The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Demon: The Fallen

It was parody before it was actually reality. This is the funniest aspect of Demon: The Fallen. For years Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Mummies, Ghosts, and yes even the terrifying force of the Wee Folk have been created game lines around for their "World of Darkness" series but no one ever imagined White Wolf would take the next step and do Demons. The reasons against it were fairly clear; White Wolf had enough trouble with 'satanic' incidents Vampire that they didn't want to antagonize the voracious media for more wackiness let alone the right wing, demons were already established in the WoD as the one thing 'worse' than anything your characters might be no matter what the gameline, and ever since Vampire they had been moving away from Judeo-Christian mythology to a more humanist-polytheistic-animist-model. The embarrasing 'Revelations of the Dark Mother' had also tarnished their reputation for being able to deal with the Biblical characters in a manner that could be taken seriously.

I could spend much of my review trying to figure out why exactly White Wolf decided to create this system but I'm sure the majority of individuals came to hear my review on the book itself. This will basically be an overview of the place of Demons in the World of Darkness as presented and whether I think the game as presented is worth playing. I direct people interested in a more detailed review to go to http://www.rpg.net/news reviews/reviews/rev_7499.html and check out the excellent summation there.

Demons from D:TF are creatures which seem to be hybrids of several White Wolf concepts. They are basically tragic anti-heroes (All white wolf games) in the fact that they originally rebelled against God because humanity was not living up to its full potential as inheritors of divine essence, which they promptly began to teach them about (Mage: The Ascension). God was angered by their presumption and overeacts greatly by cursing them and humanity with a series of extremely nasty plagues (Vampire the Masquerade). Rather than admit their failure, which wasn't even a real option in this game, they instead go on to create a city that is later destroyed by God's wroth(Vampire the Masquerade). Demons eventually get trapped in the Abyss in the Labyrinth and spend countless years brooding on their own angst (Wraith: The Oblivion). They are linked to previous demon write ups by saying wizards summoned for the longest time quite a few out of the Abyss who became the unfortunate evils that we know and loathed like Gulfora (all previous Demon writeups). Then the Sixth Great Maelstrom (try follow this thing across Wraith, Mage, Hunter, Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling) cracked open Hell so the peons among the demons could escape. Drawn by this to an Earth that neither remembers or understands them, they subsume human souls and use their memories to try and adapt to the new world (Changeling: The Dreaming). Now they must deal with keeping their insane elder gods from awakening on the planet who were summoned by humans (shades of Antedeluvians from Vampire) while keeping their alien Cthulhu like Princes in Hell lest they destroy the world (shades of Werewolf) even as they work to cultivate human faith in a dead world to empower themselves (Changeling again). To top it off their human natures have caused them to feel conscience and remorse so that they can if they choose try and regain their holy natures (Vampire!).

Were this not done so completely well, I would say this was the greatest snow-job operation ever performed by White Wolf. Well not counting Exalted, or as I term that "putting the WoD in Fantasy".

Demon is despite this recycled premise a actually an evocative game which brings back that giddy feeling I had when I first started playing Vampire. The Biblical material is turned slightly on its ear with Lucifer having been fighting FOR humanity but it is given enough respect in every other area (the recession of faith in the world that is exaggerated in the WoD, the fact demons are fallen angels and not Earth spirits or completely alien beings, and angels are meant to be inherently good beings even when twisted by 13,000 years into something totally vile) that I as a minister was able to deeply appreciate its themes. The accent on role-playing has been upped considerably with the main problem of demons not being secretarian violence or a metaplot, though such elements are there, but coping with the strange new world they have found themselves in. I admit there is also a slightly guilty pleasure in holding a book called "Demon: The Fallen" which once again restores my faith that White Wolf is a game about being edgy and not playing it safe. The art, the writing style, the fiction, and the information presented within are all top notch with a excellent system for running a Demon: the Fallen game. My only complaint is a weak one in that it is not enough. Like Hunters to some degree the Fallen are relatively new players to the World of Darkness which means while they personally knew Caine and possibly met some of his menagerie of pre-Flood nasties along with knowing what REALLY caused the Shattering, they have precacious little knowledge about ANY of the supernatural groups currently in place. Some might see this as a benefit, I do not. In any case, I am anxiously awaiting more Demon: the Fallen supplements.

