Photography : Jo Vallianatou Photography Model: Evel Maleficent MUA: Evel Maleficent
Issue 7 crew:
Table of Contents
Cover Model: Zoie Campbell (Black Metal Barbie) Cover Ph ographer: Luke Guinn Ph ography
Owner/Founder/ Editor in Chief: Rachel Boese Managing Editor: Hannah Rudow
Pages 12-27 Vampire: The Masquerade Pages 28-43 MUA Feature: Kenzi Sho Contributing Writer/ Editor: Pages 46-47 Band: Pretty Boy Floyd Logan Boese Pages 48-51 Goth Girl Gift Guide Music Editor: Beth Amphetamine
Vampire:
e Masquerade
Background on the game (for Interviews, turn 2 pages!)
Originally released in 1991, Vampire: the Masquerade is a roleplaying game with a similar format to Dungeons and Dragons. Players use a set of rules to create and play a character in a dramatic, fictionalized world, with the results of attempted actions governed by Storyteller decision and rolls of dice (or Rock, paper, scissors for the Live Action version). Also referred to simply as Vampire, or as V:tM, it was the first in a line of games, each one focusing on a di ferent classic supernatural creature, such as werewolves, mages, fairies, and ghosts. This line of games became the World of Darkness. Vampire, (and the World of Darkness) focuses on intrigue, immersive storytelling, character development, and featured a jawdropping amount of world-building. Where other systems encouraged heroism and the upli ting feeling that came from being some form of good guy, Vampire was revolutionary for its take on the hobby, appealing to a di ferent demographic than other gaming systems of the time by giving you the chance to play some of horrors best “Bad Guys”. It encouraged players to delve into the psyche and the Flaws of the characters they portrayed. It grounded itself in realism and forced players to think about heavier ideas than other roleplaying games. Lending itself to themes such as good, evil, and all the shades of gray in between, and what exactly could be defined as monstrous. In a long enough campaign, Vampire became the story of how a player’s character lost touch with their humanity. In essence, the story of how your character became a monster.
Background on Vampire:
e Masquerade
Vampire Clans: overview
Vampire characters in this world each belong to a single Clan, selected from a list of thirteen major clans during character creation. Each Clan features a di ferent take on the traditional powers, aspects, and stereotypes that deďŹ ned vampires in folklore. The game encourages players to focus on the seven clans that made up the Camarilla, the major alliance of vampires that agreed to play nice and enforced the titular Masquerade, a rule that all vampires would not operate in the open. Under the Masquerade, vampires would slink into the shadows and let humankind forget that vampires had ever been anything but superstition and myth. In brief, each clan of the Camarilla had their own niche in the world’s vampire mythos as a whole. There were other clans outside of the Camarilla, such as a clan modeled a ter Gypsy and Indian legendry, a clan of Egyptian vampires that took their name and abilities from Set, one of assassins, a line of old nobility who had no re lections, a family of necromantic mobsters, and the vicious, leshcra ting Tzimisce modeled a ter eastern European and Romanian lore. However, these other clans were all written as at least slightly less sympathetic than the Camarilla.
Background on Vampire:
Vampire Clans: The Brujah, rebellious and shorttempered possessing strength, speed, and force of personality, represent the eighties “Bad Boy� take on bloodsuckers. The bestial Gangrel borrow from older tales, with their abilities to control and even become animals, as well as take a hellacious amount of punishment. The Malkavians are all incurably insane, but gifted with heightened and preternatural senses, functional invisibility, as well as the power to dominate minds and, eventually, to spread their own madness. The Nosferatu were among the most tragic, as each one, upon becoming a vampire, became repulsive and hideous to look at, much like the cinematic creature from whom they took their name, but gained strength, invisibility, and a kinship with animals.
e Masquerade
e Camarilla
Interestingly, clan Toreador represented the more romantic and social sort of night creature the Vampire was romanticized into, with each one incurably obsessed with something they found beautiful, and possessing of supernatural speed, senses, and the force of personality common to some of the more notable vampires in modern literature. For those who preferred their predators with a more occult and mystic slant, there were the blood mages of clan Tremere, who were bound tightly to their clan by chains of blood and loyalty enforced through the blood magic rituals that was their own particular power. And last, but not least, were the Ventrue, who represented some of the most dangerous sorts of their kind, the ones who adapted and blended into human society, and wielded carefully garnered and curated power, money and prestige to affect and control mortal society, to say nothing of their mind control abilities or physical toughness.
