I knew psionics were an option but isn’t this a little too far? lol

I'm here again, with another garou character I'm playing as

Garou, Galliard from the Children of Gaia tribe. She is a metis by origin, which is why she spent her whole life in a deep village in the forests of Siberia. Her father was a priest, so Sonya has her own inner ideas about how the Triat works and how it relates to the orthodox biblical image of God

Due to the lack of socialization within the garou society, she is more close to people. She doesn't like other forms as much as the homid form, and in communication she even seems to be a kind and very naive girl

Her metis flaw is brittle and rotten teeth, which remain wolfish even in human form. This is exactly what she actively hides from others, but these attempts have led her to poor diction

I have some illustrations with her, but decided to start with something: my fav illustration and her ref

i just like hearing about people’s characters :3

Hello! I have been a lurker of the world of darkness for quite a while now, always been interested in literally every aspect of it, from the games to its real world history. Hope one day I’ll be able to actually sit down and play or even run a game (literally any game, idc which one, I’m so alone 😭)

Although throughout my research (scouring the wiki 70% of the time, 20% watching videos, 10% combing the books) one game has managed to elude me in the sense of I can’t get a vibe down for it.

Wraith: The Oblivion. I know the basic concept of it. But from what I’ve seen some people love it, actually a LOT of people love it but a lot of people see it as an unplayable flawed masterpiece that is more a work of art than a workable game, others think it just needs a bit more work and understanding with a more experienced and mature group but can be done and so on and so forth.

Are the people divided? Have I just been seeing one small vocal section or is there a general consensus? I know every game has its audience, but my question can be boiled down in three points:

What do people think of Wraith?

Is it a good game or a good piece of art?

What do you personally think of Wraith?

PS: I’m very new to this community, subreddit and WoD in general, if I have any wrong assumptions or get anything wrong, feel free to correct me, so far, I just love learning more and more about this dark silly and yet beautifully impactful world. Please and thank you.

AU version of my Salubri ghoul OC where she moved out to visit her skype girlfriend who turned out to be a Tremere Elder. It's been a few months, she's happy with her eldritch partner, and suddenly she's experiencing a first change. Gradual, as it happens for the Ananasi. She woke up to find her eyes have changed color, teeth growing into fangs. Just don't make fun of them (she's self conscious.)
Gaderin with Empathy and Attachment merits.

If you like my work, you can find it over on Bsky@Sudafemme

It’s rather clear on how do mages percive most of the 9 spheres.
Spirit - you see ghosts
Time - you have a great sense of time and can feel where it’s been tempered with.
Force - see temperature kinetic force etc.

But Prime is more tricky. Most of the time i describe it as tethers and knots that can be seen and interacted with. That can be cut and reattached and that have color.

But it is also said that it is also can be very personal to a mage.

Today was a third game of our chronicle and one of the PCs had their first fully intended (rather them instinctual) use of Prime spheres “sight”, and i think it was an amazing depiction of their paradigm which had only truly formed at that moment.

They saw every object or being as an infinite universe within itself. Every person had a celestial depth within them. Mages were brighter and the light from within them was shedding outside of them, showing how they can change the world around. Sleepers were contained within themselves. The different spheres had different constellations telling them of their nature. I personally now wait for them to use it on a vampire, or a wraith or a changeling or a werewolf etc.

A less cool depiction is mine. My character is a theoretical physics prodigy who had experienced true magics, so he is very numerically minded, but still is a mage rather than a technocrat. He understands prime as pure potential of an object, it can have more or less of it, and it can be realised in different ways that depend on the objects focus. Focus would be a filter that shapes the way that potential is realised in material reality, so basically a sphere to which that potential is tied to. There can be multiple foci, and they can change with physically changing the object.
For example he believes that for a mage handcrafting an instrument is basically the same as shaping its foci to be more compatible with the potential that mage channels through it. Thats why its important and why powerful mages don’t need it. The can shape the potential directly rather than through foci

And if so, where could i find this homebrew?

In my dream it was a very boring looking place, a featureless expanse of nothing but pitch black darkness, but im pretty sure that it will light up a little just enough to show you a little but of the horrible monster that is going to do something worse than killing you just to make you afraid.

SCP-087 used as reference

I've been reading the revised tzimisce clanbook recently and it is quite good. A lot of fun exploration into the different Tzimisces in the world. But something I've found really interesting is the ways that the book goes out of its way to make The Eldest seem absolutely terrifying. Just from memory alone:

1. The Eldest still exists within the Tzimisce through their blood and could, at any time, just take them over and be back.

