Vampire the Requiem is the flagship game for the World of Darkness and over its run it has had many luminaries of the RPG business shephard the line. Added to the list is Russell Bailey who has helmed many of the latest Vampire releases in addition to writing for much of the line. Russell's latest work, as developer, Danse Macabre for Vampire the Requiem will be released in October.

Russell says this about himself on his blog, "I’m Russell Bailey, a video game writer and designer living in Atlanta, Georgia. Presently, I’m a designer at White Wolf Publishing / CCP Games. Like all writers, I live with cats. If you want learn about vampires, sex, and all the trouble those two things get in together, check out Daeva: Kiss of the Succubus" Russell's musings can be found on his blog, Fantasy Heartbreaker at http://blog.fantasyhe...

The Dead Gamers Society is pleased to talk to Russell Bailey as he give us a glimpse at what has been and what is to come. Without further ado, I give you Russell Bailey...


1. Of the World of Darkness RPG books you've worked on, which was the most challenging to work on? In terms of subject matter or process?

The hardest one in terms of time was Damnation City. A book that large is hard to do in a normal development cycle. Which is one reason I’m so glad that people loved it so much. I think Damnation City was a book that Vampire has needed since 1991 but couldn’t have been done so damn well until 2007. Will Hindmarch made that happen, and I think it’s a huge achievement.

The hardest thing period? Well, that’s something the fans didn’t really see. Basically, after Damnation City, Rich Thomas charged the development crew with launching Requiem into its second phase. In 2007, we’d completed the material mapped out to follow the core book. We’d proven that the new World of Darkness was not the old World of Darkness and we’d built a complete, ground-up toolkit for running Vampire games.

Requiem had a fairly stable set of writers at that point, too. I think I was probably the newest. We knew what the game was, so the question became, “what can it be?” So we started with two projects: the Requiem for Rome series and the clanbooks. With Rome, we went back in time and explored not only the origins of our Kindred, but their identities as clans. (This was really my first big break – defining the clans for Requiem for Rome. Will and Ray gave me a lot of trust on that, and I thank them.)

We defined our past and then came back to redefine our present. We’d expanded the clans beyond archetypes or character classes with Requiem for Rome… now was our chance to show them in the modern day. As families, as people, and, as we eventually revealed, as five very different sorts of monster.

(The Kindred are different kinds of creatures, by the way. The one thing they really have in common, what makes them a culture and a society and a messed up extended family is Humanity.)

For the first time since 2004, we were looking at the World of Darkness not as journalists, but as inhabitants. Not only that, these had to be the best-looking, best-reading books we’d done yet and every page had to have something you could use right in your game.

That was the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced, and it took three obsessed developers, three maniac art directors, and half a dozen of the hardest-working, hardest-thinking, and hardest-hitting writers I have ever worked with to make it happen. (With a lot of assists from throughout the company and the CCP extended family.) We did it in a pretty short period of time, too – the release of several of the clanbooks was deliberately spaced out.

Those seven books relaunched Vampire: The Requiem, but what I’m proudest of is that they showed what the game really was the whole time. We took the toolkit and we used it to build the rocket. If I sound proud, it’s because I damn well am.

Too many people to thank were part of that, but I think all of us would want to thank Rich Thomas and Reynir Harðarson, our creative directors. They shaped our vision. They pushed us hard. And they made sure we had everything we needed to get the job done.

2. In a thread on RPG.net, you referred to the upcoming Vampire the Requiem book, Danse Macabre, as your "white whale". As it's developer, what are your goals for Danse Macabre?

I don’t remember posting that, but it sounds like me. I think the best thing I can do is tell you what I told the writers.

Here's how it is. The Danse Macabre is a guide to Vampire: The Requiem. It must be blood slick sexy, the definitive companion to the Vampire core book. It needs to supplement that book's strengths -- a suite of tools to build your own World of Darkness -- and blow right past its weaknesses. Being a vampire is the coolest, sexiest, most thrilling, most terrifying experience in the World of Darkness, and this book must deliver that on every page.

So get to it. Find some razors. Open up some old wounds.

***
Vampire is built on contrast, taking place in a World of Darkness with blinding whites and pitch blacks. Characters try to stay in the cool, comfortable grays, but they can't hide all the time. And, hey, they look good in black.

Requiem + Masquerade
What are you going to do to make it through tonight? What about tomorrow night?

And after the deeds are done and your belly's full, how are you going to live with yourself? What are you going to do with your damnation that makes it worth all the sins along the way? That's the Requiem.

Only half the question, though. Mortals are dinner but they're also what you've got for dates. No matter how callous you become, you'll need to move among them. How will you keep your connection to Humanity, even as a sham? That's the Masquerade.

