Rulebook Ruminations: The World of Darkness

We change systems a lot here at the Wargate, and it can be kind of hard to keep the rules about which games apply where all straight in the noggin. So, rather than present a tired review about a game book, Rulebook Ruminations plans to examine individual or sets of gaming books when and if they become relevant our community here.

In keeping with that maxim, today I'll be talking about The World of Darkness, White Wolf's core rulebook for the NEW World of Darkness, hereafter referred to as nWoD to differentiate it from the old line of books. The line was launched in 2004 with this rulebook, but it would take a long time before the nWoD really earned a place at our table. A lot of that was simply all the stigmata from the OLD World of Darkness (oWoD), like being emo or sucking in general.

Last year, some of you may recall the Wargate community went through the end of the oWoD, years after it had been published. Soon after, interest in the nWoD began to simmer and a lot of the new books were bought - now there are a ton floating around here! I think it's safe to say that the nWoD, due to a great many factors, is here to stay for quite some time.

First of all, the book itself is quite nice. The only thing that is a bother is actually using the manual in the game - how does a reference manual not have an index?? That said, the rules that this game uses are a HUGE improvement over the last iterations comprising the oWoD. It's still the Storyteller system, but man is it much meatier now.

This manual is sort of a generic horror game, with very little in the way of setting. Actually, there is nil for setting - the vignettes posed in the fiction portions of the manual are actually quite, well, generic...and I mean that in the best of ways. It is this quality of genericness that truly drew me to the nWoD, that the manual and rules can be extended to almost any genre or setting you can think of: Modern, Western, Apocalyptic, Fantasy...whatever. Just use your imagination to fill in the gaps and this engine will do whatever you want it to do.

The other supernaturals from the oWoD are presented in their own manuals. Vampires, werewolves, mages, the created, geists, changelings, and what not. The line that White Wolf has propagated was an intense draw as well - there is a plethora of fantastic sourcebooks for each of the supernaturals (as one would expect), but White Wolf really went the distance with the basic generic line that is simply The World of Darkness. Titles like Tales from the 13th Precinct, Armory, Second Sight, and the Book of Spirits make up the core line, and almost all of them are at least fascinating if not incredibly useful.

The rules themselves are not as ambiguous, and this is a definite plus for the mighty warriors here at the Wargate. The core mechanic has remained the same (dots in attributes equal dice in a pool) but getting results is actually a lot easier to understand. That's something you really have to think about if you regularly host different games all the time - the audience should be able to remember how to play it, if not the details.

Target number and number of successes needed have been fixed. On most actions a single success will work, but if you score five or more for an "exceptional success" the Storyteller may increase the magnitude of your reward. Likewise, "botches" aren't as much of a plague - the new system says any time you are sufficiently impaired by circumstance to have no dice in your pool, you may still roll a single die - but the chances of success are only 1 in 10. Likewise, there is a 1 in 10 chance of a "dramatic failure" - what we recall as "botches". Thus, the amount of terminal stupidity is quite minimized. In the oWoD it seemed like if you rolled more dice you were more likely to botch. Crazy.

This manual is quite cheap, also. It's a nice hardcover, and provides the basic rules for what are sure to be many campaigns here at the Wargate. If you want your own Wargate manuals, this is definitely one to pick up, and you can usually get them for $10 or $15 easy. Definitely recommended.

Hydra Dominatus: The Battle for Ordavis is over!

At long last, the grueling battle for the planet Ordavis has come to an end!

Though at least 6 factions have battled for control of the planet's hives, only one could come out on top. Usually I'd be announcing who won the struggle, but for the first time since we begun these campaigns, I actually won one!

The Alpha Legion has forced the Infinity Watch Chapter to retreat from the planet's surface after months of intense siege. Though the Emperor's space marines fought valiantly, the sheer number of enemies on the surface proved insurmountable without help. Unfortunately for the Imperial defenders, the help that did arrive to fight for the Emperor's world were swept aside by waves of fresh enemies.

The orks that infested the surface simply left, save for a few throwback mobs that didn't make it to Westernhive for the launch of the Waaagh! ship. Rumor has it they took a warp ride to Arizona, where they all got a jobs at convenience stores. However, their place was soon taken by the Brotherhood of the Most Hated, a band of Chaos pirates so vile that their Warmaster Laserwulfe is the only person who comments on my articles.

The Most Hated landed on the ruins of Westernhive, intent on getting in on whatever it was the Legion had planned. They sacked the city and wrecked the Cabal's (Legion's) supply trains from Rasheen to Ordavis Prime. A few months into the war, the Imperial defenders of the planet found themselves pinned in the northwest hive.

It would be a long and slow siege.