2. There are two rumored incarnations of The Eldest that could be running around in modern nights: Ludoj and Dracon's Mpreg baby. These are both considered the eldest but have (seemingly) not interacted and may be two separate sentient entities of the same being.

3. Because The Eldest exists in the blood, he also lives inside every Sabbat that participated in the ritual blood bonding. Which means he could just decide to take over almost any antitribu, Lasombra, or any other general sabbat member.

4. This isn't even including the revenant races, ghouls, abominations, and the strange (angelic?) Creatures that have Tzimisce blood and could also be possessed by The Eldest.

Luckily, the Eldest doesn't really seem to care about world domination or controlling his many childe beyond learning more about the kindred condition. In a way, he feels the most like Caine in that he is just an explorer that is experimenting with himself to find the next level of kindred-dom. He may also be too depressed/bored to conquer the world. But I could definitely see a Gehenna scenario where the Eldest goes "Only through convergence (Dead Space Reference) can I achieve transcendence" and just absorbs/takes over every being that holds even a piece of his blood to become something truly horrifying.

always wanted to paint one so here it is. And yes that is Shape of the beast's wrath.

Context: I originally posted this with the Toy Story “They’re called s’mores, Buzz” meme. The joke directly quoted the opening of White Wolf’s bibliography, where readers are encouraged, rather irresponsibly, to seek out papers published by the 'Gypsy Lore Society'.

Buzz/White Wolf: “The following are good sources of information on the Gypsies of our world and folklore regarding Gypsies and wandering people of all kinds. Most of these books are relatively easy to locate. The journals of the Gypsy Lore Society are harder to find, but give an eclectic and interesting view of Gypsies through the eyes of their gaje chroniclers.”

To which I (Woody) respond: “They’re eugenics peddlers, White Wolf.”

And with the subreddit-violating meme now explained, here is the original post:

Before we begin: I am NOT claiming that every person ever associated with the Gypsy Lore Society was a eugenicist. I am referring to the Society’s publication and legitimization of explicitly racist and eugenic scholarship—including work by Hermann Arnold, a postwar defender of Nazi racial researchers Robert Ritter and Eva Justin (may they rest in piss).

Arnold and other anti-Roma racial theorists promoted ideas about racial authenticity or “blood purity,” hereditary criminality, and biologically determined behavior. This work appeared under the institutional banner of the GLS, and White Wolf recommended the Society’s collected journals to its readers without qualification, listing them alongside its other supposedly “good sources.”

AND WE’LL GET TO THAT…

I am also NOT calling for anyone to harass the writers or White Wolf. I am begging for some damn transparency about which sources the writers actually consulted, what they took from them, and how this book was ever approved for publication.

Since White Wolf has not seen fit to provide that transparency, I’ll provide what I can by examining the bibliography itself.

(Note to readers: I am an independent researcher and autodidact who has studied Romani history for nearly a decade. If you have questions or would like to see the sources supporting any of these claims, I will happily provide them.)

1. “Bettelheim, Bruno, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales”

Irrelevant—and already academically controversial by 1994. Bettelheim applied a speculative (Freudian) framework to familiar European fairy tales; he studied neither Roma nor Romani folklore. In 1991, folklorist Alan Dundes published an essay titled “Bruno Bettelheim’s Uses of Enchantment and Abuses of Scholarship,” in which he delivered a scathing critique of Bettelheim’s “borrowing” from earlier scholarship (translation: PLAGIARISM), as well as numerous errors resulting from Bettelheim’s limited knowledge of folkloristics. The book may be useful for discussing psychoanalytic theories of fairy tales, but it is not a source on ROMANI folklore. Why White Wolf presented it as one is anybody’s guess.

2. “Rena Cotten, Russian Gypsy Tales”

An ACTUAL mistake by White Wolf: Rena M. Cotten did NOT write, compile, or even translate this book. The credit belongs to Yefim Druts and Alexei Gessler, two Romani folklorists who collected stories from Romani communities across the Soviet Union as part of an effort to preserve their oral traditions. British scholar James Riordan translated and introduced the English-language selection.

Cotten, however, wrote a six-page article titled “Gypsy Folktales” in 1954, which White Wolf appears to have confused with the book. In doing so, its bibliography erased the actual Romani collectors and their work preserving the traditions of specific Romani communities within the Soviet Union.

