Worlds of Darkness

I was never the biggest fan of White Wolf's original World of Darkness (WoD) as a whole. I did like one aspect of the Storyteller system very much--the separation of skills from their core attributes, allowing skills to be mixed and matched with whatever attribute/stat made sense for a particular roll or check; this was something I hadn't seen until I picked up the first edition of Vampire the Masquerade. I very much enjoyed Mage: The Ascension, though moreso when it was run independent of the rest of the WoD and more along the lines of Grant Morrison's Invisibles. I also enjoyed Changeling: The Dreaming, though I always thought that Changeling felt ... misplaced? ... among the rest of the WoD line, kind of shoehorned in. I always thought that it, too, was better when taken independently, and run with a tone of equal parts wonder and horror, with a bit more optimism than I saw in many of the other WoD lines; I enjoyed it most when it was run and played like the early works of Charles de Lint, for example, particularly his Newford stories.

When White Wolf decided to end their WoD, I applauded them for their willingness to put an end to their ongoing story. I had hoped that they would begin something completely new. Sadly, while Exalted seems to be quite a hit, their other RPG lines, and by this I mean their non-WoD Aeon universe games of Trinity, Exalted, and Adventure!, didn't do as well. I suppose, then, that their relaunch of their big hit was inevitable. And while some may really enjoy their New World of Darkness (NWoD) lines, I haven't taken to them at all.

Part of this lack of enthusiasm, or even interest, in the NWoD titles is that the premise doesn't seem to be very new at all, just a reorganization of the old with the same general tone and overall features. (Of course, if White Wolf was trying to capitalize upon the success of the original WoD, perhaps it was wiser as a game company to minimize those overall differences and try to retain a lot of their core audience while at the same time offering them a product that's sufficiently different from the original to pique their interest and curiosity.) I also think that, being a comics fan, I've already seen far too many attempts to relaunch fictional universes, and I've never seen it done well.

However, when I heard of Monte Cook's World of Darkness (MCWoD*) I was intrigued. First, because (if I'm reading the marketing correctly) the game uses the d20 system, and while d20 is not my system of choice (or, at least, D&D 3.X isn't; I have yet to try True20, though I'd like to and intend to), I was curious as to how d20 might mesh with the WoD. More, though, MCWoD actually seems to be much different in terms of tone, feel, and origin than the original.

While I'll likely not buy Monte Cook's re-envisioning sight-unseen, I will be reading reviews and keeping an open mind about the product. While White Wolf is offering a slew of previews and teasers in the run up to GenCon, I'd like to know how MCWoD actually runs before I sink any cash into it.

*Yes, I can easily see how one might look at this abbreviation and think of it as derogatory; this is not my intention. I use it because, frankly, it's simply too catchy not to use.