However, the Chaos Marines weren't the only thing on Ordavis. The Ordo Hereticus sent a priory of Adeptus Sororitas to the planet with thier Inquisitor, and unknown Witch Hunter. They swept through the ruins of Westernhive, eventually securing the space port and garrisoning it with enough troopers to keep the Most Hated out.

The death knell for the Imperial defenders came from an entirely unexpected quarter. Eldar of the craftworld Tir-Tairngire dropped into Ordavis Prime and destroyed the defenders ability to contain the advancing Alpha Legion siege tanks. The Infinity Watch was forced to retreat with the loyal citizens they could save to the Imperial Fleet in orbit, which immediately began to withdraw from the system. Ordavis has been all but lost to the Emperor's light.

The force dispositions at the end of the campaign go as follows.

1. Alpha Legion (Dave -Blue) 11 Influence.
2. Brotherhood of the Most Hated (Jerry - Pink) 7 Influence.
3. Infinity Watch Space Marines (Josh - Orange) 2 Influence.
4. Ordo Hereticus (Greg - White) 1 Influence.
5. Tir-Tairngire Eldar (Joe - Clear) 1 Influence.

Alpha Legion is the only established power base in the region at the beginning of the Campaign Turn. All hail the Umbral Stalkers Cabal!!

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As for Ordavis itself...

The Umbral Stalkers sack Ordavis Prime, and do the same to Rasheen right before they return to Silencia. The Most Hated continue to ravage everything across the countryside until they realize they are pretty much alone on the planet. They have since taken to the stars to find new planets to pirate on.

Ordavis's entry in the Index Mardannon will be changed to reflect this outcome. The new entry follows.

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• Ordavis

• History: A massive hive world, Ordavis was brought into compliance with the Imperium once again during the Old Crusade. The people had lost contact with the Imperium for nearly a thousand years following a massive warp storm in the area, but continued to maintain throwback traditions that identified its folk as belonging to the Imperium. Now, Ordavis is almost entirely deserted by the years of war that wracked its surface, depleted it’s resources and population and razed every single hive built by man.

• Inhabitants: Stern hive workers form the body of the population, while a few Guilder and Imperial noble houses handle trade and other off-world business. For the last 9 years, Ordavis has been a total warzone contested by several factions of renegade astartes and worse. Now, it is in total ruin, and will remain so for the next decade as new settlers arrive and begin to rebuild amongst the bones of the previous hive cities.

• Geography: A small planet with a grey skyline, a good portion of Ordavis is actually rocky crust of the planet, resembling at times a rock quarry. Many of the hives are built down into the crust, while others are built as spaceports and stretch into the stratosphere. There isn’t much drinkable water, and several hives are actually giant mega-condensers that struggle to support the atmosphere of the planet, which is only just barely livable by human standards.

Terrain (Back) Log: Green World Woods!

Greetings!

I've decided to document the terrain we built this last year in the same manner I intend to document further creation of terrain, such as with the "Brown World" project Skim and I will be beginning soon. I've actually got a design spreadsheet with nothing but terrain interactions and iterations guiding these projects along, so it's already conveniently broken down.

Many astute Wargate veterans will notice that these woods in their current iterations were actually much earlier this year, and for that reason these articles will be labeled the "(back) log". We'll be starting the (back) log with this article.

I love trees. Especially on the tabletop battlefield, nothing says 'this is a nice table' quite like trees. I'm not sure why...probably because they jut up from the ground in a very phallic manner.

See what I mean?

We have two strains of Green World trees, coniferous and deciduous! Yeah! Variety rocks! The old pine trees have seen their share of duty, some of them are at least twelve years old. Some of you may remember the Ice World table of the late 1990's we had, and those trees are almost all that remains of that old set. Also, all the bases in this article are reused from the last iteration of terrain we did in 2000-2001 ten years ago. Recycling does, in fact, rule.

The deciduous trees were bought from China earlier this year. I got a bargain on them, and was able to build 4 more bases of woods. I learned to differentiate woods in Battletech - that is, usually you can categorize woods as 'light' or 'heavy'. At the Wargate we use the 'house' rule that if a piece of terrain has clump foliage on the base it is 'heavy' woods and thus difficult terrain. If you look at the photo below, you can see only 1/3 of the pieces are actually light woods (the pines on the right).

Yes, the woods are quite hairy around the Wargate.

There is also a deadwood, made from old Woodland Scenics trees. I used the wrong kind of adhesive on the trees way back in 1998, and the clump foliage you're supposed to use to flesh them out into deciduous plants just fell off. I think that's where the "foliage on the base" rule started, actually. Anyway, now they are dead, and they look cool. (Sez I).

That's it for now, but we'll be posting some nifty articles later this week. Just remember what we've learned today here at the Wargate - don't poke the underbrush, unless you've got an assault cannon.