Jul 2, 2006

The 13th Hour. Spooky, right?

Wraith: The Oblivion, one of White Wolf's first attempts to establish the Something: The Something Else line of RPGs, was (and evidently still is) one of my favorite role-playing systems and settings. I've actually gone as far as owning more than 20 Wraith books, but that's a sad story I won't be sharing with you, oh most compassionate readers, right now.

White Wolf used to describe Wraith (before it was dumped like an unwanted halfling) as a dark, gothic-punk setting. As a desperate world, where passionate undead lingered in despair and clung to a pointless existence, the same way I cling to a glorious video gaming past that never really existed. It was a world of decay, despair, death, fear, lost loves and ... er ... more fear.

Only problem was that playing Wraith didn't always invoke the mood to wet a goth's panty proper. Last time I tried playing the bloody thing, with a suitably depressed Storyteller mind you (the man was indeed recovering from a car crash) and perhaps with a bit to much female company, I (we, actually) laughed so hard, it felt like watching Fawlty Towers for the first time. We did of course have an otherwise terrific time, and made repeated attempts at serious gaming, but never truly managed to strangle our silly-laughing-parodying mood. We even tried listening to Diamanda Gallas. To no avail...

Introduction, over.

Enter Midnight Syndicate, the people whose logo you can see at the top of this post, and whose specialty is creating gothic nightmare soundtracks, that are so good that won them an Origins Award. Really! The 13th Hour (Midnight Syndicate's latest CD - playtime 55 minutes approx./25 tracks) won the 2005 Origins award for Game Accessory of the Year. And, let me tell you, if we had this shiny little CD back then, we wouldn't have had such a good time! Brilliant! A mood breaker indeed, The 13th Hour features something like Victorian-esque horror mood-music, that definitely helps build up tension and can be easily sampled here. Add some candles, splash a bit of red to the walls and your RPG experiences will forever change. Oh, while at it, buy a true Hi-Fi CD player, for this is a top quality recording.

A minor footnote: The 13th Hour is 100% compatible with Call of Cthulhu, Chill, World of Darkness and your local Torture Parlor (but unfortunately d20 untested). And there's a fan site too!

A major footnote: If you are more interested in settings like Shadowrun, then do try RPGing while listening to the Lola rennt! OST.

Related Gnome's Lair posts: White Dwarf issue 1 PDF, the Cthulhu gaming feature, True Dungeon Delight


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20 comments:

  1. Damnit - I thought this had something to do with 7th Guest/11th Hour heh.

    I have never been a fan of gothic setting RPG's although I did play Vampire for a short time.

    My personal favorite line of books is from Palladium. I love all of their settings but Rifts is my favorite with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being second.

    I own 36 of the Palladium series books which makes me far more of a nerd than you with your measily 20!

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  2. I was so happy you mentioned Palladium, as this meant they still existed,that I just visited their site, to find out this legendary company is in trouble

    :(

    I guess there's still hope though...

    Anyway... your 36 Palladium books are no match for my hundreds of Citadel miniatures and my dozens of empty bottles.

    Haha!

    All your base are belongs to us!!!

    GNOME TEH BEST!!!1!

    (oops, got a bit carried away for a moment)

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  3. Diamanda Gallas "To hear her is to have your soul scoured clean"

    sometimes a visit here is like attending a masters class in ultimate gaming......i've missed so much!!!

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  4. Palladium is still in trouble. It was only announced a short while ago that they might go under and I don't think any new books have come out since then.

    I ended up ordering that Megaverse United book when it was first released.

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  5. I hate to get off subject but I've never met a gothic person. I must being going to the wrong places.

    7th Guest/11th Hour, those are some spooky games.

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  6. Diamanda Gallas, a true Hex-Jazz Queen... and a place to meet nice goths. Alternatively, and this is answering to you now Gamer C, you could attend one of my friend's John's parties.

    jakanden, I'm pondering about trying to help Palladium myself... the money seems to be themajor obstacle...

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  7. (runs to make the tea....in case he misses anything)

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  8. (out of breath) good i didn't miss anything...tell us about gothic rpg please please please, in a post if possible.....at your leisure.....soon

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  9. Sure thing Mr. Elderly... Couldn't deny you a post ...

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  10. yippe......runs off to get rid of some tea.....

    bloody buttons.......

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  11. Bloody buttons indeed. I'll be buying myself a new keyboard today...

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  12. hurray we get a new keyboard.....

    (cleans floor, puts down the toilet seat.....puts up the toilet seat...scratches head.....unscrews the toilet seat)

    there thats better!

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  13. It's all black, shiny and dead cheap!

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  14. black.......beautiful......shaped or recthingular.....

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  15. Angles are good.... retro even....
    not sharp angles i hope...

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  16. But, of course not! I'm a decent gnome, I am.

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  17. :)

    (the universally acknowledged)

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