The name Monte Cook rings pretty loudly in the RPG world, I admit to buying more than one book because it had that embossed on the cover, and this book only adds to the weight of his gravity. In a sweeping reformation from earlier World of Darkness titles, Cook aligns the entire gaming mechanic to a d20 system that mirrors the world's greatest RPG. Most importantly he does it successfully- but did you expect any less?

Cook expands the entire gaming world with this title because he uses an easy mechanic that rarely alters itself and ties to so many other popular games. The d20 mechanic is easy to learn for a beginner and so completely realized new possibilities are always available to experienced gamers.Plus this title is actually self-contained , so it is the only necessary book for players to start gaming which is nice on the wallet.

The use of the d20 mechanic really is the best selling point to the title because it is a system so many people already know that they can forget learning a game and actually play it. The system allows an endless choice of creativity in that it already possesses setting titles for every time frame or reality that gamers wish to use, from true history to high fantasy to futuristic to modern day; and all of it fits together cohesively without any alteration.

In comparison to other WoD texts the Monte Cook version holds its own very well with an equal amount of game mechanic and flavor text that really sets the stage of the game. There is plenty of story line built in place within the system so there is never a want for gaming plot or characters. The entire history and current status of the setting are fully explained in detail with strong examples of actual game usage. There is one piece that defies my explanation within the text, why he granted extra hit dice to beginning characters, it seems that such a move creates imbalanced characters across the different game setting divide, but in the WoD setting alone it remains balanced since all characters receive them.

I'll get right down to it, WoD is too much for one book. This book gives an alternate setting for WoD with new themes and feelings and it is simply way to much for the limited page count here. While Monte Cook does his best, and what you have in this book is good I don't think it is nearly enough. This product seems to me will really only will appeal to people who already know WoD given how obscure it is, but since this is the ONLY book on this setting I think most WoD will want more depth and rich RP material that Monte Cook was able to compress into this volume. This might be good as a stepping stone to try and introduce a D&D group to the WoD but otherwise I can't see playing D20 WoD over normal WoD.

Monte Cook's World of Darkness is an interesting take on the setting with a little too much focus on the monster stomping aspects of other popular d20-based games. Monte has taken all of the building blocks of the WoD (Inconnu, vampires, mages, etc.) and built something new with them. There are monsters all over the place and whether you are playing one kind or another your job is pretty much to stomp the bad guys. One of Monte's strengths has always been world building and I am not sure why he didn't do more with this project.

The system is good but not 100% solid. There are some missing rules which technically make some mechanics unusable without house ruling to make things work. After a trip to Monte Cook's forums I was able to find the missing rules (provided by one of the people who helped Monte develop the game) but as such they are not in the book.

All in all this is a decent PDF purchase (although I advise not to spend the money on a print copy unless you can find it cheaper) and you will find enough of a game to play a short campaign. You probably won't get much more out of it than that.

An interesting take on the WoD that, in may ways, returns to the Superheroes-by-night gonzo fun of the oWoD without the mechanical problems... for the most part. Some characters seem more powerful than others and Mages, in particular, take the cake. Still, you could do worse if you want to mix and mingle a love of D20 with a nostalgia for oWoD mayhem all wrapped in an unapologetically awesome bundle.

It is a testament to Monte Cook's talent as a game designer that he is able to translate the World of Darkness into a workable d20 ruleset, especially considering how, well, BAD the superficially similar translations of Aeon/Trinity, Aberrant, and Adventure! to the d20 rules turned out. Equally wise on Cook's part is the choice to jettison the myriad and at times Byzantine (not to mention conflicting) metaplots the World of Darkness product line is known for.

That said, to say Monte Cook's World of Darkness has complicated rules is to strain "complicated" to its utmost limits. Keeping track of the names for each character's special abilities is hard enough, much less determining what, exactly, those abilities DO. Do NOT start a "MCWoD" campaign above first level unless you have supreme confidence in your ability to crunch numbers, keep track of figures, and memorize charts.

Stylistically, the book at times feels as though it's reaching too far for the "edgy" descriptor--which may itself be a commentary on the Old World of Darkness books' zeal in using first-person narration, but I'm probably overthinking that--but manages to get the point across that this World of Darkness really is not a nice place.

All things considered, this is a solid (well, relatively solid, this being a .pdf file) book, but I cannot recommend it for anyone who is not a fan of Monte Cook and the bloodier side of the World of Darkness (which includes the Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, and Mage books; Changeling fans are sadly left out).