A New (old) RPG

Over the summer, I visited Texas and stayed with my parents. The normal question eventually came up, "Mom, what do you have to read?" My mom has always read a large selection of fiction and introduced me to Sci-Fi and Fantasy at an early age. Journey to the Center of the Earth and Treasure Island were read sometime in the 5th grade, The Hobbit in the 6th. Eventually I had access to a number of great series (the Honor Harrington books by David Weber and the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold are some of the ones that stand out).


This summer, my mom handed me Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. The main character is named Mercy, a modern-day mechanic who can shift into a coyote and lives near the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. She is friends with a vampire and her old boss is fae. The Fae came out of the closet roughly 20 years ago and the fallout is still going on with Fae hate-crimes and voluntary reservations being established. The first book sets out a great modern world with things just hidden in the shadows. I found myself looking for the next book to explore more of her world. I appreciated the strong plots, well developed characters, and no sex scenes (though the tension is there). I read the three out in paper-back in 3 days. I highly recommend the series!

I love the idea of these things being in the same modern world with us and we are simply unaware. Of course, I started thinking about how to use the DnD mechanics to bring this to my game group, but it would take a ton of work.

Then I came across White Wolf and the World of Darkness while voting for the Ennie Awards. Where have I been??? I remember looking at Vampire: The Masquerade (now replaced by Vampire: The Requiem) but it was too dark for us at the time (we were about 14-15). I guess I just stayed away from them since that first impression. Now, White Wolf has an extensive range of books set in the Word of Darkness. I have been reading everything of thiers I can get my hands on for the last 3 days. At first, I started reading the newest WoD core book: Monte Cook's World of Darkness. It uses the v.3.5 d20 system and I instantly have a basic understanding of the mechanics. However, I am not sure I like the story part.


Then I found a copy of the older the World of Darkness, the one the current Werewolf resources are written for. I am still trying to grasp the game mechanics but I like the story more. Of course, I also found the books for Werewolf: The Fosaken. Though the world is different from the one Patricia Briggs wrote about in Moon Called, I like the modern werewolf idea. I should also mention that World of Darkness now hosts materials for Vampires, Mages, Changlings, Hunters, and several others. They also produce products for Live Action Role-Playing or LARPing, though this is definitely not my thing.

Now, if I can just convince my group of previous Dnd players that what they really want to be is werewolves...