From: Anders Sandberg Roleplaying Games of the World Of Darkness There are more roleplaying games in the WoD than Black Dog Games and Wizards of the Bay. Sekt Sekt was inspired by a Nephandi working through mortal acolytes seeking to spread his dark vision among youths across the world. The game was intended to glorify occultism, cynicism, violence, destruction and gore, revealing hints of the real World of Darkness through a warped mirror so that sensitive players would become uncertain of what was real and what was game, eventually starting to live out their obsessions in real life. But the Nephandi had not counted with the forces of Madness; he lost control of his acolytes as they slowly became more and more obsessed with the game and its setting, weaving a wild and tangled web of conspiracy, Gnostic mysticism and real magick. Instead of just glorifying darkness, the game subtly hinted that the great illusion of reality could be broken, and that Man could become God. The game is doing quite well, although far from the big league of Black Dog Games and TLA. And it has disturbing effects on players, who often start to notice odd things or think disturbing thoughts. Sometimes this turns into obsession as originally intended, but instead of just leading victims further into darkness, the game can actually Awaken them if they commit the gruesome rituals mentioned; they awaken as Marauders, trapped in a Quiet based on the game where reality is an illusion ruled by unseen forces and black conspiracies, and destruction of all normality is the only salvation. TLA Games TLA is a huge games conglomerate partially influenced by the Technocracy. It is the largest manufacturer of roleplaying games in the world, although many criticise it for being conventional and not very creative - which is exactly why the Technocracy supports it. Their best-selling game Towers & Titans teaches players two important lessons (while draining their valets of money). The first lesson is that magic is all about creating fireballs, invisibility, enchanting weapons so that they do more damage, animating undead and turning people into frogs - assuming you have the right spells, enough mana and sufficiently high level (or the correct tome of spells). Magic is fictional, and highly restricted by lots of silly rules. The second important lesson is that rules control everything; nothing is possible unless there is a rule or table somewhere. But clever players soon learn that there is power in rules - by finding obscure rules they can gain immense power, and perhaps even wrest control from the Gamemaster. The hugely popular TLA games have a distinct effect on the mostly young players: they become involved in reading tables and rules, and most soon become adept at probability calculations. They also tend to become competitive, always looking for useful advantages in gaining more experience points - both in the game and socially among others. Seraphim The Ascension War is already so bizarre that the Order of Hermes decided it wouldnšt be that absurd to get into the roleplaying business too. They created the game Seraphim (distributed and translated in the US by Order Games), where players play manifestations of cosmic forces seeking inner and outer balance, pursued by various more or less menacing conspiracies. To reach balance, the characters have to discover and solve occult riddles according to the complex twists and turns in the Tree of Life and the alchemical work, thus learning the basics of the hermetic paradigm. It is a bit too abstract and complicated for most players, who prefer the easy mayhem of Towers & Titans or the tragically hip Black Dog games, but a few have become interested in the gamešs obscure hermetic symbolism and look forward to new supplements detailing the secret history of the world, the various conspiracies, the existence of lifestealing entities and an ultimate Grand Plan.