First of, let's get it clear that for the new World of Darkness to have nothing at all in common with the old, we would have to change the name.

All White Wolf developers and myself are confident that existing fans will be pleased with the new World of Darkness. When I started recruiting authors, some of the savviest authors that I could get, folks whose opinions meant much to me, got very excited and said "This is *exactly* what—" …but I can't finish the sentence because at that point it gets top-secret again. But I'm excited, and people whose opinions I trust are excited.

I'm traditionally a very metaplot-light developer, and I wasn't the first person to suggest the Time of Judgment; however, neither was I the last person to agree that it was time for this to happen. The Apocalypse is what Werewolf has been about from the beginning; it's hard to say that I haven't been thinking about it really hard ever since I got quoted on that "every werewolf who will fight in the Final Battle has already been born" thing. Lemme say two things, though:

One: The Apocalypse book is going to give many options. If you use it at all, you'll find plenty of ways to make sure that it's an Apocalypse that suits you, the players, and puts *you* in the thick of things. The iron hand of metaplot is forgiving even in this metaplot(s) book.

Two: By damn, I've been doing my best to make sure that when Werewolf ends, it won't leave players with obvious gaps in their collection. The last couple of years should attest to that: we've revised the books that really needed revising, provided some (if I may be less than humble) kick-ass hardback supplements, and some softcover supplements that should cover a lot of ground, such as Book of the City, Book of Auspices and Hammer & Klaive. The Changing Breed Books are finished, and the PGttCB will fill in the gaps left by the earliest ones. The Revised Tribebooks will *all* be out. In Past Lives, I even throw a bone to the players who wanted to see *something* of the Lost. There are a few things that might have been nice to get out as well — a revised Way of the Wolf, a revision of Axis Mundi — but to be honest, we put extra lupus/wolf/spirit stuff in the PG and STH just in case. So I honestly think that Werewolf: The Apocalypse will be in great shape when the Final Battle comes. It will be complete.

And there are plenty of game lines you can't say that for.

So I'm hoping that the people who *don't* follow the metaplot and end their games when we do, will find that we've given them enough stuff that they'll be able to run quality games for a long time, lack of new supplements or no. And for everyone else, I think it's worth something that Werewolf will not die the death Elvis did, all fat and bloated on the toilet. It's going out in its prime, fully fed and looking good.

The reason we can't keep all our current books in print basically comes down to the fact that the market for them would become very small and specialized — the big book chains wouldn't want them, for instance. In all likelihood, keeping even the core books in print would be a gushing hemorrhage of cash that would injure the company badly, if not kill it outright (as it certainly would be if we tried to keep *everything* in print). I know it's not the ideal situation, but it's just not feasible to keep something in print when the majority of buyers would be the "when I eventually get some more money" or the "just in case I recruit some new people who'll also need books" groups. When you're taxed on what's in your warehouse, books need to sell at a certain rate to pay for themselves, and we just don't have the confidence that the reprints of old material would do anything like that.

I blame society.