Wraith: The Oblivion

Wraith: The Oblivion
Role-playing game published by White Wolf
Rule System	Storyteller System
Authors	Mark Rein·Hagen, Jennifer Hartshorn, Sam Chupp, Richard E. Dansky
First Publication	1994
Essential Books	Wraith: The Oblivion

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Wraith: The Oblivion is a roleplaying game of "Passion and Horror" published by White Wolf that often provides more PCs than there are players, thanks to a system allowing for "The Shadow" of a character to act like a separate entity. Progenitor to the Promethian school of "game that people like to read but no one actually plays." One of the grimmest, most depressing games ever made that wasn't unintentionally so.

Each player, in addition to their character, plays the "Shadow" of another character, undermining whatever they tried to do and tempting them to give in to their worst impulses and damn themselves. This seemed like such a good idea on paper that everyone somehow missed that it means that the game was actively encouraging players to screw each other over. To quote our hatefuckbuddies over at TVTropes: "The intent was to create deep, psychological roleplaying where the players got to flex their drama muscles as much as the GM; the effect was that most people saw it as a game that could only end in hurt feelings and recriminations."

Stygian Factions

• The Hierarchy
• Heretics
• Renegades

Former Stygian Guilds

• Artificers:
• Chanteurs:
• Harbingers:
• Haunters/Spooks:
• Masquers:
• Monitors:
• Oracles:
• Pardoners:
• Proctors:
• Puppeteers:
• Sandmen:
• Usurers

Jade Kingdom

• Imperial Army
• Jade Censors
• Judges of the Dead
• Protectors of the Prosperous Realm

Spectres

What happens when a wraith's Shadow gains control and it's Psyche becomes secondary, their biggest asset is that they share a hive-mind. Some dead start this way and there was even a book under the Black Dog label, Dark Reflections, that provided rules for an inverted experience where someone else plays your character's Psyche instead of their Shadow.

Spectre Castes

• Apparitions: middle-caste lackeys, in transition to becoming Nephracks
• Doppelgangers: low-caste, the usual Wraith whose Shadow took over, can pass as a Wraith
• Haints: non-caste as they hate everyone, became Spectres after a horrific death that defined their unlife
• Hekatonkhires: varies with the spectre, they're failed Onceborn and like Shades at Malfean power levels
• Malfeans: leader-caste; two types, Onceborn (former humans) and Neverborn (nonhumans)
• Mortwights: under-caste, became Spectres on death yet are still defined by their life
• Nephracks: upper-caste (admin, military, priests, etc.), they're former Doppelgangers warped by their contact with Oblivion
• The Nothings: lowest caste, those stuck in shell-shock or who just give up, some even try "suicide"
• Pasiphae: non-caste ciphers
• Shades: middle-caste shock troops, twisted into monsters by Oblivion kept in check by the hive-mind
• Striplings: non-caste, mobs of feral dead children

See Also

• Orpheus (sequel game-line)
• World of Darkness

Links

• World of Darkness website
• World of Darkness wiki
• Unmoderated WoD Chat
• Mister Gone's Character Sheets