The World is too Complacent

[zosimos]

We need an Arockalypse to shake things up.

Alternate idea: Werewolf: the Arockalypse would be a very different game than W:tA, and probably for the better.

Comments

[crusadeofashes]

The way you pitch W:tA, then yes, Werewolf: the Arockalypse would be a better game; however, the way the books were written, I am not so sure.

[zosimos]

On the one hand, we have a game about a dying race of warriors trying to fight off the slow corruption of the world through spiritual pollution and horrid monsters killing folks, while trapped in isolation from the social fabrics that could ease their troubles. Dramatic stuff I'll agree.

On the other hand, werewolf biker rockers who wander the American highways under the moonlight battling the minions of a giant cyborg spider guitarist while freeing people under the spell of its evil shredding by rocking out as the dread power of Pentex, the greatest music company in the world tries to exterminate all rock is cool by virtue of the Fergeson Cyberpunk Law of cool.

[crusadeofashes]

Yes that would be an awesome story, but a role playing game with only one possible story arc gets old really fast. Besides where in WtA does it say that you can't run that story under its rules?

[zosimos]

It doesn't, nor does it say you can't run a gritty crime drama in a far future world where werewolves are genetically engineered police set to protect society from itself and its excesses, which are manifest in a memetic cult called the Worm.

That doesn't mean that such a story or setting is the standard, or that they are supported by the settings normal assumptions in any way.
You can also use Unknown Armies to run a high fantasy game set in mythical Africa, but it isn't supported by any of the books. It would be a deviation from the norm.

I'd like to make the note that the entire idea of Werewolf: the Arockalypse is primarily a joke based on the name.