Vampire: e Masquerade e interviews
Crazy B!tch Magazine Editor in Chief, Rachel Boese and her husband, Logan Boese (a lifelong fan of Vampire: The Masquerade) interviewed two of the most in luential people behind the curtain of Vampire: the Masquerade.
Jason Carl: CEO of By Night Studios and producer at White Wolf Studios, the company responsible for publishing this fantastic game. Martin Ericsson: the Lead Storyteller for White Wolf Studios.
Can you describe the appeal of role-playing games, and that of Vampire: the Masquerade specifically? Martin Ericsson:
Do you like stories? Do you ever imagine yourself as someone else? Wouldn’t you wish to be like a director and be able to like live inside your favorite vampire TV series or video game? Vampire is the other side of roleplaying from DnD. If DnD is an adventure game, Vampire is a "Blood Opera", it’s very social driven, full of politics. It’s all the juiciness you get from all your character driven, socially driven shows. It’s your chance to become a part of a grand character gallery. You can get to know all these fantastic immortals from all times in human history who’ve observed us and manipulated us from the shadows and you can be one of them. Vampire is a story about characters and characters relationships to each other. It’s more similar to a soap opera show, or like Dynasty.
Can you describe the appeal of role-playing games, and that of Vampire: the Masquerade specifically? Jason Carl:
Stories are the building blocks of communication. “Hey honey, how was work?” We all know how to tell stories and we all love them. We’ve all been telling stories our whole lives. We’ve also been roleplaying since we were kids. Whether it’s building Lego playsets together or playing cops and robbers. Anything that involves collaborative imagination is storytelling. Roleplaying draws on the imaginative experiences we had as young people and brings it up to today. It makes it into a fun, mature, sophisticated experience that anybody can enjoy. It allows you to create stories with your friends- and what can be better than that! Sharing imagination with people you like and want to spend time with, to me, is the best thing in the world. We live in an age where we are confronted daily with very di ficult questions and our first impulse may be to want to escape, to leave those questions, those di ficult issues behind into fantasy. That may be very appealing, but there are di ferent kinds of escapism. It’s the prisoner’s duty to escape but it’s also the prisoner’s duty to take what he or she has learned and bring it back to the world a ter the escape. The World of Darkness is a very dark re lection of what we face every single day. I think that the way that it questions all the fundamental issues of our times in a fun way that lets you play an awesome monster may be the most fun there is while still being legal at the same time. I think there’s an undeniable allure to darkness. It has an insatiable deep hunger that covets what’s best in us. It’s very easy to mistake darkness for evil or something bad, when in actuality, exploring that darkness if o ten the only way to shine light on what’s best about us.
The World of Darkness o fers that opportunity to us. It o fers a way to explore some very dark territory in a mostly safe way. It allows you to explore those very moral questions, in an immoral way.
Jason Carl
Can you tell us about your history with White Wolf?
