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This may seem a bit of a con, as its an extra book you have to buy. But I have to admit it is reasonably priced, a hardback book with nice glossy pages and lots of illustrations. In fact, it looks so good it had sneaked onto the shelves of my local bookshop where other RPG's are obviously not respectable enough to earn a place. World of Darkness ( or WoD if you prefer ) is also however a lot more mature than some RPG's, which may lead to its main stream credibility. The rules are not any more complex than say the D20 system, but the descriptions of the setting, the illustrations and the general level of horror makes it more suitable to adults than to younger roleplayers. There is also an awful lot of background detail, in this and the other books which can be a lot to read and take in. I know that if I had come to this game when I was younger I would have been intimidated by this and have gone back to more simple games. So the amount of background could be seen as a disadvantage as well as an advantage. It is however exceedingly well presented, with some great artwork and lots of small pieces of literature to set the tone of the game.
The World of Darkness it seems can be played as a stand alone game of horror, something I had not realised before. Although it is tied strongly to the Vampire, Werewolf and Mage mythology it is also a set of rules which can be used to create any modern horror scenario you care to dream up. Unlike Call of Cthulhu it does not tie the game to any particular genre but hints at endless horrors hidden behind the everyday world. So many ideas are presented in the short stories within the rules but nothing is defined or set in stone. As a result these rules are very open ended, allowing a GM to use them for whatever sort of horror game he or she feels like. Again, this could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how you look at it. While some GM's may prefer to have set rules for the horrors they face others may revel in the freedom it gives. For those who want a more defined set of adversaries the vampires, werewolves and other beasties detailed in other books can easily provide that if you want to spend the money buying them. You can however have a lot of fun with just this rulebook and no other.
The rules themselves are what Whitewolf describes as the Storyteller System and use large handfuls of D10's. Its a simple enough system to begin with as each characters Attributes and skills are described by a number of coloured in dots on the character sheet. For each dot coloured in you get to roll one dice hoping to get an 8 or higher on at least one of the dice you roll to get a success. Most rolls match an Attribute ( Intelligence, Wits, Resolve, Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Presence, Manipulation or Composure ) with any skill that might be relevant and the total number becomes the number of dice you roll. For example to drive a car you might add your Dexterity to your Drive skill, if any, to see how many dice you get to roll. More difficult tasks can require more than one success, and contested rolls match the number of successes between two opponents. Its fairly simple in principle but the rules are extremely detailed in exactly which Attribute can be matched with which Skill for every conceivable task. I'm sure most GM's, once they have mastered the principles of the system make up their own combinations rather than looking them up in the book each time. As a result the detailed examination of each possible combination in the Attributes and Skills sections is a bit of an overkill as regards rules.
My main criticism of the World of Darkness rulebook though would have to be the layout. Its obvious that WhiteWolf think the background is more important than the rules and this has effected the layout of the book. I can respect this but it does make it more difficult to read and understand. After chapters on the world background, and how to create a character and what all the Attributes and Skills mean you finally get in Chapter 6 ( page 120 ) a discussion of what a roleplaying game is and how the Storyteller system works ! For anyone new to roleplaying this would confuse the hell out of them. It makes more sense to me to explain how the rules work before telling someone how to make up a character otherwise you don't know how your stats are all used. I admit there is a short two page summary of the rules just before character creation but you are more than half way through the book before these are discussed in any depth. Hopefully White Wolf might one day realise how confusing this can be, but until then if you want to know the rules first you might want to skip to Chapter 6.
The character creation rules are nice and simple though, emphasising once again roleplaying and background rather than number crunching. Its easiest to have a concept of what sort of character you want to play first and then look at the system rather than making it up as you go along. There are no character classes or races to worry about so the rules are very flexible to fit around whatever concept you have. No dice are rolled to create characters, instead each step of character creation involves assigning a number of dots/dice to each Attribute, Skill and other aspects based on what you wish your character to be. Different sets of Attributes and Skills can be ranked in order of importance so if decide to put more points into Mental Attributes for example you get less points to spend on Social or Physical Attributes and vice versa. The system also includes a system of Merits which may be used to be buy 'special abilities' to make your character unique. None of these are supernatural or magical in any way but may mean your character has certain advantages such as being a skilled martial artist, or being extremely rich or being ambidextrous. At the end of character creation you should have someone who is a relatively normal individual, perhaps a bit more powerful than you or I but certainly not any sort of hero. If you want to play the World of Darkness game with this sort of character then you can, and game play will be very similar to a Call of Cthulhu game set in the modern era. Your characters will have to be very careful when faced with supernatural threats and will have no special powers to protect them from getting killed, leading to a relatively high mortality rate when compared to other games. However, if you wish to play one of the supplementary games such as Vampire, then the character you create with these rules is the basic template you use when creating your vampire. The Vampire rules will modify and enhance your basic character making them stronger, faster and with more powers than before, and totally changing the focus of the game. An immortal undead rather than a mortal man.
In all The World of Darkness provides an excellent set of versatile rules for horror roleplaying. Although it does not provide any particular genre it gives so many ideas that it could form the basis of whole campaigns without ever needing the other rulebooks. I've found from playing the game that the system is fast and fluid and allows the game to move at the pace you want without the need for too much flipping through rulebooks. This book truely is the core of the White Wolf system, and any magical or supernatural elements you wish to add on are purely at the choice of the GM. I'd reccomend it to anyone looking for a modern horror RPG, even if they don't particularly want to use anything else from White Wolf's background. One warning though, you do need one hell of a lot of D10's !
