Thought of this few day ago. Most of the Innmates here appear to be hard-core DnD players who know little or nothing about the White Wolf system, or simply don’t care about it or don’t find it interesting. Well, if you don’t care or don’t find it interesting then there is no need for you to read any further. This thread is basically just information for those of you who are interested but don’t have the books in order to know anything about the system.

So why didn’t I just make it into an article? This way I can edit and add any information that are relevant so much of this could be pretty up to date.

Please note that this is only informations about the new World of Darkness and not the system currently known as old World of Darkness. The two systems are different enough so that you can’t use this information to play the old system.

Also note that this is only meant to be general overview. The actual books cover all this much better and if you can get your hands on them you should definitely try and do so.

NOTE: I removed the sections about the system and combat since I wasn't completely sure if it was legal to post them like this. As a short version of the system though, you roll a number of d10s equal to the number of dots you have in a combination of traits determined by the Storyteller. Certain things can give you a bonus or a penalty.
If you want a greater detail on the system or combat, you can PM me or get the books (I recommend the latter).

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So what is World of Darkness anyway? Well, to begin with, it is a d10 system published by White Wolf. To be more precise about the setting and system, the World of Darkness is not so different from our own world. WoD has America, Europe, Africa, Asia, New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Britney Spears, Ghandi, and whatnot, just like our world has all this things. They are, however, darkly reflected in the World of Darkness. Dark nights are darker, evil-doers are even worse, corrupted politicians are everywhere. Imagine our world as bad as it could get and you are probably very close to imagine how the WoD looks like. Make no mistake, World of Darkness is a really bad place, even if we don’t count the Vampires, Werewolves and all those dark things.

Yes, Vampires do exist. And yes, Werewolves do exist. There are many things out in the dark night of the world that are worse than anything you could imagine, and they do exist as well. Creatures beyond form, beyond name, they live beyond what we see. Imagine what could hide in the darkness and it probably exists. But there are things that bump back. Mages, and even Werewolves, often fight what is dangerous, but of course there are those who are just power-hungry.

Name:
Concept:
Virtue:
Vice:


Attributes: (5/4/3)

Mental
Intelligence *
Wits *
Resolve *

Physical
Strength *
Dexterity *
Stamina *

Social
Presence *
Manipulation *
Composure *


Skills: (11/7/4)

Mental
Academics
Computer
Crafts
Investigation
Medicine
Occult
Politics
Science

Physical
Athletics
Brawl
Drive
Firearms
Larceny
Stealth
Survival
Weaponry

Social
Animal Ken
Empathy
Expression
Intimidation
Persuasion
Socialize
Streetwise
Subterfuge


Merits: (7)


Flaws:


Health: (Size+Stamina)
Willpower: (Resolve+Composure)
Morality: (starting character starts with 7)
Size: (5 for normal sized adult)
Defense: (lower of Dexterity or Wits)
Armor: (if any)
Speed: (5+Strength+Dexterity)


Equipment:

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All Attributes start with a single dot. The extra dots marked inside the ( ) bit are added to that single dot. You can add 5 dots to Mental, Physical or Social Attributes, and that group is often called your primary Attributes. 4 goes to either of the remaining two, which becomes your secondary Attributes. 3 are added to the final group.
Unlike Attributes, no Skill starts with a single dot in them. You divide the numbers like you did with Attributes: 11 goes in your primary set of Skills, 7 goes in your secondary and 4 goes in the last group. There is no need to have both physical Attributes and physical Skills as your primary sets. You can make physical Attributes your primary and mental Skills your primary, or any other combination you want.
You choose freely 3 Specialties to add to your Skills.
You have seven (7) dots to put in Merits. As a final point to make, the 5th dot of any trait costs dots at character creation. So you could increase your Strength up to 5, but that would cost you all 5 dots you could put in your primary Attributes, leaving both Dexterity and Stamina with only 1 dot each.
You can only have one Virtue and one Vice. Although the natural starting rating for the Morality trait is 7, the ST can make characters start with lower or higher rating.

