Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade – War of Ages is a Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (“V5”) live-action setting book from By Night Studios and is on Kickstarter now. This new live-action supplement features game designer Juhana Pettersson of the award-nominated Vampire: The Masquerade Nordic-style Larp End of the Line, as well as the Vampire: The Masquerade Anarch V5 book.

Juhana stopped by for a bit to tell us about working on this project and give us an insight into that process.

Writing Victorian Ash…

I’m the lead writer on the upcoming larp book Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade – War of Ages. There’s a wonderful team working on the book combining both talent and ideas across the Atlantic, between different traditions of V:TM larp such as Mind’s Eye Theatre and Nordic style events.

The book will feature multiple voices and characters offering their own perspectives on the World of Darkness, modeled after the experience you can have when you enter a V:TM larp: What kind of people will you meet? Who will you play?

One of the characters I’m writing is the legendary Toreador Elder: Victoria Ash. In the 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade (“V5”), she appeared in the Camarilla sourcebook and I wrote those sections as well.

Simply put, Victoria Ash is a lot of fun to write. She’s self-assured, decadent, and willing to put herself on-the-line when it comes to the pursuit of new, strange experiences. She’s effectively Camarilla royalty but she wasn’t born to that status. As a human she was a nobody, her whole persona as the Queen of the Toreador is entirely self-created.

Although she’s a monster the same as any other vampire, she’s made herself into the monster she wanted to be; I like that about her.

Her dynamic nature explains why she has a central role in the new events introduced in the V5 such as the Vermilion Wedding, giving her an intimate vantage point into the inner workings of the Children of Haqim and the Ashirra. It also explains why it felt right to have her in this book.

I’ve tried to stick to the kind of characters and voices you could meet in a larp. Many canon characters, especially older and more reclusive ones, do not fit so well into larps that chronicle the unlives of Neonates whether in the Camarilla or the Anarchs. Victoria is an exemption because she tries to keep herself relevant and up to date by constantly engaging with mortals and young vampires alike.

Perhaps that’s her real gift: to successfully do that decade after decade, when so many others stagnate and fail; recreating herself to fit the standards of a new age.

– Juhana Pettersson

Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade – War of Ages is fully funded on Kickstarter and on its way to bonus stretch goals. Back today to get access to the developer design notes, Vampire: The Masquerade enamel pins, tickets to the Saturnalia blockbuster Larp event, and more!

Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade – War of Ages provides inspiration, guidance, and tools for developing immersive V5 games with a focus on setting and fiction. The book is written using various “in-game” voices and supplemented by “designer voice” sections that concretely lay out how to utilize the information and ideas presented.

The book will also include new artwork from Kamila “Louve” Malak, Krzysztof Bieniawski, Kera Now, Mars Howard, and James Johnson!

Tags | LARP, vampires, world-of-darkness