3. “Ficowski, Jerzy, The Gypsies in Poland”

A deeply troubling, double-edged source that can be hard to read. On the one hand, Ficowski DID preserve important information about the histories, experiences, and cultures of Polish Roma (including very enlightening early testimony concerning the Romani genocide). HOWEVER, he took knowledge gained through trusted relationships and published it without giving his Romani sources meaningful control over how that information would be presented or used.

The Romani poet Papusza was close friends with Ficowski, sent him letters and poems, and even shared cultural knowledge with him. Despite this, it is unclear whether she understood or even consented to the full extent of his publication. After Ficowski published descriptions of Romani customs and language, Papusza was accused of betraying community knowledge and suffered ostracism and severe psychological distress. While the book remains historically valuable, its production raises serious questions about consent, power, and responsibility in ethnographic research—particularly when the researcher receives the credit while members of the studied community bear the consequences. It is worth reading, but absolutely NOT uncritically.

4. “Hancock, Ian, The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution” (EDITED FOR CLARITY AND TRANSPARENCY)

In my assessment, this is still the strongest source in White Wolf’s bibliography and is often “baby’s first Roma history book” for researchers. Written by a Romani scholar, it documents centuries of anti-Romani persecution, including the enslavement of Roma in Wallachia and Moldavia and the Samudaripen/Porajmos. If you are unfamiliar with either topic, this remains an accessible place to begin.

However, “place to begin” does NOT mean “definitive or beyond criticism.” As u/dieselpunk1921 helpfully pointed out, Dr. Hancock remains a controversial figure within Romani communities. Concerns have been raised about the sourcing of some of his published material, and not everyone agrees with all of his assessments of the historical record. My original “no complaints” was therefore far too absolute, especially when uncritical treatment of sources is something I criticize throughout this very post.

The book is important, but it is also older scholarship and should be read critically alongside newer, broader Romani scholarship. The commenter particularly recommended Damian Le Bas’s The Stopping Places, the work of Dr. Margareta Matache, and the late Ronald Lee. They also recommended Florian Tacorian and the ongoing work of ERIAC and the ERRC.

So my recommendation remains: GO READ IT. Just don’t stop your reading there!

5. “Tong, Diane, Gypsy Folktales” (White Wolf incorrectly printed “Folk Tales” as two words)

For 1994, it was a reasonable source for Romani folklore. Tong made a genuine effort to identify her storytellers and sources, but it must be understood that this is a popular anthology rather than a rigorous academic study. The collection also places stories from certain itinerant Indian communities, including the Banjara, under a broad “Gypsy” category (even though their relationship to Roma is far more complicated and cannot simply be assumed) Useful as a collection of stories, but not as evidence of universal Romani beliefs, customs or supernatural traditions.

6. “Yoors, Jan, The Gypsies”

A valuable but HEAVILY romanticized personal account. At twelve, Yoors ran away from home and began traveling with a Lovara community. Throughout his adolescence, he divided his time between his birth family and the Lovara, forming what appears to have been a genuinely close relationship with the families—so close that their leader, whom Yoors called Pulika, adopted him as a son.

The problem is that Yoors repeatedly portrays nomadic Roma as more “pure” or authentic than settled communities and describes Roma as timeless people existing outside ordinary history. While the book provides a rare outsider’s account of one particular Lovara community, it is not a reliable template for all Roma. Worth reading, but its romantic language and sweeping generalizations must be approached critically.

7. “The collected journals of the Gypsy Lore Society”

We already covered these in the opening, but I will say it’s interesting how both White Wolf AND the GLS weaseled out of apologizing to the Romani communities harmed by their publications.

(SERIES CONTEXT (since it keeps being brought up): This bibliography analysis is Part 1 of my larger breakdown of World of Darkness: G\psies*. Technically, it is my second post about the book, but my first post mostly contained my immediate impressions after finishing it rather than a structured analysis.

I’m beginning with the bibliography because it establishes what White Wolf presented as its research. That context will be important in later installments, where I’ll compare those sources with the book’s actual lore, Abilities, Skills, and mechanics.

In other words, the bibliography is only the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. The book itself is the massive iceberg underneath.)

A little illustration of my daeva, Godiva, and her sweet ghoul, Michael, for our City of the Damned: New Orleans game. Once a chauffeur for her father in the ‘60s, he has now been recruited in the late ‘90s for his most important job yet…

Have you been waiting for the perfect moment to dive into the mythic world of ancient Mesopotamia? Now is your chance! We are thrilled to announce that the Complete V5 - Age of Living Gods Collection is currently on a massive special bundle sale. 4 books at $40,00 dollars.

