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.
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. In contrast, Chronicles of Darkness 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.

Games

The original World of Darkness series consists of eight core lines of role-playing games which were originally released from 1991 to 2002, presented here in order of release:
  • Vampire: The Masquerade
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse
  • Mage: The Ascension
  • Wraith: The Oblivion
  • Changeling: The Dreaming
  • Hunter: The Reckoning
  • Mummy: The Resurrection
  • Demon: The Fallen
As well as off-shoots based on these, such as the Asia-themed Kindred of the East and the historical Vampire: The Dark Ages.
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, Beast: The Primordial, and Deviant: The Renegades. 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.
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. The Chronicles of Darkness sourcebooks in particular present the information as optional and something one may choose whether to include in one's game. The supplements often take the form of a book describing a location as it is portrayed in the setting, such as Vampire: The Masquerade series of By Night books and Werewolf: The Apocalypse ''Rage Across series. 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.

Common elements

The games in the original series are set in a shared universe, also named the World of Darkness, 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, who belong to various classes such as Vampire: The Masquerade vampire clans, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse werewolf tribes. 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. The series is known for its focus on metaplot – an overarching story for the setting that advances as new game books are released.
Whereas the original series has a large focus on lore and background information for its setting, the urban horror Chronicles of Darkness setting does not to the same extent; 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.
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. Chronicles of Darkness has a larger focus on making the gameplay systems work together, enabling easier cross-over play between the games.

History

1990–2006: White Wolf Publishing

The World of Darkness series began development in 1990 by game designer Mark Rein-Hagen at White Wolf Publishing, as his next major role-playing game project after 1987's Ars Magica. Designed as the first in a planned series of five annual games, Vampire: The Masquerade was released in 1991, and was followed by Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, and Changeling: The Dreaming, all set in the same world and using the Storyteller rule system. This rapid expansion with new games, although successful and capturing players' and the industry's interest, led to often flawed first editions, prompting several revised, new editions of the core rulebooks between 1992–2000, resulting in Mage: The Ascension morphing a lot between its editions as its themes changed. Ars Magica was initially tied to World of Darkness and used as a historical backdrop: its House Tremere was reused as a vampire clan in Vampire: The Masquerade, and its Order of Hermes as a mage tradition in Mage: The Ascension. The rights to Ars Magica were sold to Wizards of the Coast in 1994, and the histories of the games were separated.
Rein-Hagen constantly moved on to designing new games after finishing one, designing all the original five games except Mage: The Ascension, which was designed by White Wolf Publishing's founders, brothers Stewart and Steve Wieck, and Chris Earley; as such, new staff were brought in to manage the game lines, including Andrew Greenberg for Vampire and Bill Bridges for Werewolf, who came to define the look and feel of the series. An economic downturn for White Wolf Publishing in 1995–1996, caused in part by bookstore returns for World of Darkness novelizations, led to a falling out between Rein-Hagen and the Wieck brothers, after which Rein-Hagen left the company. As the original planned five annual games had already been published, White Wolf Publishing next devised a new model of role-playing games with a historical setting based on previous games, resulting in Vampire: The Dark Ages, Werewolf: The Wild West, and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade, of which only Vampire: The Dark Ages sold well. This led to the cancellation of the underperforming Wraith line, with the release of the historical-setting Wraith: The Great War and the 1999 supplement Ends of Empire, which functioned as a finale to the game's metaplot.
In 1997, White Wolf Publishing developed another model, where they would release a game that required another World of Darkness rule book to play, which thereby would get the same attention as a new stand-alone core game without requiring them to further support it with supplements; this was used for 1997's Mummy Second Edition and its 2001 re-release Mummy: The Resurrection, and 1998's Kindred of the East. The two final major modern-day-setting World of Darkness role-playing games, Hunter: The Reckoning and Demon: The Fallen, followed in 1999 and 2002, after which White Wolf Publishing returned to historical-setting games with Victorian Age: Vampire and Dark Ages: Vampire, a new edition of Vampire: The Dark Ages, and a line of Dark Ages games based on other World of Darkness games that, like Kindred of the East and Mummy, required a main game's rule book to be played. A final game, Orpheus, was released in 2003 as a sequel to Wraith.
In 2004, following dwindling sales, White Wolf Publishing ended the series with the major event Time of Judgment: a line of books that ended the overarching narratives of Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming, Demon: The Fallen, Hunter: The Reckoning, Kindred of the East, and Mummy: The Resurrection. Following this, White Wolf Publishing rebooted the series with the 2004 rulebook The World of Darkness, and released new games with updated Storytelling System gameplay rules and a new setting, beginning with Vampire: The Requiem in 2004 and Werewolf: The Forsaken and Mage: The Awakening in 2005.