When creating a roleplaying character, there is nearly always a section on “Skills”. Most of the time you can choose any Skill you like and invest points into them. Some systems have some concept of grouping Skills like D&D’s Class system and Riddle of Steel’s Skill Packets. But most of the modern day systems I’ve played just let you pick any skills you like.  I’m under the impression that most players considered this a good thing and limiting character choices to a select set of groups is considered Bad^tm.

Let me explain the issue by way of example. I try to create a modern day character based on my own “Skillset” as an embedded programmer. Most generic or non-futuristic systems would have a Skill called “Computers”. By taking this Skill, your character knows stuff about computers. This Skill would allow you to attempt to build any sort of software, use computers at an expert level and in many cases allow you to attempt to hack any security system. Pity my profession isn’t so cool. Certainly “Computers” as a granularity is too vague. But if you break it down, into “Computer Use”, “Hacking”, “Geek Trivial”, “Embedded Programming Techniques”, “Web Programming”, “Blogging”, “Internet Memes”, “Barack Obama”, etc., I’d quickly run out of points and end up with some body who can program really well but can’t actually use a computer, which is nonsense.

For a long while I wondered why it was more fun to design a character’s powers than pick their skills. Picking a character’s skills is prep work for designing their “cool” powers, choosing skills that will support them. Which should be considered wrong. It’s a because it’s a bad “experience” when figuring out the mundane aspects of a character. I guess stuff like powers, magics, gifts, etc. are more exciting but I think they are also more character defining (like super-heroes are often defined by their powers) and they focus nearly exclusively on what they can do and how to use them. I think in part, thats why mortal-characters often appear boring. Not because playing a mortal is any less interesting than playing a super-powered critter, but that a mortal, from the system perspective, is just a bunch of Skills.

For me, Skills should be what you character can do, but most Skill lists read like a CV/resume hit-list. What does “Academics” mean? What the hell can you do with that? Fudge, my favourite hackable RPG system, isn’t so strict on its interpretation of what a Skill is. It has Attributes and it has Skills but only as implementation of Traits and it doesn’t mandate what Skills you have in your Skill List, so I could take “Embedded Computer Programming” with a little “Web Programming” on the side to cover what I can do as a programmer.

The problem really manifests when you’re trying to create a brand new character, not necessarily based on what you know. You end up taking sets of skills to cover what you think your character should be able to do. Leading to the Big-Pile-Of-Skills mess. Most of the time, I think this is acceptable, it’s fine in fantasy-based settings where the characters are, lets face it, a tad unrealistic anyway (come on undetected Vampires in the modern day?). Players will tweak their Skills based on how effective they are in-game, meaning that many of the player-characters start to have a similar feel as they “buy up” the necessary Skills.

Creating normal human characters should be fun but not so unrealistic to break the suspension of disbelief. So I’ve been mulling around some ideas in my head, mostly for Fudge. I don’t want a tight restrictive system like Classes but I still what the freedom of free-for-all Skills. For a start, Skills should only define what makes your character interesting. What can you character do that is unexpected or different from everyone else. What makes them an individual? (If everyone has a big-pile-of-skills, then you’re about as random as everyone else…) In fact, Skills is the wrong word. I think of stuff to put down on my CV when I read Skills, which isn’t what I want to put down on my character sheet, I don’t think.

I’ve started playing around some some sort of “solution” for this. Instead of just a Skill list, you take a Profession, Trade or a Role in Society and then some extra Skills you’ve picked up along the way. This is what ever your character does for a living in the setting. It has a rating like Skills and Attributes. At low rates, such as Poor or Mediocre in Fudge, you’re only at a trainee level or simply new to the work. Fair or greater indicate a decent level of competence in the Profession. The trait’s rating does not define the career path. Often careers are made up of several different distinct Professions. For example Student, Programmer, Consultant and Manager should all be considered different Profession traits, not trait rankings. You can easily create a “Loser” this way by purposely ranking their Profession trait low (such as Poor) and make a serious underachiever.

Professions are not a set of Skills related to the specific function of that Profession. Professions often give a character access to a great wealth of abilities and tools. (Professions would also feed in to their lifestyle and resources). A Software Engineer would probably have a decent computer at home bundled with great development software, would be a good problem solver generally and could easily work out how to use most modern day gadgets with easy. A Salesperson would have good interpersonal skills, has a good insight into people’s motivations, can bullshit like no-other, etc. Players should probably write down a few notes about what they think the Profession is (what they think their character can do with it) and the Games Master can clarify it with them. Profession traits should probably be treated as something between Skills and Attributes for XP cost and other resource-allocation costs but be treated like Skills for most everything else.

You should also be able to take Specialities within the Profession. Such Specialities give you a +1 with tasks that use that Speciality but cause a -1 to any other non-speciality task. You can increase the bonus of that Speciality by taking it a second time up to a max of +3 (but the inverse is also true meaning it’ll give you a -3 on any other task). For each level of the Profession above Fair, you have to take a level of Speciality. For example a Surgeon might have the Profession Doctor with a speciality in Plastic Surgery. This would mean they are great at what they do but wouldn’t be as great on a different type of surgery though they know the basics.

Professions would have to be considered narratively when applying them to a task, nearly like Gifts with ratings than Skills. I think a character’s Attributes should also play a part in what they can do with a Profession, however I haven’t come up with a strict/controlled system that would work in Fudge. The best thing to do with be to let the Games Master apply a -3 to +3 modifier based on an applicable Attribute. Professions (and Specialities) can be applied outside of their fields (with negative modifiers) as appropriate. A Cars Salesman should be able to try fast-talking their way out of trouble, for example.

Characters can have several active Professions. They can also have previous Professions but they degrade over time, perhaps losing up to a full level each year. Certain Professions will subsume old Professions (Student gets subsumed by the first Job for example). If a character using an inactive Profession goes up against another character using a active Profession, then the inactive Profession should be at a -1. Players should not be expected to detail all their characters previous Professions, only the ones they deem relevant to describe the character. They can always take one or two Skills extra to represent the left-overs of the previous Professions. I haven’t worked out how you should model moving or changing Professions. A new Professions would require buying each level individually but if the new Profession is similar in field or type of work it should be possible to start at a higher level or even use the same level as the previous Profession. Old inactive Professions might be turned into Skills if the character continues to practice certain aspects.

Professions shouldn’t be just jobs. They can be also Roles in Society, as mentioned initially, ush as House-wife/husband, Homeless, Student, etc. are all completely valid Professions as long as the character does that as their way of life.

