“Here’s the question:Do you really want to know? Because it’s not like it’s a secret. It’s just like your car it doesn’t run by magic but it might as well, for all you know when you look under the hood.”

– Wesley Cote, AKA The Key

What Has Risen May Fall

What is the God-Machine? That question doesn’t have a single, easy answer, but that doesn’t stop people from asking. The World of Darkness is layer upon layer of mystery, but what is the mechanism that keeps it all moving? Is there a design in play? And what happens to those who think to use the Machine for their own ends?

What Has Fallen May Rise Again

World of Darkness: The God Machine Chronicle is available now in PDF and Hardcover editions at DriveThruRPG.com!

The Progenitors hid far more depth than anyone, Tradition or Technocrat, realized. Too long considered by others — and even themselves — as lab monkeys and cloistered researchers, their protective cocoon of isolation was ripped away by the Dimensional Anomaly. Forced by cataclysmic events, the Progenitors are injecting themselves back into a sick world.

The Union’s surgeons and chemists have made their diagnosis, and it scares them: the Technocracy’s diseased and about to tear itself apart. Traditions keep peddling snake oil treatments to a populace yearning for an easy fix. And there are worse things out there, cancers on the world. So the Progenitors must take the only sensible action: arm up and prep the OR.

Convention Book: Progenitors is available now in PDF and Print editions at DriveThruRPG.com!

Imagine being both dead and deathless at the same time. Imagine being cradled in the arms of death for years, sometimes decades on end, but all the while knowing that you will eventually not only arise again, but awaken to an unfamiliar world that mostly fears and hates you. Now imagine that your purpose, your entire existence, is bound within this cycle — that you are chained to it for all eternity. You sleep, you wake, your serve your Judge’s will in the lands of the living, and you return to the death-sleep once more. The ancient culture that empowered you is gone, lost to the sands of time… yet you endure.

In Mummy: The Curse, a Storytelling game set in the World of Darkness, you play one of these beings. Those who know they exist, from the cultists who serve them to the dark forces arrayed against them, call them the Deathless.

About a decade ago, White Wolf released a game called Mummy: The Resurrection as the core offering for its Year of the Scarab. When the Time of Judgment rolled around, that game and its continuity were put to rest, along with the other classic World of Darkness lines; but endings breed new beginnings, and in the course of developing the end of that game, a vision for a new mummy-focused roleplaying experience began to take shape. It would be a decade before that vision could come to life, but here we are at last.

Welcome to Mummy: The Curse, a new World of Darkness roleplaying game.

The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology is The Onyx Path’s opening salvo of a new series of products for the World of Darkness under the auspice of the God-Machine Chronicle. Since the launch of the new World of Darkness White Wolf/CCP has released a plethora of products as part of their toolbox approach to game design while shying away from developing an overarching “meta-book.” While some books have strayed close to the line between the two for the most part each product was a package of tools each troupe could play around with to build the World of Darkness they want to explore. Now Rich Thomas and the many creative forces behind The Onyx Path are stepping over that line and producing a chronicle book, a setting in which we can explore a particular vision of the World of Darkness (which some tweaks to the core rules to match). This anthology begins the exploration of that vision, wetting our whistle for the upcoming chronicle book which we will not get to see until sometime in 2013.

Heroes of Reality

The proud men and women who serve the New World Order are the paragons and saviors of humanity. These Enlightened minds have the thankless job of being our shepherd, leading us to ultimate Empowerment and protecting us from utter chaos: the misguided Traditionalists, corrupted Technocrats, vile creates, and ourselves.

The Order oversees the Technocratic Union through its unrivaled academic might, omnipresent surveillance, and unparalleled advances in psychology. But even as the Technocracy is winning so many hearts and minds, NWO must keep the Union from turning on itself.

A Truly New World

Convention Book: New World Order is available in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

What is the God-Machine?

