If you enjoy my videos or love the Chronicles of Darkness, please check out the Curseborne Kickstarter here and click NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH to be informed when the campaign goes live: www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/curseborne-tabletop-roleplaying-game 👾🤖👾 And if there are any Chronicles of Darkness games you haven't purchased, there are links to all of them in the video description!
As a huge fan of Requiem in particular and Chronicles of Darkness in general i was a little sad when i learned about Paradox current stance on those IPs, but hey, the material already writen its inspiration enough for a thousand chronicles. Onyx Path did an amazing job and i have little doubts that Curseborne is gonna mantain that level of quality.
I like the apparent rebellious underdog attitude of Onyx Path. Paradox: "No more Chronicles books for you." Onyx Path: "Fine, I'll make my own. You can’t stop me."
@@TheGentlemanGamer I'm looking forward to it. I wasn't keen on the new mechanics vs the Chronicles system, but if it's an improvement and I can recreate all the fun of Requiem 2e, I'll keep backing it.
Changeling the Lost was the game we played in one of my favourite campaigns ever. My character was a reverend who'd become jaded before being taken and was going through the motions, the whole campaign he was trying to re-affirm his faith after witnessing the fae, I'm not religious, but being able to explore belief and cognitive dissonance like that was very powerful
How did your character rationalize the use of changeling contracts ? Was it devil magic or angelic intervention ? As for exploring belief and cognitive dissonance, you as the player is still outside the box. The box is the table where you look at your character sheet and roll dice for result outcomes. Catholics like ritual and stage/alter props, protestants on the other hand don't.
Hearing about how some people treated New WoD when Chronicles came out gives me call back vibes to when Age of Sigmar came out and alot of people said it killed Warhammer: Old World.
If you had the time and inclination; a podcast about your opinions and experiences in the industry would be fascinating. Really looking forward to Curseborne.
Really appreciating these more behind the scenes bits and pieces Matthew. I'm definitely enjoying repeatedly returning to Mummy the Curse and Changeling the Lost as core games and really enjoyed Mage the Awakening when I ran it, particularly as 2e cleared up so much chaff. Thanks for all your work on them, mate. Very excited to see where Curseborne goes and how it will look!
I've yet to play more than a single oneshot of Chronicles of Darkness, so wouldn't say i'm experienced enough with any of the games to say anything definitive. But from reading up on the books, i think Changeling is the one that's caught my attention the most. Simply because I'm seeing SO MUCH range in it. From the most horrific kidnapping stories, tales of survivalism against an all-powerful abuser, to something a lot more lighthearted but no less impactful similar to Frieren a Journey Beyond or even Delicious in Dungeon. I'm 100% certain similar ranges can be found in the other books, but Changeling is the one game I personally found that much range in tone in, on top of the already fascinating lore it presents as written.
I know I am a bit late getting to this video (I kind of skipped over to go through all the Curseborne videos you've been releasing), but I am so glad that you view Promethean so highly. I always tend to feel like my friend group are the only ones who have a deep appreciation for the game. The first edition of Promethean came out while I was a senior in college, and as an Anthropology major at the time, my friends at college (all also anthropology majors as well) and myself fell in love with the concept of the game. So much so that we convinced the Professor for our Anthropology Senior Seminar course to let us play an ongoing game of Promethean as the course material for the semester. We even got the Professor to play a character in the game and she loved it as well. I always dislike people's seeming adverse reaction to Promethean because I love the game so much and it makes me happy to hear that you have a love of it as well.
I think the kneejerk rejection a lot of people demonstrate with Promethean is based mainly on the travelling element of the 1st edition. The fact you can't stay in one spot for long is so antithetical to most rooted Chronicles of Darkness games that it makes people turn away.
Its interesting that you mentioned how many people felt as if Requiem killed Masquerade, because some people I had gamed with in the past were reluctant to try it and I believe it was because of there attachments to the OWoD. Having said that, I managed to sway them after a Werewolf the Forsaken game and that changed their opinions. After that we revisited the CoD and played Mummy the Curse which was by far some of the best sessions we had. So my first is actually Mummy the Curse because of how expansive the possibilities are with stories and the idea of awakening with no prior memories. That idea alone immediately struck nerves in every member of my group at that time. The group was so interested and seemingly hooked just by the manuscript. Second choice would be Werewolf the Forsaken. Curseborn sounds fantastic! I am so excited there is a new horror game on the way!
I'm mostly overwelmed, to be honest. I only jumped on the WoD train in January 2021 when there was nothing to do and my friends and I decided to start a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle using roll20 as our virtual table top. So seeing and hearing about so many books and games and themes and monsters simply short-circuits my brain. :D I'm interested in many of those, but I might be getting too old to catch up on everything. Especially with the new books etc. that are being released that I'm already interested and emotionally invested in. Anyway, thanks a lot for your explanation videos overall, they always make my day. :)
my first 3 non d20 system rpgs where Chronicles of Darkness (though at the time not yet rebranded) I purchased the mortal's blue book, Mage and Werewolf with storyteller screens for each. Werewolf is my favorite of all the lines, but I like most of them with some I'll admit not sure how to run. I managed to get ahold of physical copies of all the Werewolf books and getting second editions as they came out. Sad to see COFD in a limbo state currently but Curseborn looks super fun, and I feel will be a great continuation to getting to play the monsters.
