Orpheus 5th

[Redwulfe]

Speculation thread.

Clues:
1. OPP says they are working on a secret project and it is not W5.
2. White wolf had put in an application for a trademark for the word Orpheus, This was not a renewal but a new application that covers Video games, mobile games, electronic books, RPGs, and a TV series.

Question:
Is the secret project possibly Orpheus for 5th edition of the WoD and OPP is working on it?

I think this would be great if it is true. With the second inquisition folding in the orpheus group and wraiths being a large part of the World of Darkness having a game based on them would add to the overall WoD in a large way. It could give us more info on SPCs to have we could possibly play wraiths or even Orpheus group members. All in all this could be an exciting game line.

[Redwulfe]

And there is this: https://www.earplay.com/stories/the-orpheus-device/

Release date is Coming Soon.

[tasti man LH]

And there is this: https://www.earplay.com/stories/the-orpheus-device/

Release date is Coming Soon.

...and that was released several years ago, back in 2016. :P

Yeah I haven't seen any updates on this particular piece since it was released. Nor do I know if there are going to be any plans since the whole thing feels a bit dead (heh).

[Redwulfe]

Sorry it had a upload date on the google search of July 2019 so I thought it was new. My bad.

[Banu_Saulot]

Gotta say, although Wth 5th edition would be great, I would also like a new Orpheus game, it is so much more streamlined yet thematic and involving.

[Damian May]

I love Wraith deeply but I never really understood the attraction of Orpheus, I tried it a couple of times but I always felt like I'd rather be playing Wraith.

[Shakanaka]

Orpheus is strange, really strange.. They really should've made it an actual sequel instead of what it was..

[Ramnesis]

In terms of story and theme Orpheus is great. It's not and with the exception of some backstory it's not even trying to be.

Orpheus is a game I've always wanted to run, though not necessarily in the system it was packaged with.

[Penelope]

Redwulfe it sounds like you’ve actually read the trademark application. I thought that stuff was supposed to be like top secret.

[Penelope]

Never mind. I talked to my friend and he said trademark applications are publicly available. My bad.

I'm only vaguely familiar with Orpheus. What is it?

[Shakanaka]

I can't really explain Orpheus. Basically its very and I mean very loosely based on Wraith.. Where your basically Ghostbusters.. But instead of the usual gadgetry, your a human with the ability to turn into a ghost. Sort of like a proto-Geist.

[Penelope]

Thanks . That sounds really awesome. I saw on the home page they're doing a book called Ghost Hunters that might include rules for a new version of Orpheus.

This is neither here nor there, but you should check out the play Orpheus Descending. The characters of Val and Lady are really well done and I loved Val's hummingbird speech.

[Redwulfe]

I did not read the trademark paperwork personally but the document was screen captured and loaded on the discord I visit often. You can look them up though.

as far as what is Orpheus, Shakanaka has the gist of it. Wraith the Oblivion ended with the book End of Empires that basically threw the Shadowlands into the 6th maelstrom and end the game line about the time Revised was coming out. Some of the events in End of Empires formed some of the core things in Revised storyline. As the game lines developed and began to come to a close with the Gehenna plot a mini series was put our called Orpheus.

the book is a series of 6 books following the Orpheus group, a group of humans that can use technology and the like to project into the Shadowlands. They are not the only ones and the government wants the tech for themselves. The 6 books form a campaign that ends with the players fighting Grandmother how is the mother of Malfeans and possibly an aspect of the devourer wyrm. The shadowlands had transformed into the wastelands a desolate barren landscape of jutting rocks and violent Maelstroms. Roving specters and the like are there the Tempest is no more and it is pretty much a post apocalyptic mad max style place following the destructive forces of the maelstrom.

All in all it has mostly been retconned in the current edition and Wr20, though the Orpheus group and much of there pre-wastland/Grandmother fighting story is kept from what I can tell in Wr20's appendix.

[AkatsukiLeader13]

While Redwulfe is mostly right, Grandmother isn't connected to the Wyrm. She's a separate entity from the Wyrm, an entity that the Orpheus line speculates is related to God, possibly his dark counterpart that seeks to destroy while he sought to create. She is Oblivion, the Force of Unmaking sitting at the bottom of the Underworld, slowing consuming everything.

Indeed, she actually doesn't comprehend that life is... well life, thinking the universe is simply material to be consumed so that she can use it as energy to fuel the creation of her own universe. One of the possible endings sees the PCs concivincing her that she's devouring a living universe and getting her to stop.

[Ramnesis]

Grandmother is a pun. She is the Grand Maw of Oblivion. She is not Oblivion itself (she is too creative for that) but she is related in some way. Possibly she is the only true Neverborn. Possibly she is a personification of something that shouldn't have a personification. Possibly there is no Oblivion, she is some other point of no return.

Edit: Seriously, if you ever run Orpheus and your players aren't aware this, make sure all of the rational antagonists refer to her as Grandmother or the spectre's grandmother. It's a misunderstanding of what the Spectres are saying and you can have a lot of fun with the reveal when the time is right.