Customer Reviews

WoD Slasher (World of Darkness (White Wolf Hardcover))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

WOD: Slasher is a good viewpoint on 'serial killer' types. It covers numerous archetypes, historical cases, and has a good deal of mechanics for NPC creation. The book also goes into how some Hunters eventually snap and go too far, as their calling eventually wears away their morality.

There are a few mechanics which may be allowable for PC's, namely the Merits:
Atavism- character creation only. Use higher of Dex or Wits to determine Defense, because you act more on instinct than intelligence.
Hands of a Killer- ignore the normal penalty for using an improvised weapon.
Weaponry Monomaniac- gain the 8-again on one specific weapon. See Freddy Krueger's glove.


There's a section on Tactics, which gives Hunter Cells a new edge in dealing with taking out a supernatural threat. Each "Tactic" has prerequisites which the entire cell must meet, and gives a good deal of mechanics. Much of it is probably not applicable in a LARP setting.

"Tools of the Trade" focuses on nifty things slasher cells can get ahold of, from Body Modifications (Filed Teeth, Claws, Scarification) to Unusual Weapons (Armories works just as well), and even construction rules on Traps and Homemade Weapons.

There's additional Endowments for the various Hunter groups, from advanced Armory equipment, Benediction, Castigation, etc.

Cells get Teleinformatics, a new Endowment with over a dozen new powers.

There's also a look into Hunters and Morality.

Is it worth the $31.99 price tag? For a player, no. For a Storyteller, I would highly recommend it. It gives various options and an introspective look at how serial killers should be ran in the World of Darkness.



I can not believe how awesome this book is! The whole spectrum of the WoD core book and Hunter has completely changed!

Finally there is a "new out-look" or "penalty" for characters who feel low humanity means nothing.

This book is brilliant! The equalization of morality and the mental psyche.

I can't even understand why someone wouldn't need or want this book...or let alone someone who didn't like it? The only thing I can think of is someone who didn't thoroughly read it or doesn't use humans, hunters or morality in their game? To me Morality is the game...it is HUGE!

This book is fantastic. This book is so important in the Wod, finally low Morality can truly mean something...instead of a get out of jail free card for murder and heinous crimes.

Buy it! It will change the entire dynamic of your game and allow for some serious creativity for a storyteller as well as new role-playing challenges for your players!

I know there are a lot of positive previous reviews, but I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. Slasher isn't necessarily a bad source book, but it may not be worth it to actually buy it unless you plan to have serial killers play a prominent and continuous role in your stories. Frankly, even if you are, the amount of brain-storming fuel it supplies is limited at best. You could just watch a bunch of serial killer-based horror movies and pretty much get the same result. And that's my main problem with Slasher: WoD is normall very inventive, but in this case I don't think they did enough with the Slasher medium. I think half the reason for this is that once you start reading it you realize the book is blatantly a supplementary piece for Hunter: the Vigil. If WoD had not been so focused on attaching Slasher to the Hunter genre, they probably would have given themselves more wiggle room. For instance, with a few exceptions ALL of the slasher types presented in this book are HUMAN. We are not given a sample of what a vampire, werewolf, or mage would become if they went down the Slasher path. We are also never given a look at Slashers through the perspective of these beings. Instead, all Slashers presented, with the exception of a few ghosts and immortal (but not vampiric) beings, are either humans or "fallen" Hunters. And the slashers within are viewed entirely through the perspective of humans and Hunters.

Slasher is crammed with a lot of unnecessary information about organizations like VALKYRIE and VASCU, despite the fact that the book itself points out that both of these organizations rarely pay much attention to Slasher activity. If so, why were they put in this particular book? Granted, they provide aggravating new antagonists for werewolves, mages, and vampires, especially since not only are both of these organizations government funded, they were also specifically formed to go after supernatural beings. I just don't see why they were put in Slasher and not some other book (perhaps a new Night Horrors book focusing on human antagonists) where their presence would have made more sense. As it is, we get a massive information dump about the background, powers, and advantages of VASCU agents, which takes us away from the topic of the serial killers altogether. Slasher also assumes that the reader knows a LOT about Hunter: the Vigil, specifically the various Hunter organizations. Frankly I think the front of the book should have had Hunter: the Vigil stamped on the bottom, because this is clearly a supplementary book for that genre.

All in all, I found Slasher to be a disappointing buy. I'm primarily a storyteller/player for Werewolf games, and I managed to glean a rather limited amount of story ideas from Slasher. The only one that even slightly made the book worth the price I paid for it was for the Bone Shadows in the Lodge of Death to hold a grisly "Scavenger Hunt" for their members wherein they reward whoever can kill the most serial killers within the span of a month with a Lodge-specific Fetish, the Ghost Stake. This competition not only requires the participants to go far afield from their territories in search of prey, they must also avoid scrutiny by human authorities, and meddling by human Hunters who just don't understand that not all supernatural creatures are evil. And even after all those hurdles have been cleared, there's the matter of the serial killers themselves, some of which might have inexplicable supernatural powers of their own. Granted, this is a very interesting and engaging story idea, but it's just ONE. After this story is through, your players will likely have had their fill of serial killer antagonists. You could avoid this by having one serial killer per story instead of having multitudes of them in a single one, but no matter how you slice it, eventually your players are going to get sick of having serial killers thrown at them. The use of this book is quite limited, so you should really consider before you buy it whether your money might be better spent on a book you can get more out of.

I love pretty much every book that White Wolf puts out, but this one is something special. It does double duty as a great book for building awesome slasher antagonists and as a manual for playing your own horror story out from the handle side of the knife.

The heart of the book lies in the slasher Undertakings. Each concept has a terrifyingly mundane 'Ripper' version and a horrifyingly supernatural 'Scourge' version. My favorite is the Avenger/Legend. The Avenger is the man who has lost his family and goes on a killing rampage to get revenge. That's the Ripper side of things. The Legend, though, is the real jewel. A Legend is the supernatural side of the Avenger. It's the father who lost his daughter to homicidal rapist and so he goes on a spree against rapists and those who are even toying with those thoughts. A legend develops around him. He gets a scary name like "Machete Jim" or something like that. Maybe he shows up during the full moon each month up on the hill where the jocks take their dates. His legend makes him superhuman, immortal, but it also gives him a weakness. Ordinary folks can learn about his legend and maybe find a way to stop him.

This book has a metric ton of new Hunter (and Slasher) tactics, a bunch of new merits, Endowments, and compacts. The new third-tier conspiracy, the FBI's Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit, is so cool that we immediately incorporated it into our weekly game. The fiction pieces are perfect. This is truly a must-have book for practically any World of Darkness chronicle.

This book is very much so a Hunter Supplement, though it's listed as a Core Supplement simply due to the shere value this book has for WOD in any venue.

Following in much the same layout and format as Witch Finders, Spirit Slayers and Night Stalkers...

Chapter One takes a look at Slashers in history with lots of story hooks, how Hunters respond to the Slasher phenomenon, to how it can twist them into becoming one.

A new Conspiracy the V.A.S.C.U. (Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit) who looks into and tries to deal with the Slasher problem.

The Hunt Club is also listed for those Slashers who fancy themselves among the Elite.

Chapter Two is the meat of this book, taking a look at creating Slasher characters with Undertakings that define why it is a Slasher is driven to kill, slasher merits, tactics for Hunters, equipment and body modifications for Slashers, and new Endowments for Hunters.

Chapter Three follows up on several essays and discussions of Slashers in a game. Especially good is discussions of Morality 0 and how it effects characters. There is also a host of ready made Slasher NPCs provided for the ST to include into a game or provide inspiration.

In all, this book is well worth picking up.