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Tabletop RPG set in a world much like our own, albeit darker. Shadows run deeper, mysteries exist in every corner, and humanity is not quite the master of the world or its fate.

Humans share the Earth with various supernatural creepy crawlies that prey on them like cattle, use them as pawns, and kill them when convenient (or at whim). In an interesting tightrope walk, individual humans have little power, and human history is a series of manipulations by disguised supernaturals; but a tenet of most of the supernatunal groups is that humanity as a force is dangerous and must remain ignorant. The original game was called Vampire: The Masquerade, after all...

The first game of the original or "Old" World of Darkness was first published in 1991, and expanded to a half a dozen or more game lines; the world ended in 2004 with the Time Of Judgement. In its place a new game line, the "New" World of Darkness, was created and is ongoing.

The World of Darkness, both old and new, is a setting where several Supernatural Creatures exist. Each has a unique niche, theme, and Back Story. The Old setting had a good deal of conflicting background, and what crossovers did happen had problems with the relative strengths of each participant.

The Old setting had a grand overarching Back Story and an ongoing Metaplot, though the latter tended to Railroad games at times. The new setting is much more modular and open ended; there's no metaplot, and crossovers are entirely optional, so players only need to buy the books they want or intend to use. Some see the new setting as a Ret Con of the old, to fix mistakes and imbalances; while no wholesale plot is lifted several themes, clans, institutions and other things are ported over. This is also true for the new games, which are much more mutually compatible rules-wise to crossovers, and there are no millennial vampires and mages controlling every event since the dawn of civilization... unless the Storyteller (their preferred term for a Game Master) wants there to be such things.

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This RPG provides examples of:

