I originally met Mark Rein-Hagen at GenCon in 1991, where White Wolf was debuting his Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game. It was the same year GDW released my Dark Conspiracy RPG. Mark seemed a nice guy; we chatted for a while; and then we wished each other well and parted ways.
You know the rest of that story. While Dark Conspiracy did develop a devoted following (see the left sidebar of this page), Vampire: The Masquerade became an absolute phenomenon. It ruled the ’90s and continues strong even today.
Lately, I’ve crossed paths again with Mark, this time on Facebook. He’s still a really nice guy, generous and excited and just generally fun to engage with.
And the fact is, I love vampires too. I grew up on Christopher Lee as Dracula in the Hammer Films. I’ve read Dracula at least a half dozen times, devoured Anne Rice’s Lestat series, watched Buffy and Angel religiously, got sucked entirely into the Twilight books and movies, and read and watch pretty much anything vampire related.
It isn’t often, however, that a reasonable chance comes along to contribute to the mythology, without being washed away in a sea of “bad blood” (because we all know that there’s lots of vapid vamp fiction and film out there).
If Mark’s latest Kickstarter project succeeds, I’ll get that chance. I’ll be designing a 2–8 player tabletop game for his Succubus: the Reborn card deck. We’re calling my design Succubus: Struggle for City, and I’ll be playtesting the rules over the next several weeks.
I really want to do this project. (I volunteered, in fact.) So please visit its page and Tweet it, FB it, Tumblr it, or promote it in whatever social media you’re into (including actual word of mouth). And consider pledging something; it’s a beautiful deck of cards, with a couple of very different games now related to it.
Thanks for any help you can give.
—Les