genconThe world of Darkness, both old and new, are games that I have always enjoyed. I have played many a game of Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage over my long time in the table top role playing game hobby. I have been following what is going on with the old World of Darkness but had lost track of what was going on in the new line that had started up a few years back. I wanted to get back up to speed while I was at Gen Con so I took the time to attend Onyx Path Publishing’s seminar “What’s up with the New World of Darkness.”

The panel was huge. I was busy trying to take notes on everyone involved and got behind. So, I apologize for leaving anyone out that participated in the panel but the names were flying fast and furious. The Panel was headed by Rich Thomas, CEO of Onyx Path Publishing. Eddy Web, CCP consultant for Licensing was also in attendance. Rose Bailey, Neil Price, Matt McFarland, and Ian Watson were also present.

OPpThe first thing that was brought up was the Chronicle books. These had been used as a way of cleaning up each of the core books when they were released. They had worked well but through talks with CCP Onyx Path had been given the green light to do second editions of all the New World of Darkness books. The Chronicle books that were currently in production were going to get a kind of retrofit. They were going to become the second edition of the games with which they were connected. The Chronicles would be incorporated into the second edition. I was very happy to hear this. A new edition of each book with a built-in chronicle was an excellent idea. The hardest part of the new World of Darkness had been that lack of story that I and everyone else I knew had come to expect from World of Darkness. This addition of an entire Chronicle in each base book will make it easier to dive into these games.

There are several interesting books for this fall. The one that I am most interested in is entitled Dark Eras. This is a project designed to give each monster in the New World of Darkness a new historical era. The one slated for Vampire is the Elizabethan era which sounds like a hit to me. I am looking forward to seeing what is going to be the era used for Werewolf, Mummy, and Mage as well. Vampire will be getting an all-in-one volume that addresses the covenants of the vampires in the same fashion that each clan was addressed. The bulk of the book will be setting material with a mechanics appendix.

The rest of the fall slate is rounded out by Werewolf 2nd edition featuring the Idigram Chronicle, Demon Translation Guide, Demon Storyteller’s Guide, and Curse of the Blue Nile, five novellas based on the guilds in Mummy.

The winter season has me chomping at the bit for the book entitles 1000 Years of Night, an Elder source book. I will admit that I love playing elder campaigns. I have played more neonates than I can shake a stick at but but my heart sings when I get to play an elder vampire. This book sounds like it will scratch that itch for me. It has information on running generational chronicles as well as running elders as a conspiracy game. Half Damned is slated for a winter release as well. This book will deal with ghouls, revenants, and dhampir. This sounded interesting as it refers back to hints played out in Secrets of the Covenants.  Winter finishes up with Promethean fiction consisting of ten new stories.

Spring sees the release of Shards of Power for Mage. This book will treat characters as supernatural investigators. One of the interesting things mentioned about this book was the inclusion of the ability by mages to sense any supernatural events. It is a built in plot hook that gets the game running. The book will include magical tools, imbued items, artifacts, and supernal verges. Promethean 2nd Edition will be available at this time as well and include the Firestorm Chronicle. What I liked hearing about this iteration of Promethean was that it was designed to make it more accessible. I have the first edition and it has set on my shelf as I labored to connect with the material. I am hoping this new iteration will make this less of an issue for me.

We come full circle with the return to summer and the release of The Hurt Locker. This book will be done in a vein similar to the Armory book. It will deal with combat and violence within the 2nd Edition rules set. Changeling will get a fiction anthology as well as a 2nd Edition. The thing that has me impatient is Beast: The Primordial. This will be a book based monsters from the primal nightmares of humanity. Instead of morality, characters will have a hunger rating with the satiety being the determining factor of how things progress. It is through the mismanagement of hunger that things spiral out of control and heroes then must arise to confront the beast.I was absolutely giddy hearing about this book! There was a neat question in regards to beast and crossovers. It was stated that Beasts see other supernaturals as family. There are planned kinship powers that would take this into account with both Beasts and those they see as family.

The one question that I thought that was relevant was retail support. I tend to buy my games from my local game store. The response was that they are working on a beta program with Drive thru RPG. This program would provide discounted print on demand books for retailers. Onyx Path is trying to make their books available at the local level but how this program will turn out is still in question.

This was great seminar with tons of good information about the New World of Darkness line. the only downside is how long I have to wait to pick up beast.

Sigh…

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