Review: Monte Cook's "World Of Darkness"

[darksteele]

On a whim (as that's how I do all my shopping), I picked up a copy of White Wolf's latest release, "Monte Cook's World of Darkness". White Wolf essentially let the father of the 3.5 Revised d20 system take their setting and mold it to his whim.

And what a vision he came up with.

Now, the background of Monte Cook's WoD is very different than what we

Comments

[snakeoil_sage]

Ugh. The "classic monsters are made by aliens" schtick is about as engaging and thought-provoking as the Doom novels, or the Vampiric Intelligences from the Rifts game.

No offense to anyone, but my personal perspective on it is that you have to go light on the sci-fi in a fantasy-based game and vice versa. Overblowing it like that turns it comical and campy, which completely ruins (to me, at least) the impact of the horror and mystery. The image of the shadowy vampire struggling with immortal damnation in the endless nights is ruined when you realize he's just an unwilling foot-soldier for a gang of obscure little green men from beyond the moon.

[snakeoil_sage]

Okay, granted. WoD had more emo types than the truly Gothic, but I think that had more to do with the familiarity of angst over being part of a self-destructive secret society. Everything I ever read from the WoD books spoke of desperate predators and ruthless power plays, with the pain of one's own inhumanity being a personal, introverted characteristic. Certainly a proper Prince would never mope around his throne room aghast as the pain of it all. At least, not in public.

[darksteele]

You got your sci-fi in my fantasy! You got your fantasy in my sci-fi! Hehehe...

Go light on the science fiction in fantasy? Then we wouldn't have "Star Wars". Personally, and again this is just my opinion, if done correctly, you can't tell the difference between the two genres. They can function together quite well.

With Monte Cook's WoD, I think he did make the game thought provoking and original. While the whole alien invasion is more of the Cthulu variety than little green men from space, it is nevertheless a consciousness (which doesn't get game stats simply because it is meant as a background to the character's own personal conflicts) from another dimension, ala sci-fi. It meshes well with the fantasy/supernatural elements we are used to in the WoD and gives it a fresh outlook.

Regardless, I like it. But, I will always be a fan of the old WoD (Vampire: The Masquerade) for that truly was gothic horror at its finest. New WoD? Bleagh.

Monte Cook's WoD? A decent compliment to the old.