You hold in your hands the book that might answer that question…or might simply complicate it. The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology contains new fiction by Justin Achilli, Eddy Webb, Stew Wilson, David A Hill Jr, and many others, as well as previously published stories by Chuck Wendig, Ray Fawkes, Rick Chillot and Matthew McFarland. All of these tales feature encounters with the God-Machine, and serve to pave the way for the God-Machine Chronicle itself.

What rises may fall. What has fallen may rise again.

The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology is available in eBook and Print formats at DriveThruFiction.com!

I cannot tell you the naked fear I feel, putting down these words for once and for all. Perhaps I will regret them. Perhaps they will never see print. Yet, it is my nature to report this. It is, as they say, in the blood.

Thus wrote Aristotle de Laurent, Noddist scholar and vampire, in the preface of the Book of Nod. This book was special because it was published by White Wolf Publishing, Inc. in 1995 to be used as setting material for the Masquerade Mind’s Eye Theatre game as well as Vampire the Masquerade chronicles. Bound in black leather the book was the perfect prop for storytellers to hand over to their intrepid players. The stories began to write themselves.

The Price of Disobedience

All societies have rules–even societies of mages. But rules were made to be broken. For the Awakened, shattered laws raise sinister forces. The Left-Hand Path tempts sorcerers with forbidden power, fulfilling their desires at the risk of ostracism, madness or damnation. In exile, more of them thrive than the Pentacle admits, challenging the peril to their souls … and uniting in common cause. Look Beneath the Surface.

A Character Book for Mage the Awakening

Left-Hand Path is now available in PDF and Print formats at DriveThruRPG.com!

Werewolf the Apocalypse roared into hobby games in 1992, inspiring a generation of fans to stand up and howl their defiance at a corrupted world in a battle they knew they were doomed to lose. WtA presented the Garou: creatures at once both man and wolf, and filled with a Rage against the evils that would destroy and corrupt both the natural and spirit worlds. Capable of transforming into a variety of forms and blessed with Gifts that enabled superhuman and supernatural powers, the Garou fought many foes, always knowing that in the end they would fall. But what stories would be told and what songs sang of their exploits!

This epic tragic story, combined with the unwavering dedication of an unparalleled fan base, is the reason this book is being published. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – 20th Anniversary Edition brings the entire World of Darkness experience full circle and will serve as the perfect anniversary milestone to celebrate two decades of gaming the epic sagas of the Garou.

Our game design essay series continues today with some notes from Monica Valentinelli, author of Falling Scales Chapter Two, a World of Darkness SAS from White Wolf.

Falling Scales Chapter Two is the final, and second installment, for Falling Scales Part I. I started working on this project last Fall under the assumption that this would be a more atmospheric piece to further introduce a global conspiracy. While there were elements I was able to draw upon, the plot was directed, and there were some liberties I was not allowed to take.

Denver was not such a great city after all. You’re out on the town one night and you get mixed up with some nightmare straight out of Filipino folklore. Then a cult which called itself the Unmasked “recruits” you and that doesn’t work out so well. They end up trying to kill you and get you into all kinds of trouble. In the end you were forced to kick their sorry butts to the curb. Well, at least it’s over now, right? No, not so much. Welcome to Falling Scales chapter two!

Four months have passed since the dark events which took place in Denver and your lives have become a living hell. Apparently Anna Christopher had friends in high places, the kind of friends who know how to screw with you in the worst possible way. Just when you think it can’t get any worse there appears a glimmer of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel. Freedom from this nightmare can be found in Washington D.C. if you can find it.

For centuries, terrors have existed just outside our understanding. The public may know or even suspect creatures of the night exist, but millions have managed to go on with their lives, focusing on the mundane, the safe. We’ve passed off the truth as a child’s fairy tale or the ramblings of crazed lunatics. We’ve ignored the reality in order to survive.

Thanks to the actions of the passionate few, we can no longer pretend the supernatural does not exist.

Now, perfectly ordinary people question what they see, what they hear, what they feel. They’re confused, lost, and lonely. They’ve turned toward their leaders to help them find a way out of the darkness, but they need a shepherd, a guide who is not afraid. They’ve found one: a powerful politician who believes society should open their eyes to the truth, that the supernatural takes many forms and the only way to defend society is to wage all-out war.