Very happy to hear you enjoyed Shunned by the Moon so much, one of single favorite books from Chronicles. Currently running mummy 2e for a dedicated meret of players, thank you for your work!!
It's always been Changeling: The Lost for me. I've been running it off and on for years and it has range depending on your gaming group. I've ran it straight, I've ran it like "The Sandman", I've run it like "Guardians of the Galaxy", every time it's been memorable.
I loved Lost enough to publish a book on the Storyteller's vault for it. I haven't been able to play it since I started Wrestling, but I'd love to come in and play a Beast again, they're my favourite. I think my last character was a Bleach Elemental Summer King named Stryx, and he was just pure impulse and 'Yesssss'. Can't wait for another game
Demon the Descent enjoyer here. It is by far my favorite, admittedly more thematically than mechanically. I'm always saddened to hear when people bounce off it because of the lack of fire and brimstone demons. It is such a fun setting and techgnostic espionage is inspired as a genre. Had a game involving Walt Disney that was just sublime. Walt didn't die of lung cancer, he was assassinated by demons to stop him from carrying forward with the God Machine's plans for EPCOT, the City of the Future. Except Walt didn't actually die. Every CEO of Disney is just another cover of the same angel; the entire media empire is a set up to maintain infrastructure and push the GM's plans. Except the angel was slowly losing focus on its mission, with the enormous capital amassed awakening its latent avarice. But yes, that's right, the God Machine is responsible for the absolute state of copyright laws. Mechanically, however, I do think that DtD suffered heavily from being written right in that in between nWoD 1e and CofD 2e time period. I really am sad that it will never get a proper second edition to clean up some of the messier aspects. Aside from Demon: Hunter an A-Tier game, always enjoy a good HtV chronicle. Vampire is good but I think I've played it too much. Changeling I've had terribly bad games of and a great game of, so probably heavily depends on the other people at the table for that one. And I did a short Deviant game that was fun and my group always says they'd be willing to do more, but when it comes down to actually selecting the games to play, it never gets picked. Haven't played any of the others. Mage always felt way too convoluted---and I say that as a Demon fan... Mummy just seemed too strange with the whole going backward thing, I don't think that aspect meshed with anyone in my groups. Promethean seems a bit too sad. I don't know if you've looked into fan games at all, but we did run one Dragon Rekindled (Dragon the Embers?) game and one Genius the Transgression game. Both were alright. Definitely need a ton more polish. Personally, I like the ideas in the Dragon games. Also have a friend who really wants to do Princess the Hopeful but he has been unsuccessful in convincing any other person to join him in his adventures for what feels like a good ten years now. Searched this video because we're actually going to start our first werewolf game soon and just wanted to see if there was anything new on youtube about CofD. Hadn't heard of Curseborne before this, but I'll be sure to check it out sometime.
I remember buying the blue book at 15 (I did not have the money for both that and VtR), and sitting in the Manchester Central Library reading the introductory fiction and just tearing through the rest of it in no time at all. I think my favourite NWoD is perhaps still Hunter, I ran a bluebook/Hunter mesh game based on the first Evil Dead film/the 2013 reboot that was, I think, the most well received WoD I have ever run.
Cool to hear the opinion of someone who works with TTRPGs. I don't have anyone to play them with, but ever since I played Bloodlines, I've enjoyed learning about different systems. In Chronicles of Darkness, the games I found the most interesting were Vampire: The Requiem, Changeling: The Lost and Werewolf: The Forsaken. I've always loved vampires, so liking that one didn't surprise me, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed learning about Changeling and Werewolf, because these aren't creatures I usually find interesting in other media. The focus on the hunt and werewolves having to balance their spirit side and their human side was a mechanic I was very impressed by, because it made so much sense but I didn't see it coming. Changeling... I honestly don't think I'm brave enough to play. I never suffered huge traumas or anything, but a lot of what I read there resonated with me and I'd be more likely to get emotional in that game than in any other. Absolutely wonderful. Promethean and Mummy were interesting, but not my favorites. Mage is the one I thought I'd love, due to my love of reading about Ascension, but didnt, because I didn't enjoy the lore about the Exarchs and the retroactive changes to reality. It felt like the scale was so big and the world so fragile that it kind of... invalidated itself and other gamelines? The world is a prison, and the prison can change completely just because a random mage awakened, so why care about whether that weak mage will solve a mystery or whether that vampire will manage to hold on to his humanity? It went too big, more so than even Ascension, in particular with the existential horror, and I felt like it crumbled because of it. I did like everything else about it, though. That part of the lore aside, the abstract symbols and the magic system seemed like a lot of fun.Geist and Deviant I didn't vibe with too much, but they didn't seem bad. Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, just felt like dumping my thoughts here. Great video, man.
It's weird, but I enjoy a lot werewolf the apocalypse, I was playing an uktena native American wolf ... The funny part is that in this story we fought less that in a vampire game, fewer combats, but more pack interactions and rituals, exploration and spirits gathering... Love it
@@TheGentlemanGameralso i wouldn’t be concerned about your bias since you wrote for it. Mummy is honestly the most interesting, different and weird CoD game. I reckon many people might be weirded out by it because of how reversed power is and the themes. But it caught me off guard by how for me that game is taste wise. I always seem to love the weird games nobody wants to play 😂 like mummy and unknown armies. Have you ever played unknown armies matthew?
