World of Darkness
World of Darkness is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, and Changeling: The Dreaming, along with off-shoots based on these. The series ended in 2004, and the reboot Chronicles of Darkness was launched the same year with a new line of games. In 2011, the original series was brought back, and the two have since been published concurrently.
For other uses, see World of Darkness (disambiguation).World of Darkness
- White Wolf Publishing (1991–2006)
- CCP Games (2006–2015)
- Paradox Interactive (2015–)
Vampire: The Masquerade
July 1991[1]
Deviant: The Renegades
September 1, 2021[2]
Chronicles of Darkness
The games in the series have a shared setting, also named the World of Darkness, which is a dark, gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, where supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves exist in secrecy. The original series' setting has a large focus on lore and overarching narrative, whereas Chronicles of Darkness's setting has no such narrative and presents the details of its setting as optional.
The series has been well received critically for its setting, writing, and art direction, and has won or been nominated for awards including the Origins Award. It has also been commercially successful, with millions of game books sold; by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade was the second highest selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons. The series has been adapted into other media, including the television series Kindred: The Embraced, actual play web series, novels and anthologies, comic books, card games, and a line of video games.
The original World of Darkness series consists of eight core lines of role-playing games which were originally released from 1991 to 2002:
As well as off-shoots based on these, such as the Asia-themed Kindred of the East and the historical Vampire: The Dark Ages.[3]
The 2004 reboot series, Chronicles of Darkness, consists of eleven game lines: Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Mage: The Awakening, Promethean: The Created, Changeling: The Lost, Hunter: The Vigil, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, Mummy: The Curse, Demon: The Descent,[3] Beast: The Primordial,[4] and Deviant: The Renegades.[2] Most of these are based on concepts from the original series, directly as with Vampire: The Requiem and Vampire: The Masquerade, or indirectly as with Geist and Wraith, which both deal with spirits.[3]
Both series are supported with supplementary sourcebooks detailing backgrounds and character types, which can be used when creating adventures for one's players; pre-made adventure modules have also occasionally been published.[5][6] The Chronicles of Darkness sourcebooks in particular present the information as optional and something one may choose whether to include in one's game.[6] The supplements often take the form of a book describing a location as it is portrayed in the setting, such as Vampire: The Masquerade's series of By Night books and Werewolf: The Apocalypse's Rage Across series.[7][8] Several splatbooks – sourcebooks detailing character classes or organizations – have also been published, such as the Clanbook series, describing vampire clans, and the Kithbook line, covering types of fae.[3][8]
Common elements[edit]
The games in the original series are set in a shared universe, also named the World of Darkness,[9][10] which is a dark, gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, rife with corruption. In it, supernatural beings such as vampires, mages, and werewolves exist in secrecy, influencing humanity and clashing against each other; players take the roles of these beings,[11] who belong to various classes such as Vampire: The Masquerade's vampire clans, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse's werewolf tribes.[6] The series as a whole is themed around personal horror, while individual games have their own themes, such as redemption and humanity in Vampire: The Masquerade, and hubris in Mage: The Ascension.[11] The series is known for its focus on metaplot – an overarching story for the setting that advances as new game books are released.[3][6]
Whereas the original series has a large focus on lore and background information for its setting,[11] the urban horror Chronicles of Darkness setting does not to the same extent;[6][11][12] it does not have a metaplot, and it presents any setting information as strictly optional to include in campaigns. With its lesser focus on lore and less defined world, Chronicles of Darkness also streamlines the character types, stripping the many vampire clans and werewolf tribes from the original series down to five each.[6]
The person leading campaigns – a role called gamemaster or dungeon master in other games – is called a storyteller in World of Darkness, highlighting how the series is more focused on collaborative storytelling than on combat or on players overcoming the game leader's challenges; the rules exist to give players a framework for telling stories, and players are rewarded by being part of the setting rather than by escalating power levels.[11] Chronicles of Darkness has a larger focus on making the gameplay systems work together, enabling easier cross-over play between the games.[11]
Reception[edit]
World of Darkness has been critically well received, with several of its games having won or been nominated for awards,[c] and with Vampire: The Masquerade having been inducted into the Origins Award hall of fame.[68] The series has also been highly successful financially, primarily in the United States, with over three million game books sold by the late 1990s;[10][69][70] around 1995, new World of Darkness releases were frequently top sellers, making White Wolf the second biggest publisher of tabletop role-playing games at the time after TSR, Inc.,[3] and by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade was the second best selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons.[71] Onyx Path Publishing's crowdfunding campaigns for World of Darkness games and material have also been successful, particularly those for the original series, such as the anniversary editions of Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Mage: The Ascension.[3]
The series' setting, plot, and art direction have been well received,[d] with Rue Morgue describing the series' "fabulous artwork" as one of its major strengths,[72] Fenix praising the series' mood and the quality of the writing,[73] and Realms of Fantasy appreciating the broad scope and the familiarity to players due to being based on the real world.[74][77] Shadis described the setting as "truly unique", bringing something never before seen to games.[78] Some publications found the setting too crowded or defined, however;[6][75] Diehard GameFan thought this took away from opportunities for horror,[75] and Tor.com thought it left little room to tell new stories, often choosing to ignore the metaplot when running games.[6] In his book series Designers & Dragons, Shannon Appelcline considered the series' focus on metaplot to likely be what had caused sales to dwindle prior to the reboot, as players would have stopped playing the games when feeling they could not keep up with the story. Reactions to the Chronicles of Darkness setting have been divided, with some preferring the original series' setting for being more fantastical and grand in scale, and some the reboot's more grounded setting.[3]
The original series' rules were criticized by Arcane as, although generally easy to understand, often having confusing and unclear combat rules,[79] while Tor.com described them as having a recurring problem with statistical anomalies.[12] The updated gameplay rules of Chronicles of Darkness were however generally seen as a big improvement,[e] and seen by critics as fluid, elegant and open-ended, to the point where Tor.com and Backstab recommended using them even when running non-Chronicles of Darkness games.[f] Fenix appreciated the speed of creating characters and of playing, comparing the system of dice pools and dots favorably to number-based role-playing game systems.[81]