White Wolf Ends The World Of Darkness

KrinnDNZ writes "So White Wolf has been providing us geeks with angsty roleplaying pleasure as vampires, werewolves, and various other beasties, ever since the early 90s. Guess what - it's over. I'll have to admit that it takes guts to have your RPGs' 'big story' include the end of their world, but they're doing it, and they've got a date, 171 days from now." This seems to mean that well-known pen-and-paper RPG titles like Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Hunter: The Reckoning are genuinely being retired.

Comments

hmmmm heck of a way to lay-off workers

[BFedRec]

I have a good friend who's former roomie works for white wolf... I wonder if he's going to have a job in 170 odd days... I hope my company doesn't announce a personal armageddon anytime soon...

End of an era

[Johnny Mnemonic]

I was never huge into these games. But, it sure influenced a whole genre of RPG, impacted the themes of a whole lot of MUSHes, and was certainly the chief theme of LARPs, if not the originator of the style.

So much for being immortal. Now I feel really old--I've seen a class of gaming come and go.

Oh yeah?

[Chris Mattern]

> This seems to mean that well-known pen-and-paper RPG titles like Vampire: The Masquerade,
> Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, and Hunter: The Reckoning are genuinely being retired.

I think you didn't read *all* of the press release:

> An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004.

Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?

Chris Mattern

Re:Oh yeah?

[Anonymous Coward]

actually the WOD is no longer their bread and butter, they have other games, like their Sword and Sorcery line which makes games for teh D20 system, which includes the Diablo and Warcraft d20 supplements. They also have Exalted, a new game line which is actually really good. They also mentioned the fact that their Dark Ages line of the World of Darkness will continue to be produced.

I am saddened though to hear of this, its like hearing that my favorite uncle has cancer and only a short time to live.

Re:Oh yeah?

[travail_jgd]

"> An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004.
Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?"

Only the modern-day World of Darkness games are getting cancelled and/or rebooted. Games set in the past won't be effected.

White Wolf has a number of other product lines that won't touched even if the World of Darkness was completely dropped. Aberrant, Exalted, Ravenloft 3E (licensed from Wizards of the Coast), Sword & Sorcery, Warcraft, Everquest and others will keep White Wolf in business for a little while longer. ;)

I'm hoping that the "new" WoD is similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake stories, where the general public knows about monsters, and has to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. No Paradox, no Masquerade, no Veil -- almost everything is out in the open.

Thank goodness

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe now I won't have to worry about getting jumped by a LARP 'vampire' when I cut through the public park to get home after being out partying Saturday night.

It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that I'm tired of kicking their asses.

And i would want to play this why?

[arkham6]

"Yeah, lets play the final wrapup, where no matter what your characters do, they are all going to DIE in a massive battle that they can ultimately do nothing to change."

*grin*

WW's done this before...

[freeBill]

...in 2000, when they did a year-long promotion, which was kinda like a long, drawn-out Y2K thing.

I sit here looking at the Mage poster on my wall: "The Traditions stand in ruins... The Technocracy has won. Join the last stand in the war for reality." (Revised Edition -- March 2000)

Just an excuse for a new edition of everything. It's sad when a once-creative company runs out of ideas. "Let's do the whole thing over again," is a sad excuse for an original concept. But "Demon," "Mummy," and "Engel" just aren't selling like "Vampire" and "Werewolf." Heck, they aren't even selling like "Mage" and "Changling."

But they are selling like "Wraith."

The End of the World?

[fm6]

When Arthur Conan Doyle got sick of Sherlock Holmes, he had him fall off Reichenbach Falls. When Gene Roddenberry (or maybe it was Leonard Nimoy) got sick of Spock, they had that corny scene in the reactor room. I could go on and on. It never works. Face it, it's not about the story, it's about making a living!

Good luck

[Daetrin]

There are already quite a few people who won't advance to 3rd edition because they like neither the rules changes nor the advances in teh storyline. Mage players are particularly prone to this because according to 3rd edition Mage the Traditions have lost the battle for Ascension.