Once a player has chosen Professions for the character, they can then chose a few Skills, not too many. These are more like the old Skills, but describe things the character can do that is outside of their active Professions. Perhaps they do sports, play musical instruments, write (books), etc.

Using Professions as traits, you could create a Salesperson who develops psychic powers, a Homeless person that was once a powerful business owner, an office worker who is barely keeping it together, etc. The system describes the character, much like saying a Vampire with that can control others with their mind (Vampire with Dominate).

What does any one think?

And the Dresden Files TV show sucks. I haven’t read the books or played the RPG (there is one by the way, done by the same folk who did Spirit of the Century). I’ve watched the first three episodes on Sky 1. Quite simply, unoriginal and boring.

Let me go a bit about the Dresden Files for a moment…

The whimpering gay subservient ghost that hangs around the “wizard’s” apartment annoys me no end. Apparently, I’ve read on someone’s blog, is that in the books he’s a talking skull… now that would have been cool. The thing is, I can see what the original books were trying for, a kind of discworld-meets-supernatural-detective. But that doesn’t carry across to the small screen. Instead it comes off as a bad Charmed without the super-cute witches. They writers trying to “shock” the viewer with revelations but the usual audience of this kind of stuff know what to expect and the shocks are uninspired and are, well, shit. Then there is the incessant monologues… FFS show us, don’t tell us. This is TV! A sweeping city shot and some hard-boiled talk is… time to check what’s on the other channels.

Such a pity, because previously Sky was showing the SCI-FI channel mini-series The Lost Room. It was great. Loved the world, the plot came to a conclusion and major parts of the mysteries were revealed. I’d love to see the writers create another mini-series based on the mythos and they certainly left it open.

But did anyone notice? Lost is in its third season. Unbelievable. Can’t believe it’s still on TV. That is a series that should have ended in the first season. The creators of the Lost Room had it right and by comparison, the creators of Lost have it completely utterly wrong. As a roleplayer and GM, the problems of long-running stories are pretty obvious. Do you go for a chronicle that starts and concludes or is “rolling-over” based and just keeps going on, never really concluding or coming to a decisive point (though often a lot of the characters and players change)? In our hobby, a rolling chronicle can work… but not on TV! I losted interest (pun intended) in the middle of the second season.

Back to vampires. I’m really getting into Blade the series. It’s really well written. Very World of Darkness inspired too. Pity it’s already been canned.

That pretty much leaves me with Battlestar Galaticia. The new series has started and it has, so far, been great. The last episode however was a bit boring. Nothing happened. Bit worried it’s going down the same route as the second half of the last season. We’ll wait and see.

Oh damn, nearly forgot: Heroes has started over here. Seen about three episodes (I think) so far. I’m not seeing why everyone is ranting and raving about it, I’m afraid. and then people keep drawing comparisons with Lost which is really really off-putting. If it’s going down the route of Lost, I don’t want to watch it! However, I’m still currently watching it. So maybe it’s something to it. Lets see how it turns out.

Note #1: If there is anything I’ve left out, it’s either because I’d never watched it or I don’t know about it.

Note #2: I’m not really a “torrent” person. I like my TV as… well TV. Okay, let me put it another way, I don’t have time to spend setting up torrents and setting aside time to watch four episodes in a row. If it’s on TV, I’ll watch it. Er. That makes me sound lazy…

It’s about as bad as the 90s Vampire series Forever Knight… which makes it very good! I haven’t googled it yet, I don’t want to. I don’t want to know it’s been canned or that there are only one or two seasons. Ignorance is bliss they say.

Each episode is only 30 minutes long, which probably makes it more delicious for it’s bite-size delight. The back-story is a little vague, the elders put some young vampires under the guidance of head-master Dr. Murdock whose job is to humanise them. An experiment that must be kept secret from the “furies”. Anyway, it’s a bunch of Vampires, with all the funky powers and weakness and dress sense living in the basement of a boarding school.

I’ve looked at the World of Darkness 2.0 Core Book already, now I have a look at the first “full” game based on the new World of Darkness, Vampire: Requiem and offer an opinion to the question: Is it worth getting back into World of Darkness 2.0?

Okay, to quickly summarize:

If you like Vampire: the Masquerade, you’ll like Vampire: Requiem (probably in equal measures).

The saying; “the more things change, the more things stay the same” is very apt to the new Vampire. Many aspects of the setting have been changed such as the powers are all substantially reduced but it is still the same game.

Yes there are only five clans, but between Clans, Covenants and Bloodlines you haven’t lost any (in fact you’ve probably gained). The only thing that has truly been removed is the impending doom of Gehenna from Vampire: Masquerade.

As always, the art and layout is exceptional.

I have two complaints. The first is the use of the barely-readable font they used for most of the sub sections. This red font that attempts to look like over-stylized hand-writing. While it looks good, it is going to be a pain when you are flicking through the pages trying to find “that section about that thing”.

The second is that the artwork failed to inspire me. I flicked through Vampire the Masquerade (revised edition) in comparison and preferred its artwork as it made me think of characters I wanted to play. There either wasn’t enough originality ( there was two pictures that were very similar but just done differently by two artists — a woman with a man on a leash or chain or whatever) or it was trying to emphasize the game and setting which is meant to be about “personal horror”.

Still the book is easy to access and mostly easy to read. I did get the impression it was written for those already familiar with Vampire (constant references to things like Torpor, long before they go about explaining it for example) but it should be easy for a FNG (”F*cking New Guy”) to get to grips with it.

I had read a little of the hype from worldofdarkness.com but really didn’t know what to expect. The World of Darkness 2.0 Core Book gave me some impressions alright but still, a vampire game in WOD (World of Darkness) could be done so many ways.

Well, I was blown out of the water straight away when I read the introduction. Compared with World of Darkness 2.0 Core Book it was a breath of fresh air. It states that Vampire the Requiem is about Vampires but World of Darkness Vampires. It even mentions the word “game” (god forbid that a Storyteller role-play is a game too!), how Vampires were modified for the sake of the game. It even states the deviations from classic vampire myths. So first initial impressions are much more positive then World of Darkness 2.0 Core Book.

What’s changed?

Everything and nothing. The fundamentals of the setting have been reworked and updated but not lost. There is nothing truly new either.

