O aniversário do forum

[Amadeo Giovanni]

Dia 06/03 é aniversário do fórum, parabéns a todos!

aproveito e trago essa matéria sobre o velho mundo das trevas e o VtM 4ed.

http://www.worldofdarkness.news/Articles/tabid/95/Article/13/WoD-News-interview-with-White-Wolf-Martin-Elricsson.aspx

World of Darkness News: Martin, I am quite interested in your RPG background. While you have gone on record talking about your LARP background I would be very interested if you would talk a bit about how you got into RPG’s a whole, what games left you with the most impact WoD aside?

Martin Ericsson: Tabletop RPG has defined me since I started playing Drakar & Demoner (1st ed Basic Roleplaying) with my cousin under a birch-tree in the summer of 1982. The adventure was ”Spindelkonungens Pyramid” and about as old-school as it gets. I consumed an irresponsible amount of hex-paper as I created ”Mark”, an epic fantasy world that I later used as the foundation for my mandatory, years-long and overwrought fantasy larp campaign in 1988-1992. Chill was my first horror game, but the complex rules and bland setting made me switch it out for Call of Cthulhu pretty quickly. That I still play, but today I prefer the purist elegance of Trail Of Cthulhu. But without compare Cyberpunk and Warhammer Fantasy Role-play were played most obsessively. Enemy Within still stands as one of my best tabletop experiences. I got exposed to KULT and Vampire at the same time, experimenting with transgressive teen-angst with attached boundary-pushing larp-sessions. ”Fallen Angels” (Kult adventure with vampire protagonists) was the big Vampire / KULT campaign I ran. I went on the convention circuit with the Ume crews for a few years in the ´90’s having some success winning RP-prizes for pushing the boundaries of tabletop (basically being really serious about acting out and running around with no shirts, waving school-chairs around) in the early days of ”freeform”. It was excellent. Somewhere there larping became a bigger thing for me but the tabeltopping never stopped.

After moving to Stockholm I planned and started writing and running my highly historical and Umberto-Eco inspired Ars Magica / Mage mega-chronicle ”The Last Seasons”. We made it from 1197 to the beginning of the 4th crusade and stated integrating Constantinople By Night when we drifted apart in the face of adulthood.

It was about then that I decided to work professionally with the methods and skills of RPG. Anything else seemed like a waste of time and the 100’s of thousands of hours I’d spent around the table and in the forest. So I did.

I’ve continued reading and playing tabletop all the way through. Mostly I’ve collected and read NWoD (All core-books, every book for Mage: The Awakening and Promethean) while playing CoC and Tribe 8 (best post-ap game ever). Currently I play Mutant: Year Zero and getting a Vampire 1st ed chronicle up and running. So a bit of a ”back to basics” trend for me in tabletop right now.

WoDN: As for LARP, you have been very involved in that in Europe. Could you talk to us about how you transitioning from table top gaming to LARPing happened? Also you have stated LARP is a creative outlet for yourself, has being involved in such spilled over to your professional career at all as a result from a creative perspective?

ME: There was no transition. Just time split between the two forms. Right now I do far more tabletop than larp. I played Steve Jacksson’s ”Killer” in high-school and got a lot of ”non role-players” hooked on it. So I started running larp games of different flavors.

I can’t think of anything that I have done that has not been based on roleplaying or larp. Never done a linear TV-show, novel, movie or anything that lacks the element of audience co-creation, or at least heavy interaction. There’s never really been a division between personal and professional for me. I’m not that kind of a creator.

WoDN: You worked on the now cancelled WoD MMO from CCP, could you talk to us on exactly your role there as a “content developer”, what you did exactly? From an overall managerial point of view what went wrong with the project in your opinion and what lessons do you think can be learned taking the property forward from that project?