I didn't care much about Chronicles of Darknes but not long ago a friend run a Deviant: the renegades game where we were the devoted of a special forces organizations that secretly was a mummy's cult (one of the players decided to be a mummy). It was mostly a game made to see what was posible and what were the limits of the system, but it allowed me to see what CoD had that WoD didn't and viceversa, and it also helped me see that I really liked Deviant, as it allowed an imaginative mind to create most character concepts. Nowadays I have run multiple Deviant chronicles, both as renegades, devoted and a bit of both, and right now I'm running one were I let some of my players make up whatever they wanted (one of the PCs is a manbearpig. It makes me laugh everytime I say it), which certainly made it more complicated to "find" the horror, but with time and touchstones, it eventually arrived. That aside, I really like the aesthetics of Demon and Mummy, games which I hope I eventually run, but before that, I will be running a Mage the Awakening as I liked how different but also unique was when I was comparing it to Ascension, a game I still like, but finding out how different yet similar they were was very interesting. Well, in short, I think Deviant is my favorite so far. It is very open with what you can potentially make and allows for both very powerful and weak characters at the same table depending on what a player wants out of their PC. It also allows me to run very action oriented games where the PCs work for a subjectively good org at the same time it allows me to do the renegade thing without forcing mechanics and themes. Lastly, its last supplement added a number of things that broadened what I thought was possible in terms of what characters could be, how to use animals in a very fearsome way and had very interesting objects table. I just never thought I would see planes in a CoD book.
That's fantastic! I love it when someone comes forward to profess love for one of the lesser known Chronicles of Darkness games. Superb. Have you checked out Curseborne yet? www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/curseborne-tabletop-roleplaying-game
Werewolf the forsaken 2nd edition is #1 for me. The Hunt, the legend (Truth) of Father Wolf and Mother Luna, the Spirits, The Hosts, and all the fantastical monstrosities… Animism, body horror, found family and an inherited duty and primal urge to simply Hunt. The game is everything I wanted Apocalypse to be. It made me feel like an actual horror movie monster.
I've ran lots of world of darkness, but never got around to playing or running any Chronicles of Darkness games, although Hunter sounded amazing. The whole conspiracy theme really stood out to me back then.
If you dont mind the fact that all magic is now ritual rather than casting fireball, the horror law of the jungle aspect of requiem makes it a more enjoyable game imo because everyone is preying and being preyed on
I like Beast the Primodial, despite the Controversy, I think the game really give you the tool to be unapologetically a monster, while having the character feel human. I like that there is no system to punish you for being a jerk, there is only Hunger, which give you even more incentive to be a jerk. But the character have to live with their action and consequence of that action, and while there isn't any morality system, basic empathy doesn't need a system for the character to feel it. You're a monster, but what does that mean? And what is a monster place in the world? To be kill? To spread terror? To teach other? Or just to survive?
@@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147 I wrote some of the antagonists in Unconquered Heroes and I developed a fair amount of Beast content for The Contagion Chronicle (and probably some of Dark Eras 2, though I can't remember at this point)!
The only CoD book I have been able to read cover to cover was Promeathen. I have adapted them into normal WoD characters. They have become very beloved NPC (well beloved until Disquiet takes effect) I adore its alchemy, the lore, all of it.
Once I tasted Cinnamon Toast Crunch the first time, I burnt my boxes of Lucky Charms out of spite. On topic, I was way too much of a meta lorewhore for V:tM to ever get into Requiem that much. I loved the hell out the 2nd editions of Werewolf and Promethean though. I liked the system for Awakening, but mages in general are an archetype I have a hard time with in modern day games. For whatever reason, I can't ever come up with any kind of feasible concept for them beyond "I'm a guy who does magic because magic." I find it so much easier when I have that disconnect of being some kind of actual monstrous being.
Love myself some Mage and Changeling. Question for Curseborne: Is there a possibility in the future for a freeform magic spellcasting rules like that of Awakening? Curseborne is its own thing of course but the raw power and freedom of Mage would be really cool to see with the sorcerers of Curseborne.
There is definitely a possibility. We explored that system in The World Below with Kaotic Sorcery, so as they both use Storypath Ultra as their base system, I think it's something we could do in Curseborne.
Chronicles of Darkness, or New World of Darkness or whatever you want to call it, is AMAZING! The second Edition stuff went in a direction, ruleswise, I didn't much enjoy, but all of first edition was superv. The material is of such excelence I know of lots of people who never play TTRPGs and bought and read the books just to enjoy them. Heck! I do! The shared game system for Chronicles is not my cup of tea, but the writhing and the setting more than make up for it. And no, I won't compare Chronicles to OldWoD. Those are different worlds, different settings and different games, that run under different systems. Apples to oranges.
I love CoD with Changling at the top of my list. I got the blue and red books at Gencon and it was really cool seeing the creators at the panels. I liked who nWoD (CoD) started to move away from ultra powerful globe spanning consipricys to more local/regional.
