By Titus Villanueva
So last Sunday, my friends and I once again delved deep into the world of Wraith: Oblivion much to our delight… or horror depending on how you see the situation. For those of you who don’t know yet, Wraith: Oblivion is the World of Darkness system where all your characters start out dead. You’re all ghosts, or spooks as they keep being called in the story.
We discovered that there’s a whole other world reserved for the dead ruled over by an Emperor named Charon and a hierarchy of death lords. Our characters were supposed to end up there but we ended up wandering the Earth. According to some of the enforcers we ran into, that wasn’t supposed to happen.
The session ended with the discovery of a ghostly train into the realm of the departed called the Midnight Express (which I kept jokingly calling Mr. Bones’ Wild Ride), with each character finding their own way into the train. The characters also learn that they are also being followed and influenced by a manifestation of their worst selves, finally given form after death.
It’s all very creepy and the highlight of the games is definitely the confrontations players have with death and their circumstances. It can get very dark and emotional. Tobie, our GM, has a talent for really messing with your character to the point that you will make bad decisions just to stay in character. After all, that’s the point of a narrative-driven game like this. It’s not about survival or winning the game. It’s about putting your character through a journey worthy of a best-selling horror novel.
For more on our GM and what he does, he can be found on https://www.facebook.com/TobieAbadGaming/