ME: I believe the title was senior content developer. No idea what that traditionally means. Basically I pitched WW / CCP my personal take on Vampire, they loved it and jumped through a lot of hoops to get me on the team. Me, Eddy Webb and Bill Bridges refined the Vampire setting from the ground up to work as a participation-driven experience-engine. I designed a hunting system, created subcultures for the Kindred to influence and control in a procedurally-simulated city and prototyped. There was this really cool system for ”fragments” to spread V-lore and stories about the people of the street and a number of storylines for that was written. It was exciting to work with new perspectives on WoD, delving deep into the mythology but also candidly talking about fixing what was broken. That work feeds directly into our work with WoD in the 21st century.

WoDN: You and the new CEO of White Wolf Tobias Sjögren have stated you want to work with the community in a more collaborative effort then perhaps how CCP approached it. However on the flip side you need to also protect your property. So my question is where is that line of demarcation in the proverbial sand going to be? You have projects from open source community projects who want to re-make Bloodlines to other groups trying to use Kickstarter to fund their WoD based ideas. With such a wild spectrum of community projects I was hoping you could shed some light on what the new White Wolf will encourage and what they will discourage moving forward.

ME: We like working with others. We love that there are a gazillion fan-projects brewing and we’re looking at ways to make fan-productions work without screwing up the setting.

Community integration is about providing the right tools to those that need and want them. We also have some nifty plans on how to involve the community at critical metaplot stages, allowing how they play to directly influence it. We believe that if you are not prepared to let the community take control at certain points, you shouldn’t be doing participatory entertainment.

At the same time we don’t believe in lowest common denominator design or fan-entitlement. We’re license driven. We create and manage a world. Within that framework, anything can happen. Theo Bell will not save the day this time. Your character will.

Tobias Sjögren: And please let me point out we are just a bit more than 3 months into this and we haven't all plans set and done. Some things we could prepare before the acquisition became public but talking with community groups and get an even deeper understanding and collection of views was naturally something we only been able to do after the announcements. So we have our direction clear which is that we want to create a participatory transmedia brand and a foundation for that is to find ways to have all kinds of groups create content in such a way it strengthens the brand rather than dilute it. Now I am absolutely convinced that consumers get the difference between premium content and community content and I do also recognize that sometimes talented people create things on their spare time that rivals or exceeds professionals. We need to enable that and not close it down!

The details and exactly how we will do this are not set yet but rather we continue to talk and discuss with a variety of people, groups and companies about how this could be done. Please reach out to us with any ideas or opinions and we'll see more clarity in all different aspects off this during the year.

WoDN: You’ve let the fine folks of Onyx Path Publishing continue to develop Vampire the Requiem while White Wolf is taking direct control and have a hands on approach with Masquerade. Not trying to put any salt in the wounds of Requiem fans but a valid question is what brought about that decision? Do you feel VtM is simply more marketable, well known for the types of mediums you want to break into like a Netflix series or the like?

ME: It was a painful decision, especially since I’m a CofD fan and mostly collected that before I went to CCP. The details are complex but in the end it comes down to a mix of business sense and the strong artistic voice of Mark’s original creations.

WoDN: Speaking of OPP, there seems to be some concern that with the coming of VtM V4 the V20 line will cease as you try to push people to migrate to the V4 line. Could you clarify what your stance is on this and as of now what your plans are for the V20 vampire and related lines both now and after V4 comes out?

ME: To me 5 years of V20 is starting to look like a complete edition of Vampire. Werewolf and Mage have some way to go. We are involved in approval and adjusting some minor things to hint at what is to come and make V20 compatible with future changes. Onyx Path and old WW writers are most likely to be involved in future editions as well. The core design we will handle internally because it is such a fundamental part of the future development but for the future books we aim at having a wide variety of old and new authors and publishers do great work.