There are only five Clans. But then there are Covenants which are political, social and religious groupings. And if that is not enough there is Bloodlines (sub groupings of the Clans). So the Tremere is gone, but you have the Circle of Crone or the Ordo Dracula Covenants. There is no Ravnos, well play a Bloodline of the Gangrel. You get the idea. There is even a nice guide to how to create your own Bloodlines.

The Disciplines have also been reworked. If you want powerful characters, your gonna have to specialize. They also have Devotions, which are combinations of different disciplines to create special effects (you have to buy them with experience point). Along with the guide to create Bloodlines, there is a good deal of advice on creating your own disciplines, which is nice.

The Traditions of the Camarilla are reduced to only three and are now supernaturally enforced. By and by, the Camarilla is mentioned but only that it was a failed attempt to unite the Vampires across the world.

Humanity, Torpor, Vitae, Frenzy, etc. have been reworked and for the better. I like the way Generation has been replaced with Blood Potency which can get too high and so a Vampire must willing go into Torpor.

The Jihad is now called the Danse Macabre (though it also incorporates social and religious aspects) and the Requiem is a reference to the existence as a member of the Undead.

All these changes on the whole are good.

The only really big change is the idea of the “Final Nights” that was prevalent in Vampire up to the End of Time series is missing. It is not even mentioned except as some passing rumor. This is a good thing in my humble opinion.

And, that useless trait, Morality, from World of Darkness 2.0 Core Book actually serves a good purpose here. Mortals addicted to Vampiric Vitae, Ghouls, subjects of the Vinculum (the new word for the Blood Bond), etc. may be forced to do terrible things… This enforces my point that the core book is only what is common between Mortal and Vampire.

The roleplaying section was surprisingly large seeing we already have a lot of similar advice given in the core book. I expected only Vampire the Requiem specific advice but instead several chunks are duplicated or re-worded here. But other then that it is mostly harmless.

I did have two, small-ish, gripes with it though. One paragraph states: “Some players might not want to role-play frenzy, but the Beast is part of being Vampire. Storytellers should encourage players to portray the frenzy in its full, brutal horror. If they cannot, the Storyteller should take control of a character and decided on her actions until the frenzy ends.”

I completely and utterly disagree with sentiment behind this paragraph. No-one should be forced (and I know it doesn’t say forced but peer pressure or “encouraged” is crossing that line in my humble opinion) to role-play something they do not want to, particularly something as terrible as a frenzy, or just something they are not comfortable with or something they don’t find enjoyable. Some might find this advice a little worrying.

My second gripe is a certain misconception. They discourage people from playing Vampires as “Dark Superheroes” but then say, hey you bought the book you can do what you like. Instead they talk about playing the humanity, the “gothic horror”, element of Vampire.

In my experience from Vampire the Masquerade, there are two types of Vampire games. The first is the powerful vampires type of game/story, what they call “Dark Superheroes”. It often has combat, complex politics and conspiracies, etc. The second is when characters play mortals who are vampires, humanity is important and other vampires are just plain scary. Both types of games are possible in Vampire the Requiem yet the first type is considered “bad”. Well why then have clans and so much emphasis on politics within vampire society? Why give us pictures of cool vampires (though on that count there is much less then in Vampire the Masquerade)?

Vampire the Requiem still has its “secrets”. The Sabbat has been reduced to “Belial’s Blood”, a Covenant. They describe it as just some rabble but then suggested unanswered questions that hint at conspiracies. Why? Just say their mad rabble. They also have another Covenant called VII who nobody knows anything about. I can just imagine the army of fans making up vast conspiracies but I don’t see the need for it. I didn’t like the first meta-plot at all and, personally, I am capable of coming up with the weird mysteries to confound my players on my own. The setting is solid enough to give enough scope without having to create these silly mysterious elements.

Also, they talk about Mage and Werewolf in many of the mechanics sections. Yet they never summaries what mages or werewolves are or give possible examples.

They also talk about the Dead as being very different from the Ghosts in the core book. Perhaps a new Wraith is on the cards.

They also give a rather weak cross-over mechanic to resisting other supernatural powers. A disappointment carried on from the core book.

And finally, the whole point of this review: is it worth getting back into WOD?

Erm. Probably. If you liked WOD 1.0, you’ll probably like WOD 2.0. Everything has been reworked (so far) but hasn’t been drastically changed.

Personally I won’t bother buying or using any supplements though I may buy Mage when it comes out. But that is just me.

I originally posted this on moc but I think it’s kinda lost there so I’m posting it here on my own personal site.

Well, lets start by the summary first. (I know most people will scroll to the bottom, read the conclusion and bugger off, so might as well make it easy for you!

They (i.e. White Wolf) have improved the Storyteller(tm) system. Most of the changes I really like. The dice mechanic is even easier and botches are harder (you have to make a choice to make a roll that has a chance of a botch). But some of the new stuff, I loath to the nth degree.

The book itself isn’t brilliant. While the layout is exceptional and the art great (nearly a trademark of White Wolf by now), I had several problems:

1. I expected several things from a “core” book, one of which is that it contains everything that was common to the three other books; vampire, mage and werewolf. What you get instead is the World of Darkness from the perspective of ordinary mortals. In fact, it reads more like “Mortal: The something” then a core book. It contains all the common stuff between Mortals and Vampire but not Mage and Werewolf. I didn’t see anything about, for example, Spirits, Umbra or other metaphysics which I would guess is going to be common to Mage and Werewolf.

2. The genre it paints for WOD (World of Darkness), is “Stylish Horror”, “Hints of the Supernatural”, Monsters in the shadows, conspiracies in conspiracies… while this is the perfect atmosphere for Vampire, I’m not sure I want to play Mage in such a world. The supernatural is described as predators, monsters with red eyes, aliens, etc. Are Mages going to be predators in the shadows? Also the system seems a little at odds with this. It reads like a HP Lovecraftian world where mortals teeter on the edge of their sanity (see all the fiction that loads the beginning of the book), yet the system is not linked to sanity but “Morality” and a specific cultural view of Morality at that.

3. While the book itself describes the system perfectly, which would be enough yet it still tries to paint the world as a game for mortals. Unfortunately the writers stubbornly refuse to describe any supernatural creatures except for ghosts. They mix pure fiction with text so you’re not sure what is meant to be part of the world or not. Essentially, it describes the Storyteller(tm) system well but it leaves gapping holes in the world and too many questions. You can argue that’s the point, the “holes” will be filled in with the new Vampire, Werewolf or Mage but it doesn’t even provide a small summary of other supernatural types. You _could_ play a mortal game with this book, but then you’d have to make up everything except for ghosts. Luckily this means that there is no implicit meta-plot even suggested in this book, yea!

