The Old World of Darkness is a Dying Whore

Okay, so aside from my terrible attempt at a music reference, I think the topic of this little rant is obvious.

Well to those who know what it is.

Anyhow... it's been quite a few years since the World of Darkness ended with a bang (or a whimper, depending on how you played the final scenarios out) and the die hards are still around. People still play it, of course, but that is not the real topic. I have personally ensured at least one of the White Wolf staff got a paycheck month to month for many years now. My collection is primarily from their publishing house, after all.

The real topic is directed towards the online gaming community. The play by posts and the play by chats.

Back when they announced the demise of the Old World of Darkness line, people revolted. I found it odd because the over arching theme of the entire game line was that 'The world's gonna end sometime next week'. I mean... every game had it as a major plot-line that the World as They Knew it was crumbling and falling down. The Apocalypse is coming, Caine's gonna rise up and eat us all, Reality is falling apart around the Magi, Winter was knocking on the Fae's doorsteps and so on and so forth. We're all gonna die. Each game was like a ticking time bomb... yes, that ticking could be slower or faster as you needed but it was still ticking.

Then they said "Oh yea, by the way... here are the books that will help you run that ending" and those books were (overall) Quite Good. They answered most of the pressing questions we all had... I on more than one occasion cried out "I KNEW IT!". But the die hards of the online gaming community grumbled and griped. "They're abandoning us!" "This isn't fair!" "You owe us!"

First of all... and this goes for a great many things... DLC, Gaming etc... They don't Owe you SHIT. You are not entitled to these people giving you free shit, I promise. These people have families to feed, bills to pay and the company itself has things that require money.

Aside from that? The line had gone stagnant, it had become fat and overweighed in its own Metaplot. It had become constrained within the boundaries they had set for themselves. As a storyteller, I know I often felt tied down to what was published as canon. The only major issue was that there was so much of it, you often would have someone create a character or history that you had no idea about... you then question about it and they'd scoff "It's a perfectly acceptable bloodline and discipline introduced in the Hoboken after Dusk sourcebook. You don't HAVE That? pfft.. and that background is in the Ancient Blood and Dark Rituals book. It gives me 3 extra level five rituals per dot, regardless of my skill level because it's a dark library granted by Demons"

So you had quite a bit of issues with that there. Was the history interesting? Overall, yes. Was it sometimes convoluted, confusing and contradictory? Hell... Yes ~cough cough Mage cough cough~.

Anyhow. This is not about me deconstructing the old WoD. This is about my statement of... Maybe it's time we move on?

I mean, I'll still run tabletop (or online TT style games) of VtM and DtF but I think the time for online OWoD has run its course. There are still sites out there but they are coming and going faster and faster. It is still the same stable of players jumping from site to site. I refuse to acknowledge the idea of "Cliques" because that's just plain stupid. We all like playing with certain people... if you couldn't get into the "Clique"? Maybe it wasn't their fault... maybe you just suck. Thats not the truth ALL the time but that's what I've noticed a lot.

Those sites that are still out there though... they've grown a little stagnant. I see the same stories and same characters. I see the same PCs being recycled time after time (I'm as guilty as anyone on that, you like a PC so you keep playing them). The books are now near impossible to find unless you download the PDF editions. I feel as though we're all folks sitting on the bow of the Titanic, refusing to notice that the water is rising around us.

And damnit, that water is cold!

Does the New World of Darkness have its flaws? Yes. Is it Perfect? No. Do I like some of the things that they did? Most Assuredly so.

My stance? Let's get on that lifeboat and head over to the new unsinkable ship. Sure, it'll hit an ice burg but hey... at least we'll have fun until then.

It was fun while it lasted, we all had the characters that will stay with us. The stories that we will recount again and again. But I think it is time we put those stories where they belong, in our memories and personal tabletop groups.

I might write about this again sometime but that's what I have for now... anyone else have an opinion? A story from a favorite character? C'mon... Share!

Oni
Out