The State of the Chronicles of Darkness

tragedyjones

I figured I would attempt to start a thread to compile various bits of information, gleamed primarily from theonyxpath.com via the blog and forums. Note that when I refer to world of darkness, I refer to the newest iteration, not the original.

2nd Editions

As of Gencon 2014, the World of Darkness is moving into a set of 2nd Edition books, with updated rules and theme. Unlike previous editions, each line's core book will contain everything needed to play, though not as in depth as the seperate core rules, and only what is needed for that particular game. For isntance, Vampire the Requiem 2nd Edition skimps on rules for Angels and Spirits, as well as many merits.

What about GGd-Machine/Blood and Smoke/The etc Chronicles?

The books formerly referred to as Chronicles are being revamped, either before or after release, into 2nd Editions. For example, Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition is now available in place of Blood and Smoke: the Strix Chronicles. Content remains the same, just a new name and cover. Further titles will be 'featuring the whatever' Chronicles, ie Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition featuring the Firestorm Chronicles. The God-Machine Chronicles was released as a replacement/supplement to the core blue World of Darkness rulebook from 2004. The rules changes are still available for free, but relies on the older book. A revamped, consolidated "World of Darkness 2nd Edition" is set for release in 2015.

Anthologies

Prior to each release of each game has been a fiction anthology. God-Machine, Strix, Idigam and Firestorm Chronicle Anthologies are all released These are just that - fiction, often a mix of old and new designed to reafirm the themes of the game and provide a look at their world.

What is already out

Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition (Featuring the Strix Chronicles)
Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition (Featuring the Idigam Chronicles)
Demon: the Descent
Splintered City: Seattle (for Demon)
Heirs to Hell: the Demon Player Guide

What is coming out (Game lines)

Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition (Featuring the Fallen World Chronicles)
Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition (Featuring the Firestorm Chronicles)
Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition (Featuring the Huntsman Chronicles)
Beast: the Primordial
Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition
Deviant: the ??? (Scarcely announced new game line)

What is coming out (supplements)

A Thousand Years of Night (VtR - covers the unlife of Elders)
Half-Damned (VtR - covers ghouls, dhampires, thralls, revenants and the like)
Secrets of the Covenants (VtR - Covers the 5 major covenants presented in the
VtR core rules in more depth, with both fluff and crunch)
Hurt Locker (Core WoD - Combat and all things related to such)
Dark Eras (All known lines except Beast and Deviant - Historical setting chapters for each game)

What is NOT coming

2nd Edition versions of the following games have yet to be announced: Mummy: the Created, Geist: the Sin-Eaters.

Glitch edited the title by request

tragedyjones

Reserving this post for release schedule.

Early 2015 ("Pre-August")

Werewolf the Forsaken 2nd Edition
Secrets of the Covenants
Promethean the Created 2nd Edition
Mage the Awakening 2nd Edition

Summer 2015

Beast: the Primordial
World of Darkness 2nd Edition

Fall 2015

A Thousand Years of Night
Hurt Locker
Changeling the Lost Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology
Changeling the Lost 2nd Edition
Half-Damned

tragedyjones

VTR: "Requiem for Regina": Elizabethan England (1587-1593)
WTF: "The Bowery Dogs": New York City in the 1970s (1969-1979)
MTAw: "To the Strongest": Alexander's invasion of India (330-320 BCE)
PTC: "Handful of Dust": The Great Depression/Dustbowl (1933-1940)
CTL: "Lily, Sabre and Thorn": Three Musketeers (1600s-early 1700s)
HTV: "Doubting Souls": Colonial New England (1690-1695)
GTS: "God's Own Country": 1950s New Zealand (1950s)
MTC: "The Ruins of Empire": Collapse of the Ottoman/British Empires (1893–1924)
DTD: "Into the Cold": Cold War Germany (1961)
CTL: "Brothers Grimm": Eighteenth Century Germany
MTAw + WTF: Neolithic Mage
Skinchangers: Aztec Empire
DTD: "After the Fall": The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
CTL & GTS: Three Kingdoms China
WTF: Vikings
Samurai Era Japan