The song and the danse don't always play well. Devote yourself to redeeming human sinners and you may discover they're the only creatures you understand. Spend your nights in a vault perfecting your monstrosity and you may find yourself trapped, unable to flee through the masses when the hunters bash down the gates.

Old + New
Established 1856. That's what the firm's sign says. The owner was established 1856, too, even though his sharp-cut suit was made tomorrow. He's one of your guys. One of the sharks you swim with.

The Kindred are the real predators of the modern age. They're hip to our tricks but they've got a hundred years of history behind them. You're one of them. So, congratulations: you are the child-stealer, the plague-bearer and the faceless corporate titan sucking the life out of your own home town.

Piety + Blasphemy
How did you get to be what you are? Were you a good girl, dragged kicking and screaming from heaven? Or a bad boy, brought back from the grave 'cause hell didn't deserve you? Little of both, probably. Somebody cheated death to bring you back, and now you've got to make up the debt.

You can devote yourself to faith and good works. Play philanthropist. Play superhero. Or you can accept that you're damned and get the party started, already. Piss on the cross. Get some head.

Which side? Heaven or Hell?

Little of both, probably.

Part 2 Below

3. In your interview on RPG Review, you mentioned that "Vampires, Changeling and Hunters probably have more in common than anybody else in the World of Darkness", what did you mean by that?

Here’s a truth we almost never tell about the World of Darkness: it’s about people. It doesn’t matter how low I drop a Humanity score or how “alien” some spirit is. The games are all about people and their relationships. That’s nothing against kicking ass and taking names—I love to play that way, too—but that’s a pretty universal human fantasy in and of itself.

To my mind, vampires, changelings, and hunters are very similar sorts of people. Vampires and hunters are explicitly predatory, and changelings can lean that way all too easily. Vampires and changelings share strong themes of addiction, particularly to human warmth. And don’t tell me that hunter doesn’t need somebody to come home to.

The three also have a different kind of connection to ordinary life than the other monsters. Vampires have their Masquerades, their need to maintain ties to the people they drain, lest they become nothing more than killers. Changelings, by and large, want their lives back. They need to reconnect after their ordeals. And hunters, well, what’s a hunter doing those terrible things for if not to keep life ordinary for everyone else?

And finally, there’s territory. One way or another, all three are about taking back the night. Only difference is why you tell yourself you’re doing it.

You can draw a lot of other connections between the monsters—I don’t claim these are the only ones. There’s a lot to be said for the similarity between vampires and werewolves, for instance, as any urban fantasy novelist of the last few years can tell you. The above, though, is what I was thinking about when I answered the original question.

4. What roleplaying games are you playing these days and what roleplaying games would you recommend a player check out?

This is the big question, isn’t it?

Alright. First off, top three games of all time: Vampire, Dungeons & Dragons, Trollbabe. Argue editions and clones and design philosophies all you want, these are the three absolute best. Play them. Play them like Neal Peart plays drums.

What am I playing right now? Well, this weekend, I played Sweet Agatha. Which is absolutely blow-me-away amazing. The best detective roleplaying game written. You want a game table experience like Brick? You owe yourself and your favorite player this one.

That comes off a couple weeks playing with ICONS, which is basically the Marvel Superheroes game bitten by a radioactive copy of Spirit of the Century. Lots and lots of fun, especially when you go nuts with random character generation.

Looking forward to having a Fiasco party next, we’ll see how that goes.

And then, of course, there’s whatever I’m designing at any given time and testing out on roommates and significant others. I do a lot of that.

Thanks for the conversation–as you can tell, I like to talk. And you can usually catch me doing it at my blog, Fantasy Heartbreaker (http://blog.fantasyhe.... I recently posted some new content for Requiem for Rome.

The Dead Gamers Society would like to give Russell Bailey a big thank you for talking to us.

Feel free to leave any comments below.

Great interview! I particularly enjoyed Russell's development notes for Danse Macabre. I cannot wait for this book (october right?)! I agree with his comment that there are strong similarities between Vampire & Changeling in that both are drawn to humanity for various reasons and can't really exist apart from them.

I am excited to see what the future of the WOD line looks like after the announcement at the Grand Masquerade in NO.

Excellent interview! Thanks for making this available, Louis.

One word: Trollbabe

Trollbabe indeed.

Thank you Russell for linking to our site from your blog. If you guys haven't checked out Russell's blog, Fantasy Heartbreaker, do so, it's good reading.

http://blog.fantasyhe...

Someone is running Trollbabe at Strategicon! I may give it a try. So many choices at Gateway, hard to decide.