White Wolf's World of Darkness
Vito Scaletta
Immoralist
- Location
- The City of Empire Bay
You know what would be a great setting for either Classic World of Darkness (1e/2e/X20) or New World of Darkness (1E) in my opinion?
Gotham City.
Not the bland Chicago clone from the Nolan films, but rather the weird "Gothic 1950's Noir" one from Batman: The Animated Series or the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman films from the 90's.
If we're going on the New World of Darkness, I think Batman himself would be an awesome example of a hunter.
Gotham City.
Not the bland Chicago clone from the Nolan films, but rather the weird "Gothic 1950's Noir" one from Batman: The Animated Series or the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman films from the 90's.
If we're going on the New World of Darkness, I think Batman himself would be an awesome example of a hunter.
No.
No he's not. That goes utterly against most of the themes of Hunter, because Hunter is primarily about normal people who have had enough deciding to fight the darkness that lurks, doing so in groups, while Batman basically works alone and he sure as fuck isn't normal.
A more murderous Batman could be a Slasher, but that's probably the closest you're going to get.
Wade Garrett
Just trying to do the right thing
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
And then there is "The Most Excellent Superbat", IE "I have solved the problem by purchasing Japan".
TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly though, Paulie is 100% right about Gotham being a solid inspiration for (I'd lean New more than Classic) World of Darkness. It's every inch that feeling of "our world but darker" in the metaphorical/thematic/literal sense. This massive gothic sprawl, parts of it opulent and baroque and steeped in wealth, while the fringes crumble (sometimes literally) into the muddy floodplains and the marsh and the bay. Skeletons in every closet, bodies beneath every floorboard, this dense teeming rainsoaked mess that you usually see at night. Dark secrets buried deep, this sense of lingering, inherited sin. This sense that this place has always been kind of off, kind of wrong. Rusted circuses and gloomy museums and Arkham itself ofc. Like...take out batman and co and you could slot pretty much any splat you wanted in there and they'd do really well I think. Like right off the -hah- bat it's a fantastic Vampire sandbox, and everyone from Werewolves to Mages to Changelings to Hunters would have a lot to do.
I do agree though that Batman isn't really a Hunter exactly though, if anything I'd say he's probably some kind of weird Mage (Seer or Pentacle depending on what you're highlighting)? But he fits oWoD a lot better than nWoD tbh.
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Honestly I think that a lot of Batman's Rogue's Gallery could fit as Slashers and/or Deviants.
I agree that Gotham is very World of Darkness-y. But Batman's the odd guy out in a nWoD setting because it's not really... superheroic? Certainly he's not a Hunter, if he's anything.
I mean in oMage he's basically just an Orphan (heh) whose paradigm is "I'm rich and know kung fu" but his story doesn't work nearly as well in nWoD. But oMage is specifically weird in very oMage ways.
Wade Garrett
Just trying to do the right thing
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Honestly Slasher probably fits Bruce better than anything, an Avenger teetering on the very edge of becoming a Legend or possibly already past the brink.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hm, I'm still liking Deviant. We know psychics can manifest as body enhancements. We know that Deviant origins are open ended enough that spending years and massive amounts of money traveling around honing your body into a weapon could count, especially if there's spooky extra things added to the training. We know there's Deviants that seek out to become what they are, and while we don't have a comprehensive list of scars, enough of them seem mental enough that "don't kill," "don't use a gun," and "dress up like a bat" could all fall under them. I also don't think it would take too much tweaking to have the conspiracy he's up against be Gotham's crime infested nature. It's certainly pervasive enough like a conspiracy, and if he tweak the wrong guy's noses they could come after him like a conspiracy against a Deviant.
Hmm... Pentex and the Glass Walker front de jour are both making a move, only to discover the fellow running the main company in town has Willpower: 10 and a lot more brains/tricks than he lets on....
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Or just make it Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows, like the Nolan films.
Huh. I think that works too, though I haven't actually played Beast, just read the preview release and some things on the changes made to the final version.
Vito Scaletta
Immoralist
- Location
- The City of Empire Bay
Maybe, but my nWoD settings don't recognize the newer stuff from Onyx Path. You're not gonna find anything from Demon: The Descent, Beast: The Primordial, or Deviant in my Gotham. Even the Strix have been given the axe.
