"Dark Reflections" Brings Me Back To The World of Darkness (For Now, At Least)

Folks who've been following my work for a while know that for several years I was an active creator on Storyteller's Vault for a variety of games in both the World of Darkness and the Chronicles of Darkness. Though I stepped back due to financial reasons, I thought that maybe I could dip a toe back in to see if things were worth coming back for. And because it seems I'm not capable of doing things in half measures, the first release I've had on Storyteller's Vault in years is the supplement with the largest word count of anything I've published except for my full RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic.

So if you haven't checked out the 24,000+ word supplement that is Dark Reflections: 50 Sights To See in The Penumbra, do so now while it's still hot off the presses!

Seriously, help push it up to Silver at the very least!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Delivering On A Promise...

For folks who don't watch the Azukail Games YouTube channel (though you should watch and subscribe if you haven't yet), I made a video for my show Discussions of Darkness a little while back asking viewers what corner of the World or Chronicles of Darkness they'd like to see me tackle. And while there was some back and forth, it was a toss-up between more Changeling, and getting back to Werewolf, the two games I had made the most content for thus far.

In the end, my decision erred toward Werewolf specifically because of how much undiscovered country there still was for me in that game, but also because of the success of my video essay The Problem With Pentex. Because it seemed at a glance that there were a lot of Apocalypse players out there who would be interested in seeing me step back into the Storyteller's Vault fray... and with this supplement I very nearly pulled a creative muscle due to the scope and scale of it. The result, though, I feel speaks for itself.

When I first set out, I wanted to do something similar to my 100 Strange Sights To See In The Hedge for Changeling: The Lost. The idea was that I wanted to put together a guide for Storytellers to draw on to make the Umbra feel like a truly bizarre place, to give their players a sense of unreality, and to bring across how surreal the world of spirit can be. And the first few entries started that way... but they quickly grew into something more.

You see, my thought process was that while some games might go deep into the Umbra, not all of them would. But practically every game of Werewolf will take you into the Penumbra; the area of the spirit world that is pushed right up against the material world, acting as a dark reflection of it in many ways. For context, though, I had to create both the real world location, as well as the location in the Umbra so that the symbolic twisting and expression of the real world would make sense in its spiritual mirror. And once I had those two aspects I wanted to offer a general guide to the kinds of spirits one was likely to find in this place, along with the Denizen. The Denizen is a powerful spirit that is tied to a given location, and it is not something that can just be dispatched; it has claimed this area as a domain, and even if defeated, it will reform again and again unless the source of its power is weakened or eliminated.

Something very similar happened with my 50 Geists supplement a while back. What was meant to be a simple, straightforward list felt a little too anemic for the purpose at-hand, so I expanded on the individual entries and fleshed them out enough that players and/or Storytellers could take the rope and run with it. And, just like the geist list, the word count on Dark Reflections was edging into untenable territory. If I had followed through with my original plan to make a 100-item list then the supplement likely would have crossed into the length of a novel... as it was, it's already well past the minimum word count for a novella.

Which seemed like quite a deal, all things considered.

Should I Stay, Or Should I Go?

From my end of things, I feel this supplement was pretty solid. I haven't done anything for Werewolf: The Apocalypse in a while (and most of my previous contributions can be found in the 100 Kinfolk Bundle, with the addition of Evil Inc.: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries), and I wanted to test the waters to see if this was a good sphere to come back to. Since there were so many folks asking for content that could be used with the 5th Edition, as well as with older editions of the game, I thought this was a solid swing.

But only you all can send a message regarding whether or not this one connects.

So let me tell you how to make it happen.

If you're someone who has enjoyed my WoD/CoD content in the past, go and get yourself a copy of Dark Reflections: 50 Sights To See In The Penumbra. And if you're one of the handful of people who have picked up copies for themselves at time of writing, please leave a rating and a review on DTRPG so that more people find it. Lastly, consider sharing a link to the supplement on your social media pages, and telling your various gaming friends about the supplement... the algorithm is stamping down harder than usual, and it has been all but impossible to make headway as a creator looking to connect with an audience.

And if you haven't checked out all my other supplements for the World and Chronicles of Darkness yet, check out this Pinterest board with links to all 37 of them! From Vampire and Werewolf, to Changeling, Mage, Geist, and even a few general use supplements, I've put quite a lot of work into my contributions for this setting over the years.