Essentially, you get more and less then what I would consider a core book for a massive world like WOD.

If we start with the beginning of the book, we have really well written fiction about mortals who experience something of the supernatural. They’re filled with hints of bigger conspiracies and mysteries. Unfortunately I didn’t find them to be particularly good but that’s my opinion. They don’t detract from the feel of the book.

(I must say White Wolf is great at stating the obvious too and taking several paragraphs where one or two lines would have done, but that’s a minor complaint).

The first problem appears here because they mix pure fiction (not just some guy explaining the world) with factual descriptions. It’s hard to know if they are describing the world or just giving a fictional viewpoint of it. They stubbornly refuse to use the words Vampire, Werewolf or Mage but instead use terms like Angels, Gods, Demons and Aliens and leave it to the guesswork of the reader. For fans of WOD1.0 (the previous incarnation of World of Darkness — I’ll call the new version of WOD, WOD2.0 for clarity), it’ll be entertaining — we know what the World of Darkness is about. But I want to get to the facts, what are the supernatural groups? How do they interact with mortals and each other? What’s the big picture? These are never answered in the book, you’ll have to buy the others books for that I guess.

It’s frustrating, there is a piece of fiction where a guy lectures about different types of “beings” that live among mortals for example. It reads like a summary of creatures but it is fiction and the terms it invents are never mentioned again.

It reads like the mortal perspective of the World of Darkness. You can even say it is the Mortal book: It has character creation for Mortals, their viewpoints and their advantages and weakness. But because of the lack of descriptions of the other supernatural elements it’s not playable as a roleplay unless you’re willing to invent everything except for ghosts (as ghosts are the only supernatural critters described including their powers and weakness).

It feels like it contains everything that is common between only Vampire and Mortal because it doesn’t talk about the bigger world that is common between Werewolf and Mage from WOD1.0, such Spirits and the Umbra.

The system, for the most part, is improved. I like the new dice mechanic: essentially you make one roll for most things, including attacking. You calculate your dice pool (the usual Attribute + Skill) and then apply modifiers which add or subtract dice from your pool. The difficulty is a standard eight. Botching is better too: your pool must be reduced to zero but in this circumstance you can make a chance roll with one dice. In this case only, if you roll a one, you botch.

I like what they did with the Attributes. They’ve renamed them and rearranged them in kind of grid so you have the usual Social, Mental and Physical but also Power, Finesse and Resistance. They’ve gotten rid of Appearance but who ever rolled Appearance anyway?.

There is one set of Skills, again split in the familiar groupings. But the Skills have been improved. Most of the secondary skills from WOD1.0 are now subsets, specialities or system examples of these Skills. Oh and you don’t need to waste that point in Drive… it’s assumed, living in the modern day, you can drive but with Drive you have expertise in Driving such as a stunt driver or chasing!

You can also use a skill even if you don’t have it but you have a penalty depending on the type of skill. Which is very nice feature. Your skills no longer define what you can’t do but simply what your good at.

Also we have the usual “Advantages” but they have been changed. Willpower is now defined by the combination of two attributes, you can’t independently buy up Willpower, you must buy up the associated attributes. This also means that Willpower can temporarily go up by using supernatural means. Likewise Health and the number of hit-points is tied to two attributes which can be temporarily increased!

In Advantages, We also have Defense which takes away from an attacker’s dice pool. We have Initiative which is not the combination of Dexterity and Wits but the lower of the two. We also have a Size. This gives me a similar feel to D&D where you calculate your Defense and Initiative on the character sheet by adding two or more traits together. Stuff like Defense is useful for speeding up combat.

There are no more backgrounds or even merits and flaws. Instead you have Merits which include all the backgrounds and traditional merits. They have ratings which you must buy and some can only be taken at character creation. Fighting Styles with special moves are Merits. It works, I like it a lot. Flaws are optional but give extra XP which is an interesting.

Character creation follows similar approach as WOD1.0. A nice trick is that it gives a little box of Experience Point costs for having more developed characters which I assume this is carried into the other games.

Combat is much improved. You roll only one roll to attack and do damage. The target’s defense (and armour) gets taken from your attack pool and any successes become damage. No longer do you get the situation of hitting really, really, well but then doing little or no damage!

For Mortals, at least, there are no supernatural powers. There is no faith, numina, hedge magic or psychic abilities, familiar from WOD1.0. Perhaps these will be included in supplements if they are to be included at all. Some of the Merits provide some supernatural abilities but not much.

They haven’t gotten rid of priorities in character creation. You must still priorities between the categories of Attributes and Skills. While I understand why the Attributes and Skills are grouped, why must we prioritise? The only reason I can figure is that it helps guide people who don’t have a solid character in their minds. I’ve been gaming for ages and I often have a fully fledged character in my mind but then become unable to create it as I’ve got to stick my character in to one of three “class” i.e. social, physical or mental and spend points in Attributes (or Skills) I don’t particularly want. But this is a gripe with WOD1.0 as well as WOD2.0.

The first thing that pissed me off about the system is the Morality trait. This will be replaced in each other game by the different systems but I really don’t think Mortals need this trait at all. Morality defines how “humane” a mortal is; what they are capable of as a human. If they lose a point of morality due to doing something they wouldn’t do and failing some roll they can gain a derangement. It reads like a conversion of Humanity from Vampire WOD1.0. It also works with the Virtues and Vices which have replaced Nature and Demeanour.

I don’t like the Morality trait. It’s not that I think characters should be free of morality in games and stories but I don’t think it suits the setting they’ve painted nor is it something I want to play. In vampire Humanity makes a lot of sense, it’s about the inner beast, the terrible acts a vampire must do to survive, etc. Mortals don’t need to do terrible acts to survive, killing a monster is not immoral nor is defending yourself. It feels more like a big stick the GM (Game Master which is the same as Storyteller in the Storyteller(tm) system) can use to whack players who attempt to play what could be considered immoral characters. Ask yourself this, do you want to play a character that strives to be “moral” (and in the modern day western world sense only) in an adventure where you’re fighting and dealing with monsters? I think a sanity trait like form Call of Cthulhu might have been better, where characters struggle to hold on to their sanity when faced with the supernatural or the horrific.

The Morality trait also relates to obeying the laws of the land which is okay, I guess.

