We’ve reached the end of the road or, in this case, perhaps the river (I suppose ferrymen haunt both). Our trip within White Wolf’s underworld concludes with a look at the newest embodiments of death . . . the Geist. Before we get too involved in the newest World of Darkness line, let’s take a step back. The World of Darkness 1.0 saw five main entities–vampires, werewolves, magi, changelings, and wraiths–haunt their shadows. When the reboot happened, four came back.

This book is a return to Wraith . . . but only to a degree.

Wraith: the Oblivion is an amazing game that did some truly inspired things. White Wolf seemed to experiment more with the two bastard children of the five lines. Changeling had their dreadful cards (the art on those were beautiful though) and Wraith had the concept of the Shadow.

I’m still six feet under only I’m under snow and it’s actually closer to six inches. What’s a little bit of exaggeration between friends? After all, you’re the one reading a RPG review, so it stands to reason that you like either telling or hearing stories. For those of you who missed my review of Book of the Dead, which you can read here (don’t worry I’ll wait), I’m in the midst of a look at White Wolf’s view of the Underworld. Today, we’re going to visit the Ebon Gate, a SAS adventure intended for Geist: the Sin-Eaters.

This adventure is 38 pages, although the first and second pages are full color and black and white versions of the cover. The layout follows the Geist format, which means subtle blues for color, more keys than you’ll find on a school custodian’s key ring, and big whopping numbered pages.

I’m looking at dead things, specifically games about dead things. My next three reviews are going to cover the World of Darkness’ shadowy afterlife and the things that sometimes make the doorway between worlds a bit more revolving than usual. These reviews will cover Book of the Dead, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, and Through the Ebon Gate. Today, we will take a baby step into the realm of the dead through the guise of the World of Darkness system’s Book of the Dead. This book intends to deliver an encompassing look at the underworld, although admits that having Geist makes things all the better.

Let’s talk about this book’s artwork. Artwork tends to have a direct relationship to the importance of the text. With that said, Book of the Dead must be a critical addition to the White Wolf line. The cover art, which features a Mercy Thompson look-alike, is exactly the kind of cover that prepares me to dig into a book.

Set in a New Orleans that never was, and certainly is not now, post-Katrina, this atmospheric work opens with a story that sums up the edgy infighting of vampiric unlife (provided you can read thin block capitals on a heavily-patterned background – better contrast would have improved my enjoyment of this bit!). The introduction following the story explains how New Orleans seems a city made for the gothic horror feel of Vampire: The Requiem, and explains how the material in the core rulebook perhaps represents common knowledge (and misinformation) about the city, while herein lies the real truth. Thus it is clear from the outset, that this book is intended mainly for Storytellers and not for general player consumption.

Sin-Eaters know that their strange existence is a complicated one. They stand at the crossroads between life and death and endure all the complications of both. But there are others, desperate for something to believe in, who believe that a Sin-Eater’s bond with her geist is a blessed state of unification and a triumph over the limitations of the human form.

These souls make up the brethren of the Glorious Church of the Unified Spirit. They have been told that their path lies not in life or death, but in a divine state somewhere in between. Those who have only experienced one life cannot achieve true enlightenment. The sacred symbiosis of spirit and flesh must be achieved to take the next step. Sin-Eaters are their saints, their bodhisattvas. The brethren are told that they must step through the black gate to reach their potential. They are told that this is humanity’s next step – humanity’s destiny.

They are misled.

A story in the Storytelling Adventure System for Geist: The Sin-Eaters.

Through the Ebon Gate is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

I’m going to assume you’ve never been here before. It’s all right, that’s to be expected. Not many people have, you know? I mean… not many people like yourself. People with heartbeats. Everybody else, though – they all come here. A lot of them are still around. You know how some people day the best way to deal with an enemy is to outlive him? That’s good advice most of the time. But right about now you should probably be hoping that all your worst enemies are still alive. – Rio Fletcher, Sin-Eater

World of Darkness: Book of the Dead is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

As the player characters plan for All Hallows Eve, they suddenly find themselves embroiled into a deadly fight with a pyrokinetic named Gabriella who has lost control of her ability. Several buildings around the city are on fire; this offers the player characters plenty of options to find and determine the best way of dealing with an “innocent” teenage pyrokinetic.

