CWoD Metaplot question

[Strormer]

Right, so I haven't done a whole lot in the way of classic WoD, but I'm looking into running a game in the near future and one of the things I've been curious about and can't seem to find information about is the supposed "metaplot" of the world of darkness. I know the major events, like the end of empire or the apocalypse, but that's it. Does anyone know a source of official metaplot information.

I'm also looking into information about specific cities that don't have their own books, like Dallas and San Antonio, TX. Or Baton Rouge. I can make up my own also, but if the information is already out there I'd like to see what's there before I go building everything from the ground up.

Thanks in advance!

[Oracle_Hunter]

Firstly, it's usually abbreviated "oWoD" (old World of Darkness). Just a FYI :smallsmile:

Secondly, which metaplot were you interested in? The metaplot for Vampire is kind of different than for Mage.

[Lord Vampyre]

The metaplots for the various settings had very similar storylines as they were loosely tied to the various years.

In year of the lotus, we see the Kindred of the East show up in the Vampire setting, as well as the Hengeokai (AFB, so I'm not sure of the spelling right now) appear in the Werewolf setting. If you go to a gaming store, you might be able to find some of the material in their used books section. There is a lot of material however so don't worry about trying to incorporate everything.

Which setting are you going to run, or are you going to try and mix them. (FYI, they may be set in the same world using roughly the same system, but they make a Wizard and Monk in 3.5 look balanced when you compare the various power levels of the different settings.)

[Friv]

Firstly, it's usually abbreviated "oWoD" (old World of Darkness). Just a FYI :smallsmile:

cWoD is something that White Wolf's been trying to push on their fans, now that they're making the 20th Anniversary books. It's not as common, but it is actually the official company terminology.


Anyway, you pretty much are asking the impossible. The nature of the Old/Classic World of Darkness was that every. Single. Book. published for the line contained official metaplot information, and there was no reason to collect it anywhere because that would reduce the chance of people buying new books. So, yeah.

As far as fan material for cities and NPCs, have you tried the World of Darkness wiki (http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/)?

[Strormer]

yeah, I used to use oWoD, but figured I'd switch to the official just because I wasn't sure what's being used these days.

Incidentally, I'm working on allowing players to play any combination of vampire, werewolf, mage, changeling, or hunter and the primary villain is going to be an earthbound demon. I'm not overly concerned with balance since the game is going to be so heavily RP, but I am aware of the balance issues inherent in blending the various games. (Thus demon and mummy are banned. Wraith is technically allowed, but I've never read into it and I hear there's really no good way of allowing a wraith player to stick with others.)

I was really just looking to see if there was any sorta, timeline, I suppose is the best word. Also any official territory division. For example, I know that most of LA is demon infested, though there is a healthy addition of most other monsters as well. New Orleans is nearly exclusively vampire, etc, etc. I really just want to see where different groups have sway. If there's nothing like that then I'll just wing it.

Right now I'm thinking (since the game takes place between New Orleans and San Antonio) that most of Texas will be werewolf territory with vampire strongholds in the cities. I also intend to have Austin be a hub for hunters to meet up, meaning that it will have a lot of hunters moving in and out and a very low presence of any monsters. Louisianna is going to be mostly vampire with a nice hunk of demons and changelings added in for flavor. Mages, due to their nature, will tend to hide out within humanity and are therefore everywhere unhindered for the most part.

No mummies, period. I'm just wiping them from the game because they're stupid powerful. Demons are set to be mainly antagonists in the game so I banned them from play, though they'll still have a presence in the world. KotE haven't really come to mind due to the area, but yeah, they exist, just not around the American south.

So the various years are really the only major guiding factors, right? I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be stomping all over something that might be interesting if left untouched. Sounds good.

[Oracle_Hunter]

cWoD is something that White Wolf's been trying to push on their fans, now that they're making the 20th Anniversary books. It's not as common, but it is actually the official company terminology.
Really? So is New World of Darkness now the New Coke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke) of White Wolf RPGs? :smalltongue:

Well, the more you know and all that :smallbiggrin:

EDIT:

Incidentally, I'm working on allowing players to play any combination of vampire, werewolf, mage, changeling, or hunter and the primary villain is going to be an earthbound demon. I'm not overly concerned with balance since the game is going to be so heavily RP, but I am aware of the balance issues inherent in blending the various games.
It's not a question of balance, it's more a question of Continuity Snarl (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ContinuitySnarl).

