The World of Darkness

We’re back and we’re sharpening our fangs, picking the nits out of our fur and preparing for some paradox. Born in 1991 out of Vampire: the Masquerade, the World of Darkness has grown, changed and completely reinvented itself many times since. As a result, our discussion covers only the very basics of its history. Simply cataloguing the different game lines, editions and even publishers that make up the different iterations would take more time than we have. We give most of our discussion over to understanding the appeal of these games. While all three of us have played at least some of the lines, only Matt knows them well, so most of the episode is Paul and Scott asking him questions. Matt’s collection of the books covers his library like gothic wallpaper. Just as importantly, he has written for Onyx Path, one of the current publishers of World of Darkness material, so he speaks with some authority. As well as talking about the tabletop gaming world, we also discuss LARPs. No other RPG game line has made quite the same jump to live-action gaming. World of Darkness LARPs have brought many people into our hobby who may never have encountered it otherwise. Again, this is a foreign world to Paul and Scott, so Matt serves as our guide. This is the first episode in months to be free of the taint of singing. We did actually have a last-minute $5 Patreon backer, but they came in just too late to make the mix. As regular listeners know to their cost, we thank those generous people who give us $5 an episode with a personalised aural assault that twists their name into the stuff of nightmares. You can look forward to just such an abomination next episode.