Archived thread started by Mort:
I've been struggling the last week trying to come up with a decent character concept for Craigs Vampire game, only to realise I don't have any inclination what so ever to play in a Vampire game. I've tried to motivate myself to no avail. I'm not sure why this is, maybe Underworld has forever ruined my chances to enjoy Vampires again?
No, on a more serious note, it could be the whole WOD that's annoying me, it's all dark and dreary and woe and sorrow and god knows what else. I'm in the mood for some Sci-fi, or fantasy. This is likely to change of course, but I don't know how soon.
I think I might have to withdraw from the Vampire game, unless I can re-motivate myself.
I don't want to start playing a game I won't enjoy...
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the WoD is very dark and depressing. It also carries with it themes of angst, struggling with morality, rebelling against "the Man", finding out who you are and your place in the world (mostly in Mage), and the death of childhood. Essentially, these are all rather adolescent themes, which tend to lose their power when you realise that life doesn't suck, that it is tough, but it's tough for everyone, and that "the Man" is just a compromise to enable people to get on with it. In short, when the reader becomes an adult.
(Of course, the "Hero's Journey" that we so love in Star Wars, the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and so on, is also really just the story of the hero ceasing to be a child, and becoming an adult, so I might well be totally wrong here.)
Exalted, of course, carries most of the same elements as WoD (the Abyssals match Wraith somewhat, the Lunars the Garou, and so forth), but they are expressed rather differently. The rather cartoonish artwork, and the brighter colours serve to make that world a lot more hopeful, in some ways making a mockery of the "Age of Sorrows" title on the back cover of the books. (Not that I've read Exalted, so that's just the impression I get at first glance, rather than an in-depth analysis. Also, I should point out that I in no way acknowledge the claim that Exalted is the world before the World of Darkness - I enjoy it on its own terms, and don't like crossovers anyway.) Despite the over-the-top nature of the artwork, this is actually more mature than the teen angst themes of WoD.
("More mature" doesn't mean better, I should say. Different themes appeal to different people - or the same people at different times - and for various reasons. But it is true to say that the issues that most teens deal with seem foolish to the adults that those teens become. One of the reasons old rockers start to look a little foolish is that, after a while, they become a part of the establishment they once 'rebelled' against.)
I'm not convinced I have any sort of a point, so I'll stop there.