Reviews for Promethean: The Created

The average rating for Promethean: The Created based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-27 00:00:00 Joyce Armentano 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.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-30 00:00:00 Mary Fromson 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.