In 1995 White Wolf would meet their initial goal of publishing a series of five interconnected RPGs. With that done, and both Ars Magica and White Wolf Magazine gone, the obvious question was, “What next?" Fortunately White Wolf had been investigating new projects since Stewart Wieck had left behind the presidency and transferred into a more creative capacity a few years earlier. Starting in 1993 new fiction and new RPGs alike would begin opening up new ground for White Wolf--though their first forays out from the World of Darkness would be of very limited success.

White Wolf Fiction: 1993-1998

Under Stewart Wieck White Wolf's fiction line kicked off with Drums Around the Fire (1993), a collection of Werewolf short stories that was entirely typical for the RPG fiction genre. Authors associated with the game line wrote gaming fiction for a gaming audience (though a few name authors did show up in these early works).

The Book of Nod (1994) got some attention as a high-quality piece of writing that existed inside the game world. However, Dark Destiny (1994) was White Wolf's break-out fiction book. It was edited by Edward E. Kramer, a professional from outside the industry, and it featured World of Darkness stories by Robert Bloch, Nancy Collins, Harlan Ellison, and many other professionals. They didn't slavishly devote themselves to White Wolf's continuity, and thus they presented totally original and innovative views of the World.

Dark Destiny got White Wolf's fiction noted by book critics--who typically had ignored game-related fiction. Some White Wolf stories would thereafter get “Honorable Mentions" in Year's Best anthologies. Dark Destiny would also help White Wolf to attract a higher caliber of fiction authors, because it gave them a reputation for giving their writers a bit more creative freedom.

Beyond the World of Darkness White Wolf also began a “Borealis Legends" imprint in 1994. The Wiecks had long loved classic science fiction and fantasy. The Borealis Legends line, which reprinted science-fiction and fantasy classics, allowed them to give something back to the SF community.

Borealis' most notable publications were: a 15-volume set of books reprinting all of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels (1994-1999); a 4-volume series reprinting all of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories (1995-1998); and an abortive 4-volume series originally intended to reprint 40 Harlan Ellison books (1996-1997). White Wolf also printed original stories in these settings, including the Eternal Champion collections Tales of the White Wolf (1994) and Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the Eternal Champion (1996) and the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novel Swords Against the Shadowland (1998).

Unfortunately White Wolf's fiction lines got started at a very bad time. In 1995-1996 book chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble were shutting down mall stores to open up “super" stores. All books sold to book stores are returnable, meaning that the stores can send any unsold books back to the publisher for credit. As mall stores closed, record numbers of returns were sent back to publishers, while new purchases for super stores accounted for just a fraction of those numbers.

This caused financial problems for White Wolf and was the main reason behind painful layoffs in 1995 and 1996. It would also ultimately be a major factor in the failure of Borealis, which tailed off in 1998-1999.

Afterward World of Darkness novels and collections were the main focus of White Wolf fiction. Many later novels would either tie directly to sourcebooks or else would help to push along the metaplot. In the last few years White Wolf fiction has largely ended, with just a single publication in 2006.

New RPGs: 1994-1998

White Wolf was also looking at ways to expand their RPGs beyond the modern World of Darkness. From 1994-1997 they'd publish three new RPGs, create a new game imprint, and reveal the plan for a new sequence of World of Darkness games.

The first new RPG was Streetfighter (1994), based on the video game and using a variant of the Storyteller game system. Although it received some support and marketing through White Wolf Magazine, it was never a notable hit.

Hol (1995) was the second new RPG. It was a new edition of Dirt Merchant's 1994 RPG. Hol was funny and profane, even offensive. It went against most of the tropes of RPGs. Even if it was never played that extensively, it was innovative and prefigured that wacky directions that indie RPGs would take in the 2000s.

However, Hol also presented a problem. It was sufficiently adult that it might damage White Wolf's reputation as a publisher of entertainment intended for young adults. Thus it was published under a new imprint, the Black Dog Game Factory, named after a corporation in the World of Darkness.