Requiem 2e is my number 1 out of all games I've played. There's just so much you can do with it. I want to play Changeling 2e, I just have a hard time figuring out the mechanics.
Is there anything in particular that you're uncertain of, mechanically? You may be well served joining the Onyx Path Discord and asking there: discord.gg/jYqvKsTS
I remember my late teens and sitting down on the bus with the new vampire and werewolf games. But also remember falling out with roleplaying due to IRL. But the setting and the books I did own helped me ground myself in some of my darkest days. Is there any way to get these books onto my self? I am way, way late to the party with the Chronicles of Darkness and would hate to not be able to get my hands on more of the books.
You can still buy them via DriveThruRPG. I can post some good links for you here: Mummy: The Curse 2e: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/347148/Mummy-The-Curse-Second-Edition?affiliate_id=182989 Changeling: The Lost 2e: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/248078/changeling-the-lost-second-edition?affiliate_id=182989 Deviant: The Renegades: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/341534/deviant-the-renegades?affiliate_id=182989
Dude, where's the tier list!? I came to watch a WoD writer burn some bridges amongst his peers and I was disappointed. This could have been so much juicier.
My tastes are relatively similar, though I would swap the position of Hunter and Mummy with your ranking. Personally, I don't see much similar between H5 and Vigil, other than the lack of the H1 lore.
I didn’t hate Requiem. I liked the rules. The Problem at the time I bought the strix chronicles ( Requiem) and the Blue Book was, it Mixed gameterms and Clan namens and Everything felt just weird. My Players and me gave up after about a year. We even tried again with mage the awakening. Did not work either. We then player Masquerade again and when v5 came out we startet with that. And I think it was your presentation on the graveyard Video that made is change. After all I don‘t think the CofD where bad. It didn’t work for us.
@@TheGentlemanGamer Curseborne checks all the boxes for my group. The key aspects we value are: 1. It’s different enough from both the classic World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness. No mixing of Clan namens or concepts or whathaveyou. 2. Skills are well-balanced and equally useful, unlike the overreliance on Awareness and Athletics in V20. 3. The combat system is both fast and effective. Faster than cwod and more fun than CofD 4. The rules are consistent, relevant (unlike decapitation rules in V20 or the "Redcap limb-bite-off" rules in C20), and not overly broad. 5. not in the weirdest english one could possible imagine. We are all no native speakers and we had Books we just could not read.
And I say ot again chronicles of darkness is better then WOD. Change my mind. I know I was also one of the dudes that braged about the nwod respectively COD but at the end I had to realize that the whole COD was simply better constructed. Especially Hunter The Vigil was a suprise, in an absolutely positive way. So I have big hopes for Curseborn and a Vampire Breed that are pure alienated body horror, where other games are now missing something like this. And no, Tzimisce are not my favorite clan although I am a slav. Nosferatu is King, no matter which game.
![[RPG] My Favourite Game System](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HKFLW-Vnl7Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Curseborne] The Journey from Mortal to Accursed (Character Concept)](/img/n.gif)
If you enjoy my videos or love the Chronicles of Darkness, please check out the Curseborne Kickstarter here and click NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH to be informed when the campaign goes live: www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/curseborne-tabletop-roleplaying-game 👾🤖👾
And if there are any Chronicles of Darkness games you haven't purchased, there are links to all of them in the video description!
As a huge fan of Requiem in particular and Chronicles of Darkness in general i was a little sad when i learned about Paradox current stance on those IPs, but hey, the material already writen its inspiration enough for a thousand chronicles. Onyx Path did an amazing job and i have little doubts that Curseborne is gonna mantain that level of quality.
I'm very happy with how the manuscript for Curseborne has turned out! Hopefully you will too.
I'll wait curseborne, but I am afraid of it will be to mechanicly complex for no reason like scion
@@kabahr6517 I've made a video all about its mechanics called How Do I Play Curseborne? - so that should help.
I like the apparent rebellious underdog attitude of Onyx Path.
Paradox: "No more Chronicles books for you."
Onyx Path: "Fine, I'll make my own. You can’t stop me."
We have a long history with horror games, so it's only natural we want to make one of our own. Stronger than never ever before.
@@TheGentlemanGamer I'm looking forward to it. I wasn't keen on the new mechanics vs the Chronicles system, but if it's an improvement and I can recreate all the fun of Requiem 2e, I'll keep backing it.
@@LordReginaldMeowmont Thank you!
Changeling the Lost was the game we played in one of my favourite campaigns ever.
My character was a reverend who'd become jaded before being taken and was going through the motions, the whole campaign he was trying to re-affirm his faith after witnessing the fae, I'm not religious, but being able to explore belief and cognitive dissonance like that was very powerful
How did your character rationalize the use of changeling contracts ?
Was it devil magic or angelic intervention ?
As for exploring belief and cognitive dissonance, you as the player is still outside the box. The box is the table where you look at your character sheet and roll dice for result outcomes.
Catholics like ritual and stage/alter props, protestants on the other hand don't.
Hearing about how some people treated New WoD when Chronicles came out gives me call back vibes to when Age of Sigmar came out and alot of people said it killed Warhammer: Old World.
It was exactly like that. And every other shift in editions of Warhammer.
If you had the time and inclination; a podcast about your opinions and experiences in the industry would be fascinating. Really looking forward to Curseborne.