Beyond my personal opinion, I think Morality may work okay as long as you also use Virtues and vices. It’s just not something I would use or want to play nor do I think does it truly model fictional or real characters sense of morality and their approaches to the world (and genre of horror).

My next problem is with Virtues and Vices. They replace Nature and Demeanour. I really liked Nature and Demeanour. They were a great roleplaying guide to what you wanted to portray your character as. Pity.

Virtues and Vices share many of the same complaints as the Morality trait. Virtues and Vices are based on the classic Christian view or morality, i.e. the seven deadly sins and their opposites. You have at least one virtue and one vice for your character. You use this to regain willpower points, virtues will give back more. I didn’t like the fact that there are only 7 virtues and 7 vices (but then each virtue and vice has “other names” which, I believe, give subtly different virtues and vices and so they can be expanded from 7 to 21 or more but that’s not the system). I think the system is limited because they impose a fixed view of morality. For example I would add, Love, Hard-Working, Dedication and Loyalty to Virtues and Stupidity, Confusion, Ignorance and Fear to the Vices.

I also tried to imagine what my Virtue and Vice would be and I couldn’t really. I found it too limiting to describe myself like that. I tried a few fictional characters and found it equally difficult. While for some the Vice or Virtue was easy, both I found hard to specify.

On a tangent, your not allowed to gain willpower points when you actually try to gain willpower points. Is this a catch 22? Essentially to regain willpower, you must act out your vice or virtue but if you do it to gain willpower you can’t. Why is this is? Surely you want your players to act out their virtues and vices and willpower is the “carrot”?

The book is filled with little systems for everything. The Attributes and Skills all have little subsystems to deal with nearly everything from bribing, seduction, fast-talking to lifting, pushing, hacking, etc. And all the examples give “Skill + Attribute + equipment”. So I guess will all be gearing up then.

Personally I think if you throw out Morality, Virtues and Vices and bring back Nature and Demeanour, the system is very solid.

Chapter 8: What is Roleplaying…. gak!

Normally with White Wolf books I ignore these sections because I find they detract from the rest of the book. And they do. They are arrogant, tunnel-vision and highly pretentious.

They say that Storytelling(tm) is a different kind of roleplaying. It is? How so? (I always thought storytelling is about telling stories not a specific brand of roleplaying…) Well apparently a lot of other games are “roll”-play as opposed to “role”-play. They focus on stats and dice instead of story and character.

But… so does the Storyteller(tm) system. This is important distinction. They is very little in the system that promotes roleplaying over system. The text throughout the book says, use the system as you need. Well with that logic any system can be a “storytelling” “role”-play. You can take an implementation of D&D Modern and say in the text: “take what you need from the system”. Walla, its a roleplay according to this book, but in no way does that differiate the Storyteller(tm) system.

What makes the Storyteller(tm) system is that it is simple to grasp and use. The dots are a great visual cue to how good your character is in a trait, the mechanics of the system are easy to grasp, the more dice you have, the better you are and the more chance you have of succeeding. This is the strength of Storyteller(tm) system. I use to say that I could do anything I like with the Storyteller(tm) system because I knew how to bend, abuse and break it to do what I want.

The system itself has got subsystems for nearly everything (oh how rules-lawyers love that) that you may use in a story. Combat is laid out step by too many steps with turns, health points and a few contested rolls. They took away nature and demeanour! Combat is simple enough, but there are better systems that do focus on story.

A favourite system of mine is FUDGE (which is free btw). Fudge emphasis taking what you need from the system. Many see it as a “toolkit” rather than a system though it is complete. It’s combat is not fixed set of turns with initiative. In its simplest form it is a description of the combat plus a single or contested roll.

You don’t need a system at all to roleplay and tell stories!

This chapter also talks about how the gaming hobby evolved. The Storyteller(tm) was a good evolution from the wargamming days. A great intermediate between that and systems that do focus on stories and characters and a great way to get people into the hobby who enjoyed some gaming but wanted more. I don’t think it’s evolved much since. There are subtle improvements such as being able to make unskilled rolls so you don’t have to worry about having all the skills you need but only the skills that define your character or getting rid of backgrounds and having merits. But there are no systems to support roleplaying for example there are no bonses for “good” player behaviour.

You can of course modify the system to suit your group and the way you play… but that doesn’t make the system roleplay as opposed to roll-play. Just makes it easy to change.

The next thing that rubs me up the wrong way about this chapter is the pretentious side to it. They say trying to achieve a story is better then just having fun but don’t deride those who do it for fun. What’s implicit in this comment is that White Wolf GMs (and players) are on a different plane to people who just want to have “fun”. I found this insulting, personally. I play for fun, always have, even when I used to buy this line hook, line and sinker.

I think the problem lies on defining “those that do it for fun” as opposed to “pretentious gits”. People who do it for fun, do it for many reasons. What person doesn’t do it for fun? They do not have to be pretentious (as in looking for some thing “meaningful”) to do so. Some are gamers, some are simulationists and some are narrativist. It has nothing to do with creating a “meaningful” story in any way. A dramatic and “meaningful” story can appeal to all types of players. You can get a meaningful story out of most roleplaying systems. Also, in games of horror, you need to sometimes break away and have a little laugh. Sometimes people just want to play a game. Just because people don’t always want to roleplay for more than fun, does not make them lesser beings or unable to enjoy a meaningful game.

(I always wonder if the people who playtest at White Wolf are shit-hot GMs with five dots in manipulation and their players are professional methods actors to able to create these apparently powerful stories!)

It also talks about plot, character, theme, mood, etc. I often used to skim these chapters for the occasionally useful piece of advice. For me, I didn’t really find anything new from previous WOD books.

My relationship with White Wolf WOD roleplaying books, I must say, is a rocky one.

My first roleplaying game I ever played was werewolf 1st Ed. My friends had all been playing for years and we were stuck in a hostel together for a night. So someone suggest playing Werewolf. I agreed, eager to play along with the crowd and have some fun.

I enjoyed the experience so much I was in love. I built a collection of WOD1.0 games, my favourites being Mage, Wraith and Changeling. I enjoyed Vampire but it was not the top of my list (though it followed the other three closely).

Eventually, or unfortunately, “Revised” came out. I had already enough books for me to play or run anything in World of Darkness that I felt like. I bought Vampire Revised and it was actually very good imho. I bought Mage and my heart sunk.