WoDN: Speaking of V4, I was excited for your comments on where you envision the new edition of Masquerade going. However, I and others are a quite concerned with your comment that ‘gothic-punk is dead’. While I think we mostly all agree a refresh of the rules, mechanics and moving time forward is a great idea (like what Shadowrun does with its editions) the gothic aesthetic is what makes VtM what it is. Taking away vampires in their modern gothic clothing, crumbling city cemeteries and gothic architecture of stone spires and gargoyles in the cities and replacing them with vampires wearing reversed baseball caps in sweat pants in cities made of nothing but bright glass and steel really kills the mood and atmosphere. While gothic may not be as mainstream in the real world as it was in the 90s it certainly isn’t ‘dead’ nor I feel should it be in V4. I was hoping you could clarify your comments and put to ease those of use that are quite concerned that the modernization you envision won’t gut the core atmosphere, setting of the game we so much enjoy.

ME: A bit of a provocative statement, yes. Let’s look closer. To us Gothic Punk is great as a sensibility. Extreme wealth contrasted with abject poverty, mean, grimy streets and clinical penthouses. Nihilism and religious fanaticism, human rights and social justice contrasted with populist racism, anti-normative values mixed with almost Victorian moralism. Our current age is gothic-punk through and through, no added gargoyles needed. That ”Underworld” look feels really dated and not very exciting.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time revisiting the origin of the vampire in gothic horror literature and studied how VTM kindred are actually portrayed in writing.

Two conclusions: 1) Gothic vampire stories rely on verisimilitude to work. Dracula, Varney and Carmilla are full of believable mundane details and are framed as true narratives for a reason. 2) Kindred in VTM very seldom belong to the Goth subculture and the ”Goth-Punk” aesthetics rarely enter the text in a meaningful manner. It’s more ”modern noir” if you look at it as written. Revised waged a minor war against ”trenchcoats and katanas”. The Goth in vampire is very much something the players bring in from other sources. Can we imagine vampires hunting the remnants of the goth-scene? Absolutely. Is goth the only and global vampire fashion trend in WoD? No. Never has been. But fear not, lovers of black fishnet, right now 90’s fashion is big and there are a lot of really cool dark subcultures out there for the kindred to attach themselves to, control and suck dry. Is WoD an alternate universe? Yes. Monsters are not real and the world is all in all a pretty nice place. That is not the angle we look at it when we write WoD though. Then we seek out the most fascinating, terrifying and darkly beautiful places and phenomenon and make them part of the setting. That’s our take on Gothic Punk. Just like any fictional work the WoD games take place in a fictional version of reality. And a world of sweat pants and reversed baseball caps is nothing to aim for neither in actual or fictional reality.

WoDN: Do you consider V4 a soft re-boot of VtM or a continuation of the previous lines? Could you go into detail your thought process on that level?

ME: None of the above. It’s a continuation and a soft reboot to first principles, using the metaplot as the main tool of refocusing the game-lines. Eddy wrote about V4 and made comparisons to the Doctor Who re-launch. That comparison is still valid to our approach. Massive changes will be made to tone, look, writing-style and focus, but none of the old stories are made irrelevant by pretending they never happened. The world has moved on, and the society of monsters with it. We write nothing big out but we choose what aspects of the universe we include in our stories and games moving forward.

WoDN: You mentioned that V4 will be post “Gehenna-war” for the “graves of the Antediluvians”. There is rampant rumors and speculation as to what that means and how it will change the game as a whole. Can you give us any insight or clarification?

ME: Not really. Exploring the truth about Gehenna is part of the mystery of Vampire and we don’t want to spoil that. Suffice to say the Final Nights will have left a deep scar on the world, but to say the future is post-gehenna or ”post-apocalypse”, is not correct.

WoDN: There are some parts of the community losing their minds over a few comments you made in your interview at imagonem.org. Since it was posted you added a clarification to the interview which I feel should put everything to bed, but sadly did not. So allow me to ask you this as this seems to be the root of the issue, you say VtM by far outsells VtR. Was that an off the cuff remark or were you referencing factual data in that comment?