Jason Carl:
This is the third incarnation of White Wolf. 25, almost 26 years ago, a gentleman by the name of Mark Rein-Hagen had the idea for Vampire: The Masquerade and World of Darkness. He founded a company called White Wolf in Atlanta, GA and it was very successful. CCP (Crowd Control Productions) an Icelandic video game company, merged with the company in 2002. They attempted to develop an MMO but it was canceled after 8 years. White Wolf at this point was, as far as anyone knew, done. When this happened, is around the time I aquired the rights to the rules used by Mind’s Eye Theatre and started By Night Studios. But my history with White Wolf goes all the way back to the very beginning. I was an early customer, bought a copy of the first edition game- couldn’t find anyone to play with until I found an ad for the Camarilla*. I didn’t know what a LARP was; we didn’t have a word for it back then. I showed up to my first game and that’s when I figured out, these were my people. I had found my tribe. I started freelancing for White Wolf a couple of years later. I wrote for Vampire: the Dark Ages, and after that I started freelancing for Mind’s Eye Theatre, did that for a long time. I wrote for Dungeons and Dragons also. * Herein, the Camarilla is in reference to a group of Live Action Roleplayers that use the name in honour of the Faction from the game.
Martin Ericcson Image Courtesy of White Wolf
In the 25 years since it irst began, how has the game has changed?
Martin Ericcson: Every writer and every developer who’s touched the game and worked with
Mark Rein Hagen’s original vision has brought something to it. The first edition was very concentrated on more personal horror themes. Some were city based, some were character based. Second edition brought in more global conspiracy and more of a complete world. In Revised, we are in the desperate final nights, pushed into the end times. All of the editions have their own flavors and tones. Of course, we hope that the Fifth Edition will have its own way and its own life. I hope that with it of course, I’ll be able to communicate effectively the vision that’s in my heart. I hope that we get to ask some questions maybe and present some of the unique issues in today’s world vs the nineties, and present some of the unique plights and struggles from different parts of the world. Logan Boese: Did the Ventrue create Trump? Rachel Boese: I mean the Koch brothers were not for Trump. Martin Ericcson: I think the Koch brothers are very classic Ventrue or Ventrue pawns, but it’s true, part of the appeal of Vampire is that kind of sort of created conspiracy.
Logan Boese: I think that one of the reasons that Vampire: the Masquerade is so topical is because it was sort of built from the outside in by looking at the world that already exists and then applying this complex mythology to sort of explain and present what could exist in the undertow. You’ve created one of the most immersive, well-built mythologies in all the land and it gives a really great starting point from a storyteller perspective.
Martin Ericcson: The ease of storytelling is great when it comes to explaining, for example, “The
7-11 is here.” Everyone knows what a 7-11 looks like so it’s easy to visualize and immerse yourself. Every time we tell stories there are allegories, and metaphors, we want them to have meaning in our own life. Vampire is a little bit different, it’s somewhere in between a reflection of the reality of our own world and this mythology. You have the dream of power. You have the dream of social power. You can also reflect on issues like, “what is it worth to achieve popularity of a clique?” Or a story that takes place in a challenged urban community that allows you to look at and reflect on some of the horrors in the real world. By putting yourself in that point of view and situation, maybe you become inspired to do something about it and help out for real, in real life. Vampire is probably the first medium to really apply itself to the real life. It’s not just a fantasy story; it’s an important story, because it lets us look at some of the more difficult things that exist in the real world.
What in luence do you think Vampire the Masquerade has had on Vampire media and vampire lore in the public eye?
Jason Carl: I’m going to cheat; I’m not going to answer your question. I’m going to point you towards the World of Darkness documentary film because it goes through and essentially walks you through the original Vampire: the Masquerade and shows that The in luence of V:tM on modern horror and vampire media is undeniable.
Martin Ericcson: A large percentage of the 21st century vampire stories are directly or indirectly derived from Vampire: The Masquerade. There are a few essays on that topic out right now. But it's not quite yet the doctorate thesis of “the in luence on modern 21st century vampire culture made by Vampire: the Masquerade'” but I definitely think there will be, because vampires are always interesting to academia. You can see the in luence in True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and others. We would definitely like another opportunity to grace the small screen. When Aaron Spelling took on Vampire: the Masquerade in the early 90’s Mark was supposed to be there. Mark came in 2 weeks into shooting thinking they were scheduled to start shooting the next day but it turned out they had already been shooting for two weeks. Much of it was in daylight and romantically focused, but it was too late, so Mark sort of disengaged with the show. If Mark had been there for that initial filming, it would have been very di ferent. I don’t think urban horror culture would exist without Vampire: the Masquerade. I don’t think it would be the same without it. Though, of course, White Wolf borrows from earlier vampire culture. Lost Boys, Anne Rice, of course. Back in the day, I think it was Mark Rein Hagen the CEO of White Wolf, who said, “Everyone else has made more on our brand than we have”. But he said it with NO BITTERNESS! Not saying anything bad, but I think that’s really accurate. It’s very brutal, but it’s very true… except this time around that’s not going to happen!
