Description
Dracula’s Influence on Roleplaying Games
⏰ Start Time: Saturday 17:30
⏳ Finish Time: Saturday 18:30
👤 Host(s): Peter Ray Allison
👥 Spaces: Max 30 (Advanced Online Booking Required)
📍 Location: “Coffee Lounge” Ground Floor
Description: Dracula has influenced modern entertainment, but none more so than in the medium of tabletop roleplaying games. The novel reimagined how a monster could be presented, and the charismatic deviant was interpreted into modern roleplaying games. Examples vary, between Count Strahd von Zarovich in Dungeons & Dragons’ Ravenloft setting, to Dracula himself appearing in the Dracula Dossier for Night’s Black Agents.
Many roleplaying games include an archetype of the genteel monster, where the elegant exterior disguises their machinations. A seemingly cultured opponent, who has their own wants and desires, offers far more roleplaying opportunities than just another monster that wants to eat people.
From Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to cult films like The Lost Boys, Dracula’s predatory elegance ultimately paved the way for the modern vampire as an outsider in Vampire: The Masquerade. This milestone game went on to heavily influence alternative RPGs like Kult: Divinity Lost and Urban Shadows, as well as cinematic universes like Blade and Underworld.
🩸 About the Host:
Host Peter Ray Allison is the co-founder of Mythic Echoes and has spent the past year working with Dracula Returns to Derby to mark the 100th anniversary of Dracula being performed on stage. Mythic Echoes host the annual Vampire Games Day (vampire-themed roleplaying games in a gothic former library) and the immersive vampire live roleplay, As Night Falls: The Crimson Ball.