Things had been drastically changed, not necessarily a bad thing if done for the right reasons. Unfortunately it felt like they were done for the wrong reasons: the glourious meta-plot. I had no interest in the meta-plot before. I loved free-form, on the fly, stories and roleplaying. Meta-plot had no place in such chronicles I felt. Then Wraith and Changeling were discontinued. I started to grow cold to WOD and then the final nail in the coffin, the End of Time series. Everything was now wrapped up in the meta-plot and another excuse to buy all the books again for the wrong reasons (imho, yet again).

I had also begun exploring other systems and expanding the types of games I played and the way I played them. I discovered and enjoyed games that really do focus on character and story such as Fudge. I also went backwards and found enjoyment in older, more system-oriented games like Shadowrun, SLA and D&D. I read up on roleplaying in general, joined newsgroups and webforums, etc. The long and the short of it was that my knowledge and experience of roleplaying had expanded well outside of what I knew from White Wolf and their Storyteller(tm) system.

So now I’m coming back to WOD. I still don’t know if its worth re-investing time and money in the new WOD.

The core book and vampire set me back 55 euros which is twice as much as I would have ever forked out for a roleplaying book before. The core book cost me 20 euros and Vampire 35 euros. So, this has tempered my opinion a lot of the two books and it is why I’ve decided to review them independently.

I had my expectations: This book is meant to be the core World of Darkness Storyteller(tm) System book. This implied to me that it would serve several functions:

1. Easy Reference to the System.
2. Contain all common system stuff to Vampire, Werewolf and Mage. This would include Mortals, obviously, but also other stuff such as the Meta-world of WOD, how the different types interact, Spirits (which are common to Werewolf and Mage), etc. Basically solve all those cross-game problems that existed in WOD1.
3. Contain common texts such as “What is Roleplaying” and “How to Roleplay” (so I only have to read them once).

Well it fulfils 1 and 3 but not 2. Instead it gives the mortal perspective of WOD. So I got more and less then I expected.

Is it worth getting? And if your like me and you grew a little cold to White Wolf’s marketing, is it worth getting back into WOD?

To the first question, no not really. Borrow it if you want to understand the system. If you want to GM, you can still survive on borrowing, thanks to dice-pools and the total lack of any setting information.

Is it worth getting back into WOD? Well on the strength and weakness of this book, I don’t know. The system is better (but then Mage revised system was greatly improved to previous versions, yet the setting was drastically changed). But it doesn’t give much more than that.

All I can say is wait and see.

[Update: (September 23, 2004) Wrote up a review of the new Vampire here with a much more positive outlook!]

I originally posted this on moc but I think it’s kinda lost there so I’m posting it here on my own personal site.

I dreamt- 

========================================================= 

'Madness is a perfectly normal, state of mind' the man
explained with his upper crust English. He sat down
and waved his white gloved hand in the air.
He had an aura, around him, of superiority. Somebody
answered him. 'Madness is a just reaction to the
subconscious thoughts about death....' this one who
spoke now was tall, black trench coat, leather
trousers, big boots. He refused to sit down but
stood in the dark shadows.
          'I beg to disagree, my friend. It's a
slight rendering of the metaphysical barrier of the
subconscious.....' the upper class English man said.
          There was three men and a young lady here,
including myself. I never entered into the debate but
listened.
          '.....when the conscious soul understands
the pure evil of itself,' the English man continued.
          'You think you understand madness and
evil?' the young lady bent close to him, she wore
what looked like an 18th Century costume, 'Have you
ever been submerged totally in your own mind,
illusions and protections ripped away? There is no
such thing as pure evil.'
         'Really Cammy,'
         'Evil exists only in it's own corrupted
forms.'
         'Every little bit counts you know.' He
sounded like he knew it all and it infuriated Cammy.
I could see her chest heave underneath what must be
a corset. The man in the trench coat lit a
cigarette and blew long streams into the air.
	The two other men looked normal in their
business like suits but they had their backs to me,
looking out the window into the City. Their business
style seemed to contrast with the dark English style
of furnishings. I kept wanting to see their faces,
not the backs or their neatly cut hair.
Cammy came over and ate down beside me, each movement
beautiful in it's grace and flow. She was nearer now
and I could see how pale her skin was, and how
beautiful her black rimmed eyes contrasted with it's
paleness. A piece of hair hung delicately over her
forehead.
	The door opened and a waiter came in pushing
a trolley of drinks. The young English man said 'Ah
service. Good show my man.' No one else moved, the man
in the trench coat took another long drag from his
cigarette, the two at the window seemed to listen to a
faraway train and Cammy was sorting out the ruffles in
her satin dress. The waiter came around to each, first
the English man, then Cammy, myself, and around to the
two at the window who waved him away with a slight
movement of the hand. He left then, leaving us in
silence.
	The English man was looking at me. I was
finding the silence uncomfortable, I knew he was going
to ask me something and then he did 'What do you think
is madness?' Everyone knew he meant me and I knew
everyone waited intently for an answer but they hid it
so well. It was time to impress, but should I think
that way? That is not me. 'Do you dream English man?'
I said.
	'English man? I like that title, I may use
that.'
	Cammy broke in again 'well do you dream
'English man' do you dream?'
	'Yes.'
	'What do you dream of?' I leaned forward and
placed my hands together in front of me.
	'This and that.'
	'Is there logic to it?'
	'No.' I knew he waited for my response but I
didn't need to answer, for the silence itself was the
answer. He looked expectantly at me, leaned forward, I
leaned back into my chair.
	'Yes?' he ventured.
	'You are wrong, your dreams do have logic. The
twisted fantastic logic of the dreamer's subconscious.
Madness is when their is no logic to it.' I had my point
and it sounded good. I looked at Cammy, her expression
had not changed.
	'That's a damn interesting way to look at it.' I
looked at the man in the trench coat but all he did was
take another drag of his cigarette.
	'But how does that sort of madness come about?'
	I looked at the men at the window, one of them
must have turned around because he just turned his
perfect head back to the window.
	The man in the trench coat threw his cigarette
onto the glass table in the center, 'When is Darius
intending to appear? Have things to do...'
	'Silence! He will come.' One of the men at the
window raised his hand to enforce his comment.
	The one called Cammy looked at me and said 'What
do you do?'
	'I mess with dreams.'
	It seemed so natural that she sat there in 18th
century period dress, it seemed like a dream.
	'You do. So this 'dream-madness' you describe,
what is it like' The English man sat forward intent on an
answer.
	'Can we talk about something else...?'
	'Well how do you do it then, I mean 'mess with
dreams'?'
	'You are persistent, English man...'
	'His name is Lucas.' Cammy's voice was perfect
in it's electrocution, it's sweetness and delicacy
raised my gloved hands and I proceed to remove the black
leather gloves from them. My hands were whiter then the
purest snow, they always are, the veins constantly
bulging. I slowly closed my hands, letting myself touch
Lucas' dreams, I felt something but I was forced out.
Lucas was sitting slightly more tense on his chair.
	'I understand now,' he nodded slowly. He nodded
slowly. He had a strong soul. Cammy reached out to touch
my hands, I let her soft skin touch my hands. She looked
from my hands to me, 'they are so soft!'
	'Tell me something, why are you dressed in
costume, em Cammy?' It was sort of blackmail but she
smiled, her full red lips so enticing, 'Old habit,
Mister...?' she was looking for my name.
	'My name, Cammy, is Matthew Hewlock.'
	'Well, Matthew, I hope we get on well together.'
She shook my pure white hands from the touch of my
dreaming hands, I was surprised she showed no shock from
the touch of my dreaming hands. I replaced the gloves on
them.
	'Well Mr. Hewlock, that was some blast, it was so
strange' the English man seemed to have recovered. His
gloved hands relaxed on the armchair.
	'Lucas, it was not a mental attack, something
totally different,' for the second time one of the men at
the windows spoke.
	The man in the shadows, in his black trench coat
stepped forward into the light of the lamp. His face was
so well defined, he wore a fashionable beard, and his red
hair stood directly up, like a long pillar. I stopped
myself from sniggering, but in a way it was not ugly. It
reminded me of those Japanese cartoons I have seen. He
was also extremely tall over 6ft not including his
fantastic hair. He moved towards the door, the same man,
that had spoken at the window, said 'don't move, please.
Darius will arrive soon. I am in contact with him now,'
turn around god damn you, 'he assures me it is very
important you stay.'
	'Why? I don't know who you are or your friend, I
don't know 'Mr. Dreamer' over there and 'English Man'
here, and I've only heard of Cammy in whispers. Why is it
important I remain here?'
	The English man stood up, 'look my friend, I
don't know this Darius, but I do know what is happening.
Please you can't go.'
	'What happened to your 'Madness' English man?'
	'Lucas, please, is my name.'
	'Why should I stay?'
	'Because a Demon has broken through the veil.' 

