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There are more roleplaying games in the WoD than Black Dog Games (Lycanthrope: The Rapture, Warlock: The Pretension, Spectre: The Annihilation, Faeries: The Delusions, and Vampire: The Hidden) and Magicians on the Bay.
But the Nephandi had not counted with the forces of Madness; he lost control of his acolytes as they slowly became more and more obsessed with the game and its setting, weaving a wild and tangled web of conspiracy, Gnostic mysticism and real magick. Instead of just glorifying darkness, the game subtly hinted that the great illusion of reality could be broken, and that Man could become God.
The game is doing quite well, although far from the big league of Black Dog Games and TLA. And it has disturbing effects on players, who often start to notice odd things or think disturbing thoughts. Sometimes this turns into obsession as originally intended, but instead of just leading victims further into darkness, the game can actually Awaken them if they commit the gruesome rituals mentioned; they awaken as Marauders, trapped in a Quiet based on the game where reality is an illusion ruled by unseen forces and black conspiracies, and destruction of all normality is the only salvation.
Their best-selling game Towers & Titans teaches players two important lessons (while draining their valets of money). The first lesson is that magic is all about creating fireballs, invisibility, enchanting weapons so that they do more damage, animating undead and turning people into frogs - assuming you have the right spells, enough mana and sufficiently high level (or the correct tome of spells). Magic is fictional, and highly restricted by lots of silly rules.
The second important lesson is that rules control everything; nothing is possible unless there is a rule or table somewhere. But clever players soon learn that there is power in rules - by finding obscure rules they can gain immense power, and perhaps even wrest control from the Gamemaster.
The hugely popular TLA games have a distinct effect on the mostly young players: they become involved in reading tables and rules, and most soon become adept at probability calculations. They also tend to become competitive, always looking for useful advantages in gaining more experience points - both in the game and socially among others.
It is a bit too abstract and complicated for most players, who prefer the easy mayhem of Towers & Titans or the tragically hip Black Dog games, but a few have become interested in the game's obscure hermetic symbolism and look forward to new supplements detailing the secret history of the world, the various conspiracies, the existence of lifestealing entities and an ultimate Grand Plan.
Up to the Misc PageAnders Sandberg / nv91-asa@nada.kth.se