World of Darkness Embraces Berlin

In this first post we’d like to explain what we’re doing in Berlin, and why.

This is what drives us: celebrating World of Darkness fandom. Because, let’s face it, the fans kept this IP alive. We did it, all of us, because of the games we’d loved, and love, and kept playing, and the stories and art we kept thinking about and creating in it.

Whether you grew up with the World of Darkness and drifted away because of life stuff, or remain 100% committed to it today, the fact remains: the World of Darkness exists today because of you.

At World of Darkness Berlin, we will: – Create a warm and friendly professional-quality convention for passionate creators in the World of Darkness (both fans and professionals, on all platforms, meeting as equals) – Showcase talent, creativity and game design – Facilitate sharing & learning especially among storytellers, campaign runners and community organisers – let’s level up our communities together! – In collaboration with White Wolf, provide glimpses of the future while celebrating the past – Offer a taste of the new “Nordic style” or collaborative WoD larp, including an opportunity to affect canon in Enlightenment in Blood – Organise a great ending party to dance the night away with all of our new friends!

In our experience, there are no nicer people in world than WoD fans. It’s actually kind of surprising that such utterly lovely people can enjoy playing such terrible people… We also all know that sometimes the vampire politics bleed into the real world, making us WoD fans a bit snipey and ungenerous. It’s because we care very passionately about our stories, but it’s still tiresome, and totally sucks.

This world we love is 25 years old now, and we think maturity brings wisdom. Fan clubs, game groups and larp societies everywhere in the world are currently taking active steps towards building more loving and constructive cultures. World of Darkness Berlin wants to be part of that change. Through playing together, sharing knowledge and experiences together, we will create a place of enthusiasm and joy. We’ll also be offering a special track on the programme on role-playing safety and calibration, including the design of sustainable communities.

So, is this convention for everyone who loves WoD? Yes, and no. We do realise the price is high, and in that sense World of Darkness Berlin can never compete with a local convention that is organised in a school; financially this is a big commitment! But if you are the kind of person who already puts in a ton of time and maybe even a lot of money into your hobby to express your creativity in the World of Darkness, then we think this will be a very special experience for you. You’ll return home filled with inspiration and new skills, and a ton of new friends & allies! Everyone is welcome! But we think the people most likely to take the trip are those individuals in each club or context – you know who you are – who dream the biggest, carry the heaviest burdens, tell the most passionate stories.

And some, we think, will be players who once loved the World of Darkness and have a longing to return. Here it is, friend. Waiting for you. Berlin will embrace you!

Welcome home, Bjarke, Johanna, Juhana and Troels

PS: If you have an inner power-tripping sadist who likes to slip out of the boundaries of the fiction, please stay home. We will be happy to eject any participant for breaking the rules, sexual harassment, or in other ways behaving like a ginormous turd.

#Convention #vision #Berlin