White Wolf would later use the imprint to publish adult supplements for their own core games. Notables include The Charnel House of Europe: The Shoah (1997)--which adapted the Holocaust for Wraith--and the four-volume Giovanni Chronicles--which traced a family from the 1400s to the modern day (1995-1999). Both of these were quite well-received. Charnel Houses remains a top-100 product in the RPGnet Gaming Index, while the Giovanni Chronicles were award-winning.

White Wolf's third new RPG of the era should have been the science-fiction game Exile (originally Parsec), which was announced in 1996 and intended for publication in 1997. This Mark Rein*Hagen design used a brand new rule system and was set in a brand new universe--the Null Cosm. It would have been the first of a new series of games, just like Vampire had been. It was described as "a moody, cultured, stylish space opera, rife with mystery and adventure" Rein*Hagen again showed his interest in metaplot by saying, "Null Cosm is a setting and game line designed as a saga, a complete story that will transpire over a number of years."

However during the financial hardships of late 1996 there was a falling out between Mark Rein*Hagen and the Wiecks. Rein*Hagen decided to leave White Wolf and he took Exile with him. His Null Foundation put out a playtest draft in 1997, but after that the game disappeared off the face of the earth though Rein*Hagen would later produce a collectible action-figure game called Z-G (2001) which also used the Null Cosm background. (One of the action-figure game's most notable elements was that figures' poses had game effects.)

Andrew Bates, the former developer of Exile, was thus tasked with coming up with a new science-fiction game, with a publication date just ten months out. Brainstorming with other White Wolfers he came up with a shared universe which included three different time periods, each of which highlighted a different genre: science-fiction, superhero, and pulp. The superhero game would be based upon a pitch already being polished up by Rob Hatch, but everything else was brand new.

Nonetheless the SF game, ÆON (1997), hits its publication deadline. It used a variant of the Storyteller game system and was intended to appeal to a totally different, more action-oriented audience than the World of Darkness.

ÆON has some troubles from the start, due to a lawsuit from Viacom who felt that it violated the trademark of their TV show, Aeon Flux. The names on the original release actually had to be stickered over with the game's new name, Trinity. Afterward the next two games in the series followed like clockwork: the near-future, superheoric game Aberrant (1999) and the pulp game Adventure! (2001). As was the case with many of White Wolf's new expansions in this period, they were well-received but not dramatically successful.

Meanwhile White Wolf was planning a new sequence of five World of Darkness games. These would be historical games related to their existing titles. The first three were: Vampire: The Dark Ages (1996), Werewolf: The Wild West (1997), and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade (1998). Although five historical game lines were originally intended the historical Mage was the last.

One other game was of note in this period, Fading Suns (1996), was not actually published by White Wolf but rather new studio Holistic Designs. It was a science-fiction game created by original Vampire developer Andrew Greenberg and original Werewolf developer Bill Bridges. Many players felt like it had the “White Wolf feel", no doubt due to the artistic and creative influence that Greenberg and Bridges had on White Wolf's genesis. Holistic Designs will be the focus of a future Brief History.

Downturn and Arthaus: 1998-2001

By 1998 White Wolf was increasingly in need of a housecleaning. Of their last five World of Darkness game lines only Vampire: The Dark Ages sold well. Worse the book trade problems of 1995-1996 had flowed right into the CCG bust of 1996-1997. Finally Mark Rein*Hagen, one of the founders of the company, was now gone.

On September 14, 1998, White Wolf announced that they were restructuring their business.

This restructuring included changes for all of White Wolf's less successful lines. Most notably, Wraith: The Oblivion was killed outright despite its critical acclaim, though there would be a few final releases in 1999. However, for Changeling: The Dreaming, Werewolf: The Wild West, and Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade White Wolf had a more innovative solution.

It had been the comparatives that were eating at these other lines (just as they had Ars Magica). Changeling, for example, sold well and was enjoyed by many players. It probably would have done fine at a smaller company. However because White Wolf had the overhead of a larger company they couldn't afford to publish a less successful line … unless they changed the very basic costs of productions.

