You’re reading these words because of the show Kindred the Embraced. Yes, that Kindred the Embraced. The one where Aaron Spelling took the rising star of 1990s tabletop role-playing games, Vampire: The Masquerade, and turned it into a spectacular mess of a television drama. When it first aired in April of 1996 a teenage boy not yet old enough to drive watched it with his stepbrother. He asked enough annoying questions until his stepbrother brought him along to play. Down in the basement, a group of teens met to play Vampire: The Dark Ages. He made a Gangrel, diablerized his way to 7th generation, and it only fueled his interest.

Over the next few years, he would play with a few different friend groups — also playing in AOL chatrooms. He made monthly trips to the friendly local gaming store to pick up a new book or dice. Instead of homework or studying for the S.A.T.s, he read VtM books. The teen spent hours making characters he would never play and crafting detailed stories he would tell for the next session. Then he went to college and forgot about the game completely for twenty years.

In the spring of 2018, now a man, he popped in a copy of Kindred the Embraced. He picked up at Hot Topic or the bargain bin at Blockbuster untold years before. The idea to start playing again reignited within him. Unable to find a local group to play with, he looked for online groups like the AOL chat rooms he once played in. He found sanguinus.org, and made a character, and found the joy of pretending to be a vampire once again.

Over the next few years, he began engaging in the game in ways he hadn’t as a teen. There were no Gentleman Gamer YouTube videos to watch in the 90s. There was no LA by Night or Sounds of Silence to watch live and interact with other viewers in real-time. Hell, the idea of a website repository of PDFs of editions and books released in his absence astonished him. He took it all in.

His interest grew more than playing and storytelling. The man wanted to be more involved. He listened to a podcast from the people who made the games he enjoyed. He began backing Kickstarters for games he had little or no interest in before for opportunities to become involved. He had the opportunity to help create a mechanic, appeared on a live stream with a developer, become an art model, and more. As a by-product, he began watching streams of games other than Vampire. Eighteen-year-old him could not have imagined other games would catch his attention. Twitch games would also have shocked eighteen-year-old him.

It’s me. I’m that man. I’m Zak, my pronouns are he/him and it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to my website.