ME: Vampire: The Requiem is the one single WW book that has sold the most copies. But immediately after that there was a sharp decline in sales and the universe faded from public view with the new edition. This is definitely partially due to the state of the publishing industry at the moment, but that doesn't quite explain the failure to break through with the new setting. Attempts were made to do a broad launch, including media licensing, but never got off the ground. Trying to force the community to do a hard swicharoo to Requiem did not make WW any friends among the OWoD fanbase either. When CCP worked on the MMO they started with Requiem but had to switch back to Masquerade after spending years on developing the NWoD setting for the MMO, but being unable to make it work. The decision was not an easy one, but we like to believe it was a considered one based on all available data.

WoDN: Also what seems to be a point of contention is your comments about using real world events in the WoD. Some players are going off saying they use the game as a form of escapism to get away from real world issues and tragedies and dislike the fact said events may now be forced on them. For the record I agree with you those events are fair game and certainly add a level of drama and ‘personal horror’ the whole point of the game in question, IMO if these people don’t like that then they are clearly playing the wrong type of game in my view. But I would like to get your in depth take to this discussion and your reply to these players.

ME: It would require a pretty massive design-effort to make WoD an escapist game. One of it’s strengths is how the mythology is made believable and compelling by constant linking to real-world events, places, mythology and themes. Supernatural involvement in the real world, paired with a punk desire to cry out against injustice, is what makes WoD different from the deluge of urban fantasy we’ve seen the last decade. It’s also what set’s it apart from it’s Anne-Rice / Lost Boys inspirations. Anyone that wants to play WoD as a pure modern fantasy-setting is welcome to do so, and there will be plenty of dark epic in the products to come, but we respectfully disagree that escapism is a core feature of the setting.

WoDN: You stated as a table top game VtR works better. It was just a poor time to release a new game as well as too many similarities with its predecessor caused fan push back, lack of interest. You said from a pure business standpoint it would make sense to axe the line and just focus on VtM. But the choice was made to keep it going. With that said, where do you foresee VtR going within the next 5 years and what do you hope for that game line in the big picture?

ME: Personally I hope it will remain firmly established as a tabletop game and that it goes on to loose the last lingering connections to WoD. Then we will see.

WoDN: Does the lack of any kind of metaplot within VtR, being mostly a sandbox game make it difficult to market or develop for from a developers/lead storytellers point of view?

ME: Yes. Any transmedia work would mean establishing a canon and defining things in a way that goes counter to the spirit of the system and the intended way to use the setting.

WoDN: Getting back to V20, is that line development going to remain within OPP or are there any plans for any kind of White Wolf development of products for it? How involved is White Wolf with OPP when they are working on V20 books?

ME: A bit. We approve all text, art etc. for OP. We have worked on a few of the books to make sure they don’t directly contradict future developments and inject some hints of things to come. We will step up that work substantially when we grow from being 2 people on staff.

WoDN: How are you hoping V4 will influence or change the LARP scene? What changes to the LARP scene and groups do you hope to see within the next 5 yrs?

ME: Big things have happened since MET was first released. Disney are hiring nordic larp designers to work with Star Wars parks, eastern european mega-games are turning highly physical larp into a mainstream experience. We want to be active in promoting lavish, immersive, well-designed larp as a form of ”extreme-sports of the imagination”. As vampires once again take the mainstream spotlight in years to come, both classic MET campaigns and immersive castle-games will have the opportunity to open their gates to a huge new cast of enthusiastic players.

TS: I personally think this is the most interesting trend we are seeing now, how this area of entertainment now so rapidly develops and branches out to different versions and implementations. I do believe this is a great trend for us even though we most likely will stay in the more hard core side of things. And why this is happening I think is natural, people seeks more social interaction and there is no way to beat an entertainment experience you participated in. On top of that you can repeat it many times and it will be different over and over again while a rollercoaster doesn’t change between each time you try it out.

WoDN: There are rampant rumors since the Facebook postings of the new White Wolf meeting with Obsidian Entertainment just before the turn of the year. Is there anything you can suggest or hint that may come from that meeting such as a, perhaps, PC VtM game for example?

