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Promethean: The Created
"For use with the World of darkness rulebook"--P. [4] of cover.
278 pages, Hardcover
First published August 10, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 30, 2007
Man, I remember mocking White Wolf's X: the Y series with this concept. It's up there with lagoon creatures and mummies with monsters I never suspected White Wolf would actually make a game about.
Then, White Wolf began releasing Promethean teasers, and I was slowly, slowly swayed. Prometheans weren't just frankenstein's monsters, they were zombie alchemists on a pilgrimage to achieve humanity, hounded at every step by their failed creations, their own unbalanced personalities, and the rejection of both humanity and the natural world.
What finally sold me for good was the way one of the developers described it to me at GenCon, while I stood at the White Wolf booth with the book in my hand. Promethean: the Created is a horror game with the hope of redemption. It's about playing monsters who want to be human, and will probably make it, one day.
If Promethean has weaknesses, it is that it is too much, that the game's goals are somewhat counterintuitive, and that it's story lines are, by nature, finite. By too much, I mean that it is very easy for a Promethean game to explode into a shower of misery. If that's your thing, then it's now problem; if it's not, then a little discipline should handle that problem nicely. The goal of Promethean is counterintuitive in that instead of questing to become more influential and powerful, a Promethean is striving to become the World of Darkness's most pitiful creature: an ordinary mortal. For some gamers, this can take some mental acrobatics to get used to. Finally, all Promethean games end. Mortality is a real, reachable goal, and a game that doesn't include it is cheating the setting out of it's most poignant moment. Of course, for all gamers out of college, a finite game is less of a problem than it is a relief.
Anyway, I recommend giving this game a chance if you're into intense character-driven roleplaying and modern horror games.
Then, White Wolf began releasing Promethean teasers, and I was slowly, slowly swayed. Prometheans weren't just frankenstein's monsters, they were zombie alchemists on a pilgrimage to achieve humanity, hounded at every step by their failed creations, their own unbalanced personalities, and the rejection of both humanity and the natural world.
What finally sold me for good was the way one of the developers described it to me at GenCon, while I stood at the White Wolf booth with the book in my hand. Promethean: the Created is a horror game with the hope of redemption. It's about playing monsters who want to be human, and will probably make it, one day.
If Promethean has weaknesses, it is that it is too much, that the game's goals are somewhat counterintuitive, and that it's story lines are, by nature, finite. By too much, I mean that it is very easy for a Promethean game to explode into a shower of misery. If that's your thing, then it's now problem; if it's not, then a little discipline should handle that problem nicely. The goal of Promethean is counterintuitive in that instead of questing to become more influential and powerful, a Promethean is striving to become the World of Darkness's most pitiful creature: an ordinary mortal. For some gamers, this can take some mental acrobatics to get used to. Finally, all Promethean games end. Mortality is a real, reachable goal, and a game that doesn't include it is cheating the setting out of it's most poignant moment. Of course, for all gamers out of college, a finite game is less of a problem than it is a relief.
Anyway, I recommend giving this game a chance if you're into intense character-driven roleplaying and modern horror games.
June 24, 2015
A very interesting read, quite different from the other WoD games I was used to. Instead of dealing with characters that are getting beyond humanity (vampires who're gradually losing their morality, mages aiming at uncovering the universe's deepest secrets...), it presents us with creatures that are monsters and know it, and want nothing more but to become what everybody else seems to be shunning, yet is denied to them: being mere mortals, mortals who are accepted by the world and their peers. This change of perspective I found fascinating. I've always been interested in stories such as Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Meyrink's "The Golem", and this seems to be another way of exploring such concepts.
That said, this game is clearly not for everyone, since it tends to run against the most usual aspects of RPGs in general. Anyone wanting to run a Promethean chronicle will definitely need a group of dedicated players who aren't afraid to think outside the box and forget the traditional progression of gaining power and making their characters carve their place in the world. Or rather, there -will- be a place for them as mortals, as humans, but this is a whole different story to be told.
That said, this game is clearly not for everyone, since it tends to run against the most usual aspects of RPGs in general. Anyone wanting to run a Promethean chronicle will definitely need a group of dedicated players who aren't afraid to think outside the box and forget the traditional progression of gaining power and making their characters carve their place in the world. Or rather, there -will- be a place for them as mortals, as humans, but this is a whole different story to be told.
