Except for Demon. And while I can acknowledge that what was tried wasn't inherently bad, I've been chewing over the God Machine for a while now, and I wanted to try to put into words why I think it didn't really work as an addition to the setting.
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| And then the Blue Screen awoke, and the universe ceased to be. |
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Demons, Angels, and Clark's Third Law
In the long ago and far away, I devoured a friend's copy of Demon: The Fallen. While I would be the first to admit it was far from perfect in a mechanical sense, it had such a feeling of gothic depravity that fit neatly into the darker corners of the setting that I couldn't help but be intrigued by it. Though I made several characters for the game, every new chronicle I tried to join fell through before we could really get going. So when I heard that Demon was going to get a Chronicles of Darkness release, my ears perked up and I paid attention.
Demon: The Descent is not what I expected... and not really what I wanted.
Tonally, the two games are similar enough that they're clearly related. In presentation, though, they're worlds apart. In Fallen you have the setup that most players think of from an RPG titled Demon, in that you play a Demon who has broken loose from their nether realm, found their way to Earth, and they are laying the groundwork for their own plans. They're rebels, and while some may be here merely as agents of chaos to watch the world burn, others are attempting to lay more subtle plans, or merely to ensure their own, selfish ends.
Descent, though... well, it feels like the Matrix.
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| These were not the demons I was looking for. |
The reason for this is the setup of the literal plot device of the God Machine.
The clue here is in the tagline on the cover; a storytelling game of techgnostic espionage. If that sounds like technobabble, let me break it down. Gnosticism is a spiritual practice whereby individuals believe that the material world around them is an illusion; a lie generated by a demi-godlike entity to imprison the minds and spiritual power of humans. It is only by subverting this lie, and acknowledging the truth of the universe, that one can escape the prison built by this demiurge.
If that sounds familiar, it's the same inspiration for both versions of Mage. But whereas Mage keeps the mystical angle (at least according to all the reading I've done so far), Descent leans into the technological. The God Machine is a literal alien machine that is infinitely more complex than merely mortal minds can conceive of. This intelligence understands far more than anyone possibly could, and it is ancient beyond knowing. And, as Clark's Third Law states, any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.
So you have a game where a vast, cosmic horror computer spans the cosmos, and several of its programs (the titular demons) have gone rogue. Is that a playable game? Sure. Is it a horror game? You could make it one, if you wanted to. Gnosticism is, after all, pretty damn terrifying as an idea.
But does it jive with the rest of the Chronicles of Darkness setting?
Monsters and Computers Create Tonal Dissonance
One of the major, appealing factors of the Chronicles of Darkness setting (and the World of Darkness before that) is it's all meant to fit together. Sure, you can play a chronicle that's just about vampires, just about werewolves, or just about mages, changelings, or prometheans... but you can also play a chronicle where all of those things (as well as the communities they inhabit) overlap with one another. It creates a richer tapestry, and populates the shadows with all kinds of horrors and wonders just waiting to be discovered.
This is where the God Machine trips and falls on its face, in my opinion. Because it really doesn't feel like it belongs with the rest of the setting.
Vampires and werewolves are purely supernatural creatures, and have always had an air of dark mysticism to them. Changelings and the fae are capricious creatures from out of our folklore. Mages, though they use a similar framing device to Demon, fit much more firmly within the mystical than they do the technological. Even Promethean, based on the pseudo-science of alchemy, feels more magical than it does academic.
Then along comes the God Machine. While there's a lot of hemming and hawing in the text about how it is actually far more complex than presented in the rules, it's still broken down in a way that reflects on computers and technology that a modern audience will understand... and that really makes it feel like a dark sci-fi game, rather than a supernatural horror game. While that's not inherently an issue (magic and technology co-existing and mutating together have been themes of a lot of WoD content in the past), it feels like a square-peg-round-hole scenario.
And honestly, I feel like most of it is in the presentation.
Consider a different take. Think of the lost and buried places among the world. Forgotten ziggurats carved with long-dead languages where abominable deeds were done. Lost empires frozen in the polar regions that still teem with creatures that would drive one mad. Star-bound entities to whom humanity is a mere curiosity, and things with black wings who soar on the solar winds of the void. Beings who are built on ritual, on names, and on formulas.
What I just described is the Cthulhu Mythos, but that feeling could have been used to give Descent a sheen of the mystical, the weird, and the supernatural. Especially since as Lovecraft often said, the beings of the mythos are only gods to humanity, and their rites, rituals, and devices are simply so far beyond us that we can no more comprehend them than an ant might understand calculus.
This would, I think, have been a far better framing device for maintaining the consistent tone of the setting, and getting players onboard with the game as a whole. It could have maintained that air of ignorance versus knowledge, and given players the chance to inhabit truly alien mindsets. That's not what happened, of course, but I think it would have prevented a lot of players from straight-up walking away from this game because it was so distant from the supernatural angels and demons they expected, and which the setting would more easily support.
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