Each of the five games in the
World of Darkness (
WoD) set is devoted to a particular aspect of the world, and with it, a particular
roleplaying emphasis.
Changeling: The Dreaming details the lives of faeries (changelings) as they compete with the death of dreams and fantasy under the banality and predictability of science. The role playing aspect emphasized here is beauty and levity, with the players' main antagonist banality and normality. The result is a drive for the players to move outside of their normal perceptions and embrace the child-like imagination within.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse centres around Garou, the werewolves, in their capacity as spiritual protectors of Gaia, the earth-spirit. The aspects of roleplaying emphasized here are glory, honor, and wisdom; the players' main antagonist is the Wyrm, representative of rot, selfishness, and evil, and responsible for rage, which is one of the two conflicting forces in werewolves. The result here is a drive for the players to seek a wise balance between spiritual peace (gnosis) and brutal power (rage).
Wraith: The Oblivion revolves around the wraiths, which are the lost souls which inhabit the afterlife. Only those people who have unfinished business of some sort in life become wraiths for any length of time. The aspect of roleplaying Wraith emphasizes is a type of dual-personality: Where you play your character, some other member of the troupe plays your shadow, your 'darker side' incarnate, who is always whispering destruction into your ear and trying to pull you down into oblivion, the death-after-death. In the end, players must overcome their shadows and transcend, a process which is highly varied in its reasoning, with doubt hanging over whether or not transcendence even exists.
Vampire: The Masquerade focuses on the vampires, manipulative creatures of the night who feed upon humans, and often each other, to sustain and increase themselves. The roleplaying emphasized is secrecy and manipulation; one plays their character to gain subtle (and often secret) control over others, while all the while being controlled and manipulated by still others. The final conflict is between themselves and their evil natures, the beast within.
Mage: The Ascension focuses on mages, regular human beings who have been brought or sometimes brought themselves to a state of 'awakeness', wherein they can see on a deep level the workings of the universe. The concept is that the universe (the Tellurian) is entirely created by human definition, and the power of the mages is to be able to edit that definition to suit them, in those ways they are deeply enough aware of the relationship to be in control of it. The major threat to mages is paradox, a force that they accumulate when sleepers (normal people) encounter one altering 'reality'; they must bleed this paradox off, or suffer paradox backlash, a nasty side effect which represents reality taking your ass out for too much throw. In the end, Mage is about subtlety and deeper understanding of the way the universe works.
The important and unique aspects to this roleplaying series, the two things that set it apart from almost every other game available, are:
- The major conflict is internal to each and every character; there is always activity in the world around them, but the final battle is always between a player and herself.
- The game is a storytelling endeavour, not a challenge game; where in most games the game master is at odds with the player, and in some leading the players on into a world of entirely her creation, in WoD the storyteller simply solves disputes and provides direction for the game in general; the session is, ideally, a partnership between players and storyteller in order to provide the fullest, most enjoyable story possible.