==========================================================

I go to the small coffee-shop where we always meet. It’s always open late and there I get a cup of tea and relax at an empty chair, reading my book. Someone sits at the table beside me and I glance up; it is the young man from the bus. He smiles at me and then says ‘nice book’.

‘Yea’ I answer, fully intending to continue my reading and ignore him but he sits at my table, the chair swung around so the back is at the front. He smiles at me.

‘I am David’; black leather gloved hand outstretched. I accepted and answer ‘Matthew’. I hadn’t noticed how pale he was, but alas it is only white make-up; glossy and white.

‘Your a role-player, I can tell. Do you play that ‘Vampire’ game?’

‘Yes’, and again I attempt to read my book.

‘I like vampire-players, full of darkness, the true ones that is, full of darkness and madness and do you know, the greatest ones are the ones who are afraid to play?’

‘Yea?’

‘Do you believe?’

‘Eh?What?’

‘Do you believe in spirits and ghosts and psychic abilities,prophetic power of dreams, astral projection?’He was beginning to get my interest.

‘I believe in the possibilities, but as yet I have never experienced definite proof?’

‘Then tonight is your lucky night’.

‘Why?’

‘Because you’ve meet your first Vampire.’I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. I believe in spirits and the powers of the mind but I know Vampires are just old stories about dead ghosts corrupted by the Catholic Church.

‘Your a vampire?’ He smiled.

‘You will believe’. He smiled again got up and left. I watched him go, not with supernatural speed into the night but with a leisurely pace. He seemed too human. I realized my jaw was hanging out. I did not know how to react, I nearly expected to find a hidden camera but alas no. Nothing else happened till my friends arrived. Lucas arrived first and I told him what happened and we discussed; could David be a vampire. He was more willing to believe then I saying that I could be rationalizing it away,the white make-up for example; perhaps his skin was really pale and? I held up and said I was there and you were not, it was make-up.I wasn’t willing to believe that he was a vampire and if he was what was his interest in me? Lucas said I wasn’t ‘open to extreme possibilities’.The rest of them arrived and we went off to our first destination; a small pub nearby.

They were all drinking different beers, Guinness, cider?I was drinking coke. I had been drunk once before and it was an enjoyable experience but really you can have a good time without drinking. My friends here weren’t all roleplayers, Lucas and Kern were but the others never got interested in it. Roleplaying seems to have got a weirdo image to it I think.

I sit here listening to their conversation, sometimes adding in a comment never taking a dominate role, just listening. Maybe I can’t really talk it seems so forceful and unnatural.

First pint finished, next port of call. We left and went to another pub.This one was a lot more busier, people’s talking like an incessant loud hum like a broken engine. The smoke filling my nostrils with every breath. We continued our conversation where we had left off. It reminded me of the ‘boys’ in a play ‘Philadelipha Here I Come’, we didn’t delude ourselves but we said things which seemed so familiar.

We aren’t really the disco types, well not really. I think they are a lot less adventurous then they think with their stories of this and that. They don’t know the? ectasy,it’s the only word I could think of? of dancing to that thumping track, letting the beat infect every fiber in your being not caring that anybody is paying in attention.It’s a freedom I know I lack, a freedom I always wanted but alas I never achieved in day to day life; only in brief moments when I was drunk, dancing maybe even sleeping. Someone behind me touched my shoulders and I turned around and it was the ‘Vampire’ David !That ponzy smile, and it definitly was white make-up but skillful done.

‘Hello gents’, he smiled and threw five tickets on to the table, ‘it’s ‘Vampire Night’ at ‘The Twilight Zone’ and there free tickets. Compliments of me.’

‘Eh thanks’. My friends looked puzzled, but Lucas started talking to him ! Now I felt really confused. David made some joke and then left saying he would see us there.

‘Lucas,that was him, David !’Lucas started laughing, and started to explain that David was a role-player. He said that he once played a game with him and he just takes things to extreme. I felt I was being a fool,made to look neive. They were looking at the tickets. The tickets were to a new nightclub over the bridge. It read that it starts at ten to late. Well, they were saying, we better not waste these. I had all but got up and left the group. I wasn’t speaking and nobody was noticing.