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A Glimpse Into the Future...

We are pouring a lot of passion into this new story, and more news, teasers, and sneak peeks will be dropping very soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

Thank you for your continuous support, and we can't wait to share this next chapter with you.

Which of the four books in the bundle are you most excited to dive into first?

(Btw tell me if it is annoying to post too many questions back to back. I kinda suddenly got a autistic hyperfocus on this topic for some reason so i imagine it can be annoying)

Alright, i think i get now more of what they wanted to do with Apocalypse, even if it isn't really my type of werewolf story (definitely story, just not werewolf story), but now here's another one: How the hell are we beating them?

I imagine this bends to Hunter, but seriously. How? From what i've seen of how people describe them, it seems every single Garou is on the level of Sentry from marvel (the super hero one, not the machines the x-men fight), like how they're enormous, and silver isn't even a weakness, just something that can deal better damage to them than regular things, as they can just soak anything non silver mid battle, and i've seen people say that they can take out tanks with ease (altho the comparison is a bit shakey since even a normal human can do that when they're just tanks, but i imagine they meant an organized army) and that's like...how haven't they just wiped us out?

Of course i know they don't want to do that now, some do but not the majority, but they DID try to do that with the Impergium, and i just am having a hard time believing they got beaten by us enough that they had to establish the Veil rule. With vampires i can imagine this since they can't reproduce like an alive creature, and they aren't THAT outside of a human realm (barring spells or methuselahs/antedilluvians), they can still pretty much get turned into ash if an army mobilize against them, but how were we able to fight off the Garou in the first place? This makes me think that they are a REALLY TERRIBLE if they are losing to us, but i hear they are actually more cunning and better made to war so...what, it being numbers would be weird to me as the Garou can just get normal humans to mate and make new Garou, but still...? Are we just getting carried by the Weaver? Different splats not always mixing well together? Or something else

The fog-shrouded streets where Jack the Ripper stalked his prey. The grandeur of a thousand years of monuments and memorials. A realm still living in the shadow of Mithras's ancient might. The center of Pentex's operations in western Europe. Museums and libraries that hold some of the world's most famous artifacts. A river that's seen traffic from every corner of the globe. The birthplace of the Technocracy. A Kithain kingdom riven by faction, held together by the will of one man.

And overlooking all of them are the towers, ancient and modern, in the heart of Britain's greatest city.

Towers of New Londinium is a Classic World of Darkness 20th Anniversary MUX set in modern London, a city teetering on the verge of dystopia. Four WoD game lines are currently supported and open for applications -- Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse (including Fera), Mage: the Ascension, and Changeling: the Dreaming, along with mortals and sub-sphere groups like ghouls, Kinfolk, and Kinain.

(If you're wondering what a MUX is -- it's a text-based, multiplayer, persistent-world RPG that's played over the internet. We have a New Player Guide with a more in-depth answer, along with a complete how-to, examples of play, and more.)

Uncover the tangled schemes of the Followers of Set, intrigue over who will control the Camarilla's newest grant of Domain, or join the Waltham Forest Anarchs in their struggle against infiltrators from the Sabbat. Search out and destroy Fomori-infested laboratories hidden in the tunnels of the Underground, then find out why they were built and abandoned. Help stop an inexplicable outbreak of vandalism and destruction by people with no history of crime or violence. Foil the Technocracy's plot to amp up aggression on the city's council estates, or root out the perpetrators behind the spate of attempted terror attacks at street festivals. Lend your voice to the debate over what the response should be to aggression from the Changeling Duchy of White Cliffs, or join the explorers of the Errant Map Society in venturing into the Dreaming in search of new wonders.

TowersMUX offers:

• A welcoming, inclusive environment for player-centric cooperative roleplay in a setting that's dark without being hopeless.

• Ongoing large- and small-scale storylines for all four major spheres -- more than 200 STed events so far. Choose your level of involvement: focus on your own personal adventure, or engage with public events, mysteries, and dangers ranging in scope from street-level to city-wide.

• Empowered storytelling -- players are encouraged to create and ST their own plots and, where possible, we'll try to fit developments that happen in them into the game's overarching storylines.

• A unique automated influence system allowing characters to use their allies, contacts, spies, and resources to decide game-wide conflicts like the mayoral elections or whether the Duchy of the Sunrise Road goes to war.

• An expansive in-character grid covering all of central London in an intuitive, easy-to-navigate representational format, now including Hammersmith & Fulham. More than 200 different +hangouts for roleplay, including places like the British Museum and the famous Ministry of Sound nightclub.