Despite popular belief, vampires do exist. They live in the cities, rarely in great numbers, and avoid letting their presence be known. There are several myths that surround their existance. Vampires are not repelled by either crosser or garlic, at least no more than the common mortal. Vampires can cross a running river, line of salt and can enter homes without invitations. Sun and fire destroyes them but a stake through the heart does not, although the stake does send the vampire into a paralyzing state known as torpor. Vampires can feel emotions, but it is not completely known if they have a soul or not. Those emotions they feel are most commonly echoes, a memory of the emotion they felt while alive.

Vampire in the World of Darkness struggle against the Beast, the animal instinct that takes oven when in danger or struggle. Some vampires resist it successfully, while others embrace its freedom from thought. Mortals often sense this Beast, making socializing with these Mortals difficult for vampires. As a rule, any raw Social dice pool is capped by the vampire’s Humanity when dealing with Mortals (anyone who does not have a supernatural template). Any bonus can be added afterwards though, so the complete dice pool may rise above the vampire’s Humanity.

Vampires are divided by Clan. A vampire belongs to the same clan as the vampire who embraced him. A Ventrue vampire can not embrace a Daeva vampire, or vice versa. A vampire embraced by a Ventrue always becomes a Ventrue. There are five Clans:
Daeva: embrace your Vice and enjoy.
Gangrel: you are no less a beast than what hides under your skin.
Mekhet: we hide so that we may see.
Nosferatu: we wear our Beast on the outside, so we hide.
Ventrue: we rule.
Each clan has three favored Disciplines (vampire magic-like powers) and one of them is a clan-only Discipline. Although almost anyone can learn those clan-only disciplines, they are a guarded secret and so most vampires don’t have an easy access to them. Each clan also has a weakness which effects them at all time. Gangrel has a hard time thinking straight and the Nosferatu have a harder time socializing than others. Also, each clan has two favored Attributes. When adding the vampire template to a Mortal, you choose one of the two Attributes and increase it by one dot.

Vampires are also divided into social factions known as Covenants. These five Covenants are different in many ways and in some cities hostilities exists between some of them.
The Cartian Movement: democracy is needed as well as rules.
Circle of the Crone: paganism and faith in the goddess.
Invictus: monochranism and the rulership of the higher caste.
Lancea Sanctum: Christianity in many forms.
Ordo Dracul: we seek knowledge to perfect the form of vampire.
Although no one needs to join any of these Covenants, each of them give you bonuses in one way or the other. The Crones, Sanctified, and the Ordo all give you access to new Disciplines which are unavailable unless you have status in their group (see the Status Merit). The Carthians and Invictus both give you XP discount on specific Merits.

Each city or town is controlled by a Prince. The title is the one most often used, regardless of sex (female vampires are also called Princes) but other titles do exist. Some might call himself the Emperor over LA, Duke of Dublin, or Daimyo of Tokyo. Prince is still the most common. The Prince has number of vampires in his staff, including the Herald, a Seneschal, and a Sheriff. The Sheriff in turn often has a number of agents, most often called Hounds. The Prince has the right to give away domain within his city, a hunting ground, but those who hold a domain often allow others to hunt there at a price.

All vampires have Blood Potency, which measures how potent their blood is (hence the name) and generally how old and powerful they are. It also measures how potent a blood must be to sustain them. At Blood Potency 1, the vampire can feed off any Mortal, any animal and other vampires. At Blood Potency 3, the animal blood is not potent enough, and only Mortal blood or the blood of another vampire can sustain the vampire. At Blood Potency 8, only the blood from another vampire is potent enough to provide sustinance. Seeing as feeding of another vampire, a high Blood Potency turns out to be not so good.
Blood Potency also measures how much Vitae you can have at any given time, and how much Vitae you can spend each turn. Vitae can be spent to increase you Physical Attributes on one-on-one basis for a single turn. It can also be used to fuel Disciplines. Most importantly, it can be used to heal wounds. Each point of Vitae spent heals either two Bashing wounds or a single Lethal wound each turn. Five points of Vitae, as well as three nights of rest, is needed to heal one point of Aggravated wounds.
Vitae can be fed to a Mortal to create a Ghoul, a loyal servant of the vampire to does the feeding. As long as Vitae is in his blood, a Ghoul does not age, but as soon as the Vitae has left his system his body instantly reverts to his truthful age, which could kill him instantly if he is well over hundred years old.

