Customer Reviews

World of Darkness: Antagonists

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When I heard about WORLD OF DARKNESS: ANTAGONISTS, I thought I would be buying a "Monstrous Manual" for the Storyteller system, maybe some boogedy-men for supernatural types. This assumption was quite wrong. ANTAGONISTS is a book on antagonists from a narrative perspective; what an antagonist is, what is an antagonist's purpose for a story, some classes of antagonists from which to draw inspiration, and ten specific examples which can be used in any story.

ANTAGONISTS opens with a bit of zombie-voodoo fic; not a bad story but fairly predictable. The content itself begins with the purpose of an antagonist, which is to highlight the protagonist. This is an excellent point which I had never considered. The purpose of an enermy in gaming is traditionally to "level up", but in literature an enemy serves to either contrast the postive aspects of the story hero(es) or to highlight the similarities. It depends on the story you want to tell - is it to plumb the depths of darkness and fight the good fight or is it to expose the evil that is a part of everyone and how easily we are corrupted? An antagonist also has a purpose to his/her/its conflicts with the protagonists. Monsters and madmen may exhibit irrational behavior, but that behavior is not undirected. That behavior could be rooted in envy, territoriality, bigotry, hate, or even hunger. But there is always a motive, and discovering that motive is often the key to resolving conflicts that don't lend themselves well to violence. This is especially true in a mortals chronicle, who have little enough on their side to begin with.

ANTAGONISTS also has some chapters on types of enemies; who they might be, possible goals, possible resoultions, and sample antagonists. The first is zombies - an interesting coincidence with my having just finished ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN (the zombie role-playing game). The contrast is striking; in the latter, there is almost always some apocalyptic scenario and the best hope is short term survival in a doomsday world. In ANTAGONISTS, it is pointed out that an apocalypse would have strong repercussions for the other supers, who would no doubt bring their powers to bear on the subject. So zombie outbreaks tend to be local, keeping the horror more personal. Maybe the characters need to bargain with the loa causing the dead to rise, or find the scientist who created the undead virus and bring back the antidote. Nevertheless, if the group decides to play a zombie attack in WOD, I would highly recommend also reading ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN as the definitive source on zombies.

Next up are mortal hunters. I really found this chapter useful, since hunters are antagonists to supernaturals but protagonists in a mortals chronicle. The information for making mortals a credible threat to a supernatural creature is necessary reading for a group of mortals who WANT to be a credible threat to THEIR antagonists (hey - it's the original crossover game!) There's information on what motivates a normal Joe to abandon his normal life and take up arms against what's out there, strategies for maximizing the likelihood of survival in fighting a super, and how hunters might organize to make themselvesmore threatening. After some thought i realized that it is important for humans fighting supers to have symapthetic characteristics to avoid the storyline devolving into comic book drama. One might argue that vampires and werewolves have alien psychologies and do what they do for their own purposes, but humans MUST be believable. They are, after all, us. There are a few human hunters provided, along with their backstories. These are genuinely sympathetic characters, even as they threaten the existence of the PCs.

And who could forget those crazy cultists? This chapter explains why people join cults, how cults recruit people, and how a cult might serve as an opponent to your group. Cults tend to be portrayed more like the Mafia than like serial killers; it's nothing personal if they are after you. Maybe you have something they want, or you are in the way of their goals, or maybe this is pledge week and they're making an offer you can't refuse. Some sample cults are listed, although I would recommend that you also read anything by Lovecraft or his Mythos servitors if you want cults.

Some potential enemies are listed in the final chapter, with background stories and stats. These are meant to be rare, once-in-a-lifetime encounters with something Really Awful. Some prey explicitly on supers while others seem interested in protecting humanity, if as nothing else than a food source. Most are designed to be slowly introduced, to build mystery and fear as the characters come to realize what is happening. I thought all of the examples had possibilities.

ANTAGONISTS is an excellent book overall. The enemies and conflicts provided are meant as material for supernaturals, but could just as reasonably be applied to mortals games. The chapter on hunters is absolutley necessary for mortals who plan to do their own hunting. It is consistent with the theme and flavor of the WORLD OF DARKNESS setting and I would highly recommend it for any story-telling game.

It still remains that one of my main complaints with Antagonists is that it's a slim book, and for the type of book this is, it needed soemthing more.

Chapter One dealing with Zombies and Risen characters is still well worth while.

Chapter Two is somewhat dated now if you have Hunter the Vigil. If you don't have that book, then this chapter is still useful.

Chapter Three delves into Cults. Which, Cults also get disscussed in the WTF book Blasphemies. Though this chapter is still worth looking at too.

Chapter Four offers up a plethora of Monsters and Threats for an ST to use in their campaigns.

And it just leaves me wanting more! This book is good, but it needs something a little more. Such as a Chapter for helping an ST with guide lines on creating other Cryptids and Monsters, much like what the OWOD Bygone Beasteries had going for it.

Despite that feeling of needing a litte more oomph, this book is still a worthy addition to any STs WOD library.

This book a GREAT utility to help spark your imagination. It helps you get into the mind set of yuor underworld aware characters, a find out what makes their skin crawl, what exactly are vampires afraid of? or even a werewolf? If you are wanting to run a high risk game this is definatly something to invest in.

This is absolutely the greatest supplement in the new World of Darkness. There is no other way to describe this book.

It's divided into sections about the living dead (not including Vampires. You'll need the Vampire: The Requiem core rule book for that,) cultists, monster hunters, and just plain weird stuff that's really better to use against supernatural players.

All of the sections are fantastic, and I very highly recommend this book for anyone looking to start a World of Darkness chronicle.

I received Antagonists for the World of Darkness speedily and in good condition. While not the quintessential "Monsters Manuel" for the WoD setting, it does have a lot of information pertaining to Zombies, The Created, Spirits, Cults, Hunters, and so forth. I am greatly satisfied with my purchase and recommend it to anyone catering to the above.

I read a few reviews about this book and they all said this was not a monsters manual, I disagree. It has a few pages in the beginning of the book talking about antagonists in general and their function of a story. Then the book starts explaining about various antagonist races. A expanded monsters manual, without the nice imaged D&D's has.