Disclaimer: what follows is a kind-of semi-coherent thoughts of mine. I have no particular goals with it, just my mind wandered around those thoughts lately and I figured it might not do harm to share them and maybe listen to other people's thoughts too.
So, it happened again. I watched the new season of Sleepy Hollow and thought: man, there's a ton of inspiration for a WoD game. Then I thought, okay, but it's not really fit into any of the WoD lines. At best, it would be a Hunter, or Hunters Hunted one, but not really. If anything would be more of a Vigil kind-of game. Nothing new, I always come to that realization that WoD just don't do the "mortals encountering the supernatural and fighting back with just wits and courage and tools and sheer stubbornness" theme very good.
And that lead me to the recognition: I love WoD, I really do. I love the gothic-punk aesthetics, I love the themes of the games, the setting, the history, all of it, with all my heart. But every time I want to do anything different it shows it's limits. It also has the blessing and the curse of a well-defined setting, namely that there's no much room left for genuine mysteries, "oddities", things like NWoD had in the blue book line, because everything is well-categorized. Everything is "something" and in turn part of something greater. Yes, I could come up with something new, but it feels alien to the setting and sticking out. With CofD I could reproduce the last show or novel, or comic that got my interest, with my own twists, conspiracies, mythology and whatnot, while with WoD I could reproduce... well, WoD.
Paradoxically, but not surprisingly, it's also the other way around. Every time I got enthusiastic about CofD, after a while I start missing the elements and aesthetics of WoD I love and those are quite big elements, for sure, like entire gamelines, or distinctive elements of them. It's like, when I'm looking at WoD, I see a great setting, but it's also constraining in a way and when I'm looking at CofD I see great bits and pieces, some genuinely fantastic gamelines and the potential to build a great and unique setting with more freedom, but on itself, it's a jumbled, some might even say incoherent mess and something that just can't suck me in, long-term, the way WoD can, which have a coherent setting and story. I know, it's nothing new, it got written down a million times that in a way those are exactly the points of the two games. It's just, it would be great to get what I want from one, without sacrificing what I love in the other (which I know isn't really possible, but one could dream). It would be great to read, for example more ongoing stories/novels from CofD, but I'm aware that'd come with the calcifying of the setting and the losing of the freedom it provides.
Moreover, it's interesting to see how the two lines approach parts of the games. Styles of play for example. I always felt that the WoD has bigger room for wildly different playstyles and chronicles. CofD is much more focused on certain themes and modes of play. So, again, paradoxically, CofD has bigger freedom in what I want to play but I feel it's more restraining in how it want me to play it, while WoD is a more closed setting, but has greater freedom within that setting, if that makes sense.
Anyway , that was a bit ramble-y, I know and some chewing of old bones, but if any of you want to add anything to it, please, do!
So, it happened again. I watched the new season of Sleepy Hollow and thought: man, there's a ton of inspiration for a WoD game. Then I thought, okay, but it's not really fit into any of the WoD lines. At best, it would be a Hunter, or Hunters Hunted one, but not really. If anything would be more of a Vigil kind-of game. Nothing new, I always come to that realization that WoD just don't do the "mortals encountering the supernatural and fighting back with just wits and courage and tools and sheer stubbornness" theme very good.
And that lead me to the recognition: I love WoD, I really do. I love the gothic-punk aesthetics, I love the themes of the games, the setting, the history, all of it, with all my heart. But every time I want to do anything different it shows it's limits. It also has the blessing and the curse of a well-defined setting, namely that there's no much room left for genuine mysteries, "oddities", things like NWoD had in the blue book line, because everything is well-categorized. Everything is "something" and in turn part of something greater. Yes, I could come up with something new, but it feels alien to the setting and sticking out. With CofD I could reproduce the last show or novel, or comic that got my interest, with my own twists, conspiracies, mythology and whatnot, while with WoD I could reproduce... well, WoD.
Paradoxically, but not surprisingly, it's also the other way around. Every time I got enthusiastic about CofD, after a while I start missing the elements and aesthetics of WoD I love and those are quite big elements, for sure, like entire gamelines, or distinctive elements of them. It's like, when I'm looking at WoD, I see a great setting, but it's also constraining in a way and when I'm looking at CofD I see great bits and pieces, some genuinely fantastic gamelines and the potential to build a great and unique setting with more freedom, but on itself, it's a jumbled, some might even say incoherent mess and something that just can't suck me in, long-term, the way WoD can, which have a coherent setting and story. I know, it's nothing new, it got written down a million times that in a way those are exactly the points of the two games. It's just, it would be great to get what I want from one, without sacrificing what I love in the other (which I know isn't really possible, but one could dream). It would be great to read, for example more ongoing stories/novels from CofD, but I'm aware that'd come with the calcifying of the setting and the losing of the freedom it provides.
Moreover, it's interesting to see how the two lines approach parts of the games. Styles of play for example. I always felt that the WoD has bigger room for wildly different playstyles and chronicles. CofD is much more focused on certain themes and modes of play. So, again, paradoxically, CofD has bigger freedom in what I want to play but I feel it's more restraining in how it want me to play it, while WoD is a more closed setting, but has greater freedom within that setting, if that makes sense.
Anyway , that was a bit ramble-y, I know and some chewing of old bones, but if any of you want to add anything to it, please, do!

Comment