The Vampire Retrospective Project continues with a new essay from Tiphanie Gammon. Tiphanie got her start with Vampire as part of an online forum game. Here she tells us about that experience and her recent return to the night.

Carpe Noctem

My story with the World of Darkness started back in 2005, when a friend asked me to join a forum role-play with him. I was in eighth grade at the time, with seemingly endless free time, so of course I joined. And that moment, that choice to join, changed my life.

I was never into traditional table top role-plays — a horrific experience the one time I ever tried to purchase dice in my teens left me scarred and unwilling to leave the comfort of Japanese RPGs and manga until college — but I gave London by Night a chance since Jon thought it was cool. Why not, right? So, I wrote up a quirky little character named Kasen, added her to the cast list, and away she went, a normal girl who is suddenly thrust into supernatural conspiracy because she fell out of a tree. The premise was an attack by the Sabbat forces Kindred, Garou, and Imbued to form an alliance in an attempt to free the city. We got over two years of role-play in London by Night, and even now, four years later, I can’t help but think fondly back at that time. I grew as a writer learning the Masquerade, and as a person as I made some great friends that I still cherish today.

When I found out that Vampire: the Masquerade was turning twenty this year, I was shocked. It’s hard for me to imagine that I am the same age as my favorite tabletop. I’m already planning on picking up the 20h Anniversary Edition when it becomes available for Pay-per-print (unfortunately The Grand Masquerade was just a bit too far away from home and too close to the start of my junior year of university to make the trip to pick my own copy up), but how else could I celebrate twenty years of awesome gaming? I was cleaning my room a few days before I left for California when I found some old notes I had taken during the London by Night years about Kasen — her backstory, notes about her appearance, that sort of thing… But I also found some ideas I had for what would happen after London by Night.

Hundreds of hours pouring over pdf copies of the original books purchased on DriveThruRPG, writing on sticky notes, and researching the annals of classical World of Darkness history later, I decided on something. This November, I am embarking on my seventh year participating in National Novel Writing Month – 50K in 30 days. My entry will be “Kasen no Monogatari”, or “The Story of Kasen”, in which I hope to chronicle Kasen’s return to her homeland and the eventual end of the World of Darkness as she knows it. It was encouragement I found on London by Night to start writing fiction more often, to even participating in NaNoWriMo, so it only seems fitting that I work on London By Night’s successor. White Wolf gets to celebrate twenty years with a grand party and a new book; I get to celebrate seven with cramped fingers, extra stress, no sleep, and, hopefully, another wonderful story into a world I wish I never left.

As Lee, the incredible Storyteller who created London by Night, would say “Carpe Noctem! Seize the Night!”

Tiphanie Gammon – 2011

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