Chronicles of Darkness

The Setting
The World of Darkness is a modern gothic setting, using the Storytelling System. It presents an image of the modern world "through a looking glass darkly": More dangerous, less caring, and filled with monsters of both human and inhuman varieties.

Designed to be flexible and allow for a multitude of horror stories, the World of Darkness is (intentionally) somewhat vague. Flavor text in the World of Darkness: Storytelling System Rulebook presents possibilities for stories that clearly tie into traditional werewolf and vampire stories, and includes a lengthy section for ghosts and ghost stories. However, other pieces of fiction present the possibilities of demonic antagonists, occult storylines and inexplicable oddity. There is no over-riding mythos as there is in games such as Call of Cthulhu or Unknown Armies. While the setting is described as one of "dark mystery", "dread" and "threatening symbolism", it is ultimately left open for the Storyteller to construct stories within.

Differences with the Old World of Darkness
The World of Darkness: Storytelling System Rulebook was the first book of a re-launch for the World of Darkness setting. Premiering in Vampire: The Masquerade in 1991, the old World of Darkness acted as the shared setting for White Wolf Game Studio's horror roleplaying games. While the basic setting is similar, there are some important differences between the two settings.


 * "Gothic-Punk" vs. "Modern Gothic" — The first World of Darkness setting was described as "Gothic-Punk", blending decaying gothic visuals and mood with brash punk attitude and energy. The new setting has instead been described as modern gothic, focusing instead on the dark gothic images and mood, pushing aside the "punk" in the description to an optional element rather than the focus.


 * Codified vs. Undefined — As discussed above, the new World of Darkness is assumed to be incomplete, with a Storyteller expected to create new content and explanations for the events within their games. By contrast, the previous setting assumed greater uniformity, with any events being attributed to an existing force.


 * Global vs. Local — The old World of Darkness frequently presented creatures and groups of global power, capable of pursuing characters across the world and affecting change worldwide. The new World of Darkness tends instead to localize power, assuming creatures and groups who can affect cities most powerfully, with less powerful ability to affect countries and international events.


 * One Game, One Book vs. Core Rulebook plus Setting — Games set in the old World of Darkness were self-contained, presenting enough information to describe the World of Darkness along with the entire ruleset. By contrast, games set in the new setting refer back to the World of Darkness: Storytelling System Rulebook for the basic setting and the core ruleset.

Games set in the World of Darkness
In addition to being a game line in its own right, featuring mortal humans who explore the unknown, the World of Darkness is the shared setting for a number of additional game lines.

The 'Big Three' game lines, all of which have open-ended runs, are:


 * Vampire: The Requiem: A game of personal horror, wherein players play vampires. Released in August 2004.
 * Werewolf: The Forsaken: A game of savage fury, wherein players take on the role of werewolves. Released in February 2005.
 * Mage: The Awakening: A game of modern sorcery, wherein players take on the role of mages. Released in August 2005.

In addition to the above games, further games are to be released in a limited-run format of one core rulebook and four supplements (similar to Orpheus for the old World of Darkness). So far only the first of these has been announced; rumours have already begun that a second is in development.


 * Promethean: The Created: A game of stolen lives, wherein players take the role of Prometheans, constructs assembled from human body parts and animated by the Divine Fire. Scheduled for August 2006.