I disagree. New World of Darkness is explicitly designed as a toolkit, unlike the Classic World of Darkness (and to a lesser extent, the Chronicles of Darkness stuff from 2E) and Personal Horror isn't meant to be a "One True Way" but rather a default example to use as a potential reference
I always liked the challenge of "flipping the script" and making New World of Darkness into a "Supers With Fangs" setting via Rule Zero, both because I prefer that style and admittedly because I also like to spite the more toxic purist elements in the White Wolf fandom.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You're missing out.
Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
"I think Batman fits into the World of Darkness if you change the setting" is valid in the strict sense, but you really should lead with how you're changing the setting to enable that, instead of making broad statements that are only true if you don't play the setting as intended.
TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Tbh if you're doing a more kitchen sink style (and I 100% get the appeal of that from a creative writing/ST standpoint, the Changeling chronicle I ran had other supernatural splats around in supporting roles to sorta give the setting a feeling of...being inhabited? Fleshed out might be the term maybe. And also just 'cause I dig that kinda thing. Ultimately it worked out pretty well since the crux of the conflict was Changeling-centric and I'm probably going to do something similar for the Geist-game I'm prepping for, although I'd rather peel out one of my own fingernails with a pair of pliers than try to run mixed parties), I'd strongly recommend at least taking a look at Geist 2e (which is such a 180 from first edition that it should genuinely be considered it's own thing and it's absolutely fantastic, seriously I love it to bits) and giving Deviant a shot. A lot of the preliminary stuff that's been shown emphasizes how the Deviant is made, used, and abused by the inhumane (and sometimes inhuman) conspiracies that hunt them. Slotting that in with the existing spread of secret lodges and occult socities is pretty piss-easy and almost even a natural path if you're so inclined, and in general the concept of "lab experiment gone wrong"/"person hurt by their superhuman abilities" is pretty textbook comic stuff.
(Demon is cool conceptually but doesn't play well with other stuff and attempts to crowbar the God-Machine into other gamelines has gone...badly imo. Beast can just fuck off really.)
Honestly, as a tangent, if you're interested in a more overtly optimistic game I'd strongly suggest (again) checking out Geist 2e. It's got plenty of horror stuff obv (nWoD is fundamentally horror, there's not like- not much way of getting around that unless you're taking a bonesaw) but in general it's a game about Things Getting Better, activism and revolution, empathy and second chances. And is a more natural fit for that kinda positive take than Vampire. Like vampires as a whole can be all kinds of things, but Requiem's vampires very distinctly and deliberately sit at the intersection between, like, sex, death, and violence. You take. You hurt. Your Beast would drain the whole world dry if it had a chance and you'd maybe feel kinda bad that you don't feel worse about it. It makes Vampires great cinema-mobster analogues and Walter Whites and even supervillains yeah, but it makes them a really weird fit for heroes.
Sin-Eaters and their Geists literally have How Do You Help People as their guiding ethos, their krewes include the living, the dead, and can easily be modified to include the supernatural, and you don't have to cut out a party-hardy-murderfuck-mankind drive out of them to make them anything other than kinda monstrous.
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TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah I was genuinely surprised, @mothematics was smacking me in the face with it shouting "READ IT FUCKER" and I finally did and it was...actually really good? Like it's a close second to Changeling: the Lost. And I fucking love Changeling. The first nWoD thing- fuck the first thing that I gm'ed in years, the first thing I ran seriously and actually completed was Changeling. Changeling is like no-shit important to me for what it is and what it does and what it lets you be. And Geist is already up there, and if it's got a silver medal it's by a thin margin and through no lack of effort.
Batman isn't really at home in the nWoD, no.
On the other hand, Bruce Wayne is. And Bruce Wayne works as the head of a lower-powered Bat Family Hunter Conspiracy in the cursed, tainted hellhole that is Gotham.
Especially if you use Old Bruce from Batman Beyond. He's the perfect bitter old man with a large store of devices to equip a Conspiracy.
(Old Bruce is Best Bruce)
- Location
- some computer lab
okay, I am really loving how judging from the previews so far, Spider-man, black suit Spider-man, and Venom are all valid Deviant concepts.
Well, we now know at least what are among the Merits Batman has, albeit one has major modification:
I love Armed and Extremely Dangerous. It's the "OH FUCK IT'S THE JUGGERNAUT" reaction in game terms.
Deviant Preview #2 said:
I love Armed and Extremely Dangerous. It's the "OH FUCK IT'S THE JUGGERNAUT" reaction in game terms.
Armed and Extremely Dangerous is the merit you take if you're playing a high-power tier 3 Deviant game about karate-kicking helicopters in the fuckin' face and you want to be hunted by BLACKWATCH, clearly.