Thoughts on the apocalypse
Jul. 28th, 2003 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrisvenusA brief introduction for those non-camUK people out there reading this. White wolf, producers of Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: the apocalypse and other such games have decided that their much foreshadowed end of the world is finally going to happen in their canon universe and publish books to help STs deal with this (see http://www.white-wolf.com/toj/press.html). The Cam, the global group that uses these game settings to run its game has said that it will follow suit and run the end of the world as well.
So, lets get some thoughts on this since everybody else has done this. Well, firstly I am not sure if this is a good thing overall or a bad thing. I think it has the potential to be both. If well run I think it could be hugely fun to see the end of the world. However, I have a very strong feeling that it might not be well done and so might not be that much fun at all.
Why do I think it will not be well done? Mainly because of the huge amount of work needed. I trust the STs. I certainly know after only a brief conversation with the Oxford ST, that we will have fun whatever, however this is a Global plot. This means that there are several hundred (at least) games that will have to be making sure they are running coherently with everybody else, no overlap, all the noticeable effects of one game being noticed elsewhere, etc.
This is more work than I realistically think will be done and so I think unless they come up with some deeply cunning ideas that it might suck. Also of course the fact that not every game will be able to have the big events happening and this could suck. Hopefully though there will just be a spate of national level events. Not necessarily nationals but maybe regionals or just local games that it is made clear that big shit will happen to allow people to travel if they want to take part. Otherwise I'll be pissed if I find that the Berkshire game that I didn't make it too had the most interesting thing in the apocalypse and I missed it.
On the plus side though I think the end of the world and the huge impact this will have will create a hell of a lot of good roleplay. I can rapidly see the attitudes changing, the bickering of the garou dieing out as they realise the end really is here and a kind of blitz spirit settling as everybody goes "its the end of the world but by god we're not giving up". Of course it may not go that way but however it goes I think it will be really good to roleplay this.
There are many ther downsides too from a much more OOC point of view. Casualty rates are bound to be much higher in the end days. So if I lost a character would I bother regenning a new one? Nope, quite possibly not. Genning a character for a few sessions seems pointless. Hopefully the STs can solve this with NPCs or Pregens (and not just starting level ones). I think having some of the garou legends returning from the deep umbra would kick so much ass and be a nice way of saying to somebody please stay and don't abandon the game, you can still ahve an interesting character to play. Of course we don't *all* hand out legends but there are other interesting things that could be done.
So if you can stop this player hemorrhage then what about afterwards? A completly blank world with no interesting history or background to attract people. What will make people want to continue in the new incarnation of the Cam? Possibly very little. It does depend on the big quesiton though of "What is next?"
Many people seem to be assuming that White Wolf are going to be doing their post apocalypse world. This might be quite interesting but I am not entirely sure that is what is going to happen. At the end of the press release they said "An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004." To me this does not imply a post apocalypitic world this implies something *new*. No, in fact it implies that in their new game it will be *ALL*NEW*. This definition wouldn't fit a post apocalyptic world in my opinion. It may be that I am just putting too much faith in press releases from marketing departments but it might mean that they are going to create a new game set in a contemporary world, darker than our own and have entirely different things behind the scenes. Personally I think this is vastly more likely than the post apocalyptic though having said that I would be vaguely interested in seeing their idea of post apocalypse (if that is even a valid concept). I think partly cos I have images of it being vaguely exalted like (random aside: that just reminded me I had a dream that their big announcement was in fact live action Exalted rules).
So overall, I'm not going to shout and scream that white wolf are evil. I am going to watch and wait and see what happens and put my faith in people. I trust my STs and in fact all the ST chain in this country. I have very little experience outside of this country but I like to think they are probably as competent as ours are and therefore will help make this as fun as possible and make whatever comes next equally fun.
Well, that's some of my thoughts anyway. Not that exciting but we'll wait and see what happens. I might have more thoughts after more announcements. Alternatively if anybody can refute or prove anything that I have guessed above then please do so.
So, lets get some thoughts on this since everybody else has done this. Well, firstly I am not sure if this is a good thing overall or a bad thing. I think it has the potential to be both. If well run I think it could be hugely fun to see the end of the world. However, I have a very strong feeling that it might not be well done and so might not be that much fun at all.
Why do I think it will not be well done? Mainly because of the huge amount of work needed. I trust the STs. I certainly know after only a brief conversation with the Oxford ST, that we will have fun whatever, however this is a Global plot. This means that there are several hundred (at least) games that will have to be making sure they are running coherently with everybody else, no overlap, all the noticeable effects of one game being noticed elsewhere, etc.
This is more work than I realistically think will be done and so I think unless they come up with some deeply cunning ideas that it might suck. Also of course the fact that not every game will be able to have the big events happening and this could suck. Hopefully though there will just be a spate of national level events. Not necessarily nationals but maybe regionals or just local games that it is made clear that big shit will happen to allow people to travel if they want to take part. Otherwise I'll be pissed if I find that the Berkshire game that I didn't make it too had the most interesting thing in the apocalypse and I missed it.
On the plus side though I think the end of the world and the huge impact this will have will create a hell of a lot of good roleplay. I can rapidly see the attitudes changing, the bickering of the garou dieing out as they realise the end really is here and a kind of blitz spirit settling as everybody goes "its the end of the world but by god we're not giving up". Of course it may not go that way but however it goes I think it will be really good to roleplay this.
There are many ther downsides too from a much more OOC point of view. Casualty rates are bound to be much higher in the end days. So if I lost a character would I bother regenning a new one? Nope, quite possibly not. Genning a character for a few sessions seems pointless. Hopefully the STs can solve this with NPCs or Pregens (and not just starting level ones). I think having some of the garou legends returning from the deep umbra would kick so much ass and be a nice way of saying to somebody please stay and don't abandon the game, you can still ahve an interesting character to play. Of course we don't *all* hand out legends but there are other interesting things that could be done.
So if you can stop this player hemorrhage then what about afterwards? A completly blank world with no interesting history or background to attract people. What will make people want to continue in the new incarnation of the Cam? Possibly very little. It does depend on the big quesiton though of "What is next?"
Many people seem to be assuming that White Wolf are going to be doing their post apocalypse world. This might be quite interesting but I am not entirely sure that is what is going to happen. At the end of the press release they said "An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004." To me this does not imply a post apocalypitic world this implies something *new*. No, in fact it implies that in their new game it will be *ALL*NEW*. This definition wouldn't fit a post apocalyptic world in my opinion. It may be that I am just putting too much faith in press releases from marketing departments but it might mean that they are going to create a new game set in a contemporary world, darker than our own and have entirely different things behind the scenes. Personally I think this is vastly more likely than the post apocalyptic though having said that I would be vaguely interested in seeing their idea of post apocalypse (if that is even a valid concept). I think partly cos I have images of it being vaguely exalted like (random aside: that just reminded me I had a dream that their big announcement was in fact live action Exalted rules).
So overall, I'm not going to shout and scream that white wolf are evil. I am going to watch and wait and see what happens and put my faith in people. I trust my STs and in fact all the ST chain in this country. I have very little experience outside of this country but I like to think they are probably as competent as ours are and therefore will help make this as fun as possible and make whatever comes next equally fun.
Well, that's some of my thoughts anyway. Not that exciting but we'll wait and see what happens. I might have more thoughts after more announcements. Alternatively if anybody can refute or prove anything that I have guessed above then please do so.