The end of the World of Darkness.

Cafe Society
1

I used to play Vampire a few years back, and liked how it seemed everything in the White Wolf world was edging the end of existance. I’ve recently heard (and been reminded on the boards) that they’ve apparently brought about the end of the world in their games, so I was wondering if anyone out there played/read these latest storylines and could fill me in on what happened?

Did Cain come back and cull the vampires?
Did the Wyrm swallow up all the Werewolves?
What part did the Changelings have in all this?
And the Mages?
Does everything just end, or is there enough of a world to start things over?
Any other fun stuff/creepy creatures introduced?

2

I’ve seen the Vampire and Werewolf final books. I believe the Mage one is due out April 1, and then there’s another one coming out to finish their minor lines (Changeling, Hunter, Mummy).

Each book has three different ending scenarios. I’m doing this from memory, so I might miss some stuff.

In the first Vampire scenario, the party finds itself drawn to this abandoned church, where they’re met by a Gargoyle and a Dhampir, both of whom are brimming with Faith, as well as a collection of random vampires. They find out that God has finally gotten sick and tired of vampires and has decided to destroy all of them, by, over the course of 40 days, making them less and less able to digest blood. However, the church is a sanctuary, and the vampires in the church are all possibly redeemable. So long as they stay in the church, they won’t be subject to the wasting sickness that’s affecting all the other vampires. So, they have 40 nights to prove that they actually are redeemable. At the end of the 40 nights, those vampires in the church that haven’t been redeemed burst into flame, and those that have find themselves human again, and blessed by God.

In the second, Lillith comes back, as does Cain and the ghost of Abel. Ultimately, Cain dies, destroying the vampires, either, depending on how the storyteller wants to play it, remorseful for the killing of his brother or unrepentant.

In the third, the Masquerade is broken, and then the Antedeluvians come back, trying to take over the world. The players stop them (hopefully), but only at the cost of the near destruction of the world.

In the first Werewolf scenario, one of the tribes is corrupted by the Wyrm, and their betrayal leads to a war between the tribes that tears werewolf society apart.

In the second, the Wyrm finally makes its move, and the werewolves engage in one final war against it, in all the different realms, and finally win, but at the cost of all their lives.

In the third, the Wyrm-Weaver-Wyld triad gets back in balance, as the Wyrm is cured of its insanity. Unfortunately, since modern society is due to the Weaver being able to impose order on the world free of restraint, bringing the world back into balance means the destruction of civilization.

3

Yeah, they announced at last years GenCon, and stop selling in about 20 days (check out www.white-wolf.com for more details.) I’ve only got some info on what the plots were, but the format worked out like this:

each game got an ending book (Gehenna, Apocalypse, Assention) and each book gave different scenerios for how the world ends. (4 per book) In rough outline the four for vampire were:

clan founders wake up, kill everything.

lilith fights caine, wins kills everything.

god curses vampires, except chosen few… who must remain inside a church while the world goes to hell around them

Caine comes back, kills everything (seeing a trend?)

The only story from the others that I know about is in Mage, where the Baali and Nephandi create hell on earth. IIRC though, there is one where all magic stops working.

In anticipation of the end of the world WW released a few new games. Hunter was humans who could see vampires/zombies (which were introduced when Wraith ended)/other stuff. They were weak, but removed a fair bit of the supernatural from the game system and its a reasonably good game for actual character development. WW also relased Demon: the Fallen, which is what is sounds like. You play a demon that escaped from hell. (note however that not all demons are evil in the game, and Lucifer runs around trying to help save humanity. It’s good to recall that they were cast out for loving to much.) Also an interesting system, but, well, you play an angel. Power gaming can easily result.
Other systems:

Changling hasn’t had much happen, basically no fae can go home, and those that are here don’t matter that much.

Wraith (as mentioned) ends, when another malestrom sweeps through the dead lands and wipes everything out. Some spirits are hurled into their old bodies, mmm… zombies.

Malestrom wakes up Mummies. Don’t really know anything about that.

It also screws with the Umbra/mage realms making communication difficult.

The world of darkness is over after these releases, but WW is coming up with a replacement (same kind of themes, but much different execution) in a year or so. Also, VTES (the card game) is going to remain as a WoD game, and will still be printed/expanded.

C

4

and CA said it better than I… preview is my friend.