In the Companion:

DTD: in the Russian Revolution
Second Sight: The age of Spiritualism
MTC: the reign of Cleopatra
PTC: Year Without A Summer (1816 Germany/Switzerland)
GTS: The colony of Roanoke
WTF: Rome 1st Century CE

Sanguine

@tragedyjones Hunter conversion to GMC was given in Mortal Remains. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129193/Hunter-Mortal-Remains

tragedyjones

@Sanguine said:

@tragedyjones Hunter conversion to GMC was given in Mortal Remains. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129193/Hunter-Mortal-Remains

I know, it is literally the last thing in the first post

crusader

@tragedyjones said:

For those wondering what each 'Dark Era' will be:

VTR: Elizabethan

WTF: 1970s New York

MTAw: "To the Strongest": Alexander's invasion of India

PTC: Great Depression/Dustbowl - 1930s

CTL: Three Musketeers

HTV: Salem

GTS: **New Zealand in the 1950s **[1]

MTC: Rot and collapse of Ottoman/British Empires- 1890s-1920s

One of these is not like the other.

Sanguine

@tragedyjones Well that's what I get for skimming before coffee!

Saulot

I find the lack of Demon in Dark Eras disheartening.

Coin

@Huzuruth
Demon has a Dark Eras. it'll be Cold War Russia, iirc. Because apparently "on the nose" isn't enough, they wanted to fucking pummel that nose with a sledgehammer.

tragedyjones

@Coin said:

@Huzuruth
Demon has a Dark Eras. it'll be Cold War Russia, iirc. Because apparently "on the nose" isn't enough, they wanted to fucking pummel that nose with a sledgehammer.

See Also: Dustbowl Promethean.

silentsophia

@Coin said:

@Huzuruth
Demon has a Dark Eras. it'll be Cold War Russia, iirc. Because apparently "on the nose" isn't enough, they wanted to fucking pummel that nose with a sledgehammer.

In Soviet Russia, sledgehammer pummels y-- wait...

Wizz

I really wouldn't mind playing Demon-to-the-hilt, TBH.

Sfire

So are all the old books useless in terms of mechanics? Is the lore material all they are worth for now?

tragedyjones

@Spitfire said:

So are all the old books useless in terms of mechanics? Is the lore material all they are worth for now?

It depends on both counts. VtR 2nd recommends using the Clanbooks for theme still, but most old books are fairly obsolete from both standpoints, tough ideas can still be found in them, and many mechanics can be converted with minimal fuss.

tragedyjones

More information on Dark Eras (the actual eras chosen so far) Pulled from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/world-of-darkness-dark-eras-prestige-edition

Vampire: the Requiem — Requiem for Regina (1587-1593): Elizabeth Tudor wears the Crown Imperial and redefines the nature of power in Europe. In a London both grimy and vibrant, vampires wage their secret wars. Some set their sights on a new Empire of the Damned, while their cults are riven by religious schisms. All the while, they watch over their shoulders as the Elizabethan police state emerges. And then there is the matter of who will kill Christopher Marlowe. Anna K Loy, Renee Ritchie writers & Rose Bailey, Audrey Whitman developers.

Werewolf: the Forsaken — The Bowery Dogs (1969-1979): New York City in the 1970s. Crime. Drugs. Gang violence. Vast economic disparity. And Werewolves. It's a lean, ugly time to be alive, and the lone wolf doesn't stand a chance out there. In the end, all you really have is family. David A Hill, Jr writer & Travis Stout developer.

Mage: the Awakening — To the Strongest (330-320 BCE): In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great's Empire, armies march and cultures clash. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Mages all over the ancient world meet, fight, and join together. In the chaos of Alexander's assassination and the wars that follow, Cults become Mage Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day. Malcolm Sheppard, Danielle Lauzon writers & Dave Brookshaw developer.

