Well, it finally happened. No sooner did I look for a non-game-writing job than an opportunity fell in my lap. And it’s a great one.
When I tell people about my tabletop RPG credits, I can utter them in one breath: Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Legend of the Five Rings, and Paranoia. Those games helped define the 1990s for me, but there was another batch of TTRPGs that were near and dear to my heart. My friend Jennifer and I first got to know one another over a Thursday-night game campaign run by a friend in the Johns Hopkins science fiction club.
More specifically, when our goofy-ass friends were all off trying to dominate and kill each other over private scheming in the back rooms, the two of us hung out with each other in-character. We realized that a) we didn’t have any schemes, b) the fact that the other boys did was a series of red flags, and c) we could probably have a better time without them.
We fell in love and bit each other’s necks a lot. My friend Jennifer became my girlfriend Jennifer, and now my wife, Jennifer. We’re still together decades later.
Why bite necks? Because that was the game!
A Long-Term Love of Ours
Vampire: The Masquerade was the first entry in White Wolf Publishing’s World of Darkness game line. We played, wrote, and ran LARPs for it, played in two more TTRPG campaigns (one story of which is detailed here), tried its sister games Werewolf and Mage, and ultimately parodied V:TM in our Paranoia adventure “Creatures of the Nightcycle.”
I should say, this last effort was done with love. The entire urban fantasy genre owes a debt to this game series that cranked out Storytellers with an itch to make their own worlds of liminal monsters with the serial numbers just barely filed off.
(A TV series of vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts and faeries? Funny coincidence.)
I never wrote in a paid capacity for the World of Darkness — my journey in TTRPGs ended when we devoted ourselves full-time to screenwriting and then video game writing. That was around the time Hunter: The Reckoning Wayward for the Playstation 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines for the PC came out. I was soon head-down in BioWare products, but I’ve always loved the World of Darkness and wanted to see it do well.
As of today, I have a chance to help.
My New Gig
I got contracted to do some writing and editing for Teyon. They have the license to do a Hunter: The Reckoning action RPG called Deathwish. Matched with the 5th edition of the tabletop RPG, it’s an underdog story where regular humans are up against the supernatural monsters who hold all the cards.
Haven’t heard of the game? Well, allow me to introduce you!
“But wait,” some of you may say. “What if I don’t like 5th edition Hunter?”
From what I understand, the major complaints the old guard have about Fifth is:
- Hunters used to have supernatural patrons that imbued them with power so they could have a chance of detecting and going toe-to-toe with a supernatural being. Fifth Ed took the superpowers away.
- Hunters used to be parts of hunter organizations that are now relegated to NPC factions. These orgs are often antagonists.
So, all told, your characters from previous editions may have gotten nerfed hard or even relegated to NPCs. I can see why that was unpopular among the faithful who’ve built up their well-loved stories and characters over the past few decades.
But for purposes of Deathwish, you’re making a new character anyway, so from my perspective, it’s Game On.
I do think some compelling stories can be told where the heroes are armed primarily with brains and guts and have to take on superior opponents. The uncertainty around confirming your target is definitely non-human also has potential.
I Think I’m Gonna Like This
Me, I enjoy the Fifth Edition’s emphasis on facing the unknown, whether it’s a new monster-of-the-week or just guessing which established monsters a hunter’s quarry might be. The list of potentials is bewildering in the World of Darkness.
Maybe that vampire you saw disappear in the club is a 300-year old Tzimisce diabolist. Or maybe she was Embraced three weeks ago by a Malkavian idiot with a Blood Hunt on him and nothing to lose. Maybe that wolf you saw in the city streets was a Gangrel elder, or maybe it’s a Lupus-lineage Garou whose fear of being in the big city for the first time causes him to lash out. There’s a million stories in the Gothic-Punk universe, and an RPG should be a great place to explore them.
The game’s release date has been publicized as Summer 2027. Until then, don’t look any charming strangers in the eyes, find yourself some silver bullets, and keep that lighter and wasp spray handy. You’re going to need them.
There’s probably a reason it’s called Deathwish.