The World of Darknessnessness... for Free!

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I got a heads-up from a friend that a site that sells RPG books in .pdf form, drivethroughRPG.com, is offering a limited time chance to download the World of Darkness rulebook for free as part of their Read an E-book initiative. In case you have not heard of this system, well, it is a storyteller-heavy system that is the basis of their several modern day fantasy games, such as Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: the Forsaken and Changeling: the Lost. This is the rulebook for the "new World of Darkness" series, so the system has gone through no lack of testing and has had quite a few bugs ironed out.

In case anyone is interested, here is the link to the webpage you can find the book at: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1124&it=1

 

Thanks for the heads-up.

(Didn't have contact with the system before, but I'll check it out)

 

Good to know The Shaman. I haven't played that game in years so I haven't paid much attention to its evolution.

Haven't you heard about Vampire? The World of Darkness is the setting for Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: Dark Ages, Mages: The Ascension, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, etc.

The system dates back to the 90s and it's been used for different games (including such oddities as the Streetfighter RPG).

I remember buying a hardback copy of the third edition of Vampire in the late 90s (probably 1998). Most books stood out because of the quality of the printing, types and illustrations and the fact it tried to open the way for a new RPing tradition based on storytelling. Some ideas were rather ground breaking at the time but the system could also be used like a superhero system allowing a munchkin player to throw cartloads of ten sided die at a time. This game has a very weird following for those reasons. Some world of darkness players are die throwers who like playing unstoppable monsters with superpowers whereas other players are high brow RPers who can go on for hours RPing (on their own) a cursed creature of darkness.

 

I've only played the CRPG games from Vampire series (Redemption and VtM: Bloodlines) and liked them.

Didn't know this was the system used for all the stuff you guys listed.

 

The WoD rulebook might be free, but you still need the rulebook for Mage, Vampire, Werewolf or whatever it is that you plan on playing. But I suppose it works as a nice free introduction to the World of Darkness.

 

Besides you're better off with a pen and paper edition since going through a pdf file during a game session must be pretty annoying. But in order to get a free sample of a game I agree it's not a bad way to start.

@Loreseeker: if you liked the CRPG I guess you'll like the pnp version.

 

Just a heads up - this is the NEW World of Darkness rulebook. Not the classic one with Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse. It's a different system for all intents and purposes. The apocalypse happened to OWoD (old world of darkness) and they started a new line in 2000 and something.

 

I remember the old WoD. Changeling was actually not that bad/kinda happy or fantasy meets modern world rather than dark all the time.

Werewolves were the toughest fighters around but were still fighting to protect the environment as if they had a chance (has that changed?)

Vampire and Mage (worst usual enemy was the technocracy) weren't necessarily all that bad/unhappy either.

 

Right, I missed the Apocalypse...

How does the saying goes? You snooze you lose?

@pplr: Changeling was nice. There was the Mummy thing and the Hunter book which weren't bad either and the Kindred of the East set which probably added too many stuff but wasn't bad for a change.

I've got an urge to dust off my old copy of the game now. Playing an 8th generation Brujah was really cool.

 

I may have a copy of the Mummy thing laying around....

I don't think I've ever played vampire. I may have gotten killed in Werewolf once (how do we challenge big muscly raging things?.... with bigger big muscly raging things).

I don't think I ever played wraith but I was tempted to combine it and a Renegade Legion senario/storyline that I have the book for.

If you know about Renegade Legion you know its a very different game (tactical scifi game similar to Star Wars in many ways). I was tempted to take an old battlecruiser (which the senario has refurbished and crewed through a long raid and relating series of battles) that was rumored to be haunted and have it actually be haunted.

That would have been a roleplaying rather than tactical game (using the storyline of the raid as more background situating for the player's wraiths).

 

Supposedly the new edition's fluff poured a big bucket of grimdark all over that. Changelings are now (former) children who had been abducted by the fey that live beyond, and managed to somehow get back. And the fey themselves, well... IMO the average ones manage to be more creepy and downright scary than the vamps. And then there's the really bad ones...

They are tough, although imo not nearly as much as before (then again, neither are vamps). They don't necessarily care that much about the environment; now spirits are the big thing (although IIRC some of their loci stuff is harder to do in the city). Urban environments may have more troublesome spirits, but they aren't as big on the eco-warrior schtick as they used to be. Plus, since they can now only mate with humans (the breeds were nixed), they prefer having a good number of them around.