TS: We will not comment on any rumors or announce any games before it makes sense doing it and we know when they will ship. But of course we are working on getting computer games done and naturally Bloodlines is on top of our mind.
Regarding who we are seen with let me explain this a bit, I have personally been in computer games business for 20 years now and I attend most of the trade shows and conferences for it as well as travel in business quite a bit to see both developers and publishers. I am just back from a computer games conference in Las Vegas and I met with a lot of people and companies presenting World of Darkness licensing opportunities and discussing ideas. The response was awesome and we will continue to spread the message about this among the game development community who most often knows about World of Darkness but perhaps not about the amazing depth in the lore and the massive amount of material out there. The more inspired people we have out there the better ideas and pitches we will see in the future.

WoDN: Will you be attending The Grand Masquerade this year? If so in what capacity? As a side note, I recall you from TGM 2011, I have to say, for the record, you are an imposing figure in real life. Probably why I didn’t approach you to sign my V20 book. And you were constantly surrounded by people asking to sign their V20 books. So I’ll go with that as the reason I didn’t approach you!

ME: Yes. We hope to bring news, panels, announcements and perhaps even a larp or two with us in our luggage.

TS: I’ll make sure to bring a pen for Martin to sign stuff with.

WoDN: Finally, are there any plans for official White Wolf forums? What can we expect going forward from the official WW site?

TS: We are working on it and bringing on a community development manager later this spring who will run the details of this. What I am really excited about is how we could possibly do more than forums and without promising anything I can say we defiantly are exploring more cool aspects of online community functionality. But one step of the time unfortunately and we prioritize getting contracts signed and things in production so we have something to discuss.

WoDN: Thank you so very much Martin and Tobias for your valuable time. We appreciate it. For those that want to reach out and engage with you how can they? And any final words to the community?

ME: Thanks for having me. We love succinct e-mails with concrete ideas on specific subjects. Any comment is fun and we read them all, but short and sweet is most useful.

Seeing the passionate responses to all things related to WoD is heart-warming and clearly shows that you care about WoD as much as we do. Stay cool. We have such sights to show you.

We prefer showing rather than telling and are hyped to see your reactions to what we have in store for you. Please understand if we become a bit more secretive on metaplot and artistic direction going forward, we don’t want to spoil you.

And yes, see you at the Grand Masquerade or any of the many other events we are attending. Check our websites for details.

Blood and Souls!

Ed note: The attached 2 images were kindly given to us by Martin, they are previously unreleased concept art from the canceled WoD MMO.

[Gam]

UHUUUL parabéns fórum! \o\

[Fuuma Monou]

[Askalians]

[Aradia]

Gente, como o tempo passa.
Há uns anos atrás eram só pirralhos jogando aqui (menos o Beau que é velho desde sempre ). Hoje são homens e mulheres que ganharam espaço na sociedade e matam um leão por dia para sobreviver ao mundo dos adultos.

É tão bom recordar o que passou. É tão bom saber que tanta briga passou. Hoje é só paz, amor e drogas RPG.

[Gam]

Hahaha verdade xD

[Askalians]

Brigas sempre tem em todo o lugar, mas o bom de recordar coisas que aconteceram é lembrar que com as brigas a gente sempre ganha algum XP, seja para evitar a próxima briga ou para não perder caso tenha alguma outra XD~~

[Beaumont]

Gente, como o tempo passa.
Há uns anos atrás eram só pirralhos jogando aqui (menos o Beau que é velho desde sempre ). Hoje são homens e mulheres que ganharam espaço na sociedade e matam um leão por dia para sobreviver ao mundo dos adultos.

É tão bom recordar o que passou. É tão bom saber que tanta briga passou. Hoje é só paz, amor e drogas RPG.

Mó deus do céu eu estou ficado velho !!!

[Fuuma Monou]

Mó deus do céu eu (tu) estou(a) ficado velho !!! bounce bounce

[Beaumont]

Muito engraçado vc Fumma xD


Se preparem o Ancião Beaumont is coming !

[Fuuma Monou]

Buahahahahaha Nasci para a comédia ^.^

[Conteúdo patrocinado]