A game that always garnered huge passions from it’s fans, and kept fans returning largely due to the central concept of ‘consensual reality’. It’s hard to relate to the impact that this concept would have had on it’s fans upon first reading. The post-Matrix world has this type of postmodern, New-Agey idea in mainstream abundance these days, and it seems to be nothing new. At the time, however, it felt like you had been touched by genius upon reading it.
The game itself is very messy - a few too many unnecessary skills, confusing explanations and curious rules stipulations that don’t make sense. The organisation is a bit all over the place.
It never meshed especially well with the prior WoD games either - Vampires can hardly be running the world if the Technocracy is supposedly doing so too, Werewolves have their Umbra concepts compromised by Mage’s version of the same idea and, indeed, how can Vampires and Werewolves truly exist in a world dominated by a Technocracy-dominated paradigm? Shouldn’t they have been eradicated in this modernistic worldview?
Not a classic, as such, yet the passion and concepts still shine through in the writing - and that’s what gives it value.
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