# World of Darkness *Created:* 2024-06-22, *Modified:* 2026-10-19 ![[World of Darkness (cover).jpg|600]] The **World of Darkness** is a gothic-punk roleplaying game line that lets players embrace their inner monsters, because apparently being human isn't angsty enough. From bloodsucking vampires to howling werewolves to ghosts with a lifetime of unfinished business, there's a flavor of supernatural drama for everyone's taste — each one certain its particular damnation is the most tragic. ## Setting The World of Darkness is our world, only darker — a contemporary gothic-punk present where the supernatural is real, hiding in plain sight, and in a very bad mood about it. The original line (oWoD) opened in 1991 with **[[Vampire - the Masquerade|Vampire: The Masquerade]]**, then grew teeth with **[[Wraith the Oblivion|Wraith: The Oblivion]]**, **Werewolf: The Apocalypse**, **[[Mage the Ascension|Mage: The Ascension]]**, and **Changeling: The Dreaming** — separate games all braided into one interconnected metaplot, sharing a world and a thorough dislike of the daily commute. In 2004 White Wolf rebooted the whole thing as the "**New World of Darkness**" (nWoD), later renamed **Chronicles of Darkness**, streamlining the rules and untangling the lines so they could cross over without tripping over each other's canon. The 20th Anniversary editions (2011 onward) brought the classic setting back in style, and **Vampire**'s fifth edition (2018) doubled back toward the old, bleaker **World of Darkness** — and the next chapter is already stirring: White Wolf unveiled **Vampire: The Masquerade** 6th Edition at Gen Con 2026, an in-house rework that folds Health and Willpower into a single Vitae pool, with a free alpha playtest live on Demiplane and no release date in sight yet. Four decades on, the line behaves less like a set of rules and more like an institution with excellent album covers. ## Mechanics The core is the **Storyteller System**: roll a pool of ten-sided dice, typically an Attribute combined with a Skill, and count successes — any die showing 6 or higher counts in the classic line, 8+ in the newer **Storytelling System**, with more successes meaning you got more thoroughly what you came for. It's like playing yahtzee, but with more existential dread. ## References - [World of Darkness - Official Website](https://www.worldofdarkness.com/) - [World of Darkness - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Darkness) - [Chronicles of Darkness - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/1/White-Wolf/subcategory/1_1/Chronicles-of-Darkness) - [World of Darkness: A History - RPG.net](https://www.rpg.net/columns/advanced-designers-and-dragons/advanced-designers-and-dragons1.phtml)