Templates are added to the Mortal Charactersheet above.

Clan:
Covenant:
Bloodline: Clan, Covenant and Bloodline should be added before Attributes.

Attributes: Choose Clan favored Attribute

Merits: There are several new Merits that are only available to Vampires. Check the list of Merits for more information

Disciplines: (3) Choose disciplines. One dot must be from a clan discipline

Blood Potency: (starting vampire starts with 1)
Vitae/per turn: (depends on Blood Potency)
Humanity: (replaces Morality)

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Templates are added to the Mortal Charactersheet above

Auspice:
Tribe:
Lodge: Auspice, Tribe and Lodge should be added before Attributes.

Specialty Depending on Auspice, a Werewolf can choose one bonus Specialty out of three availabe to his Auspice.

Merits: There are several new Merits that are only available to Werewolves. Check the list of Merits for more information.

Renown: (3)
Gifts: Choose three Gifts, one associated with your Auspice, one associated with your ribe and third from any list

Primal Urge: (starting Werewolves start with 1)
Essence/per turn: (Werewolves start with Essence equal to their Harmony)
Harmony: (replaces Morality)

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Mage Template

Templates are added to the Mortal Charactersheet above

Path:
Order:
Legacy: Path, Order and Legacy should be added before Attributes.

Attributes: Mages get a 1 dot bonus to their Path’s favored Resistance Attribute.

Merits: There are several new Merits that are only available to Mages. Check the list of Merits for more information.

Arcana: (2/2/1 +1) Mages get 2 dots in one arcanum, 2 in a second arcanum and 1 in the third. Two of these must be the Path’s ruling arcana. Finally, you get a single dot to add to any one arcanum.

Rotes: (6) You get 6 points worth of Rotes, and each Rote costs as much as the highest level arcanum in the Rote.

Gnosis: (a starting Mage starts with 1)
Mana/per turn: (starting Mage starts with mana equal to Wisdom)
Wisdom: (replaces Morality)

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Templates are added to the Mortal Charactersheet above

Lineage:
Refinement: Lineage and Refinement should be added before Attributes.

Merits: There are several new Merits that are only available to Prometheans. Additionally, Prometheans suffer specific restrictions when buying certain Social Merits. Check the list of Merits for more information.

Transmutations: (3) At least one dot must be spent on a Transmutation that his Refinement has affinity with.

Bestowments: Each Promethean starts with a single Bestowment, but can buy another later on in the game.

Azoth: (starting Prometheans start with 1)
Pyros/per turn: (starts with Pyros equal to Humanity)
Vitriol: (no Promethean starts game with Vitriol)
Humanity: Replaces Morality

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Templates are added to the Mortal Charactersheet above

Seeming:
Kith:
Court:
Entitlement: Seeming, Kith, Court and Entitlement should be added before Attributes.

Merits: There are several new Merits that are only available to Changelings. Check the list of Merits for more information.

Contracts: (5) A Changeling can choose from a long list of Contracts, but at least two of these five dots must be spent on one or two of your seeming or court affinity Contracts.

Wyrd: (starting Changelings start with 1)
Glamour/per turn: (starting Changelings start with half maximum Glamour)
Clarity: (replaces Morality)

This game is not yet published, and so I have no information about this game.

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General Merits
Vampire Merits
Werewolf Merits
Mage Merits
Promethean Merits
Changeling Merits