World of Darkness

World of Darkness

The World of Darkness is an RPG published by White Wolf that focuses on deep roleplaying and, depending on the specific sub-game, horror. The setting can only be described as the modern world, but worse in every aspect. Every creeping suspicion you have is probably true and the world is dirty and corrupt as we often make it out to be. In recent years, specifically with the release of the new ruleset (the Storyteller system) the line has been trying to avoid the old Gothic feel which it was known for (specifically with Vampire: The Masquerade) in favour of a slightly more traditional form of horror. This has manifested in many ways, but most explicitly in the detail that the supernatural isn't quite as omnipotent as it was in the previous incarnation.

The core book gives and overview of the system and is designed to deal with normal human beings in horrific situations that may or may not always be supernatural in nature. This has little established fluff, making it the most mailable for Storytellers (the in-game term for GM). The principal games in the new World of Darkness (nWoD) are Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, and Mage: The Awakening. Limited release games are also published, such as Changeling: The Lost, Promethean: The Created, and Hunter: The Vigil.

The System

The basic system revolves around a dicepool of d10's. Your dicepool consists of a number of dice equal to your relevant ability score plus your skill and other relevant modifiers. A success is an 8, 9, or 10 and you can reroll the 10 until you no longer get such a roll. A critical success is made when you get five or more successes. When your dice pool is reduced to zero or less, you get a chance die. You roll the die normally, but only succeed on a ten (you still reroll) and if you get a one you get a critical failure. All other rolls are called simple failures.