Is an intricate network of elder vampires controlling humanity, or is the Technocracy squeezing its iron fist to choke out reality deviants? Did the Order of Pure Reason redefine the flying castle Mythic Age into a world of science, or are there Pattern Spiders and Bane Spirits romping all over the place? These things really conflict with each other and -- when you take issues of relative power in mind -- they need to shake out. Your average band of Tradition Mage PCs has enough power to incapacitate any given pack of Sabbat. The Technocracy could clean out a city's vampires by sending in a Hit Mark and calling it a day. And why wouldn't they?

If you need a good example of someone adapting the existing metaplots there's this guy's attempt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12861168&postcount=4) for guidance. Otherwise it might be good to generally ignore the metaplot and run whatever sort of game you were planning on running.

[Talakeal]

The Technocracy could clean out a city's vampires by sending in a Hit Mark and calling it a day. And why wouldn't they?


The Technocracy doesn't care much about individual humans, rather the fate of humanity as a whole, and they have very limited manpower. Policing the whole world just isn't a realistic goal for them. Werewolves and Vampires both police themselves as far as exposing themselves to the public, and werewolves go out of their way to destroy other reality deviants in the area. The Technocracy actually risks more by starting a war with the other supernaturals than by letting them go in most cases. Remember, as far as the Technocracy is concerned if you don't believe in something it doesn't exist.

When I played Mage I ended up being drummed out of the Technocracy because I was too active in seeking out and destroying RDs when my mission was to just observe and report.

Oh, and Hit Marks as written suck, I wouldn't send one up against a single powerful vampire, let alone all of them, without some heavy modifications.

[Oracle_Hunter]

The Technocracy doesn't care much about individual humans, rather the fate of humanity as a whole, and they have very limited manpower. Policing the whole world just isn't a realistic goal for them. Werewolves and Vampires both police themselves as far as exposing themselves to the public, and werewolves go out of their way to destroy other reality deviants in the area. The Technocracy actually risks more by starting a war with the other supernaturals than by letting them go in most cases. Remember, as far as the Technocracy is concerned if you don't believe in something it doesn't exist.
This is the same Technocracy that, back in the day, explicitly hunted down and killed monsters to encourage the belief in Science amongst the masses? At the very least I'd have thought the Technocracy would have a liaison with the local Camarilla to help wipe out their Sabbat problem (Sabbat being classic Consensus-breakers). Additionally, wouldn't you have a lot more conflicts between Elder Vampires who want to puppet-master the resources of Humanity and the Syndicate who is kind of doing the same thing?

I dunno, even if you assume that the actually Technocracy is pathetically limited in manpower (odd considering the Progenitors and Men In Black) I would still think that things as powerful as Methuselahs would extremely rare considering the ease with which Mages can track down and obliterate them.

[Talakeal]

This is the same Technocracy that, back in the day, explicitly hunted down and killed monsters to encourage the belief in Science amongst the masses? At the very least I'd have thought the Technocracy would have a liaison with the local Camarilla to help wipe out their Sabbat problem (Sabbat being classic Consensus-breakers). Additionally, wouldn't you have a lot more conflicts between Elder Vampires who want to puppet-master the resources of Humanity and the Syndicate who is kind of doing the same thing?

I dunno, even if you assume that the actually Technocracy is pathetically limited in manpower (odd considering the Progenitors and Men In Black) I would still think that things as powerful as Methuselahs would extremely rare considering the ease with which Mages can track down and obliterate them.

The first edition technocracy was a lot more large and in your face, later books try and play it down a bit. The guide to the technocracy and the division books in second and revised edition all have reasons for why the technocracy isn't at war with the various other super naturals and talks about how Pentex, the Technocracy, and the Camarilla all play off of each other, usually without knowing how the others exist.

That said, as far as power goes, White Wolf requires A LOT of work on the storytellers part to balance. Very few of the Mage rotes, for example, actually say how many successes are needed, and most of the werewolf gifts don't say if they have any range, restrictions, or resistances on what they can target. If played straight out of the book with a permissive storyteller you have rocket tag the likes of which D&D can hardly dream of.

As for your liaison between the Camarilla and Technocracy, I agree one should exist, and I have actually wanted to play such a character for years, and never gotten the opportunity.