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I bought World of Darkness created by White Wolf Games just a while ago. I am starting to learn the system, since it is going to be my second roleplaying game. (Saga is #1)

Can any of you gamers tell me anything about the game that the book doesent tell? Good storytelling methods? What is a good way to scare the crap out of the players? Overall, is it a good game to play?

WoD is an escellent system that can let you do a great deal in numerous Genres. The problem most players or Gms find with WoD as a setting is not with the system, but with the players and/or the Setting. Be very careful what player archetypes gather for your campaign, and be sure to understand that the World Setting is inherently prone to inter-party conflict. Especially if you cannot come to an agreement beforehand on a arc, plot hook, or thread you want to pursue. All the Vampire Clans are out to take each other out and to step on their internal members in the struggle to rise to power. Werewolf packs are all pathologically certain that they are right and everyone else is wrong. The Fey and the Mages are all just as bad in their own rights. Trying to run a multi-WoD character mixed party is nearly impossible if players adhere strictly to their "dictated" hatreds and aversions without some massively overwhelming common enemy to tie the group together.

Gothy-hardcore larpers and minmaxer spotlight fetishists that the WoD setting seems to draw in like a singularity add to the already unstable setting elements. Be sure to have some solid ground rules and setting constraints to direct the party's activities towards missions and adventure goals or they are going to be automatically set on each other's throats when they aren't plotting ways to stab each other in the back.

There is a time and a place for such things (It's called Paranoia) but with some careful management and cooperative players you can get over the setting's built-in burdens to play a pretty fun game.

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FULONGAMER aka Johannes M. Bowers
http://thelostholocronpodcast.info/
It's not My planet Monkey-boy! / I Waste Him With My Bowcaster!
THIS is my LIGHT-Stick!, The next one of you Furry Tree-Hugger Yub-Yub Primitives EVEN TOUCHES me...//FZOOOK!//

We tried this in a small campaign a few years back with Werewolves, Mages, and Vampires. Yeah, that lasted about a session before we all switched to Mage characters (except for one guy who still wanted to play a Vampire. Yeah... he didn't get to do much that game because of... you know... the sun).

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For a brief time I played a Mage in a group of vampires. They kept looking at him as an exotic snack rather than a comrade.

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There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present." - Master Oogway

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours. - Richard Bach

Reminds of the short campaign in which I played a werewolf (Child of Gaia Lupus Ahroun) with a cabal of mages (I was kind of the Verbena's ally/pet). I got viewed as part group mascot, part tactical nuke

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"If you've never seen an elephant ski, then you've never been on acid."
- Eddie Izzard

Contributing Author of the GSA
Dono's Gaming & Etc Blog
Follow me on Twitter at @donovan421

If I picked this up, I would be unable to resist running Dresden Files with it.
Thomas + Harry + Billy = Vampire + Mage + Werewolf.
Seriously though, are the system and books a little...sketchy? I would run this with younger players, and I want to know if the material is a little too PG-13.

I would rate your average World of Darkness game as TV-MA. It isn't really intended for players younger than maybe 15 (by my standards, 17 by standard American parental standards.) Way darker than Dresden, without a doubt. The rulebooks talk pretty openly about sex and murder, etc.

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Jedi Master Tir-Jin Meteos, The Order of 66
PC GAMER - T.J. Hafer

Personally, I'd just got with the Dresden Files RPG for running a Dresdenesque game, mostly as I think Fudge/FATE is a far better system for "storytelling" games than WW's Storyteller system will ever be. That and the dice rolling mechanics for WW games tends to get really swingy the better you are at something.

Been a dog's age since I last looked at a White Wolf book, but while they don't shove the adult material down your throat in most of the books (baring the ones that are explicitly labeled as 'mature content'), they're not unabashed about talking about PG-13 material either. Considering that over half their product lines are about predatory monsters or the direct killing of such, it's kind of hard to do things in a "kid friendly" fashion.

