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The World of Darkness, however, is a film noir environment--the cities are labryinthine and gloomy, the bureaucrats are corrupt, and the important people have skeletons in their closets. It is a world of extremes--the rich are usually filthy rich, and their money has warped them in the manner of The Great Gatsby's characters. The poor are much more numerous and visible here, and their lot is even more separate than in our world. Starvation, even on the streets of the First World, is not unknown, and the poor often provide prey for the urban predators-- the werewolves, vampires and other nightstalkers (Rein*Hagen W:tA. 29).
They are known by many names--the 13th Generation, Baby Busters, the Slacker Generation, the Nothing Generation--but most often by the label that the media has latched onto: Generation X, those men and women born between 1963 and 1977. In their spare time many of those men and women participate in role playing games, and one of the most popular is Vampire: the Masquerade (V:tM). The creators of V:tM chose a familiar Biblical figure to be the "father" of the fictional vampire race: Caine. This choice of the First Murderer as a father figure and the "World of Darkness" in which his race reigns are symbolic of the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of a generation of Americans. The sense if living in dark times but hoping for a brighter day, striving for community in a world of diversity, and surviving it all in a society where it seems there are no heroes anymore are all part of living in the 13th Generation and that is why so many of them are enamored of the role playing games like V:tM.
A great deal of misinformation surrounds role playing games (RPGs). For that reason a reader must first reach an understanding of the games--what they are, who plays them, and why--before an analysis of Caine and the World of Darkness can take place. Perhaps the best analogy to introduce the concept of RPGs is "interactive storytelling." The gamers create player characters (PCs) that function in the fictional setting of the game world. One of the players takes on the role of Game Master (GM), and he or she controls the game world's time, nature, supporting cast, villains, and all other aspects of the game world's reality not controlled by the PCs. The GM has three main responsibilities: 1) enforce the rules of the game world, 2) ensure the story progresses, and most importantly 3) keep the players entertained. What occurs is a story for which the GM and all the players are cooperative authors. (Rein*Hagen, Mark. V:tM. 22-23)
But who are these players, these cooperative authors? And why do they play the games? There are many negative and innacurate stereotypes about people who play RPGs; they are often portrayed as misfits and occult fanatics. Most of these stereotypes that result from misinformation and misunderstanding concerning RPGs do not reflect the average gamer. A study conducted in Britain of the personalities of fantasy gamers came to this conclusion regarding RPG gamers: "To some extent individuals who are interested in any hobby or interest will differ from the population average, and these differences probably fit within that perspective." According to the study gamers tend to be male, highly educated, and slightly introverted. In general gamers were found to conform to a personality pattern "similar to that of the shy, introverted, intellectual who is drawn to the computer," though that isn't by any means true for all gamers (Douse 2).
There are many reasons why these people play RPGs, entertainment being the primary motivation. The socializing aspect of gaming follows as a close second for many people. For them playing RPGs serves a similar purpose to weekly poker games and bridge clubs--gaming is a chance to get together with friends and to enjoy their company. But another reason for playing is therapeutic release, a purpose that RPGs are so well suited to that they have actually been used in the therapy of at least one young man (Blackmon 2). For many teenagers and adults there is the same sort of relief in immersing themselves in the game world as there is for children in playing cops and robbers on the playground. Interacting with the game world helps gamers work through anger, frustration, or sadness in a safe, harmless way through the actions of their PCs. (Blackmon 2)
That therapeutic immersion involved in role playing, though, causes players to tend to identify very strongly with their characters and also the worlds that those characters live in. This leads to the fact that the game worlds closely reflect the ideals and ideas of the gamers--and the World of Darkness reflects the hearts and minds of Xers very closely indeed. So what are we to see in V:tM's "gothic-punk" setting? It is a shadowed world; a realm not too unlike our own but painted in darker shades of gray. Monsters--both human and inhuman--lurk in the shadows and much of the populace is divided into three categories: predators, prey, and innocent bystanders. And there is little or no hope of a brighter future as the prophecies of almost all of the world's supernatural creatures say that the end is near and coming closer every day. With this overall atmosphere of decay and despair, why would anyone want to spend their fantasy life there? For the Xers that play the games the answer would likely be that it is all too similar to how they percieve the real world around them.
