My Ascension (Part 4)

Reboots. We all hate 'em, am I right?

Well, if you were to poll the internet about pretty much any relaunch or reboot, you'd see that the shock of the new is enough to drive fanboys of any hobby into a frothing madness. This applies to the World of Darkness games I've been blathering on about for the last few posts.

In August 2004, White Wolf attempted to inject new life into the World of Darkness with some slick new RPG books, using character types that were similar in name and tone to the their previous line. Vampire: The Masquerade became Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Apocalypse became Werewolf: The Forsaken and so on and so forth. They also introduced some new character archetypes in the form of Promethean and Geist, referring to golems and ghosts respectively.

2004 was probably the peak of my personal interest in playing and running games. Back in those heady days, I'd run a D&D game here and there, a Star Wars session every once in a while, and a weekly World of Darkness campaign. Mage had been my favorite of the original line of books, so when the new edition, Mage: The Awakening was announced, I set aside my bias toward the old World of Darkness and decided to give the new stuff a go.

My initial impressions weren't positive. It had nothing to do with the new lore, clans, and powers but rather, the system itself had been modified by those sneaky little devils consumerism and synergy into something designed to sap a bit more money from eager gamers who wanted to dip their toe in d10.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the World of Darkness books could cross over, but were also capable of being played independently. For example, if the only book you had was Changeling, all the rules and systems were explained within and could carry over once you got a new book like Demon or Hunter. The new books that started dropping in 2004 employed a "core rulebook" a la D&D or Star Wars entitled, you guessed it, World of Darkness. Along with rules for normal "mortal" characters, this book had a foundation for the rules that was not replicated in the others. You had to at least buy this core book before you could dive into the others. It rubbed me the wrong way.

Wanting ever so badly to put my new books to use, I decided to let my frustrations go and embrace the New. Part of easing me into the process was the astounding work in the book Promethean: The Created. Promethean characters were tied to things like Frankenstein's Monster and the Jewish Golem; homunculi would wander the world long after their creators had passed, inadvertently harming the world (and other players) around them. These characters were antithetical to teamwork and were almost designed to be played solo. It was a burden to have one in your group. An interesting burden rife with storytelling potential.

The new Changeling lore was fascinating as well. Horrifying incidents like child abduction and substance abuse were reframed as the influence of things "from beyond", yet it was done in an ambiguous way to make players more paranoid. "Is this really my life?" "Is this really my son/daughter?" It was creepy and worked on levels well beyond the usual let's-fling-powers-at-each-other kind of thing that a lot of World of Darkness games could devolve into.

It's my impression that the New World of Darkness (funny I keep calling it new, it's over a decade old at this point) employed a tone within it's rules and explanations that rubbed people the wrong way. There was an emphasis on theater arts and certain terms that had been pen and paper staples up to that point were abandoned. It never really bothered me to be honest. Call 'em a "dungeon master" or a "storyteller" or a "chronicler", it still boils down to rolling dice, taking notes, and doing funny voices at one another. Nonetheless, this new attitude might have acted as another strike against it.

But don't fret, oldies. Even though this abominable reboot continues to thrive to this day, it will never erase your Masquerades or your Ascensions. As a famous author once noted when asked about theatrical versions of his works "ruining" the originals, "My books are fine. They're right there on the shelf."

Thanks for reading! Let me know how wrong I am in the comments section, or on Twitter where I go by the handle @ChrisBComics. And they call me that because occasionally I do a little Back Issue Diving.

Next time on Tabletop Legends - I'll be jumping back into the world of collectible card games and I'll give you a hint as to which one: It rhymes with Fraggin Mall Tee. See ya then!

My Ascension (Part 3)

Mage had been my formal introduction to the "World of Darkness" series of games. These were interlocking RPG settings that ranged from Vampire: The Masquerade to Demon: The Fallen and everything in between. The core d10 rules were (mostly) the same, allowing characters of all types in interact with one another.

(Be careful, though. They weren't all balanced to the point of being chummy. For example, you wouldn't want to be a novice Hunter and get on the bad side of your Vampire buddy. There's definitely a food chain.)

Each new book exposed another layer of the "World of Darkness", or oWoD. The books I played most with are collectively referred to as the oWoD since they're the "old" World of Darkness. Just over a decade ago, a new series of books with updated rules and setting started flooding shelves which fans lovingly refer to as the "New World of Darkness".

Anyhoo, Vampires, Werewolves, Changelings . . . they all walk among us, living in their secret societies, enacting their secret rituals, and participating in their own feuds and fiefdoms. The lengths that authors like Mark Rein-Hagen went to present these worlds as parallel to our own has always fascinated me. If you've ever seen Blade or read an Anne Rice novel, it's not hard to imagine how a group of vampires could be posing as club kids, but in books like Changeling, fae lore was applied to some rather common human occurrences. These clandestine societies aren't emerging, they've been here all along, coexisting (or at least, attempting to) with mankind.