Demon: The Fallen
Demon: The Fallen Capsule Review by Charles Phipps on 15/11/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A beautiful hybridization of previous White Wolf works that neverthless captures the World of Darkness spirit better than anything in years. Product: Demon: The Fallen Author: Carl Bowen Category: RPG Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Demon: The Fallen Cost: 29.95 Page count: 302 Year published: 2002 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Charles Phipps on 15/11/02 Genre tags: Modern day Horror Gothic Live-action	Demon: The Fallen It was parody before it was actually reality. This is the funniest aspect of Demon: The Fallen. For years Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Mummies, Ghosts, and yes even the terrifying force of the Wee Folk have been created game lines around for their "World of Darkness" series but no one ever imagined White Wolf would take the next step and do Demons. The reasons against it were fairly clear; White Wolf had enough trouble with 'satanic' incidents Vampire that they didn't want to antagonize the voracious media for more wackiness let alone the right wing, demons were already established in the WoD as the one thing 'worse' than anything your characters might be no matter what the gameline, and ever since Vampire they had been moving away from Judeo-Christian mythology to a more humanist-polytheistic-animist-model. The embarrasing 'Revelations of the Dark Mother' had also tarnished their reputation for being able to deal with the Biblical characters in a manner that could be taken seriously. I could spend much of my review trying to figure out why exactly White Wolf decided to create this system but I'm sure the majority of individuals came to hear my review on the book itself. This will basically be an overview of the place of Demons in the World of Darkness as presented and whether I think the game as presented is worth playing. I direct people interested in a more detailed review to go to http://www.rpg.net/news reviews/reviews/rev_7499.html and check out the excellent summation there. Demons from D:TF are creatures which seem to be hybrids of several White Wolf concepts. They are basically tragic anti-heroes (All white wolf games) in the fact that they originally rebelled against God because humanity was not living up to its full potential as inheritors of divine essence, which they promptly began to teach them about (Mage: The Ascension). God was angered by their presumption and overeacts greatly by cursing them and humanity with a series of extremely nasty plagues (Vampire the Masquerade). Rather than admit their failure, which wasn't even a real option in this game, they instead go on to create a city that is later destroyed by God's wroth(Vampire the Masquerade). Demons eventually get trapped in the Abyss in the Labyrinth and spend countless years brooding on their own angst (Wraith: The Oblivion). They are linked to previous demon write ups by saying wizards summoned for the longest time quite a few out of the Abyss who became the unfortunate evils that we know and loathed like Gulfora (all previous Demon writeups). Then the Sixth Great Maelstrom (try follow this thing across Wraith, Mage, Hunter, Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling) cracked open Hell so the peons among the demons could escape. Drawn by this to an Earth that neither remembers or understands them, they subsume human souls and use their memories to try and adapt to the new world (Changeling: The Dreaming). Now they must deal with keeping their insane elder gods from awakening on the planet who were summoned by humans (shades of Antedeluvians from Vampire) while keeping their alien Cthulhu like Princes in Hell lest they destroy the world (shades of Werewolf) even as they work to cultivate human faith in a dead world to empower themselves (Changeling again). To top it off their human natures have caused them to feel conscience and remorse so that they can if they choose try and regain their holy natures (Vampire!). Were this not done so completely well, I would say this was the greatest snow-job operation ever performed by White Wolf. Well not counting Exalted, or as I term that "putting the WoD in Fantasy". Demon is despite this recycled premise a actually an evocative game which brings back that giddy feeling I had when I first started playing Vampire. The Biblical material is turned slightly on its ear with Lucifer having been fighting FOR humanity but it is given enough respect in every other area (the recession of faith in the world that is exaggerated in the WoD, the fact demons are fallen angels and not Earth spirits or completely alien beings, and angels are meant to be inherently good beings even when twisted by 13,000 years into something totally vile) that I as a minister was able to deeply appreciate its themes. The accent on role-playing has been upped considerably with the main problem of demons not being secretarian violence or a metaplot, though such elements are there, but coping with the strange new world they have found themselves in. I admit there is also a slightly guilty pleasure in holding a book called "Demon: The Fallen" which once again restores my faith that White Wolf is a game about being edgy and not playing it safe. The art, the writing style, the fiction, and the information presented within are all top notch with a excellent system for running a Demon: the Fallen game. My only complaint is a weak one in that it is not enough. Like Hunters to some degree the Fallen are relatively new players to the World of Darkness which means while they personally knew Caine and possibly met some of his menagerie of pre-Flood nasties along with knowing what REALLY caused the Shattering, they have precacious little knowledge about ANY of the supernatural groups currently in place. Some might see this as a benefit, I do not. In any case, I am anxiously awaiting more Demon: the Fallen supplements.