Martin, what can you tell us about Fi th Edition? Martin Ericcson:
With the new system, we said that for the World of Darkness to be what it was, it has to change. When World of Darkness came out in the early 90’s, there was nothing like it. It was very grunge and “what is this cover with a rose”? The vampires look like real people, these 20 year old gothic punk kids with tattoos and piercings. If we were to do that again, it wouldn’t do the same thing. It has to change. We have to say something new, we need to shock people, change the mechanics a little bit. With the new ‘hunger dice’, we were looking at “how do you do a mechanic that makes it so you never forget that you’re a vampire?” We always take on the big ideas in Vampire: the Masquerade. First, it’s a game about exploring evil and your own moral boundaries. Secondly, we look at lore: the beast I am, lest the beast I become. Thirdly, we look at mechanics. Some people think the mechanics were perfect the first time around… they were not perfect the first time around, sorry. It was beautiful and streamlined for the time, like a great adaptation of the Shadowrun system. Which is really what it is, but for today, it’s clunky, and we are fixing that. We are very excited to bring the World of Darkness back over several different media formats, and it’s always been sort of transmedia. The thing that Marvel and others have been doing recently, White Wolf was doing in ‘93. With video games, Fifth edition Vampire: the Masquerade, tabletop, live action roleplay, novels, trading card games and more. 2018 will be very exciting for fans of all things dark and terrible.
Jason, what can you tell us about Fi th Edition? Jason Carl: Let me take you through the sort of setting for Fi th Edition. Come back with us to yesterday: it’s the year 2000. It’s the final nights, Gehenna is upon us, (except it’s not), but what does happen is a terrible tragedy that shakes the world. It’s 9-11. The Camarilla gets the bright idea that it’s going to take this opportunity to rid itself of its dreaded enemy, the Sabbat. So, the CIA and other agencies were tipped o f that there are vampires. The Second Inquisition, once they deal with the Sabbat, they turn their attention to the Camarilla. Their plan backfires and someone has to be blamed for it. They blame the young ones, the Anarchs, the Neonates. “You. It’s your fault, with your Facetogram, and your Instabook, your Twitting things.” You can imagine how the Anarchs react to that. “Fuck you”. There’s a new War of Ages, like there was this con lict between the Anarchs and Camarilla in the early 90’s, it’s sort of come full circle again. Penthouse against the streets. The Camarilla backs o f and brings an iron curtain down around the Masquerade, no social media, no cell phones, and strictly enforces the masquerade. It’s a new net-feudal age for them. They go old school with communication. Meanwhile, the Anarchs aren’t having any of this. Their lives are the streets, they are accustomed to their mobile phones, and they’re going to keep them.
Rachel Boese: I mean, that’s not suspicious, not using cell phones and Facebook. Jason Carl: Yeah, that’s not conspicuous at all. So, on the one hand, we have the conspiracy of this hidden Masquerade, on the other hand we have these vampires hiding in plain sight, so we are going to turn the heat up on this con lict.
