Camarilla (fan club)

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The Camarilla is the official worldwide fan organization of White Wolf Publishing, an Atlanta based company specializing in fantasy and modern horror, but best-known for its role-playing games set in the World of Darkness, a more dystopian and gothic version of our own world in which supernatural beings exist, hidden from most of humanity.

The Camarilla has affiliate organisations across the world playing a distributed role-playing game in which thousands of players assume the roles of the World of Darkness' inhabitants. Most of those games operate in a live-action role-playing environment, but the Camarilla also covers games running in a tabletop role-playing game environment and games over IRC.

Contents

1 The Chronicle
2 History

2.1 Early Years
2.2 Recent Events

3 Glossary
4 See also
5 External Links

The Chronicle

For the most part, the Camarilla concerns itself with the operation of the "Global Chronicle", the ongoing setting in which all characters exist. Technically, all characters in this setting should be able to interact with one other; in practice, characters in different Venues (see Glossary) are usually kept from interacting with each other for simplicity's sake.

Due to popular demand, an entirely separate chronicle also exists, taking place in a pre-reboot World of Darkness.

History

Early Years

The Camarilla has had several phases of ownership. "The Camarilla: A Vampire Fan Association" started up in 1992 as a non-profit organization in Seattle, Washington. They signed contracts in 1993 & 1994 with White Wolf to be the official fan club, but were legally dissolved later in 1994.

In April of 1995, several members of the original fan organization in Salt Lake City recreated "The Camarilla" as a non-profit Organization in the state of Utah. This group acquired all of the membership materials from the Seattle organisation and began working with White Wolf to sign a new contract so that they might continue as the official fan club. In December 1998, The Camarilla filed a trademark registration on "Camarilla"; their "Requiem" logo that was granted in 2000, despite the fact that these terms were already copyrighted by White Wolf.

Negotiations between The Camarilla and White Wolf went poorly. In January of 2003 it was announced in private email lists that White Wolf owned The Camarilla. The Camarilla responded with a temporary restraining order against White Wolf. White Wolf had the venue moved to Georgia, counter-sued, and had the restraining order overturned. It also sent notices to The Camarilla's web hosting that the domain was in legal contention, causing the site to be taken offline.

Recent Events

The Camarilla Board of Directors, facing significant legal expense and liability, resigned and dissolved the organization in 2003, leaving White Wolf to manage the Camarilla directly.

In 2005, White Wolf rebooted their World of Darkness game setting. The Camarilla has likewise brought the previous setting's games to an apocalyptic end, and began a chronicle for the new , , games, as well as 'mortal' (ie. non-supernatural) characters.

Glossary

Approvals: The system used to regulate the rarity of items, powers and character types in the setting that should be kept rare, by giving Storytellers who oversee areas larger than a Domain the responsibility of approving or denying such things. For instance, unusually powerful magical items, custom-written powers and such like must pass through the Approvals chain before being clear for use.
Chronicle: An ongoing game in the World of Darkness setting. The entire game run by the Camarilla is known as "The Global Chronicle" or simply "The Chronicle" (See also Campaign (role-playing games).
Domain (also Chapter): The local "branch" of the Camarilla, usually based in an entire city or metropolitan area.
Coordinator: an individual responsible for administration within the society; tasks include booking places to hold games, and keeping track of membership.
Prestige: A system of "Brownie points" acquired by players (rather than characters) for performing duties that benefit the society. Higher levels of Prestige can lead to more experience points for a players' characters.
Storyteller (ST): an individual responsible for plot, game rules and events in a given aspect of the Chronicle (See also Gamemaster).
Venue: The aspect of the setting concerned with one "species" of supernatural creature. For instance, "the Requiem Venue" refers to players, characters and events specific to the game.

External Links

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