• Angel Unaware (The qashmallim in Promethean)
• Animorphism (Werewolves, vampire Clan Gangrel, and Changelings of the Pooka Kith and the Beast Seeming)
• Arcadia (the home of the fae)
• Artificial Human (Prometheans)
• Beethoven Was An Alien Spy — Happens every so often; can be done well (in Mage: the Ascension, Alan Turing's death at the hands of the Technocracy drove the Virtual Adepts to break away and join the Traditions) and horribly silly (a vampiric Heimrich Himmler shows up in the first edition London by Night; this was swiftly retconned to be an impostor when White Wolf decided it would be awkward to have World War II be an example of supernatural evils).
  • Though that didn't stop Himmler, Herman Goring and Rasputin cropping up in Berlin by Night (as a Tremere, Malkavian and Nosferatu respectively for those interested - I Am Not Making This Up)
    • As this troper understands the situation at some point in 2 Ed oWoD it became an in-joke among the writers who they could feasibly associate Rasputin with.
  • If I remember correctly one of the fun things about the oWOD is the fact that about five vampire clans claim Rasputin is one of them, as well as at least one Mage Tradition and a Werewolf tribe. He's eventually revealed to be a bodyriding Wraith.
  • And let's not forget about what Cain's real punishment for the murder of Abel was.
• Badass Normal: The majority of Hunters.
• Blessed With Suck (It is not fun to be a supernatural being.)
  • With the sometimes exception of Mages in both Old and New WOD.
• Church Militant (The Inquisition in the oWOD; the Malleus Maleficarum, the Order of St. George, and the Long Night in the nWOD)
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe:
  • In both Mage: the Ascension and Mage: the Awakening, Paradox, the backlash created by the subconcious disbelief of non-mage humans, can be the strongest force against mages. (Although in Mage: the Awakening, Paradox changes from being caused by the subconscious disbelief of non-mage humans to merely being aggravated by it, and is ultimately caused by a flaw in the structure of the universe.)
  • In Vampire: the Masquerade, vampires are only affected by crosses/stars of David/credit cards of the truly faithful, who are rare.
  • This is actually a matter of life or death for changelings in Changeling: the Dreaming, as the central premise rests on the fae being driven into human forms by the growing unwillingness to believe in the fantastic amongst humanity. This tendency, referred to as "Banality", can drive a changeling to an early grave, and must be overcome if they wish to work magic on a target. On the other hand, in Changeling: the Lost, the changelings who were originally humans can become more like the fae they are attempting to escape if they lose their grip on the true world, called "Clarity".
• Crapsack World (Especially for humans)
• Crossover Cosmology (Each game line in the Old WoD had a long, intricate Back Story, which was notoriously full of internal and mutual inconsistencies. This neccessitated several Ret Cons and making good on their initial promise to end the world with a bang — although, in many people's opinion, it was more of a whimper.)
• Cursed With Awesome (At least frankly that's how most groups play it)
• Dark World (Several in both settings)
• The Dark Side (Pretty much every supernatural runs the risk of getting drunk on power and becoming a jerk, if not outright evil)
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Moros "Necromancer" mages, who have the capacity to be as good or evil as any other mage. That said, there's a Moros-only Legacy of Black Magicians (Tremere Liches), but that's because of what they do to sustain their immortality - they eat souls. Yes, you read that right, they eat souls. If that dosen't fall under Immortality Immorality, nothing will.
  • Same thing with the Darklings from Changeling: the Lost. They've been shaped to be nightmares, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily bad guys.
• Deadly Decadent Court (All of them)
• Demonic Possession (Used in the Old WOD in Demon: The Fallen as a means for them to come into existence, and extensively in the new setting when spirits or ghosts urge or fully take over people.)
• Dying Like Animals (Almost every human is a Bat, the vampires are all Moles to humans and Mice to their elders, and Hunters are the rare humans who can see pass the masquerade and try to stop the bad supernaturals.)
• The End Of The World As We Know It (Imminent throughout the Old World of Darkness... and then in Time of Judgment, it happened.)
  • In at least five different apocalypses. All at once. Each race got 3-5 different apocalypses for a story teller to choose from, with the results ranging from bittersweet to incredibly depressing. Only one of the Mage endings was totally unambiguously happy. Sadly, WW did not write a comprehensive end of the world featuring all of the lines's shits hitting the fans simultaneously, because that would have been epic, and one has to applaud any G Ms who tried to sort through that on their own.
• Enemy Within (The Beast is an id-like force in vampires, compelling them to do evil in the name of satisfying their craving for blood)
• Evil Feels Good (Morality is lost by not showing remorse for misdeeds)
• Evil Tastes Good (Vampires and blood)
• The Fair Folk (Changeling: the Lost)
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink (Each game line in the original was incredibly insular, Vampires could go centuries never meeting a werewolf. The new one made the setting modular to help "write in or out" other supernaturals as the ST needs)
• Fetish Fuel
• Final Death
