Quote from: Ian AbsentiaI would have been more satisfied if the Apocalypse/Gehenna/What-Have-You had effectively annihilated all of the supernatural from the "World of Darkness," leaving only a "World of Bleakness" I suppose.

!i!

In someof the Gehenna scenarios, that was actually the ending

Quote from: ImperatorIn someof the Gehenna scenarios, that was actually the ending

Oh.  Oh, well.  Perhaps I shouldn't have written off the oWoD years earlier. :deflated:

!i!

Do you count the Savage World plot point settings?

Are we counting TORG?

The Deadlands metaplot ended well...until they revived the setting with Reloaded, which I haven't gotten to read yet, so I have no idea how that has gone.

Metaplots have the same problem television series do, which is that financial imperatives to perpetually extend the series to sell more product conflict with artistic desires for resolution. I've never seen one end well, even when the metaplot itself had been otherwise quite well done (Heavy Gear).

oWoD Vampire ended decently (Gehenna offering a string of Mata-Heavy and Meta-Light scenarios to end you game with, my favorite being the one in the church that had no metaplot ties whatsoever). Time of Judgement was a very mixed bag...with the only game I cared about ending kinda bleh (Hunter, that would be!)

Orpheus was awesome all the way through. You could probably play games with the corebook for years...all the other books just blew the world WIDE open. I wish I had friends to play this with

Promethean was a very good limited run...with the last book all about totaly fucking with the game mechanically and theme wise as well as giving you all the ultimate end-all be all charcter options (nuclear Prometheans anyone?). Some of the middle books weren't super-dooper but still a super-excellent game line that ended well.

Quote from: KrakaJakoWoD Vampire ended decently (Gehenna offering a string of Mata-Heavy and Meta-Light scenarios to end you game with, my favorite being the one in the church that had no metaplot ties whatsoever).

That scenerio (Wormwood) is, for me, pure Vampire, in its distilled form. It's a thing of beauty.

Quote from: WarthurWhat about the Poor Wizard's Almanacs? The ones produced for BEMCI/RC D&D were pretty damn good, and they came after Wrath of the Immortals.

True, the first couple were for classoc D&D rather than 2nd ed. More a general trailing off of the line than anything else. Looking at what Bruce Heard had planned for the line after that, new gazetteers for Wendar and Heldann and a return of Blackmoor to Mystara, I've always been in two minds as to whether it was right to stop the product line when they did. Good end point, don't you think?

Quote from: ImperatorThat scenerio (Wormwood) is, for me, pure Vampire, in its distilled form. It's a thing of beauty.

Some of those scenarios were good, and Wormwood was among the better parts of the whole 'end of the world' stuff in WoD. But then came new world of darkness, and it was almost but not quite the same as the old game, almsot but not quite the same as the old setting, and it became apparent that it wasn't so much an 'end' as a 'rebranding', and a very flimsy rebranding at that.

I guess I was just monumentally disappointed that what we got with nwod was just more of the same. Pointless, really. Yeah, I know, they have to sell more books and a new edition of a game sells well, but even so if you're going to trash your setting you need to come out with something that looks and feels different afterwards, otherwise whats the point of buying the new one?

Quote from: CabI guess I was just monumentally disappointed that what we got with nwod was just more of the same. Pointless, really. Yeah, I know, they have to sell more books and a new edition of a game sells well, but even so if you're going to trash your setting you need to come out with something that looks and feels different afterwards, otherwise whats the point of buying the new one?

I'm going to disagree with you on this
 
For me, nWoD is quite different from oWoD. First, the apocalyptic feeling of "Gehena is nigh" is gone. That is a major change of mood for me. To make some comparison, oWoD felt like 'The Crow' movie, while the nWoD feels more like "X Files." Does it make sense? The oWoD was filled of despair and inminent doom, while this is more spooky, more of an undefined fear of what hides in shadows,.... even if you are one of those things that hide in shadows.
 
This new world is more misterious, given that the incoming products are modular and unconnected. Each book is a truly can of worms, that may freely contradict others, so you are never sure of which is true or which is not. I get the feeling that anything is possible, that always will be a new thing round the next corner. And that rocks.
 
Also, the system got a major improvement, IME. Not only on the base rules (those dealing with mortals), but also on the supernatural side (at least Vampires and Mages, don't know about werewolves). Combat in old Vampire was a drag, specially with Celerity and multiple actions involved. Now, combat is fast, furious and quite dangeorus.
 
So, the nWoD is great for me. I have a brand new setting, an excellent system, and I can easily use the new system in the old setting. I've successfully run The Giovanni Chronicles (I - III) with the V:tR system, and it works without a glitch.

The published material for Glorantha always assumes the fact of the Hero Wars in the near future. Some of the most important documents are contradictory, so what actually happens in the Hero Wars is a bit hazy. I think that's a good end. It's known from the start (so the GM can't get blindsided) and the outcome is unknown (so PCs can have starring roles).

The Fifth Frontier War panned out nicely.

Quote from: SettembriniThe Fifth Frontier War panned out nicely.

Really?  I always felt that, given the scale of the conflict, that it ended rather abruptly -- after only 3 or 4 years.  Given the years (decades?) of fifth column work and fleet/troop maneuvers the Zhodani put into the preparations for the war, it wasn't much bang for their buck.  Also, the caveat at the end was "Borders have been returned to pre-bellum lines and reparations are in order" made it look as if nothing had happened during the preceding 4 years.  I liked the war itself as a backdrop for my campaign, but I was left flat by its resolution.

!i!

(P.S. This is with regard to Traveller for whomever hasn't gokked this yet.)

Quote from: ImperatorI don't think so.
 
I see how some people could be disappointed with the ending of some of the lines. I liked Gehenna, The End of Empire and Time of Judgement overall (never got to read Apocalypse or Ascension), but not all the scenarios were equally interesting for me. Many people complained about the lack of closure of some of the products (for example, no canonical info on the Antediluvians was provided), and I understand that.
 
Since the very beginning, Gehenna was promised as inminent. The apocalyptic feeling was an integral part of the oWoD. And finally, when White Wolf delivers what they were promising for 13 years, people gets pissed because of that.
 
Gamers need something to complain about.

Actually WW promised never to release an offical ending or have Gehenna/Apocalypse/Acension ever happen.
But as Revised Edition came around and the old guard left the company, the new guard decided to milk Revised for awhile, while planning on killing off the old plot line/setting.

I Can see why they did it though. They wanted to streamline the splat, rules, etc..which had grown over the years. I just wish they went with a AOEN-verse rules based setting instead of the current nWoD rules which to me and other seems too inspired by D&D3e in some ways. Merits are basicly Feats in most ways. Renaming Attributes I'm ok with to be honest. But I'm not crazy with nWoD combat though. Just does not seem right to me, just does not click with me. But it clicks for others which is cool.

I'd rather WW had just stoped oWoD...no Ending Books at all.
Then maybe if WW wished to at some point they could release a oWoD book from time to time to see if people were still interested in it...