Player discretion is advised.
"You'll tell me when they're ready to be used, won't you, little bird?"
A World in Darkness is a play-by-post forum roleplay set in The World of Darkness. Making use of JCInk formatting, the game itself is split into four different settings: Two for Vampire: The Masquerade (one for the Camarilla and the other for the Sabbat), one for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and one for Changeling: The Dreaming.
Combining elements from both traditional tabletop roleplaying and play-by-post style gameplay, A World in Darkness is a modern portrayal of the Old World of Darkness. While Storytellers are there to keep the plots flowing, players are given near-total freedom in how they choose to respond. The rewards - and consequences - are theirs and theirs alone.
The game boards can be found here.
The game Discord server can be found here.
A World in Darkness features examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Philadelphia has one of these. Mace and Miyoko explored it, and found an old Abandoned Laboratory complete with a German Mad Scientist who may or may not be a Ghoul from 1930s Germany (we might never know, as Mace and Miyoko proceeded to torch the whole lab, its occupant included). Truth in Television, as Philadelphia's underground sewer and metro system is gigantic in Real Life, even by the standards of American metropolises.
- Artistic License – Geography: Given that The World of Darkness is a dark reflection of our world and that the storytellers can't reasonably be expected to know every nook and cranny of the Real Life equivalents of the various settings, the storytellers are upfront about this trope coming into play. Players generally think that this makes things more interesting. That said, the STs encourage players to feel free to do their own research, or if they happen to live in those places in Real Life, to make as many references to Real Life local history or locations as they desire.
- The Big Rotten Apple: The working title for the Werewolf: The Apocalypse section is "Rage Across New York."
- The Coup: The Committee, a coterie made up of Ventrue neonates, are dedicated to restoring the Ventrue to power in Philadelphia (along with themselves, of course). That will inevitably mean having to perform one of these in regard to Prince Meer.
- Crapsaccharine World: The Duchy of the Lost Coast, a hidden dream along the coast of Northern California, is described as a realm of fickle, idyllic beauty, but one in which a crushing, oppressive loneliness can be felt... but for the Changelings that call it home, there's just a tiny glimmer of hope that can be seen through the canopy of redwoods and sequoias.
- Creator In-Joke: In their very first interaction, Morgan asked Penny what the point of visiting London was if you can't have scones. explanation
- Crossover: Starting in May 2018, the first true crossover plot began, involving characters from both Duchy of the Lost Coast and Corruption City.
- Dramatis Personae: In lieu of having the (often-spoilerific) Character Sheets in plain view of other players, players are encouraged to write one of these up for their characters, with only information that you wouldn't mind being public written on them. Meaning, almost none of them tell the full story.
- Epic Fail: Naturally, the result of a botched roll, with results ranging from the catastrophic to the downright hilarious.
- Fantastic Racism: Zig-zagged in Corruption City. Prince Francisca Meer is surprisingly accepting of Caitiff, and is even aware that an open Setite frequents Elysium, and tolerates his presence. Note, however, that her open-mindedness is not shared by the rest of the Philadelphia Camarilla.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Aside from a few player characters who qualify, Declan Jones, one of the NPCs from Corruption City, is one of the few elders who doesn't mind palling around with neonates in Elysium. Doesn't stop the Anarchs from screaming about him being a murderer, of course.
- Fur Against Fang: As you can probably expect, vampires and garou are bitter enemies.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The Philadelphia Eagles' upset win at Super Bowl LII simply couldn't go unmentioned in Corruption City. Oh yes, there were parties.
- Shout-Out: Two characters in Corruption City sat around and battled at a gym while waiting for another character to arrive at his bar, the Bike Stop, a bar that does indeed exist in Real Life. Hilariously, the player of the latter character, who actually does live near Philadelphia, then went to the Bike Stop in real life just to see if it was indeed a gym (it's not).
- Sinister Subway: The subways and Absurdly Spacious Sewer of Philadelphia, along with being home to a large brood of Nosferatu, has also been shown to be home to at least one underground laboratory tended to by a Nazi ghoul, and on another occasion, what is heavily implied (though not yet confirmed) to be an Earthbound.
- Stuffed in the Fridge: The fate of one Eric Conner, an Average Joe whose body was found stripped naked with his throat slit and made to look like a grin, posed in the middle of a park to greet people on a walk. The killer is still at large, with the Philadelphia public rallying around him with a candlelight vigil. Only Harold Dunsirn, a Giovanni, seems to care enough to investigate, but even this his motivations for doing so are ambiguous at best.
- Swarm of Rats: A swarm large enough to cause a panic in a terminal station literally fell out of the walls in the Manayunk station in Philadelphia. To this day, nobody is quite sure how and why this happened. It's later implied to be due to a demonic presence.
- Token Heroic Orc:
- Amiel, an open Setite, frequents Elysium in Philadelphia. The Prince not only knows, but seems to tolerate it.
- Averted in a meta-sense with the Camarilla game, with both Lasombra and Tzimisce antitribu being restricted due to their rarity in the setting. Note that this doesn't apply to bloodlines associated with the Sabbat, like Kiasyds.
- Town with a Dark Secret: All of them. Seriously. Take a wrong turn in any of the games, and the storytellers will throw you a curveball.
- Wretched Hive: Really, all of the major locales in the game qualify. Philadelphia, the primary setting for the Camarilla storyline, is referred to as "Corruption City" right there in the title.
