One World By Night the Vampire LARP
A Vampire the Masquerade Live Action Role Playing Game
Aug 13, 2009
Live action role playing started in the 1970s when a group of role playing gamers decided to take their then table top game and make it more realistic. As such, live action role playing shares many of the same elements of improvisational acting, play fighting, costume parties, psychodrama, and reenactment groups.
What is Live Action Role Playing?
Phil Masters in his 1994 article On the Vocabulary of Role – Playing first published by Hogshead Publishing, states that live action role playing games are “games in which players act out many elements of their character’s activities in person – usually while wearing more or less appropriate costumes. To avoid injury to players, combat is simulated using dummy weapons and a large number of rules and restrictions.”
One of the first recorded LARPs was Dagorhir. The official Dagorhir website explains that this gaming group, which does a lot of combat driven battle play, was formed in 1977. As with most live action games, Dagorhir expects players to dress as their character and stay in character during the game. By 1982 Dungeons and Dragon players started making live action role playing apart of their game nights/events.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the company White Wolf would release Mind’s Eye Theatre. A live action version of the game based around their most popular title, Vampire the Masquerade.
The World of White Wolf
White Wolf was formed in 1991. It is primarily because of their flagship game Vampire the Masquerade that they have quickly become one of the most well known role playing game publishers.
Most of White Wolf’s games are set in what they call The World of Darkness. The World of Darkness setting and theme is described by White Wolf as being “gothic-punk.” It resembles the world that we know only it is much darker and far more destructive and devious. Creatures of the night (such as vampires, werewolves, and wraiths) wage a war amongst themselves with most of humans and humanity being merely pawns in their political and dangerous world. Secret societies and government conspirators are numerous. Demons, hunters, mummies, fay, and mages also exist and are apart of the struggle to control the world.
Mind’s Eye Theatre was released in the late 1990s and was considered by Pyramid Magazine as being one of the best games of the millennium. It has undergone a few revisions being called Laws of the Night and Laws of the Night Revised. This live action game makes use of character traits, bidding of traits, and rock/paper/scissors to determine outcomes. Players are encouraged to dress as their character would and act out scenes with others.
One World By Night
The One World by Night website states that “One World by Night is a global organization of players, storytellers and coordinators of the White Wolf live-action roleplay series - in particular, Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, and others of the "Old World of Darkness."
A storyteller is like a director. They mediate rules and help to set important scenes for players. Many times they also take on the role of non player characters. These are characters that may affect a game, but which aren’t controlled by a player.
OWBN is divided into chronicles that take place within real cities. These individual games are played on a bi-weekly schedule with repeating characters. Players are allowed to take their characters from city to city. A global storyline affects all cities with each individual city having their own important story lines. Players are encouraged to develop their characters own story lines and sub story lines by interacting with other players and storytellers.
Currently the OWBN community unites gamers and characters from most parts of the United States, some parts of Canada, some parts of South America, and Israel. OWBN also has a set of game standards that they expect all Chronicles to live up to, but allows each individual chronicle the power to set their own house rules.
It is important to understand that White Wolf does not endorse One World By Night and in fact White Wolf has its own fan club dedicated to their Mind's Eye Theatre product. The Camarilla Fan Club. Despite this, OWBN continues to grow in numbers with new players constantly seeking to become a part of this global gaming group.
Interested in Playing a Vampire LARP?
To take part in a vampire larp one only has to contact a storyteller from the OWBN or Camarilla Fan Club sites in a location nearest to them. While a basic understanding of the Vampire the Masquerade game would be helpful, typically it's not required to join one of these games. Players and storytellers are usually more than happy to help out new folks both in and out of character.
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