I was running my own podcast, but to be honest, I prefer UA-cam as a venue.
Really appreciating these more behind the scenes bits and pieces Matthew.
I'm definitely enjoying repeatedly returning to Mummy the Curse and Changeling the Lost as core games and really enjoyed Mage the Awakening when I ran it, particularly as 2e cleared up so much chaff.
Thanks for all your work on them, mate.
Very excited to see where Curseborne goes and how it will look!
I agree Awakening 2e is an improvement, though there are some elements of 1e I prefer. That said, Mage has never really been my game.
I've yet to play more than a single oneshot of Chronicles of Darkness, so wouldn't say i'm experienced enough with any of the games to say anything definitive. But from reading up on the books, i think Changeling is the one that's caught my attention the most. Simply because I'm seeing SO MUCH range in it. From the most horrific kidnapping stories, tales of survivalism against an all-powerful abuser, to something a lot more lighthearted but no less impactful similar to Frieren a Journey Beyond or even Delicious in Dungeon. I'm 100% certain similar ranges can be found in the other books, but Changeling is the one game I personally found that much range in tone in, on top of the already fascinating lore it presents as written.
You're bang on the money about Changeling. It possesses a huge amount of scope.
I know I am a bit late getting to this video (I kind of skipped over to go through all the Curseborne videos you've been releasing), but I am so glad that you view Promethean so highly. I always tend to feel like my friend group are the only ones who have a deep appreciation for the game. The first edition of Promethean came out while I was a senior in college, and as an Anthropology major at the time, my friends at college (all also anthropology majors as well) and myself fell in love with the concept of the game. So much so that we convinced the Professor for our Anthropology Senior Seminar course to let us play an ongoing game of Promethean as the course material for the semester. We even got the Professor to play a character in the game and she loved it as well. I always dislike people's seeming adverse reaction to Promethean because I love the game so much and it makes me happy to hear that you have a love of it as well.
I think the kneejerk rejection a lot of people demonstrate with Promethean is based mainly on the travelling element of the 1st edition. The fact you can't stay in one spot for long is so antithetical to most rooted Chronicles of Darkness games that it makes people turn away.
Its interesting that you mentioned how many people felt as if Requiem killed Masquerade, because some people I had gamed with in the past were reluctant to try it and I believe it was because of there attachments to the OWoD. Having said that, I managed to sway them after a Werewolf the Forsaken game and that changed their opinions. After that we revisited the CoD and played Mummy the Curse which was by far some of the best sessions we had. So my first is actually Mummy the Curse because of how expansive the possibilities are with stories and the idea of awakening with no prior memories. That idea alone immediately struck nerves in every member of my group at that time. The group was so interested and seemingly hooked just by the manuscript. Second choice would be Werewolf the Forsaken.
Curseborn sounds fantastic! I am so excited there is a new horror game on the way!
You've chosen an excellent pairing for top two! We dabbled with Werewolf's Idigam having a connection to the Judges in Mummy 2e, as I recall.
Hunter the vigil when they included the slasher book in 2nd edition made it the winner for me.
It was a solid move!
I'm mostly overwelmed, to be honest. I only jumped on the WoD train in January 2021 when there was nothing to do and my friends and I decided to start a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle using roll20 as our virtual table top. So seeing and hearing about so many books and games and themes and monsters simply short-circuits my brain. :D I'm interested in many of those, but I might be getting too old to catch up on everything. Especially with the new books etc. that are being released that I'm already interested and emotionally invested in. Anyway, thanks a lot for your explanation videos overall, they always make my day. :)
There's a lot of info out there, and you don't need to consume it all at once!
my first 3 non d20 system rpgs where Chronicles of Darkness (though at the time not yet rebranded) I purchased the mortal's blue book, Mage and Werewolf with storyteller screens for each. Werewolf is my favorite of all the lines, but I like most of them with some I'll admit not sure how to run. I managed to get ahold of physical copies of all the Werewolf books and getting second editions as they came out. Sad to see COFD in a limbo state currently but Curseborn looks super fun, and I feel will be a great continuation to getting to play the monsters.
That must have been amazing, to go straight to CofD from D20 games.
@@TheGentlemanGamer was definitely a fresh change :)
Very happy to hear you enjoyed Shunned by the Moon so much, one of single favorite books from Chronicles. Currently running mummy 2e for a dedicated meret of players, thank you for your work!!
Thank you so much!
It's always been Changeling: The Lost for me. I've been running it off and on for years and it has range depending on your gaming group. I've ran it straight, I've ran it like "The Sandman", I've run it like "Guardians of the Galaxy", every time it's been memorable.
@@DDVargas1983 It's a superb game with some very heavy concepts involved.
100%! I love the CoD but none of them blew my mind with how good it was from a lore and mechanics standpoint as CtL.
I loved Lost enough to publish a book on the Storyteller's vault for it. I haven't been able to play it since I started Wrestling, but I'd love to come in and play a Beast again, they're my favourite.
I think my last character was a Bleach Elemental Summer King named Stryx, and he was just pure impulse and 'Yesssss'. Can't wait for another game
A *Bleach* Elemental?!
@@TheGentlemanGamer There is a getting things .. clean .. joke in there somehow.