The similarity has triggered a generational mindset that prompts Tapia to call Xers a "clinically depressed generation." The following statistics are cited by him as good reason for their seeming lack of hope:
According to their statistics, every day 13 youth commit suicide, 16 are murdered, 1,000 become mothers, 100,000 bring guns to school, 2,200 drop out of school, 500 begin using drugs, 1,000 begin drinking alcohol, 3,500 are assaulted, 630 are robbed, and 80 are raped (Tapia 1).
Faced with all of this, he says, Xers have developed a feeling that "they are barely able to save themselves. Survival is the goal" (Tapia 1). Is it so surprising then that in the world they created "the poor often provide prey for the urban predators--the werewolves, vampires and other nightstalkers" (Rein*Hagen W:tA. 29)?
Crime statistics aren't the only reason for members of the 13th Generation to be pessimistic. There are economic worries as well as changes in other cultural factors: "Boomers had free love; we have AIDS. They had the War on Poverty; we have a trillion dollar debt. They had a booming economy; we have downsizing and pollution" (Tapia 1). Those changes--combined with feelings of being stepped on by previous generations and labeled with epithets like "slackers" and "whiners"--has caused a growing feeling of oppression and resentment among Xers. In the world of V:tM this is reflected in the fact that the current generations of vampires are constantly being manipulated as pawns in the Machiavellian schemes of the older vampires and, as the appetites of the more ancient vampires grows, they are used as livestock as well.
That sense of a generation gap and a lost birth right is communicated very clearly through the game concept of bloodlines and vampiric generations. In the World of Darkness all vampires are descended from Caine, but with each new generation they are moving further and further away from him. This has led to the "Time of Thin Blood," in which the bloodlines are getting weaker and with each generation the vampires' powers are fading (Chupp 104). Those vampires of the thirteenth generation are among the weakest, and they are the last to be able to sire other vampire progeny at all. The fourteenth and fifteenth generations are little more than ghouls, tools for their elders to use and dispose of. (Rein*Hagen V:tM. 52-53)
THE ROAD TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Writing this pessimism off as apathy would be unfair because in fact the rate of volunteerism among Xers is high (Tapia 2). They have also demonstrated that they are not unwilling to be moved by causes, as witnessed by the many "Ribbon Crisis" and a recent upsurge in Xer voting. ("Where" 1) Perhaps this is why the creators of V:tM included something called Golcanda in the game. Golcanda is a sort of escape clause for vampires; after a long, almost impossible process of atonement and personal repentance, a PC either "becomes mortal once again, or she becomes a new kind of vampire: one that no longer feels the urge to frenzy, the need to feed, or the desire to sin so strongly." (Rein*Hagen V:tM. 188) The fact that the game creators made attaining Golcanda nearly impossible would not be surprising to many who work with Xers. Dieter Zander, who works in a community church in suburban Chicago, says "What they tell me is 'Don't give me six easy steps to keep joy in my life. I know life is not easy.'" (Tapia 3).
One of the difficulties that outreach workers like Dieter have had in reaching Xers is the extreme cultural diversity of the generation. The U.S. has always been a melting pot, but Xers live in a generation which includes the highest number of naturalized citizens of any other generation born in this century. Again reality is reflected in fantasy as games like Vampire: the Masquerade embrace all cultures into the game world. This coincides well with Andres Tapia's observation that Xers "have a harder time accepting a theology that says their Muslim, Buddhist, or New Age friends are going to hell" (3). The clans of vampires and tribes of werewolves in the World of Darkness give variety to characters' backgrounds based both on racial and regional culture and philosophical differences. It is, in fact, these cultural and philosophical differences which fuel much of the action in these games. There is also significance in the fact that as opposed to the RPGs of earlier generations (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons) "action" just as often refers to the gamers dealing with Camarilla politics or sweet talking the Warder of a werewolf Caern as it does them fighting their way through a horde of monsters. When fighting does occur it most often isn't because the characters are treasure hunting, rather it is necessary for them to defend their homes or loved ones (Rein*Hagen).
