Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Quick Reviews: Monte Cook's World of Darkness

I have never been a fan of White Wolf’s World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.), but I was definitely looking forward to this book. It is not only a beautiful book, but a dang fine read(Yes I said dang). Even if you never play the game the book is a great source of ideas. Much of the book is written as a narrative by “people” from the World of Darkness Earth.

Basically it is Rifts meets The World of Darkness meets d20. There is a semi apocalypse caused by a “rift” that unleashes magic, demons, vamps and other creepy crawlies into our world. The magic system is more fluid than in the core d20 rules and I like it. Magic isn’t necessarily something that is taught, but something that is felt. Mages don’t have to remember spells and as long as they have what is necessary to cast a spell, they can. Though it is stated the classes from this game can be used in other d20 games, they are set at higher power levels.

The great thing about this book is that it is d20 and compatible with the 3.5 rules. I have run several d20 modern games using this setting and everyone of them was a hit. Should you buy it? If you like horror themed games and the d20 Modern system, then yes. If you are already a fan of the standard White Wolf version, maybe not.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everything about this book is gorgeous. Artwork, fiction, and oh yeah the rules work pretty smooth too.

Geek Gazette said...

I was highly impressed with this book. Everything about it is top notch. This should have been the default setting for d20 Modern. It is very rare that I'm willing to pay $50 for a single book, but this was worth it. I have gotten more use out of it than any of my other modern games/supplements.