![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
World of Darkness: The God Machine Chronicle
Part of the premise of the New World of Darkness was that it wouldn’t have a metaplot: They deliberately left out the “shared world” necessity (and the resulting conflicts) of the original WoD, along with the hordes of NPCs running various shows. A lot of the sourcebooks were good about giving options for what could be out there, but the world-spanning (and line-spanning) conspiracies were gone. This book is a shared-world setting book, putting out the premise that the World of Darkness (or, at least, one specific World of Darkness) is run by the machinations of a literal Deus Ex Machina; a reality-spanning machine that might well be God.
( This is fundamentally a book of How To run this chronicle. )
Mage: The Awakening – Intruders: Encounters With the Abyss
In a lot of ways, this is a horror book, more in-line with core NWoD, but for the Mage setting. The influence of the Abyss reminds me a lot of the Wyrm in OWoD, but without the greater conspiracy aspects, of course.
( Impressively horrifying )
World of Darkness: Inferno
Similar to World of Darkness: Immortals, this is a crossover book, not a core system book, and intended to be a NWoD update to a core line that hadn’t been updated: Demon: The Fallen. They give details of how to mesh this book with the stories, cosmology and systems of Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage. (Plus a few notes for Changelings and Prometheans.) All the bits you’d expect are here: Summoning demons, stats for them, details for making pacts (required sacrifices and received benefits), details of demonic possession (and playing possessed characters), and stats and story hooks for a few sample demons and possessed characters.
Mage: The Awakening – Astral Realms
The rules for magic in the Astral (which are significantly different than the OWoD rules for such journeys, which made Spirit or Mind critical and a bit overpowering) are best summed up as, “If it looks like a duck, magic works on it like a duck.” Given that every Mage character can meditate into a dreamworld, making every form of magic useful (even if Mind is slightly moreso) is great for game balance and making sure that all the players have fun.
( The cosmology of Mage, as best I can figure. )
Mage: The Awakening – Imperial Mysteries
A guide to playing archmages, who have grown beyond the street-level rules of the base system into the fourth “tier” of stories, the Cosmic tier. It heavily borrows terminology from Mage: The Ascension. Actual cosmology details? Rules for high-powered magic and systems for the movement of the gods? Yes, please. This is actual cosmology-level world building, which is what I had freakin’ wanted from the beginning. Now do another book that explains the same core setting in a completely different way, and let them fight.
( Some great chronicle ideas for those of us who love cosmic worldbuilding. )
Part of the premise of the New World of Darkness was that it wouldn’t have a metaplot: They deliberately left out the “shared world” necessity (and the resulting conflicts) of the original WoD, along with the hordes of NPCs running various shows. A lot of the sourcebooks were good about giving options for what could be out there, but the world-spanning (and line-spanning) conspiracies were gone. This book is a shared-world setting book, putting out the premise that the World of Darkness (or, at least, one specific World of Darkness) is run by the machinations of a literal Deus Ex Machina; a reality-spanning machine that might well be God.
( This is fundamentally a book of How To run this chronicle. )
Mage: The Awakening – Intruders: Encounters With the Abyss
In a lot of ways, this is a horror book, more in-line with core NWoD, but for the Mage setting. The influence of the Abyss reminds me a lot of the Wyrm in OWoD, but without the greater conspiracy aspects, of course.
( Impressively horrifying )
World of Darkness: Inferno
Similar to World of Darkness: Immortals, this is a crossover book, not a core system book, and intended to be a NWoD update to a core line that hadn’t been updated: Demon: The Fallen. They give details of how to mesh this book with the stories, cosmology and systems of Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage. (Plus a few notes for Changelings and Prometheans.) All the bits you’d expect are here: Summoning demons, stats for them, details for making pacts (required sacrifices and received benefits), details of demonic possession (and playing possessed characters), and stats and story hooks for a few sample demons and possessed characters.
Mage: The Awakening – Astral Realms
The rules for magic in the Astral (which are significantly different than the OWoD rules for such journeys, which made Spirit or Mind critical and a bit overpowering) are best summed up as, “If it looks like a duck, magic works on it like a duck.” Given that every Mage character can meditate into a dreamworld, making every form of magic useful (even if Mind is slightly moreso) is great for game balance and making sure that all the players have fun.
( The cosmology of Mage, as best I can figure. )
Mage: The Awakening – Imperial Mysteries
A guide to playing archmages, who have grown beyond the street-level rules of the base system into the fourth “tier” of stories, the Cosmic tier. It heavily borrows terminology from Mage: The Ascension. Actual cosmology details? Rules for high-powered magic and systems for the movement of the gods? Yes, please. This is actual cosmology-level world building, which is what I had freakin’ wanted from the beginning. Now do another book that explains the same core setting in a completely different way, and let them fight.
( Some great chronicle ideas for those of us who love cosmic worldbuilding. )