Falling Scales Chapter Two is written by Flames Rising Project Manager Monica Valentinelli.

Get Falling Scales Chapter Two in PDF and Print formats at RPGNow.com!

The moment a happy resident of the natural world becomes aware of the supernatural is a scene that we are all familiar with. Whether this scene appears in literature, graphic novel, television or film we have witnessed the human drama of a character who has realized they no longer understand the world they live in, they are not the top of the food chain and they are not safe. What will they do? How will they cope with these paradigm shattering revelations? Will they survive?

Falling Scales Chapter One takes players deep into this kind of scenario and fleshes it out into a chronicle for characters in the World of Darkness. The characters see something they were not meant to see and they have no choice but to confront this new reality. They are quickly swept up by a group which calls itself the Unmasked, a cult which takes in those who have been exposed to the truth.

Victorian Lost: A Maze of Smoke and Hedge is a historical setting for Changeling: The Lost. This book contains information on the late Victorian Era, including both actual history and fanciful imaginings of this time. You’ll find discussions of the occasionally violent tensions between the rich and the masses of the poor who worked in their factories and homes. This book also examines the competing visions of rural and urban life. Some saw the countryside as pure and cities as corrupt, while others viewed rural areas as ignorant and backwards, and cities as centers of progress and invention.

Victorian Lost: A Maze of Smoke and Hedge is available now at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

The thing about being a Storyteller is you always need more stories for your players. How often you need new material depends on how efficient your players are at having their characters conclude business from night to night. There are plenty of adventures out there, but few are so nicely tailored to dropping into any campaign like those from The Resurrectionists Collection.

The first adventure, “The Resurrectionists”, involves the PCs in plot to resurrect a torpid elder – a scenario that will likely result in more questions than answers by the end.

White Wolf is having a one day super sale on the Storytelling Adventure System line of products at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop!

White Wolf’s Storytelling Adventure System (SAS for short) is a series of stories in PDF format for the various Storytelling game lines (World of Darkness, Scion, Exalted, etc). The basic parts that make up most SAS stories are simple: Storyteller characters, scenes and some advice on how you can put them together. Each of them can be used in different ways to keep the story building towards its climactic end.

This sale includes all of the SAS eBooks currently available on RPGNow.com and has them all priced at $2.29 for one day only!

The design essay series continues with Matthew McFarland telling us about Dust to Dust, a new story supplement for Vampire: the Masquerade from White Wolf.

Dust to Dust is a story supplement using the Storytelling Adventure System designed for use with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, and it acts as a spiritual successor to the classic story Ashes to Ashes.

Predators are competitors. They compete with other types of predators for food; they compete with others for territory. And they compete with others of their own kind for both food and territory as well. Sometimes, predators will form alliances with like-minded individuals to protect a larger area, making survival – even prosperity – more likely for all within the group. So it is with apex predators like vampires; they don’t care much to be around each other, but when faced with threats too big for one to handle, they band together to form protective groups. Those groups of like-minded vampires are called Covenants, and one of the most interesting of those is the Carthians. Based on the premise of greater equality and of emulating the institutions of their prey, Carthians hope to both blend in better – be less obviously a predator among the flock – and keep the stifling, unchanging nature of near immortality at bay.

Carthians begins with a fine piece of fiction by Greg Stolze to set the mood, then launches into a dissection of the Carthian Movement – its history, goals, and styles of governance.

The amount of source material produced for the World of Darkness role playing universe is truly impressive. Not all of it is useful to players – much of it being useful primarily to the game master for the purposes of fueling any individual group’s adventures – and some is of benefit to all players. Night Horrors: Immortal Sinners is a book that is fascinating to read for any aficionado of the setting, but is likely best left to the GMs (or “Storytellers” in White Wolf’s World of Darkness parlance) as it spends most of its 160 pages detailing powerful vampires that the players’ characters could bump into in-game.