• Five Races (More predominant in the new setting)
• Functional Magic
• Gollum Made Me Do It (Shadows and Spectres, in Wraith: the Oblivion.)
• Gothic Punk
• Growing Up Sucks (In Changeling: the Dreaming, changelings tended to lose their fae side as they grew up, succumbing to banality and becoming dull adults)
• Half Human Hybrids— oh, where to begin:
  • Werewolf: the Apocalypse had relatives to the Garou known as "Kinfolk", who'd inherited a portion of the Garou blood but not the ability to become a full-on werewolf. Despite the best intent of some werewolves, they were often treated as second-class citizens. They appear in Werewolf: the Forsaken as the wolf-blooded, and with a much lesser portion of the angst.
    • Technically, all werewolves in Forsaken are half-human, because a child born from two werewolves is an evil, deformed spirit monster which hates its parents and all their kind.
  • Changeling: the Dreaming had the kinain, people of changeling True Fey blood (diluted now, but the True Fey were horny bastards when they were still around) who had the ability to interact with fae existence to a degree without experiencing the risk of Banality.
  • Vampire: the Masquerade featured both ghouls (mortals who gained a portion of supernatural power and longevity by feeding on vampire blood) and dhampirs (freakish offspring of thin-blooded vampires and humans). The companion game, Kindred of the East, featured dhampyrs (the "y" makes all the difference), who were likewise the children of the revenant-esque Kuei-jin and mortals. Ghouls have returned in Vampire: the Requiem, though dhampirs (in any way, shape, form or spelling) have yet to make an appearance in the new game line.
  • Hunter: the Vigil, the consipiracy known as "the Lucifuge" believe themselves to be descended from Satan.
• Hermetic Magic
• Karma Meter
• Katanas Are Just Better (in the old World of Darkness; in the new one, not so much)
• Kill It With Fire (The most surefire way to kill something in the WOD is with fire: if it isn't extra vulnerable to fire, rest assured it's probably not invulnerable to it either)
• Knight Templar (In Hunter: The Reckoning, Extremist imbued pretty much were this, personified)
  • Not to mention the Inquisition and the ACTUAL Knights Templar, who are a small craft of Mages.
• Masquerade (Each supernatural enforces their own, but Vampires and Mages are typically first to do clean up)
• MIB (In the old World of Darkness, the Technocracy had them. In the new World of Darkness, Task Force VALKYRIE are the men in black, and work for the US government. There's also Division Six, but they're not a real government agency and actually are the pawns of a Seer of the Throne)
• Metaplot (In the old World of Darkness; probably the most infamous example)
• Mundane Utility (Subverted in Mage: The Awakening: while it's possible to use magic for everyday chores, doing so is considered an (extremely minor) act of hubris and dings the Karma Meter.)
• Nightmare Fuel (Goes without saying)
  • Specific examples in the Old WOD: the Baali and the Sabbat in Vampire, the Black Spiral Dancers and the Wyrm in Werewolf, the Nephandi and Marauders (and MAYBE the Euthanatos) in Mage, the Spectres and Oblivion in Wraith, the Unseelie Court in Changeling, the Akuma and Yama Kings in Kindred Of The East... It's pretty much easier mentioning which factions are NOT Nightmare Fuel.
  • The New WOD offers: Belial's Brood in Requiem, the Hosts and Bale Hounds in Forsaken, Abyssal intruders in Awakening, the Pandorans and qashmallim in Promethean, the Gentry in Lost...
• Omnicidal Maniac (Reckoning's Waywards are prepared to eradicate every last supernatural on the planet - and they don't care if any humans get in the way.)
• Our Souls Are Different (They can be affected by powerful magic, and every supernatural race has different troubles involving theirs.)
• Our Vampires Are Different (Thirteen clans worth of "Different" in the old setting, five in the new. However, the differences between political views and origins are much more pronounced in the new WoD. All vampires share the same common weaknesses, but each clan has a unique new weakness and each Bloodline (a sub-group of a clan) has an extra one.)
• Personality Powers (In Hunter: The Reckoning a hunter's edges — the supernatural powers they use to fight evil — are determined by their beliefs and personality.)
• Point Build System
• Power Born Of Madness (The Marauder mages and the Malkavian vampire Clan in the oWOD)
• Power Perversion Potential (White Wolf was willing to acknowledge it sometimes. Just please don't dwell on Tzimisce body-altering powers for too long.)
• Red Right Hand (All of vampire Clan Nosferatu, more so in the Old setting; in the Old setting, Tzimisce deliberately do this to themselves)
• Rich Idiot With No Day Job (Ashwood Abbey are a bunch of rich kids who have fun by screwing, killing, and/or eating monsters - not necessarily in that order.)
• Sourcebook
• Splat
• Unstoppable Rage (Vampires when they frenzy, Werewolves in Death Rage, and certain Prometheans (mostly Frankensteins) in Torment)
• The Virus (Vampires, mostly)
• Walking Wasteland (If a Promethean settles down for too long, the world around them begins to suffer)
• Well Intentioned Extremist (Waywards especially, being willing to kill hundreds of normals just to take out -one- supernatural.)
• Wolf Man
• World Half Empty (The oppressive helplessness of the setting is what appeals to many. An exception is Changeling: The Dreaming, where the object is to prevent the world from becoming a World Half Empty.)
• Your Vampires Suck

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