[WW] The feel of the game (rant)

[Arne Reuter <reuter@tse-online.de>]

Hi there!

Waltzing through the post I find again and again, that people just
equate d20 too much with D&D (the Dragon or Lich ideas e.g.).

I'd rather think of WW as Deadlands in a different time. Scrap the
classes if they take away imagination. Too much concentration on rules
and mechanics ruins the horror theme. So rather than standard D&D
monsters, i'd be thinking in terms of reckoners and people who want
power no matter what, selling their souls for it.

Ok, granted, the groups will have a lot of action, even without
supernatural creatures. If you want to preserve the horror element,
you need to do a gradual build-up. If you really want to go over the
top, set Earth up as just one dimension with rifts to others. And
those actually could be some of the planes, D&D describes.

Once the powers of darkness get unleashed, anything could happen.
Imagine a kind of Turtledove scenario: After the war is in full swing,
german researchers get desperate for new superweapons and just take
risks they shouldn't have taken. Bang - the gates to hell open and
earth in its entirety faces a new invader: Demons and the spawn of
hell, crawling out of gates all over the world.

Suddenly you'd have to come to terms with the master race, because
their evil just seems to be a lot less threatening than the demon at
your doorstep...

Does anybody know the french 666-bandes dessinees series? There (in a
very graphic and rated at least R way ;-)) something just like this
happens.

So, don't bring your Monster Manual to the play session unless you
want to throw open some portals into hell. Until then its all a
matter of the much discussed "suspension of disbelief".

Just my 2 Pfennige (as long as they are valid, cents soon ;-)).

Regards,

Arne Reuter

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