Figuring out what's going on.

I've never actually played WoD before -- can someone toss the manuals for Vampire/ Mage past me? I am also leaning toward Vampire over Mage.

Petty teenagers is like 90% of what we play, so I think Mage would be an awesome change of pace because I've heard it's kinda like the Matrix but magic and cooler. That said, vampire is fine if Krystal and Bethany really want to play it super bad. No worries.

Just, random cool thing, there are specific little fanpacket things written to make U-S actually feel more like WoD. This is the Urban Shadows/World of Darkness book thingy. I dunno if anybody is interested, but it is pretty well put together. I'm not against playing straight-up true-blue WoD -- but I also know we all know how to play Powered by the Apocalypse games already.

I like it; I'm down for Urban Shadows with the WoD expansion.

After reading Vampire, I'm leaning more toward Mage. I am down for us all picking Mages, or for us doing the MH thing where we pick up different archetypes and the world is held together with duct tape and probing questions. Up to JT. But I am officially changing my vote to Mage.

Okay, this all sounds good. Way I see it, like I said in the chat, it's more or less normal Urban Shadows, if you choose an Archetype that has a World of Darkness expansion, you can choose whether or not you are a part of that expansion, or if it exists at all, or maybe you're something similar but not the same.

Mage seems to be getting a lot of attention now, so I should go over parts of the setting that aren't necessarily covered in the add-on, so everyone is informed about what the expansion will bring:

Once upon a time some people had weird dreams about dragons. They followed their dreams to an island they called Atlantis, where they were able to harness great magical power and build a mighty society where the Wise ruled and everyone prospered, more or less. The Wise divided themselves into four Orders to divide power--there would be warriors, leaders, advisors, and spies. Then one day some of the Wise decided they weren't happy with just the magical power they had in Atlantis, and wanted to tap it straight from the source. They built a giant, heavenly ladder to the Supernal Realms. Some of them stormed the ladder and entered the Supernal, and behind them the ladder shattered, destroying Atlantis and causing a rift between the physical world and the magical. The Abyss was then formed. The Abyss is a place where everything that can't exist, exists. It eats magic. It'll eat you if it gets the chance.

Today, the world sucks. This is mainly because of the Exarchs, who have vested interest in jackbooting humanity at the throat. They are the original mages who stormed the gates of the Supernal, opposed only by the Oracles, who erected the Watchtowers, making magic what it is today. When you awaken, you sign your name in one of the five Watchtowers, pledging your soul to Arcadia, Pandemonium, Stygia, Aether, or the Primal Wilds. Mages who want to reduce world suck are part of what is called the Pentacle--the four original orders (now called the Adamantine Arrow, the Silver Ladder, the Guardians of the Veil, and the Mysterium), plus a group of democratic rabble rousers who call themselves the Free Council. Opposed to the Pentacle are the Seers of the Throne; these guys just want to be in control. Or they saw which way the chips had fallen and decided to play for the winning team. Or they're a bunch of Eichmanns. Either way, they're symbolic of Mage's theme of trading wisdom for power. As a Seer, you can be fabulously wealthy, drive the fastest cars, wear the latest brands, have any man or woman you want, as long as you're okay with keeping people down and following orders without question. Seers divide themselves into Ministries, which concern themselves with different kinds of subjugation. The four primary Ministries are Hegemonic (who control governments and are about order over justice), Panopticon (who control surveillance and love it when people self-regulate out of fear of being watched), Praetorian (who control militaries and use institutionalized violence to sow chaos and despair), and Paternoster (who control religion and basically embody everything Nietzsche despised about Christianity; they ensure that religious teachers teach their followers to be helpless and unquestioning). It may seem hopeless, but the Seers nowadays are in a lot less control than their propaganda might say. They're less likely to be the head of an institution than someone in middle management, quietly pulling the strings as best as they can.

Mages who want not part in either side of this struggle or who think the Atlantis myth is a bunch of self-congratulatory bullshit are called Apostates. They're normally left alone but can't expect much in the way of aid either.

Some Mages can't deal with the existence of magic and decide to use their powers to hunt and kill other mages. They're called Banishers. Mages on any side treat them exactly how you'd imagine.

The Pentacle mages in any given city arrange themselves into a Consilium, lead by a Hierarch. It's a bit more in-depth than that, but that's the basic model. Mages also gather into cabals, groups of like-minded individuals who usually follow a similar magical praxis. A Consilium usually has a council made of one representative from each cabal.

I...think that's everything pertinent. Oh, yeah, also, Mages are usually considered the white people of the supernatural world. More than anyone else, they're convinced that their cosmology is the correct one, and everyone else's is mistaken and laughably localized. This, naturally, can cause a lot of tension between Mages and other supernatural groups, especially werewolves and Sin-Eaters, who don't appreciate some entitled jerk messing around with spirits or ghosts without understanding how they really work.