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Written by Hillary Meister
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Page 2 of 3
Greg Fountain on White Wolf
 How did White Wolf originally begin?
Greg: It began in 1991 in Atlanta with "Vampire, the Masquerade." It's what made us what we are. Originally, the company was just another role playing company with 6 or 7 guys living in a house. Their front porch was a warehouse screened-in to keep branches out. The success was phenomenal. The company went from 6 or 7 guys to 96 and "Inc." magazine rated us the 45th fastest growing company in America.
Why vampires?
Greg: Mark Rein-Hagen had the idea for "Vampire." He was a fan of it. It was clear that there was a big social underground movement and that the vampire was becoming very popular, partially due to Anne Rice and comics and things. It was clearly something that had captured people at that time. They put the money together, printed "Vampire" and here we are!
How would you describe what White Wolf does?
Greg: We refer to our games as storytelling games. In the past, with role playing games, the emphasis is on 'going into the dungeon, capturing the dragon and taking the treasure.' We looked at it and the founders said what we enjoy about role playing is delving into the characters -- not just a hack and slash adventure -- but bringing a character to life and telling the ensuing story that character lives in. Additionally, for the publishing arm of our company, a great amount of emphasis is in maintaining and re-invigorating some of the legendary voices in science fiction such Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock and Fritz Leiber.
What will you do with materials from those authors?
Greg: Keep their stories alive. With Harlan we've published everything that he's ever written into a compilation. For the kids that have no idea of what Harlan did --so much of today's science fiction and fantasy voice is derivative of his original voice -- and the same goes for Michael Moorcock. They've divided up the ocean between them -- Michael in England and Harlan in the U.S.
What are some of the biggest criticisms or questions of the games?
Greg: The biggest thing -- new clans for vampires! If we wanted them we'd make them, we have all the clans we want.
Caine -- are we ever going to see Caine? That is the Biblical Caine. When Caine kills his brother and is cast out of Eden into the land of Nod, he got the mark upon him that no one can ever harm him -- he represents the first vampire. He forever walks the world and cannot be hurt. He was cursed, no doubt. The vampires of today don't know if this is true or not but the legend goes -- he raised 13 children which are the founders of the 13 clans. Most of the vampires you would play are 13 generations away from Caine. Everyone wants to know if we will see Caine... It's something that I can foresee that we'll never reveal. Mystery and intrigue are the central part of this.
Do you feel the publishing industry is suffering from a glut and if so, what do you attribute it to?
Greg: More buying is going to the superstore complexes -- ones containing a Shoe Carnival, Media Play, a variety of these stand-alone superstores. They don't have to pay mall rent. They can buy cheaper and sell cheaper; superstores like Barnes & Noble... but many of those stores are experiencing downs in sales.
Personally, also, I think fewer people are reading for a hobby. Electronic media -- renting movies -- the internet, browsing the web instead of tackling a whole giant book... Plus, it seems fair to say that a lot of the publishing industry is dedicated to favored authors, best-selling authors. A lot of the smaller authors are not as well received right now.
How does all that effect the games?
Greg: We continue to produce our full schedule and whatever the public cares to have of game books. We have no end of ideas and challenging new things. We're moving into sci-fi role playing for the first time this year and we realize that our core business is in role playing games.
Explain how role playing games operate.
Greg: The real true role playing thing involves a couple of things -- you need a rule book for the game, dice and your imagination and a small group of people. If you close your eyes and imagine that you're a vampire and that you have incredible powers, that you're walking down the street one night and you hear a scraping sound in the sewer and you lift the sewer cover and below it you see a pair of glowing eyes looking up at you -- what happens next? The answer to that question is role playing.
How is traditional role playing with character sheets and rolling dice compared to live action role playing?
Greg: Live action would be -- you decide what your character looks like, wears... You get into character as if you're in an improvisational play. It's very fulfilling in just that creative way -- both being quick-witted enough to being in character and dealing with events on the spot and deciding what your character would do and not what you would do with a situation. To smoothly and elegantly portray that without breaking integrity of the play. And there is no touching, no props or real weapons, no alcohol... we've been very careful about safety.
How about some amusing things that have happened?
Greg: "You guys need a real editor... There are too many mistakes that are full of errors that the editors look at and say 'this person is functionally illiterate.'" It's the bitter irony of that that makes us laugh.
There are definitely some fans who feel they've reached a very enthusiastic pentacle of human achievement... they feel compelled to describe their entire existence (of their characters) to developers. People want to come up and speak in character to show us how dedicated they are.
And finally, what about the so-called "vampire clan" that committed the murder in Florida who used role playing games as an excuse?
Greg: Any healthy person who is mentally sound is not going to be influenced to deviant or violent behavior by any piece of media be it a movie, song, helter-skelter... I don't think role playing games will make people forget who they are and rampage through the village.
Oh yeah... We were featured in many national news magazines and tabloid things. We were the focus of that. While the media did make a lot of allegations and accusations never did they, at any time, did any official, talk to White Wolf or suggest to us legally or informally that our product had anything to do with this.
Even the defense attorneys for these kids said they were not interested in pursuing the role playing angle.
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