Question About the World of Darkness

Each gameline has a rough theme, though they can be used for anything. A lot of this theme also depends on the version of the WoD you're using, either the Classic World of Darkness which ran from 1996 or so, to 2004; or the New World of Darkness (or Chronicles of Darkness now), which ran from 2004 to current.

The easiest way to picture World of Darkness is to look at various supernatural media. A lot of the origins of Vampire come from classic stuff such as Stoker's Dracula and vampire myths, but a lot of it comes from the most modern, definitive vampire fiction, the Vampire Chronicles, with it's own spin on the source.

The games are more roleplay heavy (as in, the mode is not 'wander the city murdering mooks' though that's a valid playstyle if you and your players want), and each game has an underlying theme and methodology.

CWoD
Vampire the Masquerade
Based in Judeo-Christian Biblical history, vampires have existed since ancient times and participate in world-spanning conspiracies against their Gehenna, their end of the world, a myth when the Founders rise up and consume everything. Your standard mode of play of vampire is 'conflict between Man and Beast' and 'conflict between Younger and Elder' and 'conflict between ideaology'.

Werewolf the Apocalypse
Based on a concept of shamanic animalism, werewolves have existed since ancient times fighting a war against the Wyrm, the destructor of everything. A war that they are losing due to their own. This game is about brutal savagery in a world destroyed by corporate corruption and global ecological disaster. There is some politics in the tribes of werecreatures, but it's a more visceral game in that you're warriors fighting a never-ending war, including terrorism against a huge corporation and the spirits that corrupt the world.

Continued...

>>51202537
Mage the Ascension
Reality is what you will it. Mages fight the Ascension War, for humanity's future and capability to affect reality. Traditional mages of various stripes try to keep things open for wondrous means, versus the Technocracy which is magic through stasis and technology-as-magic. This game is about conflicting world views and how those butt heads, or cooperate, and what the world is, and could be. Mage is like the Matrix almost, with Matrix runners as 'normal' mages and Agents as Technocracy.

Changeling the Dreaming
You are a fae soul in a human body, a being of creativity and dreams that exists in a world stamping out creativity. You exist in kingdoms in an medieval European/Irish sense, with courtly intrigue and adventures against dream-creatures and internal political strife of court.

Wraith the Oblivion, Demon the Fallen, Hunter the Reckoning, Mummy the Resurrection
No idea, never played it.

NWoD 'reboots' the game lines into new histories in a more 'toolkit' approach, with more freedom on the 'mode' of the game, though there are some baselines.

Vampire the Requiem
Mysterious origins, vampires politic and scheme among each other amid five different clashing or cooperating ideaologies. Vampire is the game of 'conflict between the rational man and the monstrous beast,' with politics and investigtion and being the main mode of play.

Werewolf the Forsaken
You are a hybrid of spirit-flesh, and your duty to your progenitor wolf-spirit is to keep the balance between the spirit and real worlds, because spirits push the real and the real influnces the spirit. Include an internal war between tribes who believe werewolves should return the world to the pre-historic 'paradise', the influence of ancient spirits on the world, and your own squabbles within your own kind. Forsaken is kind of like 'spirit border patrol,' ramped up with unknowable Chthonic entities in the back. A more visceral game, but not as much as Apocalypse.

Continued...

>>51202600
Mage the Awakening
Reality is a lie. Mages, in their hubris to become powerful, broke reality and now, in the modern world, the Mages seek to recover and uncover ancient arcane knowledge, with a variety of conflicting goals. This is the more traditional 'mages find ancient lore for the benefit or detriment of humanity,' with what amount to gods in the magical 'world' beyond who see the entirety of humanity as slaves and playthings.

Changeling the Lost
Dreams are beautiful but also punishing. Changelings were taken by unknowable True Fae, believed to be the aspect of humanity's dreams given mystical form, and changed. Now, they band together in mutual protection, with internal strife and politics in their Courts, all the while paranoid and on guard from the unfamiliar, for at any time your old 'masters' could return to take you. Changeling is the most fantastical, with a large arrangement of modes of play. I liken it to the exploration console RPGs; like, say, Zelda's 'run around a magical world interacting with people' is a good way to look at it.

Promethean the Created
You have no history, a monster stitched together from parts of other corpses. You seek apotheosis, a new life by becoming human. It's about exploration of the human condition and the ups and downs of monstrosity. Probably the most hopeful of the game lines in general.

Hunter the Vigil, Demon the Descent, Beast the Primordial
No idea, never played them...

Overall though, those are the 'base' modes, but you can tweak the themes and methods all you like. You could run Blade with both versions of Vampire, for example.

You really need to see what mode of play you, the ST want to run, and what the players want to play. I'll be here for a bit, so feel free to ask questions.

Also, as far as crossover? It can be done. It can be fun. A lot of the complaints about crossover come from:

* Diluted theme. A lot of crossover games end up exclusively catering to the theme of one included type to the detriment of the others, or devolve into 'supernatural Justice League'. This is not a bad mode of play if your players like it.

* Power imbalance. Many people don't care, but in mixed games, making sure everyone has something they can contribute can be difficult. Having someone in the group who can do EVERYTHING you can do, at the same relative competency, is boring.

>>51202642
Well thank you for that detail there, anon, that was actually really helpful, I appreciate you taking the time.

So it sounds like each gameline has a tone to it, but, between the ST and the players, a lot can be done with that tone/theme. Well, that suits me just fine

>>51202701
Sure. I have been playing since 99 and running regularly since 2004 (primarily NWoD), and I'm not an edition monster. I like both equally, though there are things I like from each line.

I've run splatterpunk vampire, not-Buffy vampire, zombie apocalypse mortals, 'mafia family' thriller Forsaken, 'modern Alice in Wonderland' Changeling the Lost, Indiana Jones-meets-Minority Report Mage, and all kinds of 'non-standard' methods. So you can tweak it. It just always helps to have an idea of what YOU want to run, and make sure your players are onboard with the changes in mode of play.

I can tell you about Hunter the Vigil and Demon the Descent, which are both nWoD or CoD (not sure anymore).

Hunter the Vigil is largely about your 9-5 everyday john/jane doe. But you're different, because you know Monsters are out there. Maybe you and your friend from work have discovered that your boss is actually a vicious serial killer, or the tenant in the apartment upstairs has three too many eyes after sundown. Whatever the case, you're going to do something about it. With vigilante justice, deoderant with a zippo lighter and a blunt axe. The game can be about grim survival as you realise you might be the only normal ones in your apartment block, you can fight other Hunter groups out of paranoia or do Slasher films, your call.

Demon the Descent is a cold-war espionage thriller mixed with the Matrix, staring you as Neo/Jason Bourne. You're in deep cover from the God Machine. You're in enemy territory and everyone or anyone could be an Angel, your worst nightmare. You get a tonne of awesome powers that make almost every other line seethe with jealousy, but you fight something far worse than them. You can do sweet Oceans Eleven heists, Heat heists, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy espionage or just keep an eye on other Demons who might want to defect.

Vampire works well for criminal organisation type games, too. There's enough similarity there that White Wolf did a Mafia sourcebook.