Pyramid Review
Mysterious Places (for the World of Darkness)
Published by White Wolf Games Studio
Written by Kraig Blackwelder, Rick Chillot, Geoff Grabowski, James Kiley, Brett Rebischke-Smith, & Chuck Wendig
Illustrated by Sam Araya, Greg Boychuk, Vince Locke, Chris Martinez, Mark Nelson, Jim Pavelek, Durwin Talon, Jamie Tolagson, Andrew Trabbold, & Cathy Wilkins
138-page B&W hardcover; $24.99
One of the pleasing aspects of the Origins Award-winning World of Darkness RPG is the development of the setting even before a storyteller gets to its more outré elements with the addition of Vampire: the Requiem, Werewolf: the Forsaken, or Mage: the Awakening. The aim here is to have the player characters explore the setting as mere mortals, enabling the game to be played as a traditional horror RPG rather than one in which you play the monster or rather the "superhero by night." Of course, the events of such play can serve as a character's prelude to one of the other aforementioned campaign settings. The supplement Ghost Stories falls exactly into this category, as does the latest release.
Mysterious Places presents nine different locations, ready to work into a campaign or be used to kick off a campaign. They are in turn eldritch, bizarre, or just simply tainted by the horror that lurks just beyond the reality of normal, everyday life. And while they can be used in conjunction with the inhabitants of that beyond place -- vampires, werewolves, and so on, they are nevertheless best used with . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 20, 2006
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