Why now? Why now and not, say, a few years down the line? The end seems to have come rather suddenly. To some, it feels as though it just screeched to a halt, rather than came to a natural conclusion. Why the decision to end the World of Darkness precisely when it was?

Justin A.:
What was Vampire possibly missing? I mean, it had three build-up books, one of which happened back in '98.

Also, releasing a handful of Convention books for one game line (Note: for Mage: the Ascension) isn't really a sufficient reason to hold up the conclusion of the entire World of Darkness. That would have meant at least another quarter of releases for everything that still had a vital schedule, which had already reached the end of their respective cycles (e.g. Demon: the Fallen).

Ethan S.:
Also, we didn't want to drag out the end. Personally, I would be rather against the idea of making something like A Tribe Falls (Note: one of the chapters of 'Apocalypse') its own supplement � for one, that mandates the idea that a tribe *must* fall as some sort of metaplot event, instead of making it one of many potential resources offered in a "how to run an Apocalypse game" sourcebook. I wouldn't have wanted Werewolf to limp painfully toward the end, losing more teeth and fur as it goes � I like that I was able to sew everything up in one book.

We wanted to have all the End of the World stuff for each major line in one place. There are plenty of people planning to continue their chronicles without blowing up the world � if they not only chose to pass on buying the Gehenna sourcebook, but also the "Signs of Impending Gehenna" and "Gehenna's Really Almost Here, We Mean It" sourcebooks, that's throwing good money after bad. Remember, Gehenna and Apocalypse and Ascension and Time of Judgment can be used together, but each is a stand-alone book � they are at their most useful because they gather a lot of stuff in one place rather than spreading the information thin and hoping everyone who would buy one Gehenna book would buy three books as readily (the "Ge," "Hen," and "Na" sourcebooks, if you will).

Hell, I'll repeat and rephrase that for emphasis: If you're not running an Apocalypse chronicle, you can still get some use out of *every other single Werewolf book published.* If you're not planning to blow up the world, you can still use Past Lives, or the Tribebooks, or Book of the City. Why would we want to create more books that are not useful on their own?

I personally would not have done the A Tribe Falls scenario, or indeed any other scenario from Apocalypse in their own stand-alone supplement � it isn't the place for it. I don't believe they would have done more good for the line than harm. We announced the end of the World of Darkness at Gen Con last year, and let's be honest, Werewolf alone has been foreshadowing the Apocalypse for over 11 years. If people aren't used to the idea by now, a few extra months would have done nothing but make people less excited and more blas� about the end when it came.