What is the World of Darkness?

The World of Darkness (WoD for short), is a modern-day game setting used by White Wolf Games Studio. We use the books White Wolf puts out for their tabletop role playing games to allow us a consistent set of character creation and action rules for the various vampires, werewolves, mages, fae and other character types in the setting. Feel free to join in, if you have or are willing to make a character by the rules we use. It is not part of the Ayenee role playing setting, though WoD rooms are often made in the Entertainment & Arts section

Notice I say "modern day game setting" - that means that it's set in the modern world, or to be precise, a world very much like our own. There's a New York City in this setting - hell, every city you care to name that exists in our world exists in the World of Darkness setting. However, you have to also take with that the fact that you won't see unicorns trotting down 5th Avenue, or dragons strafing the Bronx with breath weapons, or vampires with huge wings flying through the air in the daylight.

One thing that all the character types of the World of Darkness have in common, be they vampire, werewolf, mage, changeling, or what have you, is that they are grossly outnumbered by the unknowing masses of humanity. Yes, I said "unknowing" masses - because in general, the human population of the World of Darkness does not know that vampires and werewolves and mages and whatnot exist. Indeed, they are as firmly convinced as your Mom is, that vampires (etc...) are just myths, something from books and movies, with no connection to reality. And this suits the supernaturals juuuuust fine, because they're aware that if the normal humans as a whole knew they existed, they the supernaturals wouldn't last for long. A supernatural might be able to take out a human without breaking a sweat, or even a group of humans without much trouble - but when they come in groups of hundreds, with torches and pitchforks and shotguns and tire irons and chains and guns - that poor "monster" doesn't have much chance.

So they hide. They hide what they are, what they can do, from the masses that would fear, or hate, or envy them for not being just like everybody else. They even hide from each other. The werewolves hate the vampires as unliving representations of decay. The vampires hate the werewolves for being walking engines of destruction who hold incomprehensible grudges against the vampires. Changelings are easily undone by the rigidity of thinking of both the mortal world and those that seek to analyze and dissect every dream and myth in search of a "scientific" explanation. And so it goes, each character type having it's own (darn good) reasons for keeping their head down and not shouting to the world or to the other types what exactly they are.

The game systems that White Wolf puts out that are part of the World of Darkness setting are, in no particular order:

Vampire: the Masquerade - The Vampires of V:tM are their own breed, with their own brand of strengths and weaknesses. They are not the vampires of novels not put out by White Wolf, movies, TV, or video games, not even really the Vampire: the Masquerade - Redemption computer game - enjoyable as those things are, we use the tabletop rule books, not the computer game, as a model for our roleplaying. Click the link for the official white wolf quick start guide (adobe acrobat required).

Werewolf: the Apocalypse - The Werewolves (and other shapeshifting breeds) of W:tA are all naturally born that way - there is no infection that is spread, and rarely anything resembling involuntary shifting with phases of the moon. They are not the Anthromorphs or Furries of Ayenee, either, and neither is particularly compatible with the other.Click the link for the official white wolf quick start guide (adobe acrobat required).

Mage: the Ascension - The mages of M:tA are powerful in theory, but have learned to be subtle in the application of their magics, for fear of the backlash of Paradox. Reality itself conspires against their magics, and they hide them from the non-magical masses of humanity. (No quickstart available, but White Wolf's home page on it is here)

Changeling: the Dreaming - The faerie courts of C:tD are scattered and small, feeding upon dreams, and fighting against the the ever-diminishing wonder in the world. No, they are not the elves of D&D, nor are they anime characters. Click the link for the official white wolf quick start guide (adobe acrobat required).

Wraith: the Oblivion - A game of ghosts, tied to the mortal world by the unfinished business left over from their lives. Sadly, this game was discontinued by White Wolf - but many devoted fans continue to play it, and it's not as if people have stopped dying in the World of Darkness....

Hunter: the Reckoning - A game of humans who are suddenly gifted with a small handful of abilities, and the knowledge that there are things out there that are not human - and must now deal with that knowledge, and the monsters in their midst. No, Blade is not one of these type of hunters, and playing him or Buffy as Imbued does not suit the setting, or the characters themselves very well at all. No, these hunters are not supposed to be wanting to kill everything else in the WoD. There's more to H:tR than killing things, just as there's more to V:tM than drinking blood. (No quickstart available, but White Wolf's home page on it is here)

Kindred of the East - A whole different kettle of fish from the regular "Kindred" from Vampire the Masquerade, the Kuei Jin have as much in common with ghosts - for they die with their souls unbalanced, their spirits not clean enough to move on to the next life - and thus become stuck in this one, as hungry dead.(No quickstart available, but White Wolf's home page on it is here)

Mummy: the Resurrection - The "Amenti" of the World of Darkness are privy to a unique form of serial immortality - while not immune to death, they return from the lands of the dead with memories intact - if they have managed to keep the balance within their souls... (No quick start available, but White Wolf's home page on it is here)

Demon: the Fallen - The "Elohim" of the World of Darkness are fallen angels, the servants of the creators who were cast out of heaven for disobedience. A history that contains a goodly dash of the Prometheus myth, added to the fact that they must bond with a human host and are unable to keep their demonic/angelic form up for most of the time, makes them very unlike the angels and demons of standard Ayenee role playing. (No quick start available, but White Wolf's official homepage on it is here.)

I will try to add separate pages with more in-depth information on each of these as I get the time and opportunity, but this should cover the basics.