book. January 9, 2010
Kelsey A., Burleson
World of Darkness is a wonderful intro into a dark world very similar to our own. After reading the introduction to the book I found myself wanting learn more and find people to play with. A must have to the beginner to the world of White Wolf.
Excellent November 25, 2009
J. D. Chancellor (USA)
Although we haven't gotten to play much (me and my friends) I am very satisfied with this book. The quality was brand-new, and I find the game system in the new WOD very enthralling. I've been looking to purchase more of the books, but I haven't had the money for any new ones. I do have friend with them, so I'm not too worried :). I would suggest this to anybody interested with modern day-fantasy roleplaying games. It's rough finding enough d10's though.
Fast delivery June 29, 2009
H. M. Boelens (Groningen, The Netherlands)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Very fast delivery for what i expected for an oversees package (i'm in the Netherlands)
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
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