February 16, 2022
I think this is one of those sourcebooks that everyone reads, but nobody actually plays. I was impressed that they were able to eek out 5+ 'tribes' of Frankensteins for this splat and tie them to alchemy and both the real-world and in-world mythologies so well. Haven't had a chance to play it, obviously, but it doesn't seem too terribly unbalanced (unlike some splats in oWoD and nWoD I will refrain from mentioning), and has tons of hooks for player drama (in the good way). The sourcebook is also tasteful - it doesn't use traumatic events like rape as a bludgeon for storytelling and shies away from edginess. I really appreciated how this was a WoD take on hopefulness, with all the tragedy and wistfulness and sorrow that one would expect.
I'd love to write a short story/novella for a nuclear Promethean someday. Its easy to come away from this book with more than a little inspiration.
I'd love to write a short story/novella for a nuclear Promethean someday. Its easy to come away from this book with more than a little inspiration.
February 7, 2017
One of the New World of Darkness books, Promethean is the game of being, basically, Frankenstein's monster. It has some very interesting ideas, but suffers from poor formatting and indexing (so, a White Wolf book). And while a lot of their games seem to work better as the story of an individual than a group, Promethean suffers from that flaw more than any of them. It's specifically a game of alienation, and how alienated can you really be when you still have friends and allies?
Still, it's a fascinating treatment of its subject and while I can't see myself running a game of Promethean, I'll certainly borrow some elements of it for other games.
Still, it's a fascinating treatment of its subject and while I can't see myself running a game of Promethean, I'll certainly borrow some elements of it for other games.
August 16, 2016
I really dig this. It's super-angsty, of course. I mean, it's World of Darkness, of course it's angsty. But there's a lot going on here that has a lot of potential for a long-term solo campaign. The game tries to make itself about a traditional party structure, but I feel like it lends itself to a different kind of storytelling. Now I just need to find someone to play ...
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April 20, 2016Easily my favorite of the "new" World of Darkness, now called the Chronicles of Darkness (I think? Rebranding is complicated). "Hey, isn't Frankenstein the same as the Golem the same as Galatea?" is a great pitch but it was bringing in alchemy as the third dimension that really made it pop. The "hobo signs" mixed up with alchemical symbology is just so...mwah. Perfecto. -MK
November 4, 2022
A favorite of minr
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2018
Ugh. Where to begin? First of all, I feel somewhat bad about giving this book only two stars. The writing is excellent and is precisely the quality that I have come to expect from Onyx Path. However, the premise is just not an interesting game nor is the setting particularly evocative.
I’ve been on a huge Chronicles of Darkness kick recently and have absolutely loved Mage: The Awakening, 2nd Ed and Demon: The Descent. Promethean is just not as good - not even close.
Ultimately, a game about Frankenstein-type monsters trying to become human on their pilgrimage is interesting from a storytelling perspective and it’s themes regarding appreciating the human condition, warts and all, is inspiring. However, it makes for a much better novel than an RPG experience. Ultimately, I just think it’s too deep of a subject for the typical and even above average gaming group to really get.
There is a possibility that I have just been reading too many Chronicles of Darkness books recently and I’m a bit burnt out. I might return to it in six months to a year and give it another shake. It’s also possible that I’m just not a good enough GM to really appreciate what it’s trying to do from a gameplay perspective as well.
I walk away from Promethean with a profound sense of needing to appreciate the little things in life and the quirks of humanity, but it isn’t a game I want to run or play.
I’ve been on a huge Chronicles of Darkness kick recently and have absolutely loved Mage: The Awakening, 2nd Ed and Demon: The Descent. Promethean is just not as good - not even close.
Ultimately, a game about Frankenstein-type monsters trying to become human on their pilgrimage is interesting from a storytelling perspective and it’s themes regarding appreciating the human condition, warts and all, is inspiring. However, it makes for a much better novel than an RPG experience. Ultimately, I just think it’s too deep of a subject for the typical and even above average gaming group to really get.
There is a possibility that I have just been reading too many Chronicles of Darkness books recently and I’m a bit burnt out. I might return to it in six months to a year and give it another shake. It’s also possible that I’m just not a good enough GM to really appreciate what it’s trying to do from a gameplay perspective as well.
I walk away from Promethean with a profound sense of needing to appreciate the little things in life and the quirks of humanity, but it isn’t a game I want to run or play.
August 30, 2016
As much as I loved many elements of this particular game book—the journey, the Centimani, the alchemical trope, the refinements—it was an unbearably tedious reading experiment. Slogging through some of the overwrought content simply pushed me out of the book repeatedly. I'm hopeful these qualities are minimized in the next edition.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews