Worst WoD idea you’ve ever heard?

[Penelope]

No One of Consequence totally. I mean, I get that it was supposed to represent the Way of the Hive, but still. Yuck.

And yeah, the Aabbt (vampire snakes) in Berlin by Night were just straight up funny/silly. If they had made them ghoul snakes it would’ve worked a lot better.

“There’s (expletive deleted) AABBT on the (expletive deleted) plane!!!”

[No One of Consequence]

Theo Bell: "I've had it with these monkey fightin' Setites on this Monday to Friday plane!"

[Penelope]

Theo Bell: "I've had it with these monkey fightin' Setites on this Monday to Friday plane!"

I love it!!! 😂😂😂

[Justycar]

And not only the Tremere Heinrich Himmler is a rare and questionable character in this By Night, you forgot the Malkavian Goering and the ubiquitous Rasputín.

[No One of Consequence]

Yeah. Berlin circa 1993 is a really awesome place for a Vampire game, especially with neonates embraced in the 60s 70s and 80s. But this was All WW2 All The Time plus Rasputin and Jeckyl/Hyde (and snakes).

[MyWifeIsScary]

That makes a little sense. There's the post WWI mess, The political fighting leading up to the nazis taking power would've killed a lot of pre-war elders, then the holocaust would've been great cover to kill a lot of vampires, then the bombings would've killed some elders and provided cover for further killings, and finally the soviets would've came in. Oh, and they put the "iron curtain" down and the smart elders who left Berlin for the rapidly growing US would not have wanted to come back even if they were prepared to return to a ruined city with their powerbase destroyed...

Secret police, nazi and soviet firebrands and propagandists, mid level officials, rebels, leaders of industry, theives, cults, academics... there are lots of interesting people during this time of strife. There's tons of potential there. The Tremere would have a field day with Gestapo/kgb officers, an unsually well funded academia,and a great many scientists and engineers. The Ventrue would've done well recruiting. The toreador would've done well recruiting, The nosferatu would've done well, the malkavians would've done well, the Gangrel would've been likely to survive the bombs.... It'd be a very neonate heavy city given the troubles.

If they just went for 'Unknown SS guy' rather than 'himmler' it would've worked wonderfully. It just seems like they watched too much Hitler channel.

[Shakanaka]

Is Heinrich Himmler still alive in the Final Nights?

[Penelope]

I don’t think it’s been officially stated either way, but I’m not 100% sure. My answer would be “No.”

Gustav Breidenstein died from the Blood Curse in BJD, so Himmler probably did too.

[kalinara]

IMO, the worst idea is the Thrall of the Wyrm stuff in Werewolf. I can appreciate the idea behind it. But I think the Metis one crosses the line hard for me, and I go back and forth on the Homid one. I've never run Werewolf, but I think that if I did, I'd probably either give everyone the lupus version, or discard it entirely based on my players' comfort level.

[Matt the Bruins fan]

I honestly can't pick a worst idea from WtA because I object to the basic premise of the game on a fundamental level. Taking away lycanthropy as a curse/infection severs the concept of werewolves from about 98% of the folklore and beliefs concerning the subject in the real world, and most of the inspirational fiction as well. Obviously a lot of people find the adventures of eco-terrorist furries with their own made-up mythology and tribal language interesting, but it was just too big a barrier to entry for me.

[Penelope]

kalinara totally agree

Matt the Bruins fan okay, but I actually like the idea of W:tA.

[MyWifeIsScary]

You can't make a longrunning game about "traditional" Werewolves in a world that cares about keeping supernatural entities secret. You could basically do "Oh we killed someone let's cover it up" and that'd last a game or two, or you could do "VtM but werewolves" which wouldn't be anywhere near as good as VTM. Or you could do Dark ages stuff inspired by underworld and then die out in modern nights.

Going in a crazy new direction is really the only way to make a serious gameline that can approach compete with vampire in depth. Besides, the two are yin and yang in so many ways it's just wonderful.

[Saur Ops Specialist]

Changing Ways and the de-canonization of Shattered Dreams come to mind.

I honestly can't pick a worst idea from WtA because I object to the basic premise of the game on a fundamental level. Taking away lycanthropy as a curse/infection severs the concept of werewolves from about 98% of the folklore and beliefs concerning the subject in the real world, and most of the inspirational fiction as well. Obviously a lot of people find the adventures of eco-terrorist furries with their own made-up mythology and tribal language interesting, but it was just too big a barrier to entry for me.

You have a well-researched, statistical study of folklore that supports that 98% claim, I assume. As well as one showing where vampires are strongly associated with the story of Cain and Abel, and why Enochian totally isn't just Klingon for Elizabethan alchemists.

[Penelope]

By decanonization do you mean that thing in the beginning of Shattered Dreams where it says “This is not officially canon?”

Idc. I love Shattered Dreams and in my version of the WoD (and most of my friends, at least the ones I actually play with) Shattered Dreams is canon history and will remain so until stuff comes out for W5 that directly contradicts it. And even then I might pick and choose.

[No One of Consequence]

I honestly can't pick a worst idea from WtA because I object to the basic premise of the game on a fundamental level. Taking away lycanthropy as a curse/infection severs the concept of werewolves from about 98% of the folklore and beliefs concerning the subject in the real world, and most of the inspirational fiction as well.

Whitely Strieber's The Wolfen - with its concept of "werewolves" as a separate race of intelligent beings living in the shadow of humankind, including the ideas of them hunting humans as a form of population control and their impending likely extinction - and its film adaption were a major influence on the game. Similar ideas were explored in Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think, as well as Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos and Operation Luna. A number of werewolf stories have used the idea of werewolfism as a "family curse" that passes down through families, including Marvel's 1970s Werewolf by Night series and the legend of St. Natalis forcing all members of a specific Irish noble family to spend seven years as a wolf. (Then there's the very weird story from 17th century Estonia where a guy under oath swore that he was a werewolf, and that he and other German and Russian werewolves were "wolves of God" who routinely traveled to Hell to battle demons and witches as some sort of secret holy crusade.)
There's also the very widespread concept of people transforming into animals via magic, including Central Asian shaman, certain Germanic and Slavic stories about "wolf belts", Navajo skin walkers, and people selling their souls to Satan for the power to turn into a wolf. There's also a number of stories - the 12th century French story of Bisclavret, for example - where no explanation is ever given. The idea of people becoming werewolves because they get bit by a werewolf is, as far as I know, largely a 20th century invention.
At any rate, none of the WoD games base themselves on "authentic" folklore, instead being entirely fictional mythologies that are meant to be the secret truth behind human superstitions and stories. In the World of Darkness, people don't become werewolves by getting excommunicated anymore than people become vampires by having a black cat jump over their corpse.