Rachel Boese: I’m from New Orleans originally and it’s changed drastically in the last 25 years. It reached sort of the height of crime in the mid 90’s, but it’s now reaching another peak a ter Katrina. I went back to help rebuild with Habitat for Humanity in 2008 and most of the city was still completely devastated. The 9th Ward is mostly squatters and vagrants, and despite some groups trying to revitalize the neighborhood it’s not even close to back in the 90’s. On top of that, you have places like the French Quarter where they’re really cracking down on street kids and vagrants. Now ,unless you’re a performer and specifically working with the city, it’s really easy for vagrants to get arrested when it used to be kind of a free for all. So I think a lot of what was possible before with The Masquerade that you could avoid getting caught for, you really can't do now. Much of the city has been gentrified and even many of the Jazz musicians who work in the quarter have been priced out of living there.
(Continued, top of next page)
Jason, what can you tell us about Fi th Edition? (continued)
Jason Carl: We want to address many of the serious contemporary issues of our world with the World of Darkness. We were one of the first games to talk about LGBTQ issues, wealth inequality, gender inequality, environmental damage, to ask who gets to shape reality, and to ask what death means in a post-modern society. Those are issues we want to examine through the lens of being a monster. Think about a person, today, living in New Orleans, who is a transgender individual. What happens when they get embraced- are you still Trans when you’re a vampire? Does that matter anymore? Does gender matter when you’re dead? What happens to tropes or gender roles or wealth gaps when you have eternity? With Werewolf, we really do see this as a game of environmental vengeance. What happens when the werewolves say “enough”? What happens when the central theme of a role-playing game shi ts from, “we gotta fight the Wyrm” to “okay enough with these human beings- do we kill them or what? Is that the only way to save the planet? Kill the disease?” Issues like that are the heart and soul of the World of Darkness.
Rachel Boese: Is there anything new planned for Changeling? Jason Carl: Yes. Logan Boese: Mage? Jason Carl: Yes. ..
Jason, while we have you, what’s your takeaway for 2018?
Jason: Soon, you’ll be able to take experience the World of Darkness on whatever your preferred medium is, and we’ve only begun to imagine the opportunities for things like augmented reality for gameplay and world building.
Stay tuned to Crazy B!tch Magazine's YouTube channel for exclusive clips from this interview!
Disclaimer: The discussion has been rearranged in topical order and cut down to fit in this issue. The in-person interview with Jason was conducted first. The Skype interview with Martin Ericsson was conducted separately, a week following the interview with Jason Carl. Both interviews were conducted by Rachel Boese and Logan Boese.
Interview with Makeup Artist
Kenzi ShĂ´ IG: Kenzi_Sho
Can you tell us more about your background?
Of course! I am Afro-Rican on my mother’s side and on my father’s side, I am German, though I never got to properly meet him, nor was I raised with him around. I was born in Bronx, but was raised by my single mother in the hoods of Miami until I was a teenager and moved to Orlando. I have always been homeless and had to struggle growing up. I was always getting picked on. I was always the odd kid in my class in elementary who acted weird (eating erasers and meowing like a cat haha) and drawing weird things and dressing in non-matching clothes and wearing my hair in weird up-dos that I would make up that really didn’t make any sense to the other kids. I was always moving from school to school because my mother wanted to move to better areas. Those weren’t the best circumstances to be in as a kid, but I always found an escape and always tried to make the best of it through art. I originally wanted to be an illustrator and painter. I spent most of my middle and high school days pursuing art and taking classes for it, but I was told that is a very competitive area. I was told that I wouldn’t be making enough money to survive and that I would always struggle, so I was urged to go for the next best thing that I good, at which was cutting hair. So I went to Paul Mitchell (the school) right after graduating high school when I was 18, and graduated PM when I was 19. I was good at hair, but it wasn’t until we learned about the basics of makeup and practiced on clients that it sparked a love in me.