I kept thinking maybe there is something to David. The way Lucas just washed away the topic frightened me. Why? I don’t know,
as if? I don’t know what I’m thinking. Somebody, I think it was Kern, asked me what was wrong. I said I was fine, just thinking.

Well time passes and we left the pub to go to this club ‘The Twilight Zone’.It was a dark night, the sky actually seemed black not the reflection of the City, no red fuzz on the clouds. Just darkness, but the city was alive, full of people, the cars racing faster then in the daytime, people dressed up; women in really short skirts and knee high boots; men in swede jackets and sharp black hair and everywhere the lights; neon lights, street lights, window lights, car lights. The City glorifies light as if enlightenment brings peace of mind.

We arrive at this club. ‘The Twilight Zone’ was written in big letters in the style of the cult TV series logo. It was a big tall red brick building except the door led into a dark corridor from whence bright colorful lights escaped. There was a cue but our tickets got us in straight away. I was feeling a little apprehensive and a little excited as we walked down into the dark corridor.

We all amerged into a dance hall,the thumping music blaring through my ears and I felt alive.People were dancing in front of me. A man dressed up as a women was making jokes at Lucas. Then I noticed that the people were dressed up, not just in drag but in vampiric costume, white make-up, black capes and the music, I think, was the Cure. We grabbed a table and Kern went over to the bar to get some drinks.

David was there and he came over to us. ‘Where did you get those tickets?’ I asked.He smiled.

‘Me to know, Matthew, and you to find out’. We talked of Vampire games and I began to accept him even his forcefulness.Kern was talking a lot more as well. David had a magnetic charm, a powerful aura that demanded notice that I hadn’t really spotted before.

He said ‘come on get up and dance. The night is young.’ Somebody said it was full of girls,

I nearly laughed out loud, not at the joke but at the limiting?, the? the similarity between the boys from the play and them. I got up and I think John did too and we danced but my mind wandered as if I had no concentration and I was no longer dancing, I was walking and David was by my side..

No… I am dancing, my arms in jerks and my legs in spasms. The music seems dulled in my ears, like someone plugged them and I hear David’s voice as if through a dream ‘the greatest ones are the ones who are afraid’. I felt my heart beating so fast in my chest and I was afraid I didn’t know where John was or my friends were. But the dance floor emptied in front of me before I realized, I was in a secluded corner of the hall. I had stopped dancing unconsciously. David stood beside me, the music still dulled. A beautiful woman stood up from the seats there; she wore the classical costume; the big dress, the corset in fact it seemed so real that she could have stepped from the 1800’s into modern now. She raised her fan to her face and stepped forward towards me. She leaned forward as if to examine me. I knew David beside was smiling. I could see her breast, plump and round but pushed tight to her chest by the dress. I could smell that stuffy antique smell and she removed her fan and laughed aloud. ‘He will be great David. One of us,’ and she stepped out of my view and a young girl, about my own age, stepped forward. She wore tight leather and she had the most exquisite red hair down to her shoulders. She placed her arms around my neck and the music suddenly came on and I found my self kissing her. The music touched with womanly laughter. I felt a feeling, something akin to love, spreading through me as her red lips touched mine. She stopped and brought me, like a wolf leading a sheep, to a little enclave and we sat there, holding each other, reveling in the physical contact, in the beauty of the touch.

We had sex there, the first time and it was great but I had no control I was a zombie only alive in my body, there was no nagging doubts, no thoughts like unprotected sex? no, just pleasure and a feeling of fulfillment yes, fulfillment.

‘I have to go and do my make-up, my love. I’ll be back.’ She got up still holding my hand, her lipstick was running like blood down her mouth, I didn’t know make-up ran like that. I decided she’d probably be a while so I decided to find my friends.

I felt really happy and? satisfied, yes definitely satisfied. I walked into the press of people dancing until I felt someone grab me. ‘Matthew, Matthew, thank God I found you. They’re gone; Kern and John and Andrew have gone?disappeared. I can’t find them.’ I could hear his voice through all this music, it made me feel great.

‘I haven’t seen them Lucas. Just relax?’ I felt David’s strong presence behind me.People made way for him so that the three of us had a small space in the press of people.

‘They’ve gone outside Lucas. They needed some fresh air,’said David.he stepped towards Lucas.

‘No. their coats are gone from the cloakroom, the table we sat at is empty. God damn I’ve been outside.’ He stopped all of a sudden and starred at me; ‘What’s on your face?’

‘Probably lipstick?’ I answered.

‘Samantha?’ David asked. I was about to turn to him and say yes but Lucas shouted out at me ‘ NO! IT’S BLOOD !’

I reached up and touched my face, I felt David step by me,and I felt red liquid on my face.

I stood looking at my hands covered in blood. I looked up and I saw David holding Lucas, his teeth firmly gripping Lucas’ neck. Lucas was struggling but suddenly stopped, his eyes staring into space, his arms gone limp by his side.

David looked older,seemed years older then his physical presence as if he were an adult in a young body.

I was frozen in fear? in madness? Lucas lay dead in front of me. I felt a gloved hand reach into my pocket and pull something out, and I heard that womanly laughter and she was there, the woman in the classical costume with Samantha holding my book ‘Interview with the Vampire’.I couldn’t move and the people danced around me.And somewhere in the back of my mind a thought emerged, I am being controlled, help me, help me, and I turned slowly each step colossal in it’s undertaking and I felt hands grab me. Hundreds of hands lifting me, all the people dancing were lifting me up so that I lay on a sea of bodies and the music got louder, harder.

And David rose up in front of me, his two feet balanced on two or three dancing hands, and the dancing hands moved so that he drifted across to me, standing over me and he knelt down to me, each move immortal not adolescent and I kept thinking it’s a dream, a horrible vivid dream. I felt his red hot flush of blood flow into my mouth and the darkness enveloped me and I died.

And I know now why they light the Cities, why mankind is obsessed with light. And as I now walk through the night city the dark sky above, I see things in a new way. The light is everything and nothing and the dark is just the opposite. Light does not bring enlightenment only a peace of mind because what ever we believe it’s wrong.

David said to me that they are not constricted by social pressure ‘we do what we like, we are what we like’ and I laughed and I laughed. They had no longer power over me, no one had and there was no one left. Ah?an image of Lucas panicking, his hands going limp no more struggle. Is it real, was it real or just a dream, just a??

The fire is burning and the light is dying.

THE END

(note this a copy of the first draft only)

(a dream?)