Twenty years ago, my girlfriend at the time came home with a new roleplaying game: a big green book called Vampire. Me and a friend of mine made up characters – globe-trotting Archons that went around assassinating people and solving problems, if I recall correctly. It was utterly ridiculous, but we were enthralled because it just seemed so damned different from the other games we were playing at the time. I saw echoes of my aggressive style of Cyberpunk mixed in with the ancient and baroque tapestry of those Anne Rice novels she was into.
Since then, I’ve played a lot of Vampire. I mean a lot. I was involved in one of the playtest groups for the original Mind’s Eye Theatre, I ran (and played) in a number of tabletop games with friends, and I’ve owned every edition of the game at one point or another. I’ve been playing in Vampire live-action or tabletop games since 1996; even this past weekend I played in a Sabbat LARP, and I’m going to play a tabletop chronicle of the Transylvania Chronicles in a few weeks. Sure, I’ve played in and run just about every other World of Darkness game in some form or fashion,1 but time and again I would come back to Vampire.
I even met my wife at a Vampire LARP (I played a Toreador; she played a Gangrel).
Now, I help create books about vampires. I’m working on a video game about vampires. Two of my best friends have been a Vampire developer at some point. And all because of that damned (Damned?) green book printed in 1991.
Twenty years is a strange amount of time to think about. I actually lived a fair amount of my adolescence in a world that didn’t have Vampire in it, but the game has had such a huge impact on my life that I have trouble thinking about a world without it. Justin says that it chokes him up a little that it’s been twenty years, and I agree, but it’s more than that. For me, it’s not just the history of a game, but it’s also my history. My life as told by the secret wars between undead fictional bastards.
So, cheers to Vampire. Here’s hoping for another twenty years of making memories.
- Off the top of my head, I’ve played or run both versions of Vampire (including the Dark Ages and Victorian variants), Werewolf: The Apocalypse, both versions of Mage, both versions of Changeling, both versions of Hunter, Wraith, Geist, Mummy, Kindred of the East, and even the GURPS translation of the World of Darkness. And that’s not counting any non-RPG versions of those properties. ↩
Wow. 20 years already. I was like 6 years old back then! And I met this beast only 4 years later. And the book I saw (first ed, French version) belonged to my brother and he told me many things about that game, mainly, how much better than that silly D&D I was playing. And now that green book and its second ed brother still remains in my library.
And then, this summer I bought another of these old books: Wraith. And with it, I got the latest born of the same company: Mirror. In the mid 90s, I’ve let Vampires enter my life, and with it the World of Darkness. Now, more then 10 years later, I’m not letting it go away.
May the World of Darkness live on for another 20 years, be it in its original form, the new form or a new incarnation. Grats and thanks to everyone at White Wolf for all of those masters pieces.
Has it been that long since that green book came out? I barely remember those early games, other than LARPing before the LARP rules came out, with you and Mindy.
Yeah, it’s all a little fuzzy.
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I was 11 at the time but only started to play it around 96-97. Time runs fast and I played half the times I would like to. Can we have 20 more years of Vampire, please? Can we?
Eddy, I pretend to run Transylvania Chronicles in future (I’ve started it twice but never finished it) too. Could you share with us any insight you’ll get while running it? Thanks.
I’m not running it — I’m playing it. My roommate David is running it.
Sorry. Either way, I’m interested.
Though I prefer werewolf or Scion these days, Vampire will always have a special place since it was so different.
But 20 years? Now I feel old…
“My life as told by the secret wars between undead fictional bastards.”
*chuckles*
That’s fantastic.
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