Picture with me a young boy, just hitting his fifteenth year when he picks up a book that inspires his little brain to a great new level of fun. An avid fan of the former monolith of RPGs, he picks up Vampire: the Masquerade Second Edition and enjoys it. He and his friends eat it up, enjoying their pizza-and-Coke filled game sessions that are ritualistic in their natures. So, after a while they decide to try out Werewolf.
The same occurs for our young boy. He loves it, he becomes the storyteller of the small band. And then he notices something, a slight trend, but he ignores it. The trend is that the Malkavian became the Metis Get of Fenris, peaceful Gangrel became the Child of Gaia and the fun-loving Brujah becomes the fun-lovinger(bare with me on the word, it fits) Fianna. They play, they love it, they have all sorts of fun, their ritual continues.
A year or three has passed and the coterie/pack has moved on to Mage, the Malkavin/Metis Get of Fenris becomes a Son of Ether only after 30 minutes of bitching about not being a Marauder, the peaceful Gangrel/Child of Gaia becomes a Dreamspeaker, the fun-loving-ing Brujah, Fianna, becomes a Cultist of Ecstasy.
Then it’s Changeling where the Malkavian/Metis Get of Fenris/Son of Ether became a Pooka, the peaceful Gangrel/Child of Gaia/Dreamspeaker became the Eshu and the fun-lover Brujah/Fianna/Cultist of Ecstasy became the Satyr.
The point to this long-winded and confusing introduction is that as the World of Darkness, while imaginative in itself, does not have a spark of imagination. While setting is wonderfully crafted and written, the clan/tribe/tradition/kith are simply regurgitated and slapped down on a new book.
This problem is in a way a blessing, but it’s mostly a gross liability. The only good thing is that the brain dead twits who have no concept of original characters can play the essential same thing through any system. The gross liability is that brain dead twists with no concept of original characters play the essential same thing through any system. This lack of thought leads to stagnation, apathy, dislike.
I appreciate everything White Wolf has done for us and brought us, but to create a bland character creation system(which is also very similar through the books) and then market it over and over and over and over and over is just lewd. It exemplifies the quantity over quality theory that keeps movie sequels coming like men in a peep show booth.
-Jodoyushi Victim on a Hot Tin Roof
lerkanama@aol.com