Demon the Descent enjoyer here. It is by far my favorite, admittedly more thematically than mechanically. I'm always saddened to hear when people bounce off it because of the lack of fire and brimstone demons. It is such a fun setting and techgnostic espionage is inspired as a genre. Had a game involving Walt Disney that was just sublime. Walt didn't die of lung cancer, he was assassinated by demons to stop him from carrying forward with the God Machine's plans for EPCOT, the City of the Future. Except Walt didn't actually die. Every CEO of Disney is just another cover of the same angel; the entire media empire is a set up to maintain infrastructure and push the GM's plans. Except the angel was slowly losing focus on its mission, with the enormous capital amassed awakening its latent avarice. But yes, that's right, the God Machine is responsible for the absolute state of copyright laws.
Mechanically, however, I do think that DtD suffered heavily from being written right in that in between nWoD 1e and CofD 2e time period. I really am sad that it will never get a proper second edition to clean up some of the messier aspects.
Aside from Demon:
Hunter an A-Tier game, always enjoy a good HtV chronicle. Vampire is good but I think I've played it too much. Changeling I've had terribly bad games of and a great game of, so probably heavily depends on the other people at the table for that one. And I did a short Deviant game that was fun and my group always says they'd be willing to do more, but when it comes down to actually selecting the games to play, it never gets picked.
Haven't played any of the others. Mage always felt way too convoluted---and I say that as a Demon fan... Mummy just seemed too strange with the whole going backward thing, I don't think that aspect meshed with anyone in my groups. Promethean seems a bit too sad.
I don't know if you've looked into fan games at all, but we did run one Dragon Rekindled (Dragon the Embers?) game and one Genius the Transgression game. Both were alright. Definitely need a ton more polish. Personally, I like the ideas in the Dragon games. Also have a friend who really wants to do Princess the Hopeful but he has been unsuccessful in convincing any other person to join him in his adventures for what feels like a good ten years now.
Searched this video because we're actually going to start our first werewolf game soon and just wanted to see if there was anything new on youtube about CofD. Hadn't heard of Curseborne before this, but I'll be sure to check it out sometime.
Superb write-up and advocacy for Demon!
I never thought you would do a ranking. This is refreshing to see.
@@occupationalhazard Well it's only a kind of a ranking. It's all personal taste.
I remember buying the blue book at 15 (I did not have the money for both that and VtR), and sitting in the Manchester Central Library reading the introductory fiction and just tearing through the rest of it in no time at all.
I think my favourite NWoD is perhaps still Hunter, I ran a bluebook/Hunter mesh game based on the first Evil Dead film/the 2013 reboot that was, I think, the most well received WoD I have ever run.
It sounds like you and I had a similar excitement when we first got into it!
Cool to hear the opinion of someone who works with TTRPGs. I don't have anyone to play them with, but ever since I played Bloodlines, I've enjoyed learning about different systems. In Chronicles of Darkness, the games I found the most interesting were Vampire: The Requiem, Changeling: The Lost and Werewolf: The Forsaken.
I've always loved vampires, so liking that one didn't surprise me, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed learning about Changeling and Werewolf, because these aren't creatures I usually find interesting in other media. The focus on the hunt and werewolves having to balance their spirit side and their human side was a mechanic I was very impressed by, because it made so much sense but I didn't see it coming. Changeling... I honestly don't think I'm brave enough to play. I never suffered huge traumas or anything, but a lot of what I read there resonated with me and I'd be more likely to get emotional in that game than in any other. Absolutely wonderful.
Promethean and Mummy were interesting, but not my favorites. Mage is the one I thought I'd love, due to my love of reading about Ascension, but didnt, because I didn't enjoy the lore about the Exarchs and the retroactive changes to reality. It felt like the scale was so big and the world so fragile that it kind of... invalidated itself and other gamelines? The world is a prison, and the prison can change completely just because a random mage awakened, so why care about whether that weak mage will solve a mystery or whether that vampire will manage to hold on to his humanity? It went too big, more so than even Ascension, in particular with the existential horror, and I felt like it crumbled because of it. I did like everything else about it, though. That part of the lore aside, the abstract symbols and the magic system seemed like a lot of fun.Geist and Deviant I didn't vibe with too much, but they didn't seem bad.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, just felt like dumping my thoughts here. Great video, man.
Superb choices, and I appreciate the wall of text!
It's weird, but I enjoy a lot werewolf the apocalypse, I was playing an uktena native American wolf ... The funny part is that in this story we fought less that in a vampire game, fewer combats, but more pack interactions and rituals, exploration and spirits gathering... Love it
That's exactly what I look for in a Werewolf game.
Requiem, thus far, is my favorite approach to vampires to date.
Let's see what you think of the Hungry in Curseborne.
I love the concept of mummy. It kind of gives me planescape torment vibes which is always a good thing
@@NOopulence I think that's a big part of why I love it so much.
@@TheGentlemanGameralso i wouldn’t be concerned about your bias since you wrote for it. Mummy is honestly the most interesting, different and weird CoD game. I reckon many people might be weirded out by it because of how reversed power is and the themes. But it caught me off guard by how for me that game is taste wise. I always seem to love the weird games nobody wants to play 😂 like mummy and unknown armies.