Much of the combat that does occur in the World of Darkness is the direct result of PCs trying to defend the communities to which they belong, and that urge to form a protective community is very much in line with the desires observed in Xers. As Tapia notes "They are the children of divorce... and they are the children of two-;job families." Members of the 13th Generation have all too often grown up surrounded by fragmented communities and absentee parents, causing them to place a high premium on the value of strong communities (Tapia 1). In the "Storyteller" games this has combined with the element of diversity. In V:tM clans and the two warring political factions of the vampires, the Camarilla and the Sabbat, are communities which affect almost every move the player characters make, and the extensive system of tribes, septs, and packs found in W:tA are vital to the survival of the PCs. In these games the werewolves cherish every child they are blessed with and vampire society has strict rules which detail the responsibilities of a sire toward his progeny. And the greatest sire of them all--the ultimate father figure of the vampire race--is Caine (Rein*Hagen).
RAISING CAINE
But why, of all the possibilities for their fictional World of Darkness, did the game creators choose Caine? There is some literary justification for it, most notably in legends such as Beowulf, but none so mainstream to our society that they could not be ignored. The creators of V:tM made it abundantly clear that no literary source is sacrosanct when they actually rewrote part of the book of Genesis for The Book of Nod, a book of poetry which supplements the game and details many of the legends of the vampires. Raised in an age of revisionist history, where "81% of busters don't believe there's absolute truth," it is not surprising that rewriting even The Bible doesn't pose a problem to Xers (Tapia 3). The opening pages of the book tell of Caine's fall from grace and in that telling he is still the First Murderer, but there is a distinct twist to the tale. In it Caine doesn't kill Abel out of anger or jealous blood lust. In The Book of Nod's version Caine loved Abel above all else, but the "One Above" demanded "you must make a sacrifice--a gift of the first part of all that you have" (21). Anyone who has read Genesis knows that Caine's first sacrifice of his best crops was found unacceptable by God. So when the time for a second sacrifice came, this is what The Book of Nod (narrated at this early point by Caine himself) says is what happened:
I cried tears of love as I,
with sharp things,
sacrificed that
which was the
first part of
my joy,
my brother (23).
So here we see that--according to the mythology of V:tM--Caine's crime was an act of devotion not a crime of passion. Those were the extenuating circumstances, and Caine's crime was not complete. But that didn't keep him from being punished, from being cast out by Adam. Caine did not resist that punishment, either, instead accepting it with great sadness. (25) In the eyes of many Xers Caine's plight is not too different from theirs. Many of them feel that they are doing the best they can to get along in the world left to them by their parents and grandparents and then unjustly having to bear the brunt of their elder's disapproval when they fall short of expectations.
If their plight is similar, then perhaps so is their rebelliousness. In The Book of Nod Caine was given three chances to repent by the three angels Michael, Raphael, and Uriel--each time Caine rejected them. In rejecting Uriel, thus losing his chance for death and escape from misery, Caine said "Not by God's mercy, but my own, will I live. I am what I am, I did what I did, and that will never change" (33). This response would make sense to a good many Xers who have seen what the lives of the Baby Boomers turned out like and decided that they won't take that path, regardless of what their elders may think.
It may be the honesty of Caine rather than his rebelliousness that makes him so attractive as a father figure to those members of the 13th Generation that choose to play the game. "What's so sad is that when politicians or church leaders fall, busters aren't even shocked; they've come to expect it," notes Brenda Salter McNeil, an urban specialist (Tapia 2). With Caine, however, Xers have no worry of him falling because he has already fallen. Caine committed his crime, admitted his guilt, accepted his punishment, and repented. He has no surprises, no skeletons in his closet. Caine might not be the perfect role model, but he's an honest role model that did the best he could with the cards he was dealt.
Finally, it is that sense of trying to survive with dignity that truly reflects the spirit of the 13th Generation. That is why many of them identify so strongly with Caine and his children in the World of Darkness, living in a gray and dangerous world where it's the best they can do just to survive and try to hold onto something that has meaning. In the words of Mark Rein*Hagen it's "about heroes--heroes fighting against an insurmountable evil. It's not about winning, it's about doing the right thing." (W:tA. 293)
Here are some sources available on the internet...
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