Can you tell us more about your background? (Continued)
I thought my passion was to cut hair and style it. In a way it still is, especially on wigs since I grew up with my grandma and saw her style wigs. She had cancer and lost all the hair on her body. Seeing her style wigs made me so fascinated by the idea of not having to constantly dye my own hair. But seeing the different ways you can do make up really got me excited, since my passion originally was painting. Granted, I always did my makeup, since I was 14 actually, which was only eyeliner at that time and maybe a bit of concealer, and then slowly growing into different types of fashion phases and learning how to properly do my make up in accordance to those fashion scenes. But when I actually learned how to technically do “proper” make up in accordance to my face shape, and actually learned what contouring was or what placement of eyeshadow goes where, I became fascinated. I kept doing research and looking up different YouTube videos and kept practicing on myself constantly. I became pretty much engulfed in it, since in a sense I started feeling like I was painting again, except my canvas was my face and body. I didn’t have to worry about whether if my drawing had an even facial structure since I already had a natural pre-made canvas. Since I was always practicing, and I’ve always wanted to be a model. But I never got to be since I am unfortunately very bad at posing, short, T H I C C, and shy. I always took pictures of myself in my room or in bathrooms in private. I am a firm believer of not wasting makeup. Looking back at how far I’ve come in the many phases of living my own truth and best life, even in the midst of many hellish moments I’ve had to live through in my life, both exteriorly and battling mental illness. I also find humor in a sense of how extra I can be. But anyways, ever since those days, I’ve always been trying to step out of my comfort zone to grow and create many different things. I’ve also fallen in love with props, theatrics, and special effects. I always think: What would my own illustrations look like? What is my own interpretation of ______?
What, or who, is your biggest source of inspiration?
Oh man, I get inspired by so many things. I definitely do have a huge love for deities, myths, and things of the past. I was honors in my history classes, and so a lot of worldly figures, religions, beliefs, fashions, paintings, you name it, I was in awe of it all. Of course, I do get inspired by modern day things like technology, as well as certain trends here and there. Hell, I even get inspired by certain flowers, animals, paintings, and even emotions. But yeah, I think my biggest source of inspiration is channeling spirits and deities of the past. Almost like painting what is dead, or honoring certain things that some people usually don’t think about, or may take for granted.
If you could make art with anyone alive, who would it be?
Such a hard question! I want to create art with so many others, and it’s hard to think of all of them at the top of my head. But, grabbing artists that have inspired me since childhood all the way to now, and have been my all-time favorites, it would be with illustrators or painters like Takato Yamamoto, Yoshitaka Amano, and Ayami Kohima. Most of the artists that inspire me tend to be Japanese- like the closeted weeb I am, ha ha ha. I have a huge love for the art in Japan. It would be a dream if one of them drew up a concept and I could bring it to life.
How did you get to where you are (answer that however you want, biographically, career wise)?
Lots of practice and patience, as well as making many mistakes but not giving up, even if I think I suck, because passion is a very powerful feeling. What I do is an outlet for many things inside of me, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, and I am fully aware that the mind can be our own biggest enemy.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Seeing what new adventures I get in to, what new ideas pop up in my head, and how I can make them come into reality. Also new seasons of my favorite shows coming out ha ha ha. Anything else that happens in my life is definitely spur of the moment. I can be very spontaneous and my moods to do or to create something can come very quickly.
What do you want to do to that you haven't gotten to do yet ?
I feel like I haven’t had the chance to do many things yet. One of the biggest number one things I want to do is travel to different countries. I want to go to an avant-garde high fashion show, an opera, go snorkeling, help feed people in Third World countries, save animals in kill factories, raise awareness towards many destructive factors in our world today- there are many many things I wish to accomplish in this life.
Is there anything else you're currently working on?
I don’t have anything else that I've started on but I hope to create different projects in the future such as different types of art coming to life with photography, many artistic film shorts, digital illustrations, and also possibly create my own props or accessories to sell. I would need to collaborate with others in order to learn different skills and to make some different projects come alive. But I don’t mind because I love to learn and do new things and have many different experiences.
IG: Kenzi_Sho
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Photography : Jo Vallianatou Photography Model: Evel Maleficent MUA: Evel Maleficent
Photography : Jo Vallianatou Photography Model: Evel Maleficent MUA: Evel Maleficent