World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings

[Ganymede]

Do you play World of Darkness games? If so, you've probably played on eleventy-billion CITY BY NIGHT games. You know what I mean: city; government; people; places; etc. With 2E games, it seems that the only ones that have opened, except for The Descent, largely remain placed in the modern world.

Have you thought of any alternate settings? For example, The Descent: a government-run program in the 1950s bombards the planet from orbit, which destroys much of civilization and rips the Gauntlet open, causing spirits to flood into the real world.

Perhaps you've played in an alternate setting. What was it like? What did you like about it? What did you hate about it? And what would you like to see in an alternate MUSH setting?

[Rook]

I thought you couldn't play WoD without bars and coffee shops? That setting clearly wouldn't work.

[ShelBeast]

Cyberpunk. World of Darkness: Shadowrun: The Runnening

It was lots of fun, creating characters to fit the traditional runner archetypes. Our "Solo" (we were actually playing more like Cyberpunk), quickly found out that being cybered to the gills actually is a total detriment to a vamp. Cybernetics don't blood regen. They don't benefit from physical boosting. They can't even sustain physical disciplines (which was actually a contested view, with the counter argument being that those powers are wholly supernatural in nature. It could go either way). But it was still a ton of fun.

[surreality]

Darkmetal was a bit like... a fusion of those things. Sorta.

[Caryatid]

Supernatural critters rounded up and shot to the moon or Mars to lay the foundation of a colonial mining/energy gathering operation.

The political focus Vampires in Paris after a large scale destruction of the Praxis idea that @vanderlylle and I were working on.

A dynastic generational game (can be vamp or werewolf) through the Dark Ages into the Renaissance with a focus on dynastic houses or packs over individuals.

Changelings in WWI-WWII Russia.

A game set in Arcadia. Players come in as freshly snatched and their arc is transformation -> destruction (or resurrection). They win by succeeding at an eventual escape attempt and that character shifts off the board.

[Misadventure]

I am sure some folks actually played some medieval/Dark Ages Vampire.

[Jennkryst]

There is an alt setting idea I had that was an amalgam of oddities. Take oWoD end times... like, after the ending. The Earth is no more. Sprinkle in a combination of Dark City, Everworld, and Valerian... reality is now a series of pocket realms. There is MEGA CITY zone for city folks, GOTHIC VILLE for others, WILDERNESS for Woofs, EGYPT LAND because ALL HAIL MUMMIES, and so on.

Use CoD rules, with tweaks where needed.

ETA:
@shelbeast said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Cyberpunk. World of Darkness: Shadowrun: The Runnening

YES

[PuppyBreath]

I've always kind of wanted a western WoD game. I think they've existed? But I've never had the chance to play on one. I would also settle for a space western, but that might be pushing it.

[Thenomain]

I will some day make my Changeling game where all the characters work at some kind of Mall Of America, and many of them live there overnight.

For Dark Metal I got rid of the Void Engineers by having them defect to the Moon, and I thought a game about them would be interesting.

Someone had a game about a Freehold or Arcadian group which was all circus freaks. That caught my interest, too.

[Royal]

Post Apoc WoD will always draw me in.

Miami in the 80's is also bizarre enough to count as... well, pretty much anything outside of reality.

[hedgehog]

@thenomain

I'm pretty sure Richard Peck's 'The Secrets of the Shopping Mall' is where White Wolf ripped off their writeup of Mannikin Inanimae from. Your idea fits that story well.

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Shopping-Laurel-Leaf-Contemporary-Fiction/dp/0440980992

[Lithium]

CrackMUX was a pretty interesting take on oWoD. Government found out about supernaturals, decided to import everyone they could find into this one city, as sort of a powder keg, just to see what happened when high concentrations of supernatural enemies were all in one place, ostensibly to 'learn what they did and could do'.

So you had all the oWoD sphere's (and a few home brew one like Immortals from Highlander) crammed into this city, everyone /knew/ they were crammed into that city, that they couldn't leave, but still tried to make a go of it.

Was crazy fun, a lot of fun that people now would say was 'wrongfun' but fuck it, was fun.

[Thenomain]

@hedgehog

I think I read that once, but imagine the Summer Court fighting over who gets to run the mall, the Autumn Court crown working in the Hot Topic....

Makes me laugh. We all need a good laugh,

[Bobotron]

I really had a fun time playing an 'ancient world' game using OWoD, but the players as the first vampires or their initial broods. Essentially an Antediluvian game, played through the ages. Was fun, could make for an interesting alternative.

[Ganymede]

I'm thinking 2E, so no Changelings. Sorry. Or, not yet. Whatever.

@shelbeast said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Cyberpunk. World of Darkness: Shadowrun: The Runnening

Okay.

Dare I ask -- what about Blade Runner: The Darkening?

You know, cyberpunk dystopia, corporate city-states, and replicants trying to round up meta-humans to sterilize or kill them.

Good place to start?

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@caryatid said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

The political focus Vampires in Paris after a large scale destruction of the Praxis idea that @vanderlylle and I were working on.

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Pleez halp? What do you mean?

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@jennkryst said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

The Earth is no more. Sprinkle in a combination of Dark City, Everworld, and Valerian... reality is now a series of pocket realms. There is MEGA CITY zone for city folks, GOTHIC VILLE for others, WILDERNESS for Woofs, EGYPT LAND because ALL HAIL MUMMIES, and so on.

Not sure if I'd break it up like that, but I'd like to hear and think of more.

[Cupcake]

I've enjoyed every Victorian era nWoD game I've participated in, but unfortunately none of them last beyond a few months at best.

[Caryatid]

@ganymede

It was here: Interest Check: Single Sphere VtR Game

But @vanderlylle had life come up on her and then so did I, so we never made it past making a pretty wiki and writing a ton of news files, NPCs, and the like.

I misplaced the wiki link though.

[surreality]

@thenomain said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

I will some day make my Changeling game where all the characters work at some kind of Mall Of America, and many of them live there overnight.

Dibs on 'The Katanas and Trenchcoats Store'. That franchise is huge in WoD.

[RnMissionRun]

@ganymede said in World of Darkness -- Alternative Settings:

Okay.

Dare I ask -- what about Blade Runner: The Darkening?
You know, cyberpunk dystopia, corporate city-states, and replicants trying to round up meta-humans to sterilize or kill them.
Good place to start?

Damn.
Now I gotta go change my pants.

[TiredEwok]

I promise that this is not a troll answer when I say this:

I would love to see a WoD game set on a space station or colonized planet. Something that'd make having supernaturals scary because there would probably not be hundreds of thousands of mortals around to sustain them and would make any conflict difficult to stay out of.