It will be interesting to see how they handle that, obviously 4th edition will still have vampires and werewolves and such around, but it seems like the Technocracy winning the Ascension would pretty much put an end to all the other supernatural stuff. Once the Technocs have complete control of both the mundane and magical human worlds and don't have to worry about the Traditions anymore, i expect it wouldn't take much time for their focused attention to deal with all the other elements they wish to eliminate.

It'll be interesting to hear about (i'm still catching up with the changes to 3rd edition) but i'm not sure if i'll be interested in buying the new sourcebooks and playing in that world.

Time o' Judgment

[etherlad]

I just want to point out to /.ers that if White Wolf's server's down, I provide all the pertinent info at WolfSpoor, my WW-themed slashdot equivalent.

Anyhoo, yes, the World of Darkness game lines are indeed ending. For sure. Overwith.

But they're bringing in a "new World of Darkness" in August 2004. Maybe it'll be like Marvel's Ulitmates: a reimagining of the same concepts. Maybe there'll be compeltely different critters. Maybe it's something no one else has thought of. Who knows?

White Wolf has more than enough to keep them busy in the guise of Exalted, Dark Ages, and their massive Sword & Sorcery line (incl. Scarred Lands, Necromancer Games, Malhavoc Press, Ravenloft, Gamma World, Everquest RPG, Warcraft RPG, et al). Plus they're going to be doing something with Adventure again, I hear.

But the World of Darkness is indeed their biggest moneymaker overall. It's a ballsy move to actually usher in the End Times, but they're not stupid. It'll be back in some way.

What's the big deal?

[sebi]

From reading the press release I did not get the impression that all existing source-, rule- and other books are suddenly going spontaneously self-destruct, once the "Time of Judgement" comes around. I really liked playing Vampire, because it was completely different than any RPG I had encountered before. The way we played it the average session required about five die rolls all in all, but explicitly rewarded good role-playing.

I find White Wolf's decision commendable. Naturally they are trying to sell as many books related to "The End" as possible, but following through with all the hints and promises of the last years still is a gutsy thing to do. They are trying to pull an "Enter the Matrix" in the process, though. The next Vampire game by Activision is supposed to offer an unique view at the impending apocalypse and gamers who want to get the whole picture are strongly encouraged to get the game.

A new world of Darkness, based in 2004, rather than 1992 might be exciting--you never know. I just have a hunch that the rules concerning computers are going to be a lot more detailed, than they were in the old books I know. I don't know if that is a good thing.

Guts. Feh.

[mikedaisey]

"I'll have to admit that it takes guts to have your RPGs' 'big story' include the end of their world, but they're doing it"

It would take guts for them to have created an RPG that leaves the stories in the hands of the people playing the game...I hate their mania for "novelizing" their worlds and dictating what happens to everyone and everything.

Crap like this is exactly why mainstream RPGs have failed to deliver--what are groups supposed to do, sit around and READ these damn things out loud?

If you want to write fiction, write it. If you want to create an environment for RPGs, create it and then let the players and GMs sit in the driver seat.

I hope it's not Wod20

[Dracos]

I've always believed that the lifespan of WoD was directly tied to the goth craze of the 90's: when there were no new goths kidz, WoD would dissappear.

With seemingly every other publisher in the RPG industry joining the d20 lemming parade, lining WoTC's pockets while slitting their own throats (including WW, in their other product lines), I hope WW has the foresight to not base the second generation of their flagship products on d20. A lot of people don't like d20 (myself included), and I keep hearing that number is increasing. D&D 3.5 won't help matters... enough people are annoyed with having to buy all the books again that I think 3.5E sales will stabilize about twice as fast as 3E (which took about 6 months).

And, putting a minor version number on something that's not software is just plain stupid IMO.

Microsoft:software::WotC:RPG
Windows:OS::d20:RPG

And if you're not going to be using your car

[goldcd]

this evening, I'll just borrow it off your drive and take it for a spin.
If you create something, it's yours. You don't owe the world anything.