Taking a Deep Bite: Darkness Emergent and the 'TTRPG Player to LARP' Pipeline

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Today’s issue is taking a slightly different direction. While this newsletter is focused on TTRPGs, a smaller niche within the fandom space is “live action roleplaying,” or LARP. This is often where people will gather in person, wear costumes, and roleplay as personas in various settings (often with their own set of rules.) The two hobbies exist in a rather large overlapping Venn diagram; where TTRPG fans are frequently LARP fans and vice versa.

One of the LARPs I was personally most curious about was Vampire: The Masquerade, which has existed as both a TTRPG and a LARP experience for a significant portion of its existence. By Night Studios is the company that handles the official LARP events for VTM, as well as a lot of VTM merch. It also helps to organize Darkness Emergent, the annual LARP event for VTM fans that often features big-name performers like Alexander Ward and B. Dave Walters. I had the opportunity to sit down with By Night Studios’ director of brand marketing, Arcelia Rael, and lead storyteller Jimmy Reckitt to discuss BNS, its upcoming projects, and the evolution of the space.

Darkness Emergent, for those unfamiliar, is an annual event where people travel across the United States to engage in a multi-day LARP experience. There, they adopt the persona of a Kindred; one of the many vampires who live in White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Perhaps they are the ruling regent of a local city, a revolutionary with their own initiative, or some other figure of importance. They find themselves gathering here to address matters of both political and personal significance.

The events are smaller than most conventions, attracting only hundreds of attendees compared to the thousands that one might see at Gen Con, PAX Unplugged, or elsewhere. The tickets are limited, but the price allows BNS and other organizers to provide a “blockbuster LARP” experience according to BNS director of branding marketing Arcelia Rael. The events strive to maintain a level of quality and character that local LARPs are not able to provide, Rael argued.

“When you go to a local LARP with your friends, it’s a more accessible event for everyone. It’s smaller and likely charging low rates, which makes trying the event fairly easy for newcomers.” lead storyteller Jimmy Reckitt told TTRPG Insider. “If you come to one of our events, you’re going to be at a beautiful location, such as a mansion we rented on the Gold Coast in Chicago that faces Lake Rush Drive. It’s going to be big and thematic.” He also noted how the presence of VTM designers and performers at Darkness Emergent was a big selling point.

But who is attending these events? The population of Darkness Emergent attendees remains majority male, with players between the ages of 30 and 55, Rael claims. But that number has shifted significantly in recent years. 48% of attendees of recent Darkness Emergent events identified as female, Rael claims. They’ve also seen younger attendees as well as a growing number of POC and LGBTQ players in attendance.

The LARP space itself lost a lot of players in 2020 due to COVID-19, Reckitt noted, but Actual Play shows like LA By Night sparked a resurgence that has maintained some interest.

BNS was unable to say how those demographic stats compared to local VTM LARPs.

Darkness Emergent has been hosted in cities across the United States, including Los Angeles in May 2025 and Atlanta in November. Each town features its own overarching “story” (although there are plenty of side arcs for those who want to do something else.) Those arcs might involve debating over which of the two major political factions (Camarilla and Anarchs) owns a specific city, seeking certain resources and information, or other varying points of tension that Reckett and his team strive to create before the event. Each event’s story is built on how the last Darkness Emergent event went, Reckett said, although he avoids doing multi-event arcs so that attendees don’t have to feel like they have to attend all the events to know the entire story.

The next event is scheduled for May 2026 in Los Angeles. There are also plans to host a Darkness Emergent on a cruise in 2027, although Reckett wasn’t able to comment on why vampires would be on a cruise just yet. Most plots are often written in response to past events and then build upon them.

What does it take for a player to step away from playing VTM at the table and join a LARP? It’s a lot easier than one might think.

Playing a TTRPG at home is “just the first step to LARPing,” Rael argued. “You’re acting, you’re improvising. Maybe you take it to Discord and play things out through text chat or plan things there. When you do it long enough, you realize that sometimes you’re not even rolling dice anymore and you’re just there for the story. That’s when you realize you can have an immersive experience, go somewhere, dress up, and have a cool experience with friends. That’s how you get a LARPer.”

It also creates a space to gather with people you like; particularly at times when meeting with friends becomes harder and harder. “Most of our audience is 30+,” Reckett argues. “When you get older, it’s kind of hard to have time for all the close friendships you want. But imagine if 30 of the coolest people all got together systematically in the same place in the same time, like once or twice a month.” Local LARPs essentially provide players with that ability to gather on the regular, Reckett argues, in the same way that a regular TTRPG game at your house might work.

Darkness Emergent (and other LARPs) offers the same experience, the pair argue, where people are willing to pay for a “premium experience” as well as gather with friends they’ve known online once or twice a year.

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Why LARP Matters for Vampire the Masquerade

LARP has been core to VTM’s blood since its original publishing in 1993, when it was adapted to a live-action format through The Masquerade, a rulebook that adapted the traditional rules to the Mind’s Eye Theatre format of play, which did not require excessive dice-rolling in gameplay.

LARP became an integral tool for bringing people into the VTM fandom. “Unlike other LARPs that saw people dressed like characters from Tolkien running around a muddy field whacking each other with foam weapons, this was a game that could be played in a club or a bar,” argues the Roll to Save TTRPG history podcast. “The very nature of the vampires’ Masquerade meant that sharp wit and pointed conversation would serve you much better than a rubber sword.”

BNS was founded in 2012 in an initiative to relaunch Mind’s Eye Theatre and later crowdfunded a new release of the rules in 2013. The company has overseen the development of the regulations in partnership with White Wolf, including updating MET to match the current rules of the games. There are several networks worldwide that unofficially organize VTM LARPs, although the quality and style of these events vary from one to another.

BNS listed an estimated 30 VTM LARP games on its website, while the One World by Night network lists more than 160 VTM LARP chronicles around the world.

The space is slowly growing, and BNS is expected to publish an expansion of the Laws of the Night (the game’s v5-inspired ruleset) in the next 1-2 years after a successful Backerkit campaign.

What are your thoughts? I know LARP isn’t our usual beat, but I’ve wanted to speak with BNS for a while and I do think that LARP and TTRPGs have a lot of crossover. I’m also eager to learn more about other LARP spaces. If you have recommendations for games or communities to speak with, do let me know!

Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].