World of Darkness is a longtime tabletop role-playing game property. But under Paradox, it’s looking to integrate digital more and more.
The early-’90s, in all of its grunge-soaked glory, saw vampires and werewolves roam the night while humanity became part of a herd to be culled and controlled. A World of Darkness had been born in shadow and masquerade. With the birth of the first editions of Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse tabletop role-playing games, White Wolf Publishing had crafted a gritty, cloistered realm where playing with monsters wasn’t just encouraged — it was the whole purpose. Monsters need management, however. Throughout the early-aughts and into the 2010s, White Wolf was in dire need of restructuring and solvency. CCP Games stepped in for a time — there was even an MMO in the works — but the partnership ultimately faltered. In 2015, Paradox Interactive, which had started to branch out from its grand strategy PC gaming roots more and more by that point, acquired White Wolf Publishing from CCP Games. For three years, White Wolf operated fairly independently. After Vampire: The Masquerade’s fifth edition source books were published, there were a number of callous and homophobic passages that forced Paradox to adroitly absorb White Wolf in both name and management. With World of Darkness’ monstrous roots firmly managed, Paradox Interactive has had to rethink ways to analog storytelling with digital experiences in order to broaden its approach to tabletop roleplaying games. Part of that is ensuring that the analog source material and their digital counterparts are as seamlessly integrated as possible. Paradox’s firm leadership coupled with the deep creative well at World of Darkness has required more blood, both new and familiar. Justin Achilli, a veteran writer (1995-2005) in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, has rejoined the “vamily” as brand creative lead at World of Darkness. Martyna “Outstar” Zych, a popular Twitch streamer and indie game developer, has also joined the World of Darkness team as brand community developer. We had an opportunity to chat with Achilli and Zych, with additional commentary from Jason Carl (Brand Marketing Manager at World of Darkness) and Sean Greaney (Brand Manager at World of Darkness), about World of Darkness’ approach to transmedia, the role of streaming and liveplay shows, and exploring World of Darkness’ properties as “platform agnostic.” Over the last two years, Paradox Interactive has made waves in both development and publishing, especially with an eye on World of Darkness. A 2018 $2 million investment in Hardsuit Labs for a 33% minority stake coupled with full IP control over World of Darkness’ properties meant that a sequel to much beloved cult RPG, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, was finally possible. Paradox has been playing with the interplay between analog and digital for a handful of years with its own IP as well, including tabletop adaptations of Crusader Kings (released in 2019) and Stellaris (due out in 2021). Fully absorbing White Wolf into the Paradox brand meant that World of Darkness could shine on its own. Letting these shadowy analog and digital realities bleed together with ease has become far more of a focus than it had been when White Wolf was independent (despite Activision publishing Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption in 2000) or even when CCP Games had acquired the company in the mid-aughts. The word “transmedia” appears to be more of a buzzword than it is. At its root, transmedia refers to media that is explored across multiple mediums. So, in World of Darkness’ case, it means taking their properties from the page to the stage (live-action roleplay) and from analog to digital. “The World of Darkness has been hugely influential to so many areas of entertainment, especially early on in the brand’s life,” Achilli told us. “I want to reinvigorate that and take this in an innovative new direction in every medium of entertainment that we can. It takes not only a good design intuition, but an understanding of how we want to welcome players and what we want them to take away.