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"If you've never seen an elephant ski, then you've never been on acid."
- Eddie Izzard

Contributing Author of the GSA
Dono's Gaming & Etc Blog
Follow me on Twitter at @donovan421

Obviously, Dono. I was asking about whether the books themselves were graphic. I do have to pick up the Dresden Files book.

No, the products released by White Wolf are not any more over the top than your average prime-time broadcast TV. The label to beware of if you are wanting to be cautious about youthful exposure is "Black Dog", basically the R/NC-17 label for White Wolf.

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FULONGAMER aka Johannes M. Bowers
http://thelostholocronpodcast.info/
It's not My planet Monkey-boy! / I Waste Him With My Bowcaster!
THIS is my LIGHT-Stick!, The next one of you Furry Tree-Hugger Yub-Yub Primitives EVEN TOUCHES me...//FZOOOK!//

This isn't really the case anymore, I don't think.

Things I have seen in White Wolf books with no "Black Dog" label:

-Blood
-Dead bodies
-Deformed monster people
-Waist-up female nudity
-Pretty direct talk about sex, torture, and killing (not all at the same time.)

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Jedi Master Tir-Jin Meteos, The Order of 66
PC GAMER - T.J. Hafer

WoD can be a really great system if played and run by the right people. It was the first system I've ever played, and one I still play to this day (in both an OWoD LARP and NWoD TT).

Really, there's a lot more advice floating in my head for a WoD game than I can fit into a post. So I'm going to try to stick to a few basic things that should fit to either Old WoD or New WoD since I'm not sure which you're playing.

1) As stated above, avoid a cross-genre game unless it has been seriously thought and talked about by the ST and players involved. Keep in mind that you're going to have to throw a lot of the book stuff out the window in lieu for self-created content. Also as stated above, vampires still will have a problem due to the whole sun thing.

2) Over the years I've noticed the best ST method for WoD is to only do minimal prep for encounters. Know your enemies, know what dice they're throwing, but be prepared to go away from what you've prepped when necessary. The best WoD games are done when both the ST and players are being unconventional. Keep in mind to also shy away from the temptation to have the NPCs completely outshine the characters in power level. A well played NPC that goes outside the box and uses its stats well is much scarier than one who has ten dice in every pool.

3) Really know and flesh out your NPCs. WoD provides a good format for social encounters, but they'll come off dry and grind the game to a halt if your NPCs are generic.

4) To scare the crap out of your players I've found its best to be as non-transparent as possible. Whatever enemy your players run into, you don't want them to immediately go "oh hey, this is a vampire" (or demon, spirit, etc.). There's enough diversity of powers, motives, appearance, and such that you can keep the player's guessing the root of the problem. When setting the stage for a horror scene let the player's imaginations fill in the grisly details.

I could go on, but I guess my other advice would be for you to get a good sense of the books then try playing a bit. If you have further questions or need advice about specific things later I'll chime in more then.

I think this sums it up in a nutshell. I've had some fun campaigns (the Mage-centric one I mentioned above), but that was mostly due to the GM and players not wanting everything to be Dark, Dreary, and Dismal; i.e. World of Overbearing Angst. Then again, the wrong sort of group can make any game suck, but it just seems that oWoD seemed to draw the DDD crowd likes moths to a bonfire, and the writing staff at the time also seemed quite happy to wallow in the misery if it sold more books.

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"If you've never seen an elephant ski, then you've never been on acid."
- Eddie Izzard

Contributing Author of the GSA
Dono's Gaming & Etc Blog
Follow me on Twitter at @donovan421

NWOD includes Requiem, Forsaken, Awakening, etc. It is a very nice toolkit system. What it lacks is metaplot -- take that as a good or bad depending on your tastes.

OWOD (or C(lassic)WOD) includes Masquerade, Apocalypse, Ascension, etc. Not a toolkit system and the mechanics can be a little wonky at times, but I find the universe to be far richer. Even worth putting up with the live action rules for, because of the stories you can create.

PS: Do not cross the streams. Cross-genre is exceedingly difficult to do as the creature types have no reason to work together.