Which they did.

Based on a proposal by Mike Tinney, now Vice President of Licensing and Marketing, White Wolf created a new imprint called “ArtHaus". In doing so they moved enough of the creation of the supplements for these lines out-of-house that they could afford to publish them. A recent catalogue describes ArtHaus thus:

What is Arthaus? It's White Wolf's newest imprint. White Wolf's mission has always been to create art that entertains; White Wolf Arthaus is the embodiment of that ideal. Modeled after small press, the Arthaus team strives to create games and projects that are new, experimental and unique. White Wolf Arthaus now manages whole game lines, supports others and creates specialty projects whenever possible, all in keeping with White Wolf's regular games and books.

White Wolf proved unable to continue Werewolf: The Wild West even under ArtHaus, but Changeling and Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade would continue. In addition, Trinity was added to ArtHaus in 2000 and Aberrant in 2001. At the time ArtHaus seemed to be the back lot for White Wolf's second-tier games, but in 2001 that would change dramatically.

Years of Years: 1997-2003

Meanwhile, the World of Darkness was slowly evolving with new yearly events and many new game lines.

In 1997 White Wolf created another “Year of" event using the same model as 1995's Year of the Hunter. That was the “Year of the Ally" which offered new companions for the protagonists of all of White Wolf's current games--then the core five RPGs, plus Vampire: The Dark Ages and Mind's Eye Theatre.

However by 1998 White Wolf was increasingly looking toward metaplot as a sales tool. Much of this metaplot was embedded in later “Year" events, which continued to crossover the lines, continued to advance the global stories of the World of Darkness, and increasingly were used as the launching boards for new games and sourcebooks.

In the next years, White Wolf published the Year of the Lotus (1998), the Year of Reckoning (1999), the Year of Revelations (2000), the Year of the Scarab (2001), and the Year of the Damned (2002). Two major new lines were launched as part of these events: Hunter: The Reckoning (1999), a game for playing humans in the World of Darkness; and Demon: The Fallen (2002), a game about the newly arrived fallen angels.

In this same period metaplot would take even more center stage with the release of Ends of the Empire (1999), which was not only the last Wraith book, but also a dramatic finale to the line. It allowed player characters to play out the last story in Wraith, ultimately resolving the game's metaplot--an entirely unprecedented event.

White Wolf's last hoorah for the original World of Darkness would be their eighth core line, Orpheus (2003)-- which featured no subtitle. This was a new look at ghosts, set after the Wraith finale. It offered another unique twist on roleplaying line releases: it was intended as a limited run, with just six books planned from the start. Further, Orpheus was all metaplot, with those six releases telling a story with a coherent beginning, middle, and end.

With their last few core games--Hunter, Demon, and Orpheus--White Wolf was starting to get some of its mojo back. They're generally well-rated and have each gotten some critical acclaim, particularly Orpheus. However in other ways the World of Darkness was becoming more and more constrained, with the metaplot increasingly driving everything.

The Minor Lines: 1998-2004

With just three core game lines published in the six years from 1998-2003, White Wolf was slowing a bit from their original, somewhat crazy, rate of production. However to fill the gaps between major releases they developed a new method for releasing minor game lines. Instead of putting out a full gamebook (and a game line to go with it) they began publishing minor game lines as sourcebooks which depended upon owning some other World of Darkness book for the rules.

This was the model used for Kindred of the East (1998), and Mummy: The Resurrection (2001), which each spun out of yearly events White Wolf's fourth historical game, Wraith: The Great War (1999), which was also one of the last Wraith releases, also followed this model

White Wolf never put out a historical game for Changeling, which had already been confined to the ArtHaus line. The Internet rumor mill suggests that it would have been set in the 1960s if it had ever been published. However, White Wolf did later go back to the historical well for their most successful lines. Victorian Age Vampire (2002) was another minor-line sourcebook release.

