YMMV / Shadows over the South

• Angst Aversion: A common criticism of the game is for its Lighter and Softer nature; specifically, that the game isn't actively encouraging Chronic Backstabbing Disorder that would inevitably descend into a PVP free-for-all, as is the case with so many other multi-splat Living World of Darkness games. The reason for this is that in its early days, the first characters in the game, despite being from numerous different splats, decided that their very survival relied upon cooperation rather than being at each others throats. By the time the game grew in popularity and size, the precedent for cooperation was already in place, to the point of being self-perpetuating. This isn't to say that the Chronic Backstabbing Disorder can't happen in the future, of course; it's just that at this point, it'd be considered highly out-of-character for many of the characters in-game to suddenly abandon their project after it's frankly worked for them for so long.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Gabriel Martinez was built up as being a ridiculously powerful, sixth-generation Ravnos Elder whom the players shouldn't even attempt to fight without major backup. He died in one and a half turns after two players scored a crazy number of successes on their rolls against him, and then he botched on his own turn.
  • Happened again with Sheriff Gaious during "The Once and Future Prince," who had a double-botch on a dodge roll versus an arrow. This resulted in him being instantly staked, rendering the obscenely high stats he was given moot.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: It used to be that almost nobody took Melee or Brawl unless they have things that specifically require them to roll it. The reason for this was that Martial Arts in Mage: 20th Anniversary Edition is objectively superior in nearly every way. If someone was a combat-centered character in this game in 2019, there's a very good chance that they took Martial Arts (especially Snake Step), unless they were centered solely around Firearms or their own splat's abilities. In late 2019 and early 2020, however, the STs tried to remedy this by buffing other alternative fighting styles (such as Dirty Fighting) to make Brawl and Melee more attractive choices.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Dante beheaded an Assamite with magick and then teleported it to his hand. He did this by grabbing his crotch and saying "Give me some head."
  "Talk about vulgar."
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • As far as NPCs go, you won't find many more popular than Antonin Demeskin, Gregory Handel, or Ada Hendricks.
  • Sofia Gómez was easily the most well-liked character from the Blood, Drugs, and Magick plotline, to the point where she made a cameo appearance as a Wraith later on, where she was posthumously redeemed.
  • Lusciana Adams broke the record for "most-requested NPC as a Contact, Ally, etc. dot" shortly after her introduction. She quickly became so beloved of a character, both in-character and out, that the storyteller who created her caved after her storyline was concluded, allowing her and Penelope to be taken as Ally dots, effectively canonizing her from here on out as a major Wraith NPC.
  • Violet Lombardi, a.k.a. "V.V." Several Player Characters are unironically fans of her music in-game, and were heartbroken both in-character and out to find out the Technocracy got to her first.
• Evil Is Cool: Downplayed. While it is absolutely possible to play an evil character, and plenty of players do (though some are certainly more Ambiguously Evil than others), it's extraordinarily difficult (if still theoretically possible) to play an Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac and get away with it for very long before the other, more virtuous player characters find out, and come for your head.
• Game-Breaker: Wonders as produced by Mages, as well as their equivalents in other splats such as Mummy: The Resurrection and Demon: The Fallen, have the potential to become this, since they allow for an insane amount of soak dice and easy access to aggravated damage, and certain player characters both past and present have been known to churn them out like factories and hand them out like candy. If it gets bad enough, the Storytellers reach for the Nerf bat, and have done so in the past.
• Memetic Mutation: In Discord, anytime someone mentions Wraith: The Oblivion or a Wraith player says 'hi,' everyone 'reacts' to the Discord message using the ghost emoticon. It's almost an unofficial rule at this point.
• Moe: Joy Livingstone. You'd be hard-pressed to find a single character or player in this game who doesn't find her adorable and one of the few genuinely pleasant characters in the entire game, and wouldn't jump to her defense the moment anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way.
  Altair: "I'm going to Du'at before anyone hurts one hair on her head."
• Player Punch:
  • The in-character death of a player character, especially one that was well-liked by other characters (and more often than not, by their players as well). While it's a bit rarer than in some other games, it can and does happen.
  • Altair’s retirement. After being the first to reach the 600 XP mark and trigger the game’s mandatory retirement threshold, he went out with a bang, and his Dying Moment of Awesome brought a tear to some players’ eyes.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The now-infamous 'epiphany' system circa October 2018. It was scrapped a month later, and pretty much nobody misses it.
• That One Disadvantage: Players who wanted to play Wraiths were told up front that they would immediately run into problems communicating with non-Wraith players, as Wraiths either need an Arcanoi specifically for interacting with the Skinlands (which ran the risk of running afoul of the Dictum Mortuum), or they could only communicate with characters who have powers like Necromancy or the Spirit Sphere, which carry their own risks. While it did make Wraiths immune to what most of what other character types could throw at them, what could hurt them were an absolute Achilles' Heel to them, and it made finding even basic social role play with other PCs into a chore. This resulted in all but the most hardcore Wraith fans simply refusing to play the splat, ultimately resulting in its closure until April of 2023, when a new ST wanted to give it a shot.