Use of the "real" world in oWoD games was encouraged so much that eventually publisher White Wolf would eventually put together city-specific sourcebooks. I never had any of these myself, but I could see a younger me getting absorbed into the Chicago or New Orleans sourcebook, cross referencing the landmarks mentioned in each with their real-life counterparts. It's a neat angle, and a fun way to expand a game.

The interconnected nature of these games led to some hilarious altercations during my time as a oWoD storyteller. One player was a Vampire of the Camarilla sect, adhering to strict traditions and enforcing Kindred law. He clashed quite a bit with the two free-wheeling Mages in our group, who wanted nothing more than to expose shams like "The Masquerade" as if they were The Lone Gunmen or something. Those particular players didn't get on so hot in real life either, resulting in bickering from both sides that would morph in and out of character. Funny how players try to create a character that isn't like them, but most times in the area of role playing, let their own personality traits shine through.

The World of Darkness was always something I wanted to be more involved with, but I drifted away from gaming for a spell and even got rid of my books. (D'oh!) In 2007, I saw some of the New World of Darkness products at a Barnes & Noble and decided to give them a try. Naturally, there was a lot of hate from older fans about them even existing, but I was surprised at what I'd found.

To be continued . . .

Thanks for reading!
Twitter: @ChrisBComics
E-Mail: backissuechris@gmail.com

My Ascension (Part 1)

After having cut my teeth on Dungeons & Dragons and the Star Wars d20 role playing games, I thought I was hot snot on a silver platter when it came to pencil and paper games.

But I wasn't hot snot at all. I was a cold booger on a paper plate.

Y'see, while Wizards of the Coast's games taught me the basics of how to build a world and run a campaign, it was Mage: The Ascension that taught me how to RP.

Yeah, that's right. Mage. Not Vampire: The Masquerade or Werewolf: The Apocalypse, but their ugly cousin Mage. The friend and fellow role player who brought me into the fold described Mage as "The Matrix before The Matrix". The Wachowski's science fiction opus was still fresh in my mind as the coolest thing since Super Nintendo, so it was the kind of descriptor that drew me right in.

(Well, I did have a brief run-in with the Street Fighter d10 game, but that's a whole other can of beans for another time. Let's just say our first and only game ended with Spanish matador Vega losing a bout due to what I now know as erectile dysfunction. I'll leave it at that. More to come in the future . . . maybe . . .)

Mage, and the rest of its World of Darkness brethren, aren't too dissimilar to D&D or Star Wars when it comes to the components used. You need pencils, character sheets, dice, and a couple of heavy hardback books. But that is where the similarities end. World of Darkness games (WoD for short) employ one kind of die for all decision making, from diplomacy to initiative to damage: the d10.

What's neat about this is that in a pinch, you could even play the entire game with a single d10. Of course that would make for a pretty long day at the office. The systems in the game have you performing multiple die rolls for single actions and trying to get "successes". For example, a player might have a chance to roll up to eight dice for damage from a particular weapon, but only die rolls of let's say, six or higher count as successes. The number of successes determines the actual damage dealt.

(Eh, explaining the minutia of these things might not be my strong suit.) 

Anyhoo, back to the differences. Characters in WoD games don't really "level up" in the traditional sense. Instead, experience points are used to upgrade individual stats and skills. I always liked this from a role playing standpoint. Rather than just having your character get magically stronger, you can explain your growth as training in a particular skill. It makes the whole thing feel less like Diablo and more like Final Fantasy X, with its sphere grid system.

The books themselves are a real treat. Whereas the D&D Player's Handbook is literally just a collection of races, classes, and other stat fields to be filled, the WoD books mix rules with narrative and have little short stories set in the world strewn throughout, simultaneously introducing you to a mysterious new contemporary setting while also being (for the most part) well-written little supernatural ditties.

I was immediately stricken by this as I flipped through my friend's Mage book. I probably couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but this strange new game had so much more personality than the d20 I'd encountered before. This world felt so fleshed out and full of nuance, while D&D felt vague and almost too open ended for me.

My first Mage session consisted of me and two other guys running for our lives from the Technocracy and trying to make sense of our bizarre and often inpredictable abilities. It was a learning experience and our Storyteller (the WoD version of a dungeon master) felt the best way for us to learn to swim was to be tossed into the deep end of the pool.

Like it says on the tin, Mage is a game about magic and how it functions in the real world. The influences on the setting are all over the place, from Kabbalah to modern chaos magic. As I would soon learn, the trick to using magic in Mage isn't about balancing spells per day or mana points, it's about making the things you do seem coincidental, so as not to disturb the fabric of reality and alert the fascist and very Agent Smith-like Technocracy to your presence.

When a player oversteps those boundaries, reality bites back. And that's where things can get weird . . .

To Be Continued!

Twitter: @ChrisBComics
E-Mail: backissuechris@gmail.com
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