Old World of Darkness

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The World of Darkness is a Gothic-Punk setting, using the Storyteller System, published by White Wolf from 1991 to 2004. While not a real game line in its own right, it is the shared setting for a myriad of other games.

Contents

Vampire: The Masquerade

A game of monsters and manipulators where the Children of Caine, the First Murderer, are cursed to struggle for supremacy in the shadows of a world that they must lead to think they don't exist. Behind a veil of secrecy these creatures face a nightly struggle with their inner demons and the fear of Gehenna, the vampiric Apocalypse.

Kindred of the East

Damned reborn from the Thousand Hells, the Kuei-jin dance a razor's edge between enlightenment and the powers of the Demon. At the dawn of the Sixth Age, will these vampires redeem the world or feast upon it as it dies?

Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom

Vampire: The Dark Ages

Victorian Age Vampire

Werewolf: The Apocalypse

A game of savage horror in which the Garou, fierce creatures, half human half wolf, half flesh and half spirit, fight against the forces of spiritual corruption in hopes of saving Gaia, the Earth herself.

Werewolf: The Wild West

Mage: The Ascension

A game of magic and mystery where Awakened men and women wield the very threads of reality itself.

Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade

It is the end of the Mythic Age, dawn of the early modern era. Faith, science and magic will collide as the Renaissance begins and Europe emerges from the long night.

Wraith: The Oblivion

Commonly regarded as the most mature game in the history of White Wolf, Wraith is a game dealing with wraiths -- ghosts of those people who perished with Regrets on their souls, Passions unfulfilled or unresolved ties Fettering them to their former life -- and their struggle to cope with their deaths, all they left behind, and the constant torment of the Shadow, the darkness and self-loathing all souls carry, as it seeks peace through the annihilating embrace of Oblivion.

Do not go gentle into that good night, and welcome to the twisted Shadowlands -- where even the Dead are afraid.

Wraith: The Great War

Changeling: The Dreaming

A game of wonder, heros, villains, and honor in a classical sense, Changeling tells the story of the proud Fair Folk, who must take the shape of humans to survive in a world where belief no longer can support them alone.

Hunter: The Reckoning

What if you woke up and found out that monsters really do exist? The game of ordinary people realizing there are monsters out in the real world. Imbued with a mysterious power to hold back or take back the world from the impending darkness. Performing the duty that cannot be ignored.

Mummy: The Resurrection

Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, has awakened and brought back the souls of the virtuous dead. The immortal Amenti have been made whole, and now struggle to bring about Balance in the world.

Demon: The Fallen

In the beginning, there was everything and nothing, and from this, the Infinite God created Angels, celestial beings who were his tools in shaping and forging Creation. Under the aegis of Lucifer the Morningstar, a third of this Host defied God out of love for humanity, leading to a cataclysmic war before the dawn of recorded history. In the end, these Fallen were cast into the numbing torture of Hell for millenia, until the gates of this Oblivion-seated prison were broken. Now some escape, and cast into mortal flesh, struggle to cope with a rotting Creation where God seems dead and faith is a dying candle flickering in the wind. With Hell below and the minions of the Earthbound -- demons summoned forth out of Hell and bound to Earth in ancient times -- here on Earth, the Fallen houses of the Sebettu struggle on, against each other, against the Earthbound, and against their own, inner Torment.

Orpheus

Science has cracked the secret of the afterlife, and has even figured out how to make a profit from it. You work for The Orpheus Group, ghostbusters-for-hire who deal with ghosts by projecting their souls into the hereafter. The six-book series follows a self-contained plot, separate from the rest of the World of Darkness.

Dark Ages World of Darkness

In the Dark Ages, people feared monsters and magic a great deal more than now. The quailed from the dark rightully, because in this time of upheaval and Feudalism, the Beasts and Things were the ones who truly ruled.

Dark Ages: Vampire

Dark Ages: Werewolf

Dark Ages: Mage

Dark Ages: Fae

Dark Ages: Inquisitor

The (Old) World of Darkness Book Line

In addition to the main games above, White Wolf also produced numerous books that didn't not fall under aegis of other gamelines. These sourcebooks include ones dealing with not only mortal organizations, such as Project Twilight, The Inquisition, The Arcanum, and The Mafia, but also books that provided information on 'lesser' supernaturals, including Sorcerers, Demon Hunters, Gypsies and Shemsu-Heru Mummies.

Additionally, there were several "Year of" themes that tended to stray from the 'core' of each line.

List of Game Books Published for the Old World of Darkness

Full list of published matieral for the old World of Darkness in PDF. This link no longer works and may have been taken off of the White Wolf Site.

Annual Themes

The old World of Darkness had several years tied to a specific theme. During this year some game supplementals to the various gamelines were published that were tied to this theme. The logo of the theme in question was also printed on the products.

Year Name of the year Theme
1996 Year of the Hunter Groups of Mortals trying to take back the night.
1997 Year of the Ally Mortal allies to the supernatural being.
1998 Year of the Lotus Supernatural beings from eastern Asia.
1999 Year of the Reckoning Start of Hunter: the Reckoning game line. Revised Edition published.
2000 Year of the Revelation Secrets of the ancient period. (Related to Exalted Game line.)
2001 Year of the Scarab Restart of Mummy as Mummy: Resurrection game.
2002 Year of the Damned Start of Demon: The Fallen as game.
2004 Time of Judgment End of the game line.

Character Archetypes

Most of the Old World of Darkness games use a system of Archetypes to represent the characters personnality. An Archetype must be be chosen for the character's Nature (what he truly think) and his Demeanor (what he wants people to think he thinks, so the mask he wear). The Nature of a person determine what he must do or gain to regain his self-esteem (Willpower). Some creatures, particularly mortals and Garou, have the same Nature and Demeanor. The Changelings have instead a Seelie and an Unseelie Legacy and the Adhene have three of these.

Many of these Archetypes were printed for the various sources (sometimes, depending on the setting, some old archetypes would be given a new name)

For a handy reference guide to the various Archetypes, including references to find them in the appropriate White Wolf books, check this website: Book of Archetypes

Never Say Die.

Troupes still running the Old World of Darkness setting.

Blood In Water: Set in Dallas, Texas. A Mind's Eye Theatre Masquerade game, playing in Ocean Springs, MS.

Fiery Nights: Set in Eastern Europe. A Vampire Mind's Eye Theatre chronicle that moves from the Dark Ages, through the Victorian Era and Modern Nights to end up in the Final Nights. It meets on the University of Central Florida Campus, behind the Student Union by the Sbarro's.