World of Darkness is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, and Changeling: The Dreaming, along with off-shoots based on these. The series ended in 2004, and the reboot Chronicles of Darkness was launched the same year with a new line of games. In 2011, the original series was brought back, and the two have since been published concurrently.
The games in the series have a shared setting, also named the World of Darkness, which is a dark, gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, where supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves exist in secrecy. The original series' setting has a large focus on lore and overarching narrative. In contrast, Chronicles of Darkness setting has no such narrative and presents the details of its setting as optional.
The series has been well received critically for its setting, writing, and art direction, and has won or been nominated for awards including the Origins Award. It has also been commercially successful, with millions of game books sold; by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade was the second highest selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons. The series has been adapted into other media, including the television series Kindred: The Embraced, actual play web series, novels and anthologies, comic books, card games, and a line of video games.
Games
thumb|The series began in 1991 with [[Vampire: The Masquerade.|alt=Logo for Vampire: The Masquerade]]
The original World of Darkness series consists of eight core lines of role-playing games which were originally released from 1991 to 2002, presented here in order of release:
- Vampire: The Masquerade
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse
- Mage: The Ascension
- Wraith: The Oblivion
- Changeling: The Dreaming
- Hunter: The Reckoning
- Mummy: The Resurrection
- Demon: The Fallen
There have also been a number of spinoff games, such as the Asia-themed Kindred of the East and the historical Vampire: The Dark Ages. and Deviant: The Renegades. Several splatbooks – sourcebooks detailing character classes or organizations – have also been published, such as the Clanbook series, describing vampire clans, and the Kithbook line, covering types of fae. which is a dark, gothic-punk interpretation of the real world, rife with corruption. In it, supernatural beings such as vampires, mages, and werewolves exist in secrecy, influencing humanity and clashing against each other; players take the roles of these beings, it does not have a metaplot, and it presents any setting information as strictly optional to include in campaigns. With its lesser focus on lore and less defined world, Chronicles of Darkness also streamlines the character types, stripping the many vampire clans and werewolf tribes from the original series down to five each. Chronicles of Darkness has a larger focus on making the gameplay systems work together, enabling easier cross-over play between the games. as such, new staff were brought in to manage the game lines, including Andrew Greenberg for Vampire and Bill Bridges for Werewolf, who came to define the look and feel of the series. An economic downturn for White Wolf Publishing in 1995–1996, caused in part by bookstore returns for World of Darkness novelizations, led to a falling out between Rein-Hagen and the Wieck brothers, after which Rein-Hagen left the company. As the original planned five annual games had already been published, White Wolf Publishing next devised a new model of role-playing games with a historical setting based on previous games, resulting in Vampire: The Dark Ages (1996), Werewolf: The Wild West (1997), and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade (1998), of which only Vampire: The Dark Ages sold well. This led to the cancellation of the underperforming Wraith line, with the release of the historical-setting Wraith: The Great War and the 1999 supplement Ends of Empire, which functioned as a finale to the game's metaplot.
2006–2015: CCP Games
thumb|[[CCP Games acquired White Wolf Publishing and World of Darkness in 2006.|alt=The logo of CCP Games]]
In 2006, the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games acquired White Wolf Publishing and their intellectual properties, with the intention of developing an online video game based on World of Darkness. Business continued as usual until 2009, when CCP Games started transferring White Wolf Publishing staff to video game development and slowed down tabletop game production.
2015–present: Paradox Interactive
White Wolf Publishing and its intellectual properties were sold again in 2015, to the Swedish video game publisher Paradox Interactive. Following this, the rebooted World of Darkness series was renamed Chronicles of Darkness, while the original series remained as World of Darkness. This was done to prevent confusion among players over there being two series and settings with the same name: Prior to the renaming, the two had been distinguished from each other by being referred to as the Old or Classic World of Darkness and the New World of Darkness. Onyx Path Publishing's in-development Vampire: The Masquerade 4th Edition, which they had announced only a few months earlier,