Don't think I don't understand the initial reaction a lot of you have had. Shock, disbelief, anger, that feeling that there are bees in your drawers and they're stinging you up something awful.
It comes as quite a shock, us bringing an end to the World of Darkness, that's true. What I want to do, though, is get you to think past that initial response of something you love being taken away from you. See this for what it is and not as something we're doing to cause grief.

I've been watching forums and discussion threads here and there for the past several days and I just wanted you to know that we are paying attention to you over here. Instead of replying to a million and one different threads and not getting anything else done during the day, I'm doing this as a sort of "form letter" to address the most frequent grievances I see. If you're the sort who archives posts and reposts them later in response to issues resurfacing again, Godspeed you, and please do so with reckless abandon re: the Time of Judgment and this post.

YOU MONEY-GRUBBING ASSHOLES!

Not really. We're drawing a close to the World of Darkness in this iteration because its story is told. If we were truly money-grubbing assholes, we'd just keep printing the thing in perpetuity and rely on inertia to keep paying our bills. As creative types we want to move on to new vistas and as storytellers we want to conclude the story we had begun 12 years ago.

YOU JUST WANT US TO BUY THE NEW VERSION OF THE WOD.

Actually, we wanted to fulfill the promises we made when the games first appeared on the market. Gehenna was always a part of Vampire; Werewolf always had its impending apocalypse (check the title). "The End is Nigh!" was a rallying cry all of the games held within. In fact, we'd be bigger jerks if we didn't deliver on the promise of eminent (and imminent) judgment because we had been intimating that it was coming all along.

NOW MY GAME IS OBSOLETE.

No, it's not. By all means, keep playing. Your books aren't going to burn off your shelves and the Edition Police won't crack you on the melon for playing a game that's no longer supported.

THAT'S JUST IT. IT'S NO LONGER SUPPORTED.

It's no longer supported _by us_. That doesn't matter. Your individual chronicle was never supported by us -- we never printed your character sheets or your story arcs. The moment you begin to play a chronicle you diverge from "canon," so this plot development doesn't restrict you from not using it at all any more than any other did.

DAMN THIS METAPLOT -- I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR STORIES! I WANT TO TELL MY OWN.

Go right ahead. No one's forcing you to jam your chronicle into the Time of Judgment if you don't want to. Our decision to conclude the setting's details doesn't have to affect you if you don't want it to. We hope you'll want to work with the Time of Judgment just as much as we've enjoyed working with it, but we're not forcing anything on you.

THEN WHAT'S THE POINT?

The point is that this is a plot element that has always been there coming to its resolution, and it makes for damn good stories as well. This isn't a bunch of Storyteller characters duking it out while the players look on, this is the players' characters chance to see what their characters will do at the end of the world. Can the characters avert the Time of Judgment? No, at least not in the sense that present in the published material. What they can do is make the choices at the end of the world that affect them more than any other time in their lives. Redemption. Sacrifice. Ascension. These are all part of the World of Darkness' morality play, and now that play is at its climax and conclusion.

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW WORLD OF DARKNESS?

Don't sweat that now. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Yes, it's new. No, it's not a "post-Gehenna" revision (which would be both a crappy ending and a money-milker).

I'm continuing to watch threads -- all developers are -- so know that we're here and paying attention. If you reply and we don't get back to you, don't take that as a personal slight. We're hard at work over here on the End, and we have only as many hours in the day as you do. We just want to let you know that we're not doing this to fuck you. You deserve answers as loyal fans and we want to give them to you. Step back, take a breath and consider the whole thing from its proper perspective. We're right here with you.