Not to be confused with its cousin, Mage: The Ascension. For complicated and stupid reasons, there’s both versions. Ascension was first, then there was a reboot of all the games. That gave us awakening. There was awakening 2nd edition. That’s my favorite. But then for some reason, another company went back and restarted publishing the old lines, and made new versions of them?
But then for some reason, another company went back and restarted publishing the old lines
I think it was the same company. White Wolf published World of Darkness games using its Storyteller system from 1991 until 2004. They then made the move to Chronicles of Darkness (a retroactive title the only came about in 2015, until then they were also called World of Darkness officially, known to fans as “new World of Darkness”) in 2004. CoD changed some of the lore around and drastically cut back on how detailed and complex the metanarrative was.
CoD used their new “Storytelling” system, and did not perform very well commercially. Probably some fans didn’t like it much, but mainly they decided to stop selling in stores so there was no discoverability. During the CoD era, White Wolf still published some WoD material, such as the 20th anniversary editions.
The most important detail here though comes in 2015–2018. Up until this point White Wolf has been bought and sold a couple of times, most recently by CCP. In 2015 they are bought by Paradox Interactive. In 2018 they release VtM 5th edition. In response to allegations of some very problematic material in V5, Paradox dissolves White Wolf and brings WoD production into Paradox Interactive.
I think that only Vampire, Hunter, and Werewolf are currently supported in the latest edition of Storyteller, but I may have missed something.
It’s true that Onyx Path as a separate licensee has published books for White Wolf/CCP/Paradox. But they’ve done 20th Anniversary, CoD, and V5 stuff. The actual decision to go back to WoD was White Wolf/Paradox’s.
As someone who liked CofD 2e a lot, I’m bummed they didn’t continue with it. I also think the heavy meta narrative stuff was kind of bad, and I preferred not having a strong canon.
I should probably read the new new WoD rules to see if I like them, but I haven’t had the heart. I actually bought print editions of CofD stuff.
So, my context here is that I’ve never played any WoD or CoD games. But a couple of years back I was almost part of a group that was going to play a V5 campaign before it fell through. (I forget the timeline…might even have been December 2019 or thereabouts…) So I bought and have read through the V5 Core Rulebook. I obviously don’t have earlier editions to compare it to, but I thought the system itself seemed really elegant. The kind of beautifully simple game design that first attracted me to D&D 5th edition. (Unfortunately having not played V5, I couldn’t say whether I would eventually get tired of that simplicity in the same way I got tired of D&D 5e.)
From what I understand, they seem to have changed the metanarrative quite a lot from previous editions. Seemingly for the worse, according to a lot of people who really liked the old lore. Which might mean it’s for the better (relative to old WoD) if you preferred CoD?
I consider myself pretty well versed in ttrpgs. I’ve had decades in the hobby, I GM many odd and unusual systems and dabble in almost every genre.
Update! I solved it with some sleuthing. Mage: the Awakening
Not to be confused with its cousin, Mage: The Ascension. For complicated and stupid reasons, there’s both versions. Ascension was first, then there was a reboot of all the games. That gave us awakening. There was awakening 2nd edition. That’s my favorite. But then for some reason, another company went back and restarted publishing the old lines, and made new versions of them?
I think it was the same company. White Wolf published World of Darkness games using its Storyteller system from 1991 until 2004. They then made the move to Chronicles of Darkness (a retroactive title the only came about in 2015, until then they were also called World of Darkness officially, known to fans as “new World of Darkness”) in 2004. CoD changed some of the lore around and drastically cut back on how detailed and complex the metanarrative was.
CoD used their new “Storytelling” system, and did not perform very well commercially. Probably some fans didn’t like it much, but mainly they decided to stop selling in stores so there was no discoverability. During the CoD era, White Wolf still published some WoD material, such as the 20th anniversary editions.
The most important detail here though comes in 2015–2018. Up until this point White Wolf has been bought and sold a couple of times, most recently by CCP. In 2015 they are bought by Paradox Interactive. In 2018 they release VtM 5th edition. In response to allegations of some very problematic material in V5, Paradox dissolves White Wolf and brings WoD production into Paradox Interactive.
I think that only Vampire, Hunter, and Werewolf are currently supported in the latest edition of Storyteller, but I may have missed something.
It’s true that Onyx Path as a separate licensee has published books for White Wolf/CCP/Paradox. But they’ve done 20th Anniversary, CoD, and V5 stuff. The actual decision to go back to WoD was White Wolf/Paradox’s.
This sounds accurate.
As someone who liked CofD 2e a lot, I’m bummed they didn’t continue with it. I also think the heavy meta narrative stuff was kind of bad, and I preferred not having a strong canon.
I should probably read the new new WoD rules to see if I like them, but I haven’t had the heart. I actually bought print editions of CofD stuff.
So, my context here is that I’ve never played any WoD or CoD games. But a couple of years back I was almost part of a group that was going to play a V5 campaign before it fell through. (I forget the timeline…might even have been December 2019 or thereabouts…) So I bought and have read through the V5 Core Rulebook. I obviously don’t have earlier editions to compare it to, but I thought the system itself seemed really elegant. The kind of beautifully simple game design that first attracted me to D&D 5th edition. (Unfortunately having not played V5, I couldn’t say whether I would eventually get tired of that simplicity in the same way I got tired of D&D 5e.)
From what I understand, they seem to have changed the metanarrative quite a lot from previous editions. Seemingly for the worse, according to a lot of people who really liked the old lore. Which might mean it’s for the better (relative to old WoD) if you preferred CoD?