Description
Normally you’d ignore the vandals creating havoc on Devil’s Night, because you have better things to do. Only this time, they’re not just jumping on cars or bullying kids out of their Halloween candy. This time, they’re trying to burn the entire city to the ground – and they don’t care who gets caught in the flames. That old place on Seventieth Street. A grocery store. Some hospital. You follow the trail of burning flesh and glowing embers straight to a single girl who’s looking right at you with a confused look in her eye.

Halloween is our favorite holiday here at Flames Rising headquarters. We wound up with an orange and a black cat, our house is often decorated in September, and we enjoy coming up with new concoctions year after year. Although we really enjoy the holiday, it wouldn’t be as much fun without all of you.

Last year Flames Rising celebrated Halloween with you by offering 31 days of Monster Madness. For this year, we started with the horror plot generator to help you get those creative juices flowing. Since we offered flash fiction (in the form of mini-monsters) last year, we decided to take a more gaming-related approach for Halloween.

White Wolf popularized a concept nearly twenty years ago. They revolutionized gaming by permitting players to take on the role of the monsters rather than those who slay various supernatural critters. They now offer a deeper layer through their Night Horrors line. See, even the boogeyman is scared of something or some things. This lines opens up the urban legends and myths of the monsters. These are the monsters underneath the monsters’ beds.

I’m reviewing two comp copies from White Wolf today since they have a great deal in common. Both weigh in at 163 pages. Both hold to the same concepts. Both seem to have been given the same amount of creative energy.

The Flash Fire Mini-Reviews are back with a set of reviews from Todd Cash. Todd is going to wrap up his the Ready-Made Characters series from White Wolf.

This is the third time I’ve approached character packages like these, so I won’t retread basic thoughts on these character packages (not much at least). If you’d like these details you can find them here and here. Each of these collections, which are fitted for specific settings (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, etc), run about five dollars (slight differences between titles in price seems mysterious).

It’s a story that begins with death — with your death.

Why did the Reaper reach out for you before your time? Why was it that you fell between the cracks?

Do you remember the flare of the gun or the sharpness of the knife? Do you remember the gnawing emptiness or the choking thickness of disease? Did you fall across the Threshold alone in the wild, or in the heart of the city?

The story begins there — with the moment of death, and with the Bargain that reversed it. With the cold hand that brought you back to the living world, with the dry whispers that still haunt you, with the presence that has nestled in your soul. You’ve returned to a world where the living cannot see the shades that surround them. You drink rum to the dead, and you eat their remnants and legacies, taking their memories within you. Every night is the carnivale, because every night you walk with ghosts.

Geist: The Sin-Eaters is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

Angelo looks around the joint, seeing only marks. Back-room poker is always a mug’s game. Every card dealt brings the unlucky ones closer to losing everything—the shirt on their backs, next month’s rent and more. Some schmucks end up with a gun in their hand, doing some of Lucky Joe’s less pleasant work to pay off their debt.

The hand’s over. One man smiles, greed painted across his face. With a nod from Joe, Angelo takes a seat at the table, in on the game. Time to take it all back.

A free Storytelling Adventure System scene and character for use with Geist: The Sin-Eaters.

The House Always Wins is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.

White Wolf appears to be currently composed of scientists rather than writers. There is simply too much experimentation going on with these guys. They have released pre-generated characters for players who need that sort of thing. With Block by Bloody Block, they release pre-generated parts of a city. This isn’t a [insert city here] by Night book. No, these are the sections of any city, ready to be dropped into whatever city fancies your gaming group. The question becomes if the scientists are congratulating themselves over champagne or staring dumbfounded with charcoal-blackened faces and lab-coats.

The layout of this supplement remains true to the Hunter: the Vigil line (this game is intended for players of that game or the basic World of Darkness corebook).

The first time I reviewed one of White Wolf’s ready-made character collections (Slaughterhouse V), I wrote a bit about experimentation and the benefits of pre-made characters.

Now that I’m reviewing my second character collection–this time a group of Hunters–I’ll blur right past that noise. This collection shows that none of the White Wolf lines gets special treatment as the Hunter the Vigil supplement receives its own supplementary material. In this twenty-six page (no ads) PDF, a five-person group of relative strangers band together after a notas- dead-as-they-thought party girl ends up fusing their lives together.

The layout to the PDF is amazing. Sometimes I feel the borders in games are a little hit and miss; however, the borders to this character collection fit perfectly.