Promethean: the Created — Handful of Dust (1933-1940): The Great Depression and the black blizzards of the 1930s turn the American Midwest into a wasteland. For the better part of a decade, thousands of people experience deprivation and alienation right alongside the Created. Like mortals, the Prometheans also cling to the faint promise of hope, that the rains will come and restore the land. Mark L. S. Stone writer & Matt McFarland developer.

Changeling: the Lost — Lily, Sabre and Thorn (1600s-early 1700s): In the Age of Reason under the reign of Louis XIV, enlightenment goes hand-in-hand with court intrigues. The Sun King's court influences a time when Changeling freeholds gain increasing unity and communication. It is a time of adventure, deception, betrayal and passion — the roar of cannon, the rustle of silk, the ring of steel. The joys and sorrows and outrageous fortunes of the swashbuckler — these are all too well-known to the Lost. J. Dymphna Coy writer & Ethan Skemp developer.

Hunter: the Vigil — Doubting Souls (1690-1695): Immigrants and tribes struggle to co-exist on the eastern seaboard in the ever-expanding North American Colonies. Violent clashes, supernatural beliefs, and demonic influences spell disaster for Salem Village and its surrounding towns, while other Hunters fight werewolves and vampires on the frontier. With so much at risk, only god-fearing men and women are deemed innocent — and those are few indeed. Monica Valentinelli writer & Matt McElroy developer.

Geist: the Sin-Eaters — God's Own Country (1950s): World War II is over and a new age of technology is coming, but a hidden storm threatens to overwhelm both the Māori and the European New Zealanders, flooding the world with the restless dead. Sin-Eaters are the last line of defense between a spirit-world gone mad and a sleepy island nation concerned with mourning their lost soldiers. Cam Banks writer & Michelle Lyons-McFarland developer.

Mummy: the Curse — The Ruins of Empire (1893–1924): During this quintessential era of the Mummy in the mind of Westerners, the Arisen maneuver through the intrigues of two great, falling empires: the British and the Ottoman. As mortals catch glimpses of their glorious past, Mummies hurtle towards the Great War, a conflict on a scale unseen in recorded history. Jess Heinig writer & C. A. Suleiman developer.

Demon: the Descent — Into the Cold (1961): East Germany erects a wall against its Western counterpart, turning West Berlin into an island within its own country. As the Cold War heats up, Demons find themselves the targets of increasing human scrutiny and begin to realize that the God-Machine's plans didn't end with the War. Eric Zawadzki writer & Rose Bailey developer.

tragedyjones

Newest Update, Outline of The Hurt Locker: http://theonyxpath.com/world-of-darkness-hurt-locker-outline/

Probably the most important part, from a mechanics perspective:

"It probably bears mention: No multiple action Merits. They’re the bane of existence, and you don’t want to be associated with the bane of existence, do you?"

Coin

@tragedyjones
Good.

Arkandel

I don't know how they could have missed that in the first edition. Fighting styles in particular weren't simply broken, they made certain things absolutely mandatory. Stuff like Combat Marksmanship, Kung Fu or Fencing so far outstripped everything else there was never a real choice in whether to get them or not; you either did, or you had a third or less of the combat pools someone else did.

Even then it could be argued that wasn't a big deal since everyone had access to the same things. But the true issue was that since attacking scaled so much better than defending, combat very often came down to who won initiative and got to one-shot the other guy. Dead people don't get to fight back.

tragedyjones

In defense of Fencing (he said knowingly) it was at least a big gamble. Sure you pump your Dex to infinity and then swing for the auto-damage. But you only get the one roll. I say this as someone who's combat twink died when he missed this one roll, heh. But yes, perhaps even more importantly than the mechanics, was the fact that a trained shooter was almost always significantly more deadly than any sort of supernatural power. Even most super-splats used their powers to simply buff Combat Marksmanship.

HelloRaptor

I know we sometimes yell at people about active voice. I will yell louder here. Active voice. Present tense. Nothing is happening then. People do things now. Period.

Preach it. ^_^