That same year White Wolf kicked off a whole new product line set in the Dark Ages. It began with a new Dark Ages: Vampire (2002) but was soon followed by Dark Ages: Mage (2002), Dark Ages: Inquisitor (2002), Dark Ages: Werewolf (2003), and Dark Ages: Fae (2004). Following their new methodology each additional game required Dark Ages: Vampire for play. It was a somewhat ironic new product line given White Wolf earlier abandonment of Ars Magica, set in the exact same time period.

Beyond the World of Darkness: 2000-2006

Meanwhile White Wolf was back to the same problem that they'd faced in the 1990s. They didn't want all of their eggs in the World of Darkness basket. They needed something more--and as it happens something more was just then hitting the industry: the d20 license. Their new expansion into this arena would be much more successful than their attempts in the 1990s.

A September 13, 2000 press release announced White Wolf's expansion into d20:

Sword & Sorcery Studio and Necromancer Games have allied with White Wolf Publishing, Inc. to distribute the new studios' products to hobby game stores and book stores world-wide. White Wolf Publishing, Inc. is the sales and administration division best known for marketing White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness product lines such as Vampire: the Masquerade.

The press release painted Sword & Sorcery Studio as a separate publishing house which White Wolf happened to be distributing. However the truth behind Sword & Sorcery Studio was much more complex. Sword & Sorcery itself was a division of White Wolf where White Wolf staff worked on d20 products including their lead release the Creature Collection and the related Scarred Lands product line. Meanwhile Necromancer Games was providing d20 legal experience and know-how, as well as publishing their own products under the imprint name.

Several other studios would later join Sword & Sorcery, most notably Malhavoc Press, run by Monte Cook--one of the designers of the third edition Dungeons & Dragons/d20 system. Guardians of Order's A Game of Thrones (2005) would also be published under Sword & Sorcery. The imprint would further publish some ArtHaus products including: White Wolf's new d20 versions of Ravenloft and Gamma World; paper RPG versions of the MMORPGs EverQuest and Worlds of Warcraft; and d20 versions of the Trinity line.

Designing d20 games for Sword & Sorcery allowed Arthaus to become more than just the backline World of Darkness publisher. They soon began publishing totally new game lines as well.

Pendragon was published in a new fifth edition (2005) by ArtHaus, then followed up by The Great Pendragon Campaign (2006), possibly the most wide-reaching RPG metaplot ever, with its outline for an 80-year campaign.

ArtHaus also acquired some of the assets of Guardians of Order during the latter company's 2006 bankruptcy. They've since published a new third edition of the anime game Big Eyes Small Mouth (2007) and also hold rights to Silver Age Sentinels and Hong Kong Action Theater.

Separate from ArtHaus or Sword & Sorcery, White Wolf launched one more fantasy line in this time period: Exalted (2001). Like the rest of its core games, Exalted is based on the Storyteller System. The background is super-heroic fantasy, much in the same line as White Wolf's super-heroic horror, and following the trends of third edition Dungeons & Dragons. Originally Exalted maintained some tenuous ties to the World of Darkness, acting as a sort of pre-history with a few names used in common (like Ars Magica, but to a far lesser degree). However, given the more recent changes to the World of Darkness, which we'll see shortly, that's since been largely dropped.

As was the case with Vampire, White Wolf had a cover in-house for Exalted, but then they decided it didn't have the look they wanted. Instead White Wolf developed a new anime-influenced cover--a style which has since been adopted for the entire line, and which helps the line to dramatically stand out amidst the huge mass of fantasy games on the market.

Exalted has done quite well. Some place it at a similar success level as latter-day Vampire products. A full-color second edition of the game was released in 2005.

Presidencies & Legalities: 2002-2005

In 2002 Steve Wieck, who had been President of White Wolf for nine years, relinquished that role. Mike Tinney was named the new President. He'd oversee notable changes at White Wolf, including a massive renovation of the World of Darkness.

Under Tinney's watch, White Wolf also became involved in two notable legal actions.