If I haven't touched on your favorite game yet, leave a comment below letting me know what you'd like to see me cover! And if you're one of the Wraith players, don't worry, your game is on my to-do list... I just have to find some time to actually read up on it, since I never got a chance to sit down and play it during its heyday.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Interpreting The Umbra: Dark Miyazaki

There is a world behind the one we know. It is a world of spirit that is, in many ways, a truer reality than the one in which we live and breathe. It is also, however, a place that holds up a mirror to the physical world, and shows us the spiritual reflections of the everyday horrors we walk right past without truly seeing them. This world is filled with spirits, but it is also filled with memories and legends, holding the emotional resonance of the world.

This place is the Umbra, and if you're new to Werewolf: The Apocalypse, or really any World of Darkness game that allows you to access this plane, it can be a lot of wrap your mind around. So I thought this week I'd offer an interpretation that might help folks get a grasp on the world, and what can be found within it.

I call this interpretation Dark Miyazaki.

It helps anchor the fantastical in a lot of ways.

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Let Yourself Be "Spirited Away"

While the film that most fits Werewolf's anti-pollution and anti-corruption themes is definitely Princess Mononoke (and one could argue that many of the monsters in that film are a perfect fit for the creation of fomori or corrupted spirits), the film I think works best as a jumping off point for the Umbra is Spirited Away.

For those who aren't familiar with the story, the broadest strokes of Spirited Away are that a young girl crosses a boundary into the spirit world, is stranded there, and must navigate the new rules of this bizarre places while attempting to survive, make friends, and find her way back to the physical world once more. While she's in the spirit world, though, we see great spirits and small ones, we see spiritual reflections of the material world, we see the sometimes orange-and-blue logic that drives the spirits to behave the way they do, and we begin to get a sense of the hierarchies that exist in this other world.

While it isn't a perfect one-to-one comparison, it can anchor your understanding as both a player or a Storyteller to have a reference like this to draw on. Much like how someone who has played Vampire might be able to easily sidestep into the mechanics of Werewolf as they're built on the same system, it's easier to ease yourself into a new fantastical concept if you already have a shared basis to draw on, and spin out from.

However, given that this is the World of Darkness, Storytellers might wish to paint with a darker brush than we see in this film. Players might find that in their attempt to destroy an oil refinery in the physical world means that the fire spirits who occupy the reflection of that site may have grown violent and destructive, demanding sacrifices of flesh and soul from those caught in their territory. You might find that locations opposite a vampire's haven are riddled with cancerous rot and violent, insane monsters, not unlike what you'd come across in Silent Hill's dark world. You may even find that the opposite side of a school is a prison that crushes tiny spirits until their essence flows freely, all of it drained out of the floor until the "pupils" in the place are a hollow, empty hivemind that conforms to the dark desires of the place.

Lastly, because the Umbra is massive, unknowable, and constantly shifting and changing, there is an infinite possibility as to what one might find on the other side of the gauntlet that separates the world of spirits from the physical world.

And on that note...

Would You Like Supplements For The Umbra?

EDIT: I have released the supplement I was talking about later in this entry. If you haven't seen it yet, take a moment to check out Dark Reflections: 50 Sights To See in The Penumbra!

If you're a regular reader, you might be familiar with supplements I wrote for the Hedge for use in Changeling: The Lost. Supplements like 100 Sights To See in The Hedge as well as 100 Hobs To Meet in The Hedge proved to be extremely popular, and given that the Hedge is also an ever-shifting realm of danger and madness where lurk bizarre creatures and impossible dangers, I figured that putting out supplements like this to help Storytellers get a grip on what they wanted players to encounter in the Umbra might be of-use.

So if you'd like to see a line of resources for fleshing out your part of the Spirit Wilds, let me know in the comments, or on social media!

And, of course, if you'd like some resources for the physical side of a Werewolf game, I'd highly recommend getting your hands on the 100 Kinfolk Bundle which has something like 1,500 NPCs in it, as well as Evil Inc.: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries.

After all, the more interest there is in Werewolf as a property, the more likely it is I can greenlight projects related to it!

Lastly, I have a new Werewolf video essay in the works... so subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss it when it drops!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!