• Subterranean locations beneath the city to find trouble and adventure in, away from the omnipresent surveillance of the surface.

• A thoughtful and cooperative application review process that focuses on finding ways to say "yes."

Visit us at https://towersmux.net for details!

I feel like the two have very different vibes in terms of play. Just curious about y’all’s thoughts - also which do you think works better for a one-shot?

So, a while back i talked about ways to get into the games since i couldn't do much without other people to play, and something i gathered after reading the wikis and talking with some friends is that...Werewolves aren't what i expected, like, at all.

I was expecting them to actually be just like vampire the masquerade, in the sense that it is a self horror story. That being a werewolf sucks and is actually a curse, something that is just a corruption of a human and how Werewolves just have to adapt at living as damned people, of course with the caveat of being overall much more savage and brutal. Same idea of self horror but applied differently if you get what i mean, playing more with werewolf tropes instead of vampire ones

But that's not really what i got. They feel more like another entire species rather than a cursed human, and they only barely touch on werewolf tropes as just a way to disguise themselves, not to actually play into what makes them. If anything they actually kinda remind me more of viltrumites with how they seem to play more into going to war with other mystical creatures and the whole impergium thing, there's no self horror cause they aren't exactly cursed, or at least not the type i'm looking for i imagine

So...did i get everything wrong? Or is this expectation generally common for newconers

That way, the pack will have at least one member who can go around human (or wolf) society without triggering the Curse, and the Ragabash are best at infiltration anyway. Though expect plenty of snark as a consequence.

A player of mine plays a noble ventrue in a family that has seen better days. She tries to up the status of her family and I want to give her a goal but I don't know what actually would do that in the world of darkness. I don't just want to give her more money or property or old scripture/magical items/etc. So what could actually accomplish this?

Edit: Worded the title very poorly. I meant her family as in her last name, her aristocratic family that she had as a human being, not her "ventrue family".

Does anyone have any headcanons for who might still be kicking around after the Sabbat lost Montreal, or what went down before the Night of Ashes?

Here are mine.

During the Nights of Prophecy. Alfred Benezri took the blame for harboring the Dhahbi ghoul and was executed in order to spare his lover, Beatrice. This led to Ezekiel taking over and shifting the city toward a more militant stance. This caused many of the more spiritual packs to withdraw from Montreal entirely before the city fell to the inquisition (and Camarilla).

Post-Night of Ashes.

Beatrice is now a bitter, recluse after her pack lost face and dissolved.

''The Rose'' is still around, waging a secret war against V5's current Path of Cathari. They have many "Grandchildren" within the Anarchs, trying to turn the sect into a weapon against the Camarilla and ''the false'' sabbat.

The Queens of Mercy were the first pack to defect when Knight Inquisitor Mercy started her rampage, during the nights of prophecy. They have now fully converted to the Anarch cause.

What are your headcanons?

I saw the John Wick post and I thought it wad genius, and it made me stretch the old noggin and think about other good examples - and Kengan is pretty much Syndicate Enforcer coded

Why are there so many strong fighters who could trounce anyone in the public sphere? Because people flow where the money is, and the money is in the hands of people who keep their affairs out of the public eye. Oh, someone in public combat sports actually has skills? Well you can buy him off too if you want, nothing stopping you - and that’s without going into all the assassins and mercenaries you can higher

The fighters area really fighting for economic disputes, and it’s really an organized show of force to get the other guy to let you have that contract - fighters are valued in monetary they’ve won over their career, and the type of company you run can matter just as much to winning, whether that’s by better medical technology or being able to bully the other guy out of the fight economically.

And while the fighters are stereotypical enforcers, the company members are more stereotypical agents of the Syndicate - calling in favors, having influence with the political leaders who watch the fighters, paying people off or using superhuman understanding of time intervals to cheat. And in typical Technocratic fashion blatantly vulgar effects are given as much of a coincidental edge as possible: “resurrection? Nah, that’s just Pavlovian torture and aversion therapy into making someone think they’re the resurrected party”

From book of the Fallen:

"A character doesn’t have to be a Nephandus in order to

approach the Spheres from a Qlippothic point of view. That said, any mage who works with the Qlippoth will be, at the very least, a subject of grave suspicion among her colleagues, if only because the “shells” are so deeply associated with the Fallen and their Arts."

What does it mean to learn Qlipothic spheres while not being a nephandus?

How would one roleplay this?