Everyone that knows me knows how much I love a good ghost story. When the living meet the dead things get all kinds of interesting. What does a ghost want? Why are they haunting this place (or person)? There are tons of possibilities to explore…

Geist, the latest addition to the World of Darkness, gives us a chance to answer those questions. I’ve been waiting, rather impatiently, for a new ghost game from White Wolf for some time. World of Darkness: Ghost Stories was an excellent book that I’ve made good use out of already. Yet, it wasn’t quite enough and did not offer the chance to play a character connected to the world of the dead. Geist certainly offers that and more.

The basic premise of this book is to provide a setting for ordinary mortal investigation of the supernatural as presented in the World of Darkness line. As sworn police officers, characters are in an ideal position to investigate odd goings-on, and – let’s face it – a lot of the things that your average werewolf, vampire or even mage might get up to are likely to break a few laws along the way. It would also make a good resource for the Storyteller who wants his vampire, etc., players face up to the consequences of their actions in the real world, as well as in the refined atmosphere of their own kind’s society.

The ‘flavor’ opening sequence takes the form of a newspaper interview of a veteran crime reporter, telling a new recruit to his profession the low-down on how policing works in Midway, the fictional city in which the 13th Precinct is located. The city itself, by the way, is left loose enough that it is very easy to transfer the entire setting into another city – real or imaginary – of your choice, to fit the rest of your chronicle.

So, White Wolf has been releasing a series of “Ready-Made Player Characters” for each game line in the World of Darkness. Todd Cash already reviewed the Vampire: the Requiem set called Slaughterhouse Five here at Flames Rising and had some interesting things to say about why he likes the concept.

I’m going to do a little more of that, especially now that I’ve had the chance to check out a few more of them. It seems that some folks are wondering why anyone would buy such a thing. I’ve seen a couple of posts on the White Wolf Forums to this effect and had at least one IM conversation about it. To me the idea seems like an excellent one. Not all gaming groups have lots of free time to devote just to character creation. Some groups only get together once in a while and would much rather dive into playing the game, rather than working up a backstory and stating out individual characters. These products are exactly what they say, “Ready-Made” and are good to go out of the box (so to speak).

Game books devoted entirely to the Art of Death, Destruction, and Detective Lieutenant John McClane rarely win me over. It’s a personal taste because I fully know that a handful of the players in my gaming group deeply appreciates the details that good combat manuals can offer. I assumed when diving into this book that it would be an updated version of the Combat book White Wolf released with their original run in the World of Darkness. That book always struck me as too much comic book and too little horror. Even the front and back covers had artwork that never matched anything else in any of the other lines. I must admit there were some flinchingly horrific pieces of art in that book that I’ll call Things You Don’t Want to Happen to You. Even with those minor high points, I felt cheated by that book.

That was then . . .

Armory Reloaded gets away from White Wolf’s Street Fighter RPG rules and tries to remain attached to the grit and horror of the setting. In the introduction, readers are told that “Combat is Horror.” The writers of this book don’t want to make the same mistake the miserable Combat made. The development of this project backs the statement through both its writing and artwork.

In the world of darkness your character may come equipped with fangs, claws, immense strength or dark sorceries with which to engage in combat, but there will always come that time when the weapons and equipment you carry are going to save your life (or unlife as the case may be). This book purports to provide all the supplies that you might need.

It starts with an evocative description of a gunfight when some cops investigating a murder have a run-in with someone decidedly more than human, demonstrating both the strengths and weaknesses of gunplay in the World of Darkness. Then, the Introduction talks about the roles of equipment and weapons – not as a substitute for your own intelligence and skills, but as an adjunct to them. Wise words for any character venturing out into the World of Darkness, human or not.

Night Horrors: Immortal Sinners

Sins of the Ages

So many people wish for fame and renown during their lives — or even for just a little bit of notoriety. But among our Kindred, that’s very nearly a fate worse than death. Don’t take my word for it, though. Go and ask some questions. Find out about who they talk to in the Necropoli of the Nosferatu, and in the perfumed salons of Elysium. Listen to what they say about them, and listen even more carefully to what they don’t say. Then maybe you’ll understand that the worst thing you can do is to stand out in a society of blood-starved murderers, my boy.

Night Horrors: Immortal Sinners is available at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop.