TowersMUX uses the World of Darkness 20th Anniversary Edition rules. A limited amount of material from previous editions has been adapted for use here, and setting information that does not contradict either the 20th Anniversary Edition or the text of this website is probably still valid, although we cannot guarantee that absolutely everything is consistent with our game world.

Vampire

• 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook
• Lore of the Clans
• Lore of the Bloodlines
• Some individual game-mechanical elements have been adopted from Rites of the Blood; those not specifically listed are not in use. Thematic elements from the book are used where applicable.

Werewolf

• 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook
• Changing Breeds
• Umbra: The Velvet Shadow
• Rage Across the World (some elements local to London have been changed; where the two conflict, this website should be considered definitive).

Mage

• 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook
• Book of Secrets
• How Do You DO That?, with the exception of the summoning and binding rules.
• Gods and Monsters
• Lore of the Traditions will be reviewed for use in the near future.

Changeling

• 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook
• Players Guide

Wraith

• While we do not support the Wraith game line, Archetypes found in the 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook are available.

Other

Books Not Currently Used

• M20 Sorcerer. We looked closely at the rules for hedge magick and psychic abilities presented here, which offer a very flexible and powerful alternative to the Mage: the Ascension game. Ultimately, our feeling is that Sorcerer works better as a substitute for the standard Mage sphere rather than as an addition to it; having characters that use the IC groups from this book in play would mean essentially adding a fifth sphere (which we don’t have the headspace for), while incorporating them under the Mage sphere would require us to alter the book rules more than we are comfortable with. It is possible — though unlikely — that we may add Sorcerer at some point in the future; in the meantime, you may wish to consider playing a Mage with a similar Focus instead, possibly starting with a low level of Arete if you are uncomfortable with the full complexity of the Mage system.

“Why did you … ?”

From time to time we get questions on what led us to permit certain things or disallow other things — sometimes in isolation, sometimes juxtaposed as “why do you allow X but not Y?” We thought we would share part of our thought processes in deciding what goes and what stays.

• Things that provide an incentive toward disruptive behavior were generally cut. We don’t want characters who are openly bigoted — why would we give out extra Flaw points to a character who promised to do so?
• Things that represent a very large game-mechanical power bump were usually either cut or gated in some way. For instance, 7th Generation vampires have access to level 6 Disciplines; therefore Generation is limited to 8th. Higher-Rank shifters have access to higher-rank Gifts, and while rising in rank is such a major part of Werewolf that we didn’t want to exclude it entirely, we did impose additional requirements.
• Things that are drastically better or worse than other similarly-priced options were usually either rewritten, repriced or cut. If we were running a store where everything cost $5, we’d want to try to make everything worth around $5. We wouldn’t lose any sleep if some things were worth $4 and others were worth $5, but we’d try to avoid having anything worth $1 or $25.

“Will you add … ?”

Maybe, but probably not. Staff has already reviewed all the 20th Anniversary Edition material we could find at the time of writing, including individual Merits and Flaws, before deciding on what to allow and what not to allow. If something isn’t available from this list of material, it’s probably not because we don’t know about it.

But we’re not perfect, and it’s possible that we missed something. It’s possible that time will lead us to reconsider our initial position on something that we previously rejected. And it’s likely that additional material will be published in the future that we’ll need to consider. So it’s perfectly okay to ask — but the answer will probably be “no,” unless it’s something published after early 2024.

Older Material

Material that isn’t from the 20th Anniversary Edition is a little more complex. It’s still okay to ask, but there’s a great deal in the World of Darkness that isn’t terribly well-thought-out or well-balanced, and the more so the older the edition. If it’s something that can’t be handled using things that are already allowed, it’s reasonably well-balanced, and it’s something that we think the game as a whole would benefit from, then we may be amenable to including it — but the default position is that pre-20th Anniversary material will not make the cut. If something does, the mechanics will probably change from their original form in some way in the process.

It is unlikely that we will add new spheres, factions, clans, bloodlines, tribes, Traditions, and so forth, and especially if they are positioned as antagonists to the existing PC spheres. The Sabbat, the Baali, the Black Spiral Dancers, Fomori, the Technocracy, Thallain, etc., are not expected to ever become available as PCs.