October has become the Month of Darkness where the masterminds behind the World of Darkness announce their plans for the new year. It’s a celebration of the dark urban fantasy setting that took the world by storm during the 1990s. The projects include video games, role playing games and more.
The pubishing side of the setting is currently handled by Renegade Game Studios. They’ve taken the opportunity to offer fans a way to catch up on their collections, pick up the latest releases and even look to the future with some books coming out in 2025. The cool, crisp weather of autumn is a great time to start up a new role playing chronicle.
World of Darkness Humble Bundle
Fans who want to jump in whole heartedly should check out the Humble Bundle that contains PDFs of all three major game lines: Vampire: The Masquerade, Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Each game offers a different perspective on the World of Darkness while offering a simple, fast playing system. It also complicates everyone lives by attaching their characters to touchstones that reflect why the characters aren’t complete monsters…yet.
Vampire: The Masquerade is the game that started it all. Players become Kindred, blood drinkers who must balance their survival against revealing themselves to unpredictable mortals. If that weren’t hard enough, the intrigues of other vampires pushes them into difficult choices every night.
In a world full of monsters, Hunter: The Reckoning focuses on regular people who fight back. They’ve seen the truth of the world and can;t go back to regular lives knowing what lives in the darkness. They’ve come together as a cell, lighting the way one blasted monster nest at a time.
For many of the Garou in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the world has already ended. But the rage still burns within these werewolves and most won’t go down without a fight. Maybe the war is lost but there are many battles yet to be fought with tooth and claw to make sure those who caused the end lost as much as anyone else.
World of Darkness New Releases
Shattered Nation looks at the state of the Garou Nation for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. It details the sociial apects of being a werewolf with new rites, example septs and new loresheets. There’s even a chance to flash back to other periods of history with the entire pack with dedicated rituals.
The Gehenna War shook up the status quo of Vampire: The Maquerade. The book of the same name not ony details that conflict but also addresses what it looks like when vampires go to war on the streets of the city. Fans of high action and vampire-on-vampire bloodshed will want to pick up this book.
Gehenna War also premieres this month on Vampire: The Masquerade Nexus along with The Fall of London. The sourcebook details the state of London several years ago with a chronicle detailing how government vampire hunters scored one of their biggest victories to date by scattering the powerful Kindred of the city to the four winds. Groups have the option of incorporating that history into their own characters or playing through it to experience it in real time.
World of Darkness Upcoming Books
At their recent Renegade Con event, the company announced two new books for Vampire: The Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning. The books explore deeper aspects of the setting and turn antagonists into playable character types. Both of these books are currently anticipated to drop early in 2025.
In Memoriam puts players in the role of the ancillae. These vampires have been alive for a century or two and are now the power players of Vampire: The Masquerade. The book also expands and updates the Memoriam rules to allow immortal vampires a chance to flashback to history to solve problems that vex them tonight.
The hunters of Hunter: The Reckoning are often opposed to formal monster hunting organizations. Apostates ties hunters with these organizations more closely as uneasy allies, rivals or even direct antagonists. Play options include character who were once part of a hunter org that have now gone rogue.
Whether you play Vampire: The Masquerade, Hunter: The Reckoning or Werewolf: The Apocalypse, October i a great time to be a fan of the World of Darkness.
