White Wolf

[White Haven]

...is in play once more. Just saw the news on my way out of work today, Paradox bought them back out of CCP, reestablishing them as a company under Paradox ownership.

EDIT: RPS article with much more specific info.

[Lys]

Curious what this means for Onyx Path Publishing, which licenses the IPs and employs most of the old White Wolf writers as freelancers. Best guess? White Wolf will be used for publishing World of Darkness videogames, and OPP would continue to handle the tabletop. It's what makes the most sense to me, but sometimes corporations do stupid shit for stupid reasons, so who knows? Some of the statements they've been putting out make it sound like they want to unify both the new and old WoD, which would be hilarious and terrible. It's all buzzwords and marketspeak though, so trying to figure out what the fuck they're trying to say in plain English is going to take a while.

[Cynical Cat]

Some of the statements they've been putting out make it sound like they want to unify both the new and old WoD, which would be hilarious and terrible. It's all buzzwords and marketspeak though, so trying to figure out what the fuck they're trying to say in plain English is going to take a while.

From what I've been able to parse they want to consolidate control and direction of all White Wolf properties under one hat rather than merge universes, which is far more sane.

[Lys]

So apparently the new Creative Director/Lead Storyteller for White Wolf is one Martin Ericsson, who has been involved in the World of Darkness community for a long time. In fact he was a model for one of the most dramatic and striking pictures in Vampire the Masquerade, 20th Anniversary Edition:



Guess this means goddamned Dracula is directing White Wolf now, how appropriate.

[Lys]

Update on White Wolf. Apparently there is in fact going to be One World of Darkness, but rather than cancelling one or merging the two, they are instead renaming the (new) World of Darkness to Chronicles of Darkness, and Classic World of Darkness back to just World of Darkness. Speaking as someone who is primarily a nWoD fan, i feel like this is a branding decision that White Wolf should have made way back in 2004, as the name "Chronicles of Darkness" fits the toolboxy no metaplot approach of it better. Onyx Path Publishing will continue developing and publishing the 20th Anniversary Edition for World of Darkness and it's 2nd Edition material for Chronicles of Darkness. The development of 4th Edition will however be taken over by the reconstituted White Wolf Publishing. Additionally White Wolf will once again have a physical presence in stores rather than relying solely on digital publishing and print on demand.

Overall i think i'm pretty happy with how things are shaking out. It's a pity that Paradox only seems interested in making videogames for the cWoD rather than both, but i wasn't expecting different.

[General Havoc]

Update on White Wolf. Apparently there is in fact going to be One World of Darkness, but rather than cancelling one or merging the two, they are instead renaming the (new) World of Darkness to Chronicles of Darkness, and Classic World of Darkness back to just World of Darkness. Speaking as someone who is primarily a nWoD fan, i feel like this is a branding decision that White Wolf should have made way back in 2004, as the name "Chronicles of Darkness" fits the toolboxy no metaplot approach of it better. Onyx Path Publishing will continue developing and publishing the 20th Anniversary Edition for World of Darkness and it's 2nd Edition material for Chronicles of Darkness. The development of 4th Edition will however be taken over by the reconstituted White Wolf Publishing. Additionally White Wolf will once again have a physical presence in stores rather than relying solely on digital publishing and print on demand.

Overall i think i'm pretty happy with how things are shaking out. It's a pity that Paradox only seems interested in making videogames for the cWoD rather than both, but i wasn't expecting different.

cWoD is the one with the Metaplot, and the mechanics in nWoD being better matters less for a video game, as games require full mechanical reworking regardless of how well the original system functioned for tabletop.

[Lys]

It's not about the mechanics, it's that nWoD has a setting and themes that i find interesting and engaging in their own right. There's a lot of good potential for making videogames in there and it seems like a waste to just ignore it. Especially for the stuff that isn't even similar to its cWoD equivalent, like Demon the Descent. It's like a technognostic spy thriller where you play a rogue Agent from the Matrix. It's like the Bourne Identity with flaming swords and wings of broken glass. It's beautiful and awesome and a game about it could be amazing. Seriously i want a DtD game more than i want a game from any other White Wolf property.