First was a dispute with White Wolf's fanclub, the Camarilla. Starting in 1998 the Camarilla had become increasingly aggressive about acting as an independent business. They trademarked their name in 1998 for use as a fan club--despite the fact that the term was already trademarked by White Wolf--and in later contract negotiations asked for increasing concessions from White Wolf. In 2003 White Wolf attempted to take over the Camarilla, and the board members of the Camarilla filed a lawsuit against White Wolf in a Utah court. White Wolf counter-sued and won. The Camarilla filed for bankruptcy on February 15, 2003. White Wolf was thus able to take over the club.

On September 5, 2003 White Wolf sued Sony Pictures and a few other studios for copyright infringement over a movie named Underworld. It told a Romeo & Juliet like story of werewolves and vampires. White Wolf alleged that it infringed on a short story they'd published by Nancy Collins called “Love of Monsters". This suit was eventually settled out of court.

Old and New Worlds: 2003-2006

Under new President Tinney, the focus of White Wolf soon shifted to a total revamp of the World of Darkness. In many ways the line had been floundering for years. The decision to release a game a year--which had looked so good back in 1991--had mostly failed after Mage. Likewise the metaplot was increasingly a point of contention among players, and in all likelihood was one of the reasons behind the lines' slow decline. As with serial TV shows many consumers felt like they couldn't keep up and were forced to drop White Wolf products as a result.

White Wolf decided that a big change was needed, and in 2003 they announced the Time of Judgement--the final major event for the original World of Darkness. Just as they'd done for Wraith a few years before, White Wolf announced that they were going to publish a series of adventures that brought all of their metaplots to a conclusion, thus ending all of their modern World of Darkness game lines.

Response to the announcements about the Time of Judgement was entirely incredulous. Some companies had staged major events to bridge editions, such as the Avatar series (1989) for the Forgotten Realms. However no one had ever totally destroyed their setting and closed down their game lines, as was being done here. The closest analogy was GDW's bridge from Megatraveller to Traveller: The New Era (1993) and given the quick failure of the latter line--partially because players were infuriated with the scrapping of their setting and game system--it wasn't a good model.

Nonetheless the Time of Judgement books sold very well--largely on par with older books before the lines had declined.

A new World of Darkness was, of course, the obvious next step. It featured what the comic world calls a “reboot". Many old elements appear in the new World of Darkness, but not necessarily put together in the same manner, and the continuity between the two worlds is explicitly quite different.

As part of the new World of Darkness a new game system appeared, the “Storytelling" system, as opposed to the older “Storyteller" system. It's largely the same, with some simplification. More importantly the rules for the entire world are now gathered in a single rulebook called The World of Darkness (2004).

Each core game setting now has a sourcebook, containing only the specific rules for those peoples. The core settings are the original three World of Darkness lines from 1991-1993, now called: Vampire: The Requiem (2004), Werewolf: The Forsaken (2005), and Mage: The Awakening (2005). The new World of Darkness coheres much better than the original, solving the old problem of crossing over supernatural creatures from one game to another.

White Wolf continues with their plan to release a game a year, but they've decided to follow the Orpheus model. Each year they will release a new game, support it with six supplements over the next year, and then retire the line. The first of these “fourth lines" is called Promethean: The Created (2006) and covers Frankenstein-like monsters and golems. It's been very well received. 2007 promises to feature a new Changeling as a new fourth line.

In 2006 a much larger change occurred for White Wolf. They were purchased by CCP Games, the Icelandic publisher of the MMORPG Eve Online. This event will likely have a greater effect on White Wolf's future than any of their successful expansions since 2000. Whether White Wolf is allowed to prosper as a creator of intellectual property--as DC and Marvel comics do--or whether they will be crushed by the high-flying expectations of another industry--as Imperium Games was--remains to be seen.

Thanks to Andrew Bates, Frank Branham, Allan Grohe, James Lowder, Lisa Stevens, and Steve Wieck for comments on this article. Other information was drawn from White Wolf Magazine, the White Wolf Quarterly, and various interviews and press releases.

An extensive but incomplete list of White Wolf games can be found in the RPGnet Gaming Index.

Copyright © 2007 Shannon Appelcline, published by RPGnet under license.