On the Game Table -- Wraith: the Great War

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a column on cool games I've played/would like to play/are useful in general. Since I've been sticking with stuff I've already talked about in previous OtGT articles lately, I'm going to look at some of the rare stuff I have laying about on my shelves. In following up with article I did about a month ago on world creation and the importance of atmosphere, I feel obligated to talk about Wraith: The Great War from White Wolf, which displays perhaps the most successful creation of a asthetic, combined with a wonderful historical game that gives the mess that was Wraith: The Oblivion an honest-to-god purpose.

As you may know, the premise behind Wraith is you are a ghost, caught between the skinlands of the living and the shadowlands of the dead, fettered to the earth by unresolved tasks, burning passions and precious objects. The land of the dead is a harsh place, where souls form both population and currency, being used to forge weapons, relics and even the buildings people live in. The world itself is a place formed and warped by passion, a horrible place ruled by anomie and creatures ruled by the their own twisted internal self-images and the circumstances of their deaths. What's worse, all wraiths struggle against the dark side of their own natures, called shadows, who try to take over wraiths' bodies to ruin their unlives. Players must struggle to protect their fetters, escape the slavers and intrigues of the shadowlands, and fight back their shadows, all at the same time. The result is very cerebral, very character driven, but delicate and ultimately disjointed game experience that is very hard to get a group's collective head around.

Enter Wraith's period setting book, The Great War. Released in 1999, the situation was really one of too little, too late for the foundering line - even though Wraith second edition had fixed a lot of the problems, getting people to reinvest in a game that was cool to read but way too hard to play proved to be difficult. The Great War is a well-written, good reading piece about the 'other world war', World War 1, which is all too often overlooked as the turning point in world history, warfare, international politics, social attitudes, and technology that it is. WWI in many ways introduced the machine gun, the tank, dispursed formations, trench warfare, chemical warfare, and airpower to the battlefield; encourage the birth of both the League of Nations and the Nazi party; advanced medicine such as pennicilin; created great artists like Picasso and Hemmingway and Keroeuac; and birthed the postmodern era of today.

In The Great War, players are individuals amongst the literal millions that died in the fields of the Somme and Ardenes, or to the epidemics of Spanish Flu or Yellow Fever, or to the infinite sadness that floods the world following the brutal shattering of social values and the loss of an entire generation of young European men. The incredible passions and numbers of lives lost in the world create something of a population explosion in the Shadowlands, who is undergoing a major social schism as the "War to End All Wars" comes across the veil with the newly-dead. Slavers and soulforgers harvest new, confused souls as soon as they arrive, while mindless drones re-enact their deaths countless times on massive battlefields.

There is only one thing I can say about what WW accomplished here - this game is wow. The holy-shit-I-can't-believe-they-actually-pulled-it-off-better-check-again-yes-it-really-is-that-fucking-good kinda wow. I believe the authors of this book captured the mood of German Expressionism, the historical perspective of the War, the angst of the core game, and the purpose Wraith so desperately needs all in one tight package. Guy Davis, frequent WW artist and illustrator of Sandman Mystery Theater, captures the era incredibly well thorough his art, as do his contemporaries. The book is a tragic read that almost makes you want to cry - sadly, before I read this book, I had little respect for WWI and an even smaller understanding of what it meant, but I certainly have a greater appreciation now. Everything in it is part of a greater whole, one that far outshines the vast majority of White Wolf's catalogue (save maybe their other historical settings, and Mage of course).

So, in conclusion, if you EVER see this book - FOR GOD'S SAKE, BUY IT!. Beyond the fact that it's worth a lot of money on eBay, it's a lesson in good RPG writing. If you've never purchased a White Wolf book before, you'll not regret it; if you never plan to run Wraith, consider it a lesson in good world development well worth learning from.