Polski opis

Nowy Świat Mroku to świat gry tworzony przez firmę White Wolf na potrzeby nowych, ujednoliconych serii gier fabularnych. Trzonem nowego świata gry jest podręcznik The World of Darkness zawierający zasady gry wspólne dla całego nowego Świata Mroku. Został on wydany 21 sierpnia 2004 (która to data wyznacza koniec starego Świata Mroku i początek wydawania nowego) wraz z podręcznikiem głównym do gry Vampire: The Requiem.

Świat Mroku (ang. World of Darkness) - świat gry stworzony przez firmę White Wolf na potrzeby serii gier fabularnych.

Jest to świat podobny do naszego - Ziemia wygląda tak samo, istnieją na niej państwa współczesne lub istniejące w historii, akcja także toczy się w czasach nam współczesnych (wyjątkiem są gry z serii Mroczne Wieki, które są osadzone w Średniowieczu). To, co jest wyróżnikiem Świata Mroku, to występowanie szeregu istot nadnaturalnych (wampirów, wilkołaków, duchów i innych stworzeń znanych z folkloru) oraz mitologii oraz to, że gracz zwykle gra jedną z tych istot.
(www.wikipedia.pl)

 English description

The World of Darkness (or WoD) is the name given to two distinct fictional universes developed by White Wolf Game Studio. Both World of Darkness settings have been used for several horror fiction-themed role-playing games that make use of the Storytelling System.

On August 21, 2004, White Wolf launched its new World of Darkness line. While the setting is superficially very similar, the overall theme is one of "dark mystery", with an emphasis on the unknown and the personal. Many details of the setting, especially in regards to its history, are left vague or otherwise have multiple explanations. This is partly a response to a frequent criticism of the old game: so much material had been published that Storytellers found it difficult to surprise their players, who knew every supposed "mystery" of the setting. Additionally, "end of the world" themes were noticeably absent from the new World of Darkness games, leading many to conclude that White Wolf does not intend to end the new WoD in the same manner as it did the old.

Instead of reprinting a full ruleset with each major title, tweaked and modified for each game, the new setting uses one core system for all games, a streamlined and redesigned version of the Storyteller System renamed the "Storytelling System". A core rule book, simply titled The World of Darkness, has full rules for human characters and ghosts; though it has no specific setting material, it establishes a tone and mood for games featuring human protagonists. This is another contrast to the old games, where so many different types of supernatural creature had been defined that normal humans often seemed unimportant. (Players often joked that "mortals" were a minority in the setting, far rarer than vampires or werewolves.) The World of Darkness core book was well received, and won the Origins Gamers' Choice Award for 2004.

The new WoD rules are much more streamlined then the previous system. Some critics have compared this negatively to the d20 system used by Wizards of the Coast for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

The difficulty on all rolls is now set at 8, unlike the previous game where the Story Teller adjusted the number needed based on the difficulty of the roll. Now rather the Story Teller can add or remove dice from the player’s dice pool to reflect variable difficulties. There are also rules that allow certain dice to be re-rolled. And the “botch” rules from the previous game have been almost completely removed.

The game now features a much simplified combat system that has received both praise and criticism from fans. In the old system each attack made during a combat scene could easily involve 4 separate rolls and in many cases required more due to supernatural abilities possessed by the characters. Combat scenes involving large numbers of combatants could take a very long time to resolve. The new system requires only one roll which is adjusted by the defensive abilities of the person being attacked and represents both the success and failure of the attack and the damage inflicted because of it.

The nature and demeanor rules which represented the personality of the characters and were common in the old games have also been removed. In the new system characters have a virtue and a vice trait which represents actions that the character can take in order to regain willpower points that have been spent during the course of play.

The World of Darkness is copyright 2004. It was written by Bill Bridges, Rick Chillot, Ken Cliffe and Mike Lee. Concept and Design by Justin Achilli, Andrew Bates, Philippe Boulle, Carl Bowen, Bill Bridges, Conrad Hubbard, Mike Lee, Chris McDonough, Matthew McFarland, Ethan Skemp, Richard Thomas, Mike Tinney, Stephan Wieck, Stewart Wieck and Fred Yelk.
(www.wikipedia.org)