Have you ever played unknown armies matthew?
I didn't care much about Chronicles of Darknes but not long ago a friend run a Deviant: the renegades game where we were the devoted of a special forces organizations that secretly was a mummy's cult (one of the players decided to be a mummy). It was mostly a game made to see what was posible and what were the limits of the system, but it allowed me to see what CoD had that WoD didn't and viceversa, and it also helped me see that I really liked Deviant, as it allowed an imaginative mind to create most character concepts.
Nowadays I have run multiple Deviant chronicles, both as renegades, devoted and a bit of both, and right now I'm running one were I let some of my players make up whatever they wanted (one of the PCs is a manbearpig. It makes me laugh everytime I say it), which certainly made it more complicated to "find" the horror, but with time and touchstones, it eventually arrived.
That aside, I really like the aesthetics of Demon and Mummy, games which I hope I eventually run, but before that, I will be running a Mage the Awakening as I liked how different but also unique was when I was comparing it to Ascension, a game I still like, but finding out how different yet similar they were was very interesting.
Well, in short, I think Deviant is my favorite so far. It is very open with what you can potentially make and allows for both very powerful and weak characters at the same table depending on what a player wants out of their PC. It also allows me to run very action oriented games where the PCs work for a subjectively good org at the same time it allows me to do the renegade thing without forcing mechanics and themes. Lastly, its last supplement added a number of things that broadened what I thought was possible in terms of what characters could be, how to use animals in a very fearsome way and had very interesting objects table. I just never thought I would see planes in a CoD book.
That's fantastic! I love it when someone comes forward to profess love for one of the lesser known Chronicles of Darkness games. Superb. Have you checked out Curseborne yet? www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/curseborne-tabletop-roleplaying-game
@@TheGentlemanGamer Yes, some things don't resonate with me much but I backed it ap regardless, I think very good things can come out of it still
@@Cronirios Thank you! Have a great weekend.
Werewolf the forsaken 2nd edition is #1 for me. The Hunt, the legend (Truth) of Father Wolf and Mother Luna, the Spirits, The Hosts, and all the fantastical monstrosities… Animism, body horror, found family and an inherited duty and primal urge to simply Hunt. The game is everything I wanted Apocalypse to be. It made me feel like an actual horror movie monster.
I've ran lots of world of darkness, but never got around to playing or running any Chronicles of Darkness games, although Hunter sounded amazing. The whole conspiracy theme really stood out to me back then.
If you dont mind the fact that all magic is now ritual rather than casting fireball, the horror law of the jungle aspect of requiem makes it a more enjoyable game imo because everyone is preying and being preyed on
I love Hunter: The Vigil. It's so much more to my tastes than Reckoning.
Thank you for another great video
@@MrSororitas Thank you for watching it!
I like Beast the Primodial, despite the Controversy, I think the game really give you the tool to be unapologetically a monster, while having the character feel human. I like that there is no system to punish you for being a jerk, there is only Hunger, which give you even more incentive to be a jerk. But the character have to live with their action and consequence of that action, and while there isn't any morality system, basic empathy doesn't need a system for the character to feel it. You're a monster, but what does that mean? And what is a monster place in the world? To be kill? To spread terror? To teach other? Or just to survive?
I enjoyed writing for Beast!
@@TheGentlemanGamer What did you write for Beast?
@@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147 I wrote some of the antagonists in Unconquered Heroes and I developed a fair amount of Beast content for The Contagion Chronicle (and probably some of Dark Eras 2, though I can't remember at this point)!
Vampire and Changeling are my favorites of the CoD line. At least they're still available if inert at the moment.
They are indeed!
The only CoD book I have been able to read cover to cover was Promeathen. I have adapted them into normal WoD characters. They have become very beloved NPC (well beloved until Disquiet takes effect) I adore its alchemy, the lore, all of it.
Promethean is a beautiful piece of work.
Once I tasted Cinnamon Toast Crunch the first time, I burnt my boxes of Lucky Charms out of spite.
On topic, I was way too much of a meta lorewhore for V:tM to ever get into Requiem that much. I loved the hell out the 2nd editions of Werewolf and Promethean though. I liked the system for Awakening, but mages in general are an archetype I have a hard time with in modern day games. For whatever reason, I can't ever come up with any kind of feasible concept for them beyond "I'm a guy who does magic because magic." I find it so much easier when I have that disconnect of being some kind of actual monstrous being.
Yep, I can understand that viewpoint!
Love myself some Mage and Changeling.
Question for Curseborne: Is there a possibility in the future for a freeform magic spellcasting rules like that of Awakening?
Curseborne is its own thing of course but the raw power and freedom of Mage would be really cool to see with the sorcerers of Curseborne.
There is definitely a possibility. We explored that system in The World Below with Kaotic Sorcery, so as they both use Storypath Ultra as their base system, I think it's something we could do in Curseborne.
Chronicles of Darkness, or New World of Darkness or whatever you want to call it, is AMAZING!
The second Edition stuff went in a direction, ruleswise, I didn't much enjoy, but all of first edition was superv.
The material is of such excelence I know of lots of people who never play TTRPGs and bought and read the books just to enjoy them.
Heck! I do!
The shared game system for Chronicles is not my cup of tea, but the writhing and the setting more than make up for it.
And no, I won't compare Chronicles to OldWoD.
Those are different worlds, different settings and different games, that run under different systems.
Apples to oranges.
I'm very happy with our work on Mummy: The Curse.
I love CoD with Changling at the top of my list. I got the blue and red books at Gencon and it was really cool seeing the creators at the panels. I liked who nWoD (CoD) started to move away from ultra powerful globe spanning consipricys to more local/regional.
Yeah, that's what we're doing with Curseborne too.
@@TheGentlemanGamer It looks very cool. I pledged for the Slipcase Edition.
brother, Curseborne sounds really cool and I am looking forward to it but my god that sound hurts my poor ears every time it plays
I'll have to speak to the Curseborne hacker gods who keep making that damn interruption appear in my videos!
Requiem 2e is my number 1 out of all games I've played. There's just so much you can do with it.
I want to play Changeling 2e, I just have a hard time figuring out the mechanics.
Is there anything in particular that you're uncertain of, mechanically? You may be well served joining the Onyx Path Discord and asking there: discord.gg/jYqvKsTS
I remember my late teens and sitting down on the bus with the new vampire and werewolf games. But also remember falling out with roleplaying due to IRL. But the setting and the books I did own helped me ground myself in some of my darkest days. Is there any way to get these books onto my self? I am way, way late to the party with the Chronicles of Darkness and would hate to not be able to get my hands on more of the books.
You can still buy them via DriveThruRPG. I can post some good links for you here:
Mummy: The Curse 2e: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/347148/Mummy-The-Curse-Second-Edition?affiliate_id=182989
Changeling: The Lost 2e: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/248078/changeling-the-lost-second-edition?affiliate_id=182989
Deviant: The Renegades: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/341534/deviant-the-renegades?affiliate_id=182989
Your Hunter recaps are what got me into CoD. They definitely were mature, but it was horror. Horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable.
Couldn't agree more!
One thing I like Chronicle of Darkness, is that I don't have to 10,000 books, just to know the current metaplot happening.
Not everyone is a fan of metaplot!
Dude, where's the tier list!?
I came to watch a WoD writer burn some bridges amongst his peers and I was disappointed.
This could have been so much juicier.
You won't be finding any bridge burnings here, sir. I value my employability.
@@TheGentlemanGamer No, of course not. Perish the thought.
I do miss a genuine tier list seeing the thumbnail though.
Who would complain about more versions of good games..?
You'd be surprised!
@@TheGentlemanGamer Unfortunately, people are entitled to be wrong.
My tastes are relatively similar, though I would swap the position of Hunter and Mummy with your ranking.
Personally, I don't see much similar between H5 and Vigil, other than the lack of the H1 lore.
@@occupationalhazard I think H5 was very much inspired by Vigil. Not a bad thing for fans of Vigil, but for that, there's Vigil.
Did I hear something about a patreon group?
My Patreon is over on patreon.com/matthewdawkins!
Question: How easy would it be to port the Lore of WoD or CoD into Curseborne?
@@The-Random-Hamlet It depends on what lore! Give me an example.
@@TheGentlemanGamer Let's say, the 13 clans and how they differentiate from each other. Or, if using CoD, how would you work the Mummies in?
@@The-Random-Hamlet The 13 clans could easily be Hungry families with different torments in Curseborne, and mummies could be a family of the Dead.
@@TheGentlemanGamer Cool. Thank you :)
I didn’t hate Requiem. I liked the rules. The Problem at the time I bought the strix chronicles ( Requiem) and the Blue Book was, it Mixed gameterms and Clan namens and Everything felt just weird. My Players and me gave up after about a year. We even tried again with mage the awakening. Did not work either. We then player Masquerade again and when v5 came out we startet with that. And I think it was your presentation on the graveyard Video that made is change. After all I don‘t think the CofD where bad. It didn’t work for us.
That's fair enough! Not every game is for every player. I hope you check out Curseborne!
@@TheGentlemanGamer Curseborne checks all the boxes for my group. The key aspects we value are:
1. It’s different enough from both the classic World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness. No mixing of Clan namens or concepts or whathaveyou.
2. Skills are well-balanced and equally useful, unlike the overreliance on Awareness and Athletics in V20.
3. The combat system is both fast and effective. Faster than cwod and more fun than CofD
4. The rules are consistent, relevant (unlike decapitation rules in V20 or the "Redcap limb-bite-off" rules in C20), and not overly broad.
5. not in the weirdest english one could possible imagine. We are all no native speakers and we had Books we just could not read.
@@charley2070 I really appreciate how you laid that out, Charley!
And I say ot again chronicles of darkness is better then WOD.
Change my mind.
I know I was also one of the dudes that braged about the nwod respectively COD but at the end I had to realize that the whole COD was simply better constructed. Especially Hunter The Vigil was a suprise, in an absolutely positive way.
So I have big hopes for Curseborn and a Vampire Breed that are pure alienated body horror, where other games are now missing something like this.
And no, Tzimisce are not my favorite clan although I am a slav.
Nosferatu is King, no matter which game.
Curseborne funded in under an hour, so we did well!
Best is mortals